CC Adi 1.13, 3.96–110

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. So, we have gathered on a most auspicious occasion of the appearance day of Sri Advaita Acharya. By divine arrangement, it is His appearance day in America and simultaneously His appearance day in India, although it’s tomorrow in India but that is His mercy. Sri Advaita Acharya is so compassionate. Compassion is one of the main qualities of a devotee. In fact, there are three outstanding qualities that every devotee should have; one is nāma ruci—taste for the holy name, one is vaiṣṇava seva—service to Vaishnavas, and one is jiva doya—mercy upon the living entities. So, I will read a few verses about Sri Advaita Acharya from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (CC).

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda

jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Six, Verse Five is a very significant verse.

TEXT 5

advaitaṁ hariṇādvaitād

ācāryaṁ bhakti-śaṁsanāt

bhaktāvatāram īśaṁ tam

advaitācāryam āśraye

TRANSLATION

Because He is non-different from Hari, the Supreme Lord, He is called Advaita, and because He propagates the cult of devotion, He is called Ācārya. He is the Lord and the incarnation of the Lord’s devotee. Therefore, I take shelter of Him.

COMMENT

So, Advaita Acharya felt great compassion for the fallen souls, who are suffering in material existence. Although he was or is Maha-Vishnu Himself, He felt incapable of delivering all the fallen souls Himself; therefore, He prayed for the Lord to descend, and He remembered a verse from the shastra that says that, if one worships the Lord with a pure heart with Ganges water and tulasi leaves, the Lord becomes so obliged to that devotee, to that worshiper, that He descends.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Three.

TEXT 96

Advaita Ācārya having appeared, He found the world devoid of devotional service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa because people were engrossed in material affairs.

COMMENT

Sounds like today.

TEXT 97

Everyone was engaged in material enjoyment, whether sinfully or virtuously. No one was interested in the transcendental service of the Lord, which can give total relief from the repetition of birth and death.

TEXT 98

Seeing the activities of the world, the Ācārya felt compassion and began to ponder how He could act for the people’s benefit.

COMMENT

The Bengali words are karuṇa-hṛdaya, [which means] compassionate heart.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This sort of serious interest in the welfare of the public makes one a bona fide ācārya. An ācārya does not exploit his followers. Since the ācārya is a confidential servitor of the Lord, his heart is always full of compassion for humanity in its suffering. He knows that all suffering is due to the absence of devotional service to the Lord, and therefore he always tries to find ways to change people’s activities, making them favorable for the attainment of devotion. That is the qualification of an ācārya. Although Śrī Advaita Prabhu Himself was powerful enough to do the work, as a submissive servitor He thought that without the personal appearance of the Lord, no one could improve the fallen condition of society.

COMMENT

Just thinking of that mood of compassion and how we, as followers of Srila Prabhupada and Advaita Acharya, can help people. Of course, there are many programs, but one most important program is book distribution. If we distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books and people read them, they will get the clue, As Srila Prabhupada says, to becoming relieved from material suffering and ultimately going back home, Back to Godhead.

TEXT 99

[Advaita Ācārya thought:] “If Śrī Kṛṣṇa were to appear as an incarnation, He Himself could preach devotion by His personal example.

TEXT 100

“In this Age of Kali there is no religion other than the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, but how in this age will the Lord appear as an incarnation?

TEXT 101

“I shall worship Kṛṣṇa in a purified state of mind. I shall constantly petition Him in humbleness.

TEXT 102

“My name, ‘Advaita,’ will be fitting if I am able to induce Kṛṣṇa to inaugurate the movement of the chanting of the holy name.”

TEXT 103

While He was thinking about how to propitiate Kṛṣṇa by worship, the following verse came to His mind.

TEXT 104

tulasī-dala-mātreṇa

jalasya culukena vā

vikrīṇīte svam ātmānaṁ

bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalaḥ

TRANSLATION

“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers Him merely a tulasī leaf and a palmful of water.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

This is a verse from the Gautamīya-tantra.

TEXT 105–106

Advaita Ācārya considered the meaning of the verse in this way: “Not finding any way to repay the debt He owes to one who offers Him a tulasī leaf and water, Lord Kṛṣṇa thinks, ‘There is no wealth in My possession that is equal to a tulasī leaf and water.’

TEXT 107

“Thus the Lord liquidates the debt by offering Himself to the devotee.” Considering in this way, the Ācārya began worshiping the Lord.

