Here’s a funkin’ mix by DJ Vraj, hot off the press. Dhruva had some CDs of it at Janmastami, and I got a rip.

It’s 28 minutes long, and is a mix from Vraj’s record collection. Neither of us can remember all of the artists who got mixed up in there. The first track (Gaya Goura Madhu Sware) is a devotee from South America. The “Hari Haraye Namah Krishna” track is a nationally acclaimed musician from Venezuela. There is a track from Sridhama das in NZ in there, and the last track is from DJ Vraj’s last album “Anti-materia”.

I’m not sure where the others come from. If you can identify a track, then please leave a comment.

Here it is:

DJ Vraj Mix Janmastami 2006 MP3 (40MB 28:49)
DJ Vraj Mix Janmastami 2006 OGG (31MB 28:49)

A note on the difference between ogg and mp3:

You should use ogg if at all able to. Ogg is a free format - mp3 is a patent encumbered format. Iriver and IAudio media players play ogg format files. Ipod players do not play this format (you are forced to use mp3). A practical consequence of mp3’s patent encumbrance is that any devotees who wish to sell their music online using mp3 must pay a royalty to the patent holder. There is no such charge for the ogg format, which is also technically superior to mp3.

You can check out Vraj’s album Rise and Shine (released a few years ago now) on Amazon.

Here is the latest evolution of my thinking: a talk that I gave at the Saturday night program at the temple last night. I didn’t have time to structure it, so it’s a little loose. The presentation doesn’t have much preparation, but the content basically represents the realization that is the outcome of my activities so far.

Download Spiritual Family (mp3, 14MB)

O My Mind
Bhaja hure Mana
by Govinda das Kaviraja

O my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless

Having obtained this very rare form of human birth, please make sure you realize its true worth
Taking shelter of saintly persons to cross over this material ocean

O my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless

Day and night I am burning from heat, freezing from the cold - not realizing the spirit soul
Wasting my time in work for a miserly man, to fulfil his miserly plan for happiness that flickers like a candle

O my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless

Health and wealth, friends and family - of what use to me are all of these, ultimately?
This life is fleeting, uncertain the final hour. Just like a drop of water sitting on the lotus flower

O my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless

Hearing and chanting, remembering and praying, offering service and submissively obeying, worshiping a dear friend, offering everything - this song of Govinda dasa from my heart I sing

O my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless

Download: O My Mind (mp3, 19MB) Brisbane Sunday Feast

We missed yesterday, but for today’s listening pleasure - here is a version of Narottama das Thakura’s song recently made famous by having a melody composed by Srila Visnujana Maharaja at Srila Prabhupada’s request.

Vasanti Rasa - Aditi Dukha das (10.5MB, .mp3)

(note: this is not the melody that H.H. Visnujana Swami composed, it’s a different one)

Enjoy!

On my playlist at the moment are the sweet bhajans and kirtans of Aditi Dukha das. One a day, for your listening pleasure:

Parama Karuna - Aditi Dukha das (18M, .mp3)

You can also listen to some powerful kirtans by the meister here.

This is where the real nectar and satisfaction in life is:

Kirtan - Sunday Feast Prasadam Melody

This is a recording of a melody that we’ve been singing at the Sunday feast during dinner. It’s a nice soothing one that you sing for a long time and build up and calm down. It came about during one soundcheck when Elliott played the standard part of the melody, and then went on to play another, different kirtan, which has a melody like the one that this kirtan starts with. I still had the first chord progression in my head and I ran out of the kitchen and mashed them up to create this kirtan.

This recording is from the morning program this morning at Red Hill. It’s clipped as the recording level was too high on the device, but it’s still listenable.

Enjoy!

Straiht Wikid Crew, a one-man project of Hare Krsna rapper Jason Fladlien from Muscatine, IA, has released his debut album “Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1″.

“On ‘Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1′, rapper Jason Fladlien easily exceeds the humorously low expectations that accompany being a Hare Krsna rapper from rural Iowa,” Eric Clark of The Gazette writes.

“Kali Yuga Demolition Vol. 1 has been described as ‘more mack daddy than meditation, more hip hop than Hare Krishna’ by Todd Beemis of Indie-Music.com.

