Harinama Cintamani : Part 6 – by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj @ ISKCON Japan on Feb 15, 2021
We have different stages of sin, the causes of sin, which are also discussed in the Nectar of Devotion. So, the root cause is avidya, ignorance. So, avidya means ignorance of oneself, we think we’re the body, ahankara, etc. We don’t recognize the Supreme Lord. And from that comes all sorts of desires. From the desires comes actions, which we call the sins. Then the sins produce karma, suffering.
So, chanting the holy name will destroy the suffering, the sinful acts, the desire, and the ignorance. So, we start the process of Bhakti, and as we are performing, we still have some traces of that sin, some desires are still there.
Translator Devotee: Desires.. and actions also are there?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, can. And if we don’t commit new sins, then of course this disappearance takes place – Kleśaghnī.
Translator Devotee: So, if we commit sin?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: No if we don’t commit, then the process goes nicely.
And even if we commit new sins, the Lord is also forgiving, as we see from the Bhagavad Gita. If we think we commit sin, and then we think chanting the holy name will remove the actions, this becomes aparādha. If we do commit a sin with this intention, then we get unlimited suffering! Even if we think of doing that, even that gives us a lot of problems!
So, a person may hear that chanting Nāmābhāsa will release you from millions and millions of sinful activities. So, a person, if he hears this, then he’ll disguise himself as a devotee and he can pretend to chant. But then he’ll be committing more sinful activities. And he thinks I’m free upon. This aparādha will occur, if there is Nāmābhāsa, and one has very bad sinful associations. And if we’re at the stage of pure chanting – Shuddha nama, then we don’t commit this offense.
If we commit the offense, what is the remedy? We associate with pure Vaishnavas, and then we’re protected. In Nāmābhāsa stage, then by association with devotees and guru, we can come to pure chanting and get Sambandha-Jnana, and in this way we can avoid it.
We have another offense to give the name to faithless people. Demons cannot really hear the name, but if they associate with the name and hear it enough, they can get some faith. If they have faith, then they’re qualified to accept the name and seriously chant it. Giving the name here doesn’t really mean initiation. It means that we encourage people to chant seriously, and we act like a Siksa guru.
If we have faithless people and we start instructing them to chant seriously, or if they beg for getting the name from a devotee, etc., actually they’re trying to get free from misery, but they have a lot of impurities, and they maybe hankering for material enjoyment.
If they’re not interested in seriously chanting the name of the Lord, they will actually misuse the name. The correct procedure is to observe, and if the person has so much material attachment, first we have to advise him to give up those attachments, and if we see he has real faith, at that time we can give serious instruction to him.
Sometimes, devotees may commit this aparādha. They know the person is not qualified, but they formally give him the name and give teachings, because they have a material motive. Maybe they want his money, maybe they want his support, or his following, etc. So, people take disciples simply for the number of disciples or their money, but the people aren’t qualified, this becomes, this aparādha of giving the name to the faithless.
We may also commit this offense out of ignorance. We may think that the person is very serious and has faith, because he can pretend very nicely [Laughs]. Later on we find he is actually a big rascal, but we give him all the instructions. Later on we find out that he is actually pretending on it.
Translator Devotee: How we can know this [Laughs]?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: This one we can’t know [Laughs]. We find out later on [Laughs].
Translator Devotee: Still we get the aparādha? [Laughs]
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, later we can see what happens [Laughs].
If you don’t rectify the offense, then we get serious problems. The devotee who receives all these instructions when he has no faith will start committing aparādhas of all sorts – against the Vaishnavas and against Bhakti. So, therefore, he has to suffer for that. He goes to hell for that. The person or the guru who is encouraging such people and he knows they have no faith, then he also goes to hell [Laughs]. If the guru is innocent and then he later finds out the person is cheating, then he has to reject.
Sankirtan – everyone can hear, there is no problem for that. And if they hear constantly, even the demons will develop faith. Once they have faith, they will approach the devotees and then they will get proper instructions and the name. So, that person begins chanting, and then through that he comes to pure chanting, and finally he gets prema. And the preacher gets the mercy of Krishna because he’s acting in the proper way.
