19950123 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.26

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on January 23^rd 1995 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 6th Canto, Chapter 1, verse 26.

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 6.1.26

bhuñjānaḥ prapiban khādan
bālakaṁ sneha-yantritaḥ
bhojayan pāyayan mūḍho
 na vedāgatam antakam

Translation: When Ajāmila chewed food and ate it, he called the child to chew and eat, and when he drank, he called the child to drink also. Always engaged in taking care of the child and calling his name, Nārāyaṇa, Ajāmila could not understand that his own time was now exhausted and that death was upon him.

*repetition*

Purport: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is kind to the conditioned soul. Although this man completely forgot Nārāyaṇa, he was calling his child, saying, “Nārāyaṇa, please come eat this food. Nārāyaṇa, please come drink this milk.” Somehow or other, therefore, he was attached to the name Nārāyaṇa. This is called ajñāta-sukṛtī. Although calling for his son, he was unknowingly chanting the name of Nārāyaṇa, and the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is so transcendentally powerful that his chanting was being counted and recorded.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Swami Translation purport to Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 6^th Canto, 1^st chapter, 26^th text in the matter of the History of the life of Ajāmila.

Oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: So apparently, Ajāmila, because he was already quite old. At the same time he was having a young son. So, he was enamored by the young son’s broken language, and awkward movements, and childish antics. So, he became very attached to his youngest son, and he was always calling on his son, “Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa!” Come here Nārāyaṇa!” So, in this way somehow or another he was always calling on the holy name of Nārāyaṇa; and even when the time of death came, then and it was only natural that he would be calling on the holy name of Nārāyaṇa! So, we are seeing how that all happened.

You see, this Ajāmila was a fallen brāhmaṇa. He was a brāhmaṇa who became a dacoit and a criminal. But somehow, because of his upbringing, at least he called his younger son—we don't the names of other children—he called his youngest son Nārāyaṇa. We often hear how the Hindu leaders requesting the people to name their children after names of God. This is very good advice. That was the tradition before. Just like you find many traditional families, they will give their child name ‘Venkateśvara’, ‘Śrīnivāsa’, ‘Kṛṣṇa’, ‘Govinda’, ‘Gopāla’. So many thousands of names of God so there is no problem. Purandara dāsa. You can always put dāsa at the end as well. That way even by calling your son or daughter, you can get the benefit of repeating the name of God so many times and getting blessed. However now-a-days it’s quite common, they are using English name. ‘Daisy’. And I forget… there is so many funny names. So, they are depriving themselves of the opportunity to remember the name of the Lord when they are calling their son or daughter. Also, the son and daughter, by hearing again and again his own name they get some blessing. So, it’s a very, you can say simple way, painless way, of just adding a little touch of spirituality to the environment and to the life.

