Chapter one

The Glories of the Holy Name

All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nitayananda, the life of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya and Mother Sita; all glories to Srila Srivas Pandit, and to all devotees of
Lord Caitanya.

The Supreme Lord and His Devotees

1. In Nilacala, within a temple near the ocean shore, the Supreme Personality of Godhead resides, visible in His
form of wood known as Darubrahman (Lord Jaganatha). The Supreme Lord Hari descends to the material
world in the Deity form to save the living entities; He gives both material pleasure and liberation. In this same
holy place, Lord Caitanya, the Supreme Personality, appeared in the role of a renounced sannyasi to benedict
humanity; He stayed at Kasi Misra’s residence and propagated the dharma necessary for this age of Kali,
making everyone understand its real meaning.

Commentary
Lord Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom all emanations appear as separate entities. That
Supreme Person has magnanimously appeared in the material world in His Diety form in order to bless humanity with
the possibility of service. The name, Nilacala, is another name for Jaganatha Puri, or the city where Lord Jaganatha
resides. The word Darubrahman translates as ‘the Lord made from wood.’ Although the Lord may come in a form
made from wood, stone or another material, one should not consider Him anything less than the Supreme Lord who
has descended in His Deity form. With this mentality one can serve the Deity nicely.

In that very same holy place known as Jaganatha Puri, Lord Caitanya advented Himself in His form as a sannyasi, in
order to teach the world the science of devotional service. From Jaganatha Puri Lord Caitanya tasted and showered
the living entities with krsna-prema. Staying in the house of His eternal associate Kasi Misra, He propagated the
yuga-dharma, the chanting of the Holy Names. Jaganatha Puri was the Lord’s headquarters for spreading the
sankirtana movement around the globe. The Lord stayed at the house of Kasi Misra because it was both close to the
temple and secluded from the common populace—thus it was the perfect residence for Sri Krsna Caitanya. A devotee
of Lord Caitanya may also have these things in mind when choosing his place of residence. In a humble state of mind,
Kasi Misra laid his body flat on the ground before the Lord and offered the Lord everything he owned, including
himself. This is the most confidential teaching of the Bhagavad-gita. By demonstrating this teaching to the populace,
Lord Caitanya was very pleased and displayed his four-armed form to Kasi Misra just to deliver him.

In the Caitanya-caritamrta we hear Brahmananda Bharati speak the following words to Lord Caitanya while meeting
with Him in Jaganatha Puri.

At the present moment I see two Brahmans. One Brahman is Lord Jagannatha, who does not move,
and the other Brahman, who is moving, is You. Lord Jagannatha is the arca-vigraha, the worshipable
Deity, and it is He who is the nonmoving Brahman. But You are Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and
You are moving here and there. The two of You are the same Brahman, master of the material nature,
but You are playing two parts—one moving and one not. In this way two Brahmans are now residing at
Jagannatha Puri, Purusottama.

Of the two Brahmans, You are fair complexioned, and the other, Lord Jagannatha, is blackish. Both of
You are delivering the whole world.
(Cc. madhya-lila 10.163-164)
.
Further, in the Caitanya-caritamrta we hear Svarupa Damodara speak the following to a poet from Bengal who was
fortunate enough to receive the mercy of the devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
 There is no difference between Lord Jagannatha and Krsna, but here Lord Jagannatha is fixed as the
Absolute Person appearing in wood. Therefore He does not move.

Thus Lord Jagannatha and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although appearing as two, are one because They
are both Krsna, who is one alone.

The supreme desire to deliver the entire world meets in the two of Them, and for that reason also They
are one and the same.

To deliver all the materially contaminated people of the world, that same Krsna has descended in the
moving form of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

By visiting Lord Jagannatha one is freed from material existence, but not all men of all countries can
come or be admitted here in Jagannatha Puri.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, moves from one country to another, personally or by His
representative. Thus He, as the moving Brahman, delivers all the people of the world. (Cc. antya-lila
5.148-153)

The yuga-dharma for the age of kali is understood because of the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. By acting as a
disciple of Sri Isvara Puri, who is the disciple of Sri Madhavendra Puri, Lord Caitanya has taken on the role of being
the guru for the entire world, spreading His instructions through the living examples of His devotees. By infusing one
of His intimate devotees with the ability to enact a particular pastime, the Lord gave manifest instructions for the
world to follow. In this way we may consult the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to see if our actions are
bonafide or not! Acting as the perfect disciple, Sri Caitanya showed the world the science of attaining love of
Godhead by quoting the instruction given to Him by His spiritual master as follows:

murkha tumi, tomara nahika vedantadhikara

krsna-mantra japa sada,-ei mantra-sara

‘You are a fool,’ he said. ‘You are not qualified to study Vedanta philosophy, and therefore You must
always chant the Holy Name of Krsna. This is the essence of all mantras, or Vedic hymns. (Cc. adi-lila
7.72)

I would like to include a part of Srila Prabhupada’s purport to this soka as he explains the facts very nicely. A sadhaka
is well advised to follow these instructions to attain firm groundings so that his sambhanda understandings are
correct.

Purport
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja comments in this connection, “One can become
perfectly successful in the mission of his life if he acts exactly according to the words he hears from
the mouth of his spiritual master.” This acceptance of the words of the spiritual master is called srauta-
vakya, which indicates that the disciple must carry out the spiritual master’s instructions without
deviation. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura remarks in this connection that a disciple must accept
the words of his spiritual master as his life and soul. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu here confirms this by
saying that since His spiritual master ordered Him only to chant the Holy Name of Krsna, He always
chanted the Hare Krsna maha-mantra according to this direction (‘krsna-mantra’ japa sada ei mantra-
sara). Krsna is the origin of everything. Therefore when a person is fully Krsna conscious it is to be
understood that his relationship with Krsna has been fully confirmed. Lacking Krsna consciousness,
one is only partially related with Krsna and is therefore not in his constitutional position. Although Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna, the spiritual master of the entire
universe, He nevertheless took the position of a disciple in order to teach by example how a devotee
should strictly follow the orders of a spiritual master in executing the duty of always chanting the Hare
 Krsna maha-mantra. One who is very much attracted to the study of Vedanta philosophy must take
lessons from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
In this age, no one is actually competent to study Vedanta, and therefore it is better that one
chant the Holy Name of the Lord, which is the essence of all Vedic knowledge, as Krsna Himself
confirms in the Bhagavad-gita 15.15 (Cc. adi-lila Purport to 7.72)

2. Lord Caitanya gathered His devotees at Jaganatha Puri, and together they showered love of Godhead on
everyone, just like a wish-fulfilling tree. For the proper dissemination of spiritual instructions He arranged for
different devotees to speak on various subjects while He gave them a sober audience. He had Sri Ramananda
Raya reveal the confidential mellows of the conjugal dealings of the Supreme Lord; Sri Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya explained the truth about liberation; Srila Rupa Goswami analyzed the levels and varieties of
spiritual exchanges with the Lord; and Srila Haridasa Thakura glorified the supreme efficacy and excellence of
the Holy Name.

Commentary
It was Lord Caitanya’s desire to disseminate spiritual knowledge to the living entities in order for them to attain
spiritual realization. To do this He arranged for His pure devotees to speak on topics such as; the Lord’s intimate
pastimes in Vrndavana, liberation, spiritual exchanges, and namatattva. Lord Caitanya arranged for an audience of
sober minded advanced spiritualists to hear such narrations and in this way the Lord spoke to the world through His
devotees. Srila Ramananda Raya once said, “My Lord, You are speaking through my mouth, and at the same time You
are listening. I am a puppet and You the puppeteer.” The teachings of Srila Ramananda Raya, Srila Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya, Srila Rupa Goswami, and Srila Haridasa Thakura have all been written down. It behooves a serious
devotee to study these teachings as this is the desire of the Lord. In the later part of Sri Harinama Cintamani we shall
go deeper into the teachings of Srila Ramananda Raya, who embodied the highest perfection in spiritual mellows.

In the Caitanaya Caritamrta we hear how Srila Sanatana Goswami wanted to commit suicide and how the Lord
instructed Sanatana that he could not attain Krsna in that way. The Lord then instructed Sanatana; “You must go to
Vrndavana, preach My message, and uncover the lost holy places of Krsna’s pastimes. I am only one person, and am
situated here in Jaganatha Puri, so what can I do alone! Therefore, I want you to preach my message.”

Srila Haridasa Thakura was present at this time and spoke to the Lord as follows: “My dear Lord, who can understand
your unlimited pastimes.” Haridasa then informed Sanatana; “My dear Sanatana, you are very fortunate for the Lord
will use your body to do His work. However, I am so unfortunate, and my body is so useless that it can not be used to
serve the Lord.” Sanatana then replied; “My dear Haridasa, who is more fortunate than you? You are an eternal
associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and you personally chant three hundred thousand Holy Names every day!” In
this way we see how Lord Caitanya used the bodies of His great devotees to propound His message. It is the duty of
every devotee to follow in their footsteps, and to learn the message that is being taught by these stalwart spiritualists.
There is a lesson to be learned from every example in Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes. Many of these can be found
in the books Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and Sri Caitanya-bhagavata.

Through the via medium of His devotees the Lord is showering love of Godhead on all, therefore the Lord’s devotees
are known as wish-fulfilling trees, or desire trees (kalpa-taru). Let me offer my respectful obeisances to the lotus feet
of all the devotees of Si Caitanya Mahaprabhu who are just like desire trees, fulfilling the wishes of all, and who are
full of compassion and love.

In the pastimes of Sri Krsna we hear how Lord Krsna informed Arjuna that He does not consider a person His devotee
if that person tries to worship Him directly. However, He says; “those who are devotees of My devotee I consider to
be My devotees.” In this way we are encouraged to become the servant of the servant, of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
The exact words the Lord used are as follows:
ye me bhakta-janah partha
na me bhaktas ca te janah
mad-bhaktanam ca ye bhaktas
te me bhakta-tama matah
 O Partha, those who claim to be My devotees are actually not My devotees, but those who are the
devotees of My devotees are actually My devotees.
(Adi Purana)

Only the pure devotee, free from all material desires can serve the Supreme Lord. In the hierarchical ascending
structure, the smaller devotee worships and serves the more elevated devotee. In this way the link in the chain is
connected and all may go back to home back to Godhead. It is stated in scripture that one can not attain Krsna without
the mercy of the Vaisnavas, therefore, begging for their blessings we pray at their lotus feet to accept us as the
servants of their servants.

The Lord Inquires from Haridasa

3. One day, having returned from His bath in the ocean, Lord Caitanya came to see Srila Haridasa Thakura.
He found Haridasa sitting under the Siddha Bakula tree. Greatly pleased at meeting Srila Haridasa, the Lord
then inquired from him the means by which the conditioned soul can easily attain liberation. Srila Haridasa
fell at the Lord’s lotus feet and clasped them tightly. His entire body went into rapture and he offered humble
prayers punctuated by shivering and tears.

Commentary
Not all the devotees of Sri Caitanya were allowed to stay in Jaganatha Puri after the Lord had taken sannyasa;
however, Srila Haridasa was one of the lucky ones. While he was there he would daily chant three hundred thousand
Holy Names. He did this to show the yuga-dharma of incessant chanting as the means for deliverance from material
bondage.

One day Lord Caitanya met Haridasa and requested him to talk about namatattva, the means by which the living
entities can escape bondage. This was the reason Haridasa was on the planet, his life was the living example of the
means to attain salvation. When the Lord enquired thus, Haridasa went into spiritual ecstasy. Clasping the Lord’s lotus
feet tightly he offered humble prayers as tears of joy began to roll down his face, and his body started to shiver
uncontrollably. His most worshipable Lord was now in front of him asking questions on namatattva. Feeling genuine
humility, Haridasa, who considered himself untouchable, offered his obeisances and began to speak the Harinama
Cintamani.

4. In a choked voice Srila Haridasa said, “My dear Lord, Your wonderful pastimes are unfathomable. I am
unfortunate and illiterate. My only anchor is Your lotus feet. What is the use of asking questions of a worthless
person like me?”

Commentary
From this verse it appears that Haridasa never learned to read or write, however the entire purport of spiritual life was
alive in his purified heart. We also see the same in the life of the great Vaisnava acarya, Srila Jaganatha dasa Babaji
Maharaja. From this we can understand that illiteracy is no disqualification to chanting the pure name. It is not by
erudite scholarship that the Lord is to be known. Bhaktya mam abhihjananti, the Supreme Lord is knowable only by
His devotees, who perform bhakti-yoga. A person may be a big big scholar but that does not necessarily mean that he
is qualified to experience love of God, or write purports on sastra, and conversely even if one is not a scholar, it does
not disqualify him from attaining krsna-prema or from giving the purport of sastra to his beloved followers. The
conclusion is that Lord is to be known by devotion only. The criterion for speaking or writing about the Lord or sastra
is that such a person is a devotee who has learned the essence of spiritual life from his bona fide spiritual master. One
should not read about sastra from one who is not a devotee, or moreover one who is a mayavadi. Just like milk
touched by a serpent becomes poisonous, similarly the perverted interpretations given from the mayavadis should be
avoided by all means. In Sri Harinama Cintamani it is said that a spiritual master may be from any of the varnas,
(brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or sudra) as long as he is a kalpataru, or a touchstone, who can transform a sinful person
into a devotee, only then is he qualified.
Srila Haridasa replied; “my Lord, Your wonderful pastimes are unfathomable; my only anchor is Your lotus feet.”
Haridasa was showing true humility by telling the Lord that His mercy was all that Haridasa was made of. He
understood that without the Lord’s mercy he was worthless, and he considered himself worthless in the eyes of the
Lord. He wondered, “what is the use of asking me questions on such deep topics?”

5. Srila Haridasa continued: “You are Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has appeared in
Navadvipa to save the living entities. O my Lord Gauranga, kindly shelter me in the shade of Your lotus feet.
Only this can engladden my heart. Your pastimes are ever-expanding; You have manifested Your name, form,
qualities and pastimes in this material world so that even a fallen wretch like myself can relish them. It is
impossible for the jiva to perceive Your transcendental features with mundane senses. Lord Krsna has
mercifully manifest His transcendental feature of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the panca-tattva for the
highest benefit of humanity. These direct manifestations of transcendence are immediate expansions of the
internal spiritual potency of the Lord.

Commentary
Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, controller and master of
everything. Srila Haridasa’s heart is thrilled at the meeting with his Lord but he requests the Lord to give him shelter
at His lotus feet. He is afraid that anything other than this shelter will cause him to not understand spiritual truth. He
questions, “how can a jiva understand the Lord’s transcendental features with mundane senses?” This is not possible!
Srila Haridasa therefore quite rightly requests the Lord’s mercy so that he can answer the Lord’s enquiry. Lord
Ananta-sesa has been describing the Lord’s pastimes with thousands of mouths since the beginning of time, and still
He cannot find the limit of such glorious ever-expanding pastimes. Lord Caitanya, being the most merciful
incarnation of Sri Krsna, has most magnanimously manifested His name, form, qualities and pastimes so that the
fallen souls, who choose to tread the path of righteousness can relish them. They are available only through the mercy
of Sri Namaprabhu. In the Bagavad-gita the Lord says; “I am never manifested to the foolish and unintelligent. For
them I am covered by My internal potency.” (Bg. 7.25) By Lord Krsna’s mercy He kindly manifests His glorious
pastimes here on the Earth planet so that we may learn from these and access the transcendental via entering into the
mood of these pastimes.

Srila Haridasa inadvertently thanks the Lord for His mercy and explains that Lord Sri Caitanya, who advented along
with the panca-tattva, descended for the highest benefit of humanity. The foolish and unwise can never understand
such topics. The panca-tattva, who are Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityananda Gosai, Sri Advaita Acarya, Sri
Gadadhara, and Sri Srivas, are all immediate expansions of the Lord and as such are situated in the Lord's internal
energy known as the cit potency. In the pages to follow Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura elaborates further on the Lord’s
cit (spiritual) potency.

Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura and Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja have described a few of Lord Gauranga’s pastimes in
brief. These are intended to inspire and purify the devotees, but the exact details of such pastimes can be understood
in full, only by the mercy of the Lord. By taking shelter of the panca-tattva and the Holy Name of the Lord one may
taste these pastimes in fullness. The mercy of the Vaisnavas and the Holy Name are therefore essential in the formula
for attaining spiritual success. A devotee constantly prays for the mercy of the panca-tattva and the Vaisnava devotees
of the Lord, so that he may be enlisted as a member of Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s family of devotees. This prayer
remains on our lips eternally.

6. “You are the spiritual sun and I am an insignificant spark of Your effulgence; You are my Lord and master
and I am Your servitor eternally. The ambrosia emanating from Your lotus feet intoxicates all my senses; my
hope lies in the limitless nectar of Your Holy Name. I am fallen—what can I say of my own volition? I am here
just to execute Your orders. I shall be greatly satisfied to speak the words You put into my mouth and I will not
consider whether they are right or wrong.

Commentary
The Supreme Lord is likened to the spiritual sun because His radiance emanates everywhere, giving full knowledge to
His surrendered servants. The jivas are minute particles of the Lord, who are situated perfectly when chanting His
glories. Five thousand years ago while Lord Krsna was enacting His pastimes on the Earth planet, Lord Brahma made
an offense to the Lord by stealing the Lord’s cowherd boyfriends and calves. When Lord Brahma came to his senses
he sincerely repented his actions and underwent penance. The Lord was pleased with Brahma’s penance and granted
his desire to take part in the Lord's manifest pastimes when He advented Himself as Gauranga Mahaprabhu. When
Lord Caitanya was about to appear, the demigods were informed and requested to take birth in the wombs of earth
mothers. In caitanya-lila, Lord Brahma therefore became known as Haridasa Thakura, who took birth in a Muslim
family to enact this pastime. Haridasa was constantly intoxicated with the nectar emanating from the Lord’s lotus feet,
via his continuous chanting. In this text Haridasa teaches everyone by referring to his position of being intoxicated by
the nectar steaming from the Lord’s lotus feet. He informs us that this nectar is coming from connection with the Holy
Name.

With true humility Haridasa says, “my Lord, I am fallen, what can I say of my own volition?” The pure devotee is not
separate from the Lord’s desires, he does not act independently, moreover he acts just as a servant. Srila Haridasa
therefore requests the Lord to speak through him, and, as a pure devotee with one hundred percent faith in the Lord,
he does not consider whether the words coming from his mouth are right or wrong. After all, what can the Lord
possibly do that is wrong?

In the life of Srila Prabhupada we also see that he was acting as an instrument of the Lord. With Prabhupada’s first
steps onto foreign land he composed the following prayer in September 1965:

boro-krpa koile Krsna adhamer prati

ki lagiyanile hetha koro ebe gati

My dear Lord Krsna, You are so kind upon this useless soul, but I do not know why You have brought
me here. Now You can do whatever You like with me. (Verse 1)

aniyacho jadi prabhu amare nacate

nacao nacao prabhu nacao se-mate
kasthera puttali jatha nacao se-mate

O Lord, I am just like a puppet in Your hands. So if You have brought me here to dance, then make me
dance, make me dance, O Lord make me dance as You like. (Verse 15)

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how Uddhava said to the Lord, “I am ready to execute Your order.” Also in the
Bagavad-gita Arjuna says the immortal words; karisye vacanam tava, “I will execute Your order, Krsna.”
Unconditional surrender to the Lord is therefore the hallmark of a devotee.

The Truth of Lord Krsna

7. “Lord Krsna is the only Absolute Autocrat. He is beyond anyone’s jurisdiction, for He alone is the Supreme
Controller and Lord. He is endowed with inconceivable potencies, and is a fully independent, self-willed and
conscious being. All energies or potencies are a part of His inherent nature; therefore they are not independent
of Him. The omnipotent Lord is the fountainhead of all energies. Lord Krsna is the master of unlimited
opulence’s and potencies, yet He is still one nondual Brahman. Through the eightfold yoga system, the yogi can
perceive this same nondual Supreme Being, who is omnipresent, localized within the heart as paramatma, the
Supersoul. This aspect of Lord Krsna is also a partial manifestation. Therefore, neither brahman nor
paramatma is a complete feature of Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna alone is fully replete with absolute potency, will,
control and consciousness.

Commentary
There is only one enjoyer, He is known as adi-purusa—Sri Krsna. He is also known as Purusottama, the Supreme
enjoyer. People with polluted consciousness may claim to be the enjoyers, but the Supreme Lord in his form of death
takes everyone, mrtyuh sarva-haras caham, I am all devouring death (Bg. 10.34). Such people are known as adhama-
purusa. Adhama means the lowest. Srila Prabhupada explains how we can not enjoy independently. That is, we are
dependent on the mercy of the Lord who creates the material world through which we try to enjoy. No one within the
three worlds, governed by Durga-devi, is free from the influence of the modes of nature and therefore no one is
independent. Material nature is an expansion of the Lord’s opulence, as are the jivas—this will be elaborated on
further in the book.

The Lord is the fountainhead of everything, everything emanates from Him and everything is resting on Him just as
pearls are stung on a thread.

mattah parataram nanyat

kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvan idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva

O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung
on a thread. (Bg. 7.7)

According to the teachings of Srila Jiva Goswami, the Lord exists in four features, In His original form as Sri Krsna,
in His external potency as maya (his inferior energy), as the living entities (His marginal potency), and as the as the
sum total of all existence. The Lord may be realized in three ways, as bhagavan, paramatma, or brahman, and He
makes Himself known in any of these three ways according to the jiva’s level of realization. Through the eightfold
yoga system the endeavoring spiritualist can know the Lord, who is omnipotent (everywhere), as brahman. The Lord
also descends in His localized form as paramatma, or the Supersoul situated within the core of every living entity’s
heart. In this form known as Ksirodakasayi Visnu the Lord is so small that He enters within the atomic particles. Yogis
mediate on the Lord situated within the heart and receive paramatma realization as their reward. Although realization
of paramatma is higher than that of Brahman, still it is not the summon-bonum, only pure unadulterated devotional
service, following in the mood of the residence of vraja is the pinnacle of devotional life. Both manifestations of
brahman and paramatma are partial and incomplete, only Lord Sri Krsna is the nondual Absolute Autocrat. He is
above brahman and is always a person, the Supreme Person, krsnas tu bhgavan svayam. Lord Caitanya’s philosophy
of acintya bedabeda tattva explains this perfectly.

In the sruti-sastra we read “Only that One nondual substance existed before creation.” The mayavadi’s take this
statement as proof of the all pervading aspect of the Absolute, but the devotees understand that statements such as
“everything is brahman” give rise to the Supreme Truth as being personal and differentiated. Quoting Lord Caitanya’s
instructions to Sanatana Goswami, Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains this fact nicely. He says that personalism is a
higher principle than impersonalism because impersonalism is not perceivable due to the of lack of ways in which we
can perceive it, I.e. if we merge into one homogeneous blob and therefore have no contrasts or objective view points,
we will not be able to perceive anything. So in the case of personalism verses impersonalism we can see that
personalism is the higher principle by using this formula. Therefore, when one who has received higher understanding
hears such a statement as the aforementioned from the sruti-sastra, he uses this formula and has no problems in
understanding scripture according to this.

In the simultaneous oneness and difference philosophy propounded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we see that
personalism is a higher feature than impersonalism because we have a perceivable and indeed servable object (the
Supreme object). In this way, when a devotee sees such statements as “everything is brahman,” he understands from
Lord Caitanya’s philosophy that this statement actually emphasizes the fact that Supreme Absolute Truth is personal,
and therefore differentiated from the impersonal. The idea that perception is higher than imperception is an obvious
thing to understand if one logically thinks it over. Because of this higher rule one can therefore see that the Absolute
Truth must exist as a person and not impersonal.

Lord Krsna and His energies are one

8. The multifarious energies of Lord Krsna are never independent of Him. The Vedas declare that the Lord
and His energies are nondifferent. Lord Krsna is the infinite, absolute (vibhu), and His energies are exhibitions
of His opulences (vaibhava). In spite of His endless excellences and multifarious potencies, He remains
unaffected and indivisible.

Commentary
The Lord has many varieties of energies but being the energetic (or the one who gives life to the energies) none of
them are independent of Him. Without the Lord infusing His energies with life, they would simply fail to exist. The
Vedas are the law books on God-realization and they declare that the Lord’s energies are exhibitions of His opulence.
Lord Krsna has sixty-four primary opulences; a detailed study of these can be found in the Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhu
by Srila Rupa Goswami.

In spite of the Lord expanding Himself in unlimited ways, He remains unaffected by such change as all energies are
always within Him. The Lord’s energies are infinite, and ever-increasing, thus the Lord is known as the infinite
absolute or vibhu.

In this first chapter we are learning some primary teachings that go to make-up the sambhandha-jnana understanding
of a deovotee. These teachings must be understood and followed in order for the more esoteric subject matters, such
as rasa-tattva to be comprehended and entered into. All knowledge will be made known in the heart of the sincere
devotee, who chants the maha-mantra free from offense.

The three kinds of opulence

9. “The Lord’s energies are manifestations of His vaibhava (opulences); the Supreme Lord, therefore, can be
perceived only through these energies or vaibhava. O Lord Gauranga! You are the repository of three types of
vaibhava. They are revealed in the scriptures as the spiritual potency (cit-vaibhava), the material potency (maya
or acit-vaibhava), and the marginal potency (jiva-vaibhava).

Commentary
The Lord can be known only by His devotees. Lord Gauranga is the fountainhead of all energies for He is Krsna
Himself. If one desires to attain to Vrndavana, Lord Gauranga instructs His followers to first receive the mercy of Sri
Navadvipa Dhama then Vrndavana Dhama will manifest automatically, but not the other way around. Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati informs us that the Supreme Lord is called Vasudeva when He manifests His supreme
opulence, and when He covers His opulence with His madhurya-rasa and parakiya-rasa He is known as Krsna, the
cowherd boy of Vrndavana. This knowledge can be gleamed by reading the tenth canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam
and witnessing the superexcellent pastimes of Krsna’s Vrndavana and Dvaraka lilas. In Vrndavana lila the residents
are so overwhelmed with prema that they cannot imagine their Krsna as the Supreme Lord. There is one instance
when Nanda Maharaja was tested in a dream and in this dream he was told that it was useless to chastise baby Krsna
because he was Narayana Himself. To this Nanda Maharaja replied, “even if my son were the Supreme Lord Himself,
it is still my duty as a father to chastise Him when He has done wrong, for in this way He will grow up in the correct
manner.” In other words, even though Nanda Maharaja was informed that his son was Narayana, still, he preferred to
see his son Krsna as nothing other than His son. In this way he displayed his supreme love for the Lord in the vraja-
rasa. In this lila Krsna plays the role of the cowherd boy Nandanandana, the son of Nanda Maharaja.

When Lord Krsna desired to give the highest benediction of krsna-prema to the most fallen souls in Kali-yuga He
came in the bhava of Srimati Radharani. Srimati Radharani is at the pinnacle of devotional mellows and for this
reason one cannot get krsna-prema without first receiving Radha’s mercy and becoming a radha-priya-bhakta.
Srimati Radharani is the keeper of devotion. One of the reasons for Lord Krsna’s advent was to distribute pure love
from this devotional platform. In this way, filled with the ecstasy of love of Godhead He is freely distributing this
premarasa to all those fortunate souls who care to take it. The prerequisites for accepting this love will be explained
throughout Sri Harinama Cintamani.

To experience the supremely opulent pastimes of Sri Krsna, one must become a servant of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
There is no other way because Lord Gauranga is the repository of the Lord’s cit-vaibhava, the spiritual potency that
contains everything. This fact is revealed in this text by Srila Haridasa Thakura. Krsna-prema can only come about
after receiving the mercy of Gauranga Mahaprabhu; luckily He is giving this out freely to the biggest sinners who
desire to not sin again. To start off His teachings to the world, when He arrived in Jaganatha Puri He arranged to meet
Sarvabaumana Bhattacarya. In this first meeting Lord Caitanya displayed the highest symptoms of maha-bhava, and
He continued to display His Supreme potency, which He never did in Navadvipa. Being introduced to the Lord’s
teachings we are taught by the debates of Sarvabaumana Bhattacarya and Gopinatha Acarya. In these lessons we learn
that one can only understand the Lord by receiving the Lord’s mercy. What to speak of experiencing His supremely
opulent pastimes. Gopinatha Acarya spoke as follows:

One can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead only by His mercy, not by guesswork or
hypothesis.

If one receives but a tiny bit of the Lord’s favor by dint of devotional service, he can understand the
nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the
greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate in order to understand the Supreme Personality
of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years.
(Cc. madhya-lila 6.82-84)

One can only understand Krsna through His vaibhava, or His opulences, and a devotee who understands this
meditates deeply on the Lord’s opulence’s as a part of his devotional practices each and every day. The impetuous to
achieve the Lord is done through the Lord’s uddipana, His oppulences.

The Lord expanded Himself in three ways and these energies are known as is His vaibhava or His opulence. They are
the jiva, the spiritual potency, and maya. The Lord’s internal potency is known as cit-vaibhava and it is this cit-
vaibhava which houses the hladini-sakti. It is the hladini-sakti that brings spiritual pleasure to the Lord. The spiritual
world is the place where the Lord enacts His pastimes and this is done with the help of His cit-vaibhava. Lord
Nityananda-Balarama is the first expansion of the Lord. Nityananda-Balarama takes part in all of the Lord’s pastimes.
It is Balarama, through His expansion named Sankarsana who creates the spiritual world by His desire, although it is
true that the spiritual world is never created! The living entities are known as jiva-vaibhava. When the jiva or
marginal potency of the Lord is situated correctly, her perfection is to give pleasure to the Lord in one of four rasas;
either in a mood of servitorship (dasya), a mood of friendship (sakhya), a parental mood (vatsalya), or in a mood of
love (madhurya). While engaged in any of these rasas the jiva then receives pleasure from loving exchanges with the
Lord and His devotees. It is not possible to serve Vrajendranandana in a neutral mood.

In order to become a devotee of the Lord one must have realized brahmana, which understands the Lord in a neutral
mood (santa-rasa). After this, one may come to the stage of serving the pure representative of Lord Gauranga
Mahaprabhu in the mood of dasya (servitorship). Progressing through the various stages of sadhana one rises through
the stages of steadiness, attachment, and attraction, then one comes to the platform of raganuga. Practicing
raganuga-bhakti for sometime enables one to rise further through the stages until a greater taste is aquired and love
(priti) enters one’s meditations in a real way. Tasting this love one enters into the correct loving relationship (rasa)
found in the vraja-lila of Sri Krsna. The Sanskrit word anu means minutely small—thus one must become a very
small servant of the servant of the servant in order to begin this process. The mentality one must adopt to become the
servant of the devotees is that one must strive to give service, and not to take service.

The third potency of the Lord is known as the acit-vaibhava, or maya. Maya is the Lord’s inferior energy and plays
the role of keeping those living entities who desire to be lord, enslaved in their own illusion. Cit means spiritual and
acit means material.

Cit-vaibhava or spiritual potency

10. “Lord Krsna’s cit-vaibhava (spiritual opulences) are a transformation of His internal transcendental
potencies. This unlimited display of spiritual potencies includes His abodes, generally known as Vaikunthaloka;
His innumerable names like Govinda, Hari, etc; His transcendental forms, like the threefold bending form with
two hands playing on a flute; His divine qualities, so sublimely pleasurable to His devotees; His superexcellent
pastimes like the rasa dance in Vrndavana and its nondifferent appearance in Navadvipa as the congregational
chanting of the Holy Names. Thus His spiritual potencies are countless.

Commentary
The Lord’s spiritual opulence’s are a part of his cit-vaibhava or his internal opulences. Srila Prabhupada once
indicated that the spiritual world is four times the size of the material creation, and the material creation from our
perspective is limitless as it contains as many universes as there are seeds of mustard in a very large sack. Most of the
Lord’s jiva-vaibhava are eternally living in the spiritual world, so they come under the heading of cit-vaibhava as they
are performing their svadharma, their intrinsic nature of giving pleasure to the Lord. Prabhupada gave the example
that in a city most people are living normally, but some are in jail. Therefore he likened the material world to a prison
house, and we upstarts, being forgetful of our true identity are inmates of that material prison house.

The Lord has many principle names and forms, and these are the names and forms that describe a particular pastime
of the Lord. Such names are Govinda, Gopala, Yasodanandana, Vrajendranandana, Syamasundara etc. Forms of the
Lord like His threefold bending form, or the form of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu putting His hands in the air during
kirtana, bring great joy to the devotees.

The Lord’s rasa dance in Vrndavana is also one of His spiritual opulences, or a part of His cit-vaibhava, and we are
informed that the congregational chanting of Lord Gauranga and His associates in Sri Navadvipa is nondifferent from
the rasa dance in Vrndavana. There is no limit to the Lord’s cit-vaibhava for it is ever- increasing.

11. “The Lord’s cit potency is His superior energy. It is the natural result of the Lord’s spiritual fullness. The
sandhini potency by which everything exists and is held together as an interrelated whole, including the
relationships of all jivas to the Lord, is an emanation of the cit potency. From that same cit-vaibhava also comes
the samvit potency, which gives knowledge of one’s identity and of everything else; finally, from the cit-
vaibhava also comes the hladini potency, which gives birth to the ecstatic bliss of spiritual emotions, spiritual
relationship and the divine exchange of rasas or mellow. The Lord’s cit potency is His yogamaya, and its
transformations are all beyond the jurisdiction of the mundane modes and influences.

Commentary
The Lord’s sandhini potency is the Lord’s energy that connects everything together. The Lord receives pleasure from
interrelationships with His devotees; He does not interact with dull matter. Everything in the spiritual world is alive
and so has relationship. When the Lord descends to the material world, He descends along with the spiritual residents
and the spiritual world. That is, the cit potency. When the Lord was on the planet He had hundreds of millions of
descendents, and unlimited cows. Sometimes we may wonder where they could all live? The truth is that in the
spiritual world there are unlimited inhabitants, and when the Lord descends He descends along with the residents of
the spiritual world. Such residents all give the Lord pleasure as they are situated in the Lord hladini potency.

The sandhini potency is an expansion or emanation of the cit potency. The Lord’s samvit potency allows everyone to
have knowledge of their relationship with the Lord and everyone else. The spiritual world is characterized by three
things, sat, cit, ananda, eternality, knowledge, and bliss. These three potencies are emanations of the Lord’s cit
potency, which is the Lord’s potency in full expression. Also coming from this cit-vaibhava is the Lord’s potency
called the hladini potency. This potency allows everyone to exchange spiritual emotions. This is the real energy in
motion as it is one hundred percent spiritual, free from any tinge of materialism, or false-ego. In the Bhakti-Rasamrta-
Sindhu, Srila Rupa Goswami highlights various states of being, known as the four bhavas that are found within the
sthayi-bhava of one’s rasa. In all the examples, the emotions are considered true and real because they are in relation
with the supreme Lord. It is therefore concluded that emotion is only real when in connection with the Supreme
otherwise everything is considered false or temporary, as a part of the illusionary world of Mayadevi. Except for the
upliftment of the spirit soul from the mud of maya, all contact with the material world is useless. When a devotee of
the Lord performs devotional service, he does so from the spiritual stratum using the Lord’s cit potency and as such
does not have to suffer the three kinds of reaction being, good, bad, and mixed. Therefore, such a surrendered soul is
free from all fear and anxiety.
The hladini potency gives the Lord and His devotees’ spiritual pleasure, the pleasure of rasa or emotion. Without the
hladini potency how could rasa be tasted? It is the essence of this hladini potency that enters into a devotee’s heart
and causes him to feel spiritual-love. The feelings of love found between the residents of the spiritual world and the
residents of maya do not compare, for in the land of maya people are only interested in pleasure related to the false
material body. Such people are interested in taking pleasure and not giving it! Except for the love that a mother
naturally feels for her child, a relationship without the feeling of pleasure in the material world does not last. In
contrast to this, in the spiritual world pure love is given permanently and unconditionally. An expression of this
feeling of true love is found in Sri Siksastakam. Lord Caitanya prays as follows:

aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam

adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

If you handle me roughly by Your embrace or make me broken-hearted by not being present before
me, You are always my worshipable Lord unconditionally.

12. “The cit potency is never affected by the inferior acit potency. Although it descends to this inferior mundane
world it is unaffected by material inebriety’s. Forever spiritual, embodying the absolute nature of the Supreme
Lord, the Vedic hymns sing of its supreme position as equal to the Lord Himself.

Commentary
The Lord descends to the material realm to enjoy pastimes, to shower love on His pure devotees, to destroy the
demons, and to instruct the common man. When He does so His cit potency descends also—in this way the Lord’s
pastimes always take place in the spiritual realm, even though enacted on the material plane. The Lord is never
affected by the influence of His inferior energy known as acit, for the Lord is the controller of all energies and indeed
they find their resting place in the Him alone.

Vedic scriptures are meant for understanding the Lord and in all of their divisions devotional service to the Lord is
their main objective. Sri Krsna first expanded Himself as Balaram, and Balaram then expanded Himself in order to
give pleasure to the Supreme Lord. Balarama expanded first as the catur-vyuha, and these four, Vasudeva,
Sankarsana, Anirudha, and Pradyumna, expanded as further catur-vyuhas which subsequently create maintain and
destroy everything. The Srutis sing of the greatness of the Lord’s cit potency, as from this position they may perform
their devotion to the Lord in their natural state.

Krsna’s energies are in the visnu-tattva category

13. “There is no tinge of material influence in Lord Krsna’s energy; it is transcendental and exists in pure
goodness (suddha-sattva). Sattva is of two kinds: suddha-sattva (pure goodness) and misra-sattva (mixed
goodness). Everything in the category of cit-vaibhava is suddha-sattva, or pure goodness. All sattva in the
material nature is mixed, or misra-sattva. Suddha-sattva is devoid of passion and ignorance. Birth indicates the
mode of passion in action. The eternally existent spiritual essence, suddha-sattva, has never been touched by
birth, which is a manifestation of passion, nor by annihilation, which is an act carried out in the mode of
ignorance. Although the Supreme Lord’s separated parts and parcels, the jivas, belong to the category of
suddha-sattva, due to their contact with nescience or material nature they have come under the sway of the
material modes of passion and ignorance, and hence are now in the mixed or misra-suddha category. Even
demigods like Lord Siva, though far superior in many ways to the ordinary jivas, are nevertheless captivated
by the material glare due to false identification, and so fall in the category of misra-sattva. The Supreme Lord is
always in pure goodness. He descends to this material world by His inconceivable nature, maya, who is ever-
ready to act as His maidservant.

Commentary
In this text we are being gently introduced to one of the offences against the Holy Name, to equate the demigods as
being on the same level as the Lord. Even the demigods are captivated due to false identification. We are informed
that everything in the Visnu-tattva is transcendental to the modes and is governed by the Lord’s cit-vaibhava or His
yogamaya potency. Whoever has taken birth whether he is a demigod, human being, or another species, is sure to die!
Thus, everything that has taken birth in the abode of devi-dhama is in the misra category, or mixed modes. There is no
birth or death in the spiritual realms. Birth indicates passion in action, and death indicates ignorance, thus with birth
and death the jiva (who is spiritual and unborn), becomes entangled in action and reaction by entering into the misra
category.

Lord Siva is certainly the most exalted devotee but he is sometimes tainted by the modes. When his brother Bhrgu
Muni did not honor him properly, he became angry. When he gave a benediction to the demon Vrkasura, he became
fearful for his life and fled to take shelter of Lord Visnu. And when Lord Krsna wanted to bewilder Lord Siva, the
Lord came as Murhini-murti and bewildered Lord Siva’s intelligence causing him to run after Her. Lord Siva is
situated in the mode of goodness, but because he is also in the misra category, he can be influenced from time to time,
and if he can be bewildered by the glare of material nature so can anyone. Lord Krsna however, being the Lord and
master of maya, is above the modes, situated in transcendence. His faithful servants Yogamaya and Mayadevi are
always ready to serve Him in anyway He so desires, thus as the master of all, He can never be bewildered, as Lord
Brahama found out when he tried to steal the cowherd boys and calves.

14. “All the expansions and partial expansions of the Lord, such as Govinda, Vaikunthanatha, Maha-Visnu,
Garbhodakasayi-Visnu and Ksirodakasayi-Visnu, are in the category of pure goodness, supreme and divine,
and They are always absolutely spiritual. These visnu-tattvas, or Supreme Godhead belonging to the category of
Visnu, may sojourn in any place, either the spiritual abodes of Goloka, Vaikuntha, the Casual Ocean or in this
material universe, yet They are always the master of maya and the Supreme controller of every other living
entity, great or small. Their remaining unaffected by the influence of the illusory potency is evidence of Their
inconceivable spiritual position.

Commentary
As a part of our sambandha understanding we are now being clearly taught about the difference between visnu-tattva
and jiva-tattva. This is the fundaments for destroying the mayavadi mentality within us. It is clear to see from this text
that the Lord’s in the Vinsu category, or Lord Krsna Himself, are not affected by anything material. They are above
material nature! When it comes to Lord Krsna, anything He does in the material realm, even though seemingly wrong
or immoral, is always right and good as it is in actual fact enacted from the spiritual realm and therefore governed by
Yogamaya. Maharaja Pariksit once asked this question to Sukadeva Goswami when he heard the pastime of the Lord
enjoying with the gopis, who were married with other men. Maharaja Pariksit was informed that the Lord can do no
wrong and that to enact the pastime perfectly the gopi’s husbands thought that they had remained along side them in
bed. Yogamaya arranges for the Lord’s pastimes to be enacted, and so Yogamaya covered the husbands of the gopis.

Elsewhere in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is explained that Maha Visnu descended to the material world and stole the
newly born children of a brahmana living in Dwaraka. Seeing the brahmana’s grief the great bowman Arjuna
volunteered to protect the brahmana’s next child. To his dismay Arjuna could not stop the child from dying. In his
attempt to bring back the brahmana’s son Arjuna then sojourned throughout the material world looking on all planets
to find the dead child. In great anguish at not being able to find the dead child, Arjuna decided to enter into the fire
because he could not keep his word. Seeing this, Lord Krsna came to his rescue and took Arjuna for a ride on His
chariot beyond the Sisumar and past the Viraja River to the spiritual abode of Maha-Visnu. There, Arjuna found the
brahmana’s children that Maha-Visnu had been stealing. They discovered that Maha-Visnu had been stealing the
children just so He could meet with Lord Krsna and Arjuna. This story illustrates how the Supreme Lords in the Visnu
category can sojourn anywhere without being entangled by maya. Their remaining unaffected by the influence of
maya is therefore evidence of Their inconceivable spiritual position. However, in contrast to this, the great bowman
Arjuna was perplexed and desired to end his life because he could not uphold his vow to save the brahmana’s child.
Thus, we can see from this example that anyone who is perplexed about how to do something is not in the Visnu
category. In this way Srila Prabhupada used to explain “how can people claim to be God and have forgotton who they
are. If you were God then how could you forget?”
Misra-sattva and maya-tattva

15. Lord Brahma the creator, Lord Siva the destroyer and all other demigods belong to the category of jiva,
and hence are misra-tattva, or mixed category; while all the incarnations of the Visnu category, Their pastimes,
the spiritual sky, etc. are in pure goodness. On this side of the Viraja River, which separates the material
universe from the spiritual abode, everything in all fourteen planetary systems is acit-vaibhava or the
temporary manifestation of matter. Elsewhere, this place has been described as Devi-dhama, the abode of
Durgadevi, who is the presiding deity of maya. The material universe is composed of five gross elements, mind,
intelligence, and false ego. Both the material universe and the physical bodies of the living entities are made of
the same five material substances, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. Mind, intelligence and false ego
comprise the jiva’s subtle body which is the result of his desire; these are also material. Yet the jiva, who is by
nature a product of the suddha-sattva, as are his original mind, intelligence and ego, is spiritual and distinct
from the subtle body.

Commentary
It has been previously explained that everyone who has taken birth as a jiva in the material world is in the misra
category. This is because their bodies that are made from the five gross elements are intended to be their prison houses
limiting them from total freedom. Such bodies have been fashioned by material nature according to the person’s
previous activities and are just right for the lessons a person now needs to learn, and for his new desires to be fulfilled.
Such desires are not considered pure. Although the living entity’s body is a part of the misra category, his real self is
from the suddha category. This will be explained soon. Everything this side of the Viraja River is contaminated by
maya, and this place is sometimes referred to as devi-dhama, or the abode of Durgadevi.

For the devotees however, their presiding Deity is not Goddess Durga, but Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. While
acting on His behalf devotees are situated in their rightful position and come under the heading of suddha-sattva as
opposed to misra-sattva. Goddess Parvati dasi, (the wife of Lord Siva) worships Gauranga Mahaprabu, and when she
sees that a sincere devotee is trying to serve the Lord, she provides the facilities which help to liberate the devotee. In
the form of Goddess Durga her job is to bind the inhabitants of the material world, but as she is the loyal wife of Lord
Siva who is the guardian of the dhamas, when her husband instructs her, she removes the blindfold of material
contamination and reveals the Lord’s spiritual abode to the pure devotee of the Lord. The rightful position of the
living entity is to be a krsna-bhakta.

Here you may question how does one who is contaminated by the modes uplift himself to the point where he becomes
a pure devotee and is situated in the suddha-sattva category? To explain this I would like to give you a small analogy.
“When a person is contaminated by dirt, he needs to cleanse himself in order to remove this dirt; therefore he takes a
bucket of water and some soap. With his hands he first puts a little water on his face and body, and next he takes the
soap and begins to cleanse. After the soap he again puts water over his body to remove the soap, which now holds the
dirt that was once on his body. In this way, both the soap and the water, which are spread around by the agency of the
hands, act to cleanse away all impurities from the outer body.”

In this analogy we see a few specific items that are necessary for the cleansing process.

 First we have the water (which is like the Holy Name of the Lord that purifies).
 Next we have the soap (which is like our service to the pure devotee).
 And finally we have the hands (which are like the material energy we use to perform our service).

By understanding this simple analogy we can see how we must serve the pure devotee by using the material elements,
while constantly chanting the maha-mantra for purification. It is also interesting to note how the hands are
automatically cleansed while they are performing the cleansing action to the rest of the body. In this way we can see
that by attempting to serve others, we are uplifted, (or cleansed) by our endeavors at service. When cleaning the body,
the hands are directed by the intelligence, which is like the aspiring devotee following the orders of the pure devotee
and serving those orders by fulfilling the needs of others. In this way one is gradually uplifted by the cleansing
process of sadhana-bhakti until he eventually receives the full mercy of the pure devotee and becomes rightly situated
as a pure devotee himself, situated in the suddha-sattva category where there is no dirt or material contamination.

Sometimes during the course of sambandha understanding we hear how a spiritual aspirant may put forward
questions that indicate he is to become desire-less. As he thinks that all desires are like dirt on the mirror of his mind.
However, in this text we read that in its original state the mind, intelligence and ego are all a part of the suddha-sattva
category and as such are above the subtle body, which is generated from material elements. In the Bhagavad-gita the
Lord explains the following to Arjuna:

yam sannyasam iti prahur

yogam tam vaidhi pandava
na hy asannyasta-sankalpo
yodi bhavati kascana

What is called renunciation you should know to be the same as yoga, or linking oneself with the
Supreme, O son of Pandu, for one can never become a yogi unless he renounces the desire for sense
gratification. (B.g 6.2)

bandhur atmatmanas tasya

yenatmaivatmana jitah
anatmanas tu satrutve
vartetatmaiva satru-vat

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do
so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. (B.g 6.6)

In these two slokas there is a very great teaching. The Lord is instructing that one must renounce the desire for sense
gratification, and this kind of renunciation, when performed correctly, is the religion of the devotee. For instance, a
devotee performs sadhana-bhakti in order to advance in bhakti-yoga, or linking with the Lord through loving
exchanges. Now, the centre of all the senses is the mind, and the job of the mind is twofold—to accept and to reject.
When the mind is in a conditioned state it will control the activities of the living entity and cause him to accept items
connected with sense gratification, as the mind is acting as the king of the senses. But when the mind is spiritualized it
can choose to reject sense gratification and choose to accept only those items favorable for cultivation of devotion.

In these two slokas the Lord is firstly instructing that one cannot be successful in one’s endeavors at bhakti-yoga as
long as the mind is not controlled, and He is also instructing us of the importance of making an ally of the mind by
making him our best friend. When the mind is out of control one must use the intelligence to rectify the mind and
bring it under control via the correct discrimination brought about by following the teachings of guru, sadhu, and
sastra, following the process of vaidhi-bhakti. At first the mind may be polluted and it may desire to accept things that
are not favorable for devotional service, but the intelligence can use discrimination in order to control the mind. As
one progresses he will discover that the mind has one very special function, to desire the favorable!

In scripture we see the example of Maharaja Ambarisha, who controlled his senses by performing the nine limbs of
bhakti, sravanam, kirtanam, Visnu smaranam, acarnam, vandanam, dasyam, sakyam, padasevanam, atmanivadaman.
Therefore, by using the intelligence to follow the rules and regulations of scripture one learns to renounce items
connected with temporary sense gratification, and instead learn’s to replace such activities with items that will please
the Lord—choosing yukta-vairagya within the scope of bhakti-yoga. These two verses from the Bhagavad-gita
therefore instruct the devotee to control the senses and the mind via the performance of bhakti-yoga. It is therefore
concluded that a devotee should understand that he is a part of the Lord’s cit potency and become situated in the
suddha-sattva category via the nine processes of devotional service, the first two of which are hearing and chanting.
In this way he will transmute his desires, from being material to spiritual.
In the coming pages we will learn to understand the importance of hearing and chanting. When we implement these
two simple aspects of devotion incessantly we will find the dust from the mirror of the heart being cleansed away by
this simple process.

16. “The seven higher planetary systems such as Bhur, Bhuvar, Svarga, Mahar, Jana, Satya, and Brahma, and
the seven lower planetary systems Atala, Sutala etc. are all manifestations of maya, the illusory potency of the
Lord. Cit-vaibhava is the complete whole, and maya is its shadow.

Commentary
Sages of yore have split the universe into fourteen categories being seven higher and seven lower planetary systems.
Here we are informed that all are places of maya, as the modes of nature pervade everywhere. The demigods in the
higher planetary systems are acting on behalf of the Lord, but also have their own motives of enjoyment in mind.
Because of this they are also subject to the stringent laws of material nature. Only a devotee who is acting from a pure
devotional platform can be categorized in the suddha or pure category, and as such rightly comes under the cit
potency of the Lord. Though the devotee may be acting in the world, he is not accruing any pious or impious karmic
reactions, and as such can travel to any of the fourteen planetary systems while remaining untouched by karmic
reactions. He works solely for the pleasure of the Lord. In this way is nirguna or above the modes.

In scripture we hear how the Lord is known as nirguna. Mayavadi interpreters give this a false meaning. They claim
that the word nirguna is proof that the Lord has no qualities and so is formless or Brahman. The devotees however,
understand that the word nirguna indicates that the Lord is without material qualities, and so transcendental to
material qualities, as are His devotees who act on His behalf. The cit-vaibhava is complete, whereas maya is but a
shadow representation.

Liberated and conditioned souls

17. “The jiva is originally completely spiritual, but infinitesimal, and due to his spiritual nature he is also
independent. The jivas are countless in number and spiritual bliss is their urgent need and perfection. In
seeking after bliss, those who surrender their lives to Lord Krsna become liberated and reside eternally in the
Lord’s company as His confidential associates.

Commentary
When the jiva is free from selfish desires he becomes reinstated in his eternal occupation of service to the Lord. The
jiva is always prakriti, (the enjoyed) and the Lord is purusa (the enjoyer). In this ecstatic condition the jiva is
completely independent as the bhakti that flows through the heart of a devotee can not be restricted. Therefore,
although a bhakta may begin by performing vaidhi-bhakti (worship according to rules and regulations) at one point he
discards all rules and regulations and acts spontaneously. This is called raganuga-bhakti and raganuga, (or
spontaneity) is imperative for pure devotional service. When in a perverted state, this freedom is restricted and the
jiva is thrown into the prison house of devi-dhama.

While in the spiritual world the jiva tastes ever-increasing bliss by giving pleasure to the Supreme Lord, who is the
object of all affection. Upon tasting the bliss of the spiritual stratum, the devotee thinks there is no greater gain than to
please Sri Sri Radharasabihari, and thus desires to please Them ever-increasingly. In order to regain the favor of the
Lord a conditioned soul must therefore surrender to the authority of a pure devotee, and with unflinching faith serve
him with full consciousness from the starting point of vaidhi-bhakti following sadhana-bhakti.

18. “On the other hand, the jiva who contemplates self-aggrandizement and selfish pleasure becomes attracted
by maya, who is always near at hand. He becomes eternally entrapped, enticed away from Lord Krsna’s
service, and receives a body manufactured by material nature, conducive to residence in devi-dhama. Thus he is
bound in the cycle of inevitable karmic reaction, wandering in gross and subtle bodies. Sometimes he is elevated
to the heavenly planets and next he has to descend to hell. In this way he travels through all the 8,400,000
species of life, suffering the pains of material existence.
Commentary
The Lord has two energies, one of them attracts the jiva and the other repels. If the jiva desires to be good, the Lord’s
energies will attract him to service, and if the jiva desires self-aggrandizement the Lord’s energies will repel him and
then act to cover his real identity. The fallen jiva will then be given something to occupy his attention and while
occupied in this selfish manner he develops unlimited desires due to his contact with the inferior energy. In the
material environment everyone practices selfishness.

We are now being given a picture of reality according to contaminated desires. Do we wish to live a life of ever-
increasing bliss, or do we wish to try and lord it over material nature and become poverty-stricken in the material
world with hardly one drop of pleasure? If we choose the selfish option, we may have to travel through many species
of life before we can understand what enjoyment really is. The more refined enjoyment can only come about when the
consciousness is not covered by the dullness given from a material body. Out of the 8,400,000 different species of life,
there are many more species of life in lower consciousness than there are in higher consciousness, thus the jiva who
chooses to try and enjoy separate from the Lord may have a long time to wait for that temporary enjoyment to come
along. In a room conversation Srila Prabhupada mentioned how the sinful jiva may even have to take birth in all the
species of life in order to come back to the human platform.

If we look around we can analyze that there are unlimited amounts of jivas in the bodies of amoeba and bacteria etc.
All of these living entities must have done something to deserve such a fundamental body, and all will have to wait a
long long time before they again reach the human platform. This thought is worth pondering over if you are thinking
of committing sins or you are prone to falling down because of spiritual weakness. “With greater knowledge comes
greater responsibility,” so when one has been initiated one should be especially careful! Demigods live off their good
karma, lower species work off their bad karma, and humans can either make good or bad karma. If the highest
perfection of krsna-prema is available from the human platform, it follows that the lowest may also be possible—
therefore, we should be very careful! Sri Harinama Cintamani hereby warns of the dangers of trying to enjoy the
Lord’s kingdom.

Lord Krsna is always merciful

19. “O Lord, You are the Supreme Personality, and the jiva is Your part and parcel. You are always concerned
for the wellbeing of Your servitors. Whatever situation the jiva may find himself in, Lord Krsna is always
prepared to grant the jiva his heart’s desire, like a well-wishing friend who never deserts him. The relationship
between Krsna and the jiva is eternal. Krsna is the Supreme Godhead and the jiva is the instrument through
whom and to whom the Lord manifests His energies and opulences. The Lord is the Supreme Controller, and
the jiva is the beneficiary enjoying the rewards of his actions. Whatever the servant considers desirable, the
Lord mercifully bestows upon him.

Commentary
The Lord will never desert His devotee. Everyone is naturally a devotee of the Lord but some are bewildered. The
Lord however, is never bewildered. He can always remember the relationship that particular servitor has with Him.
He therefore does not take kindly to people treating others badly. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord instructs that His
devotee will never be vanquished. Ultimately everyone is a devotee and we should deal with people according to how
the Lord would like us to. This is a sign of advancement in compassion, which is an integral part of Krsna
consciousness.

The Lord, being very kind, is always ready to grant the jiva’s desire, and in this way anything a jiva desires can come
true. However, for material desires there is a karmic price to pay because we live in a world of action and reaction.
What makes matters worse is that when one finally gets enough punya to reach the point where one deserves his
desire, the embodied living entity has often changed his mind and no longer desires that specific thing. This is because
karmic reactions take one, or even several lifetimes to manifest. The Lord, being the kind Father, grants everyone’s
heart’s desire, and in this way He manifests His opulences through the jiva and to the jiva. The jiva is therefore always
the beneficiary of the Lord’s opulences. That is of course except for those who have forfeited their right for tasting the
Lord’s opulences and have desired to go to the brahmajyoti. For them there is no hope of enjoyment as they have no
contrast with which to taste the opposite. They merely receive total ecstasy, but after a short time this ecstasy becomes
the norm and nothing is new. How then, can taste be had if nothing is differentiated? In this way such people are not
the recipients of the Lord’s opulences, but the recipients of the Lord’s mercy in the form of achieving their selfish
desires for liberation from material bondage. All they receive is freedom from the miseries of material life. In stark
contrast to this the devotees in the spiritual planets are always in competition to try and please the Lord more than He
pleases them. They are always trying to give to the Lord, and the Lord is always trying to give to them. Devotees use
the Lord’s hladini potency to exchange spiritual mellows of loving moods.

20. “Anyone yearning for evanescent sense pleasure in the material world can also easily find it kindly
provided by You. The means to attain such gratification is the performance of auspicious activities as
recommended in the Vedas. They are: following the duties of the varnasrama system; performing sacrifices
such as the fire sacrifice (angistoma); executing the eightfold yoga process; offering havan or oblations; keeping
vows on full-moon days; and giving in charity on auspicious days and on occasion productive of material
benefit. Although these activities are performed with Lord Visnu as the presiding Deity, there is no pure
devotional attitude on the part of the performer; he unfortunately does not realize his want of spirituality
because these activities never help him develop a pure spiritual mood. The results one accrues from these
activities are material; one simply craves for enjoyment in higher planets. Such activities and their results can
never satisfy the soul, the real self; illusion is their cause. These so-called auspicious activities only allow one to
attain temporary heavenly pleasures diametrically opposed to transcendental bliss.

Commentary
If one desires to go to heaven the methods are prescribed in this text—the performance of auspicious activities.
However, seeing as though Sri Harinama Cintamani is a book written for devotees with the aim to improve on their
chanting as a means for deliverance from material life, you can be sure that going to the heavenly planets is not
recommended in this book. The auspicious activities discussed herein may have Lord Visnu as the presiding Deity but
they are not pure devotional service, therefore such activities will never help a person understand that he is in need of
spiritual upliftment. Only activities that are devotional can help one to understand that more of the same is needed.
“Only devotion gives rise to devotion!” Pious activities done for material gain leave one craving for sense pleasure—
they are products of a person’s illusion, and can never be seen as permanent. Devotees of the Lord follow the
principle path of chanting for advancement.

If one has a good teacher, one will naturally become good at that thing being taught by that teacher. Therefore, with
such pure devotees as Haridasa Thakura and Bhaktivinoda Thakura as our teachers we can very easily learn from their
words that the goal of life is not to attain sense pleasure, even though the Lord is very kind in offering such things. In
the introduction to this book the first words Bhaktivinoda Thakura writes are as follows: “This book is not meant for
the faithless materialist. Only those who have developed unflinching faith in Lord Caitanya and in the process of
chanting the Holy Name are eligible candidates to hear the topics discussed in this book.” By writing this
Bhaktivinoda is at once programming the reader that his goal should be to attain pure devotion, and saying to those
who are faithless; “go away, you have no business here!” With such a good teacher our hopes for liberation are
strengthened, as he is giving us his faith. When a pure devotee gives a benediction what he is also giving is a
deepening of faith. It is our sincere prayer to always serve such a pure devotee, and we pray for his causeless mercy to
strengthen our faith and determination to serve.

Deliverance from material piety

21 “If a person is fortunate enough to have association with a saintly personality and comes to know of his
eternal identity as a servant of Lord Krsna, he easily surmounts the great obstacle of material nature. This is
very rare. It happens only because of the results of huge amounts of previous pious activities that are never to
be attained by the performance of fruitive works, which can give only insignificant results.

Commentary
Saintly persons traverse the earth just to give mercy to the fallen souls. They are full of compassion and love. In the
Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna describes how it is very rare for a person to come to devotional service, and here we are
told that one comes in contact with a great devotee by the results of huge amounts of previous pious activities. A
living entity never knows who he was in previous lives, nor the activities performed therein. Nor does he understand
the unlimited desires accumulated during previous births. If however, one has been blessed to come in contact with a
saintly person in this life, it is to be understood that such a person has desired something pure and deserves it also.
Every jiva who therefore comes in contact with one of Lord Krsna’s representatives is very special and should be
treated with respect. Furthermore, if the fortunate jiva is to be given respect, what more respect should be given to the
Lord's representative, the Lord’s spiritual ambassador! By the mercy of such a great soul the entire material creation is
reduced to the size of ‘the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print.’ Under the pure devotee’s guidance and care one can
easily cross over the ocean of nescience. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says “mac-cittah sarva-durgani mat-
prasadat tarisyasi—If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditioned life by My
grace. (Bg.18.58) Also paramount in our formula for attaining success in devotional life is compassion for other living
entities, such as the compassion shown from the pure devotee to us. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Druva Maharaja
instructs that we must attain compassion for other living entities if we are to go back to home back to Godhead:

yad bhrajamanaa sva-rucaiva sarvato

lokas trayo hy anu vibhrajanta ete
yan navrajai jantunu ye 'nanugraha
vrajanti bhadraei caranti ye 'nicam

The self effulgent Vaikuntha Planets by who’s illumination alone all the illuminating planets within this
material world give off reflected light, can not be reached by those who are not merciful to other living
entities. Only persons who constantly engage in welfare activities for other living entities can reach the
Vaikuntha planets. (SB. 4.12.36)

22. “The seekers of dry empirical knowledge understand material nature to be a place of suffering and so strive
for liberation. You are merciful to them also; You have given them the jnanakanda section of the Vedas so they
can pursue impersonal knowledge of the Absolute. Their final destination is absorption into the brahmajyoti.
The brahmajyoti is Your spiritual effulgence and is situated on the bank of the Viraja river. All the demons
killed by the Supreme Lord also end up merging with the brahmajyoti, which lies beyond the periphery of
maya. Both the empiricists and the fruitive workers are nondevotees, disinclined to serve Lord Krsna. They can
never relish the sweetness of Lord Krsna’s service.

Commentary
The Lord is merciful to everyone, he gives the jnanis and mayavadis liberation in the brahmajyoti if they so desire it.
He even awards liberation to the demons He kills while playing pastimes on the earth. Once a demon is touched by
the transcendental body of Krsna immediately all his sins disappear and he is then liberated. However, because a
demon or mayavadi does not desire to serve the Lord, instead of going to the spiritual planets he goes to the spiritual
effulgence known as the brahmajyoti. This is his reward for his part in the play. The jnani’s and mayavadi’s path is
very difficult to tread and entails a lot of hardship to the body, but because the Lord is kind He bestows their every
desire upon them.

The Vedas are split into different sections (jnanakanda, karmakanda, bhaktikanda) because people have different
desires. Devotees prefer to read topics about Sri Krsna’s pastimes with His devotees, such as those contained in the
epic stories of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Mahabharata, and the Caitanya-caritamrta. All those who are playing the
role of nondevotees; demons, empiricists, or fruitive workers are not inclined to read such topics with a devotional
attitude, and are therefore deprived of the sweetness tasted from service to the Lord. For all their troubles they are
finally promoted to merge into the spiritual effulgence, which is situated on the bank of the Viraja River lying in
between the material and spiritual worlds. To a devotee, merging into the brahmajyoti (sayuja-mukti) is akin to
committing spiritual suicide as within the totality of the Lord’s effulgence there is no possibility of service. Actually it
is not possible for a devotee to go there, as in that case he would be convinced that he is playing the role of a
nondevotee. There is a nice example of this in the Caitanya-caritamrta, and this example also illustrates just how
merciful the Lord is in His incarnation as Lord Gauranga.
It is said that Lord Krsna is more magnanimous than Lord Rama because the demons He kills receive liberation,
however in the case of Lord Gauranga the Lord does not kill the demons, but mercifully kills the demoniac trait
within. In the example of Kamsa, who was Lord Krsna’s maternal uncle in Krsna lila, the Lord rightly killed him, and
gave him liberation. In Gauranga lila Kamsa came back as the Chan Kazzi. At one point in the Chan Kazzi’s career,
he decided to stop the performance of sankirtana, thereby causing an offence at the lotus feet of the Lord. The Lord
then gathered all the devotees and went on a torchlight procession to the Kazzi’s house proclaiming that He was ready
to kill all the demons. When the Lord reached the house of Chan Kazzi, the Kazzi refused to come out. The Lord then
politely sent in a messenger to call on the Kazzi. Being kind upon the Kazzi, the Lord instructed him in the science of
Godhead and the Kazzi, referring to the Lord as his nephew, surrendered himself at the Lord’s lotus feet. Chanting the
names of Krsna and Rama the Kazzi became purified of all sinful reactions and attained the position of being a great
devotee of the Lord.

In this example we see that it was impossible for the Kazzi to be promoted to the brahmajoyti as he had changed his
role from being a non-devotee to that of a devotee. The destination of a devotee is the Supreme abode of the Lord, as
stated by the Lord Himself:

antavat tu phalam tesam

tad bhavaty alpa-medhasam
devan deva-yajo yanti
mad-bhaka yanti mam api

Men of small intelligence worship the demigods, and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who
worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach my
supreme planet. (Bg. 7.23)

Pious activities leading to devotional service

23. Sukriti, or pious activity, is of three varieties: 1) karmonmukhi or piety derived from fruitive activities, 2)
jnanonmukhi or piety derived from the cultivation of knowledge and 3) bhaktiunmukhi or piety derived from
devotional service. The first two result in enjoying the fruits of action and in liberation, respectively. However,
bhaki-unmukhi involves faith in and appreciation of pure devotional service. Such exalted piety is achieved by
unknowing performance of pure devotional service, without spiritual knowledge (ajnata-sukrti). Bhakti-
unmukhi is the most important kind of sukrti, and it leads the jiva to meet a pure, saintly devotee. By
associating with a devotee of Krsna the jiva’s faith becomes firm. Gradually he develops a taste for chanting the
Holy Name, becomes compassionate toward all beings, and is fixed in devotional service.

Commentary
Pious activities yield fruit in the form of good karma. In Sanskrit the term for this is sukriti. Of the three types of piety
listed above two of them result in enjoying the fruits of one’s labor, thus entangling one more and more in the
complexities of life. The pinnacle of such enjoyment is liberation from material bondage, but that is also not eternal
and so a complete waste of time. In the third type of pious activity the practitioner knows about devotional service
and has faith in the fact that his activities in devotion will lead him to the Supreme Person.

A jiva caught in the cycle of action and reaction may unknowingly perform an activity in the bhakti-unmukhi section
of piety, and when he has accrued enough pious activities this field, he is allowed a chance meeting with a pure
devotee of the Lord. To receive bhakti-unmukhi that person may have recited Krsna’s principle names without envy,
or they may help a devotee inadvertently, or they may have performed another service to a devotee of the Lord. For
instance, my father helps me in so many ways, and although he does not know it, he is gaining pious credits in the
form of bhakti-unmukhi (ajnata-sukrti). He may not have the evolved consciousness to voluntarily engage in Krsna
consciousness in this lifetime, but in another life he will be allowed to meet a pure devotee based on the amount of
bhakti-unmukhi he has accrued. There are many ways in which a person may perform unknown service; it may even
be that a jiva in the body of a tree, or a plant, or an animal hears the Holy Name and so begins devotional life from the
pious credits gathered from hearing the spiritual sound vibration. For this reason a devotee loudly chants the Holy
Name of the Lord in sankirtana. The culmination of accruing enough bhakti-unmukhi is that a person will receive a
chance to develop his or her bhati-latta-bhija. The seed of devotion, or faith in Krsna, will be planted in the heart of a
bhakta by the words of the pure devotee on their meeting. This will be shown in the texts to follow.

Continued association and service to a pure devotee leads one to advanced spiritual knowledge and gradually a taste
for chanting develops. From the auspicious activity of chanting, a living entity then develops compassion for other
living entities and gradually becomes fixed in devotional service to the Lord. All glories to the praiseworthy chanting
of the Lord’s Holy Name. All glories to the pure devotee of the Lord, Srila Haridasa Thakura. All glories to the most
magnanimous writer of Sri Harinama Cintamani, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

A secondary process for the karmi and jnani

24 “O Lord, You are an ocean of magnanimity and the Supreme Controller of everyone. You are always keen to
serve the conditioned souls, including the karmis (fruitive workers) and jnanis (empirical philosophers).
Thinking of their welfare You have proposed a secondary devotional path. The karmi who follows varnasrama-
dharma associates with saintly persons and executes his duties for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord Hari.
Such activities cleanse his heart and gradually destroy the desire for more fruitive work. In its place the see of
sraddha, or pure faith, is sown within his heart.

Commentary
Being an ocean of magnanimity the Lord is very kind to His servitors the jivas. Seeing that they would be in need of
assistance to get out of His most perfect trap called maya, he first arranged for the populace to be uplifted via
teachings from the Vedas. Then, seeing that they needed more help He arranged a secondary path known as
varnasrama-dharma. Following varnasrama-dharma the brahmanas (saintly persons) gained their livelihood from
teaching and the renunciants from begging arms. Thus the fruitive workers and the empirical philosophers each
receive a chance to serve the brahmanas and renunciants by providing them with their necessities. In the Srimad-
Bhagavatam tenth canto Lord Krsna simultaneously visits the house of King Bahulasva, and a poor brahmana named
Srutadev. While in the houses of His devotees He instructs both the king and the brahmana in the art of serving
saintly persons. I will repeat these instructions here as they are most informative and form a great part of a Vaisnava’s
behavior toward the highly evolved saintly teachers called brahmanas.

The Supreme Lord said: My dear brahmana, you should know that these great sages have come here
just to bless you. They travel throughout the worlds with Me, purifying them with the dust of their feet.

One can gradually become purified by seeing, touching and worshiping temple Deities, places of
pilgrimage and holy rivers. But one can attain the same result immediately simply by receiving the
glance of exalted sages.

By his very birth, a brahmana is the best of all living beings in this world, and he becomes even more
exalted when he is endowed with austerity, learning and self-satisfaction, what to speak of devotion to
Me.

Even My own four-armed form is no dearer to Me than a brahmana. Within himself a learned
brahmana comprises all the Vedas, just as within Myself I comprise all the demigods.

Ignorant of this truth, foolish people neglect and enviously offend a learned brahmana, who, being
nondifferent from Me, is their spiritual master and very self. They consider worshipable only such
obvious manifestations of divinity as My Deity form.

Because he has realized Me, a brahmana is firmly fixed in the knowledge that everything moving and
nonmoving in the universe, and also the primary elements of its creation, are all manifest forms
expanded from Me.
 Therefore you should worship these brahmana sages, O brahmana, with the same faith you have in
Me. If you do so, you will worship Me directly, which you cannot do otherwise, even with offerings of
vast riches. (SB. 10.86 51-57)

Activities that serve the saintly persons, such as giving in charity, serving their needs etc, cleanse the heart and are
never to be given up. These activities will eventually lead one to advanced spiritual knowledge, and destroy the desire
for fruitive work. In return saintly devotees give teachings in sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana and sow the seed
of devotion within the heart by giving faith in the words of the revealed scriptures. In this way the Lord kindly gave a
secondary path to follow, but as we shall see in the verses to follow, in Kali-yuga people are too unfortunate to even
follow this path.

25. “On the strength of his piety, the jnani obtains the association of pure devotees of the Lord and invokes
their inherent compassion towards himself. This helps him easily develop firm faith in the process of pure
devotional service. The association of a pure devotee is a secondary devotional path for the jnani. O Lord, You
often say; ‘My servant, the jiva, succumbs to the treachery of My illusory potency. I always know what is
beneficial for him and thus I inspire him to develop an aversion to sense enjoyment and liberation, and in its
place I grant him attraction to devotional service unto Me. I lead the jiva in the pursuit of fulfilling his material
desires and very subtly deflect his yearnings toward a secondary devotional path, and in this way strengthen
his faith and love.’

Commentary
Pure devotees are naturally compassionate on the fallen conditioned souls. If by chance a jnani has enough sukriti to
meet a saintly devotee, quickly he can progress along the path of devotion. This is the great power instilled in the pure
devotee. Otherwise even after millions of births a jnani will still be lost in the material whirlpool. The jnani at first
sees devotion as a secondary path but after a while his faith is strengthened and eventually the jnani’s material desires
are destroyed. This is all by the superior arrangement of the Lord, who arranges that by the association of saintly
persons the jnani develops an aversion to sense enjoyment and liberation. The following sloka illustrates nicely how
the saintly person’s association affects another’s consciousness for the betterment.

tebhyo namo ’stu bhava-baridhi-jirna-panka

sammagna-moksana-vicaksana-padukebhyah
krsnaeti varna-yugalam sravanena yesam
anandathur-bhavati narttitaromavrndah

I offer my respectful obeisances at the feet of that extraordinary person whose body shivers with
sublime joy and erupts with ecstasy at the sound of Krsna’s sweet name, and who is expert in
redeeming the conditioned souls engrossed in the mire of the ocean of repeated birth and death.
(Padma Purana)

26. “O Lord! You are most merciful and all this is a reflection of Your causeless mercy. Without Your loving
intervention, how could the jiva ever become purified?

Religion has deteriorated in Kali-yuga

27. “In Satya-yuga, sages who took up the process of meditation were purified by the Lord and given the
treasure of devotional service, In Treta-yuga, the same spiritual success crowned those who flawlessly
performed opulent sacrifices to satisfy the Lord, and in Dvapara-yuga You granted devotion to those who
adhered perfectly to the path of Deity worship. With the advent of Kali-yuga, O Lord, You saw the dreadful
condition of the jivas and relinquished all hope in the processes of yoga, meditation, fruitive activities, sacrifices
etc.

Commentary
In the various yugas gone by, there was hope for attaining devotional service if one rigorously followed the method
for that age and performed the yuga-dharma to perfection. However, Kali-yuga is devoid of good qualities and the
people who take birth in this age are of a similar nature. Seeing this, the Lord understood that without His help there
was no hope for the people of Kali-yuga. We should take note how emphasis is given to the words in this text which
indicate that the sadhakas who performed yoga in days of yore, ‘did so to a perfect degree.’ With this in mind we
should not be lapsidaisacle in our approach to sadhana-bhakti and think that we will be allowed entrance into krsna-
loka while we still have material contamination. This is not possible! The tenth offense to the Holy Name is to
maintain material attachments ‘of this is mine and I am this.’ According to the instructions of Bhaktivinoda Thakura
(which are to follow), one should firstly discard the ten offenses and then chant incessantly in order to rise the
consciousness to the higher levels that are needed for meditation on the spiritual world. This is the required way of
purifying our consciousness and gaining a taste for chanting. “Only devotion gives rise to devotion!”

28. “People in Kali-yuga are short-lived, always harassed by disease, and are born with a weak physique and
psyche. They are handicapped from the outset. The cultivation of varnasrama-dharma, sankhya philosophy,
yoga and empiricism will not yield the strength needed to redeem the jivas in Kali-yuga. And the secondary
sub-devotional paths of jnana and karma are extremely narrow and hazardous. The two secondary paths that
lead to the shrine of devotional service are: 1.) the association of saintly persons during spiritual discussions;
and 2.) work performed without desire for results in which everything is offered to the Supreme Lord. In Kali-
yuga both have become contaminated. Genuine saintly persons, now rarely seen, have been displaced by a
brand of crass, commercial pseudo-spiritualists. Religious activities are no longer performed for purifying the
consciousness but for mere enjoyment of the results. Therefore these secondary paths are no longer beneficial.
Even the process of Deity worship that gave the highest spiritual success in Dvapara-yuga has become impure
and degraded.

Commentary
In this text we see the influences of Kali-yuga, the age of degradation. People born in the age of Kali are handicapped
from the very start due to their weak body and mind. They are harassed in so many ways. The processes of other
yugas are not possible in this age, and the secondary process of varnashrama-dharma is also not established well
enough—therefore people in general don’t associate with saintly persons for the purpose of discussing spiritual topics.
Rather they visit Holy places simply to take bath, and avoid spiritual discourses. The path of working without fruitive
results is also no longer a norm in society as the system of spiritualism has since become commercialized and as such
people have no faith in the process. Without the help of the Lord what will become of Kali-yuga people?

In this text there is special mention of the two secondary paths as being; 1.) “Spiritual discussions heard from
sadhus.” 2.) “Working for the pleasure of the Lord without reimbursement of the fruits of one’s labor.” In the system
given by Srila Prabhupada an aspiring devotee joins a spiritual movement such as ISKCON, and, in return for
spiritual knowledge and a sanctified place to perform sadhana-bhakti, the aspiring devotee performs service to the
pure devotee (Srila Prabhupada), who was working on behalf of his spiritual master for the sankirtana movement of
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. These are the two secondary means spoke of above.

So we must now raise our awareness to this fact, and remember that it is by performing these eternal paths that we
may be uplifted. Upliftment via spiritual knowledge and blessings is the reward we receive for our service. It is not
that we can work for free for sometime and then start to charge for our services, or start to enjoy the benefits of being
a senior in Srila Prabhupada’s movement. No—this will lead to ruination of the society, and we will not progress as
individuals either. A person who is truly interested in his, or her spiritual upliftment, must serve their spiritual master
eternally and see themselves as a servant to others. This spiritual master may be Srila Prabhupada himself, or a guru
serving on behalf of Srila Prabhupada. Whatever the scenario, we must serve unconditionally. Only this will bring
about the desired results—we should not forget this. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that the bhakti portion situated
within the heart of a pure devotee is handed down into the heart of another—this is the great mystery of bhakti! But if
one is aware of the prerequisites, the fact that it happens is not such a mystery. It involves faithful unmotivated
service; this is the price one pays for receiving bhakti. And, if you want more, then remember “only devotion leads to
devotion!” Being very fallen I pray for the mercy of my eternal spiritual master that I may please him eternally. If he
is merciful he may bless me with his glance and engage me in service to his lotus feet.
29 “The jivas then tried other means to reach the final destination but were confronted with many
insurmountable obstacles. The path that directs one to the goal is the actual means, and what is gained by the
execution of the means or process is the final destination. Receiving the Lord’s mercy is the goal of human life.
But karma or jnana are not the preeminent means to achieve that highest goal, because although they bring one
close to the destination, in the end they suddenly reach a dead end and disappear.

Commentary
Karma and jnana are ultimately not the right choice as one will never receive the highest goal by these means. The
ultimate truth is simply not to be found by the paths of karma and jnana. In this text we are being warned that these
are not the right paths to choose and in the next text we see what the right path to choose is.

The prime process: chanting the Holy Name

30 “The process of chanting the Holy Name is not like that. The Lord's Holy Name is always present, therefore
it is the most efficient process. When the means becomes the end, the process becomes identical to the objective,
and thus it is easy for the jivas to attain liberation by Your mercy. In my case, O Lord, it is different: I am
extremely fallen and am much engrossed in material life. Being the rascal I am, I never chanted Your Holy
Name.”

Commentary
After explaining about the Lord, His energies, and our relationship to the Lord, and after explaining about the
different paths one can take to achieve this goal and their futility in Kali-yuga, we are now being shown the true path.
Haridasa Thakura is pointing out that chanting is the means to attain the end product of krsna-prema. When following
the path of devotion it becomes identical to the objective, or loving service to Sri Krsna. Therefore he is advocating
that in Kali-yuga this is the only path for salvation. It pleases a devotee to hear that the Holy Name is always present
along this path. When we perform continuous kirtana by chanting incessantly, we are acting from a liberated
platform. There is no need to wait to become liberated, as the means we have chosen is actually the goal itself. Even
after we return to Krsna-loka we will never stop reciting the glories of the Lord. In fact we will chant with greater
relish and more fervently. In the pastimes of the Lord we hear how Radharani is always chanting the names of Krsna
as She waits for His return from the pasturing grounds.

Insert chosen sloka about Holy Name here!

One of the qualifications of constant chanting is genuine humility and here Haridasa Thakura is giving us a hint of his
greatness by showing us his genuine humility. Standing right in front of the Supreme Lord he knows that humility is
the key to success. No one can cheat the Lord, so Haridasa’s humility is genuine. He claims to be a rascal and that he
never chanted the Lord’s Holy Name. He is indicating that he merely pronounces the letters of the alphabet—this is a
sign of genuine humility. I pray that one day I may also attain such genuine humility so that I may constantly chant
the Lord’s sweet Holy Name in great ecstasy. Hare Krsna. madhura-madhuram-etan-mangalam mangalanam. “The
Holy Name of Krsna is the highest benediction. It is sweeter than the sweetest honey.”

31 “Saying this, Srila Haridasa, the incarnation of Lord Brahma, fell at the Lord's feet with tears cascading
from his eyes and his body heaving with sighs. Only persons who appreciate Lord Hari, His devotees, and
devotional service can take this Sri Harinama Cintamani to heart.

Commentary
I secret is revealed in this statement, but we will have to wait until the fifteenth chapter to reveal this secret.
 Chapter 2
Chanting the Holy Name

All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya and Mother Sita; all glories to Srila Srivas Pandit and to all the
devotees of Lord Caitanya.

Unflinching devotion is superior

1. Srila Haridasa continued to weep in ecstatic love. Lord Gauracandra encircled him with His arms in a loving
embrace and said “O Haridasa, a devotee of your caliber is rarely found. You are well-versed in all spiritual
conclusions and you are always unaffected by maya.

2. “Taking birth in a low family and caste, you have proven to the world that Lord Krsna is not obtained
merely by amassing wealth, position, lineage or refinement. Whoever has developed unflinching faith in
unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Lord is factually superior to the demigods.

Commentary
In the life of Haridasa we see the perfect example of how we devotees born in polluted environments can attain the
highest goal, simply by following the example of his greatness. It is no accident that Lord Caitanya chose a person
who took birth in a low caste to spread the message of chanting. After all, He knew the sankirtana movement would
spread around the globe and that most people who joined the movement would be from similar or lower backgrounds.
Let it be known that the Lord is attained by loving devotional service only and not by any material qualifications! The
Lord even considers the demigods, who are his topmost employees in the material universe, to be on a lesser level
than that of a person born in an outcast family of dog-eaters, provided that person has taken up the activity of
incessant chanting and is situated on the pure platform of pure goodness. While Lord Caitanya was touring Vrndavana
the people there glorified the Lord and his Holy Name in the following way:

tomara nama suni’ haya svapaca pavana

alaukika sakti tomara na yaya kathana

Simply by hearing Your Holy Name, dog-eaters become holy saints. Your uncommon potencies cannot
be described in words. (Cc. madhya-lila 18.124)

The purport of this sloka is that any person who sincerely chants, and distributes the Lord’s Holy Name will be
infected by the uncommon potencies of the Lord. Such uncommon potencies have the power to give love of Godhead
to the sincere.

3. “You are learned in all the truths of the Holy Name of the Lord; your spiritual conduct is exemplary; and
you are an expert preacher. So, Haridasa! Kindly reveal to Me the unlimited glories of the Holy Name. Allow
me to savor your words.

Commentary
The Lord has invested His Holy Name with all types of religiosity, wealth, penance, austerities etc. The Holy Name
therefore contains many hidden truths, and although someone maybe illiterate, like Haridasa Thakura was, still he will
have knowledge of all truths given to him from the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. As Lord Gauranga Himself has
declared; “The congregational chanting of the Holy Name is the most perfect form of devotional service.” In this text
the Lord is kindly asking His devotee, who is of exemplary action and a perfect preacher, to reveal the unlimited
glories contained within the Holy Name. With a statement like this we know we are in for a treat in the coming pages.
In fact the Lord also knows this; therefore He wishes to savor Haridasa’s words. In the fifteenth chapter, Lord
Caitanya requested Haridasa to speak on the deep topic of namarasa. The question put before Haridasa in this chapter
leads up to that question being asked. Therefore, everything that is revealed by Haridasa Thakura from this point
forward should be considered as necessary education to take the inquisitive sadhaka to the point of attaining rasa via
sadhana-siddhi, or the attainment of perfection through chanting. Receiving the Lord’s mercy, we may all learn from
these wonderful instructions, as his powerful words remove the blindfolds from the eyes that are covered with the
salve of ignorance.

Symptoms of different Vaisnavas

4. “One who chants the Holy Name even once is considered a Vaisnava devotee; he should be respected by the
householders. The devotee who constantly chants Krsna’s name is a more elevated Vaisnava, for he is endowed
with all good qualities. The most advanced Vaisnava of all is he who inspires others who see him to immediately
chant the Lord’s name. When he chants the Holy Name even once, attraction to rendering continuous
devotional service to the Lord is instantly established. Kindly tell Me how the jivas can be made to chant the
Lord’s name in this manner. Please reveal to me this all-auspicious prescription.”

Commentary
It is the Lord who is speaking in this text. He is stating that a person who chants the Holy Name even once is
considered a Vaisnava devotee. The Lord is trikalajnana the one who knows past present and future; therefore He
knows that simply by uttering His name once, a person is liberated and it will only be a matter of time until he returns
to the spiritual world to continue his forgotten service in communion with the Lord. Such a person should be given
respect for this activity, for his devotional life has begun. Next, the Lord goes on to speak about the Vaisnava who
constantly chants Krsna’s name. It is said that a person bereft of Krsna consciousness has no good qualities and in
contrast a person who constantly chants is full of good qualities. Such a person’s deliverance is guaranteed to be swift,
of this there is no doubt.

The most advanced of all the Lord’s bhaktas is the uttama-adikari, who has the Lord’s potency invested in him. Such
a person deserves to be served unconditionally. A great Vaisnava like Srila Prabhupada is an uttama-adhikari. When
he chants the Lord’s name even once, people are attracted to rendering continuous devotional service to his lotus feet,
and his presence alone causes them to attentively chant the maha-mantra. Through his great mercy he makes an
unqualified mleccha qualified, and he makes an uninspired devotee rise to his feet and start dancing with great joy.
Therefore he is like a touch-stone turning sinful people into most dear devotees of the Lord. I pray that I may take
shelter under his lotus feet always.

Caitanya Mahaprabhu is wishing to know how the jivas fallen into the dark well of maya can be redeemed and
enthused to chant in a way that would qualify them to become one of the Lord’s dear-most devotees. He is requesting
Haridasa to explain about abhidheya of harinama or the means by which one can be made to chant purely. This final
statement by the Lord indicates that Krsna consciousness is a process by which anyone can become a perfected being.
All we have to do is follow the instructions given by the foremost exponent of the Holy Name, the namacarya Srila
Haridasa Thakura. He will speak now, please listen attentively.

The spiritual identity of the Holy Name

5. Srila Haridasa Thakura clasped his hands together. His eyes brimming with tears and voice choked in
spiritual love, he began his reply in soft, gently tones: “Lord Krsna’s name is like an eternal and
transcendental touchstone. A touchstone can grant all desirable objects; the touchstone of Lord Krsna’s Holy
Name can give religiosity, wealth, sense pleasure and liberation to a materialistic person. To a surrendered
devotee it offers pure love of Krsna.

Commentary
The Lord and His name are one and the same principle, therefore a devotee who is fully surrendered to the Holy
Name will receive krsna-prema by the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. The materialist who chants the Lord’s name also
receives reward, but because his desire is different, the Lord’s name rewards him differently. Such a person does not
chant the pure name and therefore does not come under the heading of being situated in suddha-sattva. In this way he
is not situated in the Lord’s cit potency, which is one hundred percent spiritual. A person chanting the Lord’s name in
anyway other than purely receives piety from the activity and as such the Lord’s name acts like a touchstone fulfilling
that person’s every desire—even though the desires may be hidden within the subconscious. If a person desires
upliftment and purification Sri Namaprabhu will grant this also. Everything is dependent on the jiva’s desire. In the
Bhagavad-gita the Lord states; ‘as they come to Me, I reward them accordingly.’ Thus, if the jiva has the correct
desire, and he begins to chant the Holy Name with sincerity, the Lord will reward him by sending along His
representative to guide the lost soul back to home, back to Godhead.

In the Caitanya-caritamrta Srila Prabhupada gives the following example of the devotee who acts like a touchstone
on the Lord’s behalf.

The madhyama-adhikari Vaisnava can awaken others to Krsna consciousness and engage them in
duties whereby they can advance. It is therefore said in the Caitanya-caritamrta (madhya-lila, Chapter
Six, verse 279): lohake yavat sparsi’ hema nahi kare tavat sparsa-mani keha cinite na pare. “One
cannot understand the value of touchstone until it turns iron into gold.” One should judge by action,
not by promises. A maha-bhagavata can turn a living entity from abominable material life to the
Lord’s service. This is the test of a maha-bhagavata. (Cc. madhya-lila 16.74)

6. “Lord Krsna and His Holy Name are identical; They are one and the same Absolute Truth, the all-inclusive
yet supremely independent form of dynamic spirituality, full of emotion, without beginning or end. Always
situated in pure goodness, the Holy Name descends to this world in the shape of letters as the complete
incarnation and embodiment of the highest sweetness: rasa.

Commentary
The Lord’s name is complete and contains everything within the manifest and unmanifest realities. He is always
independent and eternal. In fact eternality itself is contained within the Lord and His name. Eternality is His feature
known as the sandhini potency, for with this sandhini potency everything is held together eternally. From this we can
realize that because nothing is outside of Krsna, everything in all of creation is in actuality a part-of-Krsna, so
everything in totality is eternal and spiritual. In one sense then, there is nothing that is not a part of the spiritual world,
or apart from Krsna—therefore everything is spiritual, even material nature! Scriptures also confirm this fact. But
even after saying this, Krsna is still independent and separate! How is this? The view that everything is brahman, or
everything spiritual, is the mayavadi conception of reality. Lord Caitanya’s philosophy is that the Lord is at once
everything and separated eternally. “Acintya bedhabedha tattva—simultaneous oneness and difference.” We heard
earlier how Lord Caitanya and Bhaktivinoda Thakura taught that the phrase “everything is brahman” actually
emphasizes the principle that the Absolute truth (brahman) is differentiated. (Please trace back your steps to the
previous chapter and recap if you did not fully understand this point as it is an integral part of your sambandha
realization). Lord Caitanya used this teaching for Sarvabaumana Bhattacarya when converting his mayavadi mentality
into that of a devotee mentality, the Lord said; “The word ‘brahman’ indicates the complete Supreme Personality of
Godhead, who is Sri Krsna. That is the verdict of all Vedic literature.” (Cc. madhya-lila 6.147) The Lord gave
instructions in this matter as follows:

‘nirvisesa’ tanre kahe yei sruti-gana

‘prakrta’ nisedhi kare ‘aprakrta’ sthapana

Wherever there is an impersonal description in the Vedas, the Vedas mean to establish that everything
belonging to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental and free of mundane
characteristics.

ya ya srutir jalpati nirvisesam

sa sabhidhatte sa-visesam eva
 vicara-yoge sati hanta tasam
prayo baliyah sa-visesam eva

Whatever Vedic mantras describe the Absolute Truth impersonally, only prove in the end that the
Absolute Truth is a person. The Supreme Lord is understood in two features—impersonal and
personal. If one considers the Supreme Personality of Godhead in both features, he can actually
understand the Absolute Truth. He knows that the personal understanding is stronger because we see
that everything is full of variety. No one can see anything that is not full of variety.
(Cc. madhya-lila 6.141-142)

In this way, when the Vedas state that everything is brahman, or that the Lord has no hands or legs as in the apani-
pada mantras, devotees understand this to mean that the Lord has “no material hands or legs” like ours, but certainly
He has spiritual hands and legs. In fact, all the Lord’s body and senses are spiritual. With His eyes He can see
anywhere in the universe. Can material eyes do that? This simple point is very important for a devotee to understand
as it challenges our mayavadi mentality ‘that all is one,’ and establishes a firm foundation for our sambandha-jnana,
‘the fundamental understanding that the Lord is great and we are small,’ and that our relationship to Him is that of a
servant. In his reflections on sacred teachings, His Holiness Bhakti-Tirtha Swami discusses the importance of a good
sambandha understanding as follows:

Without clearly establishing our own identity and relationship with Krsna, we may as well build a house
without a foundation. We can engage all our energy in building the most gorgeous tower, but if the
ground floor and initial beams weakly totter to and fro, the seemingly gorgeous structure will simply
collapse. Without a proper understanding of sambandha, the devotee will not develop a sufficient
understanding of abhidheya and prayojana. (Reflections on sacred teachings 3)

What is sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana? Sambandha means, knowledge of the relationship between the living
entity and Krsna. Abhidheya means the process by which we can attain that goal (which is chanting the Holy Name
attentively, and serving the sankirtana movement via the nine processes of devotional service). Prayojana indicates
the urgent need to attain that goal, (the goal being; loving service to the Supreme Lord, krsna-prema). Remember the
words of this text; “Always situated in pure goodness, the Holy Name descends to this world in the shape of letters as
the complete incarnation and embodiment of the highest sweetness, rasa.” Our goal is to learn how to attentively
chant the Holy Name and in this way raise our consciousness through the stage of vaidhi-bhakti to bhava-bhakti, and
then situate ourselves in meditation on the Lord’s intimate pastimes in Vrndavana. Prema is available for the person
who learns the deep esoteric subject matters contained within the Holy Name, and acts to please the Lord out of a
deep loving connection with Him.

Although this text gives a description of the Holy Name giving the highest tresure of eternal communion in one of the
five humors, or tastes, still the devotee who is beginning has a long way to go before he removes all the anarthas that
prevent rasa from being tasted. The instructions given in Sri Harinama Cintamani are capable of taking the sincere
student to the level of apana-dasa, or the application of one’s eternal position as a kept maidservant of the Lord (or
another of the tastes). In this text we are receiving preliminary knowledge of the divine potency of the Holy Name of
the Lord so that our faith is deepend via connection with the Supreme on the level of thought. Practiacally however, a
devotee must perform heaps of sadhana-bhakti, and locking himself away from the common populace for long
periods so that he may attain deep medition on the Lord’s transcendental pastimes, he must chant with a heart full of
remore until his chanting reaches perfection. For now however, we are learning the truth about the Supremely
majestic position of the Holy Name. This information should be given paramount importance and we should realize
from this discussion that “the Holy Name of the Lord is one hundred percent spiritual and descends from Vikuntha in
the shape of letters as the complete embodiement of rasa.” This statement of Srila Haridasa Thakura is very profound
and is worth meditating on. However, the art of meditation has yet to be described by Sri Harinama Cintamani,
therefore please read on as the namacarya distributes his divine wisdom.

7. “Any object is known by four characteristic features: name, form, qualities and activities. Lord Krsna is the
Supreme Object; thus He is knowable in terms of His unlimited and eternal name, form, qualities and
pastimes. The absence of these four features in anything denies its status as an object. For example, impersonal
brahman is formless; hence it is not an object unto itself, but simply a distinctive trait of the Supreme Lord.

Commentary
Lord Sri Krsna is the Supreme objective of every living entity. In the spiritual world devotees serve the Lord via
loving exchanges. In the material world inmates serve Krsna via service to maya. Everyone wants Krsna, but people
sometimes don’t know it. His Grace, Sriman George Harrison writes about this in the introduction to the Krsna book
as follows:

Everybody is looking for Krsna. Some don’t realize that they are, but they are. Krsna is God, the
source of all that exists, the cause of all that is, was, or ever will be.
As God is unlimited He has many names. Allah-Buddha-Jehova-Rama; all are Krsna, all are
one. God is not abstract; He has both the impersonal and the personal aspects to His personality,
which is Supreme, eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge (Kb. intro).

To a sincere devotee the Lord reveals Himself in four ways, nama, rupa, guna, lila. He reveals Himself in this order
after offences have ceased, the anartha-nirvrtti stage has been traversed (to a large degree), and one has begun
meditation on the Lord’s pastimes know as bhajana. The prime benediction and instruction given by the spiritual
master is to chant the Holy Name attentively. This is primary, as form, qualities, and pastimes are revealed through the
mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. Now, how to chant this name to bring about guna, rupa, and lila is what this book is all
about.

If a devotee wants to get to know the supreme object, Sri Krsna, his course of action is to understand the attributes of
the Lord’s name, form, qualities and activities through chanting and service. When learning from the preceptor of the
Holy Name, a sincere devotee learns about the Absolute Person via chanting His name, which is non-different from
Him. As stated in this verse, impersonal brahman is formless, therefore it can never satisfy a devotee of Krsna.
Impersonal brahman can never be above Krsna, as it is merely a distinctive trait of the Supreme Person. The best
course of action for a living entity to take is to understand the supreme object via service to one who knows the
supreme object (the pure devotee of Krsna, Sri-Guru). The best form of service is to become purified of all
contamination, and the quickest way to do that is to incessantly chant the maha-mantra. This will bring about all good
fortune to the sincere.

The Holy Name is all-attractive

8. “Lord Krsna is the nondual absolute object who perfectly manifests Himself in these four features. These
features are fully potent and able to express Him in totality; they exist and are sustained by the Lord’s
sandhini (external existence) potency. They are eternal and transcendental. As Lord Krsna attracts all living
entities, similarly the Holy Name, which is nondifferent from Him, also attracts everyone.

Commentary
We are herein being told that Lord Krsna’s name, being just like Lord Krsna, attracts everyone. The name Krsna
means the all attractive One, and Lord Krsna’s Holy Name—Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare Hare
Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, is capable of attracting everyone. As we shall see by analysis of the coming
elucidations by Srila Haridasa Thakura, the problem behind our not being attracted lies in the fact that we chant
offensively. Otherwise the cintamani of Krsna’s name would transform our entire lives in seconds. This is confirmed
in the following sloka found in Caitanya-caritamrta:

nama cintamanih krsna

caitanya-rasa-vigrahah
purnah suddho nitya-mukto
‘bhinnatvan nama-naminoh
 The Holy Name of Krsna is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is
Krsna Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Krsna’s name is complete, and it is the form of all
transcendental mellows.
(Cc. madhya-lila 17.133)

Lord Krsna’s name is fully potent and capable of revealing the spiritual world to the sincere chanter, as it is non-
different from Krsna Himself. When it is chanted purely, nama descends from the spiritual world and dances on the
tongue of the chanter, causing him to feel intense ecstasy. May the Lord of my heart, who posses all fame, all good
qualities, and who is full of compassion, be merciful to me and grant me the benediction of eternal service to His
name.

Krsna’s sixty-four transcendental qualities

9. “Lord Krsna’s exquisite form is nondifferent from Him, and Krsna’s name and form are likewise identical.
Remembering and chanting Krsna’s name immediately invokes His beautiful form in the mind, and both
reside there harmoniously. Similarly, Lord Krsna’s sixty-four qualities are of an unlimited and transcendental
character.

Commentary
Lord Krsna can not be separated from His name, form, qualities, or pastimes, so when we chant His name sincerely
we begin to remember His qualities—this is a fact! From the sincere chanting of the Lord’s name, and rememberance
of the Lord’s qualities, the Lord’s form appears in our meditations. Lord Krsna’s form is herein described as being
exquisite. The use of the word exquisite is an artistic way of describing the Lord’s form. Actually words can not do
the Lord’s form justice, but there is no possibility of explaining the Lord’s transcendental attributes without the use of
metaphors and poetic descriptions. The speaker of Harinama Cintamani is a great poet and as such chooses words
that describe the beauty of the Lord in a most beautiful way. Glorifying the Lord is the intrinsic nature of a devotee,
and Srila Haridasa and Bhaktivinoda, being the topmost devotees do this perfectly. They tell us that ‘the Lord’s form
is nondifferent from Him, and remembering the Lord while chanting His name immediately invokes His beautifully
exquisite form in the mind.’ Srila Rupa Goswami is the master of poetic description and can only marvel at the poetic
metaphors used pure devotees, such as Rupa Goswami.

In his Samdarbhas Srila Jiva Goswami stresses that we need to perform smarana (remembrance of the Lord) along
with nama-kirtana. He instructs as follows:

When the mind is purified smarana is needed alongside chanting, and indeed smarana is not possible
without kirtana or japa. (Krama Samdarbha 1.5.25)

This sloka is quite informative, as it suggests that we both need to perform smarana to chant correctly but that
smarana should be performed only when the mind is purified. Therefore, in the beginning one must chant the Holy
Name loudly so that one may become purified from connection with the Holy Name. Then, at the correct time (when
a degree of purity exists) there must be the added introduction of smarana. Anylizing this sloka further, reveals that
smarana, which is one of the five levels of advancement, is not possible without kirtana or japa. The five levels of
advancement are; sravana-dasa, varana-dasa, smarana-dasa, apana-dasa, sampatti-dasa. Within the level of
smarana-dasa there are also various stages of absorption such as smarana, darana, dhyana, dhruvanusmrti, and
samadhi. These topics will be discussed in detail at a later point in this book.
In this sloka, Srila Jiva Goswami reveals that the process of remembering the pastimes of the Lord is intrinsically
linked with chanting the Lord’s Holy Names, or describing the Lord’s pastimes. This is a very important point.
Smarana is therefore not an activity of the conscious mind, as the conscious mind deals in sense perception from the
outside realities. We will return to this topic at a later stage.

By sincere attentive chanting and remembering, the Lord then manifests His form, qualities, and pastimes to His
sincere devotee. Lord Krsna has sixty-four transcendental qualities, or opulences and a discussion of these is found in
the Nectar of Devotion in detail.
10. “The sixty-four transcendental qualities of Krsna are as follows: 1) beautiful features of the entire body; 2)
marked with all auspicious characteristics; 3) extremely pleasing; 4) effulgent; 5) strong; 6) ever-youthful; 7) a
wonderful linguist; 8) truthful; 9) talks pleasingly; 10) can speak fluently in all languages; 11) highly learned;
12) highly intelligent; 13) a genius; 14) artistic; 15) extremely clever; 16) expert; 17) grateful; 18) firmly
determined; 19) an expert judge of time and circumstances; 20) sees and speaks on the authority of the Vedas;
21) pure; 22) self-controlled; 23) steadfast; 24) forbearing; 25) forgiving; 26) grave; 27) self-satisfied; 28)
possesses equilibrium; 29) magnanimous; 30) religious; 31) heroic; 32) compassionate; 33) respectful; 34)
gentle; 35) liberal; 36) shy; 37) the protector of the surrendered souls; 38) happy; 39) the well-wisher of
devotees; 40) controlled by love; 41) all-auspicious; 42) the most powerful; 43) all-famous; 44) popular; 45)
partial to devotees; 46) very attractive to all women; 47) all-worshipable; 48) all-opulent; 49) all-honorable; 50)
the supreme controller; 51) changeless; 52) all-cognizant; 53) ever-fresh; 54) possessing an eternal, blissful
spiritual body; 55) possessing all mystic perfection; 56) possessing inconceivable potency; 57)innumerable
universes are generated from His body; 58) the original source of all incarnations; 59) the giver of salvation to
His enemies; 60) the attractor of liberated souls; 61) the performer of wonderful varieties of pastimes,
especially His childhood pastimes in Vrndavana; 62) he attracts living entities all over the universes by playing
on His flute; 63) He is surrounded by devotees endowed with wonderful love of Godhead; 64) He has a
wonderful excellence of beauty that cannot be rivaled anywhere in the creation.

Commentary
There is one very nice sloka in the Srimad-Bhagavatam about the Lord’s oppulences. It was spoken by Lord Brahma.
It teaches that although it is very good to appreciate the Lord for His greatness, still with our minute senses it is not
possible to understand His glory in full. The sloka goes as follows:

jananta eva janantu

kia bahuktya na me prabho
manaso vapuno vaco
vaibhavaa tava gocarau

There are people who say, “I know everything about Krsna.” Let them think in that way. As far as I am
concerned, I do not wish to speak very much about this matter. O my Lord, let me say this much. As
far as Your opulences are concerned, they are all beyond the reach of my mind, body and words. (SB.
10.14.98)

The oppulences of Krsna are the impetus for a devotee’s attraction to Him. They are known as His udippana. To
meditate on the glories given from recalling the pastimes that Krsna enacted here on the Earth planet, one must
recount some of Krsna’s unlimited qualities. Therefore Krsna’s uppulences and glories are also called His qualities.
Krsna’s transcendental Syamasundara form, His unlimited glories, and His wonderful pastimes are all revealed
through meditation on the Holy Name, which begins with chanting aloud, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare
Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

11. “All the expansions and incarnations of the Lord are partial. Lord Brahma and Lord Siva (His qualitative
expansions) only partially display the nature of the Supreme Lord. Everything about the Supreme Lord Krsna
is infinite, eternal, unlimited and absolutely spiritual. He alone has sixty-four qualities in full, whereas His
expansions, starting from Lord Narayana to Lord Ramacandra, are ornamented with only the first sixty of His
transcendental qualities. Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, and the other demigods possess but the first fifty-five of
these qualities, and these only to a partial degree. Ordinary jivas have just the first fifty, visible in mere
fractional degrees, like small drops. Only Krsna, even amongst all His Visnu expansions, displays the pre-
eminence of being master of four exceptional spiritual qualities unique to Him alone.

Commentary
In this text emphasis is given to the fact that everything about Lord Krsna, including His name, is unlimited and
completely full to the fullest extent found anywhere. The Visnu expansions of the Lord, the demigods, and the jivas,
being different to Lord Krsna are not complete and infinite. Only Krsna is the Supreme Absolute. Krsnas tu bhagavan
syam, Krsna is the Supreme Absolute Truth, eternal and full in everything.

nityo nityanam
cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam
yo vidadhati kaman

He (Krsna) is the prime eternal among all eternals. He is the supreme living entity of all living entities,
and He alone is maintaining all life. (Katha Upanisad 2.2.13)

Sri Krsna is the original nondual personality of Godhead, and his Visnu expansions such as Lord Narayana,
Garbodhakasai Visnu, Ksiradakasai Visnu etc are but partial expansions of His expansions. The first expansion of Sri
Krsna is Sri Balarama and from Him come the catur-vyuha expansions. From Sankarsana come Karanadakasai Visnu,
Garbodhakasi Visnu, and Ksirodakasai Visnu. These expansions are known as partial manifestations of the Lord who
are in charge of the creation of the spiritual and material universes. These expansions then give rise to Lord Brahma,
Lord Siva etc, and in this way the Lord’s expansions do the work of creation and destruction. Lord Krsna Himself
does not need to create or destroy. We are informed by Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja that when the Lord kills the demons
in His pastimes of Vrndavana and Dvaraka lilas, He does so through the agency of his pastime expansions. It is not
the job of Sri Krsna to kill the demons, as He and Balarama are busy enjoying. For a detailed study of the topic of the
Lord’s expansions please read ‘Teachings of Lord Caitanya’ written by His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada.

12. “If the Lord’s qualities are compared to waves, then His pastimes mingle with these waves and continuously
form, crest and reshape themselves again. Wherever they may be enacted, either in Vaikuntha, Goloka or on
Earth in Vrndavana, they are always transcendental. Hence the Lord’s name, form, qualities and pastimes are
of the same spiritual substance.

Commentary
Nature is always in flux, whether it be spiritual nature or material nature, it is always constantly moving and never
static. Sometimes the Lord’s qualities are compared to waves, as waves are always moving. Modern science has also
categorized energy as wave-phenomena. In this text we learn that the Lord’s pastimes mingle with his qualities and
can never be separated from them. The Lord’s pastimes are an integral part of His qualities they are not separate from
Him, therefore the Lord is never alone. It is wrong to think of the Lord in that way, or to paint the Lord in that light.

The Lord’s pastimes continuously form, crest, and reshape themselves again and again; therefore they are ever-
expanding and constantly in flux, each time being enacted in a slightly different way. There is no end to the Lord’s
opulences. His pastimes occur eternally and are always spiritual. The Lord’s opulence called the cit potency manifests
everything needed for His pastimes to occur and all pastimes take place in the spiritual stratum. Lord Balarama is the
pinnacle of organizing the paraphernalia for the Lord’s pastimes, and as Sri Anantadeva He manifests everything
perfectly.

13. “The conditioned jiva in contact with the illusory material nature experiences a state of consciousness
diametrically opposed to Krsna consciousness. Because he identifies with his material body, the jiva’s name,
form, qualities and activities are all separate and different from his real spiritual self. Once he is purified of his
material contamination, these four features take on the same spiritual nature and are nondifferent from him.
But until he is purified and liberated by Lord Krsna’s grace, the jiva has to suffer the pains of false
identification. With Lord Krsna, who is Absolute and Supreme, it is different. He is never experiencing such
suffering.

Commentary
Here we see that the Thakura’s clarity of vision is excellent. He is a first class preacher, and after explaining about the
Lord as the Supreme Person expressing Himself in four features, we are now being shown the position of the
conditioned jiva in relation to Him. We must have a relative object with which we can relate our own fallen position,
so Haridasa is giving everyone the reference of the Supreme object who is perfect in every detail. So as not to cause
too much disturbance to the living entity’s false-ego, he is kindly allowing everyone to understand that we all are a
part of the same spiritual nature as our reference point (the Supreme Lord). In this way we are informed that things
can get better. He explains that because we have chosen the materialistic way of life we are in illusion, and our
consciousness, being contaminated by the inferior energy of the Lord, is causing a material body, name, qualities and
activities to form around us. These false identifications are completely opposite to, and separate from, the real self.
They are known as a perverted reflection, and are temporary, being born out of the five great elements.

Every activity in the material world leads to bondage on account of being enacted for self aggrandizement, whereas
spiritual activities, performed for the Lord's glorification, lead to freedom. Thus, material activities are diametrically
opposed to the one true reality that remains changeless. Activities and associations with matter are the cause of all
distress and as such the jiva suffers pain. Srila Prabhupada says that forgetfulness of the Supreme Lord is the cause of
pain in the material world. A conditioned living entity in the material world is therefore always fearful ( bhaya). In the
eleventh canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated; bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syat—fear is caused by our
absorption in the illusory energy (SB. 11.2.37). To change this we must seek the grace of the Lord and become one
with the desires of our objective. The Lord is never conditioned by material nature for He is its controller, in this way
He never suffers from any kind of illusion. The Lord’s body is sat, cit, ananda, and being a part of the Lord’s spiritual
body, the spirit soul is also known as sat, cit, ananda. Being forgetful of his eternal position as a servant of the Lord,
the jiva takes birth in the material world and becomes illusioned by the three modes of nature, which comprise his
gross and subtle body. In this way he takes birth and becomes asat as opposed to sat. Being very kind the Lord allows
the jiva to have miniscule amounts of bliss (ahlada) and knowledge (samvit) inherent within his physical body. To the
degree that the embodied jiva has risen through the different levels of consciousness, his body will allow him to
access this knowledge and bliss. In this way the jiva progresses through the 8,400000.00 species of life, until he
finally becomes a devotee of the Lord and begins to access the eternal via connection with the Holy Name. Now that
you have received this knowledge, don’t waste it! Please understand just how fortunate you are to have received the
mercy of the Holy Name, and from this day forth embark on a new beginning where you place the attentive chanting
of the Holy Name as paramount importance in your life.

14. “Of the four characteristic features (name, form, qualities and activities), the Lord's Holy Name is the
original, because it awards cognition of the other three. Therefore chanting the Holy Name is the prime
religious activity of a Vaisnava. From the Holy Name gradually blossom the Lord’s form, qualities and
pastimes. The entire panorama of Lord Krsna’s pastimes is present in the Holy Name. You have personally
declared that Your name is the highest Absolute Truth.

Commentary
We have since learned that the entire panorama of Lord Krsna’s opulences is contained within His name, and now we
are learning that the Lord's name is the origin of everything. We are told that the Holy Name awards cognition of
rupa, guna, and lila, so to chant the Holy Name perfectly is our objective. The Lord's Holy Name is a living force (the
Supreme living-force), and when we understand this correctly we will not be inattentive to the name. Sri Namaprabhu
will then descend from Goloka Vrndavana and dance on our tongue, causing us to act like madmen. His Divine Grace
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has a very interesting thing to say about chanting and I would like to discuss
his ideals on proper chanting at this point so that we may be better helped in our attempts at chanting suddha-nama.
Chanting suddha-nama will engender the chanter to enter into the spiritual stratum and along the way the Lord’s Holy
Name will award cognition of the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s authoritive views on
chanting japa are as follows:

Proper japa chanting is possible only in the mind. Then the chanter will achieve the desired perfection.
Chanting audibly with lip movements is kirtana; it is more effective than japa and brings about the
greatest benefit to the hearer. Sankirtana means ‘complete kirtana,’ for it is unnecessary to perform any
other devotional activities if one performs sankirtana. Partial or imperfect kirtana of Lord Krsna’s name is
unable to cause the optimum spiritual change in the living entities. This will lead them to doubt the
potency of kirtana. Therefore, let the complete and perfect chanting of Krsna’s Holy Name, or nama-
sankirtana, be victorious. (Ss. p.12)
It may be wise to spend some time to discuss this most powerful statement by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Thakura. In this text of Sri Harinama Cintamani, Srila Haridasa Thakura says; ‘Therefore chanting the Holy Name is
the prime religious activity of a Vaisnava.’ When we chant correctly we are reinstated in our transcendental eternal
position and have no more fear or pain, so to chant correctly is our prayojana, urgent need. According to Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, ‘proper japa is only possible within the mind.’ Srila Jiva Goswami also points out
‘that we should perform smarana (remembrance of Krsna’s pastimes) alongside japa.’ From this we could therefore
surmise that proper chanting “is done within the mind while remembering Krsna’s name, form, qualities, and eternal
pastimes.” Chanting audibly is more effective than japa because we can hear, and also others who hear, will become
purified. This instruction is also given by Srila Prabhupada, says; ‘we should simply try to hear the Holy Name and
everything will unfold.’ Chanting audibly is called kirtana.

The word sankirtana is herein described as ‘complete kirtana.’ The reason for this translation is that the word ‘san’ or
complete, means that it is unnecessary to perform any other devotional activities if one performs san-kirtana,
therefore sankirtana means to perform complete kirtana. We are given this instruction on sankirtana from Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta’s commentary on Lord Caitanya’s first verse of the Sri Siksastaka. “param vijayate Sri Krsna
sankirtanam—Let there be all glories to the sankirtana of Sri Krsna’s Holy Name. In this verse the Lord is stating that
all perfection will be attained via the performance of sankirtana because it is complete within and of itself, and needs
nothing else. It is therefore param or the topmost.

Also within this commentary, we are warned by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that imperfect chanting will not cause
the optimum change in living entities, the optimum change being krsna-prema. Therefore imperfect chanting is not
sankirtana, but a mere semblance of it. This is quite understandable as imperfect chanting has also been named
namaparadha, or namabhasa chanting (a faint glimmer of real chanting). Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
alerts us to the fact that imperfect kirtana is not sankirtana and will cause the living entity to doubt the potency of
kirtana, or the audible chanting of the Lord's Holy Name. Acaryas come to give perfect instructions and it is our duty
to clearly see what it is that they are explaining. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, in translating Lord Caitanya’s Sri
Siksastakam prayers therefore says that all victory will come about when one performs complete kirtana without
offenses (san-kirtana). Sri Harinama Cintamani is a book that will be about for the rest of the golden age, and will act
as the guide for everyone who is seeking to fully understand the glories and intricacies of chanting the Holy Name. It
has been quoted that one should endeavor with faith and try to attain a full understanding in the esoteric subject matter
of Krsna’s pastimes. Therefore, with this in mind it would be an intelligent decision to stop all offenses if one wishes
to perform sankirtana, as described by the acarya, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

Now, to go to another point that was first raised by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that ‘proper japa is possible only in the
mind,’ we should understand that our japa periods are very sacred times. Only a fool wastes such sacred times and
rushes his rounds just to finish them and get them out of the way. This is kanistha mentality. And as for the person
who can’t even finish his rounds; ‘it is considered that he is in a diseased condition.’ The person who chants
namaparadha will never achieve Krsna. Only when one understands that proper japa is only possible in the mind can
one understand the meaning of this statement by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. We will go back to this topic later in the
book when we have gained further insight into perfect chanting. For success one must therefore read the rest of this
book, Sri Harinama Cintamani, and follow very carefully the instructions given by the namacarya Srila Haridasa
Thakura, and by the author Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. When one is satisfied with the knowledge one has attained,
one must seek out that teacher who can take you through the levels of anartha-nirvrtti, and situate you in chanting the
pure name (suddha-nama).

To chant suddha-nama takes time and it involves removing oneself from the common populace for a number of years
until one has mastered the art of attentive chanting. For this reason ISEKC is establishing surroundings in which the
aspiring sadhaka can freely perform his bhajana-kriya, and raise his consciousness through the stage of
namaparadha, to namabhasa, to namaruci, and eventually to suddha-nama. The place set aside for this is called
“Caitanya Puri” and this sacred place is situated in Sri Godarumavipa Island in Sri Mayapur dhama, the birth place
of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The perfection of attaining the highest Absolute truth can only be found in Sri Krsna’s
Holy Name, this is declared by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself.
Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila Sanatana Goswami have both indicated that devotional service can best be performed
from the mode of goodness with enthusiasm, confidence and patients ‘utsahan niscirad dirat.’ It therefore follows that
a sheltered place, congenial for the practice of sadhana bhakti is most important in the formula for success. The mind
is rather like a pond where endless desires rise from the depths, just like bubbles rise from the bottom of a river. When
the water of the mind is calmed the dirt of material contamination can sink to the bottom and not exert its gross
influence upon the living entity. While remaining in this calm state (found within the mode of goodness) the Holy
Name purifies the river of desires that dwell within and which act to cover the mirror of the heart. Should we care to
constantly mix with non-devotees before our minds have received deep purification, we will again become
contaminated by the unlimited desires that stem from association with the temporary. For this reason sages advocate
that we should practice hari-bhajana in the association of devotees, in a place of Lord Krsna’s pastimes, while serving
under the guidance of a pure representative of the Lord. This is the prime religious activity of a Vaisnava. Please take
advantage of what we are offering you!

Two spiritual objects in this world

15. “This material nature has nothing more superior to offer than the Holy Name. The Holy Name is the most
precious treasure in the Lord’s storehouse. The jiva and the Holy Name are the only two supra-mundane
objects in this material universe; everything else is inert matter. The jiva is living here in a conditioned state of
consciousness due to the Lord’s will. The jiva initially was the only spiritual presence here. We have been
counted amongst the jivas, or the Lord’s separated parts and parcels.

Commentary
Seeing the inhabitants of vraja-bhumi without a hope for salvation, Lord Krsna became compassionate toward them.
He expanded Himself, and, taking on the mood of Radharani He became Gauranga Mahaprabhu. As Sri Advaita
Gosai, Nityananda, Gadadhara, Srivas Pandita, and Gauranga, the Lord descended to the earth to enact His pastimes
as the Panca-tattva. He is so merciful that He brought along with Him, His very own Holy Name, and gave the power
of purification within that name, so that all spirit souls of Kali-yuga could access this connection with Him.

Advaita and Haridasa loudly called on the Lord to descend, and so He mercifully came to save us. “Except for You
my Lord, who can save the unfortunate inhabitants of Kali-yuga?” When Haridasa stayed with Advaita Acarya, both
Advaita and Haridasa went to the bank of the Ganges, performed puja, and with their love attempted to drag the Lord
down to earth. Their loud cries were heard all the way up to the spiritual world. Who is more compassionate than the
Lord to enact such amazingly sweet pastimes just to save the fallen souls, via the spreading of His Holy Name—
golokera prema-dhana harinama sankirtana. A description of the Lord is found in the Caitanya-caritamrta as
follows: (we have reversed the order for your meditation and pleasure).

113
jagat-mangala tanra krsna-caitanya-nama
nama, rupa, guna tanra, saba-anupama

His name, Krsna Caitanya, is all-auspicious to the world. Everything about Him-His name, form, and
qualities are unparalleled.

112
ksane nace, hase, gaya, karaye krandana
ksane huhunkara kare, simhera garjana

Sometimes He dances, laughs, sings and cries, and sometimes He roars like a lion.

111
nirantara krsna-nama jihva tanra gaya
dui-netre asru vahe ganga-dhara-praya
 His tongue is always chanting the Holy Name of Krsna, and from His eyes tears incessantly fall like
the flowing Ganges.

109
taha deki ’jnana haya-ei narayana
yei tanre dekhe, kare krsna-sankirtana

When one sees all these features, one takes Him to be Narayana Himself. Whoever sees Him
immediately begins to chant the Holy Name of Krsna.
(Cc. madhya-lila Chapter 17)

Now, on a slightly more sober note, we will bring your attention to the teaching in this text that explains that the jiva
is here in the material world by the will of the Lord. Upon hearing this one should feel very sad and full of remorse.
That heart who does not cry-out upon hearing this information is steel-framed and deserves to be kept in prison for
eternity. However, that faithful jiva, who has learned the error of his ways, and who truly feels unreserved hatred for
his own selfish attitude, is qualified to pray to the Lord in the following manner. “My dear Lord, what have I done to
You, to cause You to act in such a way toward Me. For this activity, I am ashamed and truly sorry! I bow my head
before You and through myself at Your lotus feet. Please punish me if you wish. Keep me here in this rotten hell of
material existence for eternity if that will make You happy, but dear Lord, please don’t take away Your Holy Name for
this is more precious to me than my very life.” In this way the fallen soul may again attempt to please the Lord. Let it
be known that material nature is inferior to the spiritual jiva! The inferior can never cover the superior, except on the
will of the Lord. Knowing this, one’s path is now open. One may attempt to please the master by sincerely chanting
His Holy Names, just as a wife obeys the orders of her husband!

Principle and secondary Holy Names

16. “The Holy Name can be categorized into two types; principal and secondary. By taking shelter of the
principal names of the Lord, the jiva obtains the essence of spiritual life. The principal names of Lord Krsna
describe His transcendental pastimes and contain all of the Lord’s spiritual excellences. They are, for example;
Govinda, Gopala, Rama, Sri Nandanadana, Radhanatha, Hari, Yasomati-Pranadhana, Madana-Mohhana,
Syamasundara, Madhava, Gopinatha, Brajagopala, Rakhala, Yadhava etc. Anyone who chants these names of
the Lord, which depict His eternal pastimes, can attain the Lord’s supreme abode.

Commentary
All scriptures advocate that devotional service to the Supreme Lord is the ultimate goal of life. This is the essence of
the Bhagavad-gita and every other scripture. Now, to realize this, the Lord has kindly manifested Himself in His form
as the Holy Name. We are now being informed that this name is of two types, principle and secondary. By chanting
the principle names of the Lord (which are those names that portray one of the Lord’s intimate pastimes) we can
achieve the pinnacle of krsna-prema. This is because the Lord and His names are one and the same. Names that
describe His conjugal loving mood give the result in that flavor, which is love of Godhead. The process to attain this
love of Godhead is described in the Caitanya-caritamrta as follows:

krsna-mantra haite habe samsara-mocana

krsna-nama haite pabe krsnera carana

Simply by chanting the Holy Name of Krsna one can obtain freedom from material existence. Indeed,
simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra one will be able to see the lotus feet of the Lord.

nama vinu kali-kale nahi ara dharma

sarva-mantra-sara nama, ei sastra-marma

In this Age of Kali there is no religious principle other than the chanting of the Holy Name, which is
the essence of all Vedic hymns. This is the purport of all scriptures. (Cc. adi-lila 7.73-7.74)
If on the other hand, we were to chant the Lord's secondary names, which are those describing an activity of the Lord
that is not in complete fullness, such as the Creator, Maintainer, Supersoul etc, we would get a result that is in accord
with that mood. Therefore, because such names are incomplete we would not get the complete perfection of krsna-
prema.

The maha-mantra, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
contains sixteen names of Krsna and Radha that convey the Lord’s intimate conjugal pastimes in Vrndavana.
Therefore to chant the maha-mantra perfectly, qualifies the chanter to enter into the Lord’s intimate pastimes in Sri
Vrndavana Dhama. This fact is substantiated in this verse by the words “By taking shelter of the principal names of
the Lord, the jiva obtains the essence of spiritual life.” One may ask, what is the essence of spiritual life? One may
answer krsna-prema.

We have since learned that it is only by sankirtana, complete kirtana, that we get the complete benediction of krsna-
prema. If we decide to worship the Lord in a form other than the words expressed in the maha-mantra, we may
receive another benediction such as a different end point, or maybe impersonal liberation or another result derived
from piety. To attain the Lord's abode we must therefore chant the Lord's principle names; Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, with full attention and love, all the time
crying out for His compassion and mercy. The following is written in the Caitanya-caritamrta about the glories of the
Holy Name: “My Lord, it is possible for one to be immediately cleansed from all material contaminations just by
seeing You. What to speak of beholding You in person, merely by hearing Your Lordship’s Holy Name but once, even
candelas (the lowest of men) are freed from all material contamination.” In another place Lord Caitanya tells a
mayavadi sannyasi that the only understanding He knows the Holy Name to be is that the Holy Name means; “Krsna
the cowherd boy named Samasundara or Yashodanandana.” In other words the only meaning for the maha-mantra is
the intimate pastimes of Sri Krsna and His associates in Krsna’s vraja mood. This is the Holy Name proper!

Secondary names and their symptoms

17. “The Vedas address the Lord with names that characterize His affiliation with the material nature. These
are His secondary names, e.g. Creator, Supersoul, Brahman, maintainer and annihilator of the world,
Yajnesvara, Hara, etc. Such names of the Lord are invoked by those pursuing fruitive activities and empirical
knowledge. In keeping with the Vedic directions, the chanting of such names of the Lord will succeed in giving
one piety and liberation. However, the most consequential result of chanting the Lord’s names—love of
Godhead—is to be attained only by saintly souls who invoke the principal names of Krsna.

The pure name and namabhasa

18. “If the Holy Name is chanted just once, though impurely, or if it is simply heard, the sound penetrating
within, then the living entity is immediately liberated, regardless of his high or low caste. This is a scriptural
fact. And beyond this, when the Holy Name is chanted in the clearing stage (namabhasa—the stage when
impurities are swept from the heart of the chanter), then the highest goal is attained after some delay. All the
other auspicious and pious results, including liberation, can be quite easily achieved, but the attainment of love
of Godhead is suspended for a while. In the clearing stage of chanting the jiva is absolved of all sins, and by
following this path he gradually reaches the highest stage of chanting: suddha-nama or the pure name. One
obtains love of Krsna only after reaching this stage of pure chanting. When namabhasa is complete, all sins and
anarthas (unwanted desires in the heart) are dissipated, and the devotee chants purely. Then suddha-nama
offers the devotee the highest spiritual success: love of Krsna.

