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”
Another bhajan sung at Balaram’s appearance day sung by Ratnavali dasi.
Dallas, TX
2007-08-28
Ratnavali dasi singing Jaya Radhe Jaya Krishna
Balaram’s Appearance day – Abhishek
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”
Abhishek for Krishna Balaram deities. Beautiful bhajan is sung by Ratnavali dasi.
Dallas, TX
2007-08-28
Archive: Tamal Krishna Goswami on the Glories of Jayananda
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I have a few old lecture tapes that I’ve converted to MP3. This is a very nice one about the glories of Jayananda.
Jhulan Yatra
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” We’re celebrating the Jhulan Yatra festival for the next 10 days. The small deities are brought off the altar and all the devotees get a chance to personally serve the Lord by swinging them.
Kirtan is sung by Bhaladev Prabhu.
Dallas, TX
2007-08-24
What recorder to purchase?
Devotees often ask me which audio recorder to purchase to record lectures and bhajans.
I use a Marantz PMD660 which is great, but I usually don’t recommend it. Why? It is a bit bulky compared to the competition and it’s MP3 options are limited to “yes/no”. No adjustable bitrate as far as I can tell. That is fine for me. I do a lot of postprocessing anyway and never record in MP3 format anyway.
Most devotees would prefer a simpler approach. Just record, trim the beginning and end, and publish.
The cheapest solution is to use an MP3 player with voice recorder. There are lots to choose from, but I like the iRiver models. The quality is low compared to professional gear, but still usable.
When looking at professional gear, I looked at the following:
- Zoom H4. This looks like a great recorder. The built-in mics look pretty nice. It has XLR mic inputs which lets you use nice professional microphones with phantom power. The user interface looks pretty bad, and I’ve seen complaints that say it is noisy if you use external mics while on battery power.
- Zoom H2. This is the “baby brother” tot he H4. This looks very nice, though it does lack the ability to use profesional microphones with phantom power. Instead it uses a 1/8″ jack. If you are ok using built-in microphones, this looks like a great, small recorder.
- M-Audio Microtrack. Nice and small. I don’t like the user interface and it lacks XLR jacks. You can use 1/4″ TRS jacks, so you can still use pro gear with it. Like the Zooms there is no easy way to view/adjust the levels. They are buried in the menus somewhere.
- Edirol R-09. This looks like the nicest of the “small” units. Also lacks XLR — uses 1/4″ TRS for external mics.
So, what to use? If you don’t want to use an external mic and want something small, go with the Zoom H2. Otherwise, I’d probably pick up the Edirol R09. I would not get the M-Audio Microtrack because it uses a built-in rechargeable battery rather than AA or AAA. Once it is dead you are done. With the other units, you can swap in some additional batteries and keep going.
Personally, I’m very satisfied with my Marantz recorder, but it isn’t for everyone.
How it is done
I’ve had some people ask me what equipment I use to record these videos.
Video:
Oldest videos were recorded on a Sony Digital-8 camcorder. The more recent videos were recorded with a Sony mini DV camcorder model DCR-HC32. This is a nice small camcorder with decent low-light performance. Not great though. I really should upgrade to a 3CCD camcorder — maybe when a decent AVCD-HD model is released.
Audio: I used to use the built-in mic on the camcorder. It is decent for loud events (kirtans) but not very good for classes.
Audio:
- Marantz PMD-660 — This is a great portable flash based digital recorder. I record at 48khz, 16bit, WAV onto a 4GB card. This gives me 6hrs of recording in stereo. I can extend that by recording in MP3, but since I always postprocess the audio I prefer raw WAV.
- For classes I use two mics. The Audio-Technica Pro70 is a lavalier style mic that I get as close to the speaker as possible. In the temple this might be on the mic stand. At programs, I may even ask the speaker to allow me to clip it on their kurta/shirt. This mic gets very clear audio with very little ambient sound (say from an air conditioner). I also use a boundary mic to attempt to pick up the audience and other ambient sound. There are quite a few out there, I use one that I got a freebie when I purchased the Marantz.
- For Bhajans I use a Stereo Sony ECM-MS957. I just got this, so don’t have much experience with it. So far, it seems to do well in Kirtans and Bhajans. I used it today for recording the Jhulan Yatra kirtan and that sounded great.
Software:
- Scenalyzer is great for firewire video capture and tape indexing.
- Sony Sound Forge 8.0 to convert from Stereo to Mono tracks (when using two mics for lectures). This is probably overkill for just this application. But since I have and use it for other projects, why not. A free alternative would be to use Audacity instead.
- Sony Vegas Video for video editing and audio mixing. You could use other packages like Adobe Premiere. I found Vegas Video to be the easiest to use and quicker overall to use.
- Sonalksis Compressor, EQ, and Gate for Audio processing. Vegas Video comes with built-in equivalents, but I found these plugins to be much easier and more powerful to work with.
Process:
The tricky and time-consuming part. There is a lot of post-processing that needs to be done in order to get everything working together. This is because I’m not just using the audio from the camcorder which is already in sync with the video.
First, (for lectures) the audio track must be converted from one stereo track to two mono tracks. One for each mic. This is so I can mute the boundary mic for the entire video except for when the audience needs to be heard.
Pull in all video and audio assets into Vegas Video.
Group the two mic tracks together so that when you move or trim them, they are done together. Then sync up the audio track to the video track. It is best to find a spot where there is a loud nosie in both tracks. Then, whole zoomed out, roughly line up the two tracks by sliding one or the other. Once it is close, zoom in all the way so you can see the waveforms very clearly. Select a small section around the loud noise and playback in loop mode. You should be able to visually line up the two and then check that they are lined up perfectly by playing it back. You’ll want to check the video preview as well to be sure that looks synced up.
At this point, you can mute the camcorder audio track. It won’t be used anymore. Using the volume envelope, also mute the boundary mike for the whole track. Then find sections of the track where the audience is speaking (questions, etc) and for that section increase the volume using the envelope tool. Don’t bother fine tuning the volume, just put it back to 0db.
Finally, the audio quality needs to be cleaned up. No matter how good the mics are, you’ll have ambient noise that intrudes during quiet portions of the lecture. The audio will also vary quite a bit in loudness depending on how well the speaker stays on center to the mic.
On the master volume control, click on the Audio Plugin button and make sure the plugins are in the order: EQ, Compressor, Gate. This is different than the default, and it works great for me. Do all the work on a portion of the audio that has both the speaker and a significant silent part. You want to minimize the noise in the silent part without impacting the normal sound of the speaker’s voice. In the EQ, you want to chop off the low frequencies and the high frequencies. They will be removed when converting to MP3 anyway, but you might as well do it here as well. Many ambient noises reside in the low and high frequencies as well. If you still hear a strong sound, use the spectral analyzer mode to see if there is a strong sound at a single frequency range. If so, you can adjust the EQ to remove that portion of the audio. Once the noise is minimized it is time to compress (or normalize) the volume. I usually just use the default settings for the compressor and just adjust the limiter to -5db. The last step is to remove as much noise from the silent portions. The noise gate does this. Start out with the “Vocal de-breathe” preset. Then find portions of the audio where the volume is very low but you don’t want silent. This will be where the speaker is mumbling or when someone in the audience is asking a question from way in back. Adjust the threshold so that these portions are not reduced to 0 volume while still having “silent” but noisy sections reduced.
Ok, what about noise reduction? I sometimes use it. This works by sampling the noise in a “silent” section of the audio and then subtracting that noise from the entire track. I’ve found that to remove enough noise to make a difference results in the audio sounding “metalic.” Usually, it is just isn’t worth the trouble. I might use it over a particularly difficult section though.
Thats it. I then render the video and audio and publish.
HH Giriraj Swami Lecture on Chanting Pt 2 of 2
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” Second in a two part series by HH Giriraj Swami. This is a Lecture from the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila, Chapter 16, Text 70-72.
Dallas, TX CC Madhya 16.69: As in the previous year, one of the inhabitants of
Kulina-grama submitted a petition to the Lord, saying, “My Lord, kindly
tell me what my duty is and how I should execute it.”
CC Madhya
16.70: The Lord replied, “You should engage yourself in the service of
the servants of Krsna and always chant the holy name of Krsna. If you
do these two things, you will very soon attain shelter at Krsna’s lotus
feet.”
CC Madhya 16.71: The inhabitant of Kulīna-grama said,
“Please let me know who is actually a Vaisnava and what his symptoms
are.” Understanding his mind, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu smiled and gave
the following reply.
