Addressing Kirtaniyas of Madhura Mahotsav 2026 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 15 January 2026
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
As everyone knows Caitanya Mahaprabhu established Nama Sankirtan as the yuga dharma and He also introduced the chanting of the maha mantra as one of the main names that we chant. So we do this with our japa everyday and we do Kirtan with Hare Krishna. And the great advantage of the name is, there is minimum of rules. People don’t like rules in general and in Kali Yuga they even less appreciate the rules. So, it is very good because it is not bound by rules.
And this is made very clear in the Srimad Bhagavatam in many places and particularly in the story of Ajamila. So, Ajamila chanted the name of Narayana, not even Krishna’s name, Narayana’s name. But he didn’t even have devotion. He just named his son Narayana and chanted that name [Laughs]. And not after repeated chanting, after one utterance of the name Narayana, all of his karmas past, present and future were destroyed, which means and his vasanas and everything got destroyed, ahankara everything. So, he was liberated technically in a second, simply chanting the name of Narayan without any devotional intention, accidentally. So that is illustrated in that story of Ajamila. So if we chant with devotion and not just once, repeatedly and with some knowledge and with no offense then how much greater effect we should get [Laughs]. That’s the idea of this whole story, not that we should all just accidentally or casually chant the name of Krishna.
So he chanted the name Narayana and got such great effect. Lord Caitanya introduced Nama Sankirtan, the name of Krishna as the main name to chant. And of course without offense and because it’s a sadhana, then obviously we are doing intentionally. And furthermore without offense also means, that we do with proper knowledge. Because if we have offense this means that we misunderstand the identity of Krishna. We may think He’s a material body. We think the name and the Lord are different. We will think that Krishna is a devata. We will think that the chanting gives us only material benefits. So all of this is actually nama aparadh [Laughs]. So that’s due to ignorance. So we have to avoid ignorance in chanting if we’re going to chant intentionally. Therefore, we need knowledge. So, yes, name is so free, but still if we want to get the best effects we have to follow some rules [Laughs] . If we don’t follow rules and we chant, yes, we chant intentionally, not like Ajamila but with some intention, we do it repeatedly or do japa or do Kirtan often. Still if we have lack of knowledge, there will be aparadh. And even with the aparadh, there will be some effect. We don’t get the full effect.
So, Lord Caitanya’s movement of course, is based on Nama Sankirtan. But that’s not the only thing. It also has a goal. And that goal is not just to get rid of your sinful reactions. You need liberation. No we don’t want that. It’s not even to go to spiritual world. It’s not to get a spiritual body. It’s to get prema. So, for that goal, then we do have some rules [Laughs], we have to follow. So in other words the name is independent of everything. Everyone gets effect by chanting even with aparadh. But if we want to get prema, then we do need knowledge. And where do we get the knowledge from? We get the knowledge from scriptures. So, in other words name is independent in one sense but still we should chant according to scripture. So it’s not just chant chant chant. We do have to follow some rules and regulations. This of course, is so for all of bhakti. It is rather free compared to, or liberal compared to, karma yoga, jnana yoga and astanga yoga. But chanting the name of course, is even more liberal than the other processes of bhakti. So, it can be chanted in any circumstance, clean or unclean or whatever and even accidentally it has effect. But if we are seriously trying to attain prema, then we’ll have to follow rules. We’ll have to follow scriptures to some extent.
So, we will see that Lord Caitanya, He introduced Kirtan and then among His followers they were doing Kirtan every night in Mayapur. They would lock the Srivasa Angan up and then every night they would do Kirtan all night [Laughs]. So and since that time, then, this process of Kirtan is being going on. We’ll see also in Puri, Caitanya Mahaprabhu during the Ratha Yatra would have these Kirtan groups around the Rath and all these mrdangas on all the sides or whatever and they’re doing Kirtan and Lord Caitanya was dancing. So it wasn’t just any old Kirtan. They had expert singers there. They had the mrdanga players there. They had the kartal players there and everything was quite organized. So it wasn’t just a big massive confusion, people banging drums and people screaming [Laughs]. There was some order behind the way they did everything.
We also see that different traditions started. So they started different types of, I guess according to the background different traditions of music. So we find that Srinivasa Acharya was also a skilled musician and then he started a group and we see that Narottama Das Thakur, later on, he started a type of style of music also like that, all based upon classical principles with ragas and talas etc. And if you look in a book like Bhakti Ratnakar, you’ll see that there’s this, you sing it in this tala [Laughs], this raga, this tala, whatever. So it’s all very much you know, systemized according to classical music. So therefore, there’s some traditions that have come down with ragas and talas etc. But of course in the modern world, people are not so familiar with the ragas and talas etc. So things can be taken a little liberally and we don’t always have to follow the same rules that they followed. Otherwise, you would have to start a music school and you know learn all the ragas and stuff [Laughs] like that.
