So there was a talk between Lord Caitanya and the Muhammadan magistrate. So just like... You will also learn that we are performing this kīrtana. Some tenant in this house, he has taken objection. And just to avoid misunderstanding, so I am closing this door. But it is becoming very too much discomfiture. That I can feel. People are not feeling comfortable. Anyway, apart from that, this misunderstanding of kīrtana, five hundred years before also, there was. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu was performing kīrtana, the, not the Muhammadans, but the Hindus, they took objection that "This is not according to our scripture. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has introduced something new." So he complained to the magistrate although the magistrate was Muhammadan, he was government representative. So he took action.
Performing kirtana (Lectures and Conversations)
Expressions researched:
"kirtan"
|"kirtana"
|"kirtanam"
|"kirtaniyah"
|"perform"
|"performance"
|"performances"
|"performed"
|"performing"
|"performs"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
You establish Kṛṣṇa at home. This center, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness center, what is the purpose? You can also establish at home Deity. You can also perform the Deity worship. You can also perform kīrtana at home. You can also read Bhagavad-gītā at home. It is not that we are, we have made this business that you come here and pay something and we profit by your payment. No. It is education, how one should be satisfied by accepting kṛṣṇa-prasādam, for working Kṛṣṇa. Then you will be feeling satisfaction. You do business for Kṛṣṇa, you do your occupational duty for Kṛṣṇa, you cook for Kṛṣṇa, you offer to Kṛṣṇa, take prasādam of Kṛṣṇa. You will feel very happy. That is the description. Yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ.
In India there are some selected places, very sacred place, and the yogis, generally, they go there and sit there alone in a sacred place and as prescribed in the Bhagavad-gītā and perform there. Yoga-āsana cannot be executed in a public place, so that, in assembly. Now, so far this kīrtana is concerned... Just like we have performed just now kīrtana, this is called saṅkīrtana. Saṅkīrtana means: bahubhir militvā kīrtayati iti saṅkīrtanam. When we sit down, many people together... When Lord Caitanya was performing this kīrtana ceremony five hundred years before, He had in each group sixteen persons taking part in kīrtana, and thousands and thousands of people were singing with them. Now, this participation in the kīrtana is very easily possible. But so far the yoga system is concerned, that is required any very secluded and sacred place, silent. That is required.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be very vigorously propagated all over the world. Simply by seeing the Deity, simply by joining Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra chanting, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam... Here it is said, yat-kīrtanam. The kīrtana word is first used. Simply by kīrtanam. Yat-kīrtanaṁ yat-smaraṇam. If you perform kīrtana, then you'll be able to think of Kṛṣṇa, that "I have danced two hours, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the meaning?" That is smaraṇa, again smaraṇa, "Kṛṣṇa." He may think that "Foolishly, I have chanted for two hours, 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.' " That means again smaraṇam, Kṛṣṇa caught up. Then yad-īkṣaṇam. So just like people are purchasing our Kṛṣṇa book. Because Kṛṣṇa movement is going on, so they are purchasing out of curiosity: "What is this Kṛṣṇa? Let us see." Yad-īkṣaṇam. "Let us see the book." And immediately he will see the picture, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Yad-īkṣaṇam. And if they open the book, they'll see more. Yad-īkṣaṇam. Then there is vandanam. There are so many prayers, glorifying Kṛṣṇa. Then śravaṇam. Others will hear. Somebody will read. Then if he's fortunate enough, he'll become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Yad-arhaṇam: he'll be engaged in the worshiping of Deity.
