The New Year eve event was organized by ISKCON Bangalore as a means to engage the youth in an innovative manner through which Krishna consciousness is packaged into a programme. It generally starts with playing the recording of a lecture by Srila Prabhupada. It also has many devotees preaching about the importance of Krishna consciousness. Plays are staged by the youth based on Srimad Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita. Interspersed between these are kirtans of ISKCON sung to the accompaniment of Western musical instruments with pop or rock and roll music. But some purists, so-called strict adherents of Srila Prabhupada are objecting to this saying that it is against Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. They are even going to the extent of branding ISKCON Bangalore devotees as deviants and not true followers of Prabhupada.
1. We should never have any kirtan at any time by using Rock and Roll, and a true follower of Srila Prabhupada never participates in any such event.
2. Srila Prabhupada by his personal example demonstrated that it is better to do only traditional kirtans all the time and never use pop or Western style because even in the Mantra Rock Dance he sang kirtans with kartalas.
3. Anybody who is conducting an event with Rock and Roll is deviating from his example and is faithless in his words and is a deviant and not a strict follower of Prabhupada.
4. Srila Prabhupada sung some 50 odd melodies and only those should be sung and nothing else.
5. This is the Vaishnava standard of kirtans and we should strictly follow it and never deviate from this and if we do so we are going away from the Parampara.
6. Pop, etc., should not be used at all for singing songs related to Krishna
To raise funds, gain supporters for the new temple, and to popularize Prabhupada's teachings among the hippie and counter-cultural audience of the Haight-Ashbury scene, the team decided to hold a charitable rock concert and invited Prabhupada to attend. Despite his position as a Vaishnava sannyasi and some of his New York followers objecting to what they saw as an inappropriate invitation of their guru to a place full of "amplified guitars, pounding drums, wild light shows, and hundreds of drugged hippies," Prabhupada agreed to travel from New York to San Francisco and take part in the event. Using their acquaintance with Rock Scully, manager of the Grateful Dead, and Sam Andrew, founding member and guitarist of the Big Brother and the Holding Company – who were among the most prominent rock bands in California at the time – Shyamasundar and Gurudas secured their consent to perform for charity at the concert, charging only the "musicians' union minimum" of $250. Malati Dasi happened to hear Moby Grape, a relatively unknown group at the time, and she convinced the other team members to invite the band to play at the concert as well.
After a short address by Prabhupada, Ginsberg sang "Hare Krishna" to the accompaniment of sitar, tambura, and drums, requesting the audience to "Just sink into the sound vibration, and think of peace." Then Prabhupada stood up and led the audience in dancing and singing, as the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Moby Grape joined the chanting and accompanied the mantra with their musical instruments. The audience eagerly responded, playing their own instruments and dancing in circles.
Because of their bias, these purists are forgetting that Srila Prabhupada himself authorized an event called Mantra Rock Dance to be conducted for the purpose of raising funds for the temple and he himself attended it. He did not criticize Allen Ginsberg for singing Hare Krishna Mantra in his own musical tune in mantra rock dance. He did not object to the various musicians playing their instruments accompanying his kirtans in the mantra rock dance event.
Please read the following conversation that took place in Vrindavana on Nov 25th 1976.
Prabhupada: No, no. Not in the temple. If the wordings are all right, so there is no... If there is no mistake in the set-up of the wording, the change of musical tune, that is not harmful.
Gopala Krishna: This one tape that Alex has made, he gave me a copy in Bombay to listen. I just played it...
Prabhupada: Hare Krishna, this vibration, you can make in different tune. We are already doing that.
Hari-sauri: We're talking about these songs that they are writing.
Jagadisa: Philosophy songs.
Prabhupada: And therefore we have to see the words.
Hari Sauri: Like this "caterpillar had a change of heart."
Jagadisha: If the words are all right, then they can be played in the temple?
Gopala Krishna: Because no one can hear the words. It's the pop music that people hear.
Akshyananda: Actually the words are just like modern pop songs. You can't tell really what it means. I suggested to those people. I said, "Why don't you put music to Prabhupada's books? Take the words straight from your..."
Hari Sauri: No, Prabhupada's approved this method for attracting karmis.
Akshyananda: Yes, not for devotees.
Hari Sauri: But the thing is once you become a devotee, we don't need...
Prabhupada: Yes.
Akshyananda: That kind of music also reminds us of past bad activities, sinful activities.
Hari Sauri: The question is whether should it be played in the temple or not?
Prabhupada: Temple may not be played. What is use of playing in the temple?
Gopala Krishna: I know from practical experience, Srila Prabhupada, that... I just played this Alex's record. It's all current pop music with English philosophy wording. And all the brahmacharis were so agitated, they came to my room to listen and they were, you know, really making fun of it like it was a pop...
Akshyananda: Because that style of music it reminds us of the nightclubs or whatever it might be.
Prabhupada: Therefore I said it is better not to make these records.
Gopala Krishna: Just your these records and parampara records should be played, I think. There are so many tapes of your records.
Hari Sauri: This style that they are doing now, they explain that they wanted that because then that way, they'll be able get them played on the radio. Otherwise they won't play bhajans or anything on the radio. But there's a distinction between that kind of music and pure Krishna consciousness music. Even though the words indicate Krishna consciousness, most of the songs are written in such a way that it's indirect. It's not directly Krishna.
Gopala Krishna: But you can't hear the words.
Prabhupada: Yes, indirect.
Hari Sauri: They give this thing, "The caterpillar changed his mind," like that. It provokes some speculation.
Prabhupada: No, indirect for gross outsiders, not for us. Therefore they should not be played in the temple. Gross outsider only.
<Note by Prahlad Das - As we can see in the Bangalore rock band videos above, there are many Brahmacaris & temple devotees dancing along. Are they also "gross outsiders"? And the poster for SANKALP 2014 actually states "ONLY FOR FOLK MEMBERS">
In this conversation, Srila Prabhupada is authorizing the use of POP music to attract gross outsiders by songs composed in English about Krishna conscious philosophy by his disciples.
ISKCON Bangalore is conducting a programme on New Year’s eve to engage the youth in Krishna Conscious activities and we are getting budding musicians to sing our Narasimha kirtan, etc., in POP or Western style to attract “gross outsiders”. Many of these students sing the kirtans in college on their own and it is making them think of Krishna. They would have anyway heard some hard rock. But instead they have been guided to hear about Krishna and we are thus attracting a gross outsider as mentioned by Srila Prabhupada.
This is one of the many events which ISKCON Bangalore is conducting for the youth. We engage the more serious youth in nagar sankirtan, book distribution, cleaning the temple and other services. Many of them eventually take to serious chanting and take initiation and some even join the temple as sevaites.
On the other hand, ISKCON Bangalore is also sensitive to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions that kirtans in the temple are to be standard. The devotees are using instruments authorized by Srila Prabhupada and are singing tunes as per standard in the temple and festivals. In fact the temple has forbidden using Bongos and other instruments in the kirtans and temple related programmes.
These so-called adherents should see the context of how a particular instruction of Srila Prabhupada was followed rather than going overboard and branding ISKCON Bangalore as a deviant and not a true follower of Srila Prabhupada.
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