Sri Advaita Acharya’s Appearance Day

Giriraj Swami: From continuation what Sarvātmā Prabhu said. Sarvātmā Prabhu said that the Lord is eager for the fallen conditioned soul in the material world to come back to him. Not for his own sake but for their sake. And one of the Vedic literatures called Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta that describes the discussion between Lord Sri Chaitanya and Haridasa Thakura. As Sarvātmā Prabhu mentioned, the original personality of Godhead, is called Krishna. He appeared five thousand years ago and basically taught the science of yoga in the Bhagavad-gītā. But at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā, he instructed, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, to give up all varieties of duties and just surrender. But as time passed, people could not really understand the importance of surrender to Krishna or how to surrender to Krishna. So, Krishna came again, just about five hundred years ago, as Sri Krishna Chaitanya, and He introduced the method of chanting the holy name,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

as the best way to realize God or Krishna in the present age. In his original form as Krishna instructed to surrender, but Lord Chaitanya gave the method of chanting the holy name of Krishna. It doesn’t even require surrender. You can remain in your position, whatever it is, and add the chanting.

One day, when Lord Chaitanya was present on earth, he asked one of his associates, named Haridasa Thakura, “How will the fallen souls in the material world be delivered?” And Haridasa Thakura replied that, “By chanting, they will be delivered, even if they are unable to chant purely, but if they just can engage in the semblance of pure chanting, they will be liberated.” Then Lord Chaitanya said, “Well, what about people who don’t agree to chant?” Haridasa Thakura replied that even if they chant unknowingly, they will be delivered. He gave the example of the Muslims. They have an expression, “harām,” which means horrible. There is a story that once a Muslim was in the forest and was attacked by a wild boar, and he called out, “Harām, Harām, Harām, how horrible.” He was delivered because he chanted the holy name of Rama even without knowing it. Sometimes the syllables of the holy name are separated. In other words, there are other syllables in between. Even then, one gets the credit for chanting the holy name. For example, one of our God-Brothers, want to begin a farm community, and he gave it the name Harmony, which even otherwise is a nice name. But anyone who says Harmony gets the credit for chanting the holy name of Hari. Even though there is a syllable in between, the holy name is so liberal and so powerful that even if you say Harmony, you get the credit for saying Hari, even though there is a syllable in between.

Lord Chaitanya was very happy to hear this from Haridasa Thakura. But he said, “What about the other creatures who are not in human bodies? How will they be delivered?” Haridasa Thakura replied that, “By hearing the holy names of the Lord, they also can be delivered.” Just like we were chanting, as our Sarvātmā Prabhu mentioned, when we exhale, so many microbes may come out. Those microbes that came out in this room were very fortunate because they came out in the midst of the chanting of the holy names, and they got the benefit of hearing the holy names. Even though their consciousness is not sufficiently developed to really understand the value of it, they got the benefit.

Because the soul within everybody is the same. The body is just a machine, like a car. Someone might have a Ford, someone might have a Chevrolet, someone might have an Oldsmobile. Maybe different grades of cars, but the same person can inhabit any car and still be the same person. So the body we have, whether the body of a microbe or a plant or a fish or a reptile or a bird or a mammal, is just a machine. We, the soul, make the machine work. The soul within everybody is the same. So the soul within the body of a microorganism is the same as the soul within an elephant. Just that the body or the machine is different. But as a soul, as a conscious entity, it can get the same benefit from hearing the holy name as an entity in a body with more highly evolved consciousness, a more advanced consciousness.

When Lord Chaitanya heard Haridasa Thakura’s answer about how living entities of lower species of life can be delivered, he was very pleased. Our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada comments that this is the mood of a devotee, that when the Lord is in anxiety about the conditioned souls, how the conditioned souls will be delivered, because every conditioned soul has to suffer in the material world: birth, disease, old age, and death. As long as they are in the cycle of samsara, of repeated birth and death, they will have to take birth again and repeat the same cycle of suffering. So the Lord is concerned about how the living entities can be delivered. Srila Prabhupada comments that the sincere servants of the Lord will try to relieve the anxiety of the Lord just like Haridasa Thakura.

In terms of the pastimes or līlā, Haridasa Thakura and Advaita Acharya were not only contemporaries, but they were of the same age. They appeared before Lord Chaitanya. Even before the advent of Lord Chaitanya, particularly, they were concerned about the fallen souls. Sarvātmā Prabhu mentioned that Advaita Acharya, even though he was Vishnu himself, or is Vishnu himself, in his mood of humility, felt that he was incapable of delivering the fallen souls, and therefore he called out very loudly for the Lord to appear and Lord Chaitanya advented himself. And when Lord appeared himself, Advaita Acharya and Haridasa Thakura happened to be together. They were close friends. Without knowing the reason, they felt great jubilation in their hearts, and they began to chant and dance in ecstasy. Then they understood that the Lord himself had appeared. We are very indebted to Advaita Acharya and Haridasa Thakura and all the great devotees. In particular, today we think of Advaita Acharya because by his mood of compassion and his humility, he was able to cry out to the Lord and worship the Lord in such a way that the Lord was pleased to descend in order to deliver the fallen souls through the chanting of the holy name of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

We should take advantage of their mercy and chant as much as possible.