These processes, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ van... (SB 7.5.23), so perfect that as soon as you take them..., not all of them, either all of them or some of them or at least one of them, then what happens? Lokasya sadyo vidhunoti kalmaṣaṁ tasmai subhadra-śravase namo namaḥ: "I am offering worship to that Supreme Personality of Godhead. Simply by remembering Him, simply by glorifying Him, simply by seeing You, so many things happen." So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the authority... He is one of the authorities, Vaiyāsaki. Balir vaiyāsakiḥ. Out of twelve authorities, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is authority. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). We have to follow the authority. So he says by..., simply by performing these processes, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, then what you are? Lokasya sadyo vidhunoti kalmaṣam: "This material contamination will be washed off." Lokasya sadyaḥ. When washed off? Immediately, sir, immediately, no waiting, sadya. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Just like Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we accept, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are many instances, He is playing like ordinary man, but at times showing, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just like in Jagannātha Purī, Ratha-yātrā festival, sometimes the ratha, chariot, will be stuck up, will not move. People draw it, but does not move. Even King Pratāparudra engaged some elephants, and the ratha is not moving. And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu would say, "All right, let Me try." So He would go back side of the car and with His head push it, and very easily it will go. This is extraordinary. Even the elephants, big, big elephants, could not draw. But by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's pushing by head, even there was no need of drawing it or catching the rope... Similarly, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He was performing kīrtana, He used to form four parties. And each party will see that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is present there.
Prahlāda Mahārāja said, "My Lord, I have no problem, so why shall I ask You for anything? I have no problem." Naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyāḥ: "Everyone has got problem in this material world. They're trying to overcome the problem. But I have no problem." Naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ (SB 7.9.43). "I have no problem because my mind is always absorbed in glorifying Your Lordship. Therefore, I have no problem." Kīrtana. You'll feel immediately refreshed. However burden you may feel, as soon as you perform kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, you'll find immediately refreshed. So one who has got taste for this kīrtana, he has no problem.
Because this place was excavated by the gosvāmīs, ṣaḍ-gosvāmī. Sanātana Gosvāmī came here, Rūpa Gosvāmī came here. And then other Gosvāmīs, Jīva Gosvāmī, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, all joined together for executing the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu—to write books about Kṛṣṇa, His pastimes, His līlā; very, I mean to say, highly spiritual understanding books they wrote. Nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau. This is the business of the Gosvāmīs, the symptoms. The first symptom is, kṛṣṇotkīrtana-gāna-nartana-parau. They were always busy-Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana means... Just like we perform kīrtana with khol, karatāla, this is also kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. And to write books, that is also kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. And to read books, that is also kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. Not that simply this kīrtana is kīrtana. If you write books about Kṛṣṇa, if you read books about Kṛṣṇa, if you talk about Kṛṣṇa, you think of Kṛṣṇa, you worship Kṛṣṇa, you cook for Kṛṣṇa, you eat for Kṛṣṇa—so that is kṛṣṇa-kīrtana.
So bhakti-yoga begins with hearing, śravaṇam, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. And if you have heard from the right source and if you are convinced, then automatically you will try to perform kīrtana. Kīrtana means glorifying. If you have attained like... Or to preach. Anyone who has listened from right person, authority, about Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, about Kṛṣṇa or about Rāma, he would like to preach that. That is automatic, glorifying. That preaching is equal. That is called kīrtana. Kīrtana... Simply preaching, glorifying, or speaking about the Lord, that is also kīrtana. And performing kīrtana as we do here in the temple, with mṛdaṅga and karatāla, chanting, that is also kīrtana. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explained the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to Parīkṣit Mahārāja. So... And Parīkṣit Mahārāja simply listened to him carefully. This is śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. The Parīkṣit Mahārāja is hearing, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī is performing kīrtana, describing all the glories of the Lord. That is kīrtana.
