SB 2.1.12 – Hearing and Chanting without Offense

Girraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Two, Chapter One- “First Step in God Realization.”

TEXT 12

kiṁ pramattasya bahubhiḥ

parokṣair hāyanair iha

varaṁ muhūrtaṁ viditaṁ

ghaṭate śreyase yataḥ

TRANSLATION

What is the value of a prolonged life which is wasted, inexperienced by years in this world? Better a moment of full consciousness, because that gives one a start in searching after his supreme interest.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada: Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī instructed Mahārāja Parīkṣit about the importance of the chanting of the holy name of the Lord by every progressive gentleman. In order to encourage the King, who had only seven remaining days of life, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī asserted that there is no use in living hundreds of years without any knowledge of the problems of life — better to live for a moment with full consciousness of the supreme interest to be fulfilled.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna. We welcome you for today’s festival. Right now we are discussing from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is considered to be the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic literature and it is said that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the nectar but it has become even sweeter by being touched by the beaks of a parrot, sukha (Śukadeva Gosvami). I have read that a mango becomes sweeter after it has been touched by the beak of a parrot but I didn’t have any practical experience but when I visited the island of Mauritius, I found out from the Islanders that they had the experience that the fruits actually becomes sweeter and just like a sweet fruit, mango at the top of the tree, has to be handled down. The system was that these boys would climb up on the branches of the tree and the one who reached to the top, he would pluck the fruit and then hand in to the boy on the next branch who would hand it to the boy at the next branch all the way down and in that way the fruit was passed from the top of the tree to the ground and in the same condition as it was at the top of the tree. So this indicates that the knowledge of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam should be received in disciplic succession or paramparā.

Paramparā means extended one after the other. So we here in ISKCON are receiving the knowledge through a disciplic succession. The knowledge comes originally from Krishna, Supreme Personality of Godhead and He imparts knowledge to Brahma and then Brahma passes it down to Narada. Narada passes it to Vyasa and in this way the knowledge comes one after the other to us and it is received intact just as it was in the beginning.

Now the setting of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that King Parīkṣit, who is a great devotee of Krishna, was cursed to die within seven days. He was confident to counteract the curse but he chose not to. He accepted the curse as the mercy of the Lord. So he went to the banks of the Ganges River to await the time of death. At that time many great sages and saintly persons gathered and out of them, Śukadeva Gosvami was considered the topmost. King Parīkṣit had a very important question which is, what is the duty of someone who is about to die? And actually this question is important for all of us. As Srila Prabhupada said, King Parīkṣit had seven days to live but we don’t know if we have seven minutes. So all of us are about to die sooner or later and we don’t know when. So what is our duty? What is our duty? So in Sanskrit there are two words śreyas, which is mentioned in this verse which means the Supreme interest; preyas which means immediate gratification. Generally ordinary People are absorbed with immediate gratification. They have no idea of this supreme interest and Śukadeva Gosvami says, “one who knows the value of a prolonged life without any realization of the Supreme interest. And most people especially now in the present age, they have no idea of the supreme interest of life. So they are wasting time. Samay iti kevalam. So what is a supreme interest of life?

PURPORT (continued)

Those who are bewildered by the external features of the material world and are engaged in the animal propensities of the eat-drink-and-be-merry type of life are simply wasting their lives by the unseen passing away of valuable years.

COMMENT

So animals have four basic activities; eating, sleeping, mating, and defending. And what distinguishes a human being from an animal is that a human being can inquire into the Supreme interest of life. Otherwise there is no difference, there is no difference; dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. Srila Prabhupada said, the animals are running around them on four legs and the human beings are running around on four wheels but their object is the same, their Consciousness was the same.

