Glories of Holy Name | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Damodaradesh (Dubai) | 14 October 2025
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: His special mission was to show that everyone in Kali Yuga could develop their spiritual life. And regardless of varna or asrama, anyone in any country or whatever, a person could develop the highest spiritual realization, which we call Krishna Prema. And so, he was very revolutionary because previous to that, although bhakti was present, it was not open for everybody. So, he has opened up the door for everyone to take part through chanting the holy name. So, when we all chant the holy name, we do kirtan, we do japa, the name, when we talk about the name, of course, we mean the name of the Supreme Lord. This is a particular type of sadhana. We have, of course, kirtan, you can chant verses in kirtan, you can sing songs in kirtan etc. But particularly, Nama Sankirtana is the process that Caitanya Mahaprabhu presented.
So, nama simply means the name of the Lord. It doesn’t, no other word, no verbs. Usually when we speak, we make sentences. So, we say, Krishna goes to the forest or Radha makes a garland. So, we use several words that have nouns and verbs, etc. And to make sentences, we need grammar. So, if you want to speak in English, you have to know English grammar. And if you put the wrong verb endings on, it doesn’t make sense. The same in any Indian language. You have to use the right verb with the right noun. And in Hindi also, it’s masculine, feminine, plural, whatever [Laughs]. So, it’s a little bit complex. So, most words are expressed in sentences in grammatical grammar.
However, in Sanskrit and probably in all the other Indian languages as well, there’s a type of expression that doesn’t require any verbs at all. It is simply calling out the name. So, we say, oh, Krishna, please come here. So, Krishna, the call of Krishna, doesn’t need anything to do with it. So, that’s what we call Nama, Nama Sankirtana. We just say the name of Krishna. No verbs, nothing. Just name Krishna. It will be called in the whole following time. And we’re calling out to him. It’s called Sambhoda or formal address.
So, this is the easiest possible way in which we can praise the Supreme Lord. Simply by chanting his name. And it’s open for everyone. Normally, spiritual life is a little bit restricted and it has to be qualified practice. And in spiritual life in India, we have mantras. Mantras are not just words. Of course, they come from scripture. But they’re a particular combination of words and they need qualification. If you’re not qualified, you cannot chant the mantra. And if you’re unqualified and you chant the mantra, you don’t get the effect. So, therefore, these mantras are given out to certain people. And they’re often secret. So, that’s what we call Diksha. You get a secret mantra from a Guru. And you chant that. But you have to be qualified. So, this is not a process we can spread for everybody because if you’re unqualified, you don’t get any effect from those mantras.
But, simply chanting the name of the Lord is for everyone. No qualification. And, we can still get the highest effect. Even more than the mantra. So, chanting the holy name, therefore, is considered the highest process. Because it’s the easiest process. And it also gives the highest goal. There’s nothing else you can do. So, this is what Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given us. We simply chant the name of Krishna. Of course, you cannot say Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Gopal, Gopal, Gopal.
But Lord Caitanya also gave us particular combination. Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna etc, why those particular sounds, names? Because, of course, it’s also recorded in scripture, in Upanishads which is of course, Vedic. So, it has a little bit of, a special status because it is coming from the Vedas itself. So, names of the Lord, Hare Krishna, Hare Rama. But, also coming from scripture in a certain order. So, it’s got a little bit of proof behind it, Vedic proof.
So, Lord Caitanya, though he did chant other names, he propagated this Hare Krishna as the main form of the name for Sankirtana. And that’s what’s come down to us in the modern world. So, we mainly chant this Hare Krishna. We also call it mantra. But, that’s different from these other mantras, which are secret. And I’ve only given that picture. So, this mantra is available to everybody, whether you have initiation or not. So, very, very special. Name is non-different from Krishna. So, we have this famous verse, which is quoted in Caitanya Caritamrta and other places as well. Nama Chintamani Krishna Caitanya Rasa Vigraha. Name is Chintamani. Krishna is Chintamani. So, what is Chintamani? Everybody knows, I think.
Devotee: Touchstone.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, Touchstone. What is a Touchstone? How is it called Touchstone? You touch it, and what happens? Whatever you desire comes true. So, what do you desire? Go back to Krishna.
So, if you want Prema, name of Krishna will give Prema, Krishna can give you Prema. Of course, if you want lesser things, if you want house, then Krishna can give house. Name can give house. Chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, you get a house [Laughs]. Because it’s non-different from Krishna. If you want a car, chant Hare Krishna, you get car. So, name is giving, Krishna is giving. So, name and Krishna are non-different. So, of course, well, we say Krishna Prema is, we don’t want material things. So, Krishna is Caitanya Rasa Vigraha. Vigraha means form. Caitanya means consciousness is spiritual. And Rasa means Rasa.
There is many Rasas of Krishna. Significance of Rasa is what? It’s only through Rasa that Krishna and the Jiva experience bliss. No Rasa, no bliss. So, we say the Jiva Sakti nirananda, Krishna Sakti ananda. That ananda can only be expressed by Rasa. That means, bliss is expressed by a relationship of love between Jiva and Krishna. That’s how we experience bliss. So, Rasa is very important. So, Krishna is the very form of all Rasas. Of course, all the forms of Lord are Spiritual, they have Rasa. But in Nectar of Devotion, in the first verse, Rupa Gosvami says that Krishna is the very form of all Rasas. He is Akhila Rasamrita Murti, Krishna, which means that he is the full manifestation of all Rasas, five primary Rasas and seven secondary Rasas. No other form of God can manifest all those Rasas. Only Krishna does. So, he is the most perfect form of Rasa.
So, of course, we have material Rasas also. People have relationships in the material world and they get a little bit of material happiness. So, mother and child have happiness, father and child have happiness, husband and wife get happiness, friends get happiness. That’s also Rasa. That’s material. And therefore, temporary. So, it’s not spiritual Rasa. This is Caitanya Rasa. Krishna is all spiritual Rasas which are eternal and full of bliss. Krishna is like that and you chant Krishna’s name, hey, you can get all the Rasas. Therefore, you get bliss.
So, Nama and Krishna are Caitanya Rasa Vigraha. Krishna is Purnam. Of course, all forms of the Lord are perfect. But then Krishna is called Svayam Bhagavan. All the forms are called Bhagavan, like Rama and Narasimha, Varaha, Hayagriva, they are all Bhagavan. And they are all one person. But Krishna is special. He is called Svayam Bhagavan. So, he is a complete manifestation of all the qualities of the Lord. Therefore, he is called Purnam, complete. And suddha, Krishna and any form of the Lord are never part of this material world. They may appear in the material world, but they are always spiritual. They remain in their spiritual identity eternally. So, completely pure and Nityamukta, qualities, free of any material contamination.
So, Krishna may appear to be born in the material world, but there is no material birth for Krishna. No death. He is Nityamukta. The name appears in the material world also. And it may sound material, because we can hear it and we can say it. But it’s not. He is also Nityamukta. So, it looks like a normal sound, but it isn’t. It’s a spiritual sound, completely different from the material sound. So, in this way, the name is especially important, because it is completely non-different from Krishna. And if we chant the name, we can realize everything about Krishna. So, this is a very fundamental principle behind our practice of Krishna consciousness.
So, though anyone can chant the name, and anyone can get affect, if we want Prema, we have little qualification [Laughs], we have to have knowledge. If we are chanting with offense, then obviously we are not going to get the proper effect. We can chant accidentally, we get some effect. So, who is a good example of that? Ajamila. And what happened? He chanted Narayana. And what happened? He got rid of all of his karmas. First time he chanted Narayana. What is so remarkable about that? Yogis, or Jnanis, have strived for thousands of years to get rid of their karmas. They cannot do that. And he got rid of all of his karmas in one second by simply saying Narayana. He named his son with no devotion.
So, the name is very powerful. Even if you don’t have devotion. You are not a devotee. Very, very powerful. But, he didn’t get Prema [Laughs]. He just got free of Yamaraja’s punishment. That’s all [Laughs]. Later on, he got Prema. But that was different. Why? He associated with devotees. And he got knowledge. So, chanting holy name is very powerful. Even without knowledge, you can get free from it.
If we want Prema, then we also need some knowledge. Where do we get knowledge from? Scripture. So, what is the basic knowledge we need? We have to have an understanding of who is the Lord when we chant the name of Krishna. So, we think Krishna is a devata and he’s going to give us material benefits, he gives. That’s what we get from Krishna. So, we do have to understand that Krishna is completely different from devatas, who are part of the material world. He’s the highest living entity, independent. No one above him. And he’s full of power, wonderful Saktis and he’s perfect. That is the Isvara or Paramesvara Bhagavan.
