Lord Chaitanya’s Hari Nam Sankirtana Party

In the light of Srila Prabhupada’s statements and instructions within Dayananda dasa’s recent posting on www.Chakra.org entitled,” Sankirtan Is Our Life And Soul, But Where Is The Love?”, and the article, ”Where Are All The Bhakta’s”, by Gregory Kirk and family, (www.iskcontoday.org), there is much missing in ISKCON as in the spreading of Krsna consciousness via Lord Chaitanya’s Hari Nam Sankirtan Movement. Basically the daily Hari Nam Sankirtana party is missing. According to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, the Sankirtan yajna ,”The Sankirtan Party must always work regularly; that is our life and soul.” ---“It is our life and soul. Sankirtana should be increased as much as possible. Side by side is book selling.” (Letter to Brahmananda, 1969 May 9th. Letter to Rupanuga Sept 4th 1974. ) In a list of devotional activities covered by the up and coming GBC meetings at Alachua; deity worship, book distribution, preaching, and this list goes on, but public Hari Nam Sankirtan is absent from this list. Some devotee’s will remember that Hari Nam Sankirtan was daily performed in the late 60ties and early 70ties until book distribution by itself replaced it.

It became noted that some devotee’s could take in a lot of money and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. And then items for sale like LP’s took over for some time until replaced by candles, and then the more profitable imported paintings. In other words, earning money for temple projects by selling anywhere and everywhere took precedence over Hari Nam Sankirtan, which became something devotee’s may do once a week on Saturday afternoon. We have a set of Gaur Nitai deities won after a three month marathon from the Montreal temple. The winner was the one who collected the most $$$, period. Books distributed were not really mentioned. Of course it was understood that the $ collected was for temple projects and so therefore all work done in this regard is done in the mood of service to the devotee community and the Lord’s mission to spread Krsna consciousness. The Hari Nam Sankirtana daily party is placed way back on a back burner. Now that burner is so far back that Hari Nam Sankirtan is not even mentioned in the GBC list of topics to be discussed at Alachua. What has happened? Most devotee’s, once out on Hari Nam, love it. Why is it not on the GBC list of topics to be discussed? Some of them, I know first hand have had mystical and transcendental experiences on Hari Nam. I don’t get it.

Most unfortunately, as my god sister, who used to serve Srila Prabhupada for over one year in the most early days in Montreal , New York and Hawaii, says, “now the temple is run by a business man.” Instead of Hari nam sankirtana running side by side with book selling, we have, white shirts, clip boards, big smiles, fast talk and books sold. Then the book scores are announced each morning possibly along with the laksmi collection, the money collected, also known as “the pick”. In Waikiki, I understand that two and three hundred dollars per day is not unusual. One older devotee lady book seller no longer with the temple but still selling has been witnessed to expertly, with the Japanese tourists, deride a ten dollar donation, in exchange for a fifty dollar donation. The witness describer of this incident was very impressed with the fluent Japanese spoken by the Caucasian lady. Usually small books are distributed since they are easy to handle. They have some of them in Japanese now.

