His Kīrtana is Only for Bhagavan's Pleasure

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When Gurudeva does kīrtana during parikramā, he infuses energy in all and unites all who disburse here and there due to tiredness and depletion of energy. Satyānanda prabhu used to lead kīrtanas during parikramā, but once Param Gurudeva told him to give the microphone to our Gurudeva. Then Gurudeva did such a nice kīrtana.  Param Gurudeva said, "See, it is as if this kīrtana is coming down from Vaikunta— see the difference here; it attracts the hearts."


Gurudeva used to give the example of Tansen, a classical Hindustani singer. When Tansen sang megha mallar rāga it would rain, when he sang vasant rāga, the flowers would bloom and the season would change into springtime. When he sang deepak rāga, the lamps would automatically get lit. 


[The famous Mughal Emperor] Akbar Badshah used to say, "You sing so well, I wonder how well your Gurudeva may be singing!”One day he said to Tansen, “Please take me to hear your Gurudeva sing.” Tansen said, "My Gurudeva will sing when he likes to, not by my asking." They went in ordinary dress to Gurudeva Haridas Gosvāmī (in Vṛndāvana) by whose devotion Bāṅke-bihārī deity had appeared.  They were lucky that when they reached Haridas Gosvāmī was singing with closed eyes. They both sat in front of him thanking their good fortune and left the place when Haridas Gosvāmī became absorbed in a trance. Akbar said, "I forgot I was King or that I was Muslim—where my mind went, I do not know."  He told Tansen, “You sing so well, but never I felt like this.” 


Upon return, Akbar could not hold back his joy and told his men that they had been to Vṛndāvana and heard Haridas Gosvāmī's kīrtana. Then he asked Tansen to sing the same kīrtana that they had heard from his Gurudeva to the men of his court. After some time Akbar stopped him by saying, “Enough of your singing. You are not singing like your Gurudeva, it is not the same— it is different.  Why?  There is no feeling.”  Tansen said,  “Please forgive me, My Gurudeva sings to please Bhagavan and I sing to please you all, thus the difference.” Gurudeva used to give this example.


If we do kathā and kīrtana for Bhagavan's pleasure it is like this—it will sit in the heart and if it is done for others’ pleasure, it will be superficial, external. Gurudeva would say, “Our life is for bhajana, it is not for the pleasure of this world and people.


In Agartala during one festival on nagar-sankīrtana, Gurudeva sang. Tushar Kanti Ghosh, the editor of a Magazine called Amrit Bazar, saw and heard Gurudeva doing kīrtana in front of his house.  Gurudeva was singing and dancing while spinning around. The next day he came to meet Gurudeva and said, “I have not heard kīrtana like like this anytime before. You have attracted my heart like anything.”  He was an outsider— not a devotee, but he was also attracted.  Gurudeva's kīrtana attracts all.


—Śrīla Bhakti Kuśala Padmanābha Mahārāj


Translated from harikathā spoken in October 2013, Mathura




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