Chanting to be our Life- Part 1 [granthraj]

Recently during one of our discussions, our beloved God brother HG Govardhan Prabhu told us a very sweet past time of Lord Rama. Once Lord Ramachandra was sitting with Srimati Sita Devi and brother Laxman. Of course the great devotee Hanuman was sitting at the lotus feet of Lord Ramachandra and was chanting His Holy Names with his eyes closed. Lord Ramachandra asked Hanuman with a smile, “My dear Hanuman, I am here in front of you but instead of looking at me, you are chanting my name with closed eyes. Why is that?” Hanuman opened his eyes and replied “My Lord, by seeing You, many were liberated but many more were liberated just by chanting Your Holy Names”.

I found this pastime very inspiring due to its following facets:

01.Learning from activities of Pure devotees
02.Importance of chanting
03.Chanting and hearing should be concurrent

01.Learning from activities of Pure devotees

Pure devotees are so called due to their behaviour and attitude towards fallen souls. Their only aim of life is to lead everyone to the loving service of the lotus feet of Lord. Srimad Bhagavad Gita is one example where Arjuna is asking questions to the Lord. He is a Param Bhakta. He is completely submissive and knows that Krishna is Bhagavan. But still he has asked the questions which enlighten us and answer the doubts which are created in our concocted mind.

Parikshit Maharaj is another example. Parikshit Maharaj had seen the Lord while he was in his mother’s womb, thus his liberation was sure. After being cursed by the brahmana boy, instead of staying back in the palace with relatives and lamenting on his last days, he decided to renounce everything and sat for hearing the glories of the Lord on the banks of the Ganges. And all that was spoken and heard during those 7 days in the form of Srimad Bhagavatam, has so far liberated millions of souls and will continue to do so until there are no conditioned souls remaining. Srimad Bhagavad Gita 3.20 shows another instance of the action of a pure devotee.

karmanaiva hi sammsiddhim / aasthitaa janakaadayah
loka-sangraham evaapi / sampashyan kartum arhasi

Kings such as Janaka attained perfection solely by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.

In the purport, Prabhupada has stated “Kings like Janaka were all self-realized souls; consequently they had no obligation to perform the prescribed duties in the Vedas. Nonetheless they performed all prescribed activities just to set examples for the people in general.”

02.Importance of chanting

We are so fortunate that we have our dearmost Gurudev with us who is the living example of a pure devotee. Our Gurudev has been trying to convince us all the time to do sincere chanting which will lead us to the path to liberation. But I am not sure, how much we have really understood the importance of chanting. We find the glories of chanting all over in Srimad Bhagavatam. One such verse is 6.3.24:

etaavataalam agha-nirharanaaya pumsaam
sankirtanam bhagavato guna-karma-naamnaam
vikrushya putram aghavaan yad ajaamilo ‘pi
naarayaneti mriyamaana iyaaya muktim

Yamaraj instructs his messengers – “Therefore it should be understood that one is easily relieved from all sinful reactions by chanting the holy name of the Lord and chanting of His qualities and activities. This is the only process recommended for relief from sinful reactions. Even if one chants the holy name of the Lord with improper pronunciation, he will achieve relief from material bondage if he chants without offenses. Ajamila, for example, was extremely sinful, but while dying he merely chanted the holy name, and although calling his son, he achieved complete liberation because he remembered the name of Narayana.”

Srila Prabhupada’s purport on this verse is very powerful where he mentions that there is no need of any proof of strength of chanting. Further, in one paragraph Srila Prabhupada says – “Even if in the beginning one chants the Hare Krishna mantra with offenses, one will become free from such offenses by chanting again and again. Paapa-kshayash ca bhavati smarataam tam ahar-nisham: One can become free from all sinful reactions simply by remembering the lotus feet of the Lord day and night [ahar-nisham]." following the recommendation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It was Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who quoted the following verse:

harer naama harer naama / harer naamaiva kevalam
kalau naasty eva naasty eva / naasty eva gatir anyathaa

In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way. If the members of the Krishna consciousness movement strictly follow this recommendation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, their position will always be secure.”

I am very sure that no one in the world will give this kind of assurance other than Krishna and His pure devotees. The rules, laws and rights made by the rulers in this material world neither have any such solution which will stop the criminals from repeating the crimes nor clear them from offenses in their past life. In this material world once you are a criminal, people will always treat you as a criminal. The assurance of cleansing your sins and coming back to pious life can only be given by Krishna in His own form i.e. Lord Chaitanya or through his pure devotees like Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev using simple tool of chanting Mahamantra. Only Krishna can shower mercy on “Sin Personified individual" (as stated by Ajamila) and struggling souls like us.

Let us therefore sincerely pray to the Supreme Lord, Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev to bestow their mercy upon us, so that our mind accepts the fact that we have no other duty than chanting His Holy names.

Krishna willing, we will continue the discussion on the third point in the next e-mail.

Thank you very much.
Your humble servant in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Milind Joshi,
Singapore.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Yahoo Groups granthraj – run by the disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – by the devotee name mentioned above. The posting in this article, is original realizations of our Guru Maharaj and the devotee who wrote this. Any comments regarding this article would be passed on directly to the devotee. In this article, ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Gurudev’ implicitly refer to our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj.

Related posts:

1. Live a Clean Life [granthraj]
2. Chanting – The Only Worthy Thing [granthraj]
3. Value of Human Life and Association of Devotees [granthraj]
4. Pure Life of a Perfect Seer [granthraj]
5. Chanting to be Our Life – Part 2 [granthraj]
6. Theistic Life – Part 4 [granthraj]
7. Theistic Life – Part 3 [granthraj]
8. Theistic Life – Part 2 [granthraj]
9. Theistic Life – Part 1 [granthraj]