English Renditions

Damodarastakam - Sanskrit and English

Submitted by sitapati on Wed, 2011-10-12 11:16

Word!

Damodarastakam in Sanskrit with English rendition by Krishna Dharma prabhu.

We are singing it this Saturday at the Damodara program, so I'll try to get you a more up-to-date recording. This one is from 2009 - but the Kindle and pdf versions of the words are fresh.

(1)
namamisvaram sac-cid-ananda-rupam
lasat-kundalam gokule bhrajamanam
yasoda-bhiyolukhalad dhavamanam
paramrstam atyantato drutya gopya

I bow down to Damodara, the form of full joy,
eternity and wisdom, within Vrindavan.
Whose shining earrings swung as he so swiftly ran
from mother Yashoda who caught that naughty boy.

(2)
rudantam muhur netra-yugmam mrjantam
karambhoja-yugmena satanka-netram
muhuh svasa-kampa-trirekhanka-kantha-
sthita-graivam damodaram bhakti-baddham

Captured by Yashoda, crying repeatedly,
he rubs his reddish eyes with his trembling hands.
On his conchlike neck his necklace shakes as he pants.
I bow down to Damodara, bound but by bhakti

(3)
itidrk sva-lilabhir ananda-kunde
sva-ghosam nimajjantam akhyapayantam
tadiyesita-jnesu bhaktair jitatvam
punah prematas tam satavrtti vande

Thus bathing Gokula in a great lake of bliss;
he shows love defeats him, devoid of reverence.
Conquered only by those in complete confidence,
I offer him unlimited loving praises.

(4)
varam deva moksam na moksavadhim va
na canyam vrne ‘ham varesad apiha
idam te vapur natha gopala-balam
sada me manasy avirastam kim anyaih

I beg not from you Lord, who can grant any boon,
even liberation or life in your abode.
Let memories of Gopala be ever bestowed,
for what other favour offers such great fortune?

(5)
idam te mukhambhojam atyanta-nilair
vrtam kuntalaih snigdha-raktais ca gopya
muhus cumbitam bimba-raktadharam me
manasy avirastam alam laksa-labhaih

Your dark, crimson hued curls encircle your face,
lovely like a lotus, with lips of ruby red;
kissed by Yashoda; within my mind be seated.
A billion other boons could not grant such grace

(6)
namo deva damodarananta visno
prasida prabho duhkha-jalabdhi-magnam
krpa-drsti-vrstyati-dinam batanu
grhanesa mam ajnam edhy aksi-drsyah

O Damodara, Ananta, O almighty Vishnu,
I fall down prostrate, pray be pleased upon me.
Blinded and sinking in a sea of misery,
grace me with your glance that I shall ever see you.

(7)
kuveratmajau baddha-murtyaiva yadvat
tvaya mocitau bhakti-bhajau krtau ca
tatha prema-bhaktim svakam me prayaccha
na mokse graho me ’sti damodareha

Dear Damodara, the sons of Kuvera you saved,
while a baby, by breaking the trees they became.
As you granted them prema, pray grant me the same,
I want not salvation, your love alone I crave.

(8)
namas te ’stu damne sphurad-dipti-dhamne
tvadiyodarayatha visvasya dhamne
namo radhikayai tvadiya-priyayai
namo ‘nanta-lilaya devaya tubhyam

I bow down to the bright rope that binds your belly,
within which the cosmos is completely contained.
To your beloved Radha I bow yet again,
and to you the hero who plays wonderfully.

Gaura Vani: You've got a friend

Submitted by sitapati on Tue, 2011-02-15 13:27

In each of the Australian cities they've visited on this tour, Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits have held a kirtan workshop for local musicians, artists, and kirtan singers. In Melbourne, the rehearsal for the Ratha Yatra festival finale functioned in the same way.

Here is the end of the song on the night:

Sri Chaitanya and James Taylor: You've got a friend

Submitted by sitapati on Wed, 2011-02-09 03:38

Last night Gaura Vani sang a version of James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend".

Introducing it, he explained that Sri Caitanya, the 15th century inaugurator of the bhakti kirtan movement, had brought sacred music into the street and public life. In this way he spiritualised the world by bringing the sacred into the mundane. With merging this song of James Taylor with the maha-mantra, Gaura explained that he was doing the same thing, in reverse: spiritualising the mundane by bringing it in touch with the sacred.

Actually, there is precedent for this in the life of Sri Caitanya.

During the Ratha Yatra festival, a once-a-year public procession of the Deities who are otherwise kept in an exclusive temple, Sri Caitanya recited a verse in ecstasy:

"That very personality who stole away my heart during my youth is now again my master. These are the same moonlit nights of the month of Caitra. The same fragrance of mālatī flowers is there, and the same sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same lover, yet still my mind is not happy here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Revā under the Vetasī tree. That is my desire."

