SB 3.15.25 – Initiation—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: We welcome you all to today’s initiation program for the devotees in Mauritius. I was planning to be in Mauritius now, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are not traveling physically. But with the help of modern technology, we are still able to meet. During initiations, Srila Prabhupada would speak about the ten offenses against the holy name, because we are giving hari-nāma initiation, that means initiation into the chanting of the holy name, and so we should be aware of the ten offenses and avoid them.

In many places in Srila Prabhupada’s books, he mentions and discusses the ten offenses, but I will read from the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where Srila Prabhupada gives a nice explanation of the ten offenses, and also gives other valuable instructions for us devotees.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter fifteen, description of the kingdom of God, Text twenty-five.

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.

COMMENT

So, all of us want to ultimately enter the kingdom of God, and this verse and purport tell us how we can do so.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

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.

COMMENT

Yes, yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanāI.

PURPORT (continued)

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:

COMMENT

So, we should listen very attentively and check ourselves to what extent we have developed these desirable qualities, and try to improve—try to work on ourselves. So that we manifest these good qualities more fully and more consistently.

PURPORT (continued)

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, “Don’t speak nonsense. If you’ve got time, chant Hare Krishna, don’t speak nonsense.” 

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.

COMMENT

We should all take note of these offenses and try our best to avoid them. Some of the offenses are committed during chanting, for example, inattention. We should avoid that. Other offenses relate to our general orientation in life, and so we should be aware of those offenses, and avoid them just in our general conduct and consciousness.

PURPORT (continued)

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 first offense is called sādhu-nindā, to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives to propagating the holy name of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada says it is the greatest offense.

Once Bhurijana Prabhu, my dear God brother, was conducting a japa retreat or seminar, as he often does, and he gave the students two homework assignments. The first was to see how attentively they were able to chant, and the other was to avoid criticism of devotees, sādhu-nindā. The next day he asked for a report, so one lady said that she had every intention of avoiding criticism of devotees but it was in the environment, and so she couldn’t help but hear it, and it is also an offense to hear criticism of devotees. Of course, it’s an offense to speak criticism, but it’s also an offense to hear it. So, Bhurijana Prabhu replied, “You have two choices. One you can change the environment, and if you want to change the environment good luck because the environment doesn’t want to change, the environment wants to criticize devotees. The other approach is that you dissociate yourself from that environment.”

So, we should be very careful about this point, sometimes we casually criticize devotees, we don’t even think of it, but we should not do so. And if we happen to be in the company of someone who is criticizing devotees for no good reason, then we should try to change the direction of the conversation, or, if that’s not possible, then leave the conversation. But in such a way, don’t offend the devotee who’s criticizing devotees.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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

The Nectar of Devotion says, phrases the offense, “To consider the names of the demigods to be equal to or independent of the holy name of Lord Vishnu.”

There was a popular magazine in India called “The Illustrated Weekly of India,” which was edited by a fellow named Khushwant Singh, who was an atheist. So, he ran an article, which he titled “Hare Krishna versus Shiva Shiva.” The article was written by an Austrian sanyasi who had been initiated into a Mayavadi sampradāya, and in the article, he gave his version of his debate with our Hridayananda dasa Goswami.

The editor, Kushwant Singh, titled the article “Hare Krishna vs. Shiva Shiva,” and his intention clearly was to make us all look foolish, like, “Oh, how silly these people, arguing Krishna Supreme, Shiva Supreme.” And I wrote Srila Prabhupada how I viewed what Khushwant Singh had done, and Srila Prabhupada replied, “Yes, you are right, Bharati is a fool, but Singh is a demon.”

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

This offense is guror avajñā, which means to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. Here Srila Prabhupada mentions the underlying psychology of guror avajñā, that one thinks that the spiritual master is an ordinary being, as much as I am an ordinary human being, and therefore, why should I listen to what he says? I’ll just do what I think. So, yes, guror avajñā, to disobey the orders of the spiritual master.