CC Madhya 16.72: “A person who is always
chanting the holy name of the Lord is to be considered a first-class
Vaisnava, and your duty is to serve his lotus feet.”
PURPORT
Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatī Thakura says that any Vaisnava who is
constantly chanting the holy name of the Lord should be considered to
have attained the second platform of Vaisnavism. Such a devotee is
superior to a neophyte Vaisnava who has just learned to chant the holy
name of the Lord. A neophyte devotee simply tries to chant the holy
name, whereas the advanced devotee is accustomed to chanting and takes
pleasure in it. Such an advanced devotee is called a
madhyama-bhagavata, which indicates that he has attained the
intermediate stage between the neophyte and the perfect devotee.
Generally a devotee in the intermediate stage becomes a preacher. A
neophyte devotee or an ordinary person should worship the
madhyama-bhagavata, who is a via medium.
In his Upadesamrta (5)
Srila Rupa Gosvami says, pranatibhis ca bhajantam Isam. This means that
madhyama-adhikari devotees should exchange obeisances between
themselves.
The word nirantara, meaning “without cessation,
continuously, constantly,” is very important in this verse. The word
antara means “interval.” If one has desires other than a desire to
perform devotional service — in other words, if one sometimes engages
in devotional service and sometimes strives for sense gratification —
his service will be interrupted. A pure devotee, therefore, should have
no desire other than to serve Krsna. He should be above fruitive
activity and speculative knowledge. In his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu
[Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11], Srila Rupa Gosvami says:
[removed] [Madhya 19.167]
This
is the platform of pure devotional service. One should not be motivated
by fruitive activity or mental speculation but should simply serve
Krsna favorably. That is first-class devotion.
Another meaning
of antara is “this body.” The body is an impediment to self-realization
because it is always engaged in sense gratification. Similarly, antara
means “money.” If money is not used in Krsna’s service, it is also an
impediment. Antara also means janata, “people in general.” The
association of ordinary persons may destroy the principles of
devotional service. Similarly, antara may mean “greed” — greed to
acquire more money or enjoy more sense gratification. Finally, the word
antara may also mean “atheistic ideas,” by which one considers the
temple Deity to be made of stone, wood or gold. All of these are
impediments. The Deity in the temple is not material — He is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Similarly, considering the
spiritual master an ordinary human being (gurusu nara-matiḥ) is also
an impediment. Nor should one consider a Vaisnava a member of a
particular caste or nation. Nor should a Vaisnava be considered
material. Caranamrta should not be considered ordinary drinking water,
and the holy name of the Lord should not be considered an ordinary
sound vibration. Nor should one look on Lord Krsna as an ordinary human
being, for He is the origin of all visnu-tattvas; nor should one regard
the Supreme Lord as a demigod. Intermingling the spiritual with the
material causes one to look on transcendence as material and the
mundane as spiritual. This is all due to a poor fund of knowledge. One
should not consider Lord Visnu and things related to Him as being
different. All this is offensive.
In the Bhakti-sandarbha (265),
Srila Jiva Gosvami writes: [removed] “In the verse beginning namaikam
yasya, we find the word pasanda [‘godlessness’]. The word literally
indicates misuse of one’s body or property, but in that verse it
implies the ten offenses against the Lord’s holy name, since each of
these leads to such godless behavior.”
The Mayavadis look on
Visnu and Vaisnavas imperfectly due to their poor fund of knowledge,
and this is condemned. In Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.2.46), the intermediate
Vaiṣṇava is described as follows:
[removed]
“The
intermediate Vaisnava has to love God, make friends with the devotees,
instruct the innocent and reject jealous people.” These are the four
functions of the Vaisnava in the intermediate stage. In the
Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 22.64) Sri Sanatana Gosvami is taught:
[removed]
“One
who is faithful is a proper candidate for devotional service. In terms
of one’s degree of faith in devotional service, one is a first-class,
second-class or neophyte Vaisnava.”
