Sit Properly

Sunday morning. I woke up and checked out PlanetISKCON only to be greeted with the amazingly nasty description of Hugh Heffner’s sex life (Ugh!) as posted by Pandu dasa via Bhakta Corey’s blog of ever-changing and wildly irrational rantings (here and here).

The main point seems to be that if you change the definition of homosexuality to mean “promiscuous sex” then a whole lot more people are gay than before.

Since this argument really makes no sense at all, I’ll not refute it and just allow it to defeat itself.

The post then goes on to bring “Illuminati bankers” into it. They used Playboy Magazine to destroy the institution of marriage. See, Illuminati bankers “own the major cartels and control the media through advertising.” I think I sort of dozed off there because blaming “Illuminati bankers” for stuff is almost as logical as changing the definition of homosexuality to prove your point.

And what is the point? I think it’s that all porn is gay porn. To prove the point, they use their definition of “gay.” It’s convenient and fun!

By the way, all cookies are chocolate chip cookies because I’ve just changed the definition of “walnut” to mean “tiny bits of chocolate.” Same goes for snickerdoodles. The illuminati bakers are controlling the Keebler elves and the lunatic is on the grass.

Pandu, seriously now. You really believe this stuff? That illuminati bankers are destroying marriage via Hugh Heffner? As far as conspiracy theories go, that’s quite a stretch.

And you do realize that you can’t actually change the definition of words to prove a point, right? That’s typically considered bad logic and you pretty much automatically lose your argument. Bring the Illuminati into it and you not only lose, but it’s pretty much time to be fitted with a straight jacket.

Sponsor A Brahman To Substitute For Your Ekadasi Vigil

During the American Civil War, the rich folks who were conscripted into the army could pay someone to take their place. Often, they would be paying a what was termed a “bounty jumper,” a “professional” who would take their $200, join a regiment only to almost immediately leave in order to collect another rich guy’s bounty. Some would do this over and over, even though it was highly illegal. These men were seen as the lowest of the low. Bounty jumpers were more likely to receive the death penalty than typical army deserters. Neither side tolerated such behavior.

Similarly, a company calling itself Art 4 Krishna is offering the richer (and lazier) practitioners of Krishna consciousness the chance to pay them a bounty to follow Ekadasi (fasting from grains and beans) so they don’t have to.

And, like the bounty jumpers, they are collecting their $200 $125 (there’s a sale going on) and moving onto another individual with the desire to be cheated out of their money.

This is something that I would have written for the Hing. When I first saw it, I thought it was satire and really, I wish it were.

They claim that in the book Hari Bhakti Vilasa allowance is made where if you can’t follow Ekadasi, a brahman can do it for you. It is customary to give a donation for such a service.

However a donation is a far cry from charging a fistful of cash and spiritually bounty jumping.¹

This cannot be stressed enough: if you are collecting a wage, stipend, set “donation” for something that you believe is spiritual – its not. You are receiving zero spiritual benefit because it’s not actually a spiritual act, it’s an act done for monetary gain. You are simply cheating in the name of Krishna.

This Art 4 Krishna nastiness is the text book definition of cheating. It really is bounty jumping and these spiritual bounty jumpers are the lowest of the low.

This isn’t Krishna consciousness. It’s modern Hinduism and gross materialism under the guise of spirituality. I’m sorry to see that it’s come to this.

*Edit – it should be made clear that this really isn’t bounty jumping *for* Krishna. It’s bounty jumping for money (not Laxmi). It’s just bad ol’ fashioned greed.

1. Not actually spiritual. [↩]

One of the more popular and readily available Early ISKCON Records is the India LP by Acyutananda Swami released on the Radha Krsna Productions label. I’ve been spending much of my free time recording the vinyl to digital wav files and then cleaning them up via a program called Gnome Wave Cleaner.

A couple of mysterious things about this record’s cover and original label were discovered when I first ripped it to digital in 2007. I’ll further discuss those when I post the album in a few days.

However, the new mystery about this album was discovered just recently as I was cleaning it up.

I take very good care of my records. Prior to ripping them to digital, I bathe them, allow them to dry and then dust them. This removes fingerprints, dirt, dust and static. With the exception of larger scratches in the vinyl (if they exist), my records sound like new.

But this one didn’t. This one had crackles the whole way through it. Crackles are caused by static and dust (as opposed to scratches which are caused by damage to the record itself). This record was static and dust free, so there should be zero crackling.

