So here we have kirtans from 20 tapes distributed under the label of Golden Avatar Productions! These are classic (vintage) Hare Krishna kirtans and bhajans. They don’t make ’em like this any more!

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According to Eric of Sit Properly, The KT series ran from 1 – 25. He says these were released sometime between 1995 and 1996 by the BBT, but in fact the recordings were made in the 70s and have been kicking around all that time.

A couple of years back, there were some postings over at Prabhupadanuga, a Google group, about who started the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry. So piecing together the different accounts of the devotees, we come up with the story of the Golden Avatar Productions.

As far back as 1971, maybe earlier, a devotee named Siddheshvar das started up “The Krishna Show”, a weekly syndicated radio program that at one time was broadcast by more than 300 radio stations nationwide. Siddheshvar came up with a professional production of the Krishna Stories as radio plays with music and sound effects. “The Krishna Show” happened to be aired on a New Jersey FM channel, and Pratyatosa recalled that he used to turn on the radio and tune into the show at the ISKCON New York temple in Brooklyn on Sunday mornings. “The Krishna Show” came on at the time when devotees were taking breakfast. Pratyatosa wrote, “The devotees were mesmerized! It seemed like we were really ‘taking over’.”

Krsnakanti came to Los Angeles from Seattle, and joined forces with Siddheshvar’s production. He also founded Golden Avatar Productions.

Meanwhile, in 1971, Pratyatosa das had started the first audio cassette tape subscription service at ISKCON New York. He credits Supersoul with the idea, because to his knowledge, it was the first of its kind, cassettes being a new thing then. Kirtanananda Swami was the first to subscribe, then Swarup das and Atreya Rsi das signed up, and then hundreds.

By 1972, Pratyatosa had joined Krsnakanti and was working under him at Golden Avatar Productions at the Los Angeles ISKCON headquarters. They then decided to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s lectures and conversations under the label of the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry. Pratyatosa came up with the name and the idea to limit distribution to lectures and conversations only and of Srila Prabhupada exclusively. When he was still working under Krsnakanti, they used to send the cassettes out the same day that Prabhupada had given the class. Pratyatosa also had the idea to record announcements at the beginning of the tapes, to print out labels using a computer, and set up a subscription database on the computer. They used the Spiritual Sky computer. In 1973, Pratyatosa left Los Angeles, and Krsnakanti carried on the service faithfully until the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry closed some time after Srila Prabhupada’s departure. Pratyatosa remembers subscribing to the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry from the time he married in 1973 until after Srila Prabhupada’s departure in 1977.

In the early 70s, George Harrison gave Srila Prabhupada a microphone, which he had used for the recording of “My Sweet Lord”. Srila Prabhupada gave it to Krsnakanti, who in turn used it to record Srila Prabhupada singing. Krsnakanti also purchased a professional Sony 4-track reel-to-reel tape recorder and made high quality recordings of Srila Prabhupada’s bhajans. These recordings were later remixed by Krsnakanti himself and converted into digital format for the 14 music CDs that were published by the Bhaktivedanta Archives in the early 90s.

Ameyatma das reported that he joined ISKCON in Los Angeles in July, 1973, and owing to his background in electronics, by 1974 he ended up working with Krsnakanti at Golden Avatar Productions for about a month. That was the time when Vishnujana’s, Guru Krsna’s and Yasomatinandan’s bhajans were recorded in a small studio set up by Krsnakanti where the deity kitchen is now located. Ameyatma took the latest 3-in (or maybe 4-in or 5-in) reel tapes that came in the mail from wherever Srila Prabhupada was traveling—the latest lectures and morning walks—and put them on one deck while he made a master copy on another deck. They routinely sat and listened to the lectures and morning walk conversations while making the master copy. One day, the tapes came in the mail from India. Krsnakanti had to go out to do some errand, and Ameyatma went ahead to make the master copies. There were quite a few tapes, mostly morning walks recorded in Vrindaban, and the topic was varnashram dharma. Ameyatma said there were a few hours worth of tapes, and he completed all the master copies, but he was so affected by what Prabhupada had to say, that he also made master copies for himself. Krsnakanti returned from his errand, and asked about the tapes, and Ameyatma excitedly told him that Prabhupada was speaking about varnashram and that he wanted to establish varnashram dharma colleges in his temples, immediately. Krsnakanti then made cassettes to give to Ramesvara to hear. Ameyatma was disturbed, however, when after a little while, Ramesvara called Krsnakanti over and instructed him to edit out parts of the tapes. Ramesvara considered them too controversial for the public and even for distribution amongst the devotees.

Nara Narayana das wrote that in 1973 Krsnakanti was using the Golden Avatar Production studios to produce the latest of Srila Prabhupada’s tapes, including the “Sankirtan Series” of kirtans and bhajans. Most of the tapes were heavy on the bass to optimize sound quality on the transister tape players that were in use then.

At that time also, Golden Avatar Productions was producing the KT series, of which there were originally 25, but apparently only 20 ever distributed. These were recordings of various devotees singing bhajans and of temple kirtans and Rathayatra kirtans. Devotees used to buy, beg and steal these tapes, and played them till they squeaked. Many were recorded on Maxell media. The blank tapes used to cost Golden Avatar $2 each.

At some later date, the BBT purchased a 32-channel mixing board for Golden Avatar Productions. It cost over $250,000.00, and Ramesvara had some trouble to justify the heavy expenditure, especially when Krsnakanti was no longer concentrating on the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry. Nara Narayana wrote that Krsnakanti was instead busy promoting Mangalananda das (Michael Cassidy). However, Mangalananda’s “Change of Heart” album came out in 1975, and Srila Prabhupada was very happy with it and encouraged him to do more like it. Now, according to Pratyatosa, the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry carried on at least until after Prabhupada’s departure. But at some point shortly afterwards, it discontinued, and then the BBT bought the mixing board for Golden Avatar Productions. Apparently Krsnakanti had trouble coming up with the cash to keep things running, and so he took on recording jobs, recording rock bands at the studio. Around that time, Parama Rupa das of New Zealand came to Los Angeles with his wife, who painted illustrations for Prabhupada’s books under Nara Narayana’s direction (she was working on a painting for the cover of Teachings of Queen Kunti, which was published in 1978), and Parama Rupa had some know-how in sound recording, so he was sent to work with Krsnakanti at Golden Avatar Productions. Parama Rupa reported to Nara Narayana that there was not much work for him to do there, and that it was a shame to see boxes of Srila Prabhupada’s original tapes left aside, so Nara Narayana went to Ramesvara.

“I knew that he (Ramesvara) was hiding the Golden Avatar studio scandal from the other BBT members in order to cover the money he had paid. He also was under intense pressure to produce the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry that had mysteriously stopped. I proposed to him that we restart the Bhaktivedanta Tape Ministry under the name Bhaktivedanta Archives, and he fronted $5,000.00 to get us started.”

And that was the end of Golden Avatar Productions and the beginning of the Bhaktivedanta Archives. Over the years, Krsnakanti and Parama Rupa continued their service at Bhaktivedanta Archives. Parama Rupa das is still there, head of preserving and distributing audio and written materials of Srila Prabhupada. Thanks to them, all of Srila Prabhupada’s recordings (or most of them, at any rate) have been converted to digital format, keeping up with technological innovations so as to make Prabhupada’s legacy accessible for the present and future.

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Golden Avatar Productions – KT series of tapes