by Hayagrīva dāsa Adhikārī (ISKCON Calcutta)

In the Vaisnava (Krsna) literature of India there are innumerable scriptural injunctions encouraging saṅkirtana-the chanting and singing of the names of God as an efficacious means to attain God realization or as a glorious end in itself. Yet many Westerners, perhaps justifiably skeptical, might ask, "If saṅkirtana is so all-encompassing, so potent and effective, why isn't it stressed in the Bible?"

Even a quick reading of the Bible will show that saṅkirtana was very much present indeed amongst the ancient Jews and early Christians and that it was certainly stressed by one of the Bible's major figures-David. "But that's not the saṅkirtana practiced by the Krsna consciousness movement," one might object. "Moses and David certainly didn't chant Hare Krsna, Hare Rama." It would be difficult to prove that they did, and it is doubtless safe to assume that they didn't, but saṅkirtana is not limited to the Hare Krsna mantra. In fact, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the chief propagator of Hare Krsna chanting in this age, has written in His Siksastaka: