20200912 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.17 in Nāmahaṭṭa-melā

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.17

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi
vidhunoti suhṛt satām

Translation: Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: Messages of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, are nondifferent from Him. Whenever, therefore, offenseless hearing and glorification of God are undertaken, it is to be understood that Lord Kṛṣṇa is present there in the form of transcendental sound, which is as powerful as the Lord personally. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, declares clearly that the holy name of the Lord has all the potencies of the Lord and that He has endowed His innumerable names with the same potency. There is no rigid fixture of time, and anyone can chant the holy name with attention and reverence at his convenience. The Lord is so kind to us that He can be present before us personally in the form of transcendental sound, but unfortunately we have no taste for hearing and glorifying the Lord’s name and activities. We have already discussed developing a taste for hearing and chanting the holy sound. It is done through the medium of service to the pure devotee of the Lord.

The Lord is reciprocally respondent to His devotees. When He sees that a devotee is completely sincere in getting admittance to the transcendental service of the Lord and has thus become eager to hear about Him, the Lord acts from within the devotee in such a way that the devotee may easily go back to Him. The Lord is more anxious to take us back into His kingdom than we can desire. Most of us do not desire at all to go back to Godhead. Only a very few men want to go back to Godhead. But anyone who desires to go back to Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa helps in all respects.

One cannot enter into the kingdom of God unless one is perfectly cleared of all sins. The material sins are products of our desires to lord it over material nature. It is very difficult to get rid of such desires. Women and wealth are very difficult problems for the devotee making progress on the path back to Godhead. Many stalwarts in the devotional line fell victim to these allurements and thus retreated from the path of liberation. But when one is helped by the Lord Himself, the whole process becomes as easy as anything by the divine grace of the Lord.

To become restless in the contact of women and wealth is not an astonishment, because every living being is associated with such things from remote time, practically immemorial, and it takes time to recover from this foreign nature. But if one is engaged in hearing the glories of the Lord, gradually he realizes his real position. By the grace of God such a devotee gets sufficient strength to defend himself from the state of disturbances, and gradually all disturbing elements are eliminated from his mind.

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Jayapatākā Swami: This way, chanting the name of the Lord, thinking about Him and hearing His glories, this is a very special transcendental service. But the Lord is Absolute Truth. That is why His name, His pastimes are nondifferent from Him. If we hear the holy name or His pastimes, then we are actually associating with the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that it is our misfortune that we do not have the desire to do this. So, this morning Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in a quote where he mentioned that if there is no love for the Lord, there is no service. One requires devotion. So I was told that if you live for 100 years in a holy place, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, if you stay one day or one night in Navadvīpa, that is equal. Because the devotees of Kṛṣṇa sometimes they commit some sort of offence and therefore they are not given devotion. But that way, Śrī Nitāi Gaura, They do not accept any offence, other than offence to the devotee – except offence to the devotees of the Lord. So if one resides in Navadvīpa, this facility is there. That is why, Navadvīpa parikramā is especially important. Lord Caitanya said, gṛhe thāko vane thāko sadā hari bole ḍāko. Vane thāko means renunciant – brahmacārī, vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. Gṛhe thāko means in the house, householder. I have visited many homes via Zoom and very happy that husband and wife together serve the Lord very nicely. This is not how people in general, they live. Śrīla Prabhupāda used to call them gṛhamedhīs. Their life is centered around sense gratification. But having one’s life and one’s home centered around Kṛṣṇa is the ideal householder life. Whether one is a brahmacārī, or a gṛhastha, their lives are centered around Kṛṣṇa. One person came to me and he had been chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa for the past 24 years. But he said that he did not have any taste for chanting. I asked him whether he was following Lord Caitanya’s followers. But he said, “No, no, I am from another sampradāya.” So I gave him the Pañca-tattva mantra. And then after two months, he saw me. He came running to me. He paid obeisances and was crying. “What mantra did you give me? By chanting this mantra, I am feeling so much bliss, so much ecstasy!” Nitāi Gaurāṅga! Nitāi! Gaurāṅga! Nitāi! Gaurāṅga! Nitāi! Nitāi! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! If you are not able to stay in Navadvīpa dhāma, at least you can chant the Pañca-tattva mantra, you can chant the names of Nitāi Gaura. Nitāi do not accept any offence.

In a few days, Puruṣottama months will be here. This month has the potency which equals the same as Lord Kṛṣṇa’s potency. Lord Kṛṣṇa stated that generally His devotees commit some offences. But in this Puruṣottama month, Kṛṣṇa does not count any offence. That does not mean, that we intentionally commit offences in this month. If by chance if we commit offence, Kṛṣṇa does not count or accept those offences. So, that is why it is important to practice the Puruṣottama month. The Deity of the Puruṣottama month is Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Whatever pious merits we may achieve throughout the whole year is not even equal to 1/16^th of what we achieve in the Puruṣottama month. Puruṣottama month is not just for pious activities, it is for rendering pure bhakti, devotional service only. So one should offer lamp in Puruṣottama month in front of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. In the month of Dāmodara, Yaśodā Dāmodara are worshipped. But in Puruṣottama month, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are worshipped.

