HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE 21 страница
The ultimate purpose of all “temporary,” circumstantially manifested features of God, guru, and various utility-based forms of devotional service associated with this external field is to awaken our innate loving service tendency toward the eternally substantial parallel nitya-lila features of guru and Godhead. The details of the featured forms change, whereas the essential ideological substance remains perpetually intact. For example, in the worship of the arca-vigraha, as found in this world, the pujari, when decorating the Deity, circumstantially needs to stick the Deity’s rings and other ornaments on His limbs with the help of sticky substances like beeswax and Blu- tack. Undoubtedly, the idea of ornamenting the Lord’s body is an eternal reality – but the use of Blu-tack? It is not enough to merely move on the temporarily useful physical platform, barring any internally reflective counterpart nitya-lila notion about our externally corresponding pure-devotional engagements.
The culture of hari-nama-japa-yajna is said to be a disciple’s first and foremost essential obligation at the feet of Shri Guru. Though apparently bearing a relatively small radius of para-upakara audibility, a disciple’s offenseless chanting of at least a fixed minimum number of Holy Names daily unquestionably constitutes the top-priority, most substantial service to Shri Guru and his institution. In fact, the guru imposes no more imperative order than to regularly complete one’s prescribed personal japa-vrata. Such is the incontrovertible status of nama-japa’s enormous significance. Personal absorption in nama-bhajana is well ascertained to be a far more weighty devotional responsibility than a devotee’s transcendental book distribution of any amount. Qualitative and quantitative increments in the chanting of nama-japa appreciably augments one’s personal purity. Moreover, shuddha-nama-japa dynamically establishes one’s internal spiritual link with Krishna’s antaranga-shaktis, through which alone one can ever hope to receive the empowerment required to effectually broadcast the Holy Name. In the same way, one should properly assess the collective value of congregational chanting. One must not witlessly underestimate, discount, or ignore the individual and communal spiritual worth and weightiness of earnestly executed prema-dharma hari-nama- sankirtana. It is not that because kirtana performances done with khol and karatala can be heard for only a relatively short distance (as is even more so the case with nama-japa) shri-hari- nama-sankirtana should be viewed dismissively or its concerted community performance in any way be slighted or abandoned as if it were in some way outmoded. If such were the intention behind the instructions of any institutional founder in deference to the avail of the printing press, then perhaps, referring to the very scriptures so globally proliferated, we should by and large incisively question or even prudently decline the validity of such advice. Nama-japa is the vital force and invigorator for the Vaishnava individual. In the same way, hari-nama-sankirtana is the spiritual strength, sustenance, and inspiration for the collective Vaishnava community. Transcendental book distribution certainly boasts the capability of heroically broadcasting knowledge of pure devotional principles to the remotest corners of the world. It makes for a better mouse trap, so to speak, only in terms of the amplitude of the word’s propagability. This, however, does not in any way pose to overshadow or diminish the greater relative importance of community-stimulating nama-sankirtana in terms of the latter’s in-house value, any more than it would overshadow or diminish the spiritual worth and paramount consequence of the responsible completion of one’s individually honored nama-japa- vrata. Thus, when we say book distribution is “better” in terms of propagability, we should not misconstrue that to mean “better” or more important in terms of a clearly dissimilar reference point, namely the in-house value of communal sankirtana.
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No doubt, the dissemination of Vaishnava philosophy via the medium of transcendental book distribution is for the classes (intelligentsia). Nonetheless, readily accessible Krishna- conscious involvement and direct spiritual experience by way of purely and powerfully performed congregational hearing and chanting of the Holy Name is markedly elevating and enlivening for both the classes and the masses! It is not that because hari- nama-sankirtana is said to be “for the masses” it is not also meant for the classes. If anything, those who are intellectually fit to discuss the values of life should be able to gain a more profound philosophical grasp of the sankirtana principle and quickly achieve nistha for its sublime application. Beyond that, the advanced inner circle, the rasika relishers of lila-katha, will most ably value the thing in the deepest manner. Direct, localized sankirtana performances with khol and karatala may not be so extensively audible in the world, having less potential global mobility than proliferated literatures. Still, on account of its special inspirational efficacy, far greater importance should be attached to the nourishing cultivation and maintenance of a strong individual and collective relishment and appreciation of eternally nectarous shuddha-nama-sankirtana-rasa within the Vaishnava community (and beyond) than to the “business” of transcendental book distribution (brihat-kirtana), notwithstanding the latter’s useful, temporarily manifest far- extendable outreach. Hari-nama-sankirtana is not to be taken as a curiously quaint holiday novelty, a blast from the annals of Gaudiya Vaishnava history, something we anthropologically study about in the books. Sankirtana (the congregational chanting of the Holy Name) is forever the life and soul of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement! Faith in the process of hari- nama-sankirtana is the fundamental root of the tree of Krishna consciousness, the strength of the Krishna consciousness movement – its essential foundation. If the foundation is weak – if the root is starved or rotten – then what outcome could we expect from the whole affair? The philosophy of half the hen . . . We want the golden eggs, but it’s more economical if we don’t have to feed the thing. And anyhow, hari-nama-sankirtana don’t make no money! We have our huge establishments with their huge attendant overhead expenditures to agonize about. $0 . . . just pick it to the bone and bring it on home!
