MINDFUL JAPA TRAINING

by
HG Madhu Pandit Dasa

Module 1
Introduction

Lord Sri Krishna has incarnated again! His Lilas are going on
right now all over the world. This is great news for our modern
times. After having wound up His pastimes about 5000 years
ago, Lord Sri Krishna descended again 500 years ago as Lord
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And now who is the current
incarnation on this earth? This is a piece of greater news
delivered to the world by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He
revealed that kali kale nāma rupe Krishna avatara. Krishna has
incarnated in kali yoga as His Nama.

Sri Caitanya-caritāmrta Madhya (17.131-132)

’nāma’, ’vigraha’, ’svarupa’—tina eka-rupa
tine ’bheda’ nāhi,—tina ’cid-ānanda-rupa’
deha-dehira, nāma-nāmira krishne nāhi ‘bheda’
jivera dharma—nāma-deha-svarupe ‘vibheda’

1
“ The Lord’s holy name, His form and His personality are all
one and the same. There is no difference between them. Since
all of them are absolute, they are all transcendentally blissful.
There is no difference between Krishna’s body and Himself or
between His name and Himself. But as far as the conditioned
soul is concerned, one’s name is different from one’s body,
from one’s original form and so on."

Lord Chaitanya's incarnation was predicted in the

great Bhagavat Purana.(SB 11.5.32)

krishna-varnam tvishākrishnam
sāngopāngāstra-pārshadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasah

In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational

chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who
constantly sings the names of Krishna. Although His
complexion is not blackish, He is Krishna Himself. He is
accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and
confidential companions.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu distributed the holy names in the

particular sound string as Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna
Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare. Henceforth, we will refer to this particular sound
identity of this unique string-sound formed from three seed-

2
sounds Hare, Krishna & Rama as Nama Prabhu. Nama Prabhu
means Krishna in the form of His Names.

[ Lord Krishna, thinking to Himself ]: "I shall

personally inaugurate the religion of the age-nāma-sankirtana,
the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the
world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of loving
devotional service."

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Ädi-lila 3.19)

Every incarnation performs specific Lilas. Only a few are

blessed to be part of His lila. We are among those few out of 7.7
billion people on this earth, who have been blessed by the
causeless mercy of a greatly empowered Acharya of current
times His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila
Prabhupada. We are able to take part in the Lila of the Nama
Avatara because we are blessed to welcome and serve Him
every day on our tongue and ears and hearts. Srila Prabhupada
says " The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is also an incarnation of
Kṛṣṇa in the form of the holy name " (SB 10.3.21 Purport) .

What is the specific Lila of Nama Avatara?

Sri Caitanya-caritāmrta (Ädi 7.73):

krishna-mantra haite habe samsāra-mocana
krishna-nāma haite pābe krishnera carana

Simply by chanting the holy name of Krishna one can obtain

freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting

3
the Hare Krishna mantra one will be able to see the lotus feet
of the Lord.

The lila of this particular Nama Avatara is unfolding of His

desire to purify our hearts as conditional souls trapped in this
world, to liberate us from the three modes of material nature
and to awaken our inherent treasure of love of Krishna.

Anyone who chants 16 rounds on the order of Srila

Prabhupada, whether he realizes or not, has been sucked into
the lila of the Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu, being a recipient of
this causeless mercy.

If someone tells that you were one of the devotees on the earth
when Krishna performed His lilas 5000 years ago, and had
interactions with Him, how blessed and excited would you feel!
Today, we should feel no less excitement because we are
blessed to be pulled into the lila of Hare Krishna Nama
Prabhu, even without our realizing the degree of our good
fortune. The most merciful Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu's Lila
is to cleanse our hearts of sins and sinful attitude, by giving us
the transcendental taste of His sat-cit-ananda association and
gift us our eternal life back.

Everything else that has happened in our life, good or bad, is

far less important and insignificant than the fact that somehow
we have become recipients of the mercy of the Hare Krishna
Nama Prabhu, the current active incarnation on this earth.

4
The transcendentally self-manifest and self-sounding Hare
Krishna Nama Prabhu, the brilliant sun of satcitananda that
cannot be touched by material tongues and material ears has
descended today into the sound vibrated by material tongues
of millions of jivas on this earth.

These Jivas are crying out to Him by chanting every moment in

different parts of the world and the personality of Hare
Krishna Nama Prabhu is involved in their lives in different
ways to different extents as much as they can relate with Him
personally. Since the time Srila Prabhupada introduced this
chanting, several decades have passed, and hundreds of
devotees who have left their body in the midst of chanting,
have been delivered from this world by Nama Prabhu.

Everyone is fearing death. But, we, the recipients of the mercy

of Nama Prabhu are fearless to meet the inevitable death
which can come at any moment because the Srila Prabhupada
and Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu will also deliver us to Krishna
in the spiritual world.

We die to live our true life. Realizing this good fortune will
make one cry in gratitude to Srila Prabhupada and the
parampara for this greatest undeserved gift of eternal life. The
current period is the golden age as the transcendental Hare
Krishna Nama Prabhu is active on this earth in distributing His
causeless mercy to anyone who vibrates the Hare Krishna
maha-mantra.

5
For the devotees, this is the most important activity of the Lord
that is happening currently in this world of Maya and hence
they are ambitious to see more and more celebrations of
Sankirtana on this earth and would wish to play their
individual role, however insignificant to make people embrace
the Nama Avatara.

Srila Prabhupada's coming was predicted

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted that “In every town and

village of the world, My name will be heard.” or pritivite ache
yata nagaradi gram, sarvatra prachar haibe mora nama
(Chaitanya Bhagavat, antya 4, text 126). Srila Prabhupada
fulfilled this prediction. Also, Lochan Das Thakur, in his
Chaitanya Mangal, predicted that a sena-pati, or a “great
general,” would come and accomplish this mission.

Srila Prabhupada was that sena-pati who took the Sankirtana

movement to every nook and corner of the world. Srila
Prabhupada is the current empowered visionary servant of the
six Goswamis, who are the original visionaries of Lord
Chaitanya’s transcendental preaching mission who prepared
all the bhakti literature distilled from the vedas that is required
for educating the whole world in Krishna consciousness.

It is said in Chaitanya Charitamra. Antya 7.11 that Krishna-

shakti vina nāhe tāra pravartana meaning no one can
distribute the holy names of the Lord unless he is empowered
by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

6
In a conversation on January 4th 1976 in Nellore, the devotees
asked a question:-
Sravanananda Das: Prabhupada, they said that if Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted Krishna consciousness in the
western countries, why didn't He go there Himself?

Prabhupada: So, He left the credit for me (laughter).

Srila Prabhupada at Radha Damodar Temple

It is history that Srila Prabhupada spent six years in intense

Nama bhajan at Sri Radha Damodar temple in Vrindavan
before leaving for the United States of America. Srila
Prabhupada has revealed in a letter that it is the most sacred
spot in this universe and it is the hub of the spiritual world. It
is in a corner of seva kunj, the spot where intimate pastimes of

Radha and Krishna is invisibly happening eternally.

He was very much attached to the Deities of Radha Damodar

and felt separation from Them while travelling on a ship to the
United States of America. In 1977 after successfully
establishing the world wide Hare Krishna movement, he
returned to Radha Damodar temple and again stayed there
with his disciples. He then stated that he lives there eternally
in his bhajan kutir at Radha Damodar temple. This bhajan
kutir is still maintained by the sevaits of that temple.

7
Srila Rupa Goswami,the leader of our parampara was
personally instructed about Krishna consciousness by Lord
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who directed him to create Krishna
conscious literature for the benefit this world. Srila
Prabhupada had direct darshan (this is as described by Srila
Prabhupada to his Godbrother) of great personalities like Srila
Rupa Goswami and Srila Jiva Goswami, whose jiva samadhis
are situated there prior to his leaving for America and received
inspiration to go to America and spread Krishna
consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada sowed the seeds of the Hare Krishna

movement from here by translating and purporting the first
three volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam and other writings. This
divine spot is therefore the fountainhead of the Hare Krishna
movement. Srila Prabhupada has said that the six Goswamis
continue to meet even now to discuss how Krishna
consciousness can be spread all over the world.

Srila Prabhupada has written that he received the inspiration

and empowerment directly to write and preach to the western
world and fulfil his guru's order from these Goswamis who are
the leaders of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya parampara.

Srila Prabhupada has also said that the Goswamis are still
living there and one can receive instructions from Them even
now. Srila Prabhupada has said that post his samadhi, he

8
himself will live there eternally in his bhajan kutir. One can
experience the transcendental potency of Japa in that place by
praying to Srila Rupa Goswami, Srila Jiva Goswami and Srila
Prabhupada and one should seek their blessings to serve the
parampara.

Soldiers of Lord Chaitanya's sankirtan army should, following

in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada, go and spend a few days
there, to chant a few rounds in that auspicious spot of
samadhis of Sri Rupa and Jiva Goswami. They can sit before
Srila Prabhupada and pray for empowerment to spread the
mission of Lord Chaitanya in their respective geographical
regions. Then one can go back, empowered to preach and come
back next year and report to Srila Prabhupada who is still
living and leading invincibly this movement from there. We are
urged to reveal the confidential glories of this spot to all the
vaishnava preachers all over the world, especially the fact that
Srila Prabhupada eternally lives there.

Srila Prabhupada has taught us in detail how to respect, serve,

and associate with the Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu. Let us
scrutinizingly study our beloved spiritual master's revelations
in this matter of how to serve the Nama Prabhu respectfully
and take His association and awaken our pure blissful Krishna
consciousness.

These 108 modules of learning ‘Soulful Japa’ from His Divine

Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami is an attempt to bring together
all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, concepts and narratives

9
on japa and how to systematically implement those
instructions. Everything that we present here already exists
and remains distributed throughout his teachings. This we
consider as our humble service to vaishnavas all over the world
and is dedicated to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. He alone
has revealed to the world the glories of Hare Krishna Nama
Prabhu as the Founder- Acarya of the Hare Krishna
movement.

END

10
Module 2

On Mahamantra being the medicine for Kali yuga

Kalisantarana Upanishads (text 5-7) recommends the Hare

Krishna Krishna Mahamantra for every one in Kali yuga

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
iti shodasakam nāmnam kali kalmashanāsanam
nātah parataropayah sarvāvedeshu drsyate

The sixteen words of the Hare Krishna mantra are especially

meant for counteracting the sins of the age of Kali. To save
oneself from the contamination of this age there is no
alternative but to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. After
searching through all the Vedic literatures one cannot find a
method of religion for this age so sublime as the chanting of
Hare Krishna.

iti shodasha kalasya jeevasyāvarana vināshanam

tatah prakāshate param brahma
meghapāye ravirashmi mandaleeveti

11
The Mahamantra of sixteen names is the destroyer of material
covering of the jivatma, When the gross and subtle material
coverings are destroyed, the Supreme Lord will manifest
before the jiva like the shining rays of sun when the cloud is
removed.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krishna Himself as Bhakta

Avatara wanted to give mercy to everyone irrespective of their
prequalification of being brahmanical etc and propagated the
mahamantra in this form.

Some argue that original Kali Santarana upanishad gives the

mahamantra with Hare Rama string first. However Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu and all the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acaryas in the last
500 years, without exception, always spoke of this mantras
starting with Hare Krishna string.

Srila Prabhupada in Lecture January 25th 1975 Kali-

santarana-Upanishad. There are many Vedic literatures, they
are recommended, this Hare Krishna. Sometime it is said,
"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare";
sometime it is "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare
Hare."

So people become puzzled, which one should be first vibrated.

So any one you can vibrate. Either you chant Hare Krishna or
Hare Rama in the beginning, it doesn't matter. There is no
difference between the holy name of Krishna and Rama.

12
Lord Chaitanya being Lord Krishna Himself can distribute His
Names in any combination He wants. He chose to distribute
His Nama as

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare

Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

In CC Adi Introduction, Srila Prabhupada writes:

'In the maha-mantra — Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna,

Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
— the word “Rama” refers to Balarama. Since Lord Nityananda
is Balarama, “Rama” also refers to Lord Nityananda. Thus
Hare Krsna, Hare Rama addresses not only Krsna and
Balarama but Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda as well.'

The first effect of association with Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu

is that even the most fallen entangled in sinful life loses taste in
such a life and becomes purified and soon develops sattvik
samskara.

CC Adi 17.22

kali-kale nāma-rüpe krishna-avatāra

nāma haite haya sarva-jagat-nistāra

“In this Age of Kali, the holy name of the Lord, the Hare
Krishna mahā-mantra, is the incarnation of Lord Krishna.

13
Simply by chanting the holy name, one associates with the
Lord directly. Anyone who does this is certainly delivered.”

Srimad-Bhāgavatam (2.1.11) Sukadeva Gosvāmi says:

etan nirvidyamānānām icchatām akuto-bhayam
yoginām nrpa nirnitam harer nāmānukirtanam

“O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after

the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless
way of success for all, including those who are free from all
material desires, those who are desirous of all material
enjoyment, and those who are self-satisfied by dint of
transcendental knowledge.”

Bhaktivedanta Swami lecture Feb 6th 1967 San franscisco

Cc Adi 7.74

nāma vinu kali-kāle nāhi āra dharma

sarva-mantra-sāra nāma, ei sāstra-marma

‘In this Age of Kali there is no religious principle other than the
chanting of the holy name, which is the essence of all Vedic
hymns. This is the purport of all scriptures.’

Srila Prabhupada explains the above verse from Chaitanya

Charitamrta as follows ;

14
Now one may question, "Oh, Vedanta-sutra, understanding
Vedänta-sutra, one is liberated from this material
entanglement. So you are asking me simply to chant Hare
Krishna ? Will that purpose be served?" Oh, His guru said,
"Yes, it will be served." He said, Krishna-mantra haite habe
samsara-mocana: "If You go on, continue this Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare
Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, there will be a day when You
come to the perfectional stage. Then You will be liberated."

"The same result as one gets out of studying Vedanta

philosophy or Sankhya philosophy, the same result also you
will get by simply by chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.
Krishna-nama haite paabe krishnera carana. "

"Not only that, the Vedantists, sometimes they cannot reach up

to the Krishna planet. But Your advantage will be that You'll
not only be liberated, but You will be achieving the highest
planet, planetary kingdom, or the kingdom of God, You'll be
able to achieve there."

And nama vinu. Nama vinu kali-kale nahi aara dharma. Now
Caitanya Mahäprabhu explained that, "This Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna is the only universal religious principle in this
age." No other religion process will be effective because people
are so many and diverted in different way. This is the common
formula and this is the effective formula. So Caitanya
Mahäprabhu says, nama vinu kali-kale: "Without chanting this
Hare Krishna, there is no other alternative for self-realization
in this age of Kali."

15
"Now the essence of all scripture is this Hare Krishna. Essence.
Sarva-sastra-marma means essence of all scripture. And sarva-
mantra-saara. And there are different kinds of hymns and
mantras, and this is the, I mean to say, topmost part of all
mantras. "In this way, My Guru Maharaja asked Me to chant
Hare Krishna."

CC Ädi 7.76

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā

'For spiritual progress in this Age of Kali, there is no

alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative to the
holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord.’

Bhaktivedanta Swami -Lecture Oct 9, 1976,Aligarh

So this is first-class or superior dharma. Everyone can accept

it. Simply hear. And that hearing process is also made very
easy. Anywhere you can do it. You sit down in your home or in
your office, in your factory, underneath a tree or anywhere, you
can chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare
Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. And
you can hear. This process will make you advanced in
everything. Chaitanya Mahāprabhu has given His benediction,
ihā haite sarva siddhi hoibe tomāra. By, simply by this

16
chanting and hearing of Hare Krishna mantra, all perfection
you'll get. It's very easy.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura has quoted the Lord Chaitanya

as follows in a poem :

enechi aushadhi māya nashiibāra lāgi'

hari-nāma maha-mantra lao tumi māgi'

"Oh conditioned souls who are foolishly sleeping on the lap of

the witch Maya, I have brought an excellent medicine to cure
the disease of your illusion. This medicine is called hari-nāma.
It is My holy name, and by taking this medicine you will get all
perfection in life. Therefore, I sincerely request you to please
take this medicine that I have personally brought for you."

END

17
Module 3

The meaning of the Mahamantra

1. From Srila Prabhupada in Science of Self

Realization

“Rama and Krishna are names of God, and Hare is the energy
of God. So when we chant the maha-mantra, we address God
together with His energy. This energy is of two kinds, the
spiritual and the material. At present we are in the clutches of
the material energy. Therefore we pray to Krishna that He may
kindly deliver us from the service of the material energy and
accept us into the service of the spiritual energy. That is our
whole philosophy. Hare Krishna means, “O energy of God, O
God [Krishna], please engage me in Your service.” It is our
nature to render service. Somehow or other we have come to
the service of material things, but when this service is
transformed into the service of the spiritual energy, then our
life is perfect"

2. Srila Prabhupada in Chapter 6 of Topmost yoga

system.

The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the

Lord, and the words Krishna and Rama are forms of
addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krishna and Rama mean
the supreme pleasure, and Hara is the supreme pleasure
energy of the Lord, changed to Hare (Hah-ray) in the vocative.

18
The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the
Lord.

The material energy, called maya, is also one of the multi-

energies of the Lord. And we the living entities are also the
energy, marginal energy, of the Lord. The living entities are
described as superior to material energy. When the superior
energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible
situation arises; but when the superior marginal energy is in
contact with the superior energy, called Hara, it is established
in its happy, normal condition.

These three words, namely Hara, Krishna and Rama, are the
transcendental seeds of the mahä-mantra. The chanting is a
spiritual call for the Lord and His energy, to give protection to
the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine
cry of a child for its mother's presence. Mother Hara helps the
devotee achieve the Lord Father's grace, and the Lord reveals
Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

3. Srila Prabhupada letter dated 8/7/1969

Oh Hare, Oh Radharani! Oh Krishna! Please engage me in

Your service so that I can get relief from the service of Maya.

4. Srila Prabhupada lecture on Caitanya

Caritamrita, Adi 4.89

Srimati Radharani is the mother of the universe, the spiritual

mother of all souls. And the concept of mother is the most

19
sacred symbol—that of purity, selflessness, caring, sharing,
nurturing, and love. That is why our sacred mantra is the holy
names. It is the holy names in the vocative. Hare Krishna, Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

“ 'Hare' means 'Radhe.' It is a plaintive, desperate cry for the

mother. 'Radhe! Please wake us up from this nightmare of
mortal life! Remind us of the father we have forgotten and take
us home!'”

In the Krishna consciousness movement, devotees carefully

worship Srimati Radharani as the bestower of devotional
service to Krishna, by attentively chanting her name in the
maha-mantra, by worshiping her deity form, and by following
the instructions of the most merciful Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu, who is the combined form of Radha and Krishna.

“(Therefore) Radha is parama-devata, the supreme goddess,

and She is worshipable for everyone. She is the protectress of
all, and She is the mother of the entire universe.”

Madhu Pandit Dasa, [22.07.19 12:11]

5. Explanation of the maha-mantra Srila Gopal Guru

Goswami as quoted by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur

vijnāpya bhagavat-tattvam cid-ghanānanda-vigraham

haraty avidyām tat kāryam ato harir iti smrtah

20
The Supreme Lord, the very form of eternal knowledge and
concentrated bliss, who bestows transcendental knowledge of
devotional service unto himself and thereby snatches all
ignorance from the living entities, is known as Hari, “he who
takes away.”

harati Sri Krishna manam krishnāhlāda-svarupini

ato harety anenaiva Sri-Rādhā parikirtitā

Because she enchants Krishna’s heart, and because she is

pleasure personified for Krishna, Sri Radha is called, “she who
enchants”.

ānandaika-sukha-svāmi shyāmah kamala-locanah

gokulānandano nanda-nandanah krishna iryate

The dark-hued, lotus eyed son of Nanda, who is the delight of

Gokula and the exclusive lord of all varieties of pleasures, is
known as Krishna, “he who gives pleasure”.

vaidagdhi sāra-sarvasvah murti-lilādhidaivatam

rādhikāh ramayan nityam rāma ity abhidhiyate

That quintessential deity, possessed of superexcellent qualities

and pastimes, who sports eternally with Sri Radhika, is known
as rāma, “he who enjoys”. (Some vaishnavas ascribe this
commentary to Jiva Goswami.)

