SB 3.15.25 – Giriraj Swami’s Vyasa-puja with Durban Devotees

Giriraj Swami: On this occasion I sought to read a nice verse and purport about the chanting of the holy name. Whenever Srila Prabhupada would give initiations, he would speak about the ten offenses and although I usually speak either from the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or from the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there is another very nice verse and purport in the Third Canto which gives us a sense of what proper chanting is and is not. So I will read that verse and purpose which leads into another verse and purport.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So we read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto Three Chapter Fifteen: “Description of the Kingdom of God,” Text Twenty-five. I will just read myself.

TEXT 25

yac ca vrajanty animiṣām ṛṣabhānuvṛttyā

dūre yamā hy upari naḥ spṛhaṇīya-śīlāḥ

bhartur mithaḥ suyaśasaḥ kathanānurāga-

vaiklavya-bāṣpa-kalayā pulakī-kṛtāṅgāḥ

TRANSLATION

Persons whose bodily features change in ecstasy and who breathe heavily and perspire due to hearing the glories of the Lord are promoted to the kingdom of God, even though they do not care for meditation and other austerities. The kingdom of God is above the material universes, and it is desired by Brahmā and other demigods.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Brahmājī confirms herewith that only persons who have developed the desirable qualities can enter into the kingdom of God. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the devotee’s desirable qualities are described to be twenty-six in number.

COMMENT

So as we hear these twenty-six qualities we can consider how we are developing in these qualities. 

PURPORT (continued)

They are stated as follows: He is very kind; he does not quarrel with anyone; he accepts Kṛṣṇa consciousness as the highest goal of life; he is equal to everyone; no one can find fault in his character; he is magnanimous, mild and always clean, internally and externally; he does not profess to possess anything in this material world; he is a benefactor to all living entities; he is peaceful and is a soul completely surrendered to Kṛṣṇa; he has no material desire to fulfill; he is meek and humble, always steady, and has conquered the sensual activities; he does not eat more than required to maintain body and soul together; he is never mad after material identity; he is respectful to all others and does not demand respect for himself; he is very grave, very compassionate and very friendly; he is poetic; he is expert in all activities; and he is silent in nonsense. Similarly, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-fifth Chapter, verse 21, the qualifications of a saintly person are mentioned.

COMMENT

Sādhu-bhūṣaṇām

PURPORT (continued)

It is said there that a saintly person eligible to enter into the kingdom of God is very tolerant and very kind to all living entities. He is not partial; he is kind both to human beings and to animals. He is not such a fool that he will kill a goat Nārāyaṇa to feed a human Nārāyaṇa, or daridra-nārāyaṇa. He is very kind to all living entities; therefore he has no enemy. He is very peaceful. These are the qualities of persons who are eligible to enter into the kingdom of God. That such a person gradually becomes liberated and enters the kingdom of God is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter, verse 2. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Second Canto, Third Chapter, verse 24, also states that if a person does not cry or exhibit bodily changes after chanting the holy name of God without offense, it is to be understood that he is hardhearted and that therefore his heart does not change even after he chants the holy name of God, Hare Kṛṣṇa. These bodily changes can take place due to ecstasy when we offenselessly chant the holy names of God: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

It may be noted that there are ten offenses we should avoid. The first offense is to decry persons who try in their lives to broadcast the glories of the Lord.

COMMENT

That means all devotees practically. 

PURPORT (continued)

People must be educated in understanding the glories of the Supreme; therefore the devotees who engage in preaching the glories of the Lord are never to be decried. It is the greatest offense. Furthermore, the holy name of Viṣṇu is the most auspicious name, and His pastimes are also nondifferent from the holy name of the Lord. There are many foolish persons who say that one can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa or chant the name of Kālī or Durgā or Śiva because they are all the same. If one thinks that the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the names and activities of the demigods are on the same level, or if one accepts the holy name of Viṣṇu to be a material sound vibration, that is also an offense.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada would like us to write articles on contemporary subjects in response to contemporary events. So in the 1970s there was an Austrian man who became a sannyasi in an impersonal school and his name was Agendra Bharati. So he was saying that chanting Krishna Krishna, Shiva Shiva, Durga Durga, are all the same. So I wrote a letter to the editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India whose name was Khushwant Singh. And Khushwant Singh published my statements and Bharati’s statements together under the heading Hare Krishna versus Shiva Shiva, and he was trying to make us look silly that we are arguing whether it should be Hare Krishna or Shiva Shiva. So I wrote this to the Prabhupada with my analysis of what Khushwant Singh was doing and Srila Prabhupada said, “Yes Bharati is a fool but Singh is a demon,” which is actually true, he was.

So we have to speak the truth and those who are submissive and faithful will receive it and benefit, and if they don’t accept the supremacy of Lord Krishna or Vishnu, then they become offenders against the holy name. This is quite common, at least in America and Europe, in yoga groups who now incorporate kirtan in their practices. They do kirtan but most of them think that all the different names are both of the demigods and of the Supreme Lord because they don’t make that description, that all the names are the same. So it is an offense and it is a little tricky for us because if we say that Krishna is supreme they might think that we are sectarian, that we think that our deity is better than others. But the truth is the truth and we have to speak the truth. But we can be a little tactful and intelligent in the way we do it but we have to speak the truth. 

PURPORT (continued)

The third offense is to think of the spiritual master who spreads the glories of the Lord as an ordinary human being. The fourth offense is to consider the Vedic literatures, such as the Purāṇas or other transcendentally revealed scriptures, to be ordinary books of knowledge. The fifth offense is to think that devotees have given artificial importance to the holy name of God. The actual fact is that the Lord is nondifferent from His name. The highest realization of spiritual value is to chant the holy name of God, as prescribed for the age — Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

COMMENT

Now this offense that we just read, which is sometimes stated simply—to consider the glories of the holy name to be imagination—can be the result of inattentive chanting. His Holiness Sacinandana Swami explains that when people chant inattentively, or in other words offensively, they don’t get the actual result of chanting. And so they can develop the attitude that the glories of the holy name are imaginary or exaggerated, and that thought led him to begin his japa retreats, so that people can actually experience what chanting is supposed to be. Otherwise, as he put it, we have this schizophrenia (a split personality). We talk, chant, and be happy and we chant but we are not happy. And why are we not happy? Because we chant but we commit offenses. So it is very important that we chant without offenses, then we will realize the true glory of the holy name and we won’t commit the offense of thinking that the glories are imagined or exaggerated. 

PURPORT (continued)

The sixth offense is to give some interpretation on the holy name of God. The seventh offense is to act sinfully on the strength of chanting the holy name of God. It is understood that one can be freed from all sinful reaction simply by chanting the holy name of God, but if one thinks that he is therefore at liberty to commit all kinds of sinful acts, that is a symptom of offense.

COMMENT

It is true that by chanting the holy name without offense one is freed from all sinful reactions, but if one develops a cunning strategy that he can engage in sinful activities and then neutralize the effects by chanting, that is an offense. And not only is it an offense but it doesn’t work. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura said even in ordinary karma-kāṇḍa, if you perform some misdeed with the idea that you can neutralize it by some ritualistic performance, it won’t work. One always must try one’s best to avoid sinful activities, and one should avoid it as far as possible. 

PURPORT (continued)

The eighth offense is to equate the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa with other spiritual activities, such as meditation, austerity, penance or sacrifice. They cannot be equated at any level. The ninth offense is to specifically glorify the importance of the holy name before persons who have no interest.

COMMENT

So this is an offense because it encourages others to commit offenses. If we preach the glories of the holy name to the faithless they will think that the glories are again, imagined or exaggerated which is an offense. I had one experience with my father; we were flying from Delhi to Srinagar, Kashmir and my father was a rational person and so I thought I could speak to him in scientific terms. So Srila Prabhupada had written one book called Easy Journey to Other Planet in which he adopted spiritual terminology to explain the process of bhakti-yoga. And after discussing the different achievements through different yoga practices he mentions that only by bhakti-yoga can one actually go beyond all the material planets within the universe and attain to the kingdom of God. 

So I was explaining some of these concepts to my father and he looked at me like, I thought that you were crazy but the way you are talking about going to other planets by practicing yoga I am really convinced that you are definitely crazy. And I thought that my approach was wrong. It was an offense to preach the glory to a person who is faithless. If someone has no faith we have to create faith by logic and reason, not by quoting scripture about the glory of the holy name or the process of bhakti-yoga. So we have to be sensitive to our audience when we preach and not speak on a level that is beyond where they are. But try to elevate them by logic and reason or by letting them hear the holy name, taste prasāda or do service and then gradually when they are purified, they can come to appreciate the glories of the holy name, develop faith and appreciate the glories of the holy name. 