But you know, Sankirtan is very free, so therefore, we don’t have to do that. Nevertheless we do have to follow some basic principles etc that they followed. And to make things even simpler, Prabhupad also gave rules [Laughs]. Very simple rules also to follow. In other words, we have the arati and then during the arati, he didn’t want the harmonium. And that was more for bhajan. And there’s a certain melody we sing for the mangala arati which is prabhat raga. And in the Kirtans, he emphasized mainly chanting of Hare Krishna mantra in the proper order, not all mixed up or divided up etc.
Of course, there we can periodically chant a few other names. We see that Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself chanted many names and in Caitanya Caritamrta, we don’t even see the Hare Krishna mantra there [Laughs]. That we see in Caitanya Bhagavat but not in Caitanya Caritamrta. He was chanting Govinda, Madhusudan, Hari etc like that. So, we can chant other names of the Lord also, but the main one we chant is Hare Krishna. As well, we have chanting Radha’s name. So apparently it has become more popular to chant Radha’s name so much but actually Prabhupad was not much into that at all. And we see Prabhupad I don’t think ever hardly chanted is Jaya Radha Madhava [Laughs]. May be that’s where he chants Radha’s name. But otherwise he didn’t really get into that also. Of course, it is done a lot in Vrindavan and other groups but Srila Prabhupad also was not so fond of people doing that. So mainly he kept things very simple. Sri Krishna Caitanya and Hare Krishna etc. So, those should be the main concentration for us.
And ultimately the idea is one, we have to do this with devotion. So, as scripture says, scripture coming out of the mouth of a non-Vaishnava becomes like poison. So, similarly with the Kirtan. If there’s no devotion, then what is the use [Laughs]? If it comes out of the mouth of a Mayavadi what is the use of that Kirtan? It may look the same. It may also sound very pleasing but ultimately the spiritual effect will be zero [Laughs]. So therefore, when we are chanting we’re chanting as devotees. We’re chanting with devotion and also hopefully we do have a proper philosophy behind that, so we don’t commit aparadhs.
So our aim is to please the Supreme Lord. We’re practicing pure bhakti. We’re chanting the pure name. So in chanting the pure name, we’re chanting not to attract people to the melody or to get attraction for ourself as a famous singer. We’re doing it to please Krishna. That’s all [Laughs]. All types of bhakti are there to please Krishna. So, chanting Krishna’s name is another way in which we can please Krishna with no expectation of other results. So, that’s how we maintain the devotion. So, if we do that, chanting with devotion, then everything is wonderful.
There’s two effects of that chanting. One is we advance, because we’re doing sadhana and Kirtan is the sadhana by which we get prema. The other effect of course of Kirtan is that other people hear it. So this is a way of preaching. So Kirtan has both effects. It’s for our own spiritual development. It’s also for preaching to other people. So that’s the great advantage of Kirtan. We can do japa, but that’s only for ourself. We do Kirtan, it’s for ourself and it’s for other people. So we get greater mercy from that, from the Supreme Lord, provided we do it with devotion.
So in this way if we do the Kirtan with the proper devotion, purely with no other motives, then this is very pleasing to Krishna and we will get our own spiritual advancement and we will also benefit other people. So of course, the Sankirtan, Kirtan of course, means glorification. Of course, we’re glorifying through the name, so it’s Nama Sankirtan and ‘sam’ – Sankirtan. One definition of ‘sam’ is, of course, it could be together [Laughs] or that can also mean with particular intensity. We are concentrating on that Kirtan. So when we chant together which is the traditional way of doing it, then it also becomes very intense and we can concentrate our devotion and in this way we benefit and other people benefit.
Previously in ISKCON, of course, they did Kirtans there, they do street Kirtans etc. Then I suppose probably in the 90’s or so, this is when they start Kirtan festivals, I guess. Somewhere around that time, at the time [Laughs]. It wasn’t in the 70’s definitely [Laughs]. May be 85, 90 or something, this is when they started to have these festivals may be after 2000 even, I don’t know but anyway it’s a more recent thing, it wasn’t there in the beginning of the movement [Laughs]. So it’s a more recent thing. Of course, it’s not that Prabhupad would disapprove it or anything. Of course, he would approve it, because it’s Kirtan [Laughs]. But when we do this of course then we should also remember the slight restrictions that Prabhupad has put on this, so that we don’t displease Srila Prabhupad and we get the best effects from the Kirtan for ourself and for others. So we should keep that in mind when we’re having the Kirtans.
