Sri Gaudiya Giti Guccha (An Anthology of Gaudiya Vaisnava Songs)

Language: Transliteration and English Translation
Pages: 433


Introduction

Kirtana has been performed throughout the ages, but its real glory importance was revealed five hundred years ago when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu desended to this world. In the lineage of Sriman Mahaprabhu, all prominence is given to kirtana. It is his life and soul and also the life and soul of his followers.

The soul's only true requirement and very sustenance is to pray to the lord and glorify him. Day and night, Sriman Mahaprabhu, who is none other than Sri Sri Radha-Krsna combined, would subsist on the kirtanas sung to him by Svarupa Damodara and Raya Ramananda. He never went for a moment without kirtana. His principal instruction was to always perform kirtana Sri Hari Kirtaniya sada harih. Nothing pleases Him more than sincere kirtana.

Srila Rupa Gosvami is glorified as that divine personality who fully understood the elevated moods tasted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and who then fulfilled Mahaprabu's innermost desire by revealing these moods to the people of the world through literature both prose and poetry in eloquent Sanskrit

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura made these lofty conceptions more accessible by delivering them in the vernacular dialect of the Bengali language, composing numerous prayers to the divine personalities exalted by Gaudiya Vaisnavas.

Following this era, many Gaudiya Vaisnavas composed wonderful kirtanas, but none has been more prolific than Srila Bhaktivinoda thakura. He made the deep moods contained within these songs more accessible. He wrote over two hundred eighty covering a wide variety of topics. Some songs give stern instructions to the mind thus guiding the sadhaka struggling with material desires; some songs are prayers imbued with a mood of surrender, othe