21
6. Mahamantra contains everything

Harināma Cintamani 2.31

krishnera samagra lila nāme vidyamāna

Nāma se parama tattva tomara vidhāna

“ The entire panaroma of Lord Krishna’s pastimes is present in

the Hare Krishna mahā mantra. Lord Gouranga has personally
declared the Hare Krishna mahāmantra to be the highest
Absolute Truth”

Absolute Truth is Radha & Krishna combined. The

Mahamantra is made of Their Names. Their names are non-
different from Him and They is non-different from Their
names. Therefore, the Mahamantra is the Absolute Truth.

Lord Gauranga is Sri Krishna Himself in the form of a devotee

wanting to taste for Himself, the sweetness of bhāva or
devotion that Srimati Rādharani has for Him. Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu is stated to be combination of Radha & Krishna
in one body. So Mahamantra is Radha and Krishna's name in
one mantra. Therefore we can say that the mahamantra
addresses Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu directly.

22
 Therefore, if we chant Hare Krishna as a form of worshipping
Gauranga then He bestows the highest devotion to Lord
Krishna, also called Krishna Prema, to such a worshipper. The
mahamantra, which contains all the sweet Lilas of the Lord in
Goloka Vrindavan will one day start playing in the heart of
such a fully purified devotee when he utters the Mahamantra.
Srila Prabhupada says this play of Lilas in the heart is just like
seeing the newsreader in the news channel although he sitting
far away in the TV station.

Srimad Bhagavatam. Purport 1.6.33

" As soon as a pure devotee engages himself in the pure

devotional service of hearing, chanting and remembering the
name, fame and activities of the Lord, at once He becomes
visible to the transcendental eyes of the pure devotee by
reflecting Himself on the mirror of the heart by spiritual
television."

This is the inconceivable mercy of Guru and Hare Krishna

Nama Prabhu upon the chanter. In practice, this kind of japa is
very advanced level of soulful japa. However, it is possible. We
should not expect that it will happen so easily. At least we
should know the glory of the holy name irrespective of whether
we are able to reach there or not as quickly as we would want.
Given that Nama Prabhu unconditionally is shining the
satcitananda purifying energies, the speed of the process of
purification depends largely on our free will to move out of
maya and be under that purifying shine of satcitananda
energies.

23
END

Module 4

Outline of our journey towards Soulful Japa

Śrīla Prabhupāda not only distributed the holy name all over
the world but also the 'process' of accessing the treasure house
of transcendental knowledge and divine love, which were
released from the vedas and puranas into this world by Lord
Chaitanya and the six Goswamis.

The process of accessing this ocean of transcendental

knowledge and love is mainly by associating with the holy
names of Krishna. This process has the spiritual power to
cleanse our heart of all ignorance. This process will also
awaken our original eternal existence and our consciousness of
being in an eternal loving relationship with Krishna. It will
eventually take our soul to the transcendental world.

Lord Chaitanya’s causeless mercy overcomes all our

disqualifications that have since time immemorial kept us
away from our rightful constitutional entitlement of Krishna
Préma. This Krishna Préma is infinitely distant and is a
completely different stuff which is transcendental to the so-
called existence & power (sat) , knowledge & intelligence (cit) ,

24
happiness-love-intimacy-play-pleasures (ananda) of this
material world attempted through this material body.

The so called sat, cit & ananda of this material world, at best,
serve us only as illusory symbols or reflections or as a mere
vocabulary to teach us that there exists pure sat-cit-ānanda
existence of the spiritual world centred on loving Krishna, who
is the fountainhead of all of existence, knowledge & love.

The fake quality of existence & power, knowledge &

intelligence, happiness & love of this world leaves the soul
frustrated and suffering. This frustration is called virakti which
propels us to search after the real stuff of sat-cit-ānanda
existence so deeply craved after by all jivas from the depth of
their hearts. But have been misdirected by maya energy for
millions of lives from time immemorial. Every activity in this
world, especially that of human beings, is a misdirected search
for the fulfilment of his satcitananda craving. Everyone's life
from birth to death is just a story of this failed journey.

The devotional service of chanting and hearing the holy name

brings absolute relief like how rain brings relief to a forest fire
by awakening our eternal life (sat), eternal knowledge (cit) and
eternal love (ananda) beyond these material bodies. Right now
our souls are burning in the fire of asat, acit and nirananda.
Non-existence. illusion and suffering.

25
That pure unalloyed sat-cit-ānanda energy or eternal existence,
knowledge & bliss energy is potentially available for every one
of us, as we ourselves are eternal particles of sat-cit-ānanda.
Sat-cit-ānanda soul needs sat-cit-ānanda environment
naturally available in association of Krishna. Our present
existence is like fish out of the water.

Attention distraction is the challenge

The Personality of the Holy Name, the Hare Krishna Nāma

Prabhu, is the subject of service and worship, the Sevya for the
neophyte as well as for the most advanced devotees. The
chanter is the Sevak and chanting is the Seva. At the neophyte
stage, the biggest obstacle to good japa is the wandering mind
which distracts our attention energy which is our only possible
connecting medium with spirit.

Though controlling the mind to hold our attention needs

training of the mind, the problem of inattentiveness is solved
fully only through the spiritual power from Nama Prabhu,
Himself. Soulful Japa means doing japa with full involvement
of our heart and soul in calling out and embracing Him by
hearing this sound incarnation with attention in a serving
mood. Holy name is both the spiritual medicine as well as
spiritual food for the soul.

These soulful japa modules bring the key elements of good japa
together and connect them all to achieve a comprehensive
understanding of the basic process of soulful japa. It also offers

26
tools and techniques as to how to practically implement the
same.

Importance of serious practice

Good japa too requires one time disciplining of the mind. It is a

common trap of the mind to take satisfaction of possessing
knowledge but not taking trouble to apply such knowledge. We
must have a constant self-appraisal of this knowing-doing gap
and take suitable actions to improve our japa.

During the course of writing this it is our realization that

several times we, oourselves are not able to implement what is
made to be written here by the promptings of Nama Prabhu.
We had to read it several times and contemplate on it and
implement with determination and practice.

The attitude with which we practice soulful japa has to be

serious with commitment to the achieve the goal.

Unconscious training happens in any daily activity we do. Bad

Japa habits. Mind makes habit of good or bad. Mind is our
servant.

The result of not training ourselves for a good japa is that

despite chanting 16 rounds every day for decades we find
ourselves not being sufficiently charged with spiritual potency
from the Nama Prabhu. It is only through soulful japa that we

27
touch the sound incarnation of the holy name and be charged
with spiritual potency.

That desire and decision must be made by the reader to

become a good japa sevak in order to fully benefit from these
modules. He should be committed to continuously repair and
improve his japa as per the guidelines given here. If one is not
ready for fresh endeavour after reading the modules, then
simply reading these modules and asking questions, will not
take one very far in changing the quality of one's association
with the Nama Prabhu.

No doubt, finally good Japa can only happen by the mercy of

the Nama Prabhu over and above our efforts. This mercy can
be received faster by one who does japa to please the Nama
Prabhu and not for any other material desires and purposes. A
devotee’s material needs for his maintenance, protection and
preaching do not fall under material desires. The devotee has
firm faith that he is maintained, protected and provided for by
the Lord in his heart. He is worry less about his existence as he
is fully dependent upon the Nama Prabhu's love and care. His
only goal in life is to serve the Nama Prabhu to eventually one
day realize the transcendental nature of Nama Prabhu and
serve Him eternally.

We have to begin our service to Him by chanting and hearing

for the purpose of self-purification so that one may chant and
hear more purely for His greater pleasure and also seek from
Him, the grant of the eternal service of spreading His glories.

28
Doing japa consciously or unconsciously for maintaining and
expanding desires for material power, knowledge, love and
sense gratification for one's body and bodily social ego will
dilute the purity of our japa though it will get fulfilled. These
are foolish purposes for a person who has already obtained the
shelter of a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada, who wants to
gift us the highest transcendental pleasure of serving the
reservoir of pleasure, Radha & Krishna. Soulful Japa is about
yearning for that eternal transcendental happiness of Krishna
consciousness and pleasing Him through pure devotional
service.

END

29
Module 5

On two stages of practicing japa; disciplined japa

and spontaneous japa

Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk April 1, 1974

Abhyāsa-yoga…you practice this. Therefore, we say, “You must

chant 16 rounds “This is Abhyāsa yoga. When one becomes
attached to chanting, he doesn’t require to be under discipline.
But so long is not practised he must be disciplined.

Japa begins with two kinds of driving forces. In the very

beginning stage of japa, most of the driving force is tapas or
willful discipline which helps one to keep the attention locked
on to chanting, hearing and repeating. By attentive association,
through the power of discipline or tapasya, we get to touch
Nama Prabhu, Who is All-pure, and we will slowly start
becoming purified. As we get purified our natural attraction to
chant Krishna's names starts rising in our heart little by little.
Even now, all of us have some attachment is awakened, even if
you are a beginner otherwise you would not be taking interest
in japa. However, it is very little and difficult for use even to
significantly feel.

30
Otherwise, why would we be attracted to Krishna
consciousness at all? Some priti or love, or shraddha resulting
from this soul awakening is there for any chanter.

We must have be determined to improve our japa by apply the

principles of soulful japa. Slowly when we are fully practised,
tapasya portion comes down to zero.

Simultaneously attraction keeps rising and finally the driving

power is only love (priti) which has arisen due to attraction,
and not tapas or discipline though externally he follows all
discipline of completing his rounds etc.

The biggest misconception that these soulful japa modules

intends to break is that one has to forever struggle with
discipline or tapas to chant 16 rounds. Spiritual life is
eventually spontaneous devotional service. Discipline is only
the pathway to that spontaneity. Bhakti is eventually fully
driven by love and even in the beginning, though a little only; it
is tapas driven by some love. Japa is never dry tapas. This is
bhajatam priti purvakam as Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita.
However one must go through the stage of abhyasa yoga.
Though discipline cannot produce bhakti, it is a must to deal
with the obstacles created by the material covering of the soul
to awaken one's bhakti . That is called sadhana bhakti. A
sadhaka tries to follow the instructions of Srila Prabhupada
through his tapas shakti. That requires the spirit of sacrifice.
Sacrifice comes before love.

31
And we are not talking about a long drawn practice. In my
experience if one goes through the training module seriously
for 6 months to one year, the basic practice stage is completed.
The mind learns by then how to remain connected with Nama
without break of attention. Right now, the mind has a mix of
good and wrong japa habits. Only one year of serious tapas-
cum-priti japa is what is required. Thereafter the sails of the
mind and senses are set in place and the winds of the
conditioned mind joins with the driving powers of priti
purvaka japa.

Śrīla Prabhupāda often gives the example of how what you

learn in the kindergarten school, that 1+1= 2, remains valid
even after you do a PhD. This basic attentive japa through
discipline, which is being dealt with now in these modules is
school maths. Maths does not end in school but its progress
continues even up to PhD and further, throughout the rest of
the researcher’s life. The priti or love in Priti-japa forever
expands since priti has no limits for the rest of eternity. It will
always include within it, the basic attentive japa driven by the
strength of priti and not by force of discipline. Connecting with
Nama through attention and maintaining that connection
without break uninterruptedly is the foundation of Japa even
when one is very advanced in his japa.

END

32
Module 6

Japa is less of a process but more of a relationship

with Krishna.

Soulful Japa is not merely some technique. It is the perfection

of a personal relationship with the Hare Krishna Nama
Prabhu.

Practice is not everything. A disciplined mind cannot give

bhakti but an indisciplined mind can obstruct one's bhakti.

Just because practice or training for japa is stressed, it does

not mean that practice is everything. While emphasizing the
role of training or tapas, we need to caution ourselves that the
perfection of japa is not just the perfection of practice. No
doubt, practice is an essential part. But perfecting of japa
means not only perfecting the body-mind's role (yantra’s role)
in japa as a tool of the soul but it is also perfecting the soul’s
role to do it from the heart as a soulful japa. This successfully
invokes Krishna’s mercy in the form of a flow of satcitananda
energies into our soul.

Japa is a relationship-Supreme sound worship

Since japa is a relationship between servant (Sēvaka) and the

served (Sēvya) through the service (Sēva), japa is not a one
sided experience of the sēvak imagined in one’s mind through

33
some mind techniques without invoking the participation and
reciprocation of the personality of the sound, the Nama
Prabhu.

Japa is not just an impersonal yantra process or technique

such as pranayama or astanga yoga. We are not interested in
merely some techniques on how to do soul-less mechanical
body or yantra-japa. We want to offer a soulful japa or sad-
bhaavana japa as loving devotional service to Krishna, which of
course includes dovetailing yantra japa also. Techniques
typically connote impersonal processes. Therefore, the
precaution that our japa is not seen as merely some mind
technique is essential.

Let us see what Srila Prabhupada says about this:

“There is no mechanical process to see the form of the Lord. It

completely depends on the causeless mercy of the Lord. We
cannot demand the Lord to be present before our vision, just
as we cannot demand the sun to rise whenever we like. The sun
rises out of his own accord; so also, the Lord is pleased to be
present out of His causeless mercy. One should simply await
the opportune moment and go on discharging his prescribed
duty in devotional service of the Lord. Nārada Muni thought
that the Lord could be seen again by the same mechanical
process which was successful in the first attempt, but in spite
of his utmost effort, he could not make the second attempt
successful” The Lord is completely independent of all
obligations. He can simply be bound up by the tie of unalloyed

34
devotion. Nor is He visible or perceivable by our material
senses. When He pleases, being satisfied with the sincere
attempt of devotional service depending completely on the
mercy of the Lord, then He may be seen out of His own
accord.”

SB 1.6.19/ Purport

Japa, as a mere ‘process,’ is only the preliminary

understanding of what happens at the plane of the yantra.
‘Process’ generally refers to mechanical steps which deliver
some results if one followed them. Japa is also definitely a
process at the yantra plane. But Japa is more of a personal,
loving, reciprocal activity between the jiva and the Lord
Himself. However japa has to be practiced as a process in the
beginning as it makes our mind and the attention connect with
the all-powerful holy name which begins to cleanse of our
heart. Gradually our japa becomes more of a personal loving
activity of love &surrender and less and less of a practiced
process. Thus, japa is a combination of the mind-body tapas to
touch Nama Prabhu with our serving attention as well as
personal soul’s act of bhakti or faith & prīti or devotion. The
mix ratio of tapas is to prīti is more in the beginning. Tapas
very quickly decreases as we advance in our japa.

While we are teaching Deity worship, we take the devotee

through some training on what to offer, when to offer and how
to offer different items to the Deity although it is a personal
service. Though the devotion behind the ‘offering’ cannot be
trained and made robotic, there is still a role for training in
certain parts of the service. It has to be done with online priti
from the soul.

35
Training the mind for japa is like the role of an assistant who
helps the soul. Japa seva is an offering by the soul but
supported by our subtle body consisting of a role playing ego as
the japa sevak, mind and intelligence. Training the mind for
japa is like preparing a slice of our subtle body, our cittam, to
apply the attention and other soul energies on Japa. This
subtle body-slice assistant is meant to support the role of the
chanter’s personal online soulful efforts to offer all of his
soul’senergies from the heart for japa. Our subtle body is a
wonderful instrument where a new slices of it can be created,
by training for a designed purpose. Cittam-slice training
method is about controlling the lower self by the higher self
about which Krishna talks in the Bhagavad Gita. We will
develop this concept as we come to practice sessions.

Our conditioned mind is like the wind that either helps a boat
to move in the desire direction or drags it away from the
desired direction. We can set up sails that take advantage of
the winds to move in the desired direction.

The winds of our conditioned mind and senses are the forces of
guna-kala-karma, which are always pulling our attention and
other soul’s energies - like free will, desire, intention, effort,
faith, feelings, etc. in the direction of Maya's service rather
than for the service of the Nama Prabhu. A well designed
cittam-slice is like sail which uses the winds of the mind to
help the soul to execute soulful japa.

36
The soul has various faculties or śaktis, starting with his basic
faculty of 'being' and 'becoming' a particular kind of
relationship ego according to different situations. Like for
example: a person can be a father to his son, a husband to his
wife, a son to his father, a brother to his brother etc. This is the
ability of being and becoming called bhāvan shakti of the soul.
This faculty of the soul has to be engaged in cultivating the
servant ego-ness of a servant of Nama Prabhu. We have to
charge that servant ego with purpose, determination,
knowledge, faith, respect, love, gratitude, humility, effort,
enthusiasm, delight etc connected to the service of Nama
Prabhu. A good japa relationship means offering all these soul
energies at the lotus feet of Nama Prabhu through the nama-
sevak ego. The discipline of japa on beads is designed by the
rishis to systematically offer all these soul faculties or energies
at the lotus feet of the self-manifest and self-sounding Hare
Krishna Nama Prabhu incarnating into the sound we produce
with our tongues. Some of these are in the background
consciousness while others are in the forefront of action during
japa.

These are listed below. Throughout the rest of this work we will
be explaining how offer these to Nama Prabhu in a soulful
japa.

Foreground action of Japa

Offering intention for action - icchā śakti

Offering attention- çitta śakti

Offering spirit of sacrifice- tapas śakti

37
Offering positive determination- sankalpa śakti

Offering negative determination - vikalpa śakti

Offering doing - kriya çēsta śakti (to chant)

Offering knowing effort- jnana çēsta śakti (to hear)

Offering tasking effort to build up the rounds- kārya çēsta

śakti

Background consciousness of Japa

Offering 'being' potency - bhavān śakti (adopting identity &

ego-ness as a Nama sevaka)

Offering knowledge potency- jnāna śakti (contextual

knowledge of Nama Prabhu-Sevya, sevaka-chanter & how,
when & what about seva )

Offering faith energy- śraddha śakti (that Nama Prabhu

before you is infinitely merciful Krishna Himself)

Offering love - prīti śakti (desire to please Nama Prabhu)

Offering our pleasure potency to take delight in chanting-

hrstam-śakti.(Liking to chant from the heart)

Offering our pleasure potency to take delight to hear- ahlād-

śakti (liking to hear Nama Prabhu)

Offering our pleasure potency to task repetitions -utsaha-

śakti for japa (enthusiasm to build up the count)

38
Offering of intention-desire-purpose - āśā śakti (desire to
gain association of the Lord)

Offering serving attitude of humility & gratitude- vinamrata

& krtagna

Offering self-surrender- sharanagati (surrender)

Offering hope energy seeking Lord's compassion & mercy -

anukampam apeksha śakti

These potencies and energies belong to the soul and are at the
disposal of our mind and ideally it is for us to decide on what
and where to deploy them. Being in the lap of Maya we are
squandering these soul energies in illusory wranglings.

When our cittam or subtle body is haunted by the false ego that
I am this material body, the mind draws all of these atma
śaktis and uses them to fulfil some material desire, often with
complete absorption or devotion. In the same way, our minds
should draw these śaktis to bring complete absorption,
devotion and love to serve Nama Prabhu by chanting, associate
by hearing and tasking and please Him.

We should pull away all our personal energies or śaktis from

every other demand by Maya and offer them to the lotus feet of
Nama Prabhu at least during japa.

We will discuss about each of these items and the role played
by the mind to facilitate a soulful japa.

END

39
Module 7

Subject: How can one access the mercy of the Lord

Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks about the mercy of the Lord:

"The Lord’s mercy upon the fallen souls is equally distributed.

The sun rays are open to everyone, but the capacities of the
receptacles differ.”

“By utilizing the sun’s rays, sometimes even stones become

valuable, whereas a blind man cannot see the sun although
there are enough sun rays before him. The Lord’s mercy is
open for him, but he is reluctant to receive it. Somehow or the
other if someone puts himself open in the sun rays, he is sure
to get requisite benefit both by heat and ultraviolet rays.”

Teachings of Queen Kunti, Chapter 12

Success in japa is about how well we receive the Lord’s sat-cit-

ananda mercy that is freely available! Just like when the sun
shines, the sunshine is available for everyone; the Nama
Prabhu is like a effulgent satcitananda sun of brilliant rays of
satcitananda energies. His internal energy sat, cit & ananda is
called sandhini, samvit and hladini potency respectively. Such
Nama Prabhu has incarnated and He is freely available to all of
us. It is up to the capacity of the receiving vessel as to how
much of the sunrays it wants to collect. This capacity of the
vessel is proportional to the level of purity of one’s heart or
cittam. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says the first effect of

40
chanting is ceto darpana marjanam-cleansing of cittam which
increases the capacity to collect this mercy.

What is 'heart' or citta or cittam?

