Initiation Lecture with Sridhar Swami

Giriraj Swami: . . . [Speaking of Gopal Bhatta Gosvami] He was considered the emblem of all good qualities. He was the pujari of the deity of Govindadev in Vrindavan and he was considered an ideal brahman. Today is also the disappearance day of Dhananjaya Pandit and of Srinivas Acharya and today is the day that His Grace Pundarik Vidyanidhi dasa will receive second initiation in the presence of so many wonderful Deities and devotees specially His Holiness Sridhar Swami Maharaja.

His Holiness Śrīdhara Maharaja ki jaya! 

Now we will ask His Holiness to give us a few words of instruction and benediction. Hare Krishna.

Sridhar Swami: First of all, I thought—-do we have a song book here?

Giriraj Swami: We have.

Sridhar Swami: Then give me a song book. It is just a quick lesson because Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu is going to learn the Gayatri mantra. So I thought may be some other mantras he could learn—just in case. First we will, just in case, somebody does not know. 

Anyway we will learn Prabhupada’s praṇāma-mantra properly, just in case they don’t know. It is:

nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine

Obviously if there was śrīmate which somebody chant it would mean Mrs. Bhaktivedanta Swami. But I heard people chant śrīmate (laughter) and as long as we are followers of Srila Prabhupada we may not know Sanskrit and many things we may not know very well but at least his praṇāma mantra we should learn and then:

namas te sārasvate deve

I am sure you all know that this was offered or accepted by Srila Prabhupada in a letter, could be devaṁ or even devau but Prabhupada suggested deve because we are saying and it is sārasvate although it refers to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati but it is the vocative case, “Oh servant of Bhaktisiddhanta.” So sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe; and of course while we are at it—we chanted it already anyway we might as well learn Nṛsiṁhadeva’s praṇāma mantra which is 

namas te, narasiṁhāya, prahlāda, hlāda-dāyine. prahlādāhlāda-dāyine

now we put various combination, prahladaladaladadadada dayine (Laughter). It is not that if you see here it is prahlāda, hlāda-dāyine, hiraṇyakaśipor, vakṣaḥ—vaksah right?

śilā-ṭaṅka, nakhālaye. 

Now we come to ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho, it is ‘o’ it is not ‘a’ ‘a’ 

ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ. 

ito nṛsiṁhaḥ parato nṛsiṁho
yato yato yāmi tato nṛsiṁhaḥ
bahir nṛsiṁho hṛdaye nṛsiṁho
nṛsiṁham ādiṁ śaraṇaṁ prapadye

I heard prapadye but Nṛsiṁhadeva does not die (laughter). It is prapadye. 

So we are practicing bhakti-yoga and sometimes it is called mantra-yoga because we are chanting so many different mantras and we are trying the ultimate goal to get out of our engagement in this material body. The soul has to get free of attachment to the gross and subtle material body and develop attachment for Krishna and go back to Krishna, live with Krishna. So this can be achieved while still within the cage, within the body, one can be free like the meat of a coconut which is very mature. The meat separates from the shell although in the shell, it is separate. Or the material world is not a very convenient place to practice devotional service. The body is full of disturbances for example if I have any distress in my life at the present moment, it is that I have to take so much care of the body and I would much rather be spending the time drowning in all of the nectar that Srila Prabhupada has given us. I would rather like to try to digest even a few drops of that rather than spend so much time—but I have a body what can I do? I have to carry on but I will be delighted if I get a better opportunity to serve. So we want to ultimately, by the grace of guru and Krishna, go back to Godhead. So we have been given the maha-mantra. There are many mantras in the Vedas, vākyas but of all these mantras the maha-mantra is exactly that. It is the great mantra. 

iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanaṁ
nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate,

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa or hare rāma hare rāma,

Whatever version of the Kalisantaraṇa Upaniṣad you have according to Srinathji part 1928 it was Hare Krishna but anyway generally it is Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare / Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

The point being that these thirty-two sixteen words or thirty-two syllables are the most potent efficacious method of self-realization in this Kali-yuga and of course 

harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam

This maha-mantra means harer nāma. We have been given the maha-mantra and that mantra is for everyone regardless of their situation within varnashrama-dharma or outside of varnashrama-dharma, anyone can chant even a supposed candal. Aho bata śvapaco ‘pi garīyān. If he was formally a śvapaco, a dog eater, if he takes to the chanting of maha-mantra then more sin that one can possibly commit can be eradicated very quickly, naṣṭa-prāyeṣu. Prāyeṣu means practically to nil, almost to nil. One can just by hearing the maha-mantra, chanting the maha-mantra.

Now there are nava-lakṣaṇā, nine different processes of devotional service but they begin with śravaṇam kīrtanam. That could be in the form of hearing and discussing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Caitanya-caritāmṛta, saṅkīrtana, etc. But most essentially it is our japa which is very much under our control. We can always chant japa and hear and chant. So we have been given the maha-mantra and it is imbued with all the potency of Lord Krishna, all His śakti. It is compact within the holy name and that is by the mercy of the disciplic succession, sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantras te niṣphalā matāḥ or sarpocchiṣṭaṁ yathā payaḥ, any instruction, any mantra if it is not received properly through disciplic succession from a bona fide spiritual master and to a bona fide submissive disciple there will be little or no effect, sarvanāśa. It will be a waste; it will be like milk touched by the lips of a serpent. Mayavadis also chant Hare Krishna but they think I am Krishna. I did that when I first joined. I thought yes you chant Hare Krishna until you realize you are Krishna. This is definitely pratikūla, it is unfavorable and we have to seek Krishna’s mercy, what result can be achieved from that but we are fortunate by some amazing good fortune, brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva.

We have got this opportunity to receive maha-mantra in the proper way from the proper person and we can chant nicely and go back to Godhead. Now in the beginning of creation Lord Brahma, after performing tapasya, having received the instruction to do so, he heard Krishna blowing on His beautiful flute and Lord Brahma, his first ecstatic expression was chanting the Gayatri mantra which gave birth to the Vedic literatures and the instructions how to create the universe etc. So what is the relationship? We are receiving the Gayatri mantra as Vaishnavas we may be acting in different ways. At least brahmans, kshatriyas, and vaishyas can receive second initiation or Gayatri mantra but as Vaishnavas we can also act as sudras and still chant Gayatri mantra because to a greater degree we are above the varnashrama, especially if we are following strictly our principles and our spiritual master. But the main liberating mantra is the maha-mantra that starts in the beginning and it goes on eternally.

Gayatri mantra is a very important mantra, it is a helping mantra. It brings us to the level of understanding that we are not this body that we are spirit and the Gayatri mantra is received in a proper mood. There are promises that are made. The Gayatri mantra is accompanied by a fire sacrifice so that it is complete. It is received from the spiritual master in our ear, in the right ear, right? My right ear is deaf, anyway what to do? The sannyasa-mantra is actually received in the left ear. Interesting. But Gayatri mantra is received. It is not a public mantra per se although it is widely known. The basic mantra now we chant different mantras glorifying guru, glorifying Lord Chaitanya, glorifying Radha-Krishna, Gopijana-vallabha but the basic mantra is well known by everyone. We must chant this mantra three times a day. It will create an atmosphere where we can nicely chant the maha-mantra. It has the effect of also breaking up our day into tri- sandhyā. We chant it in the morning, and noon and in the evening when the sun is just going down. That is a sandhyā, dusk and dawn. It is an opportunity to remember our day in our devotional service as much as—-

I read somewhere that lions they walk in the jungle and they will take so many steps forward and then they will stop and then look back where they have come from and then they will go forward, a little further and then they look back again just to see where they have come from, the path whether there are anyone following them or whatever. Anyway it is good for us to see. Have we been following our devotional principles? Have we been following? Have we used our time to please our spiritual master? It is a kind of break in our day. That is not the purpose of chanting the Gayatri mantra but it is a good because there is a tendency to just take the maha-mantra and rush through your day and your life in a very mechanical kind of way but we should always be examining our progress and our motivations, looking at our hearts. 

The Gayatri mantra is not easy to chant because we remain silent and often times our eyes are supposed to be half closed or half open, whichever way you want to look at it. There are other things to learn about Gayatri mantra. There is a nice book by Mahanadi Swami. It is bringing together many things stated by our acharyas. So we can learn from that. The more we learn about the mantras we chant, naturally the better it will be, for example generally speaking one chants the mantra with his fingers closed, so the mantra does not escape. I don’t know or sometimes we put the hand underneath the cloth. Now there are pictures, of course, of Prabhupada with his hand out and even like this chanting Gayatri. So that explodes that myth. Anyway it is a fact that there are things about chanting that keep the mantra inside. I don’t know too much about that. If we are not prepared to chant this mantra three times a day very religiously then we should not take the mantra and if we have trouble along the way, it is a long life and there is always all kinds of disturbances and interruptions in our life. There may be periods when we have more difficulty in chanting our tri-sandhyā. My vartma-pradarśaka-guru, his Gayatri mantra was always tied in knots because he was working on ratha carts and he would always break his thread and one time I asked him he chanted his Gayatri mantra in one minute or so. I asked him afterwards how he had chanted so quickly, he said, “You know I can’t remember [?]” But he was a great soul. We should not imitate the great souls. We should chant our mantra nicely and if we have trouble then we should immediately speak to our spiritual master and fix [?] as important as the maha-mantra in terms of our application to chanting it nicely and—- Hare Krishna. Good Luck!