Therefore, we have two stages here. We have the stage where we just let people hear the name, and then we have the stage where they develop faith, and then we can start teaching them about the name also.
We have the extra offense called inattention or pramadha. So, if we’re always inattentive, then we can’t get steadiness or nishtha, we can’t get nishtha, and we cannot proceed to prema. We may get a lot of knowledge, but that’s not enough. We may even chant a lot. But if we’re inattentive, that has very little effect.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives three types of inattention. The first is called indifference. We have no attraction to chanting the name. We have very little faith. We chant, but we have a very strong material attachment, because of the strong material attachment, attachment to the name does not increase.
So, what is the remedy? One is to chant for short periods of time in association with the devotee who has attraction. Another way is to stop all the distractions. We should chant in a place where we don’t get distracted by many things. So, if we chant in this way, then the material desires will start to disappear, and faith will manifest. So, some favorable items to help us develop that faith are staying in the Holy Dhama, being near Tulasi, and being near the Vaishnavas.
Another type of inattention is this inertia, which means no action, very lazy, lethargic, low [Laughs]. We have little impetus for chanting, so we’ll interrupt the chanting, we’ll delay the chanting, etc. So we get very little chanting done. There is a strong attachment to the material world, and there is little attachment to chanting.
What is the remedy for this? Associate with Vaishnavas, (as) Vaishnavas don’t waste time. So, with that association, the person will become more enthusiastic to chant.
The third type of inattention is a restless mind. So, one can’t concentrate on the name, one is always distracted. And this is caused by strong attachments to material enjoyment, wealth, women, different type of success, position, etc.
What is the remedy? You can do Vratas like Ekadasi, associate with the devotees. live in the Holy dhama, hear very attentively – shravana. So we should try to fix the number of rounds we chant, with attention, with a proper attitude, and pray to avoid any inattention. By doing this, we’ll develop a higher taste, so we can concentrate nicely and not get distracted.
The last offense is, attachment to “me” and “mine”. This is actually the offense that we see in the third line. “Aham mamadi paramo, namni so’py aparādha krt” – which means, he’s obsessed with the conception of “self” and “ownership” – “me” and “mine”, and he becomes a offender to the name. This attachment to material enjoyment is the opposite of surrender.
To avoid this offense, we should cultivate surrender. The surrender has six qualities. That is, accepting what is favorable, rejecting what is unfavorable, one should accept Krishna as one’s protector. one should depend only on Krishna, humility is important, one should offer everything to the Lord – Atmanivedana. So Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that of all these six qualities, the main one is this Atmanivedana, offering everything to the Lord – body, mind, words, and soul, everything offer to the Lord.
If we have that feeling of offering everything to the Lord, then automatically we have humility, we accept what is favorable, avoid what is unfavorable, and we take Krishna as our protector and our maintainer. If we don’t have that surrender, then we’ll have very strong “me” and “my” mentalities, the opposites. So instead of offering everything to Krishna -Atmanivedana, instead we’ll try to get everything for ourselves. So such a person won’t follow any rules, they’ll act according to their desires, they think they are independent. So this is very unfavorable for the development of Bhakti. The cause of this offense is great material attachment.
What is the remedy? We should associate with the people who are free from this attachment, who have surrendered to the Lord, surrendered to the name. So if we practice this Surrender or Saranagati, then all the “me” and “mine” will disappear, and we can get Prema.
At the end of this section, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, we have knowledge of these offenses, so how we can avoid the offenses is to do the opposite. So the first offense was “Guru or Sadhu Ninda” criticizing devotees, offending devotees, so the opposite of that is serving devotees. The second offense is to consider Krishna or Vishnu to be equal to Shiva and the Devatas, so the opposite of that is simply worship Krishna, worship Vishnu.
The fourth offense is “Guror avajna” to disrespect the Guru, so the opposite of that is respect the Guru. The next offense was “Shruti-Shastra Ninda” to disrespect or criticize the scriptures, so the opposite of that is, to very devotedly study and read the scriptures. Another one is to consider the name to be material activity or exaggeration. So the opposite of that is to glorify the name sincerely.