Krishna says that the material energy is made up of only eight

elements: five gross and three subtle elements of mind,
intelligence and false ego. Cittam is our subtle body. Cittam is
accumulated experiences of mind, intelligence and false ego in
the form our subconscious memory. It is the finest twenty
fourth material element surrounding the soul as per the
sānkhya understanding of the self. Cittam is also the
experiential memory stuff of not only of this life but of
unlimited past lives. just as the gross body is shaped by the
gross food we feed it, cittam can also be seen as our
consciousness body or subtle body made of the deposits of past
impressions of the actions & experiences of our mind,
intelligence and ego in different situations of life.

The gross body of a child slowly grows into an adult body by

its act of feeding gross food to itself using the very hands of the
gross body. The same analogy can be extended to our subtle
body or cittam. Our mind , intelligence and false ego are the
hands that feed our subtle body in the form of daily thinking,
feeling, willing, desiring and experiencing the outside world.
All these are stored as an experiential memory and it creates
our total subtle body or cittam consisting of countless cittam-
slices to deal with the life outside. When we say one cittam-
slice it really means an ego-slice+mind-slices+intelligence-
slices (EIM-slice) of total subtle body suited for different
situations.

41
Soul substance is eternally pure. But, the consciousness that it
radiates becomes contaminated by ahankara or false ego and
experiences it as contaminated consciousness or cittam. This
total cittam covering the soul is also called contaminated
consciousness. In different situations of life our subtle body or
cittam loads into our conscious mind, a slice of its old set of
seer-doer-feeler egos and mind, intelligence with its thinkings,
feelings and willings in response to a present situation from its
memory bank. The soul is also capable of adopting a fresh ego,
mind, intelligence slice to respond freshly different from before
or just adopt the loaded thinking, feeling and willing of the
existing citta-slice for the situation or combine them using his
free will. This is how life goes on.

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.26.14

mano buddhir ahankärash

cittam ity antar-ätmakam

caturdhä lakshyate bhedo

vrttyä lakshana-rüpayä

"The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four

aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and
contaminated consciousness. Distinctions between them can
be made only by different functions, since they represent
different characteristics."

42
Srila Prabhupada translates cittam as contaminated
consciousness and adds it as the fourth component of the
subtle body over and above mind, intelligence and false ego.

SB 3.27.14 Bhaktivedanta Purport

His gross body is made up of five elements, his subtle body is

made of mind, intelligence, false ego and contaminated
consciousness, and he has five active senses and five
knowledge-acquiring senses.

Our cittam is vessel that catches the rain of mercy

We can receive the rain of mercy more and more, by setting up

favourable anartha-free purer and purer ego, intelligence and
mind of our heart or cittam. Attentive chanting & hearing the
Nama avatara makes one come under the rain of mercy. After
setting up attentive chanting and careful hearing, our heart or
cittam becomes the vessel with which one can catch the sat-cit-
ananda rain of mercy freely rained by Nama Prabhu.

The capacity of that vessel depends on the state of purity of the

cittam including our desire and purpose for japa. All souls are
on a spiritual journey in this world. Some journeys are direct
while others are indirect. The non-devotees are indirectly on
the spiritual journey and their guru is Maya devi who teaches
them through the reality of three fold miseries of material
existence. Every human being does have some built up capacity
to receive the rain, which is called sukrti or purity, which is the

43
credit for any action consciously or unconsciously done
amounting to serving Krishna and His devotees.

We catch the freely showered satcitananda rain from Nama

Prabhu in proportion to our accumulated purity. Sukrti is like
a ploughed field which is ready to receive a seed and support it
to sprout. Not able to receive His mercy is our limitation and
not that of the Nama Prabhu. Rain falls equally on ploughed or
unploughed field or on rock all of which have different
absorbing capacities.

Anartha or impurity filled heart places different degrees of

limitation to absorb the mercy of Nama Prabhu. A cittam
which is in a serving mood than a lording mood of existence is
very favourable to receive the mercy.

However, there is no reason to worry about sukrti except to get

started with japa. This is because by attentive japa, the sat-cit-
ananda energies from Nama Prabhu dissolves or evaporates
the anarthas from our cittam gradually provided we do not
hold them back with our our free will. We are our own
limitations in the matter of speed of purification of cittam and
self realization.

How do we increase the capacity of this vessel to catch more

and more rain of sat-cit-ananda? This rain of mercy is so
wonderful that whatever little rain one catches with ones
current limited capacity will further increase the capacity or

44
purity of the vessel or cittam by evaporating the anarthas. In
other words, every attentive chanting and hearing will in turn
make one's cittam increase its purity and hence its capacity to
receive more rain of sat-cit-ananda. This cyclic process in japa
for self-purification is called anartha nivritti stage of japa or
stage of removal of anartha by association of Nama Prabhu.

Purification of cittam or contaminated consciousness is the

same as ceto darpana marjanam spoken by Lord Chaitanya.
Following the four regulative principles is therefore important
to ensure that one does not make one's cittam impure again by
adding layers of memories of impure fresh sensual & emotional
experiences. By doing so, one simply slows down the reception
of mercy.

However these is nothing to get discouraged due to fall down

because of old bad habits. Just as a small baby never gets
discouraged to learn to walk even if he falls down several
times. He continues with hope and succeeds. That is the only
process to unlearn and freshly learn.

END

45
Module 8

Mindless japa, Mindful japa, Heartful Japa and

Soulful japa

Japa is a service and association of the Lord who has

incarnated in His Name-sound and is before us. According to
the quality of such service and association, we can say that our
japa as mindless japa, mindful japa, heartful japa or soulful
japa.

Offering soulful japa does not happen by overnight

determination. The right cittam is cultured and cultivated
patiently. The gap between knowing and doing is wide to start
with. However, it is good to know our goal post because every
journey begins with knowing the destination of the journey.

The soul with its attention exists always in some space and
time frame. If my attention is in remembering something that
happened yesterday in my office, then I, with my attention, am
in the visual space of the office and in the 'past' of yesterday.
That is the space-time frame where my attention and I live at
that moment. .

If I am thinking of visiting a pilgrimage spot on a holiday next

week, then I will be thinking about that 'future' and what all I
will do at that time. Then I will be living in that future time and
space during those moments. The third situation is if I hit my

46
toes somewhere by accident then, my attention and I are living
in the present space and present time because of the pain.
These examples show that our attention can live in different
spaces and time namely past, present and future.

This concept of 'being in present' is very important to

understand because the Nama Prabhu has incarnated in the
present space where one is situated and in the present time
when one is chanting. Therefore, if I have to associate with
Him then my attention, I have to 'be' in the present space and
time called 'now and here'. Not just for one bead of chanting
but for every bead of chanting of a particular chanting session
till it is over.

Mindless japa is when, during japa, your mind goes out of the
present and you do some other thinking with your mind of past
or future. The thinking is happening in the space-time frame of
past and future or ‘then and there,’ instead of being ‘here and
now’ or in the present with the Nama Prabhu. The Nama
Prabhu is factually present 'here and now' as He manifests one
after another on the tongue. During mindless japa, one is
thinking about something of the past and/or the future. Or it
could be in the present doing something else while
mechanically chanting. Mind is not on japa. In mindless japa,
chanting goes on mechanically because of yantra's (subtle body
plus gross body) habit created in our cittam. One is being
'mindless' about japa. This is mindless japa. This kind of japa is
disrespectful to the Nama Prabhu who is before us and it
becomes a Nama aparadha. Most of the attention is stolen by

47
some thought processing in the mind. Therefore, mindless japa
is also called thinking-japa or only auto-japa.

What is Mindful japa ? Mindful japa has two stages. Austere-

mindful japa during training and after training stage energetic-
mindful japa. Mindful japa is service of Nama prabhu, done
‘now and here,’ in the ‘present,’ with full attention. Mindful
Japa during stage one is also done with conscious desire,
direction, determination, and deliberate effort to be attentive
bead after bead. Mindful japa is just about giving full attention
to the ‘present doing’ whether it is during training or post
training.

It is free from parallel activity of thought processing which

takes one to past and future and present away from Nama.
This training stage of mindful japa is called tapomaya japa
because it requires tapas or austerity till you train yourself for
only about 90 continuous days.

This practice of tapas or austerity involves bringing back the

attention each time it goes away from the mahamantra that is
currently being chanted. By practice, the mind learns itself how
to guard the attention from going away from the current
mantra being chanted into some kind of thinking.

This sincere deliberate effort attracts the divine energy to do

japa, from the Nama Prabhu. Himself for this purpose. After
that japa becomes energetic-mindful japa. Energetic mindful

48
japa is also called Thinking-free japa . In mindful japa the
effect of current chanting and hearing is stacked up on the
effect of the previous chants of that session as the mind is
continuously absorbed in it.

What is mindful-heartful Japa ? When mindful japa is

executed by offering, from the chanter's side, with heart's
delight in chanting, delight in hearing and with enthusiasm in
repeating chanting and hearing more and more (tasking) with
purpose, desire & intention then that is called spiritful or
delightful Japa.

What is soulful japa ? The 'now and here' mindful-heartful japa

sēva of chanting and hearing when offered in an enriched
background of the feelings offered from the heart to Nama
Prabhu, in an integrated manner (like different musical
instruments joining together to make a piece of orchestra),
done with the desire (asha) to please the Nama Prabhu is
called soulful japa or Anandamaya japa or atmananda Japa.
Some of the main feelings offered from the soul to Nama
Prabhu during soulful japa were listed in Module 6. They are
feelings of, servant ego-ness, transcendental faith in the Nama
Prabhu, of gratitude, of divine dependency, of helplessness, of
humility, of delight and enthusiasm in His association, of
respect, love (priti) towards Nama Prabhu, of yearning for His
causeless compassionate mercy of self-surrender by the
chanter.

In mindful japa the chanting, hearing and tasking or repeating

skills of the yantra are fully engaged in the Nama. In heartful

49
japa one does japa with a purpose, desire & intention with
delight chant and hear and repeat with enthusiasm and not
just ritualistic.

In soulful japa, the addition is the rich background of the

eternal context of Sevya and sevaka in eternal time and eternal
space. And the role of tapas tapers down to zero from mindful
to soulful japa. The space-time framework in the mind for
soulful japa is more than merely ‘now and here’ of each
mantra. It is the uninterrupted flowing of 'now and here' as
moments of eternity without break where there is no
interruption from the experience of flow of material time due
to uninterrupted exclusive absorption of mind in chanting and
hearing. Further, in soulful japa we are in a relationship with
everything eternal. It is revealed that time spent for such Japa
is not counted into your destined life span. Soulful japa means
eternal servitor ego serving eternal master ego with eternal
purpose and eternal knowledge faith, feelings and in the
background. Soulful japa is also called sadh-bhāvana japa.
Sadh means eternal. Bhāvana means thought-feelings or
devotion. Hence, sadh-bhāvana means transcendental
thought-feelings or devotion.

Expanding mindful japa to mindful-heartful japa.

In mindful japa one gives the attention fully to chant and hear
each Nama that keeps manifesting on the tongue with strong
intention for attention connect with Nama Prabhu. The

50
discovery that is presented in these modules is that in mindful
japa, there occurs a flow of spiritual doing-knowing energy
from Nama Prabhu, which makes one want to taste that
spiritual empowerment rasa more and more by wanting to
chant and hear more and more. It is never tiring but it is
energising. We will be dedicating a large number of modules
how to do energetic mindful japa.

This brings delight in the act of chanting, joy in hearing and

delight and enthusiasm in the act of repeating or tasking japa.
Thus, our energetic-mindful japa transforms into energetic
delightful mindful-heartful Japa when feeling of delight is
added to chant, to hear and to repeat to mindful japa.

Expanding from energetic mindful-heartful japa to

soulful japa

It is only first through the practice of mindful japa that one can
touch the sound incarnation with one’s serving attention and
then one can do delightful japa by adding the ingredient of
delight. In delightful japa the driving spirits of japa is added.

By energetic mindful-delightful japa one can be purified of

one’s material conception of life and can gradually awaken
one’s eternal context of existence.

It results in gradual realization of eternity, transcendental self-

knowledge, and the transcendental relationship of eternal

51
belongingness of oneself as a servant of Krishna. To begin
mindful japa all that is required is to train the mind to hold the
attention on the current mantra in a serving mood.

One cannot rush to soulful japa directly without purification of

our cittam through energetic mindful-heartful japa, except of
course now and then by the exceptional mercy of Nama Prabhu
when He allows such out of turn experience. Rapid purification
of our cittam happens through mindful-heartful japa by the
merciful flow of sat-cit-ananda energies caused by the
unconditional causeless compassion of Nama Prabhu upon the
chanter.

How to enrich the background mind?

It is through spending time during off-japa-time, on reading

and repeated contemplation on the divine words of guru,
sādhu, and śāstra and then, triggering the same during the
japa training period into the background. This off-japa-time
contemplation is the key to move our mindful-delightful japa
into soulful japa. Without reading regularly Śrīla Prabhupāda’s
books especially Bhagavad Gita as it is, Srimad Bhagavatam,
teachings of Lord Chaitanya and Nāmāmrta, one will not be
able to enrich the background japa context which gives quality
to one’s japa.

This is because the faith & feelings of who is Krishna, what is in

His mind, what is He expecting from us etc. are enhanced by
hearing and contemplating these transcendental literatures.

52
The sadh-bhāvana in the subtle body (cittam) creates a
favourable internal psychological context or environment
consisting of :

1) Spiritual servant-doer-ship identity in its activated form of

ego of being an eternal servant of Nama Prabhu,

2) Purpose to awaken my spiritual mind,

3) Intentions to effectively connect with the Nama Prabhu

through serving attention and to hold such attention by tasking
repetition,

4) Purpose & desire to please the currently manifest Nama by

delightfully chanting and joyful hearing.

5) Transcendental knowledge feelings, faith faith and and

interpersonal feelings between chanter and Nama Prabhu,

6) Attractions, attachments, and inclinations of thinking,

feeling, and willing related to japa.

In fact, the sadh-bhāvana in the cittam can be carefully

designed and cultured through transcendental knowledge
during off-japa times, as instructed by the Āçāryas.This sadh-
bhāvana in subtle body or cittam supports the background
thinking, feeling and willing atmosphere for a meaningful,
ever-expanding, loving service relationship with the Nama
Avatara during japa.

53
These feelings do not come by chance, into our internal psychic
environment, without well guided, off-japa-times pre-designed
repeated practice of contemplation and meditation on the
Absolute Truth, Krishna and absolute knowledge related to
Him and us. Our Acharyas are also transcendental scientists
and engineers who have revealed how to culture and cultivate
those sadh-bhāvanas of bhakti in our heart or cittam or
subconscious mind. It is not like generating some artificial
sentiments but they are transcendental thoughts or truths,
transforming into eternal thought-feelings or bhāvana.

The purpose of these soulful japa series is to learn how to move

from mindless to mindful to mindful-heartful to soulful japa.
The mind and body system being a psychological-biological
machine, takes a finite time and it requires a definite process
to be trained in the essentials of japa, provided one is serious.

Mind’s ābhāsa bhāvana and atma’s sadh-bhāvana

An objection can be raised that one may be artificially psyching

oneself up with these feelings while actually one should arouse
it as a result of natural awakening of the soul. It is a very valid
point that has been answered by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur.
He says that ābhāsa bhakti or mind's feelings helps awaken
suddha bhakti which is soul feelings. Human body is a rare
body where this facility is there to practice ābhāsa bhakti with
one's psyche.

Indeed, the thought-feelings or bhāvana that one generates

because of repeated contemplation and meditation on absolute

54
statements of truth from guru, sadhu and sastra first manifests
in one’s material mind as ābhāsa or shadow feelings of the
absolute feelings. These feelings in parallel also awakening in
our spiritual mind to different degrees gradually even right
from the beginning. It is not that there is only ābhāsa bhakti
for a beginner. Abhāsa means shadow or reflection of original.

Thakur Bhaktivinode says that the way to awaken

transcendental bhāvana is by purifying the material mind with
ābhāsa or shadow bhāvana or thought-feelings to whatever
degree one can. But this is done under the guidance of guru,
lest it becomes a pure hallucination of mind. What kind of
ābhāsa feelings one can cultivate keeping up with awakening of
absolute feelings of bhakti is a matter that needs spiritual
guidance from guru, sadhu and sastra.

Properly guided ābhāsa bhakti will accelerate the awakening of

the absolute or sadh-bhāvanas of the awakened spiritual mind,
by the principle of resonance. However, in doing so, if one does
not go through self purification process of sādhana bhakti as
prescribed by the Acāryas, he simply remains in such ābhāsa
stage of feelings as a neophyte devotee without waking up his
spiritual mind and sadh-bhāvanas. That too if he does not
make offenses. Anybody can whip up feelings in one's material
mind by imagination for Krishna without doing any self
purificatory sadhana.

Bhakti is not mere sentiments without guidance of guru. It is

about realizing Absolute truth too and not just love. Any

55
sentiment of the mind for Krishna become transcendental
feelings only to the extent the soul is purified and awakened.

Such so called devotees, who do not undergo self purification

by applying the principles of sadhana bhakti, and who think
bhakti is only sentiment for Krishna will continue their
material life without any detachment from material world.
Thus we can observe that they will talk of having very high
sentiments for Krishna, but they may not even desire to give up
sinful activities. They may still be attached to illicit sex,
smoking etc. Because of their aparadha, their so called bhakti
never impacts their soul.

Imitation of a good thing , as long as it is not offensive, is not

bad but not the best. Following a sadh-guru who will give us
real bhakti is the best rather than imitating the feelings of very
advanced devotees at the mental platform.

Therefore real bhakti has to be practiced under the shelter of

the instructions of a sadh-guru. In India you will see people
who have not taken shelter of sadh-guru, exhibiting these
kinds of so called deep emotions at mental plane for Krishna,
often due to residues of their past life's unguided bhakti. We
need to clearly discriminate from real bhakti from imaginary
bhakti by looking into their life style as to what the bhakta does
24 hours a day. That is real test.

As one advances in real bhakti, several ecstatic symptoms

described in the sastras will manifest in the mind & body of an

56
advanced sadhaka. There is also great self control to be
exercised in externally manifesting such joyful feelings of
bhakti in terms of controlling natural flow of tears in presence
of others.

Our Acaryas have warned us that such exhibition will cheapen

the transcendental nature of genuine spiritual feelings in the
society of vaishnavas as that encourages imitators to produce
tears from mental platform to show off that they are advanced
seeking followers indirectly. Privacy of expression should be
strictly maintained only with one's spiritual mentors.
Otherwise these feelings should find expression in the form of
a great spirit to preach the glories of the holy by spreading
Krishna consciousness movement for the welfare of the world.
If one freely pour out these bodily symptoms even in the
community of vaishnavas then it will surely lead to oneself get
infected with sahajiyaism or cheapening the highly sacred
spiritual sentiments.

Longer number of years of careless thinking-japa

does not mean proportionate progress.

Thus, simply a large number of years of thinking-japa do not

amount to anything great unless we get ourselves to actually
spiritually touch the sound incarnation with our attention all
those years without distraction. However carefully practiced
chanting for long number of years does make a difference to
the quality of japa year after year. One's actual spiritual
progress is only to the extent one has touched the Nama
Prabhu with his serving attention.

57
If out of 108 beads of one mala he has maintained attention
touch for ten beads then he is touching the Nama Prabhu only
to that extent everyday. Rest of the beads are affected by the
offense of inattentiveness. In the beginning to get to the
attention-touch of ten beads we will have to do 98 beads of
inattentive japa. Therefore Nama Prabhu forgives those
offenses as along we are striving everyday to avoid the offense
of being inattentive.

For instance, a devotee who is chanting 16 rounds of japa every

day, while he is continuously thinking about his day’s
preaching services or solving service problems or doing
creative thinking for Krishna’s service or even philosophising
during japa , has got into a bad habit of thinking-japa where
there is no hearing. He will only stagnate spiritually with that
wrong habit.

And if the sādhaka goes through the phase of disciplining and

culturing his mind as presented in these modules in order to
maximize the flow of unlimited spiritual energies to purify the
mind and body, then he makes quick progress into mindful,
heartfull and soulful japa.

END

58
Module 9

Foreground executing mind and background

contexting mind. A foundational concept.

SB 1.2.12 purport.

Supreme person is realized through devotional service, which

is backed by full knowledge and detachment from material
association. Devotional service, which is based on the
foreground of full knowledge combined with a detachment
from the material association and which is fixed by the aural
reception of the Vedanta Sruti, is the only perfect method by
which the seriously inquisitive student can realize the Absolute
Truth.”