Are there any further comments or questions?

Devotee: If God has so many names, how do we know that He prefers for the names Hare Krishna, Rama, to be chanted over others?

Giriraj Swami: Well, in one sense, God has no name because He is beyond names. But he does have attributes. He does have devotees. He does have relationships with his devotees. He has pastimes. He has activities with his devotees. So on the absolute platform, any word that describes God—His form, His qualities, His pastimes—can be said to be a name of Him. It is not properly a name in the sense that we give a child a name, but it is a name because it describes Him and it refers to Him.

Now, if we analyze all of Krishna’s forms and features and qualities and attributes and pastimes and activities with his devotees and relationships with his devotees, somehow or other, they are attractive. There may be a broad spectrum of qualities and activities, but they are all attractive. All of his forms are attractive, all of his qualities are attractive, all of his pastimes are attractive. Therefore, the word ‘Krishna’ which means all-attractive, is considered the most appropriate name or the most all-encompassing name because it includes all of his attractive forms and qualities and pastimes and anything that we could say about him. Therefore, Krishna is considered “the best” name of God. But again, on the absolute platform, every name is as good as every other name because they all relate to the Supreme Absolute. Still, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra has come to the world from the spiritual realm as a gift to conditioned souls. The revealed scriptures say that by chanting the holy names, and in particular the Hare Krishna’s name, one can counteract the ill effects present age of Kali-yuga and receive the supreme goal of life.

Then again, if we look at Lord Chaitanya and his mission, he is Krishna Himself. But he came in the guise of a devotee to teach us how to be devotees, and he chanted Hare Krishna. And you know, he is God himself. He is showing us how to worship God, how to serve God, how to develop love for God, and he chanted Hare Krishna. So that’s how we know that’s what he wants us to do. Because he taught it and he practiced, not for his sake, but to show us what we have to do. He exemplified the ideal life of the devotee for us, so we can know how to be devoted. And he chanted Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:19:20]

Giriraj Swami: So let’s put it this way: leaving imperfections in the justice system aside, there could be good people in the prison as well. They may have committed a crime, but they could still, in the balance of things, be good people. But because they committed a crime, they are incarcerated. So being a criminal doesn’t mean you are necessarily a bad person absolutely, but it means you’ve committed a crime. And it does mean you are not a good person absolutely either. And I don’t think that anyone, any like normal person in the material world, would claim that they are absolutely good, that their friend is absolutely good.

However, because God is absolutely good, to associate with Him, we also have to come to the absolute platform. And although we can never become perfect by our own endeavor alone, we require the mercy of God, but at the same time, we also have to make our effort and engage in certain practices that are meant to purify us. And therefore, we have the chanting. And by the combination of our own efforts through appropriate practices and the mercy of the Lord, we can rectify whatever criminal mentality we had and become eligible to be released from the prison house of material existence. But no one in the material world is all good or all bad; they are just degrees. But because God is all good, to associate with Him, we have to become better than we are now, and He will help us. Their devotees in prison. Just remember those to join us.

Sorry? I have to find a time maybe. I’m beginning to watch. You feel prisoners can also be good people. Some of them are very good. Any other questions or comments? Does she tell you what it is, or you just think she might have one?

So, the next part of the program will be kṛṣṇa-prasādam. Prasādam means mercy, literally, the mercy of God. And it refers to spiritual food or, you could say, vegetarian food that was prepared with love and devotion for God and offered to God in an authorized process. And being offered to God and being accepted by God, it also becomes spiritualized or Krishnaized, and therefore, by eating it, one becomes purified as part of the process of bhakti-yoga. To offer vegetarian food through a transcendental process and then honor the remnants. That will be the next part of our experience of yoga. In fact, we say a prayer before we have the prasāda. There is one short one in Sanskrit:

mahā-prasāde govinde nāma-brahmaṇi vaiṣṇave

svalpa-puṇyavatāṁ rājan viśvāso naiva jāyate

Which means, in effect, that those who are sufficiently purified, sufficiently pious, they will understand that God and the devotees of God and the food that’s been offered to God and accepted by God, they are all the same. And then there is another prayer. Say it in English: O Lord, this material body is a lump of ignorance, and the senses are a network of paths leading to death. Of all the senses, the tongue is the most voracious and uncontrollable. It is very difficult to conquer over the tongue in this world. But dear Lord Krishna, You are so kind that you have sent this nice prasādam, spiritual food, to help us conquer over the tongue. Therefore, let us take this prasādam to our full satisfaction, and in love glorify their lordship, Sri Radha and Krishna and call upon Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda to help us.

Hare Krishna.

Mahā-prasāda ki jaya!

So we are going to make two rows facing each other. And we will take prasādam.