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Musical (Conversations)

Conversations and Morning Walks

1969 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Allen Ginsberg -- May 11, 1969, Columbus, Ohio:

Allen Ginsberg: Well, so tomorrow we'll be doing it. So now, the next question I had in my mind is we'll be doing kīrtana, then language, speech. Then end with kīrtana.

Prabhupāda: That is also kīrtana. Kīrtana means kīrtayati. Glorifying. That is kīrtana. So either you sing musically or you speak devotionally, both of them are kīrtana. Just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he continually spoke to Mahārāja Parīkṣit. That is also state, śrī viṣṇu... śravaṇe parīkṣit, abhavad vaiyāsakiḥ kīrtane. Vaiyasaki, the son of Vyāsadeva, Sukadeva Gosvāmī, he became liberated simply by kīrtane. But what is that kīrtana? He never played musical way. He simply explained Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So this is also kīrtana. This is called saṅkīrtana. Bahubhir militvā kīrtayati. That is saṅkīrtana.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Prabhupāda: Sāmagāḥ means the followers of Sāma Veda. Gayānti. They are always in music. Through musical vibration they are approaching the Supreme. Sāmagāḥ. Gāyanti. Gāyanti means singing. So Vedic mantras are sung. This whole Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, can be sung very nicely. And it is Vedic mantra, chanting. Simply by hearing the vibration, people will be benefited. Even they do not understand.

Room Conversation With John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison -- September 11, 1969, London, At Tittenhurst:

Yoko Ono: If Hare Kṛṣṇa is such a strong, powerful mantra, is there any reason to chant anything else? For instance, you talked about songs and many different mantras. Is there any point in chanting other songs or mantra?

Prabhupāda: No, no. These mantras are also... But Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is specially recommended for this age. And the Vedic mantras, they are also chanted, I told you, with musical, tampura, and they sit down and chant. Nārada Muni, he's chanting always. So chanting through musical instruments, mantras, it is not new introduction. It is from time immemorial. And Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, especially in this age, that is recommended in many Vedic literature, Brahmanda Purāṇa, Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad, Agni Purāṇa, like that. And apart from the statement in the Vedic literature, Lord Caitanya Himself, He preached this mantra.

1970 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 13, 1970, Indore:

Prabhupāda: There may be musical performance but here it is by the pure devotees. That is different thing. Now, here don't you see in the Gītā Bhavan? When others perform kīrtana nobody takes part. And they cannot continue that kīrtana more than five minutes. But we can continue our kīrtana for five hours without any...

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Sanskrit Professor, Dr. Suneson -- September 5, 1973, Stockholm:

Prabhupāda: No. (On) purpose we have not translated because they are not meant for ordinary reading. They are meant for Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Because there is dealings of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, people will misunderstand.

Professor: Yes, but it's very great poems. It's very beautiful, musical.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Professor: But...

Prabhupāda: And we, we have translated pralaya-payodhi-jale **. That is Daśāvatāra-stotra of Jayadeva Gosvāmī. We have translated Upadeśāmṛta of Rūpa Gosvāmī which is useful for general public.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 11, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The whole Sāma-veda is music. Gāyanti yana-sāmagāḥ. Sāma-veda is full of music. The musical sounds, sa re ga ma pa da, this is from Sāma-veda. Yes.

Italian Man (1): Is it possible to obtain technical materials of theorems, the way of combining notes to make music for Hare Kṛṣṇa and...

Prabhupāda: These are the symbolic, sa re ga ma, sarad ṛṣi garbha, like that. Different sounds.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- April 27, 1976, Auckland, New Zealand:

Prabhupāda: Now, actually, people are surprised: "What this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra has got power that it is changing so quickly?" And on the other hand, it is to be admitted, unless it has got power, how it is changing? So we have to keep that power. Don't make it an ordinary musical vibration. It is a different thing, spiritual. Although it seems like musical vibration, but it is spiritual, completely. Mantrauśadhi-vaśa. Even, by mantra, the snakes can be charmed. So mantra is not ordinary sound vibration. So we have to keep the mantra in potency, potent, by offenseless chanting, by remaining pure. If you pollute the mantra, then it will lose its effect.

Morning Walk -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Rāmeśvara: (break) ...that by genetics they can develop the higher qualities in man, and they can arrange at birth to develop the finest qualities, strength, different talents also, like artistic talents, musical talents, better intelligence, all by chemistry.

Prabhupāda: So how much chemical he has devoured for becoming so intelligent? That man who is proposing chemicals, so how much quantity of chemical he has eaten to speak all this nonsense?

Room Conversation -- November 25, 1976, Vrndavana:

Jagadīśa: Apparently in a new BBT newsletter which just came yesterday afternoon there's a statement by Rāmeśvara that you were asked whether this record should be played in the temples and you said, "Why not in the temples?" Hari-śauri thought that you said "not in the temples," Rāmeśvara said...

Prabhupāda: No, no. Not in the temple. I... I want... 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.

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: This one tape that Alex has made, he gave me a copy in Bombay to listen. I just played it...

Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa, this vibration, you can make in different tune. We are already doing that.

Room Conversation on Farm Management -- December 10, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: By prasādam, by chanting, by drama, somehow or other bring them. That is our mission. Congregational chanting. Always festival, and we shall spend for that. Immediately arrange. If there is scarcity of money, I shall pay, but from... Bring them somehow or other. Tomorrow I want to see at least 500 men. Make arrangement like that. I came here to see that, not to sit down in a room peacefully. So there also we shall inform the meeting that we want to propagate this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement town to town, village to village, by attracting them with musical demonstration of saṅkīrtana, dramatic play, movie, prasādam. Somehow or other they should come to the temple, to the pandal and congregationally chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, hear Bhagavad-gītā, Bhāgavatam. For this purpose, whatever expenditure is required, that you should collect and spend. This is the scheme of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

Mr. Malhotra: (break) ...dolak.(?) Some (indistinct) will give... I mean sounds are different, you know, instruments are music.

Prabhupāda: This is called musical science, Jala-taraṅga. Jala, taraṅga means vibration, different vibrations. Still there are, among the musicians, there are artists, they'll put vials and make the different tunes by filling it with water. (SP makes sound dn dn dn dn dn)

Room Conversation -- December 26, 1976, Bombay:

Indian man: He plays very good harmonium.

Indian man (2): All musical instruments.

Prabhupāda: No, we don't want to introduce harmonium.

Indian man: No, I know. That is what he's teaching at the moment. He's doing it out of force.

Prabhupāda: The other musical instrument, if he plays his attention will be diverted in musical instrument, not to chanting. "We have to see melody, whether it is going on nicely." But that is not good. Our concentration should be hearing Hare Kṛṣṇa.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 14, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Millions of Hindus practice with sublime devotion the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. We are not aware of any case where such practice has resulted in any detrimental effect to the health or mind of anyone. We can submit that the worshiping of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, as being practiced in West Bengal, India, does not differ from that of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra chanting of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. And as such, either of them cannot do any harm to the devotee or to the observer. Further we can add that the rhythmic dance and musical (Bengali:) svara in Hare Kṛṣṇa kīrtana mantra may have profound beneficial effect on a distorted human mind. These practices do not have any relation with brainwashing, although the word seems to carry no scientific meaning at all.

Page Title:Musical (Conversations)
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Rishab
Created:24 of Jun, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=13, Let=0
No. of Quotes:13