Hare Krishna Society

KARMA IS NOT JUST A 5 LETTER WORD

Hare Krsna to all

Pranams

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Recently a devotee commented to me that he thought why should we have to worry ourselves over fruitive work or anything else for that matter since , and he quoted Krsna where He says,” I maintain what they have and provide what they lack” ?? His conclusion being was that we really didn’t have to concern ourselves with

anything else but following the 4 reg’s, chant 16 rounds a day, worship the Deity, and basically try to think as much as possible of Krsna throughout the day. I think this was his understanding of our “basic spiritual obligations”.

This behavior is very good, but this is not the end of it, and this article will attempt to show why. If I am wrong, then I hope some devotees will correct this misunderstanding for me.

So the main point is this- If we want to go back to Godhead then we must be 100% pure and on the transcendental platform. If we are actually on the transcendental platform, this means every action we perform is for the satisfaction of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krsna, and then this work is A-karma, or without reaction.

Now consider just this one conversation with Srila Prabhupada where he explains how any devotee who is NOT giving 50% of his income to the Krsna Consciousness Movement , then all that work he does is unauthorized work, or generating karma of some sort. Here it is…

750203mw.haw Conversations 371406/530501
Devotee (1): No, I know, but for his actions other than just following
the four regulative principles and chanting sixteen rounds. He does so
many other things during the day. Where does he derive his authority
if he’s not, let’s say, living in the temple?
Prabhupada: I do not follow. The authority is guru. You have accepted.
Bali Mardana: For everything.
Jayatirtha: Say I have some outside job, I’m living outside, but I’m
not giving 50% of my income. So then that work that I’m doing, is it
actually under the authority of the guru?
Prabhupada: Then you are not following the instruction of guru. That
is plain fact.
Jayatirtha: So that means that whole activity during the day, working,
that means I am not following the instruction of the guru. It’s
unauthorized activity.
Prabhupada: Yes. If you don’t follow the instruction of guru, then you
are fallen down immediately. That is the way. Otherwise why you sing,
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado. It is my duty to satisfy guru.
Otherwise I am nowhere. So if you prefer to be nowhere, then you
disobey as you like. But if you want to be steady in your position,
then you have to follow strictly the instruction of guru.

Devotee (1): We can understand all of your instructions simply by
reading your books.
Prabhupada: Yes. Anyway, follow the instruction. That is required.
Jayatirtha: So the purpose of having the Society is to show the
devotees how they can always be twenty-four hours engaged according to
your instruction.
Prabhupada: Yes, that is helping one another. If I am deficient, by
seeing your example I shall correct myself. This is the idea, not that
a fool’s paradise: all fools and join together. Not like that.

So from this above example, we can easily see that according to Srila Prabhupada

that we must donate at least 50% of our income to some Krsna Conscious activity.

Now that may be well and good for some devotees , like the ones living in the Bangalore

temple, who live there, and do some sort of service all day long, give all the money they collect to the temple, and the temple provides for them, but what about the rest of us who live in this rotten material world and have to “work” for our bread??

I am not crying over spilt milk because of what happened to iskcon, but am only asking the question to all, that how do WE live in this world– transcendentally?

It is practically impossible for me and I would suspect most if not all others, to give 50% of their income up.

OK some might say, well I have several Deities of Krsna here in our home/ashram and “everything “

we do here is for Their pleasure.

Being a grhastha, I know this is just not the case. We may say we are doing everything for Krsna, but how many of us engages a “lot of time” in Krsna Seva and maybe a “little time” here and there in some sense gratification which has nothing at all do with the Service of our Deities or Srila Prabhupada?

So if that is true, then what is the result of those activities? Are they not karma producing?

One time Sruti Kirti told a story when Prabhupada was in the LA Temple.

Prabhupada had his japa beads on his hand, then took the bead bag

and tossed it on his table and said: “there my 16 rounds are finished,

now I can do any damn thing I want.”

First of all in BG, Krsna says-

Bg 7.28 T Persons who have acted piously in previous lives and in this life,
whose sinful actions are completely eradicated and who are freed from
the duality of delusion, engage themselves in My service with
determination.

PURPORT

Those eligible for elevation to the transcendental position are
mentioned in this verse. For those who are sinful, atheistic, foolish
and deceitful, it is very difficult to transcend the duality of desire
and hate. Only those who have passed their lives in practicing the
regulative principles of religion, who have acted piously and who have
conquered sinful reactions can accept devotional service and gradually
rise to the pure knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Then, gradually, they can meditate in trance on the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. That is the process of being situated on the
spiritual platform.

The very next verse in BG states-

Continue reading →

Bg 8.5 purport–in this verse the importance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is stressed. Anyone who quits his body in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is at once transferred to the transcendental abode of the Supreme Lord. The word smaran (remembering) is important. Remembrance of Kṛṣṇa is not possible for the impure soul who has not practiced Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service. To remember Kṛṣṇa one should chant the mahāmantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, incessantly, following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya, being more tolerant than the tree, humbler than the grass and offering all respect to others without requiring respect in return. In such a way one will be able to depart from the body successfully remembering Kṛṣṇa and so attain the supreme goal.

BG 9.3-Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this material world.

PURPORT

The faithless cannot accomplish this process of devotional service; that is the purport of this verse. Faith is created by association with devotees. Unfortunate people, even after hearing all the evidence of Vedic literature from great personalities, still have no faith in God. They are hesitant and cannot stay fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. Thus faith is a most important factor for progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that one should have complete conviction that simply by serving the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa he can achieve all perfection. That is called real faith. ….

After reading Bhagavad-gītā one should promptly come to the conclusion of Bhagavad-gītā: one should give up all other engagements and adopt the service of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead. If one is convinced of this philosophy of life, that is faith. Now the development of that faith is the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

There are three divisions of Kṛṣṇa conscious men. In the third class are those who have no faith. If they are engaged in devotional service officially, for some ulterior purpose, they cannot achieve the highest perfectional stage. Most probably they will slip, after some time. They may become engaged, but because they haven’t complete conviction and faith, it is very difficult for them to continue in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We have practical experience in discharging our missionary activity that some people come and apply themselves to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness with some hidden motive, and as soon as they are economically a little well-situated, they give up this process and take to their old ways again. It is only by faith that one can advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As far as the development of faith is concerned, one who is well versed in the literatures of devotional service and has attained the stage of firm faith is called a first-class person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And in the second class are those who are not very advanced in understanding the devotional scriptures but who automatically have firm faith that Kṛṣṇa bhakti or service to Kṛṣṇa is the best course and so in good faith have taken it up. Thus they are superior to the third class who have neither perfect knowledge of the scriptures nor good faith but by association and simplicity are trying to follow. The third-class person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness may fall down, but when one is in the second class or first class, he does not fall down. One in the first class will surely make progress and achieve the result at the end. As far as the third-class person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is concerned, although he has faith in the conviction that devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is very good, he has no knowledge of Kṛṣṇa through the scriptures like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. Sometimes these third-class persons in Kṛṣṇa consciousness have some tendency toward karma-yoga and jñāna-yoga, and sometimes they are disturbed, but as soon as the infection of karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga is vanquished, they become second-class or first-class persons in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

BG 9.12-Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.

PURPORT–There are many devotees who assume themselves to be in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service but at heart do not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, as the Absolute Truth. For them, the fruit of devotional service-going back to Godhead-will never be tasted.

BG 10.2-Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods and the sages.

PURPORT

As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. No one is greater than Him; He is the cause of all causes. Here it is also stated by the Lord personally that He is the cause of all the demigods and sages. Even the demigods and great sages cannot understand Kṛṣṇa; they can understand neither His name nor His personality, so what is the position of the so-called scholars of this tiny planet?

Continue reading →

Stealing from Bhagavan

Elevation to Krsna Consciousness Ch 2

“From the highest executive in his skyscraper office down to the coolie in the street—all are working with the thought of accumulating wealth, legally or illegally. Actually it is all illegal, for to work for one’s self-interest is both unlawful and destructive. Even the cultivation of spiritual realization for one’s own self-interest is unlawful and destructive. The point is that all activities must be directed to the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa and His service.

May 10 1969 Ohio conversation
Prabhupada: Suppose you have stolen something from somebody’s house or some friends. You will not be happy, even possessing that thing, stolen property. But if someday you come to return that thing to that friend, you will be happy. What do you think, Hayagrīva?

Hayagrīva: Yes.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Then you will feel relieved. So therefore the real thing is that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. We are artificially enjoying the stolen property. Therefore if you go on enjoying like that, then this frustration will come. But before coming to that frustration, if we return this property to Kṛṣṇa, then we become happy. So best thing is to return everything to Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And you will not be a loser. You will be gainer, just like Bali Mahārāja. Actually, if you think, everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Nothing belongs to you. This is māyā.Kṛṣṇa’s property you are thinking, “mine.” Is this land of American belongs to you actually? It is stolen property. You have stolen from the Red Indians or from Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is, not you, everyone. Somebody is claiming, “This much my property,” somebody is claiming, “This much my property,” but this much or that much, everything belongs toKṛṣṇa. It is stolen property. There is another example in Indian words, that hira cauri kiya abhicaurya, khira caurī kiyā abhicaura. Hira means diamond, and khīra means… What is that called? Cucumber, a small? So if somebody has stolen a cucumber from other’s tree, so he is captured. And another man has stolen some diamond. He is also arrested. So from the police, both are thieves. If the man says, “Oh, what I have stolen? I have stolen a little cucumber. It is nothing, worth not even two cent or one cent. Why you are arresting me? He is thief. He has stolen a big diamond,” no, in the eyes of law, he is also thief; he is also thief. Everyone is thief. Anyone who is not in Kṛṣṇaconsciousness, he is thief. He’ll not be happy. The best thing is to return whatever he has possessed: “Kṛṣṇa, it is Yours. Take.” Finish business. Mānasa deha geha, yo kichu mora. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s song… Now, everything we possess in mind. Actually we don’t possess. Suppose I am possessing all this. As soon as I go from this body, all possession will remain here. I’ll not take anything. So I don’t possess. But in mind I am thinking, “Oh, this is mine. This is mine. Where is another box? Why it is not coming?” And possessing in mind. If I leave this body, either the box here or in the Chicago or anywhere else, what is the difference? There is no difference. But because I am possessing in the mind, “Oh, that box is mine,” so I am asking, “Whether it is Chicago or it is here, it is there? Why it is not coming?” So possession in the mind. Actually you don’t possess. Mānasa deha geha. So by that supposingly possessing, we have got our mind, we have got our body, then expansion of body, wife, children, family, society, country. In this way we possess so many things. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, mānasa deha geha, yo kichu mora: “Now whatever I possess, either in the mind or in the family or in the society or in the body—whatever I have got, I surrender unto You, my dear Kṛṣṇa.” Mānasa deha geha, yo kichu…, arpilun tuā pade nanda kiśora: “Nanda-kiśora, O the son ofNanda, I give unto You.” Marobi rakhobi, yo icchā tohāra: “Now whatever You like, You can do, either you kill me or You protect me, as You like. You are the proprietor. You have right to do everything.” This is surrender. This is fullKṛṣṇa consciousness. That is not possible immediately. Therefore we have to practice.

Continue reading →

The tendency to become a Sahajiya- July 8, 2016

Which means one who takes things cheaply or changes or concocts items of devotional service and thereby does not obey the instructions laid down by the authorized acaryas in disciplic sucession.

Hare Krsna–

Below, for those interested, we have compiled several quotes of warnings by Srila Prabhupada, for those who still consider him their spiritual mater. And as he has stated, if we do not accept verbatim whatever he says, then we should not have accepted him as our guru and thereby become a hypocrite by disobedience.

These warnings are not complicated, but they still are warnings that need to be followed, now and into the future as the tendency for taking things cheaply seems to be a common trait of this kali yuga.

Damaghosa das

Adi 7.48 : PURPORT :

In the paramparā system, the instructions taken from the bona fide spiritual master must also be based on revealed Vedic scriptures.One who is in the line of disciplic succession cannot manufacture his own way of behavior. There are many so-called followers of the Vaiṣṇava cult in the line of Caitanya Mahāprabhu who do not scrupulously follow the conclusions of the śāstras, and therefore they are considered to be apa-sampradāya, which means “outside of the sampradāya.” Some of these groups are known as āula, bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jata-gosāñi, ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī and gaurāṅga-nāgarī.In order to follow strictly the disciplic succession of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, one should not associate with these apasampradāya communities.

Madhya 1.271 : PURPORT :

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu warned all His followers not to become independent or impudent. Unfortunately, after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, many apa-sampradāyas (so-called followers) invented many ways not approved by the ācāryas.Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has described them as the āula, bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāni sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāñi, ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī and gaurāṅga-nāgarī.

Madhya 8.83 : PURPORT: sruti-smrti-puranadi- pancaratra-vidhim vina aikantiki harer bhaktir utpatayaiva kalpate :

He clearly mentions in this verse that one must refer to the Vedic literature and other, supplementary literatures and follow the conclusion of the Vedas.An invented devotional attitude simply creates disturbances in the transcendental realm.If a person overly addicted to family life takes to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Kṛṣṇa consciousness to earn a livelihood, his activity is certainly offensive.One should not become a caste guru and sell mantras for the benefit of mundane customers, nor should one make disciples for a livelihood. All these activities are offensive. One should not make a livelihood by forming a professional band to carry out congregational chanting, nor should one perform devotional service when one is attached to mundane society, friendship and love. Nor should one be dependent on so-called social etiquette. All of this is mental speculation. None of these things can be compared to unalloyed devotional service.No one can compare unalloyed devotional service, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to mundane activities.There are many unauthorized parties pretending to belong to the Śrī Caitanya cult, and some are known as āula, bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāñi, ativāḍi, cūḍādhārī and gaurāṅga-nāgari.

Adi-lila 1.3 — Mayapur, March 27, 1975 : 750327CC.MAY :

Utpātā, simply disturbance. Yata mat tata patha: “I can manufacture my own way.” This rascaldom has been condemned by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.He says that harer bhaktiḥ…You will find many so-called bhaktas crying, falling down on the ground. But immediately after, he is smoking bidi. So why this is going on? Because they do not follow the injunction of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.Chanting, dancing very loudly, and after the performance is finished—I have seen it—”Can you give me a bidi?” You see? “My throat is now dried up.”So this is utpātā. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has described this kind of so-called devotional attitude is simply disturbance. They imitate. Imitate. Therefore Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has condemned.There are so many apa-sampradāya going on in the name of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s devotee. Who are they?Āula, bāula, kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi, sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jata-gosāñi. Then ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī, gaurāṅga-nāgarī, tota kahe ei tāra saṅga nāhi kori: Tota Bābājī, he says, “I do not associate with these classes of men.”So after disappearance of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, so many apa-sampradāya sprang up. So we should be very much careful that… Sampradāya means who are carefully following the Vedic principle.Therefore Kavirāja Gosvāmī, although asserting the truth, he is prepared to give Vedic evidences. Now he has begun. (More…)

Los Angeles, February 7, 1969 :690207BA.LA:

In this way there was, Caitanya’s Mahāprabhu’s time, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement was going nicely, very. And after Him, there was six Gosvāmīs. They also managed. Then, as it is the rule of this material world that you start something very good but in due course of time the things deteriorate, so this Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, also deteriorated in due course of time.Say, after the disappearance of the Gosvāmīns, about 250 years after, the things became most ridiculous.The so-called devotees… Their representatives still are continuing. They are called prākṛta-sahajiyā. Prākṛta-sahajiyā means taking things very easily.They thought that Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is just like a boy and girl’s lusty affairs. And in this way they took it that sex life as religion.Even Vivekananda, he also criticized, “Vaiṣṇavism is sex religion.”So the things deteriorated in such a way that… And similarly, as Advaita Prabhu was afflicted, similarly, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura… He was at that time a householder, government officer and magistrate. He felt very much: “Oh, Lord Caitanya’s movement is so… People… As soon as one will see that he belongs to the Caitanya sampradāya, he’ll deride,‘Oh, these are all rascals, simply taking sex pleasures. That’s all.’ ” There were thirteen pseudo Vaiṣṇavas, thirteen sects:Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sahajiyā, Sakhībhekī. Sāṅi community…You have heard that in London there is a Sāṅi community. Sāṅi Hindu center you have heard from Mukunda? The Sāṅi is there still.So there are thirteen pseudo pretenders belonging to the Caitanya-sampradāya. They are called first Āula, Bāula, Karttābhajā, Neḍā, Daraveṣa, Sāṅi, Sakhībhekī, Gaurāṅga-nagarī, Cūḍādhārī, Ativāḍī, and Smārta, Jāta-gosāñi. Like that, thirteen. (More…)

January 24, 1977, Bhuvanesvara : 770124r2.bhu :

Prabhupāda: Sakhībekhī. There are so many apasampradāyas, thirteen at least in the counting by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura: āula, bāula kartābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi sahajiyā, sakhībekhī. This sakhībekhī. Smārta, jāta-gosāñi, ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī, gaurāṅga-nāgarī. These thirteen, fourteen apasampradāyas.They are passing as Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s sampradāya. But they’re the worst, rejected.The sakhībekhī, dressing like…. To cheat Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is after the gopīs, so they have dressed like gopī, and Kṛṣṇa does not know that he’s a rascal man. (laughter) Just see. This is their intelligence, to…. “I have become a sakhī. Kṛṣṇa will embrace me and kiss me.” So Kṛṣṇa is so fool. (laughs) These rascals are doing that. Sakhībhekhī. There was a Lalitā-sakhi in Navadvīpa. All women surrounding him. Somebody is dressing him with red, what is called?

