SB 2.1.11

Giriraj Swami:

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So, we read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter One, “The First Step in God Realization,”

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

So, if you think about yourselves, you will find that you fit into one of these categories. Maybe even combination but you are definitely included.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the previous verse, the great necessity for attaining attachment to Mukunda [Giriraj Swami—the name of Krishna, gives liberation] 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. 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. 

COMMENT

So, Srila Prabhupada has done a very beautiful translation of the verse. And the word “aṇu” has two meanings. One means to follow, like we are followers of the Rupa Gosvami, so we are called rūpānugas. An “aṇu” also means continuous. So, Srila Prabhupada has included both meanings in the translation and also in the purport. But it is so nice. Constant, so that is one meaning of aṇu. Constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord. Following the ways of the great authority, so that is the other meaning of aṇu. So back to the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

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. Hearing of the holy name gradually promotes one to the stage of hearing about His form, His attributes, His pastimes, and so on, and thus the necessity of the chanting of His glories develops successively.

COMMENT

So śravaṇam, kīrtanam, we hear, and then we repeat what we have heard and that is kīrtanam. śravaṇam first we hear and then kīrtanam we repeat what we have heard in the glorification of the Lord.

PURPORT (continued)

This process is recommended not only for the successful execution of devotional service, but also even for those who are materially attached. According to Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī, this way of attaining success is an established fact, concluded not only by him but also by all other previous ācāryas. Therefore, there is no need of further evidence. 

COMMENT

 So, do you all agree with what we’ve read so far? Okay, no need of any further evidence.

PURPORT (continued)

The process is recommended not only for the progressive students in different departments of ideological success, but also for those who are already successful in their achievement as fruitive workers, as philosophers or as devotees of the Lord.

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, in the Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says,

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

If you surrender to Krishna, he will free you from all sins.

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

Did you know that the holy name has feet? It does because it is Krishna. Krishna has lotus feet.

PURPORT (continued)

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

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

COMMENT

So, this is sādhu-nindā to blaspheme the devotees who dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord. And in some places, Srila Prabhupada said this is the worst offense and we should be very careful about it. We live amongst devotees or at least we associate with devotees. We should always see them in their spiritual feature as servants of Srila Prabhupada and the holy name and not find fault. I mean, there Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in his book, Harināma-cintāmaṇi has elaborately discussed the ten offenses, including the first one, sādhu-nindā, and he lists many grounds on which one might criticize a devotee such as low birth, past sinful activities, traces of sinful activities even after coming to devotional service. And he says that none of these are grounds for criticizing a devotee and one who does criticize a devotee on any of these grounds is implicated in sādhu-nindā, the offensive blaspheming devotees.

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, Srila Prabhupada had a very intelligent and qualified disciple from Iran named Atreya Rsi who joined the movement in America and later returned to Iran and He invited Srila Prabhupada there, Srila Prabhupada went and on one occasion, Atreya Rsi Prabhu waxed eloquent and he was saying he was looking forward to the day when all the Muslims will chant Hare Krishna and Srila Prabhupada said, why do you want them to chant only Hare Krishna? He can also chant Allah, Allah. We are not sectarian. Any nomenclature which is meant for the Supreme Lord is as holy as the others. They are all auspicious and one should not distinguish such names of the Lord as material commodities.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

This is called guror avajñā, to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. In another place where Srila Prabhupada discusses the ten offenses, he mentions the third offense as thinking of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being, which would be the psychology that one would have if one disobeyed the orders of the spiritual master.

PURPORT (continued)

The fourth offense is to vilify scriptures or Vedic knowledge.

COMMENT

Now, offenses can be committed to different degrees. There is one story recounted in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where the sages were considering who is the supreme Brahma, Shiva, or Vishnu. And Bhrigu Muni went to visit all three of them to test them. So first he went to Lord Brahma, who is his father, and he failed to offer respect to him and Lord Brahma became angry. But then with his great intelligence he controlled himself. So that was considered an offense committed in the mind. He didn’t say anything offensive or do anything offensive, but he just neglected to offer respect when he should have. So that is the mildest type of offense and offense committed in the mind. And so, applying that to this offense, about the Vedic literatures, I would say it is an offense not to read the Vedic literature, not to read Srila Prabhupada books, subtle offense.

Then Bhrigu Muni went to Lord Shiva, who was his brother and Lord Shiva was very happy to see him. He came forward to embrace him and Bhrigu Muni said, Oh, don’t come near me. Don’t touch me. You are unclean. You are covered with ashes, and you are always associated with ghosts and hobgoblins and stay away from me. So that was considered an offense committed with the words, more, more serious offense. Then Bhrigu Muni went to Lord Vishnu and Lord Vishnu was lying down, his lotus feet were being massaged by his eternal consort, Laxmi Devi, the goddess of fortune. And I mean, I hesitate even to utter such words but he kicked Lord Vishnu, which obviously is the most serious type of offense, an offense committed with the body. But Lord Vishnu was so sublime. He said, Oh, Bhrigu Muni, please forgive me for not receiving you properly and I hope that you did not hurt your soft lotus feet while kicking my hard chest. So, Lord Vishnu definitely proved himself to be supreme, completely situated in pure goodness.

So, the point I am making is that there can be different degrees of offense. The offense committed in the mind, offense committed with words and the offense committed with the body. So, the fourth offense, which is to vilify the Vedic scriptures or to the blasphemed Vedic literature, a subtle manifestation of offense would be just to not read them, not to attend classes about them.

