Here is a recording of Madhava singing the "Swiss melody" kirtan, recorded at Sydney temple just after the 24 kirtan ended. It was recorded on a Zoom H4n using the internal mics and a mix from the desk.

• Madhava - Swiss Melody

Courtesy of Naveen from Canberra, here is a recording of my kirtan from the Sydney 24 hour kirtan, featuring Madhava on mrdanga. The melody is Madhava's - the first kirtan of his that I ever heard.

• Sitapati at 24 hour kirtan in Sydney

Madhava in the Sydney temple after the 24 hour kirtan

Here is a kirtan for you to download and listen to. It's Tribhuvanesa singing, with Madhava playing Vraj's new naal. The Sydney book distributors invited Madhava and his band around for lunch. Before we got started on the curd steaks, home made bread, salads and gulab jamuns that Stambha Bhava and Oliver had prepared we did a little kirtan.

• Kirtan before lunch with Tribhi

Enjoy!

Technical details: the kirtan was recorded using the two built-in mics on a Zoom H4n straight to a 128k mp3.

Great support from temple president Varanayaka prabhu and temple manager Nitya Mangala prabhu for this program - including putting on a special breakfast on Sunday (pizza, pasta, lasagne, and cake!). Great sound system with two foldback monitors, 500W per side main system, 12 channel mixing desk. Great kirtaniyas including Sri Prahlada, Madhava, and Naveen and the boys from Canberra (who rocked it Sunday afternoon). Great community who chanted and danced late into the night, bringing the 24 hour kirtan in Sydney to 31 hours, topping New Govardhana's last week by an extra hour!

Brothers in kirtan, Madhava and Sri Prahlad.

Krishnapada, laying down some ska on the guitar.

Foot on the monitor, Iron Maiden style!

Tina Hirani in ecstasy.

Bachhu Krishna in kirtan bhava.

Madhava's "Yoga is Music" 2010 Tour of Australia is going well. We've done several kirtans at yoga schools and community centres, as well as two 24 hour kirtans.

This is my custom J-bass. The body is made from swamp ash, and it really sings. You can see my tuner on the headstock. It works on the vibration of the body, so I can tune the bass between each song just by turning the volume down and watching the backlit digital readout. Awesome - Krishnapada and I picked a couple up in Byron Bay for $25 a piece. Krishnapada is playing guitar on this tour.

These are our "whompers", made from a pair of Sabian 16" thin crash cymbals. It's an awesome package of sweetness and power in the capable hands of Prema Yogi, who is our cymbals and percussion man.

Here's a shot of Madhava with some of the band at our recent concert at Body Mind Life Yoga in Sydney.

This is a blurry shot of my playing bass. You can see Vrajadhama behind me. Vraj is the second mrdanga player, engineer, and cameraman for the tour. Janardana is handling first mrdanga.

We're doing a concert in the Sydney ISKCON temple in an hour. You can listen to the live stream here. Follow the link on that page to get to the stream.

We'll be in Melbourne next weekend. We're doing a concert at Prana House, at Urban Yoga, and a 12 hour kirtan at the Melbourne ISKCON temple.

These photos are courtesy of Varanayaka, temple president of ISKCON Sydney, who came to the kirtan at BML Yoga, and has been a big supporter of both Madhava's tour and promoting kirtan in Australia. The photos are downloaded from his facebook page.

Check out the live broadcast here: www.worldsankirtan.net:8000/kirtanradio.m3u.

Current Time in Sydney:

Time Slots Singer

Saturday
5-5.30 pm Tina
5.30-6 pm Kartik
6-7 pm Sri Prahlada Das
7-7.30 pm Kishore Mohan
7.30 - 10pm Madhava Das
10-12 am Sri Prahlada Das

Sunday
12-1 am Bacchu
1-2 am Kartik
2-2.30 am Vrajnath Krsna Das
2.30-3 am Umesh, Jalaj
3-4 am Jitendriya, Harsh, Adi Adri
4-4.30 am Mohit, teja, Nitin
4.30- 5.15 Vara Nayaka Pr.
5.15 - 7.15 am Japa
7.15- 7.30 am Dities Greeting
7.20 - 7.45 am Guru Puja (Tirtha)
7.45 - 8.15 Sri Prabhupada Class on Holy name
8.15- 10.00 am Madhava Das
10-10.30 am Karunamaya
10.30-11 pm Hari Chaitanya
11-11.30 am Sunder Nanda Prabhu
11.30 - 12 pm Krishna Pada
12-12.30 pm Sita Pati
12.30-1 pm Vraja Dhama
1.00- 1.30pm Prema Yogi
1.30-2 pm Raga Manjari
2-2.30 pm Rajan Sharma
2.30-3 pm Dhruv Sharma
3-3.30 pm Kishori Mohan
3.30-4 pm Vijay Gauranga
4-4.30 pm Pavitram
4.30- 5 pm Bacchu
5-5.30 Kartik
5.30-6pm Tina
6-7 pm Sri Prahlada Das
7-7.30 pm Gaura Arati ( Tirtha)
7.30- till late Madhava Das

Check out the live broadcast here: www.worldsankirtan.net:8000/kirtanradio.m3u.

