19900210 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.14

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness jayapataka Swami on december 10th 1990 at Bangalore India the class begins with reading from Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.14

Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, which is feared by fear personified.

Actually 500 years ago Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He was preaching the glories of Krishna naam, that every everyone should take to the chanting of the holy name of Krishna , but He met with many difficulties. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared at that time no one would chant the name of the Lord the smartha Brahmins , they said , if you chant the name of Krishna, Krishna will lose His power,

no one should chant the names of Krishna, only they would chant, like last night was the Chandragrahana, the Lunar eclipse, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared on the day of lunar eclipse when everyone was bathing in the Ganga and at time they would chant the names of Hari, they would chant Hari, Govinda, Krishna, Keshava while up to the neck in the Ganges river because when dipped in the Holy Ganges they thought now we are pure we can chant the holy name of Krishna. It was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu , He taught the people that in the age of Kali the Yuga Dharma is to chant the name of Hari. Everyone should chant the name of Hari to be delivered

namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-shaktis
tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah

that there are many names are there for the God these holy names of the Hari are empowered with all the sarva Shakti, all the shaktis, all the energies of the Lord, that Krishna does not become contaminated when you chant His name, you become purified . If someone takes up dirty water and Sunshine falls on it the sun will not become dirty the sun will purify the dirt . So by chanting the name of Krishna everyone becomes uplifted and purified . So when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began to preach in this way, let everyone chant the name of Hari he was opposed by a certain very conservative Advaitawad brahmans. They said that no, this will destroy the true Dharma, if everyone is chanting the name of Hari. So they made complaint to get Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stop chanting, but he would not stop. In fact one time one of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s great devotee, was born in a Mohammedan family, his name was Haridas Thakur ,but he became a great chanter of the holy name of Krishna he would chant 300 thousand names of Krishna a day. He became initiated with the name Haridas and because he was chanting teen lakkha, 300 thousand names of Krishna a day,

 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called him as a namacharya , the Acharya of the chanting of holy names . So Haridas Thakur one day, he was visiting a priest called Bhagavan Aacharya. Bhagwan Acharya was the Guru for zamindars the landlords who would regularly in the evening hear the class on Srimad Bhagavata so he went to this Bhagwat Sabha as a guest, they stood up and received him. Oh! Haridas Thakur you are the namacharya, so you are very kind to bless our assembly tonight. We would like you to tell us about the glories of chanting the Holy names of Krishna.

 So one of the Pandits in the assembly in the Sabha, he said yes we have heard that by chanting the name of Hari one can be delivered from birth and death. So we would like to hear about the glories of the name.

Another Pandit said, we have heard by chanting Hari’s name one can get all Punya . So haridas Thakur said sloka

naama divas grnan tatha satya vipucheta yat vidheti

actually even by accidental chanting of the holy name, not consciously, devotionaly chanting, accidental chanting one can be delivered from birth and death, this is the side benefit of chanting the name of Hari. By chanting and hearing the bhajans, the holy name of Hari ones Prema, ones bhakthi for the Lord becomes awakend. Bhakti is considered postgraduate to liberation, Moksha. Even here in this verse Ravana, Kamsa many other asuras, they are achieving moksha, when these asuras were killed by Vishnu they acheive Moksha, but the Lord kills the asura, the asura is freed from birth and death, he merges into the body of the Lord, so even asuras they are achieving Moksha, then what does a Bhakta must achieve. Bhakta must achieve something greater than moksha. So a bhaktha achieves pure Bhakt,i pure devotional service . Yudhisthira Maharaj was praised by Narad Muni in Bhagawat, my dear Yudhisthira you are greater than all the Yogis, because you have received the blessing of Krishna of pure bhakti so Krishna is coming to your house, he is acting as your messenger, he is driving your Arjunas Chariot, that’s purpose higherly.