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

Again, in The Nectar of Devotion this is rendered to blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version. Now, there are different degrees of offense, and I won’t tell the whole story but these different degrees of offense were exhibited in the past time, in which Bhṛgu Muni visited Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu to ascertain who was fully in the mode of Goodness, or who was Supreme.

So, when he met Lord Brahma, he did not offer him respect. Lord Brahma is his father, and in a way, spiritual master, and so he should have offered respect. Lord Brahma became angry, but with his great intelligence, he controlled his anger, but he became angry. So, that is an offense committed in the mind, he didn’t say anything offensive or do anything offensive, but he was considered to have had an offensive mentality, and therefore, he did not offer proper respect. That’s the mildest kind of offense.

Next, he went to visit Lord Shiva, who was his brother. Lord Shiva came forward to embrace him, and he said, “Oh, don’t come near me, don’t touch me, your body is covered with ashes, you’re always associating with ghosts and hobgoblins and all sorts of people. Don’t come near me, I don’t want to be associated with you.” That was considered an offense with words.

Then he went to Lord Vishnu, and Lord Vishnu was reclining on Ananta Śeṣa, and His lotus feet were being massaged by his eternal consort Lakshmidevi. When—it is very hard to even say this, but when Bhṛgu Muni approached Lord Vishnu, he actually put his foot on his chest, he actually kicked him. But Lord Vishnu was so sublime, he said, “My dear Bhṛgu Muni, please forgive me for not receiving you properly, I hope that my chest was not too hard on your lotus foot,” and so, he clearly demonstrated that he was the Supreme, completely fixed in pure Goodness. But Lakshmidevi did not take it kindly that Bhṛgu Muni had kicked her husband, and it said that since then, Lakshmi has not favored brahmans, because Bhṛgu Muni was a brahman.

But that’s okay, the point I’m making here is that there are three kinds of offenses, and the most extreme, in a way, would be to blaspheme the literature—Vedic literature, literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.

But a more subtle offense, you could say, an offense committed within the mind, is not to read the books. Not to read Srila Prabhupada’s books, not to attend the classes. It’s a subtle offense, and we should avoid that, we should read the books. Srila Prabhupada stayed up at night, while we were sleeping, to give us these books, and we should make his effort fruitful by reading his books.

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 the Lord.

COMMENT

Sometimes this is rendered, to consider the glories of the holy name to be imagination, and His Holiness Sacinandana Swami conducts many japa retreats and workshops, specifically as he told me, to counteract this offense of thinking that the glories of chanting Hare Krishna are imagination.

Because if we don’t chant properly, we won’t get the result, so we might think that all these descriptions of the effects of chanting are imaginary or exaggerated. He’s conducted these japa retreats and workshops, so that people can actually experience how glorious chanting is—proper chanting offenseless chanting.

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. 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 by GRS: In other words, before coming to the association of devotees, Krishna consciousness, before taking to chanting the holy name, we are likely engaged in sinful activities, and by chanting the holy names, one becomes freed from all sinful reactions.

As 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 religion and just surrender unto me, I will free you from all sinful actions and reactions.”

So, it is a fact that by chanting the holy names, one becomes free from sinful reactions. But if one becomes cunning and calculating and duplicitous and he thinks “Oh well, I can get free from the sinful reactions by chanting, so let me go on enjoy sinning and I’ll just neutralize the effects by chanting.” That is an offense, a great offense, we should not do that, we should avoid committing sinful acts.

Tonight the new initiates will be taking vows to avoid the four pillars, which Srila Prabhupada calls; the four pillars of sinful activities.

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

Again, as stated in The Nectar of Devotion, to consider chanting Hare Krishna to be one of the auspicious ritualistic activities offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities—karma-kāṇḍa.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

Or again, to preach the glories of the holy name to the faithless. Because if you do, the person who hears will think that, again, you’re exaggerating, you’re imagining, and that makes him offensive. So it’s an offense for you to speak in such a way that others commit offenses.