Srila Prabhupada says above that the action of devotional

service has to be done in the foreground with a background
context of knowledge. Accordingly there are two areas for japa
improvement. 1. Background of japa 2. Foreground of japa

Background and foreground division of our mind is like

dividing the stage of a theatre into two parts of where a play
happens. The stage itself is in the foreground and the backdrop
settings act as a background for the stage. By simple
observation we can see that there is foreground executing mind
and background contexting mind filled with facts, faith,
feelings etc related to that doing. Devotional service has to be
done by the foreground mind in the background context of
transcendental knowledge and the feelings that rise out of that

59
knowledge like purpose, faith, detachment, devotion etc called
as bhakti bhāvanas or thought-feelings.

All absolute bhāvanas come from absolute thoughts

or knowledge received from absolute sources

It is true that in the foreground mind there should be nothing

but the action of attentive chanting, hearing, repeating with
full attention. It should engage in mindful japa. The items in
the background japa-context are all thought-feelings or
bhāvanas and it does not consume our active foreground
attention except for triggering remembrance of those items
listed in the last module now and then. It is these items of
feelings of servant ego-ness, faith and personal and
interpersonal feelings and feelings of purpose-desire-intention
that drives the action in the foreground consciousness. This
also locks the attention by making japa into a meaningful
personal activity with foreground active attention. Thus the
bhāvanas support the uninterrupted attention on chanting and
hearing.

Thus, devotional service of japa is to be performed in the

foreground executing mind accompanied by bhāvanas
(different kinds of transcendental knowledge converted to
feelings) and detachment in the background contexting mind.

60
Background knowledge in japa Sambhandha jnana

 Who is the recipient of the servant (Sevya) ? (Hare Krishna

Nama Prabhu)
 Where is He? (He is right before you),
 Who is serving? (the eternal soul through the body and
mind system)
 What is sevakā’s relationship with the Sevyā? (a humble
eternal servant),
 What are sevakā's devotional feelings towards Sevyā? (faith,
respect, love, delight to chant, joyful to hear, enthusiasm to
task, begging for mercy, utter dependency, gratitude and self
surrender etc)

Prayojana jnana

 What are your purpose-desires ? (to please Him, to purify

oneself and to awaken the soul to Krishna prema)

Abhidheya jnana

 How or what is the process of pleasing like intentions-

directions- actions to execute the service with devotional
feelings? (by distinctly chanting and carefully hearing with
attention and uninterruptedly tasking repetition)

Detachment from material association; It means

understanding that the three components of japa namely
Sevyā, Sevakā and Seva are not of the temporary material
nature but are transcendental and the activity is not a karmic
activity but it is transcendental devotional service.

61
By a combined offering of these thought-feelings or sadh-
bhāvana in the background mind, devotional service of japa is
executed by the foreground mind with full attention and doing-
skills. There is no meaning in bhāvanas if foreground mind has
strayed away from chanting & hearing Nama Prabhu.

What does Srila Prabhupada mean by ‘fixed by aural reception’

in the quote? It means the above background knowledge is
fixed int he form of faith in our cittam or subconscious mind
by receiving the sambhandha, abhidheya and prayojana jnana
of japa from the absolute source like guru, sadhu and sāstra in
a descending process (and not by speculating). This knowledge
is received by hearing repeatedly from these three sources and
contemplating in on them during off-japa-times which results
in faith, feelings, desire, purpose etc. Contemplating means
reading, remembering, reflecting, recalling and repeating the
first four. This is called '5R' method of contemplation. Details
of '5R' method is at https://t.me/c/1479406133/5243.
Therefore, regularly reading the Srila Prabhupada's teachings
are so crucial for quality japa.

Thus, japa is not a thoughtless, faithless, feeling less, dry,

impersonal , mindless, forced action of attention on chanting
and hearing. At the same time, these background feelings do
not consume active attention. And in soulful japa, the
background contents are rich with these absolute thoughts
from guru, sadhu and sastra turned into feelings called as
thought-feelings or bhāvana.

62
Caution

What is cautioned against is that one should not bring these

items to the foreground mind and expend attention for
processing these background thoughts and feelings during japa
time, at the cost of losing attention on hearing. This concept of
using the foreground mind for only japa action and
background mind for contexting of that jap action is very
important for attentive japa. The mistake one does is to bring
these thoughts in the foreground mind and start processing or
philosophising during japa. This pushes chanting and hearing
into auto chanting with zero hearing.

The source of the background mind is our cittam or

subconscious mind

Such contemplative activity is very essential for japa but it has

to done off-japa time or else you will miss out on hearing
during japa. These items of devotional faith, feelings etc will
effortlessly and automatically get loaded into our background
mind from the cittam during japa. This will happen without
distracting us from our chanting and hearing in the
foreground.

The good news is that the entire content in the background

context is in our hands to culture through the '5R' process and
allow them to settle into our cittam. It is not that during japa
one should, on the spot scramble and muster knowledge, faith,
respect or love to be offered to the Holy Name.

63
After having once cultured the background context, as soon as
one takes the japa bag in hand, the japa situation triggers the
loading of the context from the cittam effortlessly to the
background consciousness or background mind. Then one
simply has to give one’s active attention to chant, hear, repeat
and build-up count by linking the Name being chanted with
those sadh-bhāvana thought-feelings. These feelings are
automatically played in the background. This background
context in turn provides meaning to the foreground activity.

Only the seed of the thought-feeling needs to be cultured off-

japa time contemplation. Once the seed bhāvanas are cultured
by contemplation, they are there to stay in our cittam and with
repeated application during japa, the feelings, seed grows into
a tree of feelings over the years. These bhāvanas deepen on
their own by association of Nama Prabhu.

This entire soulful japa course is for training

1. The foreground mind with doing skills to chant and hear

attentively and enthusiastically build up the counts and

2. The background context of knowledge, faith, feelings,

purpose, intention & desire related to japa.

An example of foreground mind and background

mind

The role of the background mind is best understood through

an example. Suppose one is at home and someone knocks at
the door. One goes and opens the door to check who is at the

64
door. Suppose one sees the neighbour standing there then
immediately the sight of the neighbour triggers from one's
cittam, all that one knows about the neighbour. This is also
accompanied by the loading of all the feelings that one has for
the neighbour into one's background mind. In addition, the
background mind does the instant intuitive processing of
everything one knows about the neighbour, while the
foreground mind responds with action to the situation by
welcoming him/her by saying "please come in and have a seat
etc. Now the context for a relationship is created in the
conscious mind.

To repeat, note that improving the quality of Japa means to

improve in two areas, foreground doing skills and context in
background mind. The division of mind as foreground
executing mind and background contexting mind is
foundational concept for the entire soulful japa. IF you don't
understand this concept, you will not relate with many
instructions in this course. Hence understand this module by
re-reading.

END

65
Module 10

How does my chanting give pleasure to Guru &

Krishna?

Lecture-Detroit, July 16, 1971

" Bahulasva: What is the thing that will please you most, Şrīla
Prabhupāda?

Prabhupada: Hm?

Bahulasva: What is the thing that would please you the most?

Prabhupada: Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa! ”

Prabhupada: That is the simple thing. You are chanting. I am

very much pleased. That’s all. I came to your country to chant,
that “You chant also along with me.” So you are helping me by
chanting. So I am pleased.

Pleasure of the Lord from a beginners japa

The desire of the disciple to chant his/her japa is to please Srila

Prabhupada and Krishna. Why is Srila Prabhupada and
Krishna pleased when we chant Hare Krishna? They are
pleased because we are all His lost children and taking
association of the Nama Prabhu is like lost child taking the

66
medicine , as instructed and directed by Him to revive His lost
eternal relationship with Him.

If one’s child is sick and does not want to take medicine and
then if one day the child starts taking medicine then the
parents will definitely be pleased for the child as the child will
soon get well. Even though one's chanting may not be pure
soulful chanting with full sat bhāvana, still every bead of a
beginner's japa done on gurus order pleases Krishna for this
reason.

As we progressively get purified ,Krishna takes

direct pleasure in hearing His Names

As our chanting becomes purer and purer with attachment to

Nama Prabhu the pleasure of guru and Krishna increases by
chanting as it moves beyond being a medicine towards a
spontaneous loving service as a loving cry or call for the mercy.
Then our chanting of HIs Nama is directly pleasing to Him as
He loves His Name being called out in genuine relationship.
Srlla Prabhupada explains this in SB Purport 1.6.33.

It is a natural psychology in every individual case that a person

likes to hear and enjoy his personal glories enumerated by
others. That is a natural instinct, and the Lord, being also an
individual personality like others, is not an exception to this
psychology because psychological characteristics visible in the
individual souls are but reflections of the same psychology in
the Absolute Lord. The only difference is that the Lord is the
greatest personality of all and absolute in all His affairs. If,

67
therefore, the Lord is attracted by the pure devotee's chanting
of His glories, there is nothing astonishing.

One should desire to please guru and Krishna by one's japa and
take pleasure in knowing that one is giving satisfaction to guru
and Krishna for various reasons. He being pleased for one
reason or the other is a reality . One should know that one is
pleasing Them as we move from the first bead to the next bead,
and to the next, until one reaches the last bead of the 16th
round. At the end of this, one should feel a sense of
transcendental accomplishment of following Srila
Prabhupada’s instruction and have pleased him and Krishna.

END

68
Module 11

Srila Prabhupada's famous example of iron rod place

in the fire

Lecture September 8, 1966, New York

The same example which I have recited many times: just like
the iron rod. Iron rod, you put into the fire. It gets warm—
warm, warmer, warmer. And when it is red hot, then it is no
longer iron. Iron it is, but it does not act as iron, but it acts as fi
re. That iron rod which is red hot in association with fire, you
can take that rod and touch anything; it will burn. That means
it is no longer acting as iron; it is acting as fire.

Similarly, if you associate with this transcendental incarnation,

sound incarnation of God, then you will be gradually godly.
You will be godly. You can become godly with God’s
association, not by any other material, extraneous things. No.
Just like you can have fire only in association with fire, not
with water. If you want to get yourself warm, then you have to
associate with fire, not with water, not with air.

Similarly, if you want to spiritualize your vision, if you want to

spiritualize your action, if you want to spiritualize the whole
constitution of your existence, then you have to associate with
the Supreme spirit. And that Supreme spirit is very kind
because He is everything. That we have already explained.
Everything is interrelated with the Supreme; therefore, He is
interrelated with sound also. So, by God’s inconceivable

69
potency, He can present before yourself in sound incarnation.
That is His potency. That is His potency. He can do that. And
therefore, this name, Krishna, and the Supreme Lord Krishna,
there is no difference.

Just like our association with the fire, the, I mean to say, iron
rod’s association with the fire makes the rod equally qualified,
exactly— not equally qualified, but almost the quality of
burning it gets—similarly, by our constant association with
Lord.

This analogy of a piece of iron rod being put in the fire,

becoming slowly red hot is a very powerful analogy that makes
one understand how exactly the Nama Prabhu purifies when
touched with our attention.

Nama Prabhu is an oceanic fire of sat-cit-ananda. If one can

connect with Him through one's serving attention and
maintain that attention touch of that fire of sat-cit-ananda,
one's sleeping self or soul will get sat-cit-ananda-ized or
awakened to the original natural Krishna consciousness.

Serving attention and Lording attention

Attention offered to chant and hear with a serving purpose-

intention-desire is called serving attention. Kamsa also gave lot
of attention to Krishna but he had lording purpose-intention-
desire. Attention is a spiritual energy coming from the soul and
hence it is the conduit to connect the soul and touch the sound

70
incarnation in the spirit of serving. Attention is the only
spiritual energy that can connect two spirit substances namely
jiva and the Nama in our present materially trapped situation.

We will learn soon how chanting established attention

connection and hearing creates attention touch of
Nama Prabhu.

Just as the iron has to be in the fire to get red hot, we have to
be in association with the fire of the sat-cit-ananda energy
surrounding the Nama Prabhu. Just like the sun is surrounded
by sunlight, Nama Prabhu is the sun-like effulgent source of
sat-cit-ananda energies and He invests all His energies into the
ordinary sound that one produces externally with the tongue.
There is a fire of sat-cit-ananda on the tongue when one
chants, the Shaktyavesha Nama. Now through serving
attention one has to immerse the soul into that fire and make
the consciousness sat-cit-ananda-ized.

Being in the fire continuously is important for the iron rod to

become warmer and warmer and finally get fully heated.
Similarly, the attention should be on chanting and hearing
uninterruptedly in japa. The moment the foreground mind
goes into active thought processing the soul is out of the fire.
The tongue of this material body is the outside covering of the
soul. From the tongue, the Nama has to go through the ears
and the mind, and finally reach the heart where the soul is
situated.

71
The route is through attention delivered to hear the Nama
Prabhu by our foreground mind-skills. Just keeping the Nama
on the tongue without attention to hear is like keeping the iron
rod outside the fire, a few feet away, without immersing it in
the fire. Some heating of the iron rod will happen but not the
same way if it is placed inside the fire.

This is what is happening to those doing inattentive japa.

Whatever effect is being produced is like heating the iron rod
by placing it outside the fire. If such chanting itself is giving us
benefit of Krishna consciousness, then one can imagine what
would be the experience if one does 16 rounds of attentive
chanting and hearing.

Immersing ourselves with exclusive hearing attention

uninterruptedly in the fire of sat-cit-ananda will gradually fill
us with existential bliss of Krishna consciousness of being
inseparable part and parcel of Krishna. It is literally true. The
reason we don't experience this is because of not
uninterruptedly immersing in hearing the Nama Prabhu
without diverting attention to any kind of thought processing.
If done properly, one's inclination for petty pleasures of sense
gratification of this material body vanishes.

Srila Prabhupada says in his purports to the Bhagavad Gita

2.60 as follows. This describes what this experience is. "
Krishna consciousness is such a transcendentally nice thing
that automatically material enjoyment becomes distasteful. It

72
is as if a hungry man had satisfied his hunger by a sufficient
quantity of nutritious eatables."

In other words when one compares this fulfilling existential

bliss of Krishna consciousness with the pleasure of sense
gratification of the material body, the latter is like left over
food fit for starving beggars. All lusty people of this world are
souls starved of their soul pleasure.

The only thing one needs to remember in this analogy is that

the fire is an impersonal energy but the sat-cit-ananda energy
is personal in nature. It is not merely an impersonal touch of
attention that makes the energy flow into one.

It is the serving hearing attention, and begging for mercy are

what attracts this personal energy to flow into the chanter. This
flow of personal energy enlightens one and fill the mind with
true bliss of Krishna consciousness or helps in realizing the self
to be an eternal loving servant of Krishna of eternal bliss.
Though getting material punya and sukrti is an automatic side
benefit that one receives even by impersonally touching the
Nama with hearing attention, the flow of mercy of
transcendental knowledge, detachment and love of Krishna is
only received by personal reciprocation of Nama Prabhu when
one chants free from offenses.

END

73
Module 12

There is no prequalification for holy name to start

acting

CC Madhya 15.110, Translation

The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is the controller of the opulence of

liberation, and it is identical with Kṛṣṇa. When a person simply
chants the holy name with his tongue, immediate effects are
produced. Chanting the holy name does not depend on
initiation, pious activities or the puraścaryā regulative
principles generally observed before initiation. The holy name
does not wait for any of these activities. It is self-sufficient.

Because of this special mercy of the holy name, we can ask

everyone to start chanting and there is no prequalification
required for it to begin its effect. Even if someone is not
following regulative principles, if he/she starts doing japa daily
it will have an effect. The effect will be that it will release
him/her from all the bad habits in his cittam as long as he
faithfully continues his association with chanting and hearing
the Nama Prabhu. One should also seek strength from Nama
Prabhu to be released from sinful habits.

Not that we will tell someone to wait to begin japa till they
follow the four regulative principles of no intoxication, no meat
eating, no gambling and no illicit sex. Habits are not easy to
change without the help of Nama Prabhu.

Alternatively, someone may think that I do not want to chant

because I am inattentive and I commit offenses against the

74
holy name. This is not right at all. Even while chanting with
unavoidable offenses due to weakness of heart, one will
eventually get the strength to avoid the offenses if one desires.

Other than the forgiveness and mercy of the holy name, there
is no other way to cure the offenses that arises due to weakness
of heart or emotional weakness. This emotional weakness is
due to not having tasted the higher devotional emotions,
makes one succumb to unregulated sense gratification
consisting of illicit sense pleasures, so called love-pleasures,
power pleasures.

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.33.7 purport

Those who simply chant the holy name with the tip of the
tongue are glorious. One does not even have to chant the holy
name and understand the whole procedure, namely the
offensive stage, offenseless stage and pure stage; if the holy
name is founded on the tip of the tongue that is also sufficient.

It is to be learnt from the above quote that if one is fortunate

enough to get attracted to concepts of soulful japa and is able
to implement it, one should not criticize others who may be
even doing mindless japa and say that it is useless and they are
doing it all wrongly. Even we have done our japa wrongly for
many years.

If the person is sincere, then by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada

and Nama Prabhu one gets attracted to these revelations about
deeper relationship with Nama Prabhu through soulful Japa.
Even more mercy one gets when he decides to meticulously
study these modules of soulful japa which are apparently

75
hidden gems from Srila Prabhupada teachings. We have only
being blessed to identify and pick up these jewels of
realizations of Srila Prabhupada in his books, lectures and
conversations and present them all in the form of these
modules. Srila Prabhupada's standing instruction is there for
all his disciples to understand his teachings and present it in
our words.

END

Module 13

Nama, Nama sevak and Nama are all spiritual or

aprakrta

Sri Chaitanya sikshamarta by Srila Bhaktivinoda

Thakura

"Even before entering the feild of nama-bhajana one should

first know for certain that Krishna's form, Krishna's name,
Krishna's service, Krishna's servants are all eternally free. That
is , they are beyond the grasp of Maya, the illusory energy.
Krishna, His transcendental abode and His paraphernalia are
totally beyond material imagination. Similarly, His throne, His
rooms, His gardens, forests , Govardhan Hill and the river
yamuna, in fact everything about Krishna cannot be touched
by Maya. It is especially important to remember this
transcendental nature of Lord Krishna when we approach His

76
service of which chanting His holy name is foremost. This
understanding is not based on blind belief but on absolute and
eternal truth".

Srila Prabhupada conversation 25/2/77

There is one word by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, nāmākshara

bahir haya nāma nāhi haya: "The... Simply the alphabets are
coming, but that is not nāma." Nāmākshara, Hare Krishna, the
alphabets, are coming out, but it is not the holy name.

In japa there are three components SEVYA, SEVA, SEVAK. All

three with their mutual relationship has to be known by a japa
doer and same has to automatically come up in the background
of our attention. SEVYA is Sound incarnation of Krishna,
SEVAK is jiva or devotee servant ego who is eternal servant of
Krishna and SEVA is the service of chanting, hearing and
tasking a targeted number of repetitions.

Lecture Dec 13 1974, Bombay

So prākrta means this material prakrti, and spiritual means

aprākrta

Understanding Sevya to be transcendental or Aprākrta . Sevya

is not of this prakrti. What is not of this prakrti is called
Aprākrta. Krishna does not have a material or prākrta name or
form

77
Padma Purana

Anāma-rupa evāyam bhagavān harir isvarah

akarteti ca yo vedaih smrtibhish cābhidhiyate

" The Lord is said to be without material name, form and

actions according to the Vedas and Smrti"

SB 6.4.33 Purport

In regard to the significant word anāma-rupam, Sri Shridhara

Svāmi says, prākrta-nāma-rupa-rahito 'pi. The word anāma,
which means "having no name," indicates that the Supreme
Personality of Godhead has no material name.

Nectar of Devotion . 1.2.23

Never think of the Deity as made of stone or wood. Every

worshipper must remember that Krsna is personally present.
He is simply kindly presenting Himself before us in a way so
that we can handle Him. That is His mercy, otherwise He is
unapproachable atah sri-krsna-Nāmadi na bhaved grahyam
indriyaih sevon mukhe hi jivadau svayam eva sphuraty adah

EK 5: Knowing Krishna’s Energies

We cannot see Krishna with our material eyes, nor hear about
Him with material ears, nor touch Him with our hands; but if
we engage our tongue in His service, He will reveal Himself,
saying, “Here I am.”

