The intrinsic qualities needed for practicing the path of devotion in the present age of quarrel (kali-yuga) is to surrender to the previous teachers (guru-paramparā) without hypocrisy and to chant the holy names.
yan-nāma-śruti-matreṇa puṁsān bhavati nirmalaḥ tasya tīrthapadaḥ kiṁ vādāsānāmavaśiṣyate
Śrīmad Bhagavatam 9.5.16
“By just hearing the holy name of the Supreme Lord, human beings become completely purified. What else is left to be gotten by the servants of the lotus feet of that Supreme Lord, Tīrthapada?”We can get perfection by mantra when we are able to believe in it. In India, there are mystics who chant mantras to cure people from poisonous snake bites; these mystics are known as ojhās. I would like to relate an incident about an ordinary mantrā’s miracle. One day, when I was a schoolboy, I saw a middle-aged person who had gotten bitten by a snake right next to the school. His family was very depressed and called the doctors who declared that nothing could be done to save him. Just then, an ojhā came and the family members of that dying man requested him to help. The ojhā felt the pulse of the man and said that he would try his best to save him. The ojhā took out three sea shells, put them on the palm of his hand, chanted some mantras and blew on the sea shells.
Immediately, the three sea shells started flying in the air. All of the students, including me, started running after the flying sea shells. The ojhā quickly called us back, telling us not to follow the sea shells.Eventually, we saw a snake with those same three sea shells on its head, slithering back to the place where the man was dying. The ojhā had successfully located the same snake that had bitten the dying man. Then, the ojhāinstructed the snake to remove the venom from the dying man’s body. The snake removed the venom and the dying man woke up. If such a normal mantra can be successfully used to locate a snake, just imagine what miracles the mahāmantra can achieve? By keeping strong faith in the paramparāthrough our spiritual master, keeping our goal of being free from duplicity, material gain, worship and fame, offering due respect to everyone, expecting no respect in return, being more humble than a blade of grass and being tolerant like a tree, we shall be able to definitely realize the taste of the holy name. We know from the Rāmāyaṇa that Hanumān, the dearest devotee of Lord Rāma, was constantly chanting Lord Rāma’s name. Every pore of Hanumān’s body was filled with Rāma and Sītā. The ojhā had strong faith in his ordinary mantra which caused miraculous results. Similarly, we must keep determined faith in the holy name and paramparā lineage through a bona-fide spiritual master; in this manner, we can pull down the Divine Couple, Śrī Śrī RādhāKṛṣṇa, into our hearts. Out of His causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, appeared in the form of ŚrīCaitanya Mahāprabhu and as the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra, just to deliver us from our hypocritical tendency by gradually cleansing the dirt of our hearts, making us qualified to be delivered from this material world. The behaviour of human beings is driven by association rather than by instinct. Apart from humans, all other living entities are driven solely by instinct. Humans are bestowed with intelligence and free will. Therefore, we can see both theists and atheists in human society. Although humans are physiologically alike, their minds, faiths, and actions are diverse. Humans are eligible to surrender to the entire guru-paramparāand chant the holy name. In order to make you understand how to control the mind, I would like to narrate an anecdote. Once, there was a landlord who had two sons. He was growing old and needed to decide which son would be qualified to maintain his entire estate. He decided to present his sons with a test. The test was to feed a goat in such a manner that it would not want to eat anymore. As we know, goats have the nature of constantly eating; even when its belly is full, a goat will not cease eating. It will eat and eat and eat. The first son took the goat to the grassy field in the morning and allowed the goat to eat as much grass as it could for the whole day. At the end of the day, the son brought the goat back to his father. The father took some grass in his hand and put it near the mouth of the goat. Although the goat was eating grass the entire day, it goat immediately gobbled up the grass from the father’s hand.Clearly, the first son had failed the test. The next morning, the second son took the goat to the grassy field. The goat began eating grass just like the day before. However, the second son would constantly whip the goat whenever it tried to eat grass. After a few hours, when the second son saw that the goat did not want to eat anymore grass and was instead, constantly looking at him, he brought the goat back to his father. Just like the day before, the father took some grass in his hand and put it near the mouth of the goat. This time, instead of gobbling up the grass, the goat was constantly staring at the son in fear. The father decided that this second son was qualified to maintain his estate.Similarly, the Supreme Lord’s illusory energy is constantly enticing the mind to be engaged with material attachment. We may try to consistently feed our minds, thinking that the mind will eventually become satisfied, but that will practically never occur. Just like the pampered goat, the mind is insatiable. Just like the second son was able to change the nature of the goat, in order to change this tendency of the mind and make it fixed, we must constantly pull the mind towards the Supreme Lord by chanting the holy name of God (Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra).
The Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra is made up of three words: Hare, Kṛṣṇa and Rāma. Hare is used eight times. Kṛṣṇa is used four times. Rāma is used four times. The literal meaning of the word hare means to steal. Who is stealing what? According to the explanation of our previous teachers, Rādhārāṇī is stealing the heart of Kṛṣṇa. The name Kṛṣṇa is made of two portions – ‘kṛṣ’ and ‘ṇa’. ‘Kṛṣ’means He who attracts all living entities by showing His beautiful form, pastimes, andqualities, namely keeping loving affection towards his devotees. ‘Ṇa’ means eternally blissful. The purpose of attracting all living entities is to make them become eternally blissful. The name Rāma refers to Rādhika-ramaṇa-rāma; it means He who is eligible to have a conjugal relationship with Rādhārāṇī.The Holy Name will cure our hypocritical nature which has been acquired from the association of present day material society. Our paramparā’s teachers have instructed us to pray sincerely to the holy name, presenting the holy name with our problems in regards to chanting. Our main problem is that our minds are diverted. Even when we try to concentrate, we are not successful because the mind is naturally naughty. Below is a prayer to each of the holy names in the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra in accordance with the teachings of our previous spiritual teachers.
1. Hare – he hare, mac-cittaṁ hṛtvā bhava-bandhanān-mocaya|a. Prayer – O Hare! My citta (mind, heart, intelligence and consciousness) is in a materially bound condition. I am unable to fix the citta in Your services. Please deliver me from this materially bound condition.
2. Kṛṣṇa – he kṛṣṇa, mac-cittam-ākarṣaya|a. Prayer – O Kṛṣṇa! Please attract my citta to You.
3. Rāma – he rāma, nāma-rūpa-guṇa-līlā-smaraṇādiṣu māṁ yojaya|a. Prayer – O Rāma! Please engage me in remembering about Your transcendental name, form, qualities, and pastimes.In conclusion, due to the influence of the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, it is very difficult for us to fully surrender and believe in the scriptural instructions (śāstras) and mantras.It is my humble request to all readers to please believe from the bottom of your hearts in the śāstras which are explained by your spiritual master. Surrender to the paramparā through your spiritual master (dīkṣā-guru) and you shall gradually understand the truths of śāstra in your life. Śāstra is explained by the Supreme Lord through His pure devotees and the Supreme Lord never cheats us. Rather, due to our lack of faith on śāstra, we cheat the Lord and thus, we feel cheated in our lives. Unless we establish sound faith on mantra and fully surrender without any hypocrisy, it is not possible to fix our citta in constant remembrance of our eternal identity. Constant prayer to the holy name allows our citta to be fixed in the Lord’s service. Fixing the citta in the eternal service of the Lord is the main goal of being here in the material world with a human form. My request to all of the readers is to please try to reach the main goal and make yourselves peaceful and blissful, eternally.
B.B.Bodhayan Swami
Written by HDG Srila B.B.Bodhayan Goswami Maharaja in 2023