Commentary
We are now beginning to receive the real treasures of Sri Harinama Cintamani, confidential knowledge of the glories
of the Holy Name. So powerful and purifying is the name that it will liberate even the person who hears it! For the
reason of hearing the name himself, and uplifting the surrounding living entities who may also hear the name, the
devotee loudly chants Sri Krsna’s name in great ecstasy. The fact that everyone who hears the name attains liberation
gives testimony to the Supreme potency of the name. This fact is written in scriptures, and has been substantiated by
the story of Gopala Chakravarti and Srila Haridasa Thakura. The stage of namabhasa chanting, or the clearing stage,
although considered merely the shadow of chanting and not the real name, is still very important for devotees for it
indicates that it is only a matter of time before the pure name is chanted. The stage of namabhasa chanting is above
the offensive stage, and on this level the sadhaka’s faith is fixed. He is chanting while trying to avoid offenses and this
mood brings about only goodness in his heart. The namabhasa stage is traversed when one discards the ten offenses
and chants incessantly—this should be understood clearly! By following this process one can become qualified to
chant suddha-nama which comes sometime after sri-nama has absolved all the sadhaka’s sins. Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura writes about the stages of chanting in the following way:

After submissive hearing, the process of chanting begins, and gradually, as his original nature becomes
dominant the spiritualized jiva triumphs over the illusory energy, maya. This briefly is the sublime
effect of chanting the Lord's Holy Name, for chanting alone cleanses the heart. (Ss. p.6)

In this way, by giving up all sinful habits while chanting in the mood of surrender, one can traverse the stage of
namabhasa chanting. Pure love of Godhead is suspended as long as there are offenses in the devotee’s life, and if the
offenses become too severe the sadhaka will not be able to understand the finer points in spiritual life. Due to offenses
a sadhaka may think; “I have heard my spiritual master telling me these stories about Krsna so many times, and I
have heard this teaching and that teaching over and over by so many devotees, and still I am not rolling in the ground
in complete ecstasy. Therefore, what is going on here?”

In contrast to this we hear how Rupa Goswami and others would recite just one sloka and the devotees od Caitanya
Mahaprabhu would loose external consciousness. So what is missing in the life of a devotee who does not feel such
ecstasy? The answer is given in this text. ‘Love of Godhead is suspended as long as there are offenses in the body.’ By
this, one can ascertain that as long as there are offenses being committed a devotee is simply going around in circles,
or at best that he takes a few steps forward and then a few steps back. Once a devotee becomes serious however, and
tries very hard to avoid all offenses, the Lord from within gives him the intelligence by which the devotee can reach
Him. Bhagavad-gita states the following in this regard:

tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they
can come to me. (Bg. 10.10)

To explain this verse a little Srila Prabhupada states that buddhi-yoga means intelligent action or that one must use the
intelligence to control the mind and thereby choose to accept things favorable for devotional service, and perform
actions that deserve to be performed (pravrittim). In this way, when one is constantly serving the Lord with devotion
he will no longer be committing offenses to the Holy Name or to the Lord’s devotees in general. When the Lord in the
heart (caitya-guru) sees this, the Lord will do as He promises, and give the intelligence to understand the finer topics
in spiritual life, which are to be understood only through tasting the mellows of rasa. Krsna-rasa or gauranga-rasa
can only be understood by tasting the sweet mellows of devotion—that is krsna-prema. This text explains that
chanting suddha-namma offers the benediction of krsna-prema. Therefore, begin by chanting attentively. Give up all
your sins and simply chant and dance in ecstasy. This will scare away the birds of sin as they fly out of the heart that
has been infested with premabhakti.

Vyavadhana or disruption causes offense

19. “Chanting should be free from any form of disruption because this will result in offenses against the Holy
Name, which in turn pose an insurmountable obstacle on the path to success. Vyavadhana, or disruption, is of
two kinds. The first type is known as varnavyavadhan or disruption in the syllables. For example, in the Bengali
word hathikari, the first syllable ha and the last syllable ri can be put together to give Hari, a name of Krsna.
But because the syllables thika are inserted in the middle, the repetition of hathikari will not give the actual
benefit of chanting the Holy Name, i.e. krsna-prema. Yet the Islamic word haram is not perverted by such
disruption of the syllables or varnavyavadhana. In the word haram, the syllables comprising the Holy Name
Ram are uninterrupted; hence, speaking ‘haram’ gives liberation because it is namabhasa.

Commentary
Haridasa is now bringing our awareness to something that can lead to an offense being committed. If we follow the
instructions of the acarya in this text, we can avoid the offense of vyavadhana or disruption. In the first type of
vyavadhana that we are being made aware of, we see that the name of the Lord may incidentally be spoken as a
separated part of a word and this may lead to the Lord kindly granting liberation, but it will not lead to krsna-prema.
Only the principle names chanted purely will give that desired result.

20. “The second type of vyavadhana is called tattvavyavadhana or disruption in the philosophy or conclusions.
This is a very heinous offense. Lord Krsna’s name and Lord Krsna Himself are nondifferent. But someone who
is polluted by the mayavadi philosophy imagines them as two dissimilar entities. Such offensive conclusions will
totally destroy his spiritual life; it is clearly against the Vedic teachings. It is impossible to obtain krsna-prema
from such chanting.

Commentary
From this text we can understand about a serious danger, therefore we should never allow our understandings to
become polluted by mayavadi philosophy. We should also be on guard to the tricks of the mind and remain humble in
our attitudes if a senior is correcting our behavior in the case of tattvavyavadhana (disruption in the philosophy). If a
devotee allows himself or herself to mix with non-devotees at school, work, or in general, it is possible that some
influences might rub-off on the devotee whose philosophical understanding is not very advanced. We have seen this
practically within our temples. The unfortunate thing is that one who is neophyte believes that he, or she, is on a
higher platform than they actually are, as the false-ego naturally dictates this to them. The final outcome is
tattvavyavadhana, or disruption in philosophic conclusions of the Vaisnava teachings. To prevent such vyavadhana,
good schooling is needed for our students of Krsna consciousness. The result of misguided conclusions in philosophy
is that the students do not move forward toward their goal, even if they chant millions of rounds. Therefore I say to
you leaders—be compassionate to those beneath you and attentively school your dependents properly in the science
of Krsna consciousness! What is the use in making five devotees per year, only to loose those people two years later?
If you hear these simple words that are spoken from the heart, and act accordingly, you will receive the highest reward
from our Father, for He is very compassionate and favorably disposed to those who explain the supreme secret of
devotional service to His devotees. And to those who sincerely serve and learn from the leaders the science of
vyavadhana, the Lord awards the understanding by which they can come to Him.

ya idam paramam guhyam

mad-bhaktesv abhidhasyati
bhaktim mayi param krtva
mam evaisyaty asamsayah

For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at
the end he will come back to Me. (Bg. 18.68)

The conclusion in Vaisnava philosophy is man-mana bhava mad-bhakto, and sarva-dharman parityajya. “Always
think of Me, become My devotee.” And, “abandon all varieties of religion and surrender unto Me.” By spreading
these conclusions of sastra you will all become dear to the Lord of this there is no doubt, but to understand these
conclusions you must become a humble servant of the servant of Sri Namaprabhu. The Holy Name is the path to
comprehending the esoteric matters contained in scripture. No amount of bhakti-sastri, or bhakti-vibhava courses can
award you with what the Holy Name can award you with. Please therefore, understand that the science of Krsna
consciousness lies not without, but within!
21. “The devotee who chants Krsna’s name purely, free from both the vyavadhana offenses, is to be considered
a very elevated Vaisnava. He must be worshiped with great care and affection.

When anartha is destroyed, the pure name appears

22. “Anyone wanting to attain the highest spiritual success of chanting purely must approach a bona fide
spiritual master and serve him sincerely with care. Gradually, as all the anarthas in the heart are destroyed, the
transcendental name of Krsna appears and dances on the tongue of the devotee. The devotee must relish the
Holy Name, now nectarean in taste, at every moment. Thus spiritually intoxicated, the devotee likewise dances,
and at that moment the ecstasy of love of Godhead also enters dancing into a devotee’s heart. The entire world
falls at his feet and maya runs away.

Commentary
In a very poetic way we are shown the most important part of our formula for attaining success. In several places in
the Bhagavatam Lord Krsna gives stress to the brahmanas. He says; “They are My very self.” Of course He is not
talking about just anyone who calls themselves a brahmana, no! He is talking about a Vaisnava brahmana, or the
spiritual master. Although it is also true that a spiritual master does not have to come from the brahmana caste. The
reason why Sri Krsna is so favorable toward the Vaisnava brahamana is because he is the person who carries the Lord
within his heart, and he is the person who is authorized by Krsna to give Krsna. With the guidance and blessings of a
bona fide spiritual master, gradually the student-disciple will rise through the stages of anartha-nirvrtti until all the
unwanted desires in his heart are completely destroyed. Next the transcendental name of Krsna appears and dances on
his tongue. The Holy Name, when chanted attentively, becomes more and more nectarean and causes ecstatic
symptoms to arise in the devotee’s body. Tasting various anubhavas causes the devotee to make noises as his heart
experiences the emotions connected to the pastime he is relishing. This causes him to feel ecstatic, and tears stream
forth from his eyes. The Lord is there. He is within His name and we can feel Him when we chant. Becoming
spiritually surcharged the devotee forgets the material world, and by the grace of his spiritual master, enters into
Krsna’s pastimes. Such is the glory of chanting one’s rounds attentively. For this and only this can lead one upwards
towards the goal. Understanding this and acting accordingly is called the abhidheya of bhajana, or the means by
which one can attain success. The Srimad-Bhagavatam nicely describes the process of attaining perfection in one’s
chanting as follows:

evam-vratah sva-priya-nama-kirtya
jatanurago druta-citta uCcaih
hasaty atho roditi rauti gayaty
unmade-van nrtyati loka-bahyah

By chanting the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord, one comes to the stage of love of Godhead. Then the
devotee is fixed in his vow as an eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much
attached to a particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heat melts with
ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly, cries or shouts. Sometimes he sings and dances like a madman, for
he is indifferent to public opinion. (SB. 11.2.40)

The Holy Name is omnipotent

23. “The Supreme Lord invested all His potencies in His transcendental name and offered it to the living
entities. One who has sufficient faith in the Holy Name is eligible to chant it. One who chants Lord Krsna’s
name is properly executing his prescribed duties. The Holy Name is so potent that chanting is not dependent on
conditions of time, place, rules, cleanliness, etc. Pious activities like giving in charity, performing sacrifices and
ablutions, and the chanting of Vedic mantras are all regulated by stringent rules. But the only prerequisite for
chanting the Holy Name is faith. One who takes shelter of the Holy Name with unflinching faith will attain all
perfection. The jiva in Kali-yuga must become free from deceit, enroll himself as a member in Lord Krsna’s
family of devotees, and continuously chant the Holy Name.
Commentary
This text is a veritable goldmine. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has brought our attention to the fact that the price one
must pay for chanting Krsna’s name purely is faith! Uncompromising, unrelenting faith—faith that the Lord will save
me, faith that the Lord will protect me, faith that I need not perform any other social or economic work, other than
working to keep the body and soul together for the purpose of chanting. Srila Rupa Goswami explains that we need to
accept only those things favorable for devotional service and avoid those that are not. One should know that Krsna
will protect him and should not overly worry about the necessities of the body. He should consider himself helpless
without the Lord, and in this way one’s progress is guaranteed.

In this text we learn that chanting is not like the processes of karma and jnana, or any other Vedic sacrifice, for it does
not rely on time place and circumstance. One can chant anywhere anytime in any position, either lying down or
unclean, anyone can still chant and derive results. Sri Namaprabhu is so kind that He will even remain on the lips of a
sinner as he is committing a sin, and purify him as well, as long as he is not sinning while thinking that the name will
purify him. If someone is chanting while commiting any of the ten namaparadhas it is not the name, but merely the
sound vibration of the material letters of the alphabet coming out. The Holy Name of the Lord is one hundred percent
spiritual, and can never be contaminated by material nature, therefore chanting the Holy Name is not dependent on
any external formalities such as cleanliness etc. Both the Lord’s Holy Name and the pure jiva are spiritual; therefore
they may contact each other via pure desire. It is said that the Lord never comes in contact with the inferior material
energy. Knowing this, we can assume that the pure jiva is contacting the Lord via sabdha-brahman, or spiritual sound
vibration, and this pure sound vibration, which is none other than the Lord Himself, acts to purify the contaminated
desires of the jiva who is bound by the ropes of illusion. In this way the Lord frees the conditioned living entity by
removing his polluted desires at the root. Haridasa Thakura recommends that we chant continuously and attentively.
Now please hear what Lord Caitanya has said about chanting.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
prabhu kahe—kahilan ei mahamantra
iha japa giya sabe kariya nirbandha
iha haite sarba-siddhi haibe sabara
sarva-ksana bala ’ithe bidhi nahi ara

Lord Caitanya said: I am giving you this maha-mantra, go and chant it with sincere enthusiasm. By
chanting this mantra you receive all the perfections of life, so continue to chant incessantly, for there
are no rules and regulations governing the chanting of the maha-mantra. (Cb. 23.76-77)

The Supreme Lord invested all His potencies in His transcendental name and offered it to the living entities. Thus He
gave the above instructions to His devotees. We should try to understand clearly those instructions. The Lord's name
is non-different from the Lord Himself and therefore transcendental to material nature. The Lord can never be covered
by material nature. Understanding this how is it possible to chant the Holy Name and not become purified? Very soon
in Sri Harinama Cintamani we will be given instructions on anarthas that cause a cloud to cover our perception.
These anarthas act as a barrier to prevent the jiva from understanding that the Lord is personally with us when we
chant His name. If we understood this, we would do as He requests and chant with sincere enthusiasm.

It is said that the jiva never leaves the spiritual world, but merely falls asleep. Now, when we chant from our very
being, we are with the Lord. He is His name, and we are in the spiritual world. All we have to do is open our eyes to
the spiritual world around us and we will see the Lord—the Lord’s Syamasundara form right before our eyes. The
Lord says “chant with sincere enthusiasm, by chanting you will receive all perfections of life.” What are those
perfections? They are stated in the first sloka of Sri Siksastakam “param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam.” Let the
sankirtana, the chanting of the Lord's Holy Names, be victorious. That victory is krsna-prema, and this is being given
out freely by Sri Gaurasundara. He says “iha japa giya sabe kariya nirbandha.” You should chant a fixed number of
rounds each day. That number He gives is nirbandha ‘sixty-four’ rounds. In Sanskrit four rounds are called one
granti, and sixteen grantis is nirbandha or sixty-four. So Lord Caitanya is prescribing a fixed number of sixty-four
rounds per day, and He says they should be chanted sincerely with enthusiasm. There is a reason for this as will be
made known soon. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that we should follow in the footsteps of the saintly devotees who
have attained perfection through chanting. And the Srimad-Bhagavatam states; “constant chanting of the Holy Name
after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all.”

One of the reasons we have been prescribed sixty-four rounds by Lord Caitanya is because this number will give the
necessary purification that we need, and it will take up a specific amount of time per day, thereby keeping us out of
trouble. It is also a difficult number to chant if you are inattentive. Srila Prabhupada said that a devotee should think
of Krsna, chant His glories, and work for Him twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, only the serious will chant such an
amount, although everyone is eligible. This is called natural selection! Those who are ready, and wish to chant, may
chant.

As the Lord is giving Himself, and He has invested everything in His most powerful name He requests but one thing
from us, ‘sincerity.’ Therefore our sincerity is tested through various means, including our chanting. This testing, or
examining by the Lord, enables a devotee to move through the stages of chanting to the stage called nistha
(steadiness). At this stage, the devotee has been examined and found to be seriously on his way. Such a devotee’s faith
in the Lord is firm and he has proved this via his examinations. Passing those exams is the key to advancement, and
by advancement on desires to chant all the more, therefore sixty-four rounds is the magic number to take on those
examinations and pass them with ease. The result of chanting nirbandha (sixty-four rounds) is described in the
Caitanya-bhagavata as follows:

prabhu bale, jana, laksesvara bali kare?

prati-dina laksa-nama ye grahana kare

The Lord replied: Do you know who is a laksesvara? He is someone who chants one lackh, or one
hundred thousand Holy Names everyday. I call such a person a laksesvara. I only take meals in that
person's house, no one else. (Cb. 9.121-2)

At this point some people may wish to pose a question based on the fact that Srila Prabhupada set the amount of
rounds to chant per day as sixteen. But, as we shall discuss later in this text, this number is set as the minimum
needed. ‘Unlimited chanting’ was Prabhupada’s further instruction. That instruction, and the instruction of Lord
Caitanya, is open for all to take. When we wish to attain the highest reward in the entire creation, and we are the most
sinful of all sinners, is it not fair that an aspiring devotee surrenders his time to the Holy Name, and passes a few tests
along the way? After all, it is said that no one with even an iota of material consciousness can enter into the spiritual
kingdom. This is because the kingdom of God is governed by the cit potency. If there are still any material desires the
result is that one is governed by the acit potency, or maya-sakti. Therefore, when we are chanting on the offensive
stage we are barely qualified to chant, but the Lord, being so merciful allows us to chant anyway. By sincerely
repenting and increasing our chanting (and our quality of chanting) we become better situated, until we become
qualified to meet and serve a pure devotee. By his grace we begin to acquire faith and under his guidance we become
firmly fixed. At this stage we begin to chant better, more attentive rounds, and when we act correctly we become
enrolled into the Lord's family of devotees. In this way a devotee rises through the various stages of consciousness,
rising from the stage of sravana-dasa (the stage of hearing), to the stage of varana-dasa (the stage of acceptance).
The five stages of consciousness that a devotee goes through to attain perfection will be discussed at a later stage.

When a devotee becomes enrolled in the family of the Lord’s devotees, he learns that there are certain rules and
regulations governing the family. By abiding by those rules and avoiding offenses to the Lord and His family
members, devotees are inspired to chant more and more. In this way the sadhakas slowly enter into service, firstly in
a simplified way, and gradually moving higher and higher. As he move higher in the hierarchical chain of evolved
consciousness taste for chanting, and awareness of the spiritual realities is developed. When a devotee moves from the
offensive stage to the clearing stage he may still be chanting namabhasa, but that namabhasa becomes imbued with
sraddha or faith. Thus the sadhaka begins to chant chaya-nama, sraddha-nama. In this way a faint glimmer of real
chanting appears, and continuing in this way the sadhaka moves through the anartha-nirvrtti stage until he reaches the
stage called nairantarya. The stage of nairantarya is characterized by complete steadiness, and from this ruci
develops.
In his commentary of Sri Siksastakam, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura states; “It is imperative that a devotee avoids the
ten offenses or namaparadha in his chanting” (Ss.p24). Going further on the matter of offenses to the devotees, he
instructs that one should never try to counteract sins when one is enrolled into the Lord's family because one is no
longer required to perform atonement. However, one should repent, and with an anguished heart chant more and
more, for this alone will uproot one’s previous sins. It is by incessant faithful chanting that sins can be uprooted; let
this fact be known to all!

Now, many of you out there who have not as yet acquired a taste for serious chanting may still be saying; “Srila
Prabhupada arranged that we only need to chant sixteen rounds.” To this we will repeat that Srila Prabhupada
advocated a minimum of sixteen rounds, but that we should chant continuously. It may be hard to chant sixteen,
thirty-two, or sixty-four rounds per day, but extra chanting will uproot the weeds and help prevent more anarthas
growing. In these times of earth changes that are about to envelop the planet, a wise person would do well to begin to
chant more rounds in order to uplift his consciousness, as it is the consciousness that one has amassed at the time of
death that will set the new body and the terms of that body. If we hope to one day chant suddha-nama, right now is a
good time to start practicing, as it could take several years to cross the anartha-nirvrtti stage and become situated in
suddha-sattva.

To help devotees chant attentive rounds, and more attentive rounds, sages have left many instructions to follow, and
ISEKC as a group, is dedicated to providing education on these most important instructions. To achieve this end
ISEKC is providing schooling for those who wish to study the science of how to leave this material world behind, and
a monastic environment for those who are very serious about attaining krsna-prema. As ISEKC is an integral part of
Prabhupada’s ISKCON, the followers of Srila Prabhupada are all welcome to take advantage of the facilities offered
by The International Society for Education in Krsna Consciousness (ISEKC), which is apart of Caitanya
Mahaprabhu’s family. In a lecture given by Srila Prabhupada in 1975 the following instructions about the need for
chanting more than sixteen rounds was given as follows:

Srila Prabhupada— “Just like cure of the disease means diminishing the fever. This is the test.”
Devotee— “What if that fever is not being diminished?”
Srila Prabhupada— “Then he should try to chant Hare Krsna mantra instead of sixteen rounds, sixty-
four rounds. That is the way. Sixteen rounds is the minimum. Otherwise, Haridasa Thakura was
chanting three hundred thousand Holy Names per day. So you have to increase. That is the only
remedy. If one has got determination, he will make progress without any trouble. That determination is
very difficult, that ‘I must be fully Krsna conscious.’”
Lokanatha— “Some devotees have fixed a different number than sixteen. Some are chanting twenty
minimum or twenty-five.”
Srila Prabhupada— “Yes, It should be increased. But don’t decrease; increase! Therefore one number
is fixed. “At least this much I shall do.” That is sixteen rounds.”
Lokanatha— “But you are recommending sixteen as a minimum, and some devotees are choosing
twenty as a minimum.”
Srila Prabhupada— “So who forbids? Who says that “Don’t do it?” That is wanted!” (Spc 10/11/75)

You may notice in this series of questions given to Srila Prabhupada that at first he was being gentle by stating that
one should ‘try’ to chant more rounds, if the sixteen rounds that have been prescribed by the physician are not
diminishing the fever of material life. Then he goes on further to give a direct instruction in the positive sense but still
being very lenient. This is because he knew this instruction was a general instruction meant for all ears. In this way he
said, “Then try to chant sixty-four rounds.” To give this instruction further strength he then gave the example that is
set for all to follow, and that is the example of the perfect teacher of the Holy Name. The example set by the
empowered representative of the Holy Name, Srila Haridasa Thakura, who was chanting no less than three hundred
thousand Holy Names per day. In the end of this series of questions Prabhupada gives his final comment on the
matter. He says; “That is wanted.” Indicating without a doubt that this is what he wants from us, and that one should
chant more than sixteen rounds if one is serious.

We can sympathize with those who have many engagements or have family maintenance to consider, but the goal of a
devotee is always krsna-prema and one should never forget that. If one is schooled in the art of attentive chanting,
such as the training offered via the Utsaha-technique, one can succeed in chanting sixteen attentive rounds in one
hour. This gives plenty of time to chant extra rounds, and as one chants more attentive rounds the mind begins to
settle down, so chanting becomes easier. As one increases a taste develops and before you know it the Holy Name will
purify the desire for sense gratification while giving more taste for Krsna, thereby allowing you to enter deeper into
His confidential realities. It is also important to remember that there are nine limbs of bhakti and two ways of
progressing in bhakti, sadhana and krpa. Therefore if you are engaged in sankirtana, in that you are glorifying the
Lord through service to your spiritual master and the acaryas, then you will receive special mercy in the form of
guru-krpa, the blessings of the guru. At the same time as this one should also understand that the spiritual master is
pleased when he sees the disciple taking Krsna’s mercy—therefore if one is seriously trying to eradicate one’s
offences via enthusiastic incessant attentive chanting, the spiritual master will be pleased and you will receive guru-
krpa, blessings of the sadhu. “Yasya prasadad bhagavat prasado-yasyaprasadan na gatih kunto’pi—by the grace of
the spiritual master one accepts the benediction of Krsna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make
any advancement.”

On the stage of anartha-nirvrtti we should not forget the authoritative statements that “incessant chanting will uproot
one’s anarthas,” as ultimately only the Holy Name can purify one’s consciousness. The spiritual master gives the
blessings and strength to help you chant, but the spiritual master is a known as a via-medium. Although the pure
devotee does have the power to uplift people, and to give people Krsna, realistically, the pure devotee likes to see
people sincerely turning their backs on maya. Ultimately everyone is accountable for driving their own vehicle. For
this reason Srila Prabhupada instructs; “for the person with disease, he should chant sixty-four rounds.” And who
among us can say that they are not inflicted with material disease? Prabhupada gives the analogy of the physician
curing a fever by prescribing the proper medicine, but if we don’t take that medicine then what is the use of the good
physician and his prescription? Why do we bother the physician? Why do we go to the hospital? If we go to the
hospital it means we want to be cured, and if we don’t take the medicine it means that our disease is preventing us
from taking the medicine that will cure us—there are many diseases like this. Ultimately we need “strength, courage,
purity, determination and faith.” Spiritual strength comes from chanting, or more specifically attentive chanting, and
as we shall see in the coming chapters, hrdayadurbaliam, or weakness of heart, comes from offenses to the Holy
Name—the chief of which is inattention.

Accept things favorable to chanting

24. “One must accept everything favorable to performing devotional service and at the same time reject all
unfavorable things. He must seek out the association of devotees and utilize his life in constant chanting and
remembering of the Lord’s Holy Name. He must forgo all other religious practices and pious activities, and
never worship any other person. Nor may he think others to be independent from the Supreme Lord. One who
always chants the Holy Name and serves the devotees will surely obtain love for Lord Krsna.

Commentary
This text is making plain the words of the previous text, for the Lord is accessible in this way only. Here, we see more
emphasis given to the need for accepting things favorable for service and remaining in the association of saintly
devotees. In the process of upliftment one can not chant harinama alone. Simply put, this will not work. This text
emphasizes that one should use his entire life for self-realization and forgo all other religious practices, such as
worldly activities and piety. One should be on guard to the ten offenses and never think of oneself, or others, as
independent of the Lord. Chanting incessantly and serving the devotees is a sure formula for success. This fact is
outlined throughout Sri Harinama Cintamani.

25. “Srila Haridasa Thakura again placed his head on the Lord's lotus feet. Weeping, he begged the Lord that
he might develop attachment for the Holy Name. One who is blessed with love and devotion and takes pleasure
in serving Srila Haridasa Thakura’s lotus feet will find this book, Sri Harinama Cintamani as valuable as life
itself.

Commentary
This book, Sri Harinama Cintamani is a reference book for performing hari-bhajana. It is more valuable than any
kind of material lifestyle for this book can uplift one, whereas material life will drag one down. Maya is sometimes
eulogized as being a kind of net or a web, and when we engage in material life we get caught in maya’s web. Being
bound we cannot break free on our own—therefore we need help. Written by the empowered acaryas, Sri Harinama
Cintamani is that helping hand, for it is the manifest instructions of the great acaryas and the Lord Himself. Please
therefore take full advantage of the teachings contained within this great book, and in this way Sri Harinama
Cintamani will become as valuable to you as life itself.

Chapter Three

Namabhasa or the Unclarified Name

All glories to Lord Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya and Mother Sita; all glories Srivas Pandit and to all the devotees of
Lord Caitanya.

The cloud of anartha; the mist of ignorance

1. “The merciful Lord Caitanya stretched out His lotus-like hands and lifted up Srila Haridasa. The Lord said,
“O Haridasa, please take hold of yourself. Explain clearly to Me about namabhasa. Once anyone understands
namabhasa, he then strives towards chanting the pure name. The Holy Name is potent and endowed with such
transcendental qualities that anyone can easily achieve liberation simply by chanting.

Commentary
In this chapter the Lord requests Haridasa to speak about namabhasa, or the shadow of real chanting. In order to give
instructions to humanity the Lord requests his servant to reveal the glories of chanting namabhasa, as one who
understands the true glories of chanting the shadow name will then become enthused to chant the pure name, suddha-
nama. The glories of chanting in namabhasa are that it purifies, and qualifies one to chant the pure name. By sincere
enthusiastic chanting the pure name will one day dawn on the horizon of the devotee’s heart. Anyone who has chanted
namabhasa has already achieved liberation and after this, one is qualified to attain pure devotional service, which
leads one to taste krsna-prema. This comes about when the sadhaka’s heart has become completely purged of material
contamination by the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. This will be made clear in the coming pages. The Srimad-
Bhagavatam states the following about a person who has reached an advanced stage in his chanting.

evam-vratah sva-priya-nama-kirtya
jatanurago drutaacitta uccaih
hasaty atho roditi rauti gayaty
unmada-van nrtyati loka-bahyah

By chanting the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord, one comes to the stage of love of Godhead. Then the
devotee is fixed in his vow as an eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much
attached to a particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heart melts with
ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly or cries or shouts. Sometimes he sings and dances like a madman,
for he is indifferent to public opinion. (SB. 11.2.40)

When one’s chanting is imbued with offences one is not chanting the Holy Name proper. However, as one endeavors
with sincere enthusiasm one gradually begins to chant what is known as the shadow name. In this way one becomes
almost a devotee and sins vanish from such a person’s heart. Chanting the Lord’s names gives purification, hope, and
bliss. With these feelings come renewed endeavor and good fortune. Continuing in this way a devotee will learn to
chant in the manner described in the verse quoted above, however, to be successful in this program Locana dasa
Thakura has instructed about, “visaya chadiya;” that one must give up material sense gratification in order to attain to
the position spoken of in this verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. All glories to the purifying power of the Lord’s Holy
Names.

2. “Lord Krsna is the omnipotent spiritual sun, and He and His name are identical. Thus the Holy Name is like
the all-powerful, brilliant sun that disperses the darkness of maya or nescience. To stream mercy upon the
conditioned souls the sun of the Holy Name has arisen on the horizon of this material world.

Commentary
golokera prema-dhana harinama sankirtana
rati na janmilo kene tay
samsara-bisanale diba nisa hiya jwale
juraite na koinu upay

The treasure of love of God has descended from the spiritual world Goloka Vrndavana, appearing in
this world as the sankirtana movement of the chanting of Lord Hari’s Holy Names. Why am I not
attracted to it? Day and night I burn from the poison of material existence, but still I refuse to take the
antidote.
(Ista-deve Vijnapti 2)

This sloka perfectly illustrates our position in relation to the Lord's name. The name is here, it has descended to
disperse the darkness within everyone’s heart. All we have to do is take the medicine—but why are we not attracted to
it? Lord Caitanya prays; ienanda tanuja kinkaram, “I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for the name.” If the
Lord and His servant Srila Haridasa Thakura both feel that they have no attraction for the name, then what about us—
the most fallen? Unless we feel this way also, we are obviously afflicted with the material disease of false-
identification and sense gratification.

In his prayer Madhure Harinama, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has sung the glories of Lord Nityananda. There he
says; “Lord Nityananda is so merciful that he has brought the Holy Name from Vrajabhumi especially for the
unfortunate souls of Kali-yuga.” Situated in Jaganatha Puri, Lord Caitanya said to Nityananda, “My dear Nityananda,
only You can do this task for Me, so kindly go to Navadvipa Dhama, and from there preach the glories of the Holy
Name to every town and village.” Sri Nitai was so compassionate on the fallen souls that He went from house to
house begging everyone to take up the chanting of the Holy Names for deliverance. From Navadvipa He mercifully
organized teams of sankirtana devotees who took on-board His message and spread it throughout the globe.
Therefore, all devotees worship the greatness of the all-merciful Nityananda-Balarama, for He is the savior of the
most fallen.

3. “But sometimes clouds and mist obscure one’s vision, and then the sun is not visible. The jiva is covered over
by the cloud of anartha and the mist of ignorance. The cloud and mist spread a blanket over the jiva’s vision so
that he is unable to see the sunlike Holy Name. The sun is too big for any cloud or mist to cover, but if the jiva’s
vision is obstructed, then the sun is hidden from him.

Commentary
Due to weakness of heart, (hridaya-daurbalyam) we are not able to focus on chanting the Lord's Holy Name
attentively. For this reason some people do not uproot the weeds of anarthas that grow within their heart. These
weeds are also known as clouds, and here we see the effect that the clouds of anarthas have on chanting. They
prevent the ‘Rising Sun of the Holy Name’ from illuminating the heart. Chanting is so powerful that it can
immediately purify every sin a person can commit, provided that chanting is done in the correct frame of mind. The
Lord's name is herein compared to the sun, which is the biggest item within the universe that gives heat and light
(light is a universal analogy for knowledge, and the heat of God’s love is the fire of krsna-prema). The sun globe has
been invested with the power to purify and the closer one goes to the sun the more its intense rays will purify. The
Holy Name is even more powerful than millions of suns, as it is the Lord who has descended in His most merciful
incarnation just to save the inhabitants of Kali-yuga. The Holy Name therefore both purifies the conditioned jiva and
blesses him with knowledge. In his book ‘Die before dying’ Srila Bhakti-Tirtha Swami gives the good advice that we
should ‘take the Holy Name and die to material life.’

The mist of ignorance creates confusion

4. “Lack of knowledge of the transcendental nature and identity of the Holy Name creates a mist of ignorance
that plunges the jiva into darkness. One who is ignorant about Lord Krsna’s supremacy over all else becomes
confused and begins to worship the demigods. Thus he becomes entangled in the cycle of the fruitive action of
karma. That person who hasn’t realized the jiva’s transcendental nature is in material consciousness, and is
deluded and always in ignorance.

Commentary
This is a very serious teaching that we are given herein. We are learning that the reason for the clouds of anarthas
appearing is because the conditioned soul is lacking knowledge of the transcendental nature of the Lord. Srila
Prabhupada instructed; “we have forgotten our relationship with Lord Krsna.” If the jiva forgets his relationship with
the Supreme it follows that he must develop a relationship with the Lord's illusory energy, maya. This is the current
position of a conditioned jiva—he is born into ignorance and remains in ignorance eternally. If by some good fortune
he happens to come across a self-realized soul and provides his service, his good fortune begins. The system
explained earlier states that by bhakti-unmukhi (ajnata-sukriti) one may meet a great soul.

Further than this we have been taught that the Lord arranged the Vedas in such a way that the conditioned living entity
could be elevated by them. That is provided he is following the different procedures outlined in the different sections
of the Vedas, such as karma-yoga or jnana-yoga. Seeing people not taking these paths correctly, the Lord became
merciful and gave a secondary path of varnasrama-dharma. In this system people were given the opportunity to give
service to the brahmanas and in return the brahmanas would freely give out spiritual knowledge. In Kali-yuga this
varnasrama system is no longer in place, and people are following no path at all. Seeing the inhabitants of Kali-yuga
most unfortunate and without hope, the Lord became even more merciful and advented Himself in the form of His
Holy Name, just to deliver the fallen conditioned souls. The mantra Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, has therefore advented just to deliver everyone and bestow upon them
the greatest gift of krsna-prema. Further than this, the Lord advented Himself in His form of a devotee so that He
could teach the science of devotional service to everyone.

To give further mercy He then sent His beloved devotees around the world, who all arranged for a structure to be
given to the sankirtana movement that He started. Recently the Lord sent down His senapata-bhakta, His general in
charge. This great soul then organized the spreading of the sankirtana movement throughout the entire world and
arranged for a special system to be in place. Srila Prabhupada was that great soul, and he formed ISKCON in order
that people could perform service to him on behalf of his spiritual master. Devotees quote Srila Prabhupada as saying
“ISKCON is my body,” indicating that if we serve ISKCON nicely we are rendering service to Srila Prabhupada,
Krsna’s pure devotee. The system that Srila Prabhupada introduced to the west was instructed to Sanatana Goswami
five hundred years ago by Sri Caitanyadeva as follows:

guru-padasraya, diksa, gurura sevana

sad-dharma-siksa-prccha, sadhu-marganugamana

On the path of regulative devotional service, one must observe the following items: (1) One must
accept a bona fide spiritual master. (2) One must accept initiation from him. (3) One must serve him.
(4) One must receive instructions from the spiritual master and make inquiries in order to learn
devotional service. (5) One must follow in the footsteps of the previous acaryas and follow the
directions given by the spiritual master.
 krsna-pritye bhoga-tyaga, krsna-tirthe vasa
yavan-nirvaha-pratigraha, ekadasy-upavasa

The next steps are as follows: (6) One should be prepared to give up everything for Krsna’s
satisfaction, and one should also accept everything for Krsna’s satisfaction. (7) One must live in a
place where Krsna is present—a holy place like Vrndavana or Mathura or a Krsna temple. (8) One
should acquire a livelihood that is just sufficient to keep body and soul together. (9) One must fast on
the Ekadasi day.

dhatry-asvattha-go-vipra-vaisnava-pujana
seva-namaparadhadi dure visarjana

(10) One should worship dhatri trees, banyan trees, cows, brahmanas and devotees of Lord Visnu.
(11) One should avoid offenses against devotional service and the Holy Name. (Cc madhya-lila
22.115-117)

Before Srila Prabhupada left, he handed down the bhakti that dwelled within his heart, and made arrangements so that
anyone who desires to be elevated through the parmapara system may serve his representatives. This system is
current all over the world. The system is; one freely serves the representatives of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, without
ulterior motives, and in return receives spiritual knowledge and blessings. According to this text, it is spiritual
knowledge that the jivas are lacking, and this lack of spiritual knowledge is what has plunged the jivas into darkness.
The system of service just outlined, is the authorized bona fide system given by the acarya of ISKCON, Srila
Prabhupada—and this system is the way realization of God has always been disseminated throughout the ages. Our
relationship with Lord Krsna is not a business deal, so devotees may not expect any monetary reimbursement, or any
rewards in the form of sukriti, karma-unmukhi, or subha-karma from their devotional service. Devotees are only
interested in developing their loving relationship with the Lord, beginning in the mood of dasya (servitude). This
realization can only be achieved through the mercy of great devotees.

Being ignorant of the Lord as the Supreme controller, people remain in darkness and seek shelter in the temporary,
thus they take to worship of demigods such as Mahesa, Goddess Kali, or Ganesa. These days people in modern
society worship money and material objects without even realizing that there is a demigod in charge of everything. In
this way the conditioned jiva is ever-bound and remains a slave to the dictations of his senses—being fully deluded
and covered by ignorance of the real-self. In the Bhagavad-gita Sri Krsna says; “Deluded by the three modes, the
whole world does not know Me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible.” (Bg. 7.13)

5. “Srila Haridasa Thakura exclaimed in exhilaration, “O, I am so fortunate! Today Lord Caitanya wants to
hear about the Holy Name from me.” One who is in ignorance does not know about either the spiritual nature
of the Holy Name nor Lord Krsna’s supremacy over all; factually, the demigods are Lord Krsna’s servitors, the
jiva’s nature is transcendental, and maya (illusion) is the nature of matter. Anyone who understands these
truths is freed from the darkness of ignorance and attains enlightenment.

Commentary
Here we are given the fundamental instructions that are needed to resurrect our lives from the darkness born of
ignorance—they are as follow:

1. Lord Krsna’s name is directly the Lord Himself.

2. The demigods are servants of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.
3. The jiva is a part of the superior energy of the Lord. His cit-sakti.
4. The nature of matter is that it is inert and temporary.

Anyone who understands these truths with his body, words, and actions, is no longer in illusion and will therefore act
accordingly as a surrendered servant. Seeing as though the Lord is vibhu and we are anu, He is all powerful and we
are insignificant tiny jivas, it behooves the tiny to serve the great. Further than this, we must also become a very dear
friend to the Lord. This is required for krsna-rati to take place.
Anatomy of the cloud of anartha

6. “Hankering for things temporary and unreal, weakness of the heart and mind, and offenses produce a cloud
of anarthas that keeps the jivas in constant suffering. Asattrsna (thirsting for the illusory) indicates desires for
things not related to Lord Krsna, or in other words, the craving for so-called material gains; hridaya-
daurbalyam refers to propensities of the heart and mind that arise from a condition of spiritual weakness; and
aparadha means offenses. These three anarthas are to be avoided for they form a cloud that hides the sun of the
Holy Name. The Holy Name is always perfect in itself but namabhasa obstructs the jiva’s vision of it.

Commentary
The living entity is constantly hankering and lamenting. His attention is placed on the world around him and bodily
demands are his top priority. This causes weakness of heart (hridaya-daurbalyam) and leads to offenses (aparadha),
offenses in turn cause anarthas to form around the heart, and these Anarthas act to cover the jiva’s eternal identity.
Just as clouds may cover the sun causing shadow and cold, similarly, the jiva who hankers after the illusory is putting
out the fire of bhakti, and situating himself in the darkest regions of ignorance. Do not crave for items that are not
related to Lord Krsna—this is the message contained in this text. If you do you will become weak-hearted in your
endeavors for success and you will end up covering yourself with anarthas that will lead to material hankerings, and
more offenses. This instruction will be given by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in the coming pages. In the Bhagavad-
gita Srila Prabhupada gives instruction on how we should control the senses as follows:

Control of the senses means that the senses should not be used for unnecessary personal enjoyment.
There is no prohibition against meeting the proper needs of the senses, but unnecessary sense enjoyment
is detrimental for spiritual advancement. Therefore the senses should be restrained from unnecessary
use. Similarly, one should restrain the mind from unnecessary thoughts; that is called sama. One should
not spend one’s time pondering over earning money. That is a misuse of the thinking power. The mind
should be used to understand the prime necessity of human beings, and that should be presented
authoritatively. The power of thought should be developed in association with persons who are
authorities in the scripture, saintly persons and spiritual masters and those whose thinking is highly
developed. (Bg. purport 10.4-5)

The extents of namabhasa

7. “As long as the jiva is not firmly established in the knowledge of sambandha-tattva, or the correct
understanding of the relationship between God, His energies, and the jiva, he will continue to chant in the
namabhasa stage. When the jiva takes full shelter of a bona fide spiritual master he becomes expert in
executing devotional service under his guru’s guidance; then gradually the clouds and mist are dispersed.

Commentary
In this section of Sri Harinama Cintamani we are seeing stress given to understanding sambandha-tattva—knowledge
of, and relationship to, the Absolute. We will never chant the pure name until we have fully realized who Krsna is, and
surrendered ourselves accordingly. We are tested on this each and every day of our lives. The Lord in our heart is
watching for signals. Do we see the Lord in everything we do? Do we put one hundred percent faith in God in all of
our endeavors? Do we surrender to the Lord's wishes and plans, even when we can’t see what they are? Do we care
for His devotees with our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions? These questions must be looked at each and every day
for swift progression to be made. This is called introspection and it is recommended by Srila Prabhupada. Realized
knowledge of the Absolute leads to tests—if the devotee passes the tests he have knowledge of sambandha, and
become qualified to deepen his connection until he eventually chants suddha-nama.

The second part to this text repeats the emphasis that a sadhaka needs to study under, and take full shelter of, a bona
fide spiritual master who is full of compassion and love. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives instruction on
this. He instructs; “the devotee should first develop a taste for chanting and relinquish the taste for material life, and
then he should live in one of Lord Krsna’s holy-dhamas, such as Vrndavana, Mayapur, or Jaganatha Puri. There, the
sadhaka should pass his time by constantly chanting and hearing of Krsna’s pastimes, and remembering them
accordingly.” This should be done under the protection and guidance of an expert devotee. The sadhaka should
constantly hear and chant Krsna’s name and in this way rise through the various stages of life via hearing and
chanting—ending everything in full meditation on the Lord's intimate pastimes.

Remembering the Lord’s pastimes is called smarana, and as one advances through the levels of remembrance, one
comes to the platform of concentration. Concentration on the Lord's pastimes is called anusmriti, and by uninterrupted
anusmriti one can enter into the stages of bhava and then prema. The subject matter of Vaisnava smriti is Lord Krsna
and His associates, so when one comes to the level of remembrance called anusmriti one remembers pastimes of the
Lord as revealed in the scriptures. It so happens that at first a sadhaka sometimes remembers and mediates on the
spiritual pastimes of the Lord and sometimes he forgets, but by repeated concentration and meditation he gradually
comes to the stage of total absorption that is known as samadhi. This is also called apana-dasa, or the stage of
inheritance of one’s eternal nature. The process is; first gradual upliftment, then one becomes fixed. Following this the
devotee attains a taste and through this taste he becomes absorbed. The first taste of this absorption in the material
world is the all merciful Holy Name, therefore chanting the Holy Name of the Lord is the prime activity of the
devotee. It is the Holy Name that gives cognition of the Lord’s qualities, form, and pastimes. In the Prema-Vivarta by
Srila Jagadananda Pandit we hear the following:

sadhu-sange krsna-nama—ei-matra cai

samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

The only desirable goal is to chant harinama in the association of pure and saintly devotees. This is the
best and only way to conquer over maya.

Similarly, Sarvabhauma Battacarya once asked Lord Caitanya, what is the most important activity for a devotee to
perform? The Lord’s reply was, “the chanting of the maha-mantra is the most important activity.”

Sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana

8. “Once the cloud and mist are dispelled, the sun of the Holy Name shines brilliantly once more, and
enlightens the devotee with love of Godhead.

Commentary
The sincere humble devotee, gaining in love for the Lord, first removes his anarthas by avoiding all offences and
chanting incessantly. When this is done, the Lord reveals Himself as He promises. This can be achieved by constant
hearing and chanting in association with saintly devotees.

9. “The bona fide spiritual master instructs the disciple in sambandha jnana. The chanting of the Holy Name is
the indication (abhidheya) of this eternal relationship (sambandha). The guru encourages the disciple to take up
abhidheya or chanting. The sun of the Holy Name now shines stronger and evaporates the mist of anartha.
Chanting at this stage becomes an indispensable need (prayojana). Prayojana leads a devotee to love of
Godhead. The jiva now experiences ecstasy in every moment of chanting.

Commentary
This text is an overview of the process of Krsna consciousness, starting from meeting the spiritual master and ending
with meeting Lord Sri Krsna. Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas have given enough instructions to give any
reader understanding of sambandha. The spiritual master gives added guidance and blesses the beads on initiation—
so indicating the means to attain the goal, in this way the spiritual master gives the empowered Holy Name as the
means (abhidheya).

By sincere constant chanting, avoiding offenses and pitfalls, the fortunate disciple has the mist of anarthas removed
via the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu—this is a fact! When the jiva is contaminated with unlimited material desires, these
unwanted desires are called anarthas and are referred to hear as mist, but when simplicity dawns in the life of the
fortunate jiva, clouds and mist disperse. At this stage the sun of the Holy Name shines brightly and the devotee’s
chanting becomes an unsurpassable need. This need becomes the devotee’s prayojana as his chanting reveals the Lord
in a step by step manner. The devotee’s chanting at this stage become such joy that he does not even want to stop.
Being kind to his fellow devotees, sometimes the advancing devotee stops chanting in order to give and receive
loving exchanges. He takes every opportunity to dance in kirtana, and when partitioned to speak he reveals the truths
about God that have been kindly implanted within his heart by the mercy of his spiritual master and Sri Namaprabhu.
Now the jiva experiences ecstasy at every moment of chanting and is fit to become a spiritual master himself.

10. “The guru first instructs his disciple in sambandha-jnana. This is to be exactingly explained, and the
disciple must receive it with proper faith. The quintessence of this knowledge is that Lord Krsna is eternally
the Supreme Personality of Godhead; the jiva is His eternal servitor, and the jiva’s loving relationship with
Lord Krsna is likewise eternal as an inherent trait of his nature. In contact with material nature, the jiva
forgets his eternal relationship with the Lord and loiters aimlessly in this world of illusion searching for bliss.
The material world is a veritable prison house where the jiva is penalized for turning his back of Krsna. It
consists of the fourteen planetary systems which together are known as the Devi-dhama; these planetary
systems are the cells within the prison where the recalcitrant jivas are confined. Devi-dhama is not a place for
experiencing happiness and bliss. The so-called material pleasures offered to the jivas here are only temporary,
and hence simply cause further suffering; but since punishments are remedies, the jivas are reformed through
such punitive measures.

Commentary
In the beginning of this text we see the key words, ‘this is to be exactingly explained.’ This is a very important part of
the text as it indicates that the process of sambandha must be given exactingly. Exactingly means precisely. It means
that the disciple has received instructions so well that all his doubts and confusion are dispelled. In Vedic terms doubts
are compared to demons, and in the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna sometimes addresses Krsna as ‘Madhusudhana and Kesi-
nisudhana.’ Both the demon called Madhu, and the demon called Kesi were formidable opponents, being very
powerful demons, but they were both killed by the Lord. When Arjuna addressed Krsna in this way he was
inadvertently requesting Krsna to kill the demons of doubt that dwelt within his heart. Acting as the representative of
Madhusudhana, the spiritual master should therefore be ready to answer any questions and doubts put before him by
his sincere student. And while performing service, the student should have many questions to put before his master for
clarification—otherwise how else will he attain sambandha realization? In the Bhagavad-gita we see how Lord Krsna
explained exactingly to Arjuna, the science of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana, and at the end of the Gita He
enquires as follows:

kaccid etac chrutam partha

tvayaikagrena cetasa
kaccid ajnana-sammohah
pranastas te dhananjaya

O Son of Prtha, O conqueror of wealth, have you heard this with an attentive mind? And are your
ignorance and illusions now dispelled? (Bg. 18.72)

With His heart overflowing with love, Lord Krsna spoke compassionately to His disciple; “My dear son, have you
understood everything perfectly? If you have not, I am prepared to speak the entire Bhagavad-gita again, for by
understanding the instructions about sambandha you can attain perfection.” He said; kaccid ajnana-sammohah
pranastas te dhananjaya “I wonder whether your ignorance and illusions have now been dispelled?” Krsna was very
kind to Arjuna and was showing this example for everyone to learn from. Arjuna, acting on behalf of the conditioned
living entity had many questions to put before his spiritual master. We should also have many questions, and when we
have exactingly received sambandha-jnana we should reply as Arjuna did:

nasto mohah smrtir labdha

tvat-prasadan mayacyuta
sthito ’smi gata-sandehah
karisye vacanam tava
 My dear Krsna, my illusion is now gone! I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm
and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions. (Bg. 18.73)

Arjuna said those immortal words, karisye vacanam tava—I shall execute Your order! This is what every devotee
needs to say. “My dear Spiritual master, by your mercy in describing to me sambandha-jnana, all my illusions are
now gone. You have killed all my demons of doubt and I am now prepared to act according to your direction and the
directions outlined in the Bhagavad-gita.”

Srila Prabhupada has given instructions in his books, but the sadhaka who reads while his heart is full of anarthas
may interpret according to his own past influences and dealings with material nature. For this reason we need the
living spiritual master to guide us through many important points. If our spiritual master has departed he may still
come in dreams to give guidance, or he may give a message through another. We always need a living guide, so we
should always search out that advanced soul and serve him sincerely. This we must always do, even if we are on the
level of sannyasa, as still there are higher levels of realization. Therefore, the rule is that we must always seek out that
pure devotee who can say and do nothing wrong, and serve his lotus feet hoping for a drop of mercy to fall from
them. Lord Visnu speaks about the importance of such a pure devotee when instructing Durvasa Muni. In the Srimad-
Bhagavatam Lord Visnu said:

sadhava hrdayam mahyam

sadhunam hrdayam tv aham
mad-anyat ten a jananti
naham tebhyo manag api

The pure devotee is always within the core of My heart, and I am always in the heart of the pure
devotee. My devotees do not know anything else but Me, and I do not know anyone else but them.
(SB. 9.4.68)

Another way we have been given to understand finer spiritual points if there is chance of mistake is; guru, sadhu, and
sastra. This system has been put in place for checking the actions of ourselves and the actions of others. Still, for full
understanding and blessings that help the devotee progress through the anartha-nirvrtti stage, a living maha-
bhagavata devotee is needed. This point is a very important part of sambandha realization.

In this text we also have the most important key words; “and the disciple must receive it with proper faith.” Faith,
(sraddha) is also a very important aspect of understanding sambhanda. In order for the disciple to fully surrender to
the will of the spiritual master (who can guide him to the Lord) his faith in him must be sound. We should spend some
time to understand the idea of having full faith in the words of guru in order to attain deeper pre-knowledge of
sambandha-tattva. In the Vedas we are given the characteristics of a sadhaka who is deserved of attaining sambandha
realization. The Vedas say:

yasya deve para bhaktir

yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah

Only to those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the
imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed. (Svetasvataropanisad 6.27)

In his wonderful book called Jaiva-dharma, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses the matter of faith in a very
profound way. I will give some details of his conversations here, so you may better understand this most important
topic.
 Vaisnava dasa Babaji said; “sraddha (faith) is an integral part of the eternal, inherent nature of the
jiva. The inclination of the jiva towards a particular karma in the varnasrama social system is a
product of his temporary assumed, material nature. The scriptures say the following:

yada vai sraddadhati atha manute

nasraddadhan manute
sraddadhad eva manute
sraddhatveva vijijnasitavyeti sraddham
bhagavo vijijnasa iti

Sanat-kumara said, when a person develops sraddha, respect for that which is to be known. He makes
the effort to comprehend that object. Only those with sraddha can know that object, others cannot.
Therefore O Narada, first there must be sraddha, so it is essential to learn what the true nature of
sraddha is.

Narada replied: “My dear Lord, I earnestly desire to inform myself fully about sraddha.”

Vaisnava dasa Babaji continued: In the Vaisnava sampradaya the word sraddha carries the following
definition:

sraddha tv anyopaya-varjam bhakti-unmukhi citta-vrtti-visesah

Sraddha is that propensity in man which strives for bhakti, rejecting the attainment of bhakti by the vehicles
of karma, jnana, mystic yoga, and so on. By constantly hearing about the Supreme Lord in saintly
association, one’s consciousness reaches a certain elevation. When one realizes that karma, jnana, astanga-
yoga etc, can not offer the jiva the eternal benediction of the Absolute Truth, and that there is no other option
for the jiva besides taking shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Hari with single-minded bhakti, only then can it be
said that one has developed sraddha and faith in the words of sastra and guru. (Jd. Ch 6)

From this elaboration it becomes apparent that sraddha is a very important part in a Vaisnava’s understanding of
bhakti-yoga, and the spiritual realities. Indeed bhakti is not possible without sraddha! The jiva must understand that
his only means to attain service to the divine couple, is by bhakti-yoga. When this realization has dawned on the
horizon of the devotee’s heart, he is said to have attained sraddha. It is also said that the only true meaning of
sraddha is when it is pertaining to the Supreme Lord. When one has real sraddha one can analyze any subject matter
and come to a full understanding of it in relation to the Lord and His energies.

In essence the sadhaka will receive faith by watching how others, who have gone before him, have changed and
become Gauranga-bhaktas. For this reason it is extremely important to have good role models within a spiritual
society, and for this reason it is also devastating to the group if that role model falls down due to material hankerings
and offenses. In the case of falldown one needs to put faith in even higher role models, such as the acaryas, and
sastra.

By good association and sincere chanting, faith is deepened and increased, and for this reason we should always seek-
out those with higher evolved consciousness and serve them. All the time carefully noticing how they have deep faith
in the Lord, in their spiritual master, and in the scriptures. Faith is an integral part of bhakti and without firm faith in
the words of Sri-guru we will not be qualified to chant suddha-nama. Therefore, have firm faith and continue
chanting and associating sincerely, for the undoubted way to success is following in the footsteps of the great masters
who have trod the path before us—and who have indeed made the path for us. Remember the Thakura’s words are;
“faith is the propensity in man which strives for bhakti, rejecting the attainment of bhakti by the vehicles of fruitive
activities, knowledge, mystic yoga, and so on.” In this mood the Lord instructs; ‘sarva-dharman parityajya’ abandon
all varieties of religion and simply surrender unto me. And ‘ma sucah,’ do not fear, do not worry—do not hesitate. He
says; “have faith—throw out the paths of karma, jnana, mystic-yoga and so on, and just perform hari-bhakti.” The
Lord says; bhaktya mam abijanati, “it is only through bhakti that I am to be known, and I am only knowable by my
devotee.”
11. “By the mercy of a Vaisnava devotee of the Lord, if the imprisoned jiva is once again instructed in the Holy
Name and sambandha-jnana, he will gradually become enlightened with the essence of all religious practices,
namely pure love of Godhead. To this fortunate soul, sayujyamukti or impersonal liberation is reprehensible.
Until he is solidly grounded in the sambandha-jnana understanding, his chanting will be polluted by anarthas.
This, then, is namabhasa; when the jiva cannot chant the pure name of Krsna.

Commentary
After traveling around the universe aimlessly lost for eons of time, a fortunate soul may come across a pure devotee.
If he hears the message of such a pure devotee and acts on it, he has begun to be freed from his prison house. Hearing
this message is all important for the imprisoned jivas, as they have become bewildered and do not know which way to
turn. One may wonder just how many jivas are on each planet? There may be a lot of human’s who do not as yet
receive the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Gosai, but can you imagine how many insects,
trees, plants, bugs, fish, birds, animals, and bacteria there are on one planet? The Srimad-Bhagavatam states the
following in connection with this, and striving to attain salvation from the human platform:

rajobhih sama-sankhyatah
parthivair iha jantavah
tesam ye kecanehante
sreyo vai manujadayah

In this material world there are as many living entities as there are atoms. Among these living entities
very few are human beings, and among them, few are interested in following religious principles. (SB.
6.14, 3-5)

Out of all species of life, only the humans and other highly evolved can take the message further until it holds a sacred
place in the cottage of their heart. Just take a moment to think how lucky you are! Just imagine, you are reading about
the scientific process of ending the endless drama of samsara. Yet still unfortunate jivas don’t take this message
seriously! Therefore I emphatically say to you, please, I beg you—take the chanting of the Holy Name very seriously.
Take it as your only mission in life. In fact, forget life, and just focus on the Holy Name! Srila Prabhupada says that
some things in life, like fire, debt, health etc, must be attended to right away, but just think how important Krsna
consciousness is? When purification dawns on the horizon of perception you will undoubtedly go and preach this
message to everyone you see and don’t see, and that will be to your eternal benefit. But if you don’t yourself take the
mercy of the Vaisnava, if you don’t take Srila Haridasa Thakura’s instructions on chanting and sambandha seriously,
then what hope do you have?

To such a soul who has rigorously served the spiritual master, and chanted with great relish, the anartha-nirvrtti stage
will be very swift. In one lifetime only, such a devotee can attain pure love of Godhead! The key to success in this
regard is given in this text; “One must find a self-realized soul and learn from him the science of sambhandha-jnana.”
Sri Harinama Cintamani says:

Until he is solidly grounded in the sambandha-jnana understanding, his chanting will be polluted by
anarthas. This, then, is namabhasa; when the jiva cannot chant the pure name of Krsna.

By understanding this statement we can comprehend just how important sambandha realization is. For chanting can
only become pure when one fully understands one’s relationship to the Supreme. This relationship is something that
has to be lived! Therefore a devotee is examined each and every day. When the Lord sees that you have finally
understood your relationship with Him, and He can see that you are acting in a way most befitting that relationship,
He will manifest Himself as Syamasundara in your meditations. Continuing to chant with full understanding of your
relationship will undoubtedly bring success very quickly, then at the time of death sayujyamukti will be waiting at
your door, and you will kick such impersonal liberation away with the boot of your left foot.

All glories to the purifying Holy Name of the Lord! All glories to the merciful teachings of the pure devotee! All
glories to chanting suddha-nama! All glories to all the devotees of Lord Gauranga!
The result of namabhasa

12. “The namabhasa stage is not to be underestimated, for it avails many positive benefits to the jiva and
increases his piety. Verily, namabhasa is one of the jiva’s greatest virtues. It offers him more good fortune than
religiosity, vows, yoga, sacrifices and so on, put together. Now by chanting all his sins are absolved; he is thus
liberated from the effects of Kali-yuga. Instead, Kali becomes a well-wishing servitor of the jiva providing
security and equanimity. The miseries inflicted by demons, ghosts, hobgoblins, evil spirits and malefic
planetary influences are easily averted. Even if a jiva is destined for the hellish planets he attains liberation; all
his prarabdha-karma (sinful reactions of previous lives’ activities that are taking effect now) is counteracted.
Namabhasa is greater than the result of studying all the Vedas, of visiting every pilgrimage place or of
performing every possible altruistic and pious work.

13. “The four goals offered in the Vedas-religiosity, wealth, sense enjoyment and liberation-are all available
from namabhasa chanting. It is endowed with unimaginable power that can reclaim any living entity. It
bestows unlimited joy and elevates even the derelicts to a very exalted stage of realization. Namabhasa offers
eternal residence in the spiritual abode of Vaikuntha, especially in Kali-yuga; this is stated in the scriptures.

Commentary
In this text we are informed that the namabhasa stage is praiseworthy because it offers many rewards of sense
gratification to the chanter. These things don’t play very heavily on the mind of a devotee. In fact they are quite
meaningless, but they are put in here for three reasons.

1. To show the power of the name and the rewards that can be had simply by chanting what is known as
the shadow name.
2. To encourage the sincere chanter that if this much can be had by chanting the shadow name, then
imagine what can be experienced by chanting the pure version.
3. To warn devotees to always strive to chant purely, or else they will receive a reward that will end in
bondage.

When some of you read this third comment I have made, you may be dismayed. This is only natural, but sometimes
we see falldown even from the stage of bhava, such as that of Maharaja Bharata. Although this text does not mention
anything about chanting suddha-nama, still we see by the effects that chanting the shadow name gives, that we do not
want them. In this way the text acts as a beacon guiding us away from chanting with anarthas. Similarly there are
many examples of evil people in the world so that the good will stay away from this darkness and in fact develop
aversion to it, vowing never to become like that.

Namabhasa’s four attitudes

14. “The four attitudes in namabhasa chanting are sanketa (unintentionally), parihasa (in jest or ridicule),
stobha (derisively) and hela (with neglect). Sanketa is of tow kinds: 1) when one, though intending to chant
Lord Visnu’s name, has a material conception of it, and 2) when one has something entirely different than the
Lord or His name on his mind, but chants the Holy Name being somehow or other reminded of that
transcendental sound. The yavanas eat cows, yet in spite of this they can attain liberation by uttering haram, an
ordinary word in their language (Urdu) where Lord Krsna’s name is automatically chanted. The power of the
Holy Name is never diminished even if chanted in sanketa-namabhasa.

Commentary
In this text, and the few texts to follow we are taught about the attitudes, or ways in which a person may chant the
Lord’s Holy Name offensively, as opposed to the pure name. Namabhasa chanting, although being very praiseworthy
when chanted as chaya-namabhasa, is still not pure, as the sadhaka chanting in this way still has traces of anarthas or
sin within his heart. This is reflected in his japa. The four attitudes of chanting namabhasa are; sanketa, parihasa,
stoma, and hela—that is; chanting unintentionally, in jest, derisively, and with neglect. These forms of chanting are
undertaken by many people and everyone who chants namabhasa will receive liberation when they leave the material
body. As this text explains, it is not difficult to chant namabhasa; you simply have to say a word like ‘Haram, or
Paramatta,’ (the word Paramatta is the name of a town in Australia). There are many such words that contain the
Lord's name and when chanted unintentionally there is no offense committed against the Lord or His devotees. In this
way even the common man can receive liberation, even if he eats meat. This displays the great power of the Holy
Name, which can liberate a person who speaks the Lord’s name while thinking of something else, as in the examples
given herein. On a more sobar note, we are informed that a person who chants with a neglectful attitude is chanting
hela-namabhasa. In the stage of sadhana a sadhaka who stuggles to chant his rounds, or who allows his mind
constantly wanders during his japa period chants in this way. Pure chanting is different to this. A symptom that a
devotee is giving up the habbit of hela (chanting with neglect) is that he becomes increasingly absorbed in his
chanting. One should strive to attain this mood by all means possible, and then hela chanting will be imbued with
sraddha.

15. “Chanting in jest (parihasa) like Jarasandha did, gets one liberated, as does chanting derisively (stobha) like
Sisupala. Even chanting inattentively and with disregard results in deliverance from the pangs of material
existence. Namabhasa chanting can purify anyone; people of low upbringing like mlecchas, gross materialists,
and lazy persons can all avail of this opportunity to obtain liberation.

Commentary
Jarasandha was a ksatriya warrior. He was on the battlefield ready to fight with Krsna and Balarama when Krsna and
Balarama ran away. They ran leaving all their treasures behind (these were treasures from another battle They had just
won). Jarasandha’s army took those treasures as the spoils of winning the battle. Although Jarasandha and his army
chased Krsna and Balarama (who were on foot and running very fast) still they could not catch Them. Krsna and
Balarama then climbed to the top of a very high mountain called Pravarsana and jumped off. (Pravarsana was about
ninety miles high). Jarasandha then set fire to the mountain thinking the Lord to be on it, but Krsna and Balarama had
already jumped off and gone home. Jarasandha then claimed victory for this battle telling all his friends that he had
defeated Krsna and Balarama, as they had ran away like cowards after seeing Jarasandha’s mighty army arrayed
before Them. Later, when Krsna, Arjuna, and Bhimasena went to pick a fight with Jarasandha, Jarasandha then said;
“Alright, I will give you a fight, but I will not fight with You Krsna, for you are a coward! Your strength left you in
the midst of battle and You fled.” He also claimed that Krsna should not have killed His maternal uncle King Kamsa.
In this way Jarasandha ridiculed Krsna. In his opinion Krsna was acting as a ksatriya warrior and should not have fled
the battlefield. Jarasandha therefore proclaimed Krsna to be a coward for running. Jarasandha had told everyone that
he had defeated Krsna and Balarama in battle. In this way Jarasandha chanted Krsna’s name in a joking way to belittle
Him.

After the madman Sisupala had insulted Krsna at the Rajasuriya sacrifice and consequently lost his head for this
offense, his friend Dantavakra approached Krsna wanting to kill Him. Dantavakra was Krsna’s maternal cousin but
unfortunately he was a demon. His mother was the sister of Vasudeva, but he hated Krsna and he derisively called on
Krsna and insulted him in the following way:

You are our maternal cousin, Krsna, but You committed violence against my friends, and now You
want to kill me also. Therefore, fool, I will kill You with my thunderbolt club. (SB. 10.78.5)

Although Dantavkra and Sisupala were certainly destined to die after calling Krsna a fool, we see how really these
demons acted in the way they did simply to fulfill a curse set by the four Kumaras. In Vikuntha, Sisupala and
Dantavakra were the gate keeps Jaya and Vijaya. So from these two examples we see two other ways a living entity
can attain liberation. Both Sisupala and Dantavakra were fortunate enough to be killed by Krsna, and so entered into
His body. Jarasandha was killed by Bhima, but was still given mercy because he chanted parihasa-namabhasa, and
was actually killed by Krsna in the form of His servant Bhimasena. All of the demons who were killed by Krsna,
either directly or indirectly attained liberation because their material lives had become purified of all sins. Krsna’s
name was on everyone’s lips during His pastimes on the Earth, and in this way everyone on the planet mentioned
Krsna’s name and became liberated. Similarly Krsna’s name, when chanted in namabhasa has the potency to purify
anyone, even if they are mlecchas, yavanas, or simply very lazy persons. All alike will receive liberation if they chant
namabhasa. But still, we say to you, what good does it do them? From the view point of eternality, what good does
temporary happiness do anyone? If you compare any length of time with eternality then even the greatest amount of
time possible is like a mere blink of an eye in comparison.

Sraddha-namabhasa and hela-namabhasa

16. “Faithful chanting that is still afflicted by anarthas is known as sraddha-nama, as You Yourself have
explained, my Lord. The element of real sraddha (faith) is absent in the four attitudes of namabhasa chanting,
and sanketa chanting is tinged with neglect. Nonetheless, even hela-namabhasa (chanting with neglect) gives
one liberation, what to speak of faithful chanting. Chanting with faith establishes one on the platform of
sambandha-jnana, which results in rati or attraction for the Holy Name. Sraddha-nama clears away anarthas
very easily and quickly.

Commentary
Most aspiring devotees who have discarded the ten offences and who are attentive to their rounds chant sraddha-
nama. Inattention is synonymous with neglect and is therefore categorized as namaparadha. It is said that
namaparadha is nothing more than chanting the letters of the alphabet, namaparadha is not nama. In sraddha-nama
however we see great hope, for in this stage one can come close to being on the platform of a devotee. The result of
chanting sraddha-nama is that one becomes increasingly established on the platform of sambhandha-jnana and the
Lord within the heart will direct such a sadhaka to the teachings needed to strengthen his faith. Continued chanting in
this way brings about attraction for the Name, which in Sanskrit is called rati, and when the devotee attains small
moments of absorption, he is well on the way to attaining the Lord. Chanting sraddha-nama will quickly clear away
the anarthas of the sadhaka who is not committing offenses or aparadha.

Anartha-free namabhasa becomes nama

17. “Short of krsna-prema, every other success is available in namabhasa. When anarthas are nullified, then
namabhasa is converted to nama or suddha-nama, the pure name. By pure chanting and by following the rules
of sadhana as instructed by guru, sadhu and sastra, one slowly but surely acquires krsna-prema—love of
Godhead. But namabhasa chanting can never give krsna-prema.

Commentary
We are now being fortunate enough to receive detailed knowledge of nama. When the sincere servant traverses the
stage of namabhasa and has developed ruci, rati and asakati, taste, attraction and steadiness in chanting, he chants
continuously. Sixty-four rounds, one lakh, even three lakhs of names are not enough for him because he has
developed a taste for chanting. His chanting is now imbued with bhava, and by continuing to chant according to the
instructions of his guru and the mahajnanas he is developing rati. Chanting Krsna’s name without offenses is called
chanting suddha-nama, this is different from abhasa chanting as it awards krsna-prema. The mention of the word
abhasa indicates a faint presence of something, so when we are talking about nama-abhasa we are talking about a
faint presence of the pure name. This can only mean a sadhaka who chants sraddha-namabhasa.

18. “I bow down to that fortunate soul who has freed himself from committing namaparadha, offenses against
the Holy Name in the namabhasa stage. This namabhasa stage is far beyond knowledge and fruitive work. And
if one’s sraddha is further more rooted in rati or attraction, and is offenseless as well, then gradually it will lead
to the pure name.

Commentary
Here, we are again given a similar teaching as above; the devotee who has stopped committing offenses while he is on
the stage of namabhasa chanting, and who has proven himself as a worthy candidate for chanting suddha-nama, is
praiseworthy even by the great. He is considered blessed and most fortunate. He must continue chanting in this
manner, and increase in his daily sadhana of rounds. In this way he will attain ruci. The key words in this text are that
this chanting is to be ‘offenseless and full of taste.’ This will lead to the pure name being chanted. To assist in this
state being attained Srila Prabhupada has provided us with a society of devotees, and association with exhalted
Vaisnavas is the undoubted way to success. The Srimad-Bhagavatam stresses this point as follows:
 satam prasangan mama virya-samvido
bhavanti hrt-karna-rasayanah kathah
taj-josanad asv apavarga-vartmani
araddha ratir bhaktir anukramisyati

In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such
knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and
his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin. (SB. 3.25.25)

Two kinds of namabhasa: chaya and pratibimba

19. “The scriptures are filled with words like namabhasa, vaisnava-abhasa, sraddha-abhasa, rati-abhasa, prema-
abhasa, mukti-abhasa, etc. The suffix abhasa has a special meaning and is of versatile application. Let us
discuss this now. Factually, abhasa (faint or indistinct presence) is of two sorts: Svarupa-abhasa and
pratibimba-abhasa. Svarupa-abhasa is the infiltration of the full brilliance; for example, on a cloudy day the
light of the sun is present, but the full brilliance of the sun is shaded by the clouds. Now, in its first stage of
appearance, namabhasa is shadowy. Still, it is of immense benefit to humanity; it is known as chaya-namabhasa
or ‘the faint shadowy name.’ The way to the shadowy name is opened by chayasraddhabhasa or the faint
shadow of sraddha.

Commentary
We are now being instructed to focus on the word abhasa, which means ‘a faint presence of.’ Abhasa has been
divided into two categories; one is called svarupa-abhasa and the other pratibimba-abhasa. The svarupa pertains to
our real identity, or our real svarupa, so this is the type of abhasa chanting that we need to begin our progress.
Basically svarupa-abhasa means that the original identity of the name is there and beginning to shine through, but
there are still clouds obstructing its full brilliance, therefore we must continue uprooting the anarthas until the clouds
disappear. This means that we must be diligent in our endeavors of sadhana bhakti, our daily practices and
performance of devotional service. The word chaya-sraddha-abhasa means that one has a faint presence of faith.
Faith may be faint in the beginning but nevertheless even faint faith is good as it leads to the doorway of firm faith,
and attraction. The hidden instruction in this text is; “continue following nicely in the direction of the light. Do not let
yourself be pulled into duplicitous activities as they are tricks brought about by maya.” Maintain your faith in the
process, as this faith is the doorway to chanting sraddha-namabhasa, which leads to suddha-nama being chanted.

In the early days of ISKCON when Srila Prabhupada was in India with his disciples, his god-brothers noticed some
minor problems in the behavior of Prabhupada’s disciples. Srila Prabhupada told them; “if you have some problems
with my disciples, please come to me and I will tell them. Do not chastise them directly.” He then further elaborated
how his disciples were just in the beginning stages and so lacked firm faith, therefore instead of destroying their little
faith by heavy chastisement Prabhupada requested his god-brothers to come to him and he would chastise them in
such a way as to not brake their faith. Faith is an important part of a Vaisnava’s progression and one must develop
firm faith in guru, sadhu, and sastra in order to deepen Krsna consciousness awareness. We will discuss this topic in
detail very soon. The doorway to pure chanting is opened by chayasraddhabhasa, the faint shadow of faith.

20. “On the other hand, pratibimba-abhasa reflects a distorted image of the real object, just as sunlight is
misrepresented when reflected off the surface of water. This distorted reflection allows only inaccurate
perception of the original source of light. Pratibimba-namabhasa appears when the rays of the Holy Name
reflect off the lake of mayavadi thought, bequeathing sayujyamukti upon the mayavadis who chant it. However,
this will fail to generate the quintessence of chanting: krsna-prema. Indeed, this namabhasa is a major
namaparadha; therefore it cannot really be counted as namabhasa at all. Chaya-namabhasa or svarupa-
namabhasa is the real namabhasa, and is subdivided into four categories, as described above. The scriptures,
while praising namabhasa, profusely condemn pratibimba-namabhasa. Chaya-namabhasa is had as a result of
chanting the Holy Name with anarthas born of ignorance. But the chanting of the Holy Name with anarthas
nurtured by wicked and perverted knowledge produces pratibimba-namabhasa; it is considered a terrible
obstacle to devotional service and a heinous offense.

Commentary
For this reason an aspiring devotee should be careful of bad association. Pratibimba-abhasa is a distortion in
philosophical understanding and will result in the chanter reaching the wrong destination according to Vaisnava
teachings. The goal of chanting in the Vaisnava tradition is krsna-prema and krsna-prema can not be achieved if one
is polluted with sunyavadi or mayavadi thought patterns. If one is polluted, the best course of rectification is to
become humble and request help from a senior Vaisnava. Provided you chant sincerely while avoiding offences to the
devotees, the teachings of the advanced Vaisnava and his association will bring about a degree of faith. The person
infected with pratibimba should stop all association with the source of pollution immediately, and go on pilgrimage to
a holy place to take bath in the Ganges, hear philosophy from krsna-bhaktas and dance in kirtana. If, by the mercy of
Sri Namaprabhu the sadhaka understands that he has fallen into the bottomless well of pratibimba-abhasa,
(disruption in philosophical understandings) and in his heart he understands his mistake, his contrition will act to
propel him again on the right path. If however, such distortions remain and mayavadi views are being maintained
because of pride, the path is set for oblivion and scriptures condemn the actions of such a person. Pratimbimbas are
usually called mayavadis, jnanis or karmis but not devotees. Their actions normally have nothing to do with serving
Krsna, but moreover, they are intended to serve themselves. Krsna is the Supreme Autocrat, He is the nondual
brahman, He is above material nature and always a person. This is the teachings of the Vaisnava saints. Chanting with
this understanding, while disregarding offenses leads to chayasraddhabhasa chanting, and when one becomes free
from anarthas one can chant svarupa-nama or the real name.

21. “A vaisnava-abhasa chanter may not be recognized as a pure Vaisnava, but still should be respected as a
neophyte devotee. As long as he is not contaminated by the mayavadi philosophy, he can easily become elevated
by contact with saintly persons. The elevated Vaisnavas consider such neophytes to be innocent and shower
mercy on them. They must not be ignored and avoided like the agnostic mayavadis. The pure devotees will
resuscitate the small spark of devotion in them, encourage their propensity to worship the Deity, and gradually
give them sambandha-jnana to establish them in devotional service to the Supreme Lord and His devotees. But
if they exhibit strong inclinations to incorrigible mayavadi views then they must be avoided.

Commentary
The abhasa Vaisnava is he who is beginning in service, he is known as a shadow of a Vaisnava. If he has given up his
offensive behavior then he is as glorious as any Vaisnava, it is only a matter of time. He may be on the neophyte level
of instruction and realization, but as long as he does not chant with offenses and is therefore not on the nama-
aparadha level, he should be respected and given help always. In this way he will be uplifted. However, on the other
hand if someone has strong inclinations toward mayavadi behavior and understanding, and becomes antagonistic and
quarrelsome, he should be avoided. His chanting will not please Lord Krsna under any circumstances.

Pratibimba namabhasa

22. “When a person sees pure firm faith in others, he is impressed; thus sraddha-abhasa or the beginning of
faith is invoked in him. He desires elevation and so chants constantly, though still with strong attachments to
sense pleasures and the desire for liberation. His sraddha is not real but has the symptoms of sraddha. This is
defined in the scriptures as pratibimba-sraddha-abhasa—hence chanting with pratibimba-sraddha-abhasa
results in pratibimba-namabhasa. But if by circumstances this sort of namabhasa becomes polluted by mayavadi
philosophy, then the chanter begins to think that the perfect and transcendental name of the Lord is mundane
and imperfect, requiring to be perfected by chanting with knowledge. This offense obliterates his little bit of
genuine sraddha.

Commentary
Sometimes we may see a person joining the movement, and because he sees others advancing in spiritual life he too
feels good about chanting. Of course modern day life is infested with all kinds of thought patterns that are opposed to
the real understanding of the Supreme Lord, thus most people have some form of mayavadi conditioning. When such
a person chants the Holy Name they do so with some faith via hearing from others about the glorious effects of
chanting. After a while however, a few offenses may occur and such a person’s faith may be tested. Chanting in the
beginning will always be tainted with distorted understanding given from conditioning prior to devotional life, thus,
such a person will chant what is technically known as pratibimba-sraddha-abhasa. This is the kind of chanting that
many aspiring devotees and congregational members do when they first come to Krsna consciousness. Real faith can
only come about from associating with elevated Vaisnavas and learning from them the science of Godhead, at first
this faith is simply there because of seeing others doing well and therefore desires for personal elevation are there.

When the tests come along, if the chanter does not adapt his belief systems to incorporate the fact that chanting alone
will bring about all success then he may seek to find success through scholarly learning. Being already contaminated,
if he does not seek guidance from advanced krsna-bhaktas he will lean towards understanding the scriptures from his
own previous conditioning. This is common place in our movement. Because such a person does not have real faith
yet, if an attempt is made to find the ultimate truth without the mercy of Sri-Guru, or Sri Namaprabhu, one is doomed
to become proud. In this way, some people come to the movement, chant the minimum amount of rounds and lock
themselves into a sphere of study. If we add to this his earlier upbringing and conditioning, and he again finds
something contemptible due to this upbringing, he may revert back to his mayavadi ways of seeing things. If this fire
is then fuelled by the wrong association it obliterates his little understanding. This will then lead the aspirant to
chanting in pratibimba-namabhasa, and his offenses will increase due to this. Such a person with distorted faith
regarding the scriptural conclusions should be avoided. However, the Holy Name is always there to save such a
person, and when he understands the error of his ways, via being neglected by the flock, and he becomes repentant
and attempts to change his ways, he will again seek refuge in the Holy Name and the Lord from within will guide him
to the correct teachings he needs. To avail this, the sadhaka must remain humble and chant sixty-four rounds of japa-
mala in order to take down the fever of material consciousness.

Chaya and pratibimba-namabhasa

23. “Chaya-namabhasa arises simply from ignorance. It is rooted in hrdaya-daurbalyam or weakness of the
heart. It is a type of anartha. But all these faults are rectified by chanting the Holy Name. However, chanting in
pratibimba-namabhasa increases one’s offenses. According to the mayavadis, Lord Krsna’s name, form,
qualities and pastimes are all illusory, false temporary and contaminated. They similarly misunderstand prema
or spiritual love to be merely evanescent. Mayavadi philosophy characteristically contradicts the devotional
path of bhakti at every turn. Therefore mayavadis are the biggest offenders. The mayavadi’s chanting is not real
chanting; the sound of the Lord’s name may emanate from his mouth, but it is bereft of the potency of the
Lord. His chanting is filled with the yearning for sense pleasure and liberation, and all the time he thinks the
Lord’s name is material. Because he tries to cheat, his chanting results in unrelenting misery for himself.

Commentary
From chaya-namabhasa all good can eventually come. This is because namabhasa chanting is a stage that one must
go through in order to uproot anarthas and update belief systems and belief patterns that have become outdated due to
a deeper understanding of the realities of the Lord's nature. Such belief patterns have been placed into the
subconscious mind from birth onwards and are supported by the collective unconsciousness surround the living entity
in each particular time period. (Carl Young discusses the topic of collective unconsciousness in his books on
psychology).

Beliefs go to form the false-ego or ahankara. Thus, because of misplaced belief, the conditioned jiva takes the body
to be real, and takes part in bodily designations, associating with the world in terms of I and mine. In Krsna
consciousness however, the devotee learns a completely different philosophical approach to life. As the sadhakas
progress in realization there is a need to modify belief systems accordingly. While chanting the devotee then receives
vijnana and this deepens his faith further. Belief can be changed without too much disruption via good association,
but the beginnings of faith are fixed by previous punya. Only one who has sufficient faith in the realities of Krsna can
enter into chaya-namabhasa chanting. Faith is the transcendental seed of bhakti.
Chaya-namabhasa means that one is not an offender. One may be in the neophyte or madhyama level of
understanding, but such mentality and level of purity is simply a product of past conditioning brought about by
ignorance of the real self and one’s relationship to the Supreme. When one understands one’s relationship as a servant
of the Lord, one is known to be chanting in svarupa-namabhasa. Therefore, a full understanding of sambandha is
very important, and one must learn this from guru exactingly! If one continues faithful, sincere, incessant chanting,
ignorance will be removed and faith will be strengthened, thus, weakness of heart will vanish and offenses will cease.
This will lead to chanting svarupa-nama, nama without the abhasa. The remedy for removing abhasa is constant
chanting after the path of the great saintly devotees. This is the right path for aspiring devotees to take, and the Lord
will be pleased with you for doing so.

If the mayavadi mentality prevails anywhere in the consciousness, success will not come about. All
misunderstandings and anarthas must be removed before one may chant purely. This is the message in this text. Be
careful of wanting to enjoy sense objects and of desiring fine things and places to live, otherwise you may end up in
heaven rather than Krsnaloka. As one progresses further along the path of devotion, anarthas become increasingly
more subtle and harder to remove so one must be very vigilant to root-out the desire for name, fame, and adoration.
There has been many-a-big devotee who has fallen due to weakness for sense pleasures and aggrandizement so please
take care. The undboubted way for success is humble attentive chanting, and more chanting.

How does the mayavadi redeem himself?

24. “If by some good fortune, the mayavadi relinquishes the desire for sense gratification and liberation and
begins to chant, thinking himself a servant of Krsna, he becomes exonerated from his offenses and spiritual
aberrations. He then takes shelter of the Holy Name and repents. This opens the way to hear from, and
associate with, pure devotees. At this time his chanting leads him to comprehend sambandha-jnana. He must
chant while continuously shedding tears of contrition; only then can he invoke the mercy of the Holy Name.

Commentary
Who knows the cause of good fortune? Maybe one has simply came to the end of one’s desire for enjoyment. Maybe
one has enough ajnanata-sukriti, or bhakti-unmukhi, or maybe it is simply the causeless mercy of a great saintly
person like Narada Muni or Srila Prabhupada. Whatever the case, if a mayavadi or someone else with contaminated
consciousness comes to chant the Holy Name and associates with the rare few saintly persons left on the planet, his
good fortune will know no end. The key to his success this time around is that he must be repentant and seek full
shelter under the lotus feet of the Holy Name. In this way the Lord will send along Sri Guru who will give panca-
samskara by his causeless mercy. Unflinching faith is the price, but at the same time one must sincerely understand;
“Yes, I am the biggest sinner. There is no one more fallen than I, for I am a mayavadi and I have been against God for
so many lifetimes. Let me now amend my behavior and become a humble servant of the Vaisnavas, who are the only
true servants of the Lord. Let me now perform tapa and change according to my repentance.”

The mayavadi sees bhakti as material

25 “The mayavadi considers the transcendental form of Lord Krsna and the jiva’s inherent constitutional
position as the Lord’s eternal servitor to be transient and imaginary. This mayavadi philosophy is a grievous
namaparadha. Namabhasa is truly a wish-fulfilling tree, for it even offers to the mayavadis the sayujya
liberation so desired by them. Because the name is omnipotent it offers mukti-abhasa or a semblance of
liberation in the pratibimba-namabhasa stage. Amongst the five types of liberation, sayujya (becoming one with
God) is considered abhasa, a mere hint of liberation. Material suffering is indeed terminated in sayujya, but
certain spiritual doom follows.

Commentary
There are five types of liberation, sayuja, svarupya, salokya, samipya, and sarsti. Out of these a devotee will never
choose sayuja liberation as there is no chance to serve the Lord from this platform. Sayujyamukti comes in two forms,
merging into the effulgence of the Lord and merging into the body of the Lord. Of the two, merging into the body of
the Lord is considered the worst. This was the liberation attained by Sisupala, who insulted the Lord in the rajasuya
sacrifice of Maharja Yudistira.

26. “The mayavadis, captivated by maya, find sayujya pleasurable, but it is only a ghost of actual happiness.
They forever forfeit transcendental existence, knowledge, happiness and devotional service, because
sayujyamukti obstructs their remembrance of Krsna. Where is the question of eternal bliss when the eternal
aspect of bhakti and prema is doubted?

Commentary
The words of sastra can be misleading—therefore we need to have a guru in order to clarify many finer topics. If by
chance one meets a bona fide guru one can reach the highest truth by his mercy. Such a bona fide guru should be
worshiped and respected as good as God, for he is the Lord's representative and our key to attaining eternal
communion with the Lord. Merging into the gigantic body of the Lord is not the way to attain everlasting peace—
sayujyamukti is only a ghost of real happiness. It is not worth the botheration—actually it is not a reward at all, it is a
punishment! If it were a reward then surely the Lord would award it to His surrendered devotees, but instead He
awards it to the non-devotees who insist on wanting to end the miseries of material life, but who have not yet been
frustrated enough to begin to serve the Lord as a good loyal servant. In fact they do not desire to serve the Lord at all,
they desire to serve themselves, and this indeed lies at the root of the mayavadi conception of merging into oneness
(they are after personal pleasure). Love for the Lord, and relationship with Him, is the highest truth. A devotee of the
Lord understands his relationship with the Lord to be eternal, thus he aims to please the Lord in whatever small way
he can. To serve the Lord, and not enjoy His creation is the undoubted path to please the Lord. The great acaryas are
hereby teaching this out of their causeless mercy.

Chaya-namabhasa can lead to suddha-nama

27. “If the chaya-namabhasa chanter is not contaminated by atheistic concepts, then he has a good chance. His
position is that he is ignorant about the potency of the Holy Name, but it is the inherent nature of the Holy
Name to impregnate that knowledge into the chanter’s heart. For example, the sun may not be visible when the
sky is cloudy, but once the clouds are dispersed, the sun shines through in full glory. The chanter gains great
benefit from taking shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, and in a short time is able to attain the pure name
and krsna-prema.

Commentary
If one reads the Sri Harinama Cintamani slowly, verse by verse, and studies it, one can see how glorious rewards are
given to the person who loves Krsna, and how distasteful rewards are offered to those who don’t love Krsna. But this
does not mean that the Lord is bias. It merely proves the Lord speaks the truth. In scripture the Lord instructs Arjuna
that He awards everyone according to their desires. Actually rewards are also a matter of perception and taste given
from a polluted consiousness. For instance, a pig or a dog may like the taste of stool, but a sane human or a demigod
would not quite think in the same way. Similarly, a devotee detests the idea of merging into the Lord as in sayujya
liberation, and hates the thought of going against the Lord's wishes, either in the case of philosophy, or in
blaspheming His devotees. On the other hand, those who are desirous of sense enjoyment, and who long to attain
liberation like the idea—just as animals with lesser evolved consciousness like the taste of stool. The Lord is so kind
that He provides something for everyone’s taste-buds. The programming a devotee receives in his infancy is to be
known as the greatness and mercy of our acaryas, for by their constant repetition of the glories of associating with
krsna-bhaktas and the Holy Name, even sinful persons such as I can be elevated. May I always swim in the love of
such great souls, and may I be granted eternal service to their lotus feet.

The modern aspiring devotees are living examples of the greatness of the Holy Name, which is expounded in this text
in the following words:

If the chaya-namabhasa chanter is not contaminated by atheistic concepts, then he has a good chance.
His position is that he is ignorant about the potency of the Holy Name, but it is the inherent nature of
the Holy Name to impregnate that knowledge into the chanter’s heart.
The inherent nature of the Holy Name is that it gives cognizance of the Lord. Although we are ignorant of the real
identity of the Lord and of His greatness when we come to the movement, by the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu this
knowledge is given to the heart, causing a paradigm shift in consciousness. In time one will naturally love the Lord
without any prompting or intervention as bhakti and prema is the nature of everyone. It is not that one has to
artificially aquire bliss or love, quite the contrary; it is a part of the jiva’s inherent make-up to love the Lord and to
desire to serve the Lord. When this shift comes about, one should rejoice at one’s change of heart and make a
determined effort to chant more and more, until sixty-four rounds a day is not enough. This understanding is called
sambandha and understanding this qualifies a sadhaka to chant chaya-sraddhanama. Via the combined mercy of the
spiritual master, and Sri Namaprabhu all offenses will cease, and the sun of the Holy Name will dawn on the
perception of the purifed heart of the devotee who chants in this mood. All glories to Sri Gurudeva. All glories to Sri
Namaprabhu. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, all glories to the disciplic succession and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. All
glories to Sri Panca-tattva.

Devotees must not associate with mayavadis

28. “Diligently avoid the association of mayavadis! Please serve those who are attached to chanting purely! O
Lord Caitanya, this is Your injunction and whoever follows it is very fortunate. Those who disregard and
disobey this instruction are wretches who will suffer eternally. O my Lord! Please bless me so that I can reject
bad association and take shelter at Your lotus feet! There is no other way.”

Commentary
This is an order for any sane devotee to carry out. Do not associate with mayavadis! Here we see how even such a
highly elevated devotee as Srila Haridasa Thakura prays to be protected against such bad association. We also see how
Srila Prabhupada would pray to the Deities to not fall down. This is a very good instruction given directly from the
lips of Lord Caitanya.

To explain how providence can bring up various kinds of association I can relate a personal story to demonstrate this
point. “Once, not so long ago, I met a respectable Indian gentleman who was extremely learned in the scriptures. He
could quote almost any sloka from the Bhagavad-gita and knew many things from the Srimad-Bhagavatam. When I
spoke with him he was very courteous and kind. He was a pandita who gave lectures at the local Hindu temple. He
was also giving elaborations on the Bhagavad-gita on the internet once a month. He enquired if I would like to
receive this email magazine and I agreed. In his elaborations of the verse that month he explained how at the end of
life we merge into Krsna’s body.” Of course that was the end of communication between us. Lord Caitanya
Mahaprabhu has forbidden us to associate with mayavadis, and Haridasa Thakura is praying to be blessed with
enough discrimination to be able to reject bad association, so we must do the same! To explain this philosophical
understanding we are given a very nice example in the Caitanya-caritamrta, where Srila Svarupa Damodara gave the
following instruction to Bhagavan Acarya about his brother.

buddhi bhrasta haila tomara gopalera sange

mayavada sunibare upajila range
vaisnava hana yeba sariraka-bhasya sune
sevya-sevaka-bhava chadi apanare isvara mane

You have lost your intelligence in the association of Gopala, and therefore you are eager to hear the
mayavadi philosophy. When a Vaisnava listens to the Sariraka-bhasya, the mayavadi commentary upon
the Vedanta-sutras, he gives up the Krsna conscious attitude that the Lord is the master and the living
entity is His servant. Instead, he considers himself the Supreme Lord. (Cc. antya-lila 2.94-95)

In dealing with people with mayavadi leanings and understandings there is always the aspect of preaching, but in
general we should reject all types of bad association. In the Caitanya-caritamrta the positive aspect of this teaching is
put it very simply. “The root cause of devotional service to Lord Krsna is association with advanced devotees.” (Cc.
madhya-lila 22.83)
With this in mind, please try to follow diligently the orders of your spiritual master, chant more and more, while all
the time trying to give up offenses, especially offenses in the philosophical conclusions of Vaisnava teachings—and
enjoy your Krsna consciousness! Blessed are those who in Kali-yuga serve the lotus feet of the Vaisnavas in the
disciplic line stemming from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

One who is blessed with love and devotion and takes pleasure in serving Srila Haridasa Thakura’s lotus feet
will find this book Harinama Cintamani as valuable as life itself.

Chapter Four
Criticizing Saintly Persons

All glories to Lord Sri Gauranga, the life of Sri Gadadhara Pandit; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the heart of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to Srivas Pandit and to all the
devotees of Lord Caitanya.

The ten offenses against the Holy Name

1. Lord Caitanya said, “Haridasa, now describe in detail the offenses against the Holy Name.” Srila Haridasa
replied, “O Lord, whatever I say will be on Your prompting alone. I am a mere puppet.

Commentary
The Lord is now questioning Haridasa about the possible offenses to the Holy Name so that Haridasa can reveal the
secrets about chanting the pure name. The psychology behind this is that by understanding clearly what does not
please the Lord we can then pursue the path of avoiding such things. Number one on this list of things that do not
please the Lord is criticizing saintly persons. This should be understood clearly by all, as it is a definite no-no for
those pursuing a religious lifestyle.

Those with keen intellect will notice how Sri Harinama Cintamani leads the reader from the beginning stages to the
advanced stages in a progressive manner. It is not that in the first chapter one is given deep teachings on one’s siddha-
deha—this would not be right. Instead we have been learning first about the Lord and His energies, and then about
our relationship to the Lord. In this way primary faith is given. In this chapter we are learning about the first of ten
offenses that we should avoid along the path of self realization. As we develop in knowledge and faith we are led to a
deeper understanding of haribhajana, which is the goal of a devotee’s chanting. The meaning of the word bhajana is
more than just meditation; bhajana means deeply absorbed confidential meditation in which the practitioner takes part
in the activities of the spiritual world. To get to the spiritual world we must have a clear understanding of how to act
when we get to such a holy environment, therefore we must act in that spiritual atmosphere even while inhabiting a
material body. To give further instructions on bhajana, Sri Harinama Cintamani will mention the specifics of how to
chant correctly throughout fourteen chapters, and once this information has been given, the sadhaka will receive
information on confidential worship, known as svarsiki-bhajana. This will come under the heading of namarasa in
chapter fifteen.
Throughout Sri Harinama Cintamani you will notice how Bhaktivinoda Thakura has placed an invocation at the
beginning of every chapter. This is done to give due respects to Lord Gauranga and His devotees, and to purify the
mind ready for the trancemination of knowledge to take place. From this we can understand that Sri Harinama
Cintamani is not the kind of book that one should read from cover to cover in one sitting. Moreover, it is a study book
that should be read chapter by chapter. Each chapter should be meditated upon until the confidential information
contained therein is revealed within your heart. Sadhana-bhakti means a practice that will unit you in love to the Lord
of your heart, and when Sri Harinama Cintamani is read as a part of sadhana-bhakti, truths will be revealed as a
natural part of the awakening process. The spiritual science of Krsna consciousness indicates that knowledge of Krsna
is revealed within the heart of the aspirant devotee via the mercy of the pure devotee, therefore services given to the
pure devotee and his representatives are an integral part of understanding the spiritual science contained in Sri
Harinama Cintamani. This point may be understood more clearly as we progress in the book. Advancement in Krsna
consciousness is by the mercy of Sri Krsna and sat-guru, the pure devotee—and by the mercy of the pure devotee’s
representatives, who have been delegated as bona fide and worthy of giving out such benedictions as spiritual
blessings.

To read this book and not act on its message of pure chanting is a great loss, for if the reader sincerely wishes to have
a constant guide in Krsna consciousness this book will act as that most worthy guide. The message is clear—one must
take chanting and bhajana as the top priority in life. One must perfect his chanting through unmotivated,
uninterrupted service to Sri Namaprabhu, remembering all the while that only the Holy Name chanted sincerely can
purify the heart of all inebriates and pollution. Therefore, incessant attentive chanting is recommended as the basis for
the cintamani of harinama. This book is cintamani, a touch-stone of harinama, the Lord’s spiritual name. It is
instructions on chanting given by the namacarya—it is not to be taken lightly, for it has the power to purify invested
within its pages! Please read this book side by side with increased attentive chanting and an intense desire to serve the
Vaisnvas, all the while avoiding the offenses enumerated within. This will guarantee all success.

2. “The scriptures enumerate ten offenses against the Holy Name, and I am very fearful of these offenses. I will
list them one by one; please give me strength to avoid these offenses, my Lord.

1) To criticize saintly persons.

2) To consider the demigods to be independent of the Supreme Lord, or that Lord Krsna’s name, form,
qualities and pastimes are separate from the Lord.
3) To disobey the spiritual master who reveals the truth about the Holy Name.
4) To criticize the scriptures that describe the glories of the Holy Name.
5) To consider the excellences and divine qualities of the Holy Name, as delineated in the scriptures, to be
imaginary.
6) To commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the Holy Name.
7) To instruct faithless persons on the glories of the Holy Name.
8) To equate chanting of the Holy Name with the materially auspicious activities recommended in the
karmakanda sections of the Vedas.
9) To be inattentive while chanting the Holy Name.
10) To not develop love for the Holy Name after knowing His glories because of maintaining attachments to the
body and things related to the body.

Commentary
If Haridasa Thakura is very fearful of committing any of the aforementioned ten offenses against the Holy Name then
what should our position be? Before he lists these offenses he requests the Lord; ‘please give me strength to avoid
these offenses.’ We are therefore being simultaneously warned to be fearful of committing offenses, and to pray to not
fall victim to offensive behavior. This should be incorporated as an important part of our sambhanda understanding.
Srila Prabhupada once said that his disciples were not fearful enough about falling into maya. In this case forewarned
is forearmed. It is recommended that when one goes before the Deity, one should humbly offer prays to the Lord
glorifying His greatness, and request the Lord to give protection and guidance in order to attain eternal service to His
lotus feet.

To Criticize a saintly person is offensive

3. “Criticizing a saintly person is the first offense against the Holy Name; it completely disrupts one’s spiritual
life. You have personally described the qualities of a sadhu in Your incarnation as Lord Krsna, when you spoke
to Uddhava as recorded in the Eleventh Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Commentary
The subheading to this section says everything. ‘To criticize a saintly person is offensive.’ Offensive behavior gets
you in trouble, therefore don’t criticize others! Srila Goura Govinda Swami once said that no one has a right to correct
anyone else’s behavior except that person’s guru. This should be understood. If one is authorized and acting on behalf
of the guru there is room for assistance, but never room for criticizing or belittling a devotee. In this text we are being
pointed in the direction of Lord Krsna’s teachings to Uddhava in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. We should therefore look
up these teachings and study them carefully—this is called following the instructions of the mahajanas.

Uddhava asked Sri Krsna many questions, and in replying to them the Lord gave transcendental knowledge to His
devotee. Sri Uddhava said; “My Lord, please tell me who is a wise man and who is a fool?” The Lord replied; “A
wise man is one who knows the process of freedom from bondage, and a fool is one who identifies with his material
body and mind.” The teachings of Sri Krsna to Uddhava are very extensive and very informative. Such teachings are
best studied under the auspice of an advanced soul, and are available in the Srimad-Bhagavatam eleventh canto, and
the “Uddhava-gita.”

A devotee is one who is chanting the Holy Name of the Lord with faith and serving in a favorable loving mood. As
such he should be given respect for this. Respect means to be treated as a gentleman, and amongst gentlemen there is
etiquette. In the culture of Sri Caitanya we call this ‘Vaisnava etiquette.’ In the manifest pastimes of Sri Caitantyadeva
we see several examples where the Lord was not pleased when His devotees transgressed the rules of Vaisnava
etiquette. One instance was when Jagadananda Pandit, who was the embodiment of Satyabhama in krsna-lila,
instructed Sanatan Goswami that he should go to Vrndavana and take shelter there. To this overstepping of etiquette
the Lord replied; “But Jagadananda is just a new boy, what right does he have to instruct someone like you Sanatana?
You are qualified to be on the level of one who instructs even Me.” In this case it was a clear that Jagadananda Pandit
overstepped the mark of Vaisnava etiquette, but in another example Sanatana learned greatly from Jagadananda’s deep
love for the Lord.

Jagadananda had requested the Lord to allow him to leave for Vrndavana and the Lord had refused because
Jagadananda and He had recently had a disagreement about the Lord’s austerities and renunciation. The Lord said
“Dear Jagadananda, if I allow you to go to Vrndavana while you are in this mood, you will find fault with Me.” After
Jagadananda’s mood had calmed a little he again requested the Lord and the Lord agreed to him going. While in
Vrndavana Jagadananda stayed with his friend Sanatana. While in Sanatana’s company he noticed that Sanatana was
wearing a red cloth around his head. Jagadananda questioned Sanatana as to where he got the cloth from, thinking that
it was a gift from Sri Caitanya, but when he heard it was a gift from another sannyasi called Mukunda Sarasvati,
Jagadananda became very angry. He chased Sanatana with a cooking pot ready to beat him. Then Jagadananda calmed
down a little and chastised Sanatana as follows:

You are one of the chief associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Indeed, no one is dearer to Him than
you.

Still, you have bound your head with a cloth given to you by another sannyasi. Who can tolerate such
behavior?

Sanantana then replied; My dear Jagadananda Pandita, you are a greatly learned saint. No one is dearer
to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu than you.

This faith in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu quite befits you. Unless you demonstrate it, how could I learn
such faith?
 My purpose in binding my head with the cloth has now been fulfilled because I have personally seen
your uncommon love for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Cc. antya-lila 13.56-60)

In this instance Jagadananda was acting from a very high pure loving platform and was transcendental in his dealings
with Sanatana. In this way we see how ettiquite is given to those who are more advanced spiritually. In the first
instance Sanatana was acting in this way, and in the second, it was Jagadananda. Vaisnava ettiquite should be
observed by all, but the hireachy of giving respect is due not to age, or seniority in management etc, but to
advancement in Krsna consciousness. This fact was also demonstrated when the sages requested Sukadeva Goswami
to narrate the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

To be safe and make swift progression one should be very careful to avoid this first offense. Simply put, if you do not
have something good to say about another, then keep your thoughts inside. This is called control of the tongue. It may
be very difficult for those who have formed a habit, but if you succeed in overcoming this obstacle you will become
glorious. You have my word for this. If on the other hand you succumb to the habit of fault-finding and blaspheming
devotees, you could become as degraded as Sarvabhauma’s cousin Amogha (who even dared to criticize Lord
Gauranga for overeating), or even worse like Ramacandra Puri. Both of these criticized Lord Caitanya because of
habit.

Ramacandra Puri did not receive the mercy of the Lord because he had committed guru-aparadha and had to
approach Madhavendra Puri to become free from this offense, but luckily the Lord forgave Amogha because he was
related to Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. Being very merciful on the fallen, Lord Caitanya purified Amogha of this
weakness via the following instructions:

‘matsarya’-candala kene ihan vasaile

parama pavitra sthana apavitra kaile

Why have you allowed the candala of jealousy to sit here also? In this way you have contaminated a
most purified place, your heart.

sarvabhauma-sange tomara ‘kalusa’ haila ksaya

‘kalmasa’ ghucile jiva ‘krsna-nama’ laya

However, due to the association of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, all your contamination is now
vanquished. When a person’s heart is cleansed of all contamination, he is able to chant the maha-
mantra, Hare Krsna. (Cc. madya-lila 15.276- 277)

By this wonderful teaching we also learn that one is eligible to chant the maha-mantra when one’s heart is
cleansed of all contamination. We shall discuss more about this topic as we progress in the book.

4. “The sadhu’s qualities are as follows: he is merciful, tolerant, equal to all, performing penances without
excessively inflicting injury to the body; truthful; purehearted; compassionate; free from lust intelligence;
master of the senses; voluntarily accepting material impoverishment; gentle; clean; regulated in eating;
peaceful; apathetic to materialism; patient; steady; taking Lord Krsna as his only shelter; free from illusion;
grave; a conqueror over hunger, thirst lamentation, envy and old-age; not expecting honor from others;
offering respect to others; expert; not a cheater; and knowledgeable.

Commentary
These qualities listed above are the qualities of a sadhu, both tathasta and svarupa. However, not all tathasta qualities
are manifest in all devotees. It may therefore follow that a person does not think a devotee to be on a high level and
therefore criticizes him unnecessarily. This is a very dangerous situation. Please therefore do not ever criticize a
devotee as this offense will play havoc with your spiritual life, indeed you can not counteract such an offense with any
amount of pious activities. Only by the mercy of the sadhu whom you have offended can you become free from this
offense. This fact is outlined in the well known story of Durvasa Muni and Maharaja Ambarisha.
Among the list printed in this text we see the quality of ‘taking Lord Krsna as one’s only shelter.’ So this is the mark
of sadhu. Now, when we live in the company of Vaisnavas, such as those of the international society for Krsna
Consciousness, we may come across all sorts of characters. There may be many people with many degrees of faith in
Krsna and the Holy Name, but for sure all of them have some faith. Their faith is dependent on their level of purity or
impurity. This faith will increase with time and association, so in effect all persons are possible candidates for
becoming a pure devotee. Knowing that our destination is the spiritual world, and that the spiritual world is
characterized by being timeless, on one level all devotees are situated on the pure platform, it is just a matter of
perspective. Therefore, if we offend a devotee who is on a low level of advancement, there is still reaction, and the
reaction means that whatever action is being put across to that person is actually being done to ourselves. Therefore
Srila Haridasa Thakura is kindly warning us about the offense known as sadhu-ninda.

5. “These qualities can be divided into two categories: svarupa, or the direct and indigenous qualities of any
substance, and tathasta, qualities that are ornamental and which are visible when the substance comes in
contact with something else. The sadhu’s acceptance of Lord Krsna as his only shelter is his svarupa-laksana,
and all the other qualities are tathasta. If by some good fortune one associates with a Vaisnava, he develops a
taste for the Holy Name, and takes complete shelter of Krsna’s lotus feet. Thus he develops the svarupa-
laksana, and then through continued chanting he gradually develops all the other laksanas or symptoms. These
other laksana are tathasta but nevertheless are essentially present in a Vaisnava.

Commentary
The svarupa-laksana, in which a devotee accesses his original nature, is the quality of a real devotee. Other qualities a
person may develop are ornamental or tathasta, they are not necessarily the hall mark of a devotee, but when placed
on the devotee they act to make him more attractive. It is through association with sadhus that faith in the Holy Name
develops and this faith leads to the svarupa-laksana or full dependence on Lord Krsna. This text brings up a topic of
previous advancement in Krsna consciousness and it may do us well to discuss this topic at this point.

Within a Krsna conscious society we sometimes hear comments such as, “oh, I can see you are taking nicely to this
process, you must have been a devotee in a previous life.” Also we hear that only bhakti leads to bhakti, therefore
unless you were a devotee in your previous life, or unless you have performed bhakti-yoga of some kind, then how
can you be a devotee in this life? We also hear in the Bhagavad-gita about what happens to a person who falls before
his devotional life is complete.

api cet su-duracaro

bhajate mam ananya-bhak
sadhur eva sadhaka mantavyah
samyag vyavasito hi sah

Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be
considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination. (Bg. 9.30)

With this in mind we can then understand how some people seem to have been devotees in a previous life. After all
Lord Krsna says; ‘he quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace.’ Once I asked a similar question to a
Buddhist monk. I asked; “Your Buddhist Nundro practice has seven levels of advancement, each one much bigger
than the last. The primary level (which is not even the first level) takes twenty years to complete, so what happens if a
person dies when he is on one of the levels before perfection?” He replied, “That person will merely begin in his next
life where he left off in the last.” I said “Oh good, so I have done the first six levels in a previous life, now you must
put me on the seventh.” He replied, “It is not that simple, one must be showing signs of advancement in his
compassion and Buddha nature, and you are not!” Similarly, in our process Lord Krsna states that He preserves what
spiritual knowledge we had in a previous life. Therefore, if we are surrounded by aspiring devotees who are on a
neophyte platform we can only assume one of two things:

1.) Either our comrades are very new to this process and a little immature in their understandings. Or:
2.) That their realized knowledge has been covered by maya and is lying in a dormant state within their heart.
Let us suppose that number two was the case for many of the society’s members. Firstly how has this come about? We
can make a summation that they have acted immorally in a previous life and in this one, and so anarthas have formed
that are covering this person’s perception of reality according to Krsna consciousness. That their desires to lord it over
material nature have caused them to take birth in Kali-yuga encased in a human body so that they could forget the
Lord and try to enjoy in illusion. (We heard earlier how the Lord is so kind that He grants all desires). So if this were
the case, such offenders have been very fortunate to again come across the sankirtana movement of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu.

Now, even after receiving mercy and coming to this movement, still, aspiring devotees will have their current
anarthas and desires imposing regulations on them. It is these anarthas that prevent aspiring devotees from
associating nicely, from listening to, and propounding the message of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and from incessantly
chanting the Holy Names of the Lord in bliss. We must wonder then, how to get around this, as it seems like devotees
may just be repeating the levels that have already been learned in previous lifetimes?

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructs that “only Sri Namaprabhu can remove anarthas,” so only constant chanting
with a contrived heart can help in this matter. Similarly Srila Prabhupada instructs that we should cry out for help, for
in our helpless condition we are fully dependent on the mercy of the Holy Name and thus in a more receptive mood.
In this instance our hearts must become like vessels for containing the Lord’s mercy, and our ears must become like
our tongues, which taste the nectar of the Holy Name.

It would then follow that if an aspiring devotee were to take the medicine that is prescribed by the acaryas and by Sri
Harinama Cintamani, all the time avoiding offenses and associating with other devotees in a manner befitting
Vaisnavas, then his progress would be swift. Why is this? Simply because the Lord says that He preserves what we
have. So all we have to do is remove the previous dust from the heart and and then from this vantage point we will
again receive the same tests that caused us to fail in a previous life, and upon passing these we will remove that
anartha and our path will be clear Therefore, if we see an aspiring devotee taking full shelter of Sri Namaprabhu and
we see that he is attached to chanting and becoming increasingly humble and tolerant in his attitudes, we can assume
that he is getting the blessings of Sri Namaprabhu who is revealing to him knowledge of what he has already amassed
in previous lives. Actually Srila Prabhupada states that anyone who comes to the Krsna consciousness movement has
already attained knowledge of all the Vedas and has fully realized brahman. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also says that
anyone who has reached the level of madyama devotee had already reached that level from birth. Therefore what we
see as advancement is merely removing the dust from the mirror of the heart, ceto darpanam marjanam. This is
achieved through chanting the Holy Name in the sankirtana movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhupada instructs that we can check our advancement in Krsna consciousness by seeing how much attraction
we have for chanting, while Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati conversely instructs that we can check our advancement
by seeing how much distaste we have for maya. So we can see from this little analysis that there is a swift path back
to Godhead. Presuming that we are Vaisnavas from previous births, and knowing that Sri Namaprabhu is the all-
purifying, most merciful incarnation of Krsna, it follows that the path of incessant attentive chanting as performed by
the previous saints, is the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death. When this point is clear in your mind your
path is open to you.

Such a person, who has taken full shelter of the Holy Name will therefore be showing signs of his svarupa-laksana, or
dependence on the Lord's Holy Name for purification. He may or may not be showing the different signs of tathasta-
laksana (ornamental qualities), but this is not how we can understand a devotee. Tathasta-laksanas manifest in
different degrees according to social needs or advancement and purity, but they are not definitive signs, only the
svarupa-laksana is a definitive sign of a devotee. Sometimes tathasta qualities are actually impositions and so cast off
or hidden by great devotees, and at other times these signs are only visible when they come in contact with contrasts;
therefore they are not always noticeable. There is something that will be noticeable however; and that is the devotee’s
ability to analyze any subject according to Krsna consciousness. We are instructed by Bhaktivinoda Thakura that this
is a sign of great faith, and that real faith can only come about when it is pertaining to the Supreme Lord. Therefore,
those sadhakas who have the svarupa-laksana of being sold out to the Holy Name will also have deep faith in Krsna
and so possess the inherent ability to analyze any topic according to Krsna consciousness—In the life of Srila
Prabhupada we see that this quality was very prominent. At the same time as this, if a great soul does not wish to
reveal himself, you will never know who he is. Such a great soul is only revealed by his mercy, otherwise he remains
hidden.

Saintliness depends upon svarupa-laksana

6. “External designations (such as the four social and religious orders of brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra and
brahmacari, grhasta, vanaprastha and sannyasi) are not the symptoms of a sadhu. The scriptures expound that
the quality of complete surrender to Lord Krsna is the hallmark of a sadhu, and he alone can chant Krsna’s
name purely.

Commentary
Only one who is chanting Krsna’s name with full faith is qualified to chant suddha-nama. It is not that simply because
one is in a higher caste that one is an advanced bhakta. Only faith in the teachings of sat-guru, incessant chanting, and
service to the lotus feet of the Vaisnavas will bring about the possibility of chanting suddha-nama.

7. “O Lord Caitanya, through Ragunatha dasa Goswami’s example You have taught everyone about how to
become a proper grhastha Vaisnava. Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami appeared not in the brahmana caste but
in the inferior kayastha caste in a village called Saptagram. Your instruction to him was that he should not
become impatient and act crazily by whimsically leaving home, but that he should return to household life and
remain there. Liberation is gradually attained by following an orderly process; there is no need to prematurely
pretend that one is detached and renounced just to impress people. Renunciation has to take place within the
heart. Wearing the dress of a renunciant when the senses are still uncontrolled is called monkey renunciation
or markata-vairagya. The householder should fulfill his duties in a regulated manner and practice detachment
by cultivating firm faith and deep attachment for Krsna within, while conducting normal external social
dealings with people in general. Very quickly Lord Krsna will personally liberate him.

Commentary
Markata-vairagya will not do. We are herein being instructed via the example of Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami. We
are informed that we should continue with our household duties in the grhastha asrama (or other duties for other
asramas), and that we should practice detachment from materialistic people by cultivating Krsna consciousness
within. No permanent joy will come from renouncing family life because of a failed marriage, or from renouncing
worldly affairs because the renounced asrama offers the benediction of food, worship, etc, etc. Advancement in Krsna
consciousness comes from attachment to the Holy Name, not by changing the outward dress. This is called monkey
renunciation. Monkey see, monkey do. This is not the path for a serious aspirant of Krsna consciousness. Real
renunciation arrises from attachement to sri krsna-nama—it is not that at first we become a renunciant and then attain
bhakti. Vairagya (renunciation) is not a limb of bhakti, but rather a symptom that bhakti is present. Renunciation is the
ornament of a devotee, and its presence in a devotee indicates that a devotee has no other goal in life except for
attaining the lotus feet of Lord Syamasundara. The word virakti indicates complete detachment from material
happiness, and the word mana-sunyata indicates one who is prideless. One, who is detached and prideless, therefore
possesses renunciation. These qualities are indicative of the stage of bhava. The advisory guidance given by the use of
the Raghunatha dasa Goswami example is that one should at first rise to a higher level of devotion before one
outwardly puts on the dress of a renunciant, as renunciation is something that one attains in the heart while
performing vaidhi-bhakti. A devotee first attains ruci, and when this taste sufficiently matures it turns into
attachemnet (asakati). By practicing sadhana-bhakti according to the rules of vaidhi-bhakti the attachement a devotee
feels for the Lord gradually increases until ruci becomes rati, or deep attraction. This deep attraction is an aspect of
bhava, and with the stirrings of bhava renunciation is seen as a natural proclivity of the heart.

There are times that a spiritual aspirant may become very frustrated with material life and desires to renounce material
life, but ultimately this frustration will act as the devotee’s best teacher and propel him forward by severing his desire
to enjoy. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Narada Muni instructs us in the following way:

An intelligent person should learn to renounce his desire for wealth by performing sacrifices and acts
of charity. He should learn to renounce his desire for wife and children by experiencing family life.
 And he should learn to renounce his desire for promotion to a higher planet in his next life, O saintly
Vasudeva, by studying the effects of time. Self-controlled sages who have thus renounced their
attachment to household life go to the forest to perform austerities. (SB. 10.84.38)

In this way we see that if one has desire then one must experience something in order to go through that experience
and come out the other end with the desire being purged from the heart. Then, as in the example of Srila Ragunatha
dasa Goswami, a devotee will qualify to become the perfect renunciant. Renunciation must first take place within the
heart, and this is attained via attachment to Krsna, starting with chanting Krsna’s name. In the story of Srila
Raghunatha dasa Goswami we see how Ragunatha pleased Lord Nityananda and then begged for His mercy to attain
Lord Caitanya’s association as follows:

Although I am unfit and greatly afraid to submit this plea, I nevertheless request You, Sir, to be
especially merciful toward me by granting me shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Placing Your feet on my head, give me the benediction that I may achieve the shelter of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu without difficulty. I pray for this benediction.

After hearing this appeal by Raghunatha dasa, Lord Nityananda Prabhu smiled and told all the
devotees, “Raghunatha dasa's standard of material happiness is equal to that of Indra, the King of
heaven. Because of the mercy bestowed upon him by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Raghunatha dasa,
although situated in such material happiness, does not like it at all. Therefore let every one of you be
merciful toward him and give him the benediction that he may very soon attain shelter at the lotus feet
of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.” (Cc. antya-lila 6.132-135)

Please note carefully how Lord Nityananda first arranged for Raghunatha to receive the mercy of the Vaisnavas, after
which he automatically received the mercy of Nityananda Gosai and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In this way we see that
receiving the mercy of the Vaisnavas is all important for a devotee’s for success.

Symptoms of a renounced sadhu

8. When You saw that Srila Ragunatha dasa Goswami had at last left his household and embraced a
renunciant’s life, Your instructions to him on the proper path of renunciation were wonderful. You taught that
one should not engage in, nor give audience to, frivolous materialistic conversations. The wearing of fine
clothes and the tasting of delicacies must be rejected. Being always ready to offer respect to others, demanding
no respect for oneself, one should constantly chant the Holy Name. One should render intimate service to Sri
Radha and Krsna in the mood of the residents of Vraja.

Commentary
These are serious instructions for those in the renounced order of life sannyasa. These orders are given from Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu and should therefore be followed strictly, for they are meant for the sannyasi’s protection.
Sometimes we see how some of these instructions are not carefully followed, but even if we see this we should never
criticize the sadhu for this. It is between sadhu, Krsna, and his spiritual master. At other times we may see how a
sannyasi is so merciful with his time that he does not have time for his personal bhajana and so deepen his absorption
in krsna-lila until he has reached the stage of rendering intimate service to Sri Sri Radha and Krsna in the mood of the
residents of Vraja. In this case we can also see that his personal meditations and level of realization are his own
business not ours, but at the same time he may be outwardly acting in the mood of the residents of Vraja via service to
the sankirtana movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It was of course the very same residents of Vraja who came to
spread the sankirtana movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as those in krsna-lila. From one perspective we should
see this, but from the perspective of the renunciant he should strive to chant constantly until he perfects his lila-
smarana, as this is also prescribed herein.
The examples we find in Caitanya lila are there for our guidance and are applicable for all time periods. The
example of Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami’s renunciation and the instructions given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
should therefore not be overlooked, as they are an integral part of a renunciant’s prescribed behavior.
Same basic quality in householder and renunciant

9. “The svarupa-laksana or principle symptom (i.e. Surrender to Lord Krsna) must prevail in a sadhu
regardless of his varna and asrama. The tathasta-laksana or marginal symptoms will certainly vary according
to the varnas and asramas. Undeviating surrender to Lord Krsna is the svarupa-laksana of devotional service.

10. “Whoever posses this quality will soon find that the other marginal symptoms have come to him unfailingly.
But if perchance the marginal symptoms have not reached full maturity in a surrendered sadhu, and instead
some serious discrepancies in the character are visible in him, then he is still to be respected as a sadhu or
saintly soul. This is the verdict of the scriptures, as expressed in Lord Krsna’s own words in the Bhagavad-gita.
A profound philosophical truth is revealed by this verse, and we are aware of it only due to Your mercy.

Commentary
Every devotee may be on a different level of realization, but if he is chanting and following the principles of Vaisnava
etiquette then he is to be considered a sadhu. If by chance we see in him some fault we should not criticize him for
this.

As Lord Krsna Himself would not do this, then a servant of His should act likewise. Otherwise how can one call
himself a servant representing God? This is one of the pitfalls of being on the fundamental levels of realization; there
is a tendency to criticize others! On the more advanced levels of devotion devotees see more good in encouragement,
and enjoy chanting Lord Krsna’s name too much to jeopardize their situation.

If one has full faith in the Holy Name the marginal qualities called tathasta-laksana will come about as a natural
occurrence, but if one commits sadhu-ninda, one may see all these good qualities washed away in the tides of
madness and illusion. Sadhu-ninda is likened to the offense of a maddened elephant, which comes into the protected
garden and tramples everything to the ground. Only by the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu can we be allowed to see just
how much the Lord loves His devotees, and by this mercy we will clearly see, as did Bhaktivinoda Thakura, that
Krsna’s devotee is never to be vanquished, no matter what kind of abominable activities he may have performed.

It is offensive to criticize a sadhu for past sins

11. “When one has developed a real taste for chanting, then a single utterance of the Holy Name can eradicate
all previous sins. Some vestiges of sinful reaction may still remain in a particular individual, but these also are
gradually removed by the process of chanting. As these last traces of sin disappear, he emerges a pure devotee.
Of course, the lingering traces of sin are seen by the common man as sins; but if a saintly person is criticized
because of the traces of almost-extirpated sin in his character, that is a grievous offense. If criticism is made
against a sadhu for sins committed prior to his surrendering to Krsna, that is likewise another serious offense;
such a faultfinder surely invites the wrath of Lord Krsna.

Commentary
If you do not desire to see the wrath of Lord Krsna, this text is explaining to you how to avoid it. Be good and do not
criticize devotees! All devotees are special because they are chanting the names of God. More than this they are
chanting the intimate names of God, and so have a very personal connection with the Lord in Krsnaloka. A sadhaka
should try to remember and meditate on this when the next bout of madness comes upon him and he speaks before he
thinks of the consequences.

In this text we see how a person, who has developed ruci, or a real taste for chanting, can eradicate all his sins by a
single utterance of the Holy Name. Srila Prabhupada gave the analogy that upon initiation we unplug the fan from the
power supply and although the fan is still going around it is only a matter of time before it stops. Similarly, it is just a
matter of time before all the lingering traces of sin disappear. Now, you may question why does that not seem to be
the case sometimes? The answer is, because sadhakas keep plugging the fan back in! Yes, as soon as aparadha is
there, covering follows and this covering makes the sadhaka liable to commit more sin. The idea behind this text is
that a person must be honored because he is chanting and following nicely. If the sadhaka keeps on chanting
namaparadha, or keeps making offenses to devotees, it may seem that in the lives of such sadhaka’s the fan will never
slow down. Therefore every sane devotee must put full faith in the words of Srila Haridasa Thakura and avoid sadhu-
ninda while all the time developing a taste for chanting and rising-up through the modes, and the anartha-nirvritti
stage of chanting.

Symptoms of a sadhu in a few words

12. “One who has fully surrendered to Lord Krsna will naturally only chant Lord Krsna’s name, thus such a
person is entitled to be called a sadhu by the Lord’s grace. Only a devotee of Lord Krsna is eligible to be
respected as a sadhu, and none other. If anyone else proclaims himself a sadhu, he is but a charlatan and a
braggart. One who humbly says he is a poor soul surrendered to Lord Krsna, who constantly chants Krsna’s
name, is a real sadhu. He, considering himself lower than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree, offers
all respects to others without expecting any for himself. The Holy Name of Krsna grants such a sadhu divine
love of Godhead.

Commentary
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that because of complete detachment from materialistic people a sadhu, whose heart
is full of compassion, free from envy and false prestige, gives respect to all. Such a person thinks of himself as lower
than the grass, and is tolerant of the misgivings that others impose upon him. This person is qualified to chant
suddha-nama and so receive krsna-prema.

The devotee’s qualification to serve the Lord, is his unadulterated love for the Lord, this is his svarupa-laksana. This
is shown in his behavior and chanting, and thus he is known as a maha-bhagavat devotee. The Srimad-Bhagavatam
says the following about this:

visajati hrdayam na yasya saksad

dharir avasabhihito 'py aghaugha-nasah
pranaya-rasanaya dhrtanghri-padmah
sa bhavati bhagavata-pradhana uktah

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is so kind to the conditioned souls that if they call upon Him by
speaking His Holy Name, even unintentionally or unwillingly, the Lord is inclined to destroy
innumerable sinful reactions in their hearts. Therefore, when a devotee who has taken shelter of the
Lord's lotus feet chants the Holy Name of Krsna with genuine love, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead can never give up the heart of such a devotee. One who has thus captured the Supreme Lord
within his heart is to be known as bhagavata-pradhana, the most exalted devotee of the Lord. (SB.
11.2.55)

This is a description of a fully surrendered soul, a sadhu.

A Vaisnava fixed in the name is the real sadhu

13. “When I hear a sadhu chant the Holy Name, I offer my respects to him, knowing him to be a perfect
Vaisnava. A Vaisnava is the spiritual master of the world, a true friend, being, always an ocean of compassion.
Anyone who criticizes a Vaisnava goes directly to hell and suffers untold pains birth after birth. The doors of
bhakti are closed to this offender because devotional service is the merciful gift of a Vaisnava to the living
entities. The Vaisnava is an abode of Lord Krsna’s spiritual potencies; others receive krsnabhakti only by his
confidential association.

Commentary
Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana-mission is to deliver the most fallen. Nityananda is like a madman, fully intoxicated with
divine love. In this ecstatic state he does not care who is qualified and who is not—together they are an unsurpassable
duo. The bhakti They brought to this world remains in the heart of the pure devotee and uses him as a vehicle for
further movement. Thus, becomes the pure devotee’s right to give out mercy that can cause a change in the
misdirected lives of the impious. Such a person is indeed very dear to the Lord, for the Lord is alive within him. He is
the spiritual master of the entire world and should be given all respects at all times. Anyone who criticizes him goes
directly to hell for a very long time—this is revealed in this text. Worse than this, love of Godhead will never come
about in the heart of this offender, and without experiencing krsna-prema such an offender is kept in the prison house
of Devi-dhama eternally.

14. “The potency or sakti of pure devotion is a blend of hladini (Krsna’s pleasure-giving potency) and samvit
(Krsna’s knowledge-giving potency). The pure bhakti potency is instilled by a perfected pure devotee in the
aspirant devotee’ it is by this process that the bhakti potency is handed down. The bhakti potency reposes in the
heart of a transcendentalist, and it uses him as a vehicle for further movement. When a jiva becomes free from
envy and is inclined to devotional service, the bhakti potency is then transferred from a pure devotee’s heart
into that jiva’s heart. This is a great mystery. The three great touchstones that offer the mercy of a Vaisnava in
attendance to bhakti are: the Vaisnava’s eatable remnants, the water from his foot-bath, and dust from his lotus
feet.

Commentary
Bhakti is a blend of hladini and samvit, or in other words bhakti-yoga or science of love of Godhead is a blend, giving
pleasure to Krsna, by giving practical knowledge of how to love Krsna to others. When bhakti is instilled in the heart,
knowledge of the spiritual world and its inhabitants in relation to the Supreme enjoyer is revealed. Once you have this
knowledge you are impelled by love to act on this knowledge and give pleasure to Sri Krsna in your rightful position.
This is the glory of receiving bhakti. But how do you get it? Only through the mercy of the pure devotee—he has it
seated within the cottage of his heart. He protects it and dispenses it to those who are qualified to receive it. We are
informed that specs of mercy coming from the pure devotee are of supreme importance. His eatable remnants, the
dust off his lotus feet, and the water that washes those lotus feet—all these are most precious as they can transform
and purify the heart of a sincere sadhaka.