This really puzzled me and right as I was about to reclean the record, it dawned on me. This pressing wasn’t recorded from its master tapes, but from the first pressing of the same record.

Basically, the first pressing of the India LP was recorded from the original master tapes. When it came time for a subsequent pressing, the master tapes were not available for some reason. In order to make another pressing, they had to find a copy of the first pressing and use that as the source – crackles, pops and all.

You can actually hear crackles and pops where no dust or scratches can be seen. Also, the right channel is pretty muddy and most of the crackles live there.

I was able to remove 99% of the crackles (which were very present on both sides of the LP). Some remain, but at a rate of roughly one minute per hour, I am being driven insane.

Additionally, I thought I had recorded this record’s volume too high. I was getting distortion at the louder parts (called “clipping”). But no, my levels were just fine. When this record was recorded from the original pressing, whoever did it didn’t bother to check the levels, so there’s a bit of clipping here and there. My next job is to somehow fix that a bit. We’ll see how I do.

Usually when you rip a record to digital you try to make it sound as close to the original as possible. In this case, my digital rip sounds better. The crackles are gone and hopefully some of the clipping will be gone. It’s almost as good as the original pressing must have sounded.

Early ISKCON Records are confusing. How and when they were recorded, cataloged, released and distributed are all nearly impossible to understand. The India LP adds a level of surrealism to that confusion.

More on all of this in a few days – including the download!

Sarah just returned from visiting Pennsylvania and while there, stopped at my parents’ house to retrieve the big box full of cassettes I left there thinking I wouldn’t want them.

This box contains a bunch of classes from 1994-96 that happened at Columbus and New Vrndavana (these were recorded by me), some Krishnacore demos (Prema, 108, Bala!), a few odds and ends here and there and, most importantly, the Classic ISKCON Tapes that I wanted to rerecord, much like I’m rerecording the Classic ISKCON Vinyl.

These will be recorded, cleaned up and made available in 320kbps MP3s and FLAC files. I did all of these before, but they were saved in such low quality that I can’t even listen to them.

Also, as it was recently brought to my attention, I used the Archive’s version of KT-14 (the *amazing* San Francisco Ratha Yatra 1975) which omits a song and is encoded in the amazingly crappy 64kbps.

Remember a few years ago, the BBT/Archives released a few MP3 CD-ROMS full of a bunch of older KC music and vintage Prabhupada? Well, as nice as it seemed, it was in such a low bitrate that it’s near worthless. Sadly, KT-14 was on that disc and even sadder, I used it instead of recording it myself. I don’t remember why, but it was a dumb mistake that I’ll make up for soon.

When? That brings me to the begging portion of this blog post. Not only do I have tapes KT-1 – 20, but I also have Songs of the Vaisnava Acaryas by Acyutananda Swami and Mrdanga Lessons by Srila Prabhupada. Since they are on cassettes and I have no cassette player, getting them digitized poses a bit of a problem.

If anyone out there has a pretty decent tape player that wouldn’t mind letting me borrow it for a spell, I could record these and send it back to you. It don’t think it would take me too long. Even doing one a day would be less than a month.

Any help would be … helpful.

*

Someone is bound to bring this up, so I’ll address it. The KT series originally ran from 1-25. I have 1 – 20, which is what was rereleased in 1995 and 1996 by the BBT. For some reason, 21-25 were never rereleased (as far as I know). They are available for download somewhere online, but the MP3s are very low quality, they are not tagged and no song titles are given. Mostly, it seems like a waste of time. Sad, because it’s some good music.

All this said, if anyone has any other early ISKCON cassettes and would like me to convert them to digital, please let me know. Golden Avatar had a series that wasn’t so good, but would be fun to preserve. Also, I remember something called “The Hare Krishna Hootenanny” that I’ve always wanted to hear.

Please Help!

As promised a couple of days ago, I’ll be digitally rerecording all of my Classic ISKCON Vinyl. You can read all about that here. The first reselection is Temple Radha Krishna (not to be confused with the original Radha Krishna Temple that came out on Apple Records).

Temple Radha Krishna
Les Productions Parampara
RPI 101

Temple Radha Krishna was released by Les Productions Parapmara. That label released at least two other records. Temple Radha Krishna was the first (#101). Vrindavana (#102) and Goddess of Fortune (#103 – basically a bootleg of a bootleg of Apple’s Radha Krishna Temple) followed.

My thought is that Temple Radha Krishna was purposely named such to confuse people into thinking that this was the George Harrison produced record. Basically, if people think this is that, we can move more copies.