One most stalwart devotee of the Honolulu Hare Krsna temple once said to me in a very profound way, that,” we are either part of the solution or part of the problem.”. I thought of this in relation to Srila Prabhupada’s Sankirtan Party instructions. Well, if we review the quotes provided by Dayananda prabhu, we easily see that if Hari Nam Sankirtan is not being carried on side by side with book distribution, then we are not doing as Srila Prabhupada instructed in this matter from the early days. The dollar and cents mentality in relation to book distribution is far from the ecstatic Sankirtana Party mentality which is an ocean of bliss. This ocean of bliss is missed by the so called karmis who often would say, “we do not see you people chanting much any more. We used to see you street chanting all the time. What happened? ” They are intuitively missing the ocean of bliss. However, even in the early days such as at the Toronto temple, there was rarely a sankirtana party unless the president decided to take everyone out on a Saturday afternoon. Srila Prabhupada said that,” the sankirtana party must always work regularly,” which means at the very least 5 days per week. That is a working week and so is 6 days per week. The Sankirtan Party, along with some prasadam and book distribution is meant for spreading Krsna Consciousness! It is not only for collecting money or even distributing books. It is for spreading Krsna consciousness both for the singers or chanters, and for those watching and listening. Spreading Krsna consciousness means purifying the atmosphere and bringing more souls to the awareness of Krsna consciousness. More souls means not just one building temple with the regular Sunday feast charging money for entrance; not just the regular income from the pick, but more devotees in more locations like farms and city restaurants meant to give shelter to others. Krsna consciousness is dynamic and ever expanding. Various ways of collecting money has replaced the bhakta program along with the expansion of devotee’s, in each devotee community. The business man or money making mentality for a president of Srila Prabhupada’s temples is not conducive to the expansion of bhakta’s. The daily hari nam sankirtana adds the most wanted bliss which attracts everyone. I remember once in Montreal bringing a friend to see the devotee’s, we were parked in front of the old bowling alley temple when a group of 5 or 6 devotee’s were returning from Hari Nam in the early evening. They actually appeared to be floating in transcendental excited happiness as they entered and ascended the stairs to the temple room. I said to my friend, “see that !”. The money making habit on the other hand is very routine, and dry. This makes the person do something for the purpose of earning money. The morning program is there, followed by going out to earn money individually. New bhakta’s if any, would stay at the temple doing chores like pot washing, cleaning & yard maintenance. How long can one do this with out becoming bored?

Public Hari Nam Sankirtan Party consciousness is missing in ISKCON generally speaking. We have meeting consciousness, prasadam consciousness, book distribution consciousness, 4 regulative principle consciousnesses, Sunday feast consciousness, japa consciousness, kirtana and prayer consciousness within the temple, morning program consciousness, but the daily Sankirtan Party consciousness which Srila Prabhupada called for is missing. Hari Nam Sankirtan is the most transcendental because the Lord’s Holy Names are being broadcast musically to the public at large. This is very pleasing for the Lord who often reciprocates with His devotees for so doing. For some strange reason Hari Nam Sankirtan is no longer stressed. Practically everything else is more important, like mechanically having deity worship performed even if the devotee is paid, and kitchen cooking done also with paid servitors, room and board provided. This is actually now going on while the book distributors collect large sums of money daily. Srila Prabhupada said, and I know you have heard that phrase before, that the “Hari Nam Sankirtan Party is our life and soul”. That is now replaced by following the 4 regulative principles and money collection is the life and soul. And why not, money pays for everything; clothes, trips to India for festival attendance, food, and all the other bills. All meetings are funded by money as are all the traveling expenses. Even Srila Prabhupada said, (there I go again), that “money is the honey”.

We have rarely been to the LA temple but on the last occasion around a Gaur Purnima time we did a Sankirtan Party at Venice Beach which turned out to be highly ecstatic and unforgettable. There were devotees I had known from Florida early days along with some from South America. We started in the regular boring double file and at the head of the line my friend lightly told me to calm down and stay in line, but I paid little attention to that request. The next thing that I remember is that we were about 25 devotees in a highly charged kirtana circle on the sidewalk, , all of us jumping up and down ecstatically in front of the amazed Venice Beach onlookers. One man was so spontaneously attracted that he was requesting kartals, but no one gave him any, so I did. But as soon as he realized that he was accepted, he all of a sudden dropped the kartals and bolted off, and I mean bolted. He literally sprinted away very quickly. Yes, I don’t really know why either, but I do know that Lord Chaitanya’s Sankirtan Movement must have the daily Sankirtana Party.

