Examples of current ISKCON mantras
They’re “Catchy jingles introduced into ISKCON kirtana.” (B.V. Swami)
Govinda bolo hari, gopala bolo
Radharani ki jaya, maharani ki jaya
A Brijbasi folk song, says B.V. Swami
Jaya Radha-ramana haribol
(an invented pop bhajan)
Radhe-radhe syama milade (“O Radharani, please introduce me to your Syama.”)
Along with it, one verse is something else also heard lately: “Radhe radhe radhe, sri krsna radhe radhe”
In “More Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas,” the song is labeled “Traditional Gujarati chant.” (Which acarya?)
Sampradaya vihina ye mantras te nisphala matah. (Padma Purana)
Don’t concoct mantras
September 6, 1976, Vrindavana Conversation in Garden [excerpt from Transcendental Diary Vol. 4 -- see also recording of conversation in Folio]
"Svayambhur wanted more clarification on what Srila Prabhupada had said about the chanting of nitai-gaura being a deviation. In his mind there was some contradiction, and he put it to Prabhupada to resolve. "Prabhupada, you wrote in the Caitanya-caritamrta that the Caitanya maha-mantra, sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda. ... there is no offence to that. And so therefore in the Kali-yuga it is actually more beneficial ..."
Prabhupada repeated his comments made to Harikesa Maharaja. "Offence is that what is spoken by the acaryas, if you do not follow, that is offence. Guror avajna. To chant Gaura-Nitai is no offence. But if our previous gurus have chanted sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita-why should we go beyond that? That is guror avajna. Even there is no aparadha, because guru, Kaviraja Gosvami, has sung like that and my guru has sung, we should follow that. We should not make any deviation. That is guror avajna, sruti-sastra-nindanam; namno balad yasya hi papa-buddhih. So it comes to be one of the items of the dasa-vidha-aparadha [ten offences in chanting]. Guror avajna.
"Is it more beneficial for people to hear the Panca-tattva mantra than the Hare Krsna maha-mantra?" Svayambhur asked.
"Oh yes," Prabhupada told us. "You are going to Hare Krsna through Nitai-Gaura. Nitaiyer karuna habe braje radha-krsna pabe." But he added, "The principle is don't try to manufacture. Because you are not experienced, so what nonsense you will manufacture, that will be offensive. Better go on, the simple thing."
No new mantras
For worshipping the Deities in Bombay, including Sita-Rama, there is absolutely no change in worship. Adopt the same method as in our Vrindaban centre, simply with 3 pujaris just like in Vrindaban. They are all Visnu-tattva, Ramacandra, Radha-Krsna, Gaura-Nitai. No additional kirtanas, simply do exactly as in Vrindaban. --letter to Saurabha, 76-06-07
(“Jaya Sita-Rama Laksman Hanuman. . .” Ooops!)
Bhakti Vikasa Swami writes: “In ISKCON Bombay, where the Deities of Sita-Rama-Laksman-Hanuman are installed, Srila Prabhupada instructed not to chant, “Jaya Sita-Rama-Laksman-Hanuman.” He said that Their names are included in the maha-mantra and that further chanting was therefore unnecessary.” (He mentions that he was told this by Bhima Prabhu.)
Jaya Gurudeva!
He objected to the usage of 'Jaya Gurudeva' since it was a direct insertion into our movement from the sahajiya sampradayas in Bengal who always say things like 'Jaya Guru', 'Jaya Gurudeva', without referring to any particular guru. Prabhupada criticised this as impersonal and did not want it chanted by his disciples. 'Who is the guru?', he would challenge. –Harikesa Swami
Story from Krpamoya Prabhu (on MP3 file)
Hare Krsna: No “Bhaja”
One devotee was leading the guru puja kirtan in a very ecstatic way. Then all of a sudden this devotee started to sing “bhaja Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare...” and Prabhupada became very, very angry and stopped the kirtan. Everyone was so ecstatic that they were jumping three to four feet high, but then Prabhupada just shouted “Stop that!” and the kirtana immediately stopped. Prabhupada asked him “Where did you learn this bhaja Hare Krsna? Did you ever hear me singing bhaja Hare Krsna?” And Prabhupada just chastised him for about five minutes. He was very heavy. He told him “Never add anything to Hare Krsna maha mantra and never subtract anything from Hare Krsna maha mantra. Sing the maha mantra just as it is”. Prabhupada also explained that “This is how deviation starts. Somebody puts in his own concocted thing and then somebody else comes, he adds some more concoction to it and with time it becomes a complete distortion”. --Bhakti Caru Swami
Harikesa Swami tells of a similar incident in France in July of 1976.
Bhakti Vikasa Swami writes: “Srila Prabhupada did not want anything chanted before the Hare Krsna maha mantra. Once he stopped Jaya Pataka Maharaja from chanting “bolo” before the Hare Krsna maha mantra. Bolo simply means “chant” but Srila Prabhupada did not like it and therefore we should not add it, or anything else, to the maha mantra.”