The cover image was also used for the Brahma-samita book. The cover itself is pretty cheaply made. The rear cover is in French but features a picture of George Harrison (along with Malati and Shymasundar prabhus – who both appeared on the Apple Records album). Acyutananda Swami is also pictured.

Acyutananda Swami is featured on four cuts. Bhagavan dasa has three. Yogesvara dasa has one, as does Srila Prabhupada.

Here’s a rundown and review of the songs.

Face 1 (apparently they’re called “faces” not “sides” in France)
1. Gaurangera Dutipada 6:32 – The first song is by Srila Prabhupada. The quality is clearly different than the rest of the record, so more than likely they just threw this on, taking it from another recording. I’m not sure if this specific recording is also on one of the Vintage Series CDs, but I wasn’t familiar with it before hearing it here.

2. Gaya Gora Madhur Svare 5:10 – Acyutananda Swami gives us our second cut with a sitar-driven rendition. There are also kartals very haphazardly played. However, his voice is really great in this. The production pushes the vocals, while the instruments are fairly lost in the back.

3. Gopinatha 4:05 – Things are slowed down here, with Acyutananda Swami at the helm once again. This was clearly from the same session as Gaya Gora Madhur Svare, above.

4. Radha-Madhava 5:02 – Bhagavan dasa takes over for the last cut on side one. This one is a soft, yet rocking kirtana style rendition of this daily-sung song. It’s got a harmonium, a mrdanga and a few kartals. Quite a fun track. It’s one that really makes this album great.

Face 2
5. Japa (Meditation) 1:05 – By “Les bhaktas assembles.” The second side starts us off with about a minute of japa as chanted in the temple by devotees. No one voice is featured. I wish they would have done a whole album of this. That would be fun.

6. Kesava Kali Mala 5:21 – And Acyutananda Swami is back for what is my favorite song on this album. It’s upbeat and fun. Also from the same session as the first two Acyutananda Swami tracks. Have a listen. It’s fun.

7. Radhe 5:21 – It’s time to slow things down a bit with another one of my favorite songs. Acyutananda Swami is on vocals again (his last song on this album). It features a droning sitar, kartals (played pretty well) and a mrdanga. The temp picks up towards the end.

8. Bhaja Bakata 1:50 – Sung by Bhagavan dasa, this is a quick clip of Gaura-arati played on the harmonium from the same session as track four. For some reason it slides right into the next track:

9. Hare Krsna 3:20 – A kirtana led by Yogesvara dasa. I’m not sure why they did the slide, but I have both songs (tracks 8 and 9) on one file so that the transition from one song to the next could be preserved. This is a too short, but fun kirtana with a cute female voice in the background yelling “Hare Hare!” Yogesvara dasa’s voice is great. I wish there were kirtanas of his floating around.

10. Hare Krsna 2:22 – This is weird and almost trance-like. Bhagavan dasa’s voice is soft and slow, followed by a harmonium. The kartals and the mrdanga are playing a much faster beat, in double-time. There’s also there are a few conchs blowing in the back ground. A great way to end this great album.

I’m really happy to be doing this. I hope it brings a smile to the devotees’ faces. I hope that someone out there remembers these albums. And if no one does, well maybe if you’re hearing them for the first time, you’ll play them again and again.

This album is available as high quality mp3s and as “lossless” FLAC files. For most of you, the MP3 at 320kbps will be more than sufficient. For those who like FLAC files, leave a comment and I’ll get them to you.

Click here to download the entire album in one big zip file! (88 MB)

Technical Information:
Media Used:
Vinyl LP from my personal collection.

Artwork Scanned from Original @ 300 dpi
Edited and Restored Using GIMP Image Editor 2.6.6

As you do things you care about, you get better at doing them. This certainly the case with how I digitally “preserved” my classic ISKCON vinyl and tapes. This practice involves recording the records or tapes with your computer and “ripping” them to a digital audio file (like WAV or MP3). Then, I had limited knowledge, resources, disk space and time. Some of that has changed.

I’m a bit more knowledgeable when it comes to preserving audio. Before I was kind of almost good enough. Honestly, it was the best I could do at the time, but it’s lacking in several areas. For one, I lost the original WAV files. I had only MP3s encoded at a 192kbps, which is almost alright, but is slowly becoming the low-end of almost alright.