So, we have to understand who is that person. We are chanting the name Krishna. We need to have some understanding. His special position. So, Krishna is not alone, in the spiritual world, but he has his Shaktis. Through his Shaktis, he manifests everything. He manifests spiritual world, material world and Jivas. So, this is getting a little complicated. But, if you look in Bhagavad Gita in the introduction, you’ll find all of this mentioned [Laughs]. So, you may not be philosophical. You may not even get to read the whole Bhagavad Gita. But if you read the introduction to Bhagavad Gita, at least you’re going to get the sufficient knowledge to chant properly [Laughs].
So, Isvara, Supreme. Different from devatas, Supreme Lord. He has his Saktis. One Sakti is Antaranga Sakti, Chit Sakti or Svarupa Sakti. This is the spiritual energy. Why does Krishna have to have spiritual energy? Because Krishna manifests a spiritual world. He manifests a form, his qualities, his activities. All through the Sakti, spiritual Sakti. So, in other words, Supreme Lord is not some abstract entity. He has a beautiful form and he has activities in the spiritual world. All that is manifesting through this Antaranga or Chit Sakti, internal energy. So, very, very important. Antaranga Sakti means his internal energy. Antaranga means internal. It also means essential. In other words, Krishna is never separated from this energy. If he separates, he’s no longer Krishna. There’s no form, there’s no qualities, no activities. He’s Brahman.
So this Antaranga Sakti is very necessary in combination with the Lord at all times. He manifests his form, qualities and activities in the spiritual world and the Dhama, Vrindavana. So, Krishna is therefore… He has a form, his qualities, his activities manifests through this internal energy, Antaranga Sakti. So, we chant the name Krishna, we’re not saying, I chant Krishna, Krishna means Brahman. No. Krishna is form with qualities, activities. We have Govardhana Lila, Rasa-lila and so many other lilas. He has a beautiful form. We chant him playing the flute. So, all manifesting through this Chit Sakti.
So, we have Supreme Lord and his internal energy. But, we also have another energy called the Tatastha Sakti, or the marginal energy. This means the borderline energy. This refers to Jivas. These are small particles of consciousness, who can know things because you’re conscious. They have a sense of I. And, they are dependent on the Lord. And, they can be covered with the earth and end up in the material world. This distinguishes them from the Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord is one independent, highest living entity, full of all qualities, full of all knowledge. Jiva, infinite number of small particles of consciousness, subject to ignorance. Similar, but also different from the Lord. So, they’re called Tatastha, in between [Laughs]. They get covered over by ignorance, or they can be free of ignorance. They’ll be there.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura compares it to the Jiva-Jupa, which is called the Tatastha, or borderline. Because, he says, the border is the dividing line between the material world and the spiritual world. And, he gives you the example of a water body, let’s say, ocean. The ocean is there, made of water. The land is there, earth. They meet at certain point. On one side is water, one side is land. So, there’s a dividing line of no dimension. Lines don’t have any dimension. But, there’s a line there. So, one side is land, one side is spiritual world, material world. And, there’s a dividing line in between. So, Jivas, in between. And then, you can choose spiritual world or material world. So, this is what is Tatastha. You can go either way.
Supreme Lord is always spiritual. He never gets influenced by that. But, Jivas, you can get influenced by that. And, you can go either way. It’s called Tatastha, borderline. Third energy, Bahiranga sakti, external energy. This refers to matter. Matter is also dependent on the Supreme Lord. But, unlike Jivas, it is unconscious. No capacity for knowledge. No sense of I. It is completely dull. Originally, it’s called prakriti. But, prakriti expands into other elements. Like earth, water, fire, air, ether, sense objects, senses, etc. And, this produces material worlds with bodies for living entities. So, Jivas in ignorance are also particles of consciousness, enter into this. Jivas who do not come back in ignorance, they go to spiritual world.
So, these real things we have to accept. To make a diagram. So, we have Isvara, Supreme Lord, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna at the top. Of course, we give many names to the Supreme Lord. And, it has different forms. It’s Rama or Krishna. But, He is only one person. There’s not many Isvaras. One Isvara, who has many forms. So, you go to the temple, you see Rama and Krishna. And, you say, okay, different Gods. No [Laughs]. One Supreme Lord with different forms.
