I have written this specifically for Sampradaya Sun, as I know there are many devotees including myself who feel ISCKON has changed so much and in many cases from the original teachings of His Divine Grace. Like everything else, the Harinama Sankirtana is also in danger, due to the influence of Kali yuga. Often you have to think -- would I do that in front of Srila Prabhupada?
The main deviation to Harinama is that devotees don't feel inclined to go on Harinama. The weather is bad (I live in England), the public won't like it (the public love it), it's too noisy (make it sound nice), chanting in the temple room is better, more internal (Sankirtan is the highest mellow, the compassion of the Gopis.) The Sankirtan movement started in the house of Srivas Thakur. Then they left and brought it unto the streets and they never went back. Lord Caitanya's movement will always be a street based movement.
Kirtan in the temple room often leads to 'Radhe Radhe' chanting or even changing the maha mantra to Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Shyam Shyam Radhe Radhe. Would you do this in front of Srila Prabhupada?
You can see footage of one famous Ratha Yatra in Australia with Srila Prabhupada. Madhudvisa Swami has organized three devotees playing large bass drums. They were previously drummers in bands, so they could use the drums nicely. This arrangement can work very well provided your sound system is powerful enough. Modern amplification is very advanced these days and with good leisure batteries and inverters, it is possible to power a quality sound system that can deliver the lead singers chanting above the musical arrangements.
Tribhuvanath prabhu, while preaching in Africa, would sometimes hire a group of African drummers, fully dressed in tribal costumes to accompany the kirtan on stage. He was holding festivals even in the slums of Nairobi and this approach works nicely.
Last week in Amsterdam we wore orange hats and distributed orange prasadam sweets due to the importance of orange on that particular day. In London we dressed in green for St Patricks Day, and stole the show with our wild dancing and chanting.
For large festivals I believe there should be a little freedom. For Lord Nrishimhadev's Appearance day we took a Ratha Yatra cart to Oxford street on a Saturday at 1pm, it doesn't get any better than that. We had a group of mridanga players, although I would have preferred a few more drums to fill out the sound. We had one bass player, the bass actually sounds like a drum. I would much prefer this sound rather than a traditional Gaudiya Math kirtan, wompers and drums where you can't hear the singer and they change tune, rhythm and mantra all the time.
My two cents worth is please put the energy into kirtan, get a good sound system, put nice musical arrangement to it and grab every opportunity that comes to bring the Holy Name to the public.
Your servant,
Parasuram das
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