The Holy Name and Bhakti-yoga

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you to our Sunday feast and festival. We are engaged in the process of bhakti-yoga;, the basic textbook of yoga is the Bhagavad-gītā, and the Bhagavad-gītā describes different kinds of yoga.

The speaker of the Bhagavad-gītā is Sri Krishna who presents Himself in the Gītā as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and who is accepted as such by Arjuna, who was the first student of the Bhagavad-gītā, and many other great sages and saintly persons. And so the Bhagavad-gītā in essence is the literal record of God’s spoken word. Bhagavad means of God, and Gītā means song. When God or Krishna speaks, He doesn’t speak in ordinary prose like we do but He speaks in song and poetry. And after this, oh, so yoga, the word yoga actually means to link or connect, the English word yoke, to yoke two oxen, comes from the word yoga. And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna mentions different types of yoga: there is karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, ashtanga-yoga. But he says that of all types of yoga, bhakti-yoga, which is the yoga of devotion or love for God, is the highest. And he says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti, He can only be known, Krishna, God, can only be known by bhakti.

So what we practice here is bhakti-yoga. Now within the general practice of bhakti-yoga, there are different processes, mainly nine; śravaṇaṁ, which means hearing, that is something you all are doing right now, knowingly or unknowingly you are engaged in the bhakti practice of śravaṇaṁ, hearing. Then kīrtanaṁ, chanting, we just chanted, you hear and when you repeat what you have heard, that is kīrtanaṁ. Then smaraṇaṁ, which means remembering; if you have heard nicely and chanted nicely then it will follow that you remember Krishna, specifically Krishna, God. And then there are six others.

And the chanting is a very powerful process. In the material world or the relative world, the word and the thing are different, for example, if I’m hungry and I chant, “Mango, mango, mango, mango.” Well, just chanting, “Mango, mango,” will not satisfy my hunger because the word mango and the thing mango are different. But in the spiritual realm or the absolute realm, the name of the thing and the thing are the same, so the name of Krishna and Krishna Himself, the person, are the same. So when you chant, “Krishna, Krishna, Hare Krishna,” Krishna is personally present dancing on your tongue. And because Krishna is full of pleasure or bliss, by chanting and associating with Krishna you also experience pleasure or bliss, called ānanda.

Hare Krishna.

So, now with other mantras, the word mantra is also a Sanskrit word, mana means mind, and tra is derived from trayate which means to deliver. So the mantra, the chanting of the mantra delivers the mind from material miseries, and with other mantras, such as the Gayatri mantra, there are certain restrictions and limitations, but with the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, mahā means great, so maha-mantra means the great chant for deliverance, there are no such restrictions.

In fact, Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead appeared in His original form 5000 years ago and He explained how to practice bhakti-yoga in the Bhagavad-gītā, but even then people could not understand exactly how to do it. So Krishna came again about 500 years ago in the guise of a devotee to show us how to be devotees of Krishna. And He would constantly chant the holy names of Krishna, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but once He was going to the toilet, but in those days in India and probably elsewhere, the toilets were not what we have today, but they were outdoors.

Please, Shanti, Shanti, please try to be quiet, śravaṇam, now is the time for hearing. Hare Krishna.

So, Lord Chaitanya, He was going to the bathroom you could say and He was holding His tongue, so there was a boy named Gopal, and Gopal asked Sri Chaitanya, “Why are You holding Your tongue?” And Lord Chaitanya replied that, “The toilet is a very dirty place and the holy name is very pure, so I’m holding My tongue just to stop Myself from chanting because I don’t think it’s proper to chant in that situation.” And the boy Gopal said that “Death can come at any moment and we are meant to chant the holy name at the time of death because if we chant the holy name at the time of death we will be liberated, we won’t have to take birth again in this miserable material world.” And Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “Yes, you are right, you are My guru.” And that little boy became known as he grew up, he became a great devotee and spiritual teacher, and he became known as Gopal Guru Gosvami because Lord Chaitanya called him His guru.

So, there are many practices, but there is a Bengali verse: bhajan koro sādhan koro, that whatever sadhana or bhajan you perform, whatever spiritual practices you perform will all be tested at the time of death. The time of death is a very critical moment; as explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, our actual identity is not the body but the soul or the ātmā or jīvātmā within the body. And that na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, that soul is not killed when the body is killed, it is eternal, it has no beginning, and no end. And Krishna further explains that just as within this lifetime the soul goes from a baby’s body to a youth’s body to a middle-aged body to an old age body, similarly at the time of death the soul passes into a new body and that is commonly called reincarnation or transmigration of the soul. But in one sense we’ve already transmigrated through different bodies in this present lifetime.

If I were to show you pictures of five babies you wouldn’t be able to tell which was me as a baby because that baby’s body is gone, it’s completely different from the body that I have now, I’m still the same person.

So just as in this lifetime we pass through so many different bodies, at the time of death we pass into another body. Every birth in the material world, every physical body is accompanied by misery, and the Bhagavad-gītā mentions four in particular.

janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-

duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam

Birth, death, old age, and disease. And part of the process of knowledge is to be mindful of these faults or miseries. And they cannot be removed by any material means, no one wants to die but death is certain—- as sure as death. Nobody wants to grow old, but we are forced to grow old. Nobody wants disease but we are forced to suffer disease. And people try to stop birth but they can’t stop birth. So, but these four miseries can be removed if we become Krishna conscious and go back home, back to Godhead.

So the most essential practice to facilitate our going back home, back to Godhead, it’s the chanting of the holy name. And we should become so attached to the chanting that at the time of death we will chant. And as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, “yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ,” that whatever state you leave your body, that state you will attain without fail. So if you leave your body in Krishna consciousness you will go to Krishna and you’ll get a spiritual body like Krishna’s, and you’ll enjoy dancing with Krishna like you see in this beautiful picture or painting.

So there are two ways of chanting; one is loudly with musical instruments, that’s called kirtan, and then the other is more quietly on beads and that is called japa, and we do both. Of course, anyway we chant and it is good but for the devotees who are serious about the practice of bhakti-yoga, one of the steps along the way is called initiation, or dīkṣā, and at the time of initiation in the line of Srila Prabhupada one vows to chant at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra at least per day, and that can take about two hours.

Sometimes we facilitate japa workshops and japa retreats to help devotees improve their japa and increase their taste for japa. And one devotee commented that he used to feel that his japa was getting in the way of his life, but now he feels his life is getting in the way of his japa. So that, of course, our japa can infuse our lives with Krishna consciousness but that’s a nice feeling when you just want to keep chanting and chanting and chanting. And then, we may be able to chant at the time of death.

And our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada has said that we should chant with feeling, not like a parrot, a parrot can also learn to chant. And Srila Prabhupada gave the example that a parrot can chant, but then if a cat catches the bird and is about to kill the bird there won’t be any more Hare Krishna, there will be “Ka kraaaa.” So Prabhupada said our chanting shouldn’t be like that and at the time of death there is no Hare Krishna. So we should, the chanting should be done from the heart, chanting should be deep in the heart, so that at the time of death we really can chant and fulfill our mission as human beings on earth, and go back home, back to Godhead.

So whenever possible we should chant. In one talk in Los Angeles Srila Prabhupada said, “If you’ve got time chant Hare Krishna, don’t speak nonsense, you’ve got time, chant Hare Krishna.” So we should do that.

So, thank you for listening so attentively. Hare Krishna. Doyou have any questions or comments?

Yes, Aindavi. Do we have a microphone for her?

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja, thank you for your lecture.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: In my, this is a comment, in my personal experience it does help a lot and I would like to say that you saved my life, my spiritual life by letting me get association from elevated bodies like yourself, and to chant japa, it does help. And when you, in my experiences when you surround yourself with people that like chanting even if I don’t like chanting, then I like chanting, is something magical almost. Thank you very very much.

Giriraj Swami: Oh, that’s a very nice comment. It’s true, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if you lack taste for chanting you should chant with devotees who have a taste. So yeah, that is very good, chanting together, even japa, and of course, kirtan helps uplift the consciousness and the level of the chanting.

Yes.

Devotee: You mentioned that in our Krishna consciousness movement we say that chanting is the most important activity for spiritual realization or spiritual improvement, but as we know there are many activities one can perform, many things one can do too, as part of spirituality or religion, worshipping, or reading not just this chanting. Sowhy is it that chanting is the most effective? How can we understand that?

Giriraj Swami: Chanting is in a way the easiest, with other processes you need something, for deity worship you need the deities, even for reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam you need the book, but chanting all you need is your tongue and your ears. But it’s true, in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, which Srila Prabhupada translated as The Nectar of Devotion, Srila Rupa Gosvami enumerates sixty-four items of devotional service and he says that out of those, five, out of those sixty-four, five are most potent. And they are nāma-kīrtana, chanting the holy names, bhāgavata-śravaṇam, hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā, sādhu-saṅga, associating with devotees, and there is a technical definition of sādhu-saṅga in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, which is; sajātīyāśaye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare.  Sajat means, I mean literally it means the same cast, Srila Prabhupada translates it with a similar affection for the Lord, sajātīyāśaye snigdhe. And for us, that would mean followers of Srila Prabhupada, essentially, sajātīyāśaye snigdhe. And as I mentioned having a similar affection for the Lord but it can also mean that sadhu should be affectionate to you; he may be very qualified but if he is not affectionate to you, then you won’t get the same benefit. sajātīyāśaye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare, and svato vare means he should be more advanced than you. So that is sādhu-saṅga.

So these are the five, sādhu-saṅga, nāma-kīrtana, bhāgavata-śravaṇam, śrī-mūrtira śraddhāya sevana, to worship the deity with reverence and devotion. And mathurā-vāsa, which means to live in a holy place such as Mathura or Vrindavan, or to live in a temple which is also a holy place, or if you cannot live there, then to visit as often as possible and for as long as possible. So these are the five most potent items, and Srila Rupa Gosvami says that these five items are so powerful that even a slight association with any one of them is enough to awaken dormant love of God – they are very powerful.

But there is a condition, and the condition is that one should not commit offenses, but if one is offenseless, even by a slight association with any one of the five, one can awaken dormant love for Krishna.

Good question. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: I enjoyed your spiritual discourse and passing knowledge to us. My question is, I like to keep on listening [Unintelligible 00:44:59], I keep speaking making the people listen to me, I like only both those things, they are chanting, is that okay? To keep on listening about Krishna and Bhagavad-gītā? The chanting.

Giriraj Swami: Well, it’s good that you have that taste and eagerness to hear and to repeat, so that’s very good. But when you hear, you hear some content, and part of the content that you hear is that you should chant, so it’s good that you like hearing but the next step after hearing is to apply what you have heard. But yeah, I meanyou, yeah different devotees have different tastes for different practices but, were you here for kirtan-fifty? Do you know what kirtan-fifty is? Oh, you live in Dallas.

Devotee: Yes.

Giriraj Swami: All right. Well, you can just keep coming and when there is chanting you can join in the chanting, and I’m sure you’ll pick it up, you’ll like it, yeah. It’s just a matter of association I would say. That’s a good question.

Devotee: Thank you so much, [Unintelligible 00:45:50].

Giriraj Swami: Good. Any other questions or comments? All right.

Devotee: Thank you, Maharaja, for enlighting us. [Unintelligible 00:46:19].

Giriraj Swami: Sorry. . .

Devotee: My question is about the jīvātmā, when we leave from one body to another body. My question is where does the knowledge go? So,as we grow right, we get more knowledge and more knowledge, so at the end we should have more knowledge when we go to the next life, why am I leaving that knowledge? Where did it go?

Giriraj Swami: Well you’ve made a good point which is that whatever we acquire in this life is lost at the time of death. In this life, you may learn how to speak five different languages, but in your next life if you take birth as a human being you begin like every other baby, “gagagaga.” The only thing that continues into the next life is Krishna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada explains that, yeah, everything else you lose, yeah, your knowledge, your money, your possessions, but the one thing that stays with you is Krishna consciousness, it’s also mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if you say, complete 1 percent in this life, then in the next life you begin from 2 percent, so that’s a big advantage.

But where does the knowledge go? It’s lost. But yeah, more important is where do you go? And so yeah, we want to go to Krishna and then, I mean to have all knowledge, and all bliss and eternal life.

Hare Krishna.

Any other questions or comments? I think it is time for our next program, so again thank you for listening so attentively and asking such good questions. And now we will hear what is next to our schedule. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:49:34]