Beginning of kiirtan 

Once in 1959 Ba'ba' (Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) travelled by train to Kiirnahar. Ba'ba' travelled with His Personal Assistant, Pranayda. There were then no monks or nuns in A'nanda Ma'rga. The train went through the district of Birbhum in West Bengal. It was a small train from the British days. 

After some time, the train stopped due to some mechanical problem.  The driver tried to repair the engine. 

While waiting for the train to be repaired, Ba'ba' got down from the train and, as if Ba'ba' knew how long the train would remain there, walked across the adjacent field. Pranayda and another Margii followed Ba'ba'. Pranayda was very worried that the train would leave without them. 

Ba'ba' continued to walk for some time.  Finally, Ba'ba' came to a big "burning gha't" - a place where people burn the dead bodies. The local people called it the Kaunka'lma'lini gha't. Ba'ba' then pointed to one particular spot and told them that it was the place where Caetanya Maha'prabhu had meditated. He editated in that spot for nearly six years with deep concentration. In the course of his practice, he realized that meditation was simply not possible for the ordinary people. 

They just did not have the ability to perform the difficult practices of sa'dhana' (spiritual practices with intense effort). How then would the common people be benefited? While thinking of this, Caetanya Maha'prabhu heard a Cosmic voice telling him, "Sit for meditation and make a siddhamantra for the common people." 

Following that instruction, Caetanya again sat for meditation. Then, he invented the mantra, "Hare krs'n'a, hare krs'n'a, krs'n'a krs'n'a, hare hare. Hare ra'ma, hare ra'ma, ra'ma ra'ma, hare hare." Ba'ba' said that nobody knew the secret history of kiirtan. Caetanya Maha'prabhu empowered the mantra and made it valid for five hundred years. He added that humanity now needed a new way, a new path to liberation. For this purpose, Ta'raka Brahma (Supreme Consciousness in its liberating aspect) had come in the twentieth century to show humanity a new path to liberation. 

This time, Shrii Shrii A'nandamu'rtijii gave us a new siddhamantra - "Ba'ba' Na'ma Kevalam"! 

(From "Living with Ba'ba' " by A'c. Tapeshvara'nanda Avt.)