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For years together, I have observed among many of the esteemed members of the Krishna consciousness movement (from top to bottom) the regrettable misconceptions, oversight, sheer disinterest or total neglect surrounding the token importance (if any) assigned to the performance of hari-nama- sankirtana within the society of devotees. I am thus compelled to humbly remind all concerned that this soul-stimulating, dynamically absorbing, congregational preaching mode of self realization, nama-sankirtana-yajna, should increasingly complement transcendental book distribution and all other aspects of devotional life with a serious view to bringing the bliss back into the lives of the bungling bhaktas. It is not that just because we have joined Lord Caitanya’s hari-nama- sankirtana movement we therefore don’t need to bother ourselves to go out on hari-nama-sankirtana. How can we expect to get ruci for something we scarcely do? Shuddha-nama-kirtana- ruci is not so cheap that merely by official, institutionally regimented token gesture or lame lip-service we should expect to achieve the thing. We have to go deeper, beyond the call of duty, beyond the ceremonious filing in and filing out of the stipulated “temple programs.” When Mother Yashoda was trying to bind Bala Krishna to the grinding mortar, she was mystified to find that she was again and again two fingers short of success. One finger represents a devotee’s steadfast extra endeavor, the other Krishna’s divine dispensation, His special mercy. Alongside whatever other services we may be doing on any level, all of us, irrespective of organizational echelon, would do well to assiduously find or make the time to both privately and publicly do more hari-nama-sankirtana and see the long- lasting internal (personal/communal) and external (outreaching/para-upakara) results. If our authorities disallow, discourage, disparage, or in any way hamper our focus on the performance of yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana, then they are not our authorities. If our gurus instruct us not to concentrate our energies and resources on the performance of yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana, then, with all due respect, they are not our gurus. We should be prepared to disobey the instructions of millions of “gurus” who in any way dissuade us from surrendering to the yuga-dharma. Hari-nama-sankirtana is the best and most powerful process for awakening one’s taste and attachment for the Holy Name. One who fortunately gains authentic shuddha-nama-ruci and intelligently amasses stockpiles of solid background experience in the matter of relishing the nectar of nama-sankirtana-rasa will most likely never depart from the path of unalloyed devotional bhajana.
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Without having the impulse to enthusiastically practice the religion of this age, hari-nama-sankirtana, what Vaishnava or Vaisnavi can claim to have shuddha-nama-ruci?
Without having extensively engaged in vigorous, daily protracted performances of the yuga-dharma, hari-nama- sankirtana, what Vaishnava or Vaisnavi can honestly claim to have ascended to the terrace of prema?
Without purposely promoting the daily promulgation of the yuga-dharma, hari-nama-sankirtana, what devotional community can viably proclaim its intent to elevate its members to life’s ultimate perfection?
Without deliberately stimulating and fostering the worldwide daily promulgation of the yuga-dharma, hari-nama- sankirtana, what institution can claim to be truly representing the sankirtana movement of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu?
Distribute books. Distribute books. Distribute books. But who is reading the books? Read books. Read books. Read books. But without practically implementing by sensibly dedicating a substantial portion of life’s time and energy to the direct performance of yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana, what individual or group of individuals can claim to have rightly comprehended and applied the devotional science enunciated in the scriptures proliferated by the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acaryas through disciplic succession?