Continue reading →

Hare Krsna-below are a series of statements by Srila Prabhupada where he takes us thru the process of surrendering to God-Krsna, beginning with karma yoga all the way to pure bhakti yoga or pure devotional service.

He also mentions those of us in family life should take a deep long look at our home situation if it is not conducive to surrendering to the Lord.

Hare Krsna

damaghosa das

July 8 1976 Wash DC

Prabhupāda: If you are unfit for that occupation, why should you imitate, waste your time? If you are, you are fit for becoming a carpenter, why should you imitate a brāhmaṇa? Better be expert carpenter and serve Kṛṣṇa with the result of carpentry work. Then there is perfection. Saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam.

So suppose you are a carpenter. You earn something. So out of that your income, you offer something to Kṛṣṇa. If, even you are poor man, you can bring some fruit or flower to Kṛṣṇa. “Kṛṣṇa, I am poor man, I can’t give You anything more. But I have secured this fruit and flower. Kindly accept it.” Kṛṣṇa says, “Yes.” Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad aham aśnāmi [Bg. 9.26]. So where is the difficulty? Svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya. You remain a carpenter, but you worship Kṛṣṇa. That is not a very difficult job, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam.

Guest (3): But here in this country we have choices.

Prabhupāda: In this country or that country, there is no such distinction. This patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, any country you can get it. You cannot say in America there is no patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam, in India only. No. Everywhere it is available. Therefore this general prescription is there. Even Kṛṣṇa does not say Gaṅgā-jala. Because Gaṅgā, if you say Gaṅgā-jala, that is available in India. He says toyam, any jala, any water. Because any water, as soon as touches the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, it becomes Gaṅgā. Why Gaṅgā is so adored? Because it is coming from the toes of Kṛṣṇa. So any water touching Kṛṣṇa’s toes, that becomes Gaṅgā.

Vipina: Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we’re born each with a qualification, how is this qualification developed in our early years?

Prabhupāda: There is no question of developing any particular qualification. Whatever qualification you are, if you agree to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, that is the best qualification. It doesn’t matter what material qualification you have. It doesn’t matter. You simply acquire this qualification, that “From this day I fully surrender to Kṛṣṇa.” That everyone can do. Is there any difficulty? Simply he must agree, this qualification. That depends on him, agree or not agree. If you agree, then you become qualified. If you don’t agree, you remain disqualified. So that is intelligence. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate [Bg. 7.19]. After many, many births of struggle, one who is fully in knowledge, he surrenders to Kṛṣṇa. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān. Not the foolish. Foolish person cannot. But vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ [Bg. 7.19]. You can become immediately mahātmā by surrendering to Kṛṣṇa. That is intelligence. Why shall I wait for many many births to become a mahātmā? Let me surrender immediately and become a mahātmā. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ bhajanty ananya-manasaḥ [Bg. 9.13]—chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, become a mahātmā. It is not very difficult. You can become mahātmā immediately, within a second. But the disease is that you’ll not agree to Kṛṣṇa. That is the dangerous disease.

Dr. Sharma: When you say surrender, it means surrender of fruits of the action?

Prabhupāda: No, surrender your life. That includes surrender of fruits and everything. Surrender your life.

Dr. Sharma: Surrender He uses many places, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam [Bg. 9.26], karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana.

Prabhupāda: Yes, but that is not surrender. When you keep yourself in your so-called duty, that recommendation is there. But when you fully surrender, there is no more karma, everything is bhakti. And because you do not surrender, therefore He is recommending that you do your karma like this. But as soon as you surrender, you are above karma. Sa guṇān sama-tītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya, you are brahma-bhūtaḥ. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati [Bg. 18.54]. So long you do not surrender, He is linking your activities with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, “You do like this.” Then one day you’ll be able to surrender. Just like Dhruva Mahārāja, he wanted the kingdom better than his father, grandfather. So he had to undergo so much severe austerities. He got Kṛṣṇa. But when he got Kṛṣṇa, he said svāmin kṛtārtho ‘smi varam, “I don’t want any benediction.” So this position you can attain any moment, “My Lord, I surrender unto You. I don’t want anything from You. Kindly give me shelter at Your lotus feet.” This is the result of greatest tapasya. And Kṛṣṇa gives you protection. Kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati [Bg. 9.31]. So that is the highest perfection of life, to surrender to God without any reservations. Then life is perfect.

Vipina: Prabhupāda, even if a person is not willing to hear spiritual knowledge, when you come and speak, a person, you know, can develop faith in Kṛṣṇa or God. So why doesn’t Kṛṣṇa come and make it easy?

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa has already come. What I am speaking? Kṛṣṇa is there. But you have no eyes to see.

Vipina: All right, but we don’t have any eyes, someone may not have eyes to see who you are, may not be willing, but when you come…

Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s word are not different. If you find it different, then you have no eyes to see. Kṛṣṇa is absolute. When I quote Kṛṣṇa’s word, that means Kṛṣṇa.

Vipina: But everyone sees it as different.

Prabhupāda: Because he is a rascal. He has to become a sane man, then he will see. It requires tapasya. It is not so easy. That is called sahajiyā. Why you want such exalted things so easily? Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s words, they are the same. Vāco vācaḥ.(?) The same thing. Why you are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? If Kṛṣṇa’s name and Kṛṣṇa is not the same, then what is the use of wasting time? Hm? What is that? Abhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś?

Prabhupada: This is the realization of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, when you understand that nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaḥ, this name, Kṛṣṇa, is Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfection of chanting. Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ. Full representation or full Kṛṣṇa. Pūrṇaḥ śuddho nitya-mukto ‘bhinnatvāt, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s anything. Just like we are worshiping Kṛṣṇa. If you think this is a statue of Kṛṣṇa, it is different from Kṛṣṇa, then you are not worshiping properly. He is Kṛṣṇa. Arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-mati, these are instructions. So anyway, we may be in the imperfect stage of devotional service, but if you follow the instruction, then gradually you come to the perfectional stage. There is no hopelessness. Continue. It is not that immediately one becomes perfect. But if you continue with the process, then you’ll become perfect.

Madhya 10.63–Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “My dear Bhaṭṭācārya, just consider this man’s character. He went with Me to South India.

Madhya 10.64–“He left My company to associate with the Bhaṭṭathāris, but I rescued him from their company and brought him here.

Madhya 10.65–“Now that I have brought him here, I am asking him to leave. Now he can go wherever he likes, for I am no longer responsible for him.”

PURPORT-Kālā Kṛṣṇadāsa was influenced and allured by nomads or gypsies, who enticed him with women. Māyā is so strong that Kālā Kṛṣṇadāsa left Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s company to join gypsy women. Even though a person may associate with Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he can be allured by māyā and leave the Lord’s company due to his slight independence. Only one who is overwhelmed by māyā can be so unfortunate as to leave Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s company, yet unless one is very conscientious, the influence of māyā can drag one away, even though he be the personal assistant of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.And what to speak of others? The Bhaṭṭathāris used to increase their numbers by using women to allure outsiders. This is factual evidence showing that it is possible at any time to fall down from the Lord’s association. One need only misuse his little independence. Once fallen and separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s association, one becomes a candidate for suffering in the material world. Although rejected by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Kālā Kṛṣṇadāsa was given another chance, as the following verses relate.

Madhya 10.67–After this, the other devotees-headed by Nityānanda Prabhu, Jagadānanda, Mukunda and Dāmodara-began to consider a certain plan.

PURPORT-Even though a person is rejected by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the devotees of the Lord do not reject him; therefore the Lord’s devotees are more merciful than the Lord Himself. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura thus sings, chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā: one cannot be relieved from the material clutches without engaging in the service of pure devotees. The Lord Himself may sometimes be very hard, but the devotees are always kind. Thus Kālā Kṛṣṇadāsa received the mercy of the four devotees mentioned above.

Note-We can see from the above pastime, how important is the association of devotees who are even more merciful than God Himself

Note- it says above….

Dr. Sharma: When you say surrender, it means surrender of fruits of the action?

Prabhupāda: No, surrender your life. That includes surrender of fruits and everything. Surrender your life.

…So we make “think” we are surrendered to God-Krsna, but here one proof of how this process begins. Its not that all of a sudden, one simply surrenders. It can happen, but that is not the normal course of things which as SP says takes lifetimes of tapasya. And if we stick with “it”, that day will come.

Here is what the Bhagavad gita says about surrender…And if you notice carefully Prabhupada describes all 6 types of surrender listen in NOD within this one purport.

BG 18.66–Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.

PURPORT-The Lord has described various kinds of knowledge, processes of religion, knowledge of the Supreme Brahman, knowledge of the Supersoul, knowledge of the different types of orders and statuses of social life, knowledge of the renounced order of life, knowledge of nonattachment, sense and mind control, meditation, etc. He has described in so many ways different types of religion.Now, in summarizing Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that Arjuna should give up all the processes that have been explained to him; he should simply surrender to Kṛṣṇa. That surrender will save him from all kinds of sinful reactions, for the Lord personally promises to protect him.

In the Eighth Chapter it was said that only one who has become free from all sinful reactions can take to the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Thus one may think that unless he is free from all sinful reactions he cannot take to the surrendering process. To such doubts it is here said that even if one is not free from all sinful reactions, simply by the process of surrendering to Śrī Kṛṣṇa he is automatically freed. There is no need of strenuous effort to free oneself from sinful reactions. One should unhesitatingly accept Kṛṣṇa as the supreme savior of all living entities. With faith and love, one should surrender unto Him.

According to the devotional process, one should simply accept such religious principles that will lead ultimately to the devotional service of the Lord. One may perform a particular occupational duty according to his position in the social order, but if by executing his duty one does not come to the point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all his activities are in vain.

Anything that does not lead to the perfectional stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should be avoided. One should be confident that in all circumstances Kṛṣṇa will protect him from all difficulties. There is no need of thinking how one should keep the body and soul together. Kṛṣṇa will see to that. One should always think himself helpless and should consider Kṛṣṇa the only basis for his progress in life. As soon as one seriously engages himself in devotional service to the Lord in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, at once he becomes freed from all contamination of material nature. There are different processes of religion and purificatory processes by cultivation of knowledge, meditation in the mystic yoga system, etc., but one who surrenders unto Kṛṣṇa does not have to execute so many methods. That simple surrender unto Kṛṣṇa will save him from unnecessarily wasting time. One can thus make all progress at once and be freed from all sinful reaction.

One should be attracted by the beautiful vision of Kṛṣṇa. His name is Kṛṣṇa because He is all-attractive. One who becomes attracted by the beautiful, all-powerful, omnipotent vision of Kṛṣṇa is fortunate. There are different kinds of transcendentalists-some of them are attached to the impersonal Brahman vision, some of them are attracted by the Supersoul feature, etc., but one who is attracted to the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and, above all, one who is attracted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Kṛṣṇa Himself, is the most perfect transcendentalist. In other words, devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, in full consciousness, is the most confidential part of knowledge, and this is the essence of the whole Bhagavad-gītā. Karma-yogīs, empiric philosophers, mystics, and devotees are all called transcendentalists, but one who is a pure devotee is the best of all. The particular words used here, mā śucaḥ, “Don’t fear, don’t hesitate, don’t worry,” are very significant. One may be perplexed as to how one can give up all kinds of religious forms and simply surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, but such worry is useless.

Continue reading →

Jaya om vishnu-pada paramahamsa parivrajakacarya

astottara-sata sri srimad bhaktisiddhanta sarasvati goswami maharaja prabhupada ki jaya

I offer my respectful obeisances to

all of you. All Glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada

Srila Prabhupada remembers his Acaryadeva

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say that “If people do not come to hear this philosophy, don’t be discouraged. You sit down in a room and try to preach.

The four walls will hear you. Don’t be disappointed.”

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Lecture-Day after Sri Gaura-Purnima- March 5, 1969, Hawaii

Prabhupada: Therefore my Guru Maharaja used to say, “Poor fund of knowledge.” Whenever he used to

designate these Mayavadi philosophers, he would say, “Poor fund of knowledge.”

>>>Ref. VedaBase => Initiation – May 21, 1969, New Vrindaban

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say, “Do not go to Vrndavana with return ticket.” So therefore it is very confidential.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.61 August 28, 1975, Vrndavana

[Conclusion: If one has actually seen Vrindavana, one would not want to leave Vrindavana]

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say that although this process is guaranteed, but don’t wait for another life. Finish this business in this life.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.20-21 – September 17, 1976, Vrndavana

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja has declared that the real life of a man is preaching. If one has at all got any life in him then he will preach.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Upendra – Bombay 4 January, 1971

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja said that Instead of earning livelihood by showing the Deity in the temple, it is better to take the profession of a sweeper in the street and live honestly. He said like that. The sweeper, he is working hard, toiling, and getting some money and living. This is honest living.

>>>Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation – September 21, 1973, Bombay

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja used to say-that “Don’t try to see God. Do in such a way that God will see you. Similarly, don’t try to advise God, but follow the advice of God. That is our way.

>>>Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk – January 22, 1976, Mayapur

Prabhupada: That is the version of my Guru Maharaja.

The whole so-called human society means a bunch of cheaters and cheated. That’s all. So don’t be cheater don’t be cheated. That is intelligence.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk – March 14, 1976, Mayapur

Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja, sometimes he used to

lament because so many disciples he had, but nobody was coming out very nice preacher. He was lamenting, “So only kanistha-adhikaris. We are keeping simply

people in the kanistha-adhikara and engaging them in the arcana-marga.” So that is not required.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => The Nectar of Devotion November 4, 1972, Vrndavana

Prabhupada: We have learned from our Guru Maharaja that preaching is very, very important thing, and when

one is actually an experienced preacher, then he is able to chant Hare Krsna mantra without any offense.

