The Instruments of Sankirtana – Karatal, Visana, Kara-Tali

Karatal: Hand Cymbals

During sankirtana, the karatals ring out their famous ‘one-two-three’ rhythm, which conveys the following three messages to the devotees:

1) I will be victorious over death.

2) I will be victorious over Yamaräja.

3) I will very happily be victorious over all his servants.

By hearing the sound of the karatals from afar, these three (death, Yamaräja and his servants) certainly do not come anywhere near the performers of the kirtana.

Visana: Horn

When devotion arises during näma-sankirtana, it acts like a fire to burn to ashes the impurities within the mind. Thereafter, the auspicious horn blasts away this filthy residue by the sound issuing forth from the path of its tube.

Kara-tali: Clapping the Hands

Many birds of sin reside in the tree of the body. But they are undoubtedly chased away by clapping the hands during kirtana. “In the Dvärakä-mahätmya there is a statement by Närada wherein he asserts, ‘From the body of any person who claps and dances before the Deity, showing manifestations of ecstasy, all the birds of sinful activities fly away upward.’ Just as by clapping the hands one can cause many birds to fly away, similarly the birds of all sinful activities which are sitting on the body can be made to fly away simply by dancing and clapping the hands before the Deity of Krsna.’ ” (NOD)