English
1st September 2019
CHANTING and HEARING - PILLARS OF BHAGAVAT DHARMA
Today I was talking while I was chanting. Maybe it is Japa istagosti. We were chanting and you were writing and I was responding. I was inquiring about the Janmastami reports, and this and that. As a result, I ended up chanting mixed with talking. Chatting while chanting is not the right thing to do. Only chant while chanting. Don't talk. This talk is talking about japa and Krsna and talking about Janmastami. Talking about the devotees, talking about hearing and chanting, but is not hearing the holy name. We don't hear anything else. We hear Krsna. nityam bhagavat sevaya. There is a recommendation that we hear bhagavatam regularly.
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
Translation:
According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into 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)
sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana
Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said that Guru gives a seed of devotion and then plants it in the garden of your heart - bhakti lata bija. And you have to look after, sechana , you have to cultivate that seed of that bhakti lata bija, the seed of devotion by sravana kirtana jale. This is not water. It says you should feed the bija with more sravana kirtan jal, which has to sprout, grow and ultimately bring fruit in the form of Krsna Prema. Then you will relish love for the Lord and then we could understand that you started with the seed, bhakti-lata bija,
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
By the grace of the Lord we come in contact with Guru, the spiritual master. He gives us the bhakti-lata bija and with the sowing of the seed, bija we take care of the plant then the tree, bhakti vriksha and the flowers and ultimately take care of the fruits which is the love of the Lord. Krsna prem, Krsna prayojana -Krsna prema prayojana. Bhakti-lata bija, sowing the seed and making a connection developing relationship with Bhagawan through bhakti.
And with your Guru’s assistance you make a connection with the Lord. That connection may be through the name of the Lord and other means. Bija is an introduction. Then some relationship is established, formal jnana then abhideya, devotional service and then when devotional service is raw, sravan kirtana jale that's the sechana Caitanya Mahaprabhu recommends. Take care of the seed ,the plant. Now, do more and more bhakti. Bhakti means sravan kirtana. Jal from sambandh gives abhideya, lots of devotional services. Sravan kirtana centred and then prayojana, ultimate goal is prema pumartho mahan. When we get the fruit of our labour we call that as Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu says in
Siksastakam:
ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram
patitaṁ mam visame bhavambudhau
krpaya tava pada-pankaja-
sthita-dhuli-sadrsam vicintaya
m
"O son of Nanda Maharaja, I am Your eternal servant, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms of Your lotus feet." Lord Caitanya teaches us to come in touch with the dust of the Lord's lotus feet, for then there will undoubtedly be all success. (Siksastakam 5) Commenting on that verse Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself made a comment and He said, “My dear Lord, I am Your servant. I will keep serving. I have been serving and serving, I want to serve you. So like the servants who at the end of the day, end of the week or end of the month get a salary, the fruit of their labour. A boss reciprocates with them and gives them the gifts as cash. So Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu commented in Siksastaka, “Your servant gives Me vetan(salary). Give the salary to Me in the form of Krsna Prema. As He already said,
na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi
O Almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor to enjoy beautiful women. Nor do I want any number of followers. What I want only is the causeless mercy of Your devotional service in my life, birth after birth. (Siksastaka 4) Don't give me dhanam janam. Don't give me liberation either. I am not interested. In other
words the Lord is also saying
krsna-bhakta — niskama, ataeva ‘santa’
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kami — sakali ‘asanta’
.
Translation:
“Because a devotee of Lord Krsna is desireless, he is peaceful. Fruitive workers desire material enjoyment, jnanis desire liberation, and yogis desire material opulence; therefore they are all lusty and cannot be peaceful. (CC Madhya 19.149) I don't have the desire to have sense gratification in return,bhukti mukti, liberation or siddhi, some kind of asta siddhi, some perfections, but Your bhakti and of course service. But give me in return bhakti for what I do for You. Give it to Me in the form of prema, Krsna prem, Your prem, Prem as devotion or emotion, but that feeling or devotion is always translated into action as devotional service. As we say “I love you , I love you ,” but a devotee expresses love by performing more and more loving devotional services. ‘Give me love in return’ can be translated as give me more devotional service.
I did so much for You, so give me love as payment so that I can again serve You more with loving devotional service, loving attitude free from all that kama or dhanam, janam sundarim. This sravan kirtana is a devotional service. And this feeds the seed, seedling, plant or bhakti vriksha. Hearing and chanting, this sravan and kirtana is not only Hare
Krsna Hare Krsna kirtana but it's the sravan kirtana of the Bhagavad-gita or Bhagavatam, Caitanya- caritamrita. There are so many scriptures. So much is there to hear or know about the Lord. We are doing a marathon sravan kirtana and part of the time is Hare Krsna Hare Krsna maha-mantra chanting. Travel kirtana and other times, more time hearing
Bhagavatam. Hear Krsna what He is saying to Arjuna which was meant for us. We have got to find what message Krsna left behind. Just a few days ago we celebrated Sri Krsna Janamastami. Krsna appeared on Sri Krsna Janmastami. Krsna grew up and when He was there on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra, He sang a song, song of Krsna, the Bhagavad-gita. That was for you, for each one of us.
The Lord left behind the message for us, so are we not going to read what He left for us? Hear that message and understand that message. A few days ago I asked someone, “How is your chanting?” “It's a struggle Maharaja, to complete my rounds.” “And what about reading Gita Bhagavat?”