Oh, one other point. I heard this the other day, where did I hear that? Okay. They were talking about oh, that was actually in the meeting in the Bureau meeting. So Krishna Caitanya Swami, he’s in charge of the Kirtan ministry [Laughs]. So they’re making a little guideline booklet there and he is reading about all the different things [Laughs], all the rules [Laughs]. So, you should also be familiar with those rules, they’ve done this by consulting Srila Prabhupad’s letters and statements and books etc like that. So all those rules are there. And then of course, one rule I just remember now is that decibels [Laughs], which is the actual the loudness of the Kirtan [Laughs]. So it should be within a certain range, otherwise it goes louder than that, after some time you go deaf [Laughs]. So all the older devotees are going deaf because all these loud Kirtans. So you have to have the, what is the decibel meter or something there [Laughs]? To see that it doesn’t go over a certain range like that [Laughs]. So that’s also one thing to keep in mind [Laughs]. Sometimes people think louder is better but it also is injurious to the health. So we have to keep our sound at a certain level.
Okay. Hare Krishna !
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, very thankful that you are giving glories of the holy name and how to chant and how to read scriptures and other things. There is another type of Sankirtan, book distribution is going there. Prabhupad is telling like this, fill the market with books and other things. That is one type of Sankirtan. So, I want explanation about the other Sankirtan, book distribution. I want to hear from you Maharaj.
The word ‘kirtan’ of course means glorification. So, the glorification can take many forms, it can be Nama Sankirtan, which is only chant the name. It could be guna kirtan, chanting the glories of Krishna’s qualities. It can be lila kirtan, describing the pastimes of the Lord or rupa kirtan, describing His form or whatever. So of course, in any way which we can glorify the Lord is good.
And it’s particularly if we’re distributing books etc, this is obviously, by distributing books for glorifying Krishna’s name, form, qualities and everything actually [Laughs]. So, this is also beneficial for everyone. So it’s another form of kirtan for us and it’s beneficial for not only ourself, it’s also beneficial for others. So, this is one way in which we can do preaching.
Nama Sankirtan of course is also, as I said beneficial for ourself and also for everybody. So it’s another way of preaching as well. And in fact, you are not supposed to preach to the faithless people, which means you shouldn’t distribute books to faithless people [Laughs]. So, then how do we preach to the faithless [Laughs]? So, the answer is, they can hear kirtan. That’s how they can get the preaching. We don’t speak to them about Krishna’s glories but let them hear the name. So, this is how we can preach to the faithless people. So, it’s just got an extra effect with that. Of course, people who have faith can hear but people that don’t have faith can also hear and there’s no offense.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Thank you. There’s so many questions before you started speaking and then you spoke, so many of them got clarified. The challenges that we face as a part of very immature, immature experience of doing kirtan is that, yes, we understand that kirtan is for the pleasure of the Lord and that’s why when things come for the pleasure of the Lord, we want to serve them the best. So, whatever knowledge is to our max we have presented but the problem that we face is that devotees find it a little, sometimes challenging they feel that it is more a presentation rather than it actually being. It is a presentation for Krishna but then people kind of judge on the aspect of that oh, why are these people doing so much more, I know why can’t they just be simple. Whereas how long will he eat kichidi, best pulao, not like he likes pulao but doesn’t think he like with even Srimati Radharani would not cook the same thing, the same day, she would change, everyday there is a new preparation for Krishna. So, I just would like you to comment.
Yeah. So, this of course involves, of course the one is the devotion itself [Laughs]. If we are devoted, whether it is, you know, arranged in this way or that way and you put effort to have variety is not a problem. So if the devotion is there, that saves everything [Laughs]. And it’s the holy name also. So, that kind of solves the whole problem.
But the thing is that, if we endeavor, I say, over endeavor I guess, we can say, it becomes a performance rather than an expression of devotion. So therefore, the two things have to be balanced very carefully. So, we do know that expert artists or whatever musicians or pianists and what, singers etc, if they’re very expert, they are performing and people are paying to, money to hear them whatever. But the ideal situation is that, even though that is happening, when they’re performing they lose the idea that they are performing and it becomes simply an expression of their emotion. So, it’s free of their, you know, I’m performing something like that. So they’re not conscious anymore of that. So, similarly with devotional things, devotional kirtan whatever. Even though in one sense, it is a performance if people have come to listen or whatever, if we have strong enough devotion and whatever we are singing, we can do that in a very natural way, then we can express ourself with devotion and then that kind of gets rid of the idea of being a performance [Laughs]. So, balance out our technical singing instrumental whatever with devotion in such a way that the two things are balanced.
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupad ki jai!!!