Call Out With Love!

After every kirtan what do devotees immediately do? Pay obeisances...yes that's true, but along with paying obeisances one person will normally chant the prema dhvani prayers and the others will respond with "Jaya!" So what exactly are the prema dhvani prayers, really?

Prema dhvani literally translates to words of love. Did you know that? I have to admit up to a few moments ago I didn't know that prema dhvani actually means words of love. I just knew that these prayers were in glorification to various personalities and I knew the exact translation to one line of these prayers thanks to HH Candramauli Swami. A few months ago Maharaja was speaking about one line in the prema dhvani prayers and after hearing him give the English translation and speak about it, it immediately became my favorite line in these prayers. What's the line you ask?

"Premse kaho Sri Krishna Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasadi Gaura-bhakta-vrinda ki jaya!"

Yes, this is the Panca Tattva mantra and that on its own makes it an awesome prayer, but what is it that really touched me? It was the premse kaho part which literally translates to "Call out with love!"

How amazing is our Vaisnava tradition that just within this one glorification our entire tattva is encapsulated! Because that's just it....everything in Krsna consciousness is about the emotion behind it and that emotion is love.

It's about the consciousness behind understanding why we do things, because if we understand then only can emotion come into play. Every time we bow down to pay obeisances we should remember that we are glorifying and hearing words of love and that we are also calling out and expressing that glorification with love. If we can do this then we can truly value and sincerely pay obeisances.

This should become our motto...that whenever we chant, sing in kirtan, speak with other devotees and chant the prema dhvani prayers that we call it out with love!