Harinam

Live video chat by Ustream

Taking it to the next level - Melbourne are streaming tonight's harinam live, from 6pm AEST.

Added a switch to the battery pack for the Shure wireless headset mic receiver, just in time for tonight's Harinam. 7pm outside Govindas, downtown Brisbane, Australia, every Friday.

Raivata writes me:

Hmm I reckon you are right and copying a good synthetic design like that. It's a simple and proven design.

On the ahimsa note I reckon it's ok to use animal skin when it comes from pests like goats or possums (pests in NZ anyway). Allowing them to live is simply causing violence to the other life forms they harm. Perhaps you could train up some of the local boys as Kshatriyas and send them out there to bring home a few skins. Good for the environment, good for the sankirtana yajna and a practical step for introducing varnashram.

Ahimsa aside, I am tending to the use of synthetic heads. I used my Balaram mrdanga in the Andes, in the jungle, and in the desert while I was in South America. Sometimes in the same week. You can't do that kind of thing with an animal skin head drum.

I want this drum to be the "AK-47" of mrdangas. Here are the characteristics of the AK-47 that I want it to share:

• Built using large, crude parts - AK-47's are easily maintained even by peasants. Local gunsmiths are able to produce replacement parts using artisanry. This mrdanga should have parts that are easy to replace using standard parts or replacement parts that people can make.
• Strong and durable - AK-47's are legendary for their ability to sustain punishment and neglect and keep firing. They aren't the most accurate of weapons, but they make up for this with volume of sustained firepower over the lifetime of the weapon. My Balaram mrdanga has gone through aircraft cargo holds, bus lockers, and numerous trips in the boot of the car. This is an argument against clay bodies. My Balaram mrdanga may not sound as good as a bonafide Bengali clay mrdanga, but it has outlasted fifty of them in its service lifetime.
• Coming off a factory line at the rate of 180,000 per day - if you don't have a plan to make thousands of mrdangas, you don't really have a plan for making thousands of devotees. This is an argument in favor of using standard pre-fabricated parts (such as Remo heads), and industrial production materials and existing production lines (the logic of the snake and the mousehole)
• On the national flag of a country - the AK-47 played such a crucial role in the liberation of Mozambique that they put it on the national flag. This mrdanga will play such a crucial role in the liberation of modern nations that it will feature on the national flag of several nations.

No one goes into war without a serious plan for industrial production of armaments. It's time to tool national industries for the sankirtan-yajna. It's time to beat our AK-47s into mrdangas, and wage a surgical war on the diseased mentality which is ravaging our communities worldwide.

The first phase is guerilla warfare, the second phase total war.

Param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam!
Total victory of the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord!

Amul from New Jersey, USA writes:

i just saw your video where you put silicon on the mrdanga head. I have a question about that. Does it dry smooth? i am asking because if you want to do the "woop woop" slide on the big side of the mrdanga, if its really rough then it wont be possible. please let me know, i am going to do this because this is such a problem, that black stuff just doesn't stay on sometimes!

Dandavats Amul,

That depends on how you do it, and what you use to do it.

You might need to sculpt the edge, otherwise you'll find it come right off the drum head when you apply force to it laterally, instead of perpendicular to the drum head.

Ratnabhusana prabhu, who makes the Balaram mrdangas in LA, explained to me that he uses glue under the rubber mix that he uses on the Balarama heads, in order to get the rubber to bond more fully to the mylar head.

You might want to experiment with the compound that you use on the drum. I used roofing and sealing silicone. Vraja used some other stuff. There are a lot of compounds out there. Let me know how you get on - you have the lead now!

your servant in Brisbane,
Sita-pati das

Photos and video by Adina-lila dd, who obviously doesn't appear in them! :-)

See what all the fuss is about - H.H. Indradyumna Swami's dancing white elephants. Does sex attraction bring people to Krishna? Clearly yes. (I don't know how many of the young men who come, come because of an attractive young lady they met on sankirtan. Honestly, I've lost count.)

O good soul, does not a thing, applied therapeutically, cure a disease which was caused by that very same thing?

- Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.33

On New Year's Eve we did harinam kirtan in the streets in ecstasy for 4 1/2 hours. Now you can experience the ecstasy in just 20 minutes with this highlights video.

See a drunk guy ready to beat down on Sita-pati getting pulled off by the cops: "Got a problem mate?"

See all kinds of people, from young Australians, Sikhs, Bollywood wannabes, through to older gentlemen and ladies dancing in ecstasy to the chanting of the Holy Names!

The video culminates in the midnight fireworks display over the Brisbane river as the devotees chant and dance to bring in the new year.

[This harinam would have brought about the complete destruction of Western civilization and possible dissolution of the universe if we had: Prem Yogi with some whompers, Vrajadhama with the djembe, and a conch shell!]

A highlight from the harinam in Melbourne on our recent trip. Shot and edited by Vrajadhama.

I fixed Vrajadhama's accordion today. Here's a video of the internals of the accordion and a brief explanation of the problem that we fixed.

While we're on the subject of microphones and amplification, Ekendra prabhu published some relevant quotes the other day, including this one:

Haridāsa said, “You all know the glories of Lord Hari’s holy names. Therefore I have simply repeated and will repeat whatever I have heard from you. If one chants loudly, he gets one hundred times more benefit. The scriptures never condemn loud chanting, rather they glorify it. ‘If one loudly chants the holy names of the Lord, he obtains one hundred times more benefit than by chanting softly or remembering the holy names.’”