78
There are two kinds of sounds. Material sounds of
this world and spiritual sounds of spiritual world.

Material sound is called prākrta sabda and spiritual sound is

called aprākrta sabda. Krishna's Name etc. cannot be grasped
by our material senses-atah sri-krsna-Nāmadi na bhaved
grahyam indriyaih. He is transcendental. Transcendental
means aprākrta or beyond the material nature. Aprākrta Nama
sound cannot be chanted or heard with our material tongue or
ears. So the Aprākrta Nama incarnates into the sound that we
chant and hear which is the external vigraha (empowered
prākrta nāmasabda) made of matter vibration. He receives and
reciprocates to our services through such empowered sound
incarnation.

Such matter sound gets fully spiritualized because the Lord has
descended into the same. This is the principle of incarnation.
Krishna's Nama, form, qualities, body who is the Sevya
(served) in all devotional services are all aprākrta and
therefore He cannot be seen, heard or touched by our prakrta
senses.

The Nama sevak is also the spirit soul which is of aprākrta

nature but now trapped in the prakrti falsely thinking he is his
body. Initially one begins japa when he is in bodily concept of
life where he thinks he is product of prākrti. But association
with the Aprākrta Nama will enlighten him as to his eternal or
aprākrta nature and then one naturally engages in soulful japa
as spiritual servant doer of japa.

79
The Nama seva being service rendered by the aprakrta soul is
also aprakrta or transcendental though it may be done through
the material senses and mind of this body. If Nama Prabhu is
aprākrta, beyond our material senses, then what is this Nama
that we chant with our material tongue? We will discuss that
next.

END

Module 14

How can a sound uttered by my material tongue be

God?

The government uses ordinary paper material to print valuable

currency. When it does that, the value of the paper used is not
the ordinary value of the paper. It has the value that the
government 'wills' to give to that paper. The matter value of
paper on which a five hundred-rupee currency note is printed
may not even be five rupees. There is no relationship between
the intrinsic paper value and the value assigned to it by the
authority. People have faith that the five-hundred-rupee note
is not ordinary paper because it has been invested functionally
with a high value, beyond the matter value of that piece of
paper. The authority is capable of investing that value. Thus,
the truth of a substance is not merely the material value of the
substance but its functional value with which it is endowed
with by higher authorities.

80
This analogy can help us develop faith in the sound incarnation
of the Lord. We can state that, though the Hare Krishna sound
produced by the tongue is like any other regular sound
vibration of this world, by the will of God, who is the Supreme
authority, that Name-sound has been invested with all the
potencies of the Lord. This is as revealed by Śrī Chaitanya
Mahāprabhu. Its value is changed from an ordinary sound to
an empowered sound.

This change happens when the 'Suddha Nama' the self-

sounding, eternal Name of the Lord, who is Lord Krishna
Himself of the spiritual world, decides to shine all His
potencies into the sound we vibrate in this world and becoming
the Nāma avatāra or Name-incarnation. Instantly the so-called
material sound becomes a spiritualised sound, being
surcharged with spiritual current of satcitananda. The
transcendental expansion or compassionate expression of the
effulgent Suddha Nama as a transcendental sound form that
resemble the sound we chant is called Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu.
Aprākrta Nama being an expression of Suddha Nama is
identical to Suddha Nama and is not a material sabda. And
matter sabda that we utter becomes the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
shabda or the empowered sound into which the Aprakrta
Nama has entered.

Srila Prabhupada on March 25, New York

'Gods reflection and God, there is no difference. Gods bodily

rays and God, there is no difference, advaya-jnana, that they

81
are not in duality or relative world. They are in the absolute
world.

Suddha Nama is a satcitananda shabda vigraha and His bodily

rays expand as His unlimited satcitananda Aprakrta Nama
shabdas incarnating into the sounds chanted by unlimited
devotees and manifesting as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda.

Bhaktivedanta Purport to SB 2.4.22

" There is a gulf of difference between the two qualities of

sound, namely prākrta and aprākrta. The physicist can deal
only with the prākrta sound, or sound vibrated in the material
sky, and therefore we must know that the Vedic sounds
recorded in symbolic expressions cannot be understood by
anyone in the universe unless and until one is inspired by the
vibration of supernatural (aprākrta) sound, which descends in
the chain of disciplic succession from the Lord to Brahmā,
from Brahmā to Nārada, from Närada to Vyāsa and so on. "

Note that there is prākrta sound of this world and aprākrta

sound of the spiritual sky. Nama avatara means the effulgent
Suddha Nama in the spiritual world expands Himself into the
form of effulgent Aprākrta Namasabda vigraha resembling the
sound features of the prākrta Nama vigraha of this world and
spiritualizes the sound with His satcitananda effulgence or
shaktis.

82
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu declared this fact; Namnam akari
bahuda nija sarva shakti- the holy names we chant are invested
with all the powers of Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada lecture December 16, 1966, New

York

This Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, this is also
considered Śaktyāvēşa avatāra, the incarnation of sound. The
incarnation of sound. It is described by Lord Chaitanya that
kali-kale Nāma rūpe avatāra.

Nama is also vigraha

Lord Himself as the Transcendental name-sound incarnates

into a matter-sound vigraha.

Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Mayapur, February 20,

1976

The nāma is also vigraha, another form of the Lord, rasa-

vigraha. So if we take shelter of this avatāra, rucy-avatāraiḥ.
Every avatāra, every incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, is very pleasing.
Because Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure, therefore His
avatāra. "

The transcendental name-sound, the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu,

who is expanding from the Suddha Nama into the material
world, is beyond limitations of time, space & matter. He
descends into that external sound and satcitananda-izes and

83
empowers it. It becomes the sound incarnation of the Lord.
This empowered Nama, that we can hear with our material
ears is called Śaktyāvēşa Nama. And this sound becomes an
omnipotent sound.

Srila Prabhupada in SB Purport 3.4.29

"The name and form of the Lord cannot be perceived by the

material senses, but when He appears within the vision of the
mundane people He assumes the form of the virāṭ-rūpa."

From the above we learn that the sound we hear is live,

intelligent, and God Himself in virat or omnipotent sound
form, who we can access and associate easily with our attentive
chanting and hearing. Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu is sound-
God .

If one sketches a person, then the sketch is not that person.

The person and his representation are not the same stuff. The
two are always different. But, if I make a sketch of Krishna and
if Krishna decides to incarnate HIs Person into it by taking a
transcendental form that resembles the sketch, then that
external sketch can functionally become as good as Krishna.
Though Krishna is always transcendental and none other can
the Person Krishna can be Krishna, yet for the time being that
He decides, by His sweet will, He manifest Himself in person
as His energy whenever He wishes.

84
This sketch -Krishna will receive, reciprocate and relate with
us. This is the principle of advaya Jnana or non-dual
knowledge. The energies of the Lord are dynamically
simultaneously one and different with Him eternally serving
Him. Thus the external Nama vigraha is God Himself to be
worshipped by chanting and hearing Him.

SB 1.12.9 Purport

"There is no difference between matter and spirit for the Lord,

although there is a gulf of difference between the two in the
case of the conditioned living being. For the Lord there is
nothing but spiritual existence, and similarly there is nothing
except spiritual existence for the pure devotee of the Lord in
his intimate relation with the Lord."

Electric wire-dead or live?

Another even more complete analogy is that of the difference

between a regular electric wire and the one with the live
electric current in it. Although they both appear the same to
our senses something extra is added in the live wire, the
electric current. The wire itself is not an ordinary wire but it
has become an electrified wire because of the flow of electric
current in it. So also the sound that we chant becomes
Śaktyāvēşa Nama and it develops the quality of electrifying
anything it touches.

An authorised post box is the same as General Post

office

85
Another example that Śrīla Prabhupāda often gives to explain
the function of an incarnation is that of the authorized post
boxes.

These post boxes are ordinary metal boxes placed in different

parts of the city by the postal department.

Though they are regular metal boxes, they are empowered to

receive letters that are dropped into them on behalf of the
general post office and hence they are not ordinary boxes.
Dropping a letter in a local post box is as good as delivering the
letter at the doors of the General Post Office.

Thus, the ordinarily vibrated Hare Krishna sound, gross &

subtle, is no longer remains an ordinary. It is the most
powerful vibration in existence.

Anyone chanting Hare Krishna is being touched by this most

merciful incarnation of Lord Krishna and gets access to all the
pure spiritual sat-cit-ananda energies needed to purify oneself
and get out of this illusory world. This is a great reason for
excitement for all of humanity. Krishna Nāma, in His
incarnation on earth, is most mercifully engaged in the līlā of
liberating millions of living entities on this earth by His
transcendental association.

“So, in this yuga, this Kali-yuga, the incarnation is Lord

Çaitanya, and the process of worship is this Nāma sabda. That
is mentioned. In every avatāra, every incarnation..........,,, So,
they are mentioned, yugāvatāra. And Śaktyāvēşa avatāra.

86
Śaktyāvēşa avatāra. All avatāras, their mission is to preach the
message of God. Avatāra has no other business. The message
of God. Śaktyāvēşa avatāra”

The incarnation of sound. It is described by Lord Çaitanya that

kali-kale Nāma rūpe avatāra: “In this Kali-yuga, in this age,
this incarnation of the name—Hare Krishna Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare—to give facility to the conditioned
soul.” Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nijāśārva-śakti. Śakti, this word
is used, Śakti. And from Śakti, that energy, Śaktya. So, this
name is also Śaktyāvēşa. Śrīla Prabhupāda, Lecture --
December 16, 1966, New York

When we, ordinary living beings, move from one place to

another, we cannot be present in both the places
simultaneously. But when the Suddha Nama in the spiritual
world descends into this world as unlimited expressions of
Himself as Aprakrta Nama sabdas, He does not have to leave
the spiritual world as He is beyond limitations of time, space
and substance.

Unlike tiny living beings, the Lord, who is the Supreme being
can have unlimited expansions of Himself for enjoying
varieties of rasas, in the unlimited existences, through the
unlimited hearts of unlimited jivas. It is inconceivable for us to
even imagine limitlessness of enjoyment of relationships of
such a personality as Krishna or Vishnu. But it is fact. We have
seen and heard only of limited personalities like ourselves in
this world. Personalities of this nature belong to a category
called Vishnu tattva.

END

87
Module 15

Suddha Nama, Aprakrta Nama shabda and

Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda

Journey of Self Discovery -3.2

The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is a transcendental

vibration; it is not a material thing. It is imported from the
transcendental abode of Krishna.From there the
TRANSCENDENTAL SOUND of Hare Krishna has come. THIS
SOUND IS LIKE SUNSHINE COMING FROM THE SUN.
Although you cannot go to the sun—it is far, far beyond your
reach—you can understand that the sunshine is coming from
the sun globe. There is no doubt about it. SIMILARLY, THE
VIBRATION OF THE HARE KRISHNA IS COMING FROM
KRISHNA'S PLANET , GOLOKA (golokera prema-dhana). And
this chanting produces love of Krishna. (Prema-dhana means
"the treasure of love for Krishna)

Srila Prabhupada is revealing that the transcendental sound of

Hare Krishna is descending from the spiritual world of Goloka
like sunshine coming from the sun. The eternally self-sounding
Suddha Nāma in the spiritual world is Krishna Himself. Just as
Krishna is the surya or sun of satcitananda , the Suddha Nāma
in the spiritual world is also surrounded by sunshine-like
effulgent satcitānanda shaktis around Him.

88
The individual satcitānanda suns of three Suddha Nāmas Hare,
Krishna and Rāma expand as the surya of Hare Krishna Nāma
Prabhu of 32 syllables with all His shaktis. This satcitananda
sun of this Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu was brought down into
this world by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and planted in the
core of the hearts of His pure devotees five hundred years
back. The transcendental expression of Suddha Nama as His
effulgent vibration descends as a transcendental sound called
Aprākrta Nāma shabda on to the tongues of countless devotees
in this world. Srila Prabhupada explains the principle that
there is no difference between God and His bodily rays or
effulgence.

God’s reflection and God, there is no difference. God’s bodily

rays and God, there is no difference, advaya-jnana, that they
are not in duality or relative world. They are in the absolute
world. Srila Prabhupada on March 25, New York.

Just as sun's quality is light and heat and so sunlight is also has
the same quality of light and heat. Suddha Nama is
satcitananda and Aprakrta Nama sabdha is also satcitananda.
There is no difference between Suddha Nama and Aprakrta
Nama sabdhas who have expanded from Him as His
compassionate expression as unlimited sounds on unlimited
tongues.

Aprakrta Nama shabdha is a transcendental vibration and not

a material sound. When the devotees chants the Hare Krishna
matter sound with his matter tongue, the satcitananda
Aprākrta Nāma shabdha descends into that sound as a

89
transcendental vibration that resembles the sound we chant
and satcitananda-izes that matter vibration or sound into the
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda.

The Suddha Nama shabda, the Aprākrta Nāma shabda

together with Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda is called Nama Prabhu.
This Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu has been coming down in
disciplic succession in the hearts of pure devotees originating
from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And Nama Prabhu has been
distributed generation after generation since then. Srila
Prabhupada is the current link in the parampara. The Aprākrta
Nāma shabda together with Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda is called
the Nama Avatara of this world. Though Suddha Nama who is
the Avatari or the source of Nama avatara is in the spiritual
world, Suddha Nama and the Aprākrta Nāma shabda are
inseparable like the sun and its expanded sunshine. Though
the Suddha Nama is in the spiritual world and Aprākrta Nāma
shabda has descended into the material world, there is no
spatial and temporal limitations between them.

Srila Prabhupada has distributed Nama Prabhu to millions of

devotees. They are all worshipping the Nama avatara with faith
by chanting and hearing Him. And they in turn are further
distributing to others on his behalf. Due to the technology of
recording voices, it is a unique time in history where anyone
can hear that recorded sound of Srila Prabhupada's chanting.
If heard with faith, any person can even today receive the Hare
Krishna Aprākrta Nāma shabdha directly from Srila
Prabhupada and serve Him as per his directions and
instructions.

90
The Aprākrta Nāma shabda is self-conscious sound who has
descended from Goloka plane, who is worshipped daily by the
sadhaka. Whenever the sadhaka wants to chant, this Nama
Prabhu mercifully immediately expands into the sound on his
tongue by assuming aprakrta sound features that resemble the
sound features of the sound on our tongue and manifests as
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma shabda.

The satcitananda sound features of Aprākrta Nāma shabda,

though not chantable with material tongue or hearable with
material ears, it indistinguishably overlaps into the sound
features of chantable and hearable Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

Aprākrta Nāma shabda Prabhu descends into the prākrta

nama sabda and gives us access to Him through our attention
and service of the externally audible Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
shabhda. Whatever Aprākrta Nama shabdha Prabhu wants to
reciprocate in the matter plane to us, He expresses that
through the easily accessible Śaktyāvēşa Nāma as His sound
body in this material world.

Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is as good as Aprākrta Nama shabda for

receiving and reciprocating the services of His devotees.

Krishna can change matter to spirit and vice versa

Conversations with Shyamsundara Dāśā.

91
Śrīla Prabhupāda “ Ultimately everything is spiritual, because
the matter is Krishna’s energy. If Krishna is the original cause,
therefore the matter can be changed into spirit, and spirit can
be changed to matter. Just as it is the same eletric energy
acting as heater and cooler, because the original cause is
electricity. Similarly the original cause of Krishna. So Krishna
can change matter into spirit, spirit into matter. This is His
power. The rascals and fools, when Krishna appears in His own
body, atmamaya, they think it is just like material body, but
they do not know that to Krishna there is no such distinction of
material and spiritual.”

Thus Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is fully spiritualized matter. While our

material tongue, ears and mind are serving the external
Shaktyāvesha Nama, it is tantamount to serving the identical
sounding Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu who descends into it.
Currently our spiritual mind is in a dream-like state as we are
all in a dreamy existence absorbed in illusory world created
from the mapping of the form, names, identities of the material
world. We have to advance from devotional service performed
with our spiritually dreamy attention as a sadhaka to
spiritually awakened attention of a pure devotee by receiving
the mercy of association of Nama Avatara.

Even for those who have no faith but who accidentally chant
His Shaktyāvesha Nama, potencies to liberate him from all sins
are delivered to the chanter's benefit. However if he wants
association of the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu who is the Krishna
Himself, he has to receive such Nama from a pure worshipper
of the Nama Prabhu with faith and personally worship Nama

92
Prabhu as directed by him. While we are serving Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma shabda, to the extent we are attentive, we are, in
parallel, also touching the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu with the
very same attention. Our attention now is not purified enough
to be sensitive to feel the satcitananda touch of the Aprākrta
Nāma sabda. Henceforth we will just use the terms Aprakrta
Nama and Śaktyāvēşa Nāma by dropping the word shabda in
the end.

The empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nāma purifies our mind and

subtle senses and the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu awakens our
spiritual mind and senses. Chanting establishes the attention-
connection and uninterrupted hearing amounts to attention-
embrace of the lotus feet of Nama Prabhu. Combined the
Nāma Avatāra purifies and awakens our spiritual mind and
senses.

Thus

1. Suddha Nāma in the spiritual world is the satcitananda

Avātari (source of avatāra)

2. Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu is the Satcitānanda Avatāra of

sunshine-like expansions of Suddha Nama descending down

3. Shaktyāvesha Nama is the Satcitānanda-ized Avatāra.

How can He be there on millions of hearts? It is just like one

sun being reflected on different water bodies through its
sunshine.

93
Aprakrta Nama Prabhu is a brilliant sun of satcitananda who
satcitananda-izes the sound on our tongue. By mere attention-
touch of such external Śaktyāvēşa Nāma, our consciousness get
purified by the fire of satcitānanda. Thus enabling us to
eventually chant and hear the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu with our
awakened spiritual mind and spiritual senses.

Aprakrta Nama takes a sound form resembling

features of your sound

Srila Prabhupada reveals below that the Aprākrta Rupa takes

on a form that resembles prākrta rupa in the case of archa
avatara which is a rupa avatara.

Only for us, who cannot experience anything beyond matter in

our present conditioned state, do the dhamas and the Lord
Himself, in His arca form, appear before us resembling matter
to give us the facility to see spirit with material eyes. In the
beginning this may be difficult for a neophyte to understand,
but in due course, when one is advanced in devotional service,
it will be easier, and he will appreciate the Lord’s presence in
these tangible forms.

Bhakitvedanta Purport . CC Adi 5.20

Note the word 'resembling matter' used by Srila Prabhupada.

94
This very same principle which is applicable to Archa avatara
of the Lord is also applicable to the Nama avatara.

The Aprākrta Nāma has mercifully takes on sound features

that resemble the prākrta sound features and we get connected
to Him through attention on the external sound. Thus even a
beginner can get this direct attention-connection with God
through placing of serving attention on Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

An iron piece when put in the fire becomes red hot, likewise
our soul's consciousness or attention becomes charged with
spiritual energies if placed in the fire of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.
But if we are not attentive to the audible sound then our soul
and mind does not touch the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma nor the
Aprākrta Nama.

Effect inattentive chanting is like feeling heat when you stand

near a fire. Attentive japa means soul is the fire of
satcitananda.

So we have to solve the problem of inattentiveness by training

our foreground mind to execute attentive Japa . It is the
attention-connection that the makes my soul and mind to get
the attention-touch and personal association of the Nāma
avatāra.

Once soul and mind is connected through attention to the

audible empowered Shaktyāvesha Nama by sharply hearing

95
the sound features in a manner that is discerning one unique
sound from the other, we enable merciful flow of spiritual
energy from the Shaktyāvesha Nama to the senses, mind and
soul. Thus they all get charged with satcitānanda by the flow of
pure 'sat-cit' energy from Nama Prabhu.

If one knows this Nāma tattva, it increases his faith in the

presence of sun-like satcitānanda Aprākrta Nāma from the
spiritual world when we do our japa, though unseen by our
senses. Attention is the key that makes our soul touch both the
Shaktyāvesha Nama as well as the Aprakrta Nāma to warm up
body, mind, soul with the flow of mercy of satcitananda
energies.

END

96
Module 16
Initiation into the mahamantra

The guru installs the Deity by inviting the Lord into the
external Deity form and instructs you to offer specific seva
everyday for rest of your life.

In the same way Srila Prabhupada installs into the sadhaka's

heart on the seat of shraddha or faith, the Holy Name in form
of initiation and asks us to serve Him with minimum 16 rounds
everyday by chanting and hearing with attention and devotion.
We have to treasure this gift in the core of our heart with faith,
devotion and service unto Him.

Letter to Bhakta Das: 26Aug,1976

All initiates of mine must strictly follow the four principles of

no meat, fish or egg, eating; no gambling; no intoxication of
any kind; and no illicit sex. They must chant 16 rounds a day
minimum with attention, clearly chanting the mantra, and
listening very carefully. This is the recommended process for
purifying the heart.