In this text we see the importance of rendering service to the pure devotee tad vaidhi pranipatena, ‘just try to learn the
truth by approaching a spiritual master’ (B.g 4.34), for the pure devotee has a blend of Krsna’s hladini and samvit
potencies within his heart. Any devotee understands that he wants to have these things, and in this way we are urged
to serve the pure devotee because he has such dynamic transcendental qualities. When you please the spiritual master
he will reveal the spiritual world to you piece by piece. Therefore one should always worship and honor the spiritual
master, who is a bona fide representative of Sri Hari. May my spiritual master have mercy on me and allow me to
continue to serve the Vaisnavas, even in my present polluted condition of life.

If this sincere prayer is heard by the pure devotee, his mercy descends to casue a change in the impious life of the
sadhaka. This is achieved by giving Krsna conscious knowledge to the individual and praying for his protection. All
living entities in their pure state have the qualities of Sri Krsna inherent within them. These qualities are sat, cit,
ananda. Now, because the living entity has chosen to live a life separate from the Lord, these three qualities are
covered by the gross material body, and under illusion the jiva appears to loose the quality of eternity known as the
sandhini energy of the Lord. In this way the conditioned jiva is left with only two of these qualities, which are known
as ahlada (bliss) and samvit (knowledge). These two qualities are also covered by the material body, and are thus seen
in varying degrees according to the covering power of the material body that encages the living entity. Therefore,
quite rightly, a conditioned jiva covered by the body of a tree (because of his accumulated consciousness given from
impious activities) does not posses the knowledge or capacity to enjoy and experience bliss, as that of a conditioned
jiva in the higher body of a human, or of a demigod. Understanding this one can see how greater facility to enjoy is
given to those who act in a more pious way, but that still does not get them free from material illusion. Therefore the
mercy of sadhu is imperative for everyone, and this is given within the heart of the devotee in accordance with the
devotee’s actions. Sri Harinama Cintamani will now give further instruction on this matter.

How a Vaisnava imbues his potency in others

15. “When one sits in the presence of a Vaisnava for some time, one feels Krsna’s potency exuding from his
person. This potency enters the heart of a faithful person and impregnates it with bhakti. He experiences
immediate ecstasy. Just by a moment’s association with a Vaisnava, bhakti is invoked in the heart of a pious
person. Immediately he’ll be inspired to chant Lord Krsna’s name; gradually, the Holy Name will offer him all
the spiritual qualities.

Commentary
We are informed not to go to the Holy Places merely to take our bath. We should go to associate with sadhus, hear
from sadhus, and render service to sadhus. This is the science of Krsna consciousness. When in the presence of a
Vaisnava (who is the only real sadhu), one feels an immediate change in his body. If one doesn’t feel elated in the
presence of such a saintly soul, one is considered to be an offender. The heart of an innocent jiva will naturally feel
ecstatic when in the presence of a great soul because just by seeing a Vaisnava one gets more advancement and
spiritual merit than bathing in all the holy places. Why is this? Scripture explains that a pure Vaisnava has the Lord
seated within his heart and his heart is therefore a Holy Place. The blessings of a sadhu are so powerful that they can
come by merely catching sight of him. This fact is substantiated by the Lord Himself in the Srimad-Bhagavatam as
follows:

na hy am-mayani terthani
na deva mac-chila-mayau
te punanty uru-kalena
darsanad eva sadhavau

Mere bodies of water are not the real sacred places of pilgrimage, nor are mere images of earth and
stone the true worshipable deities. These purify one only after a long time, but saintly sages purify one
immediately upon being seen.
(SB. 10.84.11)

Faith is the seed of bhakti, and faith can be invested in a person upon meeting a great soul. Via being in close
proximity of the sadhu, and seeing his godly qualities a conditioned soul can find the seed of love of Godhead
implanted within his heart. This is because the heart of a sadhu is pure, being in full connection with Lord Krsna.
Thus, in the heart of a sadhu, material contamination is conspicuous by its absence. Sri Krsna aslo explains the power
invested in saintly devotees.

nagnir na suryo na ca candra-taraka

na bhur jalam kham svasano 'tha van manah
upasita bheda-krto haranty agham
vipascito ghnanti muhurta-sevaya

Neither the demigods controlling fire, the sun, the moon and the stars nor those in charge of earth,
water, ether, air, speech and mind actually remove the sins of their worshipers, who continue to see in
terms of dualities. But wise sages destroy one's sins when respectfully served for even a few moments.
(SB. 10.84.12)

In this text we can clearly see that a person who worships the demigods is still caught in the illusion of dualities, but
the person, who with love, serves the pure-devotee bcomes free from the dualities of the material world. When he
performs his actions for the pleasure of the pure devotee, this in turn stimulates the pure devotee’s naturally kind
heart, and the pure devotee’s blessing follow. Such blessings purify the sadhakas consciousness and destroy his sins.
This is a very important point to understand. That point is that the pure representative of Sri Krsna has the power to
purify invested within him. He is endowed with Krsna’s divine qualities, and these qualities exhued out from his heart
and enter into the jiva’s heart causing purification. Where Krsna or His energies are found, contamination can not
remain, therefore to the degree that we please, and are subsequently blessed by Sri Krsna or His pure representative,
we will become purified.
The sadhu is ornamented with many divine qualities and these qualities called tathasta-laksana attract the mind of the
conditioned jiva, igniting a flame of desire within his heart. The svarupa-laksana is the quality that purifies the
sadhu’s heart, and it is this quality that seems most attractive to the sincere conditioned jiva whose heart is full of
material contamination—but who thus desires to become pure like the sadhu. Thus, the seed of bhakti (faith in Krsna)
is instilled within the heart of the jiva merely by sitting in the presence of a sadhu. Even thinking of him favorably
gives spiritual advancement. It is the Lord’s energy known as the bhakti-svarupam-sakti that descends through the
heart of the sadu, and into the heart of the conditioned jiva, that reveals knowledge of Krsna. Minuscule amounts of
knowledge and bliss already live within the heart of every jiva, but connection with the svarupam-sakti of the Lord
ignites the fire of bliss and knowledge that stimulate the conditioned jiva to search for his ultimate resting place as his
only mission in life. Thus it is through association with the pure representative of the Lord that one’s prayaojana
develops. This point is important to comprehend, as well as the way in which it works.

Vaisnava-ninda or criticism of a devotee

16. “An offender against a sadhu is one who criticizes a Vaisnava about his caste, some unpremeditated
accidental falldown, the last traces of his previous sins, or his sinful activities prior to his surrendering to Lord
Krsna. This offender will never develop a taste for chanting the name. One who has taken complete shelter of
the pure devotional process is considered a pure Vaisnava. The four above-mentioned faults may be present in
him, but he is totally free from all the other shortcomings. Hence criticizing him spells doom for the offender.
The glories of the Holy Name are propagated by the Vaisnava; Lord Krsna does not tolerate any criticism
against him. One may discard all other activities like religiosity, yoga, sacrifices, fruitive activities, empirical
knowledge and so on; if one simply chants the Holy Name—that is the quintessence of spiritual culture.

Commentary
A sadhu is one who has purely chanted the Holy Name of Krsna at least once. He who is neophyte is not qualified to
chant purely and so he can not be called a sadhu. There is a repeat of the same instruction about criticism in this text
in order to emphasize the importance of not committing such an offense. Because this book is not meant to be read by
people outside of devotional circles, these topics are not meant for anyone other than the aspiring devotees. Pure
devotees will never commit such an offense. If therefore, you have a history of criticism or fault-finding, then
Haridasa Thakura and Bhaktivinoda Thakura are giving good advice to help you cure your disease. By understanding
the serious consequences of sadhu-ninda the hope is that you will avoid this offense. As well as this we are also given
the opposite rewards for those who take full shelter of the name. That is; ‘one can disregard all other processes for
elevation and simply chant the Holy Name.’ This is all that is needed to go back to home, back to Godhead—for this
is the quintessence of spiritual culture.

The sadhu takes complete shelter of the Holy Name

17. “The real sadhu never criticizes demigods and other scriptures; he simply chants the Holy Name.
Regardless of whether such a sadhu is householder or a sannyasi, one should eagerly take the dust from his
lotus feet. The purity of a Vaisnava is judged by how much attraction or rati he has for the Holy Name. It has
nothing whatsoever to do with his official status as a Vaisnava, or his wealth, erudition, youth, pleasing
appearance, strength or following. Therefore one who takes shelter of the Holy Name must rescind the
propensity to criticize sadhus.

Commentary
In these texts we see the alternation of the word sadhu and Vaisnava, implying that a Vaisnava, or a worshiper of
Visnu/Krsna, is a sadhu. When the mention of Vaisnava is used it is therefore implying a madhyama level devotee, not
a kanista bhakta, for the kanista is only at the stage of a shadow devotee. The kanista is not qualified to disseminate
spiritual knowledge and receive service. Instead he must give his service to the more elevated devotee.

In this text we see the words ‘the real sadhu never criticizes the demigods or the scriptures.’ By this description we
see that we are talking about a person who is fully on the path of Krsna consciousness, and such a person is very
careful about falldown. As a natural result of his attentive chanting and good behavior the tathasta qualities are
manifesting in him, and in this way he will not criticize the demigods or other scriptures that may lead an aspirant to
the path of God consciousness. Providing the scripture is authorized, it is working on behalf of the Lord to bring
people back to the Lord’s kingdom in a variety of ways that suit the practicioner’s culture. The purity of a Vaisnava
can be seen by how much attachment he has for chanting the Holy Name and distributing it to others. At the end of
this text we are again warned that if we want to be counted as a Vaisnava, or one who is qualified to chant the pure
name of Krsna, then we must rescind or hold back the propensity to criticize others. Ultimately everyone is a servant
of God, and even if they are in a polluted condition a Vaisnava will still give them respect. This can be learned by
remaining in the presence of a Vaisnava for some time and studying his behavior.

18. “Pure devotion based on chanting is dependent on the mercy of the pure devotee and his unalloyed
devotion. Without these two everything will become perverted and spoiled. Bhakti recedes at the first
indication of sadhuninda, which then becomes namaparadha. Let the aspirant devotee disapprove of
sadhuninda and serve and associate with the sadhus.

Commentary
In the beginning, faith is given to the sadhaka via the hearing process, and then he is encouraged to chant sixteen
rounds and listen to the mantra. This listening to the audible sound of Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare
Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare from the lips of the pure devotee will purify his consciousness.
Once the sadhaka has received instructions on Vaisnava etiquette and carefully watched the dealings and loving
exchanges between Vaisnavas on a high level, he will begin to act accordingly and in this way he himself becomes
very cautious about committing any of the ten offences to the Holy Name. He then begins to chant the shadow name
called namabhasa. Continuing to avoid all offenses he increases his daily quota of rounds to nirbandha (sixty-four),
and thus his heart becomes purified. His faith becomes strong and his sadhana firm, this is called the nista stage, and
beyond this the sadhaka attains ruci, a real taste for chanting. At this stage the name becomes an indispensable need
prayojana, and the sadhaka cannot but chant and remember the Lord twenty-four hours a day. The devotee performs
smarana or remembrance of Krsna’s pastimes within his mind, and his japa becomes silent. The Vaisnava’s
remembrance then becomes his meditation and when this meditation is unbroken it becomes anusmriti, and further
onto samadhi or total absorption in the name. Krsna reveals Himself through the name, so nama, rupa, guna, and lila
all dawn on the perception of the devotee’s purified heart. This does not happen when anarthas are still present, or if
any kind of sadhuninda is committed.

By the mercy of his spiritual master the Vaisnava devotee is then introduced to his siddha-deha, which at first is
hinted at by his spiritual master who is taking guidance from the disciple’s answers to his questions. If this spiritual
body is not exactly fitting, his spiritual master may give him another set of instructions on his siddha-deha, until
gradually the correct taste is assumed. The sadhaka will continue performing his japa in silence, while remembering
the pastimes of the Lord. At first these pastimes will be helped or instructed by outside intervention, but eventually
they will spring forth of their own accord, as bhava that turns to prema can have nothing to inhibit its flow. Eventually
the sadhaka will perfect his bhajana and the asta-kaliya-lila of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Sri Krsna will dawn on
the perception of the devotee’s purified heart. This is called pure devotion based on chanting. It is dependent on the
mercy of the pure devotee and the devotee’s own unalloyed devotion to his master and Sri Krsna. It should be known
that perfection can not be attained without the mercy of the spiritual master. This point will be covered again and
again by Sri Harinama Cintamani to demonstrate its importance.

It is a fact that all good can come from chanting attentively and serving the spiritual master in an unmotivated
uninterrupted favorable loving mood. However, the bhakti that causes a devotee to act in such a favorable way
recedes at the first indication of sadhuninda. Sadhuninda is vaisnavaparadha and vaisnavaparadha is namaparadha.
Therefore let everyone disapprove of sadhuninda and work towards schooling devotees on all levels about the
importance of avoiding such a heinous offense. Srila Prabhupada will be very proud of anyone who works for this end
on his behalf.

Two types of bad association

19. “The proper Vaisnava behavior is to avoid asatsanga or bad company that influences a person to disrespect
a sadhu. Bad association is of two kinds; the first is association with women, which means either to have illicit
connection with a woman other than one’s wife, or to be excessively fond of one’s own wife. The scriptures
approve only a proper regulated relationship with one’s wife. Keeping company with a licentious or henpecked
man also falls within this first category of asatsanga or bad association.

Nondevotees are of three kinds

20. “The second type of bad association is to mix with nondevotees. There are three kinds of nondevotees: the
mayavadi, the dharmadhvaji (pretender), and the nirisvara (atheist). Mayavadis do not accept that the Supreme
Lord’s form is eternal. They say the Deity form of the Lord is illusory or maya, and that the jiva is also a
product of maya. A dharmadhvaji is a person who has no devotion or attachment in the heart but makes a show
of it externally. He wears the clothes of a devotee to accomplish materialistic ends. A nirisvara is a nonbeliever,
an atheist. A serious aspirant or sadhaka must shun such bad association. If anyone argues that criticizing such
nondevotees is sadhuninda, his company must also be meticulously avoided. One has to keep away from bad
association and take complete shelter of the Holy Name. Only then is love of Godhead ensured.

Commentary
Nondevotees have been divided into three categories for our benefit, and in this way we can clearly see any of these
three categories. The short of it is that we should not keep company with someone who is known as asat-sanga, bad
association. There is a difference however, in dealing with the common populace for the purpose of work or other
activities related to looking after the bodily needs, and associating with them for pleasure.

Association with worldly minded people is called asat, or not recommended. Conversely, one should deal with all
Vaisnavas on a friendly basis and give instructions to those who are not inimical to the Lord. If one transgresses these
codes, the subtle influences nondevotees have on the psyche will cause a devotee to fall down or commit offenses,
which may be either known or unknown. Ultimately we must turn our back on everyone who is not a devotee, (except
for preaching purposes) and live in the company of Vaisnavas. If anyone cares to argue in favor of the nondevotee and
says that ignoring them is offensive, Sri Harinama Cintamani instructs that their company must also be avoided, even
if they are posing themselves in the dress of a devotee. Sometimes due to kanistha mentalities defense of nondevotees
happens, and simply for the sake of argument such a kanistha-bhakta takes the opposite view, therefore one should
not keep company with such a person, as he is known as asat-sanga.

On the path back to Godhead there are many pitfalls, and when the devotional creeper is not strong one can be
influenced. Ultimately the Holy Name is our only shelter, so be kind to yourself and nurture the bhakti-lata-bija that
has been planted within your heart, via the mercy of the pure devotee. Faith in Sri Namaprabhu and scripture is the
backbone of your devotional creeper and unrelenting faith in the words of guru, sadhu, and sastra can liberate you
from all kinds of difficulties incurred on the path. Faith is nurtured by good association and correct action, sanctioned
by scripture.

The kanistha-vaisnava

21. “The neophyte devotee (kanistha-adhikari Vaisnava) displays a faith that is formal, even worldly. He
worships the Deity but has not developed an interest in serving a Vaisnava sadhu. He is almost a Vaisnava, but
is not a real Vaisnava yet, hence he is not able to take full spiritual advantage of sadhusanga. A neophyte will
have to receive a pure Vaisnava’s blessings to advance spiritually.

Commentary
To advance from the level of an atheist or an aparadhi, to the level of kanistha, and still further to the level of
madhyama, one needs the mercy of a Vaisnava. One who puts on a Vaisnava dress and worships the Deity in the
temple room as God, but does not respect all of God’s creatures, nor serves God’s representative devotees in a mood
of devotion, is considered a kanistha-adhikari. He may follow the rules and regulations and perform his sadhana, but
he does not try to understand or elevate himself to the pure devotional platform because it means being the humble
servant of the Vaisnavas. Such a person is inwardly proud and his pride keeps him from advancing—even if he studies
unlimited amounts of scriptures.

Compassion for the wellbeing of others is the sign of an advanced devotee, and when the kanistha understands fully
the science of sambandha-jnana, he will take a step in the right direction. While instructing the sages Lord Krsna says
the following about the materialistic and kanistha mentality:

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke

sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih
yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
janesv abhijnesu sadhaka eva go-kharah

One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife
and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth are
worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies
himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a
person is no better than a cow or an ass. (SB. 10.84.13)

Even though living in the material world the jiva belongs to the category of suddha-sattva, that is, he is a part of the
pure consciousness of the Supreme Lord. Being befooled, he is termed as mayayapahrta-jnanah—that means his
intelligence has been stolen by the illusion of maya. In this way the conditioned jiva comes under the misra category,
thus he comes in the category of misra-suddha-sattva. As such he identifies himself with the body, which is composed
of inert matter. He begins to see material things as worshipable and in his deluded condition he thinks things are
permanently his own. Unless he gets the mercy of a Vaisnava and takes to worshiping the arcavigraha form of the
Lord in the temple, he will never come out of illusion. Out of his great compassion Srila Prabhupada has therefore
kindly set up ISKCON temples around the world so that worldly minded people, who are not averse to Krsna, can
begin their spiritual lives by worshiping the Deity.

By this description we can see that the kanistha stage is a beginning stage, and indeed the kanistha is called a shadow
of a Vaisnava. He may not yet have become a Vaisnava, but if he serves the pure devotee (which also means those on
the madhyama level of realization) he can get out of his predicament. Maya’s covering power is very strong and
should never be underestimated. The purport to this text is that one should learn from the description of a kanistha
that one must serve the Vaisnavas in a devotional way and beg for their mercy. On doing this their blessings will bring
a person out of this kanistha level, and when the ten offenses are brought to an end progression will be swift, by the
mercy of the pure devotee. There is no worship higher than the worship of Lord Vishnu’s pure devotees!

The madhyama-vaisnava

22. “If a madhyama-vaisnava (intermediate devotee) develops loving affection for Lord Krsna, friendship with
Lord Krsna’s devotees, compassion for the innocent, and evades the company of atheists, he quickly becomes a
pure devotee. He alone becomes eligible to chant the pure name.

Commentary
One may raise one’s consciousness to the madhyama level of advancement, but one must keep it there, and progress
further so that one may reach the pure devotional platform. We are now being led by the instructions of Sri Harinama
Cintamani. In this chapter we have been informed about who is considered a sadhu and the importance of not
committing sadhuninda, and now that we have understood this point clearly Haridasa is explaining about the three
levels of Vaisnavas, being kanistha, madhyama, and uttama. After gaining a clear understanding of these three levels
we will then be instructed further so that we will be able to act according to the directions of that particular level of
advancement. In this way we should always understand where we are so that we can serve those above us, give
teachings to those below us, and make friendship with those on an equal level. Sometimes however, we see
magnanimous souls being kind and befriending us just to increase our attachment to the Holy Name. This is not to be
misunderstood and interpreted as our advancing, no; it is merely an act of their great magnanimity and compassion.
Such great souls are known to come down from the higher platforms in order to associate with us, and in this way, via
friendship and service, we can advance by carefully watching their great actions. yad yad acarati sresthas, “as a great
man acts, the common man follows” (Bg. 3.21). The Srimad-Bhagavatam gives instruction on the madhyama level of
Vaisnava as follows:

isvare tad-adhinesu
balisesu dvisatsu ca
prema-maitri-krpopeksa
yah karoti sadhaka madhyamah

An intermediate or second-class devotee, called a madhyama-adhikari, offers his love to the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, is a sincere friend to all the devotees of the Lord, shows mercy to the ignorant
people who are innocent, and disregards those who are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and His devotees. (SB. 11.2.46)

In this verse we can see how the madhyama-vaisnava gives his love toward the Supreme Lord, becomes a friend to
the Lord's devotees, shows compassion and mercy to those who are not inimical, and ignores those who are envious
of the Lord. People who are envious of the Lord and His greatness are demoniac and until they change their assumed-
nature, they should be avoided. All these activities should be followed by the madhyama devotee, right up to the level
of bhava. However once prema has dawned on the horizon of the devotee’s heart he no longer differentiates between
friends and enemies. Prema is the level of all our great acaryas.

The uttama-vaisnava

23. A pure devotee of the highest level sees Lord Krsna manifest everywhere and knows that everything rests in
Him. Indeed, he sees that Lord Krsna is his life and soul. He is unconcerned with distinctions of who is a
Vaisnava and who is not; his whole life revolves around the Holy Name. To him, the Holy Name is the essence
of everything.

Commentary
In this text we see an explanation of a perfected being. Such an uttama-vaisnava is constantly absorbed in the Lord,
sometimes entering into trance and sometimes acting in the world but not being a part of it. In the life of Maharaja
Rsabhadeva we see how people used to treat Him very badly and call Him all sorts of bad things. Lord Rsabhadeva
did not even notice their offenses because He was completely in trance absorbed in meditation on the Lord. A devotee
of this caliber can not possibly see anyone as being higher or lower, good or bad, they merely view everyone as being
a part of the Lord's transcendental body and as such see each person’s level of advancement is just perfect for the
lessons they need to learn. ‘The planet is greatly benefited by such a rare soul being on it, even if he is there for only a
moment, whereas if millions of materialistic people were to live on the planet for millions of lifetimes, the planet
would simply go to the dogs.’ This great purifying potency of the pure devotee is eulogized throughout the scriptures.

For the benefit of humanity such a pure soul comes down from this platform of perception and acts from the level of
madhyama just so that he can preach the message of the bhagavata. This is to be understood as his great kindness. In
the Hari-bhakti-vilasa we hear the following verse quoted from the Visnu-smrti Vacana.

krpa-sindhuh su-sampurnah sarva-sattvopakarakah

nisprhah sarvatah siddhah sarva-vidya-visaradah
sarva-samsaya-samchetta nalaso gurur ahrtah

One who is an ocean of mercy, who is fulfilled in all respects, who has all good qualities, who works
for the benefit of all souls, who is free from lust, who is perfect in all respects, who is well-versed in
the scriptures, who knows the science of Krsna, who can remove all the doubts of his disciples, and
who is always alert in the service of Krsna is known as a genuine guru. (Hari-bhakti-vilasa 1.45-46)
Activities according to a Vaisnavas status

24. “A madhyama-vaisnava is always engaged in serving sadhus. The madhyama Vaisnava stage marks the
beginning of pure Vaisnavism. He is required to distinguish the Vaisnava from the non-Vaisnava; serving the
pure Vaisnava is his necessity. If he neglects to differentiate among the grades of Vaisnavas then he stands to
commit vaisnava-aparadha. He has to continuously evaluate the Vaisnavas and serve the pure Vaisnava. The
uttama-vaisnava does not see any distinction whatsoever between a Vaisnava or a non-Vaisnava, nor between
enemy and friend; how will he then serve a Vaisnava? How will he distinguish a Vaisnava from the non-
Vaisnava?

Commentary
To end this chapter we are now being given instructions on how to act according to our status. These last few texts are
very informative and very important. We should take note and act according to the instructions contained therein.
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura gives a good description of how a madhyama-vaisnava should act in his book Jaiva-
dharma; I will transcribe a few paragraphs for a deeper understanding of this particular text.

Sri Caitanya instructed the madhyama-vaisnava-grhastha to serve these three types of pure
Vaisnava: vaisnava, one who has chanted harinama purely once; vaisnava-tara, one who constantly
chants harinama; and vaisnava-tama, one whose presence spontaneously inspires others to chant
harinama. These three grades of pure Vaisnava alone are worthy of his worship. The madhyama-
grhastha is instructed to serve only these three, who chant pure harinama, not the kanistha-vaisnava,
who chants only the shadow form of harinama and is therefore not a suitable object of service. Only
the madhyama and uttama Vaisnavas who utter suddha-nama are fit to be served.
Service to the Vaisnavas should be in accordance with their respective levels of advancement.
The word maitri (friendship) encompasses association, discussion and service. When one sees a
suddha-bhakta, one must greet him and offer respects immediately, give full hospitality affectionately,
discuss Krsna conscious topics with him and care for all his needs. One should serve him properly in
all these ways. One must be extremely cautious not to envy a suddha-bhakta. He should not be shown
irreverence or criticized even inadvertently and must not be disregarded because of some physical
deformity or ailment.
The third practice of the madhyama-vaisnava is the bestowal of krpa (mercy) upon the
ignorant. (Jd. p115)

So from this simple commentary we can understand that a madhyama devotee should serve in a favorable mood,
remembering to distinguish between levels of Vaisnavas and treat everyone accordingly. He should serve those above
him, make friendship with those on an equal level and with those above him, and he should give his mercy to the
innocent, who are termed as simply being foolish. However, when he meets someone who is demoniac, mayavadi, or
antagonistic, he should leave—such a person should not be given instructions for fear of the mayavadi implicating
himself in offensive behavior.

25. “The scriptures declare that a neophyte Vaisnava (one who is almost a Vaisnava) can chant in the stage of
namabhasa, the clearing stage. A madhyama-vaisnava is worthy of chanting the pure name: Therefore he must
always carefully avoid the offenses or namaparadha. The uttama-vaisnava can never commit any offense,
because he perceives Lord Krsna everywhere.

Commentary
The stage before namabhasa chanting is called namaparadha. On this level one is not even qualified to be a neophyte
devotee, therefore one should avoid offenses to devotees and the Holy Name, then one can qualify oneself to chant the
praiseworthy namabhasa and traverse the anartha-nirvritti stage. A madhyama devotee should be very careful of
offenses because he has a lot more to loose than the neophyte or the aparadhi. Why is this? Because a madhyama
devotee is qualified to chant suddha-nama! If he is vigilant against offenses he will very quickly learn to chant
suddha-nama by the mercy of his gurudeva. The uttama-vaisnava can not commit an offense because he is always
chanting Krsna’s name, therefore Krsna protects His pure devotee. If one sees Krsna everywhere, then where is the
chance of forgetting Krsna. And if one never forgets Krsna, then he is acting from the spiritual platform where there
are no offenses.

Let us spend a moment to discuss the neophyte moving to the madhyama level of Vaisnava. It is said in this text; ‘the
neophyte is qualified to chant in the stage of namabhasa.’ Now this statement does not lock one permanently to that
stage of chanting simply because one may situated there at present. It merely indicates a general rule. The rule is that
the neophyte platform is characterized by the devotee not having complete faith in the Holy Name. The reason for this
has been explained that the devotee’s anarthas prevent the devotee from going any further. Therefore, it is the duty of
the neophyte to prove his worth and strengthen his faith via the process that can purge his desire to sin at the root.
This process has been described as the incessant attentive chanting of the Lord’s Holy Names. In this way we can
clearly understand that the more a neophyte sincerely chants, the more anarthas will be removed from his heart, and
this will take him across the anartha-nirvrtti stage and situate him in a position whereby he can chant the Holy Name
pure. This stage is entered into when one has a clear understanding of the esoteric subject matters of the Holy Name
which are characterized by understanding sambhandha-jnana. In this way, the abhasa (or the faint presence of the
Holy Name) can be changed via removing the clouds that cover the perception of the jiva. When a person’s doubts are
removed, and he begins to act according to his new level of realization, his chanting can enter into the suddha
catergory, and he is qualified to move to the madhyama level of realization. When this happens his external realities
will change to suit his new level of understanding and his associations and actions must then be as described for the
madyama level devotee. Meditation on the following sloka can eradicate all anarthas, and situate one on the platform
of pure goodness:

O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful
obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krsna because He is the Absolute Truth and the
primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He
is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no
other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of
Brahmaji, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion,
as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only
because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes
of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krsna, who
is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations
of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth. (SB. 1.11)

26. “Now every sadhaka must consider these points calmly and reflect upon his real position first, he must stop
sadhuninda. Then he should chant with firm faith, according to his status as a Vaisnava. It is therefore essential
that he recognize his own position. The devotee’s activities should center around association with sadhus,
service to sadhus, the chanting of the Holy Name and a constant attitude of compassion for all living entities.

Commentary
Everyone who is performing sadhana-bhakti must take special notice of this instruction and calmly reflect on his or
her own position. It is not that one can consider themselves above analysis. In raganuga-bhakti spontaneity is there
according to desire, but still such a Vaisnava should follow the rules, and associate with other Vaisnavas for the
purpose of educating and giving blessings. This is their kind mercy. For those on the lower platform it is
recommended that they put an end to sadhuninda today. Then with firm faith, chant harinama in such a way that the
hairs on their body stand on end. Incessant enthusiastic chanting is prescribed by Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

The activities in a devotee’s life should center around the Lord via service, friendship, giving mercy (if qualified),
singing and dancing in kirtana, hearing and speaking about the unlimited glories of the Lord, and chanting his glories
in personal bhajana. All the while cultivating compassion for all living entities, who are all brothers and sisters lost in
the deep well of maya. These constitute Lord Caitanya teachings on jiva-daya. In order to stimulate the mercy of
Bhakti-devi, who dwells within the heart of the sincere soul, and whose only goal is to please Lord Krsna, we should
be averse to the activities of the mundane world and in favor of all activities that promote our Krsna consciousness.
Once we have attained a high position in this regard the Holy Name will enthuse the devotee with compassion, and
this compassion should be directed toward the innocent who are struggleing hard with with the three modes of
material nature. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura discusses the nature of Bhaktidevi in his book Jaiva-dharma.

Sri Krsna, the jiva, the subservience of the jiva to Sri Krsna, and the unwanted sojourn of the
materially conditioned jiva within this mundane world are all satya, truth. Therefore, bhakti must also
be satya because all these truths are based upon the relationship between Krsna and the jiva, which is
in essence bhakti. Hence, we see that satya, (truth) dainya, (humbleness) daya, (mercy) and ksama
(forgivenss) are all intrinsic to the very nature of Bhaktidevi. (Jd. Ch8)

Remedies for sadhu-ninda

27. “If anyone offends a sadhu in a moment of delusion and madness, he must fall at the sadhu’s feet and
repent bitterly; weeping and full of contrition, he must beg for forgiveness. He should declare himself a fallen
wretch in need of a Vaisnava’s grace. A sadhu is very merciful; his heart will soften and he will embrace the
offender, thus exonerating him from his offenses.

Commentary
It sometimes happens that an aspiring devotee offends a Vaisnava, otherwise why are we not all crying tears of joy as
we chant the Holy Name? If this happens there should be recall when one has come to one’s senses, even if it takes
many years to understand what has taken place in the past. The remedy for sadhuninda is given in this text and should
be followed at all times. If perchance the Vaisnava is no longer on the planet one should still go through the same
procedure of contrition and remorsefully beg forgiveness. One can take a vow to become a servant of that exalted
Vaisnava, in a bid to right the wrongs that have been committed. The Lord understands the hearts of everyone and will
make arrangements for the sadhuninda to be rectified so that the sadhaka can once again be eligible to chant suddha-
nama. From the point of exoneration onwards, seek full shelter in the Holy Name and never again commit
sadhuninda. A word of caution here; if you are too proud to beg for forgiveness, your devotional life may be in peril.
If, you attract the wrath of the Lord, you had better soften your heart quickly.

Dear Lord Gauranga, it is my sincere prayer that I never become so hard hearted that I cannot understand when I have
committed an offense at the lotus feet of a devotee. Sadhuninda is certainly very dangerous for spiritual health.

“I offer this Commentary of the first of ten namaparadhas at Your lotus feet.”

One who is like a bumblebee attracted to the lotus feet of Srila Haridasa Thakura will find the power of life
itself in this Harinama Cintamani.

Chapter Five

Considering the Demigods Independent of Krsna

All glories to Lord Sri Gauranga, the life of Sri Gadadhara Pandit; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the heart of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to all the devotees of Lord
Caitanya.

The principle of the Supreme Godhead Visnu

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura continued speaking with folded hands: “O Lord of the Universe, now I pray that
You may listen to my elaboration of the second offense against the Holy Name.
2. “Lord Visnu is the Supreme, nondifferent from the Absolute Truth. He is the Lord of the universe, and the
possessor of a transcendental body that is always situated in pure goodness. Lord Krsna, the master of Goloka,
is the essence and source of Lord Visnu. Krsna is embellished with sixty-four extraordinary excellences; He is
the repository of all transcendental mellows. Lord Narayana possesses sixty of those qualities, and to a lesser
degree of fullness than Him, so do Lord Visnu and the purusa-avataras.

Commentary
In this chapter we are given knowledge of the pre-eminent position of Sri Krsna, the cause of all causes. The idea
behind spiritual instruction is to reveal the spiritual world, the Master of that world, and His separated parts
vibhinnamsa. By receiving instructions on the spiritual world we learn to see our position in relation to the Supreme
Autocrat, and our relationship to the temporary world of matter. From this perspective we get a chance to correct
wayward thought patterns and set behavioral standards accordingly, in this way we learn how to act truthfully.

Via detailed instruction a sadhaka can comprehend that the most worshipable object in totality is the fountainhead of
everything, Sri Krsna. When he has clearly understood this point it is then presumed that he will act accordingly, and,
with his body, mind, and words constantly praise the all praiseworthy Sri Krsna, who is the source of the purusa-
avataras and all jivas (including the demigods). In order to make swift advancement in spiritual life a jiva needs to act
according to scriptural injuctions understand what to do and what not to do (pravrttim, nivrttim). To help in this matter
we are being instructed on the ten offenses, and in this chapter we are being informed about the second offense to the
Holy Name, which is to take the demigods and Lord Visnu/Krsna as being on an equal level.

3. “Lord Narayana, the Lord of Vaikuntha, is Lord Krsna’s vilasa-vigraha or partial expansion. In Vaikuntha,
Sankarsana expands as Maha-Visnu, who lies in the Casual Ocean. This is the first purusa expansion. The next
purusa expansion is Garbhodakasayi Visnu, the source of Lord Brahma. He enters into every universe as the
purusa-avatara. He further expands as Ksirodakasayi Visnu, the Supersoul within every living entity. These
three Visnus are the purusa expansions. Ksirodakasayi Visnu is the source of the incarnations like the Fish
(Matsya), Tortoise (Kurma) etc. All of these incarnations are forms of the Visnu principle of the Supreme
Godhead, and are ornamented with sixty transcendental characteristics. The saktyavesa-avataras are jiva-tattva
in whom the potency of the Lord descends. They are the Lord’s separated expansions or vibhinnamsa, and are
exemplified as Parasurama, Buddha, Prthu, and so on.

Commentary
For the pleasure of Lord Krsna, Lord Sankarsana (the first expansion of Lord Balarama) expands Himself in order to
provide all paraphernalia for Lord Krsna’s pastimes to take place. When Maha-Visnu lies down on the causal ocean
and exhales, unlimited universes exude from His gigantic body. Similarly when He inhales unlimited universes are
annihilated and taken back within His gigantic form. In order for creation to take place Lord Garbhodakasayi Visnu
then enters into every universe and from His glance impregnates material nature. The first jiva to take birth is Lord
Brahma, who takes birth from the Lord's navel. He is then instructed on the science of Godhead and taught how to
create on behalf of the Lord. The next Visnu expansion is Lord Ksirodakasayi Visnu, who acts as the Supersoul within
everyone’s heart, in this way the Lord is always present and the jiva is never alone. Being the most merciful friend,
the Lord, as Ksirodakasayi Visnu remains with the jiva no matter what abominable activity may be performed. As
Ksirodakasayi Visnu the Lord is literally the life of the living entity’s party. We are informed that all the purusa
avataras are endowed with the first sixty transcendental characteristics that were previously highlighted in chapter 2.
Only Lord Krsna has sixty-four transcendental characteristics. By understanding this point we can see that Lord Krsna
is to be worshiped above all. In the Bhagavad-gita Srila Prabhupada gives a Commentary of the purusa-avataras as
follows:

The three purusa-avataras are described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. They are also described in the
Satvata-tantra. Visnos tu trinin rupani purusakhyany atho viduh: the Supreme Personality of Godhead
manifests as three features—as Karanodakasayi Visnu, Garbhodakasayi Visnu and Ksirodakasayi
Visnu in this material manifestation. The Maha-Visnu, or Karanodakasayi Visnu, is described in the
Brahma-samhita (5.47). Tah karanarnava-jale bhajati sma yoga-nidram: the Supreme Lord, Krsna, the
cause of all causes, lies down in the cosmic ocean as Maha-Visnu. Therefore the Supreme Personality
 of Godhead is the beginning of this universe, the maintainer of the universal manifestations, and the
end of all energy. (Bg. Pur. 10.20)

4. “The Supreme Lord's separated parts or vibhinnamsa are of two categories. Ordinary jivas possess only the
first fifty of the Lord's sixty-four transcendental characteristics, and these in miniscule quantity. But in the
second category of jivas, including demigods like Lord Siva and others, the same fifty characteristics are found
in full potency; additionally, the next five qualities are partially evident. However, these five qualities are
exhibited in full potency only by the Visnu category.

Commentary
From this text we can understand that there is hierarchy in the universe. That hierarchy is not according to how much
money or power one has, but according to the manifestation of Lord Krsna’s sixty-four transcendental qualities. From
this we can understand that if we were not born as an expansion of God, then we never will be God. In other words,
those who foolishly think according to the philosophy of mayavadi, are hereby informed that in actual fact they are in
the vibhinnamsa category, which indicates that they have a minuscule degree of the Lord's qualities given by the
mercy of the Lord, and that they are always separated from the Lord. Vibhinnamsa means ‘separated parts.’ Actually,
seeing as though transcendental qualities belong to God and mayavadis are offenders to God, it follows that such
people will never show the true transcendental qualities of God while in such a polluted condition. However, when
purged of contamination they may take birth again as a demigod, in which case they could exhibit fifty of the Lord's
transcendental qualities in full, and a further five qualities may become partially manifest.

5. “Thus only the visnu-tattvas are adorned to the fullest degrees with the first fifty-five qualities of the Lord.
They furthermore display a degree of the next five qualities, for a total of sixty; these five qualities are visible in
absolute fullness in Lord Narayana alone. Thus Lord Siva and all the demigods are the Supreme Lord Visnu’s
servitors. Though the demigods are superior jivas, the Supreme Lord Visnu is the master and controller of the
jivas and the demigods alike.

Commentary
Lord Kurma and Lord Varaha are expanded from Ksirodakasayi Visnu, and being in the Visnu category They may
possess sixty transcendental qualities to certain degrees, but only Lord Narayana displays sixty transcendental
qualities in fullness. Lord Krsna, being above all Visnu expansions possesses four extra qualities, which are: 1) He
plays on His flute and attracts everyone. 2) He is always surrounded by His devotees who are full of krsna-prema. 3)
He is extremely beautiful and all attractive. A beauty that can not be matched anywhere by anyone. 4) He is the
performer of wonderful pastimes such as those in the land of Vrndavana. Devotees of Lord Caitanya know Him to be
Lord Krsna Himself. Lord Gauranga is Lord Krsna, thus if He chooses, He can display all sixty-four transcendental
qualities. Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu is not an expansion, but a direct manifestation. He is Krsna Himself, who
comes as Sri Krsna Caitanya, the savior of the most fallen. Caitanya-lila is therefore krsna-lila. This information
should be understood clearly by those who join Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement. If therefore, one meditates on
Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana pastimes, from a spiritual prespective it is the same as meditating on Sri Krsna’s pastimes.

It is incorrect logic to think that the demigods such as Lord Siva and Lord Brahma are on the same level as the visnu-
tattva. Lord Visnu is their master and controller, and, similarly the higher demigods are in control of the lower jivas,
such as the Gandarvas, Carinas, Pisaches, Butas, Humans, etc. Please therefore do not commit the second offense to
the Holy Name and consider the demigods to be on an equal level as the Supreme Lord, Bhagavan.

Equating the Lord with the demigods is ignorance

6. “People who are ignorant of the visnu-tattva principle of the Supreme Godhead try to equate the Supreme
Lord with the demigods. Lord Siva and all the other demigods are the order carriers of the Supreme Lord
Visnu. Mayavadis say that impersonal brahman is formless, whereas Siva, Brahma and Visnu, the three
predominating Deities of the three material modes (ignorance, passion, and goodness, respectively) have forms.
The scriptures unequivocally declare that Lord Brahma creates the material world and Lord Siva destroys it;
but Lord Narayana or Visnu, the maintainer, is the eternal worshipable Lord. Whoever worships other
demigods and disregards Vasudeva, the Supreme Lord Narayana, rots eternally in the hell of material
existence.

Commentary
Everyone is born into ignorance and only by the mercy of great souls can they come out of this ignorance and take
their rightful positions as the servant of the one nondual Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. Lord Krsna is the original, from
whom all expansions of visnu-tattva such as Lord Narayana emanate. Demigods such as Lord Brahma, Lord
Mahadeva, Lord Ganesa, Lord Indra etc, are His order carriers; they are His vibhinnamsa, or separated parts. As such
they work for the Lord and carry out His orders.

Sometimes we may see that the name of Lord Visnu is written and Srila Prabhupada translates this as Lord Krsna. In
this text we see that the following words are written; ‘Lord Siva and all the other demigods are the order-carriers of
the Supreme Lord Visnu.’ In this case we can understand that the demigods are working directly under the direction of
Lord Visnu as Lord Visnu is in control of the creation and annihilation of this material world via His appointed
servants. When we therefore see Srila Prabhupada translate the word Visnu as being Krsna, it is not incorrect as Sri
Krsna is the fountainhead from whom the Visnu forms are expanded. Lord Visnu (Maha-Visnu, also known as Lord
Narayana) is the first expansion of Sankarsana, who is a partial expansion of Lord Balarama, who is an expansion of
Sri Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore Lord Visnu/Narayana is a partial expansion of an
expansion of an expansion of Sri Krsna. He is not the Supreme, and therefore carries only the first sixty
transcendental qualities. In the pastimes of Sri Krsna we see how the demigods such as Lord Indra and Lord Brahma
we bewildered by Krsna’s pastimes and did not take Him to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thus they made
some offense. This is because they did not have knowledge that the little boy in front of them was actually the
Supreme Godhead, Sri Krsna. This is Krsna’s marvel.

Foolish pride-ridden arrogant people, who call themselves followers of the demigods, but who take the demigods as
Supreme, are actually the biggest offenders. They equate their worshipable master (the particular demigod) as being
on the same level as their master’s master Visnu. This is a big offense not only to the Lord, but also to the demigods
who long to remain servants of the Supreme. Demigods are all in the jiva category but exhibit fifty qualities in fuller
potency than the jivas, and exhibit five more qualities in partiality. Consequently people who worship the demigods,
thinking them on the same platform as Lord Narayana, are wholesale misled and in total ignorance of the correct
procedure of worship. Such people perform worship called the pancopasana worship, which is a covered form of
impersonalism. The five demigods worshiped in this system are; Lord Siva, Ganesa, Vivasvan (the Sun God),
Goddess Durga or Kali, and Lord Visnu. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati speaks about this system as follows:

Persons who follow Vedic religiosity worship the sun-god; one who desires wealth worships Ganesa;
those who strive for liberation worship Lord Siva; and those who worship Lord Visnu, knowing Him to
be the source of the Vedas, do so for material motives—they are not pure devotees. (Ss. p42)

Pancopasana worship is where the worshipers take the demigods as being on the same level as Lord Visnu. Such
people consider brahman as the ultimate resting place and in so doing consider Lord Visnu as a mere demigod. In
their deluded condition, not only do they fabricate their own method of worship (not ultimately supported in the
Vedas), but they also commit a serious aparadha. Scriptures unequivocally proclaim that Visnu is the maintainer and
the worshipable Lord of everyone. Visnu is but a patial expansion of an expansion of Sri Krsna. In the Bhagavad-gita
the Lord mentions a little of His oppulences to Arjuna as follows:

yad yad vibhutimat sattvam

srimad urjitam eva va
tat tad evavagaccha tvam
mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam

Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor. (Bg.
10.41)
7. “Some persons argue that, since Lord Visnu is accepted as the all-pervading Absolute Truth in the Vedas, the
Lord is present in all the demigods; therefore the worship of the demigods is equivalent to the worship of Lord
Visnu. This argument is fallacious. The scriptures do not support the notion that the worship of the demigods is
the same as the worship of Lord Visnu. In truth, Lord Visnu's worship accomplishes the worship of all the
demigods. Hence, separate worship of the demigods is not required.

Commentary
In this way fools state that service to the jivas is service to Visnu. Such people take the highest in the jiva category
and worship them instead of Visnu. In a bid to forget God atheists will come up with all sorts of concocted
speculations and fools will follow them. Watering the branches of the tree will never give nourishment to the tree, any
fool can understand this principle, but still, millions of people don’t. Why is this?

The argument in this text may be fallacious and without truth or substance, but if we reverse it we can see the real
truth. Similarly, the material world is a twisted version of the spiritual reality. Srila Prabhupada used to say; if we have
one million dollars, automatically we have ten, one hundred, and one thousand dollars. Similarly, if we worship Lord
Visnu automatically we worship all the demigods, but not the other way around. When one is born into the material
world one automatically accrues three types of debts. One is indebted to the forefathers, to the demigods, and to sages.
If by chance one becomes a krsna-bhakta automatically all debts are taken care of by Lord Krsna’s grace. By watering
the roots all the branches are nourished.

If one wishes to worship Lord Siva then one can worship him as the greatest Vaisnava. In this way one’s worship is
correctly aligned with the will of the Lord, and the most magnanimous Lord Siva will be pleased and bless you with
unrelenting faith in the words of guru, sadhu, and sastra. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated; vaisnavanam yatha
sambhuh—of all the Vaisnavas, Sambhuh (Sivaji) is the best. (SB. 12.13.16) Lord Siva and Mother Parvarti are also
known as the guardians of the Holy Dhamas, therefore to please them as Vaisnavas is most important.

8. “The correct interpretation of Vedic truth is this: if Lord Visnu is omnipresent, then worship of Him is
automatically worship of all the demigods. By Watering the roots, a tree prospers; by watering the libmbs,
leaves, and branches, the tree withers and dies. Foolish people who forget the Vedic principles commit this
mistake. Because their vision is perverted, they worship certain demigods according to their mentality. They
are ignorant of the Vedic injunction that worship of Lord Visnu is an eternal activity in pure goodness, beyond
the three material modes.

Commentary
According to the modes one has attained one will worship a given person or species. A person in the mode of
ignorance may worship the ghosts and spirits. Some may worship the ancestors, and some the demigods, however all
such worship is according to the consciousness of the individual, and his desires. Worship of Visnu, or Krsna is above
the modes, situated in suddha-sattva—it is not something that one does for material gain, or for a quick-fix in order to
attain wealth, power, beauty etc. Worship of the Supreme Lord is the nitya-dharma of the jiva, the eternal occupation;
therefore, to be correctly situated one must take to the worship of Bhagavan in an unmotivated way.

9. “Due to the advent of Kali-yuga and the contamination of impersonalism, people have become polytheists
and have disregarded the supreme position of Lord Visnu. Individual demigods can offer only limited benefits,
while the Supreme Lord Visnu alone can offer all benedictions. He is the maintainer of everyone. If only these
greedy materialists would realize the advantage of worshipping Lord Visnu, they would abandon all demigod
worship.

Commentary
People born in Kali-yuga are dull-headed and misled. Due to previous sins their hearts are contaminated with all sorts
of impurities. The nature of people in this age is that they are greedy and want their desires filled from any source
possible, thus they go to many different demigods to have their needs met. It is not unusual to see five or six different
demigods on an alter in someone’s home, and beyond this, foolish people concoct their own forms of mixed worship
such as; worshipping native American Indians, Buddha’s, pigmies, and angels—and now even worship of aliens is
going on. All of these idols are placed side by side on an alter near their 42 inch plasma television set, along with
bogus gurus such as Sai Baba and worshiped in a bid to gain power. If only such fools could receive the mercy of the
pure devotee and dance in kirtana with the panca-tattva, all their miseries would end. This is the desire of Sri
Nityananda Gosai and the previous acaryas—that all foolish misled people of Kali-yuga join together in sankirtana
and receive the blessing of Sri Nitai-Gauranga. It is our duty to fulfil this desire. His Grace, Ambarisha Prabhu is
working hard to spread the sankirtana movement of Sri Gaurasundara by engaging his wealth in serving his blessed
spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada. Similarly, all devotees should engage their wealth in propagating the glories of the
Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Srimad Bhagavad-gita; in this way everyone will become glorious.

To realize the importance of worshiping Visnu as Supreme, or as a part of the Supreme, needs the mercy of a devotee
of Krsna. Otherwise people are worshiping so many demigods and putting them on the same level of those in the
Visnu category. Please therefore, assist these misguided fools by distributing the mercy of the great Vaisnavas in the
form of Srila Prabhupada’s books. In this way all will receive the mercy of the pure devotee and become qualified to
worship Sri Krsna in the correct manner. This is my humble request.

A householder Vaisnava’s responsibilities

10. “A householder devotee of Lord Visnu or Krsna must worship the Supreme Lord Krsna on all occasions,
and be free from doubt. He is not required to perform ablutions or other fruitive activities. In worshiping
forefathers and and demigods, he should offer them garlands from the Deity of Lord Krsna. If, on the other
hand, the householder devotee performs the sraddha ceremony according to the mayavadis’ method, or he
worships other demigods, then he commits a heinous offense. To impose some dualistic concept on the Supreme
Lord Visnu is a namaparadha: and disqualifies one from the path of pure bhakti.

Commentary
A grhastha Vaisnava’s method of worship is easy. Simply worship Lord Gauranga via the sankirtana movement,
knowing that He is Lord Krsna, and serve the devotees as best you can. A grhastha Vaisnava has no need to worship
the demigods independently, better he spend his time and money on serving and worshiping his spiritual master who
is a bona fide representative of Sri Hari. A devotee worshiping Lord Krsna is free from debts to society and the
forefathers. Instead he should work to clear his mind from all doubts and misconceptions on the path to liberation.
Being free from the debts of society does not mean that one can accrue more debts and leave them in the name of
Krsna consciousness, no, this would be committing sins on the strength of the Holy Name, and is not reccomended.

Srila Haridasa Thakura is herein giving instruction so that one doubt is cleared up; now with one doubt less a
grhastha Vaisnava only has one need, to serve Sri Krsna. If, due to upbringing he is attached to the demigods, he may
present them with a garland, or prasadam after it is offered to Sri Krsna, but never the other way around. Lord Krsna
is the one nondual Supreme Autocrat; He is therefore always first and foremost. Understanding this fully, you have
now uprooted one anartha and removed a doubt.

11. “A serious namaparadha is to consider demigods like Lord Siva to be separate and supreme divinities.
Polytheism is a grievous offense: ‘Lord Visnu is the Supreme Godhead, but Lord Siva and other demigods are
also individually Supreme’; this idea is incorrect. One can, however, worship the demigods as guna-avataras,
saktyavesa-avataras or as Lord Visnu's servants. No one is independent of the Supreme Lord’s control, for He is
the Supreme Controller and master of all energies. Demigods like Lord Siva, Lord Brahma, Lord Ganesa, or
the Sun-god have been invested with the Supreme Lord’s potencies. Hence, they are powerful. The Supreme
Lord is one; the rest are His energies. The householder devotee should abandon outright all materialism in the
execution of his duties; he should increase his mood of pure devotion.

Commentary
In this text we are being helped to understand that the demigods are not independent forms of God, or in other words
they are not visnu-tattva. We are being helped to understand that a devotee’s business is to increase his love for the
Lord and not shoot himself in the foot by worshiping the demigods according to the mayavadi mentality that all is
one. We are also being helped to understand that we may worship the demigods as dedicated servants of the Lord, and
then our worship is perfect. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says; ‘rudranam sankaras casmi-of all the Rudras I am
Lord Siva’ (B.g. 10.23). In this way we can understand and worship Lord Siva as a guna-avatara or a saktyavesa-
avatara, but never as on an equal level with Lord Krsna.

Actually, scripture declares that Sambhuh is the greatest of all Vaisnavas and if one takes a vratta, or vow to please
him; great spiritual fortune will come about. Once I read the glories of the Srimad Bhagavad-gita by Lord Siva, I was
so taken by the book that I undertook a vow to please Lord Siva. Now, ten years on, I am still continuing that vow
with great enthusiasm due to his causeless mercy, and my spiritual life has increased unlimitedly by the mercy given
from this great Vaisnava. Remember, one can worship a demigod as a saktyavesa-avatara or a guna-avatara as long
as one understands that the purpose of an avatara is to please the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.

12. “Human society should conduct life according to the edicts of the varnasrama system; such a lifestyle is
called sanantana-dharma or eternal religion. India is the land of piety (punyabhumi), and the varnasrama
religious system was introduced and implemented here by great sages of yore. In other countries this system is
also present in some form, though it never evolved in the perfected socio-religious system that was seen in
India. Human nature cannot find full expression nor attain consummation without the social divisions of varna.
To be sure, the eternal truth is this: like anyone else, even the lowborn outcastes are fully eligible to enter the
family of Krsna’s devotees if they live their lives free from sin and offenses. Still, human society as a whole can
neither properly exist nor function without the varnasrama system.

Commentary
The varnasrama system was created by Lord Krsna. Knowledge of this social system that can elevate its followers to
a spiritual lifestyle was introduced as a secondary path so that society would get a chance to serve the sages and
increase in their piety and possibilities for spiritual advancement. Knowledge of this system was given to the sages
who propounded the teachings and set up the social structure accordingly. In this text we see important instructions
for the running of a material society. Sri Harinama Cintamani says; ‘human nature cannot find full expression nor
attain consummation without the social divisions of varna.’ In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna instructs Arjuna in a
similar way as follows:

sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah

pra-dharmat sv-anusthitat
sabhava-niyatam karma
krvan napnoti kilbisam

It is better to engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept
another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one’s nature are never affected
by sinful reactions. (Bg. 18.47)

In the purport to this verse Srila Prabhupada states; ‘one should not imitate another’s duty.’ Therefore, according to
the varnasrama structure, one should worship the Supreme Lord in accordance with one’s natural inclinations given
by the modes one has attained. This system was in place at the time of Sri Krsna and the people were following it
nicely, but in Kali-yuga, due to the darkness of the age given by lack of spiritual knowledge, the varnasrama system
is no longer in place.

In this same text of Sri Harinama Cintamani we also learn how, ‘even the lowborn outcastes are fully eligible to enter
the family of Krsna’s devotees if they live their lives free from sin and offenses.’ In this instance the Bhagavad-gita
teaches the following:

mam hi partha vyapasritya

ye pi syuh papa-yonayah
striyo vaisyas tatha sudras
te pi yanti param gatim

O son of Prtha, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaisyas, and
sudras—can attain the supreme destination. (Bg. 9.32)
From these two slokas we can see how material life differs from spiritual life. In material life there is distinction and
regulation due to a more refined consciousness given from a mixture of the modes, but in spiritual life there is no such
distinction. For instance in material life, only the twice born can engage in braminical sacrifices outlined in the Vedas,
but to take part in the highest sacrifice of chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare
Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, where one is associating directly with the spiritual stratum, the only qualification
needed is faith, and that faith can be increased via association with saintly persons.

If one wishes to go deeper into spiritual life we see that there are some regulations needed in order to purify the mind
of material contamination; one of them is to live a life free from sins and offences. When Lord Caitanya and Lord
Nityananda enacted the pastime of delivering Jagi and Madhi we seen how Lord Caitanya said; “I will take onboard
your sins, Jagi and Madhi, but only if you vow never to sin again.” In this way we understand that regulation is
needed in the stage of vaidhi-bhakti, or worship according to the rules and regulations. Raganuga-bhakti is devoid of
such regulations because its performers are above committing sins, being completely purified and not
contaminateable.

Advancement in devotion by following varnasrama

13. “A materialist must direct his life according to the directions of varnasrama-dharma. On the strength of
worshipping Krsna in full surrender, one is gradually elevated through the varnasrama-dharma to the platform
of saintly conduct. But if one follows the varnasrama system without worshipping Lord Krsna, he is doomed. A
householder must fulfill his varnasrama responsibilities. He should live with restraint and accept only what is
essential for serving Lord Krsna. He should respect all formal rules and responsibilities as long as they are
within the varnasrama system. One can easily accomplish all this as long as he is chanting the Holy Name and is
engaged in devotional service. Moreover, one gains bhava or spiritual ecstasy by these same devotional
practices. With the advent of bhava, one transcends the jurisdiction of rules and regulations.

Commentary
If one follows one’s nature and acts accordingly for the glorification of Krsna, one is uplifted easily, if however, one
tries to be perform another’s duty one may experience great difficulty. Following one’s aquired nature while chanting
the maha-mantra, following the rules of vaidhi-bhakti, is called following the daivi-varasrama system for the glory of
the Lord. Sometimes we see in our society that a person may take on a position as a temple president or something
else, and because of his nature he is just not qualified for the position. At first it may be an honourable attempt to
please the Vaisnavas by doing the job when no one else wants to do it, however he should always understand that
unless it is his own nature, it must be seen as a temporary measure. This is the ruling by Sri Krsna! All too often
people take on roles that don’t suit their aquired natures, and start with good intentions, but when the false-ego and
power trips come into the picture they simply refuse to hear the call from the devotees around them. Sometimes things
have to degenerate so badly that the entire temple or temple structure is ruined because one man artificially tries to do
another’s duty. I have personally seen this on several occasions. In this instance the higher officials must open their
eyes and train people so that everyone is situated in his or her own varna, and in this way all may serve Sri Krsna
peacefully while advancing on the path of vaidhi-bhakti, until they reach the raganuga platform.

The Lord says a similar thing in the Bhagavad-gita, He says, ‘sve sve karmany abhiratah samsiddhim labhate narah
—by following his qualities of work everyman can become perfect’ (Bg. 18.45). In this instance the Lord is speaking
about performing actions for His sake, following the varnasrama system, as opposed to the person following his
profession for his own glorification. This is not the varnasrama system. The varnasrama system is set up so that by
following the rules and regulations of this socio-religious system one can be elevated without difficulty. The
following of this system must go hand in hand with the chanting of Hare Krsna, or other Krsna mantras, otherwise it
is not varnasrama dharma.

14. “As long as one needs a regulated, formal social life, he must remain within the bounds of varnasrama. But
after the first stirrings of spiritual love with the attainment of bhava, the jiva’s beautiful nature becomes
apparent. He’ll then require no further inspiration from the dictates of varnasrama-dharma. The mood of
bhava is incomprehensible to materialistic persons because it is dynamic, appearing in person by its own
volition. The Vaisnava householder must follow this path with single-mindedness to be unaffected by the
contamination of mayavadi influences.

Commentary
As long as one has material contamination one should be following the rules and regulations by performing vaidhi-
bhakti. When one is uplifted due to the continued purification process given from chanting and serving in an
unmotivated way, one will begin to feel intense spiritual emotions. When bhava, or love for the Lord arrives, the
beautiful pure nature of the jiva is uncovered and at this point he will sin no more. When this happens there is no
more need to follow the rules of vaidhi-bhakti except for teaching others the path. At this point the rules may hamper
the devotion as the jiva will enter into another form of bhakti-yoga called raganuga-bhakti, or spontaneous attraction
and devotion to the Lord. Due to love his emotions will spring forth from the depths of his heart, causing the jiva to
act in a manner that would seem strange to those on the materialistic platform.

In order to not be contaminated by the mayavadi influences and not get caught in the last snare of maya, in which the
sadhaka may begin to think of himself as god, he is herein directed to follow the path of vaidhi-bhakti with single-
mindedness. Keep to the rules and regulations of scripture until completely purified and then, of its own volition
spontaneity will arise and the rules and regulations will give no further inspiration. This point will be discussed in
detail as we progress in the book.

Lord Visnu’s name is nondifferent from Him

15. “Lord Visnu’s name, form, qualities etc. should never be viewed as being separate from Him. He is
nondual; as the complete whole, He is the Supreme Absolute. If, due to ignorance, someone is attached to the
dualistic concept of God, he can at best attain the namabhasa stage of chanting, but he’ll never reach prema.
Then again, if he receives the mercy of a bona fide spiritual master and can overcome his anarthas, he’ll attain
the pure name by the gradual clearing process.

Commentary
Simple instructions for the simple-hearted! Remember that the Lord and His name, form, qualities, and pastimes are
one and the same. In this way, when you chant you will never be inattentive. When you are inattentive due to bad
habits and pollution, you will know that it is wrong to be inattentive, and as such be remorseful of your lamentable
condition. In this instance you should simply try to hear the name, and beg the Lord to purify your consciousness. If
by chance a sadhaka does not fully understand this most important point regarding sambandha-jnana he can at best,
sometimes chant in namabhasa. This is simply because he may not be deliberately committing offenses. Unless one
understands the deep esoteric subject matter of Sri Krsna’s pastimes one can never enter into them and thus never
experience the bliss of krsna-prema. To avail this one must seek the guidance of a pure devotee and enquire from him
submissively, while engaging in menial service to please him. All unwanted anarthas can be cleared from the heart by
the merciful teachings and blessings of the pure devotee and Sri Namaprabhu.

The logic and offenses of the mayavadis

16. “The dualistic concept of God is often arrived at by self-opinionated persons. This concept is reprehensible
and very difficult to overcome. Mayavadi philosophers propose that brahman is formless and impersonal, and
that Lord Visnu’s name, form, etc are all products of illusion; they expect to perceive Lord Visnu as impersonal
brahman and nothing more. But such arguments are foolish and nihilistic. The mayavadi viewpoint stems from
madness and stubborn ignorance of the fact that the Supreme Lord is endowed with omnipotence. Omnipotent
brahman is Visnu: the difference is in name only.

Commentary
If one is simple-hearted, as opposed to complicated by material hankerings, one can understand the truth when taught
by the lips of the pure devotee. Otherwise, one’s own views about the workings of spiritual life will get in the way and
one may find it very difficult, sometimes almost impossible to break down the self-opinionated and self-formed belief
systems that act as blocks in the subconscious mind. The eyes see what they believe in; in this way the universe
moulds itself around the person who thinks he sees, and allows him to see what he believes in. Reality, in the material
world is naught but a dream that the dreamer believes in. On the one hand, if you believe that the Lord is situated
everywhere as one item, you will see Him everywhere when you finally enter the brahman effulgence, but on the
other, if you believe that Lord Krsna is the source of the brahmajyoti and you wish to understand the Lord in His
personal feature, rather than that of His impersonal or His localized feature, then the way is to humbly enquire from
one who knows this feature of the Lord (the pure devotee). The uttama-adhikari also sees the Lord everywhere, but
his seeing is real seeing because he has vijnana, or realized knowledge. In the Caitanya-caritamrta Krsnadasa Kaviraja
gives the advice that we should simply hear the narrations in the talks between Lord Gauranga and Ramananda Raya
as they are presented, and not try to present arguments. Spiritual subject matters are above the intelligence and
spiritual results will not be found with the power of resoning, which is a material trait only.

17. “The intelligence of the mayavadi philosopher is extremely demented. Seeing that the material existence is
variegated, he concludes that the spiritual existence, being opposite to the material realm, must be featureless.
This incomplete, immature theorizing leads him to imagine brahman as dry and impersonal. In its original
state, brahman has a name, form, qualities, pastimes and so on-but the mayavadi is conditioned by human
existence. The pure devotee is the scourge of this mischievous philosophy; he establishes the scriptural edict
that the Supreme Lord is nondifferent from His name, form, pastimes and qualities.

Commentary
This is an example of using material resoning to discuss the spiritual. To understand the spiritual one needs to hear
from a resident of the spiritual world, or else one will speculate according to the mayavadi view point. Spiritual
acumen is required to understand spiritual topics, and this qualification is given from uprooting the weeds of anarthas
via incessant chanting.

In this chapter we see how Haridasa Thakura is first instructing the sadhaka about equating the demigods with the
Lord, and now he is discussing the mayavadi philosophy in relation to the Lord and his energies. At this point one
may wonder why this is so? This is because the superexcellent position of the Supreme Lord is not as yet firmly fixed
in our consciousness; otherwise bhava would be arising within the heart with every passing day that we chant. The
concept of equating the demigods as being on an equal level with the Lord is a mayavadi conception of reality this
was discussed in the example of the pancopasana worship discussed in text six. Such people take Lord Visnu and the
demigods on a equal level.

We learn from the Bhagavad-gita that the jiva has been involved in the cycle of birth and death in the material world
since the beginning of time, and while sojourning through the 8,400000.00 species of life unlimitedly, the jiva has
taken onboard every type of material contamination possible. This is the cause of his intelligence becoming deluded
and demented. The mayavadi, seeing only the world around him as being full of variegated forms, he concludes that
the spiritual world, in order to be opposed to the misery found in the material world, must be formless! This is his
perverted analysis of the cessation of misery—to get rid of everything that gives him pain, until ultimately he is left
with nothing. He thinks that this nothing is simply the reverse side of everything. (If you enter through the space
between the thoughts you receive the emptiness between the individual thoughts—this emptiness is termed as
everything—Nirvana!)

Just like Sri Krsna comes to annihilate the demons, similarly His pure representative comes to annihilate the
misconception of mayavadi philosophy. How does he do this? He achieves this with the superior knowledge of the
scriptures. This is explained in the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita as follows:

raja-vidya raja-guhyam
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyaksavagamam dharmyam
su-sukham kartum avyayam
 This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and
because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is
everlasting, and it is joyfully performed. (Bg. 9.02)

The pure devotee is so immersed in the spiritual pastimes of the Lord that he becomes enthused with the purifying
nature of the Lord. Just like a piece of iron that comes in contact with a fire takes on the qualities of fire and becomes
so hot it can burn, similarly the pure devotee can burn to ashes the demented intelligence of the nihilistic conception
of mayavadi philosophies. In the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu the following is spoken about the qualities of a pure devotee
of the Lord:

atma-koti gunam krsne

premanam paramam gatah
nityananda-gunah sarve
nitya-siddha mukundavat

The nitya-siddha devotees have achieved eternal, blissful life, exactly on the level of Sri Krsna and are
able to attract Sri Krsna by the purity of their transcendental loving service. Their most prominent
characteristic is that their love for Sri Krsna is millions of times more intense than any affection they
may have for themselves. (Nod. 2.1.290)

The relationship between Lord Visnu and brahman

18. “Lord Visnu is the Supreme Absolute Truth; both the personal and impersonal features are inherent in His
divine nature. The Supreme Lord's inconceivable potencies not only include His personal and impersonal
aspects, they also manifest His all-attractive beauty and silence all contradictory speculations about Him.

19. “Human intelligence is limited and puny. It cannot easily fathom the Supreme Lord’s inconceivable
energies. So when a human being tries to conceive of a Supreme controller with his inadequate brain, he can
advance only to the concept of impersonal brahman, which is a partial representation of the Absolute Whole. In
this way he is diverted from the supreme goal of worship, Lord Visnu, whose lotus feet are worshipped even by
the great demigods. Ignorant of the benefit he has lost, he becomes attached to the worship of impersonal
brahman. But anyone who comprehends the transcendental nature of the name, form, qualities etc. of the
Supreme Lord, and knows them to be nondifferent from Him, can chant the pure name and perceive Lord
Krsna in His divine fullness.

Commentary
The Lord reserves the right to be known by the non-devotee; therefore he has not given the material brain the facility
to go beyond the impersonal brahman concept of realization. In this way the fool whoes intelligence is deluded is
diverted away from the supreme goal of life, which is serving the Lord in any of the five rasas, or transcendental
humours. In this text we see how the mayavadi may think that he is a big philosopher with his big brain, but with this
big brain he gets himself into all sorts of trouble which ultimately ends in nothingness. Whereas the simple hearted
devotee, who submissively hears from his master about the glories of Lord Kesava, easily attains the param-gati, the
supreme destination. Devotees who are engaged in devotional service are never deviated by any other activity, and by
continued association with Sri Namaprabhu, while maintaining a humble attitude, the sadhaka will see the attainment
of krsna-prema.

20. “Duality exists only on the material plane—here a name is different from the object it identifies. But as this
is not the case on the spiritual platform, it is a gross blunder to imagine such a difference between the Lord and
His name, form, qualities and so on. The same pitfall entraps those who consider Lord Siva and other
demigods to be independent of the Supreme Lord’s control.

Commentary
The material world is a world of names and designations, but those names only represent the object and are not the
object itself. Prabhupada used to say; ‘if I chant water, water, water, it will not decrease my thirst—but if I chant
Krsna, Krsna, Krsna, immediately I am satisfied.’ In this way we understand that in the spiritual world the name and
the person are non-different. Further than this the pastimes and qualities of Krsna are also non-different. To think that
they are is to have a dualistic conception of the Lord, and this is offensive. Similarly if we equate the demigods such
as Lord Siva, as being on the same level, we also make a big mistake. Krsna is visnu-tattva, and the demigods are
jiva-tattva. Krsna is saktiman and jiva is sakti. Remember; Krsna, His name, form, pastimes, etc are the same, and
jiva’s are different. Demigods are jiva-tattva always!

Differences between devotees and mayavadis

21. “The devotee who has taken single-minded shelter in the Holy Name is a truly elevated soul. He worships
Krsna and no one else as the Supreme Lord. He does not attack other scriptures and other deities, such as the
demigods; he worships and respects them as servitors of Lord Krsna. He always refrains from dry speculation.
When different scriptures try to establish the superiority of other demigods it is only to facilitate the limited
ability of a particular mentality to grasp the Absolute Truth. These scriptures are actually trying to elevate
their followers to become devotees of Krsna. Therefore one should never criticize other scriptures and
demigods; such criticism is an offense.

Commentary
A Vaisnava is always humble and meek and never criticizes other scriptures; otherwise he is not a Vaisnava. If another
party is trying to drag him into a debate to show superiority of their scripture, even though he knows that the
bhagavata-dharma is the highest religion and can defeat any scripture, still he does not engage in such trivial
discussions. Why is this so? Because he knows that in truth other scriptures try to claim superiority simply to facilitate
the followers of that religion to be uplifted. Therefore he knows better than to disturb the faith of others who are on
the path of liberation. However, when sastra, or the Vaisnavas are criticized, a Vaisnava’s duty is to cut out that
person’s tongue by defeating his philosophy with superior knowledge, or else leave that place. Above all a Vaisnava is
always a gentleman and acts accordingly.

22. “A devotee should not accept remnants of food or garlands from a mayavadi, even if they we offered to Lord
Visnu, because a mayavadi’s worship is impure. A mayavadi’s chanting of the Holy Name is offensive; the Lord
does not accept the offerings and worship from worship from a mayavadi. It is also an offense to accept
garlands and other remnants from demigod worship; this is detrimental to the pure devotional life. But if a
devotee worships the Supreme Lord Krsna and offers His remnants to the demigods, it will not be offensive to
receive these remnants, nor will one’s spiritual development be hampered in any way. A pure devotee always
avoids offenses, chants constantly, and thus attains prema; his entire success is found in the Holy Name.

Commentary
Mayavadi’s are offenders because they do not accept Sri Krsna’s personal form as being the Absolute Truth, but
instead choose to propagate an impersonal concept of reality. If a person is polluted with this mentality Lord Krsna,
the Supreme Bhagavan, will not accept their offerings. Similarly, if a person is polluted with the conception that the
demigods are on an equal level with Lord Visnu, and they offer food or garlands, their offering is similarly not
accepted. Both of these offerings are polluted. If a sadhaka accepts the remnants of such offerings his consciousness
will become similarly polluted. However, if one first offers food and garlands to Sri Krsna and then offers the
remnants to the demigods, it will not be offensive and one will advance in spiritual life. Sri Krsna says:

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam

Whatever you do, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform—do that, O
son of Kunti, as an offering to Me. (Bg. 9.27)
The remedy for the offense

23. “Illusion and madness blind the jiva, and thus he thinks that others are also on the same platform as the
Supreme Lord Visnu. The only remedy is to repent intensely and meditate on Lord Visnu, Krsna, for by this
remembrance offenses are dissolved. Thereafter, one must meticulously avoid committing the same offense
again. Remembrance of the Lord is the most effective penance; the Vedas always recommend imperiled
brahmanas to meditate upon the lotus feet of Lord Visnu for protection. Remembering the Lord’s name is the
same as meditating upon His lotus feet. The Holy Name can disperse all previous offenses, for it acts as the
devotee’s best friend.

Commentary
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we find the following advice:

krsna-varanam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah

In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who
constantly sings the name of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krsna Himself. He is
accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions. (SB. 11.5.32)

If by some stroke of good fortune a fortunate jiva who is blinded by the mayavadi conception begins to see the error
of his ways he may take advice from this sloka and worship Gauranga Mahaprabhu. The only remedy for this offense
is to become sincerely repentant and continuously chant the maha-mantra. While reading these texts an aspiring
devotee may think, ‘well this chapter is only applying to the mayavadis, and I am not a mayavadi, I am a Vaisnava.’
Saying this he may scan over the pages in this chapter and not pay heed to the remedy for this offense. However, one
must question, who is this book intended for? This is an internal book that is targeted to Vaisnava devotees of the Lord
only. Therefore, a sober person will begin to understand that it is he who is that wretched person, and whose
consciousness has been polluted with the mayavadi conception of reality since time immemorial. Therefore, the
remedy of taking shelter in the Lord and continuously chanting His glorious name, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna
Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, is meant for us! We are the ones who have been
chosen by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu because we are the most fallen of all sinners—we are rehabilitated mayavadis.
Now our duty is to avoid this offense and all the other offenses that are to be spoken of soon.

Put in quote from C.C where friend of Sanatana Goswami was turned into a Mohameden and Lord Caitanya advised
him to chant the Holy Name (example of chanting for protection)…

24. “Lord Krsna is an ocean of mercy and forgiveness; the devotee must disassociate himself from demigod
worshippers and polytheists, and seek the company of devotees who exclusively worship Krsna as their
Supreme Lord.”

Commentary
After having explained our previous demented condition that has brought us to take birth in Kali-yuga, we are now
being informed that Lord Krsna is an ocean of mercy and forgiveness. ‘Declare it boldly Arjuna, My devotee will
never be vanquished.’ Lord Krsna says; ksipram bhavati dharmatma—very soon he becomes righteous (Bg. 9.31).

In this text the devotee is advised to only seek the company of other devotees and avoid the company of non-devotees.
Those who worship Sri Krsna as their Supreme Lord are worshipable by the devotees and are called sat. But those
who worship many demigods (polytheists) are called asat, and their company should be avoided. This is the
recommendation of Sri Harinama Cintamani.
One who is blessed with love and devotion and takes pleasure in serving Srila Haridasa Thakura’s lotus feet
will find this book Harinama Cintamani as valuable as life itself.

Chapter Six

Disobeying or Disrespecting the Spiritual Master

The preciousness of human life

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura said, “O Lord, kindly allow me to explain the third namaparadha. This aparadha is
to disobey the orders of the spiritual master or to disrespect him.

Commentary
I would like to spend some time here to discuss the meaning of namaparadha in order to help further in our
sambandha understanding, for by understanding the make up of this word we will be helped to avoid it. It is
worthwhile noting how the ten namaparadhas are not only pertaining to chanting the name of Krsna but they also
extend to service to the spiritual master, and our life throughout the twenty-four hours of the day. From this we can
understand that avoiding namaparadha is a way of life and not just something we do while chanting japa.

The word namaparadha is made up of three separate words namely; nama, apa, and radha. One way to look at the
word namaparadha is the following: Nama is Krsna, apa is without, and radha is devotion. Radharani is the queen of
devotion to Krsna. She is the topmost devotee and the pinnacle of devotional love. Radharani is the embodiment of
mahabhava, which is the most essential part of love of Godhead. Only Radha possesses mahabhava, and so Radha is
known as the ‘most beloved’ of Krsna. Radha is the embodiment of the Lord’s hladini-sakti, the Lord’s pleasure
giving potency. This pleasure giving potency is intended to give Krsna pleasure not anyone else. This is confirmed in
the Visnu Purana (1.12.69); "The pleasure potency of Krsna gives Krsna transcendental pleasure and bliss." Thus
when Krsna wants to enjoy pleasure, He exhibits His own spiritual potency known as hladini. In His spiritual form,
Krsna enjoys His spiritual energy. In krsna-lila we see that Radha-Krsna’s pastimes are the highest form of giving
pleasure to the Lord, and indeed these pastimes are the quintessence of the hladini potency. The pastimes of Radha-
Krsna can only be understood by elevated devotees. If one desires to understand them, one must become qualified
through the process of bhakti-yoga. One should not try to understand the Radha-Krsna potencies and pastimes from
the mundane platform; this would be a great mistake. To give another example of Radha’s great love for the Lord we
can cite the example of the rasa-dance. When Lord Krsna was enjoying the rasa-dance with thousands of gopis,
Srimati Radharani left the rasa-dance out of anger. At this time Krsna, the beloved of Radha, could not find any
happiness within the rasa-dance, even though He was enjoying with thousands of other women. He immediately left
that place and went in the bushes to look for His beloved Radha. If a devotee wishes to be dear to Krsna, we can see
from this example, the best way is to become dear to Radha. Conversely, if one does not wish to receive the mercy of
Krsna, one simply has to make aparadha, or not get the mercy of Radha. Please think about this.

When we chant Hare Krsna we are calling on the mercy of hara, or Radha, to descend and bless us with the ability to
perform devotional service to Her beloved Lord Syamasundara. To chant without devotion to Krsna is to chant
without Radha’s mercy. Aparadha then, means to chant without devotion, or to chant without Radha’s mercy.
Understanding this we should now try to analyze further. If namaparadha is to chant devoid of devotion, how does a
clear understanding of that come about? Devotion means to be devoted to the desire of someone or to love that
person. It follows that if one has love for someone they will not act against their beloved’s wishes. Or in other words,
every action a lover performs is for the pleasure and glorification of the beloved—this is known as Radha. And
Radharani is the queen of such devotion—the top most lover of Krsna, the embodiment of mahabhava.

If we study the life of Srimati Radharani we see that every breath She takes and every move She makes, Her sidelong
glances, and Her bashful smiles—all are to please Her beloved. When She sleeps She thinks of Krsna, when She eats
She thinks of Krsna, every cell in Her body thinks only of Krsna! Anything She does She thinks; ‘will this please
Krsna?’ Such is Her intense meditation. As long as we have this meditation in all of our activities we will always be a
servant to Radharani, the queen of devotion. Contrary to this, whatever we do that will not please the Lord or glorify
His greatness either directly or indirectly through His bodily limbs, will not get the mercy of Radha. This sort of
material lifestyle is called aparadha, or offensive.

In scripture we are informed that to attain the mercy of Krsna we must first get the mercy of Radharani, so to chant
namaparadha means we will never get love of Krsna. This is stated throughout scriptures and throughout Sri
Harinama Cintamani also. For to receive entrance into Krsna-loka involves getting a personal invitation that comes in
a hierarchical structure as follows:

1. We must first receive the dust of the lotus feet of the Vaisnavas (devotees, sannyasis, gurus etc).
2. We must receive the mercy of the parampara, or the authorised acaryas in charge of infusing knowledge and
bhakti into a devotee’s heart.
3. We must receive the mercy of the panca-tattva, of whom Sri Nityananada Mahaprabhu is the foremost.
4. We must receive the mercy of the residents of Gokula of whom the gopis are the foremost.
5. We must receive the mercy of Srimati Radharani, who is the pinnacle and Queen of all devotional mellows
and loving exchanges with Her beloved Syama.
6. We will receive the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. The All-powerful Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.

To do this we must become the humble servant of the servant of the servant, and always follow in the footsteps of the
mahajanas. Pure devotees have the power invested in them to give Krsna; this is stated in the tenth canto of the
Srimad-bhagavatam, where the Lord admits to the gopis that Their intense love has purchased Him. Also in the
eleventh canto Lord Krsna teaches Uddhava in the science of understanding Him. Feeling the sadness of separation
from Krsna, Uddhava, the pure devotee of the Lord, intensely listened as Lord Krsna gave His final teachings on the
path to liberation. The Lord’s conclusion to Uddhava was as follows:

martyo yada tyakta-samasta-karma

niveditatma vicikernito me
tadamatatvaa pratipadyamano
mayatma-bhuyaya ca kalpate vai

A person who gives up all fruitive activities and offers himself entirely unto Me, eagerly desiring to
render service unto Me, achieves liberation from birth and death and is promoted to the status of
sharing My own opulences. (SB. 11.29.34)

To achieve such a glorious boon we must therefore become sincere servants of Sri Radha in the correct system of
descending hierarchical order, starting with serving the devotees. We must follow the guidelines outlined in the Sri
Siksastaka of trnad api sunicena, taror iva sahisnuna, amanina manadena, kirtaniyah sada harih, and have full faith
in the words of guru, sadhu, and sastra. We must also be diligent in uprooting the weeds of anarthas and avoid
offences such as the ones outlined in the coming instructions of this book.

Furthermore we should not commit offenses to the Lord's Holy Name, as the Holy Name is the Lord manifest in
sound vibration. We should never blaspheme His pure devotees. We should never offend His representatives, the
family of devotees. And we should not commit violence toward any other living entity as in actual fact everyone is a
part of Krsna’s body. In the Bhagavatam Narada Muni teaches how violence can be committed with the body, words,
and thoughts, as all these have power.
So, clearly, with this defined approach, we can see that namaparadha is committed throughout the entire day and not
just during the japa period. With this short digression we hope to have made the word namaparadha clearer for you to
understand, so now you can avoid it throughout the twenty-four hours of the day. A devotee begs for the mercy of
Radha in order to serve Krsna in her eternal position in under the careful guidance of a manjari in Radharani’s camp.
To loose the mercy of Radha, as in namaparadha is the devotee’s greatest fear. He is always cautious about this
offense.

2. “The soul travels through many lifetimes in different bodies and at last gets the chance of a rare human
birth, which is auspicious in every respect. The soul has rotated through 8,400,000 different species; by ajnata-
sukrti, or involuntary pious activities, the soul finally attains a human body. A birth in the human form is most
uncommon, because only in the body are spiritual activities possible, not in any other species. A demigod or
denizen of the heavenly planets is destined only to enjoy the reactions of his past pious activities; he cannot
voluntarily initiate any saintly activities. Animals are likewise bound by karmic reactions and are too steeped
in gross ignorance to undertake any pious activities independently. The human birth alone is most conducive
for spiritual life and for service to the Supreme Lord.

Commentary
Only by ajnata-sukrti or more specifically bhaktiunmukhi can a jiva take to the service of the Lord. Other than service
to the Supreme what is the use of the human form of life? Animals without elevated consciousness can not love God,
nor can the person who is too much engaged in sensual activities—for him God will never appear. What is needed is
the mercy of sat-guru, the pure representative of Krnsa. In the Katha Upanisad the following is written about sat-
guru:

nayam atma pravacanena labhyo

na medhaya na bahudha srutena
yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyas
tasyaisa atma vivrnute tanum svam

Paramatma, who is seated within the heart, and who is known as caitya-guru, assumes a body and
appears in this external world as guru.

When the Lord within the heart sees the jiva’s sincere yearning, he arranges for the jiva to meet a pure devotee. The
Lord manifests as the sat-guru (pure devotee), and liberates everyone via sabda-brahma, the pure sound vibration
emanating from the lips of the pure devotee. The following is written in the Caitanya-caritamrta about the fortunated
jive who receives the mercy of guru:

brahmananda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the universe—some being
elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some going down to the lower planetary systems. Out of
many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate
with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krsna. By the mercy of both Krsna and the spiritual
master such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service. (Cc. madhya-lila 19.151)

A bona fide spiritual master is therefore essential for everyone. Please choose wisely!

3. “Yet the fact remains that this body is transient. If one does not carefully endeavour for self-realization,
which is the greatest benediction, then he returns again to the endless cycle of birth and death. An intelligent
person will therefore utilize this rare opportunity. He will search out a spiritual master who can lead him to the
Supreme Lord Krsna. Such a spiritual master is truly a helmsman who can help the drowning jiva cross over
the ocean of material nescience. Only the most foolish persons will attempt to cross this ocean by their own
intelligence. The achievement of any success in this world requires the help of a guru’s instructions. How, then,
can one obtain perfection in the best of all subjects, spiritual science, without the aid of a guru? Only one who
is self-realized and fully proficient in spiritual knowledge is fit to be a spiritual master.

Commentary
This text is at once showing the importance of finding sat-guru and the stupidity of thinking that one can cross over
the endless ocean of samara without his help. One who has the good fortune to acquire a human form, and does not
utilize it for self realization is no better than a cow or an ass. According to scripture he is a two legged animal (a
mudha), therefore intelligent persons utilize this rare opportunity to enquire into the divine, by hearing from the lips
of a pure devotee who has realize God within his heart.

In a conversation with some of his disciples H.H. Srila Gour Govinda Swami covers some interesting points on the
subject of sabda-brahma and the necessity of seeking out a pure devotee which I will include here for your attention:

Devotee 1 — Sabda-brahma is Krsna in sound vibration?

Gour Govinda Swami — Yes. One has to hear. It is not that, ‘alright, tapes are there, I’ll hear the recorded tapes.’

Devotee 2 — It doesn’t descend through transmission of the tape?

Gour Govinda Swami — No, no.

Devotee 2 — Only when you are personally sitting there with a pure Vaisnava?

Gour Govinda Swami — Yes. Now in this material scientific age so many techniques are there. People say, “No
more teachers are required. We’ll teach through television.” Nonsense! Sabda-brahma will never descend. (Worship
of Sri Guru P.74)

The last question put to Maharaja also says a very interesting thing:

Devotee 7 — In your book Sri Guru-vandana, you have described this flow of nectar as padma-madhu. You said that
it comes to a devotee who is a sincere hearer. So someone who is very sincere to hear from guru and serves guru, he
may get that nectar even though he may not have physical contact?

Gour Govinda Swami — You should be greedy. Physical contact is required. You must hear directly, not just by
listening to tapes. Sabda-brahma will never descend through a tape. One must hear from a physically present Sri
Guru.

By this little conversation we can realize the importance of searching out a guru who is a confidential servitor of Sri
Sri Radha Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana. Very soon, Sri Harinama Cintamani will explain that there may be gurus from
the various varnas but the best is to search out the pure devotee, whose relationship with us is eternal, and who never
disappears from the pure disciple’s heart or mind, even if either of them leaves the planet in their physical presence.

This statement of Maharaja’s has caused quite a stir in the lives of many devotees, but the essence is simple to
understand. Krsna consciousness is available through the mercy of Krsna, and Krsna has placed Himself in the hands
and hearts of His pure devotees. Only they have the power to give Krsna. To continue the unbroken chain of mercy
the parampara system has been set up, and by this system there is always a living representative available for the
devotee to receive sabda-brahma from. Now, some may argue that great sages, such as Srila Vyasadeva, and Srila
Bhaktivinoda etc wrote down their teachings so that we could learn from them, and also that Srila Prabhupada
encouraged his disciples to tape his classes so that all devotees could learn for all times. These facts are correct, and as
far as learning the science of sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana are concerned, books, and lectures are supremely
important, but as maharaja states, “we should be greedy, physical contact is required!” This simply means that Krsna
can only be attained through the mercy of Krsna’s bona fide representative, sat-guru. So to become qualified to meet
sat-guru may require some preliminary purification and this is the purpose of books, tapes, mp3’s etc. Similarly, when
we see a photograph of our spiritual master, it is not that he is going to come out of the photograph, or the photograph
is going to suddenly move around. No, the photograph is simply a material representation. The real connection is in
the heart, and this is where it is important for personal contact to come into the picture. Realization is given directly to
the heart by the mercy of the advanced devotee. This fact is substantiated in Sri Harinama Cintamani as follows:

add quote This is a great mystery. It is in my book also….. quoted….

4. “A few of the characteristics of a bona fide spiritual master are that he is peaceful, unperturbed, and a pure
devotee of Krsna. He should be approached with humility. The jiva should satisfy him with service and receive
formal initiation from him into the worship of Lord Krsna; herein lays his best chance to surmount the
material entanglement. The jiva’s inherent love for Krsna lies dormant in the heart and can easily be revived.
But he can easily lose this chance through speculative deviates and mischievous logic. He must evade such
pitfalls, surrender to the spiritual master’s instructions and receive the proper mantra from him. As for
householders, they should remain within the varnasrama system and take shelter of a bona fide spiritual
master.

Commentary
Sanatana Goswami points out a very nice thing regarding the potency of the pure devotee.

yatha kancanantam yati

kamsyam rasa-vidhanatah
tatha diksa-vidhanena
dvijatvam jayate nrnam

By chemical manipulation, bell metal is turned into gold when touched by mercury; similarly, when a
person is properly initiated, he can acquire the qualities of a brahmana. (Bhakti-sandarbha verse 298)

The bona fide spiritual master will display both the svarupa and tathasta-laksanas. He will appear unperturbed by
material life because he is not influenced by the modes. Lord Krsna understands the heart of a sadhaka and sends
along a spiritual master accordingly, but if one desires to go back to Krsna-loka one must seek shelter of a resident of
that place; sat-guru. This can only come about by the grace of the Supreme Lord who is present within the heart.
When He understands that His devotee is becoming free of duplicitous activities, at that time He will send along His
representative. Now, whether we listen to the words emanating from guru’s lotus-like mouth, or whether we
underestimate his potency and act according to speculative logic is the cause for our upliftment, or the loss of a good
chance. Sometimes we see aspirants doing so well in their brahmacari/brahmacarini days, but when they enter the
grihasta community they become almost like another karmi, who watches mundane films and listens to mundane
music. Some may say this is the safe path where one can have both Krsna and a life, but Sri Harinama Cintamani has
previously taught that if one does not make it back to home in this life, one will have to return to the ocean of
samsara.

When Rupa and Sanatana Goswami approached Gauranga Mahaprabhu (their spiritual master), they did so in the
correct manner. They each took a straw and placed it between their teeth, then humbly served the Lord for the rest of
their lives with their mind, body and words. Being pleased with their humility Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu invested
them with His divine potency. All devotees who care to please Lord Gaurasundara therefore follow in the footsteps of
the Goswamis, becoming rupanuga devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Among the great teachings that Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave to Srila Rupa Goswami was the teachings on lobha, puja, and pratistha. He taught about
the three enemies; name, fame, and adoration (worship). These three enemies are to be avoided by all who are sincere
students on this great path of liberation. In the Caitanya-caritamrta Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraj Goswami explains the
following in this regard:

kintu yadi latara sange uthe upasakha

bhukti-mukti-vancha, yata asankhya tara lekha
 Sometimes unwanted creepers, such as the creepers of desires for material enjoyment and liberation
from the material world, grow along with the creeper of devotional service. The varieties of such
unwanted creepers are unlimited.

nisiddhacara, kutinati, jiva-himsana

labha, puja, pratisthadi yata upasakha-gana

Some unnecessary creepers growing with the bhakti creeper are the creepers of behavior unacceptable
for those trying to attain perfection: diplomatic behavior, animal killing, mundane profiteering,
mundane adoration and mundane importance. All these are unwanted creepers. (Cc. madhya-lila
19.158-159)

A good brahmana is fit to be a spiritual master

5. “A brahmana is fit to be a spiritual master for all the other varnas or social orders if he is a devotee of Lord
Krsna. But if a brahmana spiritual master is not available, then a spiritual master from another varna should
be searched out. Still, the householder is best advised to accept initiation from a brahmanavarna spiritual
master.

Commentary
A person is categorized in any of the four different orders according to social standards, and this characterization goes
on according to his actions not according to birth. One reason why the brahmana is recommended above the other
social orders of life is because brahmanas are free from the controlling principle that is found in the other varnas. It is
therefore recommended that one take initiation from a Krsna devotee guru, who is a brahmana. A brahmana guru is
fit to disseminate instruction to the other social orders as his nature is to teach. A brahaman is supposed to understand
the absolute truth.

6. “A real spiritual master is one who is conversant with the science of Krsna consciousness. A spiritual master
can be from any varna or asrama, but he must be a kalpataru or touchstone (which converts iron into gold),
fulfilling everyone’s spiritual longings. The prestige of having a spiritual master from a superior varna is a
material consideration; that prestige simply depends on the caste status of the one who is judging the spiritual
master’s caste. External factors such as caste have hardly any bearing on spiritual realization. Necessity
demands that one must find a spiritual master who is bona fide and qualified; if he happens to belong to a
higher varna, so much the better. A householder should look for a spiritual master from one of the higher
varnas; if he finds one who is qualified then he may not look for one from a lower varna. It must be noted well,
though, that in looking for a ‘high class’ spiritual master, one should not choose an unqualified person simply
for the prestige of having a spiritual master from a higher varna.

Commentary
This text emphasises the need to choose a spiritual master who is bona fide and qualified rather than choosing for
social prestige, as this will get you nowhere.

A renunciant must have a renounced guru

7. “If for some reason a householder leaves home to embrace the life of a renunciant, and has still not been able
to satisfy his spiritual yearnings, he naturally requires a saintly spiritual master. For such a renunciant, a
spiritual master in the renounced order is best. By his spiritual guidance and initiation, the renunciant will
very quickly relish the ecstasy of chanting the Holy Name.

Commentary
It may happen that throughout life a person simply can’t meet the exact spiritual master he is yearning for. If such a
person goes through the various asramas and finally takes up the life of a renunciant, he must then seek out a
sannyasi who can guide him in the science of attaining the Supreme. By sincerely serving such a great soul and taking
mantra initiation from him the newly renounced sadhaka can easily taste the bliss of hari-bhajana by the mercy of his
renounced spiritual master.

8. “A householder devotee may suddenly feel the burden of family life affecting his spiritual quest. Though he
leaves home, he need not give up his previous spiritual master. A householder is advised to seek the shelter of a
householder spiritual master if he is qualified and pure. If a householder spiritual master is not available, he
may take initiation from a qualified renunciant guru. In any case, his spiritual master must be qualified Under
his guru’s spiritual instructions, the neophyte begins devotional life and is gradually elevated to experience
transcendental loving emotions in the service of the Lord. He develops distaste for material life and then
becomes a renunciant. Such developments are the natural course of things. Once he is in the renounced order,
he is obliged to have a spiritual master who is a renunciant. He must be instructed in the life of renunciation
from a renounced spiritual master, and accept from him the vesa or clothes of a mendicant.

Commentary
The purpose of family life is to have the desire for family life purged from the heart, by understanding that everything
in the material world is temporary except service to the Supreme Lord and His devotees. The purpose the vivaha-
yajna (the marriage ceremony) is to make the mind peaceful so that one can focus more on spiritual life, and the
perfect marriage partners are those who see their partners as being servants of Sri Hari. In this way both parties can
help each other along the path, and the children born of such a marriage can be trained in the science of love of
Godhead by their parents who naturally see such children as children of God.

It is never recommended, and indeed it is offensive, if one abandons a bona fide spiritual master without good cause,
so even if one leaves home the spiritual master should not be renounced, no matter if he is still in the grhastha
asrama. However, if one wishes to take up the renounced order called sannyasa, carry a danda, and wear the clothes
of a mendicant, at this time he should take sannyasa initiation from a bona fide guru in the renounced order of life.
The system is; a neophyte begins his devotional life by learning from a spiritual master, then he takes up residence in
the grhastha asrama, then, by the mercy of the guru he receives a taste for chanting and understands the futility of
material life. By continued spiritual advancement he develops a-distaste for material life and intelligently renounces
it. In order take him further the caitya-guru in his heart provides the sadhaka with a more advanced guru who can
instruct the disciple further, being already in the sannyasa asrama.

Srila Rupa Goswami instructs in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu about the way a sadhaka progresses from slight faith
upwards:

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango

’tha bhajana-kriya
tato ’nartha-nivrttih syat
tato nistha rucis tatah

athasaktis tato bhavas

tatah premabhyudancati
sadhakanam ayam premnah
pradurbhave bhavet kramah

In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization. This will bring one to
the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. In the next stage one
becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master and under his instruction the neophyte devotee
begins the process of devotional service. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of
the spiritual master one becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in self-
realization, and acquires a taster for hearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Sri
Krsna. This taste leads on further forward to attachment for Krsna consciousness, which is
matured in bhava, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is
called prema, the highest perfectional stage of life. (Nod. 1.4.15-16)
Diksa-guru and siksa-guru equally respected

9. “There are two kinds of spiritual masters: the initiating spiritual master and the siksa-guru. Both gurus have
to be respected equally; this is the key to spiritual success. The diksa-guru initiates a person into the chanting of
the Holy Name and the diksa-mantra, while the siksa-guru imparts spiritual conclusions to the disciple. This
spiritual knowledge specifically means sambandha-jnana or the knowledge of the jiva’s relationship with the
Supreme Lord and his multifarious energies. The diksa-guru is one but siksa-guru can be many. In fact all the
Vaisnava devotees are siksa-gurus, but both the diksa-guru and the many siksa-gurus are to be equally
respected.

Commentary
In one lifetime a devotee may have a deep relationship to more than one spiritual master, especially within ISKCON.
This is natural because all gurus in ISKCON are working on behalf of the sat-guru acarya, Srila Prabhupada. Srila
Prabhupada’s teachings formulate the basis for our sambandha realization and Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, who are
now guru’s in their own right, spread his message without interpretation. In this way devotees may have one guru as
diksa-guru and one, or many, as siksa-guru. In fact any Vaisnava can be a siksa-guru as he passes on the teachings of
the founder acarya and the parampara. Sri Harinama Cintamani hereby teaches that both siksa and diksa gurus are to
be equally respected.

The teaching of the adi-guru must be followed

10. “The Vaisnava disiplic successions are the real lines of saintly teachings and teachers. The Vaisnava lines
have always disseminated the bona fide mantras, the proper scriptural conclusions, the authorized devotional
process and the ultimate goal of life. If one is to be protected from the perils of mayavadi philosophy then he
should surrender to a spiritual master from a saintly line—namely a Vaisnava line. The teachings left by the
founder-acaryas of the sampradayas are to be especially honored. Sri Ramanuja, Sri Madhavacarya, Sri
Nimbarkacarya, and Sri Visnuswami are the four original acaryas of the four Vaisnava lines. One should
accept only their teachings and conclusions and not others. One should receive spiritual initiation in one of
these four sampradayas and not others.

Commentary
If a person is fortunate enough to come across a Vaisnava in any of the four lines of Vaisnava teachings, being, Sri
Madhavacarya, Sri Ramanuja-acarya, Sri Nimbarkacarya, and Sri Visnuswami, he should take initiation into them as
opposed to any other lineage. However, if one wishes an even greater chance of success he will become initiated into
the Gaura-Madhava lineage, of which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and Srila Prabhupada are the latest in the line of acaryas.
Such a lineage promotes bona fide mantras, the correct scriptural conclusion, an authorized process of upliftment
(that has been discussed previously), and is capable of delivering the ultimate goal of life, krsna-prema.

11. “A devotee must understand that the adiguru, original spiritual master of the sampradaya, is the siksa-guru,
and only his teachings are to be accepted and not those of any other scholar or teacher. And only a saintly
devotee who has understood the teachings of the siksa-guru is eligible to be a diksa-guru for others. If one
thinks that he can be initiated by a mayavadi-guru into the teachings of Krsna consciousness, he errs severely.
He will not attain pure devotion.

Commentary
For this reason Srila Prabhupada named his version of the Bhagavad-gita, the ‘Bhagavad-gita as it is.’ His
instructions are perfectly in line with the founder, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and in this way everything about Srila
Prabhupada’s teachings is perfect. If anyone is desirous of becoming a spiritual master he is hereby informed that he
must understand and implement the adiguru’s instructions perfectly in order to deliver the fallen souls. Mayavadi
teachings are opposed to Krsna consciousness.
These days, with the popularity of television and advertising, many people are inticed into listening to various
preachers, who may be very good at telling likable stories of Lord Ramacandra’s, or Lord Krsna’s pastimes. However,
devotees are hereby being warned by Sri Harinama Cintamani in the following way: ‘A devotee must understand that
the adiguru, original spiritual master of the sampradaya, is the siksa-guru, and only his teachings are to be accepted
and not those of any other scholar or teacher. And only a saintly devotee who has understood the teachings of the
siksa-guru is eligible to be a diksa-guru for others.’

In relation to Srila Prabhupada’s followers we are to understand that only a saintly devotee, who has fully understood
the teachings of the adiguru, or the empowered acarya, is to be taken as guru. Such a person is the one who guides us
to the lotus feet of Sri Gaurasundara via receiving the mercy of his guru, who is situated perfectly in the parampara
system, stemming from the adiguru. These are very important words contained in this text, for they provide a stable
platform for our bhakti-lata-bhija to grow from.

In this text we are seeing the teaching that people are either devotees or non-devotees, i.e. mayavadis. In relation to
this we must caution the sadhaka on the fundamental levels, who may take a preacher as being a devotee, even though
they may know nothing of his background, or have not studied his character and teachings very deeply. This can be
very dangerous and lead to the offense earlier spoken of called pratibimbabasha, or disruptions in the philosophical
understandings and conclusions of the adiguru. We must also be aware that the most dangerours type of person is the
mayavadi in a devotional dress, and these days, with so much on offer, and so many people making rash discisions
based what they see in a few entertaining lectures, it behooves a newcomer to first remain within the society of
Vaisnavas for some time, and receive instructions from a limited scorce until such a person has developed a greater
degree of discrimination.

Accept only a pure devotee as guru

12. “He who imparts wrong teachings and he who receives them are both destined for hell. One who has
accepted teachings and conclusions outside the line of pure bhakti has wasted his life. How then can such a
person become a spiritual master? How can he save other conditioned souls? He himself is in illusion and is
therefore an imperfect being, so how can he bring good fortune to others? One must understand that a pure
devotee is not an ordinary soul. The scriptures declare that he is the most eligible to be a spiritual master.

Commentary
The process for becoming free from material entanglement is as follows; first learn the science of Krsna
consciousness from a bona fide spiritual master, and then teach it to others. In this way Sri Krsna will be pleased and
liberate you to an eternal life of service in Vaikuntha. A pure devotee is not an ordinary conditioned soul; he is a
spiritual emissary, an ambassador for Sri Krsna, and must therefore be given all respects always.

If an unfortunate jiva receives teachings from a bogus spiritual master he is casting his path to hell, but if he receives
the mercy of a pure devotee his entire life can change and become glorious. The following allegorical story is
intended to portray this point.

Once upon a time there was an astrologer who roamed freely amongst the towns of India making his living
from telling the future. He happened to meet a young man, and the young man enquired from him the
particulars of his future. The astrologer said; “My son, very soon you will gather a great fortune and travel
across the seas to the land of America. There you will find many followers and increase your wealth.” The
young man was very excited about this and paid the astrologer well. Then, as the astrologer was leaving,
he cautioned the young man. “However, by gaining such a vast fortune of wealth you will loose the
greatest treasure of all!” The young man could not fathom the depths of the astrologer’s words, and
concluded that the astrologer was talking in riddles.
Several years later, the same astrologer happened to be travelling through a neighbouring town and a
young child requested him to reveal his destiny. The astrologer said; “My dear child, when you grow up
you will amass a good fortune, but by destiny’s hand you will loose it. Then, as if by magic you will gain
the greatest of all treasures.” The young child was very happy to hear this and said to the astrologer; “May
God bless you, for you are truly a friend to all.”
Many years later, this child grew up and became a big business man. He became mad after money,
and the more he had, the more he wanted. Nothing seemed to be able to satisfy his craving for wealth. He
became power crazy and in this state of madness he became very ill and almost lost his life.
Regaining his normal strength, the man’s family members advised him to drop his madness for
gaining money and take up a simple profession where he would not have to engage in so much hard labor.
As he contemplated their words his mind again began to plot and scheme of how he could make
money, this time however taking onboard their indications. He wondered how he could become more
powerful and rich without much endeavor.
Just then a sadhu arrived, as if sent by the gods. “My dear sir, said the sadhu, I have heard from your
family members that you nearly lost your life; that you have an insatiable desire to become powerful, and
by this desire they almost lost you. My dear son, if you want power I can show you how to get it—I am a
great yogi and much power is invested in my long matted locks; my name is Mr rishi, but people call me
the great rishi. Just come with me to the Himalayas, become my disciple, and I will teach you the science
of gaining strength by mantra meditation. I call this the technique of transcendence. By this science you
will become more powerful than you can imagine, and to get this power you simply have to sit down and
follow my instructions.”
Being intoxicated by the thought of power and wealth the business man became convinced that God
had sent along this man and that his path was to become a great powerful yogi. He packed his bags and
turned his back on his family, going in search of power. The yogi instructed his disciple that the proper
dissemination of knowledge and power would not come to the student without the student giving
reimbursement. In this way the student businessman had to become his master’s menial servant, and pay
the requested money to his guru every month. Being very greedy and hungry for power and money the
businessman did not like to part with his money, but remembering the words of the astrologer when he was
a young boy, little by little he consented to give the guru all of his money.
He thought to himself; “The astrologer told me; I would gain a great fortune, but by destiny’s hand’s I
would loose it, and then as if by magic, again I will gain the greatest of all treasures.” Thinking in this way
the business man concluded that the astrologer was indicating that he would have to pay for the yogis
teachings, but eventually he would become a great powerful yogi and be able to command anything he
desired via attaining mystic siddhis.
In the Himalayas many years past by, but the disciple could feel nothing happening to him. The guru
informed him; “be patient my son, this precious power is the power of God, it takes time to come, but
since you are requesting me then maybe it is time for you to now get a second mantra to chant—one that is
more powerful than the first one I gave you. However, you must pay for this mantra in order for the power
to come across to you. The exchange of energy is very important in this matter.” In this way the master
initiated his disciple into many different levels, each time charging a higher rate and giving a more
powerful secret mantra.
While the disciple meditated on his bogus meaningless mantra, the guru went into town and arranged
for his dream to come true. After many years of plotting and scheming while he was so-called mediating
on the Supreme, the guru was almost ready to travel to the United States of America to become the guru
for thousands of people and gain untold amounts of wealth by giving out bogus meaningless mantras.
One day, while the guru was meditating, the disciple approached the guru, being discouraged with his
lack of advancement in power. Seeing his master deeply absorbed in meditation the disciple thought it
wise not to disturb him. Then, as he looked closely at his guru he saw something moving in his guru’s long
matted locks. The disciple decided to shake his guru out of his trance. The guru opened his eyes, and in a
rage, he said; “You fool, you should never disturb the guru while he is meditating. I have a good mind to
curse you for this action. I was performing a very advanced kunalini-yoga technique, and I was feeling
sensations in the top of my head where my crown cakra lies. I have been focusing on my crown carka for
many weeks now and feeling movement in this area. I was on the verge of raising my kundalini energy and
opening my crown carka when you disturbed me. You will therefore have to leave my association for this
guru-aparadha you have committed. “But gurudeva,” said the disciple. “I wanted to inform you that the
feeling of movement in your head was…” The guru then cut his disciple off in mid-speech and left his
disciple, going off to the town to catch the next ship to America, after having taken the wealth of the
disciple.
Putting his head down in shame, the disciple realized that his craving for power and wealth had lost
him everything. He had lost all his money, his family, and his business. In return he had learned to relax,
but possessed no power. With this realization he came to understand that his guru was bogus, and the
sensations in his guru’s head were due to a family of cockroaches that had made their nest in the guru’s
matted locks. Wondering what to do next and feeling completely washed-out and destitute the disciple
roamed from town to town begging little scraps of food from door to door.
After wandering aimlessly for several years, the disciple became sober and in his pitiful condition he
sincerely called out to the Lord to save him. “Help, dear Lord, help me!”
In his childhood the disciple had great faith in the Lord, but by becoming materially intoxicated his
heart had became as hard as stone. Finally, after he was completely destitute he again became qualified to
remember the Lord, and in his desperate condition he called out to the Lord for help.
One day, by a stroke of good fortune, the disciple was led by the paramatma into a town where he
heard the beautiful sound of cartalas and mrdanga that he thought was angelic. Searching after this sound
he saw a group of sadhus who appeared as if they were floating on air.
“Who are you?” He questioned.
“We are devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and this district you have found yourself in, is called Sri
Navadvipa Dhama. Navadvipa is a spiritual abode that is eternally manifest, and here the Lord enjoys His
pastime of harinama sankirtana. We perform harinama sankirtana just like Gauranga Mahaprabhu
performed it many hundreds of years ago.” The disciple said; “from where do you get your power to make
all these common people dance to the beat of your drum? You do not have any hair. Is your power
contained in that flowing piece of hair situated at the back of your head?” The devotee replied; “My dear
sadhu, we have no power, only the Lord is all-powerful. We are merely His servants. It is He who is
situated within the core of everyone’s hearts that makes the people dance so nicely.” We have no hair,
because we are not attached to the body, and the sika at the back of our heads is there so that the Lord can
pull us up out of this material ocean of samsara, and situate us in His transcendental abode.” The disciple
spoke again.
“You say you have no power, but all of these people are mesmerized by your beautiful singing and the
words emanating from your divine mouths. Is your power contained in those necklaces you ware three
times around your neck?” “No, these neck-beads indicate that we are slaves of our master. We are His
dogs, so we ware dog-collars to display that we have a master. You are also a slave, and you ware the
chains of your master around your feet. You are chained to the material world of birth and death by the
invisible chains of sex desire, which manifests in a variety of ways including the unwanted anarthas of
name, fame, and prestige. Materialistic people are intoxicated with lust, and their desire to control others
by power. The only way to become free from this lust is to transmute the material energy of lust into the
spiritual energy of love for the Lord. This is achieved by the mercy of the pure devotee who is aloof from
material desires of aggrandizement. The bona fide representative of Sri Hari provides the disciple with a
boat to cross-over the ocean of material existence, and this boat is the transcendental sound vibration of the
Lord's Holy Name. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama
Hare Hare. When this mantra is chanted sincerely, with great enthusiasm and relish, the mantra and pure
words known as sabda-brahma, which emanate from the lotus-like mouth of the pure devotee, clear the
heart of all impurities and situate one in suddha-sattva (pure goodness). When this perception of reality
dawns, all unwanted desires such as lust, greed, and anger, flee from the heart, and due to steady
determined practise a taste for chanting is given, which leads the aspiring devotee to perform devotional
service to the Supreme Lord in Vaikuntha.”
The disciple then replied to the devotee. “Unfortunately I have lost all my wealth, so I don’t have
money to purchase your mantra.” “That is good,” replied the devotee. “Now you are qualified to chant the
maha-mantra, the great mantra. There are four categories of jivas that qualify to receive the Lord's mercy,
and you fit into one or more of these categories. They are; the distressed, the seeker of wealth, the
inquisitive, and the seeker of the truth. If the Lord favours someone He takes away their material
possessions and brings them to a state of humility. In a repentant condition they cry out fervently to the
Lord to come and save them, and in this position they become qualified to receive the greatest of all
treasures. The only cost one pays is faith.”
 Just then, the disciple became silent. His heart melted and tears came to his eyes as he remembered the
words of the astrologer in his youth, who said; “My dear child, when you grow up you will amass a good
fortune, but by destiny’s hand you will loose it. Then, as if by magic you will gain the greatest of all
treasures.” Taking a straw from the street, the disciple of the bogus guru placed it between his teeth and
enquired as follows; “my dear guru, please tell me how I can serve you. My life is now yours!”

The guru principle

13. “The diksa-guru and the siksa-guru are both intimate servitors of Lord Krsna. They are eternally situated
in the Vraja mood of service; they are manifestations of Lord Krsna’s energy. Never make the mistake of
judging the guru as an ordinary mortal. The spiritual master is the representative of Lord Krsna’s potencies,
sent by the Lord as the eternal master of the disciples. He must always be worshipped as an eternal associate of
the Supreme Lord, nourished by the Lord's superior spiritual potency. However, one must never consider the
spiritual mater to be the Supreme Lord; this is mayavadi philosophy, not in line with the pure Vaisnava
conclusions. The Vaisnava devotees are very wary of such misinterpretations, for the mayavadi whirlpool of
word jugglery is indeed contaminating to the mind and heart. The spiritual master must always be worshipped
according to the scriptural conclusions; when properly executed, these practices result in self-realization.

Commentary
When Srila Prabhupada introduced guru-puja to the west, he taught his disciples the importance of worshiping guru,
as good as God, but he was always very careful to caution his disciples about the mayavadi conception of taking the
spiritual master as being God. In this way Srila Prabhupada guided his disciples very nicely from the start about the
mayavadi conceptions and jugglery of words. In this regard all who come to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet are very
fortunate, because his teachings are presented in a very clear manner. He used to say, it is easier to teach someone to
play the piano from scratch than to teach one who has already learned bad habits. This is because the programming of
the subconscious mind is very difficult to change once it has been cemented and backed up several times, and is since
being controlled by the autonomous regions.

Both the siksa and diksa gurus are intimate servitors of Radha-Krsna and are a manifestation of the Lord's cit potency.
They are sent by the Lord to reclaim the fallen souls, and all caution should be taken to treat them accordingly. In his
beautiful song called Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura highlights the importance of the spiritual master by
revealing that the disciple is only made of the spiritual master’s mercy, otherwise he is like the walking dead. The
Thakura advises that we should worship the spiritual master in a mood as follows:

gurudeva, krpa-bindu diya, koro’ ei dase

trnapekha ati hina
sakala sahane, bala diya koro
nija-mane sprha-hina

Gurudeva! By a drop of your mercy make this servant of yours more humble than a blade of grass.
Give me strength to bear all trails and troubles, and free me from the desire for personal honor.

When the student disciple worships his spiritual master in the manner prescribed in the scriptures, all good will come,
but if he deviates from scriptural conclusions the opposite effect will be there.

Guru-puja and respecting the spiritual master

14. “The spiritual master is to be worshipped first; only then may one worship Lord Krsna. The spiritual
master should be offered different paraphernalia like a nice seat, shoes, foot bath, cloth, etc; then with the
spiritual master’s permission one may worship the Deities of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. Food should be first
offered to the Deities and then offered to the spiritual master, then to the demigods and other Vaisnavas.
Without the spiritual master’s sanction one cannot engage in Radha-Krsna worship. Before chanting the Holy
Name the disciple should remember the spiritual master and his instructions.
Commentary
This is an outline of the correct approach to worshiping the Lord through His representative, the spiritual master. A
person aspiring to worship Sri Sri Radha-Krsna Deities must first go through the process of chanting sixteen rounds,
becoming initiated to the point of brahamana initation, and then, upon receiving the permission of his spiritual
master, he may worship Radha-Krsna Deities.

Many times we see congregational members with Deities of Radha-Krsna, but without prior worship of the pure
devotee their worship is herein considered not-authorized. The unfortunate side of this is that most Indian families
have a culture of worshipping Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, and have been brought up with Deities in their homes.

When they first hear of this correct procedure they may refuse to accept that their worship is incorrect as this would
mean that all their worship since childhood has been unauthorized. The proof of this is found in the fact that most of
the time such persons are developing more attachments to material nature than to the Deity. Therefore I ask you, what
use is such unaurthorized worship? In some instances families may have a family guru and he may be worshiped, but
the question must arise; is that family guru a pure devotee of Krsna, who has the potency of Krsna in his heart? After
all it is the pure devotee who has been given the power to give Krsna to His followers.

Sometimes we see pictures of the family guru on the same level of Sri Sri Radha Krsna, and often times he is not
qualified to be worshipped as a pure devotee. At other times we see gurus who are not bona fide and who have
mayavadi leanings, on the same alter, and even on the same level as Sri Sri Radha-Krsna. The problem is that without
the pure devotee’s teachings so much mixture and misrepresentation is there, and in such a deluded condition such
worshippers take a little from every philosophy they feel like. In this way they make no advancement. Even if they
worship the Deities and chant the maha-mantra for eternity, the final result of krsna-prema will never manifest
without the mercy of the pure devotee.

Contrary to this, Srila Prabhupada’s followers have been taught to first worship guru, and after receiving the panca-
samsakara the worship of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna can follow in the correct procedure. This good fortune comes about via
the disciple following the instructions of the pure devotee without interpretation.

This point may be very simple to understand for those who are following this procedure, but for those who are not,
understanding this simple point involves a lot of changes in their belief patterns and paradigms. After all this short
paragraph, which is given from the authoritative source of Sri Harinama Cintamani means that all prior worship has
not been done according to sastra, and we all know the outcome of such worship. Harinama Cintamani first
establishes faith in the reader by giving knowledge of the Supremacy of the Lord, and then by giving knowledge of
sambandha and abhidheya. When the sadhaka has gained in faith, and accepts the author and speaker as being
authorised, Sri Harinama Cintamani then introduces various offenses against the Holy Name and the Deities.
Similarly the bona fide guru first establishes faith in the aspirant’s heart, and later introduces rules, regulations, and
offenses. The difficulty comes about when one has already learned something incorrectly, as all knowledge that is
acquired throughout life goes to form a person’s beliefs and eventually his reality. To change such belief systems takes
time and good preaching. It is said that a ‘leopard never changes his spots,’ but with Sri Krsna anything is possible.

When a faithful person comes in contact with a pure devotee (Krsna’s representative), and sincerely takes onboard all
of his teachings without interpretation and without finding fault, he becomes eligible for change. In order for change
to be facilitated a person must first read the teachings of the bhagavata given from the acarya-pure-devotee, and in
this way faith is instilled via the transmission of knowledge given from his pure unadulterated teachings. For further
change, the person must become a student of such a guru and begin chanting his pramans. Harinama Cintamani
herein states the following; “without the spiritual master’s sanction one cannot engage in Radha-Krsna worship.
Before chanting the Holy Name, the disciple should remember the spiritual master and his instructions.” So clearly
we can see that spiritual life begins by hearing—sravanam, and then one becomes qualified for chanting by the mercy
of the pure devotee—kirtanam. This is the bona fide sastric conclusion, please therefore gain an understanding of this
and teach it to others.
15. “One who disrespects the spiritual master commits a serious offense that will expel him from the path of
pure devotion. The spiritual master, Lord Krsna, and the Vaisnavas must be worshipped with equal devotional
fervor. Undeviating faith and devotion in the spiritual master will lead to pure chanting and the final goal of
obtaining love of God—krsna-prema.

Commentary
Disrespecting the spiritual master or minimizing his teachings is offensive. The namaparadha being discussed in this
chapter is herein highlighted, and the results of such activities are given; that one will be expelled from the path of
pure devotion. The spiritual master holds the key to success as he is a representative of the Supreme Lord. One should
worship the spiritual master instead of showing disrespect, and that will give the blessings of Sri Krsna Caitanya.
Similarly one should not disrespect the Vaisnavas as they are dear servants of Lord Visnu. Blasphemy of the
Vaisnavas is the first offense and a very common offense amongst neophytes. If progress is the goal then Vaisnavas
should be worshipped and respected, instead of ignored and disrespected. Lastly, if this much respect and worship
should be given to the Vaisnavas and the spiritual master, surely it would then go against the grain to disrespect the
Supreme Lord and His paraphernalia. Saying this, if it is easy to give such respect to the Supreme Lord, and His Deity
on account of His greatness, then think how pleased He will be when He sees that every day we show so much respect
to His servants the Vaisnavas, and the spiritual master. In this way love of God is assured for the devotee who pleases
the Lord via undeviating faith and devotion to the spiritual master, and the Vaisnavas.

It may happen that a devotee may think; “well, ofcourse I am now on the neophyte platform as are those around me,
and because of this I am forced to say something about others because they have so many faults and every day there
are so many problems. However, when I am with more exhalted devotees I do not do this; therefore I know that I will
progress. It is just a matter of the modes and my association.” In this way a devotee may think that it is natural to find
fault on the lower levels because there is fault all around. The problem is that Lord Krsna will not let such a person
move up to the higher levels of association until he is showing signs of advancement. That is, that he has passed the
tests for a period of time and recinded the nature of fault-finding for long periods. The direction to go in is to hold
back the desire to find fault and instead glorify the devotees. In this way the Lord will see your sincerity and help you
along with better association.

When to reject a guru

16 “If by some misfortune the spiritual master falls into bad association, he gradually loses his spiritual
realization and potency. At the time the disciple met him, the guru was bona fide and realized, but later, due to
offenses against the Holy Name (namaparadha), he became bewildered by maya and bereft of knowledge. In
this condition he detests Vaisnava company and the chanting of the Holy Name; gradually he becomes enslaved
by lust, greed, wealth, and women. If by the mercy of Lord Krsna the disciple can see through all this, then he
will reject his guru. Later he can again seek a bona fide and pure devotee and under his spiritual guidance
cultivate the pure name.

Commentary
This text is giving instructions on what a disciple has to do if the uncommon happening of the spiritual master’s
falldown occurs. This paragraph is a very powerful part of this book as it demonstrates that no one can be free from
falldown if he is committing namaparadha. Normally this kind of falldown doesn’t occur, as the spiritual master is
very cautious about committing offenses to the Vaisnavas and the Holy Name, however we are being taught of it here
simply because it does occasionally happen.

The spiritual master is only a spiritual master and fit to disseminate spiritual knowledge as long as he is following
correctly. At this time, by the grace of Sri Krsna, such a bona fide spiritual master will have the imports of the Vedas
revealed to him, but if a culmination of namaparadhas is accrued he will loose his good fortune and become bereft of
spiritual knowledge. Maya will then infiltrate and bewilder his intelligence and in his deluded state he will detest the
company of Vaisnavas. This part of the text is very clear, but later in the text we hear the words; ‘If by the mercy of
Lord Krsna the disciple can see through all this, then he will reject his guru.’ So this is the teaching of this verse; that
a disciple must pray to Krsna to guide him from within, and when he sees that his spiritual master is no longer the
great Vaisnava he was, the disciple should not loose faith in the process, but rather internally pray to the Lord to guide
him to another bona fide spiritual master. However, before another spiritual master is chosen, it is herein announced
that ‘one must reject such a fallen spiritual master.’ This is the verdict of scripture.

Guru and disciple must test one another

17. “The spiritual master must be strict with his disciples. He must correct a prospective disciple before
initiating him, and punish the wayward initiated ones. A disciple’s spiritual life is rendered useless if he serves
and worships an unqualified guru. But as long as the relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple
is stable (I.e each remains qualified in his position) then there is no question of one rejecting the other.

Commentary
The only cause for rejection is; if either party breaks the agreement that is made on initiation. In front of the sacrificial
fire, the Vaisnavas, and the Deities, a disciple vows to follow the rules and to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds of
japa-mala each day. The disciple of Kali-yuga understands that he is in a fallen condition and can slip at any time but
his aim is to please the spiritual master by following nicely and obeying his orders. In this age of Kali perfection and
truthfulness are hard to find, but as long as the disciple has sincerity of heart his spiritual master will forgive a minor
falldown and not reject him. Similarly, in front of the sacrificial fire, the Vaisnavas, and the Deities, the spiritual
master promises to deliver his newly initiated disciple to the lotus feet of Lord Krsna. The chain of disiplic succession
is his backbone, and with their support, the bona fide spiritual master will deliver the disciple as long as the disciple
remains true to his vow.

The previous text dealt with the remedial measures that a disciple must take if the spiritual master falls from his
glorious position, and in this text we are gently being led into a perspective of what is required from the spiritual
master. Because the disciple has entered into an agreement, the disciple should not feel badly toward his spiritual
master if his spiritual master corrects his wayward behavior. Sometimes we see how a spiritual master is lenient with
his disciple because he does not want to give the disciple’s already weak-faith a knock-back, but the general rule is
herein highlighted; ‘that the spiritual master must be strict with his disciples. He must correct a prospective disciple
before initiating him, and punish the wayward initiated ones.’ It is not that a spiritual master should be told that he
must punish wayward disciples always, because sometimes there are peculiarities that must be taken into
consideration, but Harinama Cintamani is giving a general rule here.

18 “The guru-disciple relationship is eternal. If both maintain their pure positions and are bona fide, their
eternal relationship is never jeopardized. However, if the spiritual master is later exposed as perfidious, the
disciple must immediately repudiate him. The same is to be done by the spiritual master if the disciple is
similarly exposed. If such repudiation is not carried out by both parties when it is necessary, then they stand to
be doomed.

19. “One who disrespects the bona fide pure Vaisnava spiritual master is a reprobate and fit to be shunned by
all. It is advisable, therefore, that before accepting a spiritual master one should carefully choose the right
person. The spiritual master must be a pure devotee of the Lord. The scriptures recommend that both the
spiritual master and the disciple place each other under strict scrutiny before mutual acceptance. This
precludes the kula-guru or traditional family guru. Of course, if the kula-guru is qualified, it is of immediate
convenience to accept him; but in the case that he is not saintly a pure devotee should be searched out and
taken as the spiritual master. Since even ordinary household items are tested before acquisition, it is only an
unfortunate fool who will fail to go through a testing period in the selection of his true spiritual master, who is
the best friend of the living entities. The unqualified kula-guru should be offered due respect and devotion and,
after beging permission to leave him a person must seek a qualified spiritual master. The point is that one must
not bring upon himself the calamity of having to reject his spiritual master. If one is prudent, he can avoid such
a situation. One must watchfully avoid committing any offenses against a pure devotee guru. This is disastrous
and will ruin both men and demigods alike.

Commentary
The wisdom that Bhaktivinoda Thakura is sharing with us is the point behind this text, i.e. ‘that one must not bring
upon himself the calamity of having to reject his spiritual master.’ It is therefore advised that both the aspiring disciple
and the spiritual master should take their time and carefully check each other out before entering into an agreement.
Sometimes we observe that there is pressure from both sides; the aspirant is coaxed into quickly becoming initiated by
his peer pressure, and the spiritual master is similarly pressured by temple authorities to initiate a disciple when they
have not developed a sufficient rapport with each other. To this Sri Harinama Cintamani advises that both parties
should take their time. If the guru falls, it can be an immense pressure on the disciple, who has placed much faith in
his guru and his words. And if the disciple is not a fit candidate, and instead commits offenses against the bona fide
spiritual master, the effects are disastrous. Also the spiritual master must take a share of the disciples karma once he
has initiated him, so there must be caution taken when initiating disciples. There is also mention in this text about the
family guru, and the advice is that if he is a qualified Vaisnava, then all is well, but if he is not, then a qualified
Vaisnava spiritual master must be sort out after beging his permission. This is etiquette.

How to serve the spiritual master

20 “Never disrespect the articles used by the spiritual master; for instance, his seat, bed, shoes, vehicle,
footstool, bath water, etc. Stepping on his shadow, worshipping another person in his presence, giving initiation
while he is still alive, trying to impress others with one’s spiritual knowledge in his presence, and trying to
control him are to be totally rejected. Whenever and wherever one sees his spiritual master, he should offer his
prostrated obeisances to him with prayers. The guru’s name must be uttered with great reverence. His orders
are never to be disobeyed. Always be eager to honor his remnants and do not say anything that is displeasing to
him. Fall humbly at his feet and beg shelter from him, and in this way act to please him. Simply by behaving
thusly, one can easily develop a taste for chanting, which in turn offers all perfection. This is confirmed in the
Vedas.