Actually, it seems that even in the Christian tradition it was common to call one by names of different saints. Like the common English names are Michael, Peter, John, Matthew, William and so on. These are mainly all names of saints. Saint Peter, Saint Williams, Saint Michael. So, in this way—I don't know if William is a saint, but others for sure they are—and so this seems to be even a tradition in other, and we see even in Islamic they always say Mohammad Ali, Yousef and so many names. They use names of the Prophet quite frequently in their names. So there seems to be a tradition around the world amongst pious people, and we find that this is started millions of years ago in the previous yugas, in Satya-yuga. This was common there also, and by Ajāmila naming his son Nārāyaṇa and constantly calling, “Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa!”, in this way he was getting so many blessings. He wanted to have his son… “Come and eat with me. Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa! You come here, eat with me. Sit down.” So inadvertently he is always going on, “Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa.” So, this is ajñāta-sukṛtī. There is two types of sukṛtī. You should know what is the difference between sukṛtī and puṇya. One of the offenses to the holy name is to consider chanting of the holy name to be comparable with puṇya. If we consider it to be one of the fruitive activities mentioned in the karma-kāṇḍa. You dig a well, you get so many cows. You give your daughter in marriage, kanyā-dāna, it’s all puṇya. You feed a hungry person. So, in reciprocation of a activity done to help another person materially, or help many people (by bringing a well so many people are benefited, by digging a kuṇḍa or by digging a ghāṭa on a sacred river. Of course sacred river, then again sukṛtī may also be there). Anything just to do with helping the poor, helping others, some material activity of some sort, of worshiping a deva, you get good karma. Good karma means good birth, means good body—handsome, beautiful appearance, means a good education, and also means wealth. Bad karma is the opposite of those things, as well as various kinds of problems, disease, legal problem, financial problem and so on. So, people are naturally very attracted to getting the good karmas, because dharma, artha, kama, mokṣa. We need money to get kāma, to get the sense gratification. But by that good karma, it is very difficult to get mokṣa. All you can get is svarga. You maximum go to the heavenly planets. In order to get mokṣa, there is then some different processes are required of yoga. Now sukṛti… you see in the karma, everything is written in a different book by Yamarāja. He has got his Citragupta, and they keeping track all the good and bad karmas. So, for good karma you get the good things, and for the bad karmas you have to suffer the results of sin or pāpa. Now sukṛti is a totally different book, accounting department is different. That is kept track of by Kṛṣṇa, that's Kṛṣṇa's book. And things that go in the sukṛtī accountant department are those things in relation to Kṛṣṇa. Chanting His name. Like when Ajāmila was calling “NĀRĀYAṆA!” *mimics writing down in a book, laughter* Okay, you chanted Nārāyaṇa. Okay, that goes down, special book. In this way, even without knowing it, he was getting ajñāta-sukṛtī. Ajñāta means unknowingly he was getting.

That way, one-time Lord Caitanya was talking with Haridāsa Ṭḥākura, the nāmācārya, and he said that now so many people are chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. When will that day be, I wish to see again. Lord Caitanya, He was saying most of the people at that time were chanting. All the caste Hindus were chanting, brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras even. Mostly everybody was chanting. His preaching had become so successful. Then Lord Caitanya, He was seeing that, “Well, few pockets are there that we still didn't get. The real argumentative, speculative students and professors you know. They are always a tough nut to crack.” Then he saw… “Okay, what about all the fishermen?” You know somehow, they are in the beach there, in their little shantytowns, going out all the time fishing. It’s easy for them to escape the ordinary net of preaching. So, he was thinking, ‘How about the fishermen, and how about the non-Hindus, what about all of the yavanas, the meat eaters and others? How about the Muslims?’ He was concerned how to get all of them delivered. So, then Haridāsa Ṭḥākura said that, “Don't worry, please don't be in anxiety.” You see this is the mood of the devotees, they want to satisfy the Lord. So, when Lord was in anxiety, immediately Haridāsa Ṭḥākura, he felt so much touched. The Lord is in anxiety! Became intolerable. “Please don't be in anxiety.” Then he mentioned that even for instance the Muslims, Mohammedans, they have a word. When something is considered very despicable by religious considerations, they say haram, harami. Haram! Haram! So, he said by saying haram, somehow they are saying ‘hā rāma’, o dear Rāma. (laughter) So although in their mind they may be thinking something else, but the ‘ha’ is ‘o my dear’ and ‘ram’ is the name of the Lord. Rāma. So they are saying, “Haram! Haram!”, they are chanting the name of Rāma. If they see pig, pig meat i guess, then they say “Haram! Haram!” So somehow or another, knowingly or unknowingly, they are chanting name of Rāma. 

