Q&A with HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj – Part – 2 | ISKCON Japan | November 10, 2025 |
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Q & A:
1.) So, Maharaj, South Indian Brahmanas, they tell that every Amavasya, they will do tarpan to their forefathers. Tarpan, tarpan to their forefathers. So every, like a two year, three year, they keep on doing it. So, does the literacies benefit out of this? And those who don’t do, what happens?
Not just South India, actually, those who are twice born, anywhere, are supposed to do tarpans [Laughs]. Of course, there is a daily tarpan that you do for the Rishis. And then when you have a death in the family, you have to do it every, I guess you do everyday, for a month, and after that, every month, on the disappearance of their father or mother or uncle, or whoever. And then after that, every year, you have to do it for them. So these are what we call the karmas, the daily. Well, I guess the Rishi tarpanas are daily, and then the other ones are periodic, you do it sometimes. So in the normal varnasrama system, these are obligatory things, you must do them. If you don’t do them, it’s sinful [Laughs]. But, we see in Caitanya Caritamrta there’s a quote, I think it’s Madhavendra Puri, and he’s saying, well, now that I’ve surrendered unto the Supreme Lord and I’m thinking of Him constantly, goodbye all my tarpanas, goodbye all my other worship with devatas [Laughs], goodbye everything [Laughs], sandhya vandana [Laughs], I’m not doing anything [Laughs]. So, the conclusion of Bhagavatam is that, if one is practicing pure Bhakti to Supreme Lord, all other karmas and duties are unnecessary. By worship of the Lord, all of the sages and all of the pitrus are satisfied. And therefore, not necessary to do them once one has taken to the process of pure Bhakti.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj ji, dandavat pranams. My question is like, how to improve the quality of chanting? Also I want to share my experience. Means like, usually I do chanting after my work, it’s like after 6 PM. So after like my when my work is done, like, quite good. So in evening, when I do chanting, I feel very, like, like happy to do when I do chanting. And it’s like, I can do nonstop chanting, I can do 20, 30. But when I do in morning, it’s when the mind is always in my planning state, like, today I have to do this. So it’s like, and when my work day doesn’t go well, the evening is of like stress and chanting. How to, means like, come out of this vicious loop and actually chant the essence of chanting. What is the true essence like to chant basically?
So chanting in the morning is bothersome, chanting in the evening may be bothersome. So [Laughs] when do you chant, middle of the night or middle of the day [Laughs]? So in any case, one should find a suitable time and at that time, you make sure that all other problems are out of your mind. Usually people find it easier to do it in the morning. But that of course, is provided you have enough time. Which means that, then you have to go to bed earlier at night [Laughs]. So you may have to arrange your, rearrange your schedule.
3.) Hare Krishna prabhu, at my home, we normally have a debate that my sister-in-law, she often quantifies the chanting. So I have a debate that it should be rather than quantifying it, it should be quality chants. Like when you meet one time, you chant, but it should be from heart. But this is where we have a debate, they are with the counters and they keep on counting. So what is your opinion about it you know, like the number and the quality?
So, of course, counting is a scriptural recommendation. And therefore, we usually see the sages have these beads and [Laughs] they’re counting japa on their beads. So the question is, of course, how much you should chant? And, of course, the more you can chant, the better. However, at the same time, numbers alone is not everything [Laughs]. Because if you’re doing it inattentively, also it’s not so valuable. So better we count, but we count, a certain number where we can maintain good quality. By practice, then we can also chant more. So, therefore, we should chant, we should chant with good quality, and then we should try to increase as we go on.
4.) Hare Krishna Maharaj ji, like yesterday we studied about the mantra in sound and vibration, in that you told that Gayatri mantra, it came out from Krishna’s flute to Brahma. But, it is said that Gayatri mantra should not be chanted on a regular basis as it can have a negative impact on one’s life. So, like, if the mantra came out from Krishna’s flute, so it’s Krishna Himself. So is this a misconception or like what? Can you please elaborate on this?
