SB 3.15.25 – Initiation

Giriraj Swami: 

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

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Fifteen, “Description of the Kingdom of God,” 

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

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.

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; 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

In a talk in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada said, “if you have time, chant Hare Krishna. Don’t speak nonsense. Chant Hare Krishna.”

PURPORT (continued)

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

So this offense in Sanskrit is called sādhu-nindā, to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives propagating the holy name of the Lord. And Srila Prabhupada says here that 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 yes, to consider the names of the demigods to be equal to or equal to the name of the Lord Vishnu. There is a popular weekly magazine in India named “The illustrated weekly of India,” which for many years during Prabhupada time and was edited by a fellow named Khushwant Singh. And he ran an article by an Austrian sannyasi named Agayananda Bharati, who is in the Mayavada line. And he titled the article “Hare Krishna versus Shiva-Shiva.” And his intention, because Singh was an atheist for sure, his intention was to make both parties look foolish ‘Oh how silly they are arguing, how he. . .’ So I wrote Srila Prabhupada and I explained what Singh had done and how I understood what he had done. And Srila Prabhupada wrote that, “Yes, you are right. Bharati is a fool, but Singh is a demon.” So, yes. There are many foolish persons, Prabhupada said, Bharti was a fool. There are many foolish persons who say that one can chant Hare Krishna or chant the name of Kali or Durga or Shiva because they are all the same.

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

So, this is guror-avajñā: to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. And here in this purport, Srila Prabhupada explains the underlying psychology of someone who would disobey the orders of the spiritual master, and that is to think that the spiritual master is an ordinary human being, just like me, and so my opinion is that.

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. 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

Srila Prabhupada has quoted twice the 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

So yes, to commit sin on the strength of chanting Hare Krishna is of a very bad offense. By chanting the holy name one is freed from sinful reactions. That’s a fact. But if in a cunning and calculating and hypocritical way, someone thinks, ‘Oh, well, I can engage in sinful activity, then I will just chant Hare Krishna and neutralize the effects.’ That is a great offense. So we may have engaged in sinful activities before we came to the association of devotees and the Chanting. And by chanting we will become purified and get freed from all sinful reaction. As says in the Bhagavad-gītā,

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

If one surrenders unto Krishna, Krishna will free one from all sin. The holy name of Krishna and Krishna is same. So, when we surrender to the process of chanting the holy name, we will become free from sinful reaction. So we should not try to take advantage of that, ‘Oh, I will engage in some fight.’

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. 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

And this is also considered as, to not attentive to holy name and not have complete faith in holy name. if we put it together because if we have complete faith in chanting, then we will know that the holy name, or Krishna, can fulfill all of our desires and we won’t be attached to material things thinking that they can make us happy. So the actual result of chanting, offenselessly, is that one becomes freed from the bodily conception of life, of I, me, and mine. So when you can, should let go of those false conceptions. And then we can chant attentively. Often when devotees read the ten offenses, Srila Prabhupada instructed that devotees should read the ten offenses after maṅgala-ārati in the temple to free from offenses. Generally, after reading the list from The Nectar of Devotion, a devotee will add, “It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.” Sanskrit language is such that it can be broken up in different ways. So in one of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura writings of the ten offenses in his book, Harināma-cintāmaṇi. There Sanskrit word comes, pramāda. That is offensive. And he says further that if one is attentive while chanting, then all the other offenses will be destroyed. And if one is inattentive while chanting, then the other offenses can flourish. So most important to be attentive while we chant. Yes, don’t try to do other things while you are chanting. And please not while you are chanting.

Mahatma Prabhu used to joke that devotees have learned to become very expert at doing things with their next and while they are chanting, they can be doing so many other things.

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.

COMMENT

Although Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, whose divine disappearance that we are observing today, he has said that a devotee may not manifest these symptoms, but the effect of his chanting and his progress in devotional service will be seen by his freedom from material desires.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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, Lord Chaitanya and the members of the Pancha-tattva, they do not consider offenses. And therefore, in kirtan, we always sing the Pancha-tattva mantra before we sing the Hari Krishna mantra. Sri Prabhupada said, if we sing the Pancha-tattva mantra so that it will help us to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Many devotees, before each round of japa, they will chant the Pancha-tattva mantra.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda

śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

That will purify us so that we can chant without offenses.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So now we will call the new initiates forward to take their vows and receive their beads and new names and we will proceed in alphabetical order. So, that means Amar comes first.

[Initiation begins]