Śrī Advaita Gadādhara

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued)

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 33

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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 melody shouldn’t take precedence over the name.¹

The first time Mādhavānanda Dāsa led kīrtana in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda appreciated the kīrtana but corrected this same mispronunciation.²

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Notes:

1 Prabhupada Memories, DVD 18, at 1:12:13.

2 Interview with Giriraj Swami (October 27, 2021), to whom Mādhavānanda had told this.