TEXT 108

Thinking of the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He constantly offered tulasī buds in water from the Ganges.

TEXT 109

He appealed to Śrī Kṛṣṇa with loud calls and thus made it possible for Kṛṣṇa to appear.

TEXT 110

Therefore the principal reason for Śrī Caitanya’s descent is this appeal by Advaita Ācārya. The Lord, the protector of religion, appears by the desire of His devotee.

COMMENT

So how indebted we are to Sri Advaita Acharya for imploring, and in a way, causing the Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to appear. And we all know how much we have been blessed by the appearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His disciplic succession. And that mood of compassion was exemplified by all the members of the Pancha-tattva and all the followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and paramparā. And our own Srila Prabhupada, he was so compassionate. We have been reading and are convinced that the only solution for the sufferings of humanity is to elevate them to Krishna consciousness, but I personally witnessed the extent of Srila Prabhupada’s compassion towards people, even in what one could call ordinary circumstances. I had gone ahead to Madras and arranged some programs for Srila Prabhupada and he kindly came. On the way to a program, on the first day actually, I was riding in the car with Srila Prabhupada, and he saw the people at a bus stop on the side of the road, and the sun was beating down quite heavily. It was very hot. Srila Prabhupada commented with such compassion in his voice, because there were too many people than could actually fit in the little shelter there was for the passengers waiting for the bus. With so much compassion in his voice, he said, “Oh, just see, how much they are suffering in the heat.“

Srila Prabhupada really felt for people, and of course he exhibited his care, primarily or almost exclusively, through the propagation of Krishna consciousness. In Mayapur he said no one should go hungry within ten miles of the temple. So, he really cared for people, cared for devotees, cared for people in general, and Sri Advaita Acharya certainly exemplified that mood of compassion, karuṇā hṛdaya, heart full of compassion.

So, today we will be initiating some disciples into the paramparā on behalf of Srila Prabhupada. Generally, when Srila Prabhupada would give initiations, he would speak about the ten offenses because hari-nāma initiation means initiation into the chanting of the holy names, and to chant the holy names properly, we must avoid the ten offenses. So, I’ve chosen to read a verse. Of course, there are many places in Srila Prabhupada’s books where he discusses the ten offenses, but I have chosen a verse that is quite instructive in many respects.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Fifteen: “Description of the Kingdom of God,” (where we all want to go), Text Twenty-Five.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

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. 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

Yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana.

PURPORT (continued)

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.

COMMENT

So let us pay attention here and see how we are doing on these twenty-six qualities.

PURPORT (continued)

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 one talk in Los Angeles, Srila Prabhupada said, “if you 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.

COMMENT

I spoke on this verse on January 14th because Srila Prabhupada spoke on this verse in Juhu, and he related it to the devotees and all the oppositions we were facing in trying to build the temple for Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari. He related all of those qualities of a devotee, sadhu—sādhu bhūṣaṇam to us. How we should manifest all of those qualities under the circumstances of having to deal with so much opposition.

PURPORT (continued)

It is said there that a saintly person eligible to enter into the kingdom of God is very tolerant.

COMMENT

Titikṣava. Prabhupada spoke about all the opposition, and he said, “What can we do? titikṣava. We have to tolerate.” And kāruṇika.

PURPORT (continued)

He is very tolerant and very kind to all living entities.

COMMENT

And kāruṇika. He said, “We could have thought, ‘Okay the people in Bombay don’t like us. We have so many other centers. We can go there. We don’t have to stay in Bombay, but no, kāruṇika, out of mercy we stay, and titikṣava, we tolerate.’”

PURPORT (continued)

He is very kind to all living entities; therefore, he has no enemy.

COMMENT

Of course, we had a lot of enemies in Juhu, and Srila Prabhupada explained that there are two kinds of envious creatures, the envious person and the envious snake. Of the two, the envious person is more dangerous. An envious person, even if you do nothing to harm him or to provoke him, just out of his envious nature, he will attack.

PURPORT (continued)

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. 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.

COMMENT

This is called sādhu-nindā or as it’s rendered in the Nectar of Devotion: “To blaspheme the devotees of the Lord, who have dedicated their lives to propagating the holy names.”