I haven’t heard it, so no comment from me. Original heads up from the Utah Krishna’s site. Word.

Here are a couple of kirtans from Sunday night.

These are two of the kirtans from the beginning of the program.

Vamsidhari’s Varshan melody (Sita-pati das)
Kirtan (Maha-mantra das)

The cartals feature quite prominently in these recordings, but otherwise they’re okay.

Cristian suggested that the tune that Vamsi sang at the Taupo retreat should be a standard at Sunday Feasts, and I agree with that assessment.

With our new stage setup at the Sunday Feast (check out pictures here) there are some issues. Previously we used the small 15W Ashton amplifier that we use on harinam as a fold back monitor. There is nothing worse than not being able to hear the harmonium when you are leading. With the new stage setup there is no room for this, and besides that, in order to turn it up loud enough to be useful, it becomes loud enough for the audience to hear, interfering with the sound levels.

The solution is to get in-ear monitors - something that we’ve known for some time, but have to face up to soon.

You can hear when Mantra changes key in his kirtan that he has trouble locating the note. While the harmonium is audible in the front-of-house mix that the recording comes from, on stage next to the mrdangas and cartals is a different story. Compounding the problem is that he is over-pressurizing the harmonium in an attempt to increase the volume onstage, with the result that he is deforming the reeds, pushing them off-key. This is the reason why so many harmoniums, played by enthusiastic amateurs all over the world, are horribly out-of-tune. Over-pressurization.

Indulge me in a brief digression before I return to the subject of in-ear monitors.

I went to buy a harmonium from an Indian gentleman who imported them a number of years ago. (If you’ve heard the story before, bear with me). I sat down in front of one and began to play one of the Vaiyasaki tunes that I had spent so long mastering, eager to display my mastery of the instrument.

I was shut down immediately by the irate gentleman who scolded me: “That’s the problem with you ISKCON devotees - you pump the harmonium with no thought and over pressurize it!”

It was a particularly biting reprimand, and one which I have never forgotten. “Aggressive Grace”, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati would term it.

I read a book on driving, and it explained many things, among which was this: if you are driving up a hill, you may be using too much gas. You can tell by easing up on the pedal until you actually notice the engine revs begin to drop. It is possibly to flood the engine with more petrol than it can use.

After reading this, I practiced it and found that yes, you have to be conscious about the amount of petrol that you feed the engine at a given rev range in a given load situation. The same goes for the harmonium. Overpressurizing the bellows compartment results in long-term pressure loss through leaks, and also puts the harmonium out of tune by deforming the reeds. Overpressurizing will also cause the harmonium to play out of tune as the reeds deform immediately.

And worst of all - it cuts a really, really dumb profile. I never noticed it before, but I can see why that gentleman became irate seeing it.

Anyway, now you know the science - pay more attention. When you practice develop the feel needed for the art of harmonium playing. Back off on the pressure, notice when it needs to be pumped. Feel the pressure in the harmonium. Don’t just pump away mechanically with no real idea of what you are doing or why. Don’t overpressurize.

When I studied with Dr Talochan Singh he taught me to hold the heel of the hand that is pumping the harmonium on the top of the harmonium itself. Don’t have that hand “free swinging” - that’s a recipe for over-pressurization, and besides that it’s incredibly amateurish. We’re not about being “professional kirtaniyas”, but there is nothing wrong with doing things properly.

Anyway, end digression and return to the nectar of in-ear monitors:

The ABC’s of Configuring a Personal Monitor System
Can I use more than one Shure PSM receiver with one PSM transmitter? Yes
Shure Guide to Personal Monitors

ISKCON Communications Europe Leadership Team (ICELT) is holding meetings in Radhadesh, Belgium, April 18 - 22.

I saw the program here, and immediately developed a desire to attend.

As you might know, Communications and Leadership are the two majors of my study. The particular sessions that are going to be held are very interesting for me too. They typically examine the tension between two contradictory considerations.

One thing that you realize when you leave the armchair and start to assume the responsibility of the service of leadership is that theory may be very clear, but the actual implementation is not. There are a large number of contradictory, complementary, and confusing factors. Balancing them all is as much art as it is science, and it requires continual adjustment.

The sessions at the ICELT meetings examine contemporary contradictions in preaching.