“I have hardly anytime to do so.”
So more or less everybody's response is like that. Not just one person responding, but more or less everybody is struggling with this problem. I am also very busy. It's not that I am just sitting idle. I have a lot of seva that needs to be done. There is always a big list of things to be done . But still I spend a lot of my time chanting the maha-mantra and studying Bhagavad-gita, Bhagvatam, Caitanya-caritamrita etc. Most of the time of my life is to study all these scriptures and chanting of the 'Hare Krsna' maha-mantra. When we do sravan of these scriptures and the maha-mantra then you feel like doing it still more and more. When I study these and if I feel I need to find out the answers of a particular query, then I do more study of it, thus I keep myself completely busy.
In last year's GBC meeting they made one statement based on their observation, that ISKCON devotees and followers are not reading Prabhupada’s books or do very little study of Srila Prabhupada's books. They were very disappointed by this observation that such little reading of Prabhupada's books is being done. Temple devotees do a little better, but still not very satisfactory. What to speak of congregation devotees from homes. So it's a strong recommendation from the GBC that all ISKCON devotees should read Srila Prabhupada's books. They should also read their spiritual masters books. But read they must. The day you have time you should sit down and read. If you don't have time to sit and read, then hear. While eating, drinking, watching, walking , driving, flying you could hear. I observe people sitting next to me in the plane hearing. So why not us? We could also use a lot of time like that for hearing. Many have to start 2 hours prior to their business before the office starts. So that’s 2 hours or many hours that could be used while travelling for hearing and chanting. These days so many devices are available. We could
use them for lectures, katha talks and so forth. Prabhupada said that all books should be made into audio, we could very easily use them while walking or driving. You could be next to the driver. I do this many times. First of all you should realise the importance of hearing and chanting. Then be inclined to do it. Just realizing the importance is not enough. We say only when one begins chanting and hearing then one realises the importance of it.
Arjuna had Krsna with him and when he realized the importance of fighting he acted that way. Arjuna is a Ksatriya. karishye vachanam tava. - ' I will do as You say, my dear Lord. I will do it.’ He didn't want to fight, but he was convinced after hearing Krsna about the importance of fighting. Then on the spot he picked up his bow and arrow and started shooting. So likewise realise the importance of sravanam kirtanam visnu smaranam. This is very foundational devotional service.
sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana
nitya-siddha krsna-prema ‘sadhya’ kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya
Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.(CC Madhya 22.107)
The very foundational siddhant of Bhagavat dharma is that by hearing, by sravan, kirtana, smaran , padsevan etc, but emphasis is on sravan and kirtana. By doing that you could be reviving your love for the Lord.
All the living entities have love for the Lord, which unfortunately we have forgotten, and instead we are loving people of this world. Oh I love you! I love you! They have fallen in love with so many things, so many persons, objects, food and this and that. I love my dog. We have become distracted and we are becoming ignorant by ignoring our love for the
Lord. We have to become knowledgeable, and not remain ignorant fools. I am talking to you, practitioners of Krsna consciousness and sure you know Krsna, you are realising Krsna. Some realisation is there, but there is so much more to know, so much more to realise. That is why we have Bhakti sastri and Bhakti Vaibhava courses. Srila Prabhupada designed these courses to give us direction, to encourage us to study. So we should study, hear, chant more and more. Go on marathon and this is not just an occasional marathon.
Sravan and kirtana marathon should be regularly followed, everyday! That is what keeps us connected with the Lord. Hear him or we hear about him, know Him more and more, know yourself more. And you know more about the fact that you are His and He is yours. I had visited one devotee’s home and on the wall there was written " I am yours and you are
mine". So this is a fact. The way we have made so many worldly connections. We come up with excuses - I am not a sannyasi. I have so many responsibilities. This is because you have not understood or you have not heard the Lord, not read about Him. So you do not even know what you are duty is. I am doing my duty. Krsna has said
karmany evadhikaras te
ma phalesu kadacana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur
ma te sango 'stv akarmani
TRANSLATION
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. (BG 2.47)
To do your duty is the dharma. Half knowledge is dangerous. We should know this is not even one complete verse. People just follow this - karmany evadhikaras te. But you should know more about this verse. Krsna has said. We 'Hare Krsna' devotees cannot remain Hindus. Our goal is to become Krsna conscious. What makes us Krsna conscious is:
nitya-siddha krsna-prema ‘sadhya’ kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya
Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.(CC Madhya 22.107)
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
This will make us Krsna conscious, which is goal of this life. Becoming Krsna conscious means we are enjoying or relishing Krsna prem, the fruit of our labour. All that we do for Krsna which is basically hearing and chanting , sravan and kirtana about Krsna, Lord Sri Caitanya or Lord Rama is what we should be trying to do in order to become Krsna conscious. Srila Prabhupada named this society the International Society for Krsna Consciousness. International society, global worldwide society, to make people Krsna conscious. Society of Krsna conscious people, and a society to make people Krsna conscious.
I think this food for thought is good enough for a few days. Now I will leave you for your further consideration and contemplations.
Hare Krsna!
(;While driving you could be hearing. Aur if you are sitting next to driver seat, you could be reading. I do that. First of all realise the importance of hearing and chanting and then do it , inclin)