Vedic mantras are non-different from the Lord. Of course, Pancharatric mantras are also non-different from the Lord. And Names of the Lord are non-different from the Lord. But Vedic mantras like the Gayatri mantra, Vedic Gayatri mantra, require qualification. So you cannot chant the Vedas unless you take the samskara, upanayana samskara. And then you can chant the Gayatri mantra. And you should chant the Gayatri mantra every day, three times. Three times a day. And traditionally, that’s accompanied by a ceremony called the sandhya vandana. And you’re supposed to do that whole ceremony and then chant the mantra a certain number of times every day. So, in any case, to chant the Vedic mantras requires high qualification in order that, one gets the proper effect. Pancharatric mantras are a little more liberal. You can, if you get it from the Guru, fine. Doesn’t matter what varna you are in. So the Vedic mantras are not given to sudras. So Pancharatric mantras, if anyone gets them from a Guru, then they can chant. And then they have effect. Name of the Lord is more liberal. Even if you don’t get it from Guru, you just hear the Name somehow or other, still it has effect [Laughs]. So therefore, the chanting the Name itself is the most flexible. And this is recommended by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And it’s also the yuga dharma.
5.) He gets a question like, once the child is born, after how many days they can bring the child or they can come to take back? Because somebody said some days.
Actually, I think they say, the normal one is 30 days [Laughs]. They have a ceremony on the 30th day I think so. They call [Not clear]. And before that, the child doesn’t leave the house, doesn’t even leave the one little room in the house [Laughs] to protect it. But I don’t know if that is followed so strictly nowadays [Laughs]. They may take them all over the place nowadays. Also, not strictly followed nowadays.
Devotee: So what is our rule like, if somebody asks any question?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Okay.
Devotee: So when should I bring?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So it doesn’t matter [Laughs]. But I think it’s not good to move the child anyway, too much in the first month. I guess even physically, probably it’s not good because they can get all sorts of infections outside and whatever.
Devotee: So he can tell her to bring after 30 days?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
6.) Maharaj ji, what should be the relationship between a Guru and disciple? Also, here Guru is both, should be like Siksha Guru and Diksha Guru. Also, when we see in ISKCON, the Diksha Guru has so many disciples like around hundreds and thousands. But he is not available everytime for, means I guess each devotee and he doesn’t get a personal time everytime. So, how should we treat Siksha Guru or how should we relate with our Siksha Guru? Also, Diksha Guru and disciple are very formal and on paperwork maybe I guess. But in Siksha Guru, is there any law like we accept him like there are so many senior devotees who teach us about Bhagavad Gita and all. They are kind of Siksha Guru. So they are also like, can accept disciple? One is a disciple that he is my Siksha disciple or something. So can you elaborate on this?
So the scripture says that the Siksha Guru and the Diksha Guru should be respected equally. But then we also, actually in the Bhagavad Gita, when we trace a parampara, we are emphasizing the Siksha rather than the Diksha. And in the Bhagavatam, the emphasis is on Siksha. And the verses which we quote from Upanishads concerning respect for Guru are usually in respect to the Siksha Gurus. So in ISKCON, of course, we give more emphasis to Diksha Guru. But of course, as I said that, if you look at Caitanya Caritamrta, that is actually not so. So it’s maybe a misconception that the devotees do this in ISKCON [Laughs]. Another thing of course is that, we also give respect to all Gurus, Siksha or Diksha. But we also give more respect to the person who is more advanced. And of course we also give more respect to the person who is functioning as a Guru for that particular disciple. And of course, if we are talking about more advanced Guru gets more respect, then we have to give most respect to Srila Prabhupada. And because the Siksha Guru or the Diksha Guru is simply conveying the message that Prabhupada is also conveying, like a postman, envelope postman, then we respect them.
Devotee: What about this question like Gurus, they have so many disciples, 5,000, 10,000, they cannot give time to disciples. Then how to?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: But time for what? Siksha?
Devotee: Time for, yeah.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So they are acting as Siksha Guru. So it’s like this Diksha Guru, fine, they’ve done their Diksha and you find someone who can give Siksha [Laughs].