How other mantras got started
An understanding of how other mantras and techniques came into the movement is helpful in relieving the doubts that might arise in the minds of those who were not informed of what Srila Prabhupada expected in kirtan. Some devotees had to leave America due to various legal reasons and had no place to stay but in some Gaudiya Math temples. In some of these temples they chant all different kinds of mantras without restriction. Although these mantras are not unbonafide and are seemingly proper, Srila Prabhupada did not want us to use them in our temple kirtans. However this form of kirtan filtered into our movement very quickly since it was new and exciting and therefore rapidly accepted by the kirtan leaders to increase the enthusiasm of the devotees. After all, variety is the spice of life. This variety however, did not actually please Srila Prabhupada.
Although the Vrindavana temple was opened in March of 1975, Srila Prabhupada had started establishing the standards of its functioning in the previous year. He was concentrating his energies on creating the proper Deity, kitchen, and economic standards. At this time Srila Prabhupada asked me to be the president of the temple. He was personally instructing me in various aspects of the management. Since we are writing about Srila Prabhupada's standards for kirtan, I would like to recount his specific instructions in regards to the standards for kirtan which he wanted me to rigidly enforce.
--Harikesa Swami (article in the now defunct Vaisnava Journal, 1988)
Standards in Vrindavana
As far as standards go, his instructions could not have been more specific. The exact cause of these instructions was a kirtan in the temple led by Bharadvaja das, the night before. Srila Prabhupada had been in the habit of attending our nightly kirtans and classes due to his being sickly and unable to speak. That evening Bharadvaj chose to sing a song (which he said he got from a book by Gopal Bhatta Goswami) which was a variation on the mantra Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna He, but instead of it being for Krsna, Krsna was replaced with Gaura, so that the mantra went, Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura Gaura He &etc. Srila Prabhupada disliked this extremely, so much so that the next morning he called me into his room and wanted from me an explanation of why Bharadvaja was chanting like that. I could not give a proper explanation at that moment, but Prabhupada said that he never wanted to hear that again in the temple and that I should never allow such kinds of 'speculation' in kirtan. He then went on to specifically describe how kirtan should be done.
More or less his exact words were, << Now I want to establish the standards for kirtan. You may chant as follows; for mangala aratika, the samsara-dava prayer, then sri krsna caitanya, then hare krsna, nothing else. For the guru-puja, the 'guru-prayer' [that's what he called it], sri krsna caitanya, hare krsna, nothing else. For evening aratika, the gaura aratika song, sri krsna caitanya, and hare krsna, nothing else. For all aratikas this basic pattern should be followed. The chanting of Sri Krsna Caitanya mantra should only be for three times, not more. No one should sing a bhajan unless all the devotees know what the song means. No one should sing songs in Vrindavan temple that are in languages which the people do not understand. Yasomati-nandana may be sung since the people understand that. >> I did not put this section in quotes since it would be highly presumptuous of me to think that I can remember Prabhupada's exact words after 13 years have passed, but it is close enough for us to learn from.
--Harikesa Swami
Hari bol, Hari bol
March 18, 1973, ISKCON Mayapur Candrodaya Mandir:
During ISKCON's first international festival in Mayapur, many devotees demonstrated how they had become influenced by the Bengali form of kirtan. Srila Prabhupada expressed some displeasure about the chanting of so many different mantras. "They can chant their 'Nitai Gaura, Hari Bols'," he said, "but I will chant Hare Krsna and go back home, back to Godhead."
Perhaps if we had understood the translation of "Hari bol," then we would have known what to do. Srila Prabhupada enjoyed chanting the Maha-mantra.
–Sruta Kirti Prabhu
Bhakti Vikasa Swami: On another occasion, during Mayapura festival of 1976, devotees were chanting “Haribol, Haribol, Haribol, Haribol!” again and again in a huge, exuberant kirtana. After several minutes of this Srila Prabhupada sent word down from his room to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. Srila Prabhupada said that we are not the Haribol sampradaya. (In Bengal there is a group of deviant Vaisnavas known as the Haribol sampradaya who wildly chant Haribol! Haribol! over and over for hours on end.)
Bhakti Vikasa Swami: “Another time, devotees asked Srila Prabhupada about the kirtana that Lokanatha Maharaja’s party often performed, singing haribol for five or ten minutes back and forth.
“Prabhupada, although not too upset by the kirtana, made it clear that such chanting was not approved by him. He told us that we should mainly chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. He said ‘nitai-gaura haribol’ is all right, because they are bona fide names of the Lord, but the real point is that we should strictly follow only what the acaryas have given. This is the process. He said that the acaryas only chant all five names of the Panca-tattva, not just two. So although there is no offense in chanting the names of Gaura-Nitai, if we deviate and chant our own made-up mantras then this is guror avajna, or disobeying the orders of the spiritual master, and the line of the acaryas. To make advancement in spiritual life one must always follow the line of acaryas.” (Transcendental Diary 4, p. 361)
Gaura Nityananda Bol
After singing the standard prayers and the maha-mantra, Lokanatha Maharaja began chanting “gaura-nityananda bol, haribol, haribol; gaura-sriadvaita bol, haribol, haribol; gaura-sri gadadhara bol, haribol, haribol...” with a lot of emphasis on the response of haribol, haribol. Srila Prabhupada suddenly signaled him from the stage to stop it; he apparently didn’t like it, although he didn’t say why. (Transcendental Diary 4, p. 282)
One morning in the winter of 1975, after the temple was opened, Ananda prabhu was leading kirtana. Ananda prabhu was a Godbrother of Srila Prabhupada who had been living in our temple for many years, humbly engaged in serving the devotees with great love and devotion. He was the personal cook of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and was extremely expert in preparing foods from simple indigenous leaves, roots and fruits, as well as preparing emergency medicinal herbs when the need arose (as when a scorpion stung Saurabh Das and was saved by Ananda Prabhu's timely herb application). He was also an enthusiastic kirtana leader.