>>» Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.19 September 16, 1976, Vrndavana

Haribol, jaya Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur

Jaya Srila Prabhupada

Compiled bv Damaghosa dasa and Yasoda nandana dasa

for immediate reading and release

–

Srila Prabhupada explains about the glories of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Books : Bhagavad-gita As It Is – Macmillan 1972 Edition : Bg: introduction :

1) Kṛṣṇa, 2) Brahmā, 3) Nārada; 4) Vyāsa, 5) Madhva, 6) Padmanābha, 7) Nṛhari, 8) Mādhava, 9) Akṣobhya, 10) Jayatīrtha, 11) Jñānasindhu, 12) Dayānidhi, 13) Vidyānidhi, 14) Rājendra, 15) Jayadharma, 16) Puruṣottama, 17) Brahmaṇyatīrtha, 18) Vyāsatīrtha, 19) Lakṣmīpati, 20) Mādhavendra Purī, 21) Īśvara Purī, (Nityānanda, Advaita), 22) Lord Caitanya, 23) Rūpa (Svarūpa, Sanātana), 24) Raghunātha, Jīva, 25) Kṛṣṇadāsa, 26) Narottama, 27) Viśvanātha, 28) (Baladeva) Jagannātha, 29) Bhaktivinode, 30) Gaurakiśora, 31) Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, 32) His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Srila Prabhupada gives all credit to his Guru Maharaja

“…In Los Angeles many fathers and mothers used to come to see me to express their feelings of gratitude for my leading the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement throughout the entire world. Some of them said that it is greatly fortunate for the Americans that I have started the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement in America. But actually the original father of this movement is Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, since it was started a very long time ago but is coming down to human society by disciplic succession. If I have any credit in this connection, it does not belong to me personally, but it is due to my eternal spiritual master, His Divine Grace Om Viṣṇupāda Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya 108 Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja Prabhupāda..”
Books : Bhagavad-gita As It Is – Macmillan 1972 Edition : Bg: Preface :

Srila Prabhupada explains his birth in a family of transcendentalists and his meeting His Guru Maharaja

Books : Bhagavad-gita As It Is – Macmillan 1972 Edition : Bg 6: Sankhya-yoga : Bg 6.42 : PURPORT :

Birth in a family of yogīs or transcendentalists-those with great wisdom-is praised herein because the child born in such a family receives spiritual impetus from the very beginning of his life. It is especially the case in the ācārya or gosvāmī families. Such families are very learned and devoted by tradition and training, and thus they become spiritual masters. In India there are many such ācārya families, but they have now degenerated due to insufficient education and training. By the grace of the Lord, there are still families that foster transcendentalists generation after generation. It is certainly very fortunate to take birth in such families. Fortunately, both our spiritual master, Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and our humble self, had the opportunity to take birth in such families, by the grace of the Lord, and both of us were trained in the devotional service of the Lord from the very beginning of our lives. Later on we met by the order of the transcendental system

Srilq prabhua esx arthe glorous literary contribitos of grta afcraus like His Guru Maharaja and others
Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 1:”Creation” : SB Introduction : SB Introduction :

Many devotees of Lord Caitanya like Śrīla Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura, Śrī Locana dāsa Ṭhākura, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, Śrī Kavikarṇapūra, Śrī Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, Śrī Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and in this latter age within two hundred years, Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana, Śrī Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī, Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Śrī Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and at last Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura (our spiritual master) and many other great and renowned scholars and devotees of the Lord have prepared voluminous books and literatures on the life and precepts of the Lord. Such literatures are all based on the śāstras like the Vedas, Purāṇas, Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and other histories and authentic literatures approved by the recognized ācāryas. They are unique in composition and unrivaled in presentation, and they are full of transcendental knowledge. Unfortunately the people of the world are still ignorant of them, but when these literatures, which are mostly in Sanskrit and Bengali, come to light the world and when they are presented before thinking people, then India’s glory and the message of love will overflood this morbid world, which is vainly searching after peace and prosperity by various illusory methods not approved by the ācāryas in the chain of disciplic succession.

Srila Prabhupada credits His Guru Maharaja for helping him to revive his old habit of deity worship

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 1:”Creation” : SB 1.12: Birth of Emperor Pariksit : SB 1.12.30 : PURPORT :

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī remarks in this connection that every child, if given an impression of the Lord from his very childhood, certainly becomes a great devotee of the Lord like Mahārāja Parīkṣit. One may not be as fortunate as Mahārāja Parīkṣit to have the opportunity to see the Lord in the womb of his mother, but even if he is not so fortunate, he can be made so if the parents of the child desire him to be so. There is a practical example in my personal life in this connection. My father was a pure devotee of the Lord, and when I was only four or five years old, my father gave me a couple of forms of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. In a playful manner, I used to worship these Deities along with my sister, and I used to imitate the performances of a neighboring temple of Rādhā-Govinda. By constantly visiting this neighboring temple and copying the ceremonies in connection with my own Deities of play, I developed a natural affinity for the Lord. My father used to observe all the ceremonies befitting my position. Later on, these activities were suspended due to my association in the schools and colleges, and I became completely out of practice. But in my youthful days, when I met my spiritual master, Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, again I revived my old habit, and the same playful Deities became my worshipful Deities in proper regulation. This was followed up until I left the family connection, and I am pleased that my generous father gave the first impression which was developed later into regulative devotional service by His Divine Grace. Mahārāja Prahlāda also advised that such impressions of a godly relation must be impregnated from the beginning of childhood, otherwise one may miss the opportunity of the human form of life, which is very valuable although it is temporary like others.

Srila Prabhupada explains the power of sadhu-sanga and the powerful favor of His Guru Maharaja

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 1:”Creation” : SB 1.13: Dhrtarastra Quits Home : SB 1.13.29 : PURPORT :

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the great preacher of the principles of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, has stressed the importance of association with sādhus, pure devotees of the Lord. He said that even by a moments association with a pure devotee, one can achieve all perfection. We are not ashamed to admit that this fact was experienced in our practical life. Were we not favored by His Divine Grace Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, by our first meeting for a few minutes only, it would have been impossible for us to accept this mighty task of describing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in English. Without seeing him at that opportune moment, we could have become a very great business magnate, but never would we have been able to walk the path of liberation and be engaged in the factual service of the Lord under instructions of His Divine Grace.

Srila Prabhupada explains the about the power of a true representative of the Lord like Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 2: “The Cosmic Manifestation” : SB 2.8: Questions by King Pariksit : SB 2.8.5 : PURPORT :

In other words, the cleansing of the polluted heart by other methods (like the culture of empiric knowledge or mystic gymnastics) can simply cleanse one’s own heart, but devotional service to the Lord is so powerful that it can cleanse the hearts of the people in general, by the devotional service of the pure, empowered devotee. A true representative of the Lord like Nārada, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Lord Caitanya, the six Gosvāmīs and later Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, etc., can deliver all people by their empowered devotional service.

Srila Prabhupada describes His Guru Maharaja as an avowed brahmacari
Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.12: Creation of the Kumaras and Others : SB 3.12.42 : PURPORT :

During student life the brahmacārīs were given full instructions about the importance of the human form of life. Thus the basic education was designed to encourage the student in becoming free from family encumbrances. Only students unable to accept such a vow in life were allowed to go home and marry a suitable wife. Otherwise, the student would remain a permanent brahmacārī, observing complete abstinence from sex life for his whole life. It all depended on the quality of the student’s training. We had the opportunity to meet an avowed brahmacārī in the personality of our spiritual master, Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Such a great soul is called a naiṣṭhika-brahmacārī.

Srila Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who at the present moment is preaching the philosophy of Lord Caitanya throughout the entire world through his bona fide disciples.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.22: The Marriage of Kardama Muni and Devahuti : SB 3.22.19 : PURPORT :

After fulfilling his responsibility to produce a nice child, one should take sannyāsa and engage in the perfectional paramahaṁsa stage. paramahaṁsa refers to the most highly elevated perfectional stage of life. There are four stages within sannyāsa life, and paramahaṁsa is the highest order. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is called the paramahaṁsa-saṁhitā, the treatise for the highest class of human beings. The paramahaṁsa is free from envy. In other stages, even in the householder stage of life, there is competition and envy, but since the activities of the human being in the paramahaṁsa stage are completely engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or devotional service, there is no scope for envy. In the same order as Kardama Muni, about one hundred years ago, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda also wanted to beget a child who could preach the philosophy and teachings of Lord Caitanya to the fullest extent. By his prayers to the Lord he had as his child Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who at the present moment is preaching the philosophy of Lord Caitanya throughout the entire world through his bona fide disciples.

Srila Prabhupada explains that Gaura kishora accepted Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati as His disciple
Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.2: Daksa Curses Lord Siva : SB 4.2.18 : PURPORT :

Because of this curse, Śiva was deprived of his share in the oblations of Vedic sacrifices. It was due to the curse of Dakṣa, Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments in this connection, that Lord Śiva was saved from the calamity of taking part with other demigods, who were all materialistic. Lord Śiva is the greatest devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it is not fitting for him to eat or sit with materialistic persons like the demigods. Thus the curse of Dakṣa was indirectly a blessing, for Śiva would not have to eat or sit with other demigods, who were too materialistic. There is a practical example set for us by Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, who used to sit on the side of a latrine to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Many materialistic persons used to come and bother him and disturb his daily routine of chanting, so to avoid their company he used to sit by the side of a latrine, where materialistic persons would not go because of the filth and the obnoxious smell. However, Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja was so great that he was accepted as the spiritual master of such a great personality as His Divine Grace Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja. The conclusion is that Lord Śiva behaved in his own way to avoid materialistic persons who might disturb him in his prosecution of devotional service.

Srila Prabhupada says that He simply following in the footsteps of His Guru Maharaja jn fullfilling the prediction of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.22: Prthu Maharaja’s Meeting with the Four Kumaras : SB 4.22.42 : PURPORT : When Lord Viṣṇu appeared in the great arena of sacrifice at the time when King Pṛthu was performing a great sacrifice (aśvamedha), He predicted that the Kumāras would very soon come and advise the King. Therefore Pṛthu Mahārāja remembered the causeless mercy of the Lord and thus welcomed the arrival of the Kumāras, who were fulfilling the Lord’s prediction. In other words, when the Lord makes a prediction, He fulfills that prediction through some of His devotees. Similarly, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu predicted that both His glorious names and the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra would be broadcast in all the towns and villages of the world. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda desired to fulfill this great prediction, and we are following in their footsteps.

Srila Prabhupada explains how everyone can follow in the footsteps of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.23: Maharaja Prthu’s Going Back Home : SB 4.23.5 : PURPORT :

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, after retiring from his minister’s seat in the government, went to Vṛndāvana and lived beneath a tree, like Mahārāja Pṛthu. Since then, many people have gone to Vṛndāvana to imitate Rūpa Gosvāmī’s behavior. Instead of advancing in spiritual life, many have fallen into material habits and even in Vṛndāvana have become victims of illicit sex, gambling and intoxication. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement has been introduced in the Western countries, but it is not possible for Westerners to go to the forest and practice the severe austerities which were ideally practiced by Pṛthu Mahārāja or Rūpa Gosvāmī. However, Westerners or anyone else can follow in the footsteps of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura by living in a temple, which is transcendental to residence in a forest, and to vow to accept kṛṣṇa-prasāda and nothing else, follow the regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds daily of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In this way, one’s spiritual life will never be disturbed.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explains the unwanted creepers of bhakti

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 19: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Instructs Srila Rupa Gosvami : Madhya 19.160 : PURPORT : ‘nisiddhacara’, ‘kutinati’, jiva-himsana’ ‘labha’, ‘puja’, ‘pratisthadi’ yata upasakha-gana :

The unwanted creepers have been described by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. He states that if one hears and chants without trying to give up offenses, one becomes materially attached to sense gratification. One may also desire freedom from material bondage like the Māyāvādīs, or one may become attached to the yoga-siddhis and desire wonderful yogic powers. If one is attached to wonderful material activities, one is called siddhi-lobhī, greedy for material perfection. One may also be victimized by diplomatic or crooked behavior, or one may associate with women for illicit sex. Others may make a show of devotional service like the prākṛta-sahajiyās, or one may try to support his philosophy by joining some caste or identifying himself with a certain dynasty, claiming a monopoly on spiritual advancement. Thus with the support of family tradition, one may become a pseudo guru or so-called spiritual master. One may become attached to the four sinful activities-illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat eating, or one may consider a Vaiṣṇava to belong to a mundane caste or creed. One may think, “This is a Hindu Vaiṣṇava, and this is a European Vaiṣṇava. A European Vaiṣṇava is not allowed to enter the temples.” In other words, one may consider Vaiṣṇavas in terms of birth, thinking one a brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava, a śūdra Vaiṣṇava, a mleccha Vaiṣṇava and so on. One may also try to carry out a professional business while chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or one may try to increase his monetary strength by illegal means. One may also try to be a cheap Vaiṣṇava by chanting in a secluded place for material adoration, or one may desire mundane reputation by making compromises with nondevotees, compromising one’s philosophy or spiritual life, or one may become a supporter of a hereditary caste system. All these are pitfalls of personal sense gratification. Just to cheat some innocent people, one makes a show of advanced spiritual life and becomes known as a sādhu, mahātmā or religious person. All this means that the so-called devotee has become victimized by all these unwanted creepers and that the real creeper of bhakti-latā-bīja has been stunted.

Hare Krsna-these photos were taken about 30 yrs ago when I was daily milking our brown swiss cows-We had rented some small piece of land nearby the temple in Burnaby BC Canada, and not far from the temple. All the milk went to the Deities.

This particular cow liked my shirt a lot and was trying to eat it right off my body. After telling her not to do that I decided to see if I could go for a “ride”. As you can see, she would have none of that !!

Saturday, February 27, 2021 [Mayapura time, India]

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura avirbhava tithi [appearance day]’

compiled by Yasoda nandana dasaSrila Prabhupada explains the unique position of Narottama dasa Thakura in the Gaudiya sampradaya.

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura and Sri Srinivasa acarya

Lectures : Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures : Canto 7: Lectures : SB 7.12: Lectures : Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.12.6 — Bombay, April 17, 1976 : 760417SB.BOM :

Dakṣa śraddadhānaḥ: faithful. Faithful to whom? To the spiritual master. Whatever he says, the brahmacārī should take it: “Yes, it is my life and soul.” That is the explanation given by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. He is explaining with reference to the verse vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana [Bg. 2.41]. He very nicely explains. You have perhaps read it, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s… Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has taught very, very nicely about guru. Therefore he has written in Gurvaṣṭaka, yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ **. He is example, practical example of guru-bhakti, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. He accepted his guru, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. So he said that “I am not interested for my salvation or going back to Godhead. I am not interested.” Interested means it may come; it may not come. “That I don’t mind. But I am interested only with the words of my guru.” Viśvanātha Cakravartī said. “That is my life. Whether I will be successful or not successful, it doesn’t matter. I must take the words of my Guru Mahārāja as my life and soul.”

Lectures : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures : Madhya-lila: Lectures : Madhya 20: Lectures : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.100-108 — New York, November 22, 1966 : 661122C2.NY :

So Sanātana Gosvāmī, he’s ācārya in this disciplic succession from Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Lord Caitanya. He is the first disciple of Lord Caitanya, and from him, Sanātana Gosvāmī, six Gosvāmīs. There were six among the first followers of Lord Caitanya. And then, from next step comes Raghunātha Gosvāmī and then this author of this book, Kṛṣṇa dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, and from him, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, and then from him, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. In this way this disciplic succession is coming from Lord Caitanya. So as ācārya… Ācārya means one who knows the principles of scripture, properly being initiated by authority who knows things as they are, and they apply those things in their own life. They are called ācārya. Acinoti śāstrāṇi: he must know all the principles from authorities, and he should apply in his life those principles. Not that he knows but does not apply. He cannot be ācārya. Āpani ācari prabhu jīva disa (?). Lord Caitanya, He, although He is accepted as the, I mean to say, the personal, He’s Kṛṣṇa Himself, still, He behaved in such a way that others can follow. He also accepted Īśvara Purī. Īśvara, Īśvara Purī was His spiritual master, Lord Caitanya’s. This is the disciplic succession

Lectures : Nectar of Devotion Lectures : The Nectar of Devotion — Vrndavana, November 13, 1972 : 721113ND.VRN :

Prabhupāda: The Gosvāmīs, or in the Pañcarātra system, in the śāstras, the regulative principles are so made that, if we practice it, gradually our dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be awakened. Therefore these prescribed rules and regulations, as it is given in the śāstras and confirmed by the ācāryas… Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, tāṅdera caraṇa-sevi. We have to follow the footprints of the ācāryas. Ācārya means paramparā. One ācārya is following the previous ācārya. An ācārya does not manufacture anything, something novel. He follows the previous ācārya. And therefore he, he’s ācārya. And one who follows… Ācāryavān puruṣo veda. Ācārya upāsanam. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said. So we have to accept the principles laid down by the ācāryas. Tāṅdera caraṇa-sevi-bhakta-sane vāsa

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 1:”Creation” : SB Introduction : SB Introduction :

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 1:”Creation” : SB 1.10: Departure of Lord Krsna for Dvaraka : SB 1.10.20 : PURPORT :

…. Anything sung in the praise of the Lord is Śruti-mantra. There are songs of Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa, one of the ācāryas in the Gauḍīya-sampradāya, composed in simple Bengali language. But Ṭhākura Viśvanātha Cakravartī, another very learned ācārya of the same sampradāya, has approved the songs by Ṭhākura Narottama dāsa to be as good as Vedic mantras. And this is so because of the subject matter. The language is immaterial, but the subject matter is important. The ladies, who were all absorbed in the thought and actions of the Lord, developed the consciousness of Vedic wisdom by the grace of the Lord. And therefore although such ladies might not have been very learned scholars in Sanskrit or otherwise, still whatever they spoke was more attractive than the Vedic hymns. The Vedic hymns in the Upaniṣads are sometimes indirectly directed to the Supreme Lord. But the talks of the ladies were directly spoken of the Lord, and thus they were more pleasing to the heart. The ladies’ talks appeared to be more valuable than the learned brāhmaṇas’ benedictions.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.13: The Appearance of Lord Varaha : SB 3.13.8 : PURPORT :

Brahmā is the direct recipient of Vedic knowledge from the Personality of Godhead, and anyone discharging his entrusted duties in disciplic succession from Brahmā is sure to gain fame in this life and salvation in the next. The disciplic succession from Brahmā is called the Brahma-sampradāya, and it descends as follows: Brahmā, Nārada, Vyāsa, Madhva Muni (Pūrṇaprajña), Padmanābha, Nṛhari, Mādhava, Akṣobhya, Jayatīrtha, Jñānasindhu, Dayānidhi, Vidyānidhi, Rājendra, Jayadharma, Puruṣottama, Brahmaṇyatīrtha, Vyāsatīrtha, Lakṣmīpati, Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Svarūpa Dāmodara and Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī and others, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Kṛṣṇadāsa Gosvāmī, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī, Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.