Nectar of Devotion Lectures
Caitanya Mahāprabhu—who can be more advanced than Caitanya Mahāprabhu?—He was daily joining in kīrtana. Four hours daily at Jagannātha Purī temple. It was a regular program. Not only that: He organized four parties, four parties, sixteen men in each party. So the four parties in four directions, they'll perform kīrtana, and in every party Caitanya Mahāprabhu seemed to be, He's present in every party. That was another opulence of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So He has recommended,
- tṛṇād api sunīcena
- taror api sahiṣṇunā
- amāninā mānadena
- kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
- (CC Adi 17.31)
One should be very tolerant and humble and giving respect to anyone, not expecting any respect for oneself. Such person can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra sadā, always. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
He had very good position in the society, Nimāi Paṇḍita. Yesterday you showed one play called Chand Kazi. So He was so influential that simply by His calling, hundreds and thousands of men immediately joined to go to the Chand Kazi's house to perform kīrtana. So just imagine what was His social position, so popular, leader. He had very good position. As a learned scholar, He was known as Nimāi Paṇḍita. Beautiful, very beautiful body, Gaurasundara. Very beautiful wife. Very honored brāhmaṇa, Jagannātha Miśra's son, grandson of Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, very social, aristocratic position.
Initiation Lectures
The first engagement should be that mind should be always absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa. Always engaged. These boys, they are always engaged. Just like in offering arcana to the Deities from early morning up to ten o'clock at night, and then they go to rest. Again rise early in the morning. So somebody is engaged in cleansing the temple, somebody is engaged in dressing the Deity, somebody is engaged in cooking for the Deity, somebody is engaged going in Tokyo city for distributing literature, somebody is performing kīrtana here, somebody is reading our various books. In this way we have got twenty-five hours engagement instead of twenty-four hours. So mind cannot go outside Kṛṣṇa. That is called Kṛṣṇa conscious.
General Lectures
So here also, now this climate. It is not conditional, but you can perform service, kīrtana, without any check. Not that we have to live in that palace, then we can chant. No. We can live, we can sit down underneath a tree and chant. There is no limit. We can go on. So we have to adjust things in such a way that without any condition, without any check, we can go on with our devotional service. Just like we can sit down here or anywhere. Here is the opportunity. This land is very good. You can sit down anywhere and chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. There is no need of chair or cushion or nothing else. Ahaituky apratihatā. Any condition. And yenātmā samprasīdati, that will please your everything—your heart, your mind, your body, your soul, everything. Yenātmā samprasīdati. This is the easiest method for achieving the highest perfection of life. So go on with this process without any check and be happy.
Purports to Songs
His name was Nimāi Paṇḍita, and He was very influential also. He was so influential that simply by His calling, 100,000 people joined Him to show a civil disobedience movement, disobeying the order of the magistrate that "You cannot perform kīrtana." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu organized immediately about one lakh of people and went to perform at the house of the magistrate. The civil disobedience movement, perhaps you know that it was inaugurated by Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, in India against the British government. But long, long before, five hundred years before, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He started this civil disobedience movement against the order of Kazi. So He was so popular. My point is that not only He was a very learned scholar... He was young man, twenty, twenty-two years, but He was so popular that He could call 100,000 people at once to start this civil disobedience. The social position...
Conversations and Morning Walks
1969 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: You can make scene that people, His disciples, are performing kīrtana and one scene you can make Kazi, Muslim magistrate, is sitting, and the brāhmaṇas, they come. "Sir, you are our protector. You are Kazi. You are magistrate. And this Nimāi Paṇḍita, young boy, He is creating so much disturbance." "What is that?" "He has begun this chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is not our Hindu religion. He is chanting so loudly. Now this is the time God is sleeping. So He'll be disturbed. So the whole society will be vanquished if God becomes angry. So He'll be disturbed." So Kazi... After all, Hindus are complaining. So Kazi said, "All right, I am taking steps." So he sent some officers. And they were playing mṛdaṅga, and warned that "You cannot do this. You are disturbing here." That is going on still. Just like our Los Angeles, it is going on. In New York also, they complain to the Kazi, (laughs) police officer. But they could not do anything. So this complaint is going on since the inauguration of the saṅkīrtana movement. So Kazi first of all warned. Then He did not care. Then the police also came and broke the mṛdaṅgas forcibly. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "All right. We shall start thousands of men playing mṛdaṅga, and we shall go to the house of Kazi. Let us see what can he do."