I was in Malaysia. You know that previously Malaysia was all Hindu! So they have a unique language, it’s a combination. Lot of Sanskrit words are there. Like their name for the Malay people, they call them bhūmi-putra. So pure Sanskrit. And the names of the cars are the proton cars, but all the names are ‘Īśvara’, ‘Kṣatriya’, like that all Sanskrit names. But in their language, the word for day—somehow previously one of the kings adopted this—the word for day is Hari. So Christmas day is ‘Hari-kismas’. (laughter) So, they are saying everyone, “Hari-kismas, Hari-kismas.” So Hari-kismas is almost like Hare Kṛṣṇa. (laughter)

But in Skanda Purāṇa it mentions whoever says the two syllables ‘ha’, ‘ri’… Hari! Hari! In Sanskrit the word Hari—haraṇa—means to steal. So Hari means also to take away. So Hari takes away all your bad karma, just when you speak the two syllables, Hari! Of course the devotees, they like to chant also, Gaura! Hari! Gaurahari! So Gaura is also giving prema. Somehow the people there in Malaysia, they are so fortunate that just by speaking you know, “What day will you come?” And in their language they are saying, “What hari will you come?” So many times, they are saying Hari. In Spanish, the word for branch is Rāma. If you want to say branch of the society, la rama de sociedad – the branch of your society. Es correcto? He is Argentinian, he knows. 

So somehow people around the world, they are getting ajñāta-sukṛtī. Of course, normally people won't be saying Rāma so many times, because branch. But Hari, of course I think Malaysians are getting more benefit. Because ‘day’ we have to say many times. Here Ajāmila, he was chanting all the time, “Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa! Where is Nārāyaṇa?” So, in this way he is getting ajñāta-sukṛti. Ajñāta means unknowingly. They are just saying. They are thinking day, or he is thinking son, or someone's thinking branch or whatever it might be. Someone’s thinking blasphemy, haram. But somehow, they are chanting the name of the Lord. So even unknowingly chanting the name of the Lord, even then you get some credit. But you knowingly chant

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

That's called jñāta-sukṛti. Knowingly doing a service to the Lord. That benefit is much more. Somehow Ajāmila chanted Nārāyaṇa enough unknowingly, that his choir was up enough that he could achieve deliverance. Now someone is knowingly chanting

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

So much blessings they are getting. And the more sincerely they chant, the more enthusiastically they chant, the more they chant with concentration and devotion, the more Kṛṣṇa will be pleased. So, quality and quantity both are there. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Sometimes some businessman may also say, “Govinda, Govinda.” But that chanting may not be of the same quality. If one is specially chanting like a child calling for the mother, then it has a much greater effect, that helpless chanting. Like Draupadī, when she was being attacked by Duhśāsana, she just called out, “Kṛṣṇa! Keśava!”, which we can’t imitate, how she called out. That time she was so helpless that Kṛṣṇa, even though He was so far away, He immediately came! Kṛṣṇa and His name are not different. They are connected on the transcendental platform. See even someone unconsciously chants, Kṛṣṇa is there. He may come there but because it is unconscious He says, “Oh. They called me but they are thinking something else. Alright even then, blessing! *blesses*” But if you are calling, and you want Kṛṣṇa, then so much more is Kṛṣṇa pleased by your chanting. If somebody is only chanting for business reasons, so then the name doesn't take the full spiritual form. See here, Ajāmila was chanting but not with any motive. He is just chanting his son's name. So, he was with a neutral mind. But sometimes the professional people, you pay them they'll chant. So, they are chanting with a motive. They are really motivated people. So that chanting gives puṇya because still it’s the name of God, but somehow it doesn't give full spiritual benefit to the chanter. And to the listeners, depends on their mental frame. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭḥākura was saying, these professional singers, the sound may be ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’ or may be some ‘Kṛṣṇa-Govinda-Hari-Murāri’ or something, but really what vibration that’s coming out is, “Money money money money money! Give me money! Give me fame!” So that does not penetrate so deep in the consciousness. That's why you see that in spite of hearing so many professional singers, people they don't change. They remain in the same mental frame after hearing. Maybe while they are hearing they are feeling something, but then after that, as it was. *a bird chirps in background* Confirmed. (laughter) But when Prabhupāda chanted, then naturally people's hearts got changed. When Nārada Muni met Mṛgāri the hunter, and he was chanting, then Mṛgāri's heart was little bit changed, softened. That is the special potency of chanting by the devotees. One time we were with Śrīla Prabhupāda. We went to Wada, in Mahārāṣṭra, to the āśrama of Vinoba Bhave. And at that time there was a worldwide conference on Bhagavad-gītā. In Vinoba Bhave's āśrama he had many ladies on one side, and other side there was one yogī from some society, yoga society, who were basically impersonalists. So Prabhupāda had devotees do a kīrtana then he spoke. Vinoba Bhave had the ladies chant the 9^th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā and he spoke something. Then this other Māyāvādī; when the devotees were chanting, the people were, like you know, moving and clapping their hands. You could see that there was like some attraction to the holy names. So, you know that Māyāvādī, I think he was little envious of Prabhupāda’s immediate popularity or something. He started some very unusual kīrtana. He told us, “We are going to chant.” And he was just going you know, *Gurudeva mimics the Māyāvādī’s antics* ‘Jaya saccidānandam. Kṛṣṇam. *clap clap* Saccidānanda-rūpaṁ *clap clap*’. Something you know. I can't exactly do. (laughter) But verybody was looking and kind of you know, ‘What is this??’ It was like supposed to be a kīrtana, but it was like you know kind of offbeat, and mantra was totally speculative kind of. So everybody was getting impatient. This thing is going on. He was trying to force it. And Prabhupāda, he just told the devotees, “Chant. (laughter) Just do a kīrtana.” And right in the middle, on order of guru, we got up and just started a big kīrtana. Everybody, even Vinoba Bhave was, you know, moving! Non-devotee chanting, maybe it was giving some sukṛti, but it was very uninspiring for the people as compared to the devotee. Prabhupāda said, “Whenever a pure devotee chants; you see you are all pure devotees, you are chanting for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, it touches people's hearts. It goes deep penetration.”