Srila Prabhupada was in his room as usual during the mangala aratika kirtan and I was in the room next to his waiting some order or command. I was not to be disappointed. The kirtana was loud and the speakers, combined with the reverberation of the hall, projected the sound into Prabhupada's room with great ease. Prabhupada called me into his room. I already knew what was going to happen since I was trained by him the previous year and knew his standards for kirtana. Ananda prabhu was chanting Gaura Nityananda bol etc. I knew that this was not what should happen, but I was Prabhupada's servant at this time and not the president any longer.
Much to my surprise he said, “Go to the temple room and stop him from singing the kirtana. Tell him that this is your temple and that you will lead the kirtanas the way you want.” Well, this was quite a shock. It was the first time that I ever had to stop one of his own Godbrothers from singing a kirtana, but I dutifully marched off to the temple room to fulfill the order. I was not at all feeling good about this as I was afraid of making some offense or being crass or crude about it. Being fallen I just couldn't bring myself to say it exactly as Prabhupada had said it, but I managed to mutter out some words to the effect that Prabhupada didn't want this mantra in the temple and that would he please chant Hare Krsna instead? This made a little \scene with the devotees not understanding what was going on, so I managed to explain something to some others since the kirtana was still going on without interruption, but soon the kirtana was stopped and taken over by others.
Prabhupada was never abrasive towards others and especially I had never seen him act like this in the temple, but he was so determined that the kirtana standard be maintained and not changed by the introduction of 'other' mantras which were commonly heard in other temples and maths, that he sent me to stop his own godbrother from singing in the temple. This incident impressed me greatly as to his determination in this regard.
–Harikesa Swami
Morning tune
Srila Prabhupada was very strict in the melody sung during the man- gala-aratika. He wanted the morning melody and nothing else. He would sometimes stop kirtans if other melodies were sung in the morning. Of course he was not always doing that, but when he was nearby and there was someone to appreciate the point, he would correct the mistake.
--Harikesa Swami
We were chanting mangal aratika within the room of Srila Prabhupada each morning. Sometimes Prabhupada would appreciate the singing and sometimes not. Later on in the morning after a particularly bad kirtan, Prabhupada called me into his room and complained about the singing. He said, again, more or less, << I did not like the singing in the morning. The morning melody must be sung throughout the mangala aratika and no other melody should be sung. It should be sung sweetly and melodiously, like this ... [and he proceeded to sing the first verse of the samsara prayer in a very sweet and melodious voice with perfect inflection and musical accent]. >> Prabhupada was very insistent that the singing should be done in that way only. He indicated that he wanted me to lead the kirtans in the morning as a way to establish the standards within the temple. –Harikesa Swami
We have Srila Prabhupada’s recorded instruction: “This is the morning tune.”
If you ask me, “double-timing” the melody takes all the charm out of it. (I mean speeding it up and taking all the stops and rests out of it, making it sound something like a march.)
By the way: The morning tune is not to be sung in the evening.
Jaya Radhe
The next morning I led the kirtan in his room duplicating the melodious style which he had shown me the day before [for the morning tune]. Prabhupada was pleased and seemed to enjoy the kirtan. Unfortunately I fell victim to that demon within the mind and started to speculate a couple of “Jaya radhe’s” at the end of the kirtan. This was one of the bigger mistakes made by me at that time. Although there is nothing wrong with “Jaya radhe”, Prabhupada simply didn’t want us to chant it. He once explained that Sukadeva Gosvami did not feel himself qualified to chant the name of Radha in the Srimad-bhagavatam and therefore only indicated her name with the word “aradhana” while describing the topmost gopi friend of Krsna.
Anyway, to continue the story, I had just started to chant Srimati Radharani’s holy name within Vrindavan dham, Her beloved Lord’s abode, within the presence of Her most intimate devotee, during the most auspicious hours of the day, when Her most intimate devotee looked at me with eyes blazing like fire and desirous of initiating my immediate destruction. Voice choked and gagging, I ended the kirtan immediately without further formalities, never again to make the same mistake. Prabhupada never ended kirtans with various extra mantras, especially not “Jaya radhe”, so why should I? –Harikesa Swami
Srila Prabhupada didn’t chant it. And his response when people on his morning walk in Vrindaban greeted him with “Jaya Radhe”?
“Hare Krsna.”
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