Maintenance consciousness falls way short of the dynamic ever increasing ocean of bliss of Hari Nam Sankirtan Party consciousness. Money, security and all the rest above mentioned consciousnesses do not come close to the ecstatic Hari Nam Sankirtan Party which is a spontaneous affair performed in the street for the benefit of all mankind. Every morning at some temples they recite Lord Chaitanya’s Siksastaka wherein Lord Chaitanya says that the sankirtan movement is spreading the benediction moon, but then they don’t go out on Hari Nam. This puzzles me. Well I suppose everything related in a positive way to the sankirtana movement is a part of it, so selling candles, LP’s and paintings and the money received is all sankirtan, right? Donations from any source are generally accepted. The donation bucket in the temple room is open and does not limit the donor in any way. The box just accepts and the money is used by the sankirtan movement. A Krsna conscious community should be based on the daily public Hari nam sankirtan party which includes book distribution and even prasadam distribution and the collection of monies. Everything is there along with the consciousness of unlimitedly expanding Lord Chaitanya’s Sankirtan movement.

A problem with individual collectors and book distributors is that each collector has his or her own personal agenda so that a portion of the collection is given to the temple and the rest they utilize for trips to India, vehicle purchase or what ever they require. This situation is different from the early day Sankirtan because everything was meant for the whole. No one had an individual program. The temple devotee mentality was one of a group community expanding. Srila Prabhupada was present and everything was perfect to us. That was a real group consciousness wherein we all gave to the group, and Srila Prabhupada was at the top. In this way, farm, and other devotee communities developed, all with the group consciousness.

This group consciousness is different from individual consciousness. In the early 70ties there were many rural community based groups of many varieties. A perverted reflection would be the corporation which exists to feed itself regardless of the harm placed on the environment and others. Another perversion example is North Korea’s communist regime which indoctrinates its citizens to work for practically nothing at all for the betterment of the North Korean government. In the material world, perverted reflections of the pure harmoniousness of the spiritual realm are the norm. So individual collector/book distributors who give some and keep some sets up a separate mentality rather than the community of devotee’s and bhakta’s expanding unlimitedly. The results of the money mentality is a non expanding community of devotee’s with some always coming and going. They go because the higher taste of hari nam sankirtana is not there daily .

So Srila Prabhupada introduced to us the Hari Nam Sankirtan party which led the way for the Hare Krsna explosion. Then he disappeared and the zonal acharya program completely smashed the working conception of the spiritual realm which only Srila Prabhupada could give us. By then the daily sankirtan party had all but disappeared. Collecting money in various ways was obviously more practical and still appears to be so at present. Now only a sort of fringee would go out on Hari Nam sankirtan daily. Indradhumaya Swami, in one of his more recent news letters, mentions and glorifies one such sankirtan devotee he came across in Florida.

Dayananda prabhu’s main 2 points seem to be sankirtan which Srila Prabhupada is quoted as confirming that this refers to the public Hari nam chanting, which is a sacrifice, or an austerity, and his other point is that of love and affection. With Srila Prabhupada present we felt that love and affection throughout the world. His love was so big. On the battle field in the past, the general would take the lead in the fight. Today they sit at their desks dictating. But so should the leaders of the Hare Krsna movement take the lead in the battle to perform the daily Hari Nam Sankirtan party instead of the endless talking meeting programs on how to improve Krsna consciousness. The group performance of the Hari Nam Sankirtana party is the way to improve Krsna consciousness. Walking or standing in front of the public while chanting and singing Hare Krsna is different from doing one’s rounds alone or with others, or while driving one’s car. If the Hari Nam party is the daily focus of the temple then others will want to join and take part, not for money but for the bliss of Krsna consciousness. Who dosen’t like music and singing? One persons coment on seeing the hari nam party in Victoria BC was, ”all of a sudden, amongst the drudgery of the masses passing to and fro on main street, appeared the devotee’s dancing and singing. They stood out from the crowd of many dismal people”.

I remember once at the early Toronto temple the leader came out once with us on hari nam and it was so refreshing to have his gravity with us, but he came only once.

We have covered certain topics in a random way, thank you.

Satyahit das