Chant Pure and Without Offence
From Chapter 10 of the up and coming publication TRINAD API SUNICENA by His Divine Grace Śrīla Gour Govinda Swamiuttama adhama kichu na bāchila yāciyā dilaka kola kahe premānanda emana gaurāṅga hṛdaye dhariyā bola*
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu never discriminates whether one is very elevated or most degraded, He offers kṛṣṇa-prema indiscriminately. He is patita-pāvana, the deliverer of the most fallen, most degraded. He gives kṛṣṇa-prema through the chanting of the holy name. Mukhya-pathe jīva pāya kṛṣṇa-prema-dhana, the chief result of chanting the holy names, hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare is to get kṛṣṇa-prema. If your chanting is not pure and offenceless then even though you may chant for hundreds or thousands of lives you will not be able to get kṛṣṇa-prema.
* Verse by poet Premānanda Dāsa
i once got asked why don’t i have a guru. I was unable to answer as i didn’t know why. I went home and opened the books and krsna said that by the way of the saints & gurus, or if he himself teaches from within. Ah, he was teaching me from within. I chanted & saw krsna in bhagavan form. I never chanted 16 rounds, I never went to mangal arati. After seeing him many times he said i was a true friend. When i was excited & told the temple president, he said “o you are lucky” and walked off in a grumpy mood. I told others & got the same reaction. the lesson i got was don’t assume. I thought this was the aim, to see krsna & do service, & communicate our experiences to inspire or direct others. All i felt from this was that the majority of devotees weren’t really interested in krsna at all, they were more interested in a competition of which book they had read, & which guru or place they had seen. Over time at prasadam in the morning i had noticed that conversation was firstly on krsna, a couple of months later it was on gurus, & then on business & money. i was shocked to see the change. the only time i ever heard chaitanya charitamrita was at evening arati when there was only three of us for years & janardin would recite from these books. very inspiring to listen to those teachings in a peaceful place. here was my assuming again, i thought more would be interested, but it was actually krsna revealing to whom he wanted & revealing the gems to whom he chose. i should never have been upset for others i should only thank him for my experiences that he revealed to me. He showed me symptoms of Kali Yuga in the twelfth canto. After reading this, my anxiety was dissipated and I realized that this is how it is in Kali Yuga. I pray that everyone knows the truth about themselves, and then gets the opportunity to have their heart & consciousness mended.
here is a poem I wrote before I met the Krsnas.
Father your the only way,
What you make will stay and stay,
Loving you is the only real reward,
Absent from a loveless sword,
Greater than the greatest fire,
Your love is better than desire,
You bring us home the best direction,
When we listen to your correction,
You told me once, you told me twice,
The world is a captivating vice,
To taunt the minds of those impure,
In the hope that they will find a cure,
To the darkest thoughts that still prevail,
In the minds of those still off the rail,
It once was good to see and hear,
but now I wonder if it’s really clear,
What God had really intended,
Was that we all be mended.
Yes, Krsna is helping inside our heart and outside, in the form of the spiritual master. Both are required to advance to our final goal of developing Krsna prema. Our Gurudeva, Srila Gour Govinda Swami many times explained that the first mercy of Krsna is that He makes an arrangement to meet a bona fide spiritual master, or Guru. So it is said, “by the mercy of Krsna, one gets a Guru and by the mercy of that Guru, one gets Krsna”!
Even the Lord Himself accepts a spiritual master in order to teach us what is required to really advance in spiritual life. Srila Prabhupada and all the teachers in the line from Krsna and Mahaprabhu follow this principle and preach the same.
Srila Prabhupada Srimad-Bhagavatam Class 7.9.7 — Mayapur, February 27, 1977
We must follow. Just like Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krsna Himself, God, but He is accepting guru. Who is His guru? He is guru of everyone, but He has also accepted Isvara Puri as His guru.
Krsna Himself, He accepted His guru, Sandipani Muni, teaching us that without guru you cannot make any advancement. Adau gurvasrayam. The first business is to accept guru.
Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet [MU 1.2.12]. Don’t think that “I am so advanced. I may not require any guru. I can do without guru.” That is nonsense. That is not possible.
“Must.” Tad vijnanartham. Tad-vijnanartham is spiritual science. “Must approach.” …If you are actually serious to understand the transcendental science, spiritual knowledge, oh, you must have guru.
Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.15 — Auckland, February 22, 1973
If you surrender to Krsna, then also Krsna’s first mercy is that He will send His representative. If anyone is serious to surrender to Krsna, then Krsna will help him from within and without. Within, as Supersoul, He will help, and He will dictate that “You go to this person.” Guru krsna krpaya paya bhakti-lata-bija [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. When there is combined mercy, both Krsna and Krsna’s representative, then you are successful. Guru krsna krpaya…Two things.
EJ 2: Varieties of Planetary Systems
Krsna reveals Himself from within to one who is serious about God realization. Both Krsna and the spiritual master help the sincere soul. The spiritual master is the external manifestation of God, who is situated in everyone’s heart as Supersoul. For one who is very serious about understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supersoul immediately renders assistance by directing him to a bona fide spiritual master. In this way the spiritual candidate is helped from within and without.
Some more evidence to back up our previous comments….
Srila Prabhupada Lecture — Paris, June 26, 1971
But if one is serious, then Krsna, or God, from within, He also helps, and the spiritual master also helps. The spiritual master is said “the external manifestation of God.” God is situated in everyone’s heart as Paramatma, as Supersoul. But those who are very serious about understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, immediately He helps him by, I mean to say, showing a bona fide spiritual master so that a candidate will be helped from inside and outside how to approach God.
This Krsna consciousness movement is meant for that purpose. The spiritual master, or the representative, living representative of Krsna, he helps from outside, and Krsna as Paramatma helps from inside. In both ways the living entity can take advantage and make his life successful.
An Intelligent and Wise Man…
A devotee who had been drifting away from the path of devotional service for sometime came to speak to Guru Maharaja at the temple in Phoenix, Mauritius in January 1994. Guru Maharaja showered his mercy upon him, and gave him the following advice:
“The opportunity is available in this rarely achieved human birth. This human
birth is rarely achieved, durlabha manusam janmam. Only in this birth you can get
Krishna, not in any other species – dogs, hogs, cats, birds, beasts, insects, other
species, they can not develop Krishna consciousness. No, only human being. Human birth is rarely achieved birth – to develop complete Krishna consciousness, develop pure bhakti and to get Krishna.
And this life is anischita, uncertain – at any moment it may finish. You don’t
know. So an intelligent wise man never procrastinates, immediately he accepts, ‘no, at any moment this human birth may go, this human birth may finish. So once I’ve
missed the chance it may not come to me again. So now chance is available, I must
acquire it.’ Do you follow – you must develop complete Krishna consciousness in this
very life. Be determined ! ‘No, in this very life I must develop complete Krishna
consciousness and get Krishna, make my life successful.’ Yes, this determination you must have. Unless you are determined, unless you have such a strong desire how can Krishna help you?
Unless you cherish such a strong desire in your heart Krishna can not help
you. If you have strong desire, Krishna knows, now he’s very strong, determined to
come to Me. He’s crying for Me.’ So He’ll help you, he’ll make arrangement – all
arrangements will be made by Krishna.
(Guru Maharaja asks if this devotee attended his class in the morning. He hadn’t as he had ‘prior arrangements’.)
But this is the top priority, to hear Krishna katha, bhagavat katha, do sadhu
sanga. Otherwise how can you get spiritual strength to take this path of devotional
service ? You can not get it. So many of Maya’s engagements are there, but such
opportunity [to hear, to do sadhu sanga] will never come. If the opportunity comes,
keep these aside, ‘No this is top priority. I must do it, or how can I get…’
So you must come tomorrow, day after tomorrow, we are here. You should
come and hear Krishna katha, do sadhu sanga. That will give you inspiration,
strength. Otherwise you are so weak, Maya is so strong ! You’ll be captured by Maya completely.