Somehow Ajāmila was going on chanting his son's name. So after a long time; i mean his son was already four-five years, or may be three-four years old by this time. He is still chanting, not once a day, thousand time a day he is chanting, “Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa! Come here, eat with me, sit with me.” So, all the time he is chanting, “Nārāyaṇa! Nārāyaṇa!” Somehow the accumulated effect was enough, you see. It was rare good fortune for Ajāmila. Devotees when they chant, that has an effect. We see on the streets around the world. It’s quite common, you find the people; even I have met some new devotees, they said that, “When I was 8 years old, i was walking on the street. That time i saw the kīrtana party. I was so attracted. My father grabbed me, pulled me away.” They can remember, they remember clearly their whole life that kīrtana party. Has a very deep impact. I know when the first time i saw a kīrtana party. I never forget. So, this is very special blessing that we have. To receive the harināma from Prabhupāda and the devotees. And it’s a very special blessing we can give to people. Now see someone might hear the chanting, they don't know what it is. so, but still they are hearing, so even without knowing what it is, that's ajñāta-sukṛtī. Now sukṛti is in Kṛṣṇa's book. Sukṛti doesn't get spent like puṇya and pāpa. It remains in a fixed deposit. FD, Spiritual. And like recurring deposit, as much as you do the chanting of the holy names, and devotional service, you get more deposit. If you do aparādha, offenses, that can take out from your sukṛti. In addition to giving you sin, it also affects your sukṛti. That's why when this king of Bana Bishnupur, he was robbing the people passing through his kingdom. Then he was listening to Bhāgavatam. He thought by hearing Bhāgavatam I’ll get free from this sin. Actually that's an offense, to do a sin on the strength of chanting, or the strength of some devotional activity. But he did not have proper guru. But he kind of knew there was a difference, because when he stole, his astrologers told him that there was a priceless treasure coming through his kingdom, and he sent them out to bring, and it was a big box. He wouldn’t even let them see what was in it. He just gave them all thousand gold coins or something, and then he had it opened up his treasury, and he saw it was all holy books. It was actually Caitanya-caritāmṛta and all the books of our sampradāya, written by the six gosvāmīs, Kṛṣṇa-dāsa Kavirāja and other authors in Vṛndāvana. The Gosvāmīs and Lord Caitanya's disciples. He saw they were holy books. He said, “Now I am finished! I committed an offense. I’ve stolen some sadhu's holy books.” He had an idea, ‘I rob somebody, that’s a sin. Maybe I can get free from that somehow or another. But if I commit an offense, then I am finished. So now I am finished. I committed offense to some sādhu. I'll never get free from this one, unless I get these books back to those sādhūs!’ So there is a difference. Totally different category—offense and sukṛti—it is on a completely higher transcendental plane. And sin and good karmas, puṇya, jñāna, lower material temporary level. When you do sukṛti, you also get puṇya. That's like a side benefit. Sukṛti is very high. And when you do aparādha, you can also get sin at the same time. But if you do puṇya, doesn't mean you get sukṛti if it’s not connected with Kṛṣṇa. And if you do sin, it doesn't mean it’s also offense. That is why Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was asked, “How is it the westerners have taken so quickly? They were so sinful!”

He said, “But sin is not the obstacle, because by chanting even one time the holy name, ‘Nārāyaṇa’, ‘Hare Kṛṣṇa’, ‘Hari Bol’, you can be freed from unlimited sin. Then people can become easily God conscious. The problem is offense. So in the beginning, nobody have heard of Hare Kṛṣṇa. When Prabhupāda went, he had a clean field. No one had ever heard of Kṛṣṇa, only sin was there. You see now in the meantime, Kali has arranged to commit many offences against the devotees. Even in India, when we came to India, the first thing all the politicians and the left wing, they were putting up… you know. Even he had that Devanand ‘hare krishna hare ram dum mari dum’. So first two three years I was in India, anytime anybody saw us, they would point and they would say all these things, “Dum mari dum!” (laughter) Had a totally wrong idea. Here we don't even take coffee and tea, and they think that we are smoking hasish and ganja. Now fortunately people forgot that and they are very respectful. But in the beginning it was very difficult. And then that Bhupesh Gupta in Parliament, he raised the point, “Aren’t all these Hare Kṛṣṇas CIA?” So then for a long time everyone; in fact even came out in one local paper in Bengal that in our pūkūra, there is all intercontinental ballistic missile (laughter) with nuclear warhead (laughter) you know. (laughter) We did a criminal case against them and said let them prove how many missile are there. You know with all the security you can't even bring a bullet to the custom, how you'll bring a ‘intercontinental ballistic missile’. (laughter) But there are some people they think… they want you see, “Where is that pūkūra with your missiles?” So by these kind of things, people hear offences against devotees, so actually it is a impediment for their doing devotional service.

Like in the west all these Christians groups are committing suicide,  mass suicides in Jonestown. Recently in Switzerland. And so then, they are called as a cult in the West. Actually before, cult was a technical word, a positive word used by scholars, to indicate a kind of religious movement which was coming out of a greater origin. But now it’s taken a negative connotation in the West. Cult means some kind of deviant group and everything. So many times Prabhupāda is using the word ‘cult’ in our Caitanya-caritāmṛta. That time it had no bad meaning. Recently in Harvard some of the big scholars said we shouldn't use that word anymore, because now it has taken a negative connotation. So, all these Christian small groups committing suicide, and they have used the word ‘cult’, dangerous cult. So somehow, they always try to lump in Hare Kṛṣṇa. We don't commit mass suicide; we are against suicide. We are for eternal life. But because all this kind of propaganda, misinformation, some people in the West, in some countries, they hear some offenses. So this can be an impediment on their spiritual progress, you see. But sin wasn't an impediment. So wherever the offenses are more, you see it is more hard for people to become devotees. And wherever there is less offenses, even the people might be sinful, they become devotees easier. So in our own spiritual life, we should be very careful not to commit offenses, not to hear unconstructive criticisms against any Vaiṣṇavas. Not to do any kind of criticisms that are not constructive and proper. Should be in a very careful mood to simply do devotional service, and to avoid all kinds of offense. We should be trying to rack up as many points as we can in Kṛṣṇa's book, as many good notations. Build up a fixed deposit as much as we can. Māyā is so strong, even big sādhūs, even very saintly people, they sometimes get misled, you know.

We all know from Bhagavad-gītā how there is Ikṣvāku. He is the son of Manu and he received Bhagavad-gītā. Then I think he had four principal sons, maybe it was eight. Eight principal sons. He gave each of them an area of Ilāvṛta-varṣa to be in charge of, an area of the earthly plane. So he saw astrologically, one of his sons; in fact, he was the youngest son, he was a very pious son—well learned, good looking, well behaved. But he could see that astrologically he was going to make a major mistake in his life and be punished. So, he gave him the name Daṇḍaka. But he gave him also one kingdom, and he was in charge of a part of India, and he had people who were very happy under his rule. He was a good administrator and everything, but somehow Daṇḍaka, he went one time he went into the forest, and there was a very big forest, and there was a ṛṣi there. I forgot the name of the ṛṣi, it’s in the Padma Purāṇa. Agastya Muni told the story, but I forget the name of the ṛṣi who was concerned. So, one ṛṣīs had āśrama there. Ṛṣīs were mainly gṛhasthas. So he also had a very beautiful daughter. Just so happened that the daughter was just at the bud of youth, and she was very beautiful, very well-formed and everything, and she was just coming back from taking her bath. There is nobody in that forest, so she was not very dressed very much. Scantily dressed after taking the bath, and somehow this young king, he saw her and he became very attracted, and he said,

“Who are you? I’d like to marry you. Very attracted by you.” Immediately he made a proposition to her.

She became very embarrassed and said, “Look, i am the daughter of this ṛṣi. You can't speak with me like this. You know if my father finds out, he will become very angry and he can burn you to ash if he wants! And if you at all want to say anything with me, you have to go and talk with him and you make a proper proposal to my father. Otherwise, please don't talk with me. This is very improper for a young man to talk with a single woman like this in a lonely place.”

But somehow Daṇḍaka, in spite of being in a good family, son of Ikṣvāku Mahārājā, and so many good qualities, his lust overcame him, and he just went and he started kissing that girl, and took off her clothes… basically he raped her. And then he left, went back to his kingdom and left her like that. She is on the ground, she is bleeding, she is crying. Her father came with so many disciples and saw her daughter in this state, and he became so furious. immediately, because of his mystic power, he knew who did it, he knew what happened. So then he cursed, that Daṇḍaka and his entire kingdom—eight hundred miles area—would be totally covered by a rain of ashes for so many years, and everything there would be completely wiped out. And he told all the brāhmaṇas. He sent message to all the brāhmaṇas, “You got like three days to get out! This whole kingdom is going down. Anyone that wants to save themselves…” So, all the brāhmaṇas *zzzip!* packed up and they all left. And before he knew it, the clouds came over and started just raining and raining and raining ashes. Everything got covered by ashes. Everything died. And that place became known as Daṇḍakāraṇya. Of course, Lord Rāma went there! He was in Daṇḍakāraṇya, that big forest. That's how it got the name. That's the place where Daṇḍaka met his end. So he was a good person. You couldn't see anything wrong, but he made one grievous error, right? Offense! By molesting an innocent daughter, a devotee, a daughter of a great ṛṣi, and because of that he, his family, the whole everything was ruined. So especially, we have to very careful to avoid any kind of offense, especially those who are to be protected—children, ladies, the elderly—all these are supposed to be protected. Devotees! Someone does some harm, or molestation, or any kind of sinful activity to the person who is supposed to be protected, then it gets multiplied. So even a very powerful person like that king Daṇḍaka, he became the cause of Daṇḍakāraṇya. Just a huge jungle. Finished! No more kingdom. Everything finished.

So, we have to be very careful. Not to let our lust take the better of us, otherwise we can be finished. Just like Ajāmila, he was finished. By his lust, he left his brahiminical activities. But somehow, his is a success story, because at the end of life he chanted, “Nārāyaṇa!” So, we can also have a success story from whatever our past karmas might be if we simply chant:

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

and avoid all offenses. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Any question? Suburi Kṛṣṇa Dāsa?

Question: What about the English word of Hare Kṛṣṇa?

Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa in English is Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hurry up. Hari. I don't know how close you have to be, how many points, that we have to discuss with the score keeper. (laughter). I am not keeping score. I am just telling you to hurry (Hari) up, get back to Kṛṣṇa. Oh they say “Hurry up”. That’s their ajñāta-sukṛti then. Though in English they might say, “Huh-ree up, huh-ree” I don't know ‘huh-ree’ is same as ‘haa-ree’, you see. Of course if someone’s trying to say Hare Kṛṣṇa; like some people in Indo-China, they are not able to pronounce the syllable 'ra', they say 'la'. So you see sometimes they say, ‘hale klisna hale klisna klisna klisna hale hale’, (laughter) but actually they are trying to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, so that way they get sukṛti, there is no doubt! Because it’s like a small child, he can't say father, but he says ‘Papa!’. So the father even likes it more, he is trying to chant my name. ‘Mama!’, ‘Mommy!’ So even they may not pronounce it perfectly, but because intention is there. So someone who is trying to chant the holy names, but even they don't pronounce it right, they get the sukṛti by Kṛṣṇa's  mercy. There is someone chanting some totally different syllable, and not thinking about Kṛṣṇa; well the closer it is, the better chance you have and uf its exact syllable, then you are right on target. In English there are some words. Many time I find that people have names that contain īśa. The word ‘īśa’ is often in within people's names. But I can't think just now, but I come across different names. I look for nāmābhāsa, if they have a little name of Kṛṣṇa hidden in their name, and many times you find that. So, hurry up, I guess if you say Indian way, ‘hurry up’, then you get the benefit.

Nārāyaṇa antaḥ-smṛti, you should remember Nārāyaṇa. You can even mentally be chanting also. Even if physically you can't, mentally you can. But there is a statement, I forget exactly where, but there is a statement that Kṛṣṇa protects. Just like in Gītā (9.22) it says, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham - whatever you have I carry, whatever you need I provide. And so that way, even at the time of death, because of some coma or whatever, some kind of situation we are not able to chant, somebody has been a practicing devotee, still Kṛṣṇa can, out of His own causeless mercy, can deliver them. That option is there always, and Kṛṣṇa promises (Bg. 9.31) that, “na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati - my devotee will never perish. So that way we shouldn't be fearful that if we are chanting the whole life may be, we get tricked at the end by some quake of fate or something, no Kṛṣṇa He'll reciprocate with us. Our sincere effort. Of course somehow or another we are able to be conscious; there was a disciple I had, died in Italy, and she had AIDS and was told… that was Bhaktin Rosa then she took initiation. What was her name? Rupeśvarī. And doctors told her that, “There is no hope for you, you have got 7 days.” Maybe she had cancer not AIDS, she had cancer. So that way the devotees came and were chanting. And even Madhu Savita Prabhu, one of the ISKCON gurus, one of my dear godbrothers, he also just arrived at that time and everyone was chanting around her, and she could just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and leave her body. So that's like a classic… I mean even Madhu Savita said, “If I could leave my body like that, this is how I want it. Everyone chanting around and you can just be conscious of Kṛṣṇa.” So the devotees they help people. If they know someone is going to die, that time they can be there, they can help them to remember Kṛṣṇa. That's ideal situation, you know. Being in IC clinic and all life support system and trying to just keep you going, that's not just as important as getting eternal life support, you see. Actually, important is to be able to be transferred back to Kṛṣṇa. So that's where the devotees can help. But even if somehow or another that doesn't happen when someone’s been practicing, Kṛṣṇa says, “Don't worry.” You never suffer a loss because of doing devotional service.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!