7.) So, okay, as you told like, we should respect our Gurus, but what should be the relationship? For example, we say mother and father are our Gurus. Similarly, when we go to school, teacher is also a Guru. But the relation between mother and child is very informal type and we can ask and we can ask any question from her without irrespective of the life. But when we go to a teacher, the relation is mostly about specific to the knowledge. So, like if we say Siksha Guru or Diksha Guru, should in ISKCON we should, means the relation should be like this, that we should only discuss our spiritual questions, but spirituality is already linked to the life. And, and we shouldn’t ask any type of life questions to our Guru. And, and the formal should be like a more of informal type.
Now, the purpose of accepting a Guru in ISKCON is for spiritual guidance. And he has that position of Guru in order to give spiritual instructions. He is not claiming to know everything about chemistry and computers and money and finances and whatever. So his only claim is that he knows some scripture that he could teach you.
Devotee: My question I think is misinterpreted from my side. Actually, I mean to say, the Guru, for example, a student and a teacher have a formal relationship of asking the, what do you call that? Asking a, discussing question about a specific, like a topic, basically, for example, in spirituality. But for example, chemistry or science, for example. But when we ask, like for our mother or like father, we ask our personal questions, like how to solve this problem in life. And that what spirituality teaches. So, but besides spirituality, there are two parts. One is life part and the other is like a basic Sastra part where most of the like, we are not qualified enough. So we ask, it’s more like, like we were asking like how to chant, how to do these things. So should we ask that beside that Sastra, beside question about life also how to overcome this life problem also to our Gurus? So I want to ask this question.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, it depends. So, so many life problems. You go to the Guru and talk about your wife problem or your child problem. Is that proper? So if he is a Sannyasi, then he will say renounce everything. [Laughs] And if you ask about business, then give up your business.
8.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. I want to know two points. The first one is Your Divine Grace mentioned that Diksha Guru provides us the Diksha mantra. And by chanting that we can get spiritual knowledge. But the Brahmana initiated devotees, we chant only three times. Is there any other place where we can chant the Diksha mantra, especially while doing a bhoga offering or archana? So now at the moment I am not doing, so I’m asking this question. In addition to tri-sandhya, do I need to do this chanting on any other occasion?
So when you do Deity offerings, you offer using your mantras, your Krishna mantra. Now, of course, before Lord Caitanya’s introduction of Nama Sankirtan as yuga dharma, most people were doing Deity worship and they were using their Deity mantras for that and they were also using the same Deity mantra like the 18 syllable Krishna mantra for japa. We see in Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Gopakumar got a mantra from his Guru, 10 syllable Krishna mantra, he was chanting, chanting, chanting, chanting this mantra all the time. When Lord Caitanya came, then of course, He put emphasis upon this chanting Krishna’s Name. So therefore, instead of chanting the Diksha mantra, Krishna mantra, then we chant Hare Krishna. And thus our Diksha mantra is much less used for our spiritual sadhana than Hare Krishna.
Devotee: Maharaj while bhoga offering, so if we just say Prabhupada pranama mantra and Guru pranama mantra, is that sufficient or we need to do any other mantra?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, if you offer Deities, then you have to use your Diksha mantra.
Devotee: Okay, I understand. I mean the standard we maintain in the temple, but at house also we should maintain that?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: If possible, if possible.
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj. Maharaj, my second query is when a devotee’s parents passed away, so what would be the sraddha things for devotees, like what rules we should maintain. And is there any particular book by Your Divine Grace or any other writer? So I want to know about this sraddha, because many times we got these questions, but we are not clear about this. When our parents or some people passed away.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, Hari Bhakti Vilasa does not mention anything about that and of course, there’s something called the Samskara Dipika, that also doesn’t mention anything [Laughs]. Yeah. It does mention the death rites for a Babaji or a Sannyasi, that’s all. Yes. So, in India, let’s say in Vrindavan, we have Radha Raman Temple and they have their Pujaris and whatever. So generally, they just follow the regular Vedic funeral rites [Laughs]. But of course, Bhagavatam also says that, we shouldn’t worship Pitrus, etc. So therefore, if we’re going to do those rites, if we do worship, then we have to offer them Vishnu prasadam.