PURPORT (continued)

The tenth offense is to be attached to the misconception of possessing something, or to accept the body as one’s self, while executing the process of spiritual cultivation.

COMMENT

So this is ahaṁ mameti, I and mine, and this is sometimes rendered to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instruction on the matter. So we should be in the mood to be purified of our material attachments by chanting. And if we chant and at the same time try to hold on to our material attachments, that is an offense, a sort of duplicity. Now Srila Prabhupada continues, 

PURPORT (continued)

When one is free from all ten of these offenses in chanting the holy name of God, he develops the ecstatic bodily features called pulakāśru. Pulaka means “symptoms of happiness,” and aśru means “tears in the eyes.” The symptoms of happiness and tears in the eyes must appear in a person who has chanted the holy name offenselessly. Here in this verse it is stated that those who have actually developed the symptoms of happiness and tears in the eyes by chanting the glories of the Lord are eligible to enter the kingdom of God. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that if one does not develop these symptoms while chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, it is to be understood that he is still offensive. 

COMMENT

So we have read about different symptoms, pulakāśru; symptoms of happiness with tears in the eyes that will come from offenseless chanting. And if we don’t experience such symptoms it is to be understood that we are committing offenses while chanting. Now what to do? Srila Prabhupada continues here at the end of the purport 

PURPORT (continued)

Caitanya-caritāmṛta suggests a nice remedy in this connection. 

COMMENT

That is exactly what we need; we need a nice remedy 

PURPORT (continued)

There it is said in verse 31, Chapter Eight, of Ādi-līlā, that if anyone takes shelter of Lord Caitanya and just chants the holy name of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, he becomes freed from all offenses.

COMMENT

So that is what we need, a nice remedy to become free from offenses and I just happen to have Caitanya-candrāmṛta Ādi-līlā, Chapter Eight, Text Thirty-one here, and I will read that verse. It is another very long purport and relishable purport but I will just read the verse and translation and maybe some of purport. Please repeat.

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda; jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.

So the verse reads, 

TEXT 31

caitanya-nityānande nāhi e-saba vicāra

nāma laite prema dena, vahe aśrudhāra

TRANSLATION

But if one only chants, with some slight faith, the holy names of Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda, very quickly he is cleansed of all offenses. Thus as soon as he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, he feels the ecstasy of love for God.

COMMENT

So this is the secret, to chant the names of Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda or the names of the Pancha-tattva before we chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. And the chanting of the holy names of Lord Chaitanya and Nityananda will cleanse the heart of offenses and then we can chant the holy names or the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. So we will begin the

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada 

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura remarks in this connection that if one takes shelter of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda, follows Their instructions to become more tolerant than the tree and humbler than the grass, and in this way chants the holy name of the Lord, very soon he achieves the platform of transcendental loving service to the Lord, and tears appear in his eyes. There are offenses to be considered in chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, but there are no such considerations in chanting the names of Gaura-Nityānanda. Therefore, if one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra but his life is still full of sinful activities, it will be very difficult for him to achieve the platform of loving service to the Lord. But if in spite of being an offender one chants the holy names of Gaura-Nityānanda, he is very quickly freed from the reactions to his offenses. Therefore, one should first approach Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda, or worship Guru-Gaurāṅga, and then come to the stage of worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. 

COMMENT

There is a nice discussion and then at the very end of the purport Srila Prabhupada says, 

PURPORT (continued)

Therefore one must first take shelter of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by chanting śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. By serving Gaura-Nityānanda one is freed from the entanglements of material existence and thus becomes qualified to worship the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna. So now you know everything, you just have to apply it and you will be completely successful. So is there anything else planned for me? 

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja, [ Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: Oh my gosh, that is amazing. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: That is amazing, that is beautiful. Thank you.

Devotee: [Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna Srihari Prabhu.

Devotee: Hare Krishna Maharaja. 

Giriraj Swami: I will never forget the time that His Holiness Indradyumna Swami and I came to your home for prasāda and you kept tricking us because each preparation you served we were under the impression that was the last one. So we would eat to our hearts content and then you would bring another one and then we would have to eat more. And then you would bring another one and then we would have to eat still more. So Indradyumna Swami said to me, ”In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Krishna says one should not eat too much or eat too little, today we are concentrating on not eating too little.” Again, thank you.

Devotee: [Inaudible] 

Giriraj Swami: Thank you.