So, sometimes people will say, oh, you worship many Gods. We will say, no, we don’t. We worship one God. But, He has many forms. So, of course, people will also argue, well, God should not have a form because forms are material. And, most religions will say that. No forms of God [Not clear]. But, God can have a form, why? Because He has this internal energy. This is Sakti, which manifests as form. And, it’s not material. Of course, material world we have forms.
But, spiritual world, we can also have forms, coming from different energy. We have the Antaranga Sakti producing spiritual forms. We have Bahiranga Sakti producing material forms. God can have spiritual form, not material form. So Lord has Chit Sakti, and He manifests in spiritual world. He has Achit Sakti, Bahiranga Sakti, external energy, manifests in the material world. And, in between is the Tatastha Sakti, Jiva Shakti who can enter the material world and the spiritual world. So, those in ignorance are in the material world with material bodies. And, they go through karma and suffer.
Scripture is in the material world to get the Jiva out of the material world and get it in the spiritual world. So, all these scriptures are talking about how to get the Jiva out of the material world. So, scripture gives us many methods. One is called Karma Yoga. This does not directly get you out of the material world. But, it purifies you and takes you from lower position to higher position.
So, what is the lower position in the material world? Avidya, ignorance. What is the higher position? Sattva-guna. So, through Karma Yoga, you can go from Tamo-guna to Sattva-guna. But, it takes following rules and regulations. How long? Many, many births [Laughs]. So, you can start as Sudra, Tamoguna, follow the rules of a Sudra, many, many lifetimes, you get purified. Then, you get to be in a Vaisya. So, you get Tamoguna and Rajoguna mixture. And, you follow the rules for Vaisya for many lifetimes. Finally, you get purified. You can do Rajoguna. And, you become a Kshatriya. But, there’s a mixture there of Sattva-guna. You become a Kshatriya for many births. You get purified by the Sattva-guna. And, you get the Sattva-guna. And, you become a Brahmana. Then, you get Sattva-guna. So, that’s what Karma Yoga gets you up to, Sattva.
Once you get to Sattva-guna, the quality of Sattva-guna is that you understand about Atma. So, we understand the difference between Atma and materiality. One other quality of Sattva-guna is accepting scriptures. So, you go to the Vedic literature.So, this person in Sattva-guna can strive for getting out of the material world. Because, scripture says, get out. Of course, some scriptures say, do Karma Yoga. But, when you go to Sattva-guna, they say, I don’t want to stay in the material world. So, scriptures give us Jnana Yoga. How to get out of the material world. How to get mukti. Yoga also is there. Instead of intellectually studying the scriptures, we do asanas and physical exercises, Pranayama, meditate. Same, we get out of the material world. So, Karma Yoga keeps us in the material world, raises up to Sattva. Jnana and asanas, we get out of the material world. We get in the middle. We don’t get to into the spiritual world [Laughs]. Out of the material world, not to the spiritual world. Not to Vaikuntham.
So, to get spiritual world, you have to do Bhakti Yoga. And Bhakti Yoga that you get into spiritual world, from the material world. So, all of these processes are mentioned in scripture, for different types of people. People who are too involved in the material world, don’t want to get out. They do Karma Yoga and get purified. When they are in Sattva, then they’ll say, okay, I’m not the body, I want to get out of the material world, so do Jnana and Yoga.
But if you want to get to the spiritual world, in a Prema, then you have to do Bhakti. So, all of the processes are in scripture, but the final process is Bhakti, to get to the spiritual world. Other processes are indirect. So, you can follow the indirect process, but it takes many, many lifetimes. In Kali Yuga, this is not very practical, because Karma Yoga is not even present much [Laughs]. So, we can’t even get to Jnana, it’s very difficult.
So, what are we supposed to do? How do we get to Bhakti? So, solution is that if you take the Bhakti Yoga, you don’t have to go to Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Astanga Yoga, to get to Bhakti Yoga. And we have many examples of this in Bhagavatam. There it says, even if you’re a svapakacha or dog-eater, who’s not even in the Varnasrama system, lower than the Sudra, if you take the Bhakti process, then, you’re better than a Brahmana, you go to the spiritual world. So, you can just start with Bhakti, but then, how do you start Bhakti? No, it doesn’t depend on your Karma Yoga, Varna, Asrama, nothing. But, at least you have to have faith in the process of Bhakti which do not arise due to your karma, only mercy of devotees.