Srila Prabhupada cites from Narottama dasa Thakura.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.26: Fundamental Principles of Material Nature : SB 3.26.26 : PURPORT :

Ahaṅkāra, or false ego, is transformed into the demigods, the controlling directors of material affairs. As an instrument, the false ego is represented as different senses and sense organs, and as the result of the combination of the demigods and the senses, material objects are produced. In the material world we are producing so many things, and this is called advancement of civilization, but factually the advancement of civilization is a manifestation of the false ego. By false ego all material things are produced as objects of enjoyment. One has to cease increasing artificial necessities in the form of material objects. One great ācārya, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, has lamented that when one deviates from pure consciousness of Vāsudeva, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he becomes entangled in material activities. The exact words he uses are, sat-saṅga chāḍi’ kainu asate vilāsa/ te-kāraṇe lāgila ye karma-bandha-phāṅsa: “I have given up the pure status of consciousness because I wanted to enjoy in the temporary, material manifestation; therefore, I have been entangled in the network of actions and reactions.”

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.28: Kapila’s Instructions on the Execution of Devotional Service : SB 3.28.4 : PURPORT :

Svādhyāyaḥ means “reading the authorized Vedic scriptures.” Even if one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious and is practicing the yoga system, he must read standard Vedic literatures in order to understand. Performance of yoga alone is not sufficient. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great devotee and ācārya in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, says that all spiritual activities should be understood from three sources, namely saintly persons, standard scriptures and the spiritual master. These three guides are very important for progress in spiritual life. The spiritual master prescribes standard literature for the prosecution of the yoga of devotional service, and he himself speaks only from scriptural reference. Therefore, reading standard scriptures is necessary for executing yoga. Practicing yoga without reading the standard literatures is simply a waste of time.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 3: “The Status Quo” : SB 3.31: Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities : SB 3.31.29 : PURPORT :

To raise oneself from hellish life to the highest position of spiritual understanding is to transform this lust into love of Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya of the Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, said, kāma kṛṣṇa-karmārpaṇe: due to our lust, we want many things for our sense gratification, but the same lust can be transformed in a purified way so that we want everything for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anger also can be utilized towards a person who is atheistic or who is envious of the Personality of Godhead. As we have fallen into this material existence because of our lust and anger, the same two qualities can be utilized for the purpose of advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and one can elevate himself again to his former pure, spiritual position. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has therefore recommended that because in material existence we have so many objects of sense gratification, which we need for the maintenance of the body, we should use all of them without attachment, for the purpose of satisfying the senses of Kṛṣṇa; that is actual renunciation.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.4: Sati Quits Her Body : SB 4.4.10 : PURPORT Lord Caitanya, who always preached nonviolence, meekness and humility, also became angry when Nityānanda was offended by Jagāi and Mādhāi, and He wanted to kill them. When Viṣṇu or a Vaiṣṇava is blasphemed or dishonored, one should be very angry. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura said, krodha bhakta-dveṣi jane. We have anger, and that anger can be a great quality when directed against a person who is envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His devotee. One should not be tolerant when a person is offensive towards Viṣṇu or a Vaiṣṇava. The anger of Satī towards her father was not objectionable, for although he was her father, he was trying to insult the greatest Vaiṣṇava. Thus, Satī’s anger against her father was quite applaudable.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.6: Brahma Satisfies Lord Siva : SB 4.6.25 : PURPORT :

Another significant point is that Lord Govinda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is described here as Tīrthapāda. Tīrtha means “sanctified place,” and pāda means “the lotus feet of the Lord.” People go to a sanctified place to free themselves from all sinful reactions. In other words, those who are devoted to the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, automatically become sanctified. The Lord’s lotus feet are called tīrtha-pāda because under their protection there are hundreds and thousands of saintly persons who sanctify the sacred places of pilgrimage. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, advises us not to travel to different places of pilgrimage. Undoubtedly it is troublesome to go from one place to another, but one who is intelligent can take shelter of the lotus feet of Govinda and thereby be automatically sanctified as the result of his pilgrimage. Anyone who is fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Govinda is called tīrtha-pāda; he does not need to travel on various pilgrimages, for he can enjoy all the benefits of such travel simply by engaging in the service of the lotus feet of the Lord. Such a pure devotee, who has implicit faith in the lotus feet of the Lord, can create sacred places in any part of the world where he decides to remain. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni (Bhāg. 1.13.10). The places are sanctified due to the presence of pure devotees; any place automatically becomes a place of pilgrimage if either the Lord or His pure devotee remains or resides there. In other words, such a pure devotee, who is engaged one hundred percent in the service of the Lord, can remain anywhere in the universe, and that part of the universe immediately becomes a sacred place where he can peacefully render service to the Lord as the Lord desires.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.21: Instructions by Maharaja Prthu : SB-4.21.28, SB-4.21.29, SB-4.21.28-29 : PURPORT :

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura states that one has to ascertain the right path for his activities by following in the footsteps of great saintly persons and books of knowledge under the guidance of a spiritual master (sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya). A saintly person is one who follows the Vedic injunctions, which are the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The word guru refers to one who gives proper direction under the authority of the Vedic injunctions and according to the examples of the lives of great personalities. The best way to mold one’s life is to follow in the footsteps of the authorized personalities like those mentioned herein by Pṛthu Mahārāja, beginning with Svāyambhuva Manu. The safest path in life is to follow such great personalities, especially those mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The mahājanas, or great personalities, are Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Nārada Muni, Manu, the Kumāras, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Bali Mahārāja, Yamarāja, Bhīṣma, Janaka, Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Kapila Muni.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.21: Instructions by Maharaja Prthu : SB-4.21.40 : PURPORT :

“Birth after birth I desire to serve the lotus feet of the ācāryas and live in a society of devotees.” A spiritual atmosphere can be maintained only by living in a society of devotees and by serving the orders of the ācāryas. The spiritual master is the best brāhmaṇa. At present, in the age of Kali, it is very difficult to render service to the brāhmaṇa-kula, or the brāhmaṇa class. The difficulty, according to the Varāha Purāṇa, is that demons, taking advantage of Kali-yuga, have taken birth in brāhmaṇa families. Rākṣasāḥ kalim āśritya jāyante brahma-yoniṣu (Varāha Purāṇa). In other words, in this age there are many so-called caste brāhmaṇas and caste Gosvāmīs who, taking advantage of the śāstra and of the innocence of people in general, claim to be brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas by hereditary right. One will not derive any benefit by rendering service to such false brāhmaṇa-kulas. One must therefore take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and his associates and should also render service to them, for such activity will greatly help the neophyte in attaining full satisfaction. This has been very clearly explained by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his explanation of the verse vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana (Bg. 2.41). By actually following the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga as recommended by Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, one can very quickly come to the transcendental platform of liberation, as explained in this verse (atyanta-śamam).

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 4: “The Creation of the Fourth Order” : SB 4.22: Prthu Maharaja’s Meeting with the Four Kumaras : SB 4.22.15 : PURPORT :

When saintly persons go from door to door to see those who are too much materially engaged, it is to be understood that they do not go to ask anything for their personal benefit. It is a fact that saintly persons go to materialists just to give real information of the auspicious. Mahārāja Pṛthu was assured of this fact; therefore, instead of wasting time by asking the Kumāras about their welfare, he preferred to inquire from them whether he could soon be relieved from the dangerous position of materialistic existence. This was not, however, a question personally for Pṛthu Mahārāja. It was raised to teach the common man that whenever one meets a great saintly person, one should immediately surrender unto him and inquire about relief from the material pains of existence. Therefore, Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, saṁsāra-viṣānale, divāniśi hiyā jvale, juḍāite nā kainu upāya: “we are always suffering from material pangs, and our hearts are burning, but we cannot find any way out of it.” The materialistic person can also be called a tapasvī, which means someone who is always suffering from material pains. One can get rid of all these material pains only when he takes shelter of the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. This is also explained by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura: golokera prema-dhana, harināma-saṅkīrtana, rati nā janmila kene tāya. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura regretted that he did not pursue his attraction for the transcendental vibration of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. The conclusion is that all persons in this material world are suffering from material pains, and if one wants to get rid of them, he must associate with saintly persons, pure devotees of the Lord, and chant the mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. That is the only auspicious way for materialistic persons.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 5: “The Creative Impetus” : SB 5.16: A Description of Jambudvipa : SB 5.16.20, SB 5.16.21, SB 5.16.20-21 : PURPORTŚrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura prays:

hā hā prabhu nanda-suta, vṛṣabhānu-sutā-yuta,
karuṇā karaha ei-bāra
narottama-dāsa kaya, nā ṭheliha rāṅgā-pāya,
tomā vine ke āche āmāra

“O my Lord, O son of Nanda Mahārāja, now You are standing before me with Your consort, the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Kindly accept me as the dust of Your lotus feet. please do not kick me away, for I have no other shelter.”

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 6: “Prescribed Duties for Mankind” : SB 6.7: Indra Offends His Spiritual Master, Brhaspati. : SB 6.7.21 : PURPORT :

Lord Brahmā recognized the brahminical qualifications of Bṛhaspati, who was the spiritual master of the demigods because of his awareness of the Supreme Brahman. Bṛhaspati was very much in control of his senses and mind, and therefore he was a most qualified brāhmaṇa. Lord Brahmā chastised the demigods for not properly respecting this brāhmaṇa, who was their guru. Lord Brahmā wanted to impress upon the demigods that one’s guru should not be disrespected under any circumstances. When Bṛhaspati entered the assembly of the demigods, they and their king, Indra, took him for granted. Since he came every day, they thought, they did not need to show him special respect. As it is said, familiarity breeds contempt. Being very much displeased, Bṛhaspati immediately left Indra’s palace. Thus, all the demigods, headed by Indra, became offenders at the lotus feet of Bṛhaspati, and Lord Brahmā, being aware of this, condemned their neglect. In a song we sing every day, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, cakṣu-dāna dila yei, janme janme prabhu sei: the guru gives spiritual insight to the disciple, and therefore the guru should be considered his master, life after life. Under no circumstances should the guru be disrespected, but the demigods, being puffed up by their material possessions, were disrespectful to their guru. Therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.17.27) advises, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān nāvamanyeta karhicit/ na martya-buddhyāsūyeta: the ācārya should always be offered respectful obeisances; one should never envy the ācārya, considering him an ordinary human being.

Books : Srimad-Bhagavatam : Canto 7: “The Science of God” : SB 7.15: Instructions for Civilized Human Beings : SB 7.15.45 : PURPORT :

One cannot attain the goal of life without the mercy of Balarāma. Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore says, nitāiyera karuṇā habe, vraje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe: when one receives the mercy of Balarāma, Nityānanda, one can attain the lotus feet of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa very easily.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 1: The Spiritual Masters : Adi 1.46 : PURPORT :

The real Vedic philosophy is acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, which establishes everything to be simultaneously one with and different from the Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī confirms that this is the real position of a bona fide spiritual master and says that one should always think of the spiritual master in terms of his intimate relationship with Mukunda (Śrī Kṛṣṇa). Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in his Bhakti-sandarbha (213), has clearly defined that a pure devotee’s observation of the spiritual master and Lord Śiva as one with the Personality of Godhead exists in terms of their being very dear to the Lord, not identical with Him in all respects. Following in the footsteps of Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, later ācāryas like Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura have confirmed the same truths. In his prayers to the spiritual master, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura confirms that all the revealed scriptures accept the spiritual master to be identical with the Personality of Godhead because he is a very dear and confidential servant of the Lord. Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas therefore worship Śrīla Gurudeva (the spiritual master) in the light of his being the servitor of the Personality of Godhead. In all the ancient scriptures of devotional service and in the more recent songs of Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and other unalloyed Vaiṣṇavas, the spiritual master is always considered either one of the confidential associates of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī or a manifested representation of Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 4: The Confidential Reasons for Lord Caitanya’s Appearance : Adi 4.34 : PURPORT :

A class of so-called devotees known as sahajiyās try to imitate the Lord’s pastimes, although they have no understanding of the amorous love in His expansions of pleasure potency. Their superficial imitation can create havoc on the path for the advancement of one’s spiritual relationship with the Lord. Material sexual indulgence can never be equated with spiritual love, which is in unadulterated goodness. The activities of the sahajiyās simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind. Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental pastimes display eternal servitorship to Adhokṣaja, the Supreme Lord, who is beyond all conception through material senses. Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service. The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be ordinary affairs. The rāsa dance is arranged by Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency yogamāyā, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person. Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam and tat-paro bhavet. By misinterpreting tādrśīḥ krīḍāḥ, they want to indulge in sex while pretending to imitate Lord Kṛṣṇa. But one must actually understand the imports of the words through the intelligence of the authorized gosvāmīs. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, in his prayers to the Gosvāmīs, has explained his inability to understand such spiritual affairs.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 7: Lord Caitanya in Five Features : Adi 7.74 : PURPORT :

The principles of the paramparā system were strictly honored in previous ages-Satya-yuga, Tretā-yuga and Dvāpara-yuga-but in the present age, Kali-yuga, people neglect the importance of this system of śrauta-paramparā, or receiving knowledge by disciplic succession. In this age, people are prepared to argue that they can understand that which is beyond their limited knowledge and perception through so-called scientific observations and experiments, not knowing that actual truth comes down to man from authorities. This argumentative attitude is against the Vedic principles, and it is very difficult for one who adopts it to understand that the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is as good as Kṛṣṇa Himself. Since Kṛṣṇa and His holy name are identical, the holy name is eternally pure and beyond material contamination. It is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a transcendental vibration. The holy name is completely different from material sound, as confirmed by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura: golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. The transcendental vibration of hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is imported from the spiritual world. Thus, although materialists who are addicted to experimental knowledge and the so-called “scientific method” cannot place their faith in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, it is a fact that simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly one can be freed from all subtle and gross material conditions. The spiritual world is called Vaikuṇṭha, which means “without anxiety.” In the material world everything is full of anxiety (kuṇṭha), whereas in the spiritual world (Vaikuṇṭha) everything is free from anxiety. Therefore, those who are afflicted by a combination of anxieties cannot understand the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, which is free from all anxiety. In the present age the vibration of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is the only process that is in a transcendental position, beyond material contamination. Since the holy name can deliver a conditioned soul, it is explained here to be sarva-mantra-sāra, the essence of all Vedic hymns.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 10: The Trunk, Branches and Subbranches of the Caitanya Tree : Adi 10.78-79 : PURPORT :

Cirañjīva and Sulocana were both residents of Śrīkhaṇḍa, where their descendants are still living. Of Cirañjīva’s two sons, the elder, Rāmacandra Kavirāja, was a disciple of Śrīnivāsācārya and an intimate associate of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. The younger son was Govinda dāsa Kavirāja, the famous Vaiṣṇava poet. Cirañjīva’s wife was Sunandā, and his father-in-law was Dāmodara Sena Kavirāja. Cirañjīva previously lived on the bank of the Ganges River in the village of Kumāranagara. The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā, verse 207, states that he was formerly Candrikā in Vṛndāvana.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 10: The Trunk, Branches and Subbranches of the Caitanya Tree : Adi 10.85 : PURPORT :