Commentary
Narattoma dasa Thakura writes; sri-guru-carana-padma, kevala-bhakati-sadma, “The lotus feet of the spiritual master
are the abode of pure goodness, by his grace one can cross the ocean of material suffering and obtain the mercy of
Krsna.”

One should therefore offer all respects to the spiritual master and his paraphernalia, which are worshipable items. One
should bow down to the spiritual master and remember his teachings a minimum of three times daily; this will help to
keep respect for him. It is sometimes said that “familiarity breeds contempt.” Keeping this in mind, one should not
become too familiar with the guru that one begins to disrespect him, or his articles, or try to control him by
manipulation. It is by the grace of the spiritual master (be he disksa or siksa) that one attains a taste for chanting, and
by continuing to act in a pleasing manner and serving in a favorable unmotivated way, one’s progression is assured (as
long as one remains aloof from aparadhas).

When one serves the spiritual master without ulterior motives, the spiritual master has the power to give the greatest
benediction of all. In regard to attaining Srila Prabhupada’s mercy I can relate one dream I had about Srila
Prabhupada as it is befitting here.

In the dream I was with Srila Prabhupada and at the same time I was looking at a picture of him. I asked him; “Srila
Prabhupada, how can one attain your mercy?” To this he replied to me; “just keep looking at my picture.” At first I
did not know what he was implying, but later the Lord in my heart explained to me that to receive the mercy of a
Vaisnava one must get to know him on familiar terms via hearing from him, and serving him truthfully. Forinstance, if
a person was to perform a service to someone, that person would be indebted to the amount that the service required,
however, when one does not expect payment and instead constantly acts to please, this person becomes more
intimately connected. In other words, if one hopes to receive the full bhakti-mercy of a Vaisnava one can get it from
rendering favorable service in an unbroken and unmotivated way.

In the relation to Lord Krsna receiving the mercy of His spiritual master, we hear the following blessing spoken by
Sandipani muni:
 My dear boys, You two have completely fulfilled the disciple's obligation to reward his spiritual
master. Indeed, with disciples like You, what further desires could a guru have? O heroes, now please
return home. May Your fame sanctify the world, and may the Vedic hymns be ever fresh in Your
minds, both in this life and the next. (SB. 10.45.47-48)

21 “He who offends the namaguru, or the spiritual master who initiates one into the chanting of the Holy Name
of the Lord, falls into sinful company and adopts the viewpoint of unauthorized, sacrilegious scriptures. The
namaguru teaches scriptural conclusions and reveals the esoteric nature of the Holy Name. He initiates the
disciple into the mantra of the Holy Name. The diksa-guru will generally be the namaguru, and the diksa-manta
is actually the Holy Name. The mantra loses its meaning and purpose if it is separated from the Holy Name;
simply by uttering the Holy Name of the Lord, the mantra is automatically chanted.

Commentary
In this text we see the seriousness of offending the namaguru. One is cast out from the family of devotees, and via the
covering power of maya, places his faith in unauthorized presentations of scripture, such as the concoctions of new-
age philosophies. The namaguru is the guru who initiates one into the maha-mantra and he should be worshipped as
good as God. Such a guru will reveal the esoteric truths about the Holy Name and scriptural conclusions. Even if such
a guru does not know every detail about scripture, still, he understands perfectly well the scriptural conclusion, that
one should worship Sri Krsna in a favorable loving mood. The most confidential part of all knowledge is presented in
the Bhagavad-gita—that one should become a pure devotee of Krsna—always thinking of Him, and always acting on
His behalf.

If by an act of ignorance one offends the namaguru, but thinks he can still make progression by continuing to chant,
he is wholesale mistaken. It is herein stated that; ‘the mantra loses its meaning and purpose if it is separated from the
Holy Name.’ The Holy Name is Sri Krsna, Sri Krsna manifests as Sri Guru, who imparts knowledge of tattva-jnana
(knowledge of the absolute) into the heart of the devotee, therefore if the mantra is separated from the Holy Name, or
the representative, who is a part of the Lord's cit (spiritual) potency, it has no significance, or in other words it is
merely the letters of the alphabet.

The meaning and purpose of chanting the maha-mantra is as follows: The purpose behind a new devotee’s chanting is
to become purified of sins, and the meaning of purification is to serve Sri Krsna. In this way the means become the
end and simply by uttering the Holy Name of the Lord, the mantra, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, is automatically chanted. Here we are talking about the mantra
correct, as in the precise Commentary of sankirtana given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura in chapter two

22. “The only way to be pardoned of this offense is to forsake sinful company, cast away the unauthorized
scriptures and through oneself at the spiritual master’s lotus feet, repenting piteously. The spiritual master is a
compassionate Vaisnava; due to his merciful nature, he’ll surely be forgiving.

Commentary
If one commits guru-aparadha, one must through himself at the lotus feet of the guru and sincerely repent. Our
prayer is to avoid this offense always.

Lord Krsna first spoke the science of Bhagavad-gita to the Sun God (Vivasvan) and Vivasvan spoke the eternal
science to his son Manu in the Treta-yuga. Manu, who was the father of mankind, then spoke the science to his son
Maharaja Iksvaku. Srila Prabhupada indicates that the Bhagavad-gita was first spoken on this earth planet over one
hundred and twenty million years ago. Since then the science has been handed down with success, but it was lost over
two million years ago. To avail this, the Lord again descended to reveal this sacred knowledge to Arjuna about five
thousand years ago. During those one hundred and twenty million years we did not achieve liberation from bondage,
but instead sunk deeper into the depths of immorality to be eventually born in these bodies as proud inhabitants of
Kali-yuga.
By some unsuspecting stoke of good fortune we have again stumbled across this eternal science and have taken
initiation by a bona fide spiritual master coming in the linage of many pure Vaisnava saints descending from the
Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. “One may wonder, just how fortunate am I? My spiritual
master is so full of compassion, being intoxicated from the nectar of the Holy Name that he even came to initiate such
a fallen sinner as I. Because of his good fortune he wants to share his love with everyone, and here am I, full of
offenses and pride. How pitiful am I—the lowest of mankind. I have waited untold millions of years to gain this
chance and now, due to Gauranga’s causeless mercy, my path has been made so easy, but still I offend sri-namaguru.
Dammed am I, condemned, living a wretched life of insanity and delusion. When oh when will my sinful heart repent,
and in a contrived anguished state of mind will I surrender to my spiritual master, begging him to save me from my
offenses. Such a fool am I—can he ever forgive me? I pray for his mercy and blessings while I constantly chant the
maha-mantra crying piteously.”

I, the wretched author of Harinama Cintamani, am a sinner. My only hope of redemption is the dust of the
lotus feet of Haridasa Thakura.

Chapter Seven

Criticizing the Vedic Scriptures

All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Advaita Acarya,
and to all the devotees of Lord Gauranga.

The Vedas are the only evidence

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura said, “My Lord! To criticize the Vedic literature and other literatures in pursuance
of the Vedic version is a serious offense that denies a person the ecstasy of pure devotion.

2. “The sruti-sastra (the Vedic literature), which includes the Upanisads, the Puranas and other corollary
scripture, has emanated from the Supreme Lord Krsna’s own lips. This literature establishes and proves the
spiritual truth. It contains transcendental knowledge that is beyond the range of the material senses, and this
knowledge is understood by Lord Krsna’s grace alone. The senses are capable of experiencing only material
objects; transcendence lies beyond their bounds. The science of Krsna consciousness is completely spiritual;
hence it is transcendental. That knowledge of transcendence has been mercifully given by Lord Krsna in the
Vedic literature for the ultimate benediction of humanity. The word veda actually refers to this spiritual
knowledge as it is received in the proper authorized disciplic succession, or parampara.

Commentary
There is a phrase that is used by Vedantists, “sruti-pramanam.” Sruti means Vedas and pramanam means evidence.
All who follow the Vedic system take the evidence of the Vedas as being authorative and correct, and they receive this
knowledge in the descending order (the deductive process), from master to disciple (parmapara). Taking knowledge
from the decending process is the most stable way to approach the truth and is opposite to the ascending process of
speculative conclusions used by the modern-day scientists (the inductive process). Followers of the Vedas (Vedantists)
understand that teachings propounded in the Vedas are given from the lips of the Supreme Lord. As Srila Vyasadeva,
(the compliler of the Vedas) the Lord not only gives the Vedas but He also gives His own commentary on the Vedas
named, Vedanta-sutra, or the sutras of Vyasadeva. In the Caitanya Caritamrta we hear how the Lord instructed
Sarvabauma Bhattacarya in the science of Vedanta. He taught that the Vedas should be accepted ‘as they are,’ and not
given another interpretation according to imperfect senses. The meaning of the Vedas is clearly understood by the
devotee who has attained the mercy of the Lord, this can be gleamed from the following few verses from the
Caitanya-caritamrta:

The Vedanta-sutra is the summary of all the Upanisads; therefore whatever direct meaning is there in
the Upanisads is also recorded in the Vedanta-sutra, or Vyasa- sutra.

For each sutra the direct meaning must be accepted without interpretation. However, you simply
abandon the direct meaning and proceed with your imaginative interpretation.

Although there is other evidence, the evidence given in the Vedic version must be taken as foremost.
Vedic versions understood directly are first-class evidence.

Conchshell and cow dung are nothing but the bones and the stool of some living entities, but according
to the Vedic version they are both considered very pure.

The Vedic statements are self- evident. Whatever is stated there must be accepted. If we interpret
according to our own imagination, the authority of the Vedas is immediately lost. (Cc. madhya-lila
6.133-137)

Srila Prabhupada explains that devotees of Krsna use quotes from the Vedic literatures to prove something is correct
according to the law-books of God. That is, if it is said in the Vedic scriptures it is to be accepted as correct because
Vedic scriptures are perfect and free from all defects. Srila Prabhupada gives the example that two lawyers may be
arguring over a point but the lawyer who knows the law the best is the one who is victorious. Similarly a devotee,
who knows the law-books of Vyasadeva, and who quotes them perfectly, can win the hearts of the populace because
he speaks the truth. Material senses can only attain part truths because material senses are imperfect. Sruti-sastra
however is not like that.

3. “Human beings are born with four natural faults: they commit errors, they are subject to illusion, they have
the propensity to cheat, and they have imperfect senses. Everything they do is tainted by these faults. Vedic
literature is free from any mistakes or discrepancies; it is the only means to spiritual salvation. The
transcendental knowledge was revealed by Lord Krsna and was afterward compiled by the sages. The sages
received this knowledge in samadhi, or in total spiritual absorption.

Commentary
After hearing this text a neophyte may argue, “Well, this statement is contradicting itself. At first it is saying that ‘a
human being’s actions are tainted by four faults such as committing errors, being in illusion’ etc, and then the same
statement tell that ‘sages received this knowledge in samadhi and then passed it on.’ So inevitably there must be some
faults and mistakes because sages are in the jiva category!” Of course we first have to understand that the sages who
received such teachings are perfected beings who spend their lives in spiritual absorption. Next we must understand
that Srila Vyasadeva, the compiler of the Vedas, is an incarnation of the Lord and as such is free from the four defects
found in mankind. With this in mind people must take the Vedas literally if they wish to understand the truth behind
the mysteries of life and receive ecstasy. If therefore, the Vedas stipulate something, weather we can understand it or
not, still it should be taken as fact. For example, in the third canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is explained that the
Lord in His boar incarnation appeared from the nose of Lord Brahama. He appeared as a tiny boar and grew until He
became as high as the Himalayan mountains. This fact has been written be Srila Vyasadeva and as such one should
take this statement literally and not think it is a concocted notion made up for the sake of enhancing a story. Similarly,
anything else that is written in Vedic literature should also be taken as it is, including the slokas and sections that deal
with the glories of chanting. If the Vedas are not taken literally an offense will be made against the Vedas and one will
never attain perfection while committing offenses against the Vedas.
Actually Vedic literatures are meant for the brahmanas, therefore one must be a brahmana to understand Veda, and
one must learn Vedanta philosophy from a qualified guru. Saying this, after having divided the Vedas into four parts
Srila Vyasadeva created the Mahabharata especially for those who are not brahmanas. The quote is as follows:

Out of compassion, the great sage thought it wise that this would enable men to achieve the ultimate
goal of life. Thus he compiled the great historical narration called the Mahabharata for women,
laborers and friends of the twice-born. (SB.1.4.24)

Out of His compassion for the lower classes Srila Vyasadeva compiled a book that would bring about brahminical
qualifications in the reader. What are those qualifications? Samo dhamas tapah saucam peacefulness, self control,
austerity, and purity—there are also more qualities of a brahmana such as truthfulness, wisdom, religiosity etc. The
idea is that by following the path of the mahajanas, strictly adhearing to the narada pancaradrika system, one may be
elevated by the panca-samskaras so that one may become twice-born and eligible to study the Vedas. What is the use
of studying the Vedas one may ask? The answer to this question will be given in this chapter. In the Bhagavad-gita a
nice sloka is given to encourage everyone to develop the qualities the qualities of a brahmana that are inherent in the
mode of goodness.

sattvat sanjayate jnanam

rajaso lobha eva ca
pramada-mohau tamaso
bhavato ’jnanam eva ca

From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; and
from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion (Bg. 14.17)

Ten principal teachings of the Vedas

4. “The Vedic literature unequivocally teaches the rejection of both mundane fruitive activities (karma) and
empirical speculative knowledge (jnana), and concludes that cultivation of pure devotion offers all perfection.
The Lord Himself has repeatedly taught this, and has shown by His own example the way of pure devotion. In
the Vedas there are ten principal instructions; the first is that the proof or basis of real knowledge is the Vedas,
and the other nine are ascertained from the Vedas as the teachings that destroy nescience and establish true
spiritual knowledge.

Commentary
The Vedic literature, having been divided into four sections offer different levels of advancement for different
students. The Upanisads are for the serious aspirant who wishes to become free from material entanglement, but to do
this the aspirant must have a bona fide spiritual master. The prefix Upa indicates this fact. In Vyasadeva’s Srimad-
Bhagavatam, which is the Lord’s very own natural commentary on the Vedas, we find that the cultivation of devotion
to the Lord is the best form of worship. Actually all the Vedas point one to this conclusion but the Srimad-
Bhagavatam especially instructs one in the science of bhakti-yoga—linking with the Lord through devotion.

In the Bhagavad-gita we learn from the Lord Himself, that He is to be known through Vedas. Vedis ca savair aham
eva vedyo vendanta-krd veda-vid eva caham “By all Vedas I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta,
and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Bg. 15.15) The first of the principal instructions in the Vedas is that the basis of
real knowledge is the Vedas. So it follows that if we were to desire to understand the Lord, we must do this via
receiving knowledge from the Vedas. This is called the paramapara system. The other nine principle teachings of the
Vedas destroy godlessness by teaching the student how to understand the Lord ‘as He is.’ These teachings will be
given by the bona fide spiritual master throughout the course of a master/disciple relationship. In the Caitanya-
caritamrta we see how the Lord explained the truth about the Vedic literatures to Sarvabhauma Battacarya. In
explaining one of the Lord’s verses, Srila Prabhupada (our siksa guru) gave the following purport about
understanding the Vedas in relation to the Supreme.
 PURPORT
The first verse of the Brahma-sutra is athato brahma jijnasa: “We must now inquire into the Absolute
Truth.” The second verse immediately answers, janmady asya yatah: “The Absolute Truth is the
original source of everything.” Janmady asya yatah does not suggest that the original person has been
transformed. Rather, it clearly indicates that He produces this cosmic manifestation through His
inconceivable energy. This is also clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gita (10.8), where Krsna says,
mattah sarvam pravartate: “From Me, everything emanates.” This is also confirmed in the Taittiriya
Upanisad (3.1.1): yato va imani bhutani jayante. “The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which
everything is born.” Similarly, in the Mundaka Upanisad (1.1.7) it is stated, yathorna-nabhih srjate
grhnate ca: “(The Lord creates and destroys the cosmic manifestation) as a spider creates a web and
draws it back within itself.” All of these sutras indicate the transformation of the Lord’s energy. It is
not that the Lord undergoes direct transformation, which is called parinama-vada. (Cc. Pur madhya-
lila 6.172)

When a devotee follows the instructions given by the great acaryas like Srila Prabhupada all his nescience is
destroyed, for Srila Prabhupada is an empowered maha-bhagavata devotee of the Lord. In this purport we see how
Srila Prabhupada gives quote after quote from Vedic literature, making use of the first of the principle rules ‘that the
proof or basis of real knowledge is the Vedas.’ Srila Prabhupada teaches that the Lord is the source of everything, and
that He is never diminished by His creation. This leads us nicely to the teachings stated in the next text from Sri
Harinama Cintamani.

The first three teachings pertain to Krsna

5. “The first teaching explains that Hari, Krsna, is the only Supreme Absolute Truth. The second, that He is
omnipotent; all energies are self-contained within His abode in the spiritual sky. These first three teachings
pertain solely to Lord Krsna.

Commentary
In the first few chapters Sri Harinama Cintamani taught that Sri Krsna is the Supreme nondual autocrat, the purusa,
and that He is situated everywhere via His gigantic universal form of Karanadakasi and His subatomic form of
Ksirodakasayi. By studying books such as Sri Harinama Cintamani we are following the instructions outlined in the
Vedas, as such books follow the sequence of the Vedas. After explaining about the Lord and His qualities, Sri
Harinama Cintamani gives knowledge about the Lord’s spiritual energies sandini, samvit, hladini, eternity knowledge
and bliss. We were taught that all three of these energies are aspects of Krsna, and are contained within the total
spiritual energy called the cit-sakti. The cit-sakti is the sum total of the spiritual sky. Further than this, in chapter two
verse six we are taught the following about the Lord’s Holy Name:

Lord Krsna and His Holy Name are identical; They are one and the same Absolute Truth, the all-
inclusive yet supremely independent form of dynamic spirituality, full of emotion, without beginning
or end. Always situated in pure goodness, the Holy Name descends to this world in the shape of letters
as the complete incarnation and embodiment of the highest sweetness: rasa. (Hc. 2.6)

In this way right from the very beginning Sri Harinama Cintamani is giving text book teachings perfectly in line with
Vendanta philosophy. Then further than this (because the readers of this book are the Lord’s internal devotees) we are
given confidential information that the Lord’s Holy Name is non-different from the Lord Himself and that it is the
highest sweetness rasa. This verse is giving an indication that one may attain krsna-prema simply by chanting Sri
Krsna’s Holy Name offenselessly. Similarly, the Vedas start at the beginning, explaing that Hari, Krsna, is the
Supreme Absolute Truth. nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman ‘He (Krsna) is the
prime eternal among all eternals. He is the supreme living entity of all living entities, and He alone is maintaining all
life.’ (Katha Upanisad 2.2.13) Further we hear the personified Vedas say:
 dyu-pataya eva te na yayur antam anantataya
tvam api yad-antaranda-nicaya nanu savaranah
kha iva rajaàsi vanti vayasa saha yac chrutayas
tvayi hi phalanty atan-nirasanena bhavan-nidhanah

Because You are unlimited, neither the lords of heaven nor even You Yourself can ever reach the end of
Your glories. The countless universes, each enveloped in its shell, are compelled by the wheel of time
to wander within You, like particles of dust blowing about in the sky. The srutis, following their
method of eliminating everything separate from the Supreme, become successful by revealing You as
their final conclusion. (SB. 10.87.41)

The Upanisads direct our attention to the Supreme Lord by first negating what is distinct from Him and then defining
some of the Lord’s most important characteristics. In many places the Vedas glorify the transcendental personal
qualities of the Supreme Lord. The following verse appears in the Svetasvatara Upanisad (6.11), the Gopala-tapani
Upanisad (Uttara 97), and the Brahma Upanisad (4.1)

eko devah sarva-bhutesu gudhah

sarva-vyapi sarva-bhutantaratma
karmadhyaksah sarva-bhutadhivasah
saksi cetah kevalo nirgunas ca

The one Supreme Lord lives hidden inside all created things. He pervades all matter and sits within the
hearts of all living beings. As the indwelling Supersoul, He supervises their material activities. Thus,
while having no material qualities Himself, He is the unique witness and giver of consciousness.

The goal of the Vedas is to bring the populace to the position of loving the Lord. To do this correctly the Vedas must
appeal to those on different levels of advancement. The Vedas say, “O controller of the three modes of nature, please
remove the darkness covering our eyes that is brought about by Your all powerful illusory energy, maya.” The first
duty of a human is to enquire into the Divine. Where do I come from, who am I? Who is the Lord? What is my duty
toward Him? That is the start of Aryan life (civilized life), and this is where the Vedas begin ‘Athato brahma jijnasa.’
When one has understood this point one may enquire further. This is called attaining knowledge of sambandha.

If a person is in the bodily concept of life, he will study the karma-kanda section of the Vedas to become promoted to
the heavenly planets. If he is a little more elevated and likes to stimulate his mind, he will study the jnana-kanda
section to become liberated to the brahmajoyti. However, when one has reached the highest perfection and has
attained enough bhakti-unmukhi so that he finally understands that he is not satisfied with life, only then is he
qualified to study bhakti-yoga under the guidance of a resident of Krsnaloka (the pure devotee). At this stage, karma
and jnana may be accepted by a devotee only in as much as they help to facilitate favorable situations for performing
devotional service.

Karma and jnana are certainly secondary paths but they have different uses for a devotee. For instance, a devotee may
use the teachings of these two paths to keep his body and mind in good health for performing devotional service and
spreading the glories of the Holy Name. I have highlighted these two catergories of body and mind in my earlier
works on the Holy Name in the books entitled ‘The Rising Sun of the Holy Name part 1 – The Brain’ and ‘The Rising
Sun of the Holy Name part 2 – The Body.’ When writing these books my intention was to help devotees pass their
lives better, while they continue with their task of cultivating devotion to the Lord via the attentive chanting of the
Lord’s Holy Name. I pray the devotees will take advantage of the information contained in these books, which give
teachings on the mind/brain, and the body/health in relation to chanting. These books also lead the reader to the
‘Utsaha-technique’ for increased attention during japa. A devotee may make good use of technique if that technique
improves his connection with the Lord; this premise has been set by Srila Rupa Goswami.

Recently the Lord has led me to a nice quote from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, by which we may better understand
the importance of these two topics of mind and body in relation to bhakti-yoga. The secondary rules refered to in the
quote below are to support the primary rule of chanting the Holy Name of the Lord and assisting others to do the
same. The quote is as follows:

The secondary rules are of three types: rules regarding the self, rules regarding society, and rules
regarding the afterlife. Rules regarding the self are of two categories: those for the body and those for
the mind. Those rules to keep a person’s body properly nourished so that they can remain healthy are
the bodily rules. Such things as regulated drinking, eating, sleeping, exercise, and for sickness, suitable
prescriptions for cure, are bodily rules. If people do not follow these rules, they cannot pass through
life smoothly. If they do not follow the mental rules, their power of realization, concentration,
imagination, contemplation and judgement will be weak and will not properly function. There will be
no advancement in arts and sciences. Moreover, one wil not be able to take the mind from material
thoughts and direct it to thought of God. As a result, sinful thoughts and an atheistic attitude will
dominate the mind. Finally, a person will become no better than a beast. Therefore, these bodily and
mental rules are very necessary for success in human life. (Caitanya Siksamrta p.67)

The second three teachings pertain to the jiva s

6. “The fourth principle discusses how the jiva s are the Lord’s separated parts and parcels. The jiva s comprise
the innumerable, and all infinitesimal spiritual sparks. Jivas are of two types: eternally conditioned and
eternally liberated; they populate both the material planets and the spiritual planets. The fifth principle points
out how the conditioned soul is enamored by the glitter of maya’s illusory potency. He has forgotten Krsna and
remains eternally bound in this phenomenal world, enjoying and suffering material existence. The sixth
principle is that the eternally liberated jivas or nityamuktas are eternal associates of Lord Krsna. They reside in
the spiritual world and enjoy loving relationships. These three, then, are the teachings about the jiva s found in
the srutis.

Commentary
The word Vedanta is made up of two separate parts, ‘Veda’ and ‘anta.’ ‘Veda’ means knowledge, and ‘anta’ means
final, or the end of knowledge. Vedanta-sutra means stories or aphorisms that take one to the final end of knowledge
(the Supreme). The word sutra means in aphorism. When a jiva understands that he is a tiny infinitesimal spark of Sri
Krsna’s spiritual energy, and that he is imprisoned in the illusory energy because of false identification, he begins to
ask questions that bring about liberation from illusion. By asking the right questions to the right people (the acaryas,
and bona fide gurus), such a fortunate soul learns of his family members who are eternally living in the spiritual
world with their supreme Lord and master.

By taking knowledge from the stem of all knowledge (Vedanta) he learns that there are unlimited material and
spiritual planets that contain unlimited jivas, and that all planets and jivas are contained within one corner of the
spiritual world. Studying the lives of the inhabitants of the spiritual world, such a person resonates with the truth that
dwells deep within his heart, and he begins to create associations with the inhabitants of such places—thus he follows
in their footsteps. This is the only way a conditioned jiva can get out of his eternally conditioned state and enter into
his eternally liberated state. He must follow in the footsteps of the residents of vraja, and receive entrance into such a
place via an invitation from a resident of that place. When one has received an invitation from a resident of the
spiritual world, such as Vaikunthaloka, or Krsnaloka, the Supreme Lord grants entry. The Lord will undoubtedly grant
entry into His eternal kingdom upon receiving a request from His unalloyed devotee, because He promises that He
will always fulfill the requests of His pure devotees.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam the Lord instructs Uddhava that the purpose of the Vedas is to know Him. This is the sum
and substance of Vedic teaching:

kim vidhatte kim acaste

kim anudya vikalpayet
ity asya hrdayam loke
 nanyo mad veda kascana

In the entire world no one but Me actually understands the confidential purpose of Vedic knowledge.
Thus people do not know what the Vedas are actually prescribing in the ritualistic injunctions of
karma-kanda, or what object is actually being indicated in the formulas of worship found in the
upasana-kanda, or that which is elaborately discussed through various hypotheses in the jnana-kanda
section of the Vedas.

mam vidhatte 'bhidhatte mam

vikalpyapohyate tv aham
etavan sarva-vedarthah
sabda asthaya mam bhidam
maya-matram anüdyante
pratisidhya prasidati

I am the ritualistic sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas, and I am the worshipable Deity. It is I who am
presented as various philosophical hypotheses, and it is I alone who am then refuted by philosophical
analysis. The transcendental sound vibration thus establishes Me as the essential meaning of all Vedic
knowledge. The Vedas, elaborately analyzing all material duality as nothing but My illusory potency,
ultimately completely negate this duality and achieve their own satisfaction. (SB. 11.21.42-43)

When these two texts are studied together a jiva can see clearly his relationship with the Lord. Learning about his duty
toward the Lord he begins to act as a resident of the spiritual abode of Sri Krsna. The Vedas are residents of the
spiritual world and by ultimately negating all duality they attain satisfaction by worshipping the Lord. However, the
Vedas can be misleading if one has not learned the scientific path of devotional service (bhakti-yoga) from a living
pure representative of the Lord. This path will be highlighted throughout the remainder of this chapter.

The seventh teaching: acintya-bhedabheda-tattva

7. “Everything material and spiritual comes under acintyabhedabhedasambandha. Jiva and matter are both
transformations of Lord Krsna’s energy. This is inconceivable. Knowing acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, the jiva
understands that he is the servant of Krsna and is like the spark or ray of the spiritual sun that is Krsna. Such
transformations of the Lord’s energy are inconceivable, says the sruti; but the so-called ‘transformations’ of
the Supreme Lord Himself that the mayavadis would like to have everyone believe in are only mischievous and
offensive postulation.

Commentary
Mayavadi interpretations are offensive toward scripture. The Bhagavad-gita states; ‘That action performed in illusion,
in disregard of scriptureal injuctions, and without concern for future bondage or for violence or distress cause to
others is said to be in the mode of ignorance.’ (Bg 18.25). One should not give audience to impersonal interpretations
of the truth.

I can relate a story from my youth in order to explain this point further. When I was a teenager my paths crossed a
group of modern-day mayavadis who tried to teach through ‘new-age philosophy’ that the Lord is the sum total of
everything. Fortunately, the Lord blessed me with enough intelligence to work this one out. I said to them, “if that
were the case, then I must also be god!” they said, “yes that’s right, you are God, but you havn’t realized this yet.” I
thought about the prospect of being promoted from a low class fool to being God within an instant, and it just didn’t
fit right. I thought it over for a while and then said to them; “if the sum total, which includes me, is put into one ball
and that then becomes God, then where would my existence go to? And where would all my friends go to?” I then
said, “I’m sorry but I can not accept this proposal of yours because I would end up with less than I have got already.
In other words I would loose myself!” To this day I still don’t know if they had enough sukrti to understand what I
meant. Although I had not met the devotees at that time, still, I understood that there must be a person called God, and
that I must also exist. In my own primitive way, by the mercy of the Lord, and my past pious activities I was able to
understand the beginnings of acintyabhedabhedasambandha. Later, due to the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, I learned
about Lord Caitanya’s teachings on acintya-bhedabheda-tattva and realized that I was a greater fool than I first
thought. This is the great mercy of my spiritual master’s blessings. The moral of this story is; “Don’t listen to bogus
mayavadi teachings as they will attempt to pollute your mind and convert it into thinking that you are the master
behind the universe.” Instead a devotee always thinks of the Lord in a loving way and prays to one day have his eyes
anointed with the ointment of love of Godhead.

premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Krsna Himself with inconceivable
innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion
tinged with the salve of love. (Bs. 5.38)

8. “So far, these seven teachings comprise sambandha-jnana or knowledge of the eternal relationship. The
Vedas further point out abhidheya, or the easiest means to achieve that goal.

Abhidheya: the nine limbs of devotional service

9. “The nine limbs of devotional service are: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshipping, praying, rendering
service, carrying out the orders of the Lord, being a friend of the Lord and completely surrendering to the
Lord. The chanting of the Holy Name is the most important devotional activity. The Vedas have volumes
describing the glories of the Holy Name.

Commentary
In the seventh canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam Pralad Maharaja, who attained perfection by remembering the Lord,
states the following in this connection:

sravanam kirtanam visnoh

smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma-nivedanam
iti pumssrpita visnau
bhaktis cen nava-laksana
kriyeta bhagavaty addha
tan manye 'dhitam uttamam

Prahlada Maharaja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental Holy Name, form, qualities,
paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Visnu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord,
offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord,
becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him
(in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)—these nine processes are accepted as
pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Krsna through these nine
methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.
(SB 7.5.23-24)

A devotee may perform any of these nine processes to perfection, or they may perform all of them as did Maharaja
Ambarisha. In Caitanya-lila Maharaja Prataparudha gained perfection by serving the devotees, and he stimulated Lord
Gauranga’s mercy by humbly becoming the road sweeper for Lord Jaganatha. These are very intimate pastimes and
one may attain perfection simply by giving oral reception to them. Maharaja Pariksit attained perfection by listening
to Sukadeva Goswami narrate the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Sukadeva attained perfection by chanting the glories of
the Lord. All of the Lord’s intimate devotees attained perfection by performing one or more of these nine limbs of
devotional service, and we may do the same!

Out of the nine limbs of devotional service, the Lord instructs Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya that the best is chanting the
Holy Names. The Lord has concentrated all the mantras that can help a devotee reach His lotus feet, and placed them
in His Holy Name. Therefore, the chanting of the Holy Name is param, the easiest and best way to attain perfection in
Kali-yuga. Scriptures proclaim this fact at every opportunity. Some comments pertaining to the Holy Name found in
scripture are as follows:

kaler dosa-nidhe rajann

asti hy eko mahan gunah
kirtanad eva krsnasya
mukta-sangah param vrajet

My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age:
Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be
promoted to the transcendental kingdom. (SB. 12.3.51)

harinama harinama harinama eva kevalam

kalau nastyeva nastyeva nastyeva gatir anyatha

In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting of the Holy Name of the
Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. (Brhannaradiya Puranam
38/126)

maha-madaka prema-phala peta bhari’ khaya

matila sakala loka—hase, nace, gaya

The fruit of love of Godhead distributed by Caitanya Mahaprabhu is such a great intoxicant that
anyone who eats it, filling his belly, immediately becomes maddened by it, and automatically he
chants, dances, laughs and enjoys.
(Cc. adi-lila 9.50)

These are just a few slokas stated in scripture about the Holy Name, but as well you know, there are unlimited slokas
glorifying the Supremacy of the Lord’s Holy Name. One special sloka spoken in the eleventh canto of the Srimad-
Bhagavatam sums everything up very nicely. In the first quote we gave the words kaler dosa-nidhe rajann, these
words indicate that the process of chanting is perfect for the people living in Kali-yuga, and the sloka below tells
exactly how the intelligent people of Kali-yuga can do this.

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah

In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of
Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is
Krsna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.
(SB.11.5.32)
.
Before we leave this topic of the congregational chanting, I would like to speak a few words in this regard. As we all
know, the yuga-dharma for this age is chanting the Holy Names congregationally, but what does this entail? The first
thing might spring to mind is to chant the Holy Names together. This is quite correct, but there is more. For instance,
attaining perfection through chanting is not something that should be done alone, or in other words, ‘chanting is not
something that is intended to simply liberate us as individuals.’ The Lord came to distribute love of Godhead to
everyone, even the most fallen. Therefore we see that to chant the Holy Name congregationally means ‘to be a part of
a group that has the Lord’s Holy Name at the centre in order to taste the Holy Name and to give that Holy Name to
others.’ The devotee’s worship of the Holy Name is his private internal affair, but at the same time the Lord has made
it an external affair by instructing everyone to go out and give the mercy of the Holy Name to everyone. The Lord
said; “I am but one person, how can I distribute the fruits of love of God all alone? Therefore I order every man
within this universe to accept this Krsna consciousness movement and distribute it everywhere.” In this way, when we
begin to understand that ‘congregational chanting’ means to get along with everyone as a family of spiritualists, and
help everyone else to join that family, we will attain success. It was not Lord Caitanya’s mood to give His mercy only
to the chosen few, nor was it His mood that we chant in a reclusive way. Nor was it His mood that we fight among
ourselves for power and dominion over others, simply because we are a part of a big organization. No, a devotee who
has attained the mercy of Lord Gauranga understands that the Lord’s mood is that all people should chant and praise
Lord Krsna together just as the residents of vraja do. Although this view is put in a simplified way and could be
elaborated upon greatly, in my humble opinion, this is how a devotee could view the concept of ‘congregational
chanting.’ In other words, for a devotee to go back to vrajaloka he must become pure himself, and help others to do
the same.

Add section on Harinama here…………………..

The prayojana (necessity) is krsna-prema

10. “The jiva must take shelter of the pure devotional process. By the mercy of Lord Krsna he will attain krsna-
prema, or love of Godhead. Pure devotion is indicated by the human proclivity to always render favorable
devotional service to Krsna. Pure devotion strives only for further excellence in devotion, being satisfied with
nothing else. It is unencumbered by the desire for fruitive action or empirical knowledge. Pure devotion is
uncontaminated by fruitive activity or empirical knowledge. The Vedas recommend that one can cultivate pure
devotion by taking full shelter of the Holy Name: this is essential.

Commentary
This text begins where we left off in the last commentary, adding further that ‘it is only by the mercy of Sri Krsna that
a devotee attains love of Godhead.’ The process of devotional service begins by taking shelter of a spiritual master,
receving instructions from him and serving his lotus feet as the only goal of life. When a person’s faith becomes
strong he learns to avoid offenses to the Holy Name and the Deity (seva-aparadha), in this way he enters the clearing
stage of his devotional career. Making his goal krsna-prema, he must take full shelter of the Holy Name and
incessantly chant for his deliverance. Along the way the Lord will remove anarthas from the heart and reval the truth.
While remaining humble such a devotee must dedicate his life to the mission of his spiritual master, and in a
compassionate mood give his mercy to the fallen. Lord Caitanya called this jiva-daya—this is a sign of advancement.

As stated herein, ‘the devotee must strive to render pure devotional service by performing favorable actions with his
body, mind, and words, twenty-four hours a day.’ He must shun all desires based on artha, karma, and moksa, and
being free from fruitive actions and empirical speculations, seek refuge in the all merciful Holy Name. Thus, he must
detach himself from the common populace and perform bhajana-kriya. When the devotee is advanced in his
devotional life, he must go to a solitary place and perform nirjana-bhajana (silent worship). In this silent atmosphere
the advanced devotee may write books to give his mercy, as he silently worships the Lord within his mind. At this
point we must add a caution that nirjana-bhajana is intended for those who are advanced on the path of Krsna
consciousness—it is not for the neophyte! Both Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta warned against the
neophyte performing nirjana-bhajana. Advanced worship will be outlined in the final chapter of Sri Harinama
Cintamani, a chapter that is dedicated to confidential worship of the Lord. It is not that a neophyte devotee, who
should be following the developing stages of vaidhi-bhakti can suddenly ignore the rules and perform raganuga-
bhakti. However after saying this, there are times when a devotee who is on the level of vaidhi performs raganuga out
of natural inclination. Spontaneity is not something that can be rubber stamped but happens out of an upsurge in
loving feelings. The Lord accepts all that is offered with love, even though a person may still have anarthas in his
heart. General rules however, are there for the benefit of the devotee and should not be ignored. Every individual
should meditate on this point and come to their own understanding of the truth, but they should not be ignorant of
their own level of advancement—this is the point!

To criticize the Vedic teachings is offensive

11. “Sruti substantiates the nine ascertainable teachings, and the guru who is well versed in the scriptures is
able to reveal these truths. Anyone who criticizes the srutis commits a heinous crime. He is a sinner and an
offender to the Holy Name.

Commentary
These nine teachings have now been discussed, and the bona fide spiritual master is able to reveal these truths in the
heart of the sincere aspirant, causing a paradigm shift in his reality. When the fortunate disciple receives the mercy of
his spiritual master his material life is finished. It is then up to the sadhaka how fast he wishes to leave the material
world of dualities behind. The key to success is unmotivated favorable service to his spiritual master, and
unconditional surrender to the will of the Lord via the chanting of His Holy Names. As the student progresses the
Lord will instruct him from within and his chanting will prevent falldown, providing no offences are being
deliberately committed. Chanting is therefore the urgent need of every devotee. Although chanting is the means
(abhidheya), still the Holy Name contains sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana.

12. “Jaimini, Kapila, Nagna, Nastika, Sugata and Gautama are six philosophers who were stuck by the fangs of
mundane logic and reasoning. They simply did some lip service to the teaching of the Vedas, but they did not
accept God. Jaimini propagated that the best knowledge the Vedas has to offer is the fruitive ritualistic portion
known as karma-kanda. Kapila dared to state that God was imperfect; he accepted the process of yoga, but
without understanding its deeper implications. Nagna spread poison by teaching a practice of tantra that is in
the mode of ignorance. Carvaka Nastika was an atheist who never accepted the authority of the Vedas and
Sugata the Buddhist imposed a different meaning upon them. Gautama propagated logic and did not worship
the Supreme Lord.

Commentary
Srila Vyasadeva is the authorized commentator on Vedanta. Anyone who follows in the footsteps of Vyasadeva and
learns from a bona fide spiritual master in one of the four sampradayas stemming from the Lord is qualified to speak
on Vedanta (the sum total of knowledge). However, if one is not qualified it is better he remain silent.

gayatri-bhasya-rupo 'sau
vedartha-paribrmhitah
grantho 'städasa-sahasrah
çrimad-bhagavatabhidhah

The Srimad-Bhagavatam is the authorized explanation of Brahma-sutra, and it is a further explanation

of Mahabharata. It is the expansion of the gayatri mantra and the essence of all Vedic knowledge.
This Srimad-Bhagavatam, containing eighteen thousand verses, is known as the explanation of all
Vedic literature.

The Srimad-Bhagavatam first canto is the essence of the Mahabharata. When Srila Vyasadeva compiled the
Mahabharata for the lower classes His spiritual master instructed that such lower class intelligence would simply take
the good things from the stories of the Mahabharata and ignore the rest. Therefore Vyasadeva was instructed to write
a commentary on the Vedas and the Mahabharata that would include both stories and instructions. In this way the
Srimad-Bhagavatam came about. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada gives a little information on a few
philosophers who gave interpretations on the Vedas separate from Srila Vyasadeva; Srila Prabhupada’s comments are
as follows:

Purport
 Besides Vyasadeva, there are other sages who are the authors of six different philosophical systems,
namely Gautama, Kanada, Kapila, Patanjali, Jaimini and Astavakra. Theism is explained completely in
the Vedanta-sutra, whereas in other systems of philosophical speculations, practically no mention is
given to the ultimate cause of all causes. One can sit on the vyasasana only after being conversant in
all systems of philosophy so that one can present fully the theistic views of the Bhagavatam in
defiance of all other systems. Srila Suta Goswami was the proper teacher, and therefore the sages at
Naimisaranya elevated him to the vyasasana. Srila Vyasadeva is designated herein as the Personality of
Godhead because he is the authorized empowered incarnation. (SB. 1.1.7)

13. “These mischievous interpretations are in fact offenses against the Vedas. Through sophism, such
philosophers speak half-truths that are likely to confuse the ordinary listener, though an experienced Vedantist
can easily detect their ruse. Avoid dabbling in such philosophical concepts because they are detrimental to
spiritual growth. The mayavadi philosophy is equally dangerous, for it suppresses the natural devotional mood.
Mayavadi philosophy is factually camouflaged Buddhism. In Kali-yuga the propagation of this philosophy,
which is a perversion of the Vedic truth, has been authorized by the Supreme Lord. On the Lord's behest, Lord
Siva became its propagator. As Jaimini seemingly upheld Vedic authority but practically propounded a warped
version of the Vedic conclusions, similarly mayavadi gurus give Vedic proof to establish their covert Buddhism;
thus they obscure the essence of the Vedas, which is the science of devotional service.

Commentary
From this statement we can see that students who follow the paths of Jaimini, Kapila, Nagna, Nastika, Sugata and
Gautama, are all offenders against the Vedas. The Vedas are the literary incarnation of the Lord, therefore such
misguided fools are actually offenders against the Lord. In the Caitanya-caritamrta we hear Lord Caitanya give the
advice that one should not hear the Sariraka-bhasya commentaries of Sankaracarya as such commentaries will pollute
the consciousness. We also hear how the worst kind of offender is the mayavadi in the dress of a devotee. One should
avoid this person’s company! On behalf of Lord Krsna, Lord Siva came to decry the Vedas and propound a warped
version. Devotees pay their respects to Lord Siva, who always acts on the orders of His beloved master, but that does
not mean they have to follow his teachings. In the n the Siva Purana the Supreme Personality of Godhead told Lord
Siva:

dvaparadau yuge bhutva kalaya manusadisu

svagamaih kalpitais tvam ca janan mad-vimukhan kuru

In Kali-yuga, mislead the people in general by propounding imaginary meanings for the Vedas to
bewilder them.

At this point an aspiring devotee may say; “well I am safe from the mayavadi mentality because I only associate with
other devotees.” It would be nice if this were the case, but all too often we hear devotees on the neophyte level
propounding mayavadi philosophy to uphold their questionalble activities. It may be that such neophyte devotees are
simply missled because of bad training and association, and should therefore be given assistance, but nevertheless
they can pollute the minds of those who are weak. An experienced devotee can easily see their error when conversing
with them, but often times the advanced devotee’s polite teachings are overshadowed by the shere force of the
neophyte’s belief. In this way he simply leaves that place after attempting to give the correct advice according to
Vedanta philosophy. To avail this happening, leaders and gurus must school their students perfectly in the science of
sambandha, abhideya, and prayojana, and keep a close eye on the development of their disciples and students via
repeated communication with them. It will do no good to allow perverted interpretations into the society of devotees.
In this regard Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura comments that mukhya-vrtti (the direct meaning) is the
meaning that one can understand immediately from the statements of dictionaries, whereas gauna-vrtti (the indirect
meaning) is a meaning that one imagines without consulting the dictionary, or the authorative statements of the
acaryas given in sastra.

14. “Astavakra, Dattatreya, Govinda, Gaudapada, Sankaracarya and all of Sankara's materialist-philosopher
followers are known as mayavadi gurus. In Buddhism, the principal teaching is the nonexistence of the soul.
Buddhism does not admit a concept of brahman. The theory of nothingness, the last word in Buddhism, is
rendered by the mayavadis into the concept of the formless, impersonal brahman, which is so conceived by
them in order not to be material. But these concepts are diametrically opposed to the eternal science of
devotional service. Any affiliation with such thoughts automatically makes the jiva commit namaparadha. Some
accept the mayavadi philosophy but chant the Holy Name, but this is an offense against the name.

Commentary
Another face of Buddhism is Nilism or the negation of everything. Buddhism does not believe in the existence of the
spirit soul, and instead teaches against it. Following Buddhism, Sankaracarya came to propound that nothingness is
actually everything, or the sum total of everything called impersonal brahman. The idea behind this is brought about
from the desire to become liberated from the distresses of the material world. Sankaracarya’s teachings state that to
become free from bondage and misery one must leave the material world and enter into the formless which contains
everything. This however is opposed to devotional service as in the formless there can be no object to devote one’s
actions to. How could one perform one’s actions to another if there is no form or objective? In a society of devotees it
should be understood that prema alone is the purpose of the life of jivas. It will do no good to chant the Holy Name
while maintaing the mayavadi mentality. Lord Caitanya gives the real teaching of escaping bondage as follows:

In the Vedic literatures, Krsna is the central point of attraction, and His service is our activity. To attain
the platform of love of Krsna is life’s ultimate goal. Therefore Krsna, Krsna’s service and love of
Krsna are the three great riches of life.

In all revealed scriptures, beginning with the Vedas, the central point of attraction is Krsna. When
complete knowledge of Him is realized, the bondage of maya, the illusory energy, is automatically
broken. (Cc. madhya-lila 20.143-144)

How to apply the sruti conclusion

15. “When all the cardinal conclusions of the Vedic philosophy are brought together, they add up to pure
devotional service, by which the jiva attains pure love of Godhead. Wherever the principal teachings are
applicable, it is wrong to substitute secondary teachings in their place. These principal meanings all indicate
and uphold the science of Krsna consciousness. To artificially impose secondary meanings upon the Vedic
statements is a sin that distances one from the Absolute Truth. From beginning to end, the Vedas expound the
superexcellence of Om or the Holy Name. By chanting the Lord's name, the jiva attains the highest spiritual
abode. The pure devotees always take shelter of the Holy Name. The Holy Name is transcendental, being an
exact replica of the Supreme Lord. Simply by namabhasa chanting, all perfection is attained in this material
world. Only unfortunate fools will purposefully try to disregard the Vedic teachings and thus ruin their lives by
offenses.

Commentary
Other than bhakti-yoga, the various teachings from the different sections of the Vedas can not lead the jiva to the
ultimate resting place. They should be viewed as merely steps to the final destination. When a jiva reaches a particular
stage of advancement the antar-yami, (the Supersoul who guides the jiva) will take that jiva to the teaching he needs
to advance further. However, karma, jnana, and yoga are not the principle teachings of the Vedas, and the Buddhist
philosophy has no scriptural references so it should always be rejected. If the principal teachings given in the Srimad-
Bhagavatam or other Vedic literature are presented, they should not be substituted by a secondary teaching from
another section of the Puranas, Itihasas, Upanisads or the various Vedas such as the Sama, Atharva, Rg, or Yajur Veda.
For instance, if in one section the Vedas claim that Siva and other Demigods are Visnu, and then a higher teaching is
given that Siva is not the Supreme but rather an expansion of the Lord, the higher teaching must be taken as correct. If
in one sastra it is declared that all offenses are counteracted simply by uttering the Holy Name in namabhasa, and a
person disagrees with this because another scripture says different, the higher statement given from the Vaisnava
quoting scripture, should be taken as final. Why? Because the Vedas, when taken as a total unit give knowledge that
pure devotion to the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, is the pinnacle of all there teachings. Namabhasa chanting is a step on
the ladder of performing pure devotion. If one consults all the Vedas in a systematic study one can see that all the
different Vedas come to the final conclusion of devotion to the Supreme. Krsna’s tu bhagavan sysam. In the Caitanya-
caritamrta Srila Krsnadasa Caviraja gives a literary understanding of why Krsna is above Narayana. Teachings from
the higher authorities named pure devotees should be consulted to give a clear understanding on who is the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.

In a civilized society there is a hierarchy in respect to be given to higher authorities. Further it must be given to the
learned brahmanas, the sannyasis, and the devotees of Krsna. The highest in the chain of respect is the pure devotee
of Krsna, but devotees on all levels should be given more respect than those following other paths. However, after
saying this, a devotee should not take any respect for himself, but rather he gives respect to others (amanina
manadena). Chanting the Holy Name is at the top of all devotional activities in the material world, and in devotional
circles respect is to be given as instructed by Srila Rupa Goswami in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindu:

One should mentally honor the devotee who chants the Holy Name of Lord Krsna, one should offer
humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation (diksa) and is engaged in
worshiping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that pure devotee who is
advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to
criticize others. (NOD. Verse 5)

In this quote from Srila Rupa Goswami we see how the neophyte devotee on the beginning stages (harinama
initiation) should be given respects in the mind. The neophyte devotee who is a little more advanced, who has
received brahmana imitation and is thus qualified to serve the Deities, should be offered obeisances. And finally we
are guided to associate and faithfully serve the devotee who has traversed the stage of anartha-nirvrtti and reached the
stage of bhava-seva. Such a person is understood to be on the madyama platform, is chanting in a purified way, and
may receive service from those aspiring to learn from him. In this way we can see the hierarchical structure in
Vaisnava dealings.

The Vedas teach only the pure name

16. “The devotee who is attached to chanting the pure name will also have the knowledge of the Vedas revealed
to him. Gradually he'll also attain krsna-prema. The Vedas unequivocally declare that by chanting the Holy
Name one experiences ecstatic bliss, as the Holy Name is the source of everything. The Vedas further explain
that all the liberated souls are residing in the spiritual sky and are always engaged in chanting the pure name.

Commentary
In this text we read how those who chant without offenses receive ecstatic bliss and also have the knowledge of the
Vedas revealed within their hearts. Such people understand the Lord’s unified energies, and by using the Lord’s
energies samvit, and sandhini, they acces the hladini-sakti in relation to serving the Lord. Without relation to the Lord
hladini, or bliss is not possible! We will speak more about this later in the book. Chanting without offenses is real
chanting. By a gradual awakening of the soul the devotee who chants without offenses will undoubtedly receive the
benediction of pure devotional service. This great benediction is brought about by the mercy of the spiritual master.
The spiritual master has the potency of Sri Krsna within his heart, and realizing this the disciple worships the spiritual
master’s lotus feet as good as if he were the Supreme Lord Himself. To this I pray my spiritual master, Om Visnupada
Paramahamsa Srila Jayapataka Swami Maharaja may accept my humble attempt at worshiping his lotus feet, in the
form of service to the devotees.

When a devotee is rightly situated in his determination and does not criticize the Vedic scriptures, or those scriptures
that lead one to the conclusions of the Vedas, such as those disseminating knowledge on chanting. He begins to
receive the mercy of the Lord which comes through the spiritual master. In this way the supreme knowledge of all
knowledge is revealed to him. In this world there is nothing more sublime than service to the spiritual master, who
acts as the bridge from the material to the spiritual realities. That place where all the inhabitants sing the praises of the
Lord eternally, and where conception of time is based around seeing the Supreme Lord—this kind of transcendental
knowledge revealed by the spiritual master. In the Srimad Bhagavad-gita the Lord says the following about
transcendental knowledge:
 na hi jnanena sadrsam
pavitram iha vidyate
tat svayam yoga-samsiddhah
kalenatmani vindati

In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the
mature fruit of all mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional
service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time. (Bg 4.38)

Tantric practice is opposed to the Vedas

17. “In Kali-yuga more and more people are worshipping maya, the material energy. They give up the
opportunity to chant the Supreme Lord Krsna's Holy Name, which is full of ecstatic spiritual mellows. They
take up Tantric worship in the mode of ignorance and criticize the Vedas. They digress from the real path of
religion, eat meat, drink alcohol and perform other sinful activities. These offenders can never receive the
shelter of the Holy Name, nor can they enter the Supreme Lord's eternal abode of Vrndavana.

Commentary
Kalua-sudra-sambhande, in Kali-yuga everyone is born a sudra. This means that because of mixed marriages varna-
sankara has occurred and now most people are born with sudra mentality. Why? Because people in general are not
performing samsakaras before and after the birth of the child. If two people of a brahmana-varna get together,
perform the necessary samskaras and bring forth a child, that child will have more chance of being a brahmana by
nature. The same is true for the various other varnas, but this is not the last word in this matter. The final outcome of
varna is designated by a person’s activities. These may be seen early in life and nurtured otherwise a person will tend
to take on the qualities of those around him. If those around are predominantly of a sudra nature, association with
these people will bring forth the sudra mentality in that person. Sudras are above the outcastes (antijya) and they are
qualified to study the scripture, but if there are no good teachers showing the way, then everyone in Kali-yuga will
worship maya and become lost in the perplexities of material life.

Performing activites that are in the mode of ignorance such as tantric worship, eating meat, or drinking intoxicants
etc, will influence the person further, but if such a person receives the mercy of the Vaisnavas, and shows signs of
repentance (tapa) he begins to associate with the devotees, and gradually in their association he will begin to chant the
Holy Name. At first his chanting may be offensive and inattentive, but by gradual advancement even dog-eaters
(mlecchas) can chant namabhasa and eventually sudha-nama. Therefore, the Lord’s order to everyone is; ‘go out and
preach the glories of the Holy Name. Chant and dance in ecstasy and show the world the true glories behind the
maha-mantra.’ In the Caitanya-caritamrta the following is written:

Not considering who asked for it and who did not, nor who was fit and who unfit to receive it,
Caitanya Mahaprabhu distributed the fruit of devotional service. The transcendental gardener, Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, distributed handful after handful of fruit in all directions, and when the poor,
hungry people ate the fruit, the gardener smiled with great pleasure. Lord Caitanya thus addressed the
multifarious varieties of branches and subbranches of the tree of devotional service. Since the tree of
devotional service is transcendental, every one of its parts can perform the action of all the others.
Although a tree is supposed to be immovable, this tree nevertheless moves. The Lord said; “I am the
only gardener. How many places can I go? How many fruits can I pick and distribute? It would
certainly be a very laborious task to pick the fruits and distribute them alone, and still I suspect that
some would receive them and others would not. Therefore I order every man within this universe to
accept this Krsna consciousness movement and distribute it everywhere.” (Cc 9.29-36)

Mayadevi's mercy is essential

18. “Mayadevi forces atheists to perform sinful activities and in this way deprives them of the nectar of
chanting the Holy Name. But if she becomes appeased by an atheist's rendering service to saintly Vaisnavas,
she showers him with her grace and connects them to Lord Krsna's lotus feet. Maya is an eternal maidservant
of Lord Krsna. She punishes the wayward jivas who drift away from serving Lord Krsna. Those who want to
serve maya are simply cheaters who can never know happiness. Yet Mayadevi rewards those who chant the
Holy Name; she helps them cross over the ocean of material nescience.

Commentary
Mother Parvarti is the wife of Lord Siva. Both Lord Siva and His wife are great devotees of Lord Krsna, and
representing Him they distribute two types of benedictions, niskapata and sakapata. A non-devotee receives
benedictions that strengthen his cage of lust, and a sincere follower of the Lord, who has given up the desire to enjoy
the Lord’s kingdom, may receive the mercy of Mayadevi and receive the blessings known as sakapata (honest). When
a devotee receives the mercy of Sadasiva and Mother Parvati he has the mysteries behind life revealed to him via the
mercy given from his guru, coming down from the paramapara of acaryas. With these blessings the devotee will
uncessingly utilize the material energy to serve Lord Gauranga and His devotees. In this way the key to unlock the
codes of sastra are given to him, and with this key he may unravel the unified-field that unites mankind with his
eternal nature of sat, cit, ananda. Information of the unified-field will be given further in this book and will act as a
bridge between removing anarthas and meditating on the Supreme Lord from the platform of bhava. Using that
bridge to cross from the offensive stage to the stages of steadiness and taste will enable the sadhaka to increase his
sraddha and move toward the stages of rememberance and meditation tinged with the salve of love. It is Mayadevi’s
grace that connects the jiva with the lotus feet of the Lord, by Her blessings the devotee encaged in a material body is
able to serve the Lord and thus transcend material nature.

19. “Mayadevi is known and worshiped in the forms of Durga, Kali, etc. The superior spiritual energy is Lord
Krsna's original and primeval energy; maya is its shadow. Her intention is to rectify the erring jivas who fall
away and bring them back to Krsna consciousness; this is her prime duty to the Lord. Maya showers two kinds
of graces—niskapata (honest and unrestricted) and sakapata (capricious and illusory). By her niskapata mercy
she gives the science of devotional service to Lord Krsna subtly mixed with material knowledge. In the case of
sakapata mercy she offers temporary material favors and comforts, and thus controls the jiva. When she is
dissatisfied with the jiva's behavior, she casts him into the brahmajyoti through sayujya liberation; thus the jiva
is doomed.

Commentary
Krsna’s primeval energy is known as the cit sakti, the shadow of this is called maya sakti, which is the sum total of the
three modes of material nature. In its unmanifested state maya is named pradhana, and when Maha-visnu glances
upon the pradhana He impregnates it with jivas and infuses Lord Brahma with the knowledge by which he creates the
universe on behalf of the Lord. Goddess Durga or Kali, is Mayadevi, the personality in charge of rectifying the
behavior of wayward jivas. Tantrics worship goddess Kali, but devotees see Mayadevi as the beloved wife of Lord
Siva, the greatest of all devotees. As Goddess Badrakali, Her busness is to give out illusory benedictions to fool the
jivas and keep them locked in the prison house of Devidhama. However, devotees worship Mother Parvati as
Yogamaya, or Praudhamaya, whose job is to reveal the Lord’s Holy Dhama. The Holy Dhamas exist eternally in a few
places such as Sri Mayapur, Sri Vrndavana, and Jaganatha Puri, etc. When a devotee understands the Dhamas, he
realizes that there is no separation of the Dhamas in a geographical way, but simply that they vary in taste and moods.
This is the only separation. Distance is perceived only because of mentality or consciouness. This is called the illusion
of the material spacetime continuum. Devotees in the material world must use material nature to serve the Lord and
therefore when a devotee satisfies Mayadevi with his practical application of yukta-vairagya, She provides him with
unrstricted items with which he can serve the Lord.

Out of the various types of liberation sarupya (equal bodily features as the Lord), salokya (equal facility to live on the
same planet with the Lord), sarsti (equal possession of opulence like the Lord), and samipya (equal association with
the Lord), there is still chance for service to the Lord, as in the case of Sri Uddhava—but when it comes to sayujya-
mukti, there is no chance for service. A devotee will never accept this type of liberation! Therefore, in this verse we
see how Mayadevi casts the sinful into the brahmajoyti effulgence as a punishment. An even worse punishment than
this is to merge into the body of the Lord. This is also known as sayujya-mukti.
 evam masam vratam ceruh
kumaryah krsna-cetasah
bhadrakalim samanarcur
bhuyan nanda-sutah patio

Thus for an entire month the girls carried out their vow and properly worshiped the goddess Bhadrakälé, fully
absorbing their minds in Krsna and meditating upon the following thought: "May the son of King Nanda become my
husband."(SB.10.22.5)

The hidden purport behind this text is; ‘do not look for material comforts and at the same time think that you are
performing devotional service, or you may end up with maya’s niskapata mercy!’ The best is to seek shelter under the
protection of a bona fide spiritual master and pray for his mercy that he protects you from maya’s tricks. Lord Sambhu
is the Lord in the form of mundane egoistic principle, and because maya is all pervasive, Sambhu and Mayadevi are
in your mind and understand your every thought and desire. Maya’s duty is to fulfill those desires by giving fickle
benedictions that occupy the mind and body. Remember such benedictions are temporary and will fade away like a
mirage in the desert. They are meant to keep everyone in the prison house and rectify the mentality of wanting to be
competitors of the Lord. This statement implies that at some stage the benedictions one receives must bring pain and
discomfort, as this is one of the ways used to rectiy the perverted menality of wanting to be the enjoyers. Pain and
discomfort comes about as reflection of not being able to enjoy. Pain is a certainty if we forget our position in relation
to the supreme enjoyer Sri Krsna.

20. “Therefore avoid committing the offense of criticizing the sruti scriptures. Absorb yourself in constant
chanting of the Holy Name. If inadvertently one criticizes the sruti then he should sincerely repent his error by
properly glorifying the sruti. He should worship the Vedic literature and Srimad-Bhagavatam feeling great joy
and respect, offering flowers and Tulasi. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the essence of the Vedic teachings and is the
literary incarnation of Lord Krsna. The Bhagavatam will certainly shower mercy upon the offender, because
the Bhagavatam is an ocean of mercy. Only the reprobates criticize Srimad-Bhagavatam.”

Commentary
Of all sastras like the Vedas, Puranas, Upanisads, Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, the Srimad-Bhagavatam is
considered the spotless Purana. It has emanated from the lips of the Supreme Lord, Srila Vyasadeva. It has arisen after
the Lord’s departure for His supreme abode, and from this book all devotees receive the light of transcendental
knowledge. It is definitely therefore very silly indeed to commit sinful thoughts or actions against such a kind friend.
Committing offenses against any of the Vedic literatures or literatures that propound the teachings of the Vedas is not
recommended. However, in case of sudden madness or unknowing offenses committed against the Vedic scriptures,
one must sincerely repent and then glorify that which you have offended. In a quiet place one may offer prayers in
glorification, flowers, and Tulasi leaves to the Bhagavatam, and humbly beg for forgiveness. The Lord’s nature is that
He is the most magnanimous and forgiving.

It is recommended that if one commits offenses, one should continue chanting the Holy Name while feeling
remorseful of the activity. The chanting of the Holy Name will invoke the Lord’s compassion and will make one
offenseless. If one commits an offense at the lotus feet of a Vaisnava, he should go to that Vaisnava and pray to be
excused of the offense. If one is an offender against the Holy Name, he should beg the Holy Name to be forgiving.
Similarly, if one commits the offense of blaspheming the Vedic literature one must beg for forgiveness and continue
chanting with a humble heart. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear Daksa requesting forgiveness from Lord Siva. If we
offend a Vaisnava we may do the same! Daksa said: “I did not know the glories of your personality, and therefore I
committed an offense at your lotus feet in the open assembly. You are so kind, however, that you did not accept my
offense. Instead, when I was falling down because of accusing you, you saved me by your merciful glance. You are
most great. Kindly excuse me and be satisfied with your own exalted qualities.”

One who hankers for the dust of the lotus feet of Srila Haridasa Thakura will wear this gem necklace called
Harinama Cintamani around his neck.
I pray that I may one day receive the dust from the lotus feet of the Vaisnavas and eternally wear this necklace of
Vedic pearls around my neck.

Chapter Eight
Considering the Glories of the Holy Name to be Imaginary

All glories to Lord Gauranga and Srila Gadadhara Pandit; all glories to Sri Sri Radha-Madhava. All glories to
the places of Lord Gauranga’s pastimes, and to the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord.

The glories of the Holy Name

1. Haridasa Thakura continued: “O Lord Gauranga! The fifth offense or namaparadha is to think that the
glories of the Holy Name are exaggerated. This is against the scriptural injunctions. For instance, it is offensive
to think, ‘The scriptural presentation of the glories of the Lord’s Holy Name is not entirely true, because
hyperbole has been employed to increase the reader’s faith in the chanting of the name.’

Commentary
In this chapter we will learn of another offense against the Holy Name, to consider the glories of the name to be
imaginary. After reading this text one may wonder how can a person commit an offense like this. After all, the Holy
Name is the dearmost friend of everyone. It is Sri Krsna Himself, who has descended to give everything to everyone
who desires it. Even the slightest mention of Krsna or Rama can give one heavenly pleasures and liberate one from
material bondage. Even if the person who says the name speaks it without caring, or in jest, or even ridiculing the
name, or even if the name is separated by other letters of the alphabet. So all this information is quite amazing, and in
fact very true, but some people upon hearing these statements think that the glories of the name, and the benedictions
the name gives, are exaggerated to merely encourage people to chant or join the Hare Krsna religion. So again, we
wonder why? I was asking this question to myself while standing on a roof-top in Sri Mayapur. In answer to my
question the antaryami directed me to look at the dogs playing in the field below. Teaching me nicely, the Lord helped
me understand that the dogs were playing with each other for one reason only—to teach each other how to fight! Yes,
this is the animal world, dog-eats-dog, animal fights for survival. So uncivilized humans have taken this trait one step
further, and now slander one another as their way of fighting, and even lower they slander the Lord and His Holy
Name. Animals do not display true love for each other as they are not capable, and animalistic humans only show love
toward each other and view things as being lovely, or nice because they want to possess and control such things.
These people are reprobate and do not know the science of following in the footsteps of the gopis of Vrndavana.
Therefore they are Godless, faithless, and offensive. Instead they would do better to accept the scriptural conclusions
about the glories of the Holy Name and with genuine humility repent and begin to chant the Lord’s glories with
remorse. But this they will not do without our help! Therefore on the order of Gauranga Mahaprabhu everyone must
spread the glories of chanting via harinama sankirtana as when the Holy Name of the Lord enters into the ears of the
encarcerated rascal jivas it will create subha-karma so that they may one day not only hear the name, but also chant
and glorify the name. This is the way to avail this offense against the Holy Name.

2.“It is a fact that in the karma-kanda and jnana-kanda sections of the Vedas, ritualism and philosophical
speculation have been greatly praised, and such praises are intended to elicit interest in these processes. But the
same is not true in the case of the Holy Name; therefore to think so is an abominable offense.

Commentary
As described in the previous chapter, the purpose behind the Vedas is to uplift the populace from the starting point of
performing fruitive actions, to serving the Lord unconditionally through the agency of devotion. In the beginning the
jiva has a desire to attain material pleasure so the Vedas provide knowledge of how to do this through the karma-
kanda section. After going back and forth from heavenly to hellish situations for many lifetimes, the jiva finally
understands there is no real (lasting) pleasure to be found anywhere in the material world. At this point the jiva uses
his intellect and comes up with the bright idea that happiness can only be attained by getting rid of the four defects of
the material world and attain release from the bondage of material life (mukti). It is at this point that the Lord in His
literary incarnation as the Vedas gives the jnana-kanda section of the Vedas, and the living entity is again kept quiet
for some time while he searches for happiness using his intellect rather than through bodily activities. So now the jiva
searches for knowledge of how to attain liberation and in his wisdom he performs astanga-yoga and meditates on the
Supersoul within His heart to attain realization of brahman. The Buddistic idea of attaining perfection by meditating
on nothingness or the void is not supported by the Vedas, and for all their trouble they attain a great big nothing!

To take the story of the advancing jiva further, after attaining brahman the living entity realizes that he is not as happy
as he thought, as now he has no friends at all. In this way the jiva realizes that brahman is not the ultimate resting
place, but merely the effulgence of the Lord, just as the rays of the sun are not the sun itself but merely an aspect of
it’s energy. At this point the Vedas again step in and give the pinnacle of all knowledge, devotional service to the
Supreme in the form of the bhakti-kanda section and this knowledge is revealed in the heart from master to disciple
while the students serves his master. Through the agency and teachings of bhakti-yoga the student then leans the
science of devotional service.

In order to evelvate the fallen jiva, the Vedas therefore give karma-kanda and jnana-kanda and they achieve their
mission by dangling a carrot before the donkey-like populace. In this way they offer benedictions to inspire and elicit
the jiva’s interest further. However, bhakti-yoga is not like this, and the statements made in the Vedas about the
efficacy of the Holy Name are not meant for the goal of eliciting interest by offering material benedictions. Why
would the Lord offer rewards just to take the ignorant jiva back to the spiritual world? If He were to do this, He would
be guilty of violating His own law of free-will to all jivas. Why would the Lord firstly give the living entities free-will
and then twist their arms and covert them into loving Him by offering them gifts and benedictions if they do what
pleases Him and chant His Holy Name. In this way He would be using His almighty position to trick the jivas out of
their minute independence. At this point some may say, “well isn’t it a good thing to trick someone for their
betterment?” From a material point of view this may be so and therefore the Vedas, and caring parents do this, but
they are both working on a material level. The parent says; “my dear children please do this activity and I will give
you a reward for your trouble.” Similarly, the karma-kanda and jnana-kanda sections of the Vedas say “My dear
wayward living entity, if you perform this penance and this sacrifice, and this austerity, you will receive this
benediction as your reward.” The bhakti-kanda however is very different.

If for instance you read glorious statements about the Holy Name and believe that you receive punya from chanting
the Holy Name, and at the time of death you will go to heaven for this pious activity—you are not chanting the Holy
Name proper! This is not the way of bhakti-yoga. Why is this? Because the Holy Name is Krsna! Krsna does not deal
with pious or impious activities. He barters only with love, sincere uncontaminated pure love! There are no deals with
chanting the Holy Name! A devotee chants because he loves the Lord.

We have already highlighted the beginnings of chanting earlier in this book and later we shall hear Srila Haridasa
Thakura highlight pure chanting. In short we can say that the same rules that apply to the material world of dog-eat-
dog do not apply to the spiritual realities or the chanting of the Holy Name, which is a spiritual activity. In this way
we can deduce that chanting the Holy Name will take us from being materially contaminated to spiritually free. The
chanting of the Holy Name is above all mundane activities and above everything material. If we take the concept of
time as an example you may be able to see this point clearer. For instance one who knows, can see that the Lord has
all the time in the world to wait for the wayward soul to return of their own accord—this is because there is not the
same perception of time in the spiritual world as in the material world, as no one is born and no one dies. From this
we can see that the Lord does not need to offer material benedictions to entice the follower to come back quicker.
Moerover, He simply waits until the jivas see the light via their own experiences in the material world. From a
material prespective you could say that in time everyone will come back to the Lord out of their own free-will, but
from a spiritual prespective no time has passed by. I can try to discuss the topic of spiritual time at this point in order
to try and help you understand this better. It is important to understand that Krsna, Krsna’s name, and everything
connected to Krsna is one hundred percent spiritual and in fact the controller of material nature. The Lord, being the
Supreme controller is therefore able to free you from your prision house of time.

In the Vedic scriptures we see how Lord Brahma Creates (passion) Lord Siva destroys (ignorance) and Lord Vishnu
preserves (goodness). Knowing this, if a jiva is predominantly in the mode of ignorance then entropy will act on him
in the form of Lord Siva. (Doing His tandamrtya dance). However if one uses Krsna’s energy wisely for godly
activities or activities in goodness that push one forwards, one will see that entropy turning into Krsna’s cit energy. In
other words the energy goes in both directions once it leaves the spiritual world. This cit energy is always coming
from the spiritual world, just like the ganges water flows from the spiritual world and first arrives on the head of Lord
Siva. Incidently the Ganges water purifies the mind of all contamination. The more one takes bath, the more one is
purified. So in this way no matter where a jiva is situated on the space/time continuum he can access this cit energy if
he so wishes, and if not, he will always contact the entropy in the form of Lord Siva who is in charge of false-ego, or
the false sense of who we think we are.

Incidently the way in which we realize knowledge, or cit, is not through the deductive process. This is the false
material way. The true way is to have knowledge passed into the heart from master to disciple, the inductive method.
It is the heart that must be changed by knowledge, and this knowledge is called cit. So by accessing the knowledge in
the correct way we learn who we are, and this happens through our chanting and service, or more specifically the
spiritual master’s blessings, which come naturally with our unmotivated service and attentive chanting. The spiritual
master knows the heart of his disciple because he has been entrusted to deliver him back to the Lord. This cit energy,
(realized knowledge) is the reason behind precognition and premonition, and future and past visions and everything
else. Why? Because everything has already passed by, it is a ‘passed-time’ of the Lord. The future, which is the
perfectly organized energy, is now coming into the past in order to remind you of who you are. Life is about
remembering who you are, not about becoming a new person. The spirit soul is lost in bodily identification and he has
to access the cit energy in order to understand and remember who he is and what his relationship with the Lord is.
This is called attaining knowledge in sambhandha, and doing something about it is called the process, abhidheya.

If one were to question further about how the universe began while using the formula for eternal time one would see
that Darwins theory of evolutionary (which states that material bodies transform from one thing to another by
evolutionary means) is completely unacceptable from the Vedic view point. The Vedas state that evolution takes place
not in the bodily way as Darwin suggests, but in the consciousness. In Vedic terms evolution can also come in the
form of devolution. That is, embodied living entities evolve or devolve, via transmigration of species. This is all
explained in the bhagagavad-gita in the following verses. Vasamsis jirnani yatha vihaya, As a person puts on new
garments, giving up old ones, the soul similary accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. (Bg.
2.22) And dhyayato visayan pumsah, While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachement
for them, and from such attachement lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises,
and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence
is lost one falls down again into the material pool. (Bg. 2.62-63)

In the spiritual world there is no time when anyone came into being nor when anyone is annihilated. In the material
world time is Krsna in His form of death and rebirth. In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says mrtyuh sarva-haras
caham udbhavas ca bhavisyatam, “I am all-devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be.”
(Bg. 10.34) So here Krsna Himself is saying that He is death, and that He is the cause behind all birth. I
another place Krsna says; “Time I am.” In this way we can see that material time is measured in terms of when death
will take you, and when by Krsna’s mercy you again attain life, time will start again. In the spiritual realities however,
things are different as here Krsna is time in His form of life! That is, the residents feel like they want to die when they
are apart from Krsna, but when they are united with Him, either in the mind or in His physical presence, they feel as if
their lives have returned. The good thing is, the residents of the spiritual world are always thinking of Krsna, therefore
they can never die. This is stated in scripture as follows:

When someone says the name KRSNA! There is no difference between the name Krsna and the person Krsna.
Therefore, whoever says this word KRSNA! Is immediately liberated. Why? Because Krsna is not a material name
under any circumstances, and therefore there is no separation between the living entity and the Supreme living entity
Krsna. Separation only comes about when the consciousness enters a perverted state due to becoming the competitor
of the Lord. If one takes the name in the sense that the Lord is separate, he merely gives lip service to the name and
chants the letters of the alphabet. However, because the letters of the alphabet gather themselves together to praise the
Lord, they come out as a semblance of the name and as such the chanter receives material piety. Earlier we heard how
Srila Haridasa Thakura stated that we are liberated when we chant the name Krsna. The reason why we do not go
directly to Gokula is because we still have anarthas/material desires within our hearts. Otherwise we are in the
presence of Krsna when we say His name. In the spiritual stratum there is no separation of space or time because time
is not linear and the consciousness in the spiritual stratum is not separate from the Lord. The residents of Vrndavana
therefore measure time not in terms of the eternal birth and death of the body, but moreover, in terms of when they
will again see the Lord. The trick is, when they see, or even think of the Lord they are born again (or given life) and
this resets the circle of time in its eternal samsara of ‘love and life’ as opposed to ‘birth and death.’ There is one very
nice scriptural reference that explains the fact that we are not allowed entrance into the spiritual world while we have
anarthas within our hearts, and this teaching is mercifully given to us by the embodiment of pure devotion, Sri
Narada Muni. The Lord said:

ADD QUOTE HERE PLEASE in this life you will not see Me again, for no one can enter My kingdom with anarthas

Before we leave this topic of spiritual time, there is one more important point I would like to cover, the concept of
analyzing topics in relation to the formula of spiritual time. Incidentally, the formula for spiritual time can be utilized
for analyzing any topic pertaining to our relationship with Krsna, or maya who is an agent of Krsna. In the Bhagavad-
gita we hear the Lord state sarvasya caham hrdi sannvistah. I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come
remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. (Bg.15.15) From this statement we can understand that if we were to try
to perform our actions from the platform of Krsna consciousness, then Krsna would undoubtedly help us by providing
us with the knowledge and rememberance of Him. Also in the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Srila
Prabhupada further states that “Krsna conscious acts done under the direction of the Lord yield no reaction, either in
this life, or in the life after death.” When we look at this statement from the perspective of spiritual time we can
understand that we get a material reaction (either good or bad) if we perform a material activity, and if the activity is
spiritual we would be free from such good and bad karma. If we were on the bodily platform we would need to have a
material body to experience that reaction through, and we would need space/time in order for the good or bad fruits of
that activity to mature. Therefore when Prabhupada states that acts done for Krsna yield no reaction, he is explaining
that such activities are not performed under the jurisdiction of the material space/time continuum, but moreover they
are performed from the spiritual stratum in which time is conspicuous by its absence.

In the spiritual stratum there is no time for good or bad karmic reactions to occur because there is no separation from
Krsna. In this way we can understand that a person who acts in Krsna consciousness is free from all reactions both
good and bad. One may question here what are material reactions? Simply put ‘material reactions are lessons that one
needs to take one back to home back to Godhead.’ In this way we can see that a good reaction enlightens our
consciousness and takes us closer to the Lord, and a bad reaction covers our consciousness and takes us deeper into
the mode of ignorance. From one perspective there is no diffence between good and bad karma, as good karma can be
seen as a bad thing in that one becomes conditioned by the mode of goodness and the items this brings along, and bad
karma can be seen as bad for the reason that we are conditioned by the mode of ignorance. Then again, good and bad
karma can both be seen as good because they are giving one a further chance to become enlightened by the lessons
one gets from the karmic reaction. In this way we can see that ultimately there are no good or bad reactions but there
merely eternal opportunities to either accept or reject the mercy of the Lord in whatever form it is taking. So if there
are no good or bad situations in life all that is left from this is the free-will of the individual to accept or reject the
Lord. You may say, well what about the rest of life? To be honest the rest of his activities are governed by the modes
of nature he assumes, and the choices he makes accordingly act to create further stimulation in the modes. Unless, as
Srila Prabhupada instructs the person performs his activities in devotion to the Lord—at this point however we should
note that there is a science of acting in devotion, and one must learn that science in a step by step manner from the lips
of a pure devotee. Devotional service begins from the stage of bhava and the practicioner actually performs
devotional service only in higher stages of bhava and prema.
When Srila Prabhupada states that “acts done for Krsna yield no reaction,” there are two ways a person can receive
this information—either he can receive it with faith (whether he understands it or not). Or he may comprehend Srila
Prabhupada’s teaching by using this very simple formula of spiritual time. The business of a devotee is to help other’s
understand the instructions of the acaryas, therefore now that everyone understands how to escape the tight grip of
action and reaction, all they have to do is perform their activities on behalf of their spiritual master, who is a bona fide
representative of Sri Hari. We are repeating this teaching from Srila Prabhupada with this simple explanation because
the meaning behind it is very deep. The Holy Name when chanted attentively will free the chanter from the bonds of
action and reaction, and similarly any other activity that is performed in devotion to Lord Krsna is performed from the
spiritual stratum and also yields the same result.

If we take another important topic and try to look at it using the same formula of spiritual time, we may ask the
question, who is the embodied living entities biggest enemy in the material world? Using our formula we can make an
assumption that space/time, or more specifically “death” is the living entities biggest enemy! Now, if we add to this
assumption that Krsna is time in His form of all-devorering death, and we superimpose this information on top of the
previous assumption, we can deduce that it is “Krsna” is the embodied living entitie’s biggest enemy, because Krsna
is all-devorering death. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says; kalo 'smi loka-ksaya-krt pravrddho lokan samahartum
iha pravrttah—time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people. (Bg.11.32)
this information however, does not fit in with the idea of an all-merciful Lord who grants the jiva’s every desire—so
how to reconcile this paradoxical situation? Well, to begin with if we look at this paradox from the point of view that
Krsna is the living entitie’s biggest enemy in the shape of the space/time continuum, we see that this is only possible
when the living entity is in the conditioned/perverted state and has become the Lord’s competitor. In this way we can
see that the conditioned living entity has declared war on the Lord by wanting to take His place as the enjoyer. Via the
false-ego a conditioned living entity thinks he is enjoying the fruits of his own labor, when in actual fact everything
belongs to God, or more specifically the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna! We can see from this that the
living entity is trying to enjoy something that isn’t hers to enjoy, and that the first attacking move was made by the
erring jiva when she (the enjoyed) decided to become the male, (the enjoyer). Sri Harinama Cintamani earlier taught
how Krsna is the Supreme nondual autocrat, the purusa.

Because we know from sastra that the Lord exhibits His sixty-four oppulences to the jiva, we can see that His desire
is always to grant the jiva’s every desire. The Lord therefore creates the material world for this purpose, however He
also put things in the world to rectify the jiva’s perverted mentality. The material world is therefore opposite to the
spiritual world and full of dualities instead of singularity. This statement gives indication that there are two living
things in this material world that come from the Lord’s superior energy. One of those is the livng entities and the other
is the Lord (who is seated within the heart and is known as the Supersoul). In the world of dualities we therefore see
dualities such as good and bad, light/dark, male/female, right/wrong honor/dishonor love/hate pain/pleasure day/night
etc etc etc. You get the point I’m sure.

To take this further, if the living entity takes the first strike at the Lord and puts forth her desire, and the Lord then
fulfills this desire by providing the material world. The Lord, being full of mercy and love, can not give out a
benediction that will harm His beloved, so instead of providing a place that is perfect like His spiritual abode, His
benediction will ultimately fulfill all the jiva’s desires and at the same time rectify their wayward behaviour. So when
the jiva requests the Lord to be able to leave home, the Lord gives His blessing and at this point, through the agency
of the Lord’s Visnu expansions, the cit-sakti creates an opposing sakti which is called maya, or ‘that which is opposed
to truth.’ The inseperable truth of the spiritual cit potency being sat, cit, ananda—eternally liberated, full of
knowledge, and blissful. Therefore the maya-sakti (Goddess Durga), along with the egoistic principle of Lord Siva
become manifest from Lord Visnu and the material space/time continuum is created along with the three modes of
material nature and the dualities of life. The three modes then mix with the elements of material nature, which are
earth, fire, water, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false-ego. These combine with the modes of goodness, passion,
and ignorance to make the varieties of dull matter that the embodied living entities give so much stress to.

The jiva is at this point given the facility to enjoy the Lord’s mercy separate from the Lord. For this enjoyment to
become a real-life experience the jiva is then allowed to enter a virtual world in his new virtual body. We say virtual
here because the body is virtually, or almost like his real body, except that it is a perverted reflection because it is a
part of the world of perversion or maya. Therefore, instead of being eternally liberated and free (sat) he becomes
eternally encaged (nitya-bandha), or embodied in his prison, and experiences birth and death. Instead of being full of
knowledge (cit) he becomes full of ignornance or maya. And instead of experiencing ever-increasing bliss (ananda)
he becomes fearful (bhaya)—why? Because without the Lord’s light the material world is a dark place and he fears
death! Once the jiva was eternal and now in his conditioned state he appears to take birth and die. So one might say
say, this does not seem such a problem if he gets another body! Well, the problem of fear comes into the picture
because the conditioned jiva becomes attached to his body, thinking that it is himself (ahamameti).

From this short discussion we can see that Lord Krsna is actually very merciful to give Himself as all-devouring
death/material-time, because otherwise the material world would be a living hell. Let us suppose a person thought
they loved someone in the material world, and that loved one, being a product of material conditioning, decides to
hurt you, you would have to experience this hurt for eternity. This is because death also means forgetfulness, so the
function of forgetting things is a product of death. Remember earlier we quoted the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) which
states “from me come rememberance, knowledge, and forgetfulness.” So if it happens that during eternity something
goes wrong, instead of having everyone suffer we see that Krsna is actually very kind by giving death. From the
higher modes however there is a slight difference because in the higher modes people are closer to being loving and
kind. So in the very high planets we see that there is not such an urgent need for death to come along so fast because
people do not need this to learn from. However, viewed from the point of eternity we see that one lifetime in even the
highest planetary system is gone in the blink of an eye.

Keep this section…………………………………..

Regarding the planets from the middle planetary system downwards, if we look at them from the law of entropy we
see degradation in the yuga cycles, each one becoming more degraded, and characterized by a lack of God
consciousness. On our earth planet the yuga cycles appear often but on the higher planets there is not the same
movement or influence of the yugas. For instance, on Brahmaloka there must only be four yuga cycles that come in
the form of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but the lower one goes, and the further one goes away from the light
of the Lord’s effulgence, the more these cylcles come around. In other words the yuga cycles are regulated by the
distance one’s consciousness has departed from the Lord’s light. This is the space in our space/time continuum and it
is regulated via distance from the Lord. The consciousness of every individual sets his material reality, which is
perceived via the modes of nature, which cover the person’s consciousness according to the amount of nescience.
Each cycle has an effect on the consciousness of the people of that time period and in fact people are situated in each
time period or yuga cycle because of their level of consciousness.

Srimad-Bhagavatam states that ……. Yuga cycles on earth make one day and night on Brahmaloka. There is need for
devastation at the end of every full cycle of four yugas in order to get rid of the bad energy of Kali-yuga and bring
forth the good energy of Krta-yuga. Being a manifestation of the Lord the Yuga cycles are an expression of eternal
time—that is, they go around in circles. The jivas on earth only view time as being linear because they see time in
terms of the lifespan of their own particular body. The human intellect (thinking in terms of one lifespan) can not deal
with figures as high as ……., which is only one day and night on Brahamaloka. In the higher planets the inhabitants
are closer to spiritual time, because they are Godly people, who are situated in the mode of goodness. Bg says; “the
mode of goodness is …add quote 18…..

Using this formula we can see that our perspective of time from the human platform is quite irrelevant in terms of the
higher planetary systems in the universe, and the perception of time according to the inhabitants of those planets is
also quite meaningless in terms of the eternal. So one may ask, what is the use of time from the perspective of the
mode of goodness? It is said that a person in the mode of ignorance likes to waste his time, one in the mode of passion
uses his time to create and build things, and one in the mode of goodness uses his time to do good for others.
However, all these people like to claim time as their own, because they are in bodily identification. Thus they see
themselves as being real and the space/time continuum as being an arbitrary projection of consciousness, something
they can manipulate, and something they use to perceive reality through. Such people believe that space/time is a part
of consciousness, but they don’t like to put God in this picture so the Lord kindly allows them to remain bound by the
three modes of material nature, while they make their speculations and postulations. From the mode of goodness,
which is considered to be illuminating we can see that it is possible to use the facility of space/time in order to serve
the Supreme Lord in whatever way He indicates. This indication comes through two sources, the Supersoul and the
spiritual master. When one does this he makes the correct use of the space/time continuum and transforms the mode
of goodness from sattva (material goodness) into visuddha-sattva (purified goodness). Seeing this, the Lord will then
reciprocate by removing the blocks that prevent connection with Him. What are these blocks? They are the false
concept of being the enjoyer and being separate from the Lord. These are the real blocks, and they manifest as
anarthas or clouds that cover one’s perception of reality (the spiritual world). To become free from these blocks and
enter into Krsnaloka the following information is given in the Bhagavad-gita:

karma-jam buddhi-yukta hi
phalam tyaktva manisinah
janma-bandha-vinirmuktsh
padam gacchanty anamayam

By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work
in the material world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all
miseries (by going back to Godhead). (Bg.2.51)

We hope that by describing all of this no one will commit the offense of thinking that the glories of the Holy Name
are exadgerated or imaginary.

3. “The smrti say that anyone who chants the Holy Name, whether with faith or neglect, attracts the merciful
attention of Lord Krsna. The name is the purest form of knowledge, the best of all vratas or vows and the
highest meditation. It gives the ultimate auspicious results and is the most sublime renunciation. Chanting is a
matchless spiritual activity, the holiest of pious activities, and the supreme path of self-realization. It offers the
greatest liberation and goal. The Holy Name is divine and situated in the paramount spiritual realm, it is
superexcellent devotional service and the best purifying agent, showering love of Godhead. It is the essence of
all scriptures, the cause of everything, the Supreme Absolute Truth, the most worshipable object and acts as
the supreme spiritual instructor and guide.

Commentary
In an assembly of Vaisnavas a devotee glorifies the Holy Name—this is the blessings of the Holy Name. The mercy of
the Holy Name can not be praised enough! If the Holy Name can save such a wretched fool as I from the darkest
regions of hell then it must be classified as the most magnanimous of all incarnations of Krsna. The best vrata a man
or woman can perform is to chant unlimitedly. There is no activity like chanting. Nothing can compare with its
superexcellent qualities or purifying abilities. It is a touchstone, turning sinful living entities into lovers of the Lord. It
dances on the tongue. It causes us to loose material conscioiusness. It causes sinful people to act like madmen. What
can be said about the most worshipable object in all existence—it is our very life! It is our dream-life! It is our only
sustenance! It is our teacher, our guide, our hero, the most prized possession that we can not possess. It is Sri Krsna,
the lover of the gopis, the son of Maharaja Nanda. It is the sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana of our life. The
Holy Name is the beloved of Sri Radha, our most worshipable divine form of pure love for the Lord. The Holy Name
is the spiritual ambassador, the link between the material and the spiritual, the path to carry our weight—the vehilcle
that carries us along the path. The boat that takes us from one shore to the other yet remains always on the side where
it started. It is the music, the dance, the artistic side of everything and everyone. It is the sound in the sky, the poetry
of the intelligent, and the all-powerful Supreme Lord Himself. The Holy Name is in everything and at the same time
separate from everything. It is the essence of spiritual life and the meaning behind our determination to succeed. The
Holy Name is Sri Krsna, the cowheard boy of Vrndavana who rests His hand on the shoulder of His beloved
Balarama, the strongest of the strong. The Holy Name is my only refuge and prayer. I pray to Him this day and
everyday to please take me home to His lotus feet, where I may forever be engaged in His loving service. This is the
all merciful Holy Name. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare.

But just see how unfortunate and fallen I am! After saying all of these things about the Holy Name and meaning them
also, still, I am so unfortunate that I commit offenses to the Holy Name! In the assembly of Vaisnavas I put forth my
plea. I am an offender, a prasandhi. How can it be that I can speak praise in favor of the Holy Name and at the same
time commit offenses? The truth of the matter is that I have never chanted the Holy Name! Just see my offensive
nature. I can speak behind the back of my Lord but never do I speak His Holy Name. I am like Prakasananda
Sarasvati before he received the mercy of Lord Gauranga. Oh what will I do without attaining the mercy of Lord
Gauranga! Am I doomed to rot here eternally because I am an offender? Beside You my Lord Gauranga I can find no
shelter. When will that day be mine when I can turn my back on offenses and with a simple heart serve Your pure
representative? Please be merciful upon me, as mercy is Your heart’s proclivity. Please save me from my ocean of
faults and bless me with the mercy of Your name.

4. “A thousand names of Lord Visnu are equal to one name of Lord Rama, and three names of Lord Rama are
equal to one name of Lord Krsna. The scriptures always glorify the Holy Name of Krsna and expound its
transcendental excellences.

Commentary
Look up C.C. Kurma brahaman in south india story…..

One goes to hell for thinking the glories of the Holy Name are exaggerated

5. “Only a hardened atheist thinks the passages of sruti and smrti scriptures describing the superexcellent
qualities of the name contain exaggerations. Whoever commits such an abominable offense rots eternally in
hell. Only a reprobate thinks that exaggeration has been used to help inculcate faith and taste in chanting. He
has no idea of the purport of the scriptures and of what is beneficial for humanity. He takes everything
backwards. Since this person has no reserve of previous pious activities, he can never develop faith in the edicts
of devotional service. The chanting of the Holy Name is the most superior form of devotional service. A person
with insufficient piety cannot acquire a taste for chanting, and will not have adequate faith in its unlimited
results. Those who accept just one section of the scriptures can not perceive the essence of the scriptures.

Commentary
The essence of scripture is to surrender to the Supreme Lord and become His devotee. If one studies all the Vedic
literature one will see that devotional service is advocated throughout. The best form of devotional service is to chant
the Holy Name and to teach others to do the same. The Holy Name is pure devotional service. There is not a tinge of
any request in the maha-mantra, other than please allow me to serve You dear Lord. The Holy Name is Radha and
Krsna in their intimate pastimes. The Holy Name can reveal the truth about a person’s eternal position in relation to
performing one’s eternal duty of service. There is no need to take any other understanding of the Name. If one thinks
that the scriptures exadurate the qualities of the Holy Name, such a person is in deep trouble. How can one develop
faith if one is not sure about the item that gives faith. To develop faith needs piety and piety is best attained through
performing the yuga-dharma, which is chanting the names of the Lord, so what is the use in not having faith in the
thing that can give you faith? Better to sing and dance in kirtana, and forget all political affairs, and all petty
criticisms brought about by falty perception.

The described results of chanting are all factual

6. “The karma-kanda section of the Vedas contains cunning, selfishly motivated material knowledge. But selfish
motivations are totally absent in the Vedic science of devotion and in the process of chanting the Holy Name. In
the karma-kanda process, the results are merely transient sensual enjoyments, whereas the results of chanting
the Holy Name and of performing devotional service are eternal. In the chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord,
capriciousness and cheating are shunned. When a devotee inspires a person to chant, it is done without selfish
motives. But when a person inspires another to engage in fruitive activities, he simply places the promise of
material gains in the back of the other’s mind. This is capricious. The Vedas inform us that chanting begets
unlimited auspicious results. Only one who has no interest in his spiritual self-interest, in self-realization and in
the attainment of perfection will reject this verdict.

Commentary
The karma and jnana-kanda sections of the Vedas offer the practitioner results that will be pleasing to themselves.
Such results are known as selfish because they pertain to the false sense of who a person thinks himself to be.
Whether such a person performs sacrifices to gain mystic abilities, or to please others via sacrificing in life, or
whether one rejects everything and attempts to attain liberation from the madness, still all these activities are
considered selfish because they pertain to the jiva’s distorted conception of life. Contrary to this, when a devotee
inspires another to chant the Lord’s sweet names, both the devotee who encourages in this way, and the performer,
receive a true everlasting reward. In this way it is said that the Holy Name offers unlimited auspicious results. If one
has the slightest interest in pleasing Lord Krsna, one will accept this verdict. In this way, the bhakti-kanda of the
Vedas gives out truly auspicious benedictions that are not selfishly motivated, except for the activity of advancing out
of the mud of maya, in order to serve the Lord better. (This is a stage one must go through in order to reveal the true
meaning behind chanting).

7. “Fruitive activities, being material, give material results. One who rejects such fruitive results and simply
performs his life’s duties free from selfishness, purifies his heart and understands the essence of chanting the
Holy Name. A purified heart strives for self-realization and is naturally repelled by material activities.

Commentary
At first a devotee serves his superiors and follows the rules and regulations in order to gain advancement on the path.
After some time, one’s heart becomes purified and the natural proclivity of the heart, to serve the Lord in a favorable
mood begins to shine through. At this point material activities, or activities aimed at giving temporary happiness to
the senses become less and less attractive. Association with devotees allows the sadhaka to develop a great eagerness
to understand his position in relation to the Supreme creator and with faithful attentive chanting his heart becomes
softened by the attractive features of the Lord. Hearing the call of the Lord’s flute, the devotee becomes deeply
attracted and maddened. This stimulates him further and with the blessings of the Vaisnavas his progression is
assured. The results of chanting are directly opposite to the temporary material rewards offered by maya; therefore a
devotee becomes fixed as his faith increases.

The Holy Name is transcendental

8. “The Holy Name already includes self-realization, and chanting it is prescribed by the Supreme Lord
Himself. Selfless activities lead to the chanting of the Holy Name. Pious results that a brahmana could not
accrue anywhere in the entire universe are easily obtained by chanting Krsna’s name. The supreme position of
the chanting of the Holy Name cannot be diminished merely by envious statements made by fruitive workers
and empiricists.

Commentary
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Krsna states the following to the gopis………….
In this way a person may receive the mercy to chant the Holy Name. The Holy Name contains all auspicious and
pious activities that lead to realization of the self; therefore there is no need to perform any other type of activity than
chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. A brahmana may perform his sandyavandana activities according to his caste
and become uplifted after many lifetimes, but a Vaisnava devotee can attain the supreme destination in one lifetime
simply by chanting the maha-mantra.

9. “Simply by namabhasa chanting one gains all the results of fruitive activities and empirical knowledge. So if
only namabhasa can offer such wonderful results, then surely the pure name can offer so much more,
unlimitedly. Therefore whatever results the scriptures say are gained from chanting are easily available to the
devotee who is attached to the pure name.

Commentary
Discuss the chapter about Srila Haridasa Thakura in CC….

The doubter is doomed

10. “One who doubts this fact is a sinner who is doomed because of committing namaparadha. All the revealed
scriptures-the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the Puranas etc-are filled with elaborations of the
superexcellence of the Holy Name. So to doubt these statements is abominable.

Commentary
Offenses to the Holy Name prevent one from chanting, and in this way one is doomed for a life in the hellish condtion
of bodily identification. The revealed scriptures are the path a jiva uses for progression, for they give the knowledge
by which one can advance. Being the manifestation of the Lord’s cit/samvit potency, all knowledge stems from the
Vedas. Therefore if the Vedas and Puranas give many descriptions about the super excellent position of the Holy
Name and of the person who chants it, and one doubts such statements, one can find no shelter in the Vedas. When
one looses the shelter that gives knowledge of how to escape the darkness, one is doomed to glide down to a life of
total ignorance and darkness. In this way it is considered an abominable offense to doubt the statements of the Vedas.

11. “The Holy Name and the Lord Himself are the same. The Lord has personally positioned chanting His Holy
Name at the very top of all devotional activities. The Supreme Lord is fully independent, autocratic and
omnipotent. All rules have come into force due to His arrangement. He has declared fruitive activity to be
material and has revealed that cultivating knowledge of impersonal brahman leads only to the extinction of
consciousness, putting it in deep slumber. After explaining all this, the Lord, of His own accord, has invested
His entire potency in His Holy Name. There is no point in raising any objection. Hence, an intelligent person
will carefully avoid offending the all-powerful name of the Lord.

Commentary
Here we are informed that the Lord is the fully independent autocrat, and that He is situated everywhere. Because He
has created all rules, He understands where the living entity will end up if he were to follow the rules of each
particular path outlined in the Vedas. In this text the end of each path is clearly indicated. Fruitive actions for the
pleasure of the senses leave one situated in the material atmosphere, and cultivating impersonal brahaman realization
leads to the removal of conscious awareness, a state similar to deep sleep. As well as this the Lord and His
represtatives have explained the superexcellence of the Holy Name, and here we are informed that the entire potency
of the Lord has been invested in His Holy Name. This is because the Lord and His name are one and the same. At this
point in the book it should be clearly understood that this fact beyond questioning. In other words, by now, you, as the
reader and practicioner of sadhana-bhakti, have been given faith via the teachings from the namacarya Srila Haridasa
Thakura. Both Srila Haridasa Thakura and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura are excellent preachers and acaryas, and as
such are leading the reader into a position whereby they can have full faith in the chanting of the Holy Name, in order
that the people they are cultivating will leave their mundane realities behind and enter into unconditional surrender to
the Lord and His Holy Name.

One may wonder why is it that after fourty years of the members of the Hare Krsna movement making disciples,
many devotees are still on the neophyte platform and therefore do not have full faith in the glories of chanting the
Holy Name? The last sentence in this text gives a very nice positive instruction in this regard, the text states; ‘Hence,
an intelligent person will carefully avoid offending the all-powerful name of the Lord.’ With this statement it is clear
to understand that one must put an end to the ten offenses against the Holy Name and offenses against the Deities. If
one’s intelligence is purified one will not only listen to these wonderfully powerful words of Sri Harinama
Cintamani, but one will also hear them! The difference between listening and hearing is in the application of the thing
in question. In other words the implication given in the word “hearing” is that one will act accordingly to the
information given. For this reason we see scriptures offer benedictions to the person who simply “hears” a certain
story, or pastime. The benediction come about when one acts according to the information one hears, and the act of
hearing implies that one will act. This is similar to the difference between jnana and vijanana, knowledge and realized
knowledge. The realized part means that a person begins to act on the information he has received as it becomes a part
of his makeup and belief system. An intelligent person will therefore “hear” the instructions of this text and ‘carefully
avoid offending the all-powerful name of the Lord.’ This will bring about self-realiztion.

The method for counteracting this offense

12. “If this namaparadha is somehow committed, the offender has to go humbly to the assembly of Vaisnavas
and attentively listen to the narrations of the pastimes and qualities of the Supreme Lord from the lips of a
pure devotee. Full of remorse, the offender must admit his transgression against the Holy Name and beg
forgiveness from the Vaisnavas. The Vaisnavas are realized in the glories of the name; they will mercifully
deliver the offender from his sins by embracing him. Then the offensive mentality will be purified and he will
be protected from the onslaught of maya. Offenses against the Holy Name are committed because of maya’s
deception. If a devotee meets or even just sees the face of such an offender, he should immediately take bath in
the Ganges. If the Ganges is not nearby, he should bathe in some other pure water. In the event that this is also
not possible, he should purify himself by bathing mentally.”

Commentary
The offense discussed in this chapter is to consider the glories of the Holy Name to be imaginary, and we have
discussed that the symptoms of this offense can be seen by the devotees’ not taking full shelter in the Holy Name.
Now there can be many reasons why a person is not taking full shelter in the Holy Name and an excellent practicioner
such as sri-guru can prescribe the exact remedy to cure this disease. In ending most of the chapters on the offenses
against the Holy Name Srila Haridasa Thakura gives a prescription to counteract the offense and an intelligent
devotee will do well to implement such a prescription. As well as specific prescriptions there is a general prescription
that a jiva must chant incessantly and attentively in order to gain release from the tight grip of maya. Krsna may have
ordered Mayadevi to keep the erring jivas bound in the prision house of illusiory energy, but at the same time He has
made a conscession that anyone who sincerely repents and desires to rectify his wayward behavior may be forgiven
and given another chance. In this way maya will offer honest rewards to the sadhaka in order to help his progression,
but at the same time She will also offer other rewards mixed in with the honest ones in order to test the sincerity of the
Vaisnava.

If a devotee feels he does not have enough faith in the Holy Name or in the teachings of the spiritual master, who
leads him to the Holy Name, one must go to an assembly of learned pure-hearted devotees and hear from them the
nectarean pastimes of the Lord and His devotees. If at this assembly the sadhaka confesses his feelings, the Vaisanvas
present will have their compassionate feelings aroused and they will mercifully embrace him and bless him. The
blessings of the Lord’s devotees will give the strength one needs to redeem faith in chanting and with this renewed
strength a devotee can make swift advancement.

Now the final part of this text which discusses offenses against the Holy Name is very important and should not be
overlooked, Sri Harinama Cintamani states; ‘If a devotee meets or even just sees the face of such an offender, he
should immediately take bath in the Ganges. If the Ganges is not nearby, he should bathe in some other pure water. In
the event that this is also not possible, he should purify himself by bathing mentally.’ So here we see the importance
of good association. If we associate with fault finders, we will also become a fault finder, and if we associate with
offenders against the Holy Name, we will also do the same. If we become cleansed of contamination due to the mercy
of the Vaisnavas, or the Holy Rivers, we should be very careful about becoming contaminated again. Therefore the
prescription is given that one should avoid offenders and if by chance we even see their faces, we will become
contaminated by the energy surrounding them. In this instance we should take our bath in the waters of the ganges in
order to purify the mind. The ganges receives a specific mention here, because the mere sight of seeing an offender
has an effect on the mindset. Depending on how close one’s own mindset is to the particular mindset of the offender,
contamination will occur. If one is strong one will be protected, if one is weak one will be affected. Contaminated
vibrations come across from one mindset to another because the thought forms of a person surround him. When eye
contact is made the energies of one person attract another and will cling to another’s aura like dirt. The ganges waters
are specifically mentioned here because the ganges purify the mind. If it is not possible to bathe in the ganges, we
should bathe mentally and at the same time pray to be protected against falldown. If we are to take the scriptures as
they should be taken, in a literal sense, then we would easily understand the dangers of bad association (even if it is
only seeing the face of an offender). In this way, when we implement these activities we will be on guard to offenders
and we would also clearly see our own offensive behavior toward the Holy Name. In this way our progress will be
very swift. Please think about this.

One who is surrendered to Krsna’s most beloved consort Srimati Radharani, and to the mercy of His flute, will
be adorned by the glory of Sri Harinama Cintamani.
Commentary
In this regard Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura makes the following statement; “Without taking shelter of the lotus feet of
Sri Radha, one can never meet Krsna. Vedic scriptures decalare that Krsna is the property of the maidservants of Sri
Radha.”

Chapter Nine
Sinning on the Strength of Chanting the Holy Name
All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life of Srimati
Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya and Mother Sita; all glories to Sri Srivas Pandit, and to all the
devotees of Lord Caitanya.

Chanting destroys all anarthas

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura said, “The Holy Name is eternally situated in pure goodness. Only very
fortunate jivas can take shelter of Krsna’s Holy Name. Chanting quickly removes the anarthas from the
heart; consequently, hrdaya daurbalyam (weakness of heart) disappears. When undeviating faith in the
Lord’s Holy Name develops, the propensity to sin is totally extirpated. All previous sins are also dissolved.
The heart shines with positive purity. Sinful desires in the heart are rooted in ignorance. These three-sin,
the seeds of sin and ignorance, are the source of all suffering for the conditioned soul.

Commentary
When a devotee becomes serious about going back to home back-to-Godhead the Lord instructs him in two ways,
from within and without. In one instance the Lord sends along His bona fide representative sat-guru, and by pleasing
sat-guru progress is made via his magnanimous blessings. At the same time as following guru’s instructions a devotee
is guided and taught lessons by the indwelling Supersoul. At first, when on the neophyte stage, a devotee is easily
lured away by the tricks of maya and at this time his progress may be slowed due to watering the weeds within his
heart instead of watering his bhakti-lata-bhija. The reason for the watering of the weeds is because he is committing
one or more of the ten offenses against the Holy Name. This text is continues where the last text in chapter eight left
off. There we were informed that offenses are committed because of the deception of maya, and we were given the
prescription to take should we commit such an offense. Here, we are informed that ignorance of our eternal identity is
the cause of sinful desires and the source of all suffering for the conditioned jiva. In this chapter we are learning about
a very dangerous offense that comes about when one is covered due to previous sins. If a sadhaka commits offenses
to other devotees, or is maintaining attachments to material things, or is committing other offenses against the Holy
Name, then in time such a person becomes covered by ignorance which hides his true identity as an eternal servant of
Krsna. There are unlimited seeds of sin just waiting for the opportunity and fertile ground to fructify, and when one
commits a sin this gives rise to the opportunity for more seeds to fructify and develop into further sin. This in turn
covers the living entity with ignorance and weakness of heart follows. You may wonder at this stage, how does this
happen when a devotee is seemingly engaged in chanting? Well, we have highlighted one cause, because such a
devotee has not given up offenses, but another cause is that at times a devotee is tested by Mayadevi.

It is a very fortunate person who has chosen to tread the path of righteousness, and to progress on this path one must
head in the direction of pure goodness. In most instances, a new devotee is steeped in the modes of passion and
ignorance, and to prove he is no longer attached to such modes he is sometimes tested by Krsna’s loyal servant
Mayadevi. In this case Mayadevi attempts to lure him away by the things he used to be attached to. Now, at this stage
the spiritual master’s teachings can be very helpful in guiding this lost soul away from the darkness of passion and
ignorance. However, if such a person has committed offenses he may have worked himself into a position whereby he
cannot hear the spiritual master’s teachings. That is, the teachings may be there but they do not penetrate his heart,
which is becoming hardened by offenses. When this happens the Lord personally helps from within, and He tries
again and again to help the jiva see the light by giving various tests and realizations. The best possible recourse at this
point is to be full of repentance (tapa), and to pray to the spiritual master and chant extra rounds with great
desperation and hope. If the Lord helps such a person to understand, that fortunate person is well on his way to
recovery, and continued chanting will help him attain a positive purity which will overcome the anartha of hrdaya
daurbalyam and situate him once again in the Lord’s light of goodness.

2. Chanting softens the heart and evokes compassion for all conditioned souls; the chanter constantly
endeavors for their spiritual welfare. He cannot bear to see the sufferings of the conditioned souls, and tries
to remove these sufferings by all means. He is unperturbed by lusty desires and the urge to enjoy the
senses; he is repulsed by wealth and women. He follows the path of righteousness. He accepts only what is
favorable. He has absolute conviction in all situations that Lord Krsna is his protector, savior and
maintainer. He is free from attachments to the body and the notions of ‘me’ and ‘mine’. In a humble state
of mind, he constantly chants the Holy Name of the Lord. He is never again inclined to commit sinful
activities.

Commentary
Chanting without offenses cannot be glorified enough. The Lord’s Holy Name is so powerful that it can evoke the
nicest feelings in the heart of the biggest sinners. One who is jealous of others suddenly feels sympathy and
compassion. One who desires everything and who does not care who he pollutes in the process, suddenly becomes
free from the enslavement to his senses, which are like wild horses that have completely gone mad and off the rails.
He believes wholeheartedly that the Lord will save him, and as such he only performs those actions that help on his
path toward his goal of loving the Lord.

Such a person has learned the art of offense-free chanting and he is free from the thoughts that everything around him
is meant for his pleasure. Instead of being proud of his actions the sadhaka is ashamed of his nonsense life, and in this
humble state of mind he vows never to commit sinful activities again. This is the power of the Lord’s Holy Name, but
before a person reaches this platform he must remain very cautious about committing sins on the strength of his
chanting, as this will ruin his chances for becoming an eternal associate of the Lord in Krsna-loka.

This text is highlighting the effects that constant attentive chanting brings about. The words contained in this text are
written in the positive sense. They are intended to show the true effects of chanting. As a natural course of
advancement in Krsna consciousness the devotee feels compassion for other living entities and desires to help releave
their suffering. In this connection Srila Prabhupada states that devotees of ISKCON should always find new and
unique ways to propound the message of the Bhagavat.

Previous sin and its residue are destroyed

3. “Chanting gradually diminishes the propensity to sin and simultaneously purifies the consciousness. At
this juncture, the taste for chanting begins to manifest and the inclination to commit sinful activities
vanishes, though a faint residue of previous sinful activity still lingers in the consciousness. The receding
sinful reactions leave an odor of sinful habit hanging in the air, but the chanter’s contact with the name
engenders a purity of willpower and mind that overcomes this clinging stigma of sin.

Commentary
Continued chanting uproots anarthas that cover the heart, and gives the willpower to say no to the temptations of lust
that are placed before an advancing devotee. Sometimes the tests a sadhaka receives are hard to pass, but the hard
ones often display the fact that advancement is there for the taking. Sinful habits linger for a while, and remain in the
background ready to entice the person who cares to look in their direction, but continued chanting with a humble
heart, full of remorse, will engender one dear to the Lord. The Lord is so merciful that His name alone will destroy all
attacking forces simply by the devotee taking shelter in the Lord via chanting.

When urge to sin diminishes via the constant chanting process, the Lord will reward His cherished devotee with a
higher taste, and this higher taste is so much more enchanting than the lower tastes connected with the senses. It is this
taste that everyone yearns for but they simply don’t know it, therefore it is said that only a fortunate person gets to
chant Sri Krsna’s Holy Name. In the Naradiya Purana we hear the following:

sad-dharmasyavabodhaya yesam nirbandhini matih

acirad eva sarvarthah sidhyaty esam abhipsitah

Those who are anxious to awaken their spiritual consciousness, who have unflinching intelligence, and
who are not deviated, certainly attain the desired goal of life. (Naradia Purana &Nod. 1.2.47)

4. Lord Krsna promised Arjuna that His devotee will never be in danger of destruction; in case of
reverses, He will personally come to His devotees’ rescue. The devotees’ sins are annihilated by the Lord’s
mercy alone. The empirical philosopher (jnani) may subdue his sins with great efforts and penance; but as
soon as he leaves or denies the shelter of Lord Krsna’s lotus feet, he immediately falls down. Whoever
simply embraces the Lord’s protection is an elevated soul. His progress will never be impeded by obstacles.
This is declared in the scriptures.

Commentary
Let us suppose a sadhaka is given some tests by Mayadevi and at the same time he has committed offenses which
weaken his devotional attitude. In this case he may be in danger, and his devotional life may be in peril. If he
continues on the same path he will quickly fall down the large mountain has taken so long to climb. Faster and faster
he goes, as his seeds of sin fructify due to the devotee fulfilling the urges of his senses. More and more sins are
committed in his mind, and more and more seeds ripen ready to act upon his false-reality. His heart is now covered by
the mist of ignorance and he is spiritually weak and susceptible. However, he sticks to his one vow. He must at all
costs chant his sixteen rounds, no matter how much maya has hold of him and how bad his rounds are! Seeing his
devotee in such danger, the Lord’s mercy is stimulated and He personally comes to shine the light of understanding in
His devotee’s heart. Api cet su-duracaro, bhajate mam ananya-bhak. Even if one commits the most abominable
actions, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because of his determination (Bg. 9.30).
The devotee understands that he does not deserve such mercy, and in fact he knows that he deserves to be cast out of
the Lord’s family of devotees, but he has nowhere else to go. He is so attached to the devotees because he loves them.
The Lord understands; ‘This is My devotee, and he is in danger. Let Me go and save him immediately.’

On the other hand, if someone chooses to go to the Lord on the strength of his intelligence and austerities (jnani). He
may be situated fine while he is receiving guidance and blessings from his masters, but once he leaves the path and
commits offenses, he is doomed! His offenses will drag him down, and the Lord will not come to save him because he
is full of pride. The jnani’s chosen path is not that of devotion to the Lord. His path is very difficult to tread, and he
does not see the Lord as his only shelter, therefore he does not call on the Lord from within his heart, and the Lord
therefore quite rightly does not come to save him in the same way that He saves the devotee who is surrendering to
the Lord’s will. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord states the rules as follows:

ye yatha mam prapadyante

tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah

As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son
of Prtha. (Bg. 4.11)

No need for ritualistic penances or prayascitta

5. “Perchance a devotee may commit a sin; still, he does not have to undertake the penance, or prayascitta,
recommended in the Vedas to atone for, and counteract it. Such sins are a passing phase; they will be
drowned in the nectar of the Holy Name. The devotee is not lost from the path of spirituality.
Commentary
This verse is displaying the true glory of the Lord’s Holy Name (it purifies one of sins, and qualifies one to become a
servant of the Lord). The Lord has invested all His transcendental energies in His Holy Name. This means all types of
austerities and penances are contained within the Holy Name also. So what is the need for performing any other type
of penance? Actually it is recommended that a devotee does not take to any other path for prayascitta. Except for
chanting with a remorseful heart full of contrition—this is called tapa.

If the sadhaka is sincerely trying to rectify his behavior it is to be understood that he has not fallen, but merely
slipped. Just as a child may occasionally fall when learning to walk, similarly a bhakta performing his sadhana may
on occasion fall—this is natural! The point is that his minor slips are a passing phase and all of his offensive behavior
will be drowned, and swept-away in the ecstasies of chanting the Holy Name. It has been recommended by Srila
Prabhupada that a devotee chants upto sixty-four rounds if the medication does not seem to be working, and here we
see a similar prescription from Sri Harinama Cintamani. Inadvertantly this text is saying; ‘chant and all will be well.’
‘Chant and be happy!’

6. “However, if a devotee commits another sin on the strength of chanting, then he is unsteady. He is a
deceitful person and is doomed due to his namaparadha. Sins happen in two ways: due to sudden weakness
or mistake, and by premeditation. There is a vast difference in these two.

Commentary
The Lord is very merciful to His devotees. He does not want any devotee to sin because the devotee’s sins will keep
him enslaved in the prision house of Devi-dhama. As Lord Krsna, the Lord’s Supreme potency is His will power, but
as Lord Gauranga His Supreme potency is His mercy potency. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu mercifully incarnated to
taste the sweetness of krsna-prema, and to distribute His remnants to all. Lord Nityananda is in charge of the Lord’s
plate of remnants. Please take them. Do not commit sin again and again. It is a weakness that will not be tolerated in
the Lord’s family of devotees because your sins will have an effect on others. For this reason alone, the Lord may
move a repeated sinner away from His protected flock.

Lord Gauranga is supremely merciful—this is undoubtedly true, but the sadhaka should quickly realize that Lord
Krsna is to be worshipped ‘as the enjoyer.’ It is not that we come to Lord Caitanya’s movement and be good for a
while, and then commit sin after sin. No! This simply will not do. If we commit sin after sin we will be known as
unsteady and deceitful.

Once Srila Prabhupada was asked what is the worst offence that a devotee can make? He replied; “to not uphold one’s
vows to the spiritual master.” He said it was deceitful, to promise something and then not do it.

These words of Sri Harinama Cintamani are harsh, but sometimes harsh words are needed to steer the sadhaka away
from danger. In this text we are first given the harsh treatment with strong words, but then we are given further
explanation as to why such harsh words have been used. The fact is that there is a vast difference between
premeditated sin and sudden weakness caused by old sinful habbits lingering in the consciousness. In this way we can
understand that the harsh words used here are not meant for the devotee, but for the pretender who is in the dress of a
devotee—and who commits sins on the strength of his chanting. This is not the hallmark of an aspiring devotee. As
previously stated in verse five; “Perchance a devotee may commit a sin; still, he does not have to undertake the
penance, or prayascitta, recommended in the Vedas to atone for and counteract it. Such sins are a passing phase; they
will be drowned in the nectar of the Holy Name. The devotee is not lost from the path of spirituality.”

Please therefore take solace in these words and be a genuine devotee. Repent and feel sorry for ever committing sins
and offenses, then the Lord will be kind and reinstate you in your original position.

Being inclined to sin is namaparadha

7. “A materialist has to perform prayascitta and repent bitterly if he commits sin. But if he commits sin on
the purifying strength of the Holy Name, then even prayascitta is futile. He faces certain ruination. Even
 after untold retribution in hell, he’ll not be absolved from this namaparadha. Just the inclination to sin itself
results in enough tribulation for the soul; if he further compounds his difficulties by deliberately
committing sin on the strength of chanting, his fate is most lamentable.

Commentary
The material world is a tough place for sinners. They neither receive happiness in the beginning, nor in the end. All
sinners end up with is trouble. A devotee is never a sinner, he is always a devotee. Thus, this text is not pertaining to
the Lord’s devotees. You may wonder then, why is it put in here if it has nothing to do with devotees who read Sri
Harinama Cintamani? You may think; “Oh, I see, we are learning about this so that we can preach by condemning the
materialist!” Actually, a sadhaka can learn a lot from this text.

So far in Sri Harinama Cintamani we have learned that the Lord is Supreme and full of unlimited oppulences and
greatness. We have learned that our position in relation to Him is that we are subservient to His will while we are
encaged in His prision house called the dhama, or abode of Maya-devi. We have also learned that there is a path back
to the Lord via chanting His internal names. As well as these things, we have learned that there is a definite path to
follow in vaidhi-bhakti and if we vere off this path we may deviate in our philosophical understandings of the
absolute truth—as in the case of pratibimba-abhasa chanting.

All this we have learned and more, and now we are learning that we are not classified as a devotee if we repeatedly
sin on the strength of our purifying process of chanting. Even worse than this, we are now learning that if we commit
sins that we have thought about and planned before we commit them, we are then classified as a materialist and not
even prayascitta will help our predicament.

We must clarify these points so that our sambhandha understanding is clear. In this way we can see the greatness of
Sri Harinama Cintamani as it gives the reader a very firm ground for his sambhandha understanding. When a
sadhaka has very firm sambhandha understanding, his faith is increased more and more. With clear understanding of
right from wrong, his path widens and his chanting increases his attachment for the Lord. Please do not commit a
premeditated sin on the strength of chanting.

Monkey renunciant

8. “The scriptures declare that the Holy Name is so potent that it can neutralize more sins than one can
commit even in a hundred million lifetimes. The most heinous of sins are counteracted just in the
namabhasa stage of chanting. That is why cheats and charlatans take up chanting the name: they forsake
the responsibilities of household drudgery and, hiding behind the renunciants attire, travel from country to
country. Their hearts are laden with desires for wealth and women. You have described such persons as
markata vairagis or ‘monkey renunciants.’

Commentary
markata-vairagya na kara loka dekhana
yatha-yogya visaya bhunja’ anasakta hana

You should not make yourself a showbottle devotee and become a false renunciant. For the time being,
enjoy the material world in a befitting way and do not become attached to it. (Cc. madhya-lila 16.238)

This is the Lord’s instructions to Raghunatha dasa before he was allowed to take the sannyasa-order. Lord Caitanya
was very much against false renunciants, as in the age of Kali people are easily led astray by such false leaders.
Raghunatha was tested by the Lord to see if he could become detached from material life while in an asrama that
encouraged attachement (the grihasta-asrama). Similarly, the spiritual master or ISKCON’s governing body (the
GBC), may test a candidate who wishes to take sannyasa. For this reason there is a trail-period before one is allowed
to take sannyasa in ISKCON. The candidate must first be recommended and then he must await a decision, which
may take several years. These years are to be considered a bona fide testing period, as the Lord is displaying this in
the example of Raghunatha Goswami. One must not become a false renunciant; ‘one must enjoy the material world in
relation to Sri Krsna while not becoming attached to it.’ This is the instruction from Caitanya-caritamrta.

The sannyasa-asrama is supposed to be showing the example of renunciation to society. If the example the society
sees is polluted with markata-vairagya, false renunciation, the general masses will loose a great deal. At first they will
be missled by such charlatans because it is impossible for such imposters to have any real spiritual knowledge or
potency, and second they will loose faith in the structure of the sannyasa order, thereby again loosing because they
will then shun the few renunciants who are genuine. To help in the matter of explaining this to the general public,
Lord Caitanya chose Raghunatha dasa (amongst others) to display the quality of true renunciation. Raghunatha was
from a very wealthy aristocratic family and he became one of the most famous renunciants of the modern day. By his
example people can now know real renunciation from fake. Srila Rupa Goswami has given further instructions to the
renunciant in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu as follows:

yavata syat sva-nirvahah svi-kuryat tavad artha-vit

adhikye nyunatayam ca cyavate paramarthatah

The bare necessities of life must be accepted, but one should not superfluously increase his necessities.
Nor should they be unnecessarily decreased. One should simply accept what is necessary to help one
advance spiritually. (Nod. 1.2.108)

From this sloka, and the example of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotee’s, we can see the standard for a
renunciant. In the example set by Sri Caitanya Himself, we see that the Lord used to lie down on a simple bed made
from leaves, and this was only on the request of His great devotees. There is one pastime where Jagadananda wanted
the Lord to lay on a comfortable bed, but the Lord refused to do this so that he could set the example for all sannyasis
to follow. From this we can see that a sannyasi may accept those things favorable for devotional service, but he
should be very careful of accepting things that create a materially comfortable situation.

Namabhasa chanting can purify more sins than a person is able to commit in millions of births, but if one sins on the
strength of chanting, he is doomed. Having a bona fide path, Vaisnavas should guard very carefully their heritage by
propounding attentive chanting. They should not allow false charlatans enter into their society. In order for the society
to grow and develop in the correct way, ISKCON, or ISKCON’s members must set up educational institutions, and
sanctuaries for devotees to meet the strict standards that promote one to the level of a Vaisnava and enable one to
chant the Holy Names of the Lord congregationally (sankirtan). To this end the International Society for Education in
Krsna Consciousness (ISEKC) has been formed, and devotees are welcome to participate in this internal society of
Vaisnavas.

This namaparadha is inevitable for the cheaters

9. “Some people playact as renunciants while maintaining a household mentality. These men are dead weights
upon mother earth and human society, and should be avoided. A devotee who has taken shelter of the Holy
Name can live in any situation—in household life or in the forest as a hermit. If the household situation is
conducive to chanting, then the life of a mendicant is unnecessary and wrong; but if household life is
unfavorable, the devotee is duty-bound to forsake home. It is a terrible offense to commit sins on the strength
of chanting; this offender is forever banished from the path of devotional service.

Commentary
Srila Srivas Pandita did not take sannyasa because his home life did not merit it. Neither did Sri Advaita Gosai or
Nityananda, or many more of Lord devotees. However, other devotees of Lord Caitanya, such as Raghunatha dasa,
Rupa, and Sanatana Goswamis, did leave their wifes, families, and asrama in order to become mendicants. It can
therefore be concluded that one need not leave home, or change one’s asrama if that particular asrama life is
favorable for chanting and service, indeed Sri Harinama Cintamani says; “it is unnecessary and wrong!” Perchance
one does desire to leave home and become a mendicant beggar; Sri Harinama Cintamani instructs; ‘a devotee must
not change asramas unless he has given up the desire for enjoying material life within his heart.’ Renunciation first
takes place in the heart of the individual, the outer dress of a mendicant is but a disguise if the heart is longing for
material comforts. There are countless examples of true renunciation in the pastimes of Sri Caitanya; for the Lord
came to teach the path back to Godhead via His own example and the lives of His eternal associates. We can learn
from the Lord’s words in this regard—the Lord said:

apane karimu bhakta-bhava angikare

apani acari' bhakti sikhamu sabare

I shall accept the role of a devotee, and I shall teach bhakti to everyone by practicing it Myself. (Cc.
adi-lila 3.20)

In the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna enquires about the difference between renunciation and
sannyasa. This can be seen in the verse ‘sannyasasya maha-baho.’ (Bg. 18.01) The Lord’s reply to Arjuna’s
question was:

kamyanam karmanam nyasam

sannyasam kavayo viduh
sarva-karma-phala-tyagam
prahus tyagam vicaksanah

The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great learned men call the
renounced order of life (sannyasa). And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call
renunciation. (tyaga)

From this sloka we can understand that a sadhaka-devotee must give up activities to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
When he does, he is called a tyagi and he is rightly situated in his determination. Now, the part of this sloka that
discusses the sannyasa-asrama is that such a person must give up all activities that are based on material desire. That
is the same instruction that was given to Raghunathadasa from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It can be concluded from
this that the premise for a person who wishes to enter into the sannyasa-asrama is that he must first give up the desire
to enjoy the world and then give up all activities that are based on material desires. In other words, such a person’s
desires should be only that of pleasing Sri Krsna, his worshipable Lord. The sannyasi vows to serve the Lord with
body, mind, and words. To symbolize this, a sannyasi carries a tridanda, and is known by the name tridandi-sannyasi.
Because the sannyasa-asrama does not have so many rules of control, it can be concluded that a devotee should not
take up this asrama unless he is fit for it.

10. “Devotees in the namabhasa stage of chanting must beware of such cheating company because it will have
an evil influence on them. They will fall into committing this dreaded namaparadha. Those who chant the pure
name are free from namaparadha.

Commetary
There are different types of bad association (asat-sange), and one of them is highlighted here; ‘to keep company with
cheaters.’ If one wishes to progress one must be careful of always choosing good association. If one associates with
people who are not sincere and who are indeed false, then the chances are that some of their cheating mentality will
rub off. It is not possible to be friends, or associates with someone and not have their influences rub off on you.
Therefore, we are herein warned away from all types of bad association and, ofcourse even though it is not stated
herein, we are nevertheless being informed that we should keep good associton simply by being informed of the
negative results that come about when one keeps asat-sange, bad association. That is, their association will cause you
to comit namaparadha.