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj. For devotees, is there also like we cannot do Deity worship if our parents passed away for particular days?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, according to the Smriti Sastras, you have to be impure for atleast 13 days. However, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was not really in favor of that. He says if you’re serving the Deity, serving the Deity is more important than following all of these impurity rules [Laughs].
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj. It really helps. Thank you so much.
9.) If somebody, people are dying in plane crash or train crash or some accident, right? So what is that like? They suddenly pass away, right? So they don’t fulfill their desires. So it is good or it is bad?
No, it’s not considered fortunate [Laughs].
Devotee: It’s not fortunate?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: No [Laughs].
10.) Maharaj, like the recent crash in Ahmedabad, and also one person who is doing. And one person who somebody who takes the whatever happened, he said all those people who died in that plane crash had the same karma of harassing. They were living in some village in their past life and they were together and they harassed somebody. So that karma has come and they all died together.
[Laughs] We don’t really know. We can’t say. But obviously, there’s some karma so that they all had similar karma at the same time, whether it was from the same area, the same active past karma, we don’t know.
11.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, I just want to get your opinion on, the difference between pure devotional service and motivated devotional service. Because we do a lot of service with the Temple right now. But I find that in all the services that we do, there is some or the other motivation connected to it. For example, we are running the Temple. We do a lot of devotional programs but somewhere the motive is people should come and donations should come and there’s always something or the other connected to the services that we are doing. So I really find it hard to understand that how should we progress towards pure devotion or pure devotional service without any motivation behind it.
So when we do pure Bhakti, we still have desire. Desire is to please Krishna. If we don’t have that desire, it’s not Bhakti [Laughs]. So, when we talk about impure Bhakti or mixed Bhakti, usually in the modern world atleast, when we do the Bhakti and okay, we’re trying to please Krishna. But we’re also expecting a material result for ourself that we can enjoy. So many people come to the Temple. They go to Balaji and then they pray for material things [Laughs]. So that is very explicitly mixed Bhakti [Laughs]. So other devotees, of course, may not be explicitly always praying for material things, but they’re always expecting some material result also for themselves. So if we do the Bhakti and we’re expecting some result in terms of number of people or whatever, that’s related to Bhakti more than to our personal interest. So then, that’s better than having gross material interests. So if we do Bhakti and we’re desiring to get nice results so that people, we get more people attracted to Krishna, nothing wrong with that.
Devotee: Donation?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, yeah, well, if the donation is for Krishna, fine. If it’s for ourselves, then it’s material [Laughs].
12.) Maharaj, when we go to Temple or any place, then I go as a guest. I don’t do any seva but I take some benefit from Temple like, I say, I eat prasad or I take book without paying anything, without doing any seva. So what is the effect of that?
Well, just taking prasad is also a type of devotional service. So whether we pay or don’t pay, it doesn’t really matter [Laughs]. I mean, darsana of Deity is also a type of bhakti [Laughs]. Chanting the Holy Name is a service.
13.) Maharaj, from Srimad Bhagavatam, we see that bhakti-pareśānubhava-viraktir
anyatra syāt [SB 11.2.42]. So if you have pure devotional service, as you were discussing on it now, so we should have virakti on the material things. So what should be our viewpoint on working hard or gaining material wealth? How should devotees, what should be our aspect on this? Our viewpoint on gaining material wealth or working so hard?
Devotee 1: So we should not work hard, you are saying?
Devotee 2: Yeah, that is my question. Like in Bhagavatam, it is mentioned that if we have bhakti, then we should have virakti in all material things. So how should be our viewpoint on this?
So, Bhagavatam says, qualification for Bhakti, to have some taste for hearing about Krishna and doing service for Krishna and not too much attachment to material things. So it is not expected that everybody can be completely detached from the beginning of Bhakti. And with the development of Bhakti, then detachment should increase.
14.) Maharaj, sometimes we take some Siksha Guru, because we are new, we take Siksha from somebody. But afterwards we understand, oh, this person is not so much, or this person is not doing pure Bhakti, he is doing some mixed Bhakti or something. Then what to do? Because he has helped us in our Bhakti.
We respect whatever teaching we got but we take another Siksha Guru [Laughs].
Hare Krishna!
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!