19 August 2020

Harinama is the medicine that cures all enmity

Hare Krsna! Welcome all of you to the Japa session. Today 815 participants are chanting from different locations. Suprabhat! Good Morning! It’s a pleasant morning, good morning. People usually say good morning! But only the Hare Krsna people know how to make it good. Like we simply don’t say, “Happy birthday, Happy New Year etc.” because we know what it means and how to make it happy. Srila Prabhupada says, “Chant Hare Krsna and be happy.” This is how we become happy and make it a good morning. What should we do? We should call the names of Krsna. We are starting our day with chanting. Then the Lord will keep us happy and it should not just be a prayer, but we should have firm faith in this. We don’t just wish you, ‘Good day, Good Morning etc,’ because Caitanya Mahaprabhu is asking each and every person in this world to chant the names of the Lord.

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

Translation
‘For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali, there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative to the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’ [CC Adi 7.76]

śrī-prahrāda uvāca
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
sakhyam ātma-nivedanam

Translation
‌Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, 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. (SB 7.5.23)

How to do it? Sravanam, kirtanam and visnoh smaranam. We will hear and then sing the glories. While singing the glories or the holy names of the Lord, we will hear about the Lord also. Then we will remember the Lord which will make us ultimately happy. This is the solution. This resolves all the material doubts and distress. This is the solution to every confusion. This Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna is the solution. Whether it is the issue of a society, community, entire country or the entire humanity, the one and only solution is Chant Hare Krsna. This is one thing. Yesterday we were talking about BG 2.48 where it is written yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi which means to be steadfast in the performance of your duties. Chanting Hare Krsna and Reading Srimad-Bhagavatam is also sravanam kirtanam. If we do this everyday in the morning we get situated in Krishna consciousness and then whatever we do during the entire day becomes Krishna conscious. Like Krsna said, “Remember Me and do your duties simultaneously.”

tasmat sarvesu kalesu
mam anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir
mam evaisyasy asamsayah

Translation
Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krsna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt. (BG 8.7)

This reminds me of the Brahma Vimohan lila. Brahma stole all of Krsna’s friends and calves, and was returning to the earth after hiding them in Brahmalok. He saw Vraja-mandal and what Krsna was doing. He found all of them in their regular pastimes with Krsna. He was shocked and could not believe his eyes. He thought someone had brought them back, but when he went back to Brahmalok to check, he saw that they were where he had hidden them. He understood that Krsna is not ordinary. He came back and then Krsna revealed to him a wonderful sight. The scene He saw was that all those friends and calves turned into the divine four armed forms. All the demigods and saints were worshipping those four armed forms. The third scene he saw was that they all turned into two armed forms, now all he saw was so many Krsnas. All the calves and friends are Krsna Himself. The fourth scene he saw was that there are no calves and friends around and Krsna was all alone. No one was around. One year ago when Brahma stole all of them, that scene came in front of his eyes now, that Krsna was alone now and leaving His food half way, He left to look for His friends and calves with some food in His hand, without washing His hands. Nothing had changed and Krsna was searching, “Oh, where are My calves? Where are My friends?”

In this way Brahma could see the different sights by the will of Krsna. Brahma understood that this was wonderful, amazing Krsna. This is Brahma Vimohan Lila. Brahma became illusional in this pastime.

Seeing all this Brahma fell off his seat. He started rolling in the dust of Vrindavan. The same dust which has touched the lotus feet of Krsna. Tears started rolling from his eyes and with those tears Brahma washed the divine feet of Krsna. He got up with a lot of difficulty. Then he asked for forgiveness in his prayers. Brahma starts singing the glories of Krsna. It is given in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14. It is full of his prayers and glories of Krsna. We should read these realisations of Brahma. Brahma sings His glories and it has been compiled in the Brahma Samhita also. Brahma repeatedly chants Govindam adi purusham tam aham bhajami. O Govinda, the eternal being, I worship you!

ārati koren brahmā-ādi deva-gaṇe

Translation
Lord Caitanya has sat down on a jewelled throne, and the demigods, headed by Lord Brahma, perform the arati ceremony. [Gaura Aarti]

Even he performs the arati of Gauranga Mahaprabhu on the banks of Ganga. This also proves that Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krsna Himself. Because Brahma says, “I only worship Govinda and he is also worshipping Mahaprabhu.”