1970 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (1): Swami, did you come across these Brahma-kumaris? They preach something else.
Prabhupāda: That is something else. Everyone knows it.
Guest (1): Once they... I was in ... So they were passing through, teaching some Kṛṣṇa or something, and their Bhagavad-gita was something else.
Prabhupāda: That is going on. (break) There may be musical performance but here it is by the pure devotees. That is different thing. Now, here don't you see in the Gītā Bhavan? When others perform kīrtana nobody takes part. And they cannot continue that kīrtana more than five minutes. But we can continue our kīrtana for five hours without any...
Haṁsadūta: If we stayed there for five hours everyone would chant. (indistinct conversation)
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, mahāmantra they can also do, but it will not be effective because they are not pure. Here is the secret. We have... Our devotees, they are anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ (Brs. 1.1.11), they have no other business than to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. They perform kīrtana to take something from Kṛṣṇa. Everyone goes to some dharma-saṁsthāna just to take something. But our proposition is to give everything for Kṛṣṇa and that is far different.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Do you see the result? Within four, five years how they have advanced. Not that they're Vedantists or they have studied all the Vedas, not that. Simple thing. Have you ever come here in the evening when they perform ārati, kīrtana? Just see how ecstatic it is. Simple thing. Don't commit sinful activities and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, bas. You'll become elevated.
Prabhupāda: So we should take full advantage of the human life. That is civilization. And in sense gratification it is not civilization; it is animal life. (break) ...for sense gratification. This is the modern civilization. (break) ...nice place is made for sense gratification. And as soon as you perform kīrtana, the police will harass you. This is civilization. (break) ...nice place, there should be so many temples. People will come early in the morning, take bath in the sea, go to the temple, have some spiritual inspiration. That program is there. And running. The dog is running and the man is running. (break) This sense does not come that "The dog is running; I am also running. Where is the difference between him and me? She has got a female mate; I have got a female mate. Where is the difference? How I am civilized?" That, this sense, does not come. (break) ...thinking, "I have chained the dog, but I am not chained." But you are chained by māyā, invisible chain. That he does not know. He is also chained.
Prabhupāda: Let them, every house, small temple, perform kīrtana. Then this will be all success. Do not cook meat. Nice prasādam. Everything can be utilized for better purpose. Now, in the morning, they are sleeping. Nidrāya hriyate naktaṁ vyavayena ca vā vayaḥ (SB 2.1.3). At night either sleeping or sex, and daytime, divā carthehaya rājan kutumba-bharaṇena vā (SB 2.1.3). Daytime, "Where is money? Where is money?" Oh, seventy miles' speed. "Go there. There is some money." All right, take money. Then what is your next business? Kutumba-bharaṇena vā. Just to purchase for the family, finish money. Again tomorrow. "But where is the business of your spiritual life?" "No time. What can we do? Night we are busy in this way, and day we are busy. Where is the time? Don't bother us."
Guest (1): Have you any program of Swamiji for the common mass?
Brahmānanda: Here in the evenings.
Prabhupāda: Actually I want to speak only to the intelligent... (break) ...the common mass, they will not understand. But we can perform kīrtana for the common men, so that they may be purified.
Guest (1): Excuse me. I mean in your presence there must be some program like kīrtana or...
Prabhupāda: Anyway, this idea of society, of your culture, general mass of people, especially nowadays, it is very difficult. So if the leaders understand-yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhaḥ (BG 3.21)—then the common mass will follow.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: In this country, but there are places there is no ghee. Then how you will perform? Your first proposition is ghee, but where is ghee? It is all dalda. Now how you can perform yajña? I am talking as a matter of argument. If ghee is not available, then how yajña will be performed?
Mr. Deyani: That is actually the question when I first met him. (laughter) I asked him, really, I told him...