In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā, verse 195, it is said that Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī was formerly Vilāsa-mañjarī gopī. From his very childhood Jīva Gosvāmī was greatly fond of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He later came to Navadvīpa to study Sanskrit, and, following in the footsteps of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, he circumambulated the entire Navadvīpa-dhāma. After visiting Navadvīpa-dhāma he went to Benares to study Sanskrit under Madhusūdana Vācaspati, and after finishing his studies in Benares he went to Vṛndāvana and took shelter of his uncles, Śrī Rūpa and Sanātana. This is described in the Bhakti-ratnākara. As far as our information goes, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī composed and edited at least twenty-five books. They are all very celebrated, and they are listed as follows: (1) Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa, (2) Sūtra-mālikā, (3) Dhātu-saṅgraha, (4) Kṛṣṇārcā-dīpikā, (5) Gopāla-virudāvalī, (6) Rasāmṛta-śeṣa, (7) Śrī Mādhava-mahotsava, (8) Śrī Saṅkalpa-kalpavṛkṣa, (9) Bhāvārtha-sūcaka-campū, (10) Gopāla-tāpanī-ṭīkā, (11) a commentary on the Brahma-saṁhitā, (12) a commentary on the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, (13) a commentary on the Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, (14) a commentary on the Yogasāra-stava, (15) a commentary on the Gāyatrī-mantra, as described in the Agni Purāṇa, (16) a description of the Lord’s lotus feet derived from the Padma Purāṇa, (17) a description of the lotus feet of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, (18) Gopāla-campū (in two parts) and (19-25) seven sandarbhas: the Krama-, Tattva-, Bhagavat-, Paramātma-, Kṛṣṇa-, Bhakti- and Prīti-sandarbha. After the disappearance of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī in Vṛndāvana, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī became the ācārya of all the Vaiṣṇavas in Bengal, Orissa and the rest of the world, and it is he who used to guide them in their devotional service. In Vṛndāvana he established the Rādhā-Dāmodara temple, where we had the opportunity to live and retire until the age of sixty-five, when we decided to come to the United States of America. When Jīva Gosvāmī was still present, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī compiled his famous Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Later, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī inspired Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and Duḥkhī Kṛṣṇadāsa to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Bengal. Jīva Gosvāmī was informed that all the manuscripts that had been collected from Vṛndāvana and sent to Bengal for preaching purposes were plundered near Viṣṇupura, in Bengal, but later he received the information that the books had been recovered. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī awarded the designation Kavirāja to Rāmacandra Sena, a disciple of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya’s, and to Rāmacandra’s younger brother Govinda. While Jīva Gosvāmī was alive, Śrīmatī Jāhnavī-devī, the pleasure potency of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, went to Vṛndāvana with a few devotees. Jīva Gosvāmī was very kind to the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, the Vaiṣṇavas from Bengal. Whoever went to Vṛndāvana he provided with a residence and prasāda. His disciple Kṛṣṇadāsa Adhikārī listed all the books of the Gosvāmīs in his diary.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 11: The Expansions of Lord Nityananda : Adi 11.32 : PURPORT :

The village of Maheśa Paṇḍita, which is known as Pālapāḍā, is situated in the district of Nadia within a forest about one mile south of the Cākadaha railway station. The Ganges flows nearby. It is said that formerly Maheśa Paṇḍita lived on the eastern side of Jirāṭ in the village known as Masipura or Yaśīpura, and when Masipura merged into the riverbed of the Ganges, the Deities there were brought to Pālapāḍā, wh ich is situated in the midst of various villages such as Beleḍāṅgā, Berigrāma, Sukhasāgara, Cānduḍe and Manasāpotā. (There are about fourteen villages, and the entire neighborhood is known as Pāñcanagara Paragaṇā.) It is mentioned that Maheśa Paṇḍita joined the festival performed by Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu at Pāṇihāṭī. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura also joined in the festival, and Maheśa Paṇḍita saw him on that occasion. In the temple of Maheśa Paṇḍita there are Deities of Gaura-Nityānanda, Śrī Gopīnātha, Śrī Madana-mohana and Rādhā-Govinda, as well as a śālagrāma-śilā.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 11: The Expansions of Lord Nityananda : Adi 11.51 : PURPORT :

Śrī Rāmacandra Kavirāja, the son of Khaṇḍavāsī Cirañjīva and Sunanda, was a disciple of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya and the most intimate friend of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, who prayed several times for his association. His youngest brother was Govinda Kavirāja. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī very much appreciated Śrī Rāmacandra Kavirāja’s great devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa and therefore gave him the title Kavirāja. Śrī Rāmacandra Kavirāja, who was perpetually disinterested in family life, greatly assisted in the preaching work of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya and Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. He resided at first in Śrīkhaṇḍa but later in the village of Kumāra-nagara on the bank of the Ganges.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 12: The Expansions of Advaita Acarya and Gadadhara Pandita : Adi 12.88 : PURPORT :

The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā, verse 183, mentions that Śivānanda Cakravartī was formerly Lavaṅga-mañjarī. The Śākhā-nirṇaya, written by Yadunandana dāsa, also names other branches of Gadādhara Paṇḍita, as follows: (1) Mādhava Ācārya, (2) Gopāla dāsa, (3) Hṛdayānanda, (4) Vallabha Bhaṭṭa (the Vallabha-sampradāya, or Puṣṭimārga-sampradāya, is very famous), (5) Madhu Paṇḍita (this famous devotee lived near Khaḍadaha in the village known as Sāṅibonā-grāma, about two miles east of the Khaḍadaha station, and constructed the temple of Gopīnāthajī in Vṛndāvana), (6) Acyutānanda, (7) Candraśekhara, (8) Vakreśvara Paṇḍita, (9) Dāmodara, (10) Bhagavān Ācārya, (11) Ananta Ācāryavarya, (12) Kṛṣṇadāsa, (13) Paramānanda Bhaṭṭācārya, (14) Bhavānanda Gosvāmī, (15) Caitanya dāsa, (16) Lokanātha Bhaṭṭa (this devotee, who lived in the village of Tālakhaḍi in the district of Yaśohara and constructed the temple of Rādhāvinoda, was the spiritual master of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and a great friend of Bhūgarbha Gosvāmī), (17) Govinda Ācārya, (18) Akrūra Ṭhākura, (19) Saṅketa Ācārya, (20) Pratāpāditya, (21) Kamalākānta Ācārya, (22) Yādava Ācārya and (23) Nārāyaṇa Paḍihārī (a resident of Jagannātha Purī).

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Adi-lila : Adi 14: Lord Caitanya’s Childhood Pastimes : Adi 14.50 : PURPORT : yesam tv anta-gatam papam jananam punya-karmanam te dvandva-moha-nirmukta bhajante mam drdha-vratah :

Our position of not allowing worship of the many hundreds of demigods is confirmed by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu even in His childhood. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung in this connection

anya devāśraya nāi, tomāre kahinu bhāi,
ei bhakti parama karaṇa

“To become a staunch, pure devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead without deviation [ananya-bhāk], one should not divert his attention to the worship of the demigods. Such control is a symptom of pure devotional service.”

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 7: The Lord’s Tour of South India : Madhya 7.130 : PURPORT :

There are many sahajiyās who decry the activities of the six Gosvāmīs-Śrīla Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha dāsa, Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Jīva and Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmīs-who are the personal associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and who enlightened society by writing books on devotional service. Similarly, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and other great ācāryas like Madhvācārya, Rāmānujācārya and others accepted many thousands of disciples to induce them to render devotional service. However, there is a class of sahajiyās who think that these activities are opposed to the principles of devotional service. Indeed, they consider such activities simply another phase of materialism. Thus, opposing the principles of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they commit offenses at His lotus feet. They should better consider His instructions and, instead of seeking to be considered humble and meek, should refrain from criticizing the followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu who engage in preaching. To protect His preachers, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given much clear advice in these verses of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 11: The Beda-kirtana Pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu : Madhya 11.88 : PURPORT :

Govinda Ghoṣa belonged to the kāyastha dynasty of the Uttara-rāḍhīya section, and he was known as Ghoṣa Ṭhākura. Even to the present day there is a place named Agradvīpa, near Katwa, where a fair takes place and is named after Ghoṣa Ṭhākura. As far as Vāsudeva Ghoṣa is concerned, he composed many nice songs about Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and these are all authorized Vaiṣṇava songs, like the songs of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Locana dāsa Ṭhākura, Govinda dāsa Ṭhākura and other great Vaiṣṇavas.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 11: The Beda-kirtana Pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu : Madhya 11.89 : PURPORT : iha yasya harer dasye karmana manasa gira nikhilasv apy avasthasu jivan-muktah sa ucyate :

A devotee is always thinking of how better to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and how to broadcast His name, fame and qualities throughout the world. One who is nitya-siddha has no business other than broadcasting the glories of the Lord all over the world according to his ability. Such people are already associates of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Therefore, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, nitya-siddha kari’ māne. One should not think that because Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was personally present five hundred years ago, only His associates were liberated. Rather, Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says that anyone is a nitya-siddha if he acts on behalf of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by spreading the glories of the holy name of the Lord. We should respect those devotees preaching the glories of the Lord as nitya-siddha and should not consider them conditioned.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 18: Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Visit to Sri Vrndavana : Madhya 18.49 : PURPORT :

Śrī Lokanātha Gosvāmī was a personal associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and a great devotee of the Lord. He was a resident of a village named Tālakhaḍi in the district of Yaśohara in Bengal. Previously he lived in Kācnāpāḍā. His father’s name was Padmanābha, and his only younger brother was Pragalbha. Following the orders of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrī Lokanātha went to Vṛndāvana to live. He established a temple named Gokulānanda. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura selected Lokanātha dāsa Gosvāmī to be his spiritual master, and he was his only disciple. Because Lokanātha dāsa Gosvāmī did not want his name mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we do not often see it in this celebrated book. On the E.B.R. Railroad, the Yaśohara station is located in Bangladesh. From the railway station one has to go by bus to the village of Sonākhāli and from there to Khejurā. From there one has to walk, or, during the rainy season, go by boat to the village of Tālakhaḍi. In this village there are still descendants of Lokanātha Gosvāmī’s younger brother.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 22: The Process of Devotional Service : Madhya 22.153 : PURPORT :

An advanced devotee situated on the platform of spontaneity is already very expert in śāstric instruction, logic and argument. When he comes to the point of eternal love for Kṛṣṇa, no one can deviate him from that position, neither by argument nor by śāstric evidence. An advanced devotee has realized his eternal relationship with the Lord, and consequently he does not accept the logic and arguments of others. Such an advanced devotee has nothing to do with the sahajiyās, who manufacture their own way and commit sins by indulging in illicit sex, intoxication and gambling, if not meat-eating. Sometimes the sahajiyās imitate advanced devotees and live in their own whimsical way, avoiding the principles set down in the revealed scriptures. Unless one follows the six Gosvāmīs-Śrī Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and Raghunātha dāsa-one cannot be a bona fide spontaneous lover of Kṛṣṇa. In this connection, Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says: rūpa-raghunātha-pade haibe ākuti kabe hāma bujhaba se yugala pirīti. The sahajiyās’ understanding of the love affairs between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is not bona fide because they do not follow the principles laid down by the six Gosvāmīs. Their illicit connection and their imitation of the dress of Rūpa Gosvāmī as well as their avoidance of the prescribed methods of revealed scriptures will lead them to the lowest regions of hell. These imitative sahajiyās are cheated and unfortunate. They are not equal to advanced devotees (paramahaṁsas). Debauchees and paramahaṁsas are not on the same level.

Books : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta – 1975 Edition : Cc. Madhya-lila : Madhya 24: The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse : Madhya 24.330 : PURPORT : samo damas tapah saucam ksantir arjavam eva ca jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam :

Unless one is qualified with all these attributes, he cannot be accepted as a brāhmaṇa. It is not a question of simply taking birth in a brāhmaṇa family. In this regard, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura remarks that Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī, although not born in brāhmaṇa families, are accepted as bona fide spiritual masters because they were brāhmaṇas by qualification. Personalities like Śrī Gaṅgā-nārāyaṇa, Rāmakṛṣṇa and many others, who were actually born in brāhmaṇa families, accepted Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī as their spiritual masters.

Books : Teachings of Lord Caitanya – 1968 Edition : TLC 31: The Supreme Perfection :

Whatever position one may have, if he is fully conversant with the science of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can become a bona fide spiritual master, initiator or teacher of the science. In other words, one can become a bona fide spiritual master if he has sufficient knowledge of the science of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The position does not depend on a particular position in society or on birth. This is the conclusion of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and it is in accordance with the Vedic injunctions. On the strength of this conclusion, Lord Caitanya, previously known as Viśvambhara, accepted a spiritual master, Īśvara Purī, who was a sannyāsī. Similarly, Lord Nityānanda Prabhu and Śrī Advaita Ācārya also accepted another sannyāsī as their spiritual master, Mādhavendra Purī. This Mādhavendra Purī is also known as Lakṣmīpati Tīrtha. Similarly, another great ācārya, Śrī Rasikānanda, accepted Śrī Śyāmānanda as his spiritual master, although he was not born of a brāhmaṇa family. So also, Gaṅgānārāyaṇa Cakravartī accepted Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura as spiritual master. In ancient days there was even a hunter named Dharma, who became a spiritual master for many people. There are clear instructions in Mahābhārata and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.11.32) stating that a person-be he brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra-should be accepted by his personal qualifications and not by birth.

Lectures : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures : Madhya-lila: Lectures : Madhya 20: Lectures : Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.105 — New York, July 11, 1976 : 760711CC.NY :

Prabhupāda: Lokanātha lokera jīvana. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura’s guru’s name was Lokanātha Gosvāmī. You have seen, those who have gone to Vṛndāvana. There is Lokanatha Gosvāmī’s tomb. So, then?

The Science of Congregational Chanting of the Name of the Lord (Samkirtan)[BTG PY1,Parts 1-4, 1944]

When Pralhad Moharaj, the celebrated devotee of the Personality of Godhead Vishnu and the son of Hiranyakashipu the well-known atheist-was a mere boy of five years old, was seen one day by his fellow playmates, chanting the transcendental name of Hari (The Lord). The boys, who were all born of atheist family and thereby known as the children of the Ashuras, asked Prolhad Moharaj a question which is now-a-days a common enquiry by all busy men. The question was quite plain and simple and it was an enquiry by the children of the Ashuras as to why Prolhad was wasting his valuable time by chanting the name of Hari. They asked him to come out of his place and make an enjoyment of life by fulfilling the utilitarian theory of eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. This was quite a natural thing for the children of the Ashuras because the Ashuras are none but those who know nothing of transcendence but are always busy with the business of material enjoyment.

The symbol of material enjoyment is a combination of gold and cushion and Hiranya-Kashipu was made the King of Ashuras because his very name suggested that he was concerned with only gold and cushion. Gold is the medium of exchange for all material comforts and cushion or soft-padded bedding is the resting place for enjoying women and wine. Hiranya means gold and Kashipu means soft bedding. Hiranya-Kashipu was therefore the King of such materialists who simply cared for gold and cushion and as such he did care little for the Lord or his Name.

But fortunately or unfortunately in order to show to the people of the world that material enjoyment is not the ultimate end of life but the aim of this human form of life is a mission for going back to God and back to home, Prolhad Moharaj who was an empowered incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, as is stated in the Geeta, took his birth in the midst of the most stubborn materialists, as the son of Hiranyakashipu who was atheist and materialist to the bottom of his heart.

The laws of appearance and disappearance of the Almighty Lord or that of His bonafide servants are different from the laws of Nature and both of them are free to make their choice as to where and how they should appear and where and how they should not. Therefore it is not at all astonishing why Prolhad Moharaj should have appeared himself in the family of atheists; thus a struggle between the theist and the atheist began.

