He liked graceful dancing

Revatinandana : Srila Prabhupada gave a Sunday feast lecture about kirtan, and he said things that I never heard him say at other times, particularly not during a lecture. He remarked that melodic instruments, including the harmonium, are not meant for kirtan, and he explained why. He said that the ear will automatically follow musical strains, and then our attention will be diverted from the mantra. He said that rhythm instruments are good for kirtan because they make one more inclined to dance, and dancing, in turn, unlocks devotion. He liked graceful dancing. He used to mention that Jayatirtha was a graceful dancer. He said, "See how he dances. This is very good. This will help one feel more devotion." Another time he told Vishnujana that he did not like melodies that had long, extended notes in them. He liked the melody to be filled with the mantra. During the lecture he gave that day he also said, "Don't harmonize during the response." The leader may sing little variations, but the group should sing a steady response. One person shouldn't be singing one melody and another doing another melody during the response. "These things," he said, "will help one pay more attention to the mantra as one is chanting and dancing. That way one will get the maximum benefit, and the kirtan will also become more ecstatic." He also said that the dancing should be graceful and gentlemanly. Then, during the second kirtan, he got off the vyasasana and danced in the middle of the kirtan party. He danced back and forth very gracefully in what we called the "swami step." After a while he put his hands up and started leaping up in the air straight up and down. He wasn't shaking his body around. His hands were up, and he was leaping in the air. He kept leaping and leaping and leaping for a long time, and we were doing it with him. I got tired. I stopped and started to dance back and forth at one point. I was twenty-two years old at the time, and he was over seventy. Yet Prabhupada went right on leaping. He seemed to have no physical exhaustion at all. I was impressed because I thought, "I play basketball and here this guy can jump more than I can." I shouldn't say "guy," but those are the kind of thoughts that were going through my mind. It was the first time I had ever seen him dance, and I was amazed.