Pure devotees are free from namaparadhas

11. “Devotees who have taken complete shelter of chanting the pure name are never prone to commit any of the
ten namaparadhas. The Holy Name itself protects the pure devotees who have surrendered themselves to the
pure name. But as long as the pure name has not dawned in the heart of the devotee, the danger of committing
namaparadha is always threatening. Therefore devotees in the namabhasa stage have particularly to avoid this
offense of committing sin on the strength of chanting.

Commentary

arthendriyarama-sagosthy-atrsnaya
tat-sammatanam aparigrahena ca
vivikta-rucya paritosa atmani
vina harer guna-piyusa-panat

One has to make progress in spiritual life by not associating with persons who are simply interested in
sense gratification and making money. Not only such persons, but one who associates with such
persons should be avoided. One should mold his life in such a way that he cannot live in peace without
drinking the nectar of the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari. One can be thus
elevated by being disgusted with the taste for sense enjoyment.
(SB. 4.22.23)

This sloka we have chosen from the Srimad-Bhagavatam is very instructive as it indicates the path to avoid
namaparadhas. One must live in the association of sadhus who have taken complete shelter of the Holy Name, and
who are thus freed from committing namaparadhas. So the next question that arrises is; where to find these sadhus?

Lord Caitanya stated that a Vaisnava devotee is of three types, one who has chanted the Holy Name of the Lord purely
once, one who chants the Holy Name constantly, and one who causes others to chant merely upon being seen. With
these guidelines you can now find the sadhus and serve them accordingly.

Sometimes a sadhaka may think; “this person is not a sadhu as I can see faults in his character.” To this Sri Harinama
Cintamani says, ‘a devotee must not be criticized for previous sins, or minor faults.’ They are like spots on the moon.
A devotee can only be apprechiated by another devotee, thus if you are caught in the habit of finding fault you may
not be situated correctly in your devotional life, and this is a very dangerous position for a devotee to find himself in.
To change this Srimad-Bhagavatam instructs that one should live in the association of devotees and constantly drink
the nectar of the glorification of the Lord. In the Caitanya-caritamrta Lord Gauranga asks Ramananda Raya a very
nice question in regards to this point. The conversation went as follows:

sreyo-madhye kona sreyah jivera haya sara?

krsna-bhakta-sanga vina sreyah nahi ara

“Out of all auspicious and beneficial activities, which is best for the living entity?” Ramananda Raya
replied: “The only auspicious activity is association with the devotees of Krsna.” (Cc. madhya-lila
8.251)

In the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu Srila Rupa Goswami highlights six anarthas or bad habbits that destroy bhakti
and six items that enchance bhakti. These are as follows:

Six Bad Habbits

Atyahara overeating or too much collecting, prayasa overendeavoring, prajalpa idle talking,
niyamagraha too much attachment to or too much neglect of rules and regulations, jana-sanga
association with worldly-minded persons, laulya ardent longing or greed.

Six Good Qualities

Utsaha, enthusiasm, niscaya, confidence, dhairya patience, tat-tat-karma-pravartana various activities
favorable for devotional service, sanga-tyaga giving up the association of nondevotees, sadhu-vrtti
following in the footsteps of the previous acaryas.
In this way, when we follow the guidelines set down by the mahajanas and have everything explained very nicely by
our superiors we can practice abhideya, the process of attaining Krsna consciousness in the association of devotees.
This will render the aparadha of committing sins on the strength of chanting harmless. However, Sri Harinama
Cintamani is herein giving a warning that until one is situated on the pure platform there is still a chance of sinful
habits reoccurring. Therefore please take note of this instruction and search out your association carefully.

Carefully avoid offenses

12. “A devotee must seek the association of pure devotees who chant the Holy Name offenselessly, and should
be very alert against committing offenses. One who chants purely is of fixed mind and consciousness. He never
deviates from thoughts of Krsna, even for a moment. As long as one has not strengthened his chanting to this
point and has not fully surrendered to the Holy Name, he must be very vigilant to avoid offenses. He must
especially guard against the offense of committing sin on the strength of chanting. He should continuously
chant the Holy Name and thus attract his spiritual master’s mercy, which gives perfect knowledge of eternal
relationship. This knowledge contains the science of pure devotion and the pure Holy Name.

Commentary
This text is stating the same as we have highlighted in the commentary on the previous text. However, in this text we
also see that the spiritual master’s mercy gives perfect knowledge of our eternal relationship with the Lord. We can
not get this knowledge from studying scripture, nor learning Sanskrit quotes, or by becoming an intellectual. Realized
knowledge of Krsna is revealed in the heart of the aspirant via the causeless mercy of his spiritual master—this is
called bhakti-yoga. There is a profound truth revealed in these words.

Remedy for this aparadha

13. “If by some error this namaparadha is committed, one must search out the assembly of pure Vaisnavas. The
propensity to sin is like a highway robber who accosts the wayfarer. The pure devotees are the guardians of the
path who come to one’s aid when the devotee calls aloud for their help. Just hearing that call, the robber
immediately runs away, fearing that the guards will come. The guardians, the pure Vaisnavas, will console the
devotee with soothing words and assurances of their protection.”

Commentary
Here the sadhaka has been given a formula for regaining his position should he make an error of judgment and a
commit sin. He should seek refuge in the association of a group of learned Vaisnava devotees of the Lord. In their
association he should hear the glories of the Lord and chant His Holy Name with repentance. The five limbs of bhakti
are as follows:

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana

mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana
sakala-sadhana-srestha ei panca anga
krsna-prema janmaya ei pancera alpa sanga

One should associate with devotees, chant the Holy Name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam,
reside at Mathura, and worship the Deity with faith and veneration. These five limbs of devotional
service are the best of all. Even a slight performance of these five awakens love for Krsna. (Cc.
madhya-lila 22.128-129)

Also, In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how the sages always keep themselves immersed in Krsna’s pastimes by
constantly hearing and chanting of His glories. In this way they rise up through the various stages until they finally
reach the platform of the pure unadulterated uttama-adikari, a Vaisnava of the first class. In this connection the sages
speak the following to Suta Goswami:

vayam tu na vitrpyama
 uttama-sloka-vikrame
yac-chrnvatam rasa-jnanam
svadu svadu pade pade

We never tire of hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, who is glorified by
hymns and prayers. Those who have developed a taste for transcendental relationships with Him relish
hearing of His pastimes at every moment. (SB. 1.1.19)

With these simple instructions we are led away from sin because sin can not stay where there is purity. Purity is a
much stronger force as within purity there is no chance of sinning (there can be no darkness when one is looking into
the light). Sin comes when we forget the Lord, so the instructions in this verse point to the fact that we must
remember the Lord in order to free ourselves from sin.

We have previously learned that the Lord is situated in the heart of His pure devotee, so from this we can understand
that the best way to be free from sin is to serve and associate with the pure representatives of the Lord, the Vaisnava
devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

I, the author of Harinama Cintamani, am a useless wretch; I impart this composition, having taken
shelter of pure Vaisnavas.

Commentary
Herein lies the secret of success.

Chapter Ten
Instructing the Glories of the
Holy Name to the Faithless

All glories to Lord Sri Gauranga, the life of Sri Gadadhara Pandit; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the heart of
Srimati Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to Srila Srivas
Pandit, and to all the devotees of Lord Caitanya.

Sraddha is essential for chanting the name

1. With his hands folded, and in a soft voice, Srila Haridasa Thakura said, “Now please hear about another
namaparadha. The first essential requirement for chanting Krsna's Holy Name is sraddha or firm faith. One
who is bereft of it cannot hear the name and is therefore unfit to chant. High birth, respectable family,
knowledge, strength, learning or wealth are not qualities that make a person eligible to chant the name. The
scriptures extol sraddha to be the one indispensable ingredient for proper chanting. Lord Krsna's name is the
jiva's most valuable treasure. Sraddha means to have complete conviction that chanting Lord Krsna's name
will automatically fulfill all duties and complete all pious activities. Those who do not possess such faith are
unfit to chant.

Commentary
In order to hear the message of the bhagavat, and to chant the Lord’s name, a person must have performed some kind
of pious activity in a previous lifetime. From the punya gained from pious activities a person may receive the mercy
of a devotee and begin to chant. Being the age of Kali, people are unfortunately lacking in punya, and therefore can
not chant the Holy Name. Being the lowest of the low enables everyone born in Kali-yuga to receive Lord Caitanya’s
mercy, and it is Lord Caitanya’s devotees who give this mercy in the form of harinama sankirtana. Hearing the Holy
Name sung by the sweet voices of the Lord’s devotees, the person engaged in sinful activities begins their devotional
carreier via anjanata-sukriti, (unknown pious activities) in the form of bhakti-unmukhi. If devotees do not go out on
sankirtana, giving the Holy Name to those who would otherwise not hear it, or if the devotees do not chant aloud,
thereby giving opportunity to everthing that hears the sound vibration of the Holy Name, then what chance to the
inhabitants of Kali-yuga have?
In this verse it is stated that a person is not eligible to chant, simply by high birth, coming from a respectable
family, being knowledgeable, strong, or is vastly learned, or rich. All of these things may indicate facility for one
conditioned soul to show dominion above another in one area or another, but they are not causes of a person’s ability
to chant. That only comes from sraddha, and sraddha develops in the association of devotees. In this text we receive a
clear definition of the word sraddha, which means ‘to have complete conviction that chanting Lord Krsna's name will
automatically fulfill all duties and complete all pious activities.’ This is sraddha real! One must have implicit
determined faith that the Holy Name alone is one’s savior. The Lord gives this instruction Himself sarva dharma
parityaja. “Abandon all varieties of religion and surrender unto Me. I will deliver you, do not fear!” This verse from
Bhagavad-gita gives faith to the person who believes totally in Krsna’s words. If therefore, a devotee takes Krsna’s
words “as they are” and surrenders himself accordingly, he will attain all success. This point should be clear in the
minds of all aspiring deovtees who are attempting to perform devotional service on their own merits.

Instructing the faithless about the Holy Name

2. “According to Vaisnava etiquette, a person who does not have sraddha for the name should not be initiated
into chanting. If a faithless person is initiated into chanting or is instructed about the glories of the Holy Name,
he will only defile and disrespect the name. This is the statement of the scripture. The swine will crush the
pearls strewn before it and the monkey will tear the cloth it is given. A faithless person will similarly commit
increasing offenses to the Holy Name and thus invite his doom. Simultaneously, the initiating guru will be
dragged down by his share in these offenses; very soon, he will leave the path of devotional service.

Commentary
This text indicates a scriptural injunction. One on the level of guru must not initiate a faithless person, or give
instructions based on guru disciple relationship. There must be a period of testing before a disciple is considered fit
for initiation, and when the guru personally sees some degree of sincerity and repentance, further relationship in the
form of personal instruction and initiation may follow. It is true that a devotee may hold an open invitation for all
people to attend a discussion on the bhagavat-purana, but as far as instructions about the glories of chanting Krsna’s
names are concerned, there must be some formal cultivation and reciprocal behavior from the person in question, in
order to elicit the minimal amount of faith that is required. This is for the benefit of the faithless, who has been born
into Kali-yuga with the sole purpose of enjoying Krsna’s kingdom.

What to do if a faithless person wants initiation

3. “A faithless person may slyly come to the Vaisnava to beg initiation into chanting. The sadhu should see
through this ruse and refuse him initiation. The charlatan devotee presumes, 'The Holy Name of Krsna is the
all-purifying agent; once I've received the name I won't have to worry about committing sins. Besides, by
chanting all the time, people will respect and worship me as a Vaisnava—then I can extract a goodly amount of
service from them. The prestige I've lost by my sinful deeds will be regained fully by chanting. Another loss will
never occur again, and I shall enjoy immense material benefit', etc. The sadhu should demand of the pretender
full repentance of his dishonesty. To become worthy of initiation he must at once denounce his desires for
distinction and adoration, and should instead try to develop sraddha for the Holy Name.

Commentary
Inspiration from sadhu is the key to success. It is a sad fact that people will put on the face of an angel in order to
achieve their desires, and once they get what they want their natural demoniac tendencies come out. One on the level
of guru one should be advanced in the understanding of political dealings and should clearly see when such a cheater
puts forth his plea for initiation. For this reason some gurus have a waiting period of many years before they are
convinced of the devotee’s sincerity. Although this text may seem far removed from the western mentality and service
attitude shown by many sincere devotees, still we see that this kind of devotee is alive and thriving in the present day
ISKCON. Sri Harinama Cintamani is hereby giving reference to this kind of sinful mentality so that the leaders of
the society may understand this mentality and deal with it accordingly. All too often we see people in the dress of a
devotee who squirm their way into management positions and use this position as a way to receive money, respect,
and power. The instruction given in Sri Harinama Cintamani is as follows “The sadhu should demand of the
pretender full repentance of his dishonesty. To become worthy of initiation, he must at once denounce his desires for
distinction and adoration, and should instead try to develop sraddha for the Holy Name.” If, the guru is a true sadhu,
he will not be afraid of rectifying the behavior of the wayward disciple, or of the charlatan devotee. This is the verdict
of Sri Harinama Cintamani.

To speak a few words on the success of a group such as ISKCON, I would like to indicate that leaders of all projects,
such as temples, preaching centers, or farming communities, must have three prominent qualities. The success of a
project or the success of persons following under the guidance of a leader is directly related to the leader showing
these three qualities. They are:

1. Clarity
2. Courage
3. Humanity

To explain these three, we can say that a leader (whether he be guru, sannyasi, or temple president, etc) must be
advanced enough in his God conscious realizations so that his clarity of vision allows him to see things “as they are,”
and not as they are presented by Mayadevi in her different forms. After clearly understanding right from wrong
according to scriptural injunctions, such a leader must then have the courage to correct the wayward behavior of all
those who stray from the moral approach outlined in Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the teachings of Lord
Caitanya. However, such a leader must at all times have the best interest of his dependants and of humanity at large in
mind. This is called a true humanitarian! A first class leader must be concerned with giving the knowledge by which
people can relieve themselves of the burden of birth and death and become situated in their rightful positions as
servants of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. After saying this, we should also understand that people are on different
levels of advancement, and therefore plans for elevation and protection must be made to accommodate all. It is not
that we concern ourselves only with getting people to chant at the risk of other problems occurring, no, we must
create a nice situation that is conducive for chanting, and this can be done by expert caring leadership.

If any of the three qualities of clarity, courage, and humanity are missing in a leader, there is a danger for that group.
If two of these qualities are missing then certainly trouble will follow and the group will not thrive and grow correctly.
If all three of these qualities are missing, there is absolutely no chance of that group succeeding. This is my humble
opinion! As well as these good qualities, we can look into the anarthas that are prominent in the lives of the leaders,
and if they are not attended to by a senior, caring sadhu, then what chance do any of their followers have? With this in
mind, I urge you leaders (gurus, sannyasis, and GBC members) please do not allow charlatan devotees in a position
of leadership as they will surely cause ruination of the society.

4. “Only when sraddha for the Holy Name is present can one be initiated into chanting. The Holy Name then
takes the chanter across the ocean of material nescience. But as long as one has not developed sufficient faith in
the Holy Name, he is unfit to chant. One should hear the glories of the Holy Name from a saintly Vaisnava;
becoming humble by hearing his instructions, he must cast aside material desires and begin to chant. When the
Vaisnava spiritual master perceives the proper degree of sraddha in the candidate, he initiates him into the
greatest spiritual treasure—Krsna's Holy Name. But to initiate a faithless person is an abominable offense. The
guru goes to hell if he gives initiation to a faithless person for material benefit.

Commentary
After being introduced to the offense of “instructing the glories of the Holy Name to the faithless,” we are now being
guided to understand the confidential secret that sraddha is not only the preliminary qualification for chanting, but
that the Holy Name is the boat that takes the chanter across the ocean of darkness. Nescience is a word used to
describe the lack of God consciousness in an object—it implies darkness as opposed to light. Attempting to enjoy
material nature separate from the Lord is the cause of nescience. With this in mind I would like to discuss the positive
aspect of this offense, which is, instructing the faithful on the glories of chanting. This is the task of a sadhu, or saintly
Vaisnava.

It is only by the mercy of sadhu that we can chant the Holy Name of the Lord. It is not that we are qualified to do this,
and it is not that we are capable of doing this on our own. It is faulty logic to think that we have the qualifications of a
Vaisnava; the truth is that the merciful Vaisnava prays for the fallen souls, and through his merciful prayers the Lord
sends along further Vaisnavas to help in the mission of redeeming the fallen souls. It is therefore our obligation and
duty to serve them in their mission to the Lord, and by this humble service we may be blessed with the ability to hear
and chant the Lord’s Holy Name. After making this statement I would now like to put a request before all of my
readers. Can you help in this regard? Now, although I can not hear your response to this request, I would like to take
this matter a little further. Let us assume your reply was “yes, I would like to help.” So the next question that crops up
is “how do you help? Who shall you serve, and how shall you help to teach the fallen souls how to chant the names of
God when you yourself can not chant those names?” Are these fair comments to put before you? If so, let me try and
answer these comments, so that you can be engaged in service to the Vaisnvas even though you may have no
qualification for this.

Let us start with the premise that a degree sraddha or faith must be given to the general populace in order to bring
them to a beginning level of chanting. With this faith they may read Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita and begin to
understand that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Autocrat, and that His wish is imperative to their advancement. This may
lead them to associating with devotees and attending Bhagavatam classes, which will help them further to chant
sixteen rounds and receive harinama and brahmana initiation. So this degree of help is possible for most simple
devotees and for slightly more advanced devotees. However, from studying Sri Harinama Cintamani we are lead to
understand that chanting sixteen rounds is only the beginning of devotional life. If we are to help others access deeper
connection with the Lord, and access deeper connection ourselves, we must serve the madyama or uttama devotee. So
this brings us to the clear understanding that the kanista, or beginner, must serve the more advanced, madyama. The
devotee on the beginning level must understand that a kanista bhakta is not fit to receive service. Instead he will be
elevated only if he gives his service. When this point is clearly understood a devotee can advance his Krsna
consciousness via serving and associating with the devotee situated on the higher platforms. Srila Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura states “a true Vaisnava is measured by his degree of purity, depth of bhakti, and his capacity to inspire
others.” (for my own reference only – Caitanya-siksamrta p116) In this text, Sri Harinama Cintamani states the
following:

One should hear the glories of the Holy Name from a saintly Vaisnava; becoming humble by hearing
his instructions, he must cast aside material desires and begin to chant. When the Vaisnava spiritual
master perceives the proper degree of sraddha in the candidate, he initiates him into the greatest
spiritual treasure—Krsna's Holy Name.

From the words of this text we can see that a saintly Vaisnava has the power invested in him to give faith to the
devotee who pleases him. With this faith, the devotee may begin to deepen his relationship with the Lord via chanting
the Lord’s Holy Names, and when connection with the Holy Name is present a devotee advances to the point of
krsna-prema. With advancement comes the ability to bless or to instill a greater degree of faith in another, and
receiving a greater degree of faith or the blessings of a Vaisnva is the key to a devotee’s success. Now in the modern
day ISKCON, which is a society headed by a very saintly Vaisnava (Srila Prabhupada), we can see that there is a need
for devotees to begin to deepen their relationship with the Lord via chanting His Holy Name’s, and it is a fact that this
opportunity is available to all the followers of Srila Prabhupada. It can not be that Srila Prabhupada, or another saintly
Vaisnava, will not give the faith to the sincere sadhaka who wishes to chant more. It must only be that the sadhaka
does not wish to chant more because he is not his renouncing material desires. Why is he not renouncing material
desires?

He is not renounouncing material desires because he is not learning this from sadhu, and he is not learning this from
sadhu because he is not chanting correctly, or sufficiently. He is not chanting sufficiently because he is weak-hearted,
and he is weak-hearted because he is committing aparadha against the Holy Name. He is committing aparadha
against the Holy Name because he is inattentive to the name, and he is inattentive to the name because his faith is
weak! So what has gone wrong? The answer to this question lies at the lotus feet of the sadhus. If you want to help,
then you must become sadhu, and to become sadhu means to please sadhu via incessant faithful chanting. This is
imperative!

5. “If the guru knows that the person who has approached him for initiation is an insincere, faithless pretender,
yet he heedlessly initiates him simply for material gain, he commits a heinous offense against the Holy Name. If
the guru was unable to make a correct assessment, and thinking the disciple to be sincere and faithful gave him
initiation, only to later discover that he is a pretender, he must make immediate redress for his mistake.

Remedy for the namaparadha

6. “If by inadvertence and lack of experience, a mistake such as instructing and initiating a faithless person
occurs, the initiating spiritual master should be filled with fear and remorse. He has to publicize his offense
before the Vaisnava community and reject that insincere disciple, excommunicating him. If the guru fails to act
promptly, he'll gradually sink into the depths of moral depravity and illusion, and be disenfranchised from the
path of devotion. O Lord Caitanya, Your instructions to those You have ordained to propagate the Holy Name
warn exactly about this.

Commentary
There is a very nice descriptive word used to get the point across in this text. The word is ‘disenfranchised,’ and the
sentence reads. ‘If the guru fails to act promptly, he'll gradually sink into the depths of moral depravity and illusion,
and be disenfranchised from the path of devotion.’ The meaning of this is that the path of Krsna consciousness may
have many branches but all are franchise of the original stemming from Lord Caitanya. Some of the synonyms of the
word franchise are; ‘permit, authorization, license.’ Therefore, to keep that license from being invoked the guru who
initiates a faithless person must first attempt to discipline and correct the wayward behavior of the materially minded
disciple, and if all is failing, and the disciple is committing offenses to the Holy Name of the Lord, the guru must at
that time rectify his mistake and excommunicate the disciple, or else the guru himself will receive excommunication
—becoming disenfranchised from his leadership role in Krsna consciousness. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu warned
about this in the following examples:

ADD INSERT OF SLOKA STATING THIS PROBLEM

Lord Caitanya's instructions to preachers

7. “You have explained that preachers must properly instruct the sraddhavan (persons with sraddha) about the
Holy Name of God. In this way the whole world must be inundated with the chanting of the glories of the Holy
Name. With loud congregational chanting, the Holy Name should be propagated widely. Those who are sincere
will come forward and choose a bona fide guru, receiving initiation into the name from him. By sincere
chanting they will surely obtain love of Godhead, krsna-prema. Prostitutes, criminals, cheaters and other sinful
people should be made to give up their unrighteous, injurious ways; sincere sraddha should be implanted in
their hearts. When their sraddha in Krsna's Holy Name matures, they must receive initiation. This is the duty
of a preacher as he goes from place to place, teaching everyone.

Commentary
The word sraddhavan used in this text implies the person who has a degree of faith in the Lord. Without the initial
sraddha given from ajnanata sukriti, a person is bereft of faith. We have previously described that a devotee must
instruct the faithful person about the glories of the Lord, and with faithful loud congregational chanting the Holy
Name should be spread around the world without cesstation. This is the order of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The
faithful will come forward to hear more, and those will be further helped via the instructions and blessings of the
Vaisnavas. This has been described previously.

The result of this namaparadha

8. “If, without paying heed to Your instructions, a guru initiates an insincere pretender, he commits a grievous
offense for which he goes to hell. The namaparadhas committed by the charlatan disciple slowly but surely
diminish the guru's spiritual potency; finally the guru is ruined. This offense has a devastating effect on both
the guru and disciple: they both must enter hell.

Commentary
If a person is following Krsna consciousness according to scripture, he will not have to suffer the good or bad
reactions of his life after he leaves his body. However, if a guru, or any other person, falls from the path of Krsna
consciousness, he may have to enter hell. This is beyond my ability to comment upon.

Sraddha first, then initiation

9. “My dear Lord, You are very merciful to Jagai and Madhai. These brothers were born in a brahmana family,
but they became known as the worst reprobates in Navadvipa due to their virulently violent acts. Their original
names were Jagadananda and Madhavananda. First You invoked sraddha in them and then You gave them the
Holy Name. O Lord, Your character and activities are exemplary; they shine like beacons across the world. Let
everyone follow Your wonderful example.”

Commentary
Jagadananda and Madhavananda were born into a brahmana family and so had a very good opportunity to become
good honest people. From childhood they were taught the ways of brahminical life, but at one stage they became
covered and led into sinful activities via bad association. These two brothers were on the royal road to hell, and were
set to remain there for a very long time. After receiving the mercy of the lotus eyed Lord Nityananda nitai pada-
kamalam, Lord Gauranga mercifully instructed Jagai and Madhai, and with these instructions invoked sraddha (faith
for chanting the Holy Names) in them. Both Jagadananda and Madhavananda showed true remorse for their sinful
behavior, and it was this remorse (tapa-repentance) that gave them the opportunity to receive the Holy Name. Upon
receiving the Holy Name, and chanting incessantly with faith and love, Jagadananda and Madhavananda sought
forgiveness from everyone they had offended. Remaining at the bathing ghat these two great sinners begged
forgiveness from everyone who came to bathe, because they knew that in some way or other their offenses had caused
everyone hardship. Upon receiving the blessings of the Vaisnavas Jagadananda and Madhavananda became humble,
and with this humble attitude they received the mercy of the Lord.

Both Jagadananda and Madhavananda were two extremely sinful characters that display the mercy of Lord Gauranga
and His Holy Name, and their pastimes of repentance act like beacons guiding people away from sinful behavior.
However, the real test of the Lord’s mercy is to deliver a person such as I, who am one thousand times a greater sinner
than Jagai and Madhai. In the case of Jagai and Madhai, the Lord requested them to never sin again and in this way
He took on board their sinful reactions. However in my case, I continue to commit offenses to the Holy Name, and
after many many lifetimes of trying, still I can not utter the names of the Lord. When oh when will that day come,
when I can rise to the level of Jagai and Madhai, and receiving the causeless mercy of the Lord, never again commit
offenses to the Holy Name while I sing and dance in ecstasy.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Those who are servants of Vaisnavas will find in this Harinama Cintamani a priceless gem.

CHAPTER 11
Equating Chanting with Pious Activities
All glories to Lord Gauracandra, the very incarnation of the Holy Name; all glories to the Holy Name of the
Supreme Lord! The Lord's Holy Name is the essence of all Vedic conclusions.

The original form and status of the Holy Name

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura continued, “O Lord, other pious activities can never be equal to chanting the name.
The Supreme Lord is the transcendental sun, and His divine form is fully spiritual; this is the wonderful and
mysterious truth. All His Deity forms are absolute. They are transcendental just like His name, abode,
pastimes, etc. All His direct names are nondifferent from Him, unlike objects made of inert matter, which are
separate from their names. The Holy Name of the Lord chanted by the pure devotee descends directly from
Goloka, the spiritual sky. The pure name then emanates out of his soul and permeates his entire body, dancing
on the top of his tongue. One who chants with this understanding is actually chanting the name; otherwise, one
who nourishes a material concept of the name is drowned in despondency. He suffers eternally in hell, and a
devotee should never see his face.

Commentary
The Supreme Lord, His form as the Deity, the Holy Name, and anything else connect to Him, such as His pastimes,
Holy Dhamas, etc, are all transcendental to material nature. They can never be equated to anything material; they are
one hundred percent spiritual. When the Holy Name is chanted by the lips of the pure devotee, it stems forth from his
very soul. The spirit soul is always connected with the Lord in the spiritual world. She (being prakrti) is never
contaminated by material nature. Similarly, the Lord’s Holy Name, being non-different from the Lord, stems forth
from the spiritual stratum and comes out of the lips of the pure devotee on the desire of the devotee, who constantly
chants and meditates on the Lord. Srila Rupa Goswami explains the nectar of chanting Krsna’s name in his
Namastaka.

suditasrita-janarti-rasaye
ramya-cid-ghana sukha-svarupine
nama gikula-mahotsavaya te
krsna purna-vapuse namo namah

O Hari-nama! O Krsna! You destroy the miseries of those who take Your shelter. For Your devotees
You are very charming and delightful. Your form is the personification of knowledge and bliss, and
therefore You are a festival for the residents of Gokula. I bow down again and again before You, whose
form is fully spiritual like Vaikuntha (Namastaka verse 7)

If a devotee chants the Lord’s name, understanding that it is non-different from the Lord Himself, he will eventually
succeed in his attempts to cross over the material ocean. At first the sadhaka’s anarthas prevent him from chanting the
pure name. If offenses are being committed while chanting, that chanting is termed as namaparadha. Chanting
namaparadha has been likened to chanting the letters of the alphabet. However, the specific letters of the alphabet in
the words Hare Krsna do spell out the Lord’s name, and for this reason there will always be benefit for the chanter.
Further advanced chanting sees the sadhaka chanting namabhasa. Providing the sadhaka’s consciousness is not
polluted with distortions in the scriptural conclusions (pratibimba-abhasa) progress can be made, and with faith the
anartha stage will be traversed (chanting in the stage of chaya-sraddha-abhasa). The person who chants with the
polluted understanding given from the mayavadi mentality is doomed to go to hell. Chanting the Lord’s name, while
committing the offense of materially interpretating the name, will not award him substantial progress. Such a person
should be avoided so as to not contaminate your consciousness. The understanding of a devotee is that Krsna, His
Name, and His Deity form, all the same spiritual entity, the Supreme entity, Bhagavan Sri Krsna. The Lord’s Holy
Name is described nicely in the following quote found in the Caitanya-caritamrta, quoted from the Padma Purana:

nama cintamanih krsnas

 caitanya-rasa-vigrahah
purnah suddho nitya-mukto
’bhinnatvan nama-naminoh

The Holy Name of Krsna is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is
Krsna Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Krsna’s name is complete, and it is the form of all
transcendental mellows. It is not a material name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than
Krsna Himself. Since Krsna’s name is not contaminated by the material qualities, there is no question
of its being involved with maya. Krsna’s name is always liberated and spiritual; the laws of material
nature never condition it. This is because the name Krsna and Krsna Himself are identical. (Cc.
madhya-lila. 17.133)

2. “The scriptures have unequivocally declared the Supreme Lord Krsna to be the only subject and object of
research, and the process to find Him has likewise been clearly indicated. According to the individual
researcher's abilities, this singular process became many. Thus different paths like karma, jnana, bhakti etc.
sprang up. Those who are engrossed in materialism are recommended to pursue the path of karma for
purification of consciousness. For souls deluded by the illusion of maya, the suggested path is cultivation of
monistic philosophy. And for the rest of the jivas, pure devotional service is most suitable.

Commentary
The Vedas are the law books of God, and all the Vedas become aligned at the ultimate conclusion that Lord Krsna is
the object of all research. People who study the Vedas are known as spiritual scientists, or spiritualists. Now, there are
many types of spiritualists as people are situated under different mixtures of the modes. Fruitive work is specified as
the path for those with a materialistic view of the world, and the path of jnana is prescribed for those with a little
more developed consciousness. This has been discussed previously. As for the devotees, they should cultivate pure
devotional service beginning with serving the pure devotee, and culminating in pure loving exchanges with the Lord.
A devotee does not need to take any secondary path when the primary path of chanting has been given. This is
indicated in the words “And for the rest of the jivas, pure devotional service is most suitable.”

What is karma?

3. “Persons absorbed in material life begin to worship the Supreme Lord out of fear of death. The Lord's lotus
feet are the perfect shelter, free from anxiety. They are the only means to cross over the unlimited ocean of
nescience. But when the process to obtain the protection of the Lord becomes colored by material motives, it
becomes mundane. Even though the Lord is being worshipped, because the process of worship is mundane, it is
known as pious activity or subhakarma. Subhakarma includes: altruistic work, sacrifices, ablutions and holy
baths, fire sacrifices, charity, yoga, the practice of varnasrama-dharma, pilgrimages, vows, offerings to the
forefathers, meditation, cultivation of empirical knowledge, propitiation of demigods, penances, austerities, etc.
All these activities are on the mundane platform. Gradually, through this mundane process, the performer
obtains the goal of all his performances: the Supreme Lord. At this juncture, he abandons the temporary
mundane process. He is not attracted any more to its material ways, for he now knows the genuine essence of
all religious duties. He has found devotional service to the Lord, bhakti.

Commentary
All living entities have four necessities in common. They are; ahara, nidra, bhaya and maithuna (eating, sleeping,
fearing and mating). Out of these the principle of fearing in the most prominent and the only way to relive this fear is
to become situated at the lotus feet of Sri Krsna. Out of fear of death, (which comes to all as Krsna in His form of
kala) the living entity begins to worship the Supreme. However, because the living entity’s consciousness is perverted
and polluted with the concept of being the enjoyer, his worship is always tainted with material motives. His
selfishness leads him to follow the Vedas, which provide ample information for the jiva to raise his consciousness via
following the paths of karma, and jnana. By performing work connected to raising his consciousness, or helping other
living entities do the same, the embodied living entity gradually moves closer to the Lord via performing subhakarma
(pious activities).
The various paths of subhakarma outlined in the Vedas, and mentioned in this text, are ultimately meant to bring one
to the platform of performing bhakti-yoga, but they are secondary paths that may take many millions of births to
conclude. The primary path outlined as a part of the cult of bhakti is the chanting of Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna
Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, in a loving mood. Understanding this, why would a
sober person consider any other path? Simply because he has his own motives of enjoyment in mind! In this way, the
living entity that chooses a secondary path (such as the varnasrama path) to worship the Lord, is simply not ready for
the process of chanting, which entails surrendering one’s life and consciousness to the will of the Supreme. In this
regard we can take instruction from one of the mahajanas, Sri Pralad Maharaja.

sri-prahlada uvaca
tat sadhu manye 'sura-varya dehinam
sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat
hitvatma-patam grham andha-kupam
vanam gato yad dharim asrayeta

Prahlada Maharaja replied: O best of the asuras, king of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master,
any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety
because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position
and go to the forest (vana). More clearly, one should go to Vrndavana, where only Krsna consciousness is prevalent,
and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (SB. 7.5.5)

Now that the best path of cultivating pure devotion to the Lord has been indicated, we are herein given further
instructions on this path. Bhakti-yoga and karma-misra-bhakti are two different things. A part of the list of
subhakarmas is varnasrama-dharma, which is considered to be a pious activity, but not the primary means to attain
the Lord. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has since given the formula for a devotee, which is to chant incessantly the names
of the Lord in a humble state of mind. If one can not do this, then a secondary path may be implemented, but we
should be very clear about the fact that this secondary path is merely a pious way of living. It is not pure bhakti! Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructs us in the following way.

sadhu-sange krsna-nama’ — ei-matra cai

samsara jinite ara kona vastu nai

The only desirable goal is to chant harinama in the association of pure and saintly devotees. This is the
best and only way to conquer nescience. (Jaiva Dharma p 95)

The best course for a serious aspirant to take is to seek shelter under the lotus feet of a pure devotee and learn from
him the science of how to chant attentively a minimum of sixteen rounds per day. Once this has been mastered this
amount should be increased to sixty-four. Then further to one hundred rounds per day, and then further still, until all
of his time is taken up in remembering the lotus feet of the Lord. The glories of the Holy are explained very nicely in
the following song by an anonymous Vaisnava. Singing this song, hearing this song, or even reading the words of this
song bring great joy to the heart of a devotee.

Madhuram Madhurebhyo
Sri kevvalastakam

More sweet than all other sweet things, more auspicious than all other auspicious things, the greatest
purifier of all purifying things—the Holy Name of Sri Hari alone is everything

The entire universe, from Lord Brahma down to the lowly clump of grass, is a product of the illusory
energy of the Supreme Lord. The only thing that is reality, reality, again I say reality—the Holy Name
of Sri Hari alone is everything
 That person is a true preceptor, or a true father, a true mother, and a true friend, only if they teach one
to always remember—the Holy Name of Sri Hari alone is everything

There is no certainty when the last breath will come and put an abrupt end to one’s material plans.
Therefore it is wise to always practice chanting from very childhood—the Holy Name of Sri Hari
alone is everything

Lord Hari eternally dwells in that place where truly exalted, spiritually advanced souls sing in the
mood of pure devotion—the Holy Name of Sri Hari alone is everything

Alas, what sorrow, what a great sorrow! More painful than any other misery in the world. Mistaking it
as a mere piece of glass, the people have forgotten this jewel—the Holy Name of Sri Hari alone is
everything

It should be heard again and again with one’s ears. It should be uttered over and over with one’s voice.
It should be perpetually sung and sung anew—the Holy Name of Sri Hari alone is everything

It makes the entire universe seem as insignificant as a blade of grass. It slanderously reigns supreme
over all. It is full of eternally conscious divine ecstasy. It is supremely pure—the Holy Name of Sri
Hari alone is everything

The process of pious activities or subhakarma

4. “The jiva's contact with matter gives rise to his discontent and suffering. This is all by the master plan of
Providence, which gradually guides the jiva to perfection. The conditioned souls cannot exist without close
contact with matter. All their activities and thoughts are intimately woven into the fabric of materialism. Pious
activities (subhakarma) provide the means for the jiva to approach pure devotion through material contact.
Therefore, subhakarma is indeed a viable path for any conditioned soul to approach the ultimate goal, love of
Godhead. Yet one fact must be clearly stated: reaching perfection through subhakarma is a time-consuming
affair. The ultimate object is krsna-prema, which is fully spiritual; but subhakarma is mundane. Thus there is a
gulf of distance between the means and the objective.

Commentary
Ultimately all contact with the material nature is aimed at producing discontentment. The further away from the light
of God consciousness one’s consciousness has sunk, the more rapidly discontentment, pain, and fear become
apparent. The bhagavad-gita gives knowledge that actions done for sacrifice, austerity, penance, or other pious
activities take one closer to the mode of goodness, which is conducive for spiritual life. However, ultimately all
situations in the material world are temporary and illusory. In chapter fourteen of the Bhagavad-gita we hear the
following:

karmanah sukrtasyahuh
sattvikam nirmalam phalam
rajasas tu phalam duhkham
ajnanam tamasah phalam

The result of pious action is pure and is said to be in the mode of goodness. But action done in the
mode of passion results in misery, and action performed in the mode of ignorance results in
foolishness. (Bg. 14.16)

Sri Harinama Cintamani is giving good advice that the conditioned living entities consciousness is interwoven with,
or inseparable from, material nature. His desires are material and his body with which he experiences his desires
through, is also material, whether it be gross or subtle. We are being warned that although pious activities are a path to
the ultimate end of attaining relationship with the Lord, they are also a very slow path. An unfortunate soul born in
Kali-yuga does not have so much time as all inhabitants of Kali-yuga are short-lived. Understanding this, he can turn
his unfortunate position of taking birth in Kali-yuga into a very fortunate position by joining the sankirtana
movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. After having said this I am astonished at how few people are taking this
chanting as their life and soul, even after joining the movement and receiving the mercy of Srila Prabhupada. Instead,
these days I hear much talk from the leaders of ISKCON, publicly discussing ways of implementing varnasrama-
dharma into the spiritual society of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. According to sastra there is some validity in
implementing varnasrama-dharma, but for a spiritual movement that is headed by the Supreme Personality of
Godhead in His most munificent and merciful incarnation, this should come as a last resort. Sri Harinama Cintamani
is herein giving clear instructions that all forms of subhakarma or pious activities are secondary paths and take a long
time to come to fruition. The exact teachings of this verse are as follows:

Therefore, subhakarma is indeed a viable path for any conditioned soul to approach the ultimate goal,
love of Godhead. Yet one fact must be clearly stated: reaching perfection through subhakarma is a
time-consuming affair. The ultimate object is krsna-prema, which is fully spiritual; but subhakarma is
mundane. Thus there is a gulf of distance between the means and the objective.

The means is the process to attain perfection, and in the subhakarma system the objective is tainted with material
motives concerning the “I and mine” principle. The idea is that at some point the living entity will learn the
foolishness of his deluded endeavors and take to the pure path. On the pure path the jiva is also given a means, but
this means ultimately becomes his objective. This is the gulf of difference outlined in this verse from Sri Harinama
Cintamani. Krsna-prema, which is the objective of the path of bhakti, has nothing to do with the mundane world. It is
one hundred percent spiritual, without any contamination at all (unalloyed). Therefore chanting is not subhakarma
and to think so is offensive. Chanting is the principle means for reviving our dormant love of Godhead.

With any form of pious activities the path of getting back to Godhead via subhakarma entails traveling through all the
planetary systems and being dropped off at any one that attracts your attention. It is a time consuming affair to take
birth on many heavenly planets. The path of bhakti-yoga is not like that. Krsna is the lover, Krsna is the father, Krsna
is the brother, the friend, the object of service—Krsna is to be respected and honored. All of these are aspects of
bhakti-yoga, but taking Krsna to be the person who fulfills our material desires is not a part of bhakti-yoga. Please be
clear on this point! When you next go before the Deity (who is non-different from the Lord) please do not ask
anything of Krsna. Instead ask how you can serve Him! This is a part of bhakti-yoga. Sukadeva Goswami states the
following in this regard.

My dear King, what is unattainable for one who has satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the
shelter of the goddess of fortune? Even so, those who are dedicated to His devotional service never
want anything from Him. (SB. 10.39.2)

At the moment the leaders of ISKCON are discussing ways to implement a system which will take the society away
from being a spiritual society and into a mainstream religion, whereby one performs service in the asrama system
according to one’s varna. This path is called subhakarma according to the authority of Sri Harinama Cintamani. The
exact quote from text three is as follows:

Subhakarma includes: altruistic work, sacrifices, ablutions and holy baths, fire sacrifices, charity, yoga,
the practice of varnasrama-dharma, pilgrimages, vows, offerings to the forefathers, meditation,
cultivation of empirical knowledge, propitiation of demigods, penances, austerities, etc. All these
activities are on the mundane platform. (Sri Harinama Cintamani 11.3)

At this point one may wonder why the question of varnasrama dharma is even being considered within ISKCON at
the moment, when Sri Harinama Cintamani indicates that it is not the best method. The reason for this is that the
leaders of ISKCON are scratching their heads wondering how to run the society for the best interest of the members,
who are barely reaching a level where they may be considered as neophyte devotees. Unfortunately, all this strife is
happening because the leaders themselves are not chanting the Holy Name’s of the Lord purely. The remedy for the
situation is therefore not to implement a secondary system, but to practice the primary one correctly! This is my
humble opinion.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, in Sri Harinama Cintamani is mandating attentive chanting rising from sixteen rounds as
a minimum, to sixty-four as a mediocre, and one hundred plus rounds as a recommended amount to attain pure love of
Godhead krsna-prema (the goal of every devotee). Unfortunately, for those devotees suffering from pramada in any
of its forms; being jadya, viksepa, or audasinya (laziness, distraction, or apathy) the remedy is chanting and more
chanting. If this is not clear enough then please hear the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself,
which are to be explained in the very next chapter.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The
Lord said, ‘Here is the maha-mantra, now go and do japa meditation and chant the Holy Names a
prescribed number of times (nirbandha). You will achieve all desirable perfection from chanting. Just
chant the Holy Name constantly, because no rules or regulations can restrict it. (CB. madhya-lila
23.650)

The Holy Name is the means of sadhana

5. “Out of His causeless compassion, the Supreme Lord incarnated as the Holy Name, making Himself
available to the jivas. Thus the Holy Name is accepted by the pious jivas as the best means of perfection. The
scriptures recommend the Lord's name as the most efficacious means to obtain the Absolute, but the jivas
misunderstood this to mean that chanting is one of many subhakarmas. This misconception is similar to Lord
Visnu being seen as another demigod like Lord Siva and Lord Brahma.

Commentary
To think that Lord Visnu is on the same level as the demigods is offensive. This was discussed in chapter five. Also, to
think that chanting the Lord’s Holy Name is a pious activity that will bring about material rewards implies that the
Lord’s Holy Names are material. This mentality is offensive! The Lord has descended in His form of the Holy Name
because He is supremely merciful. On the behest of Sri Advaita Gosai the Lord inaugurated the chanting of His Holy
Names and put His full potency in His name along with teaching everyone the process of how to chant His names in
great ecstasy. It is sheer foolishness to equate chanting with a pious activity that has been outlined in the karma, or
jnana-kanda section of the Vedas. Let it be known throughout the world “chanting the Holy Name of the Lord is the
only way by which a person can achieve perfection in Kali-yuga.” There should be no confusion about this amongst
devotees. All the mahajanas and acaryas propound this truth, and the Supreme Lord Himself propounded this truth in
his Sri Siksastakam as follows:

Let there be all victory for the chanting of the Holy Name of Lord Krsna, which can cleanse the mirror
of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing
moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all
education. The chanting of the Holy Name of Krsna expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It
gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step. (Cc. adi-lila 20.12)

Further than this the Lord discusses more intimate relationships that a devotee enters into via the mercy of the Holy
Name.

Although a Vaisnava is the most exalted person, he is prideless and gives all respect to everyone,
knowing everyone to be the resting place of Krsna.

If one chants the Holy Name of Lord Krsna in this manner, he will certainly awaken his dormant love
for Krsna’s lotus feet. (Cc. adi-lila 25-26)
 O My Lord, O Krsna, son of Maharaja Nanda, I am Your eternal servant, but because of My own
fruitive acts I have fallen into this horrible ocean of nescience. Now please be causelessly merciful to
Me. Consider Me a particle of dust at Your lotus feet. (Cc. adi-lila 32)

6. “The Holy Name is fully spiritual and transcendental to material nature. It is untainted by matter. Though
the jiva is spiritual he thinks himself material due to gross ignorance. Consequently, he thinks that everything,
including the Holy Name of the Lord, is likewise material. Thus the chanting of Lord Krsna's Holy Name came
to be categorized as a subhakarma; jivas with mayavadi leanings are convinced that this is right and proper. But
those who adhere to this view are excluded from the path of devotional service.

Commentary
Being deluded by the bodily condition of life allows a person to search for the truth according to his own speculations
and misrepresentations caused by imperfect senses. In this way the fool who is bewildered by the glare of material
nature becomes the competitor of the Lord and never surrenders to the Lord’s personal form. The best such a person
can do is to surrender to the Lord in His impersonal feature, and in this way rascals are kept away from the Lord via
their own desires. Now, because such a person is materially polluted, his teachings are also polluted, and in this way
he takes the Holy Name of the Lord to be another of the pious activities known as subhakarma. Not accepting the
Verdict of the scriptures and the teachings of the pure devotees, mayavadis choose to take the path that leads to
spiritual inhalation. Anyone who accepts the conclusions of such offenders is likewise doomed and is excluded from
performing pure devotional service. It is not possible to follow a path that negates the Supreme Lord and His
dominion over everything, and at the same time serve Him. Please do not listen to the perverted interpretations of
impersonalists. If you even see the face of an offender who vehemently denies the existence of God, then you should
immediately take recourse and bathe, or mentally bathe in the Holy Ganges River.

The name is both the means and the end

7. “The Holy Name is the repository of perfect bliss; He has descended to this material world to become the
means by which the summum bonum of bhakti is attained. The scriptures eulogize His divine glories, for
Krsna's name is both the means and the end. According to the individual jiva's degree of spiritual perfection,
he considers the Lord's name to be either the means or the end. As long as he has not attained self-realization,
he considers the Holy Name as the means to reach this goal.

Commentary
The preceptor of the Holy Name is Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and in this stanza the Lord’s great devotee Srila
Haridasa Thakura is directly discussing the intimate relationship that exists between the Lord and His devotees. That
relationship can be achieved via the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His Holy Name alone. The Holy Name is
at once the means (abhideya) for a devotee to attain the final destination (parama-gati), and at the same time the Holy
Name is that param-gati (krsna-prema). When one is on the stage of practice, following the path of vaidhi-bhakti
according to the rules outlined in scripture, the means is said to be chanting alone, and when one has reached the stage
of raganuga, the name is relished as the Supreme object with which one interacts. The gopas who walked into the
mouth of agasura, were all chanting the glories of Lord Krsna and felt completely fearless in His presence. For them,
chanting Krsna’s name was the goal of their existence and the means to attain life. They merely thought of the Lord,
and the Lord saved them all from death. At the same time the goal of interacting with the Lord was achieved at every
moment because the Lord was perpetually in their thoughts.

In the material world a conditioned living entity has no alternative other than to accept the lotus feet of the Lord as his
only shelter. When he does this he becomes glorious, and the way he accepts shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord is to
chant His Holy Names in great ecstasy. This is the sublime method for reviving our dormant Krsna consciousness. It
is not an artificial imposition put upon the soul. Moreover the Holy Name, when chanted correctly, springs forth from
the soul itself. The Holy Name is the life of the soul, and the life of all transcendental relationships. The Holy Name is
Sri Krsna Caitanya incarnated in his form of sound vibration to deliver all the fallen souls. Now please go and chant
with great ecstasy.
Subhakarma is secondary; the Holy Name is the principal means

8. “The means to self-realization are of two kinds: principal and secondary. Subhakarma is the secondary
means, and the Lord's Holy Name is the principal means. Though the Holy Name is counted as a means, it is
nevertheless eternally the principal means. All subhakarmas are always considered to be only secondary means.
Once this point is clearly understood, the difference between the Holy Name and subhakarma will
automatically become manifest. The scriptural verdict is that the Holy Name is the essence, and it is thus
incomparable to any subhakarma. One who chants with a pure heart experiences how divine bliss enters his
heart and makes it soar with sublime delight. This is the essential nature of the Holy Name. Even the bliss of
realizing the pure self is not on this level.

Commentary
Chanting the Holy Name of the Lord is the best way a conditioned soul can become free from the tight grip of maya,
and attain his rightful position as a servant of the Lord. This fact is substantiated herein. One need not perform any
other altruistic, philanthropic, or humanitarian work to get free from the illusions imposed by matter, if one simply
surrenders to the Holy Name. In the Bhagavad-gita chapter nine the Lord gives instruction to those who are desirous
of chanting His Holy Name but who still have pollution and passion in their blood.

tasmat sarvesu kalesu

mam anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arptia-mano-buddhir
mam evaisyasy asamsayah

Therefore, you should always think of Me in the form of Krsna, and at the same time carry out your
prescribed duty. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you
will attain Me without doubt.
(Bg. 8.7)

In order to give the readers a very clear understanding Sri Harinama Cintamani states that chanting the Lord’s Holy
Name’s is not only the means for deliverance, but the principal means. It is the foremost spiritual activity, and all
other forms of piety are meant to one lead to this point. When chanted purely, the Sri Namaprabhu will reveal His
qualities, pastimes, and abode. Seeing this, the devotee will experience the never-ending bliss of service to the Divine
couple in Sri Vrndavana Dhama. What more needs to be said about chanting, other than, why would anyone wish to
take any other path?

The joy of sayujya mukti is a mere shadow

9. “The state of joy experienced in brahman realization or sayujya liberation is merely the cessation of material
suffering. The unlimited abundance of sublime bliss in the Holy Name of the Lord is far greater than anything.

Commentary
In the material world, the cesstation of misery is the cause of happiness. Those persons who do not accept and serve
the personal form of the Lord therefore naturally lean towards the cesstation of birth and death, which is the cause of
all problems in the material world. Attaining sayujya-mukti, such deluded fools think they have attained the summon
bonum of life, but in actual fact all they have achieved is the cesstation of life—taking their consciousness into
hibernation mode. From this we can see that brahman realization (merging into the spiritual effulgence of the Lord)
and sayujya-mukti (merging into the spiritual body of the Lord) are not very high achievements and certainly not
recommended for any sane person. In Krsna-lila the Lord awarded sayujya liberation to the demons He killed, but in
Gauranga-lila the Lord awarded prema-bhakti. Before we go any further it might be nice to meditate on this point and
understand that if Lord Gauranga is so merciful that He awards prema to Jaya and Vijai, who came in the demoniac
forms of Jagai and Madhai, then imagine what mercy is install for Lord Gauranga’s bhaktas, who carefully chant Lord
Krsna’s Holy Names on Lord Gaurangas orders. Surely one can see “the unlimited abundance of sublime bliss in the
Holy Name of the Lord is far greater than anything.”
10. “The wonderful quality of the Holy Name is that during the sadhana (practice) period it is the means, and
in the perfected stage, it is the ultimate goal. Even while being utilized as the means, the Holy Name always
remains the goal. This cannot be said of other subhakarmas, which are all mundane activities. The Holy Name
is purely spiritual, self-manifest out of divine goodness. Even during the practice of sadhana, the Holy Name is
situated in pure goodness; the sadhaka's imperfections and anarthas only seem to color it.

11. “The Holy Name must be chanted in the association of sadhus: then all the material inebriates and anarthas
disappear, being replaced by the pure name of Krsna. The practice of any subhakarma must be discarded upon
attainment of the shelter of the ultimate destination; but chanters never have to give up the Holy Name, they
simply chant the pure name in the perfected stage. The Lord's Holy Name is diametrically opposite in nature to
the mundane subhakarma activities. In the sadhana stage, the devotee should, by the grace of his spiritual
master and on the basis of Vedic proofs, comprehend the difference between the Holy Name and subhakarma.

Commentary
In this chapter we have been learning that a pious activity gives the practitioner a good result as the fruits, and once
this result is attained the activity is no longer of any use. In the case of a devotee chanting the Holy Name, he may at
first understand that the chanting of Krsna’s name will uplift him out of the mud of maya, however after some time he
receives a taste for chanting and it is this taste that acts as his stimulus from this point. Now the taste given from
material success and the taste given from chanting the Holy Name of the Lord are very different. Although both may
stimulate ecstatic feelings within the body of the practitioner, in the end results of pious or impious activities only lead
to confusion and misery. The Holy Name however, gives the ultimate benediction of bliss connected with the eternal.
In the case of Druva Maharaja, he was meditating with material the motive of attaining a planet higher than that of
Lord Brahma, but once he seen the lotus feet of the Lord standing before him, all his impurities were washed away
and he lamented his pitiful condition. “I was searching after pieces of broken glass, and now I have achieved the
pricessless gem. Of what use is anything material now that I have seen the beauty of Your face my dear Lord.” So,
this was the understanding of Druva Maharaja, who is one of the twelve mahajanas. If he had this realization due to
the purification of seeing the Lord, then similarly, any devotee who at first has material motives in his mind while
chanting, will similarly have such removed by the power of his constant bhajana.

Before we embarked upon this chapter, Sri Harinama Cintamani clarified the topic of faith in chapter ten. The
summary of chapter ten was that sraddha (faith) is the essential requirement for chanting. Further than this, Lord
Caitanya has instructed that a devotee should remain humble and tolerant, and in this state of mind he is qualified to
chant. Now to help the devotee chant, the spiritual master, and Sri Harinama Cintamani, give instructions from the
Vedas to affect the status of sambandha realization within the heart of the aspirant. Once a sadhaka has been
inculcated with faith and has begun to chant and serve the spiritual master, he is qualified to receive further
instructions on the path. A part of these instructions form a devotee’s sambandha understanding, another part deals
with the path itself (abhidheya), and yet another part of the spiritual master’s instructions deal with the goal of that
path (prayojana). Sri Harinama Cintamani is herein giving instructions on the most effective path, which is to chant
the Holy Name of the Lord without cessation. By explaining that all subhakarmas are secondary paths a sadhaka’s
determination will be strengthened via the clarified understanding. Understanding the principle that the Holy Name is
the most efficacious path forms a part of the blessings given from guru, sadhu, and sastra.

Another blessing of the spiritual master is that he imbues his disciple with the ability to perform his bhajana. For this
reason it is imperative that we serve the spiritual master and receive his blessings. A spiritual master always wishes
the best for his disciple and acting in the best interests of the disciple, the spiritual master becomes as liberal as
possible—Srila Prabhupada is very liberal. Desiring that the fallen sinners of Kali-yuga receive a chance, he reduced
the amount of rounds to become qualified for initiation from sixty-four down to sixteen. However, as we have already
stated, Prabhupada maintained that this was the minimum amount and not the desired amount. Understanding that
western devotees were on a very low level of realization, Prabhupada gave the benediction of service to his followers.
So that everyone in the world could have equal opportunity to see and serve the Lord in His Deity form, Srila
Prabhupada arranged for sankirtana parties around the world, and opened many temples attempting to put at least one
ISKCON temple and one farming community in every country.

ISKCON temples are situated in the cities for preaching purposes, and those who need to run off a little steam via
service have the possibility to do this in Prabhupada’s city temples. The farming communities Prabhupada set up,
were intended to demonstrate that simple living is all that is required along side the chanting of the Holy Name, which
should be the main activity of a Vaisnava. In these places, it was intended that devotees could attain peace from the
outside influences and in the more sattvic environment their chanting and bhajana would be easier to perform. The
idea was that devotees would graduate from the city environment to the rural environment as a natural deepening
process of their bhajana. Unfortunately, instead of attaining peace, either devotees went into maya because of the lack
of regimentation and discipline, or they overburdened themselves with farming, building, and cow maintenance. The
problem that devotees came across is the modern disease of “an uncontrolled mind.” Now the way to deal with this is
through the constant chanting of the Holy Name and the blessings of sadhu. However, it appears that devotees can
not, or do not wish to chant more than sixteen rounds enmass. Sri Harinama Cintamani has since delineated the
reasons for this, which are:

 That devotees do not have sufficient faith in the process

 They commit offences
 They are materially motivated
 They are polluted with hidden mayavadi leanings

To change this Sri Harinama Cintamani is giving good instructions, and ISEKC is there to help give the practical
application of these teachings in the form of help with attentive chanting. ‘The Utsaha Technique, for improved
chanting’ has proven to be a great help in this regard, and all readers are welcome to learn this technique from an
authorized practitioner. This technique will undoubtedly show the practitioner the difference between chanting the
Holy Name and performing any other pious activity. Please give it a try.

12. “Sraddha, when sufficiently mature, brings one to the association of sadhus. In that association, one begins
devotional service. The heart is cleansed of all anarthas by chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. As much as the
heart is cleansed of anarthas, to that degree the chanting becomes pure. Gradually, one is fixed in devotion and
develops taste for the Holy Name. The knowledge of these developmental stages must first be understood with
faith by the sadhaka through the grace of his spiritual master. Otherwise, his anarthas will multiply due to his
committing namaparadha. But with proper understanding and faith, the pure name manifests very quickly.

Commentary
What is a definition of sraddha? According to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura sraddha means “to have complete
conviction that chanting Lord Krsna’s name will automatically fulfill all duties and complete all pious activities” (Sri
Harinama Cintamani 10.1). According to this explanation of sraddha, chanting the Holy Name contains all pious
activities; therefore it is classed as the principle means of elevation. ‘When sufficiently mature, sraddha brings one
into the association of sadhus.’ This is a statement by Sri Harinama Cintamani; now let us try to comprehend its
meaning.

In the beginning a conditioned living entity lost in the darkness of bodily identification meets a devotee and begins to
chant. This is because of his ajnata-sukrti given from performing subhakarmas in past and present lives. Continuing
to chant gives added benedictions in the form of bhakti-unmukhi, and as a natural awakening, faith in the chanting
process is cultivated. Association with devotees allows the seed of bhakti to become firmly imbedded in the
consciousness, and to the degree that one has removed the anarthas from the heart, one can associate with, and taste
the nectar of the Holy Name. The process is a gradual unfoldment according to the effort that is put in by the aspirant.
It is not a devotee can act like a sahaja, artificially faining love for the Lord, but inwardly acting in abominable ways,
and then overnight he becomes an advanced devotee. This would be taking the Holy Name very cheaply. The process
of advancement via the path of vaidhi-bhakti, following a strict sadhana, is a process of unfoldment via advancement,
but that advancement will not be there if one persists on committing offenses to the Holy Name. It is important to
understand that one must be true to the path one is on. If one desires contact with material nature for the pleasure of
sense enjoyment, to that degree anarthas will remain and even grow, and to that degree the Holy Name will not
manifest.

In one lifetime a devotee may have attained a high level of devotion, but in the next birth that advancement may
become covered due to the sinful habits one performs until the point of again taking up the path and meeting sri-guru.
Upon meeting one’s eternal spiritual master, the dormant love for the Lord is quickly revived for the devotee who is
following correctly, due to the spiritual master’s blessings. The spiritual master, when pleased will transfer the bhakti
dwelling within his heart to the heart of his sincere disciple, and this bhakti will then use the faithful disciple as a
vehicle for further movement. By the grace of the spiritual master one receives connection with the Lord, and by this
connection vijnana is revealed within the heart, lighting up the darkness that was caused due to forgetfulness. One
should therefore always honor and respect the spiritual master as good as if he were the Lord Himself. In the Krsna-
karnamrta there is one statement that provides useful information about chanting. It indicates that the faithful devotee,
who gives up all offenses and chants in a purified state, merging the Holy Name and the qualities of the Lord, via
being absorbed in the Lord’s pastimes, can easily see the Lord’s Syamasundara form become manifest in his japa
meditations. The quote is as follows:

bhaktis tvayi sthiratara bhagavan yadi syad

daivena nah phalati divya-kisora-murtih
muktih svayam mukulitanjalih sevate ’sman
dharmartha-kama-gatayah samaya-pratiksah

If I am steadily engaged in devtotional service unto You, my dear Lord, then I can easily perceive Your
transcendental youthful form. And as far as liberation is concerned, I think that liberation stands at my
door with folded hands waiting to serve me and all the material conveniences of dharma, artha, and
kama stand with her. (Kk. 107)

Remedy for this namaparadha

13. “The aparadha of equating the Holy Name with subhakarma is committed because of sinful activities.
Immediate countermeasures must be undertaken. Offenses to the Vaisnavas are in fact sinful activities. As a
result of these offenses, the jiva acquires the perverted mayavadi understanding of the Holy Name. Only the
association of devotees can exculpate such offenses. To rid himself of namaparadha, one must approach a
householder Vaisnava who originally came from a very low caste; this is to stamp out any false understandings
of designation and caste distinctions. The offender should then smear all over his body with great respect and
faith, the dust of the feet of that Vaisnava. He must also eat the remnants of the Vaisnava's food and drink the
water that washed his feet. In this way, the proper attitude towards the Holy Name will again develop within
the offender's heart. The whole world sings of how Kalidasa was saved from this namaparadha by the mercy of
the Lord.

Commentary
There are many offenses to avoid in chanting, and the offense of giving a mundane interpretation of the Lord is one to
easily avoid. One must maintain a humble attitude and avoid bad association. A devotee who is advanced will
naturally be good association, and from him one can learn that the entire panorama of pious activities are contained
within the name, but none of them are of any value to the devotee. A devotee chants the Holy Name of Krsna because
he has a loving mood with the Lord. This much should be understood! Radha’s mercy is essential for a devotee. In the
Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how the mind of a devotee naturally wants to serve the Lord, and to attain to this
position we should take guidance and help from those who are advanced on this path, even though they may be of low
birth, they are considered saintly if they are fixed in service to the Lord.

sri-bhagavan uvaca
devanam guna-linganam
anusravika-karmanam
sattva evaika-manaso
 vrttih svabhaviki tu ya
animitta bhagavati
bhaktih siddher gariyasi

Lord Kapila said: The senses are symbolic representations of the demigods, and their natural
inclination is to work under the direction of the Vedic injunctions. As the senses are representatives of
the demigods, so the mind is the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mind's
natural duty is to serve. When that service spirit is engaged in devotional service to the Personality of
Godhead, without any motive, that is far better even than salvation. (SB. 3.25.32)

If one commits the offense of equating the chanting of the Holy Name with a subhakarma, the recommendation for
rectification is given herein.

To rid himself of namaparadha, one must approach a householder Vaisnava who originally came from
a very low caste; this is to stamp out any false understandings of designation and caste distinctions.
The offender should then smear all over his body with great respect and faith, the dust of the feet of
that Vaisnava. He must also eat the remnants of the Vaisnava's food and drink the water that washed his
feet. In this way, the proper attitude towards the Holy Name will again develop within the offender's
heart.

This rectification is self explanatory and should be carried out if one wishes to rid himself of this mentality once and
for all. In the life of Kalidasa, who was the uncle of Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami, we see how he ate the remnants
of every Vaisnava in Bengal, even that of Jadhu Thakura. His trick was that he would go to the house of a Vaisnava
and present them with a gift. He would then request to take the remnants of their prasad, and if they did not agree he
would hide and wait for them to throw out their leaf plates. With great enthusiasm he would then proceed to take any
of the valuable remnants that remained on the plates. Understanding his deep faith and conviction in receiving the
remnants of the devotee’s prasadam, Lord Caitanya allowed the fortunate Kalidasa to do what He would not allow
others to do. That is, He allowed Kalidasa to drink the water that washed the Lord’s lotus feet. In this way the Lord
demonstrated that the remnants of the Vaisnavas were non different from the water that washes His lotus feet. Both
are spiritual and both are extremely potent to redeem the fallen conditioned soul. All glories to the Vaisnava devotees
of the Lord. All glories to mahaprasad, all glories to Kalidasa Thakura, the most fortunate of all fortunate people.

Haridasa Thakura's attachment to the Holy Name

14. “My dear Lord, my thoughts and my intellect are thoroughly mundane: therefore I simply mouth the
names of the Lord. I am too unfortunate to experience the transcendental touchstone qualities of the Holy
Name. O Lord! I beg You to please appear as the Holy Name and dance on my tongue. I fall at Your lotus feet
and pray. If You like, You can keep me in this material world and deprive me of the spiritual sky; whatever You
desire, You are free to fulfill. But please let me taste the divine nectar of Krsna's Holy Name. You have
incarnated amongst the jivas to distribute the Holy Name, so kindly also consider me, an insignificant jiva. I am
a fallen soul and You are the savior of the fallen. Let this be our relationship. O Savior! On the strength of this
relationship, I am begging from You the nectar of the Holy Name.

Commentary
Sri Nama descends from Vaikuntha and causes ecstatic blissful feelings in the heart of the chanter. The Lord descends
as His own vocation. We are fallen, and the Lord is the savior of the fallen. Let this be our relationship always. Being
fallen we have no independence and no ability to chant the Lord’s Holy Names, therefore we are at the mercy of the
Lord, the savior of the most fallen (patita-pavana).

Why the Holy Name is the religion of the age

15. “In Kali-yuga all other processes except the Holy Name are incapable of redeeming the fallen souls.
Therefore the chanting of the Holy Name is the yuga-dharma. The chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord is the
most efficient religious practice in all the ages. In Kali-yuga, unlike other ages, there is no other religion
available; thus the Holy Name appears as the only religion that can redeem the fallen souls.”

Commentary
The Holy Name has always been available throughout the ages, but only in this Kali-yuga has the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu descended to give the Holy Name and empower His name
with the benediction of krsna-prema. In other incarnations of Lord Caitanya the benediction offered was promotion to
the Vaikuntha planets, but in this incarnation, which comes once in every one hundred incarnations, the benediction
offered is the attainment of krsna-prema in Goloka Vrndavana. To achieve this one must chant in the mood of the
vrajavasis, and specifically the gopis, and to teach this mood Lord Caitanya and His devotees have advented
Themselves. The sankirtana movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu should not be taken lightly!

The age we find ourselves in is known as the age of quarrel, and only by taking to the sankirtana movement of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu can the effects of the age of quarrel be reversed. Understanding that the prime activity has been
prescribed by the acarya for the Holy Name and the Supreme Lord Himself, and understanding that there is no other
religion available to the inhabitants of Kali-yuga, one should become very serious. All processes of subhakarma,
including varnasrama dharma have been rejected as external and secondary means in this chapter of Sri Harinama
Cintamani and as the final instruction in this chapter we are now informed that there is no other way to perfect ones
life other than chanting.

harinama harinama harinama eva kevalam

kalau nastyeva nastyeva nastyeva gatir anyatha

In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting of the Holy Name of the
Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. (Brhannaradiya Puranam
38/126)

If devotees take seriously the words of this sloka, and take the Lord’s pastimes as being real, the spiritual world will
unfold before their very eyes—of this there can be no doubt!

I, Bhaktivinoda, am a lowly fallen soul. I, the author who gives Harinama Cintamani, am also a humble
servant of Haridasa Thakura.

Begging to be counted as a humble servant, of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura I pray that I may be used as his instrument.

Chapter Twelve
Chanting Inattentive is Offensive

All glories to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu; all glories to all devotees of the Lord. I can perform congregational chanting
of the Holy Name of the Lord by their causeless grace alone.

Pramada or inattentive chanting

1. Srila Haridasa Thakura further explained, “O Lord Caitanya, You instructed Srila Sanatana Gosvami here
in Jaganatha Puri, and Srila Gopala Bhatta Goswami in South India, that the Holy Name must be chanted
attentively. Inattention in chanting is namaparadha. One may carefully avoid all other namaparadhas, yet still
not experience the ecstasy of the pure name. This is an indication of another type of namaparadha known as
pramada, which restricts the natural growth of pure devotion.

Commentary
Having gone through various namaparadhas Srila Haridasa is now propounding knowledge on a very common type
of namaparadha, known as pramada, or inattention. It is explained herein that even if one is diligent in avoiding all
other namaparadhas, if he is inattentive during service or chanting the pure result of krsna-prema will not be there.
The reason for this is because the mind becomes bewildered by the glare of material nature; whatever the mind is
thinking about is where the attention is placed, and when the attention is placed on anything but the spiritual realms
associated with Sri Krsna’s Holy Name, the result will be material. The word meditation is not a spiritual word in and
of itself; after all, even murderers meditate on how they will take their victims lives. But saying this, if we use the
word in the spiritual sense then it implies placing the mind on the Lord’s name, qualities, form, and pastimes.

The science that will be elaborated upon in this chapter is a very important one for those who desire to become free
from the clutches of maya, and the pivot of success is the attention of consciousness. It is only possible for the mind
to consciously focus on one thing at a time. Here you may say, “Well, don’t we talk while we are driving a car?” The
answer to this lies in the autonomic region. I.e. a person will focus on a task while the task is being learned, but once
that task has become a learned phenomenon, the task can go on without full attention being given to it. Therefore, the
attention may be taken away for specific amounts of time, and placed back according to when it is needed. In this way
a person may be doing one thing, such as driving a car, and then also doing another, such as talking, but in actual fact
the consciousness is only placed on one thing at a time and merely jumps from one thing to another at lightning speed.
The speed of the mind is as fast as you can imagine!

A sadhaka may therefore be performing a task related to the spiritual world, such as dressing the Deities, or chanting
the Holy Name of the Lord, but if his attention has wandered to items in the physical material world or even the subtle
material items within his mind, his meditation and actions are mundane as apposed to spiritual. In this way we can see
that everything depends on the consciousness, or where the conscious attention is placed while performing an activity.
Of course there is always some benefit for performing spiritual activities such as dressing the Deities or chanting the
maha-mantra, and such benefit has the power to uplift one out of the mud of maya, but the supreme goal of krsna-
prema will not come about until full attention is placed in the spiritual stratum. This is called total absorption
samadhi. The teaching of this text is that a sadhaka should be very careful about where his attention is placed, always.
This teaching was given to Srila Sanatana and Gopala Bhatta Gosvamis directly from the lips of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu.

For natural growth to occur in a swift manner, Sri Harinama Cintamani hereby instructs everyone to be careful about
the offense known as pramada. This offense is gradually overcome by consciously endeavoring to control the mind.
In this text Srila Haridasa Thakura is giving a positive affirmation backed up by the power of the authorized
instructions of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. The positive affirmation is that the Holy Name must be chanted
attentively!

Inattentiveness is negligence

2. Inattentiveness and negligence are synonymous. Negligent chanting sows the seeds of anarthas, which soon
fructify. Inattentiveness is of three kinds. The first is called audasinya, or ‘apathetic devotional service.’
meaning a lack of fixed resolve in sadhana. The second type is jadya, ‘laziness’ or even ‘inertia.’ The third kind
is viksepa, which means ‘distraction’ or ‘misplacing one’s attention in engagements not directly connected with
sadhanabhakti.’

Commentary
It is possible, with concerted determined effort, to overcome the distractions of the body and mind. In the Bhagavad-
gita, sixth chapter, Lord Krsna informs Arjuna of a yogic system with which control of the mind is made possible.
This information is also pertinent for the aspiring devotee who wishes to overcome the distractions caused by the
body and mind. The way a neophyte controls his mind is to work for Krsna, not being attached to the results, and the
way an advanced person progresses is the cessation of work. In this way the advanced person works on another level.
To attain a degree of concentration on the Lord the sadhaka is wise to implement these ideas and also some simple
pranayama techniques.

At times one may wish to chant, but the thoughts in the head, being completely unruly and out of control, may try to
assert power and influence over the sadhaka’s desires and bewilder his intelligence. With steadfast determination a
sadhaka may use his intelligence to conquer over the mind and the distractions imposed by the senses. There is a way
in which a sadhaka can place his conscious attention in the region known as the third-eye, and in this place he can
find greater peace. When this is done the senses of the body can be subdued until they impose no more distractions on
the sadhaka, and the mind can be somewhat pacified because this frontal part of the brain is associated with the
present. This is achieved by taking the consciousness away from the bodily senses and seating it in a specific place
that can be termed as the ‘present-moment.’

While moving the consciousness upward one will be switching off the sympathetic nervous system and not engaging
the central nervous system in the usual manner. It may be felt that an itching sensation occurs during this time, which
may cause distraction, but this is to be viewed as one of the peculiarities of deep relaxation. Once the bodily senses
have been overcome one may also feel as if one is being kept upright and straight via being tied to a stick running up
the spine. In this way one’s body can remain positioned in an upright position for many hours without feeling any
particular discomfort from the senses. At this time one will not feel heat or cold, nor pain from sitting in a yogic
posture for long periods of time. Moreover, when one’s posture is straight and correct, one can overcome the
dictations of the bodily senses and exist in a specific region for some time. During this time connection with the Holy
Name will purify the mind, which is seated within the heart of the individual.

If a sadhaka then continues to focus on the sound vibration of the Holy Name, and in using his inner sight, he follows
the maha-mantra, seeing, and hearing only the Holy Name, the mantra can take him over the next part of his journey,
the uprooting of all anarthas! In this way the distractions of audasinya, jadya, and viksepa can be overcome. This is
the teaching of this text, that one may become aware of various distractions and avoid them during japa and service. It
is very important to have fixed resolve, be enthusiastic, and to place one’s attention on the sound vibration of the
maha-mantra—these three positive applications that should be implemented! If one is conscious about this during the
period of japa, one can begin to look into the second battleground, where one will internalize one’s meditations and
begin to chant the maha-mantra in a more silent manner. If you remember back to the earlier chapters in the book we
quoted Lord Caitanya’s instructions on chanting. The three positive prerequisites to perfecting one’s chanting that
were mentioned in this sloka were as follows:

1. Sincerity
2. Enthusiasm
3. Incessantly

Here is the maha-mantra, now go and sincerely chant with enthusiasm, nirbandha. (…H.C.………..)

These three prerequisites are very important and need further clarification in order to help you more, therefore I will
spend some time here to try to clarify these most important instructions from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Firstly;
sincerity or having fixed resolve and determination to succeed is the positive aspect of audasinya, or apathy. Next,
having enthusiasm for chanting is the positive application for preventing jadya, or laziness. And third, if one chants
nirbandha, viksepa is availed. The word nirbandha translates as sixty-four, but has a better connotation, and gives
better results when it is translated in practical terms as incessantly. So chanting incessantly is a positive application to
prevent viksepa, or distraction. Audasinya, jadya, and viksepa are all namaparadhas grouped under the heading of
pramada, which means ‘inattention or madness.’ And sincerity or fixed resolve, enthusiasm, and chanting incessantly
—placing one’s attention on the Holy Name of the Lord, are the positive applications to prevent pramada.

Once a sadhaka has implemented these three positive applications and goes still further in his battle with the
inattentive mind, he is allowed to clearly hear the maha-mantra while there is no external sound being made—
however, this involves training in making the mind peaceful. For this reason we are setting up ISEKC’S schooling
system in order to help our sadhakas gain victory over the distractions of the body and mind. Please therefore take
seriously the offense of inattention, which manifests as; audasinya, jadya, and viksepa, as progression is made by
uprooting the weeds of anarthas and not planting more.

One must chant attentively to develop anuraga

3. “By a special stroke of good fortune, a jiva develops enough sraddha to take shelter of the Holy Name. By
regularly chanting a fixed number of Holy Names with special care and attention, he gradually progresses
towards anuraga, or spontaneous attraction for the Lord's name. He should chant his prescribed number of
rounds on a tulasimala and gradually increase his chanting with time. Before he reaches the stage of anuraga he
must be extremely cautious about his chanting.

Commentary
This is a very nice text which indicates that it is quite uncommon for a jiva to develop enough faith that “the Holy
Name alone can save him” that he begins to chant as his prime duty in life. Here we see the words, “by regularly
chanting a fixed number of Holy Names with special care and attention.” Of course the inference being given in these
words is meant to bring your attention to the fact that one must chant with care and attention, just like we have
described above. My initiating spiritual master, Om Visnupada Srila Jayapataka Maharaja is very fond of asking
people if they want to go back to home, back to Godhead, in this way he reminds people of the goal of life. If one is
serious about going back to Godhead one must take the advice given in this text; that one should chant a fixed number
of rounds and increase that number with time. The reason for the increase is to remove anarthas more rapidly from
the polluted heart, ceto darpana marjana, to cleanse the mirror of the heart, and to make the spiritual world into a
conscious reality—the maha-mantra is our only hope in this matter. Nowhere in sastra does it mention that the
spiritual master cleans the mirror of the heart for the devotee, only that he leads the disciple to chant, and the maha-
mantra cleans the mirror of the heart. The formula is; the more rounds we attentively chant, the more we become
purified. The spiritual master has the power to give Krsna, but he will not do this if the disciple is not serious about
chanting the Lord’s Holy Names. Srila Prabhupada often quotes; “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”

The mind is such a machine that as one thinks, so shall one act. Therefore, if one is constantly thinking in material
ways, then one will always dwell in the material realms as that is where material thoughts dwell. After thoughts come
actions, and when material actions are performed reaction is there (this is called karma). Karma therefore means, one
must perform another action via being given a reaction, re-action means another action! And what is the purpose of
being given a re-action? It is that one may be given an opportunity to correct the first action! When one’s actions are
mundane a reaction (karma) is needed in order to give a second opportunity to use the Lord’s cit potency in order to
serve the Lord via dovetailing the material energy in service to the Lord. In this way, until one’s actions are one
hundred percent pure, a reaction will always be given. The purpose of all reaction is that one may be given another
chance to perform that action, until that action is one hundred percent pure. When one has connected with the spiritual
world even once, he is assured of gaining entrance into that place, therefore it is said that one who has chanted the
Holy Name even once is sure to go back to home, back to Godhead. In many purports to the Bhagavad-gita, Srila
Prabhupada informs us that all actions done under the directions of the Lord yield no reaction, either in this life, nor
the next. That means such actions are perfect and enacted from the spiritual stratum, no re-action is needed when
perfection is already attained.

To increase chanting allows a sadhaka to simultaneously cleanse his heart of material desires and to get to know the
inhabitants of the spiritual world, whom he wishes to spend eternity with. Along the path of progression the sincere
sadhaka will become alert to his thoughts and learn to control them by placing his attention on the Holy Name.
Proceeding with caution, and checking his daily rounds for quality enables the sadhaka to nicely serve his spiritual
master and to progress to the stage of anuraga, or spontaneous attraction for the Lord.

4. “People are naturally attached to material things. Their memories are absorbed in matter. On the one hand,
someone chants the Holy Name, but his mind and attention are far away from his chanting. Even if he chants
one lakh (one hundred thousand) Holy Names on his mala, not a drop of taste for the Lord's name is produced
in his heart. This is the vivid example of inattentive chanting and its result. It is difficult to restrain the heart of
a materialist from such offenses.

Commentary
In this text we are shown the negative aspects of chanting inattentively. So many lifetimes has the mind been
engrossed in material activities, in so many varieties of species has the mind been making plans for enjoyment. So
how to stop this madness is the indication of this verse. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is giving the answer in this verse
also. In the last line he states, “it is difficult to restrain the heart of a materialist from such offenses.” So the answer is,
become a spiritualist! Become a krsna-bhakta. Man-mana bhava mad-bhakta. Krsna says; “just become My devotee,
worship Me and offer homage to Me.” In this way one is herein cautioned about material thoughts and guided by use
of words to become a devotee and not a materialist. The mind of a materialist is naturally attached to material things,
and the mind of a devotee is naturally attached to Krsna. In this instance faith is the key, and faith may be nourished
by sadhu-sanga and attentive chanting in the association of devotees. Please do not think that you can come to a
spiritual movement, or take up residence in a Holy Dhama, such as Sri Mayapura or Sri Vrndavana Dhama and bring
with you all your material conceptions of life. This simply will not do! You will be known as a dharmatvaja, or one
who is hypocritically devout. One who simply lives on the surface of the dhama, but never enters into it. Why?
Because the dhama is cintamani, it is one hundred percent spiritual, and without a tinge of material contamination.
Cintamani means to fulfill one’s spiritual desires, not material.

The process of careful chanting

5. “One must make it his daily routine to chant for an hour in the company of a saintly Vaisnava in a lonely,
secluded spot. Taking note of the Vaisnava’s devotional attitude and his relish for the Holy Name, the neophyte
should try to emulate this mood and gradually rid himself of his apathy to chanting. Step-by-step, his mind and
attention becomes fixed in the Holy Name. By constant chanting, the mellow of the Holy Name makes him
anxious to taste more of that nectar. He is attracted to be in the presence of Tulasidevi and to reside in a place
of Lord Krsna’s pastimes. Always seeking the association of saintly devotees, he takes up their discipline. He
follows in the footsteps of previous pure devotees in relishing the sublime joy of intimate devotional service, or
bhajana. He begins with an hour of bhajana, then two, and then increases it to four; finally, he chants not less
than three lakhs of Holy Names in a day. This helps him to soon sever his links with materialism.

Commentary
The discipline of the previous saintly devotees is that they chant attentively for long periods of time. This should be
emulated by the sincere students. One can begin by chanting for one hour, and then one should increase this chanting
and attention in order to increase the taste for associating with the spiritual world. After all, how can one learn to love
the lover if one does not know Him, or does not wish to spend time with Him? This is not possible! To achieve the
goal of krsna-prema one may begin to chant for a minimum of one hour per day in the associtiation of saintly
devotees, but this period must increase to two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten hours per day. This is
recommended by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in order to sever all ties with material life! Love for Krsna will not
come about as long as one associtates himself with the body.

Just take a minute to think how important is that japa period? It is a time when you stop all activities of selfishness
and focus on pleasing the Lord. Every activity concerning the self, or rather the false-self should be stopped during
japa, thus japa becomes a selfless service. The mind (which is the center of all senses) should be withdrawn from
sense objects and the consciousness should be taken inwards. In this way the inner realities will increase their
intensity and reality. At first, when one is on the offensive platform, progress is very slow, if at all, but with
determined effort and blessings from the Vaisnavas the offensive/inattentive platform can be overcome and one can
reach the platform of the shadow-name chanted with faith, chaya-sraddha-abhasa. Prabhupada gave the example that
at first chanting is a forced thing. He said “I shout Hare Krsna, and you listen!” He is indicating that when we chant
aloud, we must listen, even if we don’t want to. If we chant loud we must hear something of the name. So in this way
the beginnings are not pure and smooth, but due to the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu all anarthas can be overcome
simply by a concerted determined effort. Later however, bhajana becomes internal, and although remembrance is at
first a process that is helped from an outside stimuli i.e. via listening to the stories about Krsna’s pastimes in the
Bhagavatam (sravanam), in time the Lord’s pastimes manifest according to Their own desire—so we could be
anywhere and the Lord may forcibly carry away our heart and mind causing us to jump like a madman, being elated
from within. There is a nice story in the Caitanya Caritamrta which illustrates this perfectly, it goes as follows: “One
day the royal physician named Mukunda Datta was attending to the king when a servant began to shade the king with
a fan made of peackock feathers. Seeing the peackock feathers Mukunda suddenly went into ecstasy remembering
Lord Krsna. He subsequently fell off the podium and crashed to the floor in a state of ecstasy.” This pastime indicates
how one can be in any position and one may remember the Lord simply be seeing something that one connects with
the Lord. However, this state does not come about without prior connection with the Lord’s Holy Name and pastimes
for extended periods of time.

At the stage of chaya-sraddha-abhasa, the anarthas begin to be removed, but the false-ego is strong and will not want
to let go of dominion so easily. Therefore, as the anarthas from previous lives are shown to you by the mercy of Sri
Namaprabhu, if you follow the dictation of the false-ego, they will again attract your consciousness and try to exert
dominion over you. When this happens you must seek shelter in the Lord's devotees, who are the protectors on the
road to bhakti, and not fall prey to the dictations of past anarthas and other unseen living entities who may be
working to cause falldown. If you resist their pull and do not engage in illicit activity of any kind (including offending
others) you will succeed in uprooting unwanted desires from the heart. At the same time as this you will also become
immune to the attacks of unseen forces by the strength of your bhajana given from the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu.

As you meditate on the Holy Name, because you have stopped all external sensory activity, the mind will try its best
to draw your attention away, thus, when performing japa your inner realities will try to overpower you and form an
illusionary reality of past events combined with future speculations. Within the mind driven by false-ego, you can not
think in terms of the present, as the present is current only in the external world and perceived through the agency of
the bodily senses. Therefore, your mind will continuously drag you between past events and future speculations
combined, completely fabricating events that have no reality whatsoever. For success this must be ignored! Krsna
says; ‘Wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, you must bring it back under the control
of the self.’ (B.g ….). This is a very important instruction forming a part of abhidheya, as the mind will try every trick
in the book to take your attention away from sri krsna-nama. The present moment is alive in sri krsna-nama, and
when one accesses the real-ego one identifies oneself as an eternal servant of the Lord. To achieve this position we
have been given a technique from Srila Prabhupada. He says; “we should listen to the name and all of Krsna’s
pastimes will be revealed in time.” This is a very important instruction, but we should also remember one important
thing, “that listening is an art that takes training to perfect!”

The idea behind listening to the mantra is that the mind is given a point of reference to follow, rather like someone
shining a torch in a dark cave to light up the path. You must follow the path that the torch illuminates for you. The
word mantra means; to deliver the mind. The Holy Name is at once both the path and the goal at the end of the path.
However, if you go off track and follow the pictures of speculations created within the mind, you will be lost forever
in the world of illusion, and you will also be committing namaparadha as you will not be following the name as the
Lord desires—remember harinama is the path to deliver the mind! The Lord has given His name as the most powerful
mantra, and this mantra will deliver the mind if one sincerely follows it, abandoning every other type of religion,
dharma, artha, karma, or moksa. If one really wants to remain in the present moment, one must enter into the timeless
activities of the Lord’s pastimes in Vrndavana, via chanting His Holy Name. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna
Hare Hare Hare, Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

6. “Another effective method to remove apathy towards the Holy Name is to sit in a closed room alone and
meditate on the name as did the previous sages. If that is not possible, then one should cover the head and face
with a cloth and concentrate on the Holy Name. Slowly, one develops attraction for the Holy Name. Apathy and
inattentiveness will gradually vanish.

Commentary
Both text five and this text are indicating that to remove apathy, or the offense known as audasinya, one needs to have
fixed resolve and enthusiasm. This can come from at first sitting in the presence of those devotees whose hearts have
been taken by Krsna, and then by practising sincerely what you have learned. In this text we are introduced to a
technique used by sages of yore; “to sit in a silent closed room,” normally this is called a bhajana-kutir; in this room
one should whole-heartedly place one’s attention on the Lord's sweet name, tasting its honey-like sweetness as it
dances on the tongue. The room should not have accessories that will attract the conditioned mind away from Krsna.

Another way that is prescribed is that one may cover the head and face with a cloth. The reason for this is to block out
sensory perception that may cause distraction. This can also be achieved by opening the eyes only a very small
amount, just enough to allow a little light to get in, but not enough to see anything. With practise this can be a very
powerful way to control the senses from distractions. The technique of sitting in a closed room alone and meditating
on the name is something that all devotees should do at one stage in their development—it is like going through the
fire. One should understand that when one begins to chant Hare Krsna one is declaring war on the materially
motivated mind. Using this technique a sadhaka meets the enemy face-on and does battle via using the strength of the
pure sound vibration of Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare, Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare. The enemy, (the material mind) is very crafty, and quickly learns to mutate your attempts to focus on the
spiritual sound vibration of Lord Krsna’s name into a material attempt to focus on a given object. Then, as quick as a
flash, that millimetre of space he has gained is turned into the entire space/time continuum and the mind is given full
facility to think of any material concept and take you to any material place. In this way the mind bewilders the
intelligence and covers one’s vision. The idea of repeatedly sitting in a closed room and mediating on the Supreme
Lord's Holy Name, is that you will not give further fuel to the material mind, and in time you will get a clear
understanding of the enemy without other distractions. With the help of the Lord you will realize that the only way to
defeat the mind is to repeatedly bring the mind back to the sound vibration of the maha-mantra. Once a specific
amount of purification has been aquired, the mind will naturally gravitate toward the Holy Name and one can then
begin real meditation. The technique of covering one’s head with a cloth also facilitates meditation on the pastimes of
the Lord, which manifest as scenes played before the consciousness of the meditator. This is more difficult to achieve
while light brings in sensory information from the eyes—therefore, to block out this sensory activity is an important
part of meditation. The same effect is not achieved by closing the eyes as at this time the sense known as the mind
will dominate, as well as the covering power of the lower modes strengthened by the production of the lower brain
rythms, and the powerful effects of sleep.

As attraction for the Holy Name develops, inattentiveness and distractions will gradually vanish and they will be
replaced with meditation on the pure sound vibration sabdha-brahmana. Eventually, meditation on the Lord’s
pastimes, more commonly known as smarana, will manifest as a natural result of meditation on the name,
namabhajana.

The symptoms of laziness or jadya

7. “Indulging in laziness (jadya) prevents a person from relishing the nectar of the Holy Name. He begins by
chanting and remembering the Holy Name, but very soon feels it unendurable and wants to sleep. Advanced
devotees are cautious about his offense. They never waste a single moment in useless talks or activities,
constantly meditating on the Lord’s Holy Name. They are so absorbed in the nectar of the Holy Name that they
do not care for anything else. One must make an effort to associate with such rare devotees and follow their
example, thus ridding oneself of laziness. It is the nature of saintly Vaisnavas to be always engaged in
devotional activities. They never waste time uselessly. Seeing this, one will ask himself how he can also become
like these devotees, immersed in meditation upon the Holy Name? How, from this very day, can he gradually
increase his chanting until he can actually chant three lakhs of Holy Names with inspiration and eagerness?
When Lord Krsna sees such enthusiasm, He reciprocates by removing the neophyte’s mental inertia with the
power of His name, and by bringing him into the association of advanced devotees.

Commentary
This text gives both the negative and the positive, but specifically the positive is somewhat elaborated upon. This
shows the greatness of the author. The negative side must be given in order to convey the specific form of pramada,
but the wisest form of suggestion is always positive suggestion, hence greater stress has been given to the positive. To
begin, a lazy person feels that chanting sixty-four rounds or sixteen rounds is too difficult and he wants to sleep. This
is because his mind is badly trained and he is suffering from jadya, or laziness. To avail himself of this he is to take
the path of the wise, the advanced devotees are always cautious about this offense, they never waste time in useless
talks within or without of the mind.

In order to give further elaboration on this text I would like to return to an earlier conversation about chanting. In
chapter two, text fourteen, we quoted Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who pointed out that proper japa is
undertaken in the mind, and we quoted Srila Jiva Goswami as saying that japa needs to be coupled with smarana to
be real japa. So let us now take this a few steps further.

It has been stated by acaryas, and quoted in the ‘Art of Chanting,’ by H.H. Mahanidhi Swami, that chanting can be
performed in three different ways, either loud, very quite (sometimes referred to as murmuring), or silent. Srila
Prabhupada recommended that his disciples chanted outloud, and in fact it has been established that chanting outloud
gives many more times the result. In the life of Srila Haridasa Thakura however, we see that he chanted sixty-four
rounds loud, sixty-four rounds quiet, and sixty-four rounds without sound, silently. So why did the namacarya, and
other saints in our lineage do one thing, and Srila Prabhupada instruct only on loud chanting? To answer this we need
to go into a deeper elaboration—please forgive me for this short digression.

To begin with, Srila Prabhupada mentioned that at first chanting was a forced thing, so in this case we should begin by
chanting loudly sixteen rounds of japa-mala. This is the best way to get the attention of the wandering mind, to speak
loudly. However, along the way, we progress in our chanting and knowledge of the Absolute as a natural result of
purification given from the Holy Name. As purification occurs, knowledge deepens. This is the normal growing-up
process.

For further, deeper purification, we need to chant more. This fact has been established by Sri Harinama Cintamani
and by quoting Srila Prabhupada, who indicated that a person who is more diseased needs to chant sixty-four rounds.
Anyone who has chanted sixteen rounds out-loud knows that it takes some time and effort, approximately two hours
of time, but often more due to inattention. Therefore, if we were to chant the sixty-four rounds prescribed by Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this manner, we would find it quite difficult (what to speak of one hundred and ninety-two
rounds), or three hundred thousand names as prescribed earlier by Srila Bhaktivinoda and hinted at by Srila
Prabhupada.

If we were to take the time span for chanting sixteen rounds outloud to be two hours, it would then take eight hours to
chant sixty-four rounds and twenty-four hours to chant three times sixty-four rounds, and this is not giving much time
to breath, eat, or attend to any distractions. So one wonders in this instance, how long can a person keep this up for?
Assuming that is, that one needs to chant in this manner for a long period of time to instigate the necessary change
and purification to take place. Let us say that our goal was to become extremely purified. Then maybe we could set a
time period of say ten years while chanting sixty-four rounds and five years at an increased amount from this.
However, for reasons of lack of time most people can not give this span of time, and thus don’t even begin to try.
They don’t try because they suffer from pramada, and have no taste for chanting. This is because taste comes from
the chanting itself. Because people have not learned a technique that helps them to speed up their rounds and
increases attention (such as the Utsaha-technique for improved focusing) their task becomes very difficult. If on the
other hand, the sadhaka’s attention and speed of his rounds were increased, more chanting could be achieved giving
an increase in purification and taste, which would increase proportionately. This is called the Art of Chanting—
devotion leads to devotion!

Now, if we look again at the picture of how to chant more than sixteen rounds, and this time we add more to the
formula given by Srila Prabhupada we could see interesting results. I.e. we may find that chanting is an art that needs
training and a teacher in order to perfect it. So, if that teacher were to prescribe a technique for you that would teach
you the art of chanting, or help with your attention and attraction for sri krsna-nama, such a technique would then be
deemed as bona fide according to Srila Rupa Goswami’s verse anakulyasa sankalpah—that we should accept
everything favorable for the service that will lead us ultimately to the Lord's lotus feet.

To establish something as being a bona fide path, sastric evidence is required to prove such a thing is within the
Vaisnava siddhanta. This can by achieved by citing verses from previous acaryas, and by experiential proof in the
way of results. Srila Prabhupada often said that a tree can be judged by the fruits it produces. If the fruits are good,
then it is good—if they are bad, then it should be discarded. Understanding this I will now introduce you to the
outline concept of the Utsaha-technique for improved focusing.

You may enquire why the name Utsaha-technique? The Sanskrit word utsahan means enthusiasm—seeing as though
this technique encourages enthusiasm it has been named “The Utsaha-technique.” Srila Rupa Goswami says the
following about Utsahan (enthusiasm).

utsahan niscayad dhairyat

tat-tat-karma-parvartanat
sanga-tyagat sato vrtteh
sadbhir bhaktih prasidhyati

One can execute the process of bhakti-yoga successfully with full hearted enthusiasm, perseverance,
and determination, by following the prescribed duties in the association of devotees and by engaging
completely in activities of goodness. (Upadesamrta. 3)

Similarly Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu said; prabhu kahe kahilan ei mahamantra—here is the maha-mantra, go and
chant it with sincere enthusiasm. From these two slokas we can understand that utsahan for chanting is needed in the
formula for success.

The Utsaha-technique is divided into four sections, one being a preliminary section that can be performed at home,
and the other three sections are to be performed away from the general masses, in a secluded enviroment. The
preliminary section lasts for six months and the technique for this will be given in full in another book. You may
question why the other three sections need to be done in a sacred environment? In answer we must comprehend the
fact that to perfect one’s chanting takes determined practice and it is more difficult to chant perfectly while going to
work with karmies and mixing in an institutionalised environment where materialists and their thought forms are all
pervasive. For this reason a sanctuary is needed, and that is why Srila Prabhupada hoped to set up peaceful sacred
environments in his temples and farming communities—and to this end ISEKC is setting up schooling and monastic
environments in order to give further facility. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has given the instructions that
we should go to a Holy place and perfect our bhajana under the guidance of an advanced devotee. For this reason,
students who are convinced that spiritual life is for them, and who sincerely wish to go back to home, back to
Godhead, can now receive extra help along the way. We are here to serve you!

The idea is that at first we must chant sixteen attentive rounds out loud, minimum. (One should also understand that
this is an art, it does not happen by chance). Sixteen attentive rounds will increase faith, and cause anarthas to slowly
be removed. With increased faith and purification the sadhaka then develops an urge to go deeper. In this way he
enquires how to chant without offenses. As we have established, teaching and guidance is needed for this, so the first
level, or section of the Utsaha technique gives the sadhaka teachings in a schooling environment and along side this
the technique practically shows how to chant the maha-mantra with attention. This is done by reprogramming the
RAS, (reticular activating system, found within the core of the brain) to remain alert to the sound vibration of the
maha-mantra. This first stage of training is split into six parts, each part lasting for six months, so in total the first
stage lasts for approximately three years. Throughout this stage of training the sadhaka learns about the sacredness of
the mantra and this realized understanding is what continues to update his belief-system and continues to programme
his RAS to remain vigilant to the inner realities of sri krsna-nama as opposed to the outer realities of maya.

By building blocks of attentive rounds, beginning with just sixteen mantras, and then progressing to one attentive
round, and then four, a devotee soon learns the necessisty of remaining alert during his meditations on the sound
vibration of the Holy Name. Once four attentive rounds have been mastered, the sadhaka learns to put blocks of four
and four rounds together and achieves eight attentive rounds. In this way the technique serves as a tourchlight guiding
the sadhaka away from the dictations of the unruly mind. During this first stage of reprogramming the R.A.S., the
sadhaka is chants aloud, but also learns the art of internal chanting, and of internal visualisation, which is a very
important part of his future meditations. By the end of this stage (three years) the sadhaka has increased his daily
number of rounds to twenty-five rounds or more, speeded up his chanting and learnt how to be attentive to the maha-
mantra. Connection with the Holy Name in this profound and attentive way in turn allows him to move swiftly
through his anarthas and gives the taste that is needed to go further into his ever-deepening bhajana.

The sadhaka has now learned how to chant the maha-mantra internally and how to see eidetic imagery within his
mind. The word eidetic-imagery comes from the Greek word eidios which means “internal form.” The Sanskrit word
we use is rupa. So in this stage the sadhaka learns how to focus on nama, and by his schooling and meditations he
learns about guna, or Sri Krsna’s unlimited qualities. The sadhaka begins his training on how to see form, or pictures
within his mind’s eye. Sanjaya saw the entire Bhagavad-gita being spoken on the battlefield of Kuruksetra while he
was in the palace of Drtarastra. How was this possible? Srila Prabhupada says; “by spiritual television.” Or in other
words there is a receptacle device within the mind where one can view events, or form, as on a television, even
though they may happen in a different space/time continuum. One may question as to the science behind this point,
and in answer we may indicate that form or rupa, becomes manifest because each form is a living ball of energy. That
means it has a specific vibratory depth and this depth of vibration manifests the rupa. For a devotee to understand and
see his own sva-rupa, eternal form, or to understand and see the svarupa of his eternal associates in the spiritual
world, or to understand and see the Lord’s Syamasundara form, which is the first form of the Lord that manifests
before a devotee, he makes use of sabdha-brahman. Therefore to access this spiritual world is prerogative of one path
only, sound vibration—sravanam, kirtanam. This sound vibration begins with hearing about the Lord, the spiritual
world, the inhabitants of the spiritual world, and the pastimes they all engage in with the Lord (who is the center of
the spiritual world). By hearing about the Lord and His pastimes with His devotees, one may begin to access the
spiritual kingdom via the spiritual sound vibration of the Holy Name. The Lord’s Holy Name is the first connection a
devotee has with the spiritual world. Next, a devotee goes on to hear repeatedly about the pastimes of the Lord, and
meditation on the Lord’s pastimes comes about only via repeated contact with the spiritual. In this way form
manifests via a full understanding of the energy vibration, or the personality of the denizens of the spiritual world.

By the next stage of the utasha-technique, the sadhaka has now learned how to remain vigilant to the maha-mantra,
become fixed and steady in his attempts at controlling the mind, and now chants without the use of the first
techniques he learned. In the beginning of this second stage a new technique is implemented that will help him
intensify his bhajana and increase his speed without compromising his attention. In fact this new technique allows the
sadhaka to increase his attention on the Holy Name greatly. At this stage the sadhaka begins to chant in a very quiet
way, taking his meditation to a more internal perspective. As well as this the sadhaka now begins to enter into a
deeper understanding of Sri Krsna’s pastimes by implementing a technique that unfolds Krsna’s pastimes within his
sacred japa meditations. Prabhupada explains that as we improve our positions in regards to purity, Krsna’s pastimes
will spring forth automatically. At first this needs outside help. Just like in the beginning we need to chant aloud to
force the mind to listen in order to become purified, similarly at this stage of development of consciousness we need
some outside coaching in order to remember and see Krsna’s pastimes internally. This second stage takes place in a
different environment that is more sacred and conducive to chanting and bhajana. In this sanctuary all the sadhaka’s
present chant with joy, and in this way the anartha-nivritti stage is being traversed and the stage of steadiness and
taste are beginning to manifest. Because the sadhaka is now chanting softly most of the time, and has learnt how to
remain attentive, his rounds have speeded up considerably and therefore an extra amount of rounds of rounds is of no
big difference to his japa time. This extra amount of rounds speeds up his progress considerably and gives further
taste to his ever-sweetening japa periods. By using the Utsaha-technique the sadhaka has learned to build-up attentive
blocks of rounds, and just as Sri Harinama Cintamani advocates chanting for one hour attentively and then increasing
it, similarly, the sadhaka using the Utsaha-technique learns this art.

The third stage in the Utsaha-technique is not so much a stage, but moreover it is an incorporated way of life. That is,
the sadhaka’s life has changed to such a degree that a real taste for chanting and associating with the Lord is visibly
manifest and anuraga (spontaneous attraction for the Lord) dawns on the horizon of the sadhaka’s consciousness. At
this stage the sadhaka chants a minimum of sixty-four rounds with pleasure, often times more, and spends his time
intensely meditating on, and remembering Krsna’s pastimes. The setting for this third stage will be a remote protected
enviorment, conducive for upliftment of consciousness. This place will be a private monastic environment that is
surrounded by forests of fruit trees and agricultural land. For deep internal bhajana to take place peace is needed—
peace away from social life, politics and the duplicitous dealings of materialistically minded people. Therefore, in this
place known as Caitanya-Puri, only krsna-bhakti is discussed. In Caitanya Puri there is no connection with the
mundane realities and no modern commodities such as electricity, internet etc. When such transformations of
consciousness occur, saintly characters, free from duplicity will emerge, and such followers of Srila Prabhupada will
undoubtedly have a strong desire to preach the message of Krsna consciousness in a manner that is keeping within his
teachings.

In this way we can practically see that by learning the art of attentive chanting we will advance. Chanting and
remembrance go on simultaneously within the mind, and at the same time loud chanting is going on constantly, as the
devotees who are experiencing the bliss of Krsna consciousness can not but help chanting Krsna’s names in every
way possible. Such advanced devotees never waste a single moment on useless talks and never commit the offense
known as jadya or laziness. Being full of compassion and mercy their only aim is to help. Remember; we are your
servants.

Distraction (viksepa) and the antidote

8. “Distraction in chanting produces a type of illusion, causing serious offenses against the Holy Name that are
very difficult to overcome. This illusion leads to craving for wealth, women, position, success and even
cheating. When these attractions cover the heart, the neophyte gradually loses interest in the chanting of the
Holy Name.

Commentary
Please, please do not be distracted from the goal. Do not try to become famous in devotional circles, do not try to
make profit from devotees, and always remain truthful in your dealings with devotees. There is no room for duplicity
in devotional life, even if it is in the name of socalled religiousity. My prayer is that no one will leave Srila
Prabhupada’s movement because of distraction. Our philosophy is the most sublime, and the taste given from Sri
Namaprabhu, and service to guru, is highly relishable. It should not be missed because of attraction to the dead
material world. It has been said by Srila Prabhupada that when a jiva falls from the spiritual sky he first takes a
position similar to that of Lord Brahma. When the jiva no longer sees God around, he begins to think that he is the
master of his own destiny, and being very powerful he learns from birth how to manipulate and control material
nature. At this time his life seems perfect. He is now playing the “god-game” but soon enough he must fall to a middle
planet like the planet Earth. Eventually, as time marches forward, the ages degenerate and Kali-yuga sets in. Taking
birth in this age allows the jiva to fall from his platform of greatness. At first he may take birth in the human speicies,
but as he associates with the inhabitants of Kali-yuga he will eventually glide down to the animal species and even
lower. Such a jiva then becomes pig-headed, thick-skinned, and hard-hearted. Although he no longer possesses the
power to control material nature, still, his false-ego will not give up the dream of controlling, manipulating, and
playing the perverted role of god. Against all reasoning the false-ego persuades the illusioned mind to dictate to the
polluted intelligence, which has been captured by the sinful enemies of lust, anger, and greed. Full of pride, but
having nothing to be proud of, the illusioned jiva retreats into his make-believe world and begins to see everyone as
friends or enemies.

By a stoke of good fortune, unknown pious activities may accumulate until the point is reached where the two-legged
human-animal can again chance his luck at progression. Being superfortunate, after performing bhaktiunmukhi,
(unknown devotional activities) the jiva begins his devotional life. Now, after finally coming to this point, please do
not be foolish and throw away the chance for an eternal life of bliss in Vaikuntha simply because of viksepa, or being
distracted by attraction to material objects. No, this is total stupidity! The battle becomes hard when the sadhaka
refuses to give up his hold on material life, or when he becomes too proud to beg for help from the spiritual master, or
when he thinks that by his own strength and endeavor he can make any difference. But the battle becomes very easy
when one takes full shelter of the devotees, and, keeping in line with Vaisnava etiquette he serves his guru and the
Vaisnavas. In this way the fortunate jiva can easily cross over the endless ocean of madness by the mercy of sat-guru,
and Sri Namaprabhu.

9. “One must make a constant effort to drive these thoughts away from the mind and diligently follow the rules
of Vaisnava etiquette. This endeavour will bring back his good fortune. He must begin by observing ekadasi
vows, appearance days of the Lord and other important festival days. He should spend the entire festival day
and night chanting and singing the glories of the Lord in association of saintly devotees. The ideal way to
observe these festivals is to be in one of the dhamas (Navadvipa, Vrndavana, Puri, etc.) with sadhus (pure
devotees in the line of Srila Rupa Goswami) reading and discussing sastra (Vedic literatures like the Bhagavad-
gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam and other Vaisnava scriptures). He should wholeheartedly participate in these
festivals without anxiety or hesitation. These festivals will gradually rekindle the dying spark of spiritual taste.
Thus he will gradually again become attracted to the pastimes of the Supreme Lord.

Commentary
If one is falling into the offense of pramada in any of the three forms previously mentioned, it is recommended that
he bring back his good fortune by driving bad thoughts away from the mind. Sin has not occurred while it is in the
stage of thought, therefore it is herein recommended to stop sin from arising at its root, before it has become solidified
into action. Associating with devotees and getting extra benefit from Holy days such as ekadasi, the Lord's
appearance days etc, is a very powerful way to change thought patterns not connected to the Lord, as devotees who
follow Vaisnava etiquette set a nice example, and in their association it is easier to act according to this etequette.

This text is giving good practical advice so that enthusiasm for chanting can be brought about in a non-intrusive
manner. There is great potency in a group of saintly Vaisnavas who perform congregational chanting of the Lord's
Holy Names, and also at festival days one receives more mercy and is more likely to meet with advanced devotees,
guru’s, and sadhus. Therefore, Sri Harinama Cintamani recommends taking advantage of such festivals and engaging
the mind in topics related to krsna-bhakti as opposed to mainstream materialism. The idea of Holy days is not that
devotees go to the temple to engage in prajalpa, but to hear more about the Lord’s pastimes and engage in chanting
the Lord’s Holy Name’s in a more increased way. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said:

satam prasangan mama virya-samvido

bhavanti hrt-karna-rasayanah kathah
taj-josanad asv apavarga-vartmani
sraddha ratir bhaktir anukramisyati

In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such
knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and
his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin. (S.B. 3.25.25)

10. “Tasting the superior flavor of pure spirituality, he’ll naturally be disgusted by his inferior material
attachments. He’ll be enraptured by the sweet songs about the Supreme Lord sung by the devotees, and his
ears will fill up with nectar. His mind will become dislodged from matter and fixed in the pastimes and Holy
Names of the Lord. When his mind is once again settled upon the Holy Name, he can chant eternally in a
joyous and peaceful mood.

Commentary
This text is explaining Sri Krsna’s words in the Bhagavad-gita:

ksipram bhavati dharmatma

sasvac-chantim nigcchati
kaunteya pratijanihi
na me bhaktah pranasyati

He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My
devotee never perishes. (Bg. 9.31)

These days we are seeing how the preaching strategies of the advanced souls in ISKCON are changing to include
more hari-bhajana, and nama-sankirtana. In this way the devotees are acquiring a special taste as their ears begin to
fill up with the nectar of sweet songs sung in glorification of the Lord by the Lord's cherished devotees. Devotees who
visit the bigger festivals around the world are receiving a greater taste and their minds are becoming slowly dislodged
from material activities as they chant together in unison the glories of the Lord from the liberated platform. The power
of the Lord’s pastimes will rekindle the devotee’s attraction for chanting and when the sadhaka’s mind is once again
settled on the Lord’s Holy Name, he can again chant without the distraction of inattention. In other words, the glories
of the Lord that are spread by His great devotees are meant to conncect the jiva to the Lord via the chanting process.
Sri Harinama Cintamani is a book that advocates chanting as a path to end the miseries of material attachements,
therefore all teachings of this book emphasise chanting as the only means for deliverance. Kalua nastyeva nastyeva
gatir anyatha, in Kali-yuga, there is no other way, no other way, no other way, than the chanting of the Lord’s Holy
Name.

Enthusiasm for chanting

11. “One must diligently complete the prescribed number of Holy Names according to his vow, and he must
always check that he chants his rounds sincerely. Those who chant distractedly are always eager to somehow
complete the fixed number of Holy Names and be done with it. It is important to concentrate on the quality of
the chanting and not on trying to artificially increase the number of Holy Names. The name of the Lord should
be pronounced distinctly. Only by the grace of the Lord can this be achieved. Thus one should pray to the Lord
that he never falls victim to the wiles of the illusion of distraction, and that he can continue to taste the full
nectar of the Holy Name.

Commentary
It is wise for a devotee to make a sankalpa, a solemn vow to chant a fixed number of rounds every day. We heard
earlier how Srila Prabhupada indicated that the maha-mantra was the medicine for our diseased condition, and the
jiva who thinks he is in a more wretched and fallen condition is wise to chant sixty-four rounds as opposed to sixteen.
This was Srila Prabhupada’s recommendation. However, Sri Harinama Cintamani is highlighting the need for quality
to be there also. It will do no good to water the weeds of anarthas while chanting, by allowing the mind to be
distracted. Remember; inattention is synonymous with negligence, this was brought to our attention a little earlier in
this chapter. Now, in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna informs Arjuna that one should never give up acts of sacrifice,
charity, and penance, as these three are purifying to the consciousness. Further than this He says:

etany api tu karmani

sangam tyaktva phalani ca
kartavyaniti me partha
niscitam matam uttamam

All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of the result. They
should be performed as a matter of duty, O son of Prtha. That is My final opinion. (Bg. 18.06)

Here, the Lord gives the final say, and that is; all activities that lead to advanced spiritual knowledge should be
performed “as a matter of duty.” Contrary to this, any activity that leads to material attachment should be given up at
once. Understanding this, a sadhaka should chant his fixed number of rounds as a matter of duty, and increase in the
quality by regularly checking his level of distraction. If he finds the distraction level is not going down, it is a sign
that too much material engagement is there. In this case the sadhaka needs to engage in more spiritual activities like
reading, sincerely serving, associating with sadhus, taking vows on Holy days, visiting festivals and the Holy dhamas
—like this, a devotee increases his taste for chanting.

When improvement in quality has begun one must then increase in rounds and take a new vratta, (vow) to chant a
higher fixed number of rounds with quality. The reason for this is as follows: If one has succeeded in winning a
specific amount of ground from the enemies of lust, greed, pride, etc—then one should kick the enemy while he is
running. Once momentum has been acquired it is easier to keep moving, so in this way one should increase and
march-forward on the path of purity. A warrior never runs from a battle, and when the cowardly enemy runs, the
warrior should increase the chase and mercilessly kill off the enemy of lust without hesitation. This is the action a
spiritual warrior performs. Satadhanva’s lust got the better of him when he killed Satrajit in order to take the
Syamataka jewel, but Lord Krsna being the Supreme warrior took away Satadhanva’s head with his cakra weapon.
This is how we deal with the enemy of lust, we seek refuge in Lord Krsna’s Holy Name and the Lord’s Holy Name
removes the enemy of lust as easily as Satadhanva’s head was removed with the Lord’s sudarsana cakra.

On the other hand, if you are the one being chased, and you are not taking shelter in the Holy Name, the enemy will
similarly have no remorse about cutting down your bhakti-lata bija, your devotional creeper that is in its infancy
stage. Such a devotional creeper must be in its infancy stage, because we heard earlier how ‘advanced devotees are
cautious about this offense’ and never waste a single moment in useless talks in the mind, given from distraction. In
this regard Sri Harinama Cintamani advises in this text that a devotee should pray to the Lord that he never falls
victim to the wiles of the illusion of distraction. And the positive affirmation is that he prays to the Lord that he
continues to taste the full nectar of the Holy Name. Therefore, a devotee’s weapon is full surrender to the Lord,
saranagati. Srila Rupa Goswami instructs that a devotee should be fully under the shelter and mercy of the Holy
Name, thinking that no one else can save him. In this way, being fully depended on the shelter of the lotus feet of the
Lord, the devotee will gain victory over the enemy of distraction and he can then wave his jayapataka, his victory
flag.

Pleease add sloka from bhajana rahasya about Lord Caitanya and His confidential weapons associates etc…

Procedure for overcoming distraction

12. “The devotee should make it a regular practice to spend a little time alone in a quiet place and concentrate
deeply on the Holy Name. He should utter and hear the name distinctly. It is impossible for the jiva to single-
handedly avoid and overcome the illusion of distraction. By the mercy of the Lord, however, this is
accomplished with ease. Therefore it is essential to fervently beg for the Lord's grace with great humility. This
is the jiva’s only means of salvation.

Commentary
The instructions given herein are that one should become a little introspective by spending some time alone with
Deities or pictures of the Lord. One should communicate with the Lord via thoughtful prayer, and when chanting one
should pronounce the mantra distinctly in a solitary place. Distinctly, means clear enough so that the mantra stands
out from the noisy thoughts, or that the mantra becomes distinct and noticeable, that means that other noises, such as
background noises or noisy thoughts are not as distinct, or that one is not paying attention to them. This is called the
beginnings of concentration, for whatever a person concentrates on will stand out as distinct from the other things. For
a more detailed approach to clear distinct chanting please review H.H. Sacinandana Swami’s book entitled ‘the
Nectarean Ocean of the Holy Name.’ In this book Maharaja gives a detailed elaboration on the importance of
pronouncing the mantra correctly.

Quoting his spiritual master (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura) Srila Prabhupada gives good instruction on the
mood of chanting and seeking refuge in the Holy Name. He says that we should cry out like a child cries for its
mother. When a child is small, the parents are very happy to care for all the needs of the child as it is fully depended
on their mercy. In this way, being helpless and one hundred percent dependant, the child cries for help, and the parents
immediately come running to the child’s aid. Whatever is attacking the child is no problem for the parents, and the
parents will do everything in their power to safeguard and protect the child from harm. Now then, when that child has
grown up and become independent but remains faithful and friendly, the parents will still come running if the grown-
up calls. This is because of their deep love for their child, but, if that child grows up and becomes antagonistic toward
them and hurtful, and then he calls for help intending to profit from them for his own devious motives, the parents
will think twice about giving their help—this is because they have great love for their child, no matter what.
Intelligently they decide to give their help but in a different way than he expects. This time the parents give their help
in a way that would cause rectification of the evil-minded son. Similarly, the Lord reciprocates with the jiva according
to our level of helplessness, innocence, advancement, purity, need, sincerity, and good intentions. Sri Harinama
Cintamani gives the instruction that ‘it is essential to fervently beg for the Lord's grace with great humility. This is the
jiva’s only means of salvation.’

The necessity of developing enthusiasm

13. “O Lord Caitanya! You are an ocean of compassion! My anxious heart begs from You. If I do not become
conscientious and pray for Your grace, then no one is more unfortunate than I am.

14. “Those who attempt to take up devotional service on the merits of their individual intelligence and mental
expertise will find that all their endeavours are fruitless. Lord Krsna’s mercy is the prime cause of success in
all work. One who does not aspire to obtain the Lord's mercy is indeed a very miserable soul.

Commentary
Lord Caitanya instructs the devotee to take the following verse and ware it as a garland around his neck:

trnad api sunicena

taror iva sahisnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih

One should chant the Holy Name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than
the straw in the street; one should me more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige,
and should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the Holy Name
of the Lord constantly.

The qualification of a devotee is his humility and full dependence on the mercy of the Lord. If one thinks he does not
need the mercy of the Lord, but is himself a big, big scholar or the best artisan, he is in for a shock. One may remain a
pseudo devotee for eternity if one does not aspire to obtain the mercy of Sri Lord Krsna, and Lord Krsna, in His form
of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu appointed Sri Nityananda and Jiva Goswami in charge of guarding the doors to
the store-house of krsna-prema. And what did they do? They broke down those doors and began distributing it freely.
They did not care who was qualified to receive it or not. Even if people did not initially want this krsna-prema, still
the Lord is so magnanimous that He gave it anyway. They are like mad-men, begging everyone to take the nectar of
devotional service. Srila Haridasa Thakura and Nityananda Gosai personally went from door to door and bowed down
in humility, begging everyone to chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama
Rama Hare Hare. Their love is unsurpassable! What a miserable soul, who thinks that he can attain the kingdom of
God without first pleasing Them. Such a person, who is dying of thirst, is merely banging on the shell of an empty
coconut. His endeavours to take up devotional service on the merits of his own intellect are fruitless. Therefore, take
advice from text thirteen and repeat as follows: “O Lord Caitanya! You are an ocean of compassion! My anxious heart
begs from You. If I do not become conscientious and pray for Your grace, then no one is more unfortunate than I am.”
In order to increase our love for Sri Nityananda, the Lord says the following in the Caitanya Bhagavat:

You are the absolute proprietor of the treasure house of krsna-prema, the embodiment of sublime
devotional love. No one can receive krsna-prema unless and until You distribute such nectar. Therefore
please get up and look around You, glance mercifully upon Your own beloved associates who surround
You. You may distribute that greatest wealth to whomever You desire. If anyone nurtures even the
slightest dislike for You, then although He may worship Me, I will never accept him as dear to Me.
(Cb. madhya-lila Ch 5)

15. “A little earlier we spoke about concentrating deeply on the Holy Name. Lord Caitanya’s advice to
everyone on this matter is found in the Caitanya-Bhagavata (madhya-lila 23.650) Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The Lord said, ‘Here is the maha-
mantra, now go and do japa meditation and chant the Holy Names a prescribed number of times (nirbandha).
You will achieve all desirable perfection from chanting. Just chant the Holy Name constantly, because no rules
or regulations can restrict it. The word nirbandha needs elaboration. The sadhaka should chant the maha-
mantra on Tulasi beads. A japamala has 108 beads. Four rounds on the mala make a granthi. By gradually
increasing his chanting, the sadhaka should aspire to chant 16 granthis or one lakh of Holy Names; in
particular this number is considered as nirbandha. If chanting is then even further increased to three lakhs of
names, the devotee will always be immersed in the Lord's Holy Name. All the previous acaryas and mahajanas
have followed this instruction of Lord Caitanya and attained perfection. Even now, anyone can attain
perfection by proper chanting. Everyone, including the liberated souls, the salvationists and materialists, are
eligible to chant the Holy Name of the Lord. A distinctly different mood of chanting is visible in the liberated
souls, but the nectar of the Holy Name is relished in any of these moods, whether in spiritual enjoyment
because of union with the Lord, or in the pangs of separation from the Lord.

Commentary
In the Brhan-naradiya Purana the following is written:

bhaktis tu bhagavad bhakta sangena parijayate

sat-sangah prapyate pumbhih sukrtaih purva sancitaih

Devotional sentiments are evoked by the purifying association of advanced devotees. The jiva is able
to come into close contact with a suddha-bhakta, the pure devotee, only by accruing sufficient sukrti
from many previous births.
(Bnp. 4.33)

This verse indicates that once the opportunity to associate with Krsna’s bhaktas has arisen, one should not waste this
chance to advance one’s devotional sentiments. Srila Prabhupada stresses that we must chant in association with
devotees (bhakta-sanga), it is not the correct procedure at this point in time to become a recluse and take Babaji
status. Therefore the prescription is highlighted in this text; first qualify sixteen good rounds, and then increase over
time, until sixty-four good rounds are chanted. Here you may say, “well it is very hard already to chant sixteen
attentive rounds, what to speak of sixty-four.” It should also be known that the hardest part of spiritual life is when
one is on the neophyte platform. Why is this? Because taste is lacking! Therefore, as one becomes more attentive to
the Holy Name, purification occurs, and taste for chanting will come about as taste for the Holy Name is a natural by-
product of purification of heart.

Taking vows and increasing in quality and quantity of rounds while in the association of saintly devotees will
therefore see spiritual life becoming more and more relishable and flowing. In this condition it then becomes natural
to chant more and more attentive rounds, and the more a sadhaka increases his rounds, the more the Lord blesses him
accordingly. The blessings are that he receives a taste for chanting and devotional service, as these are the exact two
things that an aspiring devotee needs, and the results of attaining these two things are what a jiva prays for when he
calls on the Lord for help. Often times the feelings are as follows: Firstly, chanting sixteen rounds wets a devotee’s
appetite, but does not fully satisfy his thirst, or clean his contaminated heart as much as he would like. Next he goes
on to chant forty-two rounds and this makes him smile more, as he is happily progressing and slowly getting more
and more taste. Soon, before he knows it, he has again increased and again increased and is now happily chanting
sixty-four rounds. Only then does his crazy mind become challenged!

Everyday his mind comes in contact with a plethora of different items that cause unlimited desires to surface, and
when he gives that sacred time for japa the silence of the morning turns into a breading ground for noisy speculations.
After twelve rounds the sadhaka begins to quieten his mind, but only after thirty-two rounds does he realize just how
many hidden thoughts are still lingering. It takes him sixty-four rounds to realize that he must do the same again the
next day, in order to beg the Lord and Srimati Radharani to purify his heart and engage him in service to the pure
devotee, which can engage his crazy mind and purify him further. Continuing to chant in this manner, the sadhaka
understands that this is the only thing that will save him, and that the founder acarya’s teachings, and the teachings
past on by his disciples, are meant to bring him to this point of understanding. By their mercy his path is now set and
open. This knowledge is given from the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu to the sincere devotee’s heart.

With this taste nirbandha becomes easy, if you allow the material world of unlimited desires to simply slip through
your fingers. The key to success in spiritual life is the Holy Name, and if your attention and drive is placed on the
Holy Name, naturally you will have no time for material engagements. If you are wise, at this point you will turn up
the fire and increase the intensity, going from nirbandha (one lakh), to two lakhs, and eventually to three lakhs. This
is certainly time consuming, but if you want to follow in the footsteps of the mahajanas then at some point you must
call time-out with material life and work intensely on the spiritual side of your reality. If this intensity of rounds is
kept up for some time, great purification will follow, and when one has the force of purity behind one, it will be easy
to again associate with materialists, but this time it will be to give sadhu-sanga for their upliftment. Now, here some
people may comment, “well Srila Prabhupada never said to do this, and his disciples certainly aren’t doing this as a
whole, so what do we make of this?” These are valid comments and deserve attention, so we can deliberate on these
issues now.

It is true that some of our senior Prabhupada disciples have a special commission to their spiritual master in this
lifetime, and that they have sacrificed everything for his pleasure. This is most certainly to their credit, however we
should also understand what is required from this point forward. For instance; a child can not remain a child forever,
and as ISKCON is growing older some changes should come about naturally. Srila Prabhupada once made a famous
comment about boiling the milk, he said:

“Now we have enough disciples, it is time that we stop this external expansion and concentrate on
training our devotees. Add exact please…………..

At this moment in time in some countries, every year ISKCON makes new bhaktas, and looses them just as fast.
Similarly, Alexandra the Great used to conquer his enemies, take over their lands, and then when he went off to the
next battle he would again loose that which he had conquered. The reason for this was that he spread himself too thin
too fast. From this we can learn that if too much emphasis is placed on continuous expansion the same will happen to
ISKCON’s members, as maya is eveready to reclaim a conditioned soul who strays from the protected flock.

Srila Prabhupada indicated that we should work to train our devotees in the science of Krsna consciousness. And what
does that science mean? To learn how to attentively chant the maha-mantra and gain purification—then all things will
be revealed in the heart, just as a lamp lights the way in a darkened room. The chanting of the Holy Name is the
fastest and most sublime method for reviving our dormant love for the Lord. It is the principle method—no secondary
methods, such as varanasrama dharma can equal it. It is said that charity begins at home—therefore, if one first
schools himself in the art of attentive chanting and then helps other devotees nearby, then, as a natural cause of the
compassion that arises in the purified heart, one will naturally want to help others further a-field. For this reason the
Lord has inspired our heart, and is mercifully instigating our team at ISEKC to set up an institution to help devotees.
The meaning of the word ISEKC is, the International Society for Education in Krsna Consciousness. The aim of this
institution is to assist devotees to deepen their relationship with the Holy Name via connection and knowledge. This
institution is providing a service to devotees on behalf of Srila Prabhupada—ISEKC is not a separate organisation
from Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, it is a branch of Srila Bhakti-Tirtha Swami’s Insitute (IFAST) which is a branch of
ISKCON.

The science outlined in this text number fifteen, is given directly from Lord Caitanya, from Srila Haridasa Thakura,
and from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. As well as this, the strength of all the previous mahajanas is behind this text
and it is clear to grasp its meaning. It is not hidden in anyway—clearly it is stated;

By gradually increasing his chanting, the sadhaka should aspire to chant 16 granthis or one lakh of
Holy Names; in particular this number is considered as nirbandha (64 rounds). If chanting is then even
further increased to three lakhs of names, the devotee will always be immersed in the Lord's Holy
Name. All the previous acaryas and mahajanas have followed this instruction of Lord Caitanya and
attained perfection. Even now, anyone can attain perfection by proper chanting.

If by chance anyone out there is still considering that Srila Prabhupada only prescribed that we chant sixteen rounds,
he is wholesale misled and has not understood one single word of this book. This book is not for the faithless
materialist, it is for the devotee who desires to go back to home, back to Godhead. Please, therefore give up
attachments to material life and chant in association with devotees. If you chance to chant no less than three lakhs of
Holy Names Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura tells that you will always be immersed in the Holy Name, and your chanting
will be distinctly different because you will be an eternally liberated soul. Anyone who follows the guidelines outlined
in this text will have the full blessings of Srila Haridasa Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and Srila Prabhupada,
of this there can be no doubt. May these most merciful masters of my heart, shower me with love and sever my ties
with material attractions.
16. “One who wears the gem of Harinama Cintamani as a crown upon his head will certainly find shelter at
Srila Haridasa Thakura’s lotus feet.”

