Another institutional quirk.

The books really need some editing then, there's mistakes all through them:


From SB introduction:

But Lord Caitanya asked His followers to disobey the orders of the Kazi, and they went on with their saṅkīrtana (chanting) party as usual.

From CC. Adi17:

When the saṅkīrtana movement thus started, no one in Navadvīpa could hear any sound other than the words “Hari! Hari!” and the beating of the mrdaṅga and clashing of hand bells.

Lord Caitanya ordered, “Go peform saṅkīrtana! Today I shall kill all the Muslims!”

"In the evening I shall perform saṅkīrtana in each and every town. Therefore you should all decorate the city in the evening.

From CC. Madhya11:

When the tumultuous vibration of saṅkīrtana resounded, all good fortune immediately awakened, and the sound penetrated the whole universe through the fourteen planetary systems.

When the congregational chanting began, ecstatic love immediately overflooded everything, and all the residents of Jagannātha Purī came running.

Everyone was astonished to see such a performance of saṅkīrtana, and they all agreed that never before had kīrtana been so performed and ecstatic love of God so exhibited.

As the circumambulation was performed, the four kīrtana parties sang in front and in the rear. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu fell down to the ground, Śrī Nityānanda Rāya Prabhu lifted Him up.

While kīrtana was going on, there was a transformation of ecstatic love and much tears, jubilation, trembling, perspiration and deep resounding in the body of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Upon seeing this transformation, all the people present became very much astonished.

Such are the symptoms of pure devotees when they are chanting. All the pure devotees are as bright as sunshine, and their bodily luster is very effulgent. In addition, their performance of saṅkīrtana is unparalleled.

“I have never before seen such ecstatic love, nor heard the vibration of the holy name of the Lord chanted in such a way, nor seen such dancing during saṅkīrtana.”

Because the temple of Lord Jagannātha is situated at Jagannātha Purī, many devotees from all parts of the world came to perform saṅkīrtana in glorification of the Lord. All these devotees were certainly seen and heard by Mahārāja Pratāparudra, but he herein admits that the kīrtana performed by the associates of the Lord was unique. He had never before heard such saṅkīrtana nor seen such attractive features manifest by the devotees. The members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness should go to India during the birthday ceremony of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu at Māyāpura and perform saṅkīrtana congregationally. This will attract the attention of all the important personalities in India, just as the beauty, bodily luster and saṅkīrtana performance by the associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu attracted the attention of Mahārāja Pratāparudra.

There were altogether seven parties of saṅkīrtana, and in each party two men were beating drums. Thus fourteen drums were being played at once. The sound was tumultuous, and all the devotees became mad.

When the saṅkīrtana resounded, it filled the three worlds. Indeed, no one could hear mundane sounds or musical instruments other than the saṅkīrtana.

Lord Jagannātha was very pleased by the saṅkīrtana, and He brought His car to a standstill just to see the performance.

King Pratāparudra also was astonished to see the saṅkīrtana. He became inactive and was converted to ecstatic love of Kṛṣṇa.

OK so sankirtan is correct. Why the change to Harinam then?

I can find literally dozens of sites refering to it as harinam and even have harinam in their url but no mention of sankirtan. What is the reasoning for this?

No, I just wanted to know why. It's obviously incorrect usage, but I thought there may have been a reason for it other than just laziness/ignorance/slang.

>It's the same as saying devotees are doing 'sankirtan' when they are in fact selling paintings, stickers, (or as in the case of one sannyasi who comes here to collect, chocolates.) or collecting 'for the poor.'

So it's not actually to be confused with sankirtan? Harinam actually means going out in public and loosely doing things in Hari's name?

At least in CZ, these two words nowadays refer to two different things:
harinam=public singing of mahamantra, sankirtan=distribution of SP's books

So after 500 years of Sankirtan meaning congregational chanting, it now doesn't.

What will Harinama or Sankirtana mean in another 30 years?

The problem is the loose standard and unnecessary changes ISKCON endorses.

Actually when we jioned we were practically instructed according to our unique ''Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada '' preaching favour......,sankirtan means'' complete glorification'' which incorporates all devotional preaching , paraphenalia laxmi collection activities and even devotees working in ''normal jobs''.Who also sacrifice everything to serve guru and krishna! While ''harinam'' is singularly ''chanting in the street''.This was the practical implementation of srila Prabhupada's ''demons and devotees'' mood .....coupled with the yukta vairagya mood.Hence preaching success was acheived within the uniquely unfavourable demoniac western preaching environment. Such surrendered devotees also were keenly adept at doing everything in a completely enthusiastic attitude and slightly ''aggressive do or die mentality'' which was symptomatic of this soldier like mood.Hence narayanna maharaja's flavour of preaching has been unable to acheive the same preaching results as a consequence!

>ISKCON endorses? Who in ISKCON?

...

