Visnumaya waxes lyrical

We had an issue with noise control recently; just in time for Gaura Purnima. As one devotee suggested: Sounds a lot like the Lords lila with the Chand Kazi doesn’t it?…perhaps we should take all the assembled devotees on a “walking mantra jam” on Sunday night, and complete with flaming torches, pay our neighbors a visit? (Just joking).

Here’s the letter we wrote to the man in charge at the Wellington City Council:

Dear Matthew,

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to speak to you personally yet, but I have been given your email from one of your colleagues.

We are a Hare Krishna community, since 10yrs on Vivian Street in the inner city. We have a very nice centre there in which some of us congregate daily for meditation, and as a larger group congregate on Saturday and Sunday later afternoon/early evening.

Recently we have received a complaint from a neighbour as to the noise level of our chanting (mantra chanting with instruments). We have not changed the way we do things in the last 10yrs at least, so a complaint is a surprise. Usually we would have the windows open, which I understand would project the chanting further than the distance of our own four walls, but since we haven’t received unfavourable opinions from any of our neighbours about this we have left them open in a mood of no concern. I think the chanting is very beautiful, yet to our neighbour it has been deemed too loud. We respect this, so from now on will have our windows shut, and curtains drawn as early as possible. I hope this solves the issue. We don’t like to cause a disturbance, but at the same time the music must continue as a means of devotional worship.

The hours we play music are as follows:

Saturday 5.00pm - 6.00pm

Sunday 6:15pm - 7.30pm

Very minimal as you can see.

On occasions we have a festival for the public in which we share food, music, philosophy…many people come, students, professionals, artists, and enjoy the good spirits. This Sunday in celebration of the Golden full moon, called ‘Gaura Purnima’ we have such a festival. It is a festival of deep spiritual awareness (never is there intoxication involved). The hours as above in which music will be played stays the same, but with more people may prove to be louder. I will abide by the rule of keeping the windows shut and hope this will suffice as pacification for our neighbour. Again, it is such a short time to endure a bit of melody.

We will take a visit to our neighbour (amidst an apartment block), and ask what we can do to minimise her discomfort. She also has to bear in mind that she does live in the inner-city, and must expect this occasionally. What we do is not that bad; and we have now taken measure to minimise our impact.

Am I approaching this issue from the right angle Matthew? Please let me know if there is something further I should consider.

I am easily available on email to discuss further or on cellphone.

Kind Regards,

Visnu-maya