The clash between the theist and the atheist exists always since the time immemorial and for the reason of this the relation between a theist and an atheist remains always a strained circumstances even if the relation is so intimate as that of between a son and a father: The atheist father Hiranyakashipu tried to kill his only beloved child Prolhad more than once for the only fault of his son’s faith in God. In such a struggle between the theist and the atheist, the theist of course always comes out victorious, that is the verdict of history.

Now to come to our original point, we may say that Prolhad Moharaj, thus being asked by his fellow brethren as to why he was wasting his valuable time in the chanting of the name of Hari generally known as Kirtan,-he replied to his friends in the following words:-

“Brother, we have got this valuable human form of life after crores and crores of evolutionary processes. Thus this life, although temporary and liable to death, is a very valuable asset and in this body of our life only we can attain to the Supreme goal. We should not therefore waste our time even for a moment and must immediately engage ourselves for the attainment of the Prime necessity of life, the object of our material enjoyment being the same in all other forms of life.”

The contention of the friends of Prolhad Moharaj was that the chanting of the name of Hari, may be set aside as a business of old-age recreation. For a body of five years old who is faced with a very bright future of life in the material world, such unusual chanting of the name of Hari is sheer waste of time (?). As a matter of fact if chanting of the Name of Hari is a matter of business for old age recreation, that sort of recreation may not be indulged in even in the old age. But if it is a question of absolute necessity, every man is a born old man and the name of Hari must be taken shelter of as soon as he is able to pronounce the elementary vocabulary. Old age means nearer approach to death and for human life and that especially in the present age of quarrel, there is no certainty as to when a man will die. Despite all precautions of the state and society, the mortality of man both young and old is taking place at every moment and yet the living ones think that they are immortals (?). That is a fun of the Maya and Prolhad Moharaj wanted to dissipate the illusion of his friends who were all the children of the Ashuras. He said-

“My dear friends, do not be foolish. Material enjoyment you had had enough many a time in your past lives and as such material enjoyment you will have according to your rank and position. But you must try for the supreme goal which was not possible to be performed during your past many lives.” The four principles of material enjoyment are known as eating, sleeping, fearing and sense gratification. The cats, dogs, tigers, ants, serpents, birds and beasts like the man, have all got to enjoy these principles of material enjoyment according to their respective positions. The dog eats something and after eating goes to sleep for sometime. He also fears from the attack of another dog like a man fears from the attack of his enemy. The dog also begets children in the womb of his bitch wife, exactly like the man, and the dog’s family is maintained with equal care as that of a man. But the difference between the dog and the man is that the dog cannot know anything besides those four principles of animal life called material enjoyment, but the man, by dint of his superior consciousness can know, if he tries to know at all, as to what he is, what is this manifested creation, who is the Almighty and what are their inter-relation with one another. The dog cannot make any distinction between a dog and the God because apparently both are composed of the same ingredients namely G. D. & O. But a man in his pure state of consciousness can know that a dog is dog and God is God by the law of identity. God cannot be dog and the dog cannot be God. A man of developed consciousness can understand that God is great and all other things are His subordinate servitors. He can know that forgetfulness of God is the quality of the dog and therefore a man tries to distinguish himself from the position of a dog simply by trying to know what is God. This process of knowing God the Almighty, varies in different ways by different people according to different country and climate and the standard method by which one tries to approach God or the relation between Him and the man, is generally known as religion. A man who has no such religion may be classed with the dog as he is no better than the latter. It is stated in the scriptures.

“Dharmena heena pasuvi samana.”

i.e., a man devoid of religion is just like an animal. As a matter of fact therefore, Prolhad Moharaj was not wasting his time by chanting the name of Hari as seemed to the atheist friends but he was rightly utilising the valuable time of human existence with a view to self-realisation.

When the chanting of the Name of the Lord is done individually or incompletely it is called ‘kirtan’. But all the same Kirtan or Samkirtan is always meant for chanting of the Name of the Lord and never means a debating society of mundane words. Samkirtan is however the greatest common formula of universal religion acceptable in the present age of quarrel, called the ‘Kali yooga’.

In the Puranas it is stated that the process of knowing God, in the Satya yooga or Golden Age, is by concentration and meditation. Men would live during that age for one lac of years and it is said that Mohamuni Valmiki attained siddhi or perfection after 60,000 sixty thousand years of meditation before he was able to compose Ramayana. (So Ramayana is not a mundane poets’ speculation.) The process of knowing God in the Treta-yooga or silver-age, was the performances of big sacrifices such as Aswamedha yajna, that in the Dwapara yooga or Bronze-age, was by worshipment with all paraphernalia and that in the Kali yooga, i.e., in the present age of quarrel (iron-age) the process is by performances of congregational chanting of the names of the Lord. The injunction in the scripture is as follows:-

Kritejat dhyayate Vishnu tretayam yayata makhoin

Dwapare paricharyayam Kaloutat Hari samkirtanat

In the present age of quarrel therefore, when all conclusions are arrived at by an assembly of fighting men, the chance of realisation of the Absolute conclusion is very little by other processes such as, works, knowledge, re-union or meditation except by the process of congregational chanting of the Name of Hari.

About 450 years ago, Lord Chaitanya, the father of Samkirtan movement, appeared Himself in Bengal in the district of Nadia and inaugurated first the system of congregational chanting of the name of the Lord. He made a vigorous transcendental propaganda work for this purpose. As a result of that movement, the whole of Bengal, Orissa and Southern India, was over-flooded with His transcendental propaganda work and many eminent personalities like Rupa and Sanatan the then ministers of the Nawab of Bengal and Ramananda Roy the then governor of Madras and scholars like Vasudeva Sarbabhouma or Sanyasis like Prakashananda Saraswati all became His disciples amongst many other thousands of disciples at that time.

At Benares he converted Prakashananda Saraswati along with his 60,000 (sixty thousand) Mayavadi Sannyasin followers to His cult of Samkirtan. At Allahabad He favoured Ballavacharya at Arail on the other side of Allahabad and at Puri He did so by reclaiming the great scholar of the time namely Vasudeva Sarbabhouma an accredited logician and empiric philosopher of his time. All these combination made Lord Chaitanya’s movement a great success and as a result of that movement the present city of Brindaban in U.P. was excavated by the two Goswamins namely Rupa and Sanatan who were empowered by Lord Chaitanya. Since that time in various parts of India the cult of Samkirtan has spread up like fire and has been accepted as the only process of transcendental realisation by many many saints such as Tukaram in Maharastra and others. It is said that Saint Tukaram got inspiration of the holy name Hare Krishna by Krishna Chaitanya (Avanga 3875) and since then he flooded the whole of Maharastra and Western India by the Samkirtan movement.

In the ‘Chaitanya Bhagwat’ also we can see a foretelling of Lord Chaitanya-that the cult of the Lord will spread in every village and all towns that are on the surface of the Earth. From this foretelling we can hope that the cult of Samkirtan will take very shortly an universal form of religious movement and this universal religion, wherein there is no harm in chanting the Name of the Lord nor there is any question of quarrel,-will continue to years, as we can know from the pages of authoritative scriptures.

The cult of Sree Krishna Chaitanya is as follows:

Harernama Harernama Harernamoiba Kevalam

Kalou Nasteba, nasteba, nasteba gatiranyatha.

i.e., in the age of quarrel, the transcendental Name of Hari (Lord) is only to be chanted and there is no other alternative except this, for transcendental realisation. He has thrice emphasised on the Name of Hari as well as on the word alternative, in order to give on it very strong impression as we generally do by giving stress at least three time on a thing just to give good impression. It should be noted therefore that the process for transcendental realisations recommended for the three periods namely, Satya, Treta, Dwapara will not be feasible in the present age. The people of the present age are short lived and poor in knowledge and poor in material prosperity. They are also corrupted by the association of “Kalee” or the age of quarrel. The symbolic expression of the Age of Kali is represented by the four principles of vices as was observed by Parikshit Moharaj during the first advent of the Age of Kali about 5,000 years

ago. The four principles of vices are as follows.

(1) Illegitimate association with woman and unrestricted sexuality.

(2) Unrestricted slaughtering of cows and other minor animals.

(3) Encouragement of drinking and other intoxicating habits.

(4) Mass movements of gambling adventures in all spheres of human activities namely, political, social, economic and religious, etc.

We may also very carefully note that the Age of Kali has passed only 5,000 years after the battle of Kurukshetra which was fought between the Kurus and the Pandavas and just after the disappearance of Lord Krishna from this mortal world. The major portion of the Age of Kali is still unfathomed as according to Hindu Shastras (Law books) the Age of Kali has to prolong more for 4,27,000 of years. The signs of the Age of Kali as mentioned above have already begun to be very prominent even in the very beginning of the age, and we do not know what will happen when the age will be at its full youthful time. Thus we can at least know that for the coming four lacs and twenty-seven thousands of years, no one can check the progressive current of the influence of the Age of Kali represented by the above four principles of vices as no one is able to check the seasonal changes in the duration of a year. The laws of Nature cannot be changed by anyone who is himself under the laws of Nature. The above four principles of the Age of Kali have spread from the West and as stated in the Scriptures it is spreading its influence on the Eastern horizon too. We may try our utmost by all our resources and inventive powers to check the above forces, by such imaginary actions as Hinduraj, Moslemraj, Non-violence, socialism, communalism, and so forth as the human brain can conceive of-but we are completely helpless in checking the onrush spread of the cult of the Age of Kali, by any conceivable method except by the counterblast, namely congregational chanting of the Name of Hari (The Lord). It is for this reason only that Lord Chaitanya has thrice emphasised the fact,

Kalou Nasteba, Nasteba Nasteba gatiranaath,

So from the onslaught and ravages of the age of Kali, no one will be able to concentrate his mind even for a moment. Even the preliminary processes of meditation (Yoga) will be impossible to perform by any man in the present age. Therefore the processes as was enjoined in the age of Satya, has to be replaced by the process of Harer Namoiba. In the same way no one can perform the great sacrifices which required so much wealth and so much knowledge. The men of the Treta Yooga used to live for 10,000 of years and therefore it was possible for them to accumulate the necessary funds as well as knowledge necessary for the performance of the great sacrifices such as the Aswamedha Yajna, etc. Even it is possible now to accumulate the necessary funds for such sacrifices, it is not possible to find out the required learned Brahmin who could take charge for the performance of such sacrifices, so that the desired result can be had of. Thus in the present age, we are poor both by funds and knowledge and as such the principles of sacrifices as recommended for the Treta Yooga must be replaced by the principles of Harer Namoiba. In the same way the processes of the Dwapara Yooga has also to be replaced by the principles of Harer Namoiba as ordered by Lord Chaitanya. He has thrice emphasised on the fact as there is no other alternative for the mass emancipation in the Kali Yooga, for the reason that all other methods for bringing peace in the world will always be frustrated by the contamination of the above four principles of the age of Kali.

Lord Chaitanya conducted His transcendental movement strictly according to the injunction of the Shastras (law-books) because that is the qualification of all bonafide Acharyas or authorities, and as such he has most reasonably and scientifically ordered us to chant the Name of the Lord as follows. In the scriptures the Taraka Brahman Names of the Lord in this age are composed of 32 letters and 16 words, symbolised as follows:-

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare.

The chanting of the above sixteen words composed of 32 Sanskrit letters combined together is called the “Mahamantram”. (Moha=great, Man=mind, Tran=deliverance) that is, the great instrument for our deliverance from the clutches of the mental plane. At present we have no information of the transcendental plane or Self-realisation but are hovering over a plane created by the Mind called Manaratha. These sixteen words can alone deliver us from such mental activities.

If any one therefore takes shelter of the Mahamantram with unconditional surrender, he can very easily attain to all successes both material and Spiritual, that is the verdict of Lord Chaitanya. This Mahamantram when murmured within the mouth it is called “Japa” and when chanted loudly so that others also may take advantage of hearing the same, it is called SREE KRISHNA SAMKIRTAN. Both these processes of Japa and Samkirtan were perfectly demonstrated by Thakur Haridas an associate of Lord Chaitanya. This Thakur Haridasa is also known as the Namacharya, i.e., the authority from whom, the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord, must be learnt. It is needless however to say that this Thakur Haridas happened to appear himself in the family of a great Mohamedan showing thereby that the cult of Lord Chaitanya is acceptable universally without any distinction of caste, creed and colour.

According to Lord Chaitanya, this Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified for the following reasons:-

Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the darkness of Nescience cast over our pure consciousness is dissipated. The Nescience is our forgetfulness of the service of the Lord, the All-attractive Personality of Godhead. Before the advent of the Age of Kali-Sree Krishna the Supreme Lord appeared Himself as one of us (?) and conducted the sacred battle of Kurukshetra in order to teach us, through Arjuna, the essence of all knowledge in the form of Geeta. The supreme instruction of Geeta is most confidential and that is said by the Lord Himself as follows:-

Sarba Dharman paritayya Mam ekam saranam braja

Aham tam sarba papevya moksaisyami ma sucha

i.e., “Give up thy all engagements created by the mind and take shelter of Me alone. I shall deliver thee from all possible sins, for which you may rest assured.”

In the same Geeta (Bg. 15.7) Sree Krishna says that the Jiva souls are eternal parts and parcels of Him but the ‘Jivasoul’ has now become conditioned by the modes of Nature attracted by the subtle mind and five subordinate senses, encaged in the gross material body. The fact that the Jiva soul is completely different from his body and the mind, has been elaborately explained in the very beginning of the Geeta and this misidentification of the spirit soul with material body or the mind-has been the root cause of all Nescience in the forgetfulness of our transcendental eternal relation with the Supreme Lord. The last instruction of Geeta is thus in the way of reinstallation of the Jiva soul unto the service of the Lord and that is the aim of clarifying the mirror of our pure consciousness.

But the mirror of our pure consciousness is now covered with a layer of dusts primarily called mundane desire for enjoyment and mundane renunciation or hatred for enjoyment. First of all we are attracted by the glare of material enjoyment and thereby we desire to lord it over the material forces of Nature and her regulated laws by becoming Iswara, Lord, Master, King, Proprietor, Leader, and so forth but when we are defeated in our such enjoying habit by the trident of Durga, the superintending goddess of the material world, we then try to become a pseudo renouncer or “Tyagi“. Thus in the beginning of our association with the material enjoyment, we declare ourselves as “Bhogi” or enjoyer and when we are baffled in our such process of enjoyment we become “Tyagi” or renouncer of the world. Both these functions are performed on the mental plane only. And in this way Durga or the material Nature pulls us by the ear and the laws of Nature known as “Trigunas” or the three modes of Nature till we do away with such mental speculations of Bhoga and Tyaga detrimental to the path of self-realisation.

When we want to become an enjoyer we do not remember as to whose things we are going to enjoy. We forget at that time that everything is created by and property of the Lord. We are unable to manufacture even a pinch of earth and what to speak of the finer elements such as water, fire, air, ether etc. We forget that all these elements are the gifts of the Lord Himself through His External Potency of Nature and the Jiva soul is simply allowed to make a use of them for the service of the Lord or in order to satisfy his false position of an enjoyer (?). As soon as the objects of such false enjoyment are taken away by the sway of the laws of Nature, the Jiva soul looks blank and becomes a silly renouncer like the fabulous jackal in the orchard of grapes. The Jiva soul forgets to know that all the materials of his false enjoyment are supplied by the Nature in accordance with the orders of the Lord and the captivated conditioned soul falsely thinks that he is absolute enjoyer of the things. He forgets that he is a prisoner in the fortress (Duga) of the External Potency (Durga). When he renounces therefore under an awkward circumstances, he gives up only that gross enjoying habit but becomes a subtle enjoyer of his other resources namely the mind and the ego. Thus he hovers over the plane of mental concoction for becoming one with the Lord making a spiritual suicide of his own individual existence. This sort of illusion is the last snare of the Most Powerful Qualitative Nature and for this reason only Sree Krishna warns the Jiva soul as follows:-

“Daivijhesa gunamae Mama Maya duratyaya.” Unsurmountable are the ways of the modes of Nature and the only way out from the tangle of such modes of Nature-is complete voluntary surrender unto Me (Sree Krishna). The last line completes as follows: “Mam eba je prapadyante Maya etan tarantee te.” Thus the desire or hatred for enjoyment or renunciation both are creations of the false ego. They are therefore as if dusts on the mirror of our pure consciousness. When this is cleared off by Sree Krishna Samkirtan the Jiva soul then and there can see only his real face on the polished mirror of pure consciousness and then he can know only that he is neither the enjoyer nor the renouncer but an eternal entity as transcendental servitor of the Supreme Lord. The dust is Maya or illusion which can be compared with the shadow and the Lord as the beam light. When He appears Himself on the mirror of our pure consciousness, the Maya gives way and the shadow disappears. We cannot see the Lord nor hear His voices by our present imperfect senses but when with full voluntary surrender we chant the transcendental Name of the Lord with service and submission, He mercifully makes His own appearance in the transcendental state of our existence when freed from the contamination of the spirit of enjoyment and renouncement.

