Here is a good discussion about the use of “technology in worship“. The comments are especially insightful and illustrative. It’s the old “harmonium in the kirtan” conundrum again. I spoke about this last time we were at New Varshan (Tri Yuga, do you still have the recording?).

It’s a tension between the Holy Name and the carrier wave of musical sound vibration. We know that the active ingredient is the Holy Name of the Lord, but we want to deliver that to the public with a nice sound vibration so that they will sit still and listen to it. At the same time, we don’t want to forget what the essence is. So therefore Srila Prabhupada said: “No harmonium in arati kirtan”, and at the same time spent so much time personally training the missionaries he sent to England in music, and wrote so many letters to Hamsadutta casting the vision of the “World Sankirtan Party”.

At the Sunday Feast here we are developing the first part of the program as something like a musical performance, more akin to a spectator event (no one came and participated anyway, so it’s no loss) and retaining the second final kirtan as interactive dancing and singing with a major emphasis on the participative congregational chanting of the Holy Name.

It’s really important to have that, because that’s what changes people’s hearts. Having the musical aspect helps to get them to come. It’s not a question of one of the other, but both. We need to get people to come, and we need to give them access to the technologies that they need to cleanse the heart.

It’s the same thing with everything that we do. Overemphasizing on one side or the other reduces the effectiveness of our preaching. Overemphasizing “telling it like it is” and “giving it to people straight” helps us end up with an empty room, or at least to miss a lot of our potential audience. Overemphasizing “meeting people where they are at” and “considering their needs and their comfort zone” helps us end up with a room full of people going nowhere.

The art of preaching is to get the balance right. For every story of Srila Prabhupada giving a thunderous denunciation there is another of him taking time to talk about racing cars or some other trivial subject that his audience was interested in.

Adaptive in the field. Conservative at home.
Innovative on the edge, Traditional at the core.

We need both.

-Srila Prabhodananda Sarasvati