This same Brahma incarnated as Haridas Thakur and practiced sincere chanting. Caitanya Mahaprabhu named him Namacarya. Namacarya is Brahma. He attained perfection in chanting by chanting 300 thousand names of the Lord daily.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

What is the way of worshipping the Lord in the age of Kali? In Srimad-Bhagavatam, 11.5 it is mentioned that the intelligent beings will worship Krsna by performing Sankirtan Yajnas.

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁsāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadamyajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyairyajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

Translation
“In this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña.” [SB 11.5.32]

People in Kali will perform sacrifice by chanting. Every word of this verse in important. Those with sufficient knowledge will worship the Lord by performing saṅkīrtana-yajña.

Well, I also wanted to mention that in the 13th chapter of the 10th canto it has been mentioned that when Brahma was seeing the different sights, he saw that, usually in the animals and humans there is nesargik vair, specific violence or envy or enmity. Sometimes humans eat animals. This world is designed in a way that there is nesargik vair, enmity between humans and animals naturally.

Brahma saw there was no such enmity. There was no enmity between the animals and humans of Vrindavana. There was all-prevailing friendship. The serpent and peacock are strong enemies, but there was nothing like that in Vrindavan. In Vrindavan there is no enmity. They have bodies like that of material humans and animals, because they are all Krishna conscious.

When Caitanya Mahaprabhu was coming to Vrindavan from Jagannatha Puri, on the way was the forest of Jharkhand. He was passing chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. Mahaprabhu made the animals chant and dance to Hare Krsna maha-mantra.

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

The wild animals were listening to Mahaprabhu chanting and singing. By this their enmity was destroyed. They gave up their material natures. The enmity among deer and tigers, snakes and peacocks was destroyed. He saw that the deers and tigers were dancing together, rubbing their shoulders. Then he saw them exchanging hugs and that they started kissing each other out of ecstasy. Seeing this Mahaprabhu started shouting loudly “Vrindavan Dhama Ki Jai” in the forest of Jharkhand. I thought, ‘Why did He remember Vrindavan?’ Because that is the place where it is possible. There every entity is Krishna conscious and void of enmity, envy and jealousy between humans and animals and between different species of animals. Mahaprabhu realised this in the forest of Jharkhand and He thought, “This is Vrindavan. Vrajavasis have the same emotion, love for each other.” When I was reading this pastime yesterday, I realized this.

Just by this we can also derive the important influence and effect of the holy name. This is the effect on humans. How it brings a revolutionary change in its chanters. When animals can behave like Vrajavasis, express friendship, affection and love through kirtana, then why can’t we humans? Such a world is possible. Though it may not be possible that the entire world becomes like this, because after all it is the material world. But many of us can be transformed by accepting to chant the holy name. Jagai and Madhai are the proof of this.

dina−hina yata chilo hari−name uddharilo,
ta’ra saksi jagai−madhai

“Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so magnanimous that He delivered all kinds of sinful men simply by allowing them to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. The evidence of this is Jagai and Madhai.”

They had become sinners by the effect of Kali, but by the mercy of the holy name they were completely transformed and became sadhus. This is possible. Someone who is such a sinner, can also be transformed into a sadhu. Someone may ask, “What is the proof?” Jagai and Madhai turned into Jagdananda and Madhavanad which were their actual names.

Srila Prabhupada travelled across the globe to bring this change by preaching the holy names of the Lord. The desired result is in front of us. People who were engaged in just eating, sleeping, mating and defending, have been transformed.

There are people who have various bad habits, but we can see how so many people have been and are being transformed. Are you all also experiencing the change in you?

Try to bring more people and neighbours and friends to this change. Make them chant and give them prasada. Invite them for Janmastami. Share your change with others. Bring them to the temple, invite them for celebrations and festivals, give them Krsna book. Those who bother you , try to change them so that your life may become easy. Everyone is like that. Battles are taking place in this world.

People are engaged in eating, sleeping, mating and defending. These qualities are the same in the animals as well. It is only the dharma that differentiates a human from an animal.

āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca
sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām
dharmo hi teṣām adhiko viśeṣo
dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ

Translation
Eating, sleeping, sex, and defence—these four principles are common to both human beings and animals. The distinction between human life and animal life is that a man can search after God but an animal cannot. That is the difference. Therefore a man without that urge for searching after God is no better than an animal.

So try to find the conclusion. Give the holy names of Lord to others. Engage in reading and chanting.

Thank you.
Hare Krsna.