My equipment has also been majorly upgraded. Before, I was using a plastic novelty turntable which was great for casual listening, but for anything more I would need to forge ahead. That’s what I did. Nowadays, I’ve got an Audio-Technica PL-120 (the poor man’s Technics SL-1200 series). The Audio-Technica PL-120 comes with a built in phono preamp, but something wasn’t right with it (has to do with messed up waveforms – don’t worry about it). I got myself a pretty decent TCC TC-750LC. It’s quite an improvement. And instead of my computer’s very iffy soundcard, I now use an Roland Edirol UA-1EX USB external soundcard.

Is there room for improvement? I’ll eventually pick up a Shure M97xE cartridge (needle, etc). But what I have now is much better than just good enough and that’s what I was shooting for.

On the software end, I used to use Cool Edit Pro – it’s a very good program that’s since been bought and replaced by Adobe (I haven’t used it, so can’t really comment on Adobe’s program). For this new project, I’ve decided to exclusively use the Linux operating system. Cool Edit (or whatever it’s called now) is expensive. Most things for Linux are free. I am using Audacity, a free audio software program that allows me to record, mix, edit and slightly repair audio files. It’s definitely more limited than Cool Edit Pro, but it does everything I need.

Another area where I’ve become more aware is how to handle, store, clean and play records. If they are cleaned, dusted and destaticed there will be very few pops and crackles. This is much more desirable than fixing it digitally. The better the source file, the better the end result.

When I did this before, I saved them as very low quality MP3s. MP3 is the accepted format, so I’ll definitely offer them again. This time they’ll be in 320kbps, high quality MP3s (the highest quality). I’ll also be offering them as “lossless” FLAC files. Most folks won’t care and the MP3s will be perfect for almost everyone, but for those who like FLAC, that’s what you’ll get.

I’m also rescanning the album covers and labels. Before, I scanned at a low quality, chopping off part of the cover or took a shaky picture with a crappy camera. Now, I’ll be scanning the entire cover (which requires four different scans to get the whole thing), back and front (so, eight scans). This is also done in Linux. I’m using Xsane for scanning and GIMP (a photoshop knockoff) put the four pieces together seamlessly.

All the software, including the operating system, is free and the results are every bit as good as I could do in Windows or Mac. This offsets the cost of equipment and records, you know, sort of.

I’ve just started, but I’ll be posting albums as often as possible. As for the tapes, I need a decent tape deck, which don’t seem to exist anymore. We’ll see how that works out.

The first album will be Temple Radha Krishna on the French Hare Krishna label Production Parampara. It was their first of at least three releases. It features Srila Prabhupada, Acyutananda Swami, Bhagavan dasa and Yogesvara dasa. Temple Radha Krishna is one of my favorite records and it’s great to come back to it. The results are obvious and I’m very pleased with it.

Check out the difference for yourself. Here is Acyutananda Swami doing “Kesava Kali Mala.” First, the old version…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And now, the newly reripped version…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Keep in mind that with the new versions, I didn’t touch the EQ. The sound, for better or for worse, is exactly like it was on the original vinyl LP. Who knows what I did to the old version. I probably ran it through some noise filter and some thing to take out pops and clicks, which took out parts of the kartalas too.

So get ready, every Classic ISKCON Record I own will be reripped to digital and posted here. I might post one every Ekadasi or something, but I’ll probably just post them as I do them. Why wait?

The first record will be Temple Radha Krishna, but if you want to suggest the next record that I do, feel free to suggest one. Here’s the list to choose from. Eventually the whole Classic ISKCON Music site will be incorporated into SitProperly.com. Give me some time.

I wasn’t just complaining that I didn’t have deities, oh no. I’ve actually prepared a place for Their Lordships to reside. It’s nothing fancy, unfortunately, but it’s what I’ve got.

As for theme, I don’t really have one, per se. I think that will come about when They arrive. It’s Gaura-nitai, They bring the style, baby!

Let me just say that carpeting does nothing for a temple room. I would like hardwood floors, please. Or at least that fake wood laminate stuff. Anything would look better than “greige” carpet.¹

So this is my little empty altar – adorned only with the photos of Radha-Natabar, etc. There’s a tiny Jagannatha “altar” that holds its place in the center, but soon (hopefully) that will all make way for larger Gaura-nitai deities (they’re about 15″).

The backdrop you see will be 1) ironed better and 2) possibly with a design of some sort screen printed upon it. My thoughts at this point are this design. Though I’m not sure how it will look.