Note that Srila Prabhupada does not say just chant 16

rounds a day. He says 16 rounds minimum.

Further the vidhi is that it should be chanted clearly and heard

carefully both with attention as he puts it in the above
instruction..

97
Krishna is an unlimited Supreme Personality. And He
transcends all kinds of limitations of space, time and
substances that we experience as tiny persons. He can
simultaneously expand into unlimited Aprakrta Nama shabda-
vigrahas in unlimited hearts and tongues of unlimited chanters
and personally reciprocate with each of them. Thus each of us
have a Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu for ourselves to relate,
serve, love, and live with in our hearts if we choose to.

Nama avatara or sound incarnation means He is a combination

of Aprakrta Nama in our hearts manifesting as the
Shaktyavesha Nama on our tongue. As we discussed the
Aprakrta Nama cannot be chanted with our material tongue.

He lives in the hearts of the faithful devotees who serve Him

everyday. One can serve Him even at moments they are not
chanting by simply remembering Him in His heart and being
present all over the world in the hearts of the devotees who
serve Him every day. Just when we chant He is manifesting
externally from our heart. When He is not manifest externally
as the sound while doing your daily duties, if He is
remembered in the background then He is also served.

After finishing the fixed number of chants everyday, whenever

you can chant you manifest Him in that sound and embrace
that sound through attentive hearing with devotion. Kirtaniya
sada Hari. Nāma should be our constant companion by
chanting and hearing the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nāma on
tongue and remembrance of transcendental Aprakrta Nama in

98
our heart, so kindly delivered by Srila Prabhupada for the price
of strong faith in the Holy Names of Krishna.

You can simply understand Śaktyāvēşa Nama as manifesting

on to your tongue for the time being when you chant. By
attentively & distinctly pronouncing you invoke or welcome the
sound incarnation on your tongue from your heart full of faith
and by sharply hearing with attention the string of 16 names,
the soul touches and serves the sound features of the sound
incarnation.

By virtue of hearing sharply the audible features of the external

sound of the incarnation we also touch with our attention, the
inaudible Aprākrta Nāma of Lord, who has overlapped into the
external sound as the very 'soul' of that external sound. Calling
and hearing and remembering are the three ways to relate with
any person's name.

Even before initiation if you have the above faith and execute
Srila Prabhupada's order to chant 16 rounds with
determination, then the Shaktyavesha Nāma will lead you
closer to him. Initiation, then, is only a formal ceremony, that
will soon come your way arranged by the Lord in your heart
where officially Srila Prabhupada on behalf of disciplic
succession formally delivers the Nāma to one who has been
already serving his order. Our faith based actions is more
important than formalities though that is also required.

99
Initiation is a formality. If you are serious, that is real
initiation. My touch is simply a formality. It is your
determination. That is initiation. The Search for Divine, BTG #
49

Well initiation or no initiation, first thing is knowledge,

knowledge. Initiation is a formality. Just like you go to a school
for knowledge, and admission is a formality. That is not a very
important thing. So our this movement is successful.

Press interview—October 16, 1976, Chandigarh

One does not have to undergo initiation or execute the

activities required before initiation. One simply has to vibrate
the holy name with his lips. Thus, even a man in the lowest
class [candäla] can be delivered. CC - Madhya 15.108

Importance of formal initiation

Srila Prabhupada Letter 19th August 1968

The chanting Hare Krishna is our main business, that is real

initiation. And as you are all following my instruction, in that
matter, the initiator is already there.

Now the next initiation will be performed as a ceremony

officially, of course that ceremony has value because the name,
Holy Name, will be delivered to the student from the disciplic
succession, it has got value.

100
See the last part of the quote. Through faith in Srila
Prabhupada's instructions and acting accordingly makes one a
disciple of Srila Prabhupada, yet officially initiation ceremony
has got value since in the ceremony the holy name is officially
delivered from the disciplic succession. The mind needs to be
bonded in formal contract in order to liberate the soul.
Formality is for the mind. We cannot ignore the need to keep
the mind in a disciplined way lest it destroys the journey of the
soul.

Śrīla Prabhupāda, says that during first initiation the Holy

Name is delivered to the disciple through the disciplic
succession by the bonafide spiritual master. Though the sound
of holy name is vibrating all over for everyone to receive and
begin one's association with the Lord, yet there is this process
or vidhi of personal delivery of the holy name by the spiritual
master at one point for making serious progress.

Harinaam diksha is transcendentally delivered into the heart

of the disciple because of the faith of the disciple in the guru
and Nama and not by formally chanting into the ears of the
disciple like gayatri diksha. When a pure devotees initiates a
disciple into chanting, he delivers the Holy Name that He is
worshiping merely by accepting the initiated as his disciple. A
pure devotee delivers His worship able Nama personally to the
faithful heart of the disciple by wish to give the disciple the
Nama Prabhu. The aspiring disciple place it in his hearts on
the seat of faith and serve Him as instructed by the deliverer
guru.

101
Though association with holy name begins even without
initiation, if one wants to progress in bhakti, into a personal
loving relationship beyond a certain point than just washing
away sins and getting liberated from the modes of material
nature, the student has to become a disciple of a pure lover of
Nama Prabhu and surrender to the instructions to such a pure
devotee spiritual master.

What does 'delivery' means? Even when Srila Prabhupada was

on this planet, externally we never saw any physical delivery of
Hare Krishna Mahamantra into the ears of prospective
disciples during initiation. Yet it is said that the holy name is
formally delivered at the time of initiation. That can only mean
that it happens through a process unseen by our eyes. It is all a
matter of relationship between Nama Prabhu and His pure
devotees.

SB 1.15.13 Purport

"The Lord is all powerful, and by His grace His pure devotee
can be as powerful as He may desire, and there is no limit to
it."

We have remember that the Nama Prabhu with us is the Nama

Prabhu of Srila Prabhupada's transcendental flavour. When he
delivers Nama at the time of initiation, it is the his personal
worshipable Nama whom he is passing on to us to further
worship and serve.

102
Ohe Vaiṣṇava Thākura, Verse 4

“ Kṛṣṇa is yours; you have the power to give Him to me. I am

simply running behind you shouting, 'Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!' "

SB 10.2.18 Purport.

As indicated here by the word manastaḥ, the Supreme

Personality of Godhead was transferred from the core of
Vasudeva’s mind or heart to the core of the heart of Devakī. We
should note carefully that the Lord was transferred to Devakī
not by the ordinary way for a human being, but by dīkṣā,
initiation. Thus the importance of initiation is mentioned here.
Unless one is initiated by the right person, who always carries
within his heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one
cannot acquire the power to carry the Supreme Godhead
within the core of one’s own heart.

After being initiated, the Hare Krishna Nāma shabda-vigraha

in the disciple's heart is like a Deity installed by Guru for
personally serving attentively without offenses by chanting and
hearing the prescribed number of malas daily.

Thus gratitude to Guru is a constant feeling for Śrīla

Prabhupāda and Lord Chaitanya for delivering the holy name
transcendentally. We should place Him into the core of our
hearts to be worshipped as instructed by him. Only by deep
faith one can place Him in the core of our heart. Unlike the
Deity worship, Nama worship does not need any external

103
ingredients except your own tongue, ears and mind, attention
and shraddha.

Note usually 'heart' means cittam which is still in the material

dimension. Core of the heart means spiritual dimension. Soul,
Supersoul is in a spiritual dimension deeper than 'heart' and
we call that location as 'core of the heart'. Life after life,
eternally He will remain with me in the core of my heart
irrespective of changing bodies. Core of the heart means a
transcendental dimension which is changeless.

When we chant Nama Prabhu rises from the core of our heart
and comes on the tongue and enters the sound produced by the
tongue and invests all powers into it and then that empowered
sound or Śaktyāvēşa Nāma enters the ears and mind and back
to the core of my heart. In the process service of repeatedly
moving from the core of my heart to the tongue to the ears and
the mind and back again to the heart He satcitananda-izes
cittam He passes through.

Each cycle of movement of chanting and hearing service

purifies the soul-mind-body system and spiritualizes it.
Repeating this cycle of chanting and hearing mantra after
mantra builds up the spiritual energy in our cittam or
consciousness body which eventually awakens the soul's
Krishna consciousness. This is called ceto marjanam process. A
day will come when the pure soul will shine through the
purified mind, body and senses.

104
Every one who hears Srila Prabhupada's chanting
with faith can receive the mantra from him.

Does everyone who grossly hears Srila Prabhupada’s recorded

chanting get initiated as disciple? Not into the spiritual status
of a disciple but definitely initiated into the mantra if he takes
up faithfully to chant even one mala of daily. Only those who
have full faith in Srila Prabhupada’s discipline to chant 16
rounds daily and follow the four regulative principles and serve
his mission in whichever way he can, he will be eligible to
become his disciple and receive such permanent delivery of the
Holy Name into the his heart along with his assurance to
deliver us to Krishna. Disciple means discipline. There is
eternal bonding between disciple and spiritual master.

Thus there is greater spiritual benefit as well as obligation of

serious relationship and the unique spiritual benefits from
such relationship when one becomes a disciple. It is obvious
that serious relationships give different fruits than casual
relationships.

END

105
Module 17
Mantra is more powerful when chanted by the
spiritual master.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.31-32 Bhaktivedanta

Purport

When a mantra is chanted by a great devotee, the mantra

becomes more powerful. Although the Hare Krishna maha-
mantra is powerful in itself, a disciple upon initiation receives
the mantra from his spiritual master, for when the mantra is
chanted by the spiritual master, it becomes more powerful.

The Nama Prabhu through His omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama

always releases His powers to the chanter out of His sweet will
fulfilling His declaration that in Kali yuga He will incarnate by
entering this worldly sound uttered by us. However He will
decide how much and what kind of powers are to be delivered
according in reciprocation to the surrender of the chanter. It is
not that automatically His shaktis are imprisoned in every
name-sound that is uttered by my material tongue and you can
just grab that energy. Both Him and His shaktis surrounding
Him are not impersonal object like sun rays. Nama Prabhu is a
Krishna Himself and so are His personal energies of sandhini
(sat) , samvit (cit) & hladini (ananda) .

106
Therefore if someone wants to misuse the Nama, it will just
remain a material sound as Srila Prabhupada reveals in
Purport CC Antya 3.59

“The letters of the holy name have so much spiritual potency

that they act even when uttered improperly."

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura states that the word

'vyvahita'(improperly uttered) is not used here to refer to
mundane vibration of the letters of the alphabhet. Such
negligent utterance for the sense gratification of materialistic
persons is not a vibration of transcendental sound. Utterance
of the holy name while one engages in sense gratification is an
impediment on the path toward achieving ecstatic love for
Krishna. On the other hand , if one who is eager for devotional
service utters the holy name even partially or improperly, the
holy name, who is identical with the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, exhibits its spiritual potency because of that person's
offenseless utterance. Thus one is relieved from all unwanted
practices, and one gradually awakens his dormant love for
Krishna

Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.8 Bhaktivedanta Purport

Mundane manufactured sound has no potency, and as such

seemingly transcendental sound received from an
unauthorised person also has no potency

Thus even though Lord has invested all the powers in the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama it is differently powerful for different
chanters. Hence the word used by us here is 'potentially

107
omnipotent'. It is like rain that is falling everywhere on rock
and soft soil equally but the rock is not able to draw that water
into itself but the mud is able to. And different soils have
different capacity to draw the water into itself. River sand
hardly holds water. Clayey mud can absorb little more than
river sand.

According to the degree of (quality and quantity) of our

surrender and service , the shaktis surrounding Aprakrta
Nama Prabhu will express themselves to different degrees
through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama. But Aprakrta Nama Prabhu is
called Nama Cintamani. It fulfiller of all spiritual desires.

A pure devotee is able to draw the mercy like a sponge absorbs

water and can manifest the needed power for His service than
an ordinary devotee and release it into the world outside Him
for jivas to pick up the same sound and purify themselves. The
'purity & sincerity of purpose' of chanting and hearing can be
compared to the 'sponginess'. Because of the purity & sincerity
of purpose of a pure devotee where he will never misuse the
power for anything other than for pleasing the Lord, his chant
draws down all of sat cit ananda mercy into this worldly plane
need for His service.

Distributing holy name on behalf of Srila

Prabhupada

If we, who are disciples of Srila Prabhupada are worshipping

the Nama Prabhu daily by chanting 16 rounds, induce some
faith and ask someone to chant on behalf of the order of Srila
Prabhupada, then we are distributing Srila Prabhupada's

108
potent Nama Prabhu like a post man who delivers a letter. This
amounts to participating in the mission of Nama Prabhu.

Srila Prabhupada in letter dated 6th March 1968

Yes, whoever you tell the chant to, it is effective. You have
heard it from me and my disciples, similarly I have heard it
from my Guru Maharaja, and so on, and on. Because you have
heard it from a pure devotee of the Lord, therefore it is
transmitted from you to another. Just as an aerial message, is
transmitted from one place to another, similarly, this Guru
parampara system is working. My disciples are my agents, my
representatives, so by hearing it from them, you are receiving it
from me. And because you are a sincere soul, those who are
hearing the Mantra from you are receiving it in disciplic
succession, from Lord Chaitanya and from Lord Krishna.

END

109
Module 18
External vigraha of Śaktyāvēşa Nama is
simultaneously one and different from Aprākrta
Nama

Just because He mercifully enters a prākrta sound body for our

sake, don't limit Him to that matter body. Srila Prabhupada
cautions us thus:

" Krishna is always Krishna, but because we cannot see

anything beyond material elements like wood, stone, and
metal, He appears in a form made of these elements. But He is
neither wood, metal, nor stone. When we associate with the
Deity, we associate with Krishna personally. Because Krishna
is invisible, He very kindly takes a form that is visible to us.
This is Krishna ’s mercy. Do not think, “Oh, here is a stone
Krishna.”

TLK. Chapter 4

Srila Prabhupada is cautioning us never reduce Krishna to only

the external vigraha of the Deity alone as stone etc. Even
though He becomes the external vigraha for our sake, the
Person Krishna is always Krishna apart from His
manifestations in material nature as external Deity. In the
same way we should never reduce Krishna's Name to being
only the sound vibrated by our tongue even if it omnipotent
sound. That is Aprākrta Nama's manifestation in His energy
for giving us access.

110
Srila Prabhupada Lecture 25/1/1975

So immediately you can be in touch with Krishna by vibrating

this sound, Hare Krishna. It is so potent. Nāma cintāmanih
Krishna chaitanya-rasa-vigrahah [Cc. Madhya 17.133]. The
name of Krishna is cintāmani, transcendental. It is not this
material sound, material name. Nāma cintāmanih Krishna
chaitanya. Living force, chaitanya. It is not dead sound.

The satcitananda Aprākrta Nama who has entered the

externally chanted Shaktyavesha Nama cannot be sensed with
our material tongues or ears. When we are fully purified then
that Aprakrta Nama can be chanted with our spiritual tongue
and heard with our spiritual ears and spiritual mind,
perfection of which is Suddha Nama japa. Now He is giving us
His transcendental presence through His manifestation in
matter as the Shaktyavesha Nama and when he finds us fit, the
Suddha Nama will give His direct transcendental presence to
our spiritualized senses.

The above quote will run like this if I replace Deity by Nāma
Avatāra. It will read like this.

But He is not material vibration. When we associate with the

Śaktyāvēşa Nāma Avatāra, we associate with Krishna Nama
personally. Because transcendental Krishna Nāma is inaudible
to material ears, He very kindly takes a vibrational form that is
audible to us. This is Krishna"s mercy. Do not think, “Oh, here
is a material vibration or material sound of Krishna.”

111
Suppose you look at a mango juice in a transparent bottle, you
should not think that the yellow colour of the juice is coming
from the bottle though it is a fact that it is coming through the
bottle. Bottle is bottle and juice is juice. Yellow color is coming
out from the juice. The juice may take the shape of the bottle
and look like the bottle because of the shape of the bottle. Juice
is like the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu and the bottle is like the
prakrta namasabda which is shined upon by the Aprākrta
Nama and gets empowered into Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Serving one is serving the other

So when we chant and hear sound details of Śaktyāvēşa Nama

with attention, the same reaches Apākrta Nama because He
has detailed sound features that resemble Śaktyāvēşa Nama .
But in the beginning we cannot feel the divine attention-touch
of the Aprākrta Nama because of dreamy attention of our
spiritually sleeping soul. As we continue with our attention-
embrace, spiritual energy is drawn into us which awakens the
soul's spiritual mind and then we can begin to transcendental
experience of the awakened divine attention-touch of Aprākrta
Nama in addition to that of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

We should not think that our service now of chanting and

hearing is not reaching the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu because our
attention is not pure now . For the Lord we are never distant
whether pure or contaminated. The fact that He is seated in all
our hearts proves this principle.

112
Thus even now our service of offering attention to chanting
and hearing the Śaktyāvēşa Nama as a beginner is also being
received by the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu.

The shaktis of Aprākrta Nama Prabhu, are the sandhini (sat)

shakti, samvit shakti (cit) and hladini shakti (Ananda) and they
are all personalities . They are in the scene and accept our
services of chanting and hearing when done with full shraddha
or transcendental faith and prepare is to qualify someday to
chant and hear the Suddha Nama. Thus Nama Prabhu has
mercifully come to us through the vessel of empowered
Śaktyāvēşa Nama shabda.

A simple perspective of Nama Avatara

Aprākrta Nama would say to the chanter: " Just as you are the
spirit within your body in this world, I am all-spirit who has
incarnated myself with a omnipotent body of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
only for you to access and associate with Me. You cannot see
your own true transcendental 'self' in the body with your
material senses. So also you cannot hear or chant My all-
spiritual Nama who is empowering transcendentally the
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. You, as an aprakrta soul and Me as the
Aprakrta Nama are both of the same quality beyond prakrti
and therefore both cannot be sensed with material senses.

Serve and associate with my Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with your

material senses and draw my mercy in the form of purifying
spiritual energy of sat and dissolve your false ego or feelings of
false 'myself' covering your true true feelings of 'myself'. Then
you can transcendentally chant and hear My Suddha Nāma

113
with your transcendental mind and senses. Now your
transcendental mind and senses are in deep slumber and
dreaming that you are the material body and other people are
their material bodies."

SB 4.11.18 Purport.

How the Lord acts is nicely explained in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa: fire
is situated in one place, while the heat and light produced by
the fire act in many different ways. Another example given is
that the electric powerhouse is situated in one place, but by its
energies many different types of machinery move.

The quotation referred above from the Visnu Purana

(1.22.53) is;

eka-desa-sthitasyagner

jyotsna vistarini yatha

parasya brahmanah saktis

tathedam akhilam jagat

Just as the illumination of a fire, which is situated in one place,

is spread all over, the energies of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Parabrahman, are spread all over this universe.'

114
The production is never identical with the original source of
the energy, but the original source of energy, being the prime
factor, is simultaneously one with and different from the
product. Therefore Lord Caitanya’s philosophy, acintya-
bhedābheda-tattva, is the perfect way of understanding

Adopting the above quote for Nama, would read like this: "
Empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama is not identical to Aprākrta
Nama, the original source of energy or fire of satcitananda but
Aprākrta Nama being the prime factor, His empowered
externally vibrated Śaktyāvēşa Nama is simultaneously one
and different from the Aprākrta Nama. However the
empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama being the most compassionate
sound-expression of the Aprākrta Nāma, He is very forgiving
of our offenses. Therefore the Śaktyāvēşa Nama receives and
reciprocates our services, though offered with lot of unknown
offenses. He by transferring of His shaktis or energies to us,
purifies our material senses and mind to reduce our offenses
and preparing us to serve Aprākrta Nāma without any offenses
some day.

The Aprākrta Nama always act on spiritual platform. In

material plane He acts through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.
Empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama is potentially omnipotent and
can move itself and other matter beyond material limitations
posed by time, space and substance as is required to either
mime or support the lilas of the Aprākrta Nama in this world.
All these activities of avatara is facilitated by His atmamaya

115
potency as he reveals in Bhagavad Gita (4.6), sambhavamy
atma mayaya.

END

Module 19
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is a manifestation in matter of
Aprākrta Nama.

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.6.4 purport.

“The virāṭ-rūpa is not, therefore, an eternal form of the Lord

exhibited in the spiritual sky; it is a material manifestation of
the Lord. The arcā-vigraha, or the worshipable Deity in the
temple, is a similar manifestation of the Lord for the
neophytes. But in spite of their material touch, such forms of
the Lord as the virāṭ and arcā are all nondifferent from His
eternal form as Lord Kṛṣṇa.