Commentary
This text is proof of what the Lord instigated me to write in the last sentence above. The gem of Harinama Cintamani
is none other than the fulfillment of one’s spiritual longings via the mercy of Sri Hari’s name. And what is that
spiritual longing? Krsna-prema.

Chapter Thirteen

Maintaining Material Attachments of I and Mine

All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life and soul of
Srimati Jahnavadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to all the devotees
of Lord Caitanya.

The worst offense against the Holy Name

1. Drenched in tears of ecstatic love, Srila Haridasa Thakura went on to explain, in a chocked voice, the last of
the offenses to the Holy Name. “My Lord, this last namaparadha is the worst kind of offense. Its presence
restricts the free flow of divine love, prema. Even after having taken spiritual initiation, most materially
attached persons cannot fully give up bodily designations. They maintain a ‘me’ and ‘mine’ mentality that
sidetracks them from the path of devotion. Physical designations, e.g. ‘I am a brahmana,’ ‘I am Vaisnava,’ I am
a King;’ or ‘this is my position, wealth, son, grandson and so on,’ symptomize spiritual immaturity and are
deterrents to proper cultivation of devotional service. This terrible offense is only ameliorated when one
surrenders to the Holy Name.

Commentary
Why is the tenth offense the worst kind of offense? Because it prevents a sadhaka from entering into the kingdom of
God! Everything belongs to Sri Krsna—this understanding can only come about by the mercy of Sri krsna-nama.
Although it is true that most aspiring devotees today are committing this offense, still with the mercy of the Vaisnavas
and the Holy Name there is hope. Bodily designations appear as strong because the world appears real and solid.
Emotions back up the sense of ownership and feelings of possessiveness and power seem very real when one is in
material consciousness. To combat this Lord Caitanya spoke the words, I am not a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or
sudra. However, as Srila Prabhupada explains, Lord Caitanya was a liberated person, and always acting from the
liberated platform. In a conversation Prabhupada explains the following about bodily identification:

Lord Caitanya said: ‘“I am not a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra.’ But that is Lord Caitanya.
Ordinary person is not Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is liberated. He is talking from the
liberated platform. But not everyone is on the standard of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Therefore, first of all,
one has to come to the standard of varnasrama-dharma. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu's position can be
obtained by the grace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu by this sankirtan movement. He is giving that. That
 means we have to come to that position when we don't identify with this body. This varnasrama-dharma
is identification with this body.”

I would like to spend a little time to discuss this most important topic of varnasrama-dharma at this point. When Srila
Prabhupada first came to the west he gave the highest teachings that a person only needs to chant the Lord’s Holy
Name and all will be well. This is the grace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and this was taught by Caitanya
Mahaprabhu and His followers. However, in 1977 Srila Prabhupada highlighted the need for his followers to
implement varnasrama-dharma. This left many people confused about what was the right path to follow. In the quote
mentioned above, Srila Prabhupada clearly mentions that Lord Caitanya is teaching that one should not identify with
the body, by stating ‘I am not a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra.’ However at the same time Prabhupada
mentions that we are not on the pure level of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The problem Srila Prabhupada saw was that
devotees were not able to chant the Holy Name correctly, and so were not traversing the anartha-nirvritti stage and
further to prema. Therefore, to assist his followers he indicated the secondary path of varnasrama-dharma. At this
point we should understand that the problem lies not with the prescription of chanting, but with the practical
application from every individual. Srila Prabhupada further states that Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s position can be
obtained by the grace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave the prescription; decacry…… chant sixty
four rounds…ADD HERE ..
We have attempted to bring this to your attention earlier and have elaborated a little upon this subject in chapter ……..
. To end his comment off, Srila Prabhupada gives a very clear understanding of what he is implying, Prabhupada
states that Gauranga Mahaprabhu is giving the grace that we may come to Him via chanting alone, but to do this we
must reach the stage where we do not associate ourselves with the material body. Prabhupada says “varnasrama-
dharma is bodily identification.” That means, I am a brahmana, I am a ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra.

Because our acarya mentioned this in 1977 the disciples of Srila Prabhupada are thinking that it is their duty to
implement varnasrama-dharma on behalf of Srila Prabhupada. To succeed in this they must first understand that
varnasrama-dharma is implemented by the governmental state. It is not something that can be organized by
individuals. Therefore if they really wish to implement varnasrama-dharma they must act as the government for the
people. That means they should first clearly understand the science and psychology of all the varnas, and then create
schools to teach this science to the youth. They should control and facilitate unlimited businesses, so that they can
give the necessary facility to the different types of people who will need to work under the ksatriyas. And furthermore
they will need to sell their products to the existing outer world, which is not implementing a varnasrama-dharma
society. It is clear to see the issues that would arise from this, not only in the lives of the aspirants, but also in the lives
of the leaders. After all, this is Kali-yuga, and Kali will reside where money and power and prominent, if bodily
identification is present.

The biggest danger with such an attempt is that varnasrama-dharma is a secondary path and is not intended to take
one back to home back to Godhead. The path to do this has already been given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and very
nicely taught by the six goswamis and their followers. If the members of ISKCON were to take to the path of
varnasrama-dharma they would inevitably compromise their time for chanting, and if they are already having
difficulty in chanting sixteen to sixty-four rounds at present, then imagine what will happen when they are educated to
work under the varnasrama-dharma system. These points are worth understanding before we exchange our swift path
of attentive chanting, with a very slow path of elevation through the varnas and asramas. What could take one
lifetime to accomplish due to the mercy of the Holy Name, may take many lifetimes to again come to the point where
the devotee understands that he must rise above the bodily designations and simply chant in extassy. The final words
by Srila Prabhupada in this quoted text were very clearly put; “This varnasrama-dharma is identification with this
body.”

Now, after understanding these final words, we have the choice put in front of us, do we wish to identify with the
body and comit the worst of the offences, “to maintain attachments to I and mine.” Or, do we wish to follow the path
of vaidhi-bhakti and chant without offenses while following the rules of Vaisnava etiquette. If we do, then we may
chant sixteen attentive rounds to get to the stage of initiation, and then futher we may turn our backs on bodily
identification and chant one, two and three lakhs of rounds per day, which will speedily take us through the anartha-
nirvrtti stage, until we attain steadiness, attraction, medition, absorption, etc. Attentive incessant chanting will take us
from the path of vaidhi-bhakti to the path of raganuga-bhakti, where we may begin our devotional service to the Lord
and experience exctassy. Srila Prabhupada mentioned the secondary path of varnasrama-dharma because devotees
were not chanting properly, but why through away the thing that can give the highest results just to replace it with a
secondary thing that will hopefully bring us back to the thing we had right in front of us in the first instance.
Secondary paths are for second class intelligence. To quote Sri Harinama Cintamani this text states the following:

Physical designations, e.g. ‘I am a brahmana,’ ‘I am Vaisnava,’ I am a King;’ or ‘this is my position,

wealth, son, grandson and so on,’ symptomize spiritual immaturity and are deterrents to proper
cultivation of devotional service. This terrible offense is only ameliorated when one surrenders to the
Holy Name.

Better a devotee understands that he is an eternal servant of Lord Krsna and acts accordingly. If the husband gives the
order the wife must follow. Therefore, Lord Gauranga gave the order to incessantly chant the names of Hare Krsna
and Rama with great exctassy. Krsna is the lover. He is the Husband, He is the enjoyer, and it is the duty of the
subservient maidservant to do as He requests. Therefore please take up the challenge of offense-free chanting and rid
yourself of weakness of heart via the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu. This is the teachings of Sri Harinama Cintamani.

There is a nice story in the Caitanya Caritamrta, where King Prataparudha dearly wanted to attain an interview with
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however because he was playing the role of a king Lord Caitanya would not grant him His
audience. King means bodily identification. Prataparudha Maharaja, being a great devotee, managed to please the
Lord by his sincere service to Lord Jaganatha and the deovtees. Because he was not affected by bodily designations
Prataparudha Maharaja picked up a broom and began to sweep the road in order to cleanse it for the appearance of
Lord Jaganatha on rathayatra day. This pleased Lord Caitanya greatly and He subsequently granted the King an
audience, but only after the King took off his royal dress. In this way the Lord teaches his devotees about the dangers
of false identification, and about associating with those who are attached to bodily designations.

In the liberated mood one can cross over any obstacle, as in this mood there is no chance of committing the tenth
offense of maintaining material attachments of ‘I and mine.’ This is called Vaisnava. It is a fact that a devotee is nitya-
krsna-dasa, an eternal servant of Krsna, and it is also a fact that the jiva has forgotten this and become bewildered.
But even knowing this sad fact there is still hope. This is propounded in the Caitanya-caritamrta as follows:

kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-avatara

nama haite haya sarva jagat-nistara

In this Age of Kali, the Holy Name of the Lord, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, is the incarnation of
Lord Krsna. Simply by chanting the Holy Name, one associates with the Lord directly. Anyone who
does this is certainly delivered.
(Cc. adi-lila 17.22)

From this sloka we can understand that the Lord did not forsake the fallen jiva and leave them to rot in Kali-yuga. We
may have missed the chance to be on the planet five hundred years ago when Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda
were personally present, but that does not exclude us from associating with Them now. This is the greatness of
spiritual life; it is not bound by time or space. Therefore, when one associates with the Holy Name of the Lord, one
associates with the Lord directly.

This all sounds very good, but we must also remember that this text and this chapter are highlighting one problem,
‘our false identification with the body.’ We must give up attachments to ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and simply become dasa-anu-
dasa, the servant of the servant of the servant. Please remember this as you progress in spiritual life via the chanting
process, or the varnasrama structure set up by Lord Krsna.

The necessity of surrender to the Holy Name

2. “Every devotee must cease all namaparadhas and surrender completely to the Holy Name. According to the
scriptures, the process of surrender has six limbs. It is beyond my ability to describe them in detail. Yet I shall
touch upon these six and place them before Your lotus feet.

Commentary
The beginning of real advancement is to stop offenses and sincerely chant with enthusiasm. Beyond this one should
chant attentively, increase his daily quota of rounds, as discussed earlier, and surrender completely to the Holy Name
and the Lord's representative the spiritual master. In the next few texts we are going to learn about saranagati-laksana
or the quality of complete surrender, which is fully explained in Sri Upadesamrta, the Nectar of Instruction.

3. “The vow to accept everything favorable for the execution of devotional service; likewise, to reject anything
unfavorable; to be convinced that Lord Krsna will always give protection; to depend wholly on Krsna for
everything; to always feel meek and humble; and to throw oneself at Lord Krsna’s lotus feet—these are the six
limbs of surrender.

Commentary
If these six limbs of devotional service are studied and performed correctly then real devotional life will manifest. His
Divine Grace Srila Prabhodananda Acarya has stated that devotional service begins when one is on the liberated
platform, free from all offenses. These six limbs, if followed correctly are a path to performing pure devotional
service from this liberated platform.

4. “Devotional service is possible only while alive, hence one must accept only that which keeps the body and
soul together. Life must be moulded to facilitate devotional service; therefore one should develop a taste for
objects that are connected to Lord Krsna. Simultaneously, a natural distaste for deterrents to devotional
service also develops within the heart. Lord Krsna becomes the only protector and also the only maintainer,
because no one is as dependable as He is. I, as His eternal slave, am somehow a part of Lord Krsna’s family,
and my only aspiration is to act according to Lord Krsna’s will.

Commentary
In the Bhagavad-gita Srila Prabhupada explains that our lives should be moulded in such a way that we cannot but
think of Krsna twenty-four hours a day. In this way we must slowly give up the stereotyped life of having a house, a
wife, children etc for our sense gratification, and creating a situation whereby we have a little Krsna, and a little maya.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Narada Muni states that a man can claim ownership to only the clothes on his back, a
simple change in clothes, and his watering pot. Or in other words, one should only claim proprietorship over the
essentials needed to sustain life, and everything we own should be used in service to the Supreme Lord. Srila
Prabhupada also states that a man who works for Krsna, and who gives up the results, is acting transcendentally and is
rightly situated as a renunciant. In the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu we hear the following verse spoken by Srila Rupa
Goswami:
anasaktasya visayan
yatharham upayunjatah
nirbandhah Krsna-sambandhe
yuktam vairagyam ucyate

As long as we are in this material world we have to act. We can not cease acting. Therefore if actions
are performed and the fruits are given to Krsna, that is called yukta-vairagya. (Brs. 2.255)

Also in the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna says:

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam
 Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you
perform—do that, O son of Kunti, as an offering to Me. (Bg. 9.27)

It is the duty of a servant to act on behalf of the master and not try to enjoy the master’s property. A sincere servant
devotee will therefore naturally increase his taste for the Lord and increase a-distaste for material objects meant for
sense gratification, by continually experiencing the higher taste of unmotivated service to the pure devotee, and
eventually to the Lord. Over a devotee’s career in the mortal world he sees many things and many people coming and
going, but the one underlying item which never changes and never lets him down is God, Sri Krsna. Noticing this, the
devotee who belongs to Sri Krsna’s family becomes more and more attached to Him, knowing that the Lord is his
only protector and maintainer.

According to sastra the Lord's potency called iccha-sakti is the potency of His will and if the Lord desires something
then it will happen, thus a devotee naturally abides by the Lord's will because a devotee is the servant to the Lord's
will.

5. “One must give up false designations like brahmana, sudra, father, husband, king, subject, master, donor,
and maintainer. Relinquish all attachments to money, body, sons, wife, etc. Instead, one should center the
attachments and relationships around Krsna, thinking: ‘He is the real Master and Lord, and His will is my
imperative. I am ready to act only to fulfil Lord Krsna’s desire and won’t even think about my own wishes. I
will adjust my household affairs for the Lord's satisfaction. By His wish I will cross the material ocean. In
times of both joy and sorrow I will remain eternally Lord Krsna’s servitor. Only by His desire can I become
compassionate to the suffering of others. All my moments of material enjoyment and my moods of austerity are
experienced solely due to the Lord's will.’ When these feelings arise spontaneously, one achieves the stage of
atma-nivedana (surrender of the soul).

Commentary
A devotee must think that he has no other means for liberation except for the mercy of Lord Krsna. In this way his
intelligence guides him to a situation whereby he can engage wholeheartedly in service to the pure devotee, and in
this way he begins to understand that bodily designations of cast, varna, asrama, and all other manners of material
designations are simply pertaining to the body and not the spirit soul. A sadhaka would be well advised to speak and
understand the words of Sri Siksastaka each and every day, for by repeatedly understanding what is good for one’s
wellbeing will advance a sadhaka greatly. In this context we should remember the words of Sri Harinama Cintamani
and repeat them constantly; “I am ready to act only to fulfil Lord Krsna’s desire and won’t even think about my own
wishes. I will adjust my household affairs for the Lord's satisfaction. By His wish I will cross the material ocean.”
These are certainly the words that express atma-nivedana (complete surrender of the soul).

It is by the will of the Lord that the devotee begins to act in a godly manner that eventually brings him to the lotus feet
of the Supreme Lord. It is not by the will of the small living entity, but the small living entity, by acting in such a
manner, is fulfilling the Lord's will, this is the Lord's iccha-sakti potency (His supreme will). His Holiness Srila Gour
Govinda Swami gave a very interesting lecture regarding Lord Krsna’s iccha-sakti and Lord Gauranga’s krpa-sakti
(mercy potency). He explained how normally the Supreme Lord's mercy potency (krpa-sakti) is subordinate to His
will power (iccha-sakti), however in the case of Sriman Mahaprabhu the role is reversed and those who follow the
path of Gauranga Mahaprabhu find that the Lord's mercy potency is supreme to His will potency. For this reason, if
we receive Lord Gauranga’s causeless mercy, which is placed in the hands of His great devotees, we receive love of
Godhead, krsna-prema. This is a very confidential topic.

There are examples in the Caitanya Cartiamrta where Lord Caitanya would eat prasad because he feared his great
devotee Jagadananda Pandit would become angry at Him and fast. Jagadananda Pandit could control the Lord’s
desires by his love because he was an unalloyed pure devotee in the mood of Satyabhama. Similarly, the love other
devotees expressed also rulled over the Lord’s desire. In this way we can see the sweet mellows exchanged by
Gaurasundara and His intimate associates. Such intimate pastimes can only come about after the stage of atma-
nivedana is achieved.

What occurs without surrender

6. “One unable to accept the six limbs of surrender is a prisoner of the false ego, who always thinks in terms of
‘me’ and ‘mine.’ He proudly declares. ‘I am the master here. This household and family belong to me. The
fruits of work are mine by right of labor, and I am their enjoyer, whether they be bitter or sweet. I am my own
protector and maintainer. This woman is my wife, here is my brother, and here is my son. By the sweat of my
brow I earn my own living. Success is the reward of my endeavours.’ Intoxicated with egoism, these
materialistic persons overestimate their ability and intelligence. Scientists propagate their theories and develop
technology to flaunt their denial of the Lord's omnipotence and even of the Lord Himself. Among atheists,
these are the worst demons. They take credit for the so-called advancement of scientific technology and for the
material comfort it brings. But factually, all is done by the Lord's will; this they conveniently forget.

Commentary
In the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna discusses the divine and demoniac natures in a person.
Similarly, Sri Harinama Cintamani touches on this tiopic in this chapter. Divine qualities are those highlighted in text
three of this chapter, and the demoniac qualities are discussed in this verse. The divine gives rise to the real-ego, or
the pure-self, which is characterized as being spiritually surcharged with love. On the other hand the demoniac
tendencies give rise to a greater false-ego, or the contaminated self, which has its roots in the mud of maya, and is
maddened with lust.

In other words, as aspiring devotees, we are herein being persuaded to drop the bodily designations of ‘I’ and ‘mine,’
as everything that is connected with bodily sense pleasures is a cause for bondage and will not please the Lord. It is
the Lord who is arranging for our freedom from prison, and this is arranged because the Lord reciprocates with our
love. When we begin to surrender fully, symptoms of atma-nivedana (spontaneous surrender) occur, and at this time
the Lord comes personally to deliver us from the prison house of devi-dhama. Materialists may flaunt their denial of
the Lord's omnipotence but a devotee should not, so please carefully study this text and remain always on guard to the
tricks of the false-ego. In all cases, ‘be a bhakti-yogi.’

7. “When the atheists hear of the glory of the Holy Name, they disbelieve it. Yet sometimes even they utter
Krsna’s Holy Name due to the pressure of social norms, but since this kind of chanting is bereft of faith, they
never experience bliss. Such are the stereotyped ways of cheaters who make a mere show of religion. By
repeating Krsna’s name, even though in neglect, they earn a little piety, but they are deprived of the actual
result of chanting: pure love of Godhead. The cause of their offensiveness is material engrossment. They are so
captivated by the illusory potency that they are blinded, and it is extremely difficult for them to get free of their
offensive condition. Only one who acquires a taste for pure devotional service becomes disgusted with material
life; leaving it, he takes full shelter of the Holy Name.

Commentary
Following along with a crowd some people make a show of chanting, even though they have no faith in Sri krsna-
nama. Being supremely kind the Lord blesses them with rewards, but because their consciousness is steeped in gross
materialism their reward is material. Their intelligence is stolen by the illusion of maya, ‘mayayapahrta-jnanah.’
However, when a sadhaka chants the Holy Name, considering himself the most fallen and wretched sinner of all, he
does so to please the Lord, or to gain purification so that he can eventually please the Lord. Now, these two ways of
chanting are diametrically opposed and give opposite results. Materially motivated chanting gives material piety and
keeps one in the cycle of action and reaction, whereas spiritually motivated chanting brings one to the platform of
associating with saintly characters whose hearts are completely free from the contaminations of lust and greed. This
kind of chanting frees one from material bondage and does not give karma, instead the Lord kindly takes away a
devotee’s karma (both good and bad). For this reason it is imperative to chant in a devotional mood, and to chant as
much as possible. When one does this he becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the pure devotee.

In the association of a pure devotee, one receives the mercy of the pure devotee and thus develops the urgency of the
pure devotee. Just like a man may acquire a contagious disease by coming in close proximity with one who has this
disease, similarly the spiritual madness of divine love for the Lord is extremely contagious. When one comes in the
proximity of a pure devotee who has this divya madha divine maddenss, it rubs off. In this way Sri Harinama
Cintamani says, “Only one who acquires a taste for pure devotional service becomes disgusted with material life;
leaving it, he takes full shelter of the Holy Name.” How does this disgust come about? Lord Caitanya gives the
answer to this question:

sadhu-sanga, sadhu sanga

sarva sastre kaya
lava-matra sadhu-sange
sarva siddhi haya

The verdict of all revealed scripture is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one
can attain all success. (Cc. madhya-lila 22.54)

In Srila Prabhupada’s purport to this verse he tells how according to astronomical calculations, lava, as in the word
lava-matra, is one eleventh of a second. In this way, one first becomes eligible to chant the Holy Name via
performing ajanata-sukrti, and when one chants in the association of devotees he becomes eligible to receive the
mercy of the pure devotee, sadhu-sange.

How to rid oneself of this offense

8. “Leaving aside all material attachments and accepting voluntary poverty, one should humbly worship Lord
Krsna’s lotus feet, taking full shelter of the chanting of the Holy Name. He should search out the association of
sadhus and serve them without material desires. Gradually his heart will become impregnated with attraction
for the Holy Name. The egoistic mentality of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ will disappear, and he will surmount the ocean of
material nescience. By hearing the glories of the Holy Name, the last traces of false ego will dissipate.
Symptoms of a pure devotee will then blossom in his heart, and he’ll take to the six processes of surrender. He
who finds complete shelter in the Holy Name is a great soul, for he becomes the recipient of the treasure of
krsna-prema.

Commentary
This text is an elaboration on how to become attentive in chanting and then the rewards of such chanting. Firstly the
materialist comes across a pure devotee by ajnata sukriti/bhakti-unmukhi, next he is instructed in the glories of the
Holy Name and his faith in the Lord is increased via the purifying association of the devotees. Continuing to relish the
association of the Holy Name and the devotees, the materialist becomes a bhakta. If he is wise, at this point he will
shun all material attachments, accept voluntary poverty, and humbly serve the Vaisnavas as his only mission in life.

Sometimes we see aspiring devotees attempt just this and it makes our hearts rejoice, however, after some time we
notice how many aspiring devotees become again attracted by the glare of material nature—attraction to the
temporary happens because of false-pride. A devotee thinks; ‘now I am an experienced devotee, it is time for me to go
my own way and find my own way of serving Lord Krsna, after all I don’t want to be dependent all the time.’
Suddenly, a desire arises for marriage and freedom, and when the Lord facilitates such desires the sadhaka faces
many problems, being again thrown into the whirlpool of making money to support his freedom, slowly but surely,
maya creeps in, and the sadhaka begins to chant in a compromised way due to material engagements. This is all too
often a reoccurring scene with devotees and it happens because they still have many anarthas dwelling within their
hearts, and continue to chant while committing the tenth offense of maintaining material attachments of ‘I and Mine.’
I have attempted to highlight this problem in the first text of this chapter when discussing varnasrama-dharma. The
remedy is given in this text and we should take note of such good advice.

It is stated that one should leave material attachments behind and accept voluntary poverty. Remaining meek and
humble one should worship Lord Krsna and take full shelter in the Holy Name. If devotees who read this are married,
the general advice is that one should lead a very simple life and not aspire for too many modern toys. One must be
very honest with oneself and check-in with one’s progress every half-year or so. All too often people use yukta-
vairagya as a tool for sense gratification in the name of service, but one should look into his heart and see where his
attachment lies. We have previoiusly discussed how Mayadevi gives two kinds of benedictions, sakapata, and
niskapata, and how She offers benedictions in order to test the sincerity of the devotees. If one is advanced on the
path, all benedictions will appear as sakapata (honest), but if one is not, then the benedictions of maya will hinder the
progression of the soul. In this case Lord Hari is known to be the protector of the devotees, who removes the
obstycles on the path of progression. If that obsytcle happens to be a benediction granted by maya, then maybe Lord
Hari will remove it so that progression can be swift. This is the Lord’s mercy; it is not the Lord being hard and cruel
for no purpose.

There are times when we are feeling happily situated, but really we are not moving forward. That is our degree of
surrender (atma-nivedana) is questionable. At these times we must seek refuge in Vaisnava literature, and expecially
literatures that propound attentive chanting. We must be very honest with ourselves and check our position against the
progress we need to make in order to move away from the pull of inertia very rapidly. For instance; if the Supersoul
instructed you to sell all of your material toys, your car, your house, your computer, your plasma T.V, sell everything,
and then go and live simply in the Holy Dhama without any modern toys. Can you do it right away? Do you have
enough faith in your connection with the Supersoul that you understand Lord Krsna will see to your children’s
education and needs, that He will maintain your family, and that you will not care if He handles you roughly from
time to time? If the answer to this question is yes, then maybe you are situated nicely and you do not have to move so
soon. After all if you are making advancement as you are, then why move. But if the answer to the aforementioned
question is that you can not leave yet because of this problem, and that issue, and, etc, etc, then maybe you should set-
out on a new protocol whereby you increase your quality and quantity of chanting month by month. A protocol that
helps you begin to remove your material attachments by giving spiritual life an extra hour per day, and then keep on
increasing this amount month by month, and year by year. Then, maybe when you are happy and ready to go to the
holy land, the Lord will then speak to you and bless you with the following words: “My dear child, I am very happy
with your degree of surrender. Previously you were not qualified to live in one of My places of pastimes but now your
heart has become purified by My association. Now I would like you to take the next step toward Me. Please come to
My abode, come to My spiritual embassy where I will introduce you to My pure devotee who will care for your
spiritual advancement. Come stay with Me in Sridhama Mayapur, where offenses are not counted. There you can live
out your days peacefully by adopting a simple nature and surrendering everything to Me. Your children will be
protected by Me as they are My eternal associates. Their time is also coming near to be with Me and therefore I have
sent for you to bring them to Me. Please don’t delay; My heart is eager for your association. Please bring to Me
everything; your wife, children, and all possessions, and place them at My lotus feet. In this way you will be rightly
situated above feelings of possessiveness and greed, and I will appropriate the exact service you desire.”

In short, connection with the Lord comes from attentive chanting, and when He sees that you are sincere and
enthusiastic to attain His association, He will send along His pure representative to collect you and take you back to
home, back to Godhead.

Symptoms of one who is free from namaparadhas

9. “Full spiritual benefit is not acquired simply by avoiding the ten namaparadhas. These ten offenses have
their distinctive features; in being warned to avoid them, one is actually being ordered to positively implement
the specific saintly qualities that render these aparadhas impossible. Therefore, one must not criticize, but
glorify the saintly Vaisnavas. Worship Krsna as the Supreme Absolute Lord. Realize the excellence of the guru
who initiates one into the Holy Name. Comprehend the pre-eminence of the scriptures that reveal the glories of
the Holy Name. Root out and destroy the desire to commit sins. Know within the heart that the Holy Name is
eternally situated in pure transcendence. Preach the glories of the Holy Name only to the faithful. Give up the
ritualistic pious activities entirely, and surrendering fully to the Holy Name, chant without delusion.

Commentary
Saintly qualities are rare in Kali-yuga. If one has a chance to associate with Vaisnavas and develop saintly qualities he
is to be considered the most fortunate amongst the human species. The specific qualities that we are now going to
discuss render aparadhas impossible—this is very good news. If we have found a way to become a favorite to Lord
Krsna, we should unhesitatingly embrace this path and implement all things necessary.
When pertaining to aparadhas, sometimes an aspiring devotee forgets to be attentive due to bad habits, but most of
the time offenses are committed because of lack of training. This lack of training then leads to thoughtless and
careless activities being performed that act to cover the intelligence and cause the sadhaka to perform even more
offensive actions. It is like a vicious circle and once you get caught up in it, it is very hard to escape. One needs mercy
to escape. One need’s to pray to the Vaisnavas for their blessings and then sincerely increase the chanting while
avoiding offenses. In this text we are informed that the following ten saintly activities render aparadhas impossible.
Therefore, as Sri Harinama Cintamani points out, “One must not criticize, but glorify the saintly Vaisnavas.” In this
connection when a Vaisnava hears criticism of devotees he covers his ears and leaves that place. This is recommended
to avoid being caught up in offenses. Let us now spend a few moments of our valuable time to hear further about the
positive implementations of these most important topics.

Another important point raised in this text is that a devotee should be “so fond of his master that he can not stop
thinking of how he can serve him.” My spiritual master and all his dear Godbrothers love Srila Prabhupada so much
that every time they speak his name their hearts are full of reverence and love. Deeper than this, their every action is
meant to please their spiritual master, who loves all of them so dearly. This is the science of how a devotee should
glorify the Vaisnavas; they display feelings of respect and spiritual love. When you love someone, they love you back
even more—this is a fact because real-love only happens in terms of the real-self, or in spiritual-terms. Sometimes
people of mundane intellect may argue otherwise but their arguments are based on faulty logic thinking that material
love is real love. In effect material love is nothing more than a business deal. Real love needs nothing in return, but
receives everything. Therefore, the more we glorify the saintly Vaisnavas, the more their spirit will glorify us, and
when Sri Krsna hears the glorification of one devotee to another He is extremely happy. He then blesses the Vaisnava
who speaks well about another and arranges for this devotee’s anarthas to be removed. Keeping this Vaisnava
etiquette and good-behavior up renders this first of the ten aparadhas impossible.

The second positive application of namaparadha is that one should “worship Sri Krsna as the Supreme Absolute.” For
a person who has love for Sri Krsna this may seem like a very easy thing to do but sometimes aspiring devotees put
work, money, and sense pleasure before the Lord, and in this way they worship the demigods indirectly because they
are searching for pleasure outside of pleasing the Supreme Lord. If a person surrenders more and more of his time
week by week, month by month, year by year, he will grow so fond of Lord Krsna that he will not be able to live
without Him. Soon, such a surrendered soul becomes attached to a particular Deity and hopes to please the Deity in
all his endeavours. This devotee worships the Lord in the correct way, and in his eyes his master can do no wrong,
even if his master disappears from the devotee’s sight, or if his master handles him roughly at times. He depends on
his master for everything, and if he one day he thinks that his actions are displeasing to his master; he repents bitterly
and changes his actions to suit. He thinks; ‘Oh what a wretched fool I am. I have lost my Lord's love because I am
sinful. How can I correct my behavior?’

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how Srimati Radharani loves Lord Krsna so much that she watches every minute
go by in expectance of seeing Him, and in the meantime She chants Lord Krsna’s name. In the Ujjvala-nilamani we
hear a very nice sloka spoken about Srimati Radhika by one of the gopis, as follows:

O Krsna! When You are out tending the cows in the pasture, Radharani spends Her day longing to see
You again. Fixing Her eyes on the path where You will return with the cows She engages Her tongue in
repeating the two syllables Krs-na. Radhika’s ears yearn to hear the sound of Your flute, and Her heart
is fixed in the happiness of thinking of You. (Ujjvala-nilamani ch.15)

Also in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu the following is spoken about Srimati Radhika:

O Govinda, this youthful girl named Radhika is today constantly puring forth tears like nectar falling
from flowers as She sings Your Holy Names in a sweet voice. (Brs.1.3.36)

In this text from Sri Harinama Cintamani we also hear the positive application, how ‘one should realize the
excellence of the guru, who initiates one into the Holy Name.’ In this context we can cite a verse from the song Sri
Guru-parampara by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. In this song Maharaja explains the unbroken chain of
the parampara from the beginning until the present point in time. This is a wonderful gift he gave to devotees. In
verse nine we hear the words:

ihara paramahamsa gaurangera nija-bamsa

taddera carane mama gati
ami seba-udasina namete tridandi dina
sri-bhaktisiddhanta saraswati

These great saintly Vaisnavas are all paramahamsas, or devotees of the highest order, and they are all
part of Lord Gauranga’s own spiritual family. Their holy feet are my refuge. I have no real interest in
devotional service, and I am a poor and lowly tridandi sannyasi named Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

Similarly, our spiritual masters, who initiate us into the Holy Name are a part of Lord Gauranga’s spiritual family. It
brings great joy to our heart to realize the superexcellent position of our spiritual masters, and we duly hereby show
them great respect and honor. At least three times a day our tongues glorify the excellence of our gurus, both siksa
and diksa. In this way, being our only refuge we seek shelter at their lotus feet eternally.

In the positive implementation number four, it is prescribed that we should “comprehend the pre-eminence of the
scriptures that reveal the glories of the Holy Name.” The Srimad Bhagavad-gita is the handbook for a Vaisnava, and
the Srimad-Bhagavatam is Srila Vyasadeva’s very own commentary on the Puranas, or histories of Sri Krsna’s
pastimes with His associates. Further, the Caitanya-caritamrta is the pure nectar of Lord Gauranga’s intimate
pastimes with His cherished devotees. All of these books hold a special place in the hearts of the Vaisnavas and are
conjointly considered their only refuge as they are the literary incarnation of the Supreme Lord. These, and many
more books that reveal the glories of the Holy Name, such as Sri Harinama Cintamani, Sri Upadeshamrta, etc, are to
be worshipped and given a special place in the heart of a devotee. All books that reveal the glories of the Holy Name
have the power to uplift a surrendered devotee and as such remain seated within the core of his heart eternally.
Following this principle will act to prevent a sadhaka from committing this particular aparadha to the revealed
scriptures. The Vedic literatures all indicate that service to Lord Krsna (the Supreme) is the duty of all living entities.
Understanding this, it is the duty of all devotees to glorify the Vedas, and to use the Vedas as the source of attaining all
knowledge pertaining to the Lord.

A devotee who is meek and humble is also recommended to “root-out and destroy the desire to commit sins.” Sin is
the father of contamination and as such has no place in the heart of a Vaisnava! A Vaisnava is he who has great love
for Lord Krsna and all His teachings. In this text we are being taught to root-out and destroy the enemy called sin.
This is an order from Srila Haridasa Thakura, he is saying that by our sadhana we should see clearly the root of our
sins and then destroy them with the power of Sri Krsna’s Holy Name. In this connection Sri Harinama Cintamani
recommends the following in chapter fifteen:

Sri Harinama Cintamani, the touchstone of the Lord's Holy Name, is an unfathomable mine of divine
nectar. Whoever tastes it is truly fortunate and is blessed by Krsna. He is a great soul and always
blissfully serves Lord Krsna in spontaneous loving devotion. I am a fallen soul; I clasp his feet and
humbly pray that the remnants of this nectar should be distributed profusely, thus spreading the divine
bliss to everyone. (Hc. Ch.15)

In order to root-out and destroy all sins from the heart, a devotee must therefore do two things. Firstly he should save
himself by diving into the nectarean ocean of the Lord's Holy Name, and upon the Lord revealing his anarthas he
should cut them down with the sharp sword of detachment. And secondly he should show great compassion to all
living entities by saving everyone else via profusely spreading the divine bliss of harinama sankirtana to everyone.
This is the recommendation of all previous acaryas. I humbly bow down to that surrendered soul who distributes the
nectar of Lord Krsna’s Holy Name, for he is my guru.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Krsna states that He does not reside in any of the Holy places, but He resides only in
the heart of His pure devotee—‘Wherever there is Krsna, there can be no sin!’ In this text we are therefore being
instructed to replace sin with Sri Krsna’s Holy Name and this way, when we attain a taste for chanting, Lord Krsna’s
Holy Name destroys the desire to commit sin at the root.

Being completely sold-out to the Holy Name, a devotee knows; “within his heart that the Holy Name is eternally
situated in pure transcendence.” In the Caitanya-caritamrta quoted from the Padma Purana the following is said about
the cintamani of sri-nama:

nama cintamanih krsnas

caitanya-rasa-vigrahah
purnah suddho nitya-mukto
’bhinnatvan nama-naminoh

The Holy Name of Krsna is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is
Krnsa Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Krsna’s name is complete, and it is the form of all
transcendental mellows. It is not a material name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than
Krsna Himself. Since Krsna’s name is not contaminated by the material qualities, there is no question
of its being involved with maya. Krsna’s name is always liberated and spiritual; the laws of material
nature never condition it. This is because the name Krsna and Krsna Himself are identical. (Cc.
madhya-lila. 17.133)

When a devotee prints out these words and meditates on them, he gradually comes to understand that the Holy Name
is always situated in pure transcendence and is identical with Sri Krsna Himself.

In this verse from Sri Harinama Cintamani we also hear how, “a devotee only preaches the glories of the Lord's Holy
Name to the faithful.” It is said that a devotee is so compassionate that he will sometimes hold an open class,
understanding that not everyone in the class will be a devotee. In this instance, due to the devotee’s great compassion
he allows the innocent a chance to hear about Krsna, but he does not reveal deep secrets about Lord Krsna’s intimate
pastimes in such a gathering. When Srila Vyasadeva gave the Srimad-Bhagavatam he spoke about the Lord's intimate
pastimes in the tenth canto, only after nine other cantos were finished. The prescribed reading goes in order from
canto one upwards so that an aspirant may develop faith before entering into the intimate pastimes of Sri Krsna and
the gopis. Being very merciful, His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gave the ‘Krsna book’
as an accepted abbreviation of the tenth canto. He understood that Lord Krsna’s pastimes have the power to purify and
uplift the fallen souls and so he gave a special edition of Sri Krsna’s pastimes for their benefit.

In this way, by distributing his wonderful literatures such as the Krsna book, and the Srimad Bhagavad-gita we are
helping Prabhupada to first create faith in a person, before they move onto the intimate understandings of Sri Krsna’s
pastimes and the Holy Name. Similarly the Sri Harinama Cintamani first takes the reader through sambandha-jnana
understanding and a deep understanding of the possible offenses to the Holy Name before it discusses chapter fifteen,
which is entitled ‘bhajana and confidential worship.’ The word confidential implies that something is revealed in
confidence, i.e. that a person has been given enough background information to have gained your confidence. Once
confidence in the person’s ability to comprehend is achieved; knowledge of confidential topics may be discussed. A
devotee follows this etiquette so that the faithless will not commit offenses. Please therefore always preach the glories
of the Holy Name to the faithful, and you will avoid this namaparadha.

The last positive application of saintly qualities is that a devotee “gives up ritualistic pious activities entirely, and,
surrendering fully to the Holy Name, chants without delusion.” In this very chapter we have been hearing about the
offense of maintaining attachments to the material world, and here is the positive application to avoid this offense.
Give up all mundane activities and surrender fully to the Holy Name. Become a loyal servant of your master, and,
following his guidance, chant as much as possible. At first this is a gradual letting go of one thing and replacing it
with another, but at some stage the pace must change to incorporate more and more chanting, as more connection with
the spiritual realms is desired. Sri Harinama Cintamani has indicated earlier how the Holy Name alone will purify a
person. Sometimes I hear people say, ‘all we have to do is chant sixteen rounds and follow the four regulative
principles, read Srila Prabhupada’s books and we will go back home.’ Of course this is a simplified formula, the rest
of the details are as follows: That one is completely contaminated and riddled with sins and offenses, and to purge the
heart of that contamination one needs serious purification and connection with the Lord called meditation and
bhajana. Bhajana comes about only after serious practice is undertaken. The power of service to the pure devotee can
never be underestimated in our formula for success, but in the end the blessings obtained by such service lead one to
chant more and more—for it is the Holy Name that purifies the contaminated heart. Quoting Lord Caitanya, Srila
Prabhupada once said; of all the duties a disciple has, his chanting is the most important.

Further still, if one is in a contaminated state it has been established that one needs to chant more. It has been said by
Srila Prabhupada that the spiritual master is a via-medium to the spiritual world, but that the experience is a personal
one. Therefore, it is understood that Srila Prabhupada can lead you to the Holy Name, but you must be the one to
experience the chanting and connection. In this way, tasting the bliss of the Holy Name, a devotee gives up material
attachments to ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and engages his tongue in chanting the Lord's glories twenty-four hours a day. Haribol!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to the constant chanting of Sri Krsna’s Holy Name! All glories to the
namacarya Srila Haridasa Thakura! And all glories to our most beloved worshipable Deities, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai.

Bhava attained quickly by offenseless chanting

10. “When one is thus free from offenses, he becomes the most fortunate being. He acquires all good qualities
and becomes eligible to receive Lord Krsna’s causeless mercy. Very quickly his chanting awards him the divine
fruit of bhava, the first stage of prema. Thus the offenseless chanter is immediately promoted from the sadhana
or practice stage to bhava, or spontaneous pure devotional service. From bhava comes prema, which, according
to the scriptures, is the mature fruit of pure devotion, the acme of all perfection. My dear Lord Caitanya, You
have personally substantiated the fact that if any devotee chants the Holy Name free from offenses; he’ll
quickly obtain krsna-prema.

Commentary
If a devotee performs sadhanabhakti and avoids the ten offenses, the Lord from within helps the sadhaka to
understand that he must implement the ten positive courses of action that were described in the previous text.
Following Vaisnava etiquette allows the sadhaka to uproot his anarthas and very quickly traverse the stage of
anartha-nirvritti, or the removal of all unwanted desires from the heart. At this stage the sadhaka acquires all good
qualities and becomes eligible to receive the Lord's causeless mercy. Continuing to chant without offenses and with
sincere enthusiasm, while serving the Vaisnavas with an unenvious heart, the sadhaka who adheres to the religious
principles is then awarded the divine fruit of bhava, which is the beginning stage of real love for the Lord.
Premarasa is fluid-like, and this liquid prema flows into the devotee’s purified heart from the lotus hands of
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, causing the Lord's pastimes to manifest from connection with nama. The Lord has
personally stated that He will award krsna-prema to the devotee who chants free from offenses. Offense-free chanting
is the goal of all Vaisnava devotees of the Lord.

In the previous chapter we have heard how inattentive chanting sows the seeds of anarthas that soon fructify and
cause one to loose sight of the goal, and we have also heard how inattention is synonymous with negligence. We
explained how negligence means that one is not performing one’s duty correctly. In this chapter we have also learned
that maintaining attachments to items of the material world is also an offense that causes further bondage. In contrast
to this we have now learned that faithful attentive chanting, performed offense-free, will give the result of krsna-
prema. Understanding all of this a sincere devotee then questions; “how do I, as a small aspiring devotee engrossed in
material consciousness, surmount this great obstacle and chant without offenses?” To help in this matter the sages
have given instructions to follow and by adhering to these instructions a gradual process of unfoldment occurs.

For instance; Srila Prabhupada states; “a devotee who is extrovert should become introspective.” This instruction
directs the consciousness of a person who is looking outwardly to focus more on the inner realms. In the Bhagavad-
gita Srila Prabhupada teaches how the senses are like serpents that reach out and grab the objects of the senses and
bring them back to the mind, which is the central point. Once the objects of the senses have been caught by the teeth
of the serpent-like senses, a person desires to have them in order to have interaction with the sense objects. This
interaction facilitates a release of chemicals in the body and produces various psychophysical reactions and emotions,
which the living entity then likes or dislikes. This is called extroversion, or looking outwardly for reality. In the third
chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krsna instructs how contemplating the objects of the senses leads to attraction for
them and attachment to them:

dhyayato visayan pumsah

sangas tesupajayate
sangat sanjoyate kamah
kamat krodho ‘bhijayate

While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such
attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
(Bg. 3.62)

In the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Srila Prabhupada states; “there is no need to worry about a serpent
whose fangs have been removed.” In this way Prabhupada indicates that a devotee who fixes his attention on the
maha-mantra has no need to worry because the material senses will have nothing material to grab onto while
meditating on the spiritual sound vibration of the Holy Name. From this we can understand that sages like Srila
Prabhupada give good instruction to follow.

In the Bhagavad-gita fourth chapter, Lord Krsna gives the principle of Krsna consciousness, which is to perform all
activities as a sacrifice for the Supreme, and in this way, while working in the material world the inferior material
atmosphere becomes surcharged with superior spiritual emotions. The Lord's concise instruction is as follows:

brahmarpanam brahma havir

brahmagnau brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam
brahma-karma-samadhina

A person who is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because
of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is
offered is of the same spiritual nature. (Bg. 4.24)

In this way, when we follow the instructions of the sadhus and perform our Krsna consciousness activities as a matter
of duty, our offering is then spiritualized as it is of the same nature as that which we are serving. A sadhaka must
therefore follow the rules and regulations of sadhana-bhakti, strictly following the rules of vaidhi-bhakti, until those
rules hamper one’s devotion. Then they must be given up, but not before.

Now, regarding chanting we understand that Sri Harinama Cintamani teaches how our chanting is both our path and
our service, and that the chanting should be distinct. The exact words used are as follows: ‘He should utter and hear
the name distinctly. It is impossible for the jiva to single-handedly avoid and overcome the illusion of distraction. But
by the mercy of the Lord, this is accomplished with ease.’ Previously we have brought your attention to two forms of
chanting, being loud chanting, where the maha-mantra is pronounced externally and heard through the agency of the
ears, and silent chanting, where the maha-mantra is not spoken externally, but is pronounced internally. In both these
cases the maha-mantra should be pronounced distinctly. When one is on the neophyte stage, one must pronounce the
maha-mantra externally, but as one gradually rises, via strong faith and sincere endeavour, one naturally begins to
internalize one’s chanting.

At this stage a devotee will become more and more introspective and more aware of the inner realms of
consciousness. Srila Prabhupada may not have given a direct instruction to chant silently, because he was giving
instructions to humanity at large, and most of Prabhupada’s direct teachings are geared toward the western audience,
or toward those who were on the neophyte platform. However, when we naturally advance in our Krsna
consciousness, the Lord from within (caitya-guru) allows an advancing devotee to understand that there are
indications given in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings that can help a devotee understand that internal chanting is not only
an authorised way of chanting, but also a needed way. Actually all instruction is given by Srila Prabhupada, but one
can only understand as much as the Lord allows one to understand according to the level of faith and realization that
one has acquired, and according to the lessons one needs to learn and to teach to others.

Quite simply put, by indicating that a devotee should become introspective, Srila Prabhupada’s teachings naturally
lead one into the realm of the mind, which dwells within. If you haven’t grasped this understaning as yet then please
retrace your steps and carefully read this text and elaboration again as it is a very important part of our society’s
advancement as a whole.

When a devotee discards offenses and chants the Holy Name distinctly, very quickly he rises through the various
stages from devotional practices to attaing steadiness, then he attains a taste for chanting and from this comes
attraction and eventually devotion arises. From this platform of pure goodness the devotee can perform devotional
service to the Lord. When the fruit of bhava becomes ripened by continued spontaneous devotional service,
performed from the spiritual stratum, Lord Caitanya will award the param-gati, or the supreme goal of krsna-prema,
true love for the Lord. In this way, attentive chanting of the Lord's Holy Name is the prime duty of a devotee, and
eventually it becomes his prayojana, his eternal indispensable need.

Offensive chanting impedes pure devotion

11. “If one continues to chant with offenses, then in spite of many endeavours, he will never attain pure
devotion. The fruitive worker the karmi enjoys heavenly bliss through karma; the jnani obtains liberation as a
result of empirical knowledge; but pure devotion of Lord Krsna, which is very rarely attained, is available only
through pure devotional service. The bliss of heaven and liberation is compared to the mother-of-pearl (the
shining inner surface of a pearl oyster shell), but pure devotion to Krsna is a priceless gem, the pearl itself. It is
the jiva’s perogative to attain the success of his sadhana. The meaning of expert practice is that one avoids the
ten namaparadhas.

Commentary
This text is warning of the perils of chanting with offenses, which is the opposite side of the previous text. The inner
purport of this text is; ‘know which path you are on, and follow it correctly!’ In this way you will attain the param-
gati. It is a fallacy to think that you can chant sixteen rounds anyhow, and follow the four regulative principles of no
meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sexual connections, and no gambling, and then go back to home back to
godhead. No, going back to Godhead is not possible if one is committing any of the ten offenses. One must develop
deep attachment and spontaneous love for the Lord in order to go back to Godhead. According to the author of Sri
Harinama Cintamani one must be free from offenses before chanting awards bhava, what to speak of krsna-prema
and entrance into Krsnaloka.

The idea behind chanting sixteen rounds and following the principles is that it sets the basics for the rest to follow.
Actually there is a lot more to the picture. For instance, one must live one’s life purely, and chant without committing
offenses to the Lord—this is a starting point! If one comes across the path of devotion, remains inattentive and
continues to live life while committing any of the ten offenses it is considered that such a person is on a neophyte
platform, and no where in the scriptures is it said that a neophyte devotee can attain krsna-prema and return home. In
fact it is stated that a neophyte devotee is only a shadow of a devotee, and not a real devotee. In this text it is stated;
“pure devotion of Lord Krsna, which is very rarely attained, is available only through pure devotional service.” And
pure devotional service is attained through the mercy of Lord Krsna and His representative, the pure devotee. Pure
devotional service is attainable from the madhyama and uttama platform only. It only comes about after the stage of
bhava has been reached.

When a devotee chants the maha-mantra it is considered a pious activity and therefore he accumulates a certain
amount of sukriti. If a devotee is not attentive while chanting and instead his thoughts are deeply engrossed in matter,
he will not succeed in uprooting his unwanted desires. His anarthas will then take him away from the category of
pure devotion and instead he will enter into the category of fruitive activity (karma-misra-bhakti), as such his reward
will be that of heaven, which is considered to be not real happiness, but is referred to here as the inner shell of a pearl
oyster. When a person chants but allows his mind to wander his attachment for material nature will not decrease, and
the energy he is given at the time of birth to see him through his lifespan will become blocked around the region of
the genitals. From this block in the natural flow of energy the person will see everything related to his enjoyment,
hearth and home. The end result is compromised chanting day after day, and when leaving the body such a person will
receive a heavenly reward. As well as this reward, the chanting and service he performs will also be accruing spiritual
merits and this will be accredited to his eternal spiritual bank account. In his next life, when he returns from his
holiday of enjoyment in heaven, he will again begin devotional life where he left off. Unless of course his desire to
serve the Lord is fixed, and then he will directly attain another human birth in order to carry on where he left off.

Some one may argue here, “well Lord Caitanya is so merciful that he will deliver us as long as we are sincere, even
though we may lack purity and still comitt offenses.” But we should understand from the lessons Sri Caitanya gave in
His manifest pastimes, that we will always be given a chance to advance and perfect our devotion, but not that we will
be granted pure devotional service to the Lord while we are still committing offenses. This can be seen in the example
of Kali dasa. We should also understand that the authoritative words used in this text, are spoken by the acarya for the
Holy Name, directly on the prompting of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who authorized this point via giving audience to
Srila Haridasa Thakura. It is true that guru-krpa will always be there to help our advancement, but the true mercy of
Srila Prabhupada is that he instructs us and guides us to chant the Holy Name free from offense. I pray we can all
understand this point clearly. Srila Prabhupada was very fond of quoting the saying; “Krsna helps those who help
themselves.” The spiritual master is the representative of Sri Krsna.

In contrast to this, if a devotee sincerely chants his rounds attentively, and becomes expert in his practices, he will
surely learn to avoid the ten offenses. This avoidance of offenses coupled with his enthusiastic attentive chanting will
lead him to associate with the Lord and His devotees more and more, and this association will purify him further and
make way for the blessings of guru-krpa to follow.

Association with the Lord first comes through Sri Namaprabhu, so a devotee will naturally choose to spend more and
more time alone with the Lord by chanting for extended periods of time. This increase in rounds will then cement his
relationship with the Supersoul, who will allow the sadhaka to see the greatness of his spiritual master. With this
understanding a sadhaka’s service to his master will take on a new level of understanding, and because the bhakti
energy is a part of the Lord’s cit potency it has intelligence to know where to go when it leaves the heart of the
spiritual master and enters that of the disciple.

Continuing to chant and serve nicely while avoiding the ten offenses will remove all blocks from the path of devotion,
and when the time is right the spiritual master will introduce his disciple to the residents of the spiritual world, and to
his eternal spiritual identity. Once his svarupa or spiritual identity has been uncovered the devotee can at this time
begin to perform pure devotional service to Lord Krsna via assisting the residents of Vrndavana (the vrajavasis). This
is the glorious result of expert practice; one attains the priceless pearl of krsna-prema.

The severity of namaparadha

12. If one is sufficiently greedy for obtaining pure devotion, he’ll chant free from the ten offenses. He must
diligently avoid each of the offenses with feelings of deep repentance for having ever committed them. He
should pray sincerely at the lotus feet of the Holy Name and chant with determination. Only then will he be
blessed with the mercy of the Holy Name, which will destroy all of his offenses. No other activity or penance
can possibly exculpate his offenses.

Commentary This text explains the

need to escape the tight grip of maya. His Holiness Srila Bhakti-tirtha Swami has previously explained that to do this
we must move forward at such a pace that we are pulling away from the inertia that binds us. Within the material
atmosphere our minds are absorbed in material consciousness and it is these thoughts that act to perpetrate our affinity
and relationship with the temporary. Dwelling on issues within the mind is called contemplation. Such contemplation
allows the illusory world of maya to become a reality, this reality then solidifies around us the more we give power to
it, and this acts as the inertia that binds us tightly. Lord Krsna has previously taught that by contemplating the objects
of the senses one develops attachment for them.
To change our future bondage we must therefore begin in the present and to create a spiritual lifestyle we must
perform spiritual activities in the present. The great acarya Srila Baladevavidyabushana states the following in this
regard:

The most important of the nine processes of devotional service are hearing and chanting, sravanam
kirtanam. This will lead to visnu-smaranam, or remembrance of the Lord. The Lord then reveals
Himself in the heart of the devotee in a specific format, nama, guna, rupa, lila. Therefore, the primary
activity for a devotee’s advancement is the chanting of the Lord’s Holy Names. Harinama harinama
harinama eva kevalam.

The idea of escaping the tight grip of maya however, remains an illusion until the embodied living entity is fully
repentant and surrenders wholeheartedly to the Lord, seeing the Lord as his only refuge and shelter. This is known as
atmanivedana, full surrender of one’s false identifications. To therefore escape the tight grip of maya a devotee must
fervently beg for the mercy of the Holy Name, while feeling remorseful of committing previous sins and chanting no
less than sixty-four good rounds with enthusiasm everyday. The idea behind this number, as discussed earlier, is that
the chanting spiritualizes the thoughts and purifies the consciousness for a specific amount of time per day, and this
time should be enlarged during the rest of the day by thinking of Krsna and His devotees while performing devotional
service to the spiritual master and chanting within.

If one performs the bare minimum regarding sadhana, this is seen as mediocre and one will not pull away from the
inertia of maya very far. Therefore, when the force of time uncovers deep-rooted anarthas, these anarthas will again
act to cover the rising sun of the Holy Name and from this covering the illusion of bodily identification engulfs the
living entitie’s consciousness and bewilders his intelligence. When the intelligence becomes bewildered the illusioned
living entity is again drawn by the glare of material nature and his consciousness is further covered by the dullness of
matter. Thinking in terms of “I and Mine” he commits the tenth offense to the Holy Name, and while committing this
offense his chanting becomes less potent and his meditations on the Lord during the japa period become imbued with
material thoughts. He consequently becomes more and more entangled in the complexities of material nature.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura states that inattentive chanting covers the living entity in four ways that ultimately lead to
the living entity being attracted by maya, becoming spiritually weak, and causes him to commit more offenses.

In this instance, if a devotee is caught in the vicious cycle of inattentive/offensive chanting the prescribed remedy is to
chant more! This information may seem incredulous but the only refuge from the bombardment of material pollution
is Sri Krsna’s Holy Name, which is the cintamani of Harinama, the touchstone gem that can transform material to
spiritual. Taking this information to heart, the next time you receive a difficult test stemming from the unlimited pool
of anarthas that rise with the passing of time, you should chant all the more. This increase in chanting will then
enable you to gain momentum, and keeping this up for an extended period of time will allow you to move in a
forward direction away from the tight grip of maya. Krsna’s Holy Name will draw you closer and closer to the
spiritual realm and the anarthas that rise with time will be burned up in the fire of Krsna’s name as one progress’
closer towards total purity.

This text is therefore advocating that a devotee must be greedy to attain pure devotion, and to do this one must
diligently avoid the ten offenses and chant with a remorseful heart. Sri Harinama Cintamani states that no other
activity or penance can possibly exculpate a devotee’s offenses. Please therefore hear the call of Lord Gauranga
Mahaprabhu coming from the lips of His pure devotee, Srila Haridasa Thakura, and chant without offense.

The process of renouncing namaparadha

13. “Offenses to the Holy Name of the Lord are dissolved solely through constant chanting. When they are thus
destroyed, they can never reappear. Constant chanting means, apart from a minimal time for rest and other
bare physical necessities, one should chant throughout all hours of the day with intense contrition. No other
penance or ritual is as effective as this. When the offenses are destroyed, the pure Holy Name blossoms within
the heart. The pure name of Krsna delivers bhava and finally prema.
Commentary
The opening lines to this text are very significant. “Offenses to the Holy Name of the Lord are dissolved solely
through constant chanting.” Then further, the text states; “Constant chanting means, apart from a minimal time for rest
and other bare physical necessities, one should chant throughout all hours of the day with intense contrition.” These
words are very significant for our advancement in devotional service and are self explanatory, but often we choose to
ignore them because it means a great deal of surrender. They are similar to the instructions Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura gave earlier; “that a devotee starts by chanting one hour, and then increases until he chants no less than three
lakhs of names per day.”

Seeing our inability to focus and remain attentive Srila Prabhupada reduced the sixty-four rounds chanted by previous
aspirants on the spiritual path, to sixteen. He did this out of his great compassion for our fallen condition, but at the
same time he stressed; “this is the minimum, but actually a devotee chants constantly.” By these two statements Srila
Prabhupada made it possible for anyone to become eligible for initiation into Krsna’s family of devotees, and at the
same time indicated that if one is serious about going back to Godhead one must go deeper and chant more. Sri
Harinama Cintamani hereby gives strict instructions “that offenses are dissolved solely through constant chanting and
that constant chanting means, except for the essentials, we should be bringing the mind back to our point of reference,
krsna-nama, throughought the twenty-four hours of the day, and by remembering Krsna’s name we become purified
of offenses.” It is also nice to know that these offenses never come back if we take the time to chant continuously. So,
now an issue arises between preaching/service and constant chanting/bhajana, or gostanandi verses bajananandi. So,
what to do about this?

Firstly, we understand that service, preaching, and chanting are all forms of sankirtana, so when they are performed
correctly everything is fine. Problems come into play when an aspiring devotee attempts to perform service, but
because his mind is polluted his thoughts and mind are engrossed in material consciousness. In this instance we see
that performing strict daily sadhana is a path that gradually uplifts one’s consciousness. However, we often see that at
one point stagnation arises, so what to do at this time?

We should understand why stagnation and even sliding backwards occurs. It is because of offenses! Offenses to the
Holy Name cause weakness of heart, which leads to more offenses, stagnation and even sliding backwards. As we
have described in the previous commentary, a devotee should not give-in to the dictations of the mind and senses, but
instead, when he feels offensive behavior rising in his mind he should chant more and more. In this way when trouble
arises, he fights back by doubling and even tripling his daily quota of rounds. This protects the devotee when hard
times come upon him due to weakness of heart caused by previous offense and tests. When the Lord sees the
devotee’s sincere efforts He blesses His devotee by protecting him and removing the anarthas that prevent him from
progressing. This is the secret of how a devotee regains his good fortune, but what to do from here to prevent the
same thing happening again?

Srila Prabhupada gave many processes for upliftment and possibilities for service, but in the past the sadhaka
understands that because of his anarthas and offenses these did not allow the devotee to continuously advance. This
time, he may choose to implement a new addition to his path of sadhana in order to progress faster, away from the
pulling power of maya and the stumbling blocks imposed by his previous conditioning. At this point, if the devotee is
intelligent he calls for time-out with maya, and he seeks refuge in the Lord's Holy Name and in one of the Lord's Holy
Dhamas. However, he must be very careful when he enters the Holy Dhama because he is carrying maya within his
head, so he has every chance to simply replicate what he had previously done wrong. I.e. such a devotee may have all
good intentions to seek refuge in the Holy Name and the Dhama, but when he gets there he finds many nice people
who engage him in political and topical conversations. The idea is as follows: There are many nice people who live in
the vicinity of the Holy Dhamas, but these people simply live on the surface of the Dhama and never enter into the
full mood of the Dhama. One must therefore diligently avoid the company of pracrita devotees, materialistic
devotees, and beg to enter into the mood of the residence of the Dhama via hearing from the sadhu’s who live there.
This does not mean that you talk to the local chai-wallers, but that you seek the company of exalted devotees via
service, hearing, chanting, and friendship. It is not that saintly devotees once lived in the Dhama and have now ascend
to the spiritual world, no! They are living there now. You can find them in person, in their books, and in your
meditations.
From time to time these saintly souls, who see aspiring devotees sincerely trying to uplift themselves, come down to
help. In this way when you enter the Dhama to seek refuge from maya, remember to leave maya behind! Similarly,
when a devotee attempts to seek refuge in Krsna’s Holy Name and increases his daily quota of rounds, he may face a
problem within his mind. That is, he has another person living within his mind who talks constantly about material
affairs that are often tainted with lust and self-aggrandizement. Just like the darmatvaja whose association should be
avoided, similarly, within the mind the association of the false-ego should be avoided. When going to the Dhama one
can become purified by listening to the words of the sadhus and taking bath in the Holy Rivers, and when chanting
one can become purified by bathing in the Holy Name of Krsna. As one progresses the Lord will mercifully
demonstrate to the sadhaka his fallen condition, and when sobriety dawns on the horizon of the sadhaka’s
consciousness he will understand just how sinful his is. In his heart he will naturally feel very remorseful of his
behavior and thus his heart will be full of contrition. As he repents his abominable activities and fervently begs for the
Lord's mercy, such a sadhaka will chant the Holy Name of the Lord constantly, with the correct feelings of contrition
in his heart. To get to this realization however, requires the Lord's mercy, therefore prayer and constant chanting are
prescribed as the designated path to receive the mercy of Sri Namaprabhu.

14. “O Lord Caitanya, I humbly pray at Your lotus feet that the ten offenses in chanting the Holy Name of the
Lord never find a place in my heart. Please kindly grant that I may remain submerged in the nectar of the pure
name.”

Commentary
If a devotee is honest in his relationship with Lord Krsna he requests the Lord to help him chant purely and never
commit any of the ten offenses. Of course for aspiring devotees lost in the deep well of ignorance this prayer may
seem a little presumptuous as they would not artificially desire to be on a platform that they are not, but prayer is
nevertheless an essential part in a devotee’s progression. To pray to the Lord for unmotivated pure service to Sri
Namaprabhu is therefore recommended for all by the words in this text.

An aspiring devotee may thus pray; “My dearest Lord, being the greatest of the great and the kindest of the kind, You
are known as the most magnanimous. Although I have no right to approach You directly, still by Your kind mercy, You
have appeared in Your Deity form so that I may attempt to serve You and communicate with You. Today your humble
servant bows before You and prays for Your help. I do not wish to ask anything material of You, however, I am in
need of Your help. My prayer is that You may kindly send along Your great devotee to guide me to Your lotus feet.
My consciousness is steeped in the ignorance of bodily identification and I am afraid of committing any of the ten
offenses to Your Holy Name, especially the offense of blaspheming Your devotees who have dedicated their lives to
serving Your lotus feet. My dear Lord, please help me to avoid the ten offenses so that they never find a place within
my heart. Although I am inexperienced in devotional service, and although I do not deserve Your mercy on account of
my sinful behavior, still, other than You I find no refuge or hope. Therefore I beg You to please sever my ties with this
false identification, which causes me to think that everything in front of my eyes is connected to me, and causes me to
want to posses it as mine. Such thoughts perpetuate my sentence in this prison house of devi-dhama. Your loyal
servant Mayadevi, who is doing a great service in binding me tightly through the invisible chains of sex desire, is far
too powerful for me to conquer; therefore I am surrendering my life to You and begging for Your help. My mind has
been captivated by the glare of material illusion for so long now, and is causing me to hanker after the temporary life
after life. Please be kind to Your surrendered devotee dear Lord, kindly grant me attraction for Your name, which
alone can save me from the endless drama of birth and death in the material world.”

This wretched Bhaktivinoda is able to recite Harinama Cintamani with great joy only on the strength of Srila
Haridasa Thakura’s causeless mercy.

Commentary
To receive the mercy of a great devotee such as Srila Haridasa Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila
Prabhupada, or Sri Gurudeva enables a person to understand and preach the message of sastra. It is therefore to be
concluded that the mercy of the Vaisnavas is everything. It is on the strength of that causeless mercy that we may
write these elaborations.
 Chapter fourteen
Offenses in Devotional Service
All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit, and to Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life and soul of
Srimati Jahnavadevi; all glories to Mother Sita, and to Advaita Acarya; all glories to Srila Srivas Pandit, and to all the
devotees of Lord Caitanya.

Srila Haridasa Thakura is namacarya

1. Lord Caitanya said, “My dear devotee Haridasa, the conditioned souls of Kali-yuga will greatly benefit from
this elaboration of the offenses against the Holy Name that you’ve so far given. You are indeed a great spiritual
stalwart and acarya.” Srila Haridasa Thakura is namacarya, or the foremost spiritual authority on the subject
of the Holy Name. He practiced everything he preached. He taught the jiva’s about the pure Holy Name, the
shadowy name or namabhasa, and the glories of the Holy Name. He also instructed how one should quit
committing namaparadha. He taught all this by his own example.

Commentary
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself, the Holy Name who has descended to save the fallen conditioned souls.
Srila Haridasa Thakura is the acarya for chanting and spreading the glories of chanting the Holy Name. And Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura is one of the foremost acaryas who came to teach the science of understanding clearly how to
do this.

He has done this through the teachings contained in his voluminous writings, and it is the right of every individual to
be able to read these instructions for their upliftment and benefit. In order to assist the devotees who were to follow in
his footsteps, Srila Bhaktivinoda has written about the most important topic of panca-samskara and I would like to
introduce the reader to these teachings at this point as they constitute the acarya’s perfect understanding of what is
needed from both guru and disciple in order that progress is made.

In this text Lord Caitanya praises Haridasa Thakura for his wonderful elaborations of offenses against the Holy Name.
These elaborations will assist the people of Kali-yuga who are engrossed in the darkness of bodily identification and
sense gratification. The reason for any elaboration of the Holy Name and subsequent example set by the great devotee
is to instruct the populace that they should act in such a way that they may chant Sri Nama purely, free from
namaparadha, and namabhasa. This was done perfectly by the example of Srila Haridasa Thakura and all of our
Vaisnava acaryas.

As far back as 1885, in his journal named Sajjana-tosani, Srila Bhaktivinoda was explaining that a fortunate soul
begins his devotional life by acquiring a degree of faith. From this faith a fortunate soul begins to chant the Holy
Name attentively, while cultivating his devotion to the Lord. When the reformed sinner (or new devotee) begins to
understand that he has done wrong in trying to enjoy Krsna’s kingdom he begins to repent, and this repentance takes
him into a position whereby he begins to serve the devotees. This service attitude pleases Lord Krsna, who in turn
awards the sincere aspirant by sending down His representative, sat-guru. Receiving the mercy of the guru, the
disciple is given five samskaras that are intended to help the sadhaka on his path of vaidhi-bhakti.

At this point we should understand that one of the reasons Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to enact His glorious pastimes
was to deliver the fallen souls. Lord Caitanya is a very special incarnation because He came to taste and freely
distribute the highest reward of krsna-prema. He is known as the yuga-avatara. His instructions were made manifest
through the living examples of His devotees. (We have explained this in chapter 1).
To receive krsna-prema a devotee must do two things. 1.) He must first follow the rules and regulations on the path
known as pravitti-marg, or vaidhi-bhakti (worship according to the rules and regulations) and 2.) He must at one stage
shun such rules and regulations and worship the Lord via raganuga-bhakti (worship according to spontaneous
attraction, cultivating love). Worshipping the Lord in raganuga-bhakti is a must to obtain krsna-prema, but it is not
the path for the beginner.

Insert quote for CD3??? Of C>C> Krsna dasa Kaviraja Commentary.

Now, before one is eligible to attain krsna-prema a sadhaka must choose a suitable guru, and from him receive the
panca-samskara initiation. A devotee following the path of narada-pancaratrika-vaidhi rises through the stages of
vaidhi-bhakti via following the rules outlined for sadhana-bhakti and Deity worship. After having passed through the
various stages of anarthana-nirvritti he takes up the path of pure worship called bhava-seva. In this chapter Srila
Haridasa Thakura describes worship according to bhava-seva.

Having explained all of this, I would now like to allow Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura to explain the panca-samskaras
system. Panca-samskara is a necessary stage for a devotee to go through, and as we shall see from the coming
discussion the final stage is called yaga, where a devotee becomes eligible to worship the Deity. This is the beginning
of a devotee’s good fortune following the path of narada-pancaratrika system. Please remember back to Chapter …?
where we were taught that a devotee must only worship Radha-Krsna after having attained permission from his
spiritual master. The panca-samskara system is the key to attaining that permission.

The samskaras of the vaisnava-dharma are the best part of the Aryan religion. No other practice is as
sacred and complete.
The question arises, “If the practice of samskara found in vaisnava-dharma is so good, then
why are those who practice it still bound by distorted natures?” The answer is that vaisnava-samskara
is the best, but at the present time it is practiced in name only. Both the spiritual teacher and the student
block their own spiritual advancement by being content with the external aspects of samskara alone.
Today, the deeper significance of samskaras is not understood at all. When the student submits
himself to the teacher, the teacher gives panca-samakara and then abandons him. What good can come
from panca-samakara of this type?
Externally the student looks good, but internally there is nothing. The symbols of divine conch,
disc and name of Sri Hari mark the body. The tongue utters the name of Sri Hari and worship of
salagrama-sila or sri-murti with mantra is performed, but the student is addicted to endless sinful
practices. At night, he takes intoxicants and practices debauchery!
Oh good teacher, how have you benefited your student? What is the difference in him before
and after diksa? In fact, he is worse. He is a hypocrite. There is no remorse such as; “I am sinful. It is
my fault. How can my sin be given up?” These days no one thinks like this when they take shelter of a
spiritual teacher. Sinful activities are performed without the slightest concern. What a misfortune!
Why is this? The reason is that the wrong kind of relationship exists between teacher and
student. The sastra gives rules to guide this relationship, but they are not followed. The student who is
burning in the fire of material life, who analyses his predicament and concludes “My relationship with
material nature is not permanent, therefore I must take shelter of Sri Guru in order to obtain the lotus
feet of Sri Hari” has reached the stage of sraddha and is qualified to take shelter of Sri Guru. The guru
should study the student for one year and observe his atonement. This is called tapa.
During this period of examination, the student is encouraged to atone even more and when the
teacher is satisfied, he brands the student with the symbols of conch and disc. These marks are
permanent and they symbolize the purity that the student must maintain for the rest of his life. This is
tapa, the first samskara of the faithful soul.’ Tapa applies not only to the body, but also to the mind and
the soul. If it is only physical, in the form of branding or stamping, then tapa has not actually taken
place and religious practice thus becomes hypocritical. At the present time, this kind of hypocrisy has
weakened Vaisnava culture. Without the inner repentance of actual tapa, the soul cannot live as a
Vaisnava. Without tapa, the whole process becomes useless. Without tapa, the heart remains impure.
Therefore, good friends, seek atonement without delay!
Sajjana-tosani. (vol. 2/1)1885
In this elaboration of the first samskara given to the sisya, or the sadhaka being instructed, we see that Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura used the word tapa to mean repentance. More specifically he stated ‘the permanent change in a
person’s character as reflected through the soul’s yearnings.’ Devotees of ISKCON are largely familiar with the term
tapah implying austerity. We can see the similarities in these two descriptions of the same root word, but the deeper
understanding of tapa, to mean a type of repentance that changes a persons character, can give the sadhaka a clearer
perspective of what is needed from him, as this tapa is an ongoing thing throughout sadhana-bhakti.

In this elaboration Bhaktivinoda also indicates that the disciple must live with the guru for one year, and in that year
both must test each other for qualification. If the guru is satisfied with the disciple’s progress he will then give the
first of the five samskaras, which is harinama initiation. With this the devotee receives a spiritual name, and is also
given the second samskara called urdhva-pundra. Urdhva-pundra is the tilaka markings on the body, which represent
the twelve incarnations of Krsna that are maintaining the material world. The two lines on a devotee’s forehead are
representations of Sri Krsna’s lotus feet and there is a representation of Tulasi on the nose. The third samskara to be
given to the disciple is the maha-mantra, which is given fully empowered at initiation. This mantra can deliver krsna-
prema when empowered by the spiritual master.

From initiation onwards it is the duty of the disciple to remain in communication with the guru and receive teachings
and subsequent blessings from him. It does no good for the guru to have too many disciples that he can not care for
the needs of everyone, and it also does no good for the disciple to distance himself enough so that he becomes isolated
and disconnected from the spiritual master. Some spiritual masters, such as Srila Prabhupada, gave teachings to their
disciples through books and lectures, but many disciples in Kali-yuga need extra connection with their spiritual
mentors because they are haunted by their predicament of being born in an age where they are harassed by the mind.
The material, or untrained mind, forms associations due to its connection with the outside realities, such as those
attained when living and working besides karmis. With the blessings of a pure devotee however, a fortunate disciple
will realize that he must at all costs seek shelter at the lotus feet of Sri Guru, and serve him accordingly. It is Sri
Guru’s mercy that he cares so much for his disciples that he dedicates plenty of his precious time to train them nicely
in the science of bhakti-yoga. It takes gallons of blood to make a devotee!

To attain the fourth samskara a devotee must succeed in pleasing Sri Guru by the implementation of tapa. That is, the
guru sees that the devotee is repentant to such a degree that the devotee’s true nature as a servant of the Supreme Lord
is beginning to shine through. At this stage the faithful student is awarded the fourth samskara or the eighteen-syllabic
mantra that connects the devotee with His Supreme master. We know this as ‘brahman initiation,’ whereupon the
disciple receives the giyatri mantra. This second initation must only be given when the spiritual master is satisfied by
seeing his disciples spiritual progression, otherwise it may cause unnecessary misery to all.

We can now begin to see that the key to progress is the changing from material consciousness to spiritual
consciousness. If that change does not occur, it is concluded that such a person never received samskara, as the
meaning behind samskara is ‘the development of change.’ At this point some may say; “Well, maybe I wasn’t given
enough chance because my spiritual master was never there to help?” This may be quite valid in some respects as it is
the duty of the spiritual master is to deliver his disciples, so he must not take on too much that it affects this duty. But
at the same time within the society of ISKCON there is both diksa and siksa to go to for guidance. It is certain that the
spiritual master is there to guide, but it is also certain that the disciple must play his role in the game by constant tapa,
or constantly repenting for his lamentable position. Thus, begging from door to door for scraps of mercy to fall from
the lotus feet of the Vaisnavas, he may become eligible to advance his Krsna consciousness. The Supreme Lord is
alive within the heart of each individual. His name is Caitanya, and He is watching and guiding at every moment. We
pray for His causeless mercy to help us over our darkest periods, and situate us in our original position as servants to
His lotus feet.

If one is successful in receiving the four above mentioned samskaras and renounces the material world forever, he is
then qualified for the final samskara, which is yaga. What is yaga? Yaga is the unmotivated worship of the Deity
using the Ista-deva mantra given from the lips of Sri Guru. These five samskaras known as panca-samskara are a
must for anyone who is serious about going back to Godhead, as by these one can begin to perform bhajana-kriya,
which is the doorway to the clearing stage. The transcending of the clearing stage will then lead one further, onto to
the stage of steadiness. Continuing further one will receive a taste for chanting, and further still until the stage of
attraction and finally bhava arises. When a devotee has reached the stage of bhava he then begins to perform
devotional service to Sri Krsna, until finally one is situated in boundless happiness in love of Godhead krsna-prema.
The stages of development are explained to Sanatana Goswami by Sri Gauranaga in the following way:

The basic aspects of prema, when gradually increasing to different states, are affection, abhorrence,
love, attachment, further attachment, ecstasy and great ecstasy.

The gradual development of prema may be compared to different states of sugar. First there is the seed
of the sugarcane, then sugarcane and then the juice extracted from the cane. When this juice is boiled,
it forms liquid molasses, then solid molasses, then sugar, candy, rock candy and finally lozenges.

All these stages combined are called sthayibhava, or continuous love of Godhead in devotional service.
In addition to these stages, there are vibhava and anubhava.

When the higher standard of ecstatic love is mixed with the symptoms of sattvika and vyabhicari, the
devotee relishes the transcendental bliss of loving Krsna in a variety of nectarean tastes. (Cc. madya-
lila 19.178-181)

Without further ado, put into practice all you have learned and begin to change via tapa, or sincere repentance. Shun
the offense known as namaparadha and live by the examples of our great mahajanas and the namacarya Srila
Haridasa Thakura.

2. Lord Caitanya continued, “I very much relished your dissertation on the Holy Name. As an acarya, you are
exemplary; as a preacher, you are profound. You are always ornamented by the priceless gem of the Lord’s
Holy Name. Ramananda Raya taught me the esoteric science of divine mellows, and now you have instructed
me on the profound philosophy of the Holy Name. Kindly speak on the different kinds of offenses made in the
execution of devotional service.

Commentary
Srila Haridasa Thakura was always of perfect character, and thus he taught the world by this example. Always
chanting the Holy Name, the Lord resided in his heart and used him as a vehicle for further movement. He spoke the
science of devotional service so that followers of the Vaisnava path could understand how to love the Lord. In this
way both beginners and advanced spiritualists learn from his instructions, what to do and what not to do in devotional
life, pravrittim ca, nirvrittim ca. Please listen carefully as Srila Haridasa now elaborates on further offenses.

3. Srila Haridasa Thakura replied, “You are asking about a subject that is more familiar to a servitor-devotee.
My time is taken up in the association with the Holy Name. I don’t know what to say about all of this, yet I
cannot disregard Your instruction. I will speak whatever You make me say.”

Commentary
Since Haridasa was in his teenage years he spent his time chanting three hundred thousand Holy Names daily. Being
in the association of the Holy Name he practiced his devotion inwardly and this did not leave much time to engage in
external devotional service such as Deity worship. In a solitary place Haridasa chanted lakhs of Holy Names each day,
and even though he is herein saying that he does not know much about offenses in devotional service, still, because of
his exhalted position he was an authority on all forms of worship, as ‘the knower of all fields of activity,’ Sri Krsna,
was alive in his purified heart.’ Continuously chanting he was actually performing bhava-seva, unadulterated pure
devotional service to the Lord within his mind. We shall learn more about bhava-seva in the coming texts of this
chapter.

For a moment Haridasa was speechless, but as he was acting as an instrument for the Lord to broadcast the glories of
the Holy Name, Haridasa took up the order of the Lord and spoke as follows:
Varieties of sevaparadha

4. “Offenses in devotional service (sevaparadha) are numerous. In some scriptures, thirty-two offenses are
listed, and in others, fifty. Scripture generally identifies four classifications of sevaparadha. By definition,
sevaparadha is always related to Deity worship. The four classifications of offenses in Deity worship are: those
pertaining to persons engaged in Deity worship, those pertaining to the installation of Deities, those pertaining
to persons taking darsana of the Deity in the temple, and those that generally apply in all cases. These can be
easily determined.

Commentary
Seva means service, so if one is committing sevaparadha, one is committing offenses within one of the four
classifications as listed above. It is not only the pujari that can make offenses to the Deities. There are so many
offenses that can be committed and these are numbered as fifty. There are a number of these fifty that pertain to the
person who is simply taking darsana of the Deities, like for instance the offense of ‘talking before the Deity.’
Devotees who perform service do so to the Deity, who is the manifest representation of the Lord, (the arcivigraha).
Sevaparadha is different to the offenses against the Holy Name, or namaparadha.

Thirty-two sevaparadhas

5. “The list of thirty-two offenses in Deity worship is as follows: 1) entering the temple with shoes or alighting
from a vehicle before the Deity as if on promenade; 2) not observing the festival days; 3) forgetting to offer
obeisances and prayers to the Deity; 4) entering the temple without having washed the hands and feet after
eating; 5) offering worship to the Deity in an unclean or contaminated state; 6) offering obeisances with one
hand; 7) circumambulating before the Deity; 8) extending the feet towards the Deity; 9) sitting on one’s
haunches before the Deity; 10) sleeping or reclining in the presence of the Deity; 11) eating before the Deity;
12) speaking lies before the Deity; 13) speaking out loudly before the Deity; 14) talking with others before the
Deity; 15) shedding false tears before the Deity; 16) quarreling before the Deity; 17) criticizing someone before
the Deity; 18) giving charity to beggars before the Deity; 19) using abusive language before the Deity; 20)
covering with a blanket or quilt before the Deity; 21) praising someone before the Deity; 22) acting immodestly
before the Deity; 23) passing air before the Deity; 24) using or giving substandard paraphernalia for Deity
worship in spite of having better; 25) eating or drinking unoffered food; 26) not offering seasonal fruits and
vegetables; 27) offering contaminated food, first eaten by someone else, to the Deity; 28) sitting with one’s back
to the Deity; 29) offering obeisances to, or worshipping some else before the Deity; 30) not glorifying and
offering obeisances to one’s guru before the Deity; 31) glorifying oneself before the Deity; 32) slandering the
demigods before the Deity. These thirty-two sevaparadhas are compiled from the scriptures by the realized
sages.

More offenses listed in other scriptures

6. “Other scriptural sources have listed additional offenses; these I mention briefly.
“It is offensive to eat opulently; to touch the Deity of Hari in darkness; to touch the Deity without
proper rituals; to open the alter doors without an accompanying performance of music and song for the
pleasure of the Lord; to offer food to the Lord that has been seen by a dog; to speak during Deity worship; to
offer arati without putting a flower garland on the Deities; to worship Lord Krsna with unattractive or
nonfragrant flowers; to offer worship to Lord Krsna without first cleansing the face and mouth; to offer
worship to the Deity having neglected to take a bath after intercourse with one’s wife; to be in the presence of a
woman during her menstrual period; to offer worship directly after having kindled a fire; to pass air before the
Deity; to offer worship wearing dirty or contaminated clothes; to offer worship while angry; to offer worship
directly after having been at a cremation ground, or having touched a dead body or seen a dead body’s face; to
offer worship immediately after eating; to offer worship while chewing betel or tobacco; to touch the Deity
after having a massage with oil; to worship with flowers from the pipal or castor tree; to worship at an
inauspicious time; to worship while squatting on a small wooden stool; to touch the Lord with the left hand
while bathing the Deity; to offer old or already offered flowers; to boast during worshipping; to spit habitually;
to worship the Deity after having applied smudged or zigzag tilaka; to enter the temple without washing the
feet; to offer the Deity food cooked by a non-Vaisnava; to do puja in front of a non-Vaisnava.

Commentary
None of these offenses are made up for the sake of making the list impressive. Moreover they are scriptural
injunctions and should therefore be followed at all times, if one does not wish to incur sin by committing
sevaparadha. There is one seva-aparadha mentioned here that we as an institution may become aware of. It is “to
enter the temple without washing the feet.” Now, at one time in front of all temples there was a provision made for the
washing of the feet and sadly this provision is now missing from the majority of temples. Harinama Cintamani, the
authorized book on offenses to the Holy Name and Deity worship is hereby proclaiming to all that it is seva-aparadha
‘to enter the temple without washing the feet.’ This information is there for all.

Another point I may speak about very briefly is the aparadha “to be in the presence of a woman during her menstrual
period.” So this aparadha may appear that it is presented to the prabhus, but nowadays with women taking on a
strong role in temple life, we may read this statement as; “a woman may not go before the Deity during her menstrual
period.” In days of yore men accompanied their wives to the temple, but now all matajis attending the temple or
living in the temple may take notice of this rule.

7. “It is offensive to eat opulently; to touch the Deity of Hari in darkness; to touch the Deity without proper
rituals.

Commentary
In the first list of sevaparadha Srila thirty-two offenses were mentioned, and then more were listed from other
scriptures. It may not be possible for you to remember all of them at once but by watching the etiquette of senior
Vaisnavas one can easily learn. Should you require further elaboration or clarification, please see the head pujari in
your local temple and humbly request him to explain to you the aspects that you are unsure about.

Sevaparadha is to be avoided by the servitor

8. “One who is engaged in Deity worship must carefully avoid the sevaparadhas, and all Vaisnavas must strictly
abstain from the namaparadhas and relish the taste of pure devotional service to Lord Krsna. The devotee
himself is the best judge of which offenses to be vigilant about according to the service he is engaged in. But the
responsibility of avoiding namaparadha is applicable to every Vaisnava at all times.

Commentary
In text one of this chapter we highlighted the panca-samskara system that a devotee needs to implement to attain
krsna-prema, here we see the fifth samskara of yaga. Yaga is the worship of the Deity form of the Lord. If one is
engaged in such worship, (and one is encouraged to engage in such worship in order to advance further until love of
Godhead blossoms) one must be careful about the particular offenses that are applicable in the application of such
worship. (Again if you are not sure of anything please ask an authority on the matter). A separate mention is given for
the person who comes to see the Deity and for those who are engaged in Deity worship. In this way both categories
have had been brought to your attention for your awareness in this matter.

Contrary to sevaparadha, which only applies to the particular situation, offenses to the Holy Name are applicable to
all devotees at all times. One could then say that avoiding namaparadha is more a way of life than simply avoiding
individual offenses. A devotee who has reached the stage where his way of life is that he no longer commits aparadha
is called a madyama adhikari, only he is fit to receive service from others.

In the stage of bhava-seva, sevaparadha is almost nonexistent

9. “That devotee who, in a secluded place, feeling separation from the Deity, is steadily engaged in worshiping
the Lord in the mood of loving ecstasy (bhava), must diligently avoid the ten offenses against the Holy Name,
because the namaparadhas are the source of all ills. Bhava-seva commences only after one has surmounted the
namaparadhas. In this stage of seva, one has to be free from offenses. In bhava-seva, mental service is foremost;
there is hardly opportunity for sevaparadha. O Lord Caitanya, you have instructed Srila Raghunatha das
Goswami on the worship of Sri Govardhana-sila thusly:
‘“This stone is the transcendental form of Lord Krsna. Worship the stone with great eagerness. Worship
this stone in the mode of goodness like a perfect brahmana, for by such worship you will surely attain ecstatic
love of Krsna without delay. For such worship, one needs a jug of water and a few flowers from a Tulasi tree.
This worship is in complete goodness when performed in complete purity. With faith and love, you should offer
eight soft Tulasi flowers, each with two Tulasi leaves, one on each side of each flower.’
(Cc. antya-lila 6.294-304)

Commentary
In the Bhagavad-gita it is said:

buddhaya visuddhaya yukto dhrtyatmanam niyamya ca

sabdadin visayyams tyaktva raga-dvesau vyudasya ca
vivikta-sevi-laghv-asi yata-vak-kaya-manasah
dhyana-yoga-paro nityam vairagyam samupasritah
ahankaram balam darpam kamam krodham parigraham
vimucya nirmamah santo brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the
objects of sense gratification, being freed from attachment and hatred, one who lives in a
secluded place, who eats little, who controls the body, mind and power of speech, who is always
in trance and who is detached, free from false ego, false strength, false pride, lust, anger, and
acceptance of material things, free from false proprietorship, and peaceful- such a person is
certainly elevated to the position of self-realization. (Bg.18 51-53)

This is a description of a person who has reached brahman realization. If such a person is a devotee, this description
is then pertaining to a perfected-devotee who would undoubtedly perform bhava-seva, or worship in the mode of
goodness. To reach this stage a sadhaka should live detached from the common populace, who are engaged in sense
gratification, and in this place he must perfect the art of Krsna consciousness by incessantly chanting under the
guidance of a spiritual master while diligently avoiding all namaparadhas. The word bhava-seva implies that service
which is imbued with love and devotion, and this kind of service is mainly done in the mind (manasa-seva). Such
service to Sri Hari can only come about when the heart of the aspirant has been purified from all contamination via
incessant chanting of the Holy Name. In the form of bhava-seva there is almost no chance for committing
sevaparadha, however, there is always a chance of falldown until one has reached the point of krsna-prema. The story
of Maharaja Bharata explains this fact nicely.

Srila Raghunatha das Goswami also provides an excellent example of bava-seva. In the example given herein Srila
Raghunatha dasa Goswami is personally given a Govardhana-sila to worship by Lord Caitanya. He was instructed
that the worship should be carried out with water and Tulasi leafs because these items are both simple and pure. We
can understand from this example that this kind of worship mainly takes place in the mind. And indeed from this
simple form of worship in the bhava-seva category Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami got to see the Lord of Vikuntha,
who appeared before him as Sri Krsna. In the bhava-seva category Raghunatha dasa performed worship of Lord
Krsna’s astakaliya-lila in Vrndavana.

In this verse Sri Harinama Cintamani clearly states how bhava-seva commences after surmounting namaparadhas.
This statement clarifies many things about worship in the bhava-seva category; such as the worship of the
Govardhana-sila. It behooves devotees of ISKCON to take notice of this statement.

10. “After thus advising him how to worship, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu personally offered Raghunatha dasa
the Govardhana-sila with His transcendental hand. As advised by the Lord, Raghunatha dasa worshipped the
sila in great transcendental jubilation. Svarupa Damodara gave Raghunatha dasa two cloths, each about six
inches long, a wooden platform and a jug in which to keep water. Thus Raghunatha dasa began worshipping
the stone from Govardhana, and as he worshipped he saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, the son
of Nanda Maharaja, directly in the stone. Thinking of how he had received the Govardhana-sila directly from
the hands of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Raghunatha dasa was always overflooded with ecstatic love. The
amount of transcendental bliss that Raghunatha dasa enjoyed simply by offering water and Tulasi is
impossible to achieve even if one worships the Deity with sixteen kinds of paraphernalia. After Raghunatha
dasa had thus worshipped the Govardhana-sila for some time, Svarupa Damodara spoke to him as follows:
‘Offer the Govardhana stone eight kaudis worth of the first-class sweetmeats known as khaja and sandesa. If
you offer them with faith and love, they will be just like nectar.’”

Commentary
Lord Caitanya had a few Raghunathas in His camp, and so Raghunatha dasa became Raghu of Svarupa-Damodara.
Whenever Raghu of Svarupa-Damodara wished to ask Lord Caitanya something, he would ask only through Svarupa-
Damodara. In this way we learn that we must approach the Supreme Lord through the spiritual master.

In Bengal, Raghunatha had met Lord Caitanya and had put a request to the Lord so that he may take the sannyasa
order. The Lord refused this request and instructed Raghunatha that he must remain in family life while practicing
renunciation inwardly. One day Raghunatha was fortunate enough to perform devotional service to Lord Nityananda
and the Vaisnava devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Being very pleased, Nityananda requested all the devotees to
bless Raghunatha so that all his impediments would be removed. With these blessings Raghunatha was free to take up
his rightful position as a servant to Sri Gaurasundara. When he eventually met the Lord and took the renounced order,
the Lord blessed him by giving him a Govardhana-sila. With this Raghunatha understood the Lord had granted him a
place at Govardhana with Rupa and Sanatana. He understood that Srimati Radharani had mercifully given him shelter.

In the previous text a quote is given from Caitanya-caritamrta to state that bhava-seva is worship in complete
goodness and is authorized when carried out in that way. Further than this the Lord gave Raghunatha a Govardhana-
sila to offer such worship to. In this way we see how worship of Govardhana can facilitate bhava-seva worship. With
this in mind, please transcend the anartha-nirvrtti stage of chanting, and when you clear this stage you will have
surmounted the namaparadhas and become eligible to perform bhava-seva, worship in complete goodness. Thereby
you will be eligible to worship the Govardhana-sila as did the brahmana Raghunatha dasa Goswami. Raghunatha’s
meditations were so pure that he could see the Supreme Lord within the stone. In his mind he would constantly
remember the Lord giving him the sila. In this way He attained perfection through remembrance of Krsna.

From the example of Raghunatha we can understand that Lord Caitanya is teaching that worship of Govardhana-sila
takes place within the mind. Therefore, if you are thinking in terms of worshiping the sila in this way, then please
make sure that you are qualified. Remember the words of text nine in this chapter; ‘Bhava-seva commences only after
one has surmounted the namaparadhas.’ In Caitanya-siksamrta by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura the following is
written in connection with this topic:

The life of an advanced devotee is very pure, and his taste is always pure. Mahaprabhu taught
this to Raghunatha dasa briefly, ‘Smiling, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu told Raghunatha dasa, I have
already appointed Svarupa Damodara Goswami as your instructor. You may learn from him what your
duty is and how to discharge it. I do not know as much as he. Nevertheless, if you want to take
instructions from Me with faith and love, you may ascertain your duties from the following words. “Do
not talk like people in general or hear what they say. You should not eat very palatable food, nor should
you dress very nicely. In your mind render service to Radha and Krsna in Vrndavana.’ (Cc. antya-lila
6.233-238)
In these instructions, the Lord also hinted in a covered way about the internal worship of Radha
Krsna throughout the eight time-periods of the day known as astakaliya-lila-bhajana. Elsewhere in this
book (the Caitanya-siksamrta), in the instructions the Lord gave to Svarupa Damodara, this topic will
be discussed, but the devotee should be careful to be qualified for such teachings.
The mentality during vaidhi-bhakti, exclusive cultivation of devotion with the aim of achieving
bhava-bhakti, and the mentality during bhava-bhakti, intense cultivation with the aim of achieving
prema, is called nirbandhini-mati, undivided attention. If such concentration exits, then very quickly
the devotee attains perfection. In other words, the devotee must make an effort corresponding to the
 goal he wishes to achieve. From the very beginning of practice, the devotee must adopt this
concentrated attention and should beware of giving it up because of distraction or inattention. (Cs. p65)

In this quote we can see that the way a devotee raises from sadhana/vaidhi-bhakti to raganuga/ragatmika-bhakti, is to
perform service with undivided attention. The word nirbandini means undivided, which is derived from the word
incessantly (nirbandha). In the sadhana stage of vaidhi-bhakti a devotee progresses through cultivating his devotion
via constant practice. In the bhava stage a devotee uses raganuga-bhakti as his mood of worship, and his cultivation
of devotion takes on a more refined state. His worship then turns into the cultivation of prema, or love. In cultivating
love, rules and regulations get in the way, therefore a devotee must change his way of worship from vaidhi (worship
according to the rules and regulations, cultivating devotion), to raganauga (spontaneous worship in a loving mood).
In this way a devotee meditates on the asta-kaliya-lila, the eightfold pastimes of the Lord. Such pastimes are imbued
with loving sentiments and are taking place with a loving mood devoid of awe and reverence. Thakura Bhaktivinoda
is giving warning about the instructions the Lord gave to Svarupa Damodara on this matter. Bhaktivinoda says “a
sadhaka should be careful to be qualified for such teachings on the astakaliya-lila-bhajana.” Or in other words, if an
unqualified devotee hears such teachings and acts on them, trying to perform his bhajana in the bhava-seva category
before he is qualified, it may be to his detriment. (Devotees of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are not sahajas, nor are they
whimsical followers, following according to their own speculations and not scripture). When an aspiring devotee
performs his worship according to the rules of raganuga-bhakti, while being only qualified to perform worship
according to the rules of vaidhi-bhakti, he becomes nothing but a nuisance. The topic of performing raganuga-bhakti
comes in the category of performing a very advanced form of devotional service. The gopis perform raganuga-bhakti,
and one may similarly perform this kind of devotional service if one is following in their footsteps and has attained a
great degree of purity given from the sadhana of chanting and service. One may not commit any of the ten offenses
and perform one’s actions in a bid to gratify the senses, and at the same time think oneself qualified to perform
raganuga-bhakti. This fact should be understood by all.

Taking a look from the beginnings, jiva should follow the rules of varnasrama-dharma until he comes to the stage of
sadhana and then he should follow the rules of sadhana-bhakti. Following the rules of vaidhi worship he should do
what his spiritual master instructs, and these instructions should be in accord with the previous acaryas. If there is
ambiguity in the instructions of the acarya, the rules of guru, sadhu, and sastra are there to help clarify the ambiguity.
When the majority of the anartha-nirvrtti stage has been traversed the sadhaka is ready to perform raga-bhakti, and
in this way his mood of worship changes as has been described in the previous paragraph. Raganuga-bhakti is devoid
of restricting rules because the performer is situated in pure goodness. If this procedure is not followed the result is
nothing but a disturbance to the society. The person performing seva in the mood of raganuga will also follow the
rules and regulations so that he may teach others, but in his private meditations (bhajana) he will perform bhava-seva.

Although some may claim that Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on ‘not taking rocks from Govardhana’ were
instructions to individual persons and not general instructions, on several occasions we see how Srila Prabhupada
requested the devotees to take the stones back to Govardhana. An example of this was a written in a letter sent to
Palika who wished to worship govardhana-sila in Sri Dhama Mayapur:

Letter to: Palika

India
Unknown Date
76-06-18

My dear Palika dasi,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letters of 17th and 25th March, 1972, and shall
answer as follows: 1. There is no question of bathing Caitanya deity. Of course He is bathed many
times daily by Hare Krishna Mantra, but for bathing of such deities requires Salagrama Sila, and I have
not introduced yet, but I shall do so later. Of course you should always cleanse Him with dry or damp
cloth from time to time, but no daily bathing process is recommended by me for the time being. 2. You
may dress Him in the same manner as Lord Krishna. 3. Deities should be changed in early morning,
after mangala arati, before noon offering, and before sundara arati They should be put on Their fine
dress. 4. The Govardhana rock should be returned to Mount Govardhana as soon as possible. I am very
 glad that you are doing such a nice service by worshiping Radharani and Krishna so nicely and giving
Them so many nice clothes and ornaments and taking such nice care, so now I am very much relieved
to know everything is going well in Calcutta during my absence. Now you make Mayapur into a
gorgeous palace for Radha and Krishna, and I shall come there immediately and sit down there
permanently to stay by Them.
Hoping this meets you in good health,
Your ever well-wisher.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

In summarizing these teachings on seva-aparadha we can say the following: In Deity worship a devotee must be on
guard to the various seva-aparadhas that pertain to his worship, but in worship the worship of Govardhana-sila, or
worship in the mood called bhava-seva we see that there in not so much possibility of committing seva-aparadha as
this worship is carried out by those in the mode of goodness, and most of this worship is carried out within the mind.
Saying this, every devotee must always be on guard against the various namaparadhas, or offenses against the Holy
Name and the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains the system of rising from sadhana
to prema as follows:

In the process of sadhana-bhakti there are four stages; sraddha, nistha, ruci and asakti. After
passing these four stages one comes to the level of bhava, which is the doorstep of prema.
According to the degree of faith, each level has different rules. As one leaves behind one level and
progresses to the next, he should honor the rules of the latter and leave aside those of the former.
Those who do not give up the rules of the previous level are bound by those rules like chains that
do not allow him to proceed to the next level.

If one is still committing namaparadha his faith in Sri Krsna is not at its strongest and as such he must be governed
by the rules that govern his particular faith. However, when one’s faith increases one acts accordingly and attains
steadiness, taste, attraction and devotion. While there are anarthas present a person is considered to be, not-as-yet in
complete goodness, and so not qualified to perform bhava-seva. This is because bhava-seva commences only after
one has stopped (or almost stopped) namaparadhas, which are listed in chapter four as follows:

1) To criticize saintly persons.

2) To consider the demigods to be independent of the Supreme Lord, or that Lord Krsna’s name, form,
qualities and pastimes are separate from the Lord.
3) To disobey the spiritual master who reveals the truth about the Holy Name.
4) To criticize the scriptures that describe the glories of the Holy Name.
5) To consider the excellences and divine qualities of the Holy Name, as delineated in the scriptures, to be
imaginary.
6) To commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the Holy Name.
7) To instruct faithless persons on the glories of the Holy Name.
8) To equate chanting of the Holy Name with the materially auspicious activities recommended in the
karmakanda sections of the Vedas.
9) To be inattentive while chanting the Holy Name.
10) To not develop love for the Holy Name after knowing His glories, because of maintaining attachments to
the body and things related to the body.

Sri Harinama Cintamani is a guide book to help sadhakas overcome the ten offenses listed above, and take one
through the various stages of sadhana stated in the previous quote by Srila Bhaktivinoda. When offenses have been
overcome the worship (with the aim of cultivating devotion) of the Holy Name becomes bhava-seva, or chanting
carried out with love and devotion. The Holy Name is therefore the means for the jivas to reach their ultimate resting
place, and at the same time, it is their ultimate resting place (krsna-prema). May the Lord bless all who read this book,
to attain loving devotion to His lotus feet in the form of worship (sadhana) of His Holy Name rising to bhava-seva,
and eventually krsna-prema.
I would like to mention here that worship of Govardhana-sila is different to that of the Salagrama-sila. In the worship
of Salagrama-sila we see how many benedictions are offered to the worshipper, whereas in the worship of
Govardhana the benediction that is offered is krsna-prema. In this way we can see that Salagrama worship pertains to
worship in the mood of awe and reverence (which is a step that can take the worshiper further). Krsna is worshipped
in this way when he is in Mathura or Dvaraka; there, He is known as Vasudeva. He is also worshiped in the mood of
awe and reverence in the various Visnu-loka planets in Vikuntha, as Narayana, or any other of the Lord’s unlimited
vilasa expansions such as, Lord Nrsimhadeva, Lord Varaha, etc.

If, after hearing all of this information, one still decides to worship the Govardhana-sila before one has reached
bhava-seva, it is claimed by ISKCON authorities that the Deity may reciprocate with the worshiper in the mood of
Laxmi Narayana. In this case the Deity is offered the sixteen kinds of paraphernalia as worship. To worship the
Govardhana-sila in complete goodness is recommended and this mode of worship is governed by Lord Caitanya’s
manifest instructions. If we can not find an example of our service and relationship to the Lord in Caitanya-lila, or, if
we find an example that states the opposite, then we would do better following the example set by the Lord through
the lives of His great devotees.

The worship of Govardhana-sila is worship carried out in the Lord’s intimate mood of vraja—in this mood the
conceptions of awe and reverence impede rasa. Indeed in vraja, Krsna’s intimate friends treat Him as equal or even as
subservient. In the different moods found in Vrndavana all relations with Krsna are imbued with love and devotion,
which is a characteristic of krsna-prema. The high position of the bhava stage is stated in text nine of this chapter;
‘bhava-seva commences only after one has surmounted the namaparadhas. In this stage of seva one has to be free
from offenses.’

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how the Lord’s intimate friends in Vrndavana defeat him in mock fighting and
ride on His back as their reward. And further we hear how the gopis made statements that praised the Lord of Their
hearts, while at the same time Their statements criticized the creator (lord Brahma). Such things can not be possible if
one still has offenses covering the heart. Quoting the Srimad-Bhagavatam tenth canto, Lord Caitanya says the
following regarding the residents of Vrndavana:

All men and women were accustomed to enjoying the beauty of the shining face of Lord Krsna,
as well as His shark-shaped earrings swinging on His ears. His beautiful features, His cheeks and
His playful smiles all combined to form a constant festival for the eyes, and the blinking of the
eyes became obstacles that impeded one from seeing that beauty. For this reason, men and
women became very angry at the creator. (Cc. madhya-lila 21.123)

Giri-Govardhana is the known as the Lord’s best devotee as He manifests all that is needed for the Lord’s pastimes to
occur. There is a hint of His majesty and eternal position within these words. For a devotee who is following in the
mood of the vrajavasis, worship of the Govardhana-sila is very important, and indeed it is recommended that an
advanced devotee take a stone from Govardhana and worship it in complete goodness. We hope here that you can see
the difference between the advanced devotee and the intermediate or beginning devotee. The advanced devotee
performing bhava-seva is a pure Vaisnava who is fit to worship in the mode of goodness because he is free from
anarthas, whereas the intermediate devotee should simply serve the pure devotee, and pray for his blessings to cross
over the anartha-nirvrtti stage and become situated in suddha-sattva.

It is true that in the Krsna book Srila Prabhupada stated that ‘a great devotee may take a stone from Govardhana and
worship in the privacy of his home,’ and in a letter to Giriraja Maharaja he states ‘a devotee of ISKCON may take a
stone from Govardhana to worship’ but we can understand from the authority of Sri Harinama Cintamani that the
person who takes such a stone for worship must have transcended the anartha-nirvrtti stage, and thus his pure
worship is authorized when carried out in the mode of goodness. In this way when Srila Prabhupada uses the words ‘a
great devotee,’ or ‘a devotee of ISKCON,’ he is implying someone who is on a higher level, and not a sadhaka who is
on the kanista level of advancement. The kanista level is classified by the authority of Sri Harinama Cintamani as
being the level where one is becoming a devotee, but because of weak faith, he has so far only become a shadow
devotee. The kanista-adikari still has anarthas covering his heart, which cover his real identity and cause him to make
associations based on the statement; ‘I am the enjoyer.’ Srila Prabhupada also indicated that a great devotee should
worship Govardhana in the privacy of his home. This indicates that the worship of Govardhana is a private affair that
is in line with the bhava-bhajana category that has previously been outlined by Srila Bhaktivinoda. If ISKCON
temples were to worship Govardhana as a public affair the general public will follow suit and at their own behest and
whims they will take stones from Govardhana and worship according to speculation and sentimentality. Yad yad
acarati sresthastat tad evetaro janah. “Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow.” (Bg. 3.21) The
word anuvartate, which is to be found in this verse, means “to follow in the footsteps of.” In this way, if ISKCON
were to worship Govardhana-silas in their temples, common men will follow in their footsteps and worship
Govardhana-silas in their homes—thinking that Govardhana worship has been authorized by ISKCON, who are
following the acarya Srila Prabhupada.

To support the statement that we have just made regarding the use of the words ‘a great devotee,’ to imply a very high
level devote, we can quote Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya who gives reference to the great height that a devotee rises to.
Speaking to the Sanodiya brahmana the Lord instructs people in the behavior of a devotee as follows:

dharma-sthapana-hetu sadhura vyavahara

A devotee’s behavior establishes the true purpose of religious principles.

(Cc. madhya-lila 17.185)

At this point you may wonder why we are explaining the worship of Govardhana at such length, and the reason is that
at the moment we are seeing an explosion in aspiring devotees who are taking or being given Govardhana silas, and
subsequently worshipping them in an unauthorized way. Such people become sentimental about Govardhana worship
and take a few rocks claiming ‘this one is a little blackish, so He is Krsna, and this one has a white piece, so He is my
Balarama, and this one is Giri-Govardhana etc, etc.’ In this way people have many silas, sometimes ten or more, and
people keep them in their bedrooms or anywhere they feel like.

To give a final authorized explanation we have searched Srila Prabhupada’s Vedabase and came up with the following
quote from the handbooks and reference section on Govardhana worship:

Just as Lord Caitanya blessed Raghunatha dasa Goswami by giving him a sila from Govardhana Hill to
worship, one must obtain the blessings of a sadhu who is a resident of Govardhana in order to take a
govardhana-sila for worshiping. Unauthorized taking of even a small pebble from Govardhana is
known to bring dire consequences to the person or persons involved. Whereas one injunction calls for
compensating Govardhana for any removed stone with its same weight in gold, local residents say that
to do so is not really advisable in this age, since the personality of Kali resides in gold. In any case
such "compensation" is meant for those who would take a sila without authorization. A devotee, not
wishing to offend Giri-Govardhana, will prefer to wait for the express blessings of authorized persons
before taking up the worship of govardhana-sila.

It may be concluded from this text that an advanced devotee alone can take a stone, or that one may take, or be given
a stone from Govardhana only by a resident of that place. We may add here; ‘that this statement does not simply mean
a person who lives on the surface of Vrndavana dhama.’ This statement means the pure devotee who is an intimate
associate of Radha-Krsna in Vrndavana dhama.

A person is fit to enter Vrndavana only when he has been introduced by a resident of that place. Similarly, when
anyone else reaches the stage of being an advanced/pure devotee, by the mercy of that pure devotee, he will also have
Vrndavana manifest before his eyes, as it did for Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami. The chanting of the Hare Krsna
mantra, as given by the lips of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu will engender the chanter to love the Lord in any of the five
rasas found in vrndavana-lila if one so wishes.

Without delay, give up the habit of offensive chanting, and, crossing over the anartha-nirvrtti stage, chant without
offenses in the mood of the residents of vraja. Please also know that Sri Mayapur is non-different from Vrndavana.

Meditators on the Holy Name perform bhava-seva

11. “Meditation upon the Holy Name of the Lord engenders bhava-seva or spontaneous loving devotional
service. O Lord Caitanya, this is Your grace upon the jivas: all the different limbs of sadhanabhakti or the
practice of devotional service finally culminate in prema. One must therefore submerge himself in the nectar of
chanting the Holy Name and forget all other processes of elevation.”

Commentary
This is the final instruction on sevaparadha, that one must overcome it by submerging oneself in the chanting of the
Holy Name. If one desires to become qualified to perform bhava-seva, one must go through the stage of anartha-
nirvrtti by avoiding all offenses to the Holy Name. Along the path of self-realization the devotee will enter into the
rules regulating each stage, and as he enters into a new stage he leaves behind the rules of the previous one. An idea of
this is follows:

 With an increase in faith the sadhaka performing sadhana-bhakti first receives steadiness nistha, this replaces
his unsteady nature. In this way the sadhaka’s mind becomes more peaceful and he can thus focus on his japa
meditations better. At this stage he must give up his unsteady nature.

 Increasing his faith in Sri-Guru, sadhu, and sastra further, he next he enters the stage of attaining a taste for
chanting ruci. This replaces his taste for maya, or things that are not connected to the Lord. In this way the
sadhaka gives up the habit of speculation and puts full faith in the paramapara system of attaining knowledge.
Hearing the nectarean pastimes of the Lord increases the devotee’s purified taste further.

 With a further deepening of faith the sadhaka must leave his attraction for the items of the material world and
the thought of being the enjoyer of such things. In this way the sadhaka enters the stage of attaining attraction
for the Lord asakti. From this attraction for Sri krsna-nama, the devotee who is by now very pure-hearted,
yearns for connection with the Lord, and from this attraction loving devotional service (bhava) will arise.

 With his increasing love for the Lord, bhava, or spontaneous loving attraction, becomes a natural occurrence
and the devotee can not live without the Lord. In this way he tastes krsna-prema, and this taste becomes his
prayojana, his indispensable need. Tasting this he leaves behind the material world and can never sin again.
The Holy Name will prevent this ever happening.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam and Lord Krsna explains to Sri Uddhava the process for pleasing Him via engaging in
unalloyed devotional service:

bhaktyaham ekaya grahyah

sraddhayatma priyah satam
bhaktih punati man-nistha
sva-pakan api sambhavat

Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in Me can one obtain Me, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead. I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take Me as the only goal of their
loving service. By engaging in such pure devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves
from the contamination of their low birth. (SB. 11.14.21)

The mercy of Lord Gauranga is that He gives all the opportunity to chant the Holy Name of the Lord, and become
elevated to the position of being a lover of the Lord. Therefore, let everyone disapprove of chanting with offences and
begin to chant attentively, which in turn will please Lord Gauranga—our Ista-deva.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
It is on the strength of Srila Haridasa Thakura’s instructions that a lowly person without means can recite the
Sri Harinama Cintamani.

Following in the footsteps of great authorities engenders one to become dear to them, and becoming dear to the great
authorities engenders one to become dear to the Lord. A lowly person such as I can attempt to clarify some minor
points in Sri Harinama Cintamani only on the strength of Srila Haridasa and Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s clearly defined
instructions, and the blessings of my spiritual master.

Chapter 15
The Bhajana of Confidential Worship
All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda; all glories to Sri Advaita
Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to all the devotees of Lord Caitanya. One who rejects all other processes
of elevation and simply immerses himself in the chanting of the Holy Name is truly a magnanimous soul and is
glorious in all respects.

Science of the Holy Name revealed

1. Lord Caitanya said, “O Haridasa! Simply on the strength of your wonderful devotion, you are conversant
with all knowledge. All the Vedic philosophical conclusions about the topics of the Absolute Godhead, the jiva,
maya, the pure name of the Lord, namabhasa and namaparadha are revealed in your speech. It is therefore
rightly: said of you that the Vedas gleefully prance upon your tongue.” Lord Caitanya desired that the percepts
of namarasa, the topmost spiritual science of the mellows of the Holy Name, be revealed through the mouth of
Srila Haridasa; and so the Lord spoke in that way.

Commentary
One does not need to become a muni or jnani to understand the subject matters of the universe, one simply has to
surrender to the Holy Name of the Lord and all will be revealed. After having given the jivas knowledge about the
Supreme enjoyer, the process to search for Him, the Vedic conclusions, the pitfalls to be aware of on the path, and the
correct procedure for advancement, Srila Haridasa Thakura is about to describe a further state which takes place
within the consciousness of the jiva. The topic of bhajana may only be taken up when one has attained a degree of
purity, and for that reason Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has included it at the end of Sri Harinama Cintamani. It is not
a good idea to throw peals before a swine as he will undoubtedly trample them into the ground, therefore good
manners have been taught before the overview of bhajana has been introduced. A degree of faith has been given and
knowledge of Krsna’s supreme position has been revealed within the heart of the reader, who is now situated ready to
hear more.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura does not go into elaborate discussions about his personal bhajana (which is in the mood
of the vrajavasis) within the realms of this book, but instead chose to include this in his sequel to Sri Harinama
Cintamani called Sri Bhajana Rahasaya, the rahasya (instructions) of bhajana (meditation on the spiritual world).
The servant is not independent of the master, but must follow the premise set by him, therefore in my vain attempt to
assist devotees, I will try to clarify the Thakura’s words in the form of an overview of the instructions given within
this chapter, but I will stop short of describing the abhidheya of personal bhajana.
The subject of rasa that we are about to enter into can be attained by connection with nama (namarasa). Rasa is the
particular relationship a jiva has with Lord Krsna. It is not that rasa exists only when one thinks about it from a
spiritual perspective. Rather rasa is eternal, and it is our connection with the spiritual that reveals this our particular
rasa with the Supreme Lord. In Sri Harinama Cintamani we mainly hear about the rasa in the mood of madhurya or
srngara, however other rasas that exist eternally are mentioned. The reason for this focus lies in the fact that the
srngara-rasa is the rasa that is being tasted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who gives
elaborations on the namacarya’s texts. The srngara-rasa is the highest rasa and contains all other rasas. Lord
Caitanya’s servants hope to highten the Lord’s emotions via discussing such topics.

2. Lord Caitanya continued, “Now please instruct Me about namarasa. How can a jiva become eligible to
receive it?” Srila Haridasa Thakura then prayed at the Lord's lotus feet, submitting that whatever he would
speak on this subject would be inspired by the Lord Himself.

Commentary
How can we become eligible to receive namarasa? To answer this question we must first become acquainted with the
spiritual. Through uninterrupted connection with sabdha-brahman emanating from the spiritual world via hearing and
chanting, this is made possible. The sambandha and abhidheya of chanting has been described throughout this book,
and in this chapter the goal of chanting, the prayojana, ‘rasa,’ will be described. To achieve the final goal of life we
must turn our back on the material world and fix our sights on attaining the Lord and nothing else. Via repeated
connection with the Holy Name the devotee learns to taste a relationship with the Lord in the madhurya-rasa.
Instructions on how to achieve this, and details of the spiritual world are not to be taken as mundane; they are divinely
inspired, hence Srila Haridasa Thakura stated that whatever he would speak would be inspired by the Lord Himself.
The same goes for all who give guidance from the liberated platform.

When an advanced person gives the purport of a statement, such as Srila Prabhupada gives with the statements of Sri
Krsna and the great sages. Such a person gives the essence of that statement along with an explanation via elaborating
on the source material using his fund of experiential knowledge gathered from the authoritive sources of guru, sadhu,
and sastra. When a devotee receives realization it is known as the mercy of the Lord. This mercy is the message that
the Lord wishes to convey to all—the message of God! This message is revealed within the heart during meditation.
The process of hearing this message is called sravanam. To give guidance, the Lord speaks either through His
representative, or through the Supersoul feature, the Anataryami. Now, once this message has been transmitted and
accepted within the heart of a devotee, it is known as vijnana. Once vijnana has been received, the devotee has a duty
to propound this message—this is known as kirtanam. Kirtanam can be classified as glorifying the Lord using sound
vibration, or in written form. Similarly, sravanam may be hearing or reading. If a person receives this mercy from the
great devotees and does not propound the message contained within that mercy, such a person is known as krpanatha
(miserly). A miserly person takes but does not give; therefore he blocks the divine flow of energy instead of being a
via-medium for Krsna’s desire. Spiritual energy comes through a living-force and must then be passed on. This energy
is called the bhakti-svarupam-sakti of the Lord. The difference between a spiritualist and a materialist is that one is
magnanimous and the other miserly. A representative of Lord Krsna works twenty-four hours a day to serve the Lord.

In the early hours of the morning a devotee meditates on the Holy Name of the Lord and the Lord’s intimate pastimes
in Sri Vrndavana Dhama. In the beginning the devotee’s chanting is for his own purification, but in the end it is for the
pleasure of the Lord, and is known as devotional service. The Holy Name therefore both purifies, and reveals the
devotee’s eternal service as a part of the Lord’s cit-sakti. In this way the devotee’s meditations become the basis for
his service—this is known as nama-rasa. During the daylight hours a devotee serves the Lord by propagating the
essence of the scriptures, vadis ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, “by all the Vedas the Lord is to be known” (Bg. 15.15). In
the sleeping hours, when the common man is engrossed in the ignorance of deep slumber, the devotee of the Lord is
busy on the unseen realms giving guidance and blessings to all who seek his council.

The mercy of the devotee is essential to all, for it is by the grace of the spiritual master that we may cross over the
endless ocean of birth and death. We therefore offer our respectful obeisances to our spiritual masters who constantly
look after our welfare, to the past acaryas, and to all the Vaisnava devotees of the Lord headed by Srila Rupa and
Sanatana, Srila Raghunatha-batta, Srila Raghunatha-dasa, Srila Jiva, and Gopala-bhatta Goswamis. We especially
thank Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Haridasa Thakura for their guidance and blessings, and we are eternally
indebted to the most magnanimous panca-tattva, headed by Sri Nityananda and Lord Gaurasundara. May our lives be
the glory of Their education and blessings, and may we always be engaged in Their service life after life. May
whatever we say be divinely inspired, as we place our open-hearts in Their hands.

The concept of rasa

3. Srila Haridasa replied: “The Vedas proclaim rasa, or transcendental mellow, to be of the same spiritual
substance as the Supreme Absolute Truth and the realm of pure transcendence. Worldly poets dabble in a rasa
that is totally mundane; factually theirs is not rasa, but a perversion of it. The rasa that exists beyond the
jurisdiction of the twenty-four elements of material nature is transcendental and ever situated in pure
goodness. This in truth is real rasa. Even the atmaramas, the self-satisfied transcendentalists who have
surpassed material nature, are unable to perceive this wonderful supramundane display of divine
variegatedness; hence, they are bereft of rasa. Eternal rasa is the spiritual cognizance intrinsic in pure
transcendence. It is ever-blissful and resides at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.

Commentary
Rasa can not take place without the hladini-sakti. The repository of the hladini energy is Srimati Radharani. Knowing
this a devotee seeks permission to enter into spiritual exchanges by begging at the door of Srimati Radharani. Hara is
the name of Radha, and Hare is the name spoken when calling on the female energy of the Lord. “Dear Lord, You are
the Supreme enjoyer, and I am an insignificant fallen soul. Although I understand Radha to be none other than You,
the Supreme Person, I also understand that You have expanded Yourself for the purpose of enjoyment. Dearly wanting
to taste the sweetness of Radha’s love You took birth in the holy land of Sri Navadvipa to enact Your transcendental
pastimes. In this incarnation as Sri Gaurasundara You taste the divine mellow of premarasa and then distribute the
remnants, which are non-different from the divine substance krsna-prema. Seeing that no one was qualified to receive
Your merciful benediction You decided to freely give it out to the most fallen of all sinners, who otherwise would
have drowned in the ocean of godlessness and selfishness. Our relationship is that You are the most magnanimous and
I am the most fallen. Please consider me a candidate for Your mercy and engage me in service to Your devotees. This
is our rasa. You, my dear Lord Gauranga are my master, and I am Your isana, Your servant.

In the spiritual world there exists nothing but rasa, and in the material world there exists nothing but selfishness. The
word self-realization describes a situation whereby one becomes aware of the true self as a spiritual being who is a
part of the cit potency, by which rasa; the spiritual cognizance intrinsic in pure transcendence, is made possible. The
word ‘self-realization’ is diametrically opposed to the word ‘selfish,’ which describes the conditioned jiva as trying to
be the lord of the universe. The word selfish can be divided into two words one being the word, ‘self,’ and the other
being ‘ish’—the ‘self’ part of this word indicates the self as being the center of the universe, and the word ‘ish’
indicates the self as being the controller, or the isvara. When pertaining to the conditioned jiva, the word ‘self-ish’
(the self-isvara) is diametrically opposed to the word isana, which means servant. Isvara means controller or master
and isana means servant. Being very selfish, materialists may dabble in poetry, or songs, and dream of a situation
whereby they engage in loving exchanges (rasa), however theirs can not be rasa because at the centre of all their
poetry is their own enjoyment—this is selfish as opposed to selfless. There can be no possibility of rasa without
unconditional love and surrender to the beloved (the visaya and asraya). Materialists do not know the meaning of the
word ‘unconditional love.’ Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains that rasa is permanent and deals only with bliss,
whereas the mundane rasa that poets and song writers dabble-in, is impermanent and deals with happiness and
distress.

Within the state of unconditional love one overlooks the aspect of the Supreme as having dominion and control. This
love is found only in the higher three categories of rasa. Via the mercy of the Lord’s internal sakti (His covering
potency) an intimate associate of the Lord takes Krsna as a very dear friend, or family member, a beloved child, or the
most intimate lover. On accessing this state one must receive the mercy of the inhabitants of Vrajabhumi, and the
master of Lord’s cit-sakti (Sri Nityananda Balarama). Sri Harinama Cintamani will clarify how to do this as we
progress in this chapter.
4. “The Supreme Absolute Truth exists distinctly as saktiman, or the energetic, and sakti or the energy.
Qualitatively, saktiman and sakti are the same, though some differences between the two are to be appreciated.
Saktiman is always the Absolute Autocrat, willful and independent, and sakti always displays His full and
supreme potency. The sakti potency manifests in three ways: the cit potency or the spiritual nature, the jiva or
marginal potency, and maya or material nature.

Commentary
The Lord is the Supreme potency. He is one, but has expanded Himself into many for the purpose of enjoyment. We
have learned a little about the Visnu expansions in the earlier chapters and in this chapter we are to learn about the
topic of rasa, or loving spiritual exchanges. Krsna is known as rasaraja, the king of rasa (the saktiman), and the
jiva’s are known as the energy of the Lord, sakti. Vrsabanunandini (Sri Radha) is Sri Krsna, who has expanded
Himself as the personification of loving exchanges (ahladini), thus Sri Radha always holds a supremely majestic
position. The Lord’s potencies expand themselves as the spiritual potency (cit-sakti), the marginal potency (jiva-sakti)
and material nature (maya). Being in the marginal category the jiva’s are influenced by material nature when their
desires lead them to come into contact with matter. To reclaim the lost souls the Lord descends to the material plane to
enact His spiritual pastimes and in this way the jivas who have descended to the material world may have connection
with the spiritual energy via remembrances of these pastimes, told in story form by the great sages. All items
connected to the spiritual, including the service of the Lord’s purified messengers, take place in the spiritual stratum,
even though enacted in the material plane. To access this spiritual energy, known as the cit-para, is the divine right of
every individual and to explain a little about the scientific analysis of this cit potency we may enter into a description
of the unification of the field of existence. Although quantum physicists are searching for a mathematical formula to
explain a field that will unite all, we are informed in the Srimad Bhagavatam that the Lord, (who is the unification of
everything), may be found through the philosophy of Vedanta. As all information is contained within the Srimad-
Bhagavatam in aphorism, it follows that a study of this literature will yield the fruits one needs to understand the
universe and the principles thereof.

A scientist who does not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the creator, maintainer, and annihilator of the
material world, can never find the truth behind the mysteries of life—for him the unified-field will never manifest.
The primary source of evidence to reveal truth is the Vedas, and the purpose of the Vedas is give knowledge by which
one can know God (Krsna). In this connection there is a phrase that is used by Vedantists, ‘sruti-pramanam.’ Sruti
means Vedas and pramanam means evidence. Vedic evidence is handed down in the paramapara system from master
to disciple, therefore, to understand the truth behind life there can be no compromise made with numbers and arbitrary
equations when discussing a unified-field without giving reference to the Supreme Creator, His qualities and pastimes,
and the source of all information, the Vedas. By mundane speculation man can never understand the unified-field,
which is an aspect of the Supreme Creator’s splendor. The information given in a unified-field formula can therefore
only be of use to one who is a devotee of God, or one who is not inimical toward God. One who has faith in the Vedic
literature and literatures in pursuance of that version may accept this information with a gleeful heart; otherwise there
is no progressive path out of the darkness of ignorance. This is my humble opinion.

In this verse we are being taught that the Lord is known as saktiman, the energetic, and also as sakti, the energy. The
Lord is always the independent energetic controller, and His energies (sakti) are threefold. They are known as the
spiritual or superior energy, the material or inferior energy, and the marginal energy, or the living entities. Being a part
of the spiritual (cit) energy, the jiva’s natural position is that of a servant of the Lord in the spiritual world. Forgetting
this fact, the jiva who is implicated in material living becomes associated with the inferior material energy. This
position is made possible only by the blessings of the Lord, as in the natural state the superior can not be covered by
the inferior. Understanding this, one understands that to become free from the tight grip of maya is only possible by
being released on the order of the Supreme Lord, who acts on the sanction of His pure representative, sri-guru. Please
understand this point clearly. The Lord is known as the one who is self-manifesting. That means; only the Lord can
reveal Himself, you may not find the Lord on the strength of your own endeavors. The namacarya will now begin to
unfold to you the mysteries behind the Lord as the unified-controller, willful and always independent.

The cit potency reveals the supreme object

5. “The cit-sakti reveals the Supreme Object, His Holy Name, abode, pastimes, beauty etc; and Lord Krsna is
that Supreme Object. His exquisite dark complexion (syama) is His beauty. Goloka is His abode and the
representation of His pastimes. His name, abode, form, qualities and pastimes are an ever-existent feature of
the nondual spiritual substance. Transcendental variegatedness is the activity of the superior divine potency.

Commentary
The Lord’s cit-sakti is the sum total of the Lord’s spiritual energies. If one hopes to perform devotional service to the
Lord one must perform this activity from the spiritual stratum, as all the Lord’s activities and pastimes are enacted
from the spiritual stratum. Devotional service to the Lord is therefore only possible using the citpara. By attaining the
position of being a part of the paraphernalia for the Lord’s service and pleasure, one can access all the truths of life.
Therefore, the cit-sakti will reveal the Lord, His oppulences, and pastimes to the jiva situated in the personal
understanding of the Lord. Lord Balarama permanently engages in pastimes with the Lord. He is the Deity in charge
of real ego. In His form of Anantadeva He provides the unlimited paraphernalia for the Lord’s service. For
progression in spiritual life, a humble selfless attitude is needed, and by this attitude the Lord is purchased. Thus, the
Holy Name will reveal the Lord’s oppulences only to those who are qualified, and who chant with genuine humility.

