Authorized and Unauthorized Kirtans

 What constitutes an authorized Kirtan

The following is a question that I was requested to respond by HG Radhey Shyama Prabhu, ISKCON Pune TP and famous youth preacher.

Query:

Dear Sridhara Srinivasa Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances.  All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Can you please respond to this email below Prabhu?

Hare Krishna.

Your servant
Radheshyam das

 

From: abhimanyu A 
Sent: 30 September 2024 11:08 AM
To: Radheshyam (das) RNS (Pune - IN) 
Subject: can we sing this song?

 

Hare Krishna Prabhuji. 

Please accept my humble obeisances.

Is this song below which is a folk song usually we hear. can we sing this in public gatherings? and private singing?

Jaya Janardhana Krishna Radhika Pathe
Jana vimochana Krishna Janma Mochana
Garuda Vahana Krishna Gopika Pathe
Nayana mohana Krishna Neeajekshana ||

....

My Response:

Dear Abhimanyu

Please accept my warm greetings 

Jaya Srila Prabhupada 

I am assuming that you are a practicing devotee of Krishna Consciousness for some time with serious commitment and hence I try my best to present the following answers to your questions to the best of my remembrances of what I have heard. At the end of my response, I also try to provide guidance to a new persons.

When i searched on the internet to find out who wrote this song in question, I got the following:

"The author of the famous song "Jaya Janardhana Krishna" is Goturi, a senior actor and writer in the Kannada film industry. He was more popular as a writer than an actor. He also worked as a writer for music directors like Gurukiran and V Manohar."

I do find kannada words in the song here and there although the song  predominantly contains Krishna's name or qualities 

So I don't think this is a work done by any known acharyas and sung by any well-known traditional bajana groups.

1.a Now the question may be raised as to: what is the problem when the song is only containing predominantly the holy names and qualities?

1.b In other words, we may in turn ask the same question as to what is the problem, Hare Krishna is also holy name can we hear or receive the name from anyone?

For the latter question (1.b) regarding Hare Krishna, an ISKCON devotee's answer would be the following shlokas:

"Sampradaye vihina ye mantras tu nishphalam....": a mantra received from a guru who is not in the vaishnava sampradaya is of no fruit... In our case the desired fruit is love of Godhead....this we will get only when we receive Hari nama initiation from a bona-fide, more so in Kali-yuga following the pancaratrika process, as prescribed by SB 11.5.31 and 32.

can we sing this in public gatherings?

2. In other ways, a question may be posed: Can we hear Hari katha or Srimad Bhagavatam from anyone including those who do Bhagavata-saptaham?

ISKCON devotees would first quote Sanatana Goswami citing Padma Purana verse "

avaiṣṇava-mukhodgīrṇaṁ

pūtaṁ hari-kathāmṛtam

śravaṇaṁ naiva kartavyaṁ

sarpocchiṣṭaṁ yathā payaḥ

"One should not hear anything about Kṛṣṇa from a non-Vaiṣṇava. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects; similarly, talks about Kṛṣṇa given by a non-Vaiṣṇava are also poisonous."

Please see the following link for more quotes on this topic:

https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/One_should_not_hear_about_Krsna_or_topics_of_the_Supreme_Lord_from_a_person_who_is_not_a_Vaisnava

So, the song in question (lyrics presented below), doesn't seem to be having a Vaishnava origin nor an origin from any tradition of hari-kathas.

I don't know for sure if the writer of this song was "avaishnava," but to give the benefit of doubt we could consider him to probably be a misra bhaktha.

Why can't we hear or practice these songs? We don't know whether or not the composer of this song was from vaishnava background and really meant or was conscious of Krsna's actual position. So without our knowledge such compositions can affect our consciousness. This is akin to avoiding food that is not offered to the Lord, even though it may be sattvic in content and of sattvic preparations.

and private singing?

In any of these cases for someone who is practicing seriously Gaudiya Vaishnavism and specifically ISKCON, we must follow the instructions of our previous acaryas and sing only the songs of our  Vaishnava-tradition's acaryas (or from other Vaishnava sampradaya acaryas).

If we are travelling in public or at home wherein our relatives and friends may not be seriously practicing devotional service and we happen to hear this or songs of this kind played loudly, we may not discourage them because they are somehow hearing Krishna's names instead of hearing other gross sense gratifying songs, and we may not disrespect them. At the same time we should not engage in practicing those songs but err on the side of caution and remember the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, cited below:

"SB 6.17.40, Purport: 

Anything about devotional service or the characteristics of the Lord and His devotees must be heard from a devotee, not from a professional reciter. This is advised herein. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's secretary also advised that one learn the history of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a devotee: yāha, bhāgavata pada vaiṣṇavera sthāne. One should not hear the statements of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from professional reciters, or else they will not be effective. Quoting from Padma Purāṇa, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī has strictly forbidden us to hear about the activities of the Lord and His devotees from the mouths of nondevotees:

"

I hope this answers your questions and feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or need clarifications.

Your humble servant 

Sridhara Srinivasa dasa