So, if we have faith, from any position in the material world, we start Bhakti Yoga, we do Sadhana Bhakti, Bhava Bhakti, Prema Bhakti, we go to spiritual world, without going through the whole other process here. So, Bhakti is a very special process, dependent on faith. Where does faith come from? Not Karma, not Punyas, it’s mercy of devotees. So, Bhakti is recommended as the best process to follow, particularly in Kali Yuga..
However, we have another blessing for Kali Yuga, and that is Nama, Nama Sankirtana, chanting the name of the Supreme Lord. Bhakti Yoga has many different processes. We have hearing, Sravanam, then Kirtan, and then Smaranam, remembering, and then Archana, Deity worship, and then offering respects, Namaskara etc, Atma Nivedana also, so many different processes of Bhakti Yoga. Easiest process is Nama Sankirtana. And this is the easiest for people in Kali Yuga who are not qualified. Because it is easy, does not mean it gives lesser results. It’s only easier to give more people opportunity. People of lower qualification can start with chanting the name, even if they cannot do other processes of Bhakti. But, it gives higher results than any other process, including any other process of Bhakti.
So, this is a great blessing. Lord Caitanya has introduced Nama Sankirtana to give the highest mercy to the lowest people [Laughs]. So, we get very, very special results in Kali Yuga because of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So, once we take to name or any other process of Bhakti, we don’t change for any other higher process. If we are in Karma, we have to change to Jnana and Yoga. When we do Jnana Yoga, we change to Bhakti to the spiritual world.
If we start with Bhakti, we get Prema, we go to spiritual world, it’s still Bhakti. We don’t change the process once we start Bhakti. Once we start the name, we don’t stop chanting the name when we go to spiritual world. So, sometimes people wrongly say, Oh, I’m doing my Sadhana Bhakti now, and I’m reading the scriptures, and I’m chanting the holy name, but I go to the spiritual world. Oh, I’m free. No more chanting, no more japa. I’m just in ananda. False [Laughs]. Name is eternal. In the spiritual world, you continue Kirtan, chanting the holy name. You continue hearing about Krishna, chanting Krishna’s glories, serving Krishna. So, name is eternal. We start with the name, we practice it, we get Prema, we go to spiritual world, we still chant the holy name. So, Nama Sankirtana is the eternal process. Very, very special.
So, I mentioned the Lord had this internal energy, Antaranga Sakti or Svarupa Sakti or Chit Sakti. Part of that internal energy is the Sandhini Sakti, which manifests not only the Dhama, or Krishna’s abode, Vaikuntha and Goloka, it manifests his name, form, qualities, and activities. This is a very important aspect of this internal energy. So, the whole personality of Krishna and his activities are manifested through this Sandhini Sakti. The interesting thing about the name is that, in the name, we also have form, qualities, and activities.
So, if you simply chant the name of Krishna, you can realize Krishna’s form, qualities, and activities. It’s not just name. You can realize everything about Krishna. So, name is non-different from Krishna. So, you realize not just the name of Krishna, but his form, qualities, and activities. So, we can realize Krishna. Krishna and his name are non-different. So, this is the easiest way. Sometimes, people may think, well, eventually we have to do meditation and concentrate on the form of Krishna. Well, that’s another form of Bhakti. Dhyana is also part of Bhakti. Not just Satsanga, Yoga, it’s is also a part of Bhakti.
We can meditate, but unlike the personal yogis, we meditate on the form of Krishna. But, if you chant the name of Krishna, you can also realize form of Krishna. So, it’s considered to be the best meditation also. Chanting the holy name. Best meditation. So, the Lord is non-different from his names. He has different types of names. They are all spiritual, but they get different effects. So, he has his principal name or his primary names. And, if we chant those names, we get Prema and go to the spiritual world. What are these names? They will describe Krishna’s form, qualities, and activities. So, the names which tell us about Krishna and his personality, they lead to Prema. So, we have names like Syamasundara, describes Krishna’s dark color and his form. We have some names about his pastimes, like Govardhana-dhari [Laughs], Kaliya-mardana [Laughs] many, many different names. So, all of these are called primary names. So, when we say these names, we obviously remember his pastimes and we get Prema. But, Supreme Lord also has many secondary names which don’t really describe well his qualities in the spiritual world.