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Thank you Maharaja. Since you mentioned some details, which Srila Prabhupada may or may not have observed. I heard a few that I can pass on. One is that the thread has knots because it is more than one string. So when we do the mantra we tie it around our thumb where the knots are. And then what I heard is that in the morning Gayatri we have like this. I mean there are so many details but have the hand above the waist and then in the morning we have it open like this. At noon we have it like this and then in the evening we have it like this—like following the course of the sun.

Sridhar Swami: Interesting.

Giriraj Swami: His Holiness Sivarama Swami told me he compiled some information, some statements from Hari-bhakti-vilās and other sources. The first line of Gayatri is called brahma Gayatri. That is the line which is known to all brahmans in India, as Maharaja mentioned and then the next two lines are called guru Gayatri, guru mantras and the next two are Gaura mantras and then is the Gopal mantra and then the kāma Gayatri mantra and all brahmans of all traditions chant Brahma Gayatri but the Guru mantras and Gaura mantras and Gopal mantras and kāma Gayatri mantra are specially chanted by Gaudiya Vaishnavas, has special significance for Gaudiya Vaishnavas and they help us in our remembrance of guru and Gauranga and Krishna and of course the ultimate injunction is to always remember Krishna and all other injunctions are servants of the primary injunction to always remember Krishna and there are so many negative prohibitions but they are all servants of the primary prohibition which is to never forget Krishna. Of course brahman means to be clean, śuci and brahman means one is eligible to worship the deity and as Srila Prabhupada said, to enter fire one must be fire or to serve brahman one must be brahman. So to serve the deity which is the Supreme Brahman we also have to be on the brahman platform and as Maharaja said we stay on the brahman platform by chanting sixteen rounds minimum, following the regulative principles and engaging in devotional service fully. Then one is considered eligible to touch the deity as stated in The Nectar of Devotion. 

Of course one of the faults of the material brahmans, not pure Vaishnavas but material brahmans is pride and pride is the fault to be avoided. It is a fault that has not been prominent in you so far. We trust that it should not become one. Because our ultimate identity is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said nāhaṁ vipro, I am not a brahman or a kshatriya or a vaishya or a sudra or a brahmachari or a grihastha or a vanaprastha or a sannyasi but, gopī-bhartur pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsa. I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna, maintainer of the gopī damsels of Vrindavan.

So we should always think of ourselves as the servant of the servant of the servant, that is our identity, not brahman, kshatriya, vaishya, sudra, whatever. But still Vaishnavas do play roles in society and externally they may act as brahmans, kshatriya, vaishyas, sudras, or whatever and in fact a Vaishnava can play one role at one time and another role at another time but the brahmans have a most important role to guide society and guide them by their words and by their example and therefore a brahman should be clean and gentle and all of the things that the scriptures, like the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describe what a brahman should be. . . So we request you to study the qualities of a brahman in the Bhagavad-gītā in the more detailed descriptions of a brahman given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But as in all matters Srila Prabhupada is our authority and our exemplar and the main instruction, the main example Srila Prabhupada gave was chanting Hare Krishna, following the regulative principles and serving the mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, serving the devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Of course he also chanted Gayatri but he wasn’t too preoccupied with little details. He was more interested in the essence. The essence is Krishna consciousness, becoming Krishna conscious and helping others to become Krishna conscious. Hare Krishna. 

So now Vrajeśvarī dasi has come just at the right time for the mass chanting of Gayatri mantra with all the devotees. But first we have to give the mantra to Pundarik and according to the rules we should be alone. (To HH Sridhar Swami) I mean you could be here as the representative of the Supersoul. Supersoul is everywhere. (To Vrajeśvarī) So maybe I think you better put the plate to offer because that is also important, right after the ceremony we can honor prasāda. 

Alright so we will all be together in spirit when we do our mantras but we will not be together in body.

Sridhar Swami: Oh I am coming back after you have given the mantra.

Giriraj Swami: Oh then we all come back together and do our mantras together. Ok. So we will take like a five-minute break. I will give Pundarik his mantra. Then we will all come together and we will all do our mantras together.

Sridhar Swami: Om bhur. . . [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.