Secondly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence we can extinguish the perpetual fire of material tribulations that always burn in the midst of material existence.

Forgetfulness of our transcendental relation with the Lord, has compelled the Nature to inflict her trident of threefold miseries pierced into the heart of us. The threefold miseries are:

(a) Miseries pertaining to “Atma” or the body and the mind such as heat, cold, diseases, sorrows, losses, invalidity, hunger, thirst, old age, death, etc.

(b) Miseries pertaining to the “Bhuta” or other entities such as troubles inflicted by enemies, animals, insects, etc., and

(c) Miseries pertaining to the disturbances by the “Devas” or the controlling gods such as famine, flood, war, pestilence, cyclone, earthquake etc.

The conditioned soul in his false position of an enjoyer or renouncer has to undergo the threefold miseries as above mentioned in spite of all his scientific efforts to overcome them. The scientific brain with which the conditioned Jiva soul tries to make a solution of the miserable problems-is also a gift of the modes of Nature and he is therefore befooled in his tiny efforts to conquer the laws of Nature by a tiny instrument called the brain, given by the Nature. The laws of Nature however can smash the products of such millions and billions of combined brains by her one stroke of the powerful trident.

The constant effort of the conditioned soul to give a fight with the laws of Nature makes the conditioned soul more and more embarrassed, as we can find in the picture of the “Mohishasur” in his fighting mode with the mother “Durga“. The Mohishasur has a trident of the Mother pierced in his chest is the symbolic expression of the threefold miseries sickening our heart.

Such a huge fire of tribulation can only be checked by the Sree Krishna Samkirtan. By Sree Krishna Samkirtan only, the conditioned soul can gradually know that he is neither enjoyer nor renouncer but a transcendental servitor only. By the revival of such pure consciousness, he surrenders voluntarily all his manufactured processes of conquering the laws of Nature and then only can corroborate with the lessons of Geeta “Sarba Dharman paritayya” etc. When he does so, he easily transcends the laws of Nature. The laws of Nature cannot act on him by such revival of pure consciousness. At that time even within this material world he becomes freed from the action of the laws of Nature in his transcendental position. Such is the power of Sree Krishna Samkirtan.

Thirdly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the darkness of our heart becomes whiter and whiter. Sree Krishna Samkirtan is compared with the moon rays that diffuses the whiteness of “Kumud” (Lotus) flowers.

Similarly the moon rays of Sree Krishna Samkirtan diffuses the whiteness of our pure consciousness.

Fourthly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the life of knowledge becomes blessed. In the “Mundak Upanishad” we can get information of two kinds of knowledge. The one is pertaining to the matter (physical) and the other pertaining to the spirit (metaphysical). By Sree Krishna Samkirtan when one’s heart is unfolded like the Kumud flower by the rays of moon, one realises his own self as distinct from the body and the mind. In the present conditioned state of our existence, we are more concerned with the knowledge of the body and the mind but as we realise, our real self by the process of Sree Krishna Samkirtan, that we are separate from the body and the mind, so a pure hankering after our real existence becomes evident. That is the life of real knowledge and is called generally the life of “Brahman Jijnasa” i.e., an enquiry into the life of spiritual existence as distinguished from spiritual suicide.

The Jiva Soul being constitutionally “Brahman” or Spirit, an enquiry of the knowledge of Spiritual existence is quite natural for him and by the culture of that knowledge of spiritual existence only the Jiva Soul again becomes reinstated to his constitutional position of transcendental relationship of neutrality, service, friendship, affection and love of God which is the ultimate goal of spiritual life. As for the mundane knowledge such as art, science, philosophy, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and so forth they become automatically acquired by the process of Sree Krishna Samkirtan. Sree Krishna Samkirtan includes such knowledges indirectly or as a matter of course as it is evident by the recitation of Bhagavat Geeta and Sreemad Bhagavat. There are perfect elucidation of such mundane knowledge in the readings of Geeta and Bhagavat.

Simple culture of the mundane knowledge makes the Jiva Soul bound up by the vanity of such mundane knowledge but by Sree Krishna Samkirtan, not only those knowledges are acquired without any separate effort but also the student becomes freed from the mundane vanity for the acquirement of such knowledges. Freedom from the vanity of such mundane knowledge, leads one to the path of real knowledge i.e., to the Lotus feet of the Absolute Personality of Godhead Who is the Fountain Head of All knowledge.

Fifthly, Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because He enhances the ocean of enjoyments. By acquisition of mundane knowledge certainly we find out the ocean of material enjoyment but such enjoyments are partial, insignificant and temporary in as much as they are unable to give us perfect happiness.

But by Sree Krishna Samkirtan we do not only acquire the enjoyments of the material knowledge but we can extend the sphere to the enjoyment of spiritual existence. By the imperfect material knowledge, we are able to enjoy the material world for a limited time and within a limited space but by the extension of the spiritual knowledge, the ocean of enjoyment becomes extended to unlimited time and unlimited space. Unless therefore we can engage our resources acquired by the sacrifices of life, wealth, intelligence and words for propaganda of the service of Sree Krishna Samkirtan, we are sure to be disappointed in our attempt for material enjoyment and as a result of such limited attempt, we are sure to be dashed constantly like a pendulum of a clock, between the poles of material enjoyment and renouncement.

Sixthly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified for He can give a taste of the nectorine of transcendental mellow. When everything is therefore conjoined with the performances of Sree Krishna Samkirtan everything in such transcendental relation becomes transcendental in nature by the transcendental touch and as such the mundane nature which is always imperfected by its inborn inebriety and unwholesomeness, cannot act on them. In the transcendence, the mundane imperfectness is always conspicuous by its absence, and therefore Sree Krishna Samkirtan can give us a taste of complete nectorine. The elevationists of the mundane world can surely taste the nectorine of the fruits of their respective works for some time, and the salvationists may undergo the dry regulations of renouncement negatively of the bitterness of material enjoyment without any scent of the transcendental variety, but the performer of Sree Krishna Samkirtan, by his process of engaging all for the service of Sree Krishna with full touch of the transcendence, does never become bound up by their such transcendental activities, like the elevationists nor has had the necessity of undergoing the dry process of renouncement. The performer of Sree Krishna Samkirtan always transcends the activities of the mundane elevationists and salvationists and remains an eternal servitor of the Lord and enjoys in every step of his transcendental existence a touch from the Lord. He is therefore reposed to a position of perfect peace enviable by the desirers of mundane enjoyment, renouncement or perfection.

Then again Sree Krishna Samkirtan being transcendental sound, we must distinguish Him from any of the mundane sounds. The mundane sound is always different from the object designated by the sound. For example we may cite that the mundane sound ‘water’ is always different from the object water designated by the sound water. When we are thirsty we may repeat the word ‘water’ and ‘water’ by sounds for one hundred and a thousand times, still we shall not be able to quench our thirst by such constant practices. That is the imperfectness or mundane inebriety of the mundane sounds.

But Sree Krishna Samkirtan although descends from the transcendental kingdom apparently like the mundane sounds, just to favour us for His being audible by our present imperfect senses, He should never be concocted as one with the mundane sound. We must always remember that there is no distinction between Sree Krishna and His Name, Fame, Quality, and Paraphernalia. The Lord is Absolute Knowledge and there is no mundane relativity between Him and His Names etc. He is eternally complete or “Purnamadam.” His Name is also therefore “Purnamadam” and therefore when His Name appears before us in His completeness-the Lord does not lose anything thereby but still remains in His fullness. That is the potentiality of the Almighty God. Completeness derived from completeness leaves out a balance of completeness. One minus one leaves out a balance of one again, as distinguished from the mundane calculation of one minus one equal to Zero. The Upanishads confirm the fact like this:-

“Purnashya Purnam adaya Purnam ebe abshishyate.”

The Lord therefore can descend before us by His inconceivable mystic powers, in the form of Sound Transcendental, and if we like, we can receive Him properly by surrender and service by a submissive aural reception. If Sree Krishna comes Himself in our presence as He actually did during the battle of Kurukshetra or Sree Rama Chandra comes Himself in our presence as He did actually during the Ajodhya Leela, what we are expected to do to receive the Personality of Godhead? Surely we shall try to receive Him with all devotion and services, so that we may be favoured with His Grace. Similarly as His Name is non-different from Him, we must receive the Name with all humility and submissive aural reception with the same attitude as we have had done in the presence of the Lord Himself. “Sree Krishna Samkirtan” is not therefore a sense pleasure of music and songs as are conceived by some mundaners. We should always remember the following sloka in connection with Sree Krishna Samkirtan namely:-

Nama Chintamani Krishna Chaitanya Rasavigraha

Purna, Suddha, Nitya, Mukta, avinyatat Nama Namina.

i.e., the Name of Sree Krishna is equally powerful as Sree Krishna Himself for there is no distinction between Him and His Name. The Name is therefore All-perfect, All-pure, Eternal, and distinguished from the mundane sounds which are always different from the objects designated by these sounds.

Sree Krishna has said Himself while addressing Narada that He does not necessarily make Himself immobile by His situation in the transcendental world, neither He is so, being seated in the hearts of the Yogins as Paramatma and so forth, but He resides surely in His fullness, where His devotees chant the transcendental Name in right earnestness. Sree Krishna being the absolute enjoyer as stated in the Geeta,

“Aham eba saraba yajnanam bhokta cha Prabhur eba cha”

i.e., “I am the Absolute Enjoyer and Master of all Yajnas or sacrifices etc.”-He cannot be the object of our sense-pleasure in combination with music and bands and called thereof “Samkirtan.” He cannot be enjoyed by our irresponsible whims and feats. He says therefore that He lives only there where His devotees chant His Name.

“Mad bhakta jatra gayantee“

He declines to descend Himself where there is dearth of His devotees. Because His devotees never try to enjoy Him or His Paraphernalia in a pseudo-spiritualistic mode. His devotee knows it perfectly well that Sree Krishna being the Absolute Personality of Godhead i.e., “Purushottama” as stated in the Geeta, He cannot consent to reside at a place where His transcendental Name, Fame, Quality, etc., are considered as equal with mundane names, etc., and thereby treated with all undevotional manner. In the Geeta he has clearly declared that He does not reveal Himself to every one and any one.

“Na Aham sarbasha prakasha Yoga Maya samabrita”

The Absolute Godhead always reserves the right of not being exposed to those whose eyes are covered with the modes of Nature. His devotion however begins only when one has learnt the A.B.C. lessons of Geeta in perfectness. This perfect knowledge of Geeta is practically demonstrated by complete surrender unto Sree Krishna only, leaving aside all other things. The first stage of Sree Krishna devotion begins only when one is firmly convinced that by Sree Krishna devotion only one is able to perform all other duties. To abide by the dictations of Sree Krishna is the real discharging of all other duties. This sort of staunch devotion is called “Sraddha” and by the gradual development of the activities of “Sraddha” in the association of devotees, one can rise up to the stage of Prema Bhakti the highest plane of transcendental Pastimes of the Personality of Godhead.

Such being the Nature of the transcendental Name of the Lord, the Name must be received through the transcendental sources i.e., from the lips of the devotees only as above mentioned. The transcendental Names of the Lord in His various forms or manifestations such as Rama, Nrisingha, Narayana, Krishna, Gopalam, Vishnu, Govinda, Radharamana, Gopinatha, Seeta Pati, Raghubara, Baladeva and many others in the spiritual kingdom, are always complete with the transcendental potencies and by the mercy of the Lord, there is no hard and fast rules in respect to time and space for the transcendental chanter. The devotee who has received the Name from a transcendental source i.e., from the lips of a devotee as above mentioned, may repeat the Name at all times, without any restriction. By this the Lord has favoured us to allow His constant association, so that one can always live with Him, go with Him, eat with Him, sleep with Him, work with Him, without being disturbed by the laws of Nature or her threefold miseries.

Such is the unbounded mercy of the Lord on us but still we are so much wretched that we have no inclination for chanting His Name in spite of His being so easily available for the fallen souls of the Age of quarrel. There is nothing to lose or nothing to spend-but everything to gain by chanting the Name of the Lord but still we have no genuine desire for their chanting and we must see to the causes why we are so much disinclined although the Lord has become so merciful on us.

As a matter of fact our first misfortune commenced from the time immemorial when we forgot the transcendental service of the Lord and thus became conditioned by the modes of the material Nature. This misfortunate occurrence became manifested in trio under the following heading namely:

(a) Material enjoyment without any responsibility.

(b) Good or bad works for the furtherance of the above propensity in the present life and in future births also.

(c) Culture of material knowledge in order to make a measurement of the Immeasurable.

All the above threefold activities with their various sub-headings are to be considered as our misfortunes by which we are always debarred from the chanting of the transcendental Names of the Lord. Spontaneous eternal love for the Lord is a birth right of the Jiva Soul, but in the realisation of his such pure consciousness, the above mentioned trio is the stumbling block. He is checked on his onward march by such refuses and as a matter of course the Jiva Soul is apt to be contaminated by ten kinds of disease-germs known as “Namaparadha” or offence at the feet of the transcendental Name of the Lord, as one can find out in the “Padmapuranam.” The sincere devotee who wants to attain a perfection (Siddhi) for himself by the process of chanting the Name of the Lord must refrain from the ten kinds of offences which are quoted below from the “Padmapuranam.”

1. The first and foremost offence is the act of defaming the great saints who have glorified the chanting of the Name of the Lord by example in their own life and precepts. According to ordinary moral principles no one must be defamed for serving any ulterior motive. But still according to the gravity of different offences, defamation of Saints who have done much for the propagation of the Name of God and His Fame must be considered the gravest of all offences. Those who are therefore accustomed to defame such saints, are spiritually great offenders and such persons can have no access to the transcendental Name of the Lord. We should therefore be guard against such offence.

2. The second offence is to place the Absolute Godhead or Vishnu Tattwa in the category of the demigods who derive their powers from the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is one without a second and all other gods are His servitors, having no separate existence as another Almighty Godhead. These subordinate gods are stated in the Geeta as “Anya devata” i.e., gods other than Myself (Sree Krishna)

Jepyanya devata bhakta jajante shradhyannita

Teopi mam eba Kounteya jajantee avidi purbakam

This abidhipurbakam means unduly or with offensives. The Supreme Godhead is Sree Krishna undoubtedly and this is confirmed in all the scriptures and specially in the Brahma Samhita as follows:-

Iswara parama Krishna sachchitananda vigraha

Anadiradi Govinda Sarbakarana karanam.

i.e., Sree Krishna is the primeval Lord and Origin of everything. He is the cause of all causes. He is the Summum Bonum Absolute Godhead. The Plenary Manifestations of Sree Krishna are manifold such as Rama, Nrisingha, Vishnu etc. But all such manifestations are Absolute knowledge. No one is therefore equal or greater than the Absolute Knowledge. This subject is itself a matter of studies by transcendentalists but without knowing the intricacy of the Absolute knowledge, those who simply imagine that the Absolute Godhead and subordinate demigods are one and the same commit great offence at the feet of the Supreme Lord. The subordinate gods such as Shiva, Brahma, Ganesh, Surya, Indra, Chandra, Varuna, Vaue etc., are either qualitative incarnations of the Absolute Godhead or in other cases Jiva souls with delegated powers from the Personality of Godhead. Neither existence of the demigods shall be misconceived nor they should be made one and the same with the Absolute Personality of Godhead. Those who want to attain perfection in the way of chanting the Names of the Lord must refrain from such conglomeration of facts in the spiritual science.