We have been differentiating between Aprākrta Nāma sabda

and the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma sabda in all our modules as two
categories of Absolute Truth. Aprākrta Nāma is Lord Himself,
who is an expansion of the satcitananda Suddha Nama of the
spiritual world, who descends into this world as a
transcendental sound form similar to matter sound produced
by us with our material tongue. Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is the

116
satcitananda-ized manifestation of the Aprākrta Nāma in
matter. Srila Prabhupada confirms this in the above quote.

Further he reveals that satcitananda-ized Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is

non-different from the satcitananda Aprakrta Nama as far as
function or rasa or relationship with the chanter is concerned.
The person' Krishna' is always with His personal shaktis or
energies. But He can potentially become even His matter-
energy if He decides to become so for the time being as in the
case of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. The devotees call Him out with
their tongue, which is a matter-energy vibration produced by
material tongue, and the Lord descends into it as Aprākrta
Nāma and transforms it into Śaktyāvēşa Nāma for the time
being.

Therefore though Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is different from the

Aprākrta Nāma as far as substance is concerned just like
electrified wire is different from electricity, yet the Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma in action is the very action the Aprākrta Nāma for the
purpose of His Iilas in this material world. Therefore
attachment to the concrete external vigraha of any avatara is
big secret of spiritual progress. We should develop personal
relationship with concrete audible sound form of the Lord as
the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

Serving the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with our senses and

mind, our service reaches the empowerer Aprakrta Nama.
Thus our service to the combination of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma & the
Aprākrta Nāma called Nama Avatara is as good as serving the
Suddha Nāma in the spiritual world. Suddha Nama and His

117
expression in this world as Aprākrta Nāma and Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma, can never be separated as the sun and sunshine and its
reflection can never be separated. Wherever there is sunshine,
sun is also there and vice versa. Wherever there is reflection of
sunlight, there is also sun and sunlight. They are always in
transcendental dimension beyond our concept of space and
time.

Depending on one's realization when we address Nama

Prabhu, it can mean Suddha Nama or Aprakrta Nama or
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma or combination of any of them. Nama
Prabhu can mean only Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. Or only two ie;
Aprakrta Nama & Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. Or can mean all three. It
is like progressive realization of Brahman, Paramatma &
Bhagavan realization of Absolute Lord.

When Lord takes on any matter body for the sake giving us
access, that body becomes potentially omnipotent and serves
Him and not that it binds Him like when we, as tiny spirits,
take on a material body. Nama Prabhu is said to be nitya
mukta even if He enters the external matter sound. Material
energy serves Him always.

We can say that external Deity and external sound perceived

with our material senses is the manifestation in matter of the
transcendental or aprakrta Lord residing in them. As far as
Aprakrta Nama is concerned He is always transcendental and

118
never gets covered in any manner whatsoever just because He
incarnates into a matter sound.

nāma cintāmani krishnas

caitanya-rasa-vigrahah

pürnah shuddho nitya-mukto

’bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoh

“The holy name of Krishna is transcendentally blissful. It

bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is Krishna Himself, the
reservoir of all pleasure. Krishna’s name is complete, and it is
the form of all transcendental mellows. It is not a material
name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than
Krishna Himself. Since Krishna’s name is not contaminated by
the material qualities, there is no question of its being involved
with mäyä. Krishna’s name is always liberated and spiritual; it
is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. This is
because the name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are
identical.”

Vaishnava philosophy of Absolute Truth is not only about

Absolute Personality Krishna but also His absolute energies
serving Him. Nama Avatara means the Lord incarnates in a
sabda sarira just as he incarnates into a buddha sarira, into
meena sarira, kurma sarira etc. The word sarira means body or
deha.

119
Every person in this world is a combination of his soul and his
mind-body. To see the person only as His body is incomplete
perception. To see only the externally produced sound as
Nama is partial perception of Nama before you. To see the
external sound as empowered sound is more complete
realization. But to see with faith, the external sound being
empowered by Akrakrta Nama who is unmanifest to my senses
is more complete perception.

Therefore, while we chant and hear the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with

our material senses we should remember the unmanifest
presence of the Aprakrta Nama in the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. That
is why japa is also called Nama smaranam of transcendental
Name of the Lord.

And faith is required that external vigraha or sound is not

limited in any way like matter energy of which it is made up of.
Whenever we perceive the external vigraha or the Nāma sabda
this factor of the omnipotency of the Lord to act through the
vigraha or vibration, without limitations time or space or
matter is to be borne in our background minds.

Thus, whenever we see or hear the external Nāma sabda of

incarnation, we should never see it as limited like a material
vibration. We should see the vigraha with faith that it is
omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nāma, like the omnipotent Lord
Himself who is residing in it. While perceiving Them we should
embrace this functional oneness of the two vigrahas and one
should not think that the real Lord and the external vigraha as

120
two. We should relate with the external vigraha or Nāma sabda
as God Himself because of knowledge of the omnipotency of
the His external vigraha that the Lord takes upon Himself .

However when we talk of tattva or categories of Absolute

truths, we see the transcendental Lord Himself and
empowered external vigraha as two categories of Absolute
Truth. Shaktimān and His shakti but acting concurrently.

END

121
Module 20

How much power does Nama Prabhu release

through Śaktyāvēşa Nama

Let us repeat what we discussed. First the Aprākrta Suddha

Nama who is the Avatari expands His satcitananda effulgence
or shakti into this world as Aprākrta Nama Prabhu. When He
enters the prakrta sabda vigraha, that spiritualizes or converts
matter sabda into spirit for time being and is called the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Then the Śaktyāvēşa Nama acts as a vehicle
or omnipotent satcitananda-ized body of the Lord through
which He expresses his lilas in this world. For the Lord, any
body He takes is non different from Him as everything for Him
is spirit.

For the time being as and when and how much we are capable
of invoking the mercy for self purification or to serve His
mission, that much potency He decides to release through the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Therefore we can say that Śaktyāvēşa Nama
is potentially-omnipotent for the chanter depending on his
drawing power though in truth Śaktyāvēşa Nama is always
omnipotent.

Depending on the faith & purity of chanter, the Śaktyāvēşa

Nama that comes out of the devotee's chanting varies in its

122
delivery of spiritual power into the material yantra or into his
gross & subtle body.

We can say that the Śaktyāvēşa Nama manifests His

omnipotenty depending on how much the Śaktyāvēşa Nama
wants to in reciprocation to different surrenderof the chanter.
As we surrender He reciprocates.

When a pure devotees chants the empowered Śaktyāvēşa

Nama, it delivers its full omnipotency unlike when a neophyte
chants. That is based on the spiritual relationship between the
Nama Prabhu and the chanter. However the pure chanter does
not desire any specific power, material or spiritual for his own.
But spiritual power is required to serve Him. A servant has
faith that whatever power material or spiritual is required to
render pure devotional service, Nama Prabhu will source it to
the chanter. He simply has to serve depending upon Him.
Seeking power is not servant's business. Servant's business is
to fully depend on the Lord and serve Him. He has no desire
independent of the Lord's desire that needs to be fulfilled.

Srila Prabhupada is a Śaktyāvēşa-avatāra

Srila Prabhupada was uniquely empowered by Nama Prabhu

to take the chanting and hearing of Hare Krishna Nama
Prabhu all over the world. Without such empowerment, no
mundane effort can achieve this kind of service to the Lord. We
all know that he served Nama Prabhu in intense bhajan for
several years in Vrindavan before leaving for America to fulfil
the desire of his spiritual master.

123
He was empowered by Nama Prabhu to spread the mission of
Lord Chaitanya all over the world. In one of the purports Srila
Prabhupada himself is quoting from Chaitanya Charitamrta
that such a jiva is a Śaktyāvēşa-avatāra

SB 4.19.37 Purport

When King Prthu is described as an incarnation of Lord

Vishnu, it should be understood that he is a Śaktyāvēşa-
avatāras, part and parcel of Lord Vishnu, and is specifically
empowered by Him.

As confirmed in Caitanya-caritāmrta (Antya 7.11), krishna-

shakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana: one cannot explain the
glories of the holy name of the Lord without being specifically
empowered by Him. If one criticizes or finds fault with such an
empowered personality, one is to be considered an offender
against Lord Vishnu and is punishable. Even though such
offenders may dress as Vaishnavas with false tilaka and mälä,
they are never forgiven by the Lord if they offend a pure
Vaishnava. There are many instances of this in the sastras.

How much of the omnipotency of the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu

is finally expressed through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama chanted by a
devotees is a matter of sweet will of the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu

124
as required for enacting His lila in the material plane. Srila
Prabhupada says

“The chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it gradually

establishes its supremacy above everything in the world.”

Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

END

125
Module 21

Love and omnipotency of the Nama Prabhu is

expressed through Śaktyāvēşa Nama

Krishna is personally present before us during japa as both the

Śaktyāvēşa Nama manifest to our senses. The omnipotent
Aprakrta Nama expresses His omnipotency and love through
the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Lecture by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada 3rd September 1971 on occasion of appearance
day Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur

According to sästra, if somebody thinks... Just like here is

Deity. If somebody thinks, "Oh, it is made of stone..." It is
stone to the eyes of the non-devotee, but it is personally
Supreme Personality of Godhead to the devotees. It requires
the eyes to see. So devotee sees in a different angle of vision.
Just like Caitanya Mahäprabhu, when He entered Jagannätha
temple immediately He fainted: "Oh, here is My Lord." And the
nondevotee is seeing: "It is wood, a lump of wood." Therefore,
to the nondevotee, He remains always as wood, but to the
devotee He speaks.

That is the difference. Premäïjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena

[Bs. 5.38]. If God is everything, why wood, through wood and
stone, God cannot manifest? If God is everything? According to

126
Mäyäväda philosophy. That's a fact. God, omnipotent. He can
express Himself even through wood and stone.

That is God's omnipotency. That is called omnipotency. Not

that God is unable to express Himself through wood and stone.
Then how He's omnipotent? Omnipotent means His potency
can be expressed through anything. Because anything,
everything is the expansion of God's energy.

Parasya brahmanah saktis tathedam akhilam jagat. The whole

world is manifestation of different energies of God. Therefore...
Just like through the energy of electricity the electric
powerhouse, although far, far away from this place, was
expressing. There is electricity. Through this glass, through
these wires, the power can be expressed. There is a process.

The love and omnipotency of Aprākrta Nama is expressed

through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama just as power house expresses it
electric power as electricity through the wires. For that time
being the sound produced by my prakrta tongue, it is not
ordinary sound. It is a potentially-omnipotent sound that you
can send into your cittam by hearing which will cleanse our
cittam with satcitananda energies.

Creating this oneness between the spirit and matter or between

Aprākrta Nama and prākrta sabda for the time being as willed
by the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu is His special mercy upon
conditioned souls who can only chant and hear matter sounds
with their material tongue, ears and mind. For the sake of rasa

127
or loving exchange, by His supreme will, He becomes the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama though in substance or tattva Aprākrta
Nama alone is always source of such expansion. This is His
causeless mercy as the avatara.

Though the sound produced by us is invested with all His

potencies, such power will manifest only to the extent the
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu decides to reciprocate with the
chanter. Remember Japa seva is a relationship with Nama
Prabhu. It is not automatic impersonal release of power like an
live electric wire. So we can say that Śaktyāvēşa Nama is
omnipotent to different degrees based on the reciprocation of
the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu who is personification of all of
Krishna's personal shaktis of sandhini, samvit and hladini
come down from the spiritual world.

However the power for burning all sinful reactions is vested by

the Lord unconditionally in every syllable of the Hare Krishna
Mahamantra in Kali yuga notwithstanding the purity of
chanter. This is known from the declaration of the sastras.
That is meaning of yuga avatara. Kali Kale Krishna nama rupa
avatara . As far as further empowerment by flow of personal
bhakti energy is concerned, it all depends on the loving
reciprocal relationship between the chanter and the Lord as he
advances in chanting under the guidance of a pure Nama sevak
spiritual master like Srila Prabhupada.

To complete the analogy of wire and electricity, if electricity

was a person then the electricity can decide how much power

128
should go through the copper wire irrespective of the electrical
properties of the wire.

If a son who left home and has been loitering and has to be
brought back to live in his real home, he has to cleansed by
bathing, changing dress, habits,culture etc. The Śaktyāvēşa
Nama also cleanses and cultures our cittam and prepares us to
enter the spiritual world and gives us a spiritual body. Unless
cleansed and cultured by His Śaktis first we cannot enter into
the direct association of chanting and hearing the
transcendental Nama.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

129
Module 22/1

Srila Rupa Goswami's Nama Astakam

(1)
nikhila-śruti-mauli-ratna-mālā-

dyuti-nīrājita-pāda-pańkajānta

ayi mukta-kulair upāsyamānaḿ

paritas tvāḿ hari-nāma saḿśrayāmi

O Hari-nama! The tips of the toes of Your lotus feet are

constantly being worshiped by the glowing radiance emanating
from the string of gems known as the Upanisads, the crown
jewels of all the Vedas.You are eternally adored by liberated
souls, such as Narada and Sukadeva. O Hari-nama! I take
complete shelter of You.

(2)
jaya nāmadheya muni-vṛnda-geya he

jana-rañjanāya param akṣarākṛte

tvam anādarād api manāg udīritaḿ

nikhilogra-tāpa-paṭalīḿvilumpasi

130
O Hari-nama, O name sung by the sages, O transcendental
syllables that bring bliss to the people, even if You are spoken
only once, and even if You are spoken disrespectfully, You at
once remove the many harsh sufferings of everyone.

(3)
yad-ābhāso 'py udyan kavalita-bhava-dhvānta-vibhavo

dṛśaḿtattvāndhānām api diśati bhakti-praṇayinīm

janas tasyodāttaḿjagati bhagavan-nāma-taraṇe

kṛtī te nirvaktuḿ ka iha mahimānaḿ prabhavati

O sun of the Holy Name, even the dim light of Your early dawn
'namabhasa' devours the power of the darkness of the material
world and gives those who are blind to the truth the insight to
follow the path of pure devotion to Krishna. What learned
person in this world can possibly fully describe Your
transcendental glories?

(4)

yad-brahma-sākṣāt-kṛti-niṣṭhayāpi

vināśam āyāti vinā na bhogaiḥ

apaiti nāma sphuraṇena tat te

131
prārabdha-karmeti virauti vedaḥ

O Holy Name, the Vedas declare that although meditation on

impersonal Brahman cannot bring freedom from past karma,
Your appearance [on the tongue of your chanter] at once
makes all karma disappear.

(5)

aghadamana-yaśodānandanau nandasūno

kamalanayana-gopīcandra-vṛndāvanendrāḥ

praṇatakaruṇa-kṛṣṇāv ity aneka-svarūpe

tvayi mama ratir uccair vardhatāḿ nāmadheya

O Holy Name, I pray that my love for You in Your many

forms—such as Aghadamana (Crusher of Aghasura),
Yasodanandana (Son of Yasoda), Nandasunu (Son of Nanda),
Kamalanayana (Lotus-eyed), Gopicandra (Moon of the gopis),
Vrndavanendra (King of Vrndavana), Pranatakaruna (Merciful
to the surrendered souls), and Krishna—may greatly increase

(6)

vācyaḿ vācakam ity udeti bhavato nāma svarūpa-dvayaḿ

pūrvasmāt param eva hanta karuṇaḿ tatrāpi jānīmahe

yas tasmin vihitāparādha-nivahaḥ prāṇī samantād bhaved

132
āsyenedam upāsya so 'pi hi sadānandāmbudhau majjati

O Holy Name, You are manifested in two forms:

1. the Supreme Person described by the Holy Name

2. the sound vibration of the Holy Name. We know that the

second form is even more merciful than the first, because
although a person may commit many offenses to Your first
form, he will still plunge into an ocean of bliss by serving Your
second with His voice.

(7)

sūditāśrita-janārti-rāśaye

ramya-cid-ghana-sukha-svarūpiṇe

nāma gokula-mahotsavāya te

kṛṣṇa pūrṇa-vapuṣe namo namaḥ

O perfect and complete Holy Name of Lord Krishna, You are

the embodiment of delightful and intense spiritual bliss, You
destroy the many sufferings of those who take shelter of You,
and You are a festival of happiness for Gokula. I bow before
You again and again.

133
(8)

nārada-vīṇojjīvana

sudhormi-niryāsa-mādhurī-pūra

tvaḿ kṛṣṇa-nāma kāmaḿ

sphura me rasane rasena sadā

O Krishna-nama! O inspiration of Narada's vina! You are full

of sweetness, which is like an ocean full of waves of nectar. If
You wish, please appear constantly on my tongue, along with
transcendental affection for the Lord.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

134
Module 22/2

Two forms of Nama Prabhu revealed by Srila Rupa

Goswami

The sixth verse of Namastakam by Srila Rupa Goswami, a very

important principle or Nama tattva is explained by him. The
sixth verse is as follows:

vācyaḿ vācakam ity udeti bhavato nāma svarūpa-dvayaḿ

pūrvasmāt param eva hanta karuṇaḿ tatrāpi jānīmahe

yas tasmin vihitāparādha-nivahaḥ prāṇī samantād bhaved

āsyenedam upāsya so 'pi hi sadānandāmbudhau majjati

O Holy Name, You are manifested in two forms: One is the

Supreme Person as the expressable sound (vacyam) or named
and the other is the expressed sound (vacakam) name. (owner
of name and the name). We know that the second form is even
more merciful than the first, because although a person may
commit many offenses to Your first form, he will still plunge
into an ocean of bliss by serving Your second form with His
voice.

Krishna, who is the limitless satcitananda vigraha or body is

source of everything and original cause of all effects in

135
existence. The Holy Name of the Lord, Nama Prabhu has two
parts.

One is the Nama Prabhu as the unexpressed sound (vācyam)

within Krishna’s satcitananda vigraha or body and the second
is the verbally expressed unlimited different name-sound
forms (vācakam) of Krishna expanding outside His body.

These unlimited expressed sound forms, vācakam, which are

the hearable sounds as the unlimited Holy Names of the Lord
are non-different from the person (vācyam), being owner of
the name-sound who is described by that name-sound. They
are inseparable. They are two forms of the Nama Prabhu. And
both vācyam and vācakam are transcendental, the second
being the expression or expansion of first. This is the absolute
relationship between the two. There is no difference between
the unexpressed personality of Nama Prabhu in the the
satcitananda body of the Lord and His expansion as the
audible sounds of the holy Name which are as the expressed
forms of that same personality.

In our terminology used so far, the Nama Prabhu of

unexpressed sound of the holy Name is the 'eternally
soundable Aprakrta Nama Prabhu', the vācyam and is the
eternal source of the Nama Prabhu of expressed sound as the
'eternally sounding Aprakrta Nama Prabhu', the vācakam. The
‘eternally soundable, vācyam’, is the eternal source of eternal
sound, vāchakam. They are two forms of Aprakrta Nama and
both are Suddha Nāma.

136
Next a very significant fact is being revealed by Rupa Goswami.
He says that the Nama Prabhu as the expressed sound is more
merciful than the Nama Prabhu as unexpressed sound. In
other words vācyam Nama gives out more mercy than the
vācakam Nama, the owner of the Nama or the named.

This must be the secret behind Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s

instruction to chant in an audible way as vācakam than just
remembering the Name of the Lord as vācyam.

Now let us come to Nama avatara. The vācakam Nama Prabhu

or the expressed Nama Prabhu who is the eternally sounding
as the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu in the spiritual world descends
into this world into the sound we utter with our tongues and
empowers that sound for the time being into the Shaktyāvesha
Nama making it potentially omnipotent sound. Golokera
premadhāna harināma sankirtana. The holy name is a
transcendental vibration descending mercifully from the
spiritual world into the sound we utter.

The expressed form of the Aprākrta Nāma, descends as the

very soul of the Nāma Avatara and is more merciful than the
unexpressed Aprākrta Nama in the spiritual world because He
tolerates all offenses from a beginner of japa.

The Nama avatara who is the combination of expressed form of

Aprakrta Nama and the Saktyavesha Nama as His sound body
in this world tolerates all offenses done unknowingly.
Saktyavesha Nama is the further materially expressed form of

137
the spiritually expressed Aprakrta Nama. Because Nama
Prabhu has incarnated into it as the Aprakrta Nama,
association with Nama Avatara purifies us and prepares us to
some day utter purely the Aprakrta Nama. Kali kali nama rupe
Krishna avatara.