- Caitanya-caritamrita Madhya-lila 1.58

This verse is actually a verse 2.272 in the Rasarnava Sudhakara, a treatise on Sanskrit drama and poetry written by Simhabhupal.

Rupa Goswami understood the meaning of this in the context of Sri Caitanya's inner mood, and he composed a further verse to explain it within the context of Sri Caitanya's transcendental ecstasy.

So this is a precedent, or parallel, in the life of Sri Caitanya for seeing Vrindavan everywhere, even in contemporary secular arts, and for bridging the gap between the two.

Of course, the traditional Sanskrit arts are never far away from transcendental topics to begin with. And some contemporary Western arts are easy to harmonise than others. This song by James Taylor seems like an especially low-hanging fruit for such an endeavour.

As Srila Prabhupada liked to say: "Just add Krishna".

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Mrgari the Musical

Submitted by sitapati on Wed, 2010-10-20 03:04

In 2000, while living in Wellington, New Zealand, I had the idea for a musical based on the story of Mrgari the hunter.

In a feverish state of inspiration I wrote and recorded it in three nights, we rehearsed it over two days, then performed it on a Sunday at our Krishnafest.

We had a live band, lead by Mahavan, performing the music, and the actors delivered their lines and sang the musical numbers.

Before leaving Wellington in 2001 I did a more elaborate recording of the final number of the production "The Touch of a Saint".

While shifting house today I found a copy of the "Touch of a Saint EP" and ripped it to mp3.

The first song of the musical "Mrgari the hunter", which introduces Mrgari to the audience, is not on the EP - it's lost to history. The version that we used for this production was stylistically influenced by Chuck Schuldiner, the founder of the band Death.

The second song is "What goes around, comes around". Narada Muni explains to Mrgari that leaving animals half-dead, as he has been doing, will result in karmic reactions.

In the chorus the dead animals on the stage arise and dance around Mrgari, singing "what goes around, comes around".

Wade Aukett, who played Narada Muni in the production sings on this version of the song, which we did at the same time as the Touch of a Saint recording.

What goes around, comes around (mp3, 5.6MB)

The next song is Mrgari's response to this revelation: he has an existential crisis. He now knows that he cannot continue with his livelihood as a hunter, but doesn't know what will become of him.

This is expressed in the song "How will I survive?". I played Mrgari in the production and sang this song. I am singing in this recording of the song which sounds like a post-production demo, due to the presence of bass guitar. The opening piece is heavily influenced by Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime concept album. Probably the whole Mrgari the Musical concept was influenced by that album, actually.

How will I survive? (mp3, 2.9MB)

Narada Muni responds to Mrgari with the song, "Trust in the Lord", which draws its lyrics from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and the Vedic mantra nityo nityanam, cetanas cetananam, eko bahunam yo vividhati kaman. The song ends with Narada Muni introducing the Hare Krishna mantra to Mrgari.

This version is sung by me, and is the original demo version that I recorded at night while my fellow ashram residents were sleeping. You can hear me trying to be quiet while singing and playing guitar. The original demo tracks were recorded using Acid Loops 1 through the built-in soundcard of a Dell Pentium.

Trust in the Lord (mp3, 3.4MB)

The backing vocals are out of tune (it was just a demo so that the live musicians would know what to play / sing), but here I used the "ooohh / aaaah" idea that I got from Damien Caine - a musician friend of Vrajadhama and myself. We had recently visited him in Auckland and listened to some of his latest recordings. He is a consumate pop musician. Extremely talented.

The final song in the musical was the duet "The Touch of a Saint", where Narada and Mrgari traded verses, and sang the chorus together.

Narada's first verse was was inspired by the description of the mercy of Lord Caitanya in Caitanya-caritamrita Adi-lila 8.5 ("by the mercy of the saintly person, the lowest can reach to the highest goal") ; and the observation of Angira Muni that Narada Muni is like a "touchstone", a mythical stone that turns lead to gold ("by the mercy of the saintly person, the stone-like heart can turn to gold").

The next two verses, which belong to Narada and Mrgari respectively, are a direct translation into English of the first two verses of Bhaja hure mana, a Sanskrit song by Govinda das Kaviraja.

This recording was the one that I poured a lot of energy into. Wade, who played Narada Muni, sings Narada's first verse. Mahalaxmi dd, who went on to sing in the LA Temple Bhajan Band, sings Narada's second verse. Mrgari's verse is then sung by Wade.

