Chapter 3 Performing Kirtan
(Cont'd.)
Kirtan--Where Thinking Stops
It is the life of all transcendental
knowledge.--Shikshastaka
Anything Goes
Even if we don't have a drum or cymbals, even if we
have
nothing, we can perform Kirtan with our tongue. We can simply chant and
clap our hands. In New York, during the early days when Srila
Prabhupada first came to America, Prabhupada had only one or two pairs
of cymbals, and there was no drum. There were no instruments. People
would come to Kirtan with spoons, bass drums, trumpets and flutes. One
guy brought an old piano--it wasn't standing. It was just the guts, the
strings. Everything can be engaged in Kirtan.
One time a girl came to Kirtan and started
gyrating. One
devotee was going to grab her and throw her out, but Prabhupada said,
"No, she is dancing in ecstasy." Prabhupada knew that after some time
all her superfluous action would go away. One gets tired of
artificially dancing, because it is exhibitionist. As Kirtan purifies
the heart, one dances spontaneously and joyfully, without
sophistication, without any practice. Surrender to the Kirtan, and
Krishna will take over.
Genuine Renunciation
Everything should be used for Kirtan. We can take
our entire
family on Sankirtan. Vehicles can be used for Kirtan, telephones can be
used to call persons for Kirtan.
When Krishna takes everything away, Kirtan
remains. Kirtan
must be the central pivot of our life. Start with one hour of Kirtan
daily. One hour a day is not too much. Because Kirtan is ever
expanding, from one hour it will grow to two, three, four, five. Kirtan
should be expanded to twenty-four hours a day. There will come a point
when we want to do nothing else but have Kirtan, because we see that we
have actually become joyful. We'll see that we have no more problems.
Capture Krishna
During Kirtan, thinking stops. One simply chants
and hears, and
once thinking is stopped, Krishna will reveal Himself. Krishna cannot
be captured by thinking. We cannot compress Krishna into our tiny
brain. But Krishna can reveal Himself within our heart. One can only
capture Krishna by chanting. Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita:
I am in them, and they are in Me. For
one who sees
Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost to him, nor is
he ever lost to Me.--Bhagavad-gita 6.30
As long as we chant, we are in Krishna, and
Krishna is there
in us. There is nothing to think about. Krishna is all knowledge, all
bliss and eternal life. Whatever one needs to know, if he chants Hare
Krishna, the knowledge is imparted to him.
Devotees don't have to stockpile a head full of
facts and
figure like college students cramming for an exam. Students have to
remember so many useless numbers and superfluous data. One who is
expert at memorising irrelevant facts and figures is classified as
materially intelligent. My experience is that such people have little
common sense and are most foolish persons. Those who avoid filling
their brains with mundane, irrelevant facts are the intelligent people.
If they happen to come in touch with Kirtan, they can easily accept it.
But for sophisticated, high-calibre thinking persons, Kirtan is too
simple. It doesn't fit into their complex brains, and therefore they
cannot perform it. Thus they miss the opportunity of reviving their
spiritual life.
False Ego--Our
Real Handicap
One cannot sing and dance in the Kirtan by
imitating or being
sophisticated. One must be simple. Then only will we experience bliss,
happiness and abandon our false ego, our false bliss. Then suddenly,
one discovers this very extraordinary, joyful happiness and finds
himself singing and dancing. He becomes indifferent to all social
considerations--"Is my wife watching? What are the people thinking
about me?" This is the false ego dictating, "This is crazy, don't do
this. Don't chant Hare Krishna. What will my girl friend think?" False
ego is maya, illusion. False ego means identifying with the body and
the mind. Maya is standing still when everyone is singing and dancing.
A young man will be watching the Kirtan
with his
girl friend, and she is watching him. He wants to enter into the
Kirtan, because he is witnessing a blissful exhibition of Krishna
consciousness, and he is being drawn into it, but his girl friend is
looking, and he is afraid of her reaction. He thinks, "I won't get any
bliss if I perform this strange singing and dancing." Bliss for him
means sex tonight. "She won't speak with me. She'll think I'm not very
sophisticated and hip." Although the poor fellow is right next to the
Kirtan, he is not receiving any bliss. Watching Kirtan without
participating is like licking the outside of a bottle of honey--no
taste.
Those souls are fortunate who enter into
the Kirtan
and abandon all material considerations. Once having entered into the
Kirtan, those persons will never again derive any satisfaction in any
other thing, because they will never forget the happiness they
experience during Kirtan. Nothing can be compared to the ecstasy of
Kirtan, because Kirtan is real, not illusory. Kirtan, singing and
dancing to the holy names of God, is a genuine sentiment, because it is
based on communication with Krishna.--END
