Went to Govindas in Darlinghurst, Sydney last night for some Kirtan chanting followed by a vegetarian dinner. The place was packed and raring for some great chanting. Kirtan is call-and-response chanting performed in India’s devotional traditions, it involves chanting mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium and the two-headed drum. Somehow it did not live up to the expectations I had and left me a bit flat.
Kirtan relies on the power and influence of the caller who takes you to a meditative place where the sounds of the mantra, rather than the meaning, take over. He leads you in a way that means you don’t need to think, you just flow along with where he is going. For this to work he needs to be clear and strong so you don’t let your mind get in the way. Once he has established the rhythm and melody he can improvise and vary both to raise the level of excitement and involvement.
Somehow last night this didn’t happen. The callers were from ‘Le Carnaval Spirituel’ (see below) and, I felt, were too interested in performing and showing their virtuosity than truly leading. One of the men was so weak in his leading that it was extremely difficult to work out the rhythm of what he was singing. Part way through the evening drifted away with a rendering of ‘Hare Krishna’ that just went on and on. There really is a lot more to Mantra Chanting than ‘Hare Krishna’.
I found it interesting that the evening was about peace and love and yet when we arrived we were greeted with anything but. We were greeted by a lovely, friendly lady in a tiny lobby. While trying to sort out paying and removing our shoes we were shoved and jostled first by a man who was keen to push past and then by a lady dressed in ‘indian cotton’ who insisted on pushing aggressively past even though there was little room. “But I am already ‘in’” she kept saying. This was a clue to the rest of the evening. It was for those who were ‘in’.
Three of the world’s most popular Kirtan performers will be taking part in the show. Indradyumna Swami, an enigmatic traveling monk who founded Le Carnaval Spirituel in Paris, France in 1979, has been circling the globe performing kirtan for over three decades, often to Woodstock-like crowds and has performed for many world leaders like Nelson Mandela. New Zealand-born Sri Prahlad catapulted to fame as a child prodigy in the late 1980s when his debut album “Through the Eyes of a Child” topped the Australian and world music charts. Since then his evolving distinctive style of Kirtan has brought him the love of audiences worldwide. Tribhuvaneshvar, affectionately known as Tribi, has enchanted music connoisseurs with his soft, melodious European style Kirtan.
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