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.

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

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.

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

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.

Here’s an mp3 of Sri Prahlad chanting mantras at the recent opening of the Lotus Room in Sydney, Australia.

Here’s a track (Nrsimhadeva .mp3, 6.6MB) from my Jagannatha Reggae album. Jagganatha are a reggae band in Perú. They’re recording their second album at the moment.

I found this this morning while hunting down a CD of Gurudeva’s lectures in mp3 for Alison.

Combine these with this post to get all you need for rockin’ kirtans. Remember what Joe Elliot of Def Leppard said: “Three chords is all you need for a good rock song. Anything more than three chords is jazz, and jazz blows!“

This morning Vrajadhama spent some time producing the first part of the Basic Kirtans booklet. There are 13 tracks on the CD, and Vraj has partially annotated the first 6 Tracks. At the moment the basic chords are there so you can play along with bass, guitar, harmonium, accordion, or whatever. Eventually we’ll put the melody notes in as well (they go on the bottom line, under the mantra).

I originally devised this system to be used with the sa-ga-re-ma (sargam) Indian system of musical notation, because it’s key agnostic, which means that with one song sheet you can do the kirtan in any key. However, in the interests of a shallower learning curve we’ve released this one using the Western C-D-E type system of notation.

These kirtans are simple three chord melodies ala Harer Nama Volume 1 by Sri Prahlad et al.

Here are the tracks from the Basic Kirtans 1 CD:

Track 1: Tuning notes
Track 2: Intro 1
Track 3: Mantra 1
Track 4: Mantra 2
Track 5: Mantra 3
Track 6: Mantra 4
Track 7: Mantra 5
Track 8: Mantra 6 (double time)
Track 9: Mantra 7 (double time)
Track 10: Mantra 8
Track 11: Intro 2
Track 12: Mantra 9
Track 13: Mantra 10

And here is the accompanying booklet, in .xls form:

Basic Kirtans 1 Tracks 1-6

You’ll also want these chord diagrams for harmonium:

Chord Diagrams

Enjoy!

Beautiful Vrndavana is filled with cintamani gems and many jewel palaces and temples. Many regal swans play in the waters of the Yamuna, and in those waters a splendid golden lotus flower grows.

In the middle of that lotus is a golden place surrounded by eight petals. On these eight petals the eight principal gopis reside, and in the centre Lord Syamasundara and beautiful Srimati Radharani sit on a jewel throne.

The great beauty of the Divine couple and Their charming joking and laughter continually showers nectar everywhere. Narottama dasa says: I pray that these blissful eternal transcendental pastimes of the Divine Couple may be always manifest in my heart.

——————-
This song, written by Narottama das Thakura and included in his Prarthana, was given to His Holiness Visnujana Maharaja by Srila Prabhupada with the request that he write a melody for it. Visnujana Swami returned the next day with a melody that pleased Srila Prabhupada. I could not find a recording of this anywhere, but lived in great desire to hear this song. One day while living near the temple in Lima a melody came to me, and I recorded it.

His Holiness Visnujana Swami worshipped the deities of Sri Sri Radha Damodara that preside over Gita-Nagari, the holy dhama where Bhakti Tirtha Swami recently left his body. They are pictured above in a photo taken in 2004. Today I listened to Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s last public lecture, where he stated that he was retiring from active preaching and administration and would concentrate only on Vrndavan and hearing of Vrndavan.

So all these things made me think of this song today. Here is an mp3 (7.7 MB) of the recording that I made of it.

Here is a kirtan (21MB, 23 min., 128kbps) from tonight’s Sunday Feast in Brisbane, Australia.

I tried to record it on my mp3 recorder using the stereo mic and compressor from the minidisc. Unfortunately because my mp3 remote control has been returned for warranty replacement I couldn’t see what it was set to, and it recorded using the internal mic. Still, it sounds ok.

Here are the credits:

Accordion and lead vocal: Sita-pati das (yours truly)
Backing vocal and tamborine: Param Satya devi dasi
Bass: Vrajadhama das
Drums: Greg
Mrdanga: Krishnapada das

The kirtan will be familiar to anyone who has Sri Prahlad’s Harer Nama Volume One. We are not interested in doing something new and different, merely becoming a fiel transmitter. Unavoidably something unique will manifest in the course of doing that. After all, we are all individuals, eternally.

Usually I play this one in the key of F when we’re on the street without amplification. In order to make it easier for everyone to sing we did it in the key of D, which is below my optimal range, but still possible when I have a microphone. I used my ART Tube MP valve (12ax7 - yeah baby!) microphone preamp and Vraja’s Audix OM-5 mic.

Since Vraj and I have been playing together for the past 13 years it doesn’t take much for us to pull something together. A run through last night and this morning was enough to get this one together.

Svetadvipa das and his fiancee Manjalali came up for the day from Sydney. It was good to see Sveta again after four and a half years.

Here’s my valve preamp:

Here’s my accordion, which I bought in Lima, Peru, second hand for US$200.

OK, the file upload has finished, so I’ll stop typing now and publish. Enjoy!

Here’s an mp3 (11MB, 12′25″) of a bhajan on Sunday night. There were more kirtans and bhajans, but the recorder was overdriving. Next time I will use my MZ-R50 minidisc recorder, which has a built-in compressor, along with the stereo mic. That way I can get a stereo recording with compression, which means volume level normalization - the quiet parts come out a little louder, and the loud parts come out quieter, so that it all fits, rather than be real quiet at the beginning and distorted at the end.

I’ll run the minidisc line out into the line in of the JNC SSF M3 mp3 recorder, and record using the line in encoder. This will allow me to get a 256kbps mp3 on the fly, in stereo and with compression. Booyakasha! =)