When deeply considered from the standpoint of a madhurya-bhakta, hari-nama-japa-yajna can be likened to the most intimate nikunja-seva of Yugala-kishora. It is tantamount to Radhe Shyama’s mercifully coming to personally accept one’s solitary services and enjoy Their pleasure pastimes at one’s own kunja. Sankirtana-yajna performed privately behind closed doors, as was done by Lord Gauranga and company at Shrivasangana, can be compared to Radha and Krishna’s more intimate rasa-lila relishment among Their inner circle of friends. Similarly, public nagara-sankirtana smacks of the less intimate maha-rasa-lila performances, where outsiders (rivals) and newcomers (sadhana-siddhas) are admitted. Rasa-lila delight (nama-sankirtana) essentially serves as a kind of foreplay, an “appetizer” to profoundly stimulate in both Krishna and His beloveds a mutual attraction for more advanced, deeply amorous, most esoteric private conjugal pastimes (nama-japa). The rasa-lila performances (nama-sankirtana) can never be complete or very meaningful without ultimately arousing the Lord’s intensified passion for reciprocating the individual gopis’ desires for most confidential sequestered loving services (nama- japa). Such consummate experience of the deepest personal reciprocation with the Lord naturally inspires His lovers to replay nightly the rasa dance in such a way so as to further more and more intensified intimacy with Him again and again. Likewise, the consummate experience of genuine, unvitiated solitary absorption in shuddha-nama-japa unsurprisingly promotes in a true sadhaka a powerful impetus to exuberantly dance and chant in ever-inspirational hari-nama-sankirtana on a daily basis. Such is the synergic correlation between nama-japa and nama-sankirtana that both reciprocally serve to enhance the value of one another. Rasa-lila, as a cooperative group effort to please the Lord, truly tests as well as reveals to Lord Krishna the enchanting beauty and sweetness of the selfless loving service attitude of a gopi. As He sees and increasingly appreciates the beauty and purity of her unstinting, transcendentally altruistic or para-upakara-punctuated love, Krishna naturally feels especially inclined to intimately share Himself with her in ways otherwise unimaginable. Such beatified cognition of the extent of her beloved Lord and Lady’s special mercy upon her own unique person naturally moves the sakhi to share her exhilaration with her confidential associates and maidservants. Without gaining the advanced experience of such intimacy, she would hardly have very much to impart to anyone. The proof of her advancement is seen in her redoubled purposeful compulsion, on the basis of her own loving ecstasies, to extensibly encourage others to embrace the same success formula as she embraced.
In other words, when Krishna notices a sankirtana devotee’s concerted endeavors to magnanimously share the priceless treasure of Krishna consciousness with others via the congregational chanting of the Holy Name, then from within He dynamically enhances to the profoundest degree an individual’s personal confidential relishment of hari-nama-rasa through the medium of nama-japa. Hari-nama-sankirtana, when enthusiastically performed to satisfy guru and Gauranga, dynamically dissolves any residual scraps of egocentricity within the heart of a pure devotional candidate, enabling one to deeply endear oneself in all intimacy to the Holy Name. When Hari Nama Prabhu becomes attracted to the benevolence and sweetheartedness of a devotee, He becomes naturally inclined to constantly keep the devotee’s company. Krishna-nama is an all-blissful, all-sentient person. We must always remember that love is a two-way street. Constant chanting of the Holy Name is a matter of mutual attraction. Love-birds of a feather flock together. It can never be a forced affair. The internal revelation of the beauty and sweetness of reciprocal loving radha-Krishna- nama-bhajana certainly further enthuses a softhearted devotee to repeatedly share with others the nectar of the Holy Name through the medium of loud congregational chanting and dancing. When, as a pure-hearted hari-nama-bhajananandi, one dives into the ambrosial ocean of hari-nama-japa, one progressively surfaces in the nectarous ocean of nama- sankirtana – and then resurfaces with renewed strength, relish and realization in the ocean of japananda. Thus, Hari-nama- sankirtana dynamically promotes the selfless sacrificial service attitude essentially required for profoundest absorption in vraja- radha-Krishna-nama-bhajana.
Although it is seen that self-sacrificing shuddha-nama-japa and empowered hari-nama-sankirtana stand alternately as inspirational impetuses to each other, it must further be recognized that nama-bhajana ultimately finds its profoundest, most exuberant exaltation in the loud congregational chanting of the Holy Name. This statement, made with reference to the consideration of the supramundane expansion of Krishna’s transcendental bliss, is not at all intended to undermine or sidestep the fundamental importance of an individual’s regular chanting of nama-japa. Rather, the intention is to illustrate how nama-bhajana achieves magnified power from the interpersonal support gained by doing hari-nama-sankirtana in the association of saintly swan-like devotees. Analogously, the consummate union of the Divine Couple forms the central jewel in the necklace of all conjugal pastimes of the Lord. Nevertheless, lila- vilasa, as described in Rupa Gosvami’s Ujjvala-nilamani, though preludial to the impending fulfillment, the final conclusion of the whole affair (samprayoga), nevertheless transcendentally tantalizes the Lord with a pleasure far surpassing that of the ultimately achieved conjugal union itself. The appetizers are, in certain respects, transcendentally more powerfully stimulating and super-excellently flavorful than the forthcoming feast.