Why? because you have bhakti. So this Bhakti is more than even Mukti. Mukti, the Lord is giving very easily, but bhakti , He is keeping hidden, because bhakti means, that ones a person has got bhakti than there Connection with the lord is established and the Lord is treatimg them at most intimate level. So, therefore Haridas Thakur explained to them in the Dharma Sabha that the real benefit of chanting the naam is getting Krishna Prema and Buddhi , this is achieved as a by- product, this is easily achieved by even the Nama bhasa for the accidental chanting of the holy name. For example Ajamila was at the point of death, he has been a good Brahmin , but he left his wife, he left his family, he left his brahmanical duties, he went to live with a society women, he became a dacoit, he became a thief, a murderer and in this way, he became a very sinful man. But because he was born in a Brahmin family, he named the children of this society girl with the names of Vishnu, his youngest son he called Narayana when he was dying as father's do he was calling his son to come, his youngest son was very dear to him he was calling his son Narayana, Narayana, Narayana saying Narayana Narayana he left his body. Death came upon him. Last word he said Narayana, anthaha Smriti , remembered Narayana. Because of this when the yamadutas came to take Ajamila, the Vishnu dutas came and obstruted them and said no he has chanted Narayana, therefore he belongs to us. He is freed from all his sins, he is freed from all the bad karmas simply by remembering the name Narayana all the impurities have gone, now he has to go with us . You have no more domain, Yamaraja has has only domain over those who never chant the name of Hari, who never wear the Tulsi, who never wear the marks of Vishnu, who never speaks glories of Krishna and Vishnu, Yamraja has all the domain over those people, not those who are worshiping Vishnu or chanting His name. So Ajamila, he had no intention of meditating on Lord Narayana, he remembered Narayana as an accident, by calling his son, at that moment he remembered Narayana, whom he worshipped in youth, still he was free from birth and death. So Haridas Thakur explained this to the Dharma Sabha, the real glory of the Holy name is to get Krishna prema, is to get the pure bhakti. As he was explaining, there was one advaita vadi, one student of Sankara was there, named Chakravarthy, he stoop up, he objected, my dear gentleman, how are you listening to this acharya speaking like a sentimentalist, he is speaking of bahuka, simply his own mental concoction. How come great yogi's ,great rishis, they are taking thousands of birth to achieve Moksha, you are saying accidentally chanting Hari and you will achieve Moksha, this is impossible. Haridas Thakur than quoted so many slokas from the Veda, that this is not my opinion this is the verdict, version of the Vedas. You chant the name of Hari even accidentally all the inauspiciousness, all the fear of death can go away.

You can achieve Moksha easily. Than that Chakravarti said if you get liberation, if you don’t get liberation by chanting the name of Hari accidentally, you see ...... than your nose I will cut it off ... I curse you, you should lose your nose. Haridas Thakur said, if this is not the vedic version that by chanting the name of Hari you can get liberation, I will cut my own nose off.

haaaa...everyone jumped up, what is going on, this Chakraborty has done such an offence to our guest, Haridas Thakur . Haridas Thakur the Naam Aacharya, you please leave this place you no longer have to come to the Sabha this Sabha is very offensive to say such things to a speaker, an Acharya here. The Zamindars fell at the feet of Haridas Thakur, please forgive us for this aparadh. Sso history knows after 3 days the Chakravarti got leprosy and his nose was attacked and fell off but Haridas Thakur was very sad to hear this, he said unfortunately he doesn’t know the science of bhakti, he onle heard the science of yoga, but not bhakti yoga, the name of Krishna is non different from Krishna, Krishna has got unlimited power, if you remember Krishna, Krishna is present in your mind, that is one of the vigraha, Nama Rupa, it is also one of the forms of the lord, if you can remember the name, Krishna is present with us then, Kali kale dharma naam sankirtan .......Hari Naam Hari Naam Hari Naam kevalam Kalau nasteva nasteva nasteva gatir anyatha.

Brhad Naradiya Purana states that “In this age of Kali the Hari Naam, Hari Naam, Hari Nameiva kevalam kalau nasteva nasteva nasteva gatir anyatha” why said three times? nasteva nasteva nasteva , no other way why, no other way why, no other way. Why? Three times the Puranas are mentioning na steva Karma. By Karma in Kali Yuga you cannot achieve highest objective. na steva Gyana neither by Gyana will you be able to achieve the goal. na steva yoga nor by ashtanga yoga system. Simply by Hari Naam Hari Naam Hari Naam eva kevalam this is the way in this age of Kali that you can achieve all the perfection. Actually Vedas also explain

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ
tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ
dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ
kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt
In Satya Yuga the process was dhyana, in Treta Yuga the process was Homa, Yagna, the Dwapara yoga it was worshipping Krishna in the temple or personally when he was present ,kal tad Hari Kirtanath, in Kali Yuga the process is Hari Kirtan

