Jayadvaita Swami

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satyam param dhimahi

Gopī-gītā for Karttika

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Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 38 In accordance with śāstra and Vaiṣṇava tradition, Śrīla Prabhupāda had us chant the Dāmodaraṣṭaka every day during the month of Karttika. Some decades after Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disappearance, the chanting of the Gopī-gītā—the songs sung by the gopīs—was somehow introduced at ISKCON Vrindāvan as an additional daily Karttika function. During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence, this was never done. These most sacred and intimate songs are of course entirely authorized, but the Bhāgavatam offers so many prayers we could chant—prayers … [Read more...] about Gopī-gītā for Karttika

Ākharas (Added lines of elaboration)

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 37 In my seminar on kīrtana standards, devotees have sometimes asked about ākharas. Bhakti Vikāsa Swami explains: Ākharas are lines added to songs for poetical effect. They are commonly used in Bengali kirtana to repeat or explain a point already made. They sometimes take the form of long poetical digressions. There are many standard ākharas for well-known Bengali songs. In ISKCON, only two simple ākharas are common: the lines gaurangera arotika sobha jaga jana mana lobha … [Read more...] about Ākharas (Added lines of elaboration)

Prema-dhvani

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 36 The Prema-Dhvani (“Sounds of love”) are glorifications typically called out (in Hindi, by the way) at the end of a kīrtana. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura includes one version of the Prema-dhvani in his Gītāvalī.1 And here is the way Śrīla Prabhupāda nearly always recited the Prema-dhvani:2 jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭottara-śata śrī śrīmad bhaktisiddhānta sarasvatī gosvāmī prabhupāda kī jaya ananta-koṭi vaiṣṇava-vṛnda kī jaya nāmācārya śrīla … [Read more...] about Prema-dhvani

Tulasī Worship

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 35 In the tulasī praṇāma, in the line vṛndāyai tulasī-devyai, the right word is devyai, not devī or devai. And the often-heard nivedena is a mispronunciation of nivedana, which denotes a request or appeal. Similarly, adhikoro is an attempted Bengali pronunciation that gets things only half right. What we want is adhikāro. And should we say kṛṣṇa-bhakti or viṣṇu-bhakti? The way Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us the mantra (in a letter to Govinda Dāsī dated April 7, 1970), it’s … [Read more...] about Tulasī Worship

Nṛsiṁha kīrtana

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 34 Getting the words right The Nṛsiṁha prayers are often mispronounced. In Nṛsiṁha that m with a dot over it indicates a Sanskrit letter pronounced as a nasal sound, as in the French word bon or like the ng in the English word thing or the geographical name Singapore. From what I’m told, North Indians and Bengalis pronounce it more like ng, South Indians more like the n in bon. In any case, the s in Nṛsiṁha is a simple s, not sh—except, I suppose, if we’re going with a more … [Read more...] about Nṛsiṁha kīrtana

Śrī Advaita Gadādhara

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 33 Bhavānanda Prabhu recounts that on one occasion, during the Gaura Pūrṇimā festival in Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda heard the devotees chanting a tune that lent itself to saying “Ga-dud-hara” (in the second syllable a short a). Śrīla Prabhupāda called me in, and he said, “They are singing Ga-dud-hara.” He said, “It is “Ga-daa-dhara.” But no one ever listened to me. I told everyone, but they all continued to chant Ga-dud-dhara because it was more syncopated for the melody. The … [Read more...] about Śrī Advaita Gadādhara

Chanting Śrīla Prabhupāda’s praṇāma mantras

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 32 What are the words? First of all, we should get the mantras right. Either namas te sārasvate devam or namas te sārasvate deve would be correct. But Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Pradyumna that deve would be the most fitting word,1 so the BBT and ISKCON have adopted that as the standard. And as Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed, “You should pronounce it sārasvate, not sarasvatī. Sarasvatī is my spiritual master. So his disciple is [offered respects with] sārasvate.”2 Note the … [Read more...] about Chanting Śrīla Prabhupāda’s praṇāma mantras

Gurv-aṣṭakam & Guru-pūjā

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 31 Gurv-aṣṭakam In the morning we chant Gurv-aṣṭakam, often followed at once by chanting of “Jaya Prabhupāda!”—as if the Gurv-aṣṭakam were meant exclusively for Śrīla Prabhupāda, which I humbly submit it is not. These prayers are the Gurv-aṣṭakam, or Guru-aṣṭakam, the eight prayers to the guru. Your guru might be Śrīla Prabhupāda or else any one of our ISKCON initiating gurus. A few ISKCON members are even initiated by respectworthy devotees from outside of ISKCON. These … [Read more...] about Gurv-aṣṭakam & Guru-pūjā

Haraye namaḥ, kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ

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What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 30 Another practice sometimes found in ISKCON kīrtanas is to chant, toward the end, these verses: (hari) haraye namaḥ, kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥyādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥgopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdanagiridhārī gopīnātha madana-mohana Sometimes we then sing the next verse—śrī-caitanya-nityānanda śrī-advaita-sītā, and so on—and perhaps the next one, honoring the six Gosvāmīs. This all comes from a bona fide song by Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura. But why have these … [Read more...] about Haraye namaḥ, kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