A pet one of mine is the emphasis that Srila Prabhupada put on the fact that the Krishna Consciousness movement is not “Hindu”, and the 1996 ISKCON Communications Ministry proclamation that we are. That’s going to be examined on day two in a session entitled: “Am I a Hindu? Yes, no, when it suits me. ”

Obviously I can’t go, but the Lord within the heart knows everything, and by His mercy the ICELT meetings are going to be podcasted live.

Word. I may write summaries of the sessions on here if time allows

Here are some kirtans from Red Hill, from this morning’s program. I’ve left them uploading, so if they’re not working just yet try again in twenty minutes.

Gurvastakam - kirtan (57MB, .mp3)
Nrsimha Pranams (15.6MB, .mp3)

Geoff, check out this post, where Srila Prabhupada talks a little bit about Christianity and Vaisnavism. Anyway, doctrines and “-isms” and “-anities” aside, the truth is the truth.

I found this post again using the archving functionality on ISKCON News.Net. It was on there on the 29th, so I found it at http://www.iskconnews.net/daily/06/03/29/

Here are some lines from “Trust in the Lord” from the Mrgari the Hunter musical that we did. Narada Muni is speaking to Mrgari. He has advised Mrgari to sit on the banks of the river Ganga and worship Tulasi-devi, giving up his work of slaughtering animals. Mrgari has asked how he will survive without working in this way. Narada replies:

Have faith dear brother
Look to the birds in the trees
And to the plants and the trees in the field
Who clothes them?
Who feeds them?
This we should understand.

Amongst all the living beings One reigns supreme
He fulfils the needs and desires of all, so trust in Him my dear fried.
Don’t worry what you’ll eat or wear, simply surrender to the Lord everywhere.
He is both within and without, you can know without doubt, by chanting His Holy Name.

Here is where these lyrics come from:

“Among all the eternal, conscious beings, there is one who supplies the needs of everyone else. The wise souls who worship Him in His abode attain everlasting peace. Others cannot.”

Katha Upanisad 2.2.13

“”Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 6:25 - 34

Srila Prabhupada would preach on this point: “The elephant is eating 50 pounds of food every day, and he is not working. Who is supplying him? That is Krishna.”

“Lord Nrsimha is here and also there. Wherever I go Lord Nrsimha is there. he is within the heart and is outside as well. I surrender to Lord Nrsimha, the origin of all things and the supreme refuge.”

Nrsimha Pranams

One note on this lyric: “Surrender to the Lord everywhere”.

I was a little uncomfortable with this. It rhymes, but it suggests the idea of surrender to an impersonal aspect of the Supreme Being.

In the Introduction to one of his books Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura asks the question: “If Krishna is playing with His friends in Goloka Vrndavan in the spiritual world - how will he hear our prayers?”

He then answers the question by saying: “The Supreme Lord is situated in the heart of every living entity as the Supersoul, or Paramatma, so the in this form, as the Paramatma, He can hear our prayers.

Then it is as if he pauses, to see what our reaction will be. Then he says: “If this answer is satisfying to you, then this book is not for you.”

The meaning of “surrender to the Lord everywhere” in this song is that we should surrender to the Lord at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances.

Oh look, I just found the demo version of the song. This is the version that I recorded in the night after the Loft program, and that we used to learn the songs to perform the musical. From concept to completion it took one week. A few days to write, a few days to practice. One performance, ever.

Anyway, click here to download Trust in the Lord.

Here’s an interesting podcast from the Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMMA) Blog. It’s a conversation with Douglas Atkin. “Centered on belief, the need for belonging, the desire to bear witness, Douglas makes the connection between community values and vibrant brand evangelism.”

Atkin did research into the phenomenon of brand evangelism and word of mouth, and in an effort to understand it he went to the roots of brand cults or communities - yes folks, that means Hare Krishna.

Very interesting listening.

Just woke up unexpectedly, which is unusual. Perhaps some sickness is coming on?

I uploaded the tracks from DJ Vraj’s last album Antimateria, by popular request. Here they are:

Track 1
Track 2
Track 3

Enjoy!

Here is a song by an old friend of mine, Damien “Rena” Tauri. It’s called “Talking Bout My Denigration“, a play on the Who’s “(Talking ‘Bout) My Generation”.