The other offense was to commit sinful activities under the strength of the holy name, so the opposite of that is to follow the principles of dharma while we are chanting. So we don’t preach to the faithless, so, the opposite of that is to preach to the faithful. Another offense is to see that chanting the holy name is like Pious activities – Karma Kanda, so the opposite of that is – to aim for Prema, no material goal. Chanting inattentively was an offense, so the opposite of that is to chant attentively. So the last offense was to be attached to “me” and “mine”, opposite of that is to surrender to Krishna’s will.
We should be aware of these offenses, and of course if we commit them we have to give them up, at the same time we do these positive activities, and this helps us to avoid the offenses. We can beg the name to help us, and chanting itself will destroy these offenses.
Okay, Any questions?
Q & A
1) Dandavat Pranams Maharaj. Maharaj, sometimes our environment forces us to be in places where we don’t have Vaishnava devotees but people from different religions who are very much absorbed in their own religious society. Can we call it an association of devotees, because if they are also devoted to their form of religion and accepting God as the ultimate source of everything?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, in that sense it’s okay. Now the negative aspect is most of these religions, if they are believing in God, its impersonal, no form. So that’s the bad part of it.
Devotee: I see.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: We shouldn’t get influenced by that part. They may be religious, not devotees, so is it okay to associate with them because at least they believe in God.
Devotee: Thank you, Maharaj.
2) Hare Krsna Maharaj, Dandavat Pranam Maharaj. One type of offense is like we directly say something or we act, but sometimes like we may think mentally bad about some devotee or someone. So how effective or what is the effect of mentally doing the offenses?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, much less. Of course, if we dwell on that long, then we may commit verbal or physical aparādha. So we have to be very careful. But there’s much less effect, but we have to try to avoid the mental aparādha also.
Devotee: Okay, so we have to stop thinking of the situations where we commit mental offense also?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
Devotee: Okay, Maharaj. Thank you very much.
3) Maharaj, like serving and eating a lot of prasadam, does it help us increase our love for Nama.. Love for the chanting of Holy Name?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, taking prasadam is a part of Bhakti [Laughs], so the more Bhakti we do, the more we can advance. So yes, of course, we have limits on how much we can eat [Laughs]. It shouldn’t be unhealthy. And of course, if we serve prasadam, it’s very good also. It’s also an act of devotion.
Devotee: Thank you very much, Maharaj.
Translator devotee: It means, it increase taste of the Holy Name?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. At least the prasadam will give us a taste of the Holy Name [Laughs].
Translator devotee: By serving the prasadam more?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, because it is Bhakti, just like worshipping the deity also. So many other things of Bhakti..
Translator devotee: May be, is it possible for somebody to increase the deity service and attach to more deity service, or serving prasadam, they are more attached to serving prasadam. Still not attached / increased (their taste) for chanting the name. Is it possible?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, it’s possible because they’re not executing those properly also [Laughs]. If you’re not doing, like, even if you don’t, in other words, if you have an offense to the Holy Name or very inattentive, it’s also very difficult to develop attraction for the name. These activities have to be done with the correct attitude.
Translator devotee: Then it is possible to increase the taste for attraction for chanting – by serving prasadam, by serving deity?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
Translator devotee: But it should be always the main.. we should always consider improving attraction for nama?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, well, that’s our main activity.
Translator Devotee: Other activities should support this ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes.
4) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Like, Hari Nama Cintamani is mostly focusing on the Japa, so, mainly the personal sadhana. So how to relate it with the Sankirtan like some devotees may like doing only Sankirtan but not Japa ? Some may like doing more Japa than Sankirtan ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Sankirtan mean ?
Devotee: Kirtan..
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh ! Okay, So when we talk about holy name, it has two aspects one is the Japa for ourself and second is the Kirtan, which is for ourself and also for everyone so that acts as Sankirtan.
Translator devotee: Japa means focusing on the chanting but what about.. We divide like a meditation.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, that’s called Nama-smarana also. You can use it for meditation.
Translator devotee: Include Japa means.. to include chanting Nama.. means to include Smarana and Meditation ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, ultimately when you say that our process is Nama Sankirtana, it will include the Japa and the Smarana in the name also.
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki… Jai !! Thank you very much Maharaj. Dandavat Pranams Maharaj.