From another angle, it may be remembered that, in the course of Her pleasure pastimes, wherein Shyama’s happiness is the very foundation of Her own, Radha’s personal endeavor to mercifully engage the other sakhis rewards Her with a happiness far more relishable than the happiness derived from Her own private meetings with Her beloved Lord. The simple truth is that Lord Krishna is far more easily attracted, pleased, and conquered by the cooperative group effort to congregationally petition His benevolence upon an assembly of individuals through the process of sankirtana than by an individual’s solitary or separatistic endeavor. All these things are simply beyond material calculation and have to be appreciated and realized by practical samadhi, or pure devotional absorption. Any experienced self-sacrificing kirtaniya can positively attest to the greatly encouraging ananda-maya influence and, even more, to the intensity of internal heartfelt spiritual enrichment noticed upon the sincere qualitative and quantitative performance of nama-sankirtana-yajna. It is for this reason that within the society of devotees more stress should be given to hari-nama- sankirtana, in pursuit of an enhanced Krishna conscious love, trust, and enlivenment among the groups of individuals who make up the society. Again I emphasize: As hari-nama-japa is required for strengthening the individual devotee, so hari-nama- sankirtana is essential for strengthening, revitalizing, unifying, and purifying the Vaishnava community. Moreover, such cooperative group endeavor to uplift and enliven the Vaishnava community further enhances the breadth and depth of the Krishna conscious experience in the community’s individuals.
If we sincerely desire to deepen and redouble our taste for chanting the Holy Name, then we would do very well to faithfully consign our intelligence to the instructions of our predecessor Acaryas, take shelter of Gaura-Nitai, and do more hari-nama-sankirtana! If we recognize the enormous need to practically expand the ocean of transcendental fortune and bliss to touch the lives of other pious souls, in the matter of increasing and maintaining Krishna’s family of devotees, then we would surely do well to take shelter of Gaura-Nitai and do more hari-nama-sankirtana! If we at all acknowledge the intermutual need to expedite the purification of our Vaishnava relationships then we would all do very well to concertedly take shelter of Gaura-Nitai and do more hari-nama-sankirtana! If we seriously want to go well beyond the bodily concept of life, to realize the highest constitutional spiritual identity of the self (vraja-svarupa), then we would do very well to set all worldly considerations aside, take shelter of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and do more hari-nama-sankirtana! If we truly desire the perfection of the vraja-bhavas, by which we could ever hope to attain the pleasure pastimes of the Lord in the topmost realm of Vraja, then we would do very well to do more hari-nama- sankirtana! If we at all see the need to expedite our progress to the terrace of vipralambha-bhava-maya-vraja-prema for the pleasure of guru and Gauranga, in consonance with the very purpose of Their mission, then we would do very well to do more hari-nama-sankirtana! If we, honestly confessing any delinquency in the matter of its performance, sense a deficiency in the evolvement of our individual and collective pure devotional experience as per insight, revelation, and realization, then we would, by all means, do very well to abandon all apprehensions about the thing and simply do more hari-nama- sankirtana! If we want the lifelong inspiration to carry on with our transcendental book distribution in a most viable way, then we would certainly do very, very well to do more hari-nama- sankirtana in order to deeply appreciate and enthusiastically share the very essence of what the books are, in so many words, purposely promoting! Given that we might, with a view to accomplish the as-yet-to-be-realized final half of Srila Prabhupada’s mission, deem the reestablishment of varnashrama-dharma in present-day human society to be of paramount importance, even still, we would do very, very well to intelligently put the horse before the cart and concertedly, all the world over, do more mass hari-nama-sankirtana – to practically increase the piety and spiritual consciousness of the masses in order to even hope to make possible that which is virtually impossible under the present so-called “for the people, by the people” heinously roguish, demonic, world-domineering corporatist governmental misleadership. Godless multi-national money-mongering corporate elitists and other hard-core, ruthless, raksasa-like terror-breathing global tyrants are not going to politely wait for us, the members of the Krishna consciousness movement, to finally, all over the world, wake up to our inalienable right and responsibility to do more and more mass hari-nama-sankirtana! Institutional management has neither the authority to sanction nor the right to interdict or in any way inhibit the performance of the yuga-dharma. The will of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ultimately pulls rank on institutional authority. Please remember that in Kali-yuga the Supreme Personality of Godhead descends from Goloka-dhama to protect the sadhus and annihilate the demons by resoundingly manifesting as His Holy Name on the tongues of His pure devotees. The divine descent of kali-yuga-Krishna-avatara shri hari-nama-rupa alone can effect the downfall of such insidiously scheming, media-manipulating murderous men of Kamsa’s class! Even if we prefer to pursue variant paths of spiritual perfection, or even if our all-devouring exigencies cannot go beyond the transitory urgency to “put food on the table” and “give peace a chance,” all the same, we would definitely do very, very well to have faith in the yajna for this age and simply do more and more hari-nama-sankirtana! Let us not wait until the fag end of life, when varieties of physical and mental decrepitude will render our bodies inoperative, to wisely recognize this principle. The urgency is enormous. The time is now! Now is the time for revolution – a revolution of consciousness, a revolution of priorities. All individual, communal, institutional, and inter- institutional devotional inadequacies, anomalies, and inequities
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