6. “Lord Krsna is the original form of all spiritual qualities, and His eternal nature is His citpara-sakti or His
supreme divine potency. Therefore there is no inherent difference between the form of Krsna and His divine
nature of citpara-sakti. Yet spiritual variety (rasa) creates an impression of difference. This is exhibited only in
the spiritual world.

Commentary
In the material world people are dull-headed and deluded by ignorance. Being devoid of life the material world has no
differentiation. Dull matter is a product of ignorance and is comprised of the great elements. The only real things in
the material world are the Lord’s Holy Name and the living entities, as they are of the permanent spiritual energy of
the Lord, the citpara. The first glimpses of the spiritual world being revealed to the fallen jiva come through
connection with the Lord’s Holy Name, as this is the jiva’s connection with the spiritual. Therefore, the Lord’s Holy
Name, and its preceptor Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are the savior of all! In Kali-yuga, those fortunate souls, who are
intelligent, perform congregational chanting to worship Lord Caitanya via spreading His sankirtana movement, this is
confirmed in the Bhagavatam as follows:

krsna-varnm tvisakrsnam
sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
yajanti hi su-medhasah

In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of
Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krsna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is
Krsna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.
(SB. 11.5.32)

Understanding that the essence of spiritual life is chanting Krsna’s name, and understanding that Krsna and His name
are the same non-dual spiritual substance, it follows that anyone hoping to escape from the illusion of bodily
identification must at once begin to chant Krsna’s name. This is common sense. Now, when we have enough sukriti
that we may understand this point and seriously embark upon our spiritual journeys back to home back to Godhead,
the Lord will reveal our spiritual identity as a part of the course. The cit-sakti reveals the Lord’s identity, our identity
in relation to Him, the spiritual world and all the inhabitants thereof, the pastimes the Lord engages in throughout the
day, and the paraphernalia utilized to assist the Lord in these pastimes. In this way we begin to understand that even
though the spiritual world is non-different from the Lord, still it is differentiated. This is possible because of rasa, or
the varieties of loving exchanges between the Lord and His energies. In scripture we hear how everything in the
spiritual world is a person, is vibrant, and has cognizance of everything else. This description is called the rasa, or the
vibrant differentiation of the spiritual world. In other words, there is no place in the spiritual world that is devoid of
rasa, because every place, every item, every inch of space, is a person and has its own individual relationship with the
Lord. In the Brahama-samhita we hear Lord Brahma describe the spiritual land of Vrndavana as follows:
 I worship Goloka Vrndavana where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the
purpose gem, where all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the
favorite attendant, and where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk.
(Brahma-samhita verse 5.58)

What is maya-sakti?

7. “The reflection of the citpara-sakti is called maya-sakti or material nature. She is also known as the external
potency. Ordered by Lord Krsna, she has produced this material world, or Devi-dhama.

Commentary
To describe the illusion of the material world, the Lord’s great devotee Srila Haridasa Thakura has strung a few
comments together, and in trying to explain these we are made aware of the way in which the Lord keeps the erring
jivas bound by material nature and freed by material nature. Please forgive me that I will need to use a few pages to
explain the following few slokas for your clearer understanding of the Lord’s energies.

In the material world people always fear death. Attempting to take the position of God they think themselves
immortal and above the laws of nature. To rectify this incorrect behavior the Lord sends His kala-sakti into the
material world, and in His form of eternal time the Lord takes the life of all embodied living beings. Viewing time as
an enemy and something to be owned or controlled by them, the embodied living entitie sees time in relative terms
governed by relationship to their particular life and sense gratification. Every living being has a body that comes one
step closer to death at every moment, therefore when people state that something is a certain age, it is perceived so in
relation to the lifespan of the body of the dreamer (in our case the human body). The human lifespan is a point in
spacetime allotted to an individual for the purpose of sense pleasure with the aim of behavioral rectification. On the
spacetime continuum the time factor for life is measured in terms of the time it takes one body to come into being and
be dissolved back into the material elements (birth and death). Death means a timeless forgetfulness for the
individual, but for those still living, time never ceases to march forward. For the embodied living being the space
factor on the spacetime continuum is measured as the distance one’s consciousness has departed from the Lord’s
consciousness (Krsna’s consciousness). One’s birth in a particular species at a particular point in geographical
spacetime therefore comes about relative to the degradation of consciousness. Material spacetime is perceived in
relation to this premise! On the universal scale we are informed of a Virata form of the Lord that contains all the
planets of the universe, and this Virata-Rupa is the space factor. On the universal scale the time factor is known as the
Sisumar, the Sisumar appears in the form of a dolphin and can be seen by those whose vision is elevated enough to
perceive it. Although the topic of universal spacetime is a very interesting topic which every devotee needs to
understand in order to deepen his meditations on the personal form of the Lord, a full description of this would go
beyond the scope of this work. We have therefore decided to include a full description of this in another paper
dedicated to the universal field of activities. In this work we will incorporate the teachings Lord Kaplila’s sankhya
philosophy, the geometry of the universe, the movements of the stars planets and luminaries, the universal form of the
Lord, the Lord’s form as time, the creation and dissolution of the universe, and the Lord’s three internal energies
sandhini, samvit, and hladini.

According to the premise we have earlier set, material time is eternal for the jiva as the embodied jiva may travel
backwards or forwards to a point on the material spacetime continuum according to the consciousness amassed in his
present conditioned reality. The moment the jiva becomes embodied he will experience time acting on the body,
causing decay and death, thus there will be the apparition of birth and death for the person led by the false-ego.
However, time can not affect the spirit soul because she (prakrti-sakti) is eternal, and similarly death can not affect the
jiva because the jiva, being a part of the spiritual world, is beginingless (anadir, without beginning or end).

According to the laws of thermodynamics the arrow of time in the material world always marches in a forward
direction, and entropy is always going against the direction of time (traveling backwards). The second law of
thermodynamics, the law of entropy, states that ‘the universe flows from a state of greater organization to a state of
less,’ implying that the universe is becoming more and more degraded with every passing moment of time. In other
words, as time marches forward everything decays and dies. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear Lord Siva teach that
all living entities are destroyed by another living entity. The exact quote is as follows:

ADD QUOTE here, look from my quote page on Laminate…..

When we study the Bhagavatam in a devotional mood, the Lord endows us with the ability to understand the finer
aspects of life, and via His blessings we can learn that the purpose behind life is to serve the Lord in a favorable
loving mood. The law of entropy is a physical law discovered via material science, but from a devotional perspective
it is not the all in all. It discusses material spacetime and the degradation of everything contained within that
continuum, but the spiritual realities lie beyond the jurisdiction of material space and time. When one becomes a yogi,
or a spiritual scientist, one can look deeper into creation and understand that the Sun and the Moon, are acting as the
agents of the Lord who regulate the lifespan of the living entity. We will not go further into this topic at this point but
will give a detailed description in another book.

Opposed to material time—which is perceived in terms of the life of the body, and regulated by the law of entropy,
there is spiritual time. Spiritual time is very different from material time as the law of entropy can not exist in a
perfect world i.e. the spiritual world. Instead there exists an opposite law. Vedic scripture informs that material reality
is diametrically opposed to spiritual reality—moreover the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual
world. Bhagavad-gita chapter 15 states as follows:

There is an imperishable banyan tree that has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves
are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas. (Bg. 15.1)

The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material
nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are
bound to the fruitive actions of human society. (Bg. 15.2)

The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends,
where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this strongly
rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having
gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom
everything began and from whom everything has extended since time immemorial. (Bg.15.3-4)

The material is an upside down version of the spiritual wherein all the subservient deviants are attempting to be
master, but ironically end up being a servant to their senses. Using Vedic scripture as a source of knowledge mankind
receives a picture of reality from the perspective of one who stands above that reality. Out of His causeless mercy the
Lord is always guiding from above in the form of the Vedas, and from within as the Supersoul. The four above verses
from the Bhagavad-gita give the spiritual scientist a clear understanding of the position of the living entity and his
relationship to the material and spiritual worlds. Verses from Vedic scripture such as these are written in the form of
codes. The person whose consciousness has evolved is known as a teacher of the Vedas, or Guru, and such a person
by dint of his purity can know the meaning of Vedanta. By his causeless mercy this person may reveal the truth
behind life to the sincere student, only then can one fully understand the unified-field and get to know and love the
Lord. Similarly the Srimad-Bhagavatam itself, being the literary incarnation of the Lord, may act as the guru for the
sincere student.

Being empowered by the Lord Himself, Mayadevi entraps the jiva in a prison house of polluted consciousness and
keeps him locked in the material world until he sees the error of his ways. Being a compassionate kindhearted friend
of the jivas the spiritual master works tirelessly to break the invisible chains of maya that bind the jiva to his nonsense
life. Therefore we offer our humble and respectful obeisances to our spiritual masters, and to all spiritual masters who
help the jivas find their way out of the darkness of material illusion.

Two types of jiva-sakti

8. “The marginal region (tatastha) of the citpara-sakti manifests the jiva-sakti. The jiva is eternal, inconceivably
and simultaneously one with, yet different from the Supreme Lord. He is Lord Krsna's energy and is therefore
counted among the cit paraphernalia of the Lord's service.

Commentary
Being of the same spiritual substance as the Lord the jiva is counted as a part of the paraphernalia for serving the
Lord, that is why the jiva is an eternal servant of the Lord. The Lord is not served by the dull matter that is known as
the inferior energy, He is served by jivas who are spiritual in nature. It is herein described that it is the marginal region
of the Lord’s citpara-sakti that gives the jivas the spiritual power to serve the Lord. A jiva can not serve the Lord from
the material platform he must first come to the transcendental platform to do that. However in the wake of real
devotional service one may serve the pure representative of the Lord in the unbroken chain of disciplic succession
descending from Sri Krsna and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In this way one understands that he must become a servant
of the servant of the servant of the Lord, and not a servant of the senses (a godasa). A jiva is intended to be a servant
of the master of the senses hrsikesa. This state comes about via the uninterrupted process of bhakti-yoga. This is
confirmed in the following verse from the Narada-pancarartra.

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate

Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the
Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are
purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.’ (Narada-pancaratra-found in Bhakti-
rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12)

As stated earlier, the Bhagavad-gita verse 15.1 states; “There is an imperishable banyan tree that has its roots upward
and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.”
The person who is fully surrendered to the will of the Lord, and acts accordingly, perfectly understands this prose of
the gita, and will have all knowledge revealed to him. With this knowledge a devotee rightly takes up his sanatana-
dharma as an eternal associate of the Lord in one of the five rasas. Clearly, it is stated herein that the jiva is a part of
the Lord’s spiritual energy and as such comes under the protection of the Lord. In the bhagavad-gita there is one word
the Lord uses to explain this fact. There the Lord instructs Arjuna mat-parah, which means “under My protection,”
“please be fully conscious of Me and work under My direction, and I will protect you always.” And also in the
Srimad-Bhagavatam, giving His friend Sudhama instruction, the Lord explains that those who understand this truth
engage in His service to teach people the science of going back to home, back to Godhead. In this verse the Lord says:

kecit kurvanti karmani

kamair ahata-cetasah
tyajantah prakrtir daivir
yathaham loka-sangraham

Having renounced all material propensities, which spring from the Lord's illusory energy, some people
execute worldly duties with their minds undisturbed by mundane desires. They act as I do, to instruct
the general populace. (SB. 10.80.30)

In attempting to explain this final chapter, I would like to give a clear understanding on the Lord’s energies that
comprise the cit potency. To do this I must explain a little more of the unification of the field of activities. I pray the
readers will forgive this slight digression, the purpose served will be a grand one as the knowledge one may acquire
from understanding the way the Lord has organized His universe for our upliftment can serve to reduce the
complexities of the material creation to the size of the water contained in a calf’s hoof print.
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Kapila informs that a devotee must first have a full comprehension of the universal
form of the Lord, and then one may meditate on the personal form of the Lord. Lord Caitanya’s mercy gives
allowances for the fallen conditioned souls of Kali-yuga, but even within the parameters of Lord Caitanya’s mercy
His great devotees such as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instruct that a devotee must have a clear understanding of
esoteric subject matters before one becomes eligible to perform pure devotional service. The reason for this becomes
clear to the devotee as he progresses.

To explain a little more about the Lord’s cit-sakti, we may begin by stating that material nature is always in flux. It is
always moving, being carried along by the Great-wind that moves all atoms in the universe as they combine to make-
up the planets and the individual bodies that live on the planets. Understanding this, the laws of quantum mechanics
state: ‘We can measure our speed or direction in relation to another object, but we can never measure these in terms of
absolute stillness.’ This statement indicates that everything in the universe is moving, being carried along with time.
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how all the universal planets (and the inhabitants thereof) are moving in a
clockwise direction around the Pole-star, carried by the daksinarvrta wind. With this knowledge we can understand
that if a person is not using Krsna’s cit energy (the organization principle) to move in a forward direction, Krsna’s
entropy energy will take that person backwards. Entropy will appear on the individual body as degrees of ignorance
that cover the consciousness, and at the appropriate time, after the degradation of one body, another will be rewarded
to suit the consciousness of the individual. At this point one may enquire, what is this entropy? In answer to this we
may say that it is all the luminaries that travel in an anticlockwise direction. The luminaries, that carry the light of the
universe both travel in a clockwise direction and give knowledge, or organization, and at the same time travel in an
anticlockwise direction and provide igknowledge, or entropy.

The glory of sun is that it can give light to oppose darkness, and the glory of the light of knowledge is that it can
illuminate the consciousness, which is otherwise shrouded in darkness. After the death of the body, the material
elements gather around the consciousness that is about to take rebirth, and fashion a new body just befitting the
lessons the jiva needs to learn to assist him forward from this point forth. This is stated in the bhagavad-gita chapter
two.

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya

navani grhnati naro 'parani
tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany
anyani samyati navani dehi

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies,
giving up the old and useless ones. (Bg. 2.22)

For the spirit soul there is no changing of body, because the spirit soul is never born and can never die. In our natural
state, as residents of Vikuntha, jivas do not suffer from the four miseries of birth, disease, old-age, and death. Being
the direct opposite of the material world, in the spiritual world, time does not pass the body causing degradation and
the removal of life. Having only real-ego the nitya-mukta-jiva does not attempt to take-on the role of the Lord. In this
way the jiva is a servant to Lord Balarama, and anyone who is connected to Lord Balarama is characterized by three
things, sat, cit, ananda. Thus, spirit souls in their natural condition come under the heading of being one of the items
of paraphernalia to serve the Lord. Lord Balarama, as Sankarsana, and Sri Anantadeva, are in charge of that
paraphernalia. Sankarsana is in charge of the false-ego. As an expansion of the Lord born from the anger of
Sankarsana, Lord Siva also takes-up this service. Lord Anantadeva restrains His anger at the fallen souls who go
against the Lord’s desires, and in this way He allows the universe to exist. However, with the passing of time this
anger increases until it annihilates all the three worlds.

The name ‘human race’ is given to our species to demonstrate that an embodied individual, caught in the material
world is to use the Lord’s sandhini and samvit potencies to return to the Lord in a given amount of time. The
embodied spirit soul always maintains miniscule amounts of aladha (bliss) and samvit (knowledge), and when these
are utilized together with the sandhini energy, the bhakti-svarupam-sakti of the Lord descends from the heart of the
pure devotee into the jiva’s heart and causes further movement toward the goal of attaining one’s sthayi-bhava, or
permanent rasa.
The two energies sandhini and samvit are available to use by the jiva while he is encased in a material body. Actually
they are not only available to use, but they are a must if the jiva wishes to understand the truth behind life! The use of
these two energies is termed yukta-vairagya, and the scientific understanding of these energies is called sambandha-
jnana. In a combined form, the Lord’s three energies sandhini, samvit, and hladini, are called the citpara-sakti. The
word cit indicates the sum total of all spiritual energies. The purpose of the cit energy is always to serve the Lord, and
the svarupa-sakti of the Lord descends in the heart of the devotee in order to cause spiritual movement directed
toward the Lord in a loving way. The effects this energy has on the individual will be described during the study of the
four bhavas that go to make up the sthayi-bhava (permanent emotion) of the jiva. The jiva may use the hladini-sakti
to give pleasure to the Lord only when he has realized his eternal nature as a kept maidservant of the Lord, or another
of the particular rasa’s that the jiva may be eternally engaged in. As the great acarya Prabhupodananda Sarasvati
Thakura once said “devotional service begins when one is in the liberated state.” From this statement we can
comprehend that the third energy of the Lord, which is the hladini-sakti, comes into play when one has realized his
eternal identity, his siddha-deha. This may be experienced while one inhabits a material body. The lives of the sages
are living examples of this.

When referring to activities in the spiritual world they are termed ‘passed-times.’ You will notice the reverse order in
the words ‘time-passes’ (as in the material world) and ‘passed-time’ (as in the spiritual world). In the spiritual world
entropy passes time, which indicates the opposite of decay, organization! In the material world the sun, which takes
away the life of an individual, rotates in cyclic form, in an anticlockwise manner, but the material sun does not shine
past the boundary of the Loka-Loka Mountain range. In the spiritual world, the Lord’s samvit (knowledge energy) is
moving in a forward direction (this is opposite to the material world where time is moving in a forward direction).
Quantum physicists are speculating about an object in the material world which comes into existence only when it
slows down to the speed of light. As of yet science does not know of a material object that can travel faster than the
speed of light. The speed of light is calculated by material science to be 186 thousand miles per second. In the Vedas
we find that the sun travels at three speeds, slow, medium and fast.

Science does not accept the concept of mind, and although thought is understood to have an energy-force, material
science does not as yet understand the real power of thought or mantra (spiritual sound vibration). In the creation of
the universe we find that sight comes from fire. Thus we can understand that to see something, that something must
possess an energy force. Science measures time in terms of the speed of light, and the energy that scientists are
postulating on, only comes into existence when it slows down to the speed of light, so this energy is traveling faster
than the speed of light, or is traveling in the opposite direction and slowing down. They have loosely named this
energy a ‘tachyon.’ What is this energy from our spiritual viewpoint? We may postulate that in the spiritual world this
energy is called a passed-time, which is traveling in the opposite direction to the material time. To clarify things
further, this energy is the future that is coming into the past and then taking existence in the present until it becomes
the past via the help of material time which passes in the forward direction. In this way life unfolds. This energy is the
spiritual organization principle (cit). The power of desire/thought! Material thought may induce entropy, and spiritual
thought may access cit; this is dependent on the thinker! Once the spiritual energy enters beyond the River Viraja, (the
separating ocean between the spiritual and material worlds) it takes on two forms, one is knowledge vidya, and the
other is ig-knowledge avidya (ignorance). One is light and the other darkness! What is this ignorance? The meaning
of the word ignorance is; to ignore knowledge, or to ignore one’s eternal identity, or more specifically to ignore one’s
relationship with the Lord and subsequent duty toward Him, which is jivera svarupa hoy nitya-krsna-dasa.

Avidya means ignorance, and its opposite is vidya—vidya means to know God, not to ignore God! A quick analysis of
the Lord’s cit energy reveals that the thing that degrades everything in the material world also contains information on
how to know God, and how to recreate everything for spiritual life. This is called the samvit energy of the Lord, and it
is found in minute quantities within every individual, as this samvit (knowledge) can not be separated from the jiva.
Whatever is a part of the jiva can not be separated from him because it makes his spiritual identity. Samvit is fed by
the water of the Lord’s Holy Name! The samvit energy is accessed via the mercy of Sri Gurudeva and Lord Siva in his
form as Sadasiva. In this way we see that Lord Siva is serving the Lord by playing the role of Rudra, who is the
destructive energy of the Lord, and at the same time he is acting as the guardian for accessing the cit energy in the
form of Sadasiva. There are in total four bonafide disciplic successions, one stemming from lord Brahma, one from
Goddess Laxmi, one from the four Kumaras, and one from Rudra. Rudra is an aspect of Sankarsana, who is charge of
the material creation and dissolution of the false-ego. Devotees of Gauranga Mahaprabhu know this person to be
called Sri Advaita, and His name as Acarya is set because He is the perfect teacher of His sampradaya. Rudra has His
own sampradaya helping lost souls back to the Lord. Sadasiva gives benedictions to the sincere jiva that lead to
cognizance of the spiritual world. Lord Siva is very compassionate toward the living entities and spends most of his
time meditating on how to help the fallen jivas get out of their predicament. This is the merciful Sadasiva, and by his
sincere prayers he brought Lord Gauranga down to the earth planet to give the highest knowledge of our eternal
identity, how to achieve that identity, and the pure taste of Love of Godhead, krsna-prema. The Lord’s teachings in
this matter constitute all one needs to know on how to achieve all perfection, sarva-siddhi-hoy.

The object that the scientists are looking for is therefore the Lord’s cit potency being transformed into the three modes
of nature as it slows to cause degrees of ignorance, starting with goodness, then becoming passion, and eventually
becoming ignorance to the point of inertia and entropy. The individual may access ignorance by acting in a way to
block the knowledge of God consciousness from his individual consciousness by forming a view of reality based on
his beliefs given from the false sense of being the enjoyer. Once a new paradigm of reality has been formed in the
individual’s consciousness, the universe will award a body that backs up this consciousness, and unless the person
desires the spiritual, this body will not allow the light of higher knowledge to enter into it. Instead it will be limited to
the knowledge of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. The process of again allowing light into the consciousness
is a slow one that involves taking birth in every species of life until one has again reached the human platform. The
knowledge of the Lord’s kingdom is available throughout the universe, but the individual may only access this
knowledge when he has the correct receiving station, or enough ajnata-sukrti.

This energy was created at the beginning of the universe, before the appearance of Lord Brahma. It descends from the
spiritual planet within the material world. Lord Siva’s home can be found at the bottom of the universe, where there is
the greatest degree of ignorance, and at the same time lord Siva also lives on His own planet near the top of Mount
Sumeru. Although we can not explain this here because of the scope of the book, we will endeavor to explain this
mystery in other literatures. Lord Siva’s materialistic followers may receive material benedictions that lead them away
from the Lord, but one who worships Sadasiva as the greatest devotee of Lord Krsna, receives his true blessings,
which are to remove all material inebriates. These blessings are only possible by the mercy of the Lord, and are
available only to the devotees. This is the magic of bhakti-yoga. Srila Sukadeva Goswami speaks about this in relation
to a question asked by Maharaja Pariksit:

Sri Sukadeva said: Lord Siva is always united with his personal energy, the material nature.
Manifesting himself in three features in response to the entreaties of nature's three modes, he thus
embodies the threefold principle of material ego in goodness, passion and ignorance.

The sixteen elements have evolved as transformations of that false ego. When a devotee of Lord Siva
worships his manifestation in any one of these elements, the devotee obtains all sorts of corresponding
enjoyable opulences.

Lord Hari, however, has no connection with the material modes. He is the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, the all-seeing eternal witness, who is transcendental to material nature. One who worships
Him becomes similarly free from the material modes. (SB. 10.88.3-5)

The closer to the brahmajyoti, the more the higher modes of goodness act on the consciousness, as the cit energy
continuously emanates from the spiritual stratum. The further away, the more the mode of ignorance acts due to the
perverted reflection of the Lord’s energy when bounced off the perceiving device—the material mind conditioned by
the false-ego. Therefore lord Siva’s place of residence is situated in both positions, as well as in the heart of the
individual, in sacrifice, in the sun, and the moon, and in many other places. When the cit energy is passed by time it is
called the future, the present, and the past in relation to the jiva’s position. This is the difference between ‘time-passes’
and ‘passed-time.’ The cit energy either becomes the organization principle, or the energy called entropy, depending
on how we use time to serve the Lord.

The jiva who is about to take rebirth, may be situated in a body corresponding to his consciousness anywhere in the
universal planetary system (space) at any point in time, either in the future or the past. This statement means that the
future and the past are merely points of reference on the map of a person’s consciousness. Thus for that person they
become the present! Except for the elevation of consciousness to the ultimate resting place (Vrndavana-Dhama), life
has no more validity than a dream, and time is of the similar nature. Time therefore has relevance for the purpose of
elevation of consciousness to devotional service alone. It is measured according to the lifespan of the individual body
on a specific planet. The purpose for this lifespan has been previously described. Material life is the scientific process
of forgetfulness, and spiritual life is the scientific process of remembering. The material spacetime continuum starts
from brahman, and time is perceived differently according to the different bodies the spirit soul inhabits. Distance is
perceived according to the degradation of consciousness. Every embodied individual therefore perceives relative time
through material senses in relation to the distance one has traveled from the brahmajyoti (the light of God
consciousness)—we have earlier stated the premise for this. A jiva will be placed on a planet at a specific point in
time that corresponds with his degraded consciousness and given a body out of the 8,400000 species of life in order to
experience his desires through the senses of the body, with the aim of rectifying his wayward behavior via being
taught lessons by material nature.

If we look closely at the phrase “time passes” we can see that time must be passing something. That is, it must be
traveling in one direction and taking over something else. What time is taking over is bodies, or masses that lie within
a geometric point in space. With this understanding one can ascertain that time must be traveling both in a forwards
and a backwards direction at the same time, but the law of thermodynamics states that time is always marching in a
forward direction. Via scripture we can understand that an apparatus that sets the taking of life and the passing of time
is indeed traveling in the opposite direction. This apparatus therefore acts on behalf of the Lord to take the life of the
individual, as in this world one life is always taken by another. Indeed in the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how the
Sun and the Moon, as well as other luminaries are traveling in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions. Because a
material body has a certain weight its appearance creates differences in gravity, and gravity in turn has an effect on the
mass or in our case on the body that holds the material consciousness of the individual. This is how one is affected by
the influence of the planets (the zodiac). According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity acts on a mass
according to the warping of the fabric of space. Newtonian physics states that gravity is a very weak force that acts
between two bodies which both attract each other (gravitons always attract). In 1915 when Einstein introduced the
theory of ‘general relativity’ he stated that gravity acts because the weight of an object puts an indentation in the
fabric of space and this affects the light-waves which travel throughout the universe. When stating this he understood
that it was no longer possible to talk of space as being separated from time, therefore we now refer to time and space
as being ‘spacetime.’ It was in 1905 that Einstein brought out his ‘theory of special relativity’ which stated that an
observer anywhere in the universe could make a calculation of time according to the speed of light, which is a
constant throughout the universe.

The distance between a planet and the brahmajyoti regulates time passing on a planetary scale, and the body one
inhabits on this planet regulates time passing on a personal scale. The material planets are situated in the stem of the
lotus that grew from Garbhodakasayi Visnu’s navel, and Lord Brahma’s planet is situated in the whorl of that lotus.
This is stated in the Brahma samhita as follows:

When Visnu lying in the ocean of milk wills to create this universe, a golden lotus springs from His
navel-pit. The golden lotus with its stem is the abode of Brahma representing Brahmaloka or
Satyaloka. (5.18 brahma samhita)

Time only has meaning within the confines of this universe (in the world of names) due to the false concept that that
the living entity dies when the material body dies. It is measured via Einstein’s formula E=MC² Energy=Mass×Speed
of light². However we may postulate at this point, that in our humble opinion, time is not relative to the light of the
sun, but to the spiritual effulgence known as Vaikunthaloka. This fact is also substantiated by Druva Maharaja in the
Srimad Bhagavatam in the following verse:

Yad bhrajamanaa sva-rucaiva sarvato lokas trayo hy anu vibhrajanta ete

The self effulgent Vaikuntha Planets by who’s illumination alone all the illuminating planets within this
material world give off reflected light, can not be reached by those who are not merciful to other living
entities (SB. 4.12.36)
From this sloka we can see that the Sun-god chose to give light to others because of the mode of goodness covering
his heart. The Sun-god is in charge of the sun planet, which is one of the luminaries in the universe and gives off heat
and light as a reflection from the spiritual planets. All illuminating planets give off light as a reflection of the spiritual
world (the brahmajyoti). Time is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the destroyer of all worlds. To look at this in
another way we can see that the Lord is realized in different ways for people on different levels of consciousness.
Therefore, the materialist who sees the sun as the way of calculating time according to the formula E=MC² will see
the imminence of death approaching after the duration of life in the body is over. The spiritualist who sees the
brahmajyoti as being the way of calculating time will see another reality, and the spiritualist who sees Krsna’s
personal form as being the only object of light will see yet another reality forming. For the Krsna conscious person,
all light will be seen as the knowledge of the Lord, and as such he will use all knowledge in the Lord’s service. Thus,
by the grace of God he will become immortal, as in the spiritual world there is no birth and no death.

When speculating on the beginning and end of the universe, scientists state that knowledge of things beyond the
creation and annihilation of the universe is not possible for them to predict because all scientific theories break down
at a singularity. (A singularity being the point in spacetime where the proposed big-bang happened). Why material
scientific calculations break-down is because a singularity (as found at the beginning and end of the universe) means
an infinite density and infinite spacetime curvature. They say; “We loose our ability to predict when dealing with
infinites.” From this statement we can see that material science has reached its ultimate limit at the point of
singularity, but that is just the beginning for a spiritual scientist, a bhakti-yogi! Receiving knowledge from the Vedas,
a spiritualist is able to go beyond the material universe, beyond the timeless brahmajyoti, and enter a domain where
time is conspicuous by its absence—but still time acts!

As it leaves the spiritual world and enters the material, the cit energy that flowed in a clockwise direction in the
spiritual world, now flows in an anticlockwise direction and slows down, being taken over by time which is marching
forwards in a clockwise direction. From this we get the phrase ‘time passes.’ We have since stated that the Lord’s cit
energy takes on two forms once it enters the region of darkness beyond the brahmajyoti (the material world). So this
statement is both true and false. According to the teachings of Mother Sarasvati, the living entity has never left the
spiritual world, and according to the teachings of this text of Sri Harinama Cintamani, the living entity is a part of
that spiritual stratum. In this way we can see that the connection to the cit potency is always present as the pure spirit
soul has never left the spiritual world. Therefore the spiritual world is all around and everything material must
actually be spiritual. This statement is also substantiated in Vedanta as follows: tad visnoh paramam padam. The
reason the embodied jivas see entropy and time existing is because they are looking from the perspective of material
consciousness. Actually from the spiritual perspective there only exists the cit potency, therefore at any time a jiva
may access this citpara-sakti. It is not a matter of learning that entropy is illusion; rather it is a matter of remembering
that the cit potency is everywhere! The jiva is at all times sat, cit, ananda—she can never be separated from her
identity as a part of the Lord. When the cit potency transforms into the three modes of nature it comes onto the head
of Lord Siva, who acts as the servant of Lord Sankarsana giving the idea of the material egoistic principle, the false-
ego in mankind. Understanding this, a person can either be illusioned via the mercy of the false-ego coming through
the Lord’s greatest devotee, Lord Siva, or he can access knowledge from the cit potency. At this time Lord Siva and
His wife, goddess Durga mercifully benedict as Sadasiva and Parvatidevi, and provide the facility with which one can
know the Lord and serve Him accordingly. In the material world the Lord manifests as two forms, Lord Jaganatha and
Mother Ganges. Mother Ganges travels from the Viraja River in the spiritual world down to the material world. After
one thousand millenniums the Ganges River first comes onto the head of Druva Maharaja, and is then carried in
billions of space ships to Brahma-loka, where it then flows down all sides of Mount Sumeru, until it finally reaches
the salt water ocean and fills-up the universe. Coming to the Earth planet the Ganges first comes onto the head of
Lord Siva, thus Lord Siva is the best devotee who first accepts the water that washes the Lord’s lotus feet. Lord Siva
and Mother Parvati are the protectors and revealers of the Dhama. They can be found in Lord Jaganatha’s temple, and
in the Holy Dhamas.

It is said that in the spiritual world time is conspicuous by its absence. One could consider that the meaning of this
was that there is no time in the spiritual world, however if this were the case there could be no activity either. Activity
takes place in the fabric of spacetime. The correct way of viewing this statement therefore, is that in the spiritual
world there is no decay, but rather organization! In the spiritual world there is no death, but rather eternal-life, No
ignorance, but rather ever-expanding knowledge, and no fear, but rather eternally expanding bliss! What the
inhabitants of the material world see as fear, the spiritual inhabitants see as bliss. Both are Krsna, only the roles of the
Lord are reversed. This is because the roles of the living entities are reversed. In the material world jivas prefer to play
the ‘god-game’ so Krsna comes in His form of time, as death, in order to spare them the pain of eternity in an
environment of ignorance. Contrary to this, in the spiritual world time is measured not in the form of death but in the
form of life. The inhabitants of the spiritual world base time according to when they will next be with Krsna. To give
a continuum to time in the spiritual world the residents are constantly thinking of the Lord and in this way time goes
by without passing, (or without taking their life). Rather time gives life, as time is the only thing that separates them
from seeing the source of their life. Then again, they are never separate because they constantly meditate on the Lord
with every cell of their body. In this way time passes without passing. This teaching is personified in the life of the
gopis, and in the life of Lord Krsna’s intimate friends such as Arjuna. This fact was demonstrated in the story where
Lord Krsna showed that even the hairs on Arjuna’s head continuously chant the glories of the Lord while he sleeps on
his bed. The residents of the spiritual world are therefore eternally engaged in passed-times, and in this way they are
nitya-mukta, eternally liberated, as opposed to nitya-badha, eternally bound and conditioned by the modes of nature.

Both the residents of devidhama and vrajadhama measure time according to the speed of light. In the material world
that light emanates from Krsna’s effulgence known as the impersonal brahmajyoti. The luminaries in the sky are
reflections of that light. In the spiritual world light emanates from Lord Krsna’s personal body. Please notice the
difference of the impersonal and the personal. Both of the sources of light are aspects of Krsna but the effects are
perceived differently because of the distortion of perception. This is called pratibimba. So you may better understand
this statement we can say that there are only two classes of people, the divine and the demoniac—the demon and the
devotee. With this in mind we can see that the person who does not serve the Lord is not acting as a part of the Lord’s
paraphernalia and will therefore not see the personal feature of the Lord but rather see the Lord as he comes in the
form of time to take his life. It is the Light of the Lord that gives all knowledge and lights-up everything, including
the consciousness. If you do not class yourself as a part of the paraphernalia to serve the Lord, you must therefore see
the Lord’s light as it emanates from His impersonal form called the brahmajoyti. That means you are a materialist or a
mayavadi! This teaching has been repeated in Sri Harinama Cintamani again and again.

In the spiritual world the inhabitants are known as ananda-cinmaya-rasa, they are engaged in eternal blissful
relationships with the Lord. For instance in Gokula Yasoda-mata waits expectantly for Krsna and Balarama to return
from herding the cows and in that time she prepares things in relation to her son (Krsna). When the time is drawing
close for His arrival she gets so excited that she sends Nanda Maharaja to the roof top to see if he can see Krsna and
Balarama returning. From that position Nanda Maharaja gives a running commentary to his wife and both of them
become ecstatic at the slightest bit of dust that shows up on the horizon. One by seeing, and the other by hearing!
Their ecstatic condition is felt because they are relating the dust with the possibility of seeing Krsna. This is called
real life, and this is called a passed-time! In the spiritual world the feeling of time is eternally present, but it is in
relation to organizing reality to please Krsna. Therefore the residents of Vrndavana are eternally situated in the present
moment and ignorance can have no effect on them. For this reason we say that time can never pass in the spiritual
world. Vedic literatures are written in codes and to understand them one needs to have the mercy of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. For this reason acaryas (perfect teachers) descend to give teachings and to train others (guru) to give the
same on their behalf. One may see the truth, or one may hear the truth, both are truth. Real knowledge is revealed in
the scientific manner of master/disciple relationship. This relationship may be diksa, or siksa, but please remember the
price for receiving this knowledge is that one must serve the master with faith and love, in this way vijnana is
revealed within the heart. Without vijnana, knowledge will be lost at the time of death, and vijnana may not be
received without serving the spiritual master in a reverential devotional mood.

When the Lord’s sandhini-sakti (the cognizance of eternality) travels around in a circle from the beginning of the
spiritual world to the end, it then travels along the course of a figure eight (8). The top part of this figure eight
represents the spiritual world, above Druva-Loka (where the Ganges River emanates from) and the bottom, the
material world. In the beginning of creation, as Mahavisnu lies down on the Karana Ocean, He breaths, and unlimited
universes come forth from His perspiration. Desiring to create He then enters these universes as Garbhodakasayi
Visnu, and fills half of the universe with transcendental water. He then lies down on this water known as the
Garbhodhaka Ocean. The Lord’s bed on this water is known as His Ananta-Rupa, His snake-like form with thousands
of heads. From Garbhodakasayi Visnu the mahat (the creation of the material elements) is created, and for one
thousand celestial years He remains lying down. Although the Lord’s created parts (the personalities of the mahat) try
to wake the Lord, He does not wake until reason enters His body. From this point forth the golden lotus grows from
His navel and from this Lord Brahma takes birth. The Demigods then take their birth from Lord Brahma.

Just as the Lord would not wake until reason entered His body, all created beings similarly do not awake from their
slumber until Ksirodakasayi Visnu gives the reason to live by entering into a person’s heart, reminding him that it is
time to rise. This state is entered into every night during deep sleep, and a person may not wake from deep sleep until
the Supersoul gives permission. The universe begins when Garbhodakasayi Visnu stands up, and is annihilated when
He again lies down to rest. The Lord’s gigantic form as the external universe is known as Virata-Rupa.

The sandhini energy leaves the eternal spiritual world and makes a loop downward into the material world (taking
eternality with it). However, as we gave the Vedic evidence that the material world is like a big banyan tree with its
roots growing upward and its branches down, the sandhini energy (now entering the material world) flows in the
opposite direction—instead of flowing anticlockwise it now flows clockwise. For that reason all clocks in the material
world show time as passing in a clockwise manner. That is how a clock gets its name; the word clock means a
physical apparatus that demonstrates time moving in a forward direction. In the spiritual world time flows in an
anticlockwise direction and is therefore not making people older, but rather they feel ever-youthful and full of vigor. It
is known as the sandhini-sakti and the residents of that place are known as sat (eternal), the distortion of this is the
creation of material time. Maya is therefore known as asat, or temporary. People inhabiting bodies in Mayadevi’s
kingdom (devidhama) are known as pratibimbas, or ‘distorted reflections’ of eternity. In Mayadevi’s kingdom time
gives the feeling of death instead of life. The sandhini energy therefore appears in the material world as time flowing
in a forward direction, in this way we simultaneously have sat and asat. Every conditioned soul has experienced the
Lord in His form of death, but if they wish to experience the personal feature of the Lord and enter into the category
of sat (eternal), they must view every moment of time as an opportunity to serve the Lord (om tat sat). When you as a
person take on-board this reality you will see that the new day brings new life and new possibilities to think of the
Lord and serve the Lord eternally.

Being misled by maya, people (such as the material scientists) think that the universe is at one point created and is
annihilated when it runs out of time or energy. However it is wrong to think that the energies of the Lord are separated
and thus have a beginning and an end—they are in fact one continuous eternal flow. It is important to understand that
the end of the material universe is not measured in terms of time flowing from one point to another, or as the entropic
situation created as time passes, as every moment of time is eternally flowing. Therefore the past, present, and future,
as well as all possibilities all exist simultaneously. The passing of time is simply the combinations of atoms as they
join together being pulled by the wind known as the daksinarvrta. The beginning and end of the universe are
measured in terms of Maha Visnu’s breathing, and this is continuous. In the material world this is represented and
personified by the lifespan of Lord Brahma—the first-born. In a perverted condition the apparition is created that the
universe ends at the time of Lord Brahma’s death, however a clearer perspective is that as one universe is destroyed
another will be created and this goes on eternally, just as a man breaths air.

We have previously discussed the nature of the jiva in the spiritual world as being sat, cit, ananda. So far we have
looked at the sandhini-sakti and discovered that in the material world eternity becomes time moving in a forward
direction. Now, if we were to look at the samvit-sakti in the same way we would see that in the spiritual world the
samvit energy flows in a clockwise direction, the opposite to the sandhini energy. In this way the spiritual inhabitants
become more knowledgeable and organized as time moves in an anticlockwise direction. The reason for this we have
stated as being that they see Krsna as life instead of death. When the spiritual energy, cit enters the material world it is
therefore seen to transform into its opposite energy, acit, entropy—this is because of the presence of the kala-cacra-
sakti, the wheel of time turning as death. We have previously concluded that cit is knowledge and acit is ignorance,
and by the power of thought combined with action, and action in inaction, we may access the cit. Conversely, the
living entity who wants to enjoy the Lord’s kingdom attempts to remain fixed in one position, and for him entropy
increases as time marches forward. In this way the living entity, who used to be eternal, full of knowledge, and full of
bliss, has now become the opposite—a degraded confused wreck who is about to die! We have earlier explained the
scientific finding that everything in the universe is in flux and that we can never measure our own position in relation
to anything that is stagnant. In the material world we use the speed of light as a constant throughout the universe. To
change his view of reality the jiva may therefore choose to use the light of the Lord in His personal feature as his
constant within the universe, and in this way access the cit energy to organize reality according to the premise of
spiritual life. Teachings of how to do this have been set in Vedic literature, and in the Vedic aphorisms.

Trying to remain steady in an ever-decaying reality, all that is left of the jiva’s original nature is minute traces of
knowledge and bliss that the jiva uses to search for happiness. The jiva was once termed as sat, cit, ananda, and in the
material world he is now bombarded with problems caused by entropy (ignorance). Loosing his stature as an eternally
liberated being, nitya-mukta, he becomes eternally conditioned nitya-bhada. In this way the jiva becomes forgetful,
full of ignorance, oppressed, and harassed by Krsna in His form of death. This is because the jiva has taken on Krsna
as his opponent, just as the two wrestlers Canura and Mustika attempted to take on Krsna and Balarama in the arena
of Kamsa. Death has been described as the combination of time against entropy for the person who uses the light of
the brahmajyoti (or the material sun) as his constant, as opposed to the personal feature of the Lord. In a never ending
search for happiness the embodied living entity misidentifies happiness with the cessation of misery. (This is the
teaching given from a mayavadi mentality, and it is the pinnacle of a mayavadi’s sayujya liberation). Being fooled and
misled by maya, the jiva attempts to attain happiness at every moment under the spell of the modes of goodness,
passion, and ignorance, however all attempts at gaining lasting happiness are also taken away because the living entity
is not native to the world of decay—thus the jiva eternally fears death! This fact is confirmed by Sri Muchikunda in
the following statement:

A man obsessed with thoughts of what he thinks needs to be done, intensely greedy, and delighting in
sense enjoyment is suddenly confronted by You, who are ever alert. Like a hungry snake licking its
fangs before a mouse, You appear before him as death. (SB. 10.51.49)

In an attempt not to be moved from his position the jiva mistakenly thinks that he can remain in one position and not
be affected by time or entropy. Therefore a jiva in the illusion of bodily identification is always fearing, bhaya. Now
at this point we may again stop to wonder what exactly this entropy is. It appears that entropy (acit) and knowledge
(cit) are two sides of the same coin. In the beginning of time the universe was covered by darkness. The universe this
side of the Loka-Loka boundary does not have its own spiritual effulgence and is therefore a very dark place devoid
of light. Seeing this darkness as an impediment to their creation the demigods prayed to the Lord to descend and give
light to the universe. Hearing their plea from within, the Lord descended as the Sun God in order to give light,
knowledge, and life. However, this very same sun, which has a team-mate of the moon (which regulates time), also
takes away life. This is because the sun is but a reflection of the original light, and therefore travels in an
anticlockwise manner around Mount Sumeru. The sun gives light and facility for the living entities to enjoy separate
from the Lord, but this facility comes at a price. That price is the fear of dying. That fear of course is an illusion
created by the individual’s false-ego, or his false sense of reality, the facility given by Lord Sankarsana.

The spirit soul may experience bliss in relation to pleasing the Lord, as the real meaning for the bliss portion of the
living entity is to please the Lord. The jiva who sees the Lord in the form of personal rasa (as opposed to a business
relationship) really sees. In the material world the sense of happiness a jiva experiences may only come about due to
the presence of God in that activity. Although it is in a perverted reflective state, still the jiva experiences happiness
because of the mercy of the Lord, otherwise there is nothing but a feeling of depression and helplessness instead of
bliss. This point should be made clear in our minds! We should remember that the light of the universe is Krsna’s
effulgence, and without the light of God this world would be as dark as the darkest cave that man can ever enter into.
The Buddhists, who choose to merge their consciousness with the black-hole mentality, thus enter into that place.

By experiencing a distinct lack of knowledge, given from the ignorance of bodily identification, and by loosing
eternity via the grace of death, the living entity now experiences misery and has completed the cycle of degradation
and transmutation from his original nature to a conditioned nature. When he has experienced the state of helplessness
for long enough, and has understood his desperate condition the fallen jiva becomes qualified to comprehend what he
has done wrong and to apologize to the Lord and begin to rectify his behavior. There are four types of people that
finally seek the Lord’s mercy and beg forgiveness—the one in distress, the inquisitive, the seeker of riches, and the
person searching for the absolute truth. It has been found by psychological studies on addicts that the moment of
understanding and repentance holds the greatest power to catapult one in the opposite direction. However, the stage
before repentance is called the stage of denial and this stage holds the greatest power to keep one entrapped. I would
therefore like to put the following question to you my reader. Are you understanding the teachings of Sri Harinama
Cintamani, and as such have the greatest power available to take you home? Or are you still in denial, and wish to
remain in darkness? The choice always lies with the individual; servants of the Lord may attempt to give the gift of
knowledge to awaken you from your dream, but ultimately the choice lies with the individual. To use the spiritual
energy means you are to be counted as a part of the paraphernalia to serve the Lord. In this way you will again be
termed as the blissful being characterized as sat, cit, ananda. We have thus attempted to explain the three energies of
the Lord as they leave the spiritual world and enter into the material, and at the same time we have attempted to
explain how the jiva is to use these energies to serve the master of those energies from the spiritual stratum. The Holy
Name of the Lord is the first rays of the spiritual world manifesting in the material world. Kali-kale nama-rupe krsna-
avatara: in this age, Krsna has appeared in the Hare Krsna maha-mantra (Cc. adi-lila 17.22). By the grace of the
Holy Name all teachings on how to interact with the spiritual world come forth.

9. There are two categories of jivas: nitya-baddha and nitya-mukta, or eternally conditioned and eternally
liberated souls. The eternally liberated jiva is entitled to render eternal devotional service. The eternally
conditioned jiva is engrossed in material activities. He can be said to be of two types: extroverted and
introspective. The introspective nitya-baddha jivas are endeavoring to reach out to Lord Krsna. The
extroverted jivas are totally absorbed in gross matter and thus are far removed from Krsna; they simply want
to exploit things originally meant for Lord Krsna's service for their own enjoyment. The more fortunate and
pious jivas amongst the introspective ones come into contact with sadhus, and in their association take to
chanting the Lord's Holy Name, which ultimately transports them to the portals of the spiritual sky. The less
fortunate introspective jivas are attracted to the paths of karma and jnana, by which they worship many
demigods or finally merge into the impersonal brahman.

Commentary
As previously stated, there are various types of spiritualists (people searching for the truth), however, most of these
still search for the truth in relation to their own sense pleasure, which has at its pinnacle the reward of sayujya-mukti.
There can be no possibility of any further movement toward spiritual ecstasy as long as a person is not accessing the
Lord’s cit potency. Accessing the cit-sakti to serve the Lord means that the jivas must live their lives to give pleasure
to, and be of service to, the Supreme. Otherwise the most one can achieve is liberation from the miseries of birth, old
age, disease, and death. Sayujya liberation is of two kinds,

1) Merging into the body of the Lord

2) Merging into the effulgence of the Lord

Of these two, merging into the body of the Lord is the most abominable. It should be known that because sayujya-
mukti is not the final resting place of the jiva, it is therefore not eternal. However, the jiva himself, being a part of the
Lord spiritual energy, is classified as an expression of eternality. All jivas who are not acting in their natural position
are known as eternally conditioned, nitya-baddha, or ‘eternally bad.’

Srila Prabhupada explains that a devotee who comes to the Hare Krsna movement is at first in an extroverted state.
That means he seeks his enjoyment from an outside source, and sees the goal of life as enjoyment through the senses.
Such a person sees the material nature as an opportunity to exploit the Lord’s resources. To counteract this state one
must view his life as a sacrifice meant for the pleasure of the Supreme. In this way the spiritual aspirant becomes
introspective. “Simple living high thinking,” this is the ideal life for a devotee. Seeking the truth behind the mysteries
of life a spiritualist takes to the inner world of thought, and the final outcome of his introspective work is dependent
on his desires, which are formed in relation to his associations in the material world. This fact was revealed to Pralad
Maharaja by his father Hiranyakasipur, who explained; “as a crystal takes on the vibration of the person who
possesses it, similarly our lives are shaped by the company we keep.”

Having a very poor fund of pious credits a person may enter into the paths of karma and jnana and have as a result
heavenly rewards, or at most impersonal liberation. However, when enough pious credits have accrued, the more
fortunate pious souls attain an opportunity to meet a sadhu and learn from him the science of self-realization. This
opportunity is given from bhakti-unmukhi, which is, unknown pious credits given from performing actions connected
to serving the Lord and His devotees. The slight differences between ajnata-sukrti and bhakti-unmukhi are that
ajnata-sukrti may at first stimulate more desires for personal sense gratification, whereas bhakti-unmukhi stimulates
further connection with the Lord and His devotees. Both are ultimately connected with the Lord, and both bring the
jiva to the Lotus feet of the Lord, but performing spiritual activities is a faster method than altruistic work. Therefore
it has been explained in chapter 11 that one should chant the internal names of the Lord as opposed to performing any
of the subhakarmas, which includes varnasrama dharma. It has also been established in chapter 1 that chanting the
Lord’s primary names, such as Govinda, Hari, Gopla, etc, is better and more potent than chanting the secondary
names such as those that describe the Lord as a creator, maintainer, destroyer, etc.

If we look at the modern-day scientist, we see that they are speculating on ways to explain the universe without
including the Supreme Creator in their formulas. In the eighteenth century scientists such as Isaac Newton speculated
according to the premise that God created the universe. However, in doing so he made the serious error of putting
himself in a higher position than the Lord by propounding a theory that stated that the Lord created a universe that
wasn’t perfect. In his proposal Newton proposed that God needed to come back to His creation and adjust things
slightly to correct the wayward patterns of the planets as they veered off their orbits. In this way he stated that the
Lord built the universe like a clock, and that God was ultimately a bad-clockmaker as the Lord’s clocklike universe
did not keep time correctly.

As time marched on, entropy entered the minds of the scientists, and they became more degraded, thus Darwin
proposed his theory of ‘evolution of the species.’ The nineteenth century saw an upsurge of scientists who began to
speculate on the universe without the Lord as the central point, however in the twentieth century the turn of the
millennium has seen a dramatic increase in both atheistic scientists and theistic scientists. At this point in time we are
beginning to see a dramatic increase in the amount of scientists who are attempting to synthesize science with religion
and who are slowly realizing that their must be a Supreme Creator behind life. Thanks to the spreading of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtana movement the light of God consciousness has begun to engulf the people of the
earth planet. The effects of the saintly persons who chant the Holy Name’s of the Lord; Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna
Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, are now beginning to shine through. This age
maybe termed as Kali-yuga, but it is a very special Kali-yuga. It is one Kali-yuga in 199 Kali-yugas, which comes
about after the same number of Satya, Treta, and Dvarpara-yugas have been and gone. In this particular Kali-yuga the
Supreme Lord Sri Krsna has descended in person to teach the highest welfare of all, which is ‘reality as distinguished
from illusion for the welfare of all—the chanting of Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare
Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.’ By this process even the most sinful wretch, such as I, may attain Goloka Vrndavana
with the mercy of the Lord and His Vaisnava devotees.

Recently, my dearly beloved instructing spiritual master left the planet. Although he was situated very nicely in his
devotional life, he was given an opportunity to serve Srila Prabhupada in a deeper way. In his physical body he
observed some obstacles that prevented his service from having the effects that he wanted it to have. To overcome
these hurdles he therefore prayed to the Lord for guidance that he may assist his eternal spiritual master, Srila
Prabhupada, to the best of his ability. Hearing this sincere prayer, Srila Prabhupada arranged for H.H. Srila Bhakti-
Tirtha Swami to have the potency of his service multiplied. As of now, H.H. Srila Bhakti-Tirtha Swami is giving
counsel to all those who request his help. He was always good at responding swiftly to emails and now his response is
not restricted by any mundane server. I have been requested to give you the following message, and by his mercy I
have received teachings into this message.

“At this point in history, humanity is situated at a crossroads. Some will leave and some will stay. It is a time where
polarities are being reversed, where those who were incarcerated by darkness will become overflooded with light. It is
a time when the unfortunate situation of being born in Kali-yuga will turn into the most fortunate of all situations; an
opportunity to quickly return to the Lord. It is a time when the many paths of religion will converge into one religion,
the chanting of the Lord’s Holy Names. It is a time when exploitation of the Lord’s energies will be dovetailed and
eventually turn into pure bhakti. It is time for Sri Caitanya’s sankirtana army to put an end to the dark forces that
dwell within the corners of the mind. It is a time when science will be given the keys to unlock the mysteries of the
Vedas. Indeed this point in Earth’s history is a very special time period, and what we make of our time at every
moment is the key to how our future will pan out. Whether people raise their consciousness in the coming years, or
whether they maintain the darkness of exploitation of the Lord’s resources holds the key to them staying or leaving
the planet.”
Please understand this point clearly as I try to explain to you in words the mysteries behind the atom, for by attaining
a clear understanding of these mysteries you will be equipped with the knowledge of how to change your destiny, or
rather how to shape your destiny into a spiritual reality. The understanding of the atom is a spiritual science which
involves the mercy of the Lord and the Vedas, and once a firm foundation has been created, faith in the words of guru,
sadhu, and sastra will follow. By sraddha that has its roots in the Lord’s Holy Name you will be better equipped to
understand the words of Srila Haridasa Thakura and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura as they begin to explain to you the
confidential subject matters of bhajana and rasa.

In the description of the atom in traditional physics, it is stated that inside the atom is a nucleus comprising of protons
and neutrons. Traditionally it was thought that these were encircled by electrons orbiting at a given space that is in
proportion with the universal planets at large. Unfortunately this model of the atom is misleading and incorrect.
Quantum mechanics has since discovered that electrons do not circulate the protons and neutrons like the external
planets. Moreover electrons move in fuzzy motions, (or rather they appear that way to the observer). In the world of
the atom there are messenger groups called fermions and bosons. When the atom is observed one can see particles and
more particles, and these are in communication with each other. They are divided into four forces; gravity,
electromagnetism, strong force, and weak force. Scientists believe that fermions and bosons carry messages
throughout the universe and holistically alter the external reality to suit. They hope that a unified-field theory will
explain this phenomenon. The Vedas explain that there are thirty three crores (millions) of demigods who holistically
alter the external world to suit every action that has taken place and will ever take place. The Vedas further explain
that the Lord, as the Antaryami (the Supersoul) is within every single atom of the universe, and is the neutral observer
of every action. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam the Lord says, “all beautiful things spring from but a spark of My
splendor.” Then further He states; “with a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe” (Bg.
10.42). In the third canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam Maitreya rishi states that the atom is the ultimate particle of the
universe that is never formed into a body. Because Maitreya rishi’s instructions on the atom are very informative I
will give the exact quote in order to discuss the matter further. The exact quote is as follows:

maitreya uvaca
caramah sad-visesanam
aneko 'samyutah sada
paramanuh sa vijneyo
nrnam aikya-bhramo yatah

The material manifestation's ultimate particle, which is indivisible and not formed into a body, is called
the atom. It exists always as an invisible identity, even after the dissolution of all forms. The material
body is but a combination of such atoms, but it is misunderstood by the common man (SB. 3.11.1)

By studying the conversation between Maitreya rishi and the sage Vidura we can understand that the human body is
comprised of a combination of atoms, and that the atom is the Supreme Lord in His form of time. In this way we can
understand that the human body is termed as maya, or temporary! To put it another way we can state that the human
body is comprised of time itself and the length of time the human body exists for is calculated according to the
movements of the atoms. The external apparatus for such measurement is called the Sun, which traverses its path in
an anticlockwise direction for this purpose. The combination of atoms, which move in a forwards/clockwise direction
is what forms time, and the human body is comprised of such atoms that constantly join together. In Vedic terms it is
said that the combination of atoms can be calculated as time passing, and the calculation of atoms called one laghu is
equal to two minutes of earth time passing. If we were to calculate time in a more defined way, it is possible to
calculate time to the atomic size of one atom combining with another; this is called a double atom. When three double
atoms combine they form a hex atom, and the name given to the period of time needed for six atoms to combine in
this way is called a trasarenu. Srila Prabhupada gives the calculation of time for a trasarenu as 8/13,500 of a second.
Because I do not wish to confuse my readers at this point in time, I will not go into further details about the divisions
of time here. The point I wished to make was that the human body is naught but a combination of atoms that
constantly join together to form a greater space, as time is merely the combination of atoms over a given space. In
other words the human body is one big time-bomb that runs out of power when the given amount of distance
according to the combination of atoms has been defined. Therefore, death is a predefined item for all embodied living
entities. The time duration for every body is given at the time of birth, as birth is the beginning of time for the living
entity. I will repeat that time is the combination of atoms from a single atom to a double atom, to a hex atom and so
on. As the atoms combine the body is propelled forwards by the forward motion of the atoms that join together as they
move in a clockwise direction carried by the great wind. As the body is propelled forwards in all directions, the sun
(light) moves in a backwards direction and this gives facility for old age and death to come to every individual.
Because of the light of the sun every individual can see time passing, but being deluded they do not see this time
passing as Krsna. Rather they see time as death because of their impersonal view of the Lord.

If one combines the hex atom, in the form of a hexagon, one can see that the atoms that form to combine a hex atom
begin to take up a certain space. The more they expand the more space they take up in all directions. In this way the
living entity’s reality expands in unlimited directions according to his desires, which carry him from one situation to
the next according to the possibilities offered by time passing through space in unlimited directions. When the
embodied living entity is led by his senses he will be pulled into all situations by the wild horses that drag his chariot
around. However, the sage who has learned to control and subdue his senses, the center of which is the mind, will see
his direction becoming one pointed according to his soul desire rather than his unlimited desires brought about by the
roaming senses. When such a person, by dint of his pious activities, understands that he is a servant of the master of
the senses, he will endeavor to perform the Lord’s duties and in this way all of his actions become perfect and time,
which is the servant of the Lord, cannot take his life. The combination of all atoms in the universe is called the Great-
time, or the Lord in His form of the dissolution of the universe. We can go into this topic in greater detail at a different
time, as the scope of this book does not allow the space to discuss the topic of time in greater detail.

The equations put forth by the physicist Stephen Hawking can account for ten different dimensions, but the nature of
the quantum realities indicates that there are unlimited dimensions of possibilities. At least he has found an equation
for ten of them by his inductive process, but if we use the eternal-time/unified-field formula we can find unlimited
ways of viewing reality and make predictions for everything. You may ask how? We may nonchalantly answer; “Easy,
we are servants of the Lord who is known as the non-dual Brahman.” What does that mean in simplified terms? It
means that the Lord is within every atom and at the same time He is the atom, and the sum total of all the atoms (the
macrocosm). He pervades the atoms that He is within. He is the microcosm and the macrocosm at the same time—in
other words He is omnipresent as the universe is contained within the Lord’s Virat Rupa. He is one, but has expanded
Himself unlimitedly, a singularity that is eternally separated and at the same time localized. He is everything, and that
everything is both a singularity and separated plural. This is the philosophy of acintya-bedha-bedha-tattva given by
the Supreme Lord Himself. If we become Krsna conscious we take on the nature of the Lord and similarly begin to
understand the ways of the universe just like the great sage Maitreya rishi. What we are basically stating about the
unified-field is that the unified-field is the Supreme Lord Himself. The cobination of all atoms is what constitutes the
material world, and the material world is made up of time and space, which is the combination of atoms combing over
space. According to Vedic calcualtions the spirit soul is one thousand times smaller than the atom, and the Supreme
Lord is known to dwell inside the heart of the spirit. Although this statement is true, it is also true that the Lord is the
greatest of the great, so at the same time as being the smallest He is also the sum total of everything, and He is also an
individual person, (the Supreme person.)

If we look again at the atom from a spiritual perspective and take the protons and neutrons gathered together in the
centre, we may wonder what are they attracted to. Why do they stay in the centre? The reason the protons stay around
the neutrons is that the neutrons are a manifestation of the Lord. As the Supersoul He is in a neutral state so he is not
acting, but at the same time He is both the active and the attractive principle in everything. The Vedas tell of two birds
sitting on a tree, one is enjoying the fruits while the other watches:

anor aniyan mahato mahiyan

atmasya jantor nihito guhayam
tam akratuh pasyati vita-soko
dhatuh prasadan mahimanam atmanah

Both the Supersoul and the atomic soul are situated on the same tree of the body within the same heart
of the living being, and only one who has become free from all material desires as well as lamentations
can, by the grace of the Supreme, understand the glories of the soul. (Katha Upanisad 1.2.20)
According to the current spiritual model of the atom we may wonder, what are the many protons in relation to a
person’s life? In order that we may clarify the universal-field and explain the make-up of the atom in relation to the
jiva’s conditioned reality we may take this opportunity to postulate that in the external manifestation the many protons
can be seen as a physical representation of the possibilities that a jiva can choose (the unlimited dimensions in the
quantum world). At every moment the jiva is given an opportunity to make the right decision with his choices in life.
He always has free will. What is that right decision? To use the Lord’s creation to serve the Lord! The jiva is at all
times given facility to enjoy separate from the Lord because the Lord will always grant the desire of His beloveds, but
all activities done in this mood will ultimately go to back-up his material consciousness. These are seen in the
quantum world as unlimited dimensions that coexist on top of one another as possibilities, or ways to view the world
separate from the Lord. We have previously discussed how the atoms combine and propel the individual along time
and space.

In the Caitanya-siksamrta, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains the function of the material mind in an interesting
way. I will paraphrase his work. ‘The first function of the mind is to gather data (impressions) from the material
world. Then the mind maintains this as memory. After this the mind classifies the impressions and memories
according to their qualities, and subdivides these into further categories for the sake of specifics and details. The mind
then gives meaning to the impressions by crosschecking everything with previous stored impressions and memories.
In this way one understands how to act in any given situation by the power of reason or the logical analysis of a given
situation.’ This is how a materially polluted person understands and interacts with the world through the agency of the
mind, and for every action he makes there is a corresponding reaction given to assist him further. Contrary to this,
when a devotee performs an action from the spiritual perspective, using the Lord’s cit potency, there is no reaction. In
the material world there must be a reaction to correct the first action, which was material and inappropriate, but when
a spiritual action is performed where is the need for a reaction? In the spiritual world there is only perfection, but in
the material world there exists unlimited imperfect choices and reactions just waiting to manifest from every action a
man performs.

The fuzzy movements we see in the electrons surrounding the atom can be perceived with the physical senses in the
outside world. Simply open your door and you can feel the energy completely alive and buzzing-around. It is a
spasmodic energy, a fuzzy energy, teaming with life and possibilities. It is saying “come here, come here. I’m
attracting you!” This is the electron on the quantum level. So if we close the door it is a little less powerful, but still
the electrons are everywhere, in your body and in the space around you—they have no trouble passing through
anything of the material world because the material world is made-up from them, as they are a part of the atoms that
go to make up all material nature. If you invite extended madness into your home with T.V, radio, and microwaves,
etc, then the madness is even more heightened. What is this madness? It is the unlimited desires that grow out of
every situation that comes before the senses. The purpose of the madness is to make you act upon it—to choose it! It
wants to entice you. This is how the wayward jiva is kept a prisoner in the material world. It is all the fault of the
electron!

So now that you understand the principle you have a choice to interact with it as you like, but if you don’t wish to
choose maya, this is where HARE KRSNA may save your world. Remember atoms are the building blocks of life, so
they are everywhere. You can not escape the situations caused by the protons being attracted by the electrons as this is
the nature of the atom. Atoms vibrating together at a certain frequency form a body, although they themselves never
form a body. The joining of atoms creates distance, or the body moving in a forward direction through space. The
apparition of time passing is felt by the body ageing according to the Sun traversing its course in an anticlockwise
direction.

If one looks at the atom again from this spiritual perspective, one can now clearly define the positions of the neutrons,
protons, and electrons. So the question that arises from this knowledge, is how to use this information further? Firstly
we should understand that the jiva is not a proton—that is a misconception. He is actually an electron! So, now I have
confused some, but others may understand that it is not the fault of the female principle of maya that they are kept in
the material world, but rather the fault lies with all the jiva’s who are trying to be males.

The proton (jiva) is enticed to act via the temptations of the electrons (maya). The negatively charged electrons fuzz
around causing movement and this attracts the positively charged protons (opposites attract). So when a proton is
attracted by an electron he is entrapped by the invisible chains of sex desire (male/female). A karmic reaction is noted,
the message is sent via the fermions and bosons, and the universe is set accordingly in the following lifetime. (Please
note how a karmic reaction is not given right away). As well as this the jiva has unlimited desires that are in various
stages such as seedling, budding, and mature. The mature desire is the point when one act’s on the desire and a good
or bad karmic situation is caused. In actuality there is no good or bad. Good and bad can be put down to a conception
of perception! Let us now suppose that the jiva has been attracted by the electron and is implicated in further reaction
causing further desires to accumulate and further reactions to follow—so how to stop this?

As we have pointed out, the trick is to realize that we are not positively charged protons at all. Moreover we must
realize that we are in actuality negatively charged spirit-souls, or servants to the Supreme. That is, we are female
energy (prakrti). We are the enjoyed and Krsna is the enjoyer (the purusa). We are sakti (the energy of the Lord) and
Krsna is saktiman (the energetic). To realize our true nature we need the help of the Lord. He says this Himself
throughout the gita and the Vedas, which are the law books of the Lord. So in short we must not see ourselves as
positive (male), or else we will be attracted by the electrons of Mayadevi. At the same time we can not hide from
maya as she is apart of our make-up of who we think we are (the material false-ego, the material mind and the
material body). So instead we must see ourselves in a pure way as real ego, as the servants of the Lord, the feminine
energy (sakti) and be attracted to the purusa who is the enjoyer (this understanding is possible through the mercy of
the spiritual master and the Holy Name). In the quantum world The Lord is in the neutral state, He sees but does not
act. Therefore one must view the Lord with spiritual eyes tinged with love, premanjana cchurita bhakti-vilocanena. In
this way the jiva takes on her rightful role as prakrti and on the spiritual level all the roles are correct.

So now we have come to the point where we need to access our spiritual identity as prakrti, and the way to do this is
through the chanting of the spiritual sound vibration. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama
Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. In this connection the following is written in the Caitanya Caritamrta.

At this point add quote from cc “My Lord, one who simple utters You Name even once is certainly delivered and is in
a liberated state.”

There are many spiritual sound vibrations, known as mantras. The most powerful mantra is that which does not ask
anything of the Lord but merely requests to be of service. It is well known that Lord Krsna does not play a part in the
creation, maintenance or annihilation of the material world, but does this through His expansions. This point has
already been explained. So if the Lord is does not act in the material world, and He is represented as a neutron in the
atom (He is in a neutral state), then how do we access His Supreme abode. Of course, the name Krsna is the all
attractive principle which attracts the heart of the individual who chants it, but the trick to chanting nama is that one
must be free from anarthas and sins. Therefore Sri Harinama Cintamani is going to the trouble to explain to you
exactly how to chant free from offense. Now, because this is difficult for the person who has been associating with
matter for eternity the Lord sends lots of help. Please therefore take this help and make your association favorable for
your Krsna consciousness. Mayadevi (as the Lord’s representative) will also give a helping hand to the sincere
sadhaka, and Her sakapata benedictions will help the devotee to serve the Lord.

If the jiva succeeds in turning his positively charged electron into a negatively charged electron by seeing himself as
an eternal servant of Krsna, the negative electron of Mayadevi repels the jiva away from her and pushes the jiva
toward Krsna. In this way, when a devotee gets a taste for chanting he develops distaste for maya, and he spits at the
thought of enjoying the material world apart from the Lord. To follow Lord Caitanya one must be dasa anu dasa, this
relationship must be cultivated! In the physical sense moving away from maya is seen as the elevation of
consciousness. If this elevation is done quickly it will be seen that one no longer fits in with old materially minded
friends and family members who are engrossed in material consciousness. If they are stuck in old paradigms their
consciousness has not evolved! Therefore Srila Prabhupada quite rightly indicates that a devotee must leave his
friends and family members if they are not conducive for devotional service. A Vaisnava has no friends or enemies.
When we make the right choices we are given facility by maya to use the material realities to serve Krsna. Mayadevi
then gives benedictions known as sakapata as opposed to niskapata that means honest, instead of capricious/deceitful.
However, she has also been given full permission to test the devotee at every minute, so be aware of this as you
progress. The electron always attracts the proton! It may happen that as one begins to progress from ignorance, to
passion, to goodness, one also becomes conditioned by this state, so the blessings of the Vaisnava devotees situated in
visuddha-sattva are essential for a progressing devotee.

When we perform pious activities, the modes that surround us are mixed with more and more goodness—the mode of
goodness then allows us to see the truth. When we see the truth we will act on it accordingly and the mode of
goodness when used in Krsna’s service is then transformed into visuddha-sattva (pure goodness without the karmic
reaction). Visuddha-sattva is the state that Sadasiva (Rudra) operates from. Sadasiva, who is the protector of the
Dhama, along with His wife mother Parvati, reveal the Dhama to the sincere aspirant. The Dhama is the spiritual
embassy in the material world. In this way a devotee makes use of the Lord’s cit energy, instead of the acit, and is
carried along with eternal time back to Goloka Vrndavana. Srila Prabhupada explains Lord Siva’s position very nicely
in the Bhagavatam as follows:

“Lord Siva is always thoughtful regarding how to deliver the demons from their fallen condition of
life. It is said that during the advent of Lord Caitanya, Sadasiva appeared as Advaita Prabhu, and
Advaita Prabhu's chief concern was to elevate the fallen conditioned souls to the platform of
devotional service to Lord Krsna. Since people were engaged in useless occupations which would
continue their material existence, Lord Siva, in the form of Lord Advaita, appealed to the Supreme
Lord to appear as Lord Caitanya to deliver these illusioned souls. Actually Lord Caitanya appeared on
the request of Lord Advaita. Similarly, Lord Siva has a sampradaya, the Rudra-sampradaya. He is
always thinking about the deliverance of the fallen souls, as exhibited by Lord Advaita Prabhu. (SB.
4.6.39)

Krsna’s asat-sakti which manifests as time instead of sat (eternity) continues to march forward until it reaches the end
of creation. At this point we again see the universe as being perfect because this is the point where the cit-sakti began
its entry into the material world and took on the characteristics of entropy with every passing moment of time. To
quote the modern scientist Stephen Hawking, he says:

The universe must have begun as a singularity, where all the mass of the universe was compressed to
infinite density, where spacetime curvature was infinite, where the distance between all objects in the
universe was zero. (Stephen Hawking)

According to the information contained in the unified-field, this is true and this is also how the universe ends, it is
taken back into one point from whence it came (the body of Maha-Visnu). The unified-field formula contained within
these pages predict both the beginning and end of the universe, but in making this prediction it also shows how it is
done and reveals to the people of the world that the thing they perceive as the end of the universe is merely the
beginning. The Lord’s energy is eternal and descends again from the spiritual world in a figure of eight when it
returns once again for another exciting episode of “material creation” when the Lord awakens from His yoga-nidra
and again stands up.

This information has been taught since the beginning of time by the Vedas. The point where the figure eight has
reached its culmination is the point that has the greatest organization. The greatest life-span in the material creation is
found on Brahmaloka, where Lord Brahma resides. However, even the great lifespan of Lord Brahma, which equates
to …………. Earth years, is calculated to be not even a second of time in the life of Maha-Visnu. Or in other words,
the time it takes for Maha-Visnu to breath (one nimesa one half of a second in Earth’s time) is equal to the life of Lord
Brahma and the material universe. Life on Brahmaloka may appear as going on for a long time according to the
perspective of earthly bodies but it is nothing in comparison to eternity. The figure of 8 is simultaneously the same on
both sides, and at the same time it is different, being opposite halves of the same thing. In this way both halves of the
figure of 8 are eternally separated and at the same time they are not separated. They are linked by the Lord’s energies,
“just as pearls are strung on a thread.” Moreover they are a part of the bigger picture that makes up the whole. It is
stated that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual and in the figure of 8 you can see exactly that.
The material world is just like a great banyan tree that has its roots upwards and it branches down, and those branches
are the hymns of the Vedas, which constantly chant the glories of the spiritual world.
In the final analysis, if you were to take the universe to the point of singularity via equations that don’t contain the
Lord, you would still be left with the question of how it all began. (Who gave the power that ignited the big-bang?) In
the unified-field formula that includes the Lord, (as demonstrated here in words) we may take the universe back to the
big-bang (or a point of singularity) and still be left with that something that lies above the material half. That
something will always be the spiritual world as the spiritual world is above time. Remember, time is a calculation,
made according to the orbits of the sun, moon, and other luminaries of the sky, and the space taken up by the joining
of atoms in the material world. The material world is a part of the gigantic body of Lord Visnu, called the Virat Rupa.
In this way we can see the truth that has been presented in the Vedas, and we can determine that there is never an end
to the material universe, but merely a new beginning. This is called Krsna’s kingdom. When the universe is
annihilated the spirit souls are taken back into the gigantic body of Maha Visnu and put to rest in a transcendental
yoga-nidra (sleep), and when it is created they are again awakened by the Supersoul and begin their progressive
march from where they left off.

The Lord’s energies, samvit and sandhini, discussed as sat and cit and seen in the material world as time and entropy,
are the same spiritual energies that flow in opposite directions. Eternity and knowledge are a part of the cit potency,
which is the sum total of all spiritual energy. This energy is Lord Balarama who is the first expansion of Lord Krsna,
who then expands Himself as Lord Ananta for the purpose of creating all spiritual paraphernalia for the Lord’s
enjoyment, and the catur-vyuha for the purpose of the material creation. Lord Balarama is the Deity in charge of real
ego, and real ego is the jiva who is situated in her dharma of eternally giving the Lord pleasure by using the Lord’s
energies of sandhini, samvit, and hladini-sakti—this is called rasa. In this way the jiva experiences her intrinsic
nature as a part of the Lord, sat, cit, ananda. Ananda being the Lord’s hladini energy—the bliss of giving pleasure to
Lord Krsna. A physicist named John Archibald Wheeler once wrote the following about a theory for a unified-field:

Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, so compelling that when—in a decade, a century,
or a millennium—we grasp it, we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How
could we have been so stupid for so long? (ibid 60)

The reason why scientists can not find this simple answer of the figure of 8 is because they are atheists! Therefore, as
stated in the Bhagavad-gita 7.25 naham prakasah sarvasya “the Lord reserves the right to be known.” In the
commentary of text 4 of this chapter, we have stated “unless one becomes a God conscious person one can never
understand the mysteries behind the unified-field. Only a devotee of God can understand because only he has faith in
the scriptures.” The Personified Vedas live on the highest planet called Brahmaloka, situated near the brahmajyoti,
and they give out information that leads one to the Lord. In the Gita the Lord says; ‘By all the Vedas I am to be
known’ (Bg. 15.5). The planets of the universe are situated on plates going from top to bottom and these are divided in
different ways, sometimes being counted as fourteen and sometimes three. The three are the upper, middle and lower
planetary systems. On each and every planet there are intelligent life-forms which are of the same spiritual nature as
everyone else. That is, everyone is sat, cit, ananda, eternally full of bliss and knowledge. Different bodies are
perceived because of identification with matter, but one who sees the Supreme in all bodies really sees! To come to
this perception on must attentively chant the great mantra for deliverance. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare
Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. By continued chanting one will see the real meaning of the
name, and when the Lord’s Syamasundara form enters into your meditations, you are qualified to pursue a spiritual
life of eternal bliss connected with the Lord of your heart. This topic of spiritual rasa will be elaborated upon in the
coming texts of Sri Harinama Cintamani. Thank you for your attention.

Rasa and its different aspects

10. “The Holy Name of Lord Krsna is the bud of the flower of rasa. Rasa is the essence of pure transcendence,
and this rasa, by the grace of Krsna, is propagated in the material world in the form of His Holy Name.

Commentary
The Lord reveals Himself in a systemized way; nama, rupa, guna, lila. The devotee first hears about the Lord, and
then begins to chant His name. When anarthas have been overcome, and the ten offences to the Holy Name are not
being committed, the devotee’s chanting of nama manifests the Lord’s form. While meditating on the qualities of the
Lord as narrated in the pastimes spoken by the pure devotee, further progress is made until one eventually ceases to
exist in the material world of dualities. Rasa means spiritual interaction between the Lord and His energies. The
marginal energy of the Lord (the jivas) includes all items that serve the Lord. The inferior energy of the Lord is a
prison. Mayadevi creates the temporary material world on behalf of the Lord in order to bind the jivas who choose to
serve themselves instead of serving the Lord. To break free from the tight grip of maya and become situated in the
spiritual energy known as the cit-jagat, the embodied spirit soul must use the material energy to serve his spiritual
master, who is the bonafide representative of Sri Hari. Seeing the disciple’s sincerity and unconditional surrender, the
spiritual master then introduces his disciple to his eternal occupation.

The Holy Name of the Lord is the medium to experience spiritual relationship through, therefore the chanting of the
Holy Name is known as the prime duty of every individual. Now, there is no prerequisite for receiving the mercy of
the Holy Name other than having complete faith in the Holy Name. One need not be a big scholar, a sannyasi, a guru,
or GBC member in order to advance in spiritual life. The small devotee has just as much opportunity for connection
with the spiritual world, provided they allow the bud of the flower of rasa (relationship) to shine through, via pure
chanting. This pure chanting however does require a prerequisite, and that prerequisite is that one must give up all
offenses and chant as one’s spiritual vocation. Spiritual connection (rasa) can only come about via the chanting of the
maha-mantra. We pray this point may be understood by all. The Holy Name is invested with all the Lord’s potencies.
This is due to the Lord’s causeless mercy.

11. “With the first appearance of the bud of the Holy Name is invoked the enchanting Syamasundara form of
Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana. The sixty-four transcendental qualities of Lord Krsna exude like an irresistible
fragrance from the flower-bud, now partially blossomed. When this flower comes into full bloom, it manifests
the eternal and confidential pastimes of Lord Krsna known as the asta-kaliya-lila, or the eight three-hourly
pastimes. And although this manifestation is transcendental, it still appears to the devotee within the material
world.

Commentary
A devotee’s purified-heart is like a flower that he gives to Sri Krsna. In the beginning this heart is contaminated, and
can not come in contact with the spiritual form of the Lord because of contamination. However, the Lord is so
merciful that He descends in the form of sound vibration in order to allow everyone to contact the spiritual via
sabdha-brahmana. Hearing this sound vibration cleanses the dust from the mirror of the heart and purifies the
conditioned soul. By the mercy of the pure devotee, the bhakti-lata-bhija is planted within the heart of the spiritual
aspirant, and via the sincere constant chanting process the seed of bhakti begins to grow and fructify. With the first
signs of a budding flower, given from chanting the maha-mantra, the Lord’s Syamasundara form manifests within
that purified heart. From this budding flower an irresistible aroma arrises. The fragrance from the flower of bhakti can
purify an entire planet and more, for this fragrance is the Lord’s sixty-four transcendental qualities that manifest
within the devotee’s heart.

Continuing with his purification via the constant chanting of the maha-mantra, the Lord’s confidential pastimes
manifest to the devotee. Now this point is worth spending a little time on. In this text it is said; ‘the Lord’s pastimes
are confidential, and spiritual, but they still appear to the devotee within the material world.’ This indeed is the Lord’s
causless mercy. The asta-kaliya-lila of the Lord is His most confidential pastimes with His beloved Srimatti
Radharani. Now, who in this world would allow another to be witness to the associations they have with their intimate
partner? The answer is propbabally not very many, and yet the Lord does just this. During the rasa-dance the
demigods and their wifes gathered in their airoplanes and watched the Lord embrace the beautiful gopis. Because they
were allowed to be witness to the Lord’s manifest pastimes, so can any jiva, providing he is pure. Therefore
purification is that thing which must be sought by the sincere devotee. In this way, the devotee’s good fortune will
know no bounds as the Holy Name reveals to him the Lord’s asta-kaliya-lila.

The bhakti-sakti

12. “Latent within the jiva are the miniscule spiritual potencies of ahlada (bliss) and samvit (knowledge). The
svarupa-sakti (the internal potency of the Lord Himself) descends to contact and awaken these tiny spiritual
potencies of the jiva. All this is effected by the causeless mercy and influence of the Holy Name. The svarupa-
sakti contains the very essence of the hladini and samvit potencies. The amalgam of the svarupa-sakti with the
jiva's bliss and knowledge produces a mentality conducive to pure spontaneous devotion, known as the bhakti-
svarupam-sakti.

Commentary
The svarupa of the living entity is the natural indigenous quality that is inherent within his makeup—this is the jiva’s
spontaneous attraction for the Lord and for rendering favorable loving service to the Lord. Jivera svarupa hoy nitya-
krsna dasa, the nature of the living entity is to be an eternal servant of the Lord. Being fooled by the material energy,
the conditioned living entity looses his intelligence and takes the cesstation of misery to be happiness, this is his great
misfortune! Inherent within his makeup is the desire to enjoy, given from the dormant spiritual potencies called
ahlada (bliss). This desire to enjoy serves to take the conditioned living entity in a forward direction. As he is moved
along with time, moving in a similar forward direction, he moves away from the mode of ignorance, which is nothing
more than the manifestion of the jiva’s desire to enjoy separate from the Lord. As well as instilling the jiva with
minute portions of ahlada, the Supreme Lord has endowed His dependents with minicule amounts of samvit
(knowledge). In this way the conditioned jiva may attempt to use the knowledge within his make-up to survive and
strive for better things. When embodied in the lower species these two potencies are covered by the degrees of
ignorance of that particular body, but when the embodied jiva reaches the human platform the small amounts of
samvit within him can lead him on his eternal quest for the Holy Grail—divine connection with the Lord.

The Lord has arranged a system of reward and punishement whearby a release of chemicals such as endorphins and
neuropeptides are released when a human does some activity that pushes him forward against entropy/ignorance.
Thus, the person feels happiness from doing passionate or good activities and this feeling of happiness within the
body, (which is naught but the release of chemicals and the cesstation of misserires) leads him to strive for more of
the same. The same is true in reverse. When a jiva who performs an activity in the mode of ignorance which does not
stimulate forward movement of his being, he sees a release of chemicals in his body that make him feel bad, sad,
useless, lazy etc. A release of the chemical such as cortisone may do this. By discussing these points we hope to
clarify that this natural system of reward and punishement serves to advance the conditioned souls until they accrue
enough anjanata-sukriti to take up the path of devotional service.

When the jiva is fortunate enough to begin on the path of bhakti, the minute portions of hladini and samvit are then
used to serve the Lord, and this is the cause for him regaining his good fortune. The Lords samvit (knowledge)
potency may descend through the heart of the pure devotee, and provide further assistance for the jiva. Similarly, the
Lord’s hladini potency will descend to give spiritual bliss known as the various anubhavas, sattvika-bhavas, and
sancari-bhavas that appear within the body of the advancing jiva. This text explains that contact with the Holy Name
of the Lord is the activity that stimulates the Lord’s mercy in this regard, more than this; it is the cause for the Lord’s
potency to decend. This is because the Lord’s svarupa-sakti is spiritual, and connection with the Holy Name is a
spiritual activity, even when the jiva chants using the material body. The exact words used are as follows:

The svarupa-sakti (the internal potency of the Lord Himself) descends to contact and awaken these
tiny spiritual potencies of the jiva. All this is effected by the causeless mercy and influence of the Holy
Name.

The svarupa-sakti is the potency that is instilled in the living entity from the Supreme Lord Himself. The svarupa-
sakti is transferred to the jiva via his connection with the Lord and His Holy Name. The jiva’s svarupa (eternal
identity) begins to shine through according to this connection. The spiritual potency of the Lord descends and
enlivens the jiva with knowledge of the spiritual world, knowledge of the Lord’s sixty-four transcendental qualities,
and the bliss of the inhabitants of that place. This is called the uddipana of the Lord. The Lord’s qualities are the
stimulus for the jiva. Connection with the spiritual must be tasted rather than understood by philosophical means. The
speculations of the material mind are useless in the realms of bhakti. The bliss of loving connection with the Lord
(rasa) can only be found through connection with the Holy Name, otherwise there is naught but the cessation of
misery, which is the conditioned nature adopted by connection with the temporary world of maya. A person who gains
is knowledge, but who is ignorant of the Lord’s supremacy undertakes a path of karma and jnana yoga. The most
these two paths can offer is the cesstation of misery, which is a material activity. It has nothing to do with spiritual
interaction with the Lord in His supreme abode of Sri Vrndavana Dhama.

The bhakti-svarupam-sakti described in this verse, is the potency of the Lord which allows the individual to connect
with the spiritual world via pure devotion. This state comes about as anarthas are removed from the heart and one has
attained steadiness, taste, spontaneous attraction, meditation-on and engagement-in the Lord’s pastimes in Goloka
Vrndavana. The transcendental happiness derived from associating with the spiritual world has nothing to do with the
happiness of the material world, therefore everything connected to the spiritual is known as transcendental. The Lords
pastimes in Vrndavana are known as the asta-kaliya-lila, or the eight three-hourly pastimes, and although the Lord’s
pastimes are taking place in Goloka Vrndavana and are one hundred percent spiritual, still they may be accessed via
the material world—this is the great mercy of the Lord’s Holy Name. Please think about this statement as it is very
powerful.

In this text of Sri Harinama Cintamani we find the words ‘The svarupa-sakti contains the very essence of the hladini
and samvit potencies. The amalgam of the svarupa-sakti with the jiva's bliss and knowledge produces a mentality
conducive to pure spontaneous devotion, known as the bhakti-svarupam-sakti.’ To access the svarupa-sakti of the
Lord is a process. Part of this process is known as aquiring knowledge of the spiritual. Another part is application of
that knowledge, and another part is pleasing the Lord via intimate relationships based on that knowledge. Please
therefore do not try to search for material happiness, which is, happiness derived from activities found outside of
pleasing the Lord. Simply engage in the Lord’s service with full-hearted determination and enthusiasm, and He will
give you the ability and knowledge of how to please Him. This is the bhakti-svarupam that is required, and this will
stimulate a flood of divine nectar of love of Godhead as described in the Caitanya-caritamrta as follows:

sveda, kampa, romancasru, gadgada, vaivarnya

unmada, visada, dhairya, garva, harsa, dainya
eta bhave prema bhaktaganere nacaya
krsnera anandamrta-sagare bhasaya

Perspiration, trembling, standing on end of one’s bodily hairs, tears, faltering voice, fading
complexion, madness, melancholy, patience, pride, joy and humility—these are various natural
symptoms of ecstatic love of Godhead, which causes a devotee to dance and float in an ocean of
transcendental bliss while chanting the Hare Krsna mantra. (Cc. adi-lila 7.89.90)

Rasa and the bhavas

13. “Thus one reaches a state of perfection known as sthayi-bhava, or permanent emotion, which is also called
rati. Four bhavas combine to transform rati to rasa. The four bhavas are: vibhava, anubhava, sattvika, and
vyabhicari (or sancari).

Commentary
From this text through to text sixteen we are learning about attraction to the Lord that causes a permanent change in
our being. Bhava has been described as the beginnings of prema, and the first sign of bhava changing into prema is
attachment to the Lord (rati). When rati deepens it becomes sthayi-bhava, or one’s permanent spiritual rasa. This has
been described by Srila Rupa Goswami as follows:

avyartha-kalatvam
viraktir mana-sunyata
asa-bandhah samutkantha
nama-gane sada rucih

asaktis tad-gunakhyane
pritis tad-vasati-sthale
ity adayo 'nubhavah syur
 jata-bhavankure jane

When the seed of ecstatic emotion for Krsna fructifies, the following nine symptoms manifest in one's
behavior: forgiveness, concern that time should not be wasted, detachment, absence of false prestige,
hope, eagerness, a taste for chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, attachment to descriptions of the
transcendental qualities of the Lord, and affection for those places where the Lord resides—that is, a
temple or a holy place like Vrndavana. These are all called anubhava, subordinate signs of ecstatic
emotion. They are visible in a person in whose heart the seed of love of God has begun to fructify.
(Brs.1.3.25-26)

When the seed of love of Godhead has been planted and nurtured via the constant chanting process, anubhavas, or
subordinate signs of bliss, begin to dominate the consciousness. The devotee then feels intense hankering for the Lord
and feels that not a single moment should be wasted. With his heart softened by love such a devotee thinks of the Lord
in a favorable loving mood and in such a state he cries out to the Lord, longing to be with Him. Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu has described this situation in verse six of His Siksastakam prayers.

nayanam galad-asru-dharaya
vadanam gadgada-ruddhaya gira
pulakair nicitam vapuh kada
tava nama-grahane bhavisyati

My dear Lord, when will My eyes be beautified by filling with tears that constantly glide down as I
chant Your Holy Name? When will My voice falter and all the hairs on My body stand erect in
transcendental happiness as I chant Your Holy Name? (Ss. Verse 6)

The four bhavas, vibhava, anubhava, sattvika, and vyabhicari are all known as ingredients that a jiva uses as a part of
his relationship with His beloved Lord. This relationship is called sthayi-bhava. The devotee is known as the asraya
and the Lord is known as the visaya, the beloved of the devotee. Some of the bodily transformations are as follows:
Shouting and making noises, standing of hairs on end, crying, shivering, yawning, etc. These are known as bodily
transformations of ecstasy. In his Sri Nama Mahatmya Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes various anubhavas and
sattvikabhavas that enter into his heart as he chants the Holy Name. He describes various anubhavas and also a very
high sattvikabhava that may only be experienced by a highly advanced devotee in the madhurya-rasa category. In this
way he gives a hint of his sthayi-bhava in madhurya-rasa.

What power does the name of Krsna possess? My heart constantly burns in the fire of worldly desires,
just like a desert scorched by the rays of the sun. The Holy Name, entering into the core of my heart
through the holes of my ears, showers unparalleled nectar upon my soul.
The Holy Name speaks from within my heart, moves unto the tip of my tongue, and constantly
dances on it in the form of transcendental sound. My throat becomes choked up, my body shivers again
and again, and my feet cannot remain still.
Rivers of tears flow from my eyes, perspiration completely soaks my body, my skin thrills with
rapture, my hairs stand on end, and my complexion turns pale and discolored. My mind grows faint, I
begin to experience devastation, and my entire body is shattered in a flood of ecstatic emotions.
While causing such an ecstatic disturbance, the Holy Name showers liquid nectar on my heart
and drowns me in the ocean of divine love of Godhead. He does not allow me to understand anything,
for He has made me truly mad by having stolen away my mind and all my resources. (SBT. NM.)

I would now like to speak a little on the four bhavas mentioned in this text, and I will add that whatever I speak is
simply a repetition of Srila Rupa Goswami’s teachings on this matter.

Sthayi-bhava has one main mood and that mood, whether it is in the category of santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, or
madhurya sets the sthayi (permanent) bhava. The sthayi-bhava manifests as rasa is being tasted. Other bhavas
support the sthayi-bhava, and these are known as the sancari-bhavas. Sancari-bhavas, such as comedy, chivalry,
mercy, anger, fearfulness, etc take on the role of the main bhava (the sthayi-bhava) but have no independence separate
from it. In other words they are the sancari (subordinate) bhavas for the main bhava in any of the five categories
previously mentioned.

The anubhavas are those acitions performed by the devotee, which occur spontaneously and reveal the inner feelings
of the devotee’s heart. Srila Rupa Goswami explains this nicely as follows:

Anubhava refers to particular actions exhibited externally, which reveal the emotions of the heart. They
are two types; sita, cooling, and ksepana, propelling. (Brs 2.2.1)

Some signs of the anubhavas occurring in the heart of the devotee are; hunkara (making loud roaring sounds) gita
(singing) atta-hasa (raucously laughing) etc. When the anubhavas appear via the devotee being reminded of his Lord,
they force the devotee to act accordingly, and thus soften his heart. They appear out of rati, attraction to the Lord.

The sattvika-bhavas may be experienced on four different levels according to the emotion being tasted. They differ
from the anubhavas because they take control of the entire body as opposed to just one part of the body. Some of the
sattvika-bhavas that display the condition of the heart are, asru (the shedding of tears), romanca (showing of goose
bumps), stambha (being stunned), and pralaya (unconsciousness or a feeling of devastation). These signs were shown
to the highest level of maha-bhava by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu on many occasions.

On occasion it may be seen that an aspiring devotee who is still full of material contamination shows signs of these
anubhavas and sattvika-bhavas—in his present polluted condition these signs are known as sattvika-abhasa, or
sattva-abhasa. They are considered a dim representation of the real thing, which may only be tasted when the heart
has become purified and free from offenses.

The fourth bhava that is mentioned in this text is vyabhicari or sancari-bhava. Vyabhicari-bhavas are parts of the
sthayi (permanent) bhava that assist in the rasa between the Lord and His devotee being tasted. They arise like waves
arise in the ocean. They put flavor into rasa and together with the anubhavas, and sattvikabhavas, the sancari-bhavas
(transitory emotions) assist the permanent emotion. The sthayi-bhava is always in play, but the transitory (sancari or
vyabhicari-bhavas) come and go according to the situation. Altogether there are thirty-three sancari-bhavas such as;
dainya (humility) mada (intoxication, rapture) avega (intense emotion) vrida (bashfulness) visada (lamentation) etc.
Srila Rupa Goswami speaks of the vyabhicari-bhavas as follows:

Symptoms that create variety, which nourish the sthayi-bhava, and which arise in words, body and
mind are called vyabhicari-bhavas. There are thirty-three vyabhicari-bhavas. Since the appearance of
these states is irregular, they are also called sancari-bhavas. Like waves in the ocean, they appear
fromt the sthayi-bhava, increase the sthayi-bhava and then disappear into the sthayi-bhava. (Brs. 2.4.1-
3)

14. “Vibhava, the element that excites sentiment, has two subdivisions: alambana and uddipana. Alambana, or
the person who is the object of sentiment, is again of two types: visaya (subject) and asraya (receptacle). The
devotee of Lord Krsna is the asraya, and Lord Krsna Himself is the visaya. Uddipana or the impetus is Lord
Krsna's beauty, qualities etc.

Commentary
Vibhava is the relationship a jiva has with the Lord that promotes loving feelings. This has two divisions. One is
alambana and the other uddipana. Alambana is further divided into two cagegories, the asraya (shelter) and visaya
the (object). The jiva is known as the asraya, or the one who is the shelter of loving relationships, and the Lord is
known as the visaya, the object for whom the loving relationships are intended. The other division of the word
vibhava is uddipana. To explain uddipana we can say that the word uddipana expresses the qualities of the Lord that
act as the stimulus for the devotee’s attraction and subsequent loving feelings. Rasa comes about via the desire to
interact with the lovable object that has the qualities that excit the spirit soul. These qualities are known as uddipana.
It is the Lord’s uddipana that act as the stimuli for the asraya (who is the shelter or container of bhakti) to act. When
the devotee and the Lord interact by the stimulus of the Lord’s qualities, this interaction is known as rasa. It is the
element of excitement called vibhava that allows this interaction to take place. Vibhava is therefore a necessary part of
sthayi-bhava, or the devotee’s permanent emotion.

Rasa or spiritual emotion is therefore tasted both by the Lord, and by His devotee alike. When the Lord is tasting, the
devotee is the tasted, and when the devotee is tasting the Lord is the tasted. When the asraya is attracted to the visaya,
the various anubhavas (subordinate extassies) are experienced and the symptoms are displayed on the body of the
individual, expressing the condition of the heart. As well as this various sancari-bhavas will assist in the exchange,
and the sattvika-bhavas may also be experienced as in the description of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s bhajana in the
Nama Mahatmya. All exchanges with the Lord are spiritual and without a trace of material contamination, therefore
pure rasa may only be experienced as the material contamination leaves the devotee’s heart. Giving up the ten
offenses is therefore imperative for advancement and taste to occur.

15. “Anubhava (the physical expression of permanent emotions) is what results from vibhava, or the activities of
alambana and uddipana. Later, when these emotions become more intense, they are transformed into
sattvikabhava (the eight principal ecstatic symptoms). At the same time all the sancari-bhavas (vyabhicari-
bhavas, or apparently disturbing symptoms) also come into play.

Commentary
Sri Harinama Cintamani is instructing the devotees on the topic which Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to taste and
teach via His own example, and the examples of His devotees. In order to explain about the divisions of rasa Sri
Harinama Cintamani instructs its readers on the various aspects of rasa step by step. It is important to have a firm
understanding about the esoteric subject matters of rasa to become clear on the topic so that swift advancement
toward the goal may be achieved. Also, from the perspective of those who are not on such an advanced level, it is
important to understand the topic of rasa thoroughly so that they may understand their position and act correctly,
according to the specific level of advancement attained. If the meaning behind this book is to give education on loving
relationships with the Lord by using the medium of words, following the procedure of examining what to do and what
not to do, then it is necessary to give out detailed knowledge so that the reader may approach the topic with a clear
understanding—this is called sambhandha-jnana. Sambhandha-jnana has been given by the teachings of Sri
Harinama Cintamani to this point. Now, in this final chapter Sri Harinama Cintamani discusses the confidential
aspects of bhajana that are in the realm of bhava. For this, a deep perspective plus guidance from an authorized guru
is required. This is called abhidheya, or practicing the path. The preliminary qualifications indicate that a devotee
must become aquinted with the topic itself, and for this reason we are receiving an overview on the instructions on
rasa. In other books, notedly by Srila Rupa Goswami, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, a broader elabouration of the
topic of rasa is given, but that is not the intention of Sri Harinama Cintamani, which discusses the truth spoken
concisely.

When discussing a topic that is very in-depth, and at one point involves taste rather than the use of physical words,
another medium is required. That medium is the mercy of the Supreme Lord and His representative, the spiritual
master, who, by dint of having the bhakti-svarupam sakti of the Lord descend through his purified heart, is qualified
and authorized to give this taste to the sincere aspirant. Therefore it may be understood that books can take the reader
to the point of analytically understanding this spiritual subject matter (sambandha understanding), but the mercy of
the spiritual master is essential in the realm of tasting the topics discussed therein. To attempt to understand the topic
of rasa we must therefore follow the instructions given to this point in Sri Harinama Cintamani, then by following
the process outlined herein, seek teachings, and shelter at the lotus feet of the spiritual master who is adept in the
loving affairs of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna. The jiva may possess miniscule amounts of ahlada (bliss) inherent within his
make-up, but once the pure sadhu has blessed the aspirant with the Lord’s bhakti-sakti, which is alive within his heart,
the jiva receives a taste that stimulates the jiva to search for more of the same. It is the bliss and knowledge that
inhabits the pure devotee’s heart, and which is given to the disciple upon sincere inquiry, that acts as the catalyst in the
formula for attaining success. Bhakti-sakti is the magic ingredient that travels from the heart of sadhu to the heart of
sadhaka—this indeed is a great mystery! Such a qualified sadhu is a bonafide representative of the six Goswami’s, of
whom Srila Rupa and Sanatana are the direct supervisors and teachers of the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri
Sanatana is unique for distributing sambandha instructions and Sri Rupa is in charge of distributing taste. The mercy
of Srila Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis is therefore essential to the devotee who sincerely desires to understand the
deep topic of rasa. Srila Narottama dasa Thakura has therefore sung; rupa-raghunatha-pade ha-ibe akuti kabe hama
bujhaba se yugala-piriti, “when I am eager to understand the literature given by the Gosvamis, then I shall be able to
understand the transcendental loving affairs of Radha and Krsna.”

Taking the mercy of Srila Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis on my head, I will now try to explain a little about the topic
of the various bhavas that manifest in a devotee for the purpose of developing rati into rasa.

Before the stage of bhava has been reached, a sadhaka becomes purified via learning the conclusion of the Vedic
literatures. This is called the sambhandha level of realization. Once the sadhaka has reached an advanced stage, and
his meditions have seen him gain steadiness (nistha), taste (ruci), attachment (asakti), rati, anuraga, and priti (love),
and all of these have arrisen within his heart, he thus becomes eligible to perform bhava-bhakti. This topic has been
covered earlier with the example of Srila Raghunatha Goswami receiving the Govardhana-sila from Lord Caitanya. If
you have not understood it properly please retrace your steps or seek out a teacher to explain this most important
point. No devotee should attempt to practice worship of Govardhana in the mood of the Vrjavasis in the bhava-seva
category, without understanding this point. To give further clarification on this point Sri Advaita Gosai gives the
following sloka and meditates on the subject matter in order to casue the Lord to descend. He thinks as follows:

tulasi-dala-matrena
jalasya culukena va
vikrinite svam atmanam
bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalah

Sri Krsna, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers Him
merely a tulasi leaf and a palmful of water. (Cc. adi-lila 3.104)

Advaita Acarya considered the meaning of the verse in this way: “Not finding any way to repay the
debt He owes to one who offers Him a tulasi leaf and water, Lord Krsna thinks, “There is no wealth in
My possession that is equal to a tulasi leaf and water. Thus the Lord liquidates the debt by offering
Himself to the devotee.” Considering in this way, the Acarya began worshiping the Lord.
(Cc. adi-lila 3.105-107)

By studying these slokas from the Caitanya-caritamrta we can understand that worship of Govardhana-sila involves
offereing a tulasi leaf and water. In this way the offering is carried out in the mood of the residents of Vraja.
Govardhana worship is not carried out with the sixteen types of parapherailia—this is worship of Laxmi Narayana!
The worship of Salagrama-sila may be carried out in this way. The mood of the vrajavasis is the simple mood that
captures the heart of Sri Krsna. It is devoid of all formalites found in the mood of awe and reverence and subsequent
worship found therein.

In the case of a devotee reaching the stage of vraja-rati, the devotee cultivates that taste that is inherent in his form of
worship. In other words, from this point forth the sadhaka cultivates taste (ruci) and attraction (rati) for the Lord as
his only goal in life (prayojana). This is called the beginnings of rasa, or the beginnings of real devotional service. It
is brought about via hearing, chanting, and remembering the Lord, as well as preaching His message to the fallen.
Following in the mood of the gopis subsequents the specific mood of Vraja, and for this the Lord’s asta-kaliya-lila
smaranam is required.

A question that may arise at this point is; when does rati (attraction) qualify a sadhaka to attain bhava? In answer we
may reply; when that rati becomes priti and causes the devotee to see Krsna and nothing else as the visaya, the object
and goal of his worship. This kind of rati forms the mood of exclusive possessiveness toward Krsna and His glories.
As the devotee’s rati develops into the display of bhava, it becomes sthayi-bhava. This sthayi-bhava means that Krsna
is the fixed object of the devotee’s heart. The priti (love) of Krsna becomes his sthayi (fixed) bhava (devotional
mood). The advent of the four bhavas stimulates the devotee’s sthayi-bhava and this brings about rasa. This situation
is described in the Bagavad-gita by Lord Krsna as follows:

tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
 dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they
can come to Me. (Bg. 10.10)

The description I have given above is rasa that comes about via the performace of sadhana-bhakti. This is the most
common form of the attainment of rasa, although it is possible to attain rasa via the mercy of the Lord, or His pure
representative. This way of receiving the highest goal is quite uncommon. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam we hear how
love for the Lord, given from vaidhi-bhakti comes about:

evam-vratah sva-priya-nama-kirtya
jatanurago druta-citta uccaih
hasaty atho roditi rauti gayaty
unmada-van nrtyati loka-bähyah

By chanting the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord, one comes to the stage of love of Godhead. Then the
devotee is fixed in his vow as an eternal servant of the Lord, and he gradually becomes very much
attached to a particular name and form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As his heart melts with
ecstatic love, he laughs very loudly or cries or shouts. Sometimes he sings and dances like a madman,
for he is indifferent to public opinion. (SB. 11.2.40)

The reason why such a lofty position can be attained simply by chanting the maha-mantra is given in Caitanya-
caritamrta by Sri Isvara Puri as follows:

krsna-nama-maha-mantrera ei ta’ svabhava

yei jape, tara krsne upajaye bhava

It is the nature of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra that anyone who chants it immediately develops his
loving ecstasy for Krsna. (Cc. adi-lila 7.83)

16. “Rasa is like a machine. Rati, or permanent emotion, is the axle of this machine. Once the machine starts
moving by the combined energy of the four bhavas, the permanent emotion or sthayibhava is then converted
into rasa. The devotee, who is the asraya (a shelter or container of ecstatic love for Krsna), becomes the enjoyer
of that rasa. And the rasa mentioned here is the vraja-rasa or the spiritual mellow of Vrndavana. That rasa is
the essence of everything, and is the highest goal for the jiva. The Vedas expound four goals: dharma, artha,
kama, and moksa (religious principles, economic development, regulated sense enjoyment and liberation). But
beyond these goals of the Vedas, the actual acme of all perfection is rasa. Fully realized and perfected beings
are entitled to taste that rasa.

Commentary
Srila Rupa Goswami says; “Krsna-rati is the sthayi-bhava—when the sthayi-bhava attains taste and quality through
the mixing of the four bhavas it is called bhakti-rasa.” (Brs 2.1.5) Further than this he tells how this bhakti-rasa is
always hidden from those who are not perfected devotees.

The great treasure of krsna-bhakti-rasa is always hidden from false renunciates, dry speculators,
logicians of karma-kanda, and impersonalists, just as treasure is hidden from thieves. Those who are
not devotees cannot understand bhakti-rasa, whereas only the devotees surrendered to the Lord can
taste it. That which surpasses the ingredients of vibhava etc, and manifests in the pure heart a most
remarkable tastiness is called rasa. Bhava is defined as a deep impression in the heart arising through
the ingredients of vibhava etc. (Brs. 2.5.129-133)

Attraction to Sri Krsna-nama is the characteristic of a devotee. This hallmark of a devotee qualifies him to access Sri
Krsna’s svarupa-sakti. By continued chanting, after the way of the mahajanas, spiritual taste and attraction become
the right of every individual. This taste for Sri Krsna-nama then brings about growing manifestations of the four
bhavas and the mixing of the bhavas cultivates bhakti within the heart. Thus the Holy Name both purifies and attracts
the devotee. We have previously described the system of reward and punishment in text 12, and by studying this one
can understand how bhakti-rasa can only be understood by devotees, and not the karmis or jnanis, what to speak of
mayavadis. Giving advanced teachings on attaining prema, Lord Caitanya spoke the final two slokas in His Sri
Siksastakam verses in the mood of Sri Radha. They explain how a devotee must become of resident of Vrndavana,
and following in the footsteps of Sri Radha, worship Lord Krsna in the moods of sambhoga (union) and vipralambha
(separation). The verses read as follows:

yugayitam nimesena
caksusa pravrsayitam
sunyayitam jagat sarvam
govinda-virahena me

O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears
are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.

aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam

adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

I know no one but Krsna as my Lord, and He shall remain so even if He handles me roughly by His
embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being present before me. He is completely free to do
anything and everything, for He is always my worshipful Lord, unconditionally. (Ss. Verses 7&8)

These two verses express deep hankering in the mood of prema, and by emulating this mood the devotee’s rati for Sri
Krsna will act as the axle on the machine of rasa. Thus once the machine has been set in motion it will not stop until
it reaches perfection. Radharani displays true unconditional love when She states that anything that makes Krsna
happy will give Her happiness.

My dear friend, just hear the decision of My mind. Krsna is the Lord of My life in all conditions,
whether He shows Me affection or kills Me by giving Me unhappiness. (Cc. antya-lila 20.49)

I do not mind My personal distress. I only wish for the happiness of Krsna, for His happiness is the
goal of My life. However, if He feels great happiness in giving Me distress, that distress is the best of
My happiness. (Cc. antya-lila 20.52)

If Krsna, attracted by the beauty of some other woman, wants to enjoy with her but is unhappy because
He cannot get her, I fall down at her feet, catch her hand and bring her to Krsna to engage her for His
happiness. (Cc. antya-lila 20.53)

This concludes the primary teachings on the four bhavas, which lead to topic of namarasa being described further by
the namacarya.

Elevation via the Hare Krsna maha-mantra

17. “Amongst the introspective jivas, he who is attracted to pure devotional service is the most evolved. The jiva
takes up the path of bhakti only after he has accrued sufficient sukrti (piety) from previous births. When he
develops strong faith (sraddha), he comes into contact with a pure and saintly spiritual master. By the grace of
the spiritual master, he is initiated into the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra—the Holy Names of the
Divine Couple.
Commentary
As already stated, in Kali-yuga the Lord descends in the form of His Holy Name. It follows that a person who has
gained enough sukrti, will naturally desire to chant these Holy Names and leave the world of ignorance behind. While
chanting the names of the Lord a devotee remembers his lost relationship with his master. Understanding the meaning
behind the maha-mantra, the devotee of Krsna loudly calls out the names of Radha-Krsna, the Supreme enjoyers and
resevoirs of all pleasure.

The highest embodiment of the hladini-sakti is Srimati Radharani. The hladini-sakti is the pleasure giving potency
that gives Krsna pleasure, the ‘giving of love.’ When we chant the maha-mantra Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare
Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, we are calling on the energy of Srimati Radharani to please
engage us in any kind of service to Sri Krsna. In the vocative the name of Srimati Radharani is Hare—that means we
call on mother Hara, we address Her. Her name is Hara, but when we call we use the name Hare. In this way we say;
“Hare—My dear Srimati Radharani, please consider me one of Your maidservants to do with as You like. Please
engage me as You see fit. I am subservient to Your desire. You are my master, I am your servant! You are the
embodiment of the hladini-sakti, and I, an insignificant fool. Being supremely kind please engage me. I have no
shelter other than You. If you are not merciful to me I will not be able to maintain my life. My dear Radha You hold
the key to my living or dying. I have no right to serve Your beloved—even though I love Him so dearly. I am sold to
You, now You must do with me as You like. If you like You may kick, or punish me by any means You see fit. Now
that I have surrendered to You I am expecting that Your causeless mercy will descend and save me from my fallen
condition. I am weak, lame, and uninformed. I am wretched and sinful, and always act in ways that deserve to be
punished. On the other hand You are the queen of devotion. You are the most beautiful of all beauties. You are the
pinnacle of fine speech and amorous pastimes with Lord Syama. You are the most beloved of Lord Syama. You never
leave His side, and He, being in love with You, never leaves Your side—not even for an instant. My case is different
however. I have transgressed all moral laws. I am indecent, and unworthy. To be very honest I don’t know how I have
the audacity to come before You and place my plea, knowing full well how many sins I have committed. But Your
maid servants are all so kind to me, they have led me here to Your lotus feet. While Krsna is out tending His cows,
You are preparing His meal. But me, I am thinking of enjoying separate from Him. How can I think like that? How
can I live in this body for one moment longer? I have no shame! I bow my head before You. Oh queen of Vrndavana I
ask You to grant me just one favor—please forgive me for all my sins against You. I love You so dearly. Please forgive
me, and keep me in that rotten hell called the material world until my sins have finally been removed by the power of
Your Holy Name. You are the lover of Lord Syama, therefore He is known as Radharamana, the Rama who shares
intimate loving relashionships with You. Please be kind on Your fallen servant and give me the bliss of eternal service
to the servant of the servant of Your servant, for that kind soul who guides me out of the darkness of illusion is my
spiritual master life after life. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama
Hare Hare.

So this is how a fallen soul prays when chanting the maha-mantra. The appeal is put before the mercy of Hara. The
conditioned soul is not fit to address Krsna directly, and certainly not fit to enter into the pastimes of Radha-Krsna. He
is not fit to enter into the spiritual realities, although it is true that sometimes due to the mercy of the gopis a
progressing candidate is allowed communication to put forward a plea. Serving the servants of Lord Gauranga is the
path which a devotee must take to put forward that plea. The path begins with pleasing the devotees of the devotees,
and eventually, by their causeless mercy one may please the spiritual master, the acarya, and the eternal associates of
the Lord. Then, maybe by their causeless mercy, one may put forth a supplication before the members of the panca-
tattva until eventually Lord Nityananda may bestow His causeless mercy. Then, maybe if He is pleased, His gracious
boot may touch our lowly heads as He kick us and leaves us to roll around in the agony of separation. Continuing in
that mood of separation may engender your spiritual master to grant you entrance into that place where you will meet
with a beloved gopi messenger. Maybe that messenger will be kind and give a little seva—maybe the service of
picking flowers to make garlands for the Divine couple. Who knows the path of great fortune? Those who do know,
don’t speak about it too much. Hari om tat sat.

18. “Although in the beginning this jiva has sraddha, his desire for material success poses an obstacle on his
path of progress. The spiritual master graces him with a disciplinary process suitable for overcoming this
obstacle; thus he gains spiritual strength from chanting. Chanting on tulasi beads and meditating on a fixed
number of Holy Names daily is the best form of worship, and will surely lead to success. Therefore, in the
beginning, a little time should be spent in seclusion daily for full concentration upon the Holy Name.
Gradually, as chanting increases, a more profound relationship with the Holy Name develops, and the material
impediments fall away.

Commentary
The path of devotional service has been described to be the easiest path of all the yoga practices. One may even
practice this path to perfection from the grhasta asrama. Yet this very same path is sometimes described as a razors
edge. In order to protect his disciple from being accosted by the anarthas of name, fame, adoration and distinction,
the spiritual master provides a disciplinary path. In the beginning this is called the path of vaidhi-bhakti (following
rules and regulations). The anartha of fame is surely a great stumbling block on the path of self-realization, therefore
Lord Caitanya says, tranadapi sunicena, taro iva sahisnuna. This verse beautifies the devotional sentiments of the
sadhaka.

To be a powerful leader with many followers may seem like an attractive position to the seeker of adoration, but does
that position qualify one to go back to home, back to Godhead? For many it will pose as an obystacle, therefore we
are herein instructed to spend some time in seclusion everyday in order to become introspective. During this time the
sadhaka should meditate on the Holy Name of the Lord, haribhajana. This will lead to the success of irradicating
anarthas from the heart and lead the devotee into a profound relationship with the Holy Name.

If we can not develop a relationship with the Lord’s Holy Name, displaying great eagerness and relish to chant
incessantly, then what is the possibility of seeing the Sayamasundara form of the Lord, as He manifests Himself
within our meditations? By now everyone understands that there is a process to attain the Lord, and this process is not
possible without following a strict discipline, rising from the stage of offensive chanting through the various stages
previously described, until one’s meditations reach maturity. This can not happen if one simply chants a minimum
number of rounds and then allows one’s mind to wander free for the other twenty two hours of the day. A person who
allows his mind to wander will find his body follows suit. Offenses to the Holy Name will be committed as a result of
inappropriate action. A complete discussion on the good and bad qualities to be adopted or discarded in devotional life
may be found in the writings of Srila Rupa Goswami in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s book named Sri Bhaktyaloka.

19. “The path of bhakti features two broad occupations: Deity worship, and chanting and meditating upon the
Holy Name. Although both occupations are expedient, chanting and meditating on the Holy Name is preferred
by the more deeply serious devotees. Many elevated pure devotees sometimes chant aloud the Holy Names on
their beads, and at other times meditate upon Krsna's pastimes on the beads. The advantage of performing
kirtana, or audibly chanting the maha-mantra on beads, is that three kinds of devotional service—hearing,
chanting and remembering—are accomplished simultaneously. Of course, all the nine limbs of devotional
service reside in the Holy Name, but chanting and remembering are the two best limbs.

Commentary
There is one very nice story of a saintly devotee recounted by the lips of His Holiness Srila Radhanatha Swami. In his
narration of the life of Ganashyama Maharaja, Radhanatha Swami tells how Ganasyama (as a young boy) went on a
day trip to Vrndavana with his family and never left that place. Being very attached to Radha Krsna, Ganashyama
would write the names of Radha and Krsna in the dust with his finger. He would then proceed to worship these names
every day. Then one day, as Ganasyama was rubbing out the Deity in the form of Radha Krsna’s name, two beautiful
Deities manifested Themselves. These Deities were Sri Sri Radha Gopijanavallabha. To this present day They can be
found in Their temple in Vrndavana. Ganasyama worshipped these Deities with every molecule in his body for as
long as he was alive. By this act of complete dedication and service to Sri Sri Radha Gopijanavallabha, Ganasyama
Maharaja will live on eternally. This type of dedication to the Deities is rarely found in Kali-yuga, but sometimes the
Lord arranges for a perfect person to desend and display the highest standard. In Sri Harinama Cintamani we have
previously heard that the most expedient method for attaining perfection in Kali-yuga is the chanting of the Holy
Names of the Lord. More stress is given to the chanting process than to Deity worship simply because this is a
troubled time period; therefore we have been given the best possible method for perfection. That method is the
chanting of the maha-mantra Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama
Hare Hare.
In this text we are given two ways to chant. One way is to chant aloud the Holy Names, which largely engages the
tongue and the ears, and gives mercy to all the conditioned souls who surround the chanter. The other method is
divided into two groups, one of them is to murmur/mutter the Holy Name so that only the chanter can hear, and the
other is to internally chant the Holy Name. Both of these methods facilitate deeper meditation on Krsna’s pastimes
and are quite specific for the task of rememberance. However, they are not recommended for the neophyte devotee.
Srila Prabhupada highlighted the fact that one may sit to chant, but if one does not loudly chant and hear the Holy
Name, instead of chanting one will simply think of nonsense. That means one may simply be chanting the letters of
the alphabet—this is known as inattentive chanting. In the Nectar of Devotion, Srila Prabhupada discusses a little
about the topic of japa and kirtana with the following words:

Chanting a mantra or hymn softly and slowly is called japa, and chanting the same mantra loudly is
called kirtana. For example, uttering the maha-mantra Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare
Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, very softly, only for one's own hearing, is
called japa. Chanting the same mantra loudly for being heard by all others is called kirtana. The
maha-mantra can be used for japa and kirtana also. When japa is practiced it is for the personal
benefit of the chanter, but when kirtana is performed it is for the benefit of all others who may hear.
(NOD. 9)

With this clear definition of the differences between japa and kirtana we can understand that the purpose of japa is
that the chanter’s attention becomes fixed on the sound vibration of the Holy Name. To achieve this purpose an
aspiring devotee at first chants the maha-mantra loudly so as to capture his own attention. When he has learned this
technique sufficiently, he may then use the same japa sessions to meditate on the sound vibration of the Holy Name
until he merges the Holy Name with the rememberance of the qualities of the Lord. This will bring about the
manifiestation of Lord Syamasundara’s form within the devotee’s meditations. Continuing further with his discipline
will enable the sadhaka to deepen his japa meditions until the name, form, qualities and pastimes of the Lord all
become manifest to the devotee. These days some people propound that one must only chant the maha-mantra loudly,
as in the case of the beginninger, however this statement is not supported anywhere in scripture. Such statements are
therefore merely concoction, and not scriptural facts. It is not that internal chanting is not prescribed by Srila
Prabhupada, or in the scriptures; it is simply that it is not prescribed for the neophyte devotee. To understand
qualification for internal chanting one must acknowledge one’s position, and have determination to advance and
acquire the prerequisites for proper chanting. These prerequisites are described in Lord Caitanya’s Sri Siksastakam,
throughout scripture, by the mercy of sadhu and the spiritual master, and through the mercy of the indwelling guru,
the Anaryami.

The first verse of Lord Caitanya’s Sri Siksastakam indicates the following: param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam “Let
there be all glory for the chanting of the Holy Name.” We have since quoted Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
as stating that the word ‘sankirtanam’ refers to ‘complete kirtana,’ or ‘perfect kirtana.’ With this understanding we
can see that proper japa means sankirtanam, and the result of chanting japa correctly is krsna-prema. Before Lord
Caitanya’s appearance, the masses of people only chanted softly as this was the path. Srila Haridasa Thakura was
criticized for loud chanting, and Lord Caitanya was similarly criticized for his loud performances of sankirtanam. Via
the mercy of Lord Gaurasundara the path of perfection has moved from bhajananandi to gostianandi, and the
congregational chanting of the Holy Name now is the prescribed path. Therefore, whether a devotee propounds the
science of chanting via preaching or loud sankirtana, or he tastes this in his japa meditiations he is performing the
yuga-dharma.

Audible chanting and kirtana as in the case of congregational chanting are prescribed for the purification of all who
hear the mantra, and for the capturing of attention. Soft and silent chanting, (which involves meditation, smarana) are
specific for deeper purification, and for developing taste and attraction via connection with the Lord’s qualities and
pastimes. Because the Holy Name contains everything in and of itself, a devotee prefers to do both of these types of
chanting, sometimes loudly chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, and sometimes meditating on the pastimes of the
Lord on his beads—this is prescribed herein!

For advancement toward the level of japa meditation a devotee is advised to study the scriptures to gain clarification
on the path. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord describes different types of worship, work, determination, etc, under the
modes of nature. One may study these and use them as a barmometer to see which modes one is acting under in any
given situation. One may also use the teachings of Sri Harinama Cintamani in order to avoid offenses to the Holy
Name and the Dieties. The general guidline has been given by Srila Rupa Goswami who has indicated that devotional
service is best performed from the mode of goddness with enthusiasm, utsahan niscirad dirat.

20. “Chanting automatically manifests the other aspects of devotional service, e.g. pada-sevanam, dasyam,
sakhyam, atma-nivedanam, and so on. With full faith that the Holy Name and the person Krsna are one and the
same, and discarding the namaparadhas, one should chant in a lonely place with deep concentration.

Commentary
Chapter fifteen of Sri Harinama Cintamani describes the process of meditation on the Lord’s Holy Name, His
qualities, His form, and His pastimes. It is therefore to be accepted that the discussion has now undergone a gradual
change from the level of offensive chanting, to the level of attentive chanting with the added influence of meditation.
At this stage in the discussion on namarasa it is to be expected that one’s heart is full with faith in the Lord, and the
process to attain Him. Although there are nine limbs of bhakti (some of which are mentioned above), the principle
methods of hearing, chanting, and remembering are being stressed herein. Chanting has been given the principal
position in the hierarchy of service because all siddhis (perfections) are contained within the Holy Name. It is
therefore considered that all the nine limbs of bhakti are performed when one chants. Now, at the stage of bhajana
(internal worship) one’s chanting takes on a distinctively different mood—this has been shown in the topic on sthayi-
bava and the four bhavas that assits rati. When one performs bhajana one understands that the Holy Name is both the
means and the end. This has previously been stated in Sri Harinama Cintamani as a part of sambandha-jnana. In the
stage of application, and the further stage of bhava-seva, the Holy Name becomes a practical part of abhidheya, until
it is actualized in the form of one’s prayojana. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, grandfather Bhismadeva, indicates the
final level of samhadi medition that is achieved upon a devotee quitting his body, in order to show that the Holy
Name of Krsna and Sri Krsna Himself, are both one and the same. His exact words are as follows:

bhaktyavesya mano yasmin

vaca yan-nama kirtayan
tyajan kalevaram yogi
mucyate kama-karmabhih

The Personality of Godhead, who appears in the mind of the devotee by attentive devotion and
meditation and by chanting of the holy name, releases the devotee from the bondage of fruitive
activities at the time of his quitting the material body. (SB. 1.9.23)

Three kinds of introspective jivas

21. “Three kinds of jivas are captivated by the external phenomena: the gross materialists, the karmis and the
jnanis. They are therefore all extroverts, chasing after false hopes for happiness. The gross materialist
endeavors for sensual delights. The karmi aspires for ephemeral heavenly bliss in the hereafter. The jnani is
wholly concerned with how to mitigate his existential suffering. After surpassing these stages, the jiva becomes
introspective. The introspective jiva is divided into three categories: kanistha, madhyama and uttama (neophyte,
intermediate and advanced).

Commentary
Although many people consider themselves men of God, we see that people who worship the Lord for materialistic
reasons are actually deluded by the Lord’s illusory potency. This is what is meant by the word extroverted—that one
looks outwardly for sense pleasure, as opposed to the introspective sage, who attempts to serve the Lord via
meditation on the Lord’s desire. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam the Lord gives the following advice on fools deluded by
the material energy:
Although I have the power to award spiritual liberation, lusty persons worship Me with penance and
vows in order to get My blessings for their mundane family life. Such persons are bewildered by My
illusory energy. (SB. 10.60.52)
 O supreme reservoir of love, unfortunate are they who even after obtaining Me, the Lord of both
liberation and material riches, hanker only for material treasures. These worldly gains can be found
even in hell. Since such persons are obsessed with sense gratification, hell is a fitting place for them.
(SB. 10.60.53)

Let this instruction from the lips of the Supreme Lord to Sri Rukmini Devi serve as a warning to all devotees. A
materialist approaches the Lord to have material desires fulfilled, and hell is his reward. This is not the act of a
devotee! Lord Siva gives a similar instruction in his prayers to Lord Krsna after he was defeated by the Lord in battle.
Lord Siva said:

One who has attained this human form of life as a gift from God, yet who fails to control his senses
and honor Your feet, is surely to be pitied, for he is only cheating himself. (SB. 10.63.41)

That mortal who rejects You, his true self, dearmost friend and Lord, for the sake of sense objects
whose nature is just the opposite, refuses nectar and instead consumes poison. (SB. 10.63.42)

So this instruction is aimed at the intelligent class of people, who are receptive to the words of sadhu. Such instruction
is meant to guide the asiring devotee away from living a life of sense gratification by highlighting the negative results
gained from such a life. A devotee who has received the mercy of the Lord, and understood the meaning of life,
approaches the Lord with great remorse for his sinful behaviour, and while lamenting his grievious offenses, he begs
the Lord’s mercy via engaging in service to His pure representative.

In this text we have been informed of the three stages of advancement for one who is acting from the material
platform, and the three stages of advancement for one acting from a devotional platform. As devotees we should
become clear on our own position, and the position of others—this is a very important point! A person should not
attempt to perform meditation on the eightfold pastimes of the Lord while he is in a polluted condition (a materialist,
karmi or a jnani), or while one is considered to be on the path (a sadhaka), but has only reached the position of being
a shadow of a devotee. In this case, the rules and regulations have been previously described for the devotee’s
protection and advancement. Artificial meditation is not required and will not advance one on the path of devotion.
The group known as the sahajas is an example of the artificial expression of the sentiments of rasa in the extreme.
Now, although a kanistha-bhakta does not affiliate himself with this group, still, any symptoms of this artificial
expression of divine love and ecstasies are merely sentimental and will not do the ultimate job of freeing the jiva from
his position of bondage. Sentiments are a product of the mind, and false sentiments are performed because of the
cheating mentality—they lead only to the doorway of hell! The process for advancement has been described by the
sages in detail and should be strictly followed for swift advancement. It is not recommended that a neophyte devotee,
following the rules of vaidhi-bhakti suddenly thinks that he is eligible to perform raganuga-bhakti. A person on the
kanistha platform may feel that he is following correctly, and that his occasional falldowns are due not to himself, but
merely to the unfortunate situation caused by associating too closely with material nature, but this thinking is
irrational. In this way he may feel as though he is qualified to perform raganuga-bhakti just as the gopis do. However,
the philosophy behind the Vaisnava cult does not support this. Such a person must understand that a gopi would never
perform an activity that does not have the intention of pleasing the Lord’s senses as its primary cause. Therefore, if
one thinks he is following in the footsteps of the gopis, but does not follow the strict moral and ethical codes of
religion outlined in the philosophical conclusions of the Vaisnava siddhanta, he is showing signs of sentimentality.
This is called Sahajaism. Religion without clear understanding and application of the philosophy is sentimentality.

