The importance of following

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 9

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“Do as I am doing.”

 Speaking generally (not just about kīrtana), Śrīla Prabhupāda once wrote:

The standards I have already given you, now try to maintain them at all times under standard procedure. Do not try to innovate or create anything or manufacture anything, that will ruin everything. Simply do as I am doing and be always serious and sincere to serve Krsna, and He will give you intelligence how to do everything.¹

As Satsvarūpa Mahārāja relates, Śrīla Prabhupāda often said, “Do as I am doing.”² And surely this instruction should apply to how we chant the holy name of the Lord.

Śrīla Prabhupāda did things for a reason, and we may not always know the reason. So when we do something differently, we don’t know what we may have lost or messed up. When we’re adding rather than following, maybe what we’re doing is all right, and maybe it’s not. We don’t know. So why not just follow?

In the early 1970s some ISKCON leaders organized an innovative Hare Krishna “Road Show” featuring a “rock opera” and “yoga village” and kīrtanas with electric instruments. At first Śrīla Prabhupāda encouraged the effort, but finally he shut it down.³ He had two of his GBC men send a letter to all the GBC members and temple presidents saying:

The conditional souls will be attracted to the Holy Name sincerely chanted by pure devotees and the perfect knowledge of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam as rendered by the Acharyas. There is absolutely no need of anything more. . . . The responsibility to maintain the standard of Krishna Consciousness is our single, most important duty. We must be so careful to avoid the entrance of poison and pollution into our line. If we simply present things exactly as Srila Prabhupada does, there will be no loss.⁴

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This is an installment of a draft for an upcoming book.

I especially welcome comments—suggestions, criticisms, questions, whatever.

Among other things: If you were personally present with Srila Prabhupada and received or heard instructions from him about kirtana, or were present at an instructive incident, I’m all ears.

I’m also particularly interested in hearing from “second generation” devotees (or third generation)—those born into the Hare Krishna movement or who joined after Srila Prabhupada’s departure. Again, I’m all ears.

Especially welcome: Thoughts or evidence that runs contrary to what’s in the draft or that adds a different perspective or nuance.

The draft has not yet been reviewed for spelling, italics, diacritic marks, and so on. I’ll handle that later. The same goes for formatting—headlines, subheads, and the like. For now, what matters is the content.

You can reach me by the contact form on this site. Or if you have my contact details, feel free to call me, message me, or send me an email.

Thank you very much. And happy chanting!

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Notes

1. Letter to Bali Mardan and Pusta Krsna, September 18, 1972.[↩]
2. Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, Volume 6, chapter 49.[↩]
3. For Śrīla Prabhupāda’s early encouragement of the Road Show, see his letter to Viṣṇujana Mahārāja dated November 4, 1971. For a history of the Road Show, see Vaiyasaki Dāsa’s Radha-Damodara Vilasa, Volume 1. Also informative is Mahāmāyā Devi Dāsī’s memoir Śrīla Prabhupāda Is Coming!, Chapter 4.[↩]
4. “Memo to all GBC members and Temple Presidents” from Karandhar das Adhikary and Shyamsundar das Adhikary, June 22, 1972. A note at the end says, “This letter was read and approved personally by Srila Prabhupada.” In another letter about the Road Show, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote: “Simply perform our kirtana. If we divert our attention [to innovations], the whole thing will gradually deteriorate. . . . Gradually the Krishna Consciousness idea will evaporate: another change, another change, every day another change. Stop all this. Simply have kirtana, nothing else. Don’t manufacture ideas.” (Letter to Sudama, November 5, 1972.) See also Śrīla Prabhupāda’s letter to Sudama dated November 25, 1972.[↩]