PURPORT (continued)

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

So yes, this is also rendered in The Nectar of Devotion as to not have complete faith in the holy names and to maintain material attachments, even after understanding so many instructions in the matter. It’s not an offense to have material attachments, it’s an anartha, but it’s not an offense. By chanting, we are aiming to cleanse our heart of material attachments—ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. But if while chanting, we deliberately hold on to material attachments, which is like the exact opposite of the desired effect of offenseless chanting, that is an offense. The whole idea of chanting is to become free from false identification with the body, to realize one’s self as eternal servant of Krishna.

Sometimes, I mean, usually in our temple, devotees read the list of ten offenses after maṅgala-ārati, before japa. They read the list from The Nectar of Devotion and then they usually add, “It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting,” definitely it is an offense to be inattentive while chanting. Sanskrit is such a language that can be broken up in different ways, with different meanings, and in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s rendering of the ten offenses, and his Śrī Hari-nāma Cintāmaṇi, he lists inattention—pramāda, as the ninth offense. It’s there in the Sanskrit, and he says that if one chants attentively, it will destroy all the other offenses, but if one is inattentive while chanting, that will allow the other offenses to flourish.

So, we want to be attentive, we want to make every effort to be attentive when we chant, and as Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā “Whenever and wherever the mind wanders, one should bring it back upon the self.” It’s an effort, it’s a practice, Srila Prabhupada said that practice makes perfect, even in spiritual life. It’s a practice and we have to make that effort, otherwise, if we just let the mind wander here and there while chanting, that is an offense. So, we have to make an effort.

There are three stages in chanting: the offensive stage, nāma-aparādha; the clearing stage—nāma-ābhāsa; and the pure stage—śuddha-nāma. The clearing stage is defined as the consistent effort to chant without offense, and specifically, the offense of inattention. By making that consistent effort to bring the mind back on the holy name, we are placing ourselves in the clearing stage, which is good, it’s good.

So, I will Continue the purport.

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 this is what we need. We need a nice remedy for this.

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 the secret. The Lord Chaitanya and the members of the Pancha-tattva do not consider offenses, and therefore, as Srila Prabhupada said, before we chant Hare Krishna, we chant the Pancha-tattva mantra, which will help us to chant the Hare Krishna mantra.

In kirtan we always sing the Pancha-tattva mantra before we chant the Hare Krishna mantra. Many devotees, including myself, we chant the Pancha-tattva mantra before each round of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, that is śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.

The verse that Srila Prabhupada referred to at the end of this purport from Caitanya-caritāmṛta—I mean, there’s a whole section of verses here, Caitanya-caritāmṛta [Ādi-līlā] Chapter eight, about chanting, but the specific one to which Srila Prabhupada referred is Text thirty-one:

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. So,

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.

In the purport, Srila Prabhupada quotes his guru maharaja Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, which is very auspicious because today we are observing the divine disappearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

PURPORT

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.

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. Then one can approach Vṛndāvana-dhāma to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa.

For an ordinary man, worship of Śrī Caitanya and Nityānanda Prabhu or the Pañca-tattva is easier than worship of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

Since everyone within this material world is more or less influenced by sinful activities, in the beginning it is essential that one take to the worship of Guru-Gaurāṅga and ask their favor, for thus despite all his disqualifications one will very soon become qualified to worship the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa vigraha.

It should be noted in this connection that the holy names of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Gaurasundara are both identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore one should not consider one name to be more potent than the other. Considering the position of the people of this age, however, the chanting of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s name is more essential than the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra because Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the most magnanimous incarnation and His mercy is very easily achieved. Therefore one must first take shelter of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by chanting śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. By serving Gaura-Nityānanda one is freed from the entanglements of material existence and thus becomes qualified to worship the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna. Now we can call the new initiates forward to take their vows and receive their new names.