It is mentioned in today’s Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam verse that those who desire to hear and chant the holy names of the Lord, they are easily eligible to go back home back to Godhead. Ordinarily, Lord Kṛṣṇa says that in other months, one may perform some pious activities and by that go to the heavenly months, but by observing Puruṣottama month one can go back home directly to the spiritual world. So people who follow the karma-kāṇḍa section of the Vedas, they do not accept the Puruṣottama month, they call this as mala month or unacceptable dirty month. But for the devotees it is a super opportunity. Everything can be possible if we receive the mercy of Lord Caitanya, and then we can remain in devotional service. Śrīla Prabhupāda spread the message of Lord Caitanya throughout the whole world. This way, he made the entire world fortunate.

17^th of September to the 23^rd of September, which more or less coincides with the beginning of the Puruṣottama month. Puruṣottama month starts on the 18^th. That is the World Holy Name Week. This is a very inspiring program to make everybody in the world fortunate. I heard that there were about 18,000 Nāmahaṭṭa devotees present in the forum in the morning, and evening 25,000. If this way, if 10 or 25 in small groups they make videos and send them there will be millions of videos. If they want, they can mention their name and where they are from, and that they are dedicating this for world peace and love. If they want to dedicate it to their forefathers also they can do. This small video can be taken from any smart phone. 30 seconds. This way, make everybody in the world fortunate. The website is www.fortunate-people.com. You can get this from any leader of the Nāmahaṭṭas. You can send it to the Nāmahaṭṭa and they will forward it. This way, every district, they can have a competition. So we can see how many Nāmahaṭṭa centers are there, we can take those numbers, for eg., Midnapore has 10,000 Nāmahaṭṭa centers. And say, Bankura has also 10,000. But if the Midnapore has 700 saṅgas and 10,000 small videos and you divide the 10,000 by 700. And Bankura has 150 saṅgas if you divide 10,000 by 150, the result and see whose average is more. In some districts there are less saṅgas but more videos. Now we see both the things – the total videos and the per saṅga video. What is the connection with the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam verse today? It is connected because it is mentioned in this verse that if we chant and hear the names of the Lord we become fortunate. We are goṣṭhiyānandīs, preachers. We like to see the number of devotees’ increase. We don’t want to go back alone to back to Godhead, but we want to see how many people we can take back to Godhead. We fervently hope that everybody will get the mercy of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda for this.

The Nāmahaṭṭa leaders can decide and upload the maximum number of videos.

Devotees please wait, Guru Mahārāja will be back shortly.

Many of you have cell phone. You are taking selfies. Now you take video of you chanting Harināma. And get other new people to chant the holy name. those who do not wear tilaka, those who are not devotees, let them also chant the holy name. This way, let everyone in the world become fortunate. Make everyone chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. By chanting the holy name, we get purified hearing the pastimes of the Lord Caitanya, Lord Kṛṣṇa. So Lord Caitanya in discussion with Rāmānanda Rāya, He said that hearing the pastimes of the Lord from the pure devotees is a spiritual activity. This way we are having Caitanya Book reading and discussion at 7pm every day in the evening. As you may all know, while chanting the names of the Lord, during Lord Caitanya’s time, the Chand Kazi had come and broken the mṛdaṅga of the saṅkīrtana party. In order to launch a protest against this, Lord Caitanya organized a hug, gigantic Harināma saṅkīrtana or congregational chanting program. The discussion which took place between Lord Caitanya and the Chand Kazi, we know from the Caitanya-caritamrita. But Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Caitanya-maṅgala, have described the kīrtana in detail. There were four groups. One led by Advaita Gosāñi, one led by Haridāsa Ṭhākura, one led by Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, and the one was Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda Prabhu and Gadādhara Prabhu. There were millions and millions of people there. They were carrying a flaming torch and oil. Two hands, one with the burning torch and the other oil, to replenish the torch light. Vṛndāvana das Ṭhākura said here that they were simultaneously clapping their hands and they were also playing karatālas and mṛdaṅga. How was that possible? Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura said, during the kīrtana that they all manifest four arms!! But, they did not notice that because they were in complete ecstasy! The sound of the hari-dhvani reached the heavenly planets and the spiritual Vaikuṇṭha planets. Indra and the other demigods they arrived to witness this saṅkīrtana. They saw that the Lord Himself is chanting, dancing and crying, they fainted on the ground. They were amazed! Astonished! When they got back external consciousness, they took the form of human beings and joined the saṅkīrtana. Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura said, that the ladies’ ulu-dhvani and the hari-dhvani performed cannot be described only in 100,000 years. Do all the Nāmahaṭṭa ladies know how to do ulu-dhvani? Guess they know how to do ulu-dhvani. This kīrtana went on for a day of Brahmā. But how that time was possible to be fit in one night? Like Lord Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana did rāsa-līlā with millions of gopīs, similarly, Kṛṣṇa was engaged in the battle in the Kurukṣetra battle field and there were 18 akṣauhiṇīs of soldiers’ fight. Similarly, this kīrtana of Lord Caitanya was a universal saṅkīrtana. All the apsarās, angels, from the sky showered flowers. This way, the kīrtana of Lord Caitanya was amazing. That way, we would like to see that everybody in the world become fortunate, and we would like to spread the name of the world throughout the world.

Today the verse tells us how by hearing and chanting the glories of the holy names of the Lord, we can go back to Godhead. Haribol!

I am already overtime.