I'm also a rock musician at heart - like many of you.
I've always idolized the fame that rock musicians enjoy, and have been tempted by the thought that "we could do so much preaching if we had famous devotee bands."
All you have to do is look around MySpace at the profiles of our siblings and you'll see just how attractive non-devotional music is - Maya is beatiful.
I play drums (trap set), keyboard / piano and harmonium and mridanga. As I get more and more into kirtana and japa in my life I have been losing my taste for playing drums (which invariably means listening to other famous non-devotee drummers and their music in order to learn.)
To the horror of any budding rock musicians among devotee youth reading this right now, I am slowly losing my taste for rock music - losing my taste for rehearsing with my fellow devotee rock musicians - as I see the need for kirtana in its simple form with traditional mridanga and kartals in the world.
In North America, there's a huge surge in the popularity of Kirtana. Yoga studios from New York City to San Francisco to Mexico City to Guatemala City are craving kirtana - not with western instruments - but with traditional instruments. On stage at Ratha-yatra festivals (and my life is putting on those festivals every summer for the past 12 years) when we have a rocking kirtan with traditional instruments and everyone dressed in saris and dhotis, we attract a crowd. Thousands of other musicians are so much better at rock music. I am waking up to the realization, slowly but surely, that what is unique, what we have to offer to the world, is sweet, traditional kirtana. We should be famous for having the best kirtana in the world. When people want kirtana, and they want the best kirtana, they should know to come looking for devotees of Sri Krishna, who is the object of Kirtana.
Anyhow, there are plenty of devotee bands who are preaching with rock music. But it's a long and tiring road to fame. (Dhira in Spain, Shelter in NYC - off and on) You may or may not become famous. In the meantime, while you wait for fame and fortune, you can walk the parallel track and hang out with the humble servants of the most famous and wealthiest person in the universe... Hang with the sadhus while you wait for material fame, and just put on a dhoti, tilak, and take a mridanga and kirtana party into any street and you're engaged in the Yuga Dharma, Harinama Sankirtana, the eternal occupation of all servants and lovers of Krishna. Sit under any tree and chant Hare Krishna sincerely and Krishna will send so many people to join in the chanting :-)
Yes, yes... so many devotees have desires to preach to the world through rock music. That is fine. It is also good. (At least let me rationalize it in this way - even though I am telling you I'm losing attraction to this type of music by the minute, as I get more and more attracted to kirtana.)
So I try to figure out what it is about kirtana that is so different, so unique, and so much more attractive. Here are my thoughts so far. You can probably add more.
Ultimately we strive to present ourselves in such a way that is genuinely attractive to Krishna, so that Krishna will take up residence in our heart.
We strive to perform activities that are attractive to the demigods and pure devotees, and attractive, in their pure form, to all living entities. After all, whatever we do is also a form of association for our self, our mind, and those who hang out with us. So presenting Krishna consciousness in the mode of shuddha sattva, pure transcendental goodness, and to bring it back to the topic, sincere devotional kirtana in the way Krishna and His devotees like Srila Prabhupada and all the previous acharyas like to do it, is most powerful.
You want people who will be attracted to music and activities and spiritual culture in the mode of shuddha sattva - pure devotional activity meant for pleasing Krishna and which is beyond the laws of karma, beyond even the mode of goodness. You don't want to mislead people to think that we are promoters of death metal, thrash, trash, punk, and its associated cultures in other modes of nature. So look at the culture that goes along with the types of music you play, and meditate on the whole package that you want people to become attracted to. What is unique about the Krishna conscious culture that we can offer people? What is the ultimate culture we would like people to live by? Once they become devotees, lovers of Krishna, what kind of music will they be hearing every morning and evening at the temple? What kind of bhajans should they become attracted to?
Devotees in the early days of the Hare Krishna movement once asked Srila Prabhupada about this, about whether or not they should play rock music on stage at the Ratha-yatra festivals... and his answer was interesting. "They will be attracted initially, but they will not stay." Because they will be attracted to the rock music, not to the transcendental sound vibration of the Holy Name.
In my quest for answers, I look to books like Harinama Chintamani by Bhaktivinode Thakura.
Bhaktivinode Thakur gives specific instructions for how to present kirtana to the public ("with khol and kartalas.") Even at his time there were so many other groups doing popular kirtana with other instruments. So attempting to faithfully follow in the footsteps of the previous acharyas, I am personally having to renounce my taste for rock and roll, my desire to become a famous drummer (like Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl or other famous drummers)... and simply transform that desire and play the brihad mridanga of Harinama Sankirtana, book distribution, of Harinama Sankirtana in the sense of singing the Holy Names in public, in the street (following in the footsteps of the most merciful incarnation of Krishna, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu), or on Krishna.com by promoting Krishna Kirtana, Japa, Bhajans, and chatting with visitors about Krishna via live help, instant messaging.
Krishna is the most beautiful, the most wealthy, the most famous, the most knowledgable, the most powerful, and the most renounced.
Whatever music would please him the most is what I should like to play for him. After all, it would seem, that love means to serve Krishna and try to please Him and fulfill His wishes. So, if Krishna was sitting in the room with me right now, what music do I think would please Him the most? That's a difficult question - because Krishna is so kind he would probably say play rock music with devotion and that's fine. But in the spiritual world, what music do I feel in my heart that the devotees are playing for Krishna? What music would please Srila Prabhupada and the other devotees the most?
I fall at your feet and beg your forgiveness for speaking such words that are probably discouraging you right now from pursuing your passions. I know I have so little time in this world and I am becoming more and more weary of activities that distract me from pursuing Krishna consciousness, and from sharing it with others in some way to repay my debt to those who gave me this gift... And so I share with you here my personal realizations about how and why I'm losing all taste for rock and roll music, even devotionally themed. (Try as I might, it no longer does the same thing for me as a sweet kirtana or bhajana with mridanga and kartals. I've gone over to the bright side. Kirtaniyas, you've finally done it to me. :-)
