Gāner Adhikārī Ke? "Who is Qualified to Sing?"

By Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura

The Impact of Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana

Kīrtanākhyā-bhakti (the devotional practice popularly referred to as kīrtana) is the greatest of the nine types of bhakti. The other eight types of bhakti are achieved only in conjunction with kīrtanākhyā-bhakti. Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana [Kṛṣṇa Himself] cleanses the mirror of the heart of the living entity whose soul is tainted; He extinguishes the massive forest fire of material existence, which is also compared to an ocean; He exudes the healing rays (kalyāṇa-kīraṇa) of supreme spiritual auspiciousness for the living entity; He is the life breath of transcendental experience; He increases the living entities’ bliss of service to Kṛṣṇa; He provides full nectarean relishment at every step; and He achieves the total saturation, or moistening (snigdhatā), of the soul. 

Qualification for Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana

This kṛṣṇa-kīrtana does not happen artificially. A person who does kīrtana can only be truly capable of singing it if, with his pure, transcendental intelligence, he becomes eager and ready to serve Kṛṣṇa’s divine name. Whenever the singer’s inclinations are constituted of ulterior desires or covered by karma and jñāna, he bids farewell to the limbs of bhakti as he seeks some fruit from kṛṣṇa-kīrtana; that is why Śrī Śrīman Mahāprabhu has imparted one teaching in particular to the living entities:

tṛṇād api sunīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā |

amāninā mānadena kīrttanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ ||

Becoming rid of all types of material ego, regarding himself to be lower than a blade of grass, which is situated on the lowest material platform, becoming endowed with the quality of tolerance like that of a tree, and freeing himself of all types of material ego while conferring respect unto the material egoes of others, the living entity should incessantly sing the name of Kṛṣṇa. If one becomes overcome by mundane ego, considers oneself mundane, considers oneself liable to attack by material objects, becomes greedy to obtain mundane honour, or disrespects the material objects of others, then one cannot sing the supramundane name of Hari at all times.

Disqualification for Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana

One who becomes intoxicated with the glory of his material birth and praises himself, one who gains incomparable wealth and thinks himself rich, one who exerts himself to great lengths in studying the Vedic scriptures and thinks himself a paṇḍita, or one who obtains Cupid-like beauty and becomes conceited with his physical appearance, becomes bewildered with mundane prestige at every step. He can never sing Kṛṣṇa’s name with an honest heart like one who is akiñcana [one who has nothing to give or take on the material plane].

A Person who is Distracted by Melody and Rhythm is Not Qualified to Sing the Holy Name

One who becomes immersed in the beauty of melody, tempo, rhythm, and tone and thereby deprived of relishing the rasa of the holy name itself does not obtain the qualification to sing of Kṛṣṇa either. One who is not characterized by enthusiasm to sing of Kṛṣṇa with utmost honour also cannot become qualified to sing. One who is driven by ulterior motives and demonstrates the conceit of performing nāma-kīrtana for material prestige does not become qualified to sing the holy name. Only one who is indifferent to the mundane, inclined to supramundane service and exclusively absorbed, with a fully honest heart, in singing the holy name—only he is truly adhikārī (worthy) of singing the holy name.