The third offence is disregard of the Spiritual Master. The devotee must receive the transcendental Name of the Lord from the transcendental lips of a bonafide spiritual master who is cent percent devotee of the Lord and nothing more or nothing less and then begin chanting the transcendental Name of the Lord by constant repetition. Such spiritual master as above mentioned is known as the Guru from whom either initiation is taken or the one from whom spiritual instruction is received. One should have unflinching faith in such self realised transcendental spiritual master. The bonafides of such spiritual master can however be known, by their activities only which are always evident in respect of everything being done for and on behalf of the Lord. The self-realised spiritual master never deviates from the rulings of Shastras (Law Books) and he always does in practice what he speaks in theory. Those who however manufacture spiritual lessons from their own fertile brain, without having undergone any spiritual training from a bonafide spiritual master, cannot be counted as a spiritual master. Disrespect for such bonafide spiritual master and respect for the pseudo-spiritual master both are offences of the third order.

The fourth offence is defamation of the standard scriptures such as the four Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Brahmasutras, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Geeta, or other literatures which conform to the principles of the above mentioned scriptures. In the Geeta Sree Krishna Himself accepts ‘Brahmasutras‘ or ‘Vedanta Darshan’ as the standard of all spiritual knowledge.

“Brahmasutrapadaschaiba Hetumatvinischitam”

In the spiritual society no sect or Sampradaya is considered as bonafide party who has no authorised interpretation of the Brahmasutras. (Interpretation of “Brahmasutra” by the party represented by Lord Chaitanya is known as “Govinda Vashya” of Acharya Baladeva Vidyabhusan). Those who therefore invent some spiritual party without knowing the Brahmasutra from an authorised spiritual master or do interpret without proper reason and philosophy, do simply create disturbances in the spiritual line without doing any benefit to himself or to his unfortunate followers. Sreela Rupa Goswami describes such unauthorised activities as follows:-

Sruti Smriti Puranadi Pancharatrabidhin bina

Aikantiki Harerbhakti utpataiba kalpate.

Pseudo-devotional activities without reference to the standard scriptures as above mentioned, are simply acts of disturbances in the name of spirituality. The performer of Samkirtan must refrain from such disturbing elements.

The fifth offence is to misunderstand the glorification of the transcendental Name of the Lord as exaggerated facts. Actually by the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord, all gains be it material or spiritual are automatically obtained. It is simply a question of time that takes for the fructification of the desired result. But those who think, without attaining to perfection, that such results are exaggeration of facts, do commit offence of the fifth order. The performer of Samkirtan must refrain from such misrepresentation of facts.

The sixth offence is to manufacture concocted or designed meanings of the Names of Hari (The Lord) or that of the scriptural truths. One can directly understand that the word ‘Hari’ means the Personality of Godhead Who is Eternal Bliss, Eternal Knowledge, and Eternal Form but without knowing the intricacy of the Lord’s form etc., those who think ‘Hari’ means the Impersonal Brahman do commit offence of the sixth order. There are others who are still less intelligent and do manufacture meanings of the word “Sree Krishna” as the mind (?) Rama as satisfaction and similar other things. Such manufacturers of distorted meanings do not generally take what is direct and spontaneous interpretation but they always try to enforce indirect interpretations for their own temporary benefit only. They are also great offenders and the performer of Samkirtan must carefully take leave of them.

The seventh offence is to indulge in vices on the strength of chanting the Name of the Lord. Those who are really recipient of the transcendental Name of the Lord from the transcendental sources, and those who chant the Name of the Lord very carefully without any offence as above mentioned, cannot naturally indulge in vices as a matter of course. But for the reason of that those who intentionally commit vices knowing that they are always with the Lord (?),-are the greatest of all offenders and their counteracting endeavours for the vices committed during the day time, by the chanting of the Name of the Lord, in the evening, cannot be accepted as Samkirtan at any cost. One should always guard himself against such pseudo-spiritual devices for the well being of one’s ownself as well as one’s followers. This sort of offences can be compared with the act of pouring water on the fire while it is burning. Water pouring and burning of the fire cannot go together.

The eighth offence is to equalise the value of all good works with the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord. Penances, austerity, meditation, fasting, methodism, morality or such goodness that lead the performer to higher stations of life, cannot be equalised with Sree Krishna Samkirtan. Those who do like that, are also offenders at the feet of the transcendental Name. The results of all the above mentioned good works are after all material in nature because they can offer in return material prosperities only and are therefore limited within time and space. But the transcendental Name of the Lord and the Lord Himself are non-different. As such realisation of the Absolute Truth cannot be compared with relative goodness. The performer of Samkirtan must be on his guard against commitment of offence of the eighth order.

The ninth offence is to preach and advise of the transcendental nature of the Name of Lord to such a person who is atheistic in temperament, mundane moralists, and addicted to elevatory process only. Unless one has cleansed his heart from such contaminations, he can hardly be eligible for receiving the transcendental Name of the Lord.

There are many professional spiritual masters whose business is to sell the transcendental Name of the Lord (?) and these traders generally sell to persons who are altogether unfit. Such business transactions on considerations of L.S.D. exchanged between the spiritual master and the so-called disciple are undoubtedly great offences. The student of Samkirtan must refrain from the association of such pseudo-spiritualists in order to achieve perfection in the process of Samkirtan.

The tenth and the last but not the least offence to the lotus feet of the transcendental Name of the Lord is either to become inattentive to all the above offences or not to take to the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord in spite of hearing all the glories of the system.

A serious student of Samkirtan can get rid of all the above offences if he desires so, knowing well the different forms of offences and by refraining from them by all possible precautions. This can however be done without difficulty by continuous chanting of the Name of the Lord and for such constant reciter of the transcendental name of the Lord, there is no room for committing such offences.

In conclusion we may add that without culture nothing can be made to perfection. The culture of the science of Samkirtan is Sree Krishna Himself, both being non-different. In mundane matters only the means and the end are different from one another. But in the transcendence the means and the end are non-different. In preparatory stage only, for chanting the Name of the Lord, there is every chance for committing the above offences but for the reason of that we must not be disheartened at the least. We should always remember that both the preparatory stage and the perfection stage of Samkirtan is nothing but Samkirtan. The difference of these two stages are realisation and non-realisation only.

As a matter of fact therefore all people must be led to the Science of Samkirtan by all means and they shall be engaged in the culture of the science by Samkirtan only. The offences as described above if kept in view, the sincere culturists will be able to avoid them without difficulty. In the “Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu” of Sreela Rupa Goswami, it is said that the mind must be fixed up in the chanting of the Name and the regulations are to serve them as subordinate servants. The sowing of the seed of Samkirtan must be performed immediately unto the heart of every one and all and the watering process of the seed so sown must be done by constant hearing and chanting in the association of devotees. When the seed sprouts at the heart, the gardener must protect it from all sides by guarding against the above mentioned offences. In this process the seed of Samkirtan will grow up to a big tree when the nectorine fruit of Love of God shall automatically ripe and the gardener will be able to taste the same transcendentally, sell it and make a huge profit thereof. Om tat sat.

Key points:

The symbol of material enjoyment is a combination of gold and cushion and Hiranya-Kashipu was made the King of Ashuras because his very name suggested that he was concerned with only gold and cushion.
Hiranya means gold and Kashipu means soft bedding.
Hiranya-Kashipu was therefore the King of such materialists who simply cared for gold and cushion and as such he did care little for the Lord or his Name.
The clash between the theist and the atheist exists always since the time immemorial and for the reason of this the relation between a theist and an atheist remains always a strained circumstances even if the relation is so intimate as that of between a son and a father
Thus this life, although temporary and liable to death, is a very valuable asset and in this body of our life only we can attain to the Supreme goal.
We should not therefore waste our time even for a moment and must immediately engage ourselves for the attainment of the Prime necessity of life, the object of our material enjoyment being the same in all other forms of life.
But if it is a question of absolute necessity, every man is a born old man and the name of Hari must be taken shelter of as soon as he is able to pronounce the elementary vocabulary.
The four principles of material enjoyment are known as eating, sleeping, fearing and sense gratification.
The cats, dogs, tigers, ants, serpents, birds and beasts like the man, have all got to enjoy these principles of material enjoyment according to their respective positions.
The dog cannot make any distinction between a dog and the God because apparently both are composed of the same ingredients namely G. D. & O.
A man of developed consciousness can understand that God is great and all other things are His subordinate servitors.
This process of knowing God the Almighty, varies in different ways by different people according to different country and climate and the standard method by which one tries to approach God or the relation between Him and the man, is generally known as religion.
When the chanting of the Name of the Lord is done individually or incompletely it is called ‘kirtan’.
Samkirtan is however the greatest common formula of universal religion acceptable in the present age of quarrel, called the ‘Kali yooga’.
It is said that Saint Tukaram got inspiration of the holy name Hare Krishna by Krishna Chaitanya (Avanga 3875) and since then he flooded the whole of Maharastra and Western India by the Samkirtan movement.
In the ‘Chaitanya Bhagwat’ also we can see a foretelling of Lord Chaitanya-that the cult of the Lord will spread in every village and all towns that are on the surface of the Earth.
From this foretelling we can hope that the cult of Samkirtan will take very shortly an universal form of religious movement and this universal religion, wherein there is no harm in chanting the Name of the Lord nor there is any question of quarrel,-will continue to years, as we can know from the pages of authoritative scriptures.
In the ‘Chaitanya Bhagwat’ also we can see a foretelling of Lord Chaitanya-that the cult of the Lord will spread in every village and all towns that are on the surface of the Earth. From this foretelling we can hope that the cult of Samkirtan will take very shortly an universal form of religious movement and this universal religion, wherein there is no harm in chanting the Name of the Lord nor there is any question of quarrel,-will continue to years, as we can know from the pages of authoritative scriptures.
The cult of Sree Krishna Chaitanya is as follows:

Harernama Harernama Harernamoiba Kevalam

Kalou Nasteba, nasteba, nasteba gatiranyatha.

i.e., in the age of quarrel, the transcendental Name of Hari (Lord) is only to be chanted and there is no other alternative except this, for transcendental realisation. He has thrice emphasised on the Name of Hari as well as on the word alternative, in order to give on it very strong impression as we generally do by giving stress at least three time on a thing just to give good impression.
The four principles of vices are as follows.

(1) Illegitimate association with woman and unrestricted sexuality.

(2) Unrestricted slaughtering of cows and other minor animals.

(3) Encouragement of drinking and other intoxicating habits.

(4) Mass movements of gambling adventures in all spheres of human activities namely, political, social, economic and religious, etc.
The laws of Nature cannot be changed by anyone who is himself under the laws of Nature.
He has thrice emphasised on the fact as there is no other alternative for the mass emancipation in the Kali Yooga, for the reason that all other methods for bringing peace in the world will always be frustrated by the contamination of the above four principles of the age of Kali.
According to Lord Chaitanya, this Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified for the following reasons:-

Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the darkness of Nescience cast over our pure consciousness is dissipated.
Thus in the beginning of our association with the material enjoyment, we declare ourselves as “Bhogi” or enjoyer and when we are baffled in our such process of enjoyment we become “Tyagi” or renouncer of the world. Both these functions are performed on the mental plane only.
When we want to become an enjoyer we do not remember as to whose things we are going to enjoy. We forget at that time that everything is created by and property of the Lord.
He forgets that he is a prisoner in the fortress (Duga) of the External Potency (Durga).
Thus the desire or hatred for enjoyment or renunciation both are creations of the false ego.
They are therefore as if dusts on the mirror of our pure consciousness.
Secondly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence we can extinguish the perpetual fire of material tribulations that always burn in the midst of material existence.
The threefold miseries are:

(a) Miseries pertaining to “Atma” or the body and the mind such as heat, cold, diseases, sorrows, losses, invalidity, hunger, thirst, old age, death, etc.

(b) Miseries pertaining to the “Bhuta” or other entities such as troubles inflicted by enemies, animals, insects, etc., and

(c) Miseries pertaining to the disturbances by the “Devas” or the controlling gods such as famine, flood, war, pestilence, cyclone, earthquake etc.
The laws of Nature however can smash the products of such millions and billions of combined brains by her one stroke of the powerful trident.
Such a huge fire of tribulation can only be checked by the Sree Krishna Samkirtan.
By Sree Krishna Samkirtan only, the conditioned soul can gradually know that he is neither enjoyer nor renouncer but a transcendental servitor only.
Thirdly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the darkness of our heart becomes whiter and whiter.
Fourthly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because by His influence the life of knowledge becomes blessed.
By Sree Krishna Samkirtan when one’s heart is unfolded like the Kumud flower by the rays of moon, one realises his own self as distinct from the body and the mind.
As for the mundane knowledge such as art, science, philosophy, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and so forth they become automatically acquired by the process of Sree Krishna Samkirtan.
Fifthly, Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified because He enhances the ocean of enjoyments.
Sixthly Sree Krishna Samkirtan is glorified for He can give a taste of the nectorine of transcendental mellow.
Then again Sree Krishna Samkirtan being transcendental sound, we must distinguish Him from any of the mundane sounds.
But Sree Krishna Samkirtan although descends from the transcendental kingdom apparently like the mundane sounds, just to favour us for His being audible by our present imperfect senses, He should never be concocted as one with the mundane sound.
The Lord therefore can descend before us by His inconceivable mystic powers, in the form of Sound Transcendental, and if we like, we can receive Him properly by surrender and service by a submissive aural reception.
the Name of Sree Krishna is equally powerful as Sree Krishna Himself for there is no distinction between Him and His Name. The Name is therefore All-perfect, All-pure, Eternal, and distinguished from the mundane sounds which are always different from the objects designated by these sounds.
He declines to descend Himself where there is dearth of His devotees. Because His devotees never try to enjoy Him or His Paraphernalia in a pseudo-spiritualistic mode.
The Absolute Godhead always reserves the right of not being exposed to those whose eyes are covered with the modes of Nature.
To abide by the dictations of Sree Krishna is the real discharging of all other duties.
Such being the Nature of the transcendental Name of the Lord, the Name must be received through the transcendental sources i.e., from the lips of the devotees only as above mentioned.
The devotee who has received the Name from a transcendental source i.e., from the lips of a devotee as above mentioned, may repeat the Name at all times, without any restriction.
This misfortunate occurrence became manifested in trio under the following heading namely:-

(a) Material enjoyment without any responsibility.

(b) Good or bad works for the furtherance of the above propensity in the present life and in future births also.

(c) Culture of material knowledge in order to make a measurement of the Immeasurable.

10 OFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY NAME:

The first and foremost offence is the act of defaming the great saints who have glorified the chanting of the Name of the Lord by example in their own life and precepts.
The second offence is to place the Absolute Godhead or Vishnu Tattwa in the category of the demigods who derive their powers from the Supreme Lord.
No one is therefore equal or greater than the Absolute Knowledge. This subject is itself a matter of studies by transcendentalists but without knowing the intricacy of the Absolute knowledge, those who simply imagine that the Absolute Godhead and subordinate demigods are one and the same commit great offence at the feet of the Supreme Lord.
The third offence is disregard of the Spiritual Master.
One should have unflinching faith in such self realised transcendental spiritual master.
The fourth offence is defamation of the standard scriptures such as the four Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Brahmasutras, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Geeta, or other literatures which conform to the principles of the above mentioned scriptures.
The fifth offence is to misunderstand the glorification of the transcendental Name of the Lord as exaggerated facts.
The sixth offence is to manufacture concocted or designed meanings of the Names of Hari (The Lord) or that of the scriptural truths.
The seventh offence is to indulge in vices on the strength of chanting the Name of the Lord. One should always guard himself against such pseudo-spiritual devices for the well being of one’s ownself as well as one’s followers
The eighth offence is to equalise the value of all good works with the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord.
The ninth offence is to preach and advise of the transcendental nature of the Name of Lord to such a person who is atheistic in temperament, mundane moralists, and addicted to elevatory process only.
The tenth and the last but not the least offence to the lotus feet of the transcendental Name of the Lord is either to become inattentive to all the above offences or not to take to the chanting of the transcendental Name of the Lord in spite of hearing all the glories of the system.
In this process the seed of Samkirtan will grow up to a big tree when the nectorine fruit of Love of God shall automatically ripe and the gardener will be able to taste the same transcendentally, sell it and make a huge profit thereof. Om tat sat.

Hare Krishna Society

Karma— is not just a 5 letter word

So you think you are devotee?

STealing from Bhagavan

Sahajiya cults of Sri Caitanya–up to the present day

Jaya Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada appearance day

I just want to be a Krsna Cowboy !

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura avirbhava tithi [appearance day]

The Science of Congregational Chanting of the Name of the Lord