English
24th May 2019
By chanting more and more one day Krsna will reciprocate with you
Today’s number of participants are 508. Ok we think, kind of internet facility or speed is the factor that influences the number of participants. There may be other factors also, someone may be caught by maya or some may be sleeping. You should sometime record your chanting and you could hear and review performance of your own chanting. I heard my own chanting some days ago from one of these recordings and I was surprised I wasn’t chanting all the 16 names I was missing some. I am normally proud that I chant all the 16 names.
Iti shodashakam namnam
I think the reason why I was not chanting all the 16 names of mantra I get may be distracted as I go through this conference, sometimes there are social medias, lots of obeisances, “Oh, Maharaj bless me, today is my birthday and someone is paralyzed, Maharaja, please pray this and that lot of things.” And that I think these factors get my attention and I am not chanting all the 16 names. So, let’s not just make this japa conference a social media and type of chit chat. This conference is a serious communication. Ok that will help in concentrating and hearing all 16 names. Hari Hari !
You could send your comments on Loksanga or websites. We have dedicated website for chanting also.
Chanting brings us closer to Lord and as we chant, we get lot of realisations from chanting, during chanting or after chanting. The benediction is either on the spot or ‘pratyaksh or paroksha’ may be another time we realize or we will see the fruits of chanting.
Few days ago, I was in Pandharpur devotees have been going to take darsana of Vitthal and they were coming back. I have this garland before devotees offered another garland it to me. They returned from darsana and offered me another tulasi garland from the neck of Lord Vitthal coming in my direction. And this has been happening for several days as I am chanting here, I am getting benediction of Lord Vitthal. The devotees are given flower garlands, tulasi garlands nice fragrance. This is charnamrita from the mahabhishek of Lord Vitthal, I could have distributed to you if you were next to me. But you could only see and be happy.
Then just other day in our temple Radha Pandharinath, I was offering obeisances to the deities and stood in front of them and pujari reached the lotus feet of the deities and collected some flowers and offered them to me. Initially I was thinking he was offering me just ‘patram pushpam’ he is not offering me nothing much substantial. But as I accepted these flowers and I smelled fragrance of those flowers; I was reminded Lord’s statement.
Fragrance of the flower that is fragrance of the earth, that is offered to Lord. Lord says that fragrance is Myself so I had a strong deep realization of experience and thinking that “oh this is, don’t think this is just flowers coming to you but this is a Lord’s fragrance. It is Lord”. Lord is not different from the fragrance. But Lord is a source of that fragrance of all the fragrances, this is Lord, the fragrance is Lord. This pujari has given me Lord not just flower.
And then during the day I was reading or studying Bhagavatam and then I was reading the chapter which is entitled as ‘Description of Krishna kingdom of God Vaikuntha’ then there is a description of four Kumaras visiting Vaikuntha and finally four Kumaras encountered. They are taking darsana they are in a close proximity to the Lord, that description I was reading. It is described there those time they were arriving and entering Vaikuntha lok from one gate to another. There were seven gates they had go through. They were ‘brahmavadis’, they were more fixed on ‘brahmajyoti’ aspect of the Lord that was their realization. God is brahman. As they were moving through or moving on, they were smelling flowers, fragrance of the flowers of all these kind of substances offered to the Lord. And eventually as they reach Lord’s close proximity then they literally started smelling lotus feet of the Lord and thus they were inhaling the fragrance of the lotus feet, the chandan offered to the Lord. And as we have chandan yatra going right now, chandan is offered to the of lotus feet of the Lord. And of course, the substances also get fragrance from Lord’s lotus feet. So, they were literally smelling the lotus feet of the Lord and as a result their whole realization changed. They were kind of brahmavadis first, impersonalists, neutral bhaktas but their whole devotion aroused, revived or revolution in the consciousness and they were now realizing Lord as a Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The realization changed just by smelling the fragrance of the lotus feet of the Lord. The fragrance of the Lord, it’s non-different from the Lord.
So then further realization I had, I was also smelling the fragrance of the flowers I felt the Lord as I was smelling the fragrance of the flowers. It was further confirmed as I was reading from the 3rd canto of Bhagvatam - Four Kumaras they were transformed and evolved just by smelling the flowers at the lotus feet of Lord at Vaikuntha.
Then I turned to Caitanya Caritamrita and now Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu now is in Jagannath Puri. He is going through His final pastimes. He is in Radha bhava, emotions of Radha, He is missing Krsna. Where is Krishna? Where is Krishna? And Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu one day enters one garden in Jagannath Puri and He went through very special experiences. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu as He was looking for Krishna in fact He was smelling the fragrance and He thought that fragrance is coming from Him. He had darsana of Sri Krishna in that garden. Lord runs in the direction of that form and He is trying to grab embrace of that form which He had visualized. Suddenly there was no form so this was also fragrance connection. Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu smelled fragrance and He had a darsana of Lord that gandha that fragrance is non-different from the Lord.
When that particular pastime when Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu had a darsana and He lost darsana, the wind was blowing slowly ‘manda’ not ‘tivra’ that wind was carrying the fragrance same fragrance which He had smelled before. In whichever direction He got the smell ‘Oh! My Lord is now in this direction see the fragrance is coming from that direction.’ Wherever the fragrance came, He would run in that side thinking ‘Oh My Lord is in that side see that fragrance is coming from side.’ He is here, He was trying to embrace the Lord so as He was smelling the fragrance whichever direction, he was getting receiving that fragrance. Running in that direction and he was going round and round intoxicated by smelling the sweet deep fragrance. And He was rolling on the ground, He was jumping in the air and lots of emotions. He was going through these emotions. This fragrance from the body of the Lord was making Him move to the source of that fragrance.
These are some thoughts related with the fragrance, I was getting as I was getting these garlands, flowers from lotus feet, garland from the lotus feet of Lord Vitthal.
I thought this was the fruit of my chanting, Lord was reciprocating like this, these are the realizations out of my chanting and hearing and calling out, ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna’ these are my experiences.
May you all also experience and realize Krishna more and more; may Krishna reveal Himself to you more and more. As you chant with attention more and more.
Stop here, carry on your chanting and remembering the Lord.
Hare Krishna