This song was written a number of years ago now, but it reveals Rena’s deep compassion. The lyrics to this song came to mind when I wrote recently about popular music as the vehicle for values formation of youth:

The poets of my generation are Cobain and Dre
Is it any wonder that we blow ourselves away?

The compass of my generation changes every day
Is it any wonder that we turn the other way?

The reference there is of course to Nirvana’s lead singer Kurt Cobain, an anti-hero of youth rebellion, who killed himself with a gunshot to his head, and famous rap singer Dr Dre.

After I wrote about the influence of popular music and remembered this song I asked Rena for a copy of it, as I’d misplaced mine. It had been some time and he had also lost his copy of it, but he just found this one and sent it to me.

Our paths have crossed and parted a number of times over the years. The last time we met in person was while Vrajadhama and I were living in Wellington and we dropped by Rena’s place in Auckland (the three of us were in bands together 15 years ago), sometime before we left for Peru, which would have been 2000 or thereabouts.

Rena is a member of the Church of Christ, who are accused by many as being a cult, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in an age where practically speaking “evil is the new good” and anything Godly is considered an aberration, if not an abomination.

Props to the Violet Muse.

This is a song that formed part of the musical production of Mrgari the Hunter that we did at the Loft in Wellington (now Gaura Yoga), back in 2000.

This particular song from that production was the final duet between Mrgari and Narada Muni, with the resurrected animals doing the backing chorus. We did the music and singing live. I was Mrgari and Wade (now an Anglican Youth Pastor) as Narada.

This recording was the final project I did there in Wellington, and it was something of an offering to the devotees that I served with there. Before we left we performed this song at the Palmerston North Multicultural festival. Vrajadhama was at the PA desk with their sound man playing the backing track off the D16, and we were all on stage singing the words. Our performance lasted just six minutes, and afterwards we got two comments: “Was that it? Couldn’t you do some more?” and “Great message - you can’t argue with that”. Those are two reactions that I aim for whenever I present Krishna Consciousness.

In terms of this recording:

• Wade and Mahalaxmi dd (now in New Dwaraka, LA) sing the main vocals.
• Mangala Vaisnava is the really deep voice.
• Sri Yasoda dd is the ethereal voice.
• Yours truly played all the instruments on the recording.
• Svetadvipa let me use his 12-string guitar for it.
• I tuned the guitars down a tone.
• AJ in Wellington contributed a guitar riff in the chorus. (Listen for it in the final chorus section)
• Vrajadhama did the mixing. It was recorded using his Korg D16 digital studio and a single Audix OM-5 microphone.
• It took three - four days to record and mix.
• The only time you hear me sing is the harmony at the end of the bridge “flickers like a candle” - the harmony was AJ’s idea and I had no other vocalists to sing it, so I did it.

As I mentioned in the previous post, if I could redo it I would do the following:

• Make it more like Madonna’s “Die Another Day” with sparse instrumentation, rather than guitar driven folk rock (I wrote it one night after the Loft program, with a guitar).
• Cut the first chorus to one instead of two.
• Halve the bridge (you might recognize the lyrics of this part from Bhaja hure Mana by Govinda das Kaviraja), at least in the radio edit version.
• Reduce the outro to a fade out of the chorus after the bridge.

OK, so here it is:

Touch of a Saint (.ogg, 8MB)

If you need some software to play .ogg files (a free, open standard for audio encoding), get some from Vorbis.com

Here is the latest Urban Missionary Podcast. It’s just another one of my stream of consciousness monologues on the way to work, but I have edited it up a little bit to make it a bit more professional. The next one will be more of the style that I want to do, like a magazine.

It’s a fact that shorter presentations require more preparation. This one goes for about 36 minutes. If I had time to prepare for this I could have communicated the same information in less time. I recorded this on the way to work on Tuesday morning. In this edition I cover the “Sandwich Concept” - a new paradigm for a strategic approach to urban outreach, the new Atma Yoga center in Brisbane, and some of the lessons learned from the shift, and Atmananda’s Atma Yoga program, which we are now a part of.