 Everyone can chant Hari kirtan together without any restriction, by chanting the name of Hari, Krishna is present ......what will happen, no longer is there Ramachandra to protect us no longer is Krishna or all of the avataras, where are they all now, before there was only Ravan , there was only kamsa, there was hiranyakashipu, few demons were there but now the demonic principles have increased in the world, so who is there to protect us. Krishna is there in Naam Rupa, Naam Chintamani. This naam is actually the transcendental form Naam Chintamani Krishna Chaitanya Rasa vigraha Shuddh mukto Nithya mukto abhinatv Nama namino. The Naam and Nami, the name and the named is abhinna is non different. So there fore the process of chanting should be understood as more scientific process, this is the process authorized by all the Vedas. It is now the only process which is the most powerful enough to help the adverse the age of Kali. It's like now a days people are taking the medicine in a capsule for. So by taking a small capsule or injection they are getting some medical treatmen. So similarly all the dharma in the Narada pancharatri states, all the yagnas , all the archanas, poojas, the mantra, the tantras, all have been combined in four words “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna.” In the Kali Santarna Upanishad, it explains ----

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare
iti sodasakam namnam kali-kalmasa-nasanam
natah parataropayah sarva-vedesu drsyate

 This repeatition is there in vedas natah upayah, no other alternative. Kali-kalmasa-nasanam, whatever the difficulties, the Kali yuga will present, these all are destroyed and driven away by the chanting of this Hare Krishna Mahamantra . So this can be chanted by young child, by elderly person, by middle aged person, by educated person, by any one. So now we are finding people all over the world are chanting. In Russia over 10,000 people are chanting the name of Krishna. Recently they did Krishna – Balaram- Subhadra Ratha yatra. In Moscow chanting the holy names of Krishna, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in Hungary, in Eastern Germany, in all the communist countries where religion was MAN, where people had to accept atheism. But they could not be stoppped from chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. So under the ground, there was a current of thousands and thousands of people chanting, now that the … even the ….is too liberal …. Lization has taken shape. The last is that the ……was to legalize the chanting of Hare Krishna.

After that all these changes have come because where ever there is Krishnas naam Krishna is present, when Krishnas name could be chanted in Moscow naturally all the other difficulties would go away, all the darkness would go away. This is the power of the holy name. So now we can find the chanting in all the countries of the world, whether in communist countries, whether in capitalist countries whether in North, whether in South, why is it ? As soon as someone engages to chant they start to feel some spiritual inspiration, because we are all the parts of Krishna in Bhagwat Geeta Krishna explain

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah

all the jivas are my amsa, they are my parts Krishna did not say -

mamai vamsa hinduloka, He did not say that Hindus are my part, its not that Krishna is only the God of Hindus, Krishna is God , He is the Supreme Lord, He is Parameswara. Rig Veda explains

Sacchidananda manaha Krishna
adipurusha Krishna Purushottama

He is original person, He is the supreme absolute truth, He is the sacchidananda vigraha, He is everyone's god, He is purushottama…. Hindus we know that Krishna is God and those who are in the other parts of the world they don't know that Krishna is the supreme god they know only God, allaha, general name, they don't know the personal name , its like we can say in India we have prime minister every one knows we have a prime minister, we have President but who is the President, whois the prime minister, they have a name. What is the name ? God is a title. Allah is a title, Ishwar is a title . But what is the name. Krishna is also one of the names. Govinda is the name to address the Lord so I don't want to speak longer because we are going to hear bhajans of the Holy names from very distinguished Swami Ji so I don't want to take too long, we will have practical demonstration of what I am speaking just in conclusion I would like to sum up that why this process is bringing the world together, its because people begin to realise that this statement by Krishna

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah

That we are the eternal part of Krishna, we are the eternal servant of Krishna. How simply by chanting this holy name

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

You know in ,my guru ashram and in my previous ashram ….in America, my mother and father are from Christian family, so my mother, she believed in Christ only. After taking Diksha and taking sanyas, I told my mother, she should not have sectarian views, she should see that Krishna is the father of Jesus, He said son of God, who is God, God means Krishna, so but she was doubting me. One day she was driving her car in America, she later told me, and suddenly her car, one lorry was coming and may be in India, even in America sometimes it happens, the lorry pushed her off the road and she was going straight towards a tree and that time she didn’t know what to do so she remembered that, my son told me when ever you are in danger you just remember the name Krishna. So she suddenly screamed out “ Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna” and suddenly her car stopped just before the tree, then she realized that actually Krishna is God and He saved me. and from that time, now she is chanting 100’s of times Hare Krishna every day and now she tells everyone that Krishna is the father of Jesus.

Thank You very much.