How can you conquer Maya, overcome Maya, you have no strength. How can you get strength ? It’s from sadhu sanga. Sadhu sanga is the only way to develop Krishna bhakti. The origin of Krishna bhakti is sadhu sanga, Krishna-bhakti-janma mula haya ‘sadhu-sanga’ .”
Hare Krsna dear Haridasi,….There does seem to be an inconsistency, but it is only apparently inconsistent.
From our understanding, the indiscriminate offering of Krsna-prema means it is being offered to one and all. With Sri Guru and Gauranga’s mercy and blessings, and by sincerely and strictly following Their instructions, one will become qualified in due course of time to chant purely, shuddha-nama, get Krsna prema and thereby getting Krsna.
Although this Krsna-prema is being offered to one and all, still Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja explained that the only souls who could NOT receive such mercy and benediction from Sri Guru and Gauranga were those who maintained this kapatya, or crookedness of the heart.
Like they say, “You can lead the horse to the water, but you cannot force him to drink it”.
Krsna has given us free will and minute independence to chose wether we want to be Krsna das or dasi or to remain maya das. That is up to us!
We should know that everything is based on our desires and those desires are directly influenced by our associations, good or bad, sat or asat sanga.
Association means hearing, either materially or spiritually. If we are fortunate enough to submissively hear from sat-sanga, pure Hari-katha, Krsna katha then, we will become more and more purified from all of this crookedness and filth in the heart and will then be able to eventually chant purely.
Srila Gurudeva taught us that the first service is to hear from sadhu, guru, vaisnavas. This will purify us and there we can learn what is guru sadhu and sastra in tattva.
With a pure heart fixed in absolute knowledge, tattva vicar, one can then chant purely the holy names of the Lord. When we chant purely in knowledge, then the chief results of chanting shuddha nama is that one develops Krsna prema.
With that Krsna prema we can then get Krsna, or go back home with Krsna and His dearmost devotees.
Hope that helps. It did help me to remember to chant sincerely, trying to give up all the 10 offenses and by that sincere and serious efforts in following all of these instructions, surely Sri Guru and Krsna, Sri Guru and Gauranga will shower Their causeless mercy and blessings on us. Thank you very much. Hare Krsna!
Your servant,
Murali Krsna Swami
Hearing from Sri Guru, Sadhu Vaisnavas will wake us up and purify our materially contaminated hearts. Only in such purified consciousness, we can then chant Hare Krsna with faith and understanding, and ultimately with love.
Srila Prabhupada went to the west and sat down with his karatals and chanted the pure name, suddha -nama and those names, being non different from Krsna could then penetrate through all of the material coverings or contamination of those most fortunate souls. In that purified state of consciousness, Srila Prabhupada then said, “Now you Chant and Be Happy”!
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!!
Srila Gurudeva Ki Jai!
Krsna Book ch. 7:
If someone takes advantage of hearing the holy names and pastimes of the Lord, the material contamination of dust, accumulated in the heart due to long association with material nature, can be immediately cleansed.
Lord Caitanya also instructed that simply by hearing the transcendental name of Lord Krsna one can cleanse the heart of all material contamination. There are different processes for self-realization, but this process of devotional service—of which HEARING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTION —when adopted by ANY conditioned soul, will automatically cleanse him of the material contamination and enable him to realize his real constitutional position.
Conditional life is due to this contamination only, and as soon as it is cleared off, then naturally the dormant function of the living entity—rendering loving service to the Lord—awakens.
Ys
mks
Thank you 🙂
Yes, your explanation helped.
There is an inconsistancy here:
How can Caitanya Mahaprabhu offer kṛṣṇa-prema indiscriminately, and at the same time if your chanting is not pure and offenceless then even though you may chant for hundreds or thousands of lives you will not be able to get kṛṣṇa-prema?
Especially if you are in the gaudiya lineage and follows Caitany Mahaprabhu’s teachings.