Clearly, if one wishes to perform raganuga-bhakti, one must follow the correct procedure to attain to this lofty
position. Sometimes in a mixed society, where different levels of devotees abound, what seems like a clear
understanding becomes twisted and misunderstood. When a misunderstanding is then re-presented by another (who
also misunderstands) that perverted understanding (or that misunderstanding) can then be presented as the real thing
—this occurance is common place in Kali-yuga, but it should be stamped-out at the root and not allowed a place in
Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON. A true spiritual society belives in actions supported by scripture, and understood by
exhalted personalities. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says; yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata,
abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious
practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.” (Bg. 4.7) The
word srjamy, found at the end of this verse indicates that the Lord manifest personally, and as we all know, the Lord
has recently descended as His own devotee to teach the science of Krsna consciousness to the masses. His work is
now being carried out via the teachings and magnanimous blessings of His great devotees, the acaryas, and their
representatives. For a clear understanding on this topic one may consult the work of Srila Rupa Goswami. In his
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu he has given the specifics of all rules and regulations in this regard.

22. “The introspective neophyte rejects demigod worship and worships only Krsna, though with certain
material motivations. He is inexperienced in the understanding of the spiritual identities of himself, Lord
Krsna, and the pure devotee of the Lord. Though he is simple and naive, he is not offensive; he is just
preoccupied with himself. Therefore, the neophytes are not considered to be pure Vaisnavas, though they are
certainly to be seen as vaisnava-praya or resembling Vaisnavas.

Commentary
This instruction from Sri Harinama Cintamani continues where the last instruction left off. The position of the
neophyte devotee is that he has begun on the path, but still has attachement to gratifying his senses via connection
with sense objects. If one has reached the position of a vaisnava-praya one is in a fortunate position. By continued
chanting with the desire to please the spiritual master following the rules of vaidhi-bhakti, one may rise through the
devotional levels until one’s attachment for Lord Krsna’s Holy Name reduces one’s attachement for material life. The
Lord’s Holy Name is the only panacea for the material desease of sense gratification.

A kanistha-bhakta on the very low levels is content to chant the Lord’s Holy Name, watch television, and engaging in
other mundane sense gratificatory processes. For such a person the material world appears attractive and very real. A
person will remain on this level and not advance, if his chanting is imbued with offenses, the foremost of which is
inattentive chanting. However, with determined effort and a sincere heart full of remorse, such a person can change
his unfortunate position via the blessings of the great souls who benedict the sincere seeker of the truth with the
ability of fixed-resolve. Thus, the neophyte gives up the habbit of gratifying the material senses and worshipping the
demigods for fruits, and instead seeks shelter in the Holy Name and service to the Deity. By sincere selfless service to
the madyama or uttama devotee, the kanistha may then feel an upsurge in his desire to tread the path of righteousness.
The added help from the blessings of sadhu provide the kanistha with the required spiritual strength and faith to
deepen his level of attachment to the Lord, which comes through connection with the Holy Name.

23. “The intermediate introspective jiva, or the madhyama, is a pure devotee and is very firmly situated in
devotion. As for the uttama or advanced introspective jiva, so much can be said about him: he has reached a
state of perfect equanimity. One cannot become truly introspective without first being situated in knowledge of
the equal position of the Holy Name and Krsna Himself. The introspective jiva automatically has a single-
minded faith in the Supreme Lord; hence, he is entitled to chant the Holy Name purely.

Commentary
All glories come to one who looks internally for answers, for by going within the whole universe both disappears and
reappears. This position may be aquired only after the causeless mercy of guru, and sadhu has descended. The Lord is
one—the nondual brahman. He is therefore not partial to anyone. It is not that the Lord thinks; “this is My son, and
this, is the son of another.” No, He is the father of all! When one understands this point, one will work to spread His
merciful blessings to all. This is the hallmark of the madhyama and uttama devotees. The kanistha is the fortunate
soul who has understood this point in principle, and he works to serve those who have understood this point within
the core of their hearts. Those with a pure heart have darshan of the Lord at all times, and this position situates them
in firm devotion to His lotus feet—His Holy Name, and His message. Those who are truly introspective see the Lord’s
hand in everything. Understanding that the Lord is their only goal, maintainer, and protector, they are qualified to
chant His Holy Name purely without offense.

Advancement in hearing, chanting, and remembering

24. “The order of discipline or sadhana-krama is as follows: The introspective devotee must at first discard all
the ten offenses and simply meditate on the Holy Name, trying to chant constantly. He should distinctly
pronounce the Holy Name and meditate upon the transcendental sound vibration. When his chanting is clear,
steady and blissful he should try and meditate on the Syamasundara form of the Lord. With chanting beads in
hand, his chanting and meditation should seek out the transcendental form of the Holy Name. He will indeed
see with spiritual vision the real meaning the name represents.

Commentary
In the beginning of Sri Harinama Cintamani we were taught about the glories of Sri Gauranga and Sri Krsna, who are
one and the same. After fully comprehending the Lord’s great position and our relationship to Him in service, we
were given more confidential information and led into a position whereby we can be considered a member of the
Lord’s family. I can try to explain how this works with the following comment. “When one entertains guests it is the
duty of the host to be pollite and fulfill the desires of the guests, making them feel very comfortable and at ease in
your home. When that same guest frequents your home and becomes familiar enough to help with the task of serving
other guests, he becomes a helpful friend. If that guest repeatedly comes around and assists in the mood of rendering
service, he becomes a dearmost friend. And when that friendship is increased via loving attachements, he becomes an
accepted member of the family. At this time, such a person may no longer sit to be served as guests are, but will
choose to help as a family member. When the guests leave, he remains and enjoys jovial talks with his intimate family
members, entering into a deeper relationship with them.” So this is the goal of all devotees—to go from being a guest
in the Lord’s house, (which is being looked after by sadhu), to being a member of that sadhu’s clan. In the Srimad-
Bhagavatam the following is written regarding the effects of taking shelter in the Lord’s family:

bhaktih paresanubhavo viraktir

anyatra caisa trika eka-kalah
prapadyamanasya yathasnatah syus
tustih pustih ksud-apayo 'nu-ghasam

Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things—these three
occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the
same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly,
with each bite, for a person engaged in eating. (SB. 11.2.42)

In this way, via the mercy of sadhu, one becomes an intimate family member of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and
attains direct experience of Him via devotion. Now, this text is explaining exactly how to achieve this end. Going
under the heading of sadhana-krama, or the discipline of devotional practices, a devotee is herein given the guidelines
of how to become a member of the Lord’s family of intimate devotees via joining the clan of Sri guru. A clan is a
smaller branch of a large family. Another word for a clan is kinfolk, which means to be related by family ties. Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed His followers to become dasa anu dasa, the servant of His servant. By scriptural
analysis we understand that Lord Baladeva is Lord Krsna’s first expansion as His servant, and Sri Nityananda is that
very same Lord Baladeva. A futher expansion of Sri Baladeva is Sankarsana, who is Sri Anantadeva. A further
expansion of Sankarsana is Karnadakasai Visnu, and Sri Advaita Acarya has been described as a limb of
Karanadakasai Visnu, or Maha Visnu. These two, Lord Nityananda and Sri Advaita, as well as Srila Gadhadhara
Pandita, who is known as the spiritual energy of the Lord, are the servants of Lord Gauranga. The servants of these
servants, headed by Srivasa Pandita Prabhu are known as gaura-bhaktas (all others in the line of devotion). Gaura-
bhaka-vrndas include all devotees who have perfected their lives to gain enterance into the family of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. These may be known as the acaryas and their appointed representatives the gurus. Further
representatives of the gurus are the devotees of the Lord who are also known as gaura-bhakta-vrnda—these are
known as madyama devotees. Thus to become dasa-anu-dasa means to become the servant of the pancatattva, who
have appointed as their representatives those who have risen to the uttama or madyama platform—a kanistha may not
receive service from a madyama or uttama devotee, but must give service. Thus, by understanding one’s position in
the hierarchical order, one may become dasa-anu-dasa right up to the point of Lord Nityanandarama (the original
guru) via the paramapara system. In this way a devotee begins his chanting of the maha-mantra via chanting the
pancatattva mantra as follows: Sri Krsna Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadhadhara, Srivasadi gaura-
bhakta-vrnda. I offer my obeisances to Sri Krsna Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasa and
all others in the line of devotion.

The beginning of discipline is that a devotee must discard all ten offenses to the Holy Name and offenses to the
Deities. This takes the aspiring devotee away from chanting with offenses (namaparadha) and situates him in
namabhasa chanting. After this, one must concentrate his attention on the method that will releave him of his material
disease. That method is given in this text; ‘to meditate on the Holy Name, trying to chant constantly.’ You will notice
in this teaching that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is not a lightweight in his devotional practices and therefore his
instructions are similarly not diluted—they are straight to the point! One must give up all offenses and try to chant
constantly, beginning with simply listening to the sound vibration of the Holy Name chanted loudly.

In this final chapter we have so far learned about the topic of bhava, and specifically the four bhavas, which manifest
in the body of a devotee and mix to produce the primary rasa which the devotee serves the Lord through. So this is a
serious topic, and one can only understand this topic as much as one is enlightened, therefore to gain enlightenment
we are herein given the path, which is called sadhana-krama. Please therefore understand the importance of
devotional practices (sadhana-bhakti) and specifically the chanting of the Holy Name for extended periods of time,
i.e. 32, 42, 50, 64, 128 rounds etc. This will lead one further to understand and taste the topic of namarasa.

The technique given by Srila Prabhupada that was described earlier is that one must try to hear the Holy Name. The
same instruction is given herein. ‘He should distinctly pronounce the Holy Name and meditate upon the
transcendental sound vibration.’ So this instruction in and of itself has been enough to take many devotee’s to a high
level in their devotion, however, to attain to the stages of bhava, prema, and rasa, through connection with the Holy
Name, one needs to go further with one’s chanting. For this reason a devotee must first discard the ten offenses and
chant for long periods of time in order to traverse the anartha-nrvrtti stage. To do this the sadhaka must live in the
association of devotees and constantly hear the topics of the Bhagavatam in order to place his daily thoughts on the
spiritual world as opposed to thoughts that stimulate his conditioned nature. In this way, when a devotee sits to
meditate on the sound vibration of the Holy Name he can actually hear the name, and not simply listen to his mind
jumping from one material topic to another. After this is accomplished, one must meditate on the Syamsundara form
of the Lord. The instruction given in this text of Sri Harinama Cintamani is as follows:

When his chanting is clear, steady and blissful he should try and meditate on the Syamasundara form
of the Lord. With chanting beads in hand, his chanting and meditation should seek out the
transcendental form of the Holy Name. He will indeed see with spiritual vision the real meaning the
name represents.

The transcendental form of the Holy Name is the Syamasundara form of the Lord. Krsna is a person and therefore the
word ‘form’ used in this sentence means ‘a person.’ That personal form of the Lord is known as Syamasundara, the
beautiful bluish cowheard boy, with a peacock feather in His hair. An explanation of Lord Gaurnaga’s position as
Lord Syamasundara was given after the legendary talks between Srila Ramamanda Raya and Sri Gaurasundara had
reached a conclusion. There, Ramananda Raya made the following statement:

My dear Lord, at first I saw You appear like a sannyasi, but now I am seeing You as Syamasundara, the
cowherd boy.

I now see You appearing like a golden doll, and Your entire body appears covered by a golden luster.

I see that You are holding a flute to Your mouth, and Your lotus eyes are moving very restlessly due to
various ecstasies.

I actually see You in this way, and this is very wonderful. My Lord, please tell me without duplicity
what is causing this. (Cc. madhya-lila 8.268-271)

What is the real meaning the name represents? It is rasa. What is that rasa? Rasa is also known as prema-rasa, or
krsna-prema—a loving relationship with the most attractive person in entirety, Sri Krsna. There can be no meaning to
the word rasa without Lord Krsna and the Lord’s hladini-sakti. Lord Krsna is the vaisaya and the devotee is the
asraya. Lord Krsna’s udippana (qualities) are the impetuous that causes a devotee to act. For any action there must be
some reason, and that reason is called the impetus to act, this is called udippana. The two divisions of vibhava are
therefore called …….. and udippana, this was explained in text ….

Material rasa can not be counted as rasa because it deals with miserable conditions, and the temporary. Material rasa
is a perverted reflection of real rasa. Rasa, in the real sense, deals only with permanent loving relationships—the
reason why this is so, is because the hladini potency is the energy which gives the Lord pleasure. In this way a
devotee accesses the Lord’s energy known as ahladini in order to exchange loving gestures with the Lord. In order to
understand how to access the hladini-shakti we may want to know where to find it, thus we may question; who is the
repository of the hladini-sakti? It is of course none other than Srimati Radharani, for She is the embodiment of love.
And maha-bhava, which is the highest expression of love, is only possessed by Srimati Radharani. Maha-bhava is the
pinnicle expression of the hladini-sakti. Therefore, the real meaning the Holy Name represents is the eternal
relastionship a jiva has with her beloved master, Syama. That is achieved through the mercy of Sri Radha. The real
meaning of the Holy Name was revealed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His teachings to Vallabha Bhatta. They
indicate the Vrndavana rasa as the pinnacle.

krsna-namera bahu artha na mani

syama-sundara yasoda-nandana, ei-matra jani

I do not accept many different meanings for the Holy Name of Krsna. I know only that Lord Krsna is
Syamasundara and Yasodanandana. That’s all I know.

25. “Another method he may employ to see this form is to sit in front of the Deities, drink the beautiful form of
the Lord with his eyes and meditate upon the Holy Name. Even after reaching the stage where the Holy Name
and the form of the Lord become one, he must try to remember the transcendental qualities of Lord Krsna.
The Holy Name and the qualities of Krsna must merge through constant chanting.

Commentary
Texts 24, 25 & 26 of this chapter describe the process of elevation via chanting, providing a timeless method that
gives the reader a clear understanding of what is required as a preliminary to svarsiki bhajana (real chanting). The
teachings of these three texts constitute the basis of the utsaha-technique that ISEKC is freely teaching to all serious
devotees who are desirous of going back to home, back to Godhead. Haribhajana entails using specific methodology
to achieve the desired result of krsna-prema. In this text we are not given detailed specifics of the Thakura’s private
method of bhajana, but we are given teachings that will lead us to using such methods, which are described in other
books. As one progresses, leaving the stage of kanistha, and entering the stage of madhyama, one’s anarthas
gradually diminish yy the all-purifying strength of the Holy Name. As progress is made, the Lord from within guides
the sincere student to the teachings he needs to deepen his connection with the Lord in a more intimate meditative
way. Now, some people may think that one can access this information simply by reading books like Sri Bhajana
Rahasya, or Sri Caitanya Siksamrta, etc, but sadly this is not the case. To enter into the deep topic of bhajana one
needs qualification, and a bonafide representative of the Lord to help out. Knowledge of the spiritual stratum, and the
process of attaining such is transmitted via spiritual sound vibration, sabdha-brahmana. This pure sound vibration
acts on the heart and transforms the heart. Such knowledge descends through a person, a living representative of the
Lord. The blessings of the sages can therefore not be overlooked in the formula for attaining success in bhajana.
There are many open secrets in spiritual circles. Such secrets are kept locked in the heart contaminated by lack of
faith! How is that faith changed? One must chant according to the path of the mahajanas. Therefore, to access the
secrets of bhajana takes more than just reading a book or listening to a lecture on Mp3. The process has been
described by Sri Krsna to Arjuna, who was playing the role of an inquisitive disciple. The Lord gives the following
instruction to any person desirous of understanding the truth:

tad viddhi pranipatena

pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah
 Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render
service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the
truth. (Bg. 3.34)

The teachings from this sloka help us to comprehend the importance of service to the pure devotee. If this is not done,
there can be no futher progress made. Understanding this is most important! Then in the very next sloka the Lord
gives the sublime result of receiving such knowledge.

yaj jnatva na punar moham

evam yasyasi pandava
yena bhutany asesani
draksyasy atmany atho mayi

Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realized soul, you will never fall again into such illusion,
for by this knowledge you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or in other words,
that they are Mine. (Bg. 3.35)

The words draksyasy atmany atho mayi indicate that once you have received this knowledge you will see that all
beings are a part of the Lord, and indeed “are within the Lord.” These are very important words as they indicate that
the truth, that all living beings are looking for culminates in chanting the Holy Name. There is nothing beyond this
knowledge, for there is nothing beyond the Lord. With this knowledge one can enter into the mysteries of how to act
according to the spiritual realities. This knowledge however, is only revealed within the heart of the sincere student by
the bonafide representative of the Lord. This system is called parampara praptam vidhu (vijnana). To accept
knowledge, actualized and realized by the descending process of master to disciple.

The instruction of this text is that one may implement a technique to help develop meditation on the Lord. In a very
silent atmosphere, one may sit before one’s Deities (that one has developed attraction for), and while chanting, and
fervently begging for Their mercy, you will eventually begin to comprehend Their beauty. In the previous text we
were instructed to ‘first concentrate on the Holy Name and then try to see the Syamasundara form of the Lord,’ but
this instruction has a prerequisite to it. That one must first discard the ten offenses! In other words, if one is still
attached to committing offenses, where is the possibility of the Lord manifesting His form from His Holy Name,
which descends directly from Vikuntha? Please remember that the Lord, the Lord’s Holy Name, and anything
connected to the Lord is always one hundred percent spiritual and never comes in contact with, or is contaminated by,
anything material. With this in mind we can understand that for the Lord to manifest, even in partial degrees, there
must be a specific amount of purification, sincerity, trust, faith, and enthusiasm on the part of the chanter. Therefore
the ten offenses must be given up! When instructing the world in relation to giving up offenses Lord Caitanya chose
the son-in-law of of Sarvabhaumana-Bhattacarya, Amogha, in order to enact the pastime that displays the
consequence of having a contaminated heart. Even though Amogha had taken birth in a brahmana familily his heart
was polluted with the habbit of faut-finding, thus it was seen by the offense of blaspheming devotees. By the mercy of
Lord Gauranga however, this anartha was removed. Amogha thus became a pure devotee, and was celebrated as the
twenty-eighth branch of Lord Caitanya’s tree. Teaching the entire world, the Lord spoke as follows:

The heart of a brahmana is by nature very clean; therefore it is a proper place for Krsna to sit. Why
have you allowed the candala of jealousy to sit here also? In this way you have contaminated a most
purified place, your heart.

However, due to the association of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, all your contamination is now
vanquished. When a person’s heart is cleansed of all contamination, he is able to chant the maha-
mantra, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare.

Therefore, Amogha, get up and chant the Hare Krsna maha-mantra! If you do so, Krsna will
unfailingly bestow mercy upon you. (Cc. madhya-lila 15.274-277)
Sri Harinama Cintamani is now moving very fast with its instructions. If one reads these instructions without
meditating on the deeper meanings they represent one may miss out on a great deal. For this reason we are attempting
to elaborate on these teachings in attempt to clarify the hidden connotation behind the lofty words of these great
sadhus. Eloquence is truth spoken concisely, therefore great teachers, choose the minimum amount of words to give
the maximum potency. In this way they may speak in phrases, parables, slokas, riddles, poetry, or in codes. The job of
those who follow in their footsteps is to beg for their mercy to be able to describe the meaning behind their words.

At this point in Sri Harinama Cintamani’s teachings it is considered that the sadhaka has changed his lifestyle from
being sinful to saintly and from extroverted to instrospective. He has found a master and surrendered his life
accordingly, and he has thus increased his faith in the process of upliftment via sitting in his master’s presence and
emulating his chanting. Such a surrendered soul has subsequesntly given up the bad habbits known as the ten offenses
to the Holy Name, and the fifty-two offenses in Deity service. He has taken his meditations to a stage where he
intently focuses on the sound vibration of the Holy Name. Thus, by the mercy of the all purifying Holy Name he has
gone from being materially contaminated to having a more puriifed heart that is fixed and steady, and he is now
experiencing taste and attraction from associating with the Holy Name. This is the great mercy of the Holy Name! In
the process of advancement, he has placed his attention on the Syamasundara form of the Lord, and in this way the
sadhaka’s mind has since become peaceful and subdued of material desires. While sitting before the Deity and
chanting the Lord’s Holy Name the devotee now begins to implement this third technique to improve his chanting. Sri
Harinama Cintamani’s instruction is as follows:

Even after reaching the stage where the Holy Name and the form of the Lord become one, he must try
to remember the transcendental qualities of Lord Krsna.

With a subdued mind the devotee thus understands that the Holy Name and the Lord are non-different. Exiting the
world of never-ending personal desires, the mind then enters within. Where does it go? The mind enters within the
heart! And what is happening within the heart? The eyes may bring information about the Lord in His Deity form
before the devotee, but the information coming in from the eyes is filtered through the apparatus of past material
conditioning within the brain’s workings. Therefore, the eyes that see the Deity without guidance from the purified
heart see only a material statue before them. A devotee’s eyes see differently. His eyes have been smeared with the
salve of love. Premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena, santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti, yam syamasundaram
acintya-guna-svarupam. ‘The eyes that have been anointed with the salve of love see the beautiful dark blue
Syamasundara form of the Lord through the heart’ (Bs. 5.38). The heart becomes the apparatus for interpreting the
information coming in from the senses, and the result is that the devotee experiences spiritual union in varying
degrees going from smoldering to highly inflamed. The sattvika-bhava known as suddipta-sattvika is not generally
seen in devotees, but Lord Caitanya exhibited these symptoms to His cherished devotee Sarvabaumana Bhattacarya.
The Lord’s sattvika symptoms are described in the Caitanya Caritamrta as follows:

avese calila prabhu jagannatha-mandire

jagannatha dekhi’ preme ha-ila asthire

In ecstasy, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went from Atharanala to the temple of Jagannatha. After seeing
Lord Jagannatha, He became very restless due to love of Godhead.

jagannatha alingite calila dhana

mandire padila preme avista hana

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went swiftly to embrace Lord Jagannatha, but when He entered the
temple, He was so overwhelmed with love of Godhead that He fainted to the floor. (Cc. madhya-lila
6.3-4)

In this way a devotee’s mind exits the material world of dualities, and, after reaching the stage where the Holy Name
and the form of the Lord become one, the devotee begins to remember the transcendental qualities of the Lord within
his heart! This throws him into a state of spiritual excitement, and any of the four bhavas are shown on his body
accordingly. This state should be entered into again and again in order to completely merge the Holy Name, the form,
and the qualities of the Lord. In this way the four bhavas manifest the svabhava, and as the spiritual realities manifest,
the Lord’s pastimes gradually unfold to the devotee. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam King Yudhisthira spoke about of the
glories of the Lord’s name, form and qualities as follows:

How can misfortune arise for those who have even once freely drunk the nectar coming from Your
lotus feet? This intoxicating liquor pours into the drinking cups of their ears, having flowed from the
minds of great devotees through their mouths. It destroys the embodied souls' forgetfulness of the
creator of their bodily existence.

The radiance of Your personal form dispels the threefold effects of material consciousness, and by
Your grace we become immersed in total happiness. Your knowledge is indivisible and unrestricted. By
Your yogamaya potency You have assumed this human form for protecting the Vedas, which had been
threatened by time. We bow down to You, the final destination of perfect saints. (SB. 10.83.3-4)

24. “The order of discipline or sadhana-krama is as follows: The introspective devotee must at first discard all
the ten offenses and simply meditate on the Holy Name, trying to chant constantly. He should distinctly
pronounce the Holy Name and meditate upon the transcendental sound vibration. When his chanting is clear,
steady and blissful he should try and meditate on the Syamasundara form of the Lord. With chanting beads in
hand, his chanting and meditation should seek out the transcendental form of the Holy Name. He will indeed
see with spiritual vision the real meaning the name represents.

25. “Another method he may employ to see this form is to sit in front of the Deities, drink the beautiful form of
the Lord with his eyes and meditate upon the Holy Name. Even after reaching the stage where the Holy Name
and the form of the Lord become one, he must try to remember the transcendental qualities of Lord Krsna.
The Holy Name and the qualities of Krsna must merge through constant chanting.

26. “Next, he goes on to practice the remembrance of Krsna's pastimes; generally, these will be pastimes that
facilitate meditation upon the Holy Name. The lila-smarana or pastime meditations also gradually become one
with the Holy Name, form, and qualities of the Lord. At this point, the first rays of namarasa, or the
transcendental mellows of the Holy Name, dawn on the horizon of perception. Progressively, the devotee's
practice of lila-smarana intensifies to the point where he begins to meditate on the most confidential pastimes of
the Lord known as the asta-kaliya-lila, or the eightfold pastimes of Radha-Krsna. When his meditation reaches
maturity, rasa rises in full glory.

Commentary
This is the third of three very important instructions. Some may read these last three verses and think they are
discussing a third party separate from themselves. In this way they may scan over these instructions and miss out on
the important information contained therein. Actually this instruction is not discussing a fabricated third party at all.
Moreover the instructions given in texts 24, 25, & 26 are directed toward you, when you are ready to hear them.
Sadhu speaks the hightest truth, but a sadhaka may only hear as much as he can understand. Understanding is the
mercy of the indwelling Lord. This mercy comes via connection with the spiritual.

In text twenty-four we were instructed to firstly discard the ten offenses—that means to stop committing offenses—
then we should chant constantly. Our chanting should be clear enough to hear the Holy Name, and when we are fixed
on the name we are instructed to meditate on the Syamasundara form of the Lord. In text twenty-five another method
was given which may enable deeper connection via seeing the Deity form of the Lord before our eyes. The Deity is
not material. To recoup; in the first of our three instructions we were given the Lord’s name, and then the Lord’s form
as an object of attention for our meditation. The second of these three important instructions gives further advice, to
remember the qualities of the Lord, and merge the name, form, and qualities into one. In this way we have been given
direct instruction to meditate on the name, the form, and the qualities of the Lord, in succession. At this point some
people may say that Srila Prabhupada only gave the first of these instructions (to meditate on the Holy Name);
however, we have already delt with this issue earlier in the book. In this text twenty-six, we have been given further
instruction by the namacarya, to meditate on the pastimes of the Lord. In this way, direct instructions from the lips of
the namacarya are given from his appointed representative, the father of the modern-day Hare Krsna movement, Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura.

If we trace our steps back to text twenty-four and twenty-five we find that our chanting of the Holy Name and
meditation on the Syamasundara form of the Lord should be carried out to such a high degree that they merge into
one. This is no play on words; this is a direct instruction that can be perceived only by the sincere chanter who has
given up offenses. After this stage is reached, meditation on the qualities of the Lord must also be performed, until a
point is reached where all three aspects of the Lord merge into one another. This happens only by constant chanting! It
is not that we stop chanting while we are trying to remember the form or qualities of the Lord. Rather we continue
chanting, and within our japa meditations, while chanting is going on, we become aware of the other things. This is
what Srila Prabhupada meant by simply listening to the Holy Name when chanting. From the merging of the Holy
Name, the form, and qualities of the Lord, the Lord’s pastimes gradually unfold. Now that this process has been
clarified by Sri Harinama Cintamani, we are given futher instruction as follows:

Next, he goes on to practice the remembrance of Krsna's pastimes; generally, these will be pastimes
that facilitate meditation upon the Holy Name. The lila-smarana or pastime meditations also gradually
become one with the Holy Name, form, and qualities of the Lord.

The Lord has many pastimes, and when His devotees describe such pastimes they can not do so without describing
the Lord’s qualities. It is the duty of all devotees to hear these pastimes (hearing is achieved through reading also). In
this way, when a devotee hears about the Lord’s pastimes he accesses knowledge of the Lord’s qualities, and it is by
remembering these pastimes, as they are recounted by the lips of a pure devotee, that one begins to meditate on the
qualities of the Lord. Now the Lord’s pastimes come in various forms at different stages, and these are known as
complete, more complete and most complete. The teaching from Lord Caitanya on this matter is as follows:

vraje krsna—sarvaisvarya-prakase purnatama

puri-dvaye, paravyome—purnatara, purna

Krsna is complete in the spiritual sky (Vaikuntha), He is more complete in Mathura and Dvaraka, and
He is most complete in Vrndavana, Vraja, due to His manifesting all His opulences. (Cc. madhya-lila
20.398)

If we were to take a pastime form of the Lord in His Visnu incarnations, we can see that one mood prevails in these
pastimes (the mood of awe and reverence). In these pastimes the Lord is revered as almighty, and because of this,
separation of intimacy must be there in order to enact these pastimes. If we take another example of the Lord’s
pastimes and hear about the Lord in His Vasudeva lilas, we see that there is more imtimacy in the rasa’s between the
Lord and His devotees in these lilas, but still, due to the nature of the events that happened during the time period of
these pastimes, there is still a distinct mood of reverence due to kingly oppulence. All of these pastimes of the Lord
are perfect for describing the qualities of the Lord, and therefore all pastimes must be heard again and again in order
to understand the Lord’s unlimited qualities, and His greatness. (The Lord’s pastimes are also specific for removing
anarthas, but we will not go into that topic here). Rasa can not be counted as such unless there are many expressions,
and these expressions are created through the lives of the Lord’s many devotees, who all have specific tastes, or rasas
with the Lord.

Sri Harinama Cintamani advocates that when a devotee chants japa, he should meditate on the Lord’s name, form,
qualities, and pastimes in succession. But beyond all of the pastimes mentioned previously, Sri Harinama Cintamani
recommends that a devotee chooses those pastimes that facilitate meditation on the Holy Name. Seeing as though this
is a very important point, I would like to spend some time to clarify these matters.

Firstly, we should comprehend the real meaning of the maha-mantra. There are different explanations of the Holy
Name given by sages such as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Sri Jiva Goswami, Srila Gopala Guru Goswami., Srila
……………….. and more. These explanations of the maha-mantra, coupled with the instructions left by the Lord in
His Sri Siksastakam indicate that the maha-mantra is the Divine couple’s pastimes—the pastimes of Sri Sri
Radharamana. Therefore to remember these pastimes while chanting japa is the perfection of chanting. Remembering
these pastimes is known as lila-smarana. Thus, in great ecstasy a devotee connects with the Lord in pure
unadulterated love. In this connection Lord Caitanya prays as follows:

aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam

adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

Lord Krsna, who is the lover of many women may embrace this fully surrendered maidservant, or He
may trample me with His feet, or He may render me brokenhearted by not being present before me for
a long duration of time—but still He is nothing less than the Absolute Lord of my heart. (Ss. Verse 8)

During the Lord Jaganatha’s Rathayatra pastimes Lord Caitanya would constantly chant the following mantra,
displaying His internal mood. We should emulate this mood by following in His footsteps in the mood of the gopis.
The Lord spoke as follows:

yah kaumara-harah sa eva hi varas ta eva caitra-ksapas

te conmilita-malati-surabhayah praudhah kadambanilah
sa caivasmi tathapi tatra surata-vyapara-lila-vidhau
reva-rodhasi vetasi-taru-tale cetah samutkanthate

That very personality who stole my heart during my youth is now again my master. These are the same
moonlit nights of the month of Caitra. The same fragrance of malati flowers is there, and the same
sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same
lover, yet still my mind is not happy here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Reva
under the Vetasi tree. That is my desire. (Cc. madhya-lila 1.58)

This verse explains the feelings of Srimati Radharani in the Vrndavana mood. Lord Caitanya constantly tasted that
mood. To meditate on this one must be in an advanced state. There is no point in giving teachings on this. Those who
understand do not need to be taught, and those who do not understand need to first understand the level where they
are at. At this point we may add that meditation is an affair of the heart. It is something that is tasted and savored by
the heart. Long periods of introspection are needed to acquire the qualification to achieve this. Please be patient in this
matter.

In explaining the meaning of rama in the maha-mantra, Srila Prabhupada would indicate that rama means Lord
Balarama or Lord Ramacandra. In this way Srila Prabhupada was giving devotees a possibility of meditation that
would eventually qualify the devotee to meditate on another understanding of the word rama, which is given by
previous acaryas as being Radha-Ramana. It may be very nice for a devotee to see the Holy Name as being Radha-
Krsna’s pastimes, but if such a devotee is committing offenses while thinking of this meaning, he is more likely to go
down. It may therefore be concluded that to think of rama as meaning Sri Balarama, is a better option for the
neophyte, as Lord Balarama, when pleased, will bestow spiritual strength on an individual. There is a time place and
circumstance for everything, and once a devotee has made enough spiritual advancement he should then continue his
meditations on the Holy Name with the deeper understanding of pleasing Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha-Kisora.

In this text twenty-six of chapter fifteen on confidential worship, we are informed that our chanting must include the
uttering of the Holy Name, the remembrance of the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes, and that all of these should
merge with constant chanting. To assist in this matter some great devotees have given their own description of the
meaning of the maha-mantra. At the right time these meanings will help the sincere student meditate on the pastimes
of the Lord, lila-smarana. For now, please enjoy these transcendental meditations as they have great power to purify
our polluted hearts.

Please add several elaborations here………

By following these guidelines, the beginnings of transcendental mellows given from the Holy Name, namarasa, begin
to emerge. Now if a devotee continues in this manner his bhajana will begin to unfold the Lord’s intimate dealings
with His consort known as the asta-kaliya-lila. When this type of meditation is entered into again and again, and the
sadhaka has learned of his svarupa and is acting accordingly, the sentiments of the gopis enters into his purified heart
and he is qualified to enter into the spiritual planet of Gokula, experiencing krsna-prema. This is the process of
advancement through chanting, and this is the yuga-dharma! I pray that all devotees will become serious about their
chanting, and understand that going back to home, back to Godhead is a process that requires qualification. It is true
that the spiritual master, the previous acarya’s and Srila Prabhupada’s blessings will always be there to help, but no
purified representative of the Lord will introduce an unqualified sadhaka to the spiritual world until that person has
proven his worth via the purification of his own heart—this is what is meant by going from the stage of sadhana to
siddhi. Why would the namacarya even bother describing the process of elevation through chanting if it were not
needed? If a devotee’s sentiments of compassion are aroused via his purification, and this compassion compels him to
bless those who take shelter of his lotus feet, then surely elevated souls such as Srila Haridasa Thakura and Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura would gladly grant everyone entrance into their eternal home if it were that simple. The truth is
that these great souls eagerly await the opportunity to help and bless those who take their shelter, but their blessings
are generally appropriate to the amount of effort and sincerity put in by the sadhaka. The Lord’s representatives
follow His directions perfectly; there can be no other way! In this regard the Lord says:

ye yatha mam prapadyante

tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
mama vartmanuvartante
manusyah partha sarvasah

As all surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son
of Prtha. (Bg. 4.11)

Although a pure representative of Lord Krsna, such as Narada Muni, Srila Haridasa Thakura, or Srila Prabhupada
definitely have the power invested in them to give out krsna-prema even to those who are not qualified, occasions of
this are very rare indeed. Please therefore understand that the onus for advancement lies with each individual, and the
fastest process for this advancement is described in Sri Harinama Cintamani as; attentive chanting! Service to the
pure devotee will facilitate that chanting.

The following of the varnasrama system is a secondary process and is not needed, nor recommended when the
primary process is available. However, for the grhastha engaged in Krsna consciousness, it is prescribed that one may
work according to one’s own nature while one pursues the principle process—this is called daivi-varnasrama. The
word daivi means transcendental to material nature, and the word asrama is well known to all. Put together the two
indicate that one who follows a transcendental path may work to earn a living by performing his own duty (the duty
that most suits his psychophysical make-up). While working, the devotee must dovetail all his actions and the fruits of
his labor towards the Lord’s service, or in service of the Lord’s representative. This is the meaning of daivi-
varnasrama. In daivi-varnasrama the main focus is on the chanting but because a need for money is there due to the
asrama (specifically the grhastha-asrama), that focus takes a bit of a back seat and becomes a slower process. In the
Bhagavad-gita the Lord says the following in this regard:

yat karosi yad asnasi

yaj juhosi dadasi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kurusva mad-arpanam

O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all
austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me. (Bg. 9.27)

Better than this path, is the path of renouncing the world (sannyasa) as on this path one can more easily attain
unmotivated service to the pure devotee (unmotivated service is the principle method spoken of earlier, as it is wholly
connected to the chanting process). The path of renunciation (tyaga) and that of sannyasa are slightly different, and a
devotee of the Lord can be classified as a renunciant without taking the order of sannyasa. The difference between the
two paths of daivi-varasrma and unmotivated service to the madyama devotee without enjoying the furits (karma-
phalam) is that one receives pay in the form of the physical exchange of money and the other not. Please become
clear on this point so that you may choose your path correctly for it is very important to understand which path you
are on so that you will not be deceived by maya. In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says the following about renunciation:

anasritah karma-phalam
karyam karma karoti yah
sa sannyasi ca yogi ca
na niragnir na cakriyah

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who
works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no
fire and performs no duty. (Bg. 6.1)

The swiftest path is always the best; otherwise there would be no meaning to the words principle and secondary paths.
The person performing daivi-varnasrama may still follow the principle path of chanting, but because of the dangers
of material contamination caution and spiritual education is always required—many-a-good soldier has been lost to
the enemy that lies within! One should understand the difference between the secondary path of varnasrama-dharma
and the principle path of daivi-varnasrama.

At the moment in ISKCON’s development there are many devotees in the grhastha-asrama, and for this reason the
concept of daivi-varnasrama has arisen. The point to become clear on is that in the varnasrama system the Lord is
worshipped but in a secondary way. That means the focus of the practitioner has changed. In the daivi-varnasrama
system, the focus is on worship of the Lord using His internal energy (the Holy Name and Deity service). The revenue
generated from the income of the grhastha should be sufficient for his family to live simply, and the penance he pays
for his slight deviation off the pure path is that he dedicates one quarter of his salary to spiritual pursuits. Although,
please understand that in the worship of the Lord using his internal potency (the Holy Name), there is no
recommendation for priascitta, nor is there any need of it. The donation of salary is an affair of the heart, not
priascitta, it is a sign of the devotee’s renunciation. The Srimad-Bhagavatam mentions the best course to follow in the
first canto as follows:

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje

ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati

That religion is best which causes its followers to become ecstatic in love of God that is unmotivated
and free from material impediments, for this alone can completely satisfy the self. (SB. 1.2.6)

The worship of Lord Krsna in Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement is an affair of the heart alone, therefore nothing
can stop it. Even if you are penyless, you may still perform pure devotional service in the highest mood available, for
the Lord’s sankirtana movement is complete in and of itself. There is a nice example of performing daivi-varnasrama
given in the instructions of Lord Krsna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita as follows:

karyam ity eva yat karma

niyatam kriyate ’rjuna
sangam tyaktva phalam caiva
sa tyagah sattvika matah

O Arjuna, when one performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all
material associcition and all attachement to the fruit, his renunciation is said to be in the mode of
goodness. (Bg. 18.09)

This is a nice example of how to perform one’s livelihood using the daivi-varnasrama system. In the purport Srila
Prabhupada states; ‘A man working in Krsna consciousness in a factory does not associate himself with the work of
the factory, nor with the workers of the factory. He simply works for Krsna. And when he gives up the result for
Krsna, he is acting transcendentally.’ In the daivi-varnasrama system, the practitioners must have a directed focus on
attaining the Lord in this lifetime, and they should see this daivi-varnasrama system simply as a passing phase in their
lives, while they are situated in the grhastha-asrama. In other words they should not become attached to their work,
nor to the fruits of work (money, and material comforts). The principle means of selfless service should be adopted by
all other asramas, and by anyone who desires to leave this world as fast as possible. One should never expect
monetary returns for services rendered to the madyama, or uttama devotees if one is in any of the other three asramas.
Please remember and implement this principle, as improper application of funds by temple authorities will not benefit
the members of a spiritual society. In fact it will create a gray scale where things should be black and white. Money
should only be paid to the grhastha whose services are in demand, and this grhastha should set aside a percentage of
this salary for spiritual pursuits—although this is not pure devotional service.

Without going into deep elaborations of performing one’s actions according to the varnas, I would like to infer that a
person who wears the vese (dress) of a brahmana, or for that matter a Vaisnava (dhoti and tilak), should learn by his
dress how he is supposed to act. This is a very important point. It is no surprise to see that it is difficult to perform
manual labor in a dhoti, because this type of work is for the sudra class of people. It is also no surprise to see that
there are no pockets in a dhoti, as pockets are for carrying things like money in. These are the activities of the vaisyas
and ksatriyas. A brahmana lives a simple life and his dress befits this position. The brahmana takes a vow of poverty,
and a Vaisnava is a renunciant (he renounces the fruits of his labor). By the inference of dress a person should act
accordingly. Therefore, when a devotee performs his spiritual practices in the morning and evening he puts on his
dhoti and tilak to symbolize this. When engaged in spiritual practices the devotee should leave his business-head, his
diplomatic-head, and his working-head behind and simply chant attentively! During the day a grhastha may adon his
necessary vese for his varna, but the other’s who remain in the dress of a Vaisnava should understand clearly what
that dress means. The other varnas are brahmacari, vanaprastha, and sannyass. All these classes should understand
the inference I am making by this simple comment.

To give further clarification on the subject of daivi-varnasrama I would like to leave you with Srila Prabhupada’s
words on this topic, and the scriptural proof of the validity of the daivi-varnasrama system. Seeing as though this
example is given in the manifest instructions of Lord Caitanya, it is applicable to every one of Lord Caitanya’s
devotees for all time to come.

Srila Murari Gupta never accepted charity from friends, nor did he accept money from anyone. He
practiced as a physician and maintained his family with his earnings. (Cc. adli-lila 10.50)

PURPORT
It should be noted that a grhastha (householder) must not make his livelihood by begging from anyone.
Every householder of the higher castes should engage himself in his own occupational duty as a
brahmana, ksatriya or vaisya, but he should not engage in the service of others, for this is the duty of a
sudra. One should simply accept whatever he earns by his own profession. The engagements of a
brahmana are yajana, yaajana, pathana, paathana, dana and pratigraha. A brahmana should be a
worshiper of Visnu, and he should also instruct others how to worship Him. A ksatriya can become a
landholder and earn his livelihood by levying taxes or collecting rent from tenants. A vaisya can accept
agriculture or general trade as an occupational duty. Since Murari Gupta was born in a physician’s
family (vaidya-vamsa), he practiced as a physician, and with whatever income he earned he maintained
his family. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, everyone should try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of
Godhead through the execution of his occupational duty. That is the perfection of life. This system is
called daivi-varasrama. Murari Gupta was an ideal grhastha, for he was a great devotee of Lord
Ramacandra and Caitanya Mahaprabhu. By practicing as a physician he maintained his family and at
the same time satisfied Lord Caitanya to the best of his ability. This is the ideal of householder life.

The svarsiki process of worship

27. “Asta-kaliya-lila smarana is also known as svarsiki worship. In this stage of bhajana, Lord Krsna manifests
Himself according to the time and place of the pastime being meditated upon. Now the devotee realizes the full
grace of his spiritual master, who, in his eternal spiritual form (siddha-svarupa), guides the disciple to a sakhi
or gopi, who in turn introduces him into the pastimes of the Lord. Of all the gopis, Srimati Radharani, the
daughter of King Vrsabhanu, is the acme of excellence. She embodies the highest spiritual sentiment,
mahabhava; serving Krsna under Her leadership is the most sublime spiritual experience.

Commentary
Having understood the process of entering into the spiritual realities, we are now being informed about the most
confidential type of worship. Svarsiki worship is undertaken when the sadhaka has crossed the anartha-nirvrtti stage
and is situated in bhava-bhakti. By performing lila-smarana the sadhaka is now purified enough to learn of his
svarupa. At this point, the sadhaka’s eyes fill with tears as he understands just how merciful his spiritual master is, for
without the mercy of the spiritual master, who is a confidential associate of the Lord, the sadhaka would never have
understood who he was, and he would never have been able to leave his material prison house behind. We therefore
send our prostrate obeisances to our eternal spiritual master, as our over-gladdened heart understands his supremely
glorious position and magnanimous behavior towards us.

Following the instructions of his eternal spiritual master, the disciple is shown his siddha-svarupa, his eternal spiritual
form as a gopi messenger. The sadhaka has now realized that he is a confiential messenger for Srimati Radharani.
There are other gopi groups, all of which love Sri Krsna immensely, but which group is as sublime as Srimati
Radharani’s? (This is a rhetorical question that needs no answer).

In scripture we hear about another devotee who loves Lord Krsna very much, but this gopi is portrated as a rival to Sri
Radha. Her name is Candravali, and besides Sri Radha She is the second most important gopi. One may wonder then,
why is She not spoken of very much, and when She is refered to, why is She given such a bad name? After all, if She
is the second best devotee of Sri Krsna that means She is so high in devotion to the Lord that we can not imagine Her
love for the Lord. Unknown offenses to pure devotees are impediments on the path of pure bhakti, but when the
srngara-rasa is the prominanant mood, the question of offense is not considered. Srimati Radharani is a left-wing
gopi, who embodies pure devotion. She is the object of service for all devotees, and it is only through the mercy of
Srimati Radharani that a newly introduced gopi may perform some insignificant service to the lotus eyed Lord. Srila
Ramananda Raya speaks about Srimati Radharani as follows:

The essential part of love of Godhead is called mahabhava, transcendental ecstasy. And that ecstasy is
represented by Srimati Radharani.

Among the gopis of Vrndavana, Srimati Radharani and another gopi are considered chief. But when we
compare the gopis, it appears that Srimati Radharani is most important because Her real feature
expresses the highest ecstasy of love. The ecstasy of love experienced by the other gopis cannot be
compared to that of Srimati Radharani.

The body of Srimati Radharani is a veritable transformation of love of Godhead; She is the dearmost
friend of Krsna, and this is known throughout the world. (Cc. madhya-lila 8.160-162)

The reason we do not follow the camp of Candravalli is because a devotee follows the path of Lord Caitanya. Lord
Caitanya is Lord Krsna in the mood of Srimati Radharani. Therefore, the hidden secret soon to be revealed by Srila
Bhaktivinoda Thakura is that all intimate devotee’s of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who chant Hare Krsna as their only
reason for living, are eligible to enter into the highest conjugal rasa under the yuthesvara of Srimati Radharani. To
enter into devotional service in the yutha or group of Srimati Radharani entails getting to know Sri Radha’s leftist
mood and Her eternal pastimes with the Lord. Otherwise, how can you serve the queen of devotion and Her lover,
Radhanatha! If you do not know the Lord’s asta-kaliya-lila, then how can you help out in these pastimes? How can
you be a group member of Sri Radha, if you don’t even know what to do to assist? For this reason meditation on the
eightfold pastimes of the Lord is a must for the devotee who is advanced on the path of devotion.
As explained in the previous texts, this meditation comes about after the Lord’s name, qualities, and form have
become one in your meditations. There is a distinctly different mood in those whose chanting has manifested the
name, qualities, and form of the Lord, all of which have merged into the Holy Name and again came out in the form
of a living pastime—the understanding of this statement can only be experienced with feelings. To attempt to describe
it in words would not do it justice, moreover it would merely make the reader take things cheaply. Similarly, to
describe such things to people who are not qualified to hear would cause the hearer to doubt one’s words, therefore
qualification for hearing must be sought. A desription of the first of the eight-fold pastimes to be meditated upon can
be found in Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s wonderful Jaiva Dharma, and knowledge of this is given so that aspiring
devotees may rise to the standard of meditation on the Lord’s intimate pastimes. It goes as follows:

One day at sunrise, Babaji Maharaja, his morning bath completed, sat in the calmness of Sri Madhavi-
malati Mandapa grove and began to chant harinama upon his mala. Awareness of his body and the
surrounding phenomenal world faded away. He was soon deep in meditation upon the nisanta-lila, the
dawn pastimes of Goloka Vrndavana—in particular those amorous exchanges of the Divine Couple,
Radha-Krsna, in the love groves of Vrndavana, which would be ending soon with the coming of
daylight, forcing Their separation and return to Their respective homes. Incessant tears streamed down
Babaji Maharaja’s cheeks and, becoming transfixed in his siddha-deha, he executed in meditation the
devotional duties assigned to him in the dawn pastimes of the Divine Couple in Their transcendental
abode.
Sannyasi Thakura, watching at first from a polite distance, gradually came nearer, and with
awestruck wonder began observing closely the ecstatic symptoms now exhibited upon Babaji
Maharaja’s body. Still deep in meditation, Babaji Maharaja called out, “O sakhi! Quickly quieten that
hag of a monkey, Kakkhati! She will disturb the blissful sleep of our most dear Radarani and Govinda.
If They awaken, Lalita-sakhi will be most upset and surely chastise me. Look over there! Ananga-
manjari is signalling that we must do this! You are Ramana-manjari, and having been given this duty,
you should execute it conscientiously.” After speaking these words, Babaji Maharaja fell down in an
ecstatic swoon. Realizing that the words were addressed to him, Sannyasi Thakura understood, at that
moment, both his siddha-deha, spiritual form and identity, and his specific devotional service. Thus, he
began to ready himself for these new devotional assignments. (Jd. Ch. 1)

Similarly in the Bhanjana Rahasya, the following meditation is given for the first of the eight-fold meditiations on the
Lord’s pastimes in the groves of the Vrndavana forests. It is recommended that a serious devotee meditates on these
pastimes at the end of the night.

ratryante transtavrnderita bahu-vira-vaibodhitau kirasari

padyair-hrdhyair api sukha-sayanad-utthitau tau sakhibhih
drstau hrstau tadatvoditarati-lilitau kakkhatigih sasankau
radha-krsnau satrsnav api nija-nija dhamnyapta talpau smarami

At the end of night, Vrnda, being afraid of the approach of day break, prompted the parrot and the
myna bird to awaken Sri Sri Radha and Krsna from Their sleep. Although the birds sang sweetly the
songs were not pleasing, as they woke Radha and Krsna from Their sleep. The sakhis watched from a
distance as the Couple awoke, looking very charming because of the deep love and affection They
shared at that time. Being suspicious of the voice of the she-monkey, Kakkhati, and desirous to
continue Their association, They gazed lovingly at each other. Radha and Krsna then reluctantly
departed for Their respective homes where They quiently lay down on Their own beds.
I worship Radha and Krsna by remembering this pastime. Remember this pastime and sing
Krsna’s names, then you will get the treasure of krsna-prema and Krsna’s dhama. (Br p.16)

Meditating on this prathama-yama sadhana, which is the first bhajana meditation of the day (divided into eight three
hourly pastime periods), will give increased faith, and manifests that particular pastime. As a part of confidential
worship of Radha Krsna, this pastime should be meditated on before the sun rises, but this same pastime must not be
meditated upon by the neophyte devotee. Please therefore seek out that teacher who can take you into a position
whereby you can achieve this meditation, and serve him in an unmotivated uninterrupted manner, for by his grace you
will receive the darshan of the Lord. Have this as your goal. This is called following the principle path to attain the
Lord. What good are secondary paths, and what good are compromises when the Lord’s pastimes are being enacted
right now! The path of the gopis is the most sublime path. Meditation on the Lord’s Holy Name is the best path to
attain krsna-prema!

28. “The five main rasas or spiritual mellows are: Santa (neutrality), dasya (servitorship), sakhya (friendship),
vatsalya (parenthood), and srngara or madhurya (conjugal love). Of these, srngara is the highest. Devotees
eligible to enter the conjugal rasa are the intimate followers of Sri Krsna Caitanya. In this rasa, Lord Krsna
has many yuthesvaris or female group leaders, but everyone prefers Srimati Radharani. She is the direct
manifestation of Lord Krsna's svarupa-sakti or spiritual potency, and all the other vrajagopis are Her
expansions. She is the absolute embodiment of all the rasas. It is therefore essential that the rasika devotee
enrolls in Her yutha or group. Service to Lord Krsna in Vraja is impossible without first taking shelter of the
vrajagopis. One should enter Srimati Radharani's camp and serve directly under Lalitadevi.

When material coverings are removed, the spiritual goal is achieved

29. “In the discipline of rasa, sadhana (practice) and bhajana-siddhi (perfection of worship) move into near
proximity of one another; thus the wide gap between them closes. In a short time, the servitor's spiritual form
begins to take shape. By the mercy of the yuthesvari, he is quite easily overpowered by attraction to Lord
Krsna. This strong spiritual attraction eliminates the gross and subtle material concept of his form that was
caused by his turning away from Krsna. Thus the jiva gains entrance into Vraja in his original spiritual form.
Up to this point, the jiva's progress in spiritual life can be framed in words; beyond it, his relationship with the
Lord is indescribable. It can only be perceived by Your grace, Lord Caitanya.

Commentary
We have since learned about the relationship a jiva has with the Lord in Krsnaloka, either in the mood of santa, dasya,
sakhya, vatsalya or madhurya. When a sadhaka performs meditation as described in the past few texts and enters into
a spiritual relationship with the Lord in one of these five rasas, his sadhana (practice) turns into siddhi (perfection),
and his ecstasy knows no bounds. Advancement means putting into practice all that one has learned, thus to go from
the stage of practice to the stage of perfection is a very short step for the qualified dexterous devotee (he can achieve
this in one lifetime!). After leaving material conceptions behind, one must act according to one’s emotions in
spontainious worship. There is no opportunity to serve Sri Krsna in Goloka from the platform of rules and regulations,
but seeing as though spontiniety is a natural occurance of prema, it follows that there will be no difficulty moving
from the stage of sadhana, to the stage of siddhi. The word rasa means, a spiritual activity performed with one’s heart
overflowing with a loving mood for the Lord. Attaining rasa is called attaining the perfection of one’s actions.

Chanting begins at the point where the devotee discards the ten offenses, or at least he tries to avoid them as best he
can. The unfoldment of consciousness is a gradual occurance, and to go from the stage of sadhana to siddhi one must
practice for many years. We begin by avoiding the ten offenses, and then discarding them completely. During the
stage of practice we traverse the stage of anarthas, and while removing unwanted things from the heart via chanting
the Lord’s Holy Name, we enter into the state of rememberance. A devotee begins by remembering the form and
qualities of the Lord, and from this comes meditation on the pastimes of the Lord. With a detemind effort the stage of
smarana, (remeberance) turns into concentration—that is classified as dhyana. Dhyana eventually turns into darana
when one begins meditation on the pastimes of the Lord, and meditation on the Lord’s pastimes in Vraja eventually
leads to absorption anusmriti for short expanses of time. One must meditate on the Holy Name and merge the Holy
Name with the form and qualities of the Lord. In this way, after repeated meditation one enters into the spiritual
stratum again and again. Meditation on the pastimes of the Lord is at first helped by the spiritual master, but after
repeated attempts the devotee attains this stage by himself. This knowledge will soon be revealed by our spiritual
mentors.

Krsna is known as the all attractive person because His features and attributes are enchanting. His beautiful curly hair
with a peackock feather atop, His strong arms and lion-like chest, His lotus-like eyes and His lips as red as bimba
fruit. Wearing yellow silken garments His body is adorned with the finest clothes and jewelry. Around His neck flows
a garland of freshly picked forest flowers, and swarms of bees follow in pursuit, all maddened by the beautiful aroma
coming from the Lord’s fresh flower garland. Meditating on all these Divine attributes, the devotee’s heart is
overcome with feelings of love, but because the sadhaka still possesses a gross and subtle material body, there are still
attachements caused by his initial rebellion against the Lord. These attachements are known as ahankara, and to rid
oneself of ahankara (or false bodily identification) is the essence of the teachings given herein. In this text the
Thakura’s are taking us on a journey. From the beginning of this chapter to this point we have been led to a very
spiritual place, and now we are being led into the intimate pastimes of Sri Sri Radha Madhava. The instructions we
have been given so far take our consciousness to the point where we may meditate on the Lord’s intimate pastimes,
but as previously described, the sadhaka who has not yet attained perfection still has material attachments. Therefore
we must now pose the question; how do we deepen our meditaitions to inhililate ahankara?

Meditating on the Lord’s pastimes certainly enables one to experience unlimited bliss, but when those pastimes enter
into the category of conjugal rasa, and the mercy of the yuthesvari descends, nothing can compare with what we are
about to see and experience. Our eternal spiritual master is so merciful that She (in Her eternal spiritual form as a
manjari) has given teachings that lead to our siddhadeha being revealed. The spiritual master’s mercy has adorned our
heart with eleven sentiments, and through his contstant guidance, practice has now become perfection. Being kind Sri
Gurudeva has led you to seek shelter in the camp of Sri Lalita Devi, who is the object of magnaminity and kindness. It
is under Sri Lalita Devi’s guidance that you have been taught how to string together pearls of rose petals, strung on a
garland of beautifully effulgent fresh forest flowers.

After repeated training the day finally arrives when the finished garland is drooped over your arm and you have been
told to wait silently in the bushes for a few minutes. In the early hours of the morning, as you meditate, you hear the
parrots crying out, and the she monkey shouts and jumps from tree to tree; then, suddenly you catch a glimpse of the
Divine couple as They make Their entrance through an arch of jasmine fowers just a few feet away from a group of
intimate gopi friends. Positioned in such a way as to provide a perfect canopy shading the Lord and His beloved, the
trees engage in their service to perfection. The most beautiful effulgent lovers, whose eyes only rest when placed on
each other, take a few steps towards the group of attendants, who are hurridly arranging everything for the Divine
couple’s pleasure. Their bodies are enchanting, and the smile on Radha’s face lets you know that even life itself is not
as important as pleasing the beautiful lotus eyed Lord. As Radha looks at Her beloved, Lalita Devi glances at you with
Her broad eyes, indicating for you to come forward. From the first second your eyes have gazed at this beauty before
you, you have been unable to move a muscle, and you continue to remain stunned and motionless. As the Lord’s eyes
gaze upon you (seeing you in amongst the bushes), you feel an attraction so strong that nothing can take your eyes
away from Him. You do not dare to blink even for a moment, and then, as if by magic, He appears right in front of
you. Being forced to look into His eyes by His magnatism, you see Him standing before you, smiling at you with His
two lotus eyes—His eyes shine as bright as ten thousand full moons. Nothing has prepared you for this! Being
stunned you can not think. The whole universe stands still in a moment that lasts for eternity. Then suddenly you crash
to the ground with a mighty thud as your body collapses in a state of spiritual ecstasy.

As you lay on the ground in a paralised semi-conscious state, your body shivering, and your eyes filled with tears of
joy, the Lord reaches out to touch your head. Slightly regaining consciousness, you see before you a most beautifully
effulgent golden light. Laying flat on the ground with your hair and clothes strune about, you slowly begin to open
your eyes wider, and there before you is the most beautiful Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu Himself. Looking as dazzling
as a million suns, the Lord of your heart stands before you smiling with a smile so wide that not one trace of
misfortune remains in your body.

Who can know the mercy of Sri Gaurasundara to save one who had fallen from grace, and to place that lost soul in the
hands of the most beloved consort of Srimati Radharani, Srila Gurudeva. Those who do know don’t speak too much
about these affairs, as from this point forth words can not convey the feelings of love that abound the heart stolen by
gopiparanadana. My Lord, I love You, please forgive me.

30. “Srngara-rasa is the most brilliant rasa, because in the spiritual world this rasa outshines every other
relationship. By adopting the bhauma-vraja-rasa, or the vraja-rasa available on this material plane in
Vrndavana-dhama, one becomes eligible to obtain the srngara-rasa.
Commentary
The process for attaining the highest mood of srngara-rasa is described herein. One should follow in the footsteps of
the gopis, as They enact Their pastimes in the land of Vrndavana dhama in vrajabhumi. Srila Ramananda Raya
explains that a devotee must follow in the footsteps of the gopis performing ragatmika-bhakti.

Therefore one should accept the mood of the gopis in their service. In such a transcendental mood, one
should always think of the pastimes of Sri Radha and Krsna.

After thinking of Radha and Krsna and Their pastimes for a long time and after getting completely free
from material contamination, one is transferred to the spiritual world. There the devotee attains an
opportunity to serve Radha and Krsna as one of the gopis.

Unless one follows in the footsteps of the gopis, he cannot attain the service of the lotus feet of Krsna,
the son of Nanda Maharaja. If one is overcome by knowledge of the Lord’s opulence, he cannot attain
the Lord’s lotus feet, even though he is engaged in devotional service. (Cc. madhya-lila 8.228-230)

When Accrura came to take the Lord of their lives away, the gopis blamed providence. They thought it was them who
had done something terrible to deserve this fate, but even knowing the firm laws of providence they could not accept
the news of the Lord’s departure. When Lord Krsna sent Uddhava as His messenger to relieve the miseries of the
gopis, they again thought Accrura had came back, but this time to take their lives as sacrifice for Lord Krsna killing
his master, King Kamsa. The gopi’s love for Lord Krsna is so intense that they can not think of anything other than
Krsna, or more specifically giving pleasure to Krsna—this is the potency of hladini-sakti. Everything that happened in
the land of Vrndavana after the departure of Lord Krsna for Mathura made the gopis think of Their beloved. Not a
blade of grass could move without that movement reminding Them of Lord Krsna’s lotus eyes. His body was so soft
and attractive that Their minds became infatuated with thoughts of Him at every moment. The madness of talking to
the trees and talking to the birds and bees as messengers from the Lord is a symptom of this divine madness. Divine
madness in a mood of separation is the greatest ecstatic condition that can only be felt by the gopis whose loving
mood for the Lord outshines every other mood. In this highest form of srngara rasa there can be no possiblility of
mixing of the moods known as rasabhasa, for in the highest mood of the gopis, personified in the loving sentiments
of Srimati Radharani, rasabhasa is not a possibility. The mood of love found within the gopis is so high that it
overshadows every other sentiment and thus they reach even higher perfection at every moment.

Explaining the unified-field behind everything, Srila Ramananda Raya informs us that Sri Krsna is originally sat, cit,
ananada. Separating Himself for the purpose of pleasure, His energies became sandhini, samvit, and hladini. Together
these energies are known as the cit-sakti, or the sum total of all spiritual energies. This information has been explained
in chapter two of Sri Harinama Cintamani. Srimati Radharani is the personification of the Lord’s hladini-sakti, and
the hladini-sakti is the potency of the Lord that gives the Lord pleasure. Therefore Radha’s only desire is to give Lord
Krsna pleasure. Being thus endowed, Srimati Radharani is crowned with one special bhava which only She may
possess. This bhava, or special loving mood, is known as maha-bhava, and experiencing maha-bhava is the
prerogative of Sri Radha alone. Desiring to taste this mood, Lord Krsna merged His body with that of His beloved
Radha, (who will never touch the body of another male) and began His pastimes as Sri Gaurasundara—the Golden
Avatara who tastes the srngara-rasa. This information is very confidential, and to taste the sweetness behind the
words of this statement is not possible without the benediction of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His great devotees
headed by Srila Ramananda Raya. Those qualified mediate on such topics and attain Sri Vrndavana Dhama.

The supremely majestic position held by Sri Radha has been explained in full in the conversations between Srila
Ramananda Raya and Lord Caitanya. In the course of explaining the variety of spiritual truths such as the truth about
Sri Krsna, Sri Radha, the various spiritual humors, and the Lord’s loving affairs with Radha in the groves of
Vrndavana, Srila Ramananda Raya explains that Sri Radha is the pinicale of love, maha-bhava.

Lord Krsna tastes all kinds of transcendental happiness, although He Himself is happiness personified.
The pleasure relished by His pure devotees is also manifested by His pleasure potency.
 The most essential part of this pleasure potency is love of Godhead (prema). Consequently, the
explanation of love of Godhead is also a transcendental mellow full of pleasure.

The essential part of love of Godhead is called mahabhava, transcendental ecstasy, and that ecstasy is
represented by Srimati Radharani.

Among the gopis of Vrndavana, Srimati Radharani and another gopi are considered chief. But when we
compare the gopis, it appears that Srimati Radharani is most important because Her real feature
expresses the highest ecstasy of love. The ecstasy of love experienced by the other gopis cannot be
compared to that of Srimati Radharani. (Cc. madhya-lila 8.158-161)

During the rasa dance Lord Krsna was enjoying with hundreds of gopis who were more beautiful than the goddess of
fortune Herself. Feeling Herself treated on an equal level with the other gopis, Sri Radha decided to play a trick and
left the rasa dance in a mood of defiance. Understanding He had done Sri Radha an injustice, Lord Krsna came to His
senses and could not find pleasure, even with thousands of the most beautiful girls by His side. This is because Sri
Radha is the embodiment of mahabhava, giving pleasure to Sri Krsna. If She is not happy, then how can He be happy!
[This statement is also true in relation to chanting or more specifically inattentive chanting (aparadha)]. All the other
gopis, who are headed by the most beautiful Visakadevi and Lalitadevi are expansions of Sri Radha, therefore Radha
always has a supremely important position in the Lord’s heart. Lord Krsna quickly left the pleasure found with His
confidants, and went into the forest to search out His beloved Radha.

The description given by Srila Ramananda Raya, about the qualities of Sri Radha is impossible for a materially
minded person to understand. To enter into the beauty of His poetic descriptions is called meditation on the Lord’s
qualities and pastimes. This can only be achieved by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In the description given
by Srila Ramananda Raya we are informed that the origin of love of Krsna is Sri Radha Herself, and this origin is
known as krsna-prema. Further we are told that Srimati Radharani’s earrings are the name, fame and qualities of Lord
Krsna, and the glories of Lord Krsna’s name, fame and qualities are always inundating Her speech (Cc. madhya-lila
8.179). This is Sri Radha, the queen of devotion to Lord Krsna. The Lord Himself is very moved by Sri Radha, as is
made apparent by the following statement by Lord Krsna:

When Srimati Radharani smiles, waves of joy flow over Her cheeks, and Her arched eyebrows dance
like the bow of Cupid. Her glance is so enchanting that it is like a dancing bumblebee moving
unsteadily due to intoxication. That bee has bitten the whorl of My heart. (Cc. antya-lila 1.171)

Following in the footsteps of the gopis is therefore recommended by Sri Harinama Cintamani, and by the highest
personification of devotional sentiments, Sri Gaurasundara. Being the pinnacle of devotion, all devotees aspire to be
in the camp of Sri Radha. From this short digression we can understand that the life of a devotee is to give Krsna the
highest pleasure, and to give Krsna the highest pleasure we must follow in the footsteps of the gopis. With this
knowledge you have pinpointed your way forward, and now have a point of reference to check your actions against
(the love of the gopis). If your actions are not in line with that of the gopis of Vrndavana you may question, are you
giving the highest possible pleasure to the Lord, or are you still caught in the cycle of trying to give pleasure to
yourself apart from the Lord?

The lofty position of the gopis is captured in the words of Sri Uddhava.

Among all persons on earth, these cowherd women alone have actually perfected their embodied lives,
for they have achieved the perfection of unalloyed love for Lord Govinda. Their pure love is hankered
after by those who fear material existence, by great sages, and by ourselves as well. For one who has
tasted the narrations of the infinite Lord, what is the use of taking birth as a high-class brahmana, or
even as Lord Brahma himself? (SB. 10.47.48)

31. “Sri Ramananda Raya said; (as recorded in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, madhya-lila 8.228-230) “'Therefore one
should accept the mood of the gopis in Their service. In such a transcendental mood, one should always think
of the pastimes of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. After thinking of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna and Their pastimes for
a long time, and after getting completely free from material contamination, one is transferred to the spiritual
world. There the devotees attain an opportunity to serve Sri Sri Radha and Krsna as one of the gopis. Unless
one follows in the footsteps of the gopis, he can not attain the service of the lotus feet of Krsna, the son of
Nanda Maharaja. If one is overcome by knowledge of the Lord's opulence, he can not attain the Lord's lotus
feet even though he is engaged in devotional service.'

32. “The devotee who is naturally inclined to cultivate the conjugal rasa must accept the superior guidance of a
vraja-gopi. The jiva is not entitled to serve Krsna in the conjugal mellow as a male. Pure devotional service to
Lord Krsna at its best is possible only in the form of a vraja-gopi. One can become a vraja-gopi when eleven
transcendental sentiments adorn the heart. They are: 1) sambandha (relationship), 2) bayasa (age), 3) nama
(name), 4) rupa (form), 5) yutha-pravesa (entrance into a group), 6) vesa (attire), 7) ajna (permission), 8) basa-
sthana (place of residence), 9) seva (service), 10) citparakastha (excellence), 11) palya-dasi-bhava (the mood of a
kept maidservant of Krsna). The devotee may be in any worldly form, but he must cultivate these eleven
sentiments and perform bhajana properly.

Commentary
Devotion to Sri Krsna is not fantasy—it is the most real experience of all experiences—faith proves this statement to
be true. The roles a person playes in the material world however, are fantasy. They are temporary roles enacted
according to the polluted desires of the individual. If one associates with the illusory world of that which has no real
existence, one will not be able to associate with the Lord in any form of rasa. On the other hand, giving up the false
enables one to access the truth. To cultivate the srngara-rasa one must see oneself as a maidservant, and serve under
the guidance of a gopi in Vrndavana.

In this text we are instructed that one may take on the role of a vrajagopi only when eleven sentiments adorn the
heart. These sentiments form part of the character, of a gopi. By continued meditation, beginning with meditation on
the name, and then gradually meditating on the qualities and form of the Lord, one may eventually begin to meditate
on the pastimes of the Lord. By continued meditation on the pastimes one will be guided by the spiritual master to
meditate on the confidential pastimes between Sri Radha and Krsna—this is the meaning of the maha-mantra. When
the meaning behind the name has been revealed within the heart of the aspirant, meditation on the Lord’s eightfold
pastimes (the asta-kaliya-lila) begins. With the mercy of the spiritual master one learns one’s true identity, and by
repeatedly remembering this identity the eleven sentiments described above begin to manifest. The first of these
eleven sentiments is that one discovers one’s identity and relationship with the spiritual inhabitants and Sri Krsna the
master of the spiritual world. This first sentiment is known as sambandha and this topic is for serious devotees only. It
is said that there are two types of sadhakas who chant the Holy Name, those who are serious practicioners, and those
who are on the preliminaries of their devotional carreer. Those who are on the preliminaries of their devotional lives
are imbued with contamination from the ignorance of bodily identification, and those who are serious are said to
chant the Holy Name continiously. That means at every possible chance their mind returns to the Lord and His Holy
Name, even during sleep. For these people such teachings as the one’s contained within this confidential chapter are
made available. We shall now hear how a devotee reaches the point of becoming a serioius practicioner of sadhana-
bhakti, and how his practices become his perfection (sadhya).

Five stages of consciousness in bhava-sadhana

33. “While cultivating these eleven gopi sentiments, five stages of consciousness develop. They are 1) sravana-
dasa (the stage of hearing), 2) varana-dasa (the stage of acceptance), 3) smarana-dasa (the stage of
remembering), 4) apana-dasa (stage of application), and 5) sampatti-dasa (stage of inheritance). Srila
Ramananda Raya says (as quoted in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, madhya-lila 8.220-222), One who is attracted by
the ecstatic love of the gopis does not care about the regulative principles of Vedic life or popular opinion.
Rather, he completely surrenders unto Krsna and renders service unto Him. In this liberated stage the devotee
is attracted by one of the humors (rasas) in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. As he continues to
serve the Lord in that mood, he attains a spiritual body to serve Krsna in Goloka Vrndavana. So saying, Srila
Ramananda Raya instructs us to first attain the form and mood of a vraja-gopi in order to obtain service in the
conjugal mood.
Commentary
Texts 32 and 33 are very closely connected to each other. Text 34 onwards continues with the same teaching to the
end. In the previous text (text 32) we hear the words; ‘The devotee who is naturally inclined to cultivate the conjugal
rasa must accept the superior guidance of a vraja-gopi’— these words have great significance. It is said that a serious
devotee, who is attracted to the Holy Name right from the start of his devotional life, is a fit candidate to receive
prema. Having understood the real spiritual nature of the name, he is termed a madhyama devotee from the very
beginning. Some people, (who are kanistha by nature) do not understand how this is possible. The answer to this is
found in this most important text. A serious devotee should cultivate the loving sentiments of the gopis! The first stage
in this cultivation is known as sravana (hearing). Paraphrasing teachings from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura I will now
try to explain how to cultivate the eleven sentiments of the gopis.

The beginnings of spiritual life are seen when the seed of faith is planted in the heart of the sincere aspirant. From
here the aspirant begins to associate with other devotees. In the association of devotees he learns the importance of
chanting, and by associating with a pure representative of the Lord he quickly learns that the Holy Name of the Lord
can reveal his true identity (svarupa), the Lord’s identity (svayam-rupa), and his relationship with the Lord (rasa).
This truth can not be achieved by associating with devotees, or gurus, who are of a mixed nature, as opposed to pure!
Continuing with his quest for advancement the sadhaka faithfully serves the pure devotee and from the mixture of
selfless service and faithful chanting the sadhaka’s bhajana-kriya (actions in devotional service) takes him through
the anartha-nivritti stage of his chanting. Now, as much as the sadhaka has traveled through this stage of anartha-
nivritti, his faith in the Holy Name and the process for liberation is seen to increase. That means, whatever anarthas
or material contamination remains prevents his faith from deepening. This is a very important point to understand.

Up to this point, the faith of a sadhaka is deepening due to uprooting the weeds of anarthas. That means the sadhaka
is situated in the first stage of development. This stage is called sravana-dasa, the hearing stage. This stage has been
discussed throughout Sri Harinama Cintamani, and the purpose behind Sri Harinama Cintamani is that the
instructions contained herein are intended to take the sadhaka over this first stage of sravana-dasa. This first stage
therefore includes all teachings given on the Holy Name, the process of chanting, and knowledge of the goal of one’s
chanting. Now, if a devotee remains on this stage, he is known as unacomplished and will remain unaccomplished as
long as he does not progress to the next stage of his devotional life. You may now ask, what is that next stage and how
do we get to that stage? The next stage is only entered into when the sadhaka has proven that he is repentant, and with
a heart full of remorse, begs for the mercy of the Holy Name while never committing sins again! Some of you out
there may now say that this second stage is a very high stage to attain in these days of Kali-yuga. Unfortunately, to
those people, the Lord’s Holy Name will never manifest. Therefore please read on and remain open to change, for
change is the only way forward.

By strongly trying to avoid the ten offenses, and by chanting attentively as many rounds as possible, a sadhaka’s faith
will gradually increase as his steadiness turns into a deep taste for chanting and associtating with the spiritual world. It
is at the stage where the devotee has become fixed in his endeavors and has attained taste and attraction for Lord that
the devotee begins to develop the first of the eleven sentiments of the gopis—which is the beginnings of his eternal
realationship with the Lord (sambandha-dasa). When the stages of nistha and ruci have been accomplished material
life becomes tasteless as the Lord’s Holy Name becomes the scource of all taste and pleasure. This leads the sadhaka
to chant all the more, and with this increased chanting the serious devotee becomes so attached to the Lord that his
mediations on the Holy Name begin to merge with the glories of the Lord. From this the Lord’s beautiful form as
Syamasundara appears within the devotee’s purified mind. Reaching the stage of asakti (attachment to the Lord) the
devotee’s life and japa periods take on a whole new meaning. This stage is called entering into the perfection of one’s
sadhana. Although they are still in the realm of sadhana-bhakti, the devotee’s meditations are now entering into the
stage of bhava-bhakti and as such the sadhaka begins to internalize his japa periods to incorporate rememberance of
the Lord, and mediation on the Lord’s pastimes. After a long period of repeated meditation, the sadhaka’s life takes on
a deeper level, and the sadhaka’s consciousness naturally progresses to the next stage, which is called varana-dasa
(the stage of acceptance). Now, by this stage of consciouness the sadhaka must be termed a madhyama devotee, and
has attained steadiness, attraction and taste, from his japa meditations.
The varana-dasa stage of consciousness is a very special stage because this stage involves the mercy of the spiritual
master more than ever before. Therefore, at this stage, the spiritual master must be keeping a watchful eye on his
disciple’s progression! The stage of acceptance of oneself as a kept maidservant of the Lord enables the spiritual
master’s potency to descend on his beloved disciple, and from this point forth the stage of rememberance (sravana)
begins. The stage of sravanva is divided into five categories or stages, and the devotee who receives the mercy of his
spiritual master is qualified to swiftly enter into these stages one by one. These stages are as follows:

1.) smarana – Rememberance

2.) dhyana – Concentration
3.) dharana – Meditation
4.) dhruvanusmrti – Small absorption
5.) samadhi – Total absorption or spiritual trance

Once the stage of rememberance is apparent, the devotee must shun all material engagements, except for the activities
of keeping the body alive, and spreading Lord Caitanya’s mission to the masses. In this way, living in a place of Lord
Krsna’s pastimes, the devotee can easily move to the stage of sampati-dasa (the stage of inheritance), or perfection.

34. “When a sadhaka devotee, having heard about Lord Krsna's pastimes, is attracted to the conjugal mellow,
he should take further instruction on rasa from a realized, saintly spiritual master. This is called the stage of
hearing or sravana-dasa. When the sadhaka devotee anxiously and eagerly accepts the conjugal mellow,
varana-dasa commences. Then, by pure remembrance of the sentiments of rasa, he desires to practice them; he
then reaches the third stage, smarana-dasa. When he is able to perfectly invoke these sentiments of rasa, he
attains apana-dasa or prapti-dasa. Finally, when he can separate himself from all his temporal material
designations and is steadily fixed in that original spiritual identity for which he yearns, he has reached
sampatti-dasa—the inheritance of his spiritual identity.

Commentary
This text is the third in the group of texts that describes the eleven sentiments of the gopis that a devotee in the
madhhurya-rasa should cultivate, and the five stages of consiousness that a devotee attains in the process. If one is
attracted to the loving mood, (which is possible for all devotees chanting the maha-mantra following in the footsteps
of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu) one should take instructions on this rasa from a pure devotee. Now, at this point some
may say that this is not acceptable in ISKCON today. To this we can say that it is not only acceptable, but it is
recommended by the namacarya himself! Srila Haridasa Thakura is putting these points forth, to the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is not objecting, but actually requests that the precepts of namarasa be propounded.
However, after saying this, we should understand that this is a most confidential subject matter, and to access the
teachings on this matter one should become qualified. Now this qualification does not mean that a devotee has a
management position, or that he has been an ISKCON devotee for a certain number of years. No! According to the
teachings of the acarya, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, we have attempted to describe the qualifications necessary in the
previous commentary. Those qualifications begin with sincerely chanting the Holy Name in a mood a full surrender
(saranagati-laksana). In the bhagavad-gita the Lord waits until the eighteenth chapter before He gives the most
confidential part of all knowledge, “that one should become His devotee,” man-mana bhava mad-bhaktah (Bg.
18.65), and that one should surrender fully to His desire, without fearing anything, sarva-dharman parityaja (Bg.
18.66). Thes two slokas should be meditated upon from every angle possible, for they contain the most confidential
knowledge available, and are the essence of all scripture. Similarly, Sri Harinama Cintamani waits until verses 24, 25,
and 26 of this final chapter until it gives out extra confidential information on internal meditation (bhajana). Further
than this, we have now been given information on attaining the sentiments of the gopis, and in the texts to follow we
will be given confidential information on the most intimate relationship in the srngara-rasa. Srila Ramanada Raya
spoke as follows:

You have manifested all these transcendental truths in my heart. This is exactly the way Narayana
educated Lord Brahma.

The Supersoul within everyone’s heart speaks not externally but from within. He instructs the devotees
in all respects, and that is His way of instruction.
 (Cc. madhya-lila 8.264-265)

From these two verses it is apparent that all those devotees who are qualified to receive teachings into the confidential
pastimes of the Lord will be taught by the Supersoul within, and by Sri Guru from without. In this way all those
sincere devotees, who desire to attain the sentiments and qualifications of the gopis will receive the exact teachings
and realizations that correspond to their level of consciousness, which have been listed in five stages. His Holiness
Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja gives futher teachings on receiving instructions on the matter of the gopis as follows:

The activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are like condensed milk, and the activities of Ramananda
Raya are like large quantities of sugar candy.

Their meeting is exactly like a mixture of condensed milk and sugar candy. When they talk of the
pastimes of Radha and Krsna, camphor is added. One who tastes this combined preparation is most
fortunate.

This wonderful preparation has to be taken aurally. If one takes it, he becomes greedy to relish it even
further.

By hearing the talks between Ramananda Raya and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, one becomes
enlightened with the transcendental knowledge of the mellows of Radha and Krsna’s pastimes. Thus
one can develop unalloyed love for the lotus feet of Radha and Krsna.

The author requests every reader to hear these talks with faith and without argument. By studying them
in this way, one will be able to understand the confidential truth of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. This part
of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes is most confidential. One can derive benefit quickly only by
faith; otherwise, by arguing one will always remain far away.

He who has accepted as everything the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu and
Advaita Prabhu can attain this transcendental treasure.

I offer ten million obeisances unto the lotus feet of Sri Ramananda Raya because from his mouth much
spiritual information has been expanded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Cc madhya-lila 8.304-311)

By meditating on the asta-kaliya-lila the devotee reaches perfection, in doing so he attains the eleven sentiments of
the gopis. Having understood her relationship with the Lord, the new gopi learns of her eternal age, name, and form,
and when she has gained enterance into the group, she putts on the dress of a gopi. She has learned Her activities in
that group from the group leader, Sri Lalitadevi, and from Lalitadevi she receives eternal permission to be a part of Sri
Radha’s yutha. In this way, via meditation on the Holy Name, one is shown one’s eternal service to the Divine couple.
With practice one becomes expert at that service. Reaching perfection, one takes on the mood of a kept maidservant (a
gopi messenger), and although one may meet with one’s husband in the spiritual world, still one understands that he
(the husband of the gopi) is not the real meaning of spiritual life, but merely a part of the eternal rasa. The fact that a
gopi is married to another makes the conjugal amorous pastimes possible. All these things will be revealed in detail
within the coming texts of Sri Harinama Cintamani. Constant rememberance of these sentiments constitute the stage
of application known as apana-dasa. The stage of sampatti-dasa (inheritance) normally comes about at the time of
leaving the physical body behind (the death of the material body). In this way one enters into samadhi and gains
eternal comunion with the Lord in Goloka Vrndavana.

Bhajana from sravana-dasa to smarana-dasa

35. “If, after having tested the disciple, the spiritual master determines that he is eligible to perform bhajana
and serve in the srngara-rasa, he then confidentially informs the disciple about his eternal spiritual role as a
manjari in Srimati Radharani's camp, under the supervision of Sri Lalitadevi. The spiritual master teaches the
disciple how to develop the eleven sentiments of the gopis, how to meditate on the asta-kaliya-lila, and how to be
properly established in both.

Commentary
At this point the sadhaka understands the true glory of his spiritual master. The spiritual master’s mercy is essential if
one wishes to enter into the eternal pastimes of the Lord.

36. “So that he may fully understand them, the sadhaka is shown his siddhadeha or spiritual identity, viz. his
spiritual name, form, qualities, service and so on. The spiritual master also discloses to the disciple who his
parents are in the sadhaka's manjari-identity, which house she was born in, who her husband is, and so on. At
this point, the disciple must spurn all Vedic religious pursuits and simply be a fully surrendered maidservant of
Srimati Radharani, the camp leader. Thereafter, the guru will reveal in detail the disciple's eternal service to
Srimati Radharani in the asta-kaliya-lila. The sadhaka (now a female sadhaki) embraces these revelations in
varana-dasa. He enters into smarana-dasa when he actually remembers them on his own; and so, in this way,
the sadhaka takes spiritual birth as a gopi in Vraja.

Commentary
When a sadhaka reaches the stage of acceptance of his true identity, he must leave behind all connection with the
material world except for teaching others the path. The advancing sadhaka, who followed the rules of vaidhi-bhakti
upto this point, must at some point give up those rules and act from a spontaneous platform, performing ragatmika-
bhakti from this point forth.

A digression on the subject of ruci

37. “As the spiritual master discerns the pure inclination of the disciple's heart, the disciple will also disclose
his own taste for the mellow or rasa to help the spiritual master. Until the pure natural intentions and mellow
tastes are clearly sorted out, the spiritual master's instructions about them will not be unequivocal. Ruci or
taste is the natural propensity born out of concentrated sukrti or piety. There are two kinds of piety, past sukrti
and present sukrti.

Commentary
Srila Prabhupada indicated that it is possible for a jiva to progress in loving exchanges with the Lord. These humors
are the taste a devotee uses to serve the Lord. It is possible that a jiva may enter into the material continuum, and by
contact with a pure devotee in the srngara rasa, his taste may change according to his sukrti born from connection
with the revelations given from the pure devotee in the madhurya-rasa. A spiritual body forms according to the
desires of the individual. Therfore, one body may be fashioned, but if it not the deepest true desire of the individual,
the body, and humor that goes along with it, must be changed. As the devotee progresses through the stages of
consciousness described earlier, the spiritual master, who will be keeping a close eye on his disciple’s progression,
will enquire from the devotee about his inclinations. Because the jiva who has fallen into illusion has forgotton his
real identity, he can not understand who he is by his own strength. The spiritual master will guide the disciple and
talor-make a spiritual body to fit the disciple’s needs. This process is an involvement of both the master and the
disciple.

38. “Those who are not attracted to the srngara-rasa, but prefer dasya or sakhya, must receive pertinent
instructions on these relationships in order to get the fruit of their devotion, otherwise they will return to a life
of anarthas. The great soul Syamananda at first was not aware of his own siddharuci or permanent spiritual
mellow, and so he was made to embrace the sakhya-rasa or the mellow of fraternity. Later, by the grace of Srila
Jiva Gosvami, he became entitled to perform bhajana in his real ruci or spiritual proclivity. This is a well-
known story. O Lord Caitanya, in Your line of teaching on this subject, spiritual acumen and eligibility count
above all else.

Commentary
If one has a spiritual taste for the srngara-rasa, but one’s spiritual master is in the mood of dasya, sakya, vatsalya etc,
one may receive teachings in this line and subsequently receive a taste in one of those rasas. One must therefore be
intelligent in this regard. If the correct ruci or spiritual taste is not given, one must return to the spiritual master and
explain the predicament. If on the other hand, one is attracted to one of the other rasas, such as the sakhya-rasa
(friendship), one must receive the correct instructions to aid in this regard. If one does not reach perfection in one’s
bhajana one will have to try again in another life. This however, is hazardous as anarthas (material desires) given
from a new birth will act to prevent connection. Therefore it is always better to reach perfection in one lifetime. This
is possible for the sincere student!

39. “The sadhaka has his own svaruci or natural taste as a gopi. Other rucis (such as the acceptance of a
husband) are falsely attached to this svaruci before the sadhaka finally embraces the authentic ruci. But by the
grace of his spiritual master, the sadhaka nonetheless attains Krsna's service according to his natural ruci in
the citparakiya-rasa or citparamour relationship. Rasa can never come to a full bloom other than in the
citparakiya-rasa. The summit of Your teachings, O Lord Caitanya, is that the citparakiya attitude is permanent
in the pastimes of the Lord, both in their appearance (when Krsna descends to Vrajabhumi) and their
disappearance (into the invisible Vraja of the transcendental world).

Commentary
In attempting to explain this text which discusses the parakiya-rasa that takes place in the spiritual world I will
paraphrase Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on this matter. Srila Prabhupada begins his teachings by explaining that
there are two types of relationship in the madhuya-rasa. They are called svakiya and parakiya. The svakiya
relationship takes place in the dvarka-lilas of the Lord and the parakiya in the vrndavana-lilas. The svakiya
relationship is when the beloved damsel is married to the Lord as in the case of the queens of Lord Krsna in Dvarka.
This relationship is based on love, and is a part of the madhurya-rasa. The parakiya relationship is understood to be a
higher form of love, and comes about when the gopis have another husband, or, are unmarried. This relationship is
called the paramour relationship and only takes place in Vrndavana. The Lord is so kind however, that He gives
people an opportunity to view this invisible vraja-lila within this material world, when He descends with the spiritual
world of Vrndavana. When speaking to Lord Balarama, the gopis speak about the paramour relationship. I will print
them below for your pleasure. The gopis said:

For Krsna's sake, O descendant of Dasarha, we abandoned our mothers, fathers, brothers, husbands,
children and sisters, even though these family relations are difficult to give up. But now, O Lord, that
same Krsna has suddenly abandoned us and gone away, breaking off all affectionate ties with us. And
yet how could any woman fail to trust His promises? (SB. 10.65.13)

The parakiya-rasa is specific because in this highest expression of love, the gopis understand that their conjugal
loving affairs with the Lord are not approved of by society. This creates an element of danger, excitement and
enthusiasm with every meeting. The conjugal love of the gopis becomes even more intense during separation. This is
because their union with the Lord is wholly based on pure love, and not on marital ties. In this way, although the
gopis are on edge about their relationship, still they can not give up this relationship because of intense love. This is
the nature of conjugal love. The gopis speak further on this topic. (I will include the purports in this section as they
are revealing and informative). The gopis said:

Why bother talking about Him, dear gopi? Please talk of something else. If He passes His time without
us, then we shall similarly pass ours (without Him).

PURPORT
Srila Sridhara Swami points out that the gopis here subtly indicate that Lord Krsna spends His time
happily without them, whereas they are most unhappy without their Lord. This is the difference
between Him and them. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti adds the following commentary: “Considering
themselves different from other women, the gopis thought as follows: ‘If other women are together
with their lovers, they live, and if they are separated, they die. But we neither live nor die. This is the
fate Providence has written on our foreheads. What remedy can we find?’” (SB. 10.65.14)
 While speaking these words, the young cowherd women remembered Lord Sauri's laughter, His
pleasing conversations with them, His attractive glances, His style of walking and His loving
embraces. Thus they began to cry.

PURPORT
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti comments as follows: The gopis thought, ‘The Krsna moon, after piercing
our hearts with the darts of His nectarean laughter, went away. So how will the city women not die
when He does the same to them?’ Overwhelmed with these thoughts, the young cowherd girls began to
cry, even in the presence of Sri Baladeva. (SB. 10.65.15)

In these few revealing slokas from the tenth canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam we can understand the deep love the gopis
feel for the Lord, and becaue of the conjugal flavor in the parakiya bhava this love is enhanced all the more. It is by
the mercy of the spiritual master that the devotee in the madhurya-rasa understands his connection with the Lord in
this citparakiya-rasa (the spiritual conjugal loving mood as a kept maidservant).

The conjugal rasa is completely transcendental

40. “Srngara-rasa is totally devoid of even an iota of materialism. The transcendental jiva, in order to enjoy and
exchange rasa, becomes a transcendental gopi, rendering devotional service to the transcendental personalities
of Sri Radha and Sri Krsna in the transcendental realm of Vrndavana. The slightest tinge of the mundane
man-woman relationship is nonexistent there. Only the purest and most ideal conception of conjugal love is
manifest as the transcendental mellow, and knowledge of this is available only from a pure devotee spiritual
master. Other than by his grace, this inconceivable truth cannot be discovered. It is beyond the realm of
speculation and pedantic scrutiny and its understanding is extremely rare.

Commentary
In this text we are made aware of the fact that not a trace of the material man-woman relationship exists in the
conjugal pastimes of the Lord. In this regard we can understand that the Lord’s conjugal pastimes in Vrndavana are
completely transcendental to material nature, therefore there is nothing abominable about the Lord’s activites with the
wife’s of other men. In the material world all people are trying to copy the relationship that Radha and Krsna have in
the spiritual world. People join together in order to enact their perverted artificial copies of Radha and Krsna’s
relationship. The men think; ‘you are my Radha (my heroin)—I am in love with you!’ while the women think; ‘you
are my Krsna, my hero—and I am in love with you!’ Meanwhile, both parties are trying to be the purusa (the enjoyer)
in one way or another. This is a material relationship, not a spiritual one! The entire material creatation is going on
under this principle of the enjoyer. A devotee in the Krsna consciousness movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
should not think like this! Instead he must think like the gopis do. He must think; “In the material world I have a
husband or a wife, but this relationship is simply a gift from the Lord to steady my mind so that I may progress better
on the path back to the Lord. This relationship has come about because of my own perverted desire to enjoy separate
from the Lord, but now, by the grace of Sri Guru, I have understood the error of my ways. I must therefore continue
on the path of marriage so that my desire to be married will be fulfilled, and my partner and I must use this situation
in order to help each other back to the Lord. Everything in my life from this point forth is meant as a sacrifice to give
pleasure to the Lord.” This is a spiritual relationship! The devotee is the asraya, the shelter or container for bhakti and
the Lord is the visiya, the object for that love to manifest towards. The devoee’s only business is to give pleasure to
the Lord, unconditionally. In the spiritual world, the srngara-rasa may see the devotee married to another jiva in a
male body in Vrndavana, but the spiritually advanced devotee understands this relationship to be simply a part of the
play that enhances the conjugal rasa with Lord Krsna, the adi-purusa.

To enter into this mood one must seek out a qualified teacher and learn from him the science of going back to home,
back to Godhead. Some people may take going back to Godhead lightly, and in this way they continue with their
mundane activities and thoughts, while propounding the highest truths about going back to Godhead. To this Sri
Harinama Cintamani has since pointed out that going back to Goloka Vrndavana is a process that involves great
purification given from sadhana, and great mercy given from the spiritual master in relation to the amount of
purification given from the devotee’s own attempts at sadhana. In this understanding krpa-siddhi and sadhana-siddhi
are intrinsically linked! This point is worth meditating on, as the Lord is the witness to all our activities.

One should not take their relationship with the Lord cheaply. It is true that Lord Gauranga, and His representative the
spiritual master, are very, very merciful, and it is also true that one who has chanted the Holy Name purely even once,
is assured of going back to Godhead, but all the same one should understand the adhikari (qualification) that is
needed. For instance, if you think that you are qualified to go back to Goloka and be a cowherd boy in Vrndavana;
“can you twirl a stick in front of the Lord?” And if you think you are qualified to be a gopi messenger; “will you die
when the Lord is not present, but still keepyourself alive simply because He promises He will return?” To understand
these statements is a very rare thing, and knowledge of these internal affairs in the realm of madhurya-rasa, is made
possible, in the heart of the devotee, by the mercy of the pure devotee alone. Knowledge of the parakiya-rasa is
planted in the heart of the sincere student by the mercy of the pure spiritual master. Such a perfected spiritual master
must therefore be firmly situated in an eternal conjugal rasa with the Lord. If one wishes to learn about the parakirya-
rasa from Sri Guru, firstly the disciple must be qualified, and secondly Sri Guru must be a gopi in the land of Vraja,
who has a husband and a paramour named Vrjaendranandana. One cannot understand these matters unless blessed by
the Lord.

The transition from smarana-dasa to apana-dasa

41. “Complete perfection remains elusive unless one enthusiastically performs sufficient sadhana to elevate
himself from the stage of smarana-dasa to apana-dasa. The confidential process of apana-dasa is ineffable and
devoid of any ostentation like jnana, karma or yoga. Externally, the devotee engages himself fully in chanting
the Holy Name and leads a simple renounced life. Internally, he keeps the splendorous flames of rasa burning
with pure intensity all the time. Those sadhakas who are prone to a pompous external display of devotion, or
who fail to steadily and properly direct their internal spiritual aspirations, are unable to elevate themselves
from the platform of smarana to apana-dasa. Thus the sadhaka may linger, unaccomplished, through many
lifetimes of devotional practice.

Commentary
There is a vast difference between thinking of the asta-kaliya-lilas in Vrndavana, and taking one’s position as an
eternal associate of the Lord. To close this gap one needs to perform heaps of sadhana-bhakti leading one to
raganuga-bakti. What is this sadhana-bhakti? It is the chanting of the Holy Name’s of the Lord according to the path
of the Mahajanas. In his commentaries on Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami’s Sri Manah Siksa, Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura gives the following instructions on this topic:

If by some great fortune a devotee develops attraction towards the devotional mood exhibited by the
eternal residents of Vraja, then he must approach a guru who is on the raganuga platform and find out
his own eternal relationship with the Lord. He must then engage totally in devotional activities and
worship, with sadhana and bhajana, the lotus feet of the eternal and original guru principle (guru-
svarupa-tattva) who is a manjari. By and by, after serving the sakhis properly it is possible to
personally meet Srimati Radhika; and by Her mercy one can participate in the eternal pastimes of the
Divine couple. All this is possible, to begin with, only if one possesses guileless humility, intese greed
and undeviating resolve for executing devotional service. (Mana-siksa. P.50)

The idea is that a serious devotee, who has become smitten by Lord’s Syamasundara form, begins to dwell more and
more in the realm of internal bhajana. Forgetting the idea of being successful in the external world, and giving up the
false pride of being a learned pandit, such a person wears the necklace of humility and prefers to associate with like-
minded serious devotees. Locking himself away from the general populace he prefers to live in a place where the
Lord enacts His pastimes, and in this place he engages in solitary chanting for many long hours at a time. If such a
person desires to become an accomplished member of Srimati Radharani’s team, his sadhana becomes his prayojana
(his indespensible need). In this way sadhana becomes sadhya, the means become the end.

At the end of this verse from Sri Harinama Cintamani we are given a warning as follows:
 Those sadhakas who are prone to a pompous external display of devotion, or who fail to steadily and
properly direct their internal spiritual aspirations, are unable to elevate themselves from the platform of
smarana to apana-dasa. Thus the sadhaka may linger, unaccomplished, through many lifetimes of
devotional practice.

We should take a minute to understand this statement. Firstly we are warned about being too concerened with
showing the world how elevated we are, as this is the trait of a kanistha-bhakta. And secondly there is a warning for
those who do not put in the long hours of practice (This means chanting the maha-mantra while perfroming
meditation). This warning is given for those who have gained a true degree of purification, but who, for one reason or
another, fail to go from the stage of rememberance to application.

42. “This path of worship or bhajana is the simplest; but if the purity of the bhajana is in any way disfigured by
a tinge of the contaminated desires for recognition, distinction or reverence, then the sadhaka is thrown off the
path of vrajasadhana, or bhajana in the mood of Vraja. One must approach the spiritual master with simple
humility and learn this pure process properly.

Commentary
His Divine Grace Srila Raghunatha Goswami says the following in this regard:

My dear mind, in this material life you are attacked by lust, which is like a gang of thugs that waylay
innocent pilgrims, strangling you with strong terrible ropes in the form of distress, pain, and futile
endeavors. In this condition you must cry out piteously and invoke the mercy of the unalloyed
devotees of Sri Krsna, the killer of the demon Bakasura. They will surely protect you from this
dilemma.
(Mana-siksa. Verse 5)

There are thugs that attack a spiritualist on his jorney to freedom. They come in various forms such as desire for
recognition and distinction for one’s advancement. They come in the form of arrogance, illusion, greed, anger etc.
When they come we should call out call out for the unalloyed devotees of the Lord and seek protection in the Lord’s
Holy Name. With humility we should understand the error of our ways and request guidance from the pure saintly
spiritual master engaged in raganuga-bhakti. A devotee who wishes to enter into the Vrndavana mood must not
become proud, for the mood of the gopis is that of simple village girls, who are kept-maidservants of the Lord.

Two methods of sadhana: vaidhi and raganuga

43. “Here is how perfection is most easily obtained: the jiva is pure spirit soul, part and parcel of the Absolute
Whole. He has a transcendental original form that is all-perfect. He has forgotten his perfect spiritual state and
come under the clutches of maya. He is offensive to Lord Krsna and is inebriated with the false mundane
designations of his gross body. If, by the mercy of a pure devotee spiritual master, he regains knowledge of his
actual origin, then the rediscovery of his original identity can quickly be accomplished.

44. “There are two methods of sadhanabhakti: one is vaidhi (under rules and regulations), and the other is
raganuga (spontaneous). In the beginning, these two methods appear to be contradictory, but upon
comprehension of their esoteric purpose, the differences between them are dissolved. The vaidhi method of
sadhana is a product of scriptural demands and concessions. Raganuga sadhana is born out of an intense
attraction for the activities of the residents of Vraja. The first method is for the general mass of people, whereas
the second is extremely rare and confidential.

Commentary
A devotee advancing in devotional life performs his activities according to the rules and regulations—in this way his
elevation is swift. Following the path of vaidhi-bhakti a devotee begins to chant the Holy Name of the Lord. Even
though he may not understand the real meaning of the name, still, if he continues to chant, the Holy Name will reveal
its real meaning. The word Krsna has been described as the all-attractive feature of the Lord that gives the devotee
ultimate pleasure when chanted. The word Rama is the reservoir of all pleasure. The place where all pleasure is stored
is to be found in loving exchanges with the Lord, thus the Lord is called Rasaraja. Rama is a name of Krsna, the all
attractive one, the beloved of Sri Radha. The word Hari, or Krsna, indicates the person who takes away all obstacles
on the path to devotion. The name of Hari, the word harati (as it is known in Sanskrit) is instrumental in destroying
anarthas of past conditioning. Lord Nityananda therefore orders everyone in the following way:

“All of you eat, chanting the Holy Name of Hari!” Immediately the Holy Names “Hari, Hari”
resounded, filling the entire universe. (Cc. antya-lila 6.86)

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Hari gives special instructions in relation to taking away obstacles on the path of
devotion. However, this instruction is applicable only to those who chant with remorse and who are deserved of the
results of such chanting. The Lord says:

yasyaham anugrhnami
harisye tad-dhanam sanaih
tato 'dhanam tyajanty asya
svajana duhkha-duhkhitam

sa yada vitathodyogo
nirvinnah syad dhanehaya
mat-paraih krta-maitrasya
karisye mad-anugraham

If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of
such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another. When he
becomes frustrated in his attempts to make money (enjoy) and instead befriends My devotees, I bestow
My special mercy upon him. (SB. 10.88.8-9)

The purport to verse eight of these two slokas is very imformative. I would recommend all devotees to read Srila
Prabhupada’s writing in this regard. I will include a small snippit below:

Devotees of the Supreme Lord experience both happiness and distress—not as consequences of
material work but as incidental effects of their loving reciprocation with the Lord. Srila Rupa Gosvami,
in Sri Bhakti-rasamata-sindhu, his definitive treatise on the process of devotional service, explains
how a Vaisnava is relieved of all karmic reactions, including those that have not yet begun to manifest
(aprarabdha), those that are just about to manifest (kuta), those that are barely manifesting (bija) and
those that have manifested fully (prarabdha). As a lotus gradually loses its many petals, so a person
who takes shelter of devotional service has all his karmic reactions destroyed. (SB. Purport 10.88.8)

This writing from the great acarya Srila Prabhupada gives testimony to the all purifying strength of devotional
service, which has as its beginnings in the material world the chanting of the Holy Name. Therefore, the chanting of
the Holy Name following the rules and regulations can never be glorified enough. Lord Caitanya’s spiritual master,
Srila Madhavendra Puri once gave the following instruction to the Lord:

naca, gao, bhakta-sange kara sankirtana

krsna-nama upadesi’ tara’ sarva-jana

My dear child, continue dancing, chanting, and performing sankirtana in association with devotees.
Furthermore, go out and preach the value of chanting krsna-nama, for by this process You will be able
to deliver all fallen souls.
(Cc. adi-lila 7.92)
The method for advancing from vaidhi-bhakti to raganuga-bhakti has been prescribed as; ‘having faith in the process
of chanting while following nicely.’ The Holy Name of the Lord is everything; there is nothing superior to it, and
nothing as sublime. When the practicioner is ready, the spiritual master will introduce the aspirant to the process of
raganuga-bhakti, but one must not think that he may perform this kind of devotional service without the grace or
permission of the spiritual master. It is by the grace of the spiritual master alone that one may be allowed enterance
into a yutha (a group), and perform bhakti according to the natural propensity of the heart. Spiritual acumen is
required! Having understood this fact the path broadens and the rules open up conscessions to the sincere student who
longs for connection. In the Agni Purana the following is written about the Holy Name:

The Holy Name of Krsna is purely spiritual. There is no knowledge, austerity, meditation, fruit,
renunciation, sense control, pious act, or goal as great as that of the name. The name is the supreme
liberation. The name is the supreme destination, the supreme peace. The name is the supreme situation,
and the supreme devotion. The name is the supreme intelligence, the supreme love and the soul’s
reason for existence. The name is the master of the soul and the most worshipable object. The name is
the supreme guru. (Agni Purana)

To the stage of apana-dasa via vaidhi-sadhana

45. “Every mood and thought of the vaidhabhakta during his meditation and remembrance upon Krsna must
be cross-checked with scriptural injunctions. Gradually, his sraddha leads to nistha (firm faith), then to ruci
(taste or attraction), then asakti (attachment). When he reaches the first stage of spontaneity tinged with bhava,
he discards his dependence upon scriptural logic, knowing it to be an impediment to his progress. After this, he
is elevated to the stage of apana-dasa.

Commentary
In the stage of application of one’s eternal position as a servant of the Lord, a devotee progresses through the five
stages of consciousness. These are mentioned as 1) sravana-dasa (the stage of hearing), 2) varana-dasa (the stage of
acceptance), 3) smarana-dasa (the stage of remembering), 4) apana-dasa (stage of application), and 5) sampatti-dasa
(the stage of inheritance). The first stage, sravana-dasa occurs when the devotee’s advancement rises from the point
of attentive chanting to the point of ruci, or attaining a taste. When a devotee has attained the stage of ruci, this stage
is termed; the beginning of bhava-bhakti. Up until this point a devotee performs vaidhi-bhakti and must check all of
his actions with scripture, as there are rules and regulations that govern his actions for his own benefit. It is not that a
devotee can meditate on Sri Krsna’s intimate pastimes before he has attained steadiness in his devotional attitudes and
meditations. Otherwise at one moment his faith will be strong, and at another, when he is tested, his faith will
disappear due to spiritual weakness brought about by lingering anarthas. This will cause him to loose faith in the
process and offenses will surely follow. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is one instance where the queens of King
Yudisthera were playing water fights with their relatives. Now during this game it so happened that the ladies got wet
and their breasts became visible through their clothes. We should remember at this point that this is a pastime where
the Supreme Lord is involved! In this case it was said that those with contaminated consciousness were attracted by
the sight of the queens. Similarly, if a person is not advanced in the five stages of consciousness, then what right does
that person have to meditate on the conjugal pastimes of the Lord, where the most beautiful of all ladies freely sport
with the Lord in amorous pastimes? The answer is that a contaminated person has no right whatsoever! Therefore,
because there is danger in these highly esoteric pastimes of the Lord, one should check every single thought and
action with scripture; this is called vaidhi-bhakti. If it is not a prescribed activity according to the level of the devotee,
then the devotee should not perform that activity (namely performing raganuga-bhakti before the time is due). In this
regard Sri Harinama Cintamani states; ‘every mood and thought of the vaidhabhakta during his meditation and
remembrance upon Krsna must be cross-checked with scriptural injunctions.’ Following the correct procedure for
worship will allow faith to be deepened and advancement and taste will occur as a natural consequence. Please
therefore do not try to become a ragatmikabhakta before your time is due. And please do not think that you are
qualified to meditate on the conjugal pastimes of the Lord as long as you have traces of material contamination,
otherwise your demise is imminent. However, for those who are following the prescribed path, meditation on the
asta-kaliya-lila is prescribed as a must!
To apana-dasa via raganuga-sadhana

46. “In the smarana-dasa stage of raganuga-sadhana, the sadhaka first remembers the eleven sentiments of the
gopis. These sentiments must adorn his emotions before he can remember the asta-kaliya-lila. There are five
levels of development in smarana-dasa. Initially, his remembrance will not be steady; this level is called
smarana. Sometimes he remembers the sentiments, his position and his service, but at other times he forgets.
But by steady practice of smarana, gradually he reaches permanency of remembrance; this state is known as
dharana. As one meditates on every aspect of the subject of remembrance, part by part, minutely, dharana
develops into fixed meditation—this is dhyana. When dhyana becomes continual, it is called anusmrti; following
anusmrti is the fifth level of remembrance, samadhi, when the devotee has no interest in anything other than
perfect absorption in the pastimes of Lord Krsna.

Commentary
These are the states of rememberance of the Lord’s intimate pastimes, beginning with glimpses of the pastimes, and
gradually increasing until the devotee meditates on the pastimes as his only aim in life—this is called rati. When
rememberance becomes continual it is called druvaanusmriti. From this point the devotee begins to loose all interest
in striving for things not connect with the Lord and His supreme abode. Thus the devotee’s meditations become his
samadhi and he enters into the stage of application of a Vraja gopi.

47. “From the samadhi level of smarana-dasa, the crucial ascension to apana-dasa or the stage of application
takes place. For one who is not adept, elevation through the five stages of smarana-dasa to apana-dasa may
require many yugas of effort. For a dexterous sadhaka, reaching apana-dasa is accomplished quickly.

Commentary
In the Bhakti-rasamrta Sindhu we hear how a devotee who is following the raga-marga path has his mind attracted to
the Lord perpetually, and longs to stay in a Holy place where Lord Krsna enacts His pastimes.

kadaham yamuna-tire
namani tava kirtayan
udbaspah pundarikaksa
racayisyami tandavam

O Lord Pundarikaksa, while chanting Your Holy Name with tears in my eyes, when shall I dance in
ecstasy on the bank of the River Yamuna? (Brs. 1.2.156)

48. “In the apana-dasa stage, identification with the psychophysical body is reduced to insignificance, and his
spiritual identity becomes predominant. Intermittently, his spiritual identity or svarupa manifests, and he
experiences sublime ecstasy in rendering devotional service to Sri Sri Radha-Krsna in Vraja. These experiences
develop until he spends long periods of time in Vraja interacting with others in his vrajasvarupa, seeing the
dhama and the transcendental pastimes within.

Commentary
When application of his svarupa comes into play, the devotee no longer sees himself in terms of the physical body,
i.e. male or female. Rather, such a person understands his spiritual form and identifies with that form more and more.
In the Caitanya-caritamrta, Lord Caitanya sent Pradyumna Misra to hear spiritual discussions from Srila Ramananda
Raya. When he was questioned about Ramananda Raya’s activites, the Lord was informed that Ramananda Raya was
dressing and bathing the beautiful dancing girls without a tinge of material attraction for them, even though
Ramananda Raya was a grhastha. The Lord replied as follows:

eka ramanandera haya ei adhikara

tate jani aprakrta-deha tanhara
 The authority for such acts is the prerogative of Ramananda Raya alone, for I can understand that his
body is not material but has been completely transformed into a spiritual entity. (Cc. antya-lila 5.42)

From this we can understand that a person who experiences his svarupa as a manjari does not see himself as the
material body. He may act as the Lord does, to teach the common man, but internally he keeps the fire of rasa buring
within his heart. In this way such a premabhakta understands that he is a kept maidservant of the Lord, and longs for
the day when he can eternally live with his Lord in Sri Vrndavana dhama.

49. “In this elevated stage, constant bhajana and nama will inevitably bring about a face-to-face meeting with
the blessed Lord Syamasundara. By the Lord's merciful will, all trace of the devotee's subtle body of mind,
intelligence and false ego will be extinguished with the demise of the gross body of five elements.

Commentary
With the death of the physical body a devotee enters into the eternal pastimes of the Lord in his siddha-svarupa,
eternal spiritual form. This state is achieved by constant meditation on the pastimes while chanting the Holy Name.
Srila Haridasa Thakura would chant constantly, three hundred thousand Holy Name’s per day, and Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura recommends the same. Being the perfect teacher to propound the Holy Name, Haridasa Thakura is the
spiritual master for the entire universe—even Mayadevi Herself wished to surrender to the lotus feet of Srila Haridasa
Thakura. In order to test his spiritual strength she tried to allure Haridasa with all mannerisms of femine charms and
postures. In the event she became so spiritually surcharged by hearing the Holy Name chanted from the lips of the
pure devotee, that she surrendered her life on that very spot. The blessed Goddess said:

My dear sir, you are the foremost devotee. Simply seeing you and hearing you chant the Holy Name of
Krsna has purified my consciousness. Now I want to chant the Holy Name of the Lord. Please be kind
to me by instructing me about the ecstasy of chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.

There is now a flood of the eternal nectar of love of Godhead due to the incarnation of Lord Caitanya.
All living entities are floating in that flood. The entire world is now thankful to the Lord. Anyone who
does not float in this inundation is most condemned. Such a person cannot be delivered for millions of
kalpas.

Formerly I received the Holy Name of Lord Rama from Lord Siva, but now, due to your association, I
am greatly eager to chant the Holy Name of Lord Krsna.

The Holy Name of Lord Rama certainly gives liberation, but the Holy Name of Krsna transports one to
the other side of the ocean of nescience and at last gives one ecstatic love of Krsna. Please give me the
Holy Name of Krsna and thus make me fortunate, so that I also may float in the flood of love of
Godhead inaugurated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

After speaking in this way, Mayadevi worshiped the lotus feet of Haridasa Thakura, who initiated her
by saying, “Just perform chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.” (Cc. antya-lila 3.252- 3.259)

The same was true of a common prostitute, who became the recipient of Srila Haridasa Thakura’s causeless mercy.
The blessed prostitute said:

Kindly act as my spiritual master. Instruct me in my duty, by which I can get relief from material
existence.

Haridasa Thakura replied, “Immediately go home and distribute to the brahmanas whatever property
you have. Then come back to this room and stay here forever in Krsna consciousness. Chant the Hare
Krsna mantra continuously and render service to the tulasi plant by watering her and offering prayers
to her. In this way you will very soon get the opportunity to be sheltered at the lotus feet of Krsna.”
(Cc. antya-lila 3.135-137)
Our prayer on this most uncommon day is that we too may be enraptured by the chanting of the namacarya as we
endeavour to fulfill his mission here on the earth planet. By his causeless mercy our life has been saved, and on his
orders we may propogate the glories of chanting the Lord’s sweet Holy Names. We therefore invite all faithful
students to learn the science of attentive chanting using the technique given from the masters of yore. The Utsaha
technique can take the sincere student from the offensive stage and situate him at the lotus feet of the great acaryas,
who may then bless the sincere student with the stage of apana-dasa. From this stage constant bhajana on the name
will inevitably bring about a face to face meeting with our beloved Lord Syamasundara.

50. “This is when the devotee's pure spiritual form fully manifests, minus all material coverings. In the mood of
pure bhava, he takes up his eternal service to Sri Sri Radha-Krsna in the transcendental dhama. He thus
becomes a sadhana-siddha or a perfected conditioned soul who is now reinstated in his svarupa through
sadhana and bhajana. He now serves the Lord in the company of nitya-siddhas, the eternal associates of the
Lord who were never conditioned.

Commentary
If one desires perfection from one’s chanting and bhajana, the details of how to achieve this have been elabourately
described in Sri Harinama Cintamani. It has been clearly explained that to achieve sadhana-siddhi (the perfection of
one’s existence) is not such an easy thing to do, and should not be taken lightly. The Visnu Purana explains that one
who desires to chant the Holy Name must have worshipped Lord Visnu perfectly for millions of yugas. On the other
hand, it has also been described that achieving the perfection of one’s chanting, and going from the stage of apana-
dasa (application of one’s spiritual duties) to the stage of sampati-siddhi (the perfection of one’s actions, in the
attainment of one’s eternal spiritual position) can be achieved easily for the dexterous devotee. Understanding Lord
Gauranga’s causeless mercy and His mission to save the most fallen of all sinners (of which we are certainly
candidates), achieving krsna-prema in this lifetime seems a very viable prospect to the student who has affection and
love for the Lord.

If a sincere student desires to meditate on the internal conjugal pastimes of the Lord, a point may be raised regarding
faith. In the beginning, faith may be increased by good association and revelations, however when one reaches the
platform of bhava-bhakti and one meditates on the asta-kaliya-lilas of the Lord one must fully comprehend that all
the items of paraphernalia to serve the Lord, such as the Lord’s bed of flowers, His jeweled thrown, the houses of the
of the Divine couple, and everything visible in the spiritual world. All these items are real and are a part of the Lord’s
cit-sakti. They are not figments of the devotee’s overactive imagination, but rather, direct manifestations of the
spiritual world brought into perview via the perception of the meditator. This fact should be understood clearly, as the
faith of the sadhaka is the transcendental seed that ripens to become the tree, which gives the fruit of love of
Godhead. The items of the material world must therefore become phantasmagoria and the spiritual world must
become real.

The items of the spiritual world do not appear to the materially intoxicated. Rather the entire panorama of the spiritual
world’s concomitant factors exists eternally in the hearts of unalloyed devotees. Faith in the spiritual realities is tested
right from the start, and when this faith is sufficiently matured it gives the fruit of love of Godhead. The Lord rewards
a devotee according to his degree of surrender (the Lord helps those who help themselves). To attain perfection one
must understand that the spiritual world is real, and the material world is false, and that the material world is a
perverted reflection of the spiritual. Activities that go on in the material world must also go on in the spiritual world of
Vikuntha, but spiritual activities are one hundred percent pure and uncontaminated. In the spiritual world the Lord is
the only controller, master, and enjoyer, and any aspect of these given to the individual for the purpose of expression
of rasa is given on behalf of the possessor of these, who is always the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. The hladini-sakti,
sandhini-sakti, and samvit-sakti belong to Sri Krsna, and have no meaning when separated from the Lord. Therefore,
in the spiritual world these three energies predominate, and the inhabitants are characterized as being sat, cit, ananda.
When these three energies of the Lord are separated via the false sense of being the enjoyer (the purusa), the opposite
becomes true and the living entity becomes bound by the ropes of time, space, and thought/desire (polluted thought,
or perverted desire, is the destructive element known as entropy). Freedom comes about when the living entity uses
the power of thought to serve the Lord in the backdrop of the spacetime continuum (this accesses the cit-sakti). The
unified-field has been uncovered for all those who wish to access it, but the only prerequisite is that one’s actions must
be devoted to Sri Krsna, the master and controller of material nature. The cit energy, which is the sum total of the
Lord’s three energies, is that unified-field, and to access this energy one must be one hundred percent engaged in
spiritual relationship, this is called sampati-dasa.

When a devotee reads about the asta-kaliya-lilas, and begins to meditate on such, he understands that the nature of Sri
Vrndavana Dhama is that of simplicity. The best age for conjugal loving affairs between Sri Krsna and His beloved
gopis is between the ages of thirteen to seventeen—this is the Lord’s yauvana-lila. The activities of the Divine couple
at this time are all geared around meeting each other, and love is the driving-force that pervails. Lord Krsna is the
master of Vrndavana, and Srimati Radhika is His queen. All activities in the madhurya-rasa have the Lord as the
central figure. Understanding all of this, an advancing devotee begins to comprehend that if he desires to enter into
this lila as his eternal occupation (his dharma), then his external reality (in the material world) should also manifest a
similar nature. In this regard Srila Prabhupada indicated that a devotee should live simply, but he should think high! In
terms of cultivating highly advanced meditation, simple means villiage life. Goloka Vrndavana is a village, and Krsna
is a cowherd boy. To live in a place of Krsna’s pastimes, therefore means to live in a holy place that resembles the
mood of Sri Vrndavana Dhama.

The last snare of maya is that the devotee thinks he is the lord—that means he desires people to do what he wants. The
position of a surrendered devotee is different to this, for he is dasa-anu-dasa, the servant of the servant—therefore his
external world should also reflect this! Seeing as though Krsna is a simple cowherd boy, then all those who love
Krsna should similarly have a simple life, and love the cows—this is Vrndavana life. To be a resident of Vrndavana
one should therefore adopt the mood of the vrjavasis and care for the cows, keep cows, milk cows, brush the cows
and decorate the cows. There is a description of Vrndavana found in the Srimad-Bhagavatam as follows:

Gokula resounded on all sides with the sounds of bulls in rut fighting with one another for fertile cows;
with the mooing of cows, burdened by their udders, chasing after their calves; with the noise of
milking and of the white calves jumping here and there; with the loud reverberation of flute-playing;
and with the singing of the all-auspicious deeds of Krsna and Balarama by the cowherd men and
women, who made the village resplendent with their wonderfully ornamented attire. The cowherds'
homes in Gokula appeared most charming with their abundant paraphernalia for worship of the
sacrificial fire, the sun, unexpected guests, the cows, the brahmanas, the forefathers and the demigods.
On all sides lay the flowering forest, echoing with flocks of birds and swarms of bees and beautified by
its lakes crowded with swans, karandava ducks, and bowers of lotuses. (SB. 10.46.9-13)

Simple life, centered on the religion of Krsna consciousness should resemble this description. It does not mean
sustaining a life of commercialism, computers, and technical equipment. Of course there is application of yukta-
vairagya in the course of preaching, but those who are very serious aspirants for prema-bhakti understand the dangers
of modern living and take instructions from their saintly predecessors who have taught the path back to home back to
Godhead. The correct application for the dharma of a human is stated by Sri Suta Gosvami in the Srimad-
Bhagavatam as follows:

dharmasya hy apavargyasya
nartho ‘rthayopakalpate
narthasya dharmaikantasya
kamo labhaya hi smrtah

All occupational engagements (dharma) are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never
be performed for material gain. Furthermore, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service
(dharma) should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification. (SB. 1.2.9)

From this statement it can be understood that a simple life, following the codes of religion has a purpose behind it and
that purpose is; to liberate the practicitoner who follows the rules of scripture. Following in the mood of the gopis is
the method taught by our eternal beloved Diety, Sri Caitanyadeva. This is the path to eternal existence in the spiritual
world. To achieve the perfection of dharma a devotee must sincerely chant the Holy Name of the Lord, and those who
take pleasure in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, and who faithfully serve the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktivinoda
Thakura and Srila Haridasa Thakura will find this book, Sri Harinama Cintamani more valuable than life itself. May
we remain the faithful servant of the servant of the servant, life after life, and may the divine blessings of the devotees
keep us protected from falling into bad association. We remain indebted!

There is one nice story about the Holy Name connected to Srila Sanantana Goswami that I would like to include at
this point.

Srila Sanatana was teaching his disciple the value of the maha-mantra by giving him a priceless jewel.
The disciple returned to the guru and said; “No one wanted to pay the due price for the gem because
they could not appreachiate its real value.” The guru then replied; “Similarly, people may or may not
chant the Holy Name. Because they do not understand its real value, they neglect it. The science of
love of Godheadhead is an open secret that can be discovered through the mercy of the Holy Name,
but it is only revealed to those who are qualified!”

On giving an explanation of the maha-mantra Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains the following esoteric
understanding; “this mantra reveals only that a soul has an indescribable attraction for the Supreme Lord by the
thread of love. These names Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,
Hare Hare are for those who are on the path of madhurya-rasa.” In the Caitanya-caritamrta it is said:

As the rising sun immediately dissipates all the world's darkness, which is deep like an ocean, so the
Holy Name of the Lord, if chanted once without offenses, dissipates all the reactions of a living being's
sinful life. All glories to that Holy Name of the Lord, which is auspicious for the entire world. (Cc.
antya-lila 3.181)

eka-bhave vanda hari yoda kari’ hata

nandanandana krsna—mora prana-natha

With folded hands I offer my prayers unto Krsna, Nanda Maharaja’s son, who is my life and soul.

Thus ends the commentaries on Sri Harinama Cintamani.

Summary
By H.H. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
1. “The Holy Name is the greatest and yet the easiest obtainable spiritual treasure. This treasure is obtained
when the jiva simply chants with faith and devotion, not caring for karma, jnana and yoga. The jiva quickly and
easily ascends to the highest perfection by following the method of namabhajana already described. This
method is the best of methods, even better than other methods of bhakti. The basic requirement for successful
accomplishment of namabhajana is that the sadhaka must totally shun bad association and engage in the
practice of devotional service in the company of saintly devotees of the Lord. Pure love of Krsna is the
expression of unalloyed devotional service. Only a pure devotee's heart has the inclination and capability of
receiving prema; the nondevotee's heart denies it. Prema refuses to enter the heart of one who does not keep the
company of pure devotees. The jiva's decision to accept either good or bad association has a powerful and
lasting influence on his destiny.

2. “There are three essential traits that must be cultivated to obtain success in chanting: saintly association,
isolation from the disturbances of mundane life, and determined, confident enthusiasm.” After saying this,
Srila Haridasa Thakura declared himself to be very low and materially engrossed, bereft of good association
and always engaged in self-deception. Although Srila Haridasa is himself a nitya-siddha associate of the Lord,
he expressed himself in this humble way. Humility is the ornament of prema.
The Lord's special favor upon Haridasa Thakura

3. Srila Haridasa continued, “O Lord, kindly shower upon me Your causeless mercy (ahaituki-krpa). I pray that
You grant me entry into the realm of bhakti-rasa.” Saying this, Srila Haridasa fell unconscious in loving
ecstasy, fully self-surrendered at the Lord's lotus feet.

4. Ahaitukikrpa means 'causeless mercy'. By saying this, Srila Haridasa implied that he was spiritually
unaccomplished and therefore had no hope for the kind of mercy Lord Krsna bestows upon His pure devotees.
In his mood of utter helplessness he simply prayed for Lord Caitanya's unconditional grace.

5. Srila Haridasa Thakura is famous for namabhajana and teaching the glories of the Holy Name, yet he is also
the recipient of Lord Caitanya's mercy. He is such an authority on the philosophy of namarasa that once, when
Lord Caitanya was relishing the topics of Radha-Krsna lila with Sri Ramananda Raya and Sarvabhauma
Bhattacarya in the courtyard of Srila Haridasa Thakura's bhajana-kutira, Srila Haridasa repeatedly
expounded at length on the glories of namarasa to the rapt attention of the other exalted persons present.

6. Hearing this, Lord Caitanya was moved by divine loving emotions. He lifted Srila Haridasa up and
embraced him. The Lord then spoke in confidence to him. “O Haridasa! Listen attentively to what I have to
say. The truth about the Holy Name will be hidden by mischievous rascals who will create a dark shroud of
ignorance over the entire world. At that time, these excellent and unrivalled instructions of yours about
chanting in the association of saintly persons shall be understood only by a remaining handful of devotees.”

7. What did Lord Caitanya mean by 'mischievous rascals'? The prime candidates for this appellation are the
various upstart sects like the sahajiyas, aulas, baulas and so on, who propagate bogus mundane doctrines
disguised as Mahaprabhu's own teachings. Indeed, they conceal from the world the pure philosophy of Krsna
consciousness expounded by the Lord Himself in His Sri Siksastaka.

8. The Lord continued, “The true path of the Holy Name will be followed by saintly souls who are totally
detached from material life. They will chant the Holy Name with bhava; because of this, they will be known as
rasikabhaktas. Their bhava will be that of secitparation. By their chanting they will relish the pastimes of
Radha-Krsna and Their eight principal gopi girlfriends.

9. “The jiva is blessed with pure bhakti only on the strength of his sukrti, or piety and faith. Not everyone is
entitled to have such devotion. In order to intensify their devotion, I have descended and propagated the
chanting of the Holy Name as the religion for this age. The chanting of the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare
Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is factually the jiva's
inherent and eternal religion.

10. “O Haridasa! I depend upon you to accomplish this task, and thus I hear from you the glories of the Holy
Name.”

11. The Harinama Cintamani, the touchstone of the Lord's Holy Name, is an unfathomable mine of divine
nectar. Whoever tastes it is truly fortunate and is blessed by Krsna. He is a great soul and always blissfully
serves Lord Krsna in spontaneous loving devotion. I am a fallen soul; I clasp his feet and humbly pray that the
remnants of this nectar should be distributed profusely, thus spreading the divine bliss to everyone.

Thus Ends Sri Harinama Cintamani