And once They arrive, more will be done to match the style They’ll bring. I won’t be able to keep up, of course, but I’ll do my best.

Until then it’s just waiting.

1. Greighe – That disgusting combination of the colors gray and beige. [↩]

I’ve got an altar all set up for Them, but still, They do not come!

About a year ago, right after Scoot 66 ended, I stayed with Rati and Dwija at New Vrndavana. It was then that I really fell in love with worshiping Gaura-nitai deities.

I’ve never been a huge deity fan, never really had the desire to regularly worship deities. Until last August.

I thought about it for a bit, talked it over with Rati and Dwija and decided this was the best move for me.

After a bit of searching for already-made and previously loved deities (ending with a big NO in the direction of Sri Galim of 80s New Vrndavana infamy), I decided to order a set to be made by the same deity maker who made Rati and Dwija’s set you see above.

That was almost a year ago.

They were supposed to be ready by Christmas so that Rati’s mom, who is an amazing painter, could paint Them. Christmas came and went and no deities.

Other time frames were set and broken and still no Lordships. Now, I realize that I have very little to do with the comings and goings of God, but still…

When I last heard from the deity maker, he said that They were already cast and just needed to be sanded and painted. This was in March.

Yesterday I sent him an email stating that I’d be more than willing to sand and paint Them myself. Which is mostly true.

I’ve never sanded or painted anything aside from Tom Servo. But that experience taught me a lot. Especially how to work with resin (which is what these deities are made of) and small details in the paint. I have a steady hand and know what I want.

My original idea was for Them to be a yellow-yellow-orange color. Similar to a set I’ve seen from Ekachakra. But then, I saw the Gaur Nitai Dolls in silver at Krishna Culture and was really taken by the color.

I think I could replicate that. I’ve done some searching and learning about paints and faux-metal coating and I really do think that I can pull this off. It’s definitely not traditional, but then neither is my “nothing from India on the altar (except maybe wood)” rule that I’ll be very strictly enforcing, especially when it comes to clothing.

So will They ever show up? I’m guessing that They will eventually. Maybe by this Christmas or by next year’s Gaura Purnima. Until then I’ll just stare at the empty altar and be jealous of Rati and Dwija.

Update!
I just got this email from the deity maker…
“I am out of home just now – will return in a week and will have, finally single focus time for their Lordships.”

I replied, again mentioning that I would be willing to sand and/or paint the deities.

Hopefully this is all good news.

Haribol. And welcome, won’t you?

A long time ago, I did a website called SitProperly.com. It was all about chanting the names of God. That was years ago and I hadn’t really worked on it since. I still, however, owned that domain name, so I decided to keep a Krishna Consciousness-focused blog there instead (I’ll do my best to get the old site back up on this site somehow, ok?).

So, I’ll be here, blogging my thoughts, my Gita comparisons and even rerecording some of the Classic ISKCON Vinyl once I get a bit more set up to do so.

Keep reading, hopefully you’ll like something.

Hare Krishna!
-Eric

As previously blogged, we hit up the Seattle Ratha-yatra this past Sunday. Ryan and the family joined us and fun was had by all. I wasn’t sure how his kids, 1.5 and 3.5 years old, would handle it. Kids generally dig all things Krishna, but there are still many things to consider.

Arkaedi, the youngest, didn’t get her nap and appeared rather skeptical of the whole thing. Taviri, however, seemed interested.

Prior to the procession, there was a bhajana band playing a pretty simple maha-mantra. It was nice, but a little loud where we were standing (pretty well right in front of the speaker). They ended and a regular old kirtana was started up in front of the deities, getting Them ready to roll out (rather, be carried out).

The kirtana started softly with a few devotees, but quickly grew in size and volume. Soon a couple mrdangas, some whompers and more kartals than can be counted joined in and it was just as loud as the amplified bhajana.

I thought the whole scene would kind of weird out the kids. Arkaedi was still skeptical, but Taviri started to move closer to the kirtana. I followed him down and we both stood there watching the devotees chant and dance. He had never seen anything like this and was interested, confused and enamored all at the same time.

They had to leave before the procession started and it wasn’t until I read Ryan’s blog the next day that I found out what Taviri had to say about the whole thing.

“Papa, I was surprised when they played music so loud. I was scared. Then my heart jumped out of my chest. I liked it.”

Truer words simply cannot be spoken. This is what kirtana and spiritual life in general is supposed to do! It might be a bit scary at first. But stick around, it’ll make your heart jump out of your chest. You’ll like it.