Initiation Ceremony

Giriraj Swami: We are all here by the mercy of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is the founding spiritual master of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupada was perhaps the thirty second prominent spiritual master coming in the line from Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to His disciple Brahma, from Brahma to his disciple Narada, from Narada to his disciple Vyasa, and in this way, through that chain of teachers and students, through Srila Madhvacharya, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is accepted as Krishna Himself, come again in the form of a devotee of Krishna. When Krishna came to this planet five thousand years ago, He instructed, “man-manā bhava mad-bhakto." “Man-manā” means engage your mind in thinking of Me, Krishna, Krishna is speaking in the Bhagavad-gītā, “mad-bhakto” become My devotee, “mad-yājī” worship Me, and “māṁ namaskuru” offer obeisances unto Me, and if you do this, you will come to Me. And then, “sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja," give up all varieties of religiousness and just surrender unto Me, “ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ “, I will relieve/free you from all sinful reactions, do not fear.

These two verses are very important, but hearing the philosophy is not as effective as seeing an example of someone who was following the philosophy. And therefore, Krishna came again, five hundred years ago, as Sri Krishna Chaitanya, this time in the guise of a devotee of Krishna to show us how to fix our mind on Krishna and worship Him and serve Him and surrender unto Him. Lord Chaitanya’s philosophy was recorded and expounded upon by His immediate followers, the Six Gosvamis, and in this way, the knowledge was passed down through the line to Srila Prabhupada’s predecessors and his immediate spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura instructed him that he should teach the knowledge of Krishna consciousness in the English language, world language, to people in the Western countries and ultimately, throughout the world. And Lord Chaitanya Himself had predicted five hundred years ago,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma

sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

That, “In every town and village of every country of the world, My name or Krishna’s name will be sung and preached.”

And even in India, even among the followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, devotees could not imagine that this could actually happen, it seemed unbelievable. They took it as maybe some, sort of, metaphor or a poetic expression of sentiment, but not something that could actually happen. But Srila Prabhupada took that instruction of his spiritual master deep in his heart and at the age of almost seventy, he celebrated his seventieth birthday at sea. He took a steamship from India to America to New York. He suffered two heart attacks on the way and he began this movement for the education and reformation of the whole human society. And he sat down under a tree in Tompkins Square Park in New York City, and chanted Hare Krishna and spoke to people about Krishna, about the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gītā. And he later told his disciples that, “Anyone can begin Krishna consciousness in any part of the world by the same method. You go to any central place and sit down and chant Hare Krishna, and when people gather around to see what is this crazy fellow doing, then you tell them about Krishna.”

We are so fortunate to have come in touch with Srila Prabhupada and his mercy. You can’t even imagine where we would be were it not for him. At least I would not want to try to imagine it. And the state of the world is such that pretty much everyone is being influenced by the materialism of the present age, practically no place is exempt, no family is exempt, no individual is exempt, but Srila Prabhupada’s mercy or Lord Chaitanya’s mercy is so powerful that even in this terrible, degraded age, people get strength to resist the temptations or allurements of maya, which is the illusory energy of the Lord that is meant to bewilder us, conditioned souls, and keep us in material bondage, falsely thinking, “I am the Lord and master, I am the proprietor, I am the controller, I am the enjoyer.” And we all have this attitude within us. We may not be aware of it or we may not want to admit it, but we are in the material world really because we wanted to take the place of God or imitate God. And that false ego, that false conception of who I am and what the world is and what other people are and what I meant to be and what I meant to do, that has been with us for a very long time, since time immemorial, we can’t even remember. And it takes time to reform that consciousness, very few people are even interested. It is described that in the modern age, people are so materialistic that they don’t even care for spiritual life, and people in this age are so unlucky, that even if they have some interest in spiritual life, they may very well come to a false so-called guru or teacher and be misled.

So, it really is a great fortune to come in touch with the disciplic succession, which is, as you have all heard, hard to find, coming from Krishna in an unbroken chain. It is described that when God or just like a person, something may have fallen on the ground and so, to pick it up, he will extend his hand and grab it. So, in the same way, when some soul falls into the material world, and God wants to pick up that soul and He wants to pick up all souls, they are all His parts and parcels, His lost children, He extends His hand in the form of disciplic succession, the spiritual master. So, it is a great mercy, and we should take advantage of it by following the process. And, as I mentioned earlier, the process is basically to fix the mind on Krishna, become Krishna’s devotee, worship Him and bow down to Him. That scientific process is described in a book by Srila Rupa Gosvami called Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, which Srila Prabhupada translated as a summary study as The Nectar of Devotion. And The Nectar of Devotion describes step by step, what a candidate should do to progress in Krishna consciousness. And there are ten dos and ten don’ts, and then another forty-four processes, which comes to sixty-four.

But the beginning is, guru-pāda-āśraya, one should take shelter of the lotus feet of a spiritual master. One should dīkṣyeti, śikṣyeti, one should take instruction from him and receive initiation from him, and one should ask questions, sad-dharma-pṛcchā, one should ask questions about eternal spiritual principles. And these are considered the most basic, preliminary, and essential items, and from there, there are other nine processes. And of those nine processes, the first is hearing, śravaṇam, just as we have been hearing. And Srila Prabhupada said the same thing just from a different angle, exactly what His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami said and His Holiness Jaya Advaita Swami said, that learning comes from hearing. Students go to school, college, university, the process is hearing; they go to the classroom and hear. Even reading books is a type of hearing. So everything begins from hearing and therefore, Srila Prabhupada established these centers and published these books so people would come and hear, everything follows from that.

When Srila Prabhupada returned to India, he had a very big, you could say, an open-air tent program in Bombay, about twenty thousand people were attending every day, and then it was so successful he sent Tamal Krishna Goswami and me to Calcutta to arrange a similar program there. And at the time, Calcutta was in the grips of Naxalites, you could say they were young, communist terrorists. Sometimes they would just kidnap the son of a rich man and hold him for ransom, sometimes they might even just shoot a rich man dead on the streets. So, Calcutta was in a very. . . they were very alarmed and frightened and many prominent people were leaving Calcutta and going to Delhi. So, in this atmosphere, we came to put on this program for Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada had a press conference and a lot of the press was in that, sort of, communist mood, atheist, communist mood, and so, one reporter asked, “What is the use of spending all this money on this big, elaborate arrangement? What are you going to achieve by that?” The implication that ‘You could have used that money to feed poor people.’ And Srila Prabhupada replied, “What will it achieve? It will achieve hearing.” And he said, “This whole elaborate arrangement that you are seeing has come from hearing. Some young men and women heard me, and because they heard me, they have felt inspired to make this arrangement.” And that is a fact that everything begins from hearing. And then when you hear, as Srila Prabhupada would say following his guru Maharaja, “One who hears nicely, he can speak nicely.” We are not manufacturing anything new, we are repeating what we have heard from Srila Prabhupada and our predecessors.

So, the pandal program, that big open-air temp program opened, and it is a general system that the central area of the tent has Indian carpets called dhurrie. Then on one side, there was a special section with chairs and I think it was for our supporters and patrons, I think anyone who paid a rupee could sit on a chair. So, there was a delegation of Naxalites and they were objecting. “Why should some people sit on chairs and others sit on the ground? Everyone should sit on the ground.” So, to disturb the program, they started gathering these chairs together, wooden folding chairs, and banging them together, making this big clatter, commotion. And so, we were looking to Srila Prabhupada, “What is he going to do now?" And he took the microphone and cleared his throat and “Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.” He was just completely depending on Krishna and he just began to sing the holy name of Krishna. And from our perspective, quite miraculously, these angry, young Naxalites, they became peaceful and they started to open up the chairs and place them nicely where they were, and I guess they either stayed or left, but they didn’t cause any trouble.

So, these two processes, hearing and chanting, are very powerful, and anyone can do them, anyone can feel the effect. But in order to get the best effect in the most sustained way, one should follow certain regulative principles. Now, these regulative principles are quite different from the general materialistic way of life in most countries of the world. In fact, when Srila Prabhupada first. . .Oh, yes, well, even before then, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had sent some disciples to England. And in England, there was one Lord Zetland. He had been, I think, a governor of Bengal or Viceroy of India, he had served in India. And so, he approached one of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s disciples, “Can you make me a brahman?” A brahman means, a teacher, spiritual teacher, who also performs priestly functions. He said, “Yes we can, you just have to follow four principles; no eating meat, fish, or eggs, no taking of intoxicants, no gambling, and no illicit sex.” And Lord Zetland replied, “Impossible.” [laughter]

So, Srila Prabhupada, imagined that when he came to America and introduced these regulative principles, they will say, “Thank you very much, Swamiji, now you can go home.” But miraculously enough, by Srila Prabhupada’s hardened desire and his spiritual master’s desire and Gaura-Nitai’s desire and mercy, these young men and women gave up these four, Prabhupada calls them, principles of sinful life. Sinful sometimes may have a Christian connotation, but really it simply means, “Against the laws of God," just like crime means an act which is against the laws of the state, so, in this definition sin means against the laws of God. And they agreed and they came forward to be initiated and in addition to following those four regulative principles, they undertook to chant at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra on beads every day. So, we have these beads, there are one hundred and eight beads, it makes one round. And so, the disciples chant one maha-mantra, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, and then they go to the next bead, and then the next, and the next to one hundred and eight, that is one round. And then you go back and do another one hundred and eight, that is two rounds, and then sixteen rounds.

So, this combination of chanting sixteen rounds and following the four principles is enough to fortify one in Krishna consciousness and, you could say, empower one to share that knowledge and share that happiness with others. And so, that is very basic principle, that one should relish Krishna consciousness, one should taste Krishna consciousness and share it with others. Because, like anything nice, if you are enjoying it, it is natural to want to share it with others. Of course, in material life, there is another principle which is “misery loves company." [laughter] That also operates in the material world. People are suffering but they really want to get you into what they are doing. So, there is that, sort of, tug of war, there will be those people who wanted you to keep them company in their misery, and then there will be devotees who want you to share in their pleasure, their bliss. And so, that is the mood here, to welcome you. You are already part of the family, the spiritual family, Srila Prabhupada’s and Lord Chaitanya’s spiritual family, but become more intimate, become a more responsible member, and share more with others. So, in the chanting, there are ten offenses, dasa nāma-aparādha, and I won’t comment on them too much, but it is important that when we chant, we are aware of the ten offenses and try to avoid them. And I will just read this short list from The Nectar of Devotion, which I highly recommend for everyone.

READING from The Nectar of Devotion

The offenses against the chanting of the holy name are as follows:

(1) To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord.

COMMENT

In a slightly different context, but once, Srila Prabhupada was giving a talk in Detroit and a child started to cry or make noise. So Srila Prabhupada said that the child shouldn’t make noise. So, the mother started to chide the child. And Prabhupada said that, “Actually, in our society, children cannot be blamed or punished.” So then, the husband began to chide his wife, and Srila Prabhupada said, “In our society, women can’t be punished.” So then, the temple manager began to chide the husband who was a brahman, and Srila Prabhupada said, “In our society, you cannot punish a brahman.” [laughter] And he said, “Actually, in our society, you can’t punish anyone.” [laughter]

So, I am quoting that on this point about not blaspheming devotees, that, from a certain perspective, they may have some fault, but really, if they are engaged in the process of bhakti-yoga, they have no fault, and we should not criticize them. And there is a whole discussion of that. As His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami sometimes said, “If someone is in the shower, what is the use of blaming him for being dirty? He is in the shower, he hasn’t finished, he will come out clean.”

READING continued

2) To consider the names of demigods like Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā to be equal to, or independent of, the name of Lord Viṣṇu. (Sometimes the atheistic class of men take it that any demigod is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. But one who is a devotee knows that no demigod, however great he may be, is independently as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, if someone thinks that he can chant “Kālī, Kālī!” or “Durgā, Durgā!” and it is the same as Hare Kṛṣṇa, that is the greatest offense.)

COMMENT

So, this is a very big misconception. It happened in India, it is an amazing place, but there was a weekly called The Illustrated Weekly of India, and the editor then, Khushwant Singh, was a very reputed person, he was an atheist and he was one of the atheists with an agenda. So, he published an article by an Austrian fellow who had come in contact with some sect in India and had become a sannyasi, and was known as Bharati Maharaja. So, he wrote some article, I guess, glorifying Shiva, which is fine, but Prabhupada taught us that we should respond to newspaper articles that were improper or incorrect. So, I wrote a letter and so, the way the editor portrayed it, it was like a dispute, like a childish dispute. So, he ran a headline, “Hare Krishna vs. Shiva Shiva.” And I wrote Srila Prabhupada and I said, “Actually, he did this to make us both look bad," and Prabhupada said, “Yes, Bharati is a fool, but Singh is a demon.” [laughter]

Now, demon is probably another word that needs to be explained, but in this context, and in general in our usage, it means someone who is against God, the devotees of God, the service of God. So, it used to be more of a problem in India, and Srila Prabhupada gave the example of a music school in Germany, where the fee was two hundred and fifty marks, but if you came with previous training in music, the fee was five hundred marks. And someone said, “Why is that?” And they said, “Well, because first, we have to teach you to forget all the wrong things you have learned, and then we have to teach you all the right things, so it is twice as hard.”

So, so many misconceptions and now with the popularity of yoga and even kirtan, it is becoming like that, it is like people are developing misconceptions that they didn’t have, and so sometimes it becomes even harder to straighten things out. But, I mean, that is good that they are coming and chanting, but it is an offense. This is the point; it is an offense to think that names of demigods like Shiva or Durga or Kali are equal to or independent of the name of Vishnu or Krishna. It is not sectarianism it is just a fact. In the universal management, Krishna or Vishnu is like the king, and these different powerful personalities are like ministers of the king, but they are not on the same level as the king, they are not independent of the king.

So, we won’t be able to discuss all of them, but I will just read them.

READING continued

3) To disobey the orders of the spiritual master.

4) To blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.

5) To consider the glories of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa to be imagination.

COMMENT

Therefore, we should chant properly, then we will feel the effect, we won’t think that it is imaginary.

READING continued

6) To give some interpretation on the holy name of the Lord.

7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name of the Lord. (It should not be taken that because by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can be freed from all kinds of sinful reaction, one may continue to act sinfully and after that chant Hare Kṛṣṇa to neutralize his sins. Such a dangerous mentality is very offensive and should be avoided.)

COMMENT

Yes, this is something like in the Christian tradition, people go to the church and confess and certainly, one can get some relief by that act of confession. But it shouldn’t be that one thinks, Well, I can engage in nefarious activities all week, and then I will go to church and confess on Sunday and become absolved and then go back to my nefarious activities on Monday.

So, that is very offensive, it doesn’t work, by the way, it doesn’t work. So, the same with chanting, chanting is so powerful it can relieve you of sinful reaction, but at the time of initiation, one surrenders to Krishna, one surrenders to guru, one promises not to commit sinful activities, whatever one might have done in the past is, sort of, squared off, but then one should not do it again. Lord Chaitanya had two disciples, Jagai and Madhai, who were very cruel and mischievous and sinful, but they surrendered to the Lord and promised to give up their sinful activities, and they did give them up and they were relieved from their sinful reactions.

READING continued

8) To consider the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa one of the auspicious ritualistic activities which are offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities (karma-kāṇḍa).

COMMENT

That means we shouldn’t chant with the idea of getting some material result, like people do rituals to get some material result, but we should do it to purify our hearts to please Krishna.

READING continued

9) To instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name. (Anyone can take part in chanting the holy name of the Lord, but in the beginning one should not be instructed about the transcendental potency of the Lord. Those who are too sinful cannot appreciate the transcendental glories of the Lord, and therefore it is better not to instruct them in this matter.)

COMMENT

Actually, this is a very important point. And sometimes, new students are so enthusiastic about what they’ve learned, that they go to their mothers, fathers, and others, and try to convince them about the truth and beauty that they have discovered in Krishna consciousness, which actually stems from a good impulse to share what one has gotten, but it can also produce negative results, and therefore this injunction is there. I had this experience with my father, he came to visit me in India and we were taking a flight from Delhi to Srinagar. And Srila Prabhupada had written a book called, Easy Journey to Other Planets, which use scientific language and it was meant to appeal to the generation who was involved in the space race and basically, present Krishna consciousness in a, sort of, more scientific jargon. So, I was explaining to my father a little about what the book said, that by mechanical means you can travel to other planets in the universe, which is the material worlds. But only by bhakti-yoga can you travel beyond the material worlds to the anti-material worlds.

As I was speaking, I looked at him, I mean, Krishna at least gave me that much vision, I could see he is looking at me, he is thinking, What is going to come next? My poor son, he is already so far gone and now this? What is going to come next after this? And I thought, This isn’t having a good effect, it is having the opposite effect. And then I just resolved, I am not going to say anything, I am not going to preach to him, basically, because he doesn’t have faith, he is not purified enough. So, we can engage people in service but, yes, we have to be careful about this. Again, I will quote His Holiness Ṛtadhvaja Swami. He used to visit his mother at home and he would preach to her about Krishna consciousness, and then she would criticize Krishna consciousness to him. And he realized, “This isn’t doing either of us any good.” So, they made a truce, a pact, “Okay, I won’t try to convince you in favor, and you don’t try to convince me against.” And then that provided a basis for a more peaceful type of interaction.

READING continued

10) To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintain material attachments, even after understanding so many instructions in this matter.

COMMENT

So, these two go together. If you have faith in the holy name, that means you will have faith that you can get everything from the holy name—nāma-cintāmaṇi-kṛṣṇaścaitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ, the holy name is Krishna Himself. We can get Krishna by offenseless or pure chanting of the holy name. So, to maintain material attachments, it is offensive, it is like Krishna is offering Himself to us through the holy name and we don’t have faith in Krishna. We think, Well, maybe I won’t really be happy, maybe I need this money or material things that I think will make me happy.

So, it is not an offense to have material attachments, I mean, we all come with material attachments, it is an anartha, it is unwanted but it is not an offense. But to hold on to those, even after hearing such beautiful explanation by Jaya Advaita Swami about the temporary nature of material things and the limited happiness we can get from them, if we hear all that but we are really saying, “I don’t believe that, I will try to chant some, chanting’s good, but on the side I will have this and that going on,” you don’t get the full benefit. Krishna’s very intelligent, ye yathā māṁ prapadyante, as you surrender to Him, He reciprocates. So, if you give yourself 100 percent to Krishna, He will give Himself 100 percent to you. If you are giving 10 percent to Him and 90 percent you are fooling around with your other investments that you think, In case the Krishna investment doesn’t work, I have got these other investments, then okay, He will give Himself in proportion to your giving yourself to Him.

And then there is another one not explicitly mentioned, but it is in the Sanskrit, and it depends how the ten are divided, to be inattentive while chanting. And if we at least make the effort to be attentive while we chant, to pronounce each holy name properly and hear each holy name attentively, that will be very effective in purifying our hearts and freeing us from all offenses and material attachments. And if we are negligent in our chanting then that allows the other attachments and offenses to flourish. And again, this association is very helpful, it is very helpful to chant in the association of serious chanters, very helpful.

