Achyutananda Prabhu says that according to proper kirtan principles, we should always begin with Srila Prabhupada’s pranama-mantras. He said that he noticed several kirtan leaders not doing this or not knowing kirtan etiquette.
A Russian devotee, Purnamasi devi dasi, told the story of when she was imprisoned by the KGB for practicing and preaching Krishna consciousness in the Soviet Union.
While she was in jail, she would encourage other prisoners to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. The authorities tried to stop her in many ways, including threatening to kill her, but nothing worked. Finally they did something unusual: they brought a real witch to the prison to stop Purnamasi and deprogram her.
The witch arrived with her assistant and KGB officers. They tied Purnamasi to a chair, and the witch and her assistant started hexing, doing passes, and chanting spells, with their eyes rolled in trance. They were trying to infuse a dark creature into Purnamasi’s body. She could sense it, and all around became covered with fog. Realizing that she was coming under their control, she started chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but this did not stop it; the creature was going inside.
As Purnamasi began to lose consciousness, she chanted the Narasimha mantra out loud, but even that did not stop the creature. Finally, she started chanting Srila Prabhupada’s pranama-mantra and right away the witch came out of her trance and stopped all her activities. She told the KGB officers, “I’m leaving,” but they didn’t let her go; they ordered her to finish her job. The witch insisted, “No, I am leaving; I will not go on any longer!” “Why?” the KGB officers asked. “What happened?” She told them, “You simply do not see, but I see: there is a very strict old man standing over there wagging his finger at me. I cannot do anything against him.” This old man was Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of ISKCON.
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