[removed]
“One who
has attained the intermediate stage is not very advanced in sastric
knowledge, but he has firm faith in the Lord. Such a person is very
fortunate to be situated on the intermediate platform.” (Cc. Madhya
22.67)
“Attraction and love for God are the ultimate goal of
devotional service. The degrees of such attraction and love distinguish
the different stages of devotion — neophyte, intermediate and
perfectional.” (Cc. Madhya 22.71) An intermediate devotee is greatly
attracted to chanting the holy name, and by chanting he is elevated to
the platform of love. If one chants the holy name of the Lord with
great attachment, he can understand his position as an eternal servant
of the spiritual master, other Vaisnavas and Krsna Himself. Thus the
intermediate Vaisnava considers himself krsna-dāsa, Krsna’s servant. He
therefore preaches Krsna consciousness to innocent neophytes and
stresses the importance of chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. An
intermediate devotee can identify the nondevotee or motivated devotee.
The motivated devotee or the nondevotee are on the material platform,
and they are called prakrta. The intermediate devotee does not mix with
such materialistic people. However, he understands that the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and everything related to Him are on the same
transcendental platform. Actually none of them are mundane.
HH Giriraj Swami Lecture on Chanting Pt 1 of 2
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” First in a two part series by HH Giriraj Swami. This is a Lecture from the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya Lila, Chapter 15, Texts 102-106.
Dallas, TX
2007-08-22 CC Madhya 15.102: After this, Ramananda Vasu and Satyaraja Khan both submitted questions at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
CC Madhya 15.103: Satyaraja Khan said, “My dear Lord, being a householder and a materialistic man, I do not know the process of advancing in spiritual life. I therefore submit myself unto Your lotus feet and request You to give me orders.”
CC Madhya 15.104: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “Without cessation continue chanting the holy name of Lord Krsṇa. Whenever possible, serve Him and His devotees, the Vaiṣṇavas.”
CC Madhya 15.105: Upon hearing this, Satyaraja said, “How can I recognize a Vaiṣṇava? Please let me know what a Vaiṣṇava is. What are his common symptoms?”
CC Madhya 15.106: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “Whoever chants the holy name of Krsṇa just once is worshipable and is the topmost human being.
PURPORT
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Ṭhakura says that a person who simply chants the holy name of Kṛṣṇa once becomes perfect and should be regarded as a Vaishṇava. This is confirmed by Srila Rupa Gosvami in his Upadeshamṛta (5): krsṇeti yasya giri taḿ manasadriyeta. With such faith in the holy name one may begin a life of Krsna consciousness. But an ordinary person cannot chant the holy name of Krsna with such faith. One should accept the holy name of Krsna to be identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Transcendence Himself. As the Padma Purana states, “The holy name of Krsna is identical with Krsṇa and is like a cintamaṇi gem, a touchstone. That name is Krsna personified in sound and is therefore perfectly transcendental and eternally liberated from material contamination.” Thus one should understand that the name “Krsna” and Krsna Himself are identical. Having such faith, one must continue to chant the holy name.
When one is situated on the neophyte platform, one cannot understand the devotional ingredients of a pure, unalloyed devotee. However, when the novice engages in devotional service — especially in Deity worship — and follows the order of a bona fide spiritual master, he is a pure devotee. Anyone can take advantage of hearing about Kṛṣṇa consciousness from such a devotee and thus gradually become purified. In other words, any devotee who believes that the holy name of the Lord is identical with the Lord is a pure devotee, even though he may be in the neophyte stage. By his association, others may also become Vaisnavas.
One is known as a materialistic devotee if he simply worships the Deity of Hari with faith but does not show proper respect to the devotees and to others. This is stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.2.47):
Yet even by associating with such a neophyte devotee, one can become a devotee also. When Lord Caitanya was teaching Sanatana Gosvami, He said:
“A person who has attained firm faith is a real candidate for advancing in Krsna consciousness. According to the faith, there are first-class, second-class and neophyte devotees. One who has preliminary faith is called a kanishṭha-adhikari, or a neophyte. The neophyte, however, can become an advanced devotee if he strictly follows the regulative principles set down by the spiritual master. Therefore it is on the basis of faith and attachment to Krsna that one can judge who is a madhyama-adhikari or an uttama-adhikari.” (Cc. Madhya 22.64, 69, 71)
It is thus concluded that even a neophyte devotee is superior to the karmis and jnanis because he has full faith in chanting the holy name of the Lord. A karmi or a jnani, regardless of his greatness, has no faith in Lord Visnu, His holy name or His devotional service. One may be advanced religiously, but if he is not trained in devotional service, he has very little credit on the transcendental platform. Even a neophyte devotee engaged in Deity worship in accordance with the regulations set forth by the spiritual master is in a position superior to that of the fruitive worker and speculative philosopher.