READING continued

Every devotee who claims to be a Vaiṣṇava must guard against these offenses in order to quickly achieve the desired success.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna. [applause]

So, I will add that there is a second degree of initiation or second phase of initiation. The first is the initiation into the chanting of the holy names, and the second is initiation into the chanting of the Gayatri mantra and acceptance as being eligible to worship the deity. Krishna is the Supreme Pure; to worship the Pure you have to become pure. So, when someone has been chanting and following the basic principles for a sufficient amount of time, he is given the second initiation.

So, in our midst here is Krishna Kirtan dasa. [applause] Many of you know him as a Sunday School teacher here. So this is also a very important event for him, and we ask all of you to pray for him and the others, that they may remain steady in their vows and fixed in their determination and progressive in their Krishna consciousness.

Hare Krishna.

Is Kandarpa Mandari here? So, now, the Priest, Hridayanath Prabhu, is leading the participants in a method of purification that involves sipping water and reciting mantras.

They need to put on their neck bead, right? Alright. So, then they come forward and. . . So now we will call the new initiates forward to take their vows and receive their beads and new names. So, first, Bhakta Brent. After, you will be offering obeisances to Srila Prabhupada and then come back. Hare Krishna.

Brent Pyeatt: Hare Krishna, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: So, what are the four principles that you promised to follow?

Brent Pyeatt: No meat eating, including fish or eggs, no illicit sex, no gambling, and no intoxication.

Giriraj Swami: And how many rounds do you promise to chant?

Brent Pyeatt: Sixteen rounds daily.

Giriraj Swami: Minimum. [laughter]

Brent Pyeatt: Minimum.

Giriraj Swami: And is there anything else you would like to say on this auspicious occasion in this August assembly?

Brent Pyeatt: Yes. I am just very grateful for your mercy and I appreciate all you have done for me. I promise that I will do as much as I can in your service, in my service to Srila Prabhupada. [applause]

Giriraj Swami: So, on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and guru-paramparā, I am pleased to accept you as my duly initiated disciple, and hence, forth, you shall be known as Balabhadra dasa. [applause] Balabhadra dasa is a name for Lord Balarama, the original spiritual master, and it is also the name of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, and we pray to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva to protect our spiritual lives and to tear apart any material desires and attachments that are lingering like demons in our heart.

Bhakta Nick, what are the four regulative principles that you promise to follow?

Nick Pritchard: No meat eating, no illicit sex, no gambling, and no intoxication. [laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Are you sober at the moment? [laughter] Okay, alright, we will try to make it easier now. How many rounds do you promise to chant?

Nick Pritchard: Minimum sixteen.

Giriraj Swami: The next one is voluntary, but is there anything else you would like to say?

Nick Pritchard: I would like to also promise to at least dedicate at least an hour into Prabhupada’s books each day on study.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is very good. [applause] Everyone should do that. Yes. Srila Prabhupada said that distributing his books will keep the devotees happy, and reading his books will keep them. [laughter] On behalf of Srila Prabhupada and the guru-paramparā, I am pleased to accept you as my duly initiated disciple, and henceforth, you will be known as Narottama dasa. [applause]

Nara means man, and uttamā means the best, so, the best of men is Krishna. Narottama is a name for Krishna, but in our line, we have a very important devotee who wrote many wonderful devotional poems and songs, he was personally empowered by Lord Chaitanya, and his name is Narottama dasa Thakura. So, Narottama dasa includes being the servant of Narottama dasa Thakura. So, congratulations to you all. And now we will have the fire ceremony. The fire is considered to be representation of God, Vishnu or Krishna, and by reciting the mantras of glorification of our spiritual masters and Krishna and offering grains into the fire, we are offering ourselves in their service. And just as the fire burns to ashes, the ghee and grains that are offered to it, so Krishna, at the time of initiation, and the paramparā, they burned to ashes our sinful reactions, which will enable us to progress in bhakti-yoga and understanding Krishna and loving Krishna.