Sankirtana - it's all about the 'congregation'

This morning's kirtan in the Mayapur temple was incredible. Niranjan Swami leading, and a rousing chorus from all the devotees. We didn't even notice the drums and karatals, the chant overtook all and the vibration was wonderful. The tune was classic and charming, and the devotees were in ecstacy.

I was thinking back to a few weeks ago when we had a abhishek in the Mayapur temple room, and I remember looking around and noticing not so many devotees chanting.

There may be many reasons why this is the case - the potency and spiritual purity of the chanter obviously have a great effect on whether others are inspired to call out to the Lord. And there are certainly other inconceivable reasons that we can never fathom; how can we understand the causeless mercy of the Lord?

But I want to bring up a few, if you like, external reasons that may have an impact on whether or not the other devotees are inspired to chant.

Firstly, I'd like to point out the seemingly obvious fact that the success of the sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name, is dependant on the chanting of the congregation, not on the leader.

So if we are leading the kirtana we should first be asking ourselves, "How are the other devotees singing?" We should not be so concerned with how we are singing.

Of course we must concentrate on singing nicely for the pleasure of the Lord, but ultimately, as a kirtan leader, we are a "servant-leader". Our service is to inspire the other devotees to chant and dance in ecstacy.

If the other devotees are not inspired to chant, then we are not doing our service properly, even if we are singing - to our ears - very nicely.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, when leaving this world, asked for an expert bhajan singer to be replaced by another disciple who was not so expert, but who was singing as a service.

Another consideration is the loudness of the amplification and musical accompaniment of the kirtan.

When the accompaniment is done nicely, it makes the kirtan much more relishable, but the accompaniment is just that, it is meant to support the chanting of the holy name. Mere musical performance that does not enhance the chanting has no eternal value.

On the day that I remember noticing that very few devotees were chanting, the lead singer was amplified very, very loudly through the microphone, and the mrdanga was miked at the top end, and was very loud, and cut through everything else.

It is interesting that other religious groups that perform congregational chanting, also discuss the important of balancing the volume of the leader with the congregation.

Curt Taipale, a sound engineer who specializes in installations in Christian Churches writes:

One thing you’ll find when the sound system gets too loud is that the congregation starts to lose a sense of corporate

worship.  That corporate worship feel is one powerful difference that makes music in your church unique from

other types of live music.  It brings a tremendous life to the worship experience.

In other words, congregational singing is a very different form of music than performance music. It requires a fine balancing of the volume of amplified sound with the level of the congregation singing.

If the sound system is too loud, the congregation is robbed of the sense of "corporate worship", or the feeling of being one small part of a larger entity.

As fragmental portions of the Supreme, we can understand why we have such a wonderful experience in kirtana when we are singing as just one voice among hundreds, but creating something much bigger than ourselves.

So the level of the sound system is very important is setting the scene for devotees to be inspired to chant loudly. If they feel the leader is too powerful throught the mic, then subtly but surely, the congregation will be uninspired to sing.

This morning the mic level of Niranjana Maharaja's voice was only just above the level of the congregation responding.

Another external factor that can influence how people respond is the tune sung. Of course it is always nice if the leader is singing an inspiring and tuneful melody, but if the tune is too difficult to catch, then the congregation will also have difficulty responding.

Last week we were fortunate enough to attend a few of the home programs that Indradyumna Swami was doing in Mayapur. Maharaja was singing the same tune he sung 11 years ago when we did the sound for his Polish tour. Although the tune had not changed, the devotees were chanting in absolute bliss as the kirtana rose to a wild crescendo. It was as if the "easyness" of the tune allowed us all to focus very clearly on the actual chanting of the holy name, and not have to expend any energy at all in trying to follow the tune.

Of course, I am not suggesting that devotees should stop singing interesting tunes: that is one of the beautiful things about kirtana, it is constantly changing and evolving as different tunes come out over the years. But certainly the ability of the audience to respond to a tune is also an imoportant factor.

There may be other factors in inflencing how we can encourage devotees to sing enthusiastically in the kirtana. But, at heart, our meditation when leading kirtana should not be, "How nicely am I singing?" but rather, "How well am I faciliting the other devotees to enthusiastically chant the Holy Names of the Lord?"