PURPORT (continued)

We should know in perfect consciousness that human life is bestowed upon the conditioned soul to achieve spiritual success, and the easiest possible procedure to attain this end is to chant the holy name of the Lord. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. In the previous verse, we have discussed this point to a certain extent

COMMENT

Giriraj Swami: the previous verse is very important but in essence it says that the chanting of the holy name of the Lord is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all including those who are free from material desires and those who are full of material desires and those who desire the Supreme but the chanting should be done in the ways of the authorities and in the Padma Purāṇa lists ten offenses in the matter of chanting the holy name. So chanting in the ways of the authorities means to chant without offenses. Chanting is beneficial in all circumstances but to get the full benefit in the shortest time, one should follow the ways of the great authorities which means without offence. And it also means with the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because the holy name of Krishna is Krishna Himself. Our purpose when we chant the holy name is to revive our eternal relationship with Krishna. So how can we know anything about our eternal relationship with Krishna if we don’t study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a rasa shastra. It tells us about the different mellows that we can exchange in loving reciprocation with Krishna. So without the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So without the study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we cannot really achieve the purpose of chanting and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the spiritual master of our spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada, has said that just as Krishna is always accompanied by His svarūpa-śakti, means His personal energy, Srimati Radharani. Similarly, that the chanting of Krishna nāma should always be accompanied by kṛṣṇa-kathā. And if there is chanting of Krishna nāma without kṛṣṇa-kathā means it is not properly performed so these two go together and that combination will enable us to realize our supreme interests, our eternal relationship with Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

In the previous verse, we have discussed this point to a certain extent, and we may further be enlightened on the different types of offenses committed unto the feet of the holy name

COMMENT

So in the previous verse, Srila Prabhupada has discussed all of the ten offenses but here he Is going to discuss.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī Prabhu has quoted many passages from authentic scriptures and has ably supported the statements in the matter of offenses at the feet of the holy name.

COMMENT

Because the holy name is a person that is Krishna, who has feelings and it has feelings. And that holy name is actually hurt, Krishna is actually hurt and it feels pain when we commit these offenses. So we should be very conscious that we are dealing with a person, the Supreme Person.

PURPORT (continued)

From Viṣṇu-yāmala tantra, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has proven that one can be liberated from the effects of all sins simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord. Quoting from the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Śrī Gosvāmījī says that one should neither blaspheme the devotee of the Lord nor indulge in hearing others who are engaged in belittling a devotee of the Lord.

COMMENT

Now, this statement is very significant because we commit this offense knowingly or unknowingly, we will not get a benefit of the chanting of the holy and this offense in Sanskrit is called sādhu-nindā. Sadhu means devotee and nindā means to criticize or belittle. So the first question is who is a sadhu, who is a devotee?

So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other scriptures list the qualities of devotees but one of those qualities is, Krishna śaraṇesu, taking exclusive shelter of Krishna, is considered the essential definition of a devotee and even if all the other twenty-five are not immediately manifested, they will be manifest in due course if someone takes wholeheartedly to the chanting of the holy names. In other words, taking exclusive shelter of Krishna. So if someone has that one qualification, he is considered a sadhu or a devotee and to a blaspheme one or find faults in him or belittle him, it is an offense. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains how someone could be misled into such criticism of a devotee. There are different categories and none of these categories are grounds for criticizing a devotee. So one category is sinful activities committed by a devotee before Krishna consciousness or before coming to the association of devotions. Another is vestiges of past simple activities that are continuing after coming in the association of devotees. Another is an accidental fall down by devotee engaged in bhakti-yoga and another is the devotees’ birth, caste, community, and so on. So finding fault with the devotee for any of these five features is an offense-sādhu-nindā. So according to Markandeya Purana, Sri Gosvamiji says that one should neither blaspheme the devotee of the Lord nor indulge in hearing others who are engaged in belittling a devotee of the Lord.

So those are considered to be offenses-speaking and also hearing. So if someone approaches you to discuss the faults of devotees, you should be very careful and somehow or the other, unless it serves some purpose, which we can discuss it if it is a genuine case, otherwise we should avoid. And we might take all well but I don’t listen to the person and the person might get upset. But it is, I mean there are many ways to deal with that situation but one way is just to ask the person, ”Do I need to hear this?” And that might cause the other person to think, Do I need to say this, and that could be the end of it. This is a very mild way of dealing with it.

Now we will read a more drastic measure recommended in the scriptures and that may convince you to follow the scripture; Quoting from the Markandeya Purana, Sri Gosvamiji says that one should neither blaspheme the devotee of the Lord nor indulge in hearing others who are engaged in belittling a devotee of the Lord. A devotee should try to restrict the vilifier by cutting out his tongue

Now, that is not the end of it. Hold on super tight. And being unable to do so, one should, one should commit suicide rather than hear the blaspheming of the devotee of the Lord. And these are not just extreme statements but there is a reason behind them. Actually if you give up your life you continue your devotional service to your next life but if you indulge in hearing offenses that can disturb your spiritual progress for many lifetimes. The conclusion is that one should neither hear nor allow vilification of a devotee of the Lord. So that is the first offense, sādhu-nindā and the next one is to consider the names of demigods such as Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva equal to or independent of the holy name of the Lord Vishnu for Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

As far as distinguishing the Lord’s holy name from the names of the demigods, the revealed scriptures disclose (Bg. 10.41) that all extraordinarily powerful beings are but parts and parcels of the supreme energetic, Lord Kṛṣṇa. Except for the Lord Himself, everyone is subordinate; no one is independent of the Lord.

COMMENT

Ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa ara saba bhṛtya. Only Krishna is the Supreme controller and all others are His servants. Since no one is more powerful than or equal to the energy of the Supreme Lord, no one’s name can be as powerful as that of the Lord, by chanting the Lord’s holy name, one can derive all the stipulated energy synchronized from other sources. Therefore, one should not equalize the Supreme holy name of the Lord with any other name. Brahma Shiva or any other powerful God can never be equal to the Supreme Lord Krishna.

When I was based in India which began in 1970, during Srila Prabhupada’s time. He taught us that if there was any newspaper article or magazine article that was objectionable in any way that we should write a letter to the editor. So there was one popular magazine called, The Illustrated weekly of India and at the time the editor was named Khushwant Singh. So he ran an article about an Austrian man, who had become a sanyasi, which was very unusual at that time, outside of ISKCON. But he was sort of in the line of impersonalism and worshiper of Shiva. So I wrote a letter to the editor and so he put up an article under the title Hare Krishna versus Shiva and Kushwant Singh was a very clever person sort of an atheist and I could see that he was trying to make us both look bad, fighting, like children fighting; my father is better than your father or something like that. So Prabhupada read the article and I gave my perspective on it and he agreed. He said Bharati, that was the name of the sanyasi. He said Bharati is a fool but Singh, he is a demon.

So then now we come to the last out of the ten offenses and in this purport, Srila Prabhupada is focusing on. . . and this next one is very important also.

PURPORT (continued)

The powerful holy name of the Lord can certainly deliver one from sinful effect

COMMENT

We read that earlier from Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Srila Jiva Gosvami has proven that one can be liberated from the effects of all sins simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord. Also very powerful statement.

PURPORT (continued)

The powerful holy name of the Lord can certainly deliver one from sinful effects, but one who desires to utilize this transcendental potency of the holy name of the Lord in one’s sinister activities is the most degraded person in the world.

COMMENT

In other words, if someone thinks that by chanting the holy name of the Lord, I can be freed from sinful reactions so let me engage in sinful activities, sinful activities mean activities against the laws of God, it is like a mistake, crime. The definition of crime is a violation of the laws of the state. So the definition of sin is violation of the laws of God. Now before coming to Krishna consciousness, if one has engaged in sinful activities and pretty much everyone has, if he wholeheartedly takes shelter of the holy name of the Lord and calls out to the Lord with great feeling then the Lord or the holy name will free him from the effects of all sins committed. But if one thinks, Oh, this is this is a very good arrangement. I can engage in sinful activities and then I’ll just chant the holy name to neutralize the sinful reactions, that is the greatest offense against the holy name and it is stated here, one who desires this is the most degraded person in the world. Such persons are never excused by the Lord or by any agent of the Lord. We find in the Sixth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the story of Ajamila.

Ajamila was born in a good Brahmin family but somehow in his youth he became attracted to a prostitute and he left his chaste and faithful wife and pursued the prostitute, married the prostitute and to support his lifestyle with the prostitution, he engaged in many horrible sinful activities. And at the age of eighty-eight, he was at the verge of death and the agents of Yamaraja, who is the Lord of death, who had administered justice for punishment to the sinful living entities. And so three of his agents came to take the soul of Ajamila from his body to be punished and when Ajamila saw these three fearsome figures, he panicked. And there have been many people who have seen these figures. In fact, one devotee was distributing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam at an airport and he gave the book to a man and when he saw the picture of the Yamadutas coming to drag the soul of Ajamila out of his body to be punished, he said, “Oh my God, you know about them? I saw them. And there have been many even the parents of devotees sometimes. Anyway many people have seen them. And so they are very grotesque looking people. So Ajamila saw them. At that time his son was named Narayana was nearby in the room and being very attached to his son and being completely shaken and not seeing any other recourse in great helplessness he began to call the name of his son; Narayana, Narayana, Narayana. And as soon as he did that, the agents of Lord Vishnu, Vishnudutas came to the scene and they stopped the Yamadutas from taking Ajamila to be punished.

Now this chanting of the name Narayana was not offensive. Ajamila was not chanting the name of Narayana to counteract his sinful reactions but he was chanting the name of Narayana in complete helplessness. He was actually calling for his son Narayana but it is said that while chanting the name of Narayana to call for his son, he simultaneously or almost simultaneously remembered the original Narayana whom he had worshiped in his childhood and youth. And so he was delivered from the Yamadutas. So his chanting was not offensive. So here it says that persons who tried it take advantage of the holy name and deliberately engaged in sinful activities with the idea of counteracting it by the holy name are never excused by the Lord or by any agent of the Lord. So here we are talking about the Agents of the Lord and they did excuse Ajamila.

PURPORT (continued)

One should, therefore, utilize one’s life in glorifying the Lord by all means, without any offense.

COMMENT

So we began what is the use of a prolonged life wasted by years of inexperience? Inexperience means without learning? So what is the use of that?

Better a moment in full consciousness. So that consciousness can be awakened by utilizing one’s life and glorifying the Lord because as it is said we don’t know how long we have. So whatever time we have, it could be our last seven days or seven minutes. So we should utilize that time in glorification of the Lord without any offense. Otherwise if you commit offenses, it nullifies the benefit that you get. Lord Chaitanya had one devotee named Mukunda. And Mukunda would sometimes associate with the devotees and hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and sometimes he would associate with Mayavadis - with impersonalists. I think sometimes it happens some people come here to the temple and associate with devotees and hear the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and then they go somewhere else and hear impersonalists, who talk about merging and becoming one with Brahman, worshipping Shiva, Durga, or Ganesh. So Lord Chaitanya, he had one pastime called Mahaprakash and during the Mahaprakash līlā, he was calling for all of his devotees and giving them benediction fulfilling all of their desires but he didn’t call for Mukunda and one of his close devotees, I believe Srivasa Thakura, he approached Lord Chaitanya, “What about Mukunda? You are not calling him? You are calling everyone else but not him.” And Lord Chaitanya replied that, “Sometimes he is moving with the devotees and hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and sometimes he is moving with the impersonalists and hearing their discussions. He is like someone with one hand he is offering me a lotus flower and with the other hand he is beating me on the head with a club. So I am not going to call him.”

So this is you have to be aware of this. You come here and you offer a lotus and then you go somewhere else where they are decrying the name of the Lord, the form of the Lord, the supremacy of the Lord, just like beating the Lord on the head with a club. So Lord Chaitanya refused. So when Mukunda received this news, he asked Srivasa Thakura to inquire, “Will the Lord ever call me? Will I ever get to see the Lord?” And the Lord replied, “Yes, after ten million lifetimes!” That is a lot it is it is a lot, it is a lot but when Mukunda heard this, he was very jubilant. He said, “I will see. I will see.” He wasn’t concerned ten million lifetimes but he was concerned that, “One day I will see the Lord. One day the Lord will call me.” And the Lord, omniscient Lord, He was situated in the heart of Mukunda understood that underneath it all; he really did have faith in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and love for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So he called him. Tell Mukunda to come. So he rectified him and then he called. So if we have that faith then even ten million lifetimes can be used reduced to ten seconds. We are thinking, Oh boy, I want to go back to Godhead in this lifetime after all what I have gone through. But Mukunda thought, To wait ten million lifetimes, of course that is fine I know they are a lot of times that that is fine. Then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called him.

PURPORT (continued)

One should, therefore, utilize one’s life in glorifying the Lord by all means, without any offense. Such activity of life, even for a moment, is never to be compared to a prolonged life of ignorance, like the lives of the trees and other living entities who may live for thousands of years without prosecuting spiritual advancement.

COMMENT

So there are trees that live for thousands of years. We have them in California. Redwood trees, sequoias trees so we read, there are trees which live for thousands of years without any realization of the Supreme. So they are trees, they live for thousands of years. What is the Sanskrit word for the supreme benefit of life? Śreyas. Yes, śreyas. Sometimes girls are given the name Śreyas. So that is very good that is supposed to be a reminder of the Supreme interest of life and that can be achieved by the offenseless chanting of the holy names,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Now as you may have gathered, most of these offenses like the three we read about, those offenses are not committed while we are chanting I mean I hope not. But those offenses are within us or they are committed when we are not chanting, like blaspheming devotees. But there is one offense that applies particularly to the time when we are chanting and that is inattention - pramāda. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that one offense of inattention allows all the other offenses to flourish. If we can avoid the one offense of inattention, then we can become free from the other offenses. So we should work on that. It is something that we do while we are chanting but definitely if our mind is cleaned from not committing the other offenses when we are not chanting, it will be easier to control the mind when we are chanting. But even if unfortunately, we have been involved in unfortunate unfavourable activities, if we make that effort to chant with attention and pray to the Lord for His mercy that He will reciprocate and through the process of chanting our hearts will be cleansed and free us from the other offenses and then we can realize śreyas, our ultimate interest of reviving our eternal relationship with Krishna.

So thank you for joining us and participating in this discussion. We have about five minutes left. Actually by certain calculation we are twenty-five minutes over but I have my own calculation and according to my calculation we have five minutes left. So are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: Maharaja. . . to be beneficial to engage in a discussion with someone who is approaching you and you may be talking, making sādhu-nindās but then you said you were going to talk about it. Could you give an example?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I did say that and it could be like but it I didn’t necessarily want to talk about it now because it is a bit of a discussion but one example is this that one devotee is very upset by another devotee and they need to sort of get it off their chest. So they come to you as a friend and as a service to them it may be helpful to let them that or emote as they say and then when that feeling subsides then you can try to balance what they said either by suggesting they look within themselves to see the fault. The fault may not even be with the other person but it might be inside of them or to give them some perspective on the good qualities of the person so that they can come to appreciate service of the other person so that could be my help in a special case. Good question. Thank you. Any other questions?

Devotee: Yes, first of all. Thank you very much. My question was in regards to earlier when you were talking about elements that relate back to that which does not apply towards other than them so the idea of Prior activities and activities the idea of an accidental fall down. Somewhere I heard previously was one of the elements of how we express free will is either choosing to turn towards Krishna or turning your back to Krishna and so can you help us reconcile this idea of. If you are always trying to choose turning towards Krishna how something like what accidental falls down be? To me that seems like then you are making that choice to not turn towards Krishna and therefore you hold on rather than the other way around.

Giriraj Swami: He Is saying that in in my talk I quoted Bhaktivinoda Thakura about criticizing the devotee for an accidental fall down but if it is not excused, its sādhu-nindā, it is not justified. So what is an accidental fall down. An incidental fall down is a fall down that is not premeditated and but because of one’s past habit in a certain situation without planning, one may just fall victim to that habit. It can happen. But then the devotee recounts and picks himself up and he is forgiven.

All right. Wonderful. When we finish I was just going to say we finished two minutes early [Applause]

His Holiness Giriraj Maharaja ki jaya!