CC Adi 8.28 8.31; SB 3.15.25 – Initiations

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna, welcome to today’s Sunday festival which is including an initiation ceremony; we are practitioners of bhakti-yoga. In the Bhagavad-gītā, Sri Krishna mentions various types of yoga, but He concludes that bhakti-yoga is the highest and the best. One of our previous authorities has written a book called Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu or The Nectar of Devotion, which describes the complete process of bhakti-yoga and in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami describes ten preliminary items for the execution of bhakti-yoga or Krishna consciousness. They include, guru-padasraya, taking shelter of the lotus feet of the spiritual master, siksheti, receiving instruction from him and diksheti, accepting initiation from him.

Also, this evening we are performing the initiation of, for devotees. This is initiation into the chanting of the holy name, or hari-nāma. The chanting of the holy name is easy, or as Srila Prabhupada said, ”Chanting is easy, but the determination to chant is not so easy.” But Srila Prabhupada, our founder spiritual master established the requirement for initiation, that one should chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra every day. We have these beads, chanting beads, japa-mālā, and they have 108 beads, and on each bead, we chant one full mantra; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare and then we go on to the next bead.

So, when we’ve done 108 mantras on 108 beads, that constitutes one round and then we turn around and go the other way. And when we can steadily chant sixteen rounds and follow the four regulative principles, we are eligible for initiation. The four regulative principles are no eating of meat, fish, or eggs; actually the real principle is that one should eat only kṛṣṇa-prasāda, food that is prepared with love and devotion for Krishna, and offer it to Him, and then for anyone that takes the remnants of the offering and that is called kṛṣṇa-prasāda. One should take only kṛṣṇa-prasāda and that necessarily means not eating meat, fish, or eggs, because we can’t offer meat, fish, or eggs, or even onions and garlic to Krishna. Then, no taking intoxicants, including even coffee tea and cigarettes, no gambling or mental speculation, no illicit sex, there is no sex outside of marriage.

So, these are the basic requirements. Now, because these devotees are being initiated into the chanting of the holy names, of course they have been chanting, but still at initiation ceremonies Srila Prabhupada would read or discuss the ten offenses in the chanting of the holy name. Because to get the benefit of chanting, the real benefit, one must chant without offense and in order to avoid the offenses, we must know what they are. So, I shall read one verse and purport from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that discusses the ten offenses—very beautiful verse and purport.

Please repeat after me, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. (One of the offenses is to have your cell phone on). So, we read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Fifteen, “Description of the Kingdom of God,” Text Twenty-Five.

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.

COMMENT

So, our goal is to enter the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God, of course, one can realize it even in one’s present body and in one’s present situation, but the kingdom of God is beyond the material universe. And one can attain to that by offenseless chanting, or by pure chanting and the symptoms of one who chants purely and hears purely, are described in this verse, so please repeat the verse.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It is clearly stated herein that the kingdom of God is above the material universes. Just as there are many hundreds of thousands of higher planets above this earth, so there are many millions and billions of spiritual planets belonging to the spiritual sky. Brahmājī states herein that the spiritual kingdom is above the kingdom of the demigods. One can enter the kingdom of the Supreme Lord only when one is highly developed in desirable qualities. All good qualities develop in the person of a devotee. It is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Fifth Canto, Eighteenth Chapter, verse 12, that anyone who is Kṛṣṇa conscious is endowed with all the good qualities of the demigods. In the material world the qualities of the demigods are highly appreciated, just as, even in our experience, the qualities of a gentleman are more highly appreciated than the qualities of a man in ignorance or in a lower condition of life. The qualities of the demigods in the higher planets are far superior to the qualities of the inhabitants of this earth.

COMMENT

So, every living being is part and parcel of God and he has the same qualities as God but in smaller quantity. As Srila Prabhupada used to say, “Lord Krishna is infinite and we are infinitesimal.” ( I am pronouncing it the way Prabhupada did, but I can’t pronounce it the way regular people do). God is infinite and we are infinitesimal. But we have the same qualities but in conditioned life, in contaminated life, those qualities are covered; but when we come to spiritual life and purify our existence, then our original spiritual qualities are uncovered, or discovered and they are the same as God’s in quality, but not in quantity.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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;

COMMENT

In other words, friends and enemies, in a material sense.

PURPORT (continued)

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.

COMMENT

Means he is silent, which means he doesn’t speak nonsense, or hears nonsense.

PURPORT (continued)

Similarly, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-fifth Chapter, verse 21, the qualifications of a saintly person are mentioned.

COMMENT

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ

suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām

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. 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.

COMMENT

This is sādhu-nindā, when we are criticizing the devotees, especially devotees who have dedicated their lives to propagating the holy names—- it is the greatest offense.

PURPORT (continued)

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

So, there are people who hold an impersonal conception of the Supreme and they think that, that one light, usually they consider it to be a light, that one light comes in different forms, as Krishna, as Shiva, as Durga, as Ganesh, so many. And they think that you can chant any name, any name is as good as any other, because ultimately, they refer to the same impersonal one. And they think that, that it’s very silly to argue over who is supreme.

Once in India, well, there was an editor of quite a popular weekly magazine called ”The Illustrated Weekly of India,” named Khushwant Singh. He was quite an intelligent fool, so, but he liked to deride religion, he was an atheist and he liked to deride religion  in his own way. So, there was a Swiss gentleman who came to India to take e sannyasa in an impersonal line, named Dr Agendra Bharati, and Srila Prabhupada taught us that if something wrong appears in the press, we should write a letter. So, somehow Khushwant Singh juxtaposed Agendra Bharati’s statements and my statements and he called the article; “Hare Krishna verses Shiva Shiva.” I mean, I could see exactly what he was doing and so, I wrote to Srila Prabhupada and he completely agreed with my analysis, he said, ”Yes, Bharati is a fool, but Singh is a demon.” The fact is, Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the various demigods are not on the same level. And to consider them to be on the same level is an offense against the holy name of the Supreme Lord Krishna, and we should know that.

PURPORT (continued)

The third offense is to think of the spiritual master who spreads the glories of the Lord as an ordinary human being.

COMMENT

This verse, this offense is guru-avagya, which means to neglect or disobey the orders of the spiritual master and that comes as a consequence of thinking of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being. He repeats the message of Krishna and therefore his instructions are bone-fide and should be obeyed like Krishna’s instructions.

PURPORT (continued)

The fourth offense is to consider the Vedic literatures, such as the Purāṇas or other transcendentally revealed scriptures, to be ordinary books of knowledge.

COMMENT

And in a way it’s an offense not to read the books; that itself, it’s sort of minimizing of the value of the scriptures.

PURPORT (continued)

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

Maybe move over just a little bit, because Dayal Nitai is joining us, he didn’t have a chance to sit in the fire ceremony for his second initiation. So, see this is the second time in two paragraphs that Srila Prabhupada is quoting the full Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

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

Nama nama papa budhi—- It’s a fact that by chanting the holy name of God one becomes free from the sinful reactions that he or she has committed. But one should not take that as a license that, ”Oh, I can commit sinful  activities and then counteract the reactions by chanting.”  That is an offense and it doesn’t work. We may have committed offenses in the past, or committed sins in the past, and the effects can be eradicated by chanting without offense. But we must be very vigilant and attentive not to commit sins again.

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.

COMMENT

Sometimes this is translated as to consider the chanting of Hare Krishna as one of the auspicious ritualistic activities mentioned in the Vedas as fruitive activity. Once Srila Prabhupada was invited to be a guest at a conference at Bharati Vidya Bhavan, at which other saintly persons, sadhus, were invited. Before the conference began the organizer Srimati Lilavati Munshi invited the participants into her quarters to have an informal meeting.

So, one of the participants told Srila Prabhupada that he was having large meetings of people and getting them to chant the holy names and telling them, that by chanting the holy names their material diseases could be cured, their material ailments could be fixed. So, he said “I’m gathering people and you are gathering people, I’m getting them to chant the holy name, you are getting them to chant the holy name, so we should cooperate. And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, because the holy name of Krishna is Krishna Himself and we are meant to serve Him. We are not meant to engage Him or His holy name in our service, in the service of our material bodies.”

PURPORT (continued)

The ninth offense is to specifically glorify the importance of the holy name before persons who have no interest.

COMMENT

This is also translated as preaching the glories of the holy name to the faithless. There are many examples, but I’ll give one from my experience.

My parents and sister came to visit me in India and we were going to visit Srinagar in Kashmir and so, on the flight I thought I would preach to my father. And so, Srila Prabhupada had written a book called Easy Journey to Other Planets in which he uses scientific terminology and I thought, my father considers himself to be a rational scientific person so, I started to speak to him about Easy Journey to Other Planets,—- that by practice of yoga you can transfer yourself to other planets in the material universe, but you cannot go beyond the material universe—- that the kingdom of God is beyond the material universe. But by bhakti-yoga you can transfer yourself to the spiritual domain.

So, I started to speak in this way to my father and he was completely incredulous. To him the idea of practicing yoga, that you can travel to other planets, the whole thing. . . and he looked at me with such an expression, ”Son, I thought you were crazy, but now that I’m hearing this, I’m sure you are crazy.” And then it just occurred to me, that I committed this offense, I was preaching the glories of Krishna consciousness to those who have no faith.

And the reason it’s an offense, is because it encourages them to be offensive. So, if someone doesn’t have faith, then you have to speak in such a way as to develop faith on the basis of logic and reason. I can’t cite authorities to them if they don’t have faith in those authorities. You have to create their faith by logic and reason, which anyone can accept. So, I realized that I committed that offense.

Another incident, not exactly the same, but H.H Ṛtadhvaja Swami  used to tell me that when he first joined, he was very eager to preach to his mother, to get her to accept Krishna consciousness. And she was very eager to preach to him to leave Krishna consciousness, and it was just not a good situation, it wasn’t a good series of dialogues. So, they then made an agreement, they made a truce, that he won’t try to convince her to become Krishna conscious and she won’t try to convince him to leave Krishna consciousness. You, can’t preach to people who don’t have faith.

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

Yes, sometimes this is translated as to maintain material attachments, to not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy name and to maintain material attachments even after understanding some of the instructions in the matter. And its offense, I mean it’s an offense for many reasons but one reason is that we don’t have faith in the holy name or Krishna, that the holy name or Krishna can satisfy all our desires. So, we think we need these material things to satisfy our desires, so, that’s an offense against Krishna and the holy name.

It’s also an offense to maintain material attachments. Now, we may have material attachments when we come, I mean it’s not an offense to have materials attachments, it’s an anartha, it’s something unwanted, but it’s not an offense. But to hold on to those when you are chanting, as Srila Prabhupada says, that the chanting is an address to the Lord and the energy of the Lord, to Hare, Radha, or Krishna, ”Please engage me in Your devotional service.” You are not chanting, you are not praying for anything material, you are praying only to be purified, so that you can engage in proper devotional service. So, if you chant and you are maintaining material attachments, that means desires other than devotional service, you are being offensive to Krishna and the holy name.

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. Caitanya-caritāmṛta suggests a nice remedy in this connection.

COMMENT

So, we need a nice remedy and Caitanya-caritāmṛta gives that. 

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, this is a reference to a section in Caitanya-caritāmṛta; the whole section is very instructive, but it gives us the clue that by approaching Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda, or the members of the Pancha-tattva, we can become free from the offenses while chanting the hare Krishna maha-mantra. And in fact, many devotees including yours truly, chant the Pancha-tattva mantra before every round of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. In other words before we chant a round, we chant; “Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Śrīvāsādi Gaura Bhakta Vrinda.”

I’ll just read a little of this; this section discusses the problem of chanting Hare Krishna with offense and the remedy. So, I’ll just read a few verses: Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Eight, Text Twenty-Eight.

TEXT 28

anāyāse bhava-kṣaya, kṛṣṇera sevana

eka kṛṣṇa-nāmera phale pāi eta dhana

TRANSLATION

As a result of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one makes such great advancement in spiritual life that simultaneously his material existence terminates and he receives love of Godhead. The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is so powerful that by chanting even one name, one very easily achieves these transcendental riches.

COMMENT

So, this verse eka kṛṣṇa-nāma, one name of Kirshna. . . So, we can imagine how much potency is in one name, even one name. So, when we chant, we have to try to hear one name. My godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu says, ”That when you chant, you just try to hear one mantra at a time; you can’t hear the one that you already just chanted and you can’t hear the one you are going to chant next.” You can only hear the one that you are chanting at the moment; so, if you hear just one name eka kṛṣṇa-nāma you could get such transcendental riches. So, if we just hear one name, then the next, then the next, then the next, if your mind wanders, don’t worry about it just bring it back; just hear the mantra or the name that you are chanting.  That is called the clearing stage of chanting, when one consistently makes the effort to hear each name, that he or she is chanting—- that is called the clearing stage of chanting—- that’s above the offensive stage and from that you go to the pure stage.

TEXT 29–30

hena kṛṣṇa-nāma yadi laya bahu-bāra

tabu yadi prema nahe, nahe aśrudhāra

tabe jāni, aparādha tāhāte pracura

kṛṣṇa-nāma-bīja tāhe nā kare aṅkura

TRANSLATION

If one chants the exalted holy name of the Lord again and again and yet his love for the Supreme Lord does not develop and tears do not appear in his eyes, it is evident that because of his offenses in chanting, the seed of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa does not sprout.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

If one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offensively, one does not achieve the desired result. Therefore one should carefully avoid the offenses, which have already been described in connection with verse 24.

COMMENT

Which we have also read. Now, we are coming to the remedy.

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

And there is a long purport, but I’ll read a little of it, it’s worth hearing.

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. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, our students are first advised to worship Guru-Gaurāṅga, and then, when they are somewhat advanced, the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity is installed, and they are engaged in the worship of the Lord.

One should first take shelter of Gaura-Nityānanda in order to reach, ultimately, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

COMMENT

Now, last night we had a nice program at Vatsala prabhu’s place and because the appearance day of Lord Nityananda is coming up, he wanted to focus on discussing and singing about Lord Nityananda, which we did and here in the purport, Srila Prabhupada quotes a song by Narottama dasa Thakura that also makes the same point about the mercy of Lord Nityananda.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura sings in this connection:

gaurāṅga balite ha’be pulaka śarīra
hari hari balite nayane ba’be nīra

āra kabe nitāi-cāṅdera karuṇā ha-ibe
saṁsāra-vāsanā mora kabe tuccha habe

viṣaya chāḍiyā kabe śuddha habe mana
kabe hāma heraba śrī-vṛndāvana

In the beginning one should very regularly chant Śrī Gaurasundara’s holy name and then chant the holy name of Lord Nityānanda. Thus one’s heart will be cleansed of impure desires for material enjoyment.

COMMENT

So, there is more and I request and advise all of you, new initiates and everyone here to read Srila Prabhupada’s books; Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and all the others.

So, now we will call forward the new initiates, they will offer their obeisances to Srila Prabhupada and then to me, and they will take their vows and I will give them their chanting beads, which I have chanted on, and give them their new names. It is a regulative principle that one should get a new name at the time of initiation. Srila Prabhupada says that if one does not get the new name, indicating that he is a servant of Krishna, he will remain on the bodily concept of life. So, receiving a new name is also an essential part of the ceremony.

So, Ashish offer obeisances and come forward, so how many rounds will you promise to chant?

Devotee: At least sixteen rounds every day.

Giriraj Swami: And what are the four regulative principles that you are about to follow?

Devotee: No meat eating, no intoxicants, no gambling, and no illicit sex.

Giriraj Swami: And is there anything else you’d like to say on this auspicious occasion in this august assembly?

Devotee:  I just like to thank, I’d like to thank my parents and my wife’s parents, because mostly they started our spiritual education with my children. I would like to thank all the devotees of the temple. My wife and I started out ten years ago when we had kids, just coming on Sundays, but the association of devotees really stimulated our progress. So many devotees to mention, who initially really inspired us to do more and to be more spiritual. While they always been there for guidance so many times, and then of course we have to thank Guru Bhakti, because she is the one who introduced us to Guru Maharaja and from that point of course our progress went further. We now know that in order to, I mean we have with him that always feels like no matter how busy is that he is there just for us which is really precious and we really appreciate that. From those interactions we know that in order to love Krishna and serve Krishna, we must first love and serve the temple and the devotees of the temple and then of course we can love and serve you, our Guru Maharaja, to love and serve Srila Prabhupada and to love and serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission that’s how we can come closer to serving Kirshna.

Giriraj Swami: So, on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and the guru-paramparā I am pleased to accept you as my duly initiated disciple and henceforth your name will be Chaitanya Chandra dasa.

So, how many rounds do you promise to chant every day?

Devotee: I promise to chant at least sixteen rounds a day.

Giriraj Swami: And what are the four regulative principles you promise to follow?

Devotee: I promise to follow no intoxication, no illicit sex, no meat eating, as much prasādam as I can, and no gambling.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, and is there anything else you would like to say?

So, 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 Devahuti devi dasi.

Devahuti, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the name Devahuti really means the daughter of Manu. So, her father Manu, was one of the twelve mahājanas, great authorities of Krishna consciousness, and her son Kapila was also one of the twelve mahājanas authorities, so Hare Krishna.

So, how many rounds of Hare Krishna maha-mantra do you promise to chant every day?

Devotee:  I promise to chant at least sixteen rounds a day.

Giriraj Swami: And what are the four regulative principles you promise to follow?

Devotee: No meat eating, no gambling, no intoxicants, and no illicit sex.

Giriraj Swami: And is there anything else you would like to say?

Devotee: I’m very grateful to you Maharaja and very grateful to all the devotees for actually helping me grow spiritually; I don’t know how far I will reach, but I request all devotees to please feel free to chastise me and also correct me when I’m doing anything wrong. I’m ever indebted to all devotees in the temple room today.

Giriraj Swami: So, come closer, so 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 Sukha Sagari devi dasi. Sukha Sagari is a name of Srimati Radharani, which means ocean of happiness.

Hare Krishna so, how many rounds do you promise to chant?

Devotee: I promise to chant sixteen rounds and no meat eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex, and gambling.

Giriraj Swami: And is there anything else you would like to say?

Devotee: Thank you Guru Maharaja for accepting me and thank you [1:05:44.0 Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: It was sort of implied in Caitanya-caritāmṛta talk, but I think it goes without saying and still I will say, that all of you are accepting initiation with the intention of remaining in ISKCON and serving Srila Prabhupada and his movement. And as far as the number of rounds, if one can, of course you are already saying minimum sixteen, but on Ekādaśī it will be nice if you can chant twenty-five rounds.  I mean there is no limit, and holy days also are special days that we can chant extra.

So, on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and the guru-paramparā I’m pleased to accept you as a duly  initiated disciple and henceforth your name will be Vilasini devi dasi. Vilasini is the name of Srimati Radharani, which means one who enjoys pastimes with Krishna, Hare Krishna.