Here is a picture of the ridge across the hollow from Gopa’s. Shows part of the Vrindaban farm and part of Snyder’s. Similar to the view I was meditating on the day of my bike trip, but without the crowd or deck.
Recently I have attended a couple of home programs co-anchored by Radhanath and Jayadvaita Swamis. After one of them I was hanging out with JS and I was critiquing the state of kirtan in ISKCON.
My primary standard isn’t how “ecstatic” or “blissful” it appeared to be. It is did it hurt my ears. If it hurt my ears, I didn’t like it.
Kitchenananda used to say about prasadam that the most important feature was how it looked (what chef’s call “presentation”), then how it smells, and last, how it tastes. Similarly, how kirtan sounds is the most important part to me, and if it hurts my ears, I don’t like it.
I will interject here that the kirtans at these home programs did NOT hurt my ears. This enabled me to catch the wave and even do a little dancing, short lived as it was, due to my miserably poor fund of stamina.
JS drew from his pouch a set of ear plugs and showed me them. He extolled their virtues in the sort of circumstances I was lamenting, including, but not limited to, over amped kirtans, insensitive whoppers or karatala players who, lacking musicality, make up for it with volume, or the guy who sits in an office all day, who doesn’t play sports, and who works out all his aggressions on a djembe.
Quite often my response is simply walking out. I don’t like having negative reinforcements associated with kirtan. The alternative is ear plugs.
Unlike regular ear plugs which, while they do lessen the decibels, muffle and distort the sound, JS says the kind he showed me give a decibel reduction but maintain the sound quality.
On his site, he has an article entitled:
“What it is and what it may mean to you”
There, damaging effects of noise, such as found in the types of poor kirtan mentioned above and the concept of being responsible for the health of our guests’ and children’s hearing are discussed. It is also mentioned that even without feeling pain, and thinking we are enjoying the sounds, we can still get ear damage, or damage the hearing of others.
About the earplugs:
High-fidelity earplugs
Submitted by jswami on February 4, 2006 – 9:46am.
“Interested in hearing protectors that bring down the volume but preserve the natural quality of the sound?
“You might like to try the high-fidelity earplugs—ER-20’s—made by Etymotic Research.
“They cost about $12, last indefinitely, and don’t need to be rolled like foam plugs. And they make the sound quieter without making you feel like you’re under water.
“You can order them online from The Ear Plug Store.”
July 3, 2007 at 7:27 am
Ah, an issue close to my heart. For a long time i have observed that our devotees have confused volume with something pleasing to Lord Krishna. I played professionally for 17 years and can attest that devotees are not the only ones. But, in praising God should not the art of music also be pleasing?
September 1, 2007 at 9:15 am
[...] regular readers of my blog may recall, I don’t like overly loud kirtans. I find them unpleasing, and my question is that if kirtan is supposed to be pleasing, if it [...]