He is Isvara. He is what, all pervading, He is the witness, Sakti, etc. So, we have very, very general names. We call them secondary names. Usually, they are referring to the Lord’s relationship with the material world that actually functions as a Paramatma. He is the creator. He is a great one, or whatever like that. Very general names not necessarily related to pastimes in spiritual world. Those are called secondary names. Of course, they are non-different from the Lord, but they can only lead to liberation.
So, we prefer the primary names to go to spiritual world. Many, many names of Krishna. Many names of Vishnu. Many names of Narasimha. Many names of Rama. We have thousand names, Gopal, etc. Many, many names. But, of all the names, the names of Krishna are considered to be the best. Why because Krishna is Svayam Bhagavan. So, we realize Svayam Bhagavan Krishna, we can realize all Rasas. We chant the names of others, we get realization of the form, but not all Rasas. So, Krishna’s. Krishna has many names. But, of all the names of Krishna, Krishna is the highest name of all [Laughs]. That’s why we say Hare Krishna. So, many, many names, but the name of Krishna is the highest.
So, there are many ways of chanting. We have Nama Aparadha, chanting with offense. This is not considered good at all. Especially, if the offense is really offensive, that is, we have animosity towards the Lord and his devotees and Sankirtana and Bhakti, as demons do [Laughs]. That is called Aparadha, Nama Aparadha. This does not help us progress in Bhakti. Rather, it destroys Bhakti. So, we have to avoid that. So, Nama Aparadha is rejected. We don’t want that. In many places, many temples, every morning they recite Nama Aparadhas, ten Nama Aparadha, don’t do this, don’t do that [Laughs]. Because, this destroys Bhakti. So, when we have that, then we think Krishna is material, Krishna, his name are different. Krishna is a devata, whatever, so it’s all Aparadha.
Namabhasa means we chant in ignorance. So, we don’t really know. But we’re not hostile to the Lord, like Ajamila. He was not hostile to Vishnu, but he’s also not a devotee of Vishnu. But he named his son Narayana, and he chanted the name Narayana because he was attracted to his son. So, no Aparadhas, but no Bhakti [Laughs]. So, this is Namabhasa. This is, of course, two types. Namabhasa by accident, and Namabhasa we’re chanting consciously. We may be chanting every day, every day, but we’re full of ignorance, we don’t quite know what Krishna is, whatever. So, it’s called Namabhasa. Better than Nama Aparadha, this doesn’t destroy Bhakti. We gradually go, but slow, and we don’t get Prema.
Suddha Nama or pure name, is quick progress, and we get Prema. So, we have to come to that stage, Suddha Nama, pure name. How do we get? Knowledge and purity, the anarthas are minimized. So, that is Suddha Nama. So, to get that Suddha Nama, we need to have good knowledge. As previous, as I said, we have to understand who is the Supreme Lord, who is Jiva, all about matter, how they relate to each other, that much knowledge we need. We don’t have to know all the Vedas or whatever nor the Upanishads, but we do have to know the basics of who is God, who is Jiva etc, and what is Prema.
Okay, so, qualification for chanting. Well, of course, any human being can chant like Ajamila or whatever, accidentally. Well, that’s Namabhasa. But, to get Prema, then we begin with that faith, and with faith we approach devotees, and we get knowledge, and then we chant purely. So, faith is a qualification for getting pure bhakti and getting spiritual world and Prema. Place, time, planets, are not a consideration. So you can chant anywhere, in any country, city, country, house, temple, water, in the water, out of the water, on the ship, in an airplane [Laughs], in America, in Alaska, or in South America, wherever, in the jungle, doesn’t matter. Anyway, all the planets, Svargaloka, Brahmaloka, hellish planets, down to America, you can chant. In Vaikuntha and in Goloka also you can chant.
So everywhere, spiritual world, everywhere you go, you can chant. Anytime. Of course, young people can chant, even in the womb, Sukadeva, heard in the womb, heard Krishna, Prahlada heard teachings in the womb. So very, very, not restricted, but in the womb, out of the womb, young, so grew up, when he was a young boy, advanced. When you’re young boy, when you’re adult, when you’re old, so from before the womb until you’re old age, you can chant the holy name, no problem.
