Our December Kirtan

We were surprised to see so many come to the kirtan last Sunday, considering the wet and windy weather. But there of course nothing like the courage of the British!

It was a jolly event with Sakhyarasa, a wonderful kirtan leader and personality. He had come all the way from Birmingham to chant with us. In his traveller's mood, he brought us further afield to both Gujarat in India, as well as Bengal, with his singing and descriptions. So if you wonder why we have pictures of coconut trees and banana plants in this post - ask no further...

Here are the kirtans he lead:

(1) Gujarat

shri-krishna-govinda hari-murari
he-nath-narayan vasudeva

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

govinda jaya jaya gopala jaya jaya
radha-ramana-hari govinda jaya jaya
govinda govinda govinda govinda
gopala gopala gopala gopala

with the Hare Krishna mantra.

(2) Bengal

Gay Gaura Madhur Svare

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare

(3) Hare Krishna mantra

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare

A big thank you to all who came to our chanting sessions this year. We hope to see you again next year!

Podcast galore!

As I'm writing this little post, our podcast [our recorded kirtans and talks] is getting its 10 000th subscriber! Well, right at this second, we have 9999 of them, but it changes so quickly that it'll probably shift by the time I'm done here.

If you haven't already subscribed to it, go to our podcast and [well, now it happened - 10 000!!!!] and copy the link in the browser to your podcast programme. If you don't know how to do it, look it up on the web. There is also a permanent link to the podcast on the column to the right.

You can also download the files manually, by first left-clicking on the name of the file, and then right-click where it says 'download music file'. You then click on 'Save Link As...' or something similar and save it to your computer. In this way you can listen to the chanting whenever you want.

Another option is to right-click on the link in our posts and download them from there. Easy as [mince] pie!

The month of Damodar

November is one of the darkest months in the year, but also one of lit candles and bonfires (not to speak of fireworks....). Maybe it is part of human nature to find ways to celebrate the changing seasons and to seek comfort in light and warmth.



We were certainly warmed by our November kirtan, which you can tune into below.

Gopal, who'd just been 'under the weather', and inspired by the rain, spoke from the Bhagavad-gita how self never change - in contrast to the changing seasons.

Short introduction.













Gopal chanted an invocation and continued with:

sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu nityananda shri-advaita gadadhara shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare

Talk 1.

Rasasthali chanted:

govinda jaya jaya gopala jaya jaya
radha-ramana-hari govinda jaya jaya
govinda govinda govinda govinda
gopala gopala gopala gopala

Talk 2.

Damodarashtakam followed by the Hare Krishna mantra, by Gopal.

This song is chanted in this month of Damodar (Kartik). Damodar means 'he who has a rope around his belly' and refers to Krishna as very young boy. Once Krishna's mother tried to catch him when he had been very naughty, and after much running, she finally caught him. She then tried to bind him with a rope to a large mortar so that he wouldn't escape, but her rope was two fingers too short. She then got another rope to make it longer. The rope was still two fingers too short. Then she got a third rope, a fourth rope, and on it went, but the rope was still two fingers too short...

Finally, she paused (completely stunned by this illogical sequence) and looked at him with bewilderment and love. At that moment, the rope was suddenly long enough, and she could tie him up. This is not a tale of child-rearing techniques, but rather that it is not really possible to bind God. The moral of the story is that we can never 'tie him up' unless he allows us to, attracted by our love.

[We apologise to those who came to the kirtan but who were blown back by the Frankincense. It was just the last little puff of incense which soon disappeared. We'll be more careful next time.]

Finally!

We finally solved the uploading mystery, which wasn't really such a mystery after all... so here are Ranchor's October kirtans, and some photos from the event. Sorry about the delay.

Invocation.

Chant 1:
jaya radhe jaya shri radhe, jaya radhe jaya shri radhe,
jaya krishna, jaya krishna krishna, jaya krishna jaya shri krishna.


















Chant 2:
krishna krishna krishna krishna, krishna krishna krishna he
krishna krishna krishna krishna, krishna krishna krishna he
krishna krishna krishna krishna, krishna krishna raksha mam
krishna krishna krishna krishna, krishna krishna pahi mam
rama raghava rama raghava, rama raghava raksha mam
krishna keshava krishna keshava, krishna keshava pahi mam

Chant 3:
krishna krishna hare hare
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare