19811226 Lecture on Chanting

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture on Chanting given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on December 26, 2002 – in Kolkata, India. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.12.11.

Today is a big holiday weekend. So a lot of people take the opportunity to go out tournament. We could organize in the future, considering that. But I was really pleased to hear that tonight there was a meeting. So they asked me to come. On one occasion in the past I was able to come. That was just before aim of all faiths meeting. At that time, there was the organizational meeting for that program. And that was also a very successful program. And then thereafter were graced by Amburish Das, Alfred Ford. And that was also appreciated by the newspapers and by all the members. Everyone. Actually, you are the most fortunate of all the members of this khanda. Because some members are fortunate to have contributed and become part of our life member family.

But they have not taken into their cabin the daily sadhana of chanting or participating in this special mercy of Chetani Mahabharata. Actually, everyone is doing some dharma. There’s no one who’s not doing some dharma. Hardly. Maybe a few. But india generally, everyone is doing something. But our bhagavad has advised us that we should test our dharma to see whether it is fulfilling the requirement that slok is dharma. Vishwakshena, kotasujat, nadpadayat, Yatiratin, swami Eva, Vishakshina, pata Surjat. We perform our dharma towards the spiritual objective. Whether our dharma is being successful or not will be how much we are attracted to the quadra. Regarding our supreme personality, the supreme personality of Godhead, our lord of our life. To what extent are we becoming eager to hear those messages? That is called rotting. Rotting means ruchi, or the taste, the power, the ecstatic love.

Roti means actual spiritual happiness. Everyone gets happiness when he eats good food, unless he’s sick. People get happiness when they have nice company. When there’s some nice function like this, people are getting some kind of happiness. But that happiness is not very rare. It is available. Even then, it is lasting for only a small amount of time. And mainly we have to struggle and work to make our living, to make our ends meet. And then at the end, sometimes we are having little bit of happiness through friendship, through family, through money, through some entertainment like this. So people are generally very eager for that type of entertainment, that type of happiness. But in general, indian people are very religious. So if there is some vacation, they think about going to some holy place, going to some religious function.

Because there is a natural piety in the body within the indian people. Because this is a holy land. Where Kṛṣṇa, where Rāma, where Buddha, where Lord Caitanya, where all so many avatars have appeared. Therefore, this is known as Bharat Varsha. It is famous even in other planets as being the most holy place. So as much as one is attracted by spiritual matters, especially hearing about the glories of the Lord from the mouth of your devotees, that is considered to be the test whether one is becoming advanced. If one has not developed any attraction for serving or hearing or remembering the lord even though he is practicing some type of religious principle, whatever that may be, then the Bhagavad slok is saying. That means that it is simply an expenditure of energy for show or for nothing. There is no real benefit.

So that is the problem that in this particular age, the various type of dharma jagya which were available in previous ages like meditation Oṁ Jagya temple pūjā are very difficult to properly perform. Kalotad, dhari, keertanath. This khalid yuga recommended processes in darpa juga, dharpa yang paricha jayam, it was temple pūjā, jugad was home jagya and in Satya Yuga it was there. The recommended process is harina. Why? Because by chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa, one very quickly becomes attracted to hearing more about Kṛṣṇa through serving Kṛṣṇa, to hearing about ram, serving Kṛṣṇa. In this way one becomes actually advanced in spiritual life. Whether a grihastha, whether a student or whether a renounced person, that is the goal of religion at the time. When we leave this body, whatever we think of, that is where we go.

What we will think of is what we are attracted to. If we are attracted to Kṛṣṇa, then we will go to Kṛṣṇa. We will go to God, back to home, back to Godhead. If we are not attracted by the supreme personality, how we can go there? So that attraction, that rothi, that type of love of havasa or prema preeti, that is a very rare thing. So that is awakened by actually chanting, by performing this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If another person, if anyone is not getting that attachment to Kṛṣṇa, that means something is wrong. Something must be rectified in one’s spiritual practices. It is not that dharma Śrī be anustha or a formality that we do like a ritual without any result. There must also be result.

It is said that just like when a healthy man and a healthy woman, husband and wife combine and they produce a child. Similarly, if there is a bona fide guru, any bona fide listener or disciple, if there is a bona fide pathak and a bona fide Srodha speaker and hearer, then there will be an effect that will be spiritual gang that will be spiritual unati or spiritual advancement. Therefore, the scripture advises, one should not hear about the glories of Kṛṣṇa or hari from lips of non devotees. One who is non devotee, if we hear from his lips, hari katamita. This is bad. Why? It says just like a sahara. Puchisthae sarpa means snake, like a cobra. So uchista means what the snake is eaten. If we have a milk which is touched by the lips of a serpent, that milk itself is Vishakta.

So therefore, to hear the glories of Kṛṣṇa from someone who is not a devotee, that means he doesn’t believe in Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes very famous gurus, spiritual masters, sanyasis who are not actually devotees of Kṛṣṇa, they sometimes try to glorify Kṛṣṇa. But if any pure devotee is present during that glorification for him is like a sword in the heart. Just like the guru of Ramanujacharya told him from the śloka that Ka’s beauty. He said, yes, that beauty is like the beauty of the Ashley monkey. Like that. Really rosy cheek. Like some example they gave. This caused Ramanuja Acharya to try. But that Sanyasi thought he was giving a very nice description of God. But he was using such unthinkable words that it was simply causing pain.

Sometimes great, so called great leaders in the spiritual field, you hear them say, yes, Kṛṣṇa was a great man. He was a very great man. He did so many things that were very wonderful. But as a report, we hear someone say that Kṛṣṇa is a mandev. For him, that is no compliment. There is no compliment because Kṛṣṇa is not a man. Kṛṣṇa himself is Swayam Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Still Bhagavān Swayam, a man means, we are born, we die. The Kṛṣṇa told Durga Devī yoga aya that you go, you take birth in Yahodah, maize, garbet. You arrange like this. I am going to take birth in Devoki womb in the Kharagar, in the prison house of Kangsha. He planned everything out. Man doesn’t plan like that. He will be my mother, he will be my father. I will take birth here.

No, we do not plan like that. We are forced. God is not forced. He comes on his own sweet will. So that’s why we should be careful about who we hear religious talks from. If someone is not actually devotee of the Lord, he may be a great speaker, he may be a great orator. But that also you will find many scientists, many philosophers, many politicians. They are wonderful orators. If they also turn religionists, they will also be a great orator, quoting from the vedas, the real test. Do they believe in Ka? Are they actually a devotee? Are they a vaishnava? Have they surrendered to the Lord? If not, they have no jurisdiction to speak on anything about. And whatever they speak, that will be poison. That will be some way or another.

That will be a discourage, because they have no access to know who is Kṛṣṇa, who is Rāma, who is Vishnu. Kṛṣṇa says in Gītā namay Bhakta binash. So first thing is to read devotees how to be devotee. That has been made very easy in this kali yuga by simply chanting hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa, hare hare hare. Hare Rāma. Hare rāma haram, hare hare. Of course, in Bangladesh, most of the people do not follow any particular rules about eating and so on. Due to that situation, they are more or less irregulated in different ways. Few people are following some system amongst the Hindus, amongst the Muslims, there is no question. But we are requesting everyone that at least they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā maksha, 108 times every day. That’s our request.

And were very happy to find that thousands of people came forward to plead that they would chant every day, taking up order of Caitanya Mahabharata. Of course, more advanced than that is when one not only chants but also eats kaproshad. So like that, we’re requesting people to first of all chant. Second of all, to try to take the prasad offered to Kṛṣṇa, that prasad can be made in the house. It’s not very difficult. We are eating every day. If we simply prepare it in a pure manner, our suba. Others, they can give the different mantras that are there before a picture or before a deity, that prasad is placed and one bows down and offers that bhoga to the Lord in a humble manner, or even chant hare Vishnu and then takes. This is very difficult.

If one is like, they are taking prasad, chanting hare Kṛṣṇa and sometimes coming together like this, and hearing hari khata from devotees only, not from famous speakers or other people who may not be devotees, because they will give some really tantalizing intellectual ideas which have nothing to do with devotional service or with loving God or with actually advancement in real understanding about who is Kṛṣṇa. They will touch on other subjects. So our goal is to fulfill Caitanya Mahāprabhu prediction. He predicted that in every town and village all over the world, his message, his chanting will be performed. So in other parts of the world, some of us are going and also trying to encourage the preachers there. And other parts, other great devotees, they’re all preaching.

Just now we got a very good information from Vishnu pad Bhavananda Goswami, who is also the Acharya here in Calcutta and at Māyāpur. That there was a very successful preaching in Australia. In a record of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of books were distributed to all of the Australians during this Christmas period. Not only in Australia, but in New Zealand and indonesia. So this is our goal all over the world. That our philosophy is not simply a sentiment or a fanaticism. It is based upon scientific information from the vedas. Therefore, first thing we have to have books. Those books we study and we practice. So the simple practice is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and eating kapos. After that, other things come. Especially Chenti is a must for everyone. So when I actually Chetani Mahāprabhu, he came from Bengal and he took sannyas.

At 24, he went to Purī on the request of his mother. From Purī he went to South India and preached for eight years. Six years. Six years. For six years. And I was wondering that where was the sign of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s vajra? Because although he was preaching there for six years, whether there’s any symptom of that preacher. So I actually found that everywhere I went in Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore. And even when I was in Chivandrum in Kerala. At the very tip that actually everyone has a great faith in the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā mantra. Even in Kerala, at one of the Ayaka temples, which is a temple devoted to one form of deity connected with Durga and Subramani, they also were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, hare. Hare Rāma, hari rāma.

After so many malayalam kirtans, all of a sudden they started chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. There I found that also most of the people know this hare Kṛṣṇa maman. Even in some villages we found people are having similar drums and they are chanting also. But no one can remember that. Who brought this chanting to south India? We know in Bengal or in Orissa here everyone knows Chetani Mahāprabhu. Because he has so many followers who kept on preaching. But he alone went to South India. So everyone knows the name from history books and so on. But Ramanuja, Acharya, Shankara, Acharya, the other Acharya, Madhacharya, none of them chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa. So far that we know it has not been recorded yet. How is it that through the whole south India, everywhere you find people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa?

I take it this must be the only sign of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s preaching that still today so many people are having faith in Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting due to the original teaching which he performed 500 years ago. So now we are trying to establish india that in every town, in every city, in every community, in every school, in every college, in every village, that people should regularly chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Bengal there was before Harisabha, in Orissa there was Bhagavad, Tungis, Assam, of course, the Shankar Dev. But they have their namgar in different places. There are different programs from meeting together and doing these type of things. I don’t know what they have in UP or Rajasthan other than they have very beautiful temples. But this program of coming together and chanting is very easy. Just like we’re having one group keeping every two weeks here.

So like that. Now we have started in all the villages, in all the towns, in many of the universities are programmed to have the people meet once every week in their own place, come together, chant hare Kṛṣṇa, read a little bit from the gītā or Bhagavad and then discuss, sometimes write questions. And our sadhus go there. That is called the namah. Namahat is Bengali. Actual sansuit is Nāmahaṭṭa. One of our big life members in Bombay, bij rats in Mota. He told me, what is this nāmahaṭṭa? Hatha means hathao. That means get out. I said, no, this is Sanskrit. He said, no I know Hindi and Sanskrit. I never heard of this hatha. I said, no. They said, tata hatha, this is Sansa. He took out his big dictionary and he paged through it and he looked up and he saw hatha bazaar.

You are right. Ideas are bazaar. In the bazaar, if a Muslim comes or if a Hindu or Christian or a śūdra, a brahmin, whoever, if they come with their money and they want to buy the goods, they can buy it and take it away. No one is restricting in the bazaar artists and so many things are being brought and sold and so many things are being bought and taken away. So like this nithyananda, he made a bazaar for giving out kuna. That bazaar, anyone can take it. But what is the poisson? What is the. The money which that naan can be purchased by, that is rādhā or faith, bhakti or devotion. With those exchanges then you can take as much name as you want, irregardless of your cash, feed, whatever you live, no restriction. So like that.

These namahattas in Bengal two years ago we started just a few months before Gorapunima at Gorapunima. We had about 40 in a very short time last year, guar Pūrṇimā, we had about 150. I predicted that by the next year we would double. But now already we have 450 namata sanghas who meet at least once every week. Amongst them, about 10% in the villages. They are meeting every morning and every night. And some of them also they want there. Some have donated land and some are also constructed already. Some nathram on there, some out of grass hut, some out of korgen. Some also are building pakha, some structures so they can meet together and chant. In their village. They’re also organizing program.

Our Sangirtan party went from Calcutta last month and went to Pashtim Dinajpur, that’s west Dinajpur to Jalapai, Guri, Kuch, Bihar and other places. And there I found that nowadays there are a lot of different type of groups out there giving different type of mantras and different type of instructions. Some are telling you all, God, what? You don’t need to do anything. So many different things are going on. But generally speaking, most of the people have faith in the Mahamamsha given in our Vedim Purāṇa, in the Kali, Santana, Rana, Upanisha. It very clearly says Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa hare, hare, hare Rāma, hare Ram Ram, Hari hare. All the Kalamash or Kali Yuga destroyed national Nazarae, no other upaya, no other way. All the Vedas, they confirm this. You can find so many proofs. So the people generally believe in Hare Kṛṣṇamantra. They are coming forward.

They are very eager. They say that no one cares for our spiritual life. We are here in a village only sometime, once every four or five years, they come to get bored. But nobody comes to give us any spiritual life. You are coming. We are very grateful. So some places also, you are organizing schools in the village Gurukul or some religious instruction in the evening. In some places, other programs have been taken up like Prasad distribution and so on. It’s still a very beginning stages. Here in Calcutta area, we have about 20 groups who have applied to be members, but we have not fully developed them in Trivandrum in south India. Now, Bhakti Sadhuswamy has taken it up to make namhat in every university and every major high school and in every major town and in the surrounding villages.

So already many students have come forward to have weekly meetings. In this way, we want to revive the whole spiritual life of India so that the whole world can be purified, so that the youth can be brought up in a nice atmosphere so that the actual country can be purified. So this is certainly blessed by Chetani Maharaj, blessed by Bharti Vidanta, Swami Prabhupda, our founder Acharya, who has started this, you can say, spiritual revolution in motion, and who is still present and giving his constant blessing to all these attempts. So many members are not here. But I feel that for the proper implementation of such a broad program as this naamhata program, is that in different ways, the guidance and the experience of the members can also afford a great contribution.

When we told the leading Hindus in Bangladesh, we had already 500 namatas in West Bengal, they said, we will have 5000 here in Bangladesh, they said, there are 68,000 villages in Bangladesh. Of that, 20% to 15% have some considerable amount of Hindus. That means we have 10,000 villages. So the 10,000, it is not at all difficult to have 5000 namahs. We challenge you. You are having 40,000 villages to 48,000 in West Bengal, of which only about 25% or 20% are Muslim. And only at the most or even less, that means at least 30,000 are really having a hindu population. So we are challenging, we will do 5000. So like that. They’re also very enthused. So we feel that Calcutta itself is one whole district.

There are so many that we can make on a higher level for the university students, just like we have our vaisharishi program, type of program suited for them. Because generally speaking, what I found is there are many nice boys and girls going to university. But because of the whole political atmosphere, because of the whole moral degradation, all the cheating and everything going on in the schools, that many of them get spoiled, and even the good ones, they don’t have anything to do there. So gradually also, we fall into the bad association. So for all these different. The only solution is to provide a positive alternative, that positive alternative to life service programs, chanting and discussing and different things, this is very important. This is the only hope. Anything else is too difficult, but anyone can chant.

I personally, when I was in Dhaka this time, we did a program at the Jagannath hall, which is the first time that there was a program done in the University of Dhaka in Jagannath hall, which is the big hindu dormitory with 1000 hindu students. All of the students were present. Justice Ranadir sent the only hindu justice from the high Court of Bangladesh. He also was present to grace the occasion. So we gave our discussion. One man commented that in Bangladesh, people have become so undisciplined in religious functions that generally youll always find someone smoking a bb or cigarette. But he said in this particular function there was no sign, there was no any written, no small nothing. But anyone who came into that gathering, not one person dared to light a cigarette. He said this is a divine power. That was his idea.

So anyway, there 1000 students we only brought 200 cards with us. 200 cards of people. They pledged to chant every day 108 times. Hare Kṛṣṇa as a start, in order that many students have already formed together and made a cultural society based on this Kṛṣṇa conscious principles. And they have already formed three branches to other universities. So like that, they’re already beginning to work in that side. But they have so many obstacles here there’s no obstacle except our own lethargy. So anyway, this is one of our programs. We’re hoping for seeing the actual effect of Kṛṣṇa consciousness reach everyone to help them become peaceful, become happy and to become lovers of God.

So we are thanking all of you for taking the active part and we feel that you are all wonderful devotees and that with this type of association of devotees more and more will be able to increase this association of devotees and the effect on the whole society. Actually you are the leaders in terms of religious matters of the society. Government is so called communal or non communal or whatever they call it. That means that they take no interest whatsoever secular. So as a result, if we don’t take the interest, no one will take the interest. There’s no one else who’s going to take the interest worthy people’s spiritual life except devotees who are dedicated to seeing the whole society become God conscious. So I feel that all of you are taking a part in that great movement. Therefore I offer you my humble respect.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa, hare, Hare Ram Hari Ramdez it it.

(Side B of the Cassette)

That Sankirtan, with so many devotees, at that time, automatically that natural remembrance of the Lord comes. And at that moment, it is possible to actually achieve the intimate realization of Kṛṣṇa, the real nir, Jana Bhajan, the real solitary worship where the individual soul has completely surrendered and completely realized in pure Kṛṣṇa praying of the eternal goal of our life, Sissy Raha Kṛṣṇa, at that time, in other words, he’s giving us that assurance that actually, if anyone wants to achieve real understanding of Raha Kṛṣṇa, Prema, what is the pure love of the brajavasi or the gopīs? What is the pure love, the highest love that is existing in Gulag Vrindavan?

You won’t get that by leaving the Sankirtan movement of Chetanyamaru or doing any type of solitary attempt, which is not necessary for actually expanding the preaching, but actually by simply engaging in that glorification of Lord, engaging in that Sankirta, even here with so many devotees, even in such a united effort, but actually in that complete, dedicated mood, at that time, internally, that solitary, intimate relationship with Kṛṣṇa is established, known as confidential. Bhakti, anuraga bhakti. So Bhakti, Siddhana sarasi Thakur was actually revolutionary, that he took the humble position, took sannyas. I am taking sannyas because I am a very. I am not a Vaishnava. I am only trying to be a servant of the Vaishnava. Because so many people were saying Vaishnava should never be a sannyāsī. Vaishnav is so exalted. But he could see that in the name of Vaishnavism, they have all these desires.

So he said, no, I am not a Vaishnav. Yes, I am taking sannyas because sannyas is paranasram. We’re beneath Vaishnava. We’re simply trying to glorify the lord.

As a humble fourth order of life.

Not as an exalted Vaishnav. We have not reached that. That’s his humility. That wasn’t a desire for establishing some kind of new type of importance. Actually, it was his humility for preaching. So in every day and age, there are different types of mayas that come, but the basic essence is to preach the glories of the Lord, put ourselves in that fire, and then avoid all type of mental independence that comes and tries to take us away from that pure path. Actually, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he personally showed the pure example of that through his whole life. And he established Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world, simply trying to maintain the mood of his spiritual master in so many ways. For most of his life, up to 70, up till about 60 years, he was always simply working with his God brothers in every respect.

But, and even to the very end, he was always calling them over and asking that, please come and have a united effort.

But he was very sad that his.

God brothers would not make that united effort. And that’s the only reason, because Prabhupāda kept up that constant Sankirtan mood, of trying to bring everyone into the Sankirtan, trying to make a united effort, trying to maintained the pure mood of his spiritual master, that he was always empowered by the Lord. He had actually understood the essence of Bhakti Saraswati Thakur’s teachings. So he has personally established his Iskan society under his own guidance and under his own hand, and he has organized it and set it up exactly to his own desire, so that we can carry on that same mood that is being handed down in the disciplic succession. So that great responsibility now is upon all of us to try to maintain that original and true preaching spirit.

And know that by that means we will get the favor of Seemati Rādhārāṇī, not by putting on some type of false show or this or that, but by keeping into this preaching spirit of glorifying Kṛṣṇa, of bringing the people who are fallen in this material world to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and glorifying Kṛṣṇa everywhere. That is a very simple and sublime process given by Chetanya Mahāprabhu, explained by Rūpa and Sanātana Goswamis, and put into practical effect by Bharti, Siddhānta Sarsi Thakur, and our beloved spiritual master and founder, Acharya Bhakti Vedānta, Swami Prabhupāda, jai sisi, siddhānta vedānta, sami pavupad ki sangavera, bhakti bin laki.

A lot of people take the opportunity to go out first off tour so we could organize in the future, considering that. But I was really pleased to hear that tonight there was a meeting. So they asked me to come. On one occasion in the past I was able to come. That was just before aim of all faith meeting. At that time, there was the organizational meeting for that program, and that was also a very successful program. And then thereafter were graced by Ambuddish Das, Alfred Ford.

And that was also appreciated by the.

Newspapers and by all the members.

Everyone.

Actually, you are the most fortunate of all the members of ISKCON, because some members are fortunate to have contributed and become part of our life member family. But they have not taken into their cabin the daily sadhana of chanting or participating in the special mercy of Chetanya Mahāprabhu. Actually, everyone is doing some dharma. There is no one who is not doing some dharma. Hardly, maybe a few, but india generally, everyone is doing something. But our bhagavad has advised us that we should test our dharma to see whether it is fulfilling the requirement that slok is dharma. Vishwakshena kata sujat nadpadaya vishakshina. We perform our karma towards the spiritual objective. Whether our dharma is being successful or not will be how much we are attracted to the quanta regarding our supreme personality, the supreme personality of Godhead, our lord of our life.

To what extent are we becoming eager to hear those messages? That is called rotting roti. One means ruchi, or the taste, the bhava, the ecstatic love. Roti means actual spiritual happiness. Everyone gets happiness when he eats good food, unless he’s sick. People get happiness when they have nice company. When there’s some nice function like this, people are getting some kind of happiness. But that happiness is not very rare. It is available. Even then, it is lasting for only a small amount of time. And mainly we have to struggle and work to make our living, to make our ends meet. And then at the end, sometimes we’re having little bit of happiness through friendship, through family, through money, through some entertainment like this. So people are generally very eager for that type of entertainment, that type of happiness.

But in general, indian people are very religious. So if there is some vacation, they think about going to some holy place, going to some religious function, because there is a natural piety inborn within the indian people. Because this is a holy land where Kṛṣṇa, where Rāma, where Buddha, where Lord Caitanya, where all so many avatars have appeared. Therefore, this is known as Bharat Varsha. It is famous even in other planets as being the most holy place. So, as much as one is attracted by spiritual matters, especially hearing about the glories of the Lord from the mouth of pure devotees, that is considered to be the test. Whether one is becoming advantage.

If one has not developed any attraction for serving or hearing or remembering the lord, even though he is practicing some type of religious principle, whatever that may be, then the Bhagavad slokism is saying that means that this is simply an expenditure of energy for show or for nothing. There is no real benefit. So that is the problem that in this particular age, the various type of dharma jagya, which were available in previous ages. Like meditation home jagya temple pūjā are very difficult to properly perform. Kalota dhari ketanath. This khalid yuga recommended process is in darpa juga, darpa yana purī cha jayam. It was temple pūjā jugat was home, jagya, kitte, Daitom, Vishnu and in Satya Yuga Khalodanath the recommended process is hari na. Why?

Because by chanting the name of Kṛṣṇa, one very quickly becomes attracted to hearing more about Kṛṣṇa through serving Kṛṣṇa, to hearing about Ram serving Kṛṣṇa. In this way one becomes actually advanced in spiritual life. Whether brihastha, whether a student or whether a renounced person, that is the goal of religion at the time. When we leave this body, whatever we think of, that is where we go. What we will think of is what we are attracted to. If we are attracted to Kṛṣṇa, then we will go to Kṛṣṇa. We will go to God, back to home, back to Godhead. If we are not attracted by the supreme personality, how we can go there? So that attraction, that rothi, that type of love of havalasha or premae, pretty, that is a very rare thing.

So that is awakened by actually chanting, by performing this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If another person, if anyone is not getting that attachment to Kṛṣṇa, that means something is wrong. Something must be rectified in ones spiritual practices. It is not that dharma should simply be anushta or a formality that we do like a ritual without any result. There must also be result. It is said that just like when a healthy man in a healthy woman, husband and wife combine and they produce a child. Similarly, if there is a bona fide guru, any bona fide listener or disciple, if there is a bona fide pathak and a bona fide srotha speaker and hearer, then there will be an effect, that will be spiritual gap, that will be spiritual unity or spiritual advancement.

Therefore the scripture advises, one should not hear about the glories of Kṛṣṇa or hari from lips of non devotees. One who is not a devotee, if we hear from his lips hari kath, this is bad. Why? It says just like sahara puchistha, sarapa means snake like a cobra. So uchista means what the snake is eaten. If we have a milk which is touched by the lips of a serpent, that milk itself is Vishakta. So therefore, to hear the glories of Kṛṣṇa from someone who is not a devotee, that means he doesn’t believe in Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes very famous gurus, spiritual masters, sannyasis who are not actually devotees of Kṛṣṇa. They sometimes try to glorify Kṛṣṇa. But if any pure devotee is present during that glorification. That glorification for him is like a sword in the heart.

Just like the guru Ramanujacharya told him from the śloka that ka’s beauty. He said yes, that beauty is like the beauty of the Ashley monkey. Like that. Really rosy cheek. Like some example they gave. This caused Ramanuja Acharya to try. But that sanyasi thought he was giving a very nice description of God. But he was using such unthinkable words that it was simply causing pain. Sometimes great, so called great leaders in the spiritual field, you hear them say, yes, Kṛṣṇa was a great man. He was a very great man. He did so many things that were very wonderful. But if hears someone say that Kṛṣṇa is a mandev for him, that is no compliment. There is no compliment because Kṛṣṇa is not a man. Kṛṣṇa himself is Swayam Bhagawan Kṛṣṇa. Still Bhagawan swayam. A man means we are born, we die.

The Kṛṣṇa told Durga Devī yoga aya that you go, you take birth in Jafurah Maais garbet. You arrange like this. I going to take birth in Devoki room, in the Kara garde. In the prison house of Kanksha. He planned everything up. Man doesn’t plan like that. He will be my mother, he will be my father. I will take birth here. No, we do not plan like that. We are forced. God is not forced. He comes on his own sweet will. So that’s why we should be careful about who we hear religious talks from. If someone is not actually devotee of the Lord, he may be a great speaker, he may be a great orator. But that also you will find many scientists, many philosophers, many politicians. They are wonderful orators. If they also turn religionists, they may also be a great orator.

Quoting from the Vedas, the real test. Do they believe in Ka? Are they actually a devotee? Are they a vaishnava? Have they surrendered to the lord? If not, they have no jurisdiction to speak on anything about. And whatever they speak, that will be poison. That will be some way or another. That will be a discredit. Because they have no access to know who is Ka? Who is Rāma, who is Vishnu. Vishnu says in Gītā Ramey Bhakti nasrade. So first thing is to be devotee. How to be devotee? That has been made very easy in this kali yuga by simply chanting hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa hare hare.

Hare Rāma. Hare Rāma. Hare Haram. Hare hare of course, in Bangladesh, most of the people do nothing, follow any particular rules about eating and so on. Due to that situation, they are more or less irregulated in different ways. Few people are following some system amongst the Hindus, amongst the Muslims, there is no question. But we are requesting everyone that at least they should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Mahamacha 108 times every day. That’s how we quench. And were very happy to find that thousands of people came forward to plead that they would chant every day, taking up order of Caitani. Mahabharata, of course, more advanced than that, is with one not only chance, but also eats kapusha. So like that, we are requesting people to first of all chant.

Second of all, to try to take the prasad offered to Kah, that prasad can be made in the house. It’s not very difficult. We are eating every day. If we simply prepare it in a pure manner, our suba, others, they can give the different mantras that are there before a picture or before a deity, that prasad is placed and one bows down and offers that bhoga to the Lord in a humble manner, or even chants hare Kṛṣṇa and then takes. This is when I am very difficult.

So if one is like, they are taking prasad, chanting hare Kṛṣṇa, and sometimes coming together like this, and hearing hari khatha from devotees only, not from famous speakers or other people who may not be devotees, because they will give some really tantalizing intellectual ideas which have nothing to do with devotional service or with loving God or with actually advancement in real understanding about who is Kṛṣṇa. They will touch on other subjects. Our goal is to fulfill Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s prediction. He predicted that fertility Aceh Jatonagaradi grammar, that in every town and village all over the world, his message, his chanting will be perform. So in other parts of the world, some of us are going and also trying to encourage the preachers there and other parts, other great devotees, they’re all preaching.

Just now we got a really good information from Vishnu pad Bhavananda Goswami, who is also the Acharya here in Calcutta of our temple and at Māyāpur, that there was a very successful preaching in Australia. And a record of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of books were distributed to all of the Australians during this Christmas period, not only in Australia, but in New Zealand and indonesia. So this is our goal all over the world, that our philosophy is not simply a sentiment or a fanaticism. It is based upon scientific information from the Vedas. Therefore, first thing, we have to have books and those books we study and we practice. So the simple practice is chanting hare Kṛṣṇa and eating Kṛṣṇa profana. After that other things come. Especially chanting is a must for everyone.

So when I actually chetan in Mahāprabhu, he came from Bengal and he took sannyas. At 24 he went to Purī on the request of his mother. From Purī he went to South India and preached for eight years. Six years.

Six years.

For six years. And I was wondering that where was the sign of Chetanya Mahāprabhu. Because although he was preaching there for six years, whether there is any symptom of that preaching. So I actually found that everywhere I went in Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore. And even when I was in Tibandrum in Kerala at the very tip that actually everyone has a great faith in the Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā mantra. Even in Kerala, at one of the Ayaka temples, which is a temple devoted to one form of deity connected with Durga and Subramanian there also they were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa hare Hari, Ramari, Ramadan. After the so many malayalam kirtans, all of a sudden they started chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. There I found that also most of the people know this Hare Kṛṣṇa Maman.

Even in some villages we found people are having similar drums and they are chanting also. But no one can remember that. Who brought this chanting to south India. We know in Bengal or in Orissa here everyone knows Chetani Mahāprabhu. But because he has so many followers who kept on preaching. But he alone went to south India. So everyone knows of him from history books and so on. But Ramanuja, Acharya, Shankaracharya, the other Acharya, Madha Acharya, none of them chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa. So far that we know it has not been recorded yet. How is it that through the whole south India, everywhere you find people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? Like take it. This must be the only sign of Caitanya Mahabharata preaching.

That still today so many people are having faith in Hare Kṛṣṇa chanting due to the original preaching which he performed 500 years ago. So now we are trying to establish india that in every town, in every city, in every community, in every school, in every college, in every village that people should regularly chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Bengal there was before Harishaba in Orissa there was Bhagavad Tungis. In Assam, of course the Shankar day. But they have their namgar in different places. There are different programs for meeting together and doing these type of things. I don’t know what they have in UP or Rajasthan. Other than they have very beautiful temples. But this program of coming together and chanting is very easy. Just like we’re having one group meeting every two weeks here. So like that.

Now we have started in all the villages, in all the towns, in many of the universities are programmed to have the people meet once every week in their own place, come together, chant hare Kṛṣṇa, read a little bit from the Gītā or Bhagavad and then discuss sometimes right question and our sadhus go there. That is called the namahat. Naamahat is Bengali. Actual Sansuit is Nāmahaṭṭa. One of our big life members in Bombay, Bijrat and Mota. He told me, what is this nāmahaṭṭa? Hatha means hathao. That means get out. I said, no, this is Sanskrit. He said, no, I know Hindi and Sanskrit. I never heard of this hatha. I said, no. They said, ta hatha. This is Sanskrit. So he took out his big dictionary and he page to it and he looked up and he saw hatha bazaar. You are right.

Ideas are bazaar. In the bazaar, if a Muslim comes or if a Hindu or Christian or a śūdra or a brahmin or whoever, if they come with their money and they want to buy the goods, they can buy it and take it away. No one is restricting in the bazaar, artists and so many things are being brought and sold. And so many things are being bought and taken away. So like this nithyananda, he made a bazaar for giving out Kṛṣṇa praying kana. That bazaar, anyone can take it. But what is the poisson? What is the money which that naan can be purchased by? That is rādhā or faith, bhakti or devotion. With those exchanges then you can take as much name as you want, irregardless of your calves, feed, whatever you make. No restriction. So like that.

These namahattas in Bengal, two years ago we started just a few months before guar pūrṇimā. At Guar Pūrṇimā we had about 40. In a very short time last year, guar Konima, we had about 150. I predicted that by the next year we would double. But now, already we have 450 namata sanghas who meet at least once every week. Amongst them, about 10% in the villages. They are meeting every morning and every night. And some of them also, they want their. Some have donated land and some are also constructed already. Some Nathan mandir, some out of grass hut, some out of corrugate. Some also want to are building fakha, some structures so they can meet together and chant in their village. They’re also organizing program.

Our Sangirtan party went from Calcutta last month and went to Pashtim Dinajpur, that’s a west in Ajpur to Jalpai, Gudi, Kuch, Bihar and other places. And there I found that nowadays there are a lot of different type of groups out there giving different type of mantras and different type of instructions. Some are telling you all God, you don’t need to do anything. So many different things are going on. But generally speaking, most of the people have faith in the Muhammad given in our Vedim, Quran, in the Kali Santanarana Upanisha. It very clearly says Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare, hare, Hare. Et so the sakam nam kalikalamasanam nata paratu upaya sarah babishakamna. This solo noun 16 names Kali Kalamasha national. All the kalamash or Kali Yuga destroyed national notaya no other upaya, no other way. Sadhguru, Veda Shudishite, all the Vedas. They confirm this.

You can find so many proofs. So the people generally believe in Hare Kṛṣṇa mah mantra. They are coming forward. They are very eager. They say that no one cares for our spiritual life. We are here, Sinai village, only sometime once every four or five years, they come to get bought, but nobody comes to give us any spiritual life. You are coming. We are very grateful. So some places also, you are organizing schools in the village Gurukul or some religious instruction in the evening. In some places other programs have been taken up like prasad distribution and so on. It’s still a very beginning stages. Here in Calcutta area, we have about 20 groups who have applied to be members, but we have not fully developed them in Trivandrum in south India.

Now, Bhakti Sadhu Swami has taken it up to make namah in every university and every major high school and in every major town and in the surrounding villages. So already many students have come forward to have weekly meetings. In this way we want to revive the whole spiritual life of India so that the whole world can be purified, so that the youth can be brought up in a nice atmosphere, so that the actual country can be purified. So this is certainly blessed by Chetani Maharaj, blessed by Bhakti Vidanta Swami Prabhupāda, our founder Acharya, who has started this, you can say, spiritual revolution in motion, and who is still present and giving his constant blessing to all these attempts.

So many members are not here, but I feel that for the proper implementation of such a broad program as this Namhata program is that in different ways, the guidance and the experience of the members can also afford a great contribution. When we told the leading Hindus in Bangladesh that we had already 500 nawaters in West Bengal, they said, we will have 5000 here in Bangladesh. He said, there are 68,000 villages in Bangladesh. Of that, 20% to 15% have some considerable amount of Hindus. That means we have 10,000 villages. So out of 10,000, it is not at all difficult to have 5000 nam hats. We challenge you because you are having 40,000 villages to 48,000 in West Bengal, of which only about 25% or 20% are Muslim at the most or even less. That means at least 30,000 are purely having a hindu population.

So we are challenging, we will do 5000. So like that. They are also very enthused. So we feel that Calcutta itself is one whole district. There are so many that we can make on a higher level for the university students, just like we have our vaisharishi program title program student for them. Because generally speaking, what I found that there are many nice boys and girls going to university, but because of the whole political atmosphere, because of the whole moral degradation, all the cheating and everything going on in the schools, that many of them get spoiled and even the good ones, they don’t have anything to do there. So gradually also may fall into the bad association. So for all these different only solution is to provide a positive alternative, that positive alternative to nice service programs, chanting and discussing and different things.

This is very important. This is the only hope. Anything else is too difficult, but anyone can chant. I personally, when I was in Dhaka this time, we did a program at the Jagannath hall, which is the first time that there was a program done in the University of Dhaka in Jagannath hall, which is the big hindu dormitory with 1000 hindu students. All of the students were present. Justice Ranadir sent the only hindu justice from the high Court of Bangladesh. He also was present to grace the occasion. So we gave our discussion. One man commented that in Bangladesh people have become so undisciplined in religious function that generally you will always find someone smoking a DD or cigarette. But he said, in this particular function, there was no sign. There was no anywhere within. Don’t smoke nothing.

But anyone who came into that gathering, not one person dared to light a cigarette. He said, this is a divine power that was inside the. So anyway, there are 1000 students. We only brought 200 cards with us, 200 cards of people. They pledged to chant every day, 108 times. Hare Kṛṣṇa as a start in order that many students have already formed together and made a cultural society based on this Kṛṣṇa conscious principles. And they have already formed three branches and two other universities. So like that, they’re already beginning their work in that side. But they have so many obstacles here. There’s no obstacle except our own lethargy. So anyway, this is one of our programs. We’re hoping for seeing the actual effect of Kṛṣṇa consciousness reach everyone to help them become peaceful, become happy and to become lovers of God.

So we are thanking all of you for taking the active part. And I we feel that you are all wonderful devotees and that with this type of association of devotees more and more will be able to increase this association of devotees and the effect on the whole society. Actually, you are the leaders in terms of religious matters of the society. Government is so called communal or non.

Communal or whatever they call it.

That means that they take no interest whatsoever secular. So as a result, if we don’t take the interest, no one will take the interest.

There’s no one else who’s going to.

Take the interest worthy people, spiritual life except devotees who are dedicated to seeing the whole society become God conscious. So I feel that all of you are taking a part in that great movement. Therefore, I offer you my humble respect. Thank you very much