And you can chant in any Yuga. And you can chant throughout the day of Brahma, and throughout Brahma’s life [Laughs]. So there’s no restriction on time, when the chanting was always going on. And no rules for cleanliness, whether you’re clean or unclean, dying or not dying, or whatever, in the womb, it doesn’t matter. You can chant the holy name. So it’s completely unrestricted. And no, restrictions of Varna and Asrama or anything. So it’s a very, very appropriate process for Kali Yuga, where everything is top security, everything is unclean, and there’s no qualification.
So holy name is the most flexible process. But we do, if we want Prema, then we have to follow some conditions. We chant the proper names, primary names. So we can chant the names of Krishna. And of course, Lord Caitanya has given us Hare Krishna. So this is given by Chaitanya himself. And if we’re going to chant, it shouldn’t be Namabhasa, it shouldn’t be Nama Aparadha, it should be pure chanting. Nama, Suddha Nama. And to do that, we need knowledge. How do we get the knowledge? Association or mercy of devotees. We can chant once. And I’ve said it, even if we chant once, it is very powerful. As Ajamila chanted once and all the karmas got removed.
But if we want Prema, we should chant constantly. Not just once. And along with the chanting, we should follow proper conduct in the world. There are favorable activities like avoiding sinful activities, unfavorable activities, we have to avoid sins. So that combination with the chanting produces Prema, our goal. So that’s one of the basic principles that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has taught. If we remember this then, we can progress nicely in our Krishna consciousness.
So though we are chanting etc, we see that Srila Prabhupada wrote many books. Why? So he could get the knowledge [Laughs]. He didn’t write the books so he can keep it on the shelf and he look at it [Laughs]. He used to read the books [Laughs]. And when we read the books, what? We get this knowledge. Who is Supreme Lord? Who is the Jiva? What is the devata? What is pure bhakti? What is not pure bhakti? And how bhakti is positioned, religion, Karma, Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Astanga Yoga. So, all that’s there in the books. So knowledge and then we have the chanting the holy name as a combination very, very good for attaining Krishna Prema. Okay. Any question there?
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, very nice class. Thank you. I have one question. The starting point for getting Prema is faith. How can we increase our faith?
Yeah. So what does faith mean? Faith means faith in the Bhakti Scriptures. So we have faith in, we never read Bhagavad Gita or seen Bhagavad Gita and someone gives it to us and we explain about it and we start reading it and then in the second chapter Krishna says, well, you’re not the body, you’re the soul and soul is eternal and body dies and then you think about this and you don’t think about it sometimes. So we have faith that what the scripture is saying is true. Another person doesn’t have faith and then he reads this and he says, this is not, how this is nonsense. Nobody could prove the soul. Scientists have not proved the soul. Einstein never talked about the soul. So how can I believe in the soul. All this Bhagavad Gita nonsense, I’m not going to read it. There’s no faith [Laughs].
So, how do we get that faith in the first place? We don’t know [Laughs]. Some people have, some people don’t [Laughs]. But, scripture says this comes from previous lifetimes usually. We get mercy of devotees and we get some contact with Bhakti. Even if we don’t have faith and that changes the Jiva and becomes a little favorable to Krishna and he gets more contact accidentally, a little more favorable. So in one lifetime, finally when he reads Bhagavad Gita, he says, oh, this is nice, I will accept this [Laughs]. So due to mercy of devotees for many lifetimes we develop faith. So that faith is a qualification for Bhakti. Then we begin Bhakti processes, hearing, chanting, remembering, etc. based on that faith. As we progress in Bhakti the faith also increases.
So we may start out with weak faith, komala sraddha. So this means that yes, we have a little faith but then somebody will look at us and say, what are you doing? And I say, well, I’m chanting. Why are you chanting? I’m chanting because somebody told me, I’m reading Bhagavad Gita and it says Nama Sankirtana, if I chant, we will attain Prema. And he says, all nonsense. Don’t follow that. It’s called brainwashing. So then you think well, maybe he’s right and we stop chanting [Laughs], we stop worshipping Krishna [Laughs]. That’s weak faith. Better if we do Bhakti, we continue Bhakti and we also read scripture, faith becomes stronger.