PURPORT (continued)

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, [Giriraj swami: Well, the Lord is not imaginary] nor is His holy name. There are persons with a poor fund of knowledge who think the Lord to be an imagination of the worshiper and therefore think His holy name to be imaginary. Such a chanter of the name of the Lord cannot achieve the desired success in the matter of chanting the holy name.

The seventh offense is to commit sins intentionally on the strength of the holy name. 

COMMENT

It is also very serious offense.

PURPORT (continued)

In the scriptures it is said that one can be liberated from the effects of all sinful actions simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord. One who takes advantage of this transcendental method and continues to commit sins on the expectation of neutralizing the effects of sins by chanting the holy name of the Lord is the greatest offender at the feet of the holy name. Such an offender cannot purify himself by any recommended method of purification. In other words, one may be a sinful man before chanting the holy name of the Lord, but after taking shelter in the holy name of the Lord and becoming immune, one should strictly restrain oneself from committing sinful acts with a hope that his method of chanting the holy name will give him protection.

COMMENT

Yes, committing sin on the strength of chanting. It is very offensive, and it doesn’t work also.

PURPORT (continued)

The eighth offense is to consider the holy name of the Lord and His chanting method to be equal to some material auspicious activity. There are various kinds of good works for material benefits, but the holy name and His chanting are not mere auspicious holy services. Undoubtedly the holy name is holy service, but He should never be utilized for such purposes. Since the holy name and the Lord are of one and the same identity, one should not try to bring the holy name into the service of mankind. The idea is that the Supreme Lord is the supreme enjoyer. He is no one’s servant or order supplier. Similarly, since the holy name of the Lord is identical with the Lord, one should not try to utilize the holy name for one’s personal service.

COMMENT

In 1973, Shrimati Lilavati Munshi, who is the head of Bharati Vidhya Bhavan in Bombay, held a conference with the theme of the world’s problems will be solved by the Bhagavad-gītā and before the session began in the evening, she invited the special guests to her library to meet and talk. So, there was one man, I don’t remember his name, but he had long white hair and white beard. And he told Srila Prabhupada that he was having gatherings of people and telling them to chant the holy name. If they chant the holy name, they will be cured of their material diseases. So, he said to Srila Prabhupada, I am gathering people together and you are gathering people together. I am getting them to chant the holy name and you are getting them to chant the holy name. We should cooperate. And Srila Prabhupada said, no, what you are doing is against our principle and He said more or less the same thing that he wrote in the purport here. He said that the holy name of Krishna is Krishna Himself and we are meant to serve Him. We are not meant to use him or engage him in our service for our material benefit.

PURPORT (continued)

The ninth offense is to instruct those who are not interested in chanting the holy name of the Lord about the transcendental nature of the holy name. If such instruction is imparted to an unwilling audience, the act is considered to be an offense at the feet of the holy name.

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

My dear godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu says that people walk around with a psychology that they want to clear their throat—Excuse me please, I have an important announcement to make. I am the center of the universe and everyone should do what I want. And he also says, and it is so true Most people envision their lives as a movie or a drama in which he or she is the hero or heroine and everyone else is a supporting cast, meant to support them in their heroic exploits. We can imagine each one is thinking, I am the hero, you are meant to support me the other one saying, no, no, I am the hero, you are meant to support me. So, it doesn’t create a very harmonious situation. But if we become free from this false egoism and we accept that Krisna is the supreme enjoyer and we are all his servants and we are meant to cooperate together for his pleasure than our relationships with one another will also become very sweet and harmonious. So, in the ten offenses, this is in The Nectar of Devotion, which most yes Srila Prabhupada did introduce that in the morning program that after maṅgala-ārati the devotees read the list of Ten offenses before japa and in The Nectar of Devotion the ten offenses mentioned to not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy name and to maintain material attachments even after understanding some instructions in the manner. And then afterwards the devotee who read the list will generally add and it is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.

Now Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura because Sanskrit is such a language that the words can be combined with each other in different ways or they’re combined in a certain way but they can be read in different ways and so, in his discussion of the ten offenses he counts inattentiveness or pramāda as the nine offense and he says that if one is inattentive while chanting all the other offenses well, can flourish, but if one is attentive while chanting then all the other offenses will be vanquished. So, it is most important that we are attentive while we chant. We should be focused. We should not, in principle engage in other activities during our minimum number of rounds.

My dear godbrother Mahatma Prabhu said that many devotees become very expert at using their left hand because when their right hand is in their bead bag so their left hand is checking their phones and whatever dusting straightening up. They are very expert in their left hand while their right hand is in the bead bag. But we should be focused on the chant. We should be attentive.  As he and I have facilitated a number of japa workshops and japa of retreats together and he mentioned one devotee who said that previously he used to think that his japa was coming in the way of his life. And now he feels that his life is coming in the way of his japa. So, yeah, let’s say about these with the holy name and so forth. So that is wonderful that Nitya Manjari dasi has hosted this japa retreat. And now if any of you want to ask any questions or make any comments or share any reflections, we can do that for a few minutes. So, if you do, yes you can raise your hand. Yes?

Devotee: To go back to when you started. You said one of the devotees, he was speaking with Prabhupada, regarding chanting that we are not sectarian. Was it from Prabhupada, who said we are not sectarian and they can chant our Allah as well or who was it?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Atreya Rishi, Srila Prabhupada disciple from Iran. When Prabhupada visited he was speaking in a very eloquent way, looking forward to the time when everyone would chant Hare Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada said, we are not sectarian, they can chant Allah Allah and philosophically that is true and also practically I think it might have been dangerous for Atreya Rishu to try to convert the Muslims to chanting Hare Krishna. It would probably be safer for him to encourage them, to chant Allah Allah.