I played all the instruments on this recording, including a 12-string guitar that belonged to my fellow ashram inmate Svetadvipa, who now plays guitar in Sri Prahlad's Bhakti Bhajan band. Backing vocals were provided by a bunch of different people, including a real low voice by Mangala Vaisnava, and real high voices from Krishnaloka (and I think Guru Vani). The recording was done using Vrajadhama's Korg D16 multitrack recorder.

Touch of a Saint (mp3, 7.8MB)

If I had the source tracks for this I would cut the first chorus to a single repeat, then change from half-time to single time underneath the breakdown, ala A-ha's Take on Me (did you ever notice that?).

There was a Spanish-language version of the musical ("El Toque de un Santo") that we recorded and performed in Peru. For that one I rented a rehearsal studio with a Marshall stack in it and used that for the Mrgari the hunter song, which was inspired by a live Judas Priest album that I was listening to at the time. I can't find a copy of that, maybe it will show up one day.

The last song on the EP (it's the third track, but conceptually the last one), is a song that we did for another musical - The Lifting of Govardhan hill. We sang this song (Maha-mantra + "Govardhan, Govardhan, Krishna's lifting you high - now we're safe and dry") on the night as we danced around a Govardhana Hill that was built by Triyuga while he was working on the Lord of the Rings films as a set piece and minatures builder. When he brought it up the stairs I swear it looked like a meteorite that he had dug up out of the ground.

This recording features different singers who were at Gaura Yoga at the time on each of the mantras. The first is Krishnaloka; the second is Wade; the third is a lady whose name escapes me now - she went to the UK; Krishnaloka returns for the fourth repetition; Param Satya sings after the first chorus; then Wade; then Guru Vani; then our mystery lady - whose name is on the tip of my tongue.

This was my swansong at Gaura Yoga in Wellington ("the Loft" at the time), and I wanted to capture the mood and personalities of the time.

The beat was supplied by Vrajadhama's Korg Electribe ES-1, which I was playing with at the time. Stylistically the song had a "round" type chorus, where the last word overlaps the first word of the next chorus, and a key change at the end.

Govardhan (mp3, 7.6MB)

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O My Mind

Submitted by sitapati on Thu, 2008-08-14 00:23

Bhaja hure mana in English.

It's starting to come together for Janmastami, where we will be playing.

I will work on my singing over this next week. I don't have a lot of natural talent so I have to work hard to get my voice to hit the notes. A week of practice will make it a lot better.

To get things to this point I've been putting more of my available energy into getting the band together than my own musical performance. This week the focus changes.

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Fresh Soundz

Submitted by sitapati on Mon, 2008-07-14 00:02

Here are a couple of demo tracks for you. These are the scratch tracks I give to the other members of my band (which still doesn't have a name - suggestions welcome). They then use the track to learn the tracks before we get together to rehearse them.

The vocal track is just a guide and is done in one take, after I've recorded everything else. I will eventually get around to doing proper recordings. In the meantime, you'll have to be satisfied with these scratch tracks.

Mantra funk - (.mp3, 9.5MB, 10 min) I show some love to Jamiroquai and James Brown. I've been getting into playing bass lately. This one has a guide drum track from my workstation. Luke, our drummer, cut his arm in an accident and is out of action for another two months.
O My Mind (.mp3, 6 MB, 6 mins) - An english rendition of Govinda das Kaviraja's "Bhaja hure mana". I do this is practically every program where I get to sing, so the peeps are quite familiar with it. It's nice to hear people singing along with this live. In this recording, made last night, Prahlad sings backing vocals.

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Hare Krishna Christmas Carols

Submitted by sitapati on Wed, 2008-01-02 07:42

Here is a Hare Krishna Christmas Carol for y'all, from our pre-Christmas Climate Change Harinam in Ashgrove, Brisbane, Australia:

Here's a shot of the harinam team from the day:

The sun is right in my eyes in this shot. When we're on harinam it's much better if people can see our eyes, but moments like these I can appreciate why devotees wear sunglasses.

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Krishna Dharma's Damodarastakam - Reference Recording

Submitted by sitapati on Thu, 2007-11-01 05:32

There has been a proliferation of English versions of Damodarastakam over the past couple of weeks - a veritable plethora of versions have popped out of the woodwork.

I'm personally going with Krishna Dharma prabhu's version at the moment. As I promised earlier, here is a recording of it, made at a recent Sunday Feast.

It's 24 minutes long. If you just listen to the music then it will be boring. If you get into the subject matter it's a different experience.

We didn't try anything dynamic when we played it. Since we were recording it as a reference version I didn't want to take any risks.

At home daily we are singing it straight through, no call-and-response, and this cuts it down to 12 - 15 minutes.

Download Krishna Dharma's Damodarastakam (English rendition) 11MB, 24 minutes, .mp3

There's Krishna Dharma prabhu to the left (click on him to go to his site), and here are the lyrics to the song: