SB 3.33.7 – Festival of Holy Name

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Welcome to our Festival of the Holy Name. To begin, I will read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Thirty-Three: “Activities of Kapila,” Text Six.

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

TEXT 6

yan-nāmadheya-śravaṇānukīrtanād
yat-prahvaṇād yat-smaraṇād api kvacit
śvādo ‘pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate
kutaḥ punas te bhagavan nu darśanāt

TRANSLATION

To say nothing of the spiritual advancement of persons who see the Supreme Person face to face, even a person born in a family of dog-eaters immediately becomes eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices if he once utters the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or chants about Him, hears about His pastimes, offers Him obeisances or even remembers Him.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Herein the spiritual potency of chanting, hearing or remembering the holy name of the Supreme Lord is greatly stressed. Rūpa Gosvāmī has discussed the sequence of sinful activities of the conditioned soul, and he has established, in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that those who engage in devotional service become freed from the reactions of all sinful activities. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says that He takes charge of one who surrenders unto Him, and He makes him immune to all reactions to sinful activities. If by chanting the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead one becomes so swiftly cleared of all reactions to sinful activities, then what is to be said of those persons who see Him face to face?

COMMENT

So, as explained by Rupa Gosvami and Srila Prabhupada, suffering is due to sin, and sin is due to ignorance. So, the best service that we can perform for the suffering humanity is to remove their ignorance of their identities as eternal servants of the Supreme Lord Krishna. And if they engage in devotional service to Krishna, they will be relieved of all sinful reactions. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā:

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

“Give up all varieties of religiousness and just surrender unto Me, I will protect you or free you from all sinful reactions, do not grieve, do not fear.”

PURPORT (continued)

Another consideration here is that persons who are purified by the process of chanting and hearing become immediately eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices. Generally, only a person who is born in a family of brāhmaṇas, who has been reformed by the ten kinds of purificatory processes and who is learned in Vedic literature is allowed to perform the Vedic sacrifices. But here the word sadyaḥ, “immediately,” is used, and Śrīdhara Svāmī…

COMMENT

The great commentator on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

PURPORT (continued)

Also remarks that one can immediately become eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices. A person born in a family of the low caste which is accustomed to eat dogs is so positioned due to his past sinful activities, but by chanting or hearing once in pureness, or in an offenseless manner, he is immediately relieved of the sinful reaction. Not only is he relieved of the sinful reaction, but he immediately achieves the result of all purificatory processes.

COMMENT

This is the potency of chanting and hearing the holy names of the Supreme Lord without offense.

PURPORT (continued)

Taking birth in the family of a brāhmaṇa is certainly due to pious activities in one’s past life. But still a child who is born in a family of a brāhmaṇa depends for his further reformation upon initiation into acceptance of a sacred thread and many other reformatory processes. But a person who chants the holy name of the Lord, even if born in a family of caṇḍālas, dog-eaters, does not need reformation. Simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, he immediately becomes purified and becomes as good as the most learned brāhmaṇa.

COMMENT

That is the potency of offenseless chanting and hearing of the holy name of Krishna.

PURPORT (continued)

Śrīdhara Svāmī especially remarks in this connection, anena pūjyatvaṁ lakṣyate. Some caste brāhmaṇas remark that by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, purification begins. Of course, that depends on the individual process of chanting, but this remark of Śrīdhara Svāmī’s is completely applicable if one chants the holy name of the Lord without offense, for he immediately becomes more than a brāhmaṇa. As Śrīdhara Svāmī says, pūjyatvam: he immediately becomes as respectable as a most learned brāhmaṇa and can be allowed to perform Vedic sacrifices.

COMMENT

So, the important word here is ‘offenselessly,’ and as stated in the Padma Purāṇa and quoted by Srila Jiva Gosvami and other authorities, there are ten offenses in the chanting of the holy names. And in the morning programs in ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada introduced the practice that the devotees should recite the ten offenses, because it not only makes them aware of the ten offenses, but also purifies them so that they will avoid them.

And of these ten offenses, one is pramāda, which means inattention. The Sanskrit in the ten offenses is such that the ten offenses can be divided up differently. So, in the standard list in The Nectar of Devotion, which devotees generally read in the morning as part of the morning program, they often add at the end, “It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.” Although the way Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura divides the offenses according to the Sanskrit, he places pramāda, or inattention, as the ninth offense. And he says that by attentive chanting, all the other offenses are destroyed, and by inattentive chanting, all the other offenses are allowed to flourish. So, when we chant, as we will chant now in kirtan or when we chant in japa, the main requirement is to be attentive, to pronounce each name and each syllable attentively, and especially, to hear each name and each syllable with attention. And then, the miraculous effects of offenseless chanting can be experienced.

PURPORT (continued)

Usually, initiation depends on the bona fide spiritual master, who directs the disciple. If he sees that a disciple has become competent and purified by the process of chanting, he offers the sacred thread to the disciple just so that he will be recognized as one-hundred-percent equal with a brāhmaṇa. This is also confirmed in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa by Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī: “As a base metal like bell metal can be changed into gold by a chemical process, any person can similarly be changed into a brāhmaṇa by dīkṣā-vidhāna, the initiation process.”

It is sometimes remarked that by the chanting process one begins to purify himself and can take birth in his next life in a brāhmaṇa family and then be reformed. But at this present moment, even those who are born in the best brāhmaṇa families are not reformed, nor is there any certainty that they are actually born of brāhmaṇa fathers. Formerly the garbhādhāna reformatory system was prevalent, but at the present moment there is no such garbhādhāna, or seed-giving ceremony. Under these circumstances, no one knows if a man is factually born of a brāhmaṇa father. Whether one has acquired the qualification of a brāhmaṇa depends on the judgment of the bona fide spiritual master. He bestows upon the disciple the position of a brāhmaṇa by his own judgment. When one is accepted as a brāhmaṇa in the sacred thread ceremony under the pāñcarātrika system, then he is dvija, twice-born. That is confirmed by Sanātana Gosvāmī: dvijatvaṁ jāyate. By the process of initiation by the spiritual master, a person is accepted as a brāhmaṇa in his purified state of chanting the holy name of the Lord. He then makes further progress to become a qualified Vaiṣṇava, which means that the brahminical qualification is already acquired.

COMMENT

So, yes, one is born in a so-called higher family or lower family according to one’s pious and sinful activities. But devotional service, especially the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, is so powerful that it destroys all of one’s past karma, and therefore, the sinful activities that led to one’s low birth no longer operate. In other words, one is considered a pure soul, a Vaishnava. And being a Vaishnava means that one is already more than a brahman. So, being a brahman is included in being a Vaishnava. Although there are procedures of second initiation, dīkṣā-vidhān, to officially make one a brahman.

But the essential point is that the chanting of the holy name frees one of all sinful activities, of one’s past karma, and purifies one to the stage that he’s immediately considered eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices.

So, now we will chant the holy names. I will begin by singing the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers to invoke auspiciousness, to invoke the presence and mercy of the previous acharyas and the entire paramparā, all the way back to Radha and Krishna. Then, we will chant the Pancha-tattva mantra.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

And Srila Prabhupada says we chant the Pancha-tattva mantra to pray to the Pancha-tattva to help us to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra without offense.