Prabhupāda: Then his proposal is failure. Now you have to take the instruction in the Vedas, that
- kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ
- tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ
- dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ
- kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt
- (SB 12.3.52)
In the Kali-yuga, the real yajña is hari-kīrtana. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ. Sumedhasaḥ, those who have got good brain, they perform this yajña, hari-kīrtana. So there is no condition. God has give you the tongue. Either you are here or there, you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ.
Lokanātha: When you went to some place in Gujarat, Sanand? It was reported that thousands of people will come. It was a small village...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Village, if you go out they will come like anything. Even in the city we have got experience. In Calcutta we did Maidan. Thirty thousand they were coming. They could not understand English, still they are coming, simply by kīrtana. This Haṁsadūta was performing kīrtana, and all the Bengali ladies coming from outside Calcutta by train, and they're praying, "take this." (indistinct) Still India is alive. And I was speaking in English mostly. Also in Delhi. Still ladies are sitting. (laughs) What they'll understand English? But that kīrtana was so attractive, they sat down only for kīrtana.
Lokanātha: Nobody outside ISKCON does this kīrtana.
Prabhupāda: What do they know? What they'll do? All rascals, fools.
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Guest (2): Things are going very good for our movement here. Other day I was with one Air India officer, and I told him, "Why don't you attract more tourists and show pictures of Hare Kṛṣṇa and what our activities in India?" To attract more tourists by giving our activities in India. They said we will discuss. They will be discussing with me in the... And of course I will take Girirāja and Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. And one school which is a very famous school in Bombay, center of the city where all the affluent people are staying—that school is very big school, good school—they have agreed that once in a week we can give you forty-five minutes to your...
Prabhupāda: Saṅkīrtana.
Guest (2): Saṅkīrtana. So this I will be discussing with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. And there are about 1500 students in that school from...
Prabhupāda: Kīrtana can be performed. So the movie, how long it is?
Bhavabhūtī: It's a one and a half hour movie, and we're in about eight minutes of it.
Prabhupāda: That's nice. Eight minutes. Showing our books? That I want. Let them read our books. Then they'll understand what we are.
Prabhupāda: Whatever... No, he says there is possible, that Gauḍīya Maṭha. If in Pakistan, in Bangladesh, if he can organize one center, it will be great triumph.
Satsvarūpa: Dacca.
Prabhupāda: Kīrtana and prasādam distribution. This is our preaching mainly. And if they hear little philosophy, that is very good. Otherwise simply kīrtana and prasādam distribution is sufficient. Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to do that. He was not speaking philosophy to everyone. Kīrtana and prasāda distribution. So our men can perform very nice kīrtana, and if they come to take little prasādam, that is preaching. You have to maintain this standard, that kīrtana must go on and prasādam should be distributed.
Satsvarūpa: And take collection for that, to continue that.
Prabhupāda: Yes. By selling books, by contribution, somehow or other maintain. Everywhere.
Prabhupāda: You have shown our books to these gentlemen?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: We have a few books here.
Prabhupāda: Hm. You can show some of them. (Hindi conversation) Call him. You can perform kīrtana here. That will... (Hindi conversation). So go to the hall and begin kīrtana immediately. You can go. So you can go and have kīrtana.
Indian man (8): But we can start here also.
Prabhupāda: Yes. My father's friends, the Mulliks, they used to criticize my..., "Oh, you are holding Ratha-yātrā festival, and you are not inviting us."
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You didn't invite them?
Prabhupāda: It is childish play. Where is invitation? So my father, the children, they were playing. "Oh, by the name of children you are avoiding us." It was like that. But the festival was going on. We called the professional kīrtanīyas. They performed kīrtana. There will be procession of my small children friends.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Miniature Ratha-yātrā.
Prabhupāda: Hm. A small ratha the father give. The height, about this, made of nice, strong wood.
| Page Title: | Performing kirtana (Lectures and Conversations) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Krishnadas, Serene |
| Created: | 25 of Jul, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=14, Con=12, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 26 |