Just sayin'.

#previewcopy #repeatplay #mayapuris

Sankirtan das, in his post Membership?, continues the conversation in response to Kaunteya's post ISKCON Membership - What I wrote to "GBC Discussions".

Sankirtan makes good points and raises good questions.

He makes an argument against the use of citizenship of a country as an analogy for ISKCON membership, and raises the fundamental question: "(W)hy now is there a need to define membership? What is the purpose?"

Without answering that question, it is difficult to really adress the membership issue.

At the risk of going a little off-topic, one area where I think we can work within concretely defined boundaries, and where it is useful to do so, is in the issue of full-time staff of ISKCON. It is easier to define who is a full-time staff member than it is to define who is a member.

Sankirtan asks about the rights and responsibilities of members, and talks about the rights and responsibilities of citizens to show that the citizenship analogy falls down.

On the question of full-time staff members, the analogy with employees of a corporation has more points of congruence than the analogy of citizens of a country to members of ISKCON does.

In the case of a full-time staff member, a person is surrendering their time and energy to the organisation, just as an employee of a corporation does.

Modern labour laws have evolved over time to formalise the reciprocation between the two parties involved in the labour transaction. There is a duty of care on the part of the employer toward the employee. Since the employee is giving their energy to the cause of the employer, the employer becomes responsible for providing reasonable means of subsistence to the employee, and there are legally guaranteed minimums. Many countries also have compulsory superannuation schemes that employers contribute to on behalf of the employees, in order to provide economic support for retirement of the population.

In the case of ISKCON, some people choose to give a few years in their youth as volunteer service. It is easier to define who is a full-time volunteer than the more ambiguous "member". It is even easier to define who is an official staff member, for example a Temple President, a head pujari, a cook, etc. Some of these people will not just give a few years of their life, but a large section, and even most or all of their adult working life.

Modern Western societies have evolved mechanisms, enshrined in labour laws, to deal with issues such as retirement, career advancement, retrenchment, extent and limit of responsibility and duty of care. ISKCON has none of this. One of the problems that comes from this is that career ISKCON staff have no retirement prospects. They have given all their adult life to the organisation, but there is no superannuation. In many cases they are stuck in a position where they need to hold on to the post, and more or less effectively execute it operationally, merely in order to continue subsisting. Hardly an ideal situation, and hardly protection of the elder members of society.

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

I think that full-time volunteer staff should have some money put aside for them in a trust account, and this money should be disbursed when they leave. So a young man enters into the ashram and stays there for two or three years. In that time the organisation draws on his energy, and intelligent managers should put him into play such that he develops personally, and so that his activities benefit the community. If the situation is structured correctly then either through standard economic reciprocation (for example, public buying meals in a restaurant) or through volunteer contribution (for example, congregational donations) the organisation should capitalise on his contribution at the same time. Some of that capital should be stored on his behalf, and given when he leaves.

In this way the organisation discharges its spiritual duty of engaging him in a way that is beneficial for his personal development, and for the spiritual upliftment of society; and the organisation discharges it duty of taking responsibility for his physical maintenance in exchange for his service.

In the case of full-time staff members and what are effectively career professionals such as Temple Presidents and other management staff, there should be a clear economic arrangement that takes into account all of the factors that modern labour laws have evolved to support. It is irresponsible to accept full-time service, especially over years and decades, without having a system in place for the maintenance of the person. Modern labour systems divide whole-life maintenance of the person into portions and make the entity utilising the service of the individual liable for the corresponding portion of that cost.

If you don't encode economic concerns such as this explicitly and clearly, then each person will be left to fend for themselves, and the inevitable result will be that people who are able to seize access to economic resources will hold on to them for dear life. As well, unclear economic arrangements will arise.

In conclusion, two points:

• It is the logic of half a hen to talk about the contribution of a person without considering the economic maintenance of the whole person.
• If there is no legitimate means of economic existence, the only available ones are illegitimate.

Apologies for the lack of editing. Just jotting some thoughts before heading off to the tour rehearsal for Madhava's Australian Kirtan Tour. See you there!

Check out details over at kirtanaustralia.com