SB 2.1.11 – Kirtan Mela

Giriraj Swami: So, we welcome you to the Mumbai Kirtan Mela. We will be reading a verse and purport about the holy names, and then we will perform kirtan. This is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter One, The First Step in God Realization, Text Eleven.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

TEXT 11

etan nirvidyamānānām

icchatām akuto-bhayam

yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ

harer nāmānukīrtanam

TRANSLATION

O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.

COMMENT

I’ll read the translation again.

TRANSLATION

O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the previous verse, the great necessity for attaining attachment to Mukunda has been accredited. There are different types of persons who desire to attain success in different varieties of pursuits. Generally the persons are materialists who desire to enjoy the fullest extent of material gratification. Next to them are the transcendentalists, who have attained perfect knowledge about the nature of material enjoyment and thus are aloof from such an illusory way of life. More or less, they are satisfied in themselves by self-realization. Above them are the devotees of the Lord, who neither aspire to enjoy the material world nor desire to get out of it. They are after the satisfaction of the Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the devotees of the Lord do not want anything on their personal account. If the Lord desires, the devotees can accept all sorts of material facilities, and if the Lord does not desire this, the devotees can leave aside all sorts of facilities, even up to the limit of salvation. Nor are they self-satisfied, because they want the satisfaction of the Lord only.

COMMENT

So, the verse mentions three categories, and those three categories include everyone, at least every human being, and therefore, constant chanting of the holy names of the Lord after the ways of great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all. No one is excluded, it’s the way for everyone. And you can figure for yourself which of these categories you fall in, and you might fall in a combination of the categories, but you fit in this verse. And therefore, you, we, all of us, should accept the process of constant chanting of the holy names, following the ways of the great authorities. Now, what does it mean to follow the ways of the great authorities? It means basically to avoid the offenses.

PURPORT (continued)

In this verse, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends the transcendental chanting of the holy name of the Lord. By offenseless chanting and hearing of the holy name of the Lord, one becomes acquainted with the transcendental form of the Lord, and then with the attributes of the Lord, and then with the transcendental nature of His pastimes, etc. Here it is mentioned that one should constantly chant the holy name of the Lord after hearing it from authorities. This means that hearing from the authorities is the first essential.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī instructs that chanting of the holy name of the Lord should be loudly done, and it should be performed offenselessly as well, as recommended in the Padma Purāṇa. One can deliver himself from the effects of all sins by surrendering himself unto the Lord.

COMMENT

Yes, the Lord states in the Bhagavad-gītā,

TEXT 66

sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo

mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

That if one surrenders unto the Lord, the Lord will protect one or free one from all sinful activities, actions, and reactions.

PURPORT (continued)

One can deliver himself from the effects of all sins by surrendering himself unto the Lord. One can deliver himself from all offenses at the feet of the Lord by taking shelter of His holy name. But one cannot protect himself if one commits an offense at the feet of the holy name of the Lord.

COMMENT

So, we have to be very careful not to commit offenses against the holy name.

PURPORT (continued)

Such offenses are mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa as being ten in number.

COMMENT

Of course, we could discuss each offense elaborately, but for the sake of time, I will just read them. But there is one offense upon which I will comment briefly.

PURPORT (continued)

The first offense is to vilify the great devotees who have preached about the glories of the Lord.

The second offense is to see the holy names of the Lord in terms of worldly distinction. The Lord is the proprietor of all the universes, and therefore He may be known in different places by different names, but that does not in any way qualify the fullness of the Lord. Any nomenclature which is meant for the Supreme Lord is as holy as the others because they are all meant for the Lord. Such holy names are as powerful as the Lord, and there is no bar for anyone in any part of the creation to chant and glorify the Lord by the particular name of the Lord as it is locally understood. They are all auspicious, and one should not distinguish such names of the Lord as material commodities.

COMMENT

So, when Srila Prabhupada visited Tehran in Iran, his disciple, Atreya Rishi dasa, who was in charge of the preaching there, waxed eloquent about how one day, he could foresee that all the Muslims would chant Hare Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada commented, “Why do you want that they should chant only Hare Krishna? They can also chant Allah, Allah. We are not sectarian.”

And Srila Prabhupada was also very practical, he might have foreseen that the attempt to get the Muslims to chant Hare Krishna could have had repercussions in a country like Iran, but the philosophical principle is exactly what Srila Prabhupada said, “Why do you want them to chant only Hare Krishna? They can chant Allah, Allah. We are not sectarian.”

PURPORT (continued)

The third offense is to neglect the orders of the authorized ācāryas or spiritual masters.

The fourth offense is to vilify scriptures or Vedic knowledge.

The fifth offense is to define the holy name of the Lord in terms of one’s mundane calculation. The holy name of the Lord is identical with the Lord Himself, and one should understand the holy name of the Lord to be nondifferent from Him.

The sixth offense is to interpret the holy name. The Lord is not imaginary, nor is His holy name.

COMMENT

So, actually, the purport itself elaborates quite a bit about the offenses, and again, for the sake of time, I will have to skip over some of them. But we’ll come to the tenth.

PURPORT (continued)

The tenth offense is to become uninterested in the holy name of the Lord even after hearing of the transcendental nature of the holy name. The effect of chanting the holy name of the Lord is perceived by the chanter as liberation from the conception of false egoism. False egoism is exhibited by thinking oneself to be the enjoyer of the world and thinking everything in the world to be meant for the enjoyment of one’s self only. The whole materialistic world is moving under such false egoism of “I” and “mine,” but the factual effect of chanting the holy name is to become free from such misconceptions.

COMMENT

So, in The Nectar of Devotion, this offense is described as to not have complete faith in the holy name and to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instructions in the matter. And after reading the list of ten offenses, which Srila Prabhupada instituted as part of the morning program, after maṅgala-ārati, because just the recitation of the ten offenses helps free us from the offenses, it makes us conscious of them. And just the very act of reading them, somehow serves to help free us from them.

And sometimes after reading the list, a devotee will add, “It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.” Now, the way the Sanskrit language works, the words can be divided in different ways. And in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s list of the ten offenses, pramāda, which means inattention, is the ninth offense. And Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if one chants attentively, then all the other offenses will be vanquished, and if one is inattentive while chanting, then all the other offenses can flourish.

So, when we chant, as we are about to do and as we do every day, we should make every effort to be attentive. And if our minds wander, we have to bring the mind back and focus on hearing the holy name. And as we read in the purport, just hearing the holy name will give rise to remembrance or a realization of the Lord’s forms, qualities, pastimes, and so on. We don’t need to make any separate endeavor to think of them, we simply focus on hearing each mantra, each name, and that will do everything.

Hare Krishna.

So, now, we will have kirtan, and at the end, in about twenty minutes, we’ll sing the Nṛsiṁha prayers.