SB 3.15.25 – Initiations

Giriraj Swami: . . . my impression of the whole thing. And he said, “Yes, you are right. Bharati is a fool but Singh is a demon. So, speaking of fools.

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

So the third offense is, guror avajñā, to disobey the orders of the spiritual master. And here, Srila Prabhupada is presenting the underlying psychology of a person who would disobey the spiritual master and commit the offense, guror avajñā, and that is to think of the spiritual master as an ordinary human being.

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

In other words, we should read the books, the Vedic literatures, the books that Srila Prabhupada has translated and given to us. Otherwise, not to read the books is a subtle offense.

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

Srila Prabhupada has quoted the full Hare Krishna maha-mantra twice in this purport.

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. 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

So, once in Bombay, Srimati Lilavati Munshi, who was the chairman of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan held a conference, the theme of which was that the Bhagavad-gītā can solve all a problem in the world. And before the conference began, she held a meeting of the invitees in her library room. I happen to be there also. And one of the speakers had, I don’t remember his name but long white hair and beard. And he told Srila Prabhupada that he was gathering people together and having them chant the holy names and telling them that if they chant, their material diseases can be cured. So he said to Srila Prabhupada that, “I am calling people to together and you are gathering people together. I am getting people to chant the holy names and you are getting people to chant the holy names. So we should cooperate.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “No, what you are proposing is against our principles. The holy name is Krishna and we are servants of the holy name and we are not meant to engage the holy name or Krishna in our service by curing our material diseases or what not.” That is the eighth offense.

PURPORT (continued)

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

COMMENT

That is 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

Do not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. So, by chanting of the holy name, one is meant to become free from false identification with the body and material attachments. And therefore, to maintain material attachments is an offense. It is not an offense to have material attachments. It is an anartha but it is not an offense as such. But when you are chanting, the idea of the chanting is to cleanse the heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, and become free from false identification with the body and material attachments. So if one chants and maintains those of false conceptions, that is an offense.

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. 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 a very important point. And I will read that section of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta because it is so important and useful. So, this is Ādi-līlā, Chapter Eight,

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.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

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.

COMMENT

And so, my dear devotees, before we chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, we always chant the Pancha-tattva mantra.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

So, we do that both and of course, we do that in kirtan but many devotees, including myself, we also chant that when we do japa. Before every round, we chant the Pancha-tattva mantra.

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

So now we will call forward the new initiates to get their beads and will take their vows and then get their beads and spiritual names. So You are going to call the new initiates in alphabetical order, starting with the men. So first is Alan Berks.

[Initiation ceremony]

So isn’t Nityananda Prabhu here? Yes. Can you let us know what the schedule is?

Devotee: Yes, and then Abhishek will finish around 10:30, a little after 10:30, depending on when we start.

Jaya Sri Radha-Kalachandji ki jaya!

They want to prepare for the deities to get bathe. So, he has to close the curtains so that they can be closed for Abhishek. So then after the Abhishek is over, we are going to go out into the park, which is this side here. And there is a concrete platform there, where we will perform the fire yajña for the initiates. And I understand that two initiates from previous initiations that had not settled fire sacrifice. So you can join us as well. Thank you Maharaja.

Maharaja is giving approval. So you can join us as well. And anybody would like to join us there, please come and bless the devotees, who have newly take initiation. And then after that, we will come back here and continue with a lot of kirtan. Because the part of the program that is actually the very most important in a lot of ways apart from the initiation ceremony is actually the flower Abhishek of the deities. Today is also the holy of most auspicious installation of Sri Sri Radha-Kalachandji. So, today is the day when Srila Prabhupada personally installed Radha-Kalachandji by his personal. So we always notice one thing and that is that when we bathe them with flower petals, there is so much love that oozes in this temple room. People feel waves and waves and waves of ecstasy coming through from their lordships because actually, for Kalachandji, who we consider is the best and thank you Maharaja ji for taking Kalachandji‘s name. For him, there is nobody more beloved than Radharani and it is her appearance day today. So really today Kalachandji at his happiest. And so when he is at his happiest, we get the greatest blessings as well.

So please make a point of actually praying to Radha-Kalachandji and seeking blessings from Them so that we can all serve in Srila Prabhupada’s mission in such a nice way that Srila Prabhupada be very very happy to know that his disciples, his amazing disciples and now our spiritual masters like Srila Giriraj Swami Maharaja have brought forth so many wonderful disciples. And hopefully now those disciples in the future will bring more disciples. And the whole planet will become fully Krishna conscious. That is our endeavor. So thank you very much for attending this program. And I will do kirtan here now and await opening of the curtains for their lordships, Abhishek.

For those of you second initiated, please do come on the altar and help bathe the deities. And then after that we will go out to the park, come back, do more kirtan. And then have this wonderful flower Abhishek ceremony as well.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.