Bhakti Charu Swami Lecture SB 7.3.23-34
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” Bhagavatam class by Bhakti Charu Swami in Dallas TX.
Audio gets better at around 40minutes.
August 14, 2007
Dallas, TX Text 23
TRANSLATION
As soon as he was sprinkled with the water from Lord Brahma’s waterpot, Hiranyakasipu arose, endowed with a full body with limbs so strong that they could bear the striking of a thunderbolt. With physical strength and a bodily luster resembling molten gold, he emerged from the anthill a completely young man, just as fire springs from fuel wood.
PURPORT
Hiranyakasipu was revitalized, so much so that his body was quite competent to tolerate the striking of thunderbolts. He was now a young man with a strong body and a very beautiful bodily luster resembling molten gold. This is the rejuvenation that took place because of his severe austerity and penance.
Text 24
TRANSLATION
Seeing Lord Brahma present before him in the sky, carried by his swan airplane, Hiranyakasipu was extremely pleased. He immediately fell flat with his head on the ground and began to express his obligation to the lord.
PURPORT
Lord Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (9.23-24):
“Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kunti, is really meant for Me alone, but it is offered without true understanding. I am the only enjoyer and the only object of sacrifice. Those who do not recognize My true transcendental nature fall down.”
In effect, Krsna says, “Persons engaged in the worship of demigods are not very intelligent, although such worship is indirectly offered to Me.” For example, when a man pours water on the leaves and branches of a tree without pouring water on the root, he does so without sufficient knowledge or without observing regulative principles. The process of watering a tree is to pour water on the root. Similarly, the process of rendering service to different parts of the body is to supply food to the stomach. The demigods are, so to speak, different officers and directors in the government of the Supreme Lord. One has to follow the laws made by the government, not by the officers or directors. Similarly, everyone is to offer his worship to the Supreme Lord only. That will automatically satisfy the different officers and directors of the Lord. The officers and directors are engaged as representatives of the government, and to offer some bribe to the officers and directors is illegal. This is stated in Bhagavad-gita as avidhi-pürvakam. In other words, Krsnaa does not approve the unnecessary worship of the demigods.
In Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that there are many types of yajna performances recommended in the Vedic literatures, but actually all of them are meant for satisfying the Supreme Lord. Yajna means Visnu. In the Third Chapter of Bhagavad-gita it is clearly stated that one should work only for satisfying Yajna, or Visnu. The perfectional form of human civilization, known as varnasram-dharma, is specifically meant for satisfying Visnu. Therefore, Krsna says, “I am the enjoyer of all sacrifices because I am the supreme master.” However, less intelligent persons, without knowing this fact, worship demigods for temporary benefit. Therefore they fall down to material existence and do not achieve the desired goal of life. If, however, anyone has any material desire to be fulfilled, he had better pray for it to the Supreme Lord (although that is not pure devotion), and he will thus achieve the desired result.
Although Hiranyakasipu offered his obeisances unto Lord Brahmä, he was strongly inimical toward Lord Visnu. This is the symptom of an asura. Asuras worship the demigods as being separate from the Lord, not knowing that all the demigods are powerful because of being servants of the Lord. If the Supreme Lord were to withdraw the powers of the demigods, the demigods would no longer be able to offer benedictions to their worshipers. The difference between a devotee and a nondevotee, or asura, is that a devotee knows that Lord Visnu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that everyone derives power from Him. Without worshiping the demigods for particular powers, a devotee worships Lord Visnu, knowing that if he desires a particular power he can get that power while acting as Lord Visnu’s devotee. Therefore in the sastra (SB 2.3.10) it is recommended:
“A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of material desires, free from material desires, or desiring liberation, must by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead.” Even if a person has material desires, instead of worshiping the demigods he should pray to the Supreme Lord so that his connection with the Supreme Lord will be established and he will be saved from becoming a demon or a nondevotee. In this regard, Srila Madhvacarya gives the following quotation from the Brahma-tarka:
Since Visnu is the Supreme, by worshiping Visnu one can fulfill all one’s desires. There is no need to divert one’s attention to any demigod.
Bhakti Charu Swami Evening Bhajan
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” Bhakti Charu Swami sang a beautiful Hare Krsna bhajan after his lecture at the home of TK and Vilas.
Dallas, TX
2007-08-14