Varnashrama Manifesto, split from the Love Hurts thread Options

[0Maryada0]

Hm, I can't remember the Damodarastaka. I liked the most his Brahma-samhita.

To comment back on Harikesha's music: my absolute favorite is one particular Maha-mantra tune, an extremely elaborate one that was sometimes referred to as "the Hanuman tune".

Ok, dammit, for good times sake...

Damodarastaka (funky rhythm that never sounded right to me...)
Cintamani (piano and voice only)
Hanuman tune???
Nitai Gunamani
Vraja Raja

Mind you that these mp3s vary in size from 10 to 14 megs each!

I scanned through Harikesh's Rasa albums again. Some select songs are actually quite nice. I find the bulk, however, pretty aweful. The early albums have a bit of a nice recorded-in-a-garage ambiance, but especially the later stuff with the English lyrics is a bit too trippy for my taste. Very amateuristic. The music Harikesh made under the Bliss label is also not very good in quality, although the compositions and songs in themselves aren't that bad. Some of the lyrics were actually pretty good. Any other band could have made something better out of it. The last 4 albums were so bland and homogenous, that you could hardly distinguish one song from another. They all had the same sound.

I have a ton of old devotee music from the 90s in mp3 format, including a lot of stuff that was only produced in Europe, such as Yadunandana's bhajans, reggea and rock, Bhairavesa's Gopinath, Suhotra's Stick of Saffron and other bizarre productions, both of the Sri Hari albums, songs from Krishna Premi, the old Krishnautix, and Skyflower's Quiltwork.

Skyflower was some kind of very early Gauranga Bhajan band, with mostly Harikesh and Krishna Ksetra. There are some funny songs on this album. One has a very middle eastern slant, in another Krishna Ksetra chants Hare Krishna with a giddy Swedish girly background ensemble -- sweet as molasses. It has a very nice Nrsimha prayer on it, though.

If anyone with acute nostalgia desires any of this, shoot me a PM with your address and I'll send you a CD. No questions asked.

[Chanahari]

In the year before he left, Harikesh was working on another version of his ideas about varnashram, to be published under his new Sentient Press header, named On Social Issues. No clue how it differs from VM or what it particularly was about. Has anyone read it?

The book was printed in 1998. It is even harder to find than VM. Only one place on the net selling it for about $43.

I read it in 1999, together with the Varnashrama Manifesto.
I don't remember the particulars of any of these books - it was six years ago, written in a language I only poorly understood at that time, and in difficult-to-read style at that. I remembre though, that while the Manifesto sounded more extremist for me, and more far away from today's reality, the On Social Issues tried to address some of todays' problems, and was not so openly confrontational. But again, I remember next to nothing of their actual texts.

[0Maryada0]

These are a couple of older songs I have never found an equal to (these mp3s vary from 3 to 9 megs, click link to download):

Hari Hari Biphale
By Yadunandana, with Bhakti Vaibhava Swami

Hare Krishna Mantra's Meant for Me
By Rasa, from their album Dancing On The Head Of The Serpent
A very cheesy reggea tune that stands out from the album because HKS ain't singing.

Most High
By Devananda
Nice reggea song, but I really don't know anything about the band. Anyone?

Near Death Experience
By Yadunandana, with Vishnu Swami
Vishnu Swami (the "younger" one from the UK) relates his near death experience after a car crash in India. I have never figured out if it is fictional or not.

Siksastakam
By Yadunandana

Tilakhead
By Yadunandana
The best Hare Krishna parody on a trash metal skinhead song ever! Uhm, most likely the only one, too...

Treasure Island
By Suhotra, the title song from the album he created under the name Stick of Saffron
I always found his creations as trippy as the man himself, but he would come up with an occasional gem.

I also used to have a lot of stuff from the Murari Band, but lost it all. Anyone else out there who has anything from the Murari Band?

[Sonja]

I also used to have a lot of stuff from the Murari Band, but lost it all. Anyone else out there who has anything from the Murari Band?

Woops, I just threw some tapes away from them last week.
That's a shame.

[Pionir]

Ok, dammit, for good times sake...

Damodarastaka (funky rhythm that never sounded right to me...)
Cintamani (piano and voice only)
Hanuman tune???
Nitai Gunamani
Vraja Raja

These links are dead. Any idea where can I get these songs now? I would like to have early ISKCON music, including Rasa albums, too. It is not the music I delight, but may be helpful for a kind of a self-perspective.

To comment back on Harikesha's music: my absolute favorite is one particular Maha-mantra tune, an extremely elaborate one that was sometimes referred to as "the Hanuman tune". And some of the Gauranga Bhajan Band productions... like Jay Nrsimha, Sri Nrsimha... the one that is played when Sri Sri Prahlada-Nrsimha's altar doors are opened at Deity greeting, in NJNK in Germany.

Yes, there is one special Maha-mantra, and also a nice performance of "Gurudeva! Kripa-Bindu Diya" by Harikesha, known to me from live Gauranga Bhajan Band concerts.

And finally I hear the Nrsimha song mentioned somewhere! I am really looking for it.

I was at Nava-jiyada-Nrisimha Kshetra for Caturdasi in 1990. There were two songs played at the altar doors opening, as far as I remember. Another one is also excellent piece performed by Krisna-ksetra prabhu, with thunder at the beginning. I managed to get a decent quality mp3 copy of that one.

But Harikesha's version is so far impossible to find... :-( That song has a kind of psychedelic mood, and it really got to me at that time. I have it taped somewhere, but the quality is poor, and I can not really appreciate the song. Lyrics were taken from the text then known as Lakshmi-Nrsimha ashtottara-shata nama shtotram.
http://krishnascience.com/Vaisnava%20Libra...d%20Nrsimha.htm

I would really appreciate if someone could help me find a decent version of this song.

[darwin]

Go ask Hari and his friends at their forum website. This is a topic I put there a few years ago. I totally criticize Hari but he leaves it there and does not censor it. You really have to respect him for that:

The Soul of ISKCON
http://harimedia.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=83

let us not let the past define
present and future
let us not hold him only to his past deeds

it is good he lets us post here
he is the only one who will do this
this is his honesty
his decency and integrity
as time goes on
we may even grow to love him

we will have chances to defend him
I'm sure
those in ISKCON will give us this
for how they are,
they will condemn him
but only for his GOOD deeds

now with his forum,
repackaging himself
cheap oriental despot
becomes friendly adviser
ISKCON GBC boss
now a kindly healer
psychic vampire turned medical leach

he never did express real empathy
or apologize as we had hoped
it is we who need to understand him,
his past he says,
is to be amputated
leaving us crippled
or perhaps just free

.

[Maryada]

The links I provided years ago are dead because the domain no longer exists.

I still have a large collection of Krishna related music in MP3 format (about 6 Gigs by now), including everything ever done by Harikesh, every album and tape ever produced by ISKCON and its affiliates, everything from Prapannam, Krishnautix and Titiksava Karunika, Rasa (US), Shelter, 108, most other HK straight edge bands (including demos), stuff produced in Denmark by Yadunandana, Bhairavesh's stuff, different ISKCON guru stuff, Gauranga Bhajan Band, Sky Flower, Stick of Saffron, Krishna related music from the 70 by non-devotee bands, the Murari Band, Ananta, Michael Cassidy, and lots more, as well as 14 CDs (80 minutes each) of my own recordings.

If you're looking for anything particular, shoot me a PM.