(From the July,1981 issue of Brijabasi Spirit)
[THEN CURRENT GURU]*: Simply by being a devotee, everything is automatically taken care of by Krishna. Actually, if a devotee will simply dance morning and evening, there is no need for any other yoga. All of the asanas, all of the breathing exercises are automatically performed in this chanting and dancing.
BRHAT SLOKA: How can we inspire each other to dance?
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: You can at least read the statement in the Nectar of Devotion that dancing before the Deity causes all the birds of sinful activity to fly away. Krishna is taking pleasure in seeing His devotee dance. One should think that it is his duty to dance before the Deity. It is my duty to dance for the pleasure of the spiritual master.
On the opposite side, one automatically gets benefit not only spiritually, but physically. The karmis are out there jogging away and what is the advantage? The body may be fit by such exercise but it is a waste of time. Dancing before the Deity gives the same physical result, but the spiritual benefit is there too.
Just as one thinks that he has to maintain his body, sometimes we see devotees who want a special diet. Why? They say, “It is good for me. I can digest this better.” So they are using their intelligence to maintain the body. Similarly, they should use their intelligence to dance. The body requires exercise.
When you dance you’re actually using all of your muscles. Somebody was just telling me the other day that they read a medical report that dancing is better than swimming, better than running. It is the perfect exercise.
PUSKAR: If we get some good musicians, we can dance.
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: That is a material calculation.
(Appreciative chuckles floated in the air of the Palace. [THEN CURRENT GURU]’s quickness and spiritual awareness always delights the assembled devotees).
PUSKAR: Try telling my legs that.
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: It says one has to dance like a madman.
PUSKAR: Lord Caitanyas kirtans are another story.
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: Tell us about Lord Caitanya’s kirtans.
PUSKAR: Eight karatala players, two expert mrdanga players; people like Nityananda, Vakresvara Pandit…
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: But it doesn’t say that they were all together. Bhaktisiddhanta’s karatala players weren’t together.
PUSKAR: Prabhupada’s harmonium playing was pretty together.
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: Yes. So in our line, we have both examples. Prabhupada is expert musician. Bhaktisiddhanta apparently was not. But the dancing in ecstasy is not dependent on either one.
PUSKAR: When the musicians are better the people…
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: That is due to our conditioning, not our pure devotion.
PUSKAR: But when Prabhupada would lead, since we are His followers. He would gradually start off nice and slow and gradually He’d work. Radhanath is expert at that; slow, not just a big blast. I just want to say that it’s like trying to put the details in your painting before you paint the undercolor or something. (Puskar is one of the most famous and highly qualified painters in ISKCON. He has done illustrations for Srimad Bhagavatam, covers for the Back to Godhead magazine and more. When Puskar talks about painting, this Brijabasi is in his element. Ed.) Like trying to cook the final part of the preparation before you do the cake. You’ve just got icing hanging in space. This is a general criticism …I’m not expert at leading at all.
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: But you are expert at criticism.
(At this point the laughter which had been building all along erupted in applause).
[THEN CURRENT GURU]: At any rate, we’re waiting for Krishna to bless us with that expert.
You’d really have to have met Puskar to understand why that was so funny. He is quite the acid wit here. Actually every kirtan here at New Vrindaban is bona-fide and ecstatic in it’s own way, but Puskar was lamenting about the dearth of thumping hot, old style kirtans, and in a way, he was speaking for a lot of us. Significantly, he was talking this way in front of Srila Prabhupada.
After 7:30 arotik at the Palace, Srila Prabhupada sits and watches His disciple [Then current guru] answer questions. This session with Puskar took place a few weeks ago, in the early spring, or late winter. Then the ridges of Marshall County were starting to shake off their winter bleakness with a green flush through the forest understory, and the red budded tips of maple leaves were numerous every day.
Although the trees are still alive in the winter, they mainly just tolerate. They are living entities with a very low grade of consciousness. Human beings are also living entities only with a higher grade of consciousness. Still, that tendency to withdraw in the winter is a characteristic present in almost all species. Not that everybody just sits around their fires keeping warm while Bhavisyat is off performing heroics in the woods, but the adverse weather does place physical limits on what can be done. With the coming of spring, things start to crank up.
Srila Prabhupada is certainly an ocean of mercy. We were all suffering from this cabin fever when Puskar presented his grievances about dull kirtans. Winter was receding at last. Srila Prabhupada apparently took note.