PURPORT (continued)

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

So, there was a very popular weekly magazine in India called the Illustrated Weekly of India comparable to Life Magazine in America during its day, and the editor was a demon, Kushwan Singh. He was a demon. Demon means he was an atheist. So he ran an article by an Austrian sannyasi, who was initiated into a Mayavada line, named Agehananda Bharati. In this article, Agehananda Bharati gave his version of his debate with our Hridayananda dasa Goswami, and Kushwan Singh gave the article the heading “Hare Krishna versus Shiva Shiva.” His idea was to make us all look foolish—oh how silly, arguing Hare Krishna versus Shiva Shiva. I wrote Srila Prabhupada how I felt that scene was trying to make us look foolish and actually sort of make fun or belittle all theists. So Prabhupada replied that, “Yes, you are right. Bharati is a fool, but Singh is a demon.” I think of that when I read this, “foolish persons say one can chant Hare Krishna or 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

This is guror avajñā, which means to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. The underlying psychology behind disobeying his orders is to think of him as an ordinary human being, not much better or different from you or me.

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

I would say that a subtle version of this offense or I should maybe say a manifestation of this offense is to not read Srila Prabhupada’s books, to not attend the classes on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā. Srila Prabhupada stayed up all night practically translating these books for us, so we should honor his effort and read his books, study them, and apply them in our lives.

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.

COMMENT

You can see in this one purport Srila Prabhupada has quoted the entire Hare Krishna maha-mantra twice.

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

That is to commit sin on the strength of chanting Hare Krishna. In other words, by chanting Hare Krishna, one becomes relieved of all sinful reactions, but if one becomes cunning and calculating and thinks, “Oh well, I can engage in sinful activities, and I’ll just neutralize the reactions by chanting.” That is an offense, and it doesn’t work. Besides the fact that it doesn’t work, the reactions to the sinful activities is compounded by the offense against the holy name.

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.

COMMENT

To preach the glories of the holy name to the faithless.

PURPORT (continued)

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

Yes, in the Nectar of Devotion, this is rendered; “To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy name and to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on the matter.” So, it’s not an offense to have material attachments. It’s an anartha, but it’s not an offense. But it is an offense to maintain those material attachments because by chanting, we are trying to purify the heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ, and become free from material desires and attachments so that we can serve Krishna and His devotees. So, to chant and at the same time maintain material attachments is contradictory and offensive.

Now often at the end of reading the list of ten offenses, [devotees will add, “It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.”] Srila Prabhupada said we should read the list of ten offenses as part of the morning program after maṅgala-ārati before we begin our japa. And that it calls our attention to the offenses and just reading the list of offenses helps purify our chanting. So generally, devotees will read the list of ten offenses from the Nectar of Devotion, and at the end they will add, “It is also offense to be inattentive while chanting.”

Sanskrit is such a language that the words can be divided in different ways, and in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s listing of the ten offenses, he lists inattention pramāda as the ninth offense. That’s how he read the Sanskrit or explained the Sanskrit. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if one is attentive while chanting, then all the other offenses will be destroyed, and if one is inattentive while chanting, all the other offenses can flourish.

So my dear devotees, please be attentive while you chant. Don’t do, don’t try to do anything else while you chant. My godbrother, Mahatma prabhu, joked that devotees become very, [or] have become, very expert at using their left hand because while they have their right hand in their bead bag and they are chanting, they are using their left hand to do whatever, tidy up or check their email or whatever. So not like that. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Nothing else. So, we are coming to the end of this beautiful 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

That’s what we need. We need a nice remedy.

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 yes, Srila Prabhupada has instructed us that before we chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in kirtan, we should sing the Pancha-tattva mantra, śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, because the Pancha-tattva do not accept offenses. By chanting the Pancha-tattva mantra, we become ecstatic, and then we can chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra without offense and feel further ecstasy. I know many devotees, including myself, [who] chant the Pancha-tattva mantra before every round of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.

So my dear devotees, please chant attentively and try to avoid the ten offenses as far as possible and pray to the Pancha-tattva to help you. Hare Krishna. So now we will come to that part of the program in which we call forward the devotees to take their vows, and we give them their new names and accept them into the paramparā. So Mukunda Madhava prabhu, I will leave it to you to decide the order in which the devotees come forward.

Mukunda Madhava dasa: Hare Krishna Maharaja, so we are very sorry that in the very beginning there were some technical difficulties. As I mentioned, there was a little unseasonal rain in Mumbai because of which we have to change the position of our system, and there was some difficulty in getting the thing fixed. We are very sorry, Maharaja, for the initial difficulties. So shall I call each one of them, Maharaja, for the initiation?