"Sankirtana means preaching, so for some time try in other ways to spread our Krishna philosophy anywhere and everywhere, by selling books, as many as possible, by holding kirtana and classes in schools and college--wherever there is preaching, that is Sankirtana. You have an American brain, now use it to think of new ways to preach in Japan." (letter to: Sudama -- Delhi 20 November, 1971)

Anyone in ISKCON endorses it by continuing to use Harinam where Sankirtan is correct.

The irony of you using that quote is palatable. Nowhere in it does he use the term Harinam, it's all Sankirtana.

SGD: Harinam means Hari's name. Sankirtan means congregational chanting.

Please forgive me if I sound abrupt or rude. I am very glad to have somewhere to discuss these things.

Wow you found a quote of him using Harinam. Well done, that's all I need.

My own personal preaching efforts are minuscule, I distribute a few Gitas and Higher Tastes to friends and try to explain certain aspects of Krsna Consciousness.

Where are stickers sold during harinamas?

Originally all devotees were doing it combined. But later (in some places) -- sankirtana became raising money, and harinama became a once a month non-profit event. Yes, originally sankirtana (selling btgs) was done together with harinama-sankirtana. Later on 'sankirtana' traveling parties became more and more specialized in selling, ending up in stickers sankirtana. Anyway, the times are gone I guess.

US, AU, NZ (yes not CZ;-)

The Hare Krishna food tent I see every year at a music festival in Tasmania had roughly 3x the amount of knick knacks to books and devotional paraphernalia. Heaps of bracelets and ornamental things like elephants. They had about 5 sets of chanting beads and bags, a lot of poor quality incense and some books. $35 for a 1972 Gita was a pretty big ripoff, considering I got a case of 20 delivered to my door for $7 a piece.

No smile stickers or indian paintings though!

To use everything in krishna's service is not ''complete glorification ''of sri krishna ?Recently our temple performed yagna's for our congregations general benefit and to help their creation of wealth to support iskcon!Since we no longer have sankirtan devotees .....only congregation donations to maintain the temple!Our management is truly convinced such yagna's are sanctioned by Raghunatha' das goswami and according to his direction they performed a wonderful exciting 5 pit yagna for everyones benefit!Very vedic and obviously pleasing to sri krishna chaitanya mahaprabhu!Krishna was the centre and so was the chanting!....In my opinion it was complete glorification!

sri_govinda_das:

To use everything in krishna's service is not ''complete glorification ''of sri krishna ?Recently our temple performed yagna's for our congregations general benefit and to help their creation of wealth to support iskcon!Since we no longer have sankirtan devotees .....only congregation donations to maintain the temple!Our management is truly convinced such yagna's are sanctioned by Raghunatha' das goswami and according to his direction they performed a wonderful exciting 5 pit yagna for everyones benefit!Very vedic and obviously pleasing to sri krishna chaitanya mahaprabhu!Krishna was the centre and so was the chanting!....In my opinion it was complete glorification!

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

“For spiritual progress in this age of Kali, there is no alternative, no alternative, no alternative to the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.”

34. “What Is ISKCON?”
When Srila Prabhupada visited Hawaii, he had to deal with controversial persons who claimed to be his followers and yet denounced the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Prabhupada wanted to encourage everyone to go on chanting Hare Krishna, yet at the same time he wanted to clearly establish that his sincere follower works within ISKCON. The questions and answers after his lectures in Hawaii often dealt with these matters.
“What is ISKCON?” asked a long-haired beach boy wearing a japa beadbag.
“ISKCON?” Srila Prabhupada replied. “It is a simple thing. You do not know?” Then he described what each letter in the acronym ISKCON stood for. “We have a worldwide society, so we say international.”
“Well, are you ISKCON?” the boy asked. This was a loaded question. The devotees had been preaching that Srila Prabhupada was ISKCON because one cannot refuse service to ISKCON and yet claim to serve Srila Prabhupada. But the anti-ISKCON party had argued that Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON were different. Prabhupada was pure and transcendental; ISKCON was corrupt, a mere organization.
Srila Prabhupada started to laugh. “I am not ISKCON,” he said. “I am a member of ISKCON.” Then he looked at his disciple who was the GBC secretary for Hawaii. Prabhupada pointed at him and said, “And he is a member of ISKCON.” Then he pointed to the ISKCON Hawaii temple president. “And he is a member of ISKCON. We are all members of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.” Almost everyone present cried out, “Jaya!” Then Srila Prabhupada looked back, smiling. There was no further challenge to his perfect, humble reply.
Praghosha dasa, interview. (SDG, SP Nectar 1-34)

Sankirtan was personally suggested by my guru as complete glorification ......as using everything in krishnas service.,he was a advocate of using women ,children,wealth and all manner of so called material assets to please krishnas senses.His mood was personally passed on to him by Srila Prabhupada whom he served intimately.
Harinam was seen as kirtan in the streets .....both are uniquely different in nature,but are meant to be utilized for krishna complete glorification.