[Then current guru] has said that a good manager sometimes accomplishes several purposes with a single stroke. During the following week, two seemingly unrelated events occured: First, Indradyumna Maharaj, one of Prabhupada’s sannyasis showed up here, on tour from France. He just happened to possess the combined attributes of ecstatic attraction for the big beat, big spirit kirtans, and he was very expert in leading them. Second, Jiva Goswami dasa and I were at Dulal Candra’s house earlier, and Dulal was asked by Jiva about getting some formal picture of [Then current guru] for the cover of this magazine. Dulal responded by saying that he wanted to get one, but that it would be difficult because it might be hard to get [Then current guru] to sit still long enough for him to set up his 4×5 camera. The 4×5 camera uses a larger than normal negative and gets a lot of detail. It is ideal for high quality portrait shots, but requires more time to set up.
The following Wednesday everyone again came to the Palace for darshan. Naturally, Indradyumna Maharaj came also. Just as naturally, he led the kirtan.
For those of you who have been to the Palace, you know how blissful kirtans can be there. Srila Prabhupada watches and all of [Then current guru]’s bhakti manifests in the beautiful surroundings. Those of you who haven’t been, should certainly be encouraged to rectify this omission much to your eternal transcendental pleasure.
Some kirtans do stand out, and this was certainly one of them, especially coming right after the week’s darshan which ended with [Then current guru] saying, “We are waiting for Krishna to bless us with that expert.” Here was dancing, chanting and prancing enough to satisfy anyone.
In the middle of it all, Dulal Candra appeared with his camera, hoping to get some shots of [Then current guru] in a little darshan action. As the arotik kirtan roared on, Dulal set up his equipment in the temple room, but Prabhupada had a better idea. Sometimes, if you shut off a gasoline engine without cooling it down, gas vapors are drawn into the combustion chamber where they explode due to the heat of the cylinder, and the motor continues to run without the benefit of the spark plugs. This is called dieseling. It is just too hot to stop. Similarly, this kirtan was dieseling when the arotik ended, so Prabhupada turned it back up.
Never one to miss a chance, Dulal arrayed his photographic equipment in the study and begged [Then current guru] to accompany him. While the kirtan was rocketing, Dulal Candra’s cameras were flashing. He was getting his desired shots. So many people have wanted to see some new formal photo of [Then current guru], and now by Prabhupada’s arrangement, it is on the cover of this issue. When you look at the cover photo of this magazine, remember that in the aural background there was a great wondrous sizzling kirtan simply inundating the Palace scene with Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and one memorable highlight after another. As you look at the picture, imagine BrhatSloka, Daivata, Dharmatma and all the devotees you’d expect to see in the heat of the action dancing. But also everyone was drawn into it. If they weren’t pulled in by the contagion of enthusiasm, then they were literally snatched up by Indradyumna Maharaj. Please envision our staid, stoic, headmaster of the Gurukula, being led by the hand into the center of the chanting devotees for some quick steps, to the shrieking delight of his gurukula charges. How about the very reserved and controlled super artist Murlidhar, hands high over his head in ecstasy…Just like the figures he paints so often.
Try to see the community president Kuladri, twirling and reversing to the slapping of hands on the marble. Or, beyond imagining, you’d have to see it to believe it, there was the unduplicatable, indescribable double stepping of Krpacarya.
The list was endless. One after another, even those who usually watch and dance in their hearts, were pulled in. Puskar was prancing around with such a big smile I thought his cheeks were going to crack. The kirtan even spilled out of the temple room for some transcendental jogging around the portico, circumambulating Srila Prabhupada and [Then current guru], totally surrounding them with the maha-mantra while Dulal Candra worked.
So I hope you like [Then current guru]’s picture. When you look at it, please remember all that chanting and dancing. We are looking forward to seeing more devotees from all over the world come and perform kirtan for Srila Prabhupada the greatest transcendental coordinator, in His Palace of Gold.
( * So the reader can better catch the mood of the piece as it was at the time, all references to Bhaktipada have been replaced by [Then current guru]. Guru is one and at the time it still appeared that Bhaktipada was functioning as he should and the mood of the devotees was of serving a guru. That he later fell down doesn’t ivalidate the experiences of the devotees.)