Anyway, here it is:

Urban Missionary Podcast 2006 / 03 / 03 (.mp3, 36 minutes, 17MB)

Here are links to the resources mentioned in this podcast:

• Super Sunday Series - articles by Kaunteya das on the Sunday Feast
• The Cell Church - book by Larry Stockstill
• Bhaktivrksa Manual (free registration required)
• Dr Yonggi Cho’s Church in South Korea - the largest church in the world with 800,000 members in cell groups
• Atma Yoga Brisbane - Some photos of our new facility in Brisbane
• Atma Yoga (US) - Atmananda das’ Atma Yoga Teacher Training Program

Here is the first in our four week series on “The One Thing You Need to Know” - a powerful principle that enables you to deal with any situation with competence and confidence.

Now before I give you the link, I have to say this: I did not know that we would be moving on a new facility right now. I had planned to put all my energy into preparing for this series. I had meetings scheduled with other preachers to discuss the subject matter and do team preparation. Instead all those plans were thrown into disarray, and I spent the week trying to land the new digs.

So I didn’t actually get any time to do any preparation. I worked six days last week, and on my morning off (Sunday) I did the handout - an important communication to allay certain concerns that people had about the move.

So my preparation consisted, literally, of sitting down at the front of the Sunday feast at 3.30 pm on Sunday and hammering out some slides on Bhakticandrika’s computer to try to get a structure together, and then praying to Krishna.

I wanted so much to take shelter of sleep. I just wanted to go to sleep right there and then, and then just get up early the next day for a fresh start chanting the maha-mantra. But of course I couldn’t, so I had no choice but to surrender.

I stood up with absolutely no opening, a bare minimum of a structure, and no illustrations for my points. You can hear me riff off Vraja’s introduction as my opening, and then tell people they are not the body.

Anyway, because Krishna is God, I did my duty and He contributed something of value. If I could do that again I would like to have a story that runs through it, illustrating the points. I didn’t have time to find one. No time to think. Anyway, Krishna preserves what we have, and carries what we lack.

Here it is:

The One Thing You Need to Know 1 (16MB .mp3)
Slideset (including opening bhajans) (3.3MB .ppt)
Sunday Feast Handout (768k, .pdf)

Here are some slide presentations. I made and delivered these slide presentations with OpenOffice.org, a free open source office suite for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download a free copy now and liberate yourself from Microsoft’s tyranny.

The first one is the presentation that I used to pitch the new facility. I made it on Sunday morning, and gave it for the first time Sunday evening. I then gave it to everyone I met for the next few days.

New Facility Presentation
Slides for OpenOffice.org (20 MB)
Slides for Powerpoint (20 MB)

The second one is the blatant recruiting pitch that I delivered thinly disguised as a report on our activities in Brisbane, at the recent retreat in Taupo, New Zealand 253 slides in under 20 minutes. I’d just put the finishing touches on the presentation the night before so I flubbed it a bit at the end (most people probably wouldn’t notice), but otherwise it went quite well.

Sita-pati’s Report on Preaching in Brisbane
Slides for Powerpoint (92 MB)
Slides for OpenOffice.org (92 MB)
Audio Recording in Ogg Vorbis (10 MB)
Audio Recording in mp3 (10 MB)

I was going to make it into a movie that can play automatically, such as a compressed flash movie, but I haven’t got the skillz or the time. If someone else could do that, that would r0ck! The purpose of this presentation was to inform, entertain, and inspire, as well as allowing me to showcase some of the techniques of slide presentation that we have picked up over 2005.

Sukanthi Radha, our resident photographer, gave a slide presentation this morning at Red Hill and it rocked. She is going to work on it a little more, and then deliver it at the Sunday Feast. After that I’ll put it up along with the recorded audio. Seriously - it’s way better than any of mine so far.

This is Sriman Vamsidhari das, whose kirtan from the Taupo retreat I posted the other day. That kirtan is the number one download from the site so far this month with 59 downloads as of yesterday.

There is a photo gallery online of the Taupo retreat now. Check it out.

Update: a day later it’s at 84 downloads and counting.

Totally recommend Tim and Tony’s Simply Strategic podcast. I have two of their books - Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering people for ministry [1], and Simply Strategic Stuff: Help for leaders drowning in the details of running a church [2].

I’m recommending it for the content. The presentation format is also good, and representative of the potential of podcasting.