The Life and Soul of Kirtana

Srila Gurudeva: If there is a prayer in a sankirtana, like ‘karunam kuru mayi karuna-bharite,” what is this? “O Srimati Radhike, You are so merciful. I am insignificant and covered with maya. Please bestow Your mercy on me.” If this prayer will come from the heart, then tears must come and the heart will be melted.

But if this prayer is covered with raga, ragini, if the mood of the prayer is covered by this raga, ragini, and dholak, mrdanga, and tabla, then tears will never come. Anyone will think that, “I should make the sound so perfect that all should be happy.” Then this mood, ‘karunam kuru mayi, O Srimati Radhika, You are an ocean of mercy. You should sprinkle Your mercy on me,’ this mood will be covered by raga, ragini, dholak and tabla.

If our attention and focus is entirely on the tune, how this tune should be so good, and it is not on the mood that, “O Radhike, You should be merciful to me. Sprinkle even a drop of Your mercy on me. I am insignificant. I want to be the recipient of Your mercy. Without Your mercy, I am in maya. I am not realizing all these things,” then this mood will be covered. So try to play instruments and all other things in such a way that this raga and ragini should not cover the mood of that kirtana. If there are no instruments even, nothing, and we are singing, [all devotees sing] ‘karunam kuru mayi karuna-bharite, sanaka-sanatana varnita-carite.’ “O Radhike, be merciful to me. I am insignificant. I am so foolish and wretched and fallen. You should be merciful to me.” Like this, there is nothing there to bother the real mood of the kirtana.

So, kirtana has been made that the instruments should not cover the mood. Anyone is doing kirtana and he is doing “tap dhina din tap dhina din tap dhina din,” then what is the result of this? Don’t try to cover the mood of the life and soul of that kirtana by this raga and ragini. Understand? This is Vaisnava kirtana and that is avaisnava kirtana. That is not kirtana, this is sangita. There is much difference between sangita and music and kirtana, so much difference. So try to follow these things. Try to realize the mood of what is the life and soul of that kirtana. If this life is covered with raga, ragini, and tune, then the kirtana is useless. It will cover our whole thing and the result of kirtana is gone. So try to realize this thing. If your attention is on raga, ragini, the life and soul of the kirtana will go away and if your attention is on mood, then your heart will melt. Your heart will melt and tears will come. Try to understand this difference and then do kirtana.

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 5th, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]