So the more knowledge of scripture we get, this helps support our bhakti and so people will come to us and criticize or challenge and we’re not so disturbed by that. Even if we cannot answer them completely, we don’t change our faith. If we have very deep knowledge of scripture along with our practice of bhakti and we understand all the principles and we can logically express them, this is considered the highest type of faith. You do deep knowledge and when people challenge, we are not disturbed and we can also convince them [Laughs]. So that’s the best faith [Laughs]. But due to practice of bhakti and deep understanding of scripture. So that’s why we have books there, to give us deepen our faith.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, pranams. That’s a very wonderful lecture on basics of Bhakti. So I have one question. You told there is three types of chanting. There’s Nama Aparadha, Namabhasa and Suddha Nama. So me personally, since everyone has to start, I think at Nama Aparadha or few people have to start like myself, so by doing offenses, by chanting the name, what is the immediate ability to progress to maybe the next level in Bhakti?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: If we have offenses?
Devotee: Yeah if we do offenses in the holy name at the beginning stage. I think I’ve read somewhere that if we do offenses that will prevent us from going higher.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, of course we have ten offenses like criticizing devotees, whatever. If it’s unintentional, accidental, it has a little effect and it slows the Bhakti a little. If it is intentional, we really hate devotees and start criticizing them for no good reason or whatever [Laughs], this is very harmful to the Bhakti and it starts destroying the Bhakti. So whatever faith we have, gets less. Our taste for Bhakti gets less. So that’s very dangerous. So that’s why, we have to have a little knowledge of the Aparadhas, so much, consciously as possible we avoid them, and to get favourable attitude towards devotees, favourable attitude towards chanting, to process of Bhakti etc. So definitely, always Nama Aparadhas is unfavourable, but if it’s very intentional and hostile then it’s very dangerous. We try to avoid that atleast. We cannot avoid the accidental, that we do not know how, somehow, accidentally we do it. But still it has some effect but not so bad as the intentional.
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Thank you so much for such a wonderful lecture. I have one question. So many times I face, I want to know about the association of the devotee. Sometimes we are unable to attend like such class by physically but I want to know how many way we have to get association of the devotee?
How do we get association? Well, of course, association comes in many forms. Association [Not clear] It’s okay [Laughs]. Lord Caitanya says, if we take the prasadam of the devotee, that’s good. You take the foot water or foot dust, very good also. But should be very great devotee. But most important thing is hearing from devotees. So if we get knowledge from devotees, that’s the real satsanga.
If we look in Bhagavatam for instance, association glorified, but then, what do they do when they associate? King Rahugana associates with Jada Bharata, what does he do? Hears instructions [Laughs]. So the best thing in association is to get some knowledge. [Not clear] Now traditionally it was direct. Sukadeva spoke Bhagavatam to Parikshit and of course, other people were listening as well. That was directly. And throughout Bhagavatam, we have Narada Muni speaking directly, other great devotees are speaking directly. But then we find in the modern world, we have all these electronic media and etc, we have personal radios, so much television, [Not clear].
And of course the another thing is books itself. [Not clear] Still they continue the old tradition. [Not clear] So the books were there. And of course, the Gosvami standard were also writing books. And very fortunately some of the books were revived in the present day, otherwise we wouldn’t have that knowledge at all. So the books are important also. So we can get the knowledge from the books as well. But generally of course, we do have to have some devotee to give us some understanding. So if the devotees can directly give information, very good it’s probably best process. But not always possible.
So, one of our first principles is called Yukta Vairagya, to utilize things in devotional service even if they’re material things. So we use them for devotional service and they’re not harmful for us. Well therefore, though direct hearing and speaking is the best process, we can also utilize modern technology or whatever and we can hear through internet or whatever and we still get benefit from that as well. So there’s no problem for that. So, we don’t use that at all, that we’re sitting by ourself, we get no information [Laughs] about knowledge at all. So it’s better to get some knowledge even if we’re seeing the internet [Laughs].
4.) Question [Not clearly audible]
Well, most important of course, is we chant rather than don’t chant. Second, when we chant, we chant attentively, so we’re not distracted by material things. Yes, when we’re chanting, we can think of Krishna, very good because Krishna is non-different from his name and when we’re chanting we’re not purposely saying I don’t want to think of Krishna, I don’t want to think of Krishna [Laughs] it’s like I don’t want to attain Prema [Laughs]. So, we should be favorable to Krishna also. And if we can think of Krishna or his pastimes or his form or whatever, very good because Krishna, his name are non different and by chanting Krishna’s name, you realize his form, his qualities, his activities. So, it’s always favorable that we can whether intentionally, unintentionally remember the Lord. Either way is good.
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!