Just as the Nama Prabhu within the satcitananda vigraha of

Krishna expresses Himself as His Nama sabdha, the Divine
Personality of unexpressed qualities in the satcitananda
vigraha of Krishna expresses Himself eternally as His
wonderful divine qualities for us to perceive with our senses.
And the pure personality of His unexpressed pastimes in the
satcitananda vigraha of Krishna expresses Himself eternally.
Thus there is no difference between His ego, name, form,
qualities and pastimes and His original unexpressed
satcitananda vigraha as He is very reservoir or source of all
these expansions..

Srila Prabhupada writes in SB 10.7.9 Purport

Krsna's body is sac-cid-änanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], or änanda-

cinmaya-rasa-vigraha. That is, any of the parts of His änanda-
cinmaya body can act for any other part. Such are the
inconceivable potencies of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. The Supreme Lord does not need to acquire these
potencies; He already has them.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

138
Module 22/3

Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu descends into the sound which is

service expression of the devotee in the form of chanting &
hearing.

When empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama is acting on us, it is the

transcendental Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu within the
phenomenonal sound that is acting by becoming the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Every action of Śaktyāvēşa Nama is the
action of Aprākrta Nāma.The vessel in which Nama Prabhu's
mercy is delivered is not a thing but it is the act of service

External sound generating service of distinctly chanting by our

tongue is the receptacle into which the transcendental Nama
sound and His energies from the spiritual world is delivered to
us for association.

When an electrified copper wire is electrifying something what

really is acting is not the copper but the electric energy. In
common parlance we say the copper wire is electrifying things.
But copper is different and separate from the current .
However electrified copper is in a different state than
unelectrified copper. The receptacle here is not a thing but a
process or act of service of producing the sound.

139
The prakrta sound is in a state of being a spiritualised sound
for the time being. Lord's Name and His internal energies that
descend are always transcendentally situated in that
empowered sound. Thus Śaktyāvēşa Nama sabda is to be
visualised as a service process and not as a vastu. It is an
expression of the personality of the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu's
reciprocation to the expression by the chanter of calling out the
Nama.

We are using two different names in order to differentiate the

Potent which is Aprākrta Nama Prabhu with His
transcendental potencies and His material manifestation as
empowered omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama. They act
combinedly on the chanter as Nama Prabhu.

We can draw the mercy through attention-touch of

Nama

Though our spiritual mind is dreaming and senses are sleeping

in the spiritual dimension, the soul is eternally radiating
attention or consciousness whether we are conditioned or
liberated. Therefore soul is also called kshetrjna or the knower
of different things. This attention energy of a neophyte chanter
is also touching both the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama and
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu when he attentively hears the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Sharp hearing of Śaktyāvēşa Nama through
serving attention-touch draws purifying spiritual energies into
the cittam and purifies it. When material mind is purified the
original functions of dreaming spiritual mind are awakened.

140
After that happens the pure chanter continues to chant and
hear simultaneously with his awakened spiritual mind and
spiritualized prakrta senses. This stage is just like when we use
our eye glasses we don't see the glass but see through the glass.
The soul chants with his spiritual mind through the
spiritualized prakrta senses without feeling any drag from
them.

Shaktyavesha Nama is the spiritualized matter-dress

of Aprakrta Nama

The Krishna's name, when He descend into the material

elements, those material elements are all spiritual for Him.
The external name made of matter-sound, is also a spiritual
dress for Nama Prabhu. It is not a material dress as there is
nothing is material for Krishna. For us there this material body
is a material dress. For Him if he wears a body of matter, it is
all spiritual. All energies are His and are spiritual for Him as
He is the very source of the energy. When the Lord takes on
any dress, there is no difference between the Lord and the
dress as He is the source of the dress. There is never a
difference between the soul of the Lord and any body He
incarnates into. For the jivas soul is not the source of his body
but is given to him either by material energy or spiritual
energy.

141
We can apply these principles to Archa vigraha also. The
prākrta Vigraha of the Deity is made of stone or metal and the
aprākrta satcitananda Vigraha resembling the form of the
prākrta Vigraha enters and resides in it with His internal
energies.

Archa avatara is not just stone or metal. It is the combination

of aprākrta and spiritualized prākrta vigraha.

The aprākrta satcitananda vigraha enters and spiritualizes the

matter vigraha which act as the medium for devotees to offer
service and receive reciprocation from the identical looking
satcitananada archa avatara residing therein.

If, as sadhakas, we don't learn these truths we will get doubt as

to 'How can a material sound produced by my prākrta tongue
which is not satcitananda be Krishna Himself ? And if He is
dancing on my tongue while chanting then why I am not able
to experience all the glorious things told about holy name
which is tangible to me? The fact is that the Aprākrta Nama
who is Krishna Himself is not the audible sound that we chant
and hear with our material senses.

During japa we have to clearly remember in the background

that the recipient of our service, Sevya, is the Aprākrta Nama
though it is offered through the vessel of Śaktyāvēşa Nama. He
is also grateful for His mercy which makes it possible to serve
Him in our present imprisoned condition. Note there are no

142
two personalities as Aprakrta Nama Prabhu and Śaktyāvēşa
Nama Prabhu. There is only one Prabhu before us during japa
and that is Nama Prabhu along with his merciful form as
Śaktyāvēşa Nama sabda.

How can we understand that Krishna is dancing on

the sadhaka's tongue?

Krishna's absolute name is Krishna Himself and is not a

material sound or just the prākrta sabda. His substance is
always a transcendental or ChInmaya sound. Cit+maya in
sanskrit becomes chinmaya . Chinmaya Nāma sabda is
identical to Krishna Himself . Such Nama is satcitananda stuff,
self-willed, self-sounding, self-manifest, not a sound produced
by any phenomenon. He is surrounded by satcitananda
effulgence and can be begged to descend into the sound by the
material phenomenon.

What is manifest and unmanifest presence of

Aprakrta Nama?

When we cannot hear Him transcendentally as He sounds in

the spiritual dimension because of having not awakened our
spiritual senses at the same time He is present before us , then
that kind of presence is called unmanifest presence of Aprakrta
Nama. Note that unmanifest when applied to the Lord does not

143
mean absent. In the material world if somebody is not seen
with my senses in my immediate space we say he is un-
manifest and is absent before me.

But in the case of Krishna it is not like that. Krishna says in

Bhagavad Gita that ' In My unmanifest form, I pervade the
entire material universe '. Unmanifest here means not that He
is absent but is a kind of transcendental presence not detected
by our senses. Only omnipotent Lord and His pure devotees
who share His omni-potency for His service can have
transcendental presence though not present for my material
senses.

If we were qualified with our awakened spiritual mind and

senses, even in this body, the umanifest Aprakrta Nama just
becomes manifest to such awakened spiritual senses. When I
can chant and hear Him with my awakened spiritual senses, we
call it a spiritually manifest presence of Aprākrta Nama
Prabhu.

The Śaktyāvēşa Nama should never be perceived in our mind

without the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu empowering it. We should
have full faith that Aprākrta Nama Prabhu is present before us
personally resembling my sound resulting in Him materially
manifesting as the Śaktyāvēşa Nama and is being touched by
my attention.

Another crude example to demonstrate how to experience with

faith, the unmanifest Aprakrta Nama, in our sadhana stage,
even before we awaken our spiritual mind and senses is as

144
follows. Suppose I was blind. And I am taken close to
Goverdhan hill in vrindavan by a trusted friend and I am told
that we have reached and right now we standing before the hill.
If I have faith in the person who took me, I can feel the truth of
Goverdhana before me through faith or shraddha though i am
blind. I will immediately fall flat and offer my obeisance
though I cannot see Him.

Not only that I will yearn for the day when my blindness is
cured so my eyes can see the Goverdhana who is before me.
Now I can feel un-manifest presence but cannot feel the
manifest presence due to my blindness. In the same way I
should chant Śaktyāvēşa Nama with faith in the unmanifest
presence of Aprākrta Nama & His shaktis in separation from
the experience of the sweet transcendental Nama.

This creates a feeling of separation from that spiritual

experience of wanting some day pure chanting and tasting the
sweetness of the manifest form of Aprakrta Nama as described
by Srila Rupa Goswami which I am potentially capable of. That
separation builds up a craving for the transcendental
experience of chanting Aprākrta Nama with our spiritual mind
and senses which is glorified in the scriptures as the sweetest
sound, chaitanya rasa vigraha. This separation and craving for
experience of the Aprakrta Nama, the chaitanya rasa vigraha
will accelerate the awakening of our spiritual mind and senses.
This separation and craving is also a perfect form of Nāma
smaranam or appreciative remembrance of the Aprākrta Nāma
Prabhu.

END

145
Module 23/1

The significance of Lord taking on features

resembling prakrta form and name

Srila Prabhupada in the quotes below says the Lord assumes a

form resembling matter body.

Śrīmad-Bhagavatam 9.8.24

"You assume a form resembling a material body just to give us

instructions like those of Bhagavad-Gīta, but actually, you are
the Supreme original person. I, therefore, offer my respectful
obeisances unto You.”

Another similar quote: Bhakitvedanta Purport . CC Adi 5.20

Only for us, who cannot experience anything beyond matter in

our present conditioned state, do the dhamas and the Lord
Himself, in His arca form, appear before us resembling matter
to give us the facility to see spirit with material eyes. In the
beginning this may be difficult for a neophyte to understand,
but in due course, when one is advanced in devotional service,
it will be easier, and he will appreciate the Lord’s presence in
these tangible forms.

Why Lords takes on the avatara with sound features

resembling the sound we generate with our tongue.

146
Read again the above two quotes and note the words
resembling matter and resembling material body. Just for us,
who cannot see or hear spirit with materiel senses, the
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu descends with sound features (how
they sound to our ears) that resembles the sound features of
the external Nama or sound vigraha.

Because the sound features of the Aprākrta Nama resembles

the sound features of externally produced Śaktyāvēşa Nama,
the features of both merge into an overlapping common
perception at the plane of perception of the chanter when he
perceives the sound by hearing. The sound features of both are
indistinguishable from each other and are like identical twins
as far as perceptional features are concerned. Attention on
hearing the detailed sound features of Śaktyāvēşa Nama in the
mood of service amounts to automatically placing attention on
the detailed features of the Aprākrta Nama.

Similarly neglect of one is same as neglect of the other. Loving

one is loving them together. Serving the Śaktyāvēşa Nama is
also serving the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu. They are both
functionally identical though one is Energetic Lord and the
other is Energy Lord. At the perception screen they are one
perfectly overlapping in an indistinguishable manner to receive
and reciprocate our services.

Thus not only on our tongue the sound incarnation is dancing

but he is also dancing the plane of perception which is the

147
mind or citta. The movement of the sounds Hare, Krishna,
Rama in a particular way is the dance being referred to. Not
that Krishna rupa is dancing on the tongue. It is the dance of
Krishna in His 'Nama' form.

Lord incarnates not only on the tongue but also on my mind

screen or cittam when I am attentive and purifies it. Hearing is
a perception. Perception of a thing is different from the thing
itself.

Let us see the whole incarnation process from the perspective

of our perception of the Nāma avatāra on our consciousness or
mind screen. Here below is one basic fundamental truth about
'perception' and the 'perceived'.

There is difference between a real object like 'pen' outside you

which is called the' perceived' and the 'perception of pen' which
exists only in your mind. A 'thing' is different from the
perception of that 'thing'. The perception of a thing is on my
consciousness or cittam-screen while that real thing is outside
of me.

What happens when we chant and hear attentively?

When we chant attentively , the external Nama-sabda is

generated by our prakrta tongue producing its detailed
signature sound features. When our hearing attention is
applied to know the details of sound generated outside of us,
then the features of that sound are impressed on our
consciousness screen and that is experienced as a sound

148
'perception'. Thus there is the sound features outside us and
the perception of it on our mind screen or consciousness
screen.

Next, instantly and simultaneously to our attentive hearing the

self-manifest, self-sounding, self-conscious and brilliantly self-
effulgent Aprakrta Nama Prabhu incarnates not only into the
sound on the tongue but also into the perception of that sound
on my consciousness screen provided I am attentive to the
features of the sound.

Thus the Nāma avatara sound features are dancing on my

tongue as soul of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma and also dancing on my
cittam-screen as soul of the perception of that external sound.
The Nāma Avatāra is before us as the the Empowering Nāma
Prabhu incarnated with His empowered sound body on our
tongue as well as, an empowered perception body (subtle
sound body) on our consciousness screen. The empowered
Nama can be sensed with our material tongue and ears and
mind but the empowering Nama Prabhu can be felt to be
present only with faith.

In this material world we cannot see each other's soul but can
relate with each other's soul through the medium of material
bodies that is surrounding the soul. Similarly we, the souls, can
also relate with the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu, through chanting
and hearing His Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with our material senses
though we cannot chant and hear Him directly without
awakening my spiritual senses. Thus at sadhaka stage Aprakrta

149
Nāma Prabhu receives our services rendered to the Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma.

We can see from this why when attention is not offered to

chant by hearing that chant, the Nama incarnates only on the
tongue but not on the consciousness or mind screen. And you
miss the main effect on the subtle body or cittam for its
purification. Only if you are attentive and hear He incarnates
further into our consciousness screen. Otherwise only the
tongue is touching the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. Such association
cannot give quick benefit of awakening our bhakti.

Attentive hearing is a precondition for getting association of

the Aprakrta Nama at my consciousness or citta plane for self
purification. And thinking during japa blocks attentive hearing
and the cittam-screen is occupied by thinking process.

END

Module 24/1

Attention Energy is spiritual energy

Attention is the most valuable property coming from the soul,

even materially speaking. if you get someone's attention you
have already got hold of the person's soul. So much so that the
huge business model of Google is based on buying and selling
'attention' of jivas. They buy attention from masses and sell
their attention to the advertisers and is the richest business in

150
the world. Today ‘attention’ is a commodity which is traded
world over by the advertisement industry. Every person’s
attention is his closest soul property. We have our free will to
invest it where we want. It is greatest asset and power of jiva.

Source of attention is always spirit. Matter in the form of three

modes of nature cannot generate attention. It can pull soul's
attention to it if I, the soul don't hold it where I want it to shine
using by our free will.

Attention never dies. Attention is present whether we are

awake or asleep. When asleep it is shining on the dream
objects and imaginary situations. When awakened it is shining
on real objects and real situations,

Memories of thoughts, feelings in the cittam depend on

attention to become experience of thoughts and feelings.
Attention energy is finest energy of the soul. Just like without
attention energy is I cannot convert the printed ink on this
paper into a meaning when I read. Only a living person can
read this book because he has attention. Attention is plain
consciousness energy. The soul is the owner of his attention
energy.

Mind is not the attention energy, The mind is the transporter

of the attention energy from the soul to anything outside. It
has the power of attorney of soul's free will to transport
attention, to associate and engage with things, people,
situations and actions within our mind as well as outside our

151
body. So practically attention is where the mind decides to
keep it on.

Movement of attention

When a torchlight is shone on a picture frame on a wall in a

dark room, you immediately see or know the picture. If the
torch is moved to another spot on the wall, you may see a
crawling insect, and your attention will be engaged in seeing
this new object. Just like the light beams from the torch, the
attention beams from the soul and it senses that object which
is called ‘knowing’.

If it shines on the Holy Name sound, then you will hear and
perceive Him. If you give your attention to a sad ‘feeling’ in
your mind, you will feel sad. If you use your free will and divert
the attention from the sad feeling, you will stop feeling sad.
Similarly if you want to 'do' something like thinking, you need
attention. You need attention not only to see but also to do.
Attention is required for not only 'doing' but also for 'knowing'.
Chanting is a 'doing' that needs attention and hearing is
'knowing' that needs attention.

An example is a ping-pong game or in India it is called table

tennis. Attention, for both 'doing' and 'knowing' is easily
observed in the player who plays this game. To strike the ball ,
which is a 'doing', you need attention. After the ball is hit till it
comes back to his court he needs attention for 'knowing' where
the ball is moving each moment. Every chant is a 'doing' to

152
move sounds and every hearing is a 'knowing' to recognize that
sound but concurrently applied as against one after the other
in example of table-tennis.

The agility of our attention energy to move it at will is a great

advantage and is liberating experience. Moving attention here
and there, either to do or to know, at will is one of the
keystones of self-control. What are the factors that determine
the movement of attention? Managing anything involves
moving things around as desired. To move anything by your
will, you need to observe it first. In the same way, to manage
your attention, you need to perceive its movement within you
clearly.

Attention energy (çitta śakti) is the precious and finest

spiritual energy emanating from the soul. Attention and the
owner of attention cannot be separated like sun and sunshine
cannot be separated. When it is directed on 'something', it first
results in knowing that thing. To move our attention energy
from domain to domain requires soul power called willpower
or icchā śakti.

Normally this icchā shakti of the soul is handed over to

material mind which decides where our attention should move
from one instant to another instant. Whatever domain it
shines, it creates experiences for the soul. Our power to hold
attention on a particular domain is sankalpa shakti or
determination.

153
We are eternally generating attention. That is soul's nature.
Just like a magnet is always radiating a magnetic field. Our free
will is not to generate or not generate attention but only
redirect the attention from one domain to the other including
shining it one inner self to know oneself.

The function of attention energy is to facilitate the soul or the

core ego is to know , associate and engage the in varieties of
domain of knowing, identifying, 'being' a situational ego ,
desiring, hoping, thinking, feeling, willing, doing, and
experiencing. None of these can be done without attention.

The soul, thus, uses its free will to associate its attention
energy and engage it on the domain of material energy or
spiritual energy in order to know, to identify, to be, to desire,
to hope, to think, to feel, to will, to do, and to experience. All
this constitute life symptoms.

Soul is kshetrajna

A dead body cannot do any of these functions because the

soul’s attention energy has left the body.
Krishna describes the soul in this body as Kshētrjna, the
knower of the field Kshētra. It knows through attention energy.
Attention energy is brahman energy coming from brahman
soul seated in the heart of every body. Kshētrjna, has the
eternal faculties of free will, identifying with a body, knowing
through jnana indriyas, being the bodily ego,desiring & hoping,
thinking through the intellect, feeling & willing through the
mind, doing through karma indriyas and finally experiencing a

154
domain or field, Kshētra. The soul is perpetually radiating
attention in order to experience. Our free will is only to direct
it.

The soul possessing qualities of personhood and therefore is a

person. Personhood qualities of knowing through jnana
indriyas and doing through karma indriyas, the world outside
him. These are the eternal faculties of the soul and the material
subtle and gross karma indriyas and jnana indriyas are only
instruments that facilitate this soul faculty of 'doing' and
'knowing' through them . All these operate on the basis of
attention energy. And why does the soul do all these activities?
Because, it is the intrinsic nature of the soul to be in experience
of ever fresh dynamic state of sac-cit-ananda rasa of power,
knowledge, love, happiness and pleasure.

Doing attentively and knowing attentively

Since we are discussing basics of attention energy, we will have

an introductory discussion here on the skills of applying
attention which will be dealt in details in the training module
for mindful japa later on.

Chanting is a 'doing' of the sound. Hearing is a 'knowing to

recognize' the sound just as tasting, smelling, touching, seeing
are all knowing. We 'do' things with our karma-indriyas and we
'know' things with our jnana-indriyas. When I do something
attentively or consciously as my action with my karma indriya,
my attention takes the form of doing-attention. Something that
I do automatically like brushing my teeth everyday can be done

155
without doing-attention as a habit. Similarly in inattentive or
auto japa there is no doing-attention as the attention engaged
in 'doing' of some thinking not connected to japa. When there
is doing-attention there is sense of ownership of doing activity
as 'my' doing.

Similarly if we want to know anything with our jnana indriyas

like hearing, our attention takes the form of knowing-attention
to recognize the sound. Again there is sense of personal
knowing activity of 'I am knowing'. We can be knowing
automatically without offering knowing-attention as in the
case when our trained mind tracks the number of rounds by
moving the beads and sakshi mala without actual mind being
on hearing. Therefore if we have to attentively chant and
attentively hear we have offer both doing-attention to 'do' the
chant and knowing-attention to 'know' to recognize the chant
as 'my doing' and 'my knowing'. If that sense of 'my' is there
them attention is sure to be there.

This is just an introduction to this concept of how our attention

divides itself into doing & knowing when we do anything
attentively. These two kinds of applied attentions, doing
attention& knowing attention are needed to sustain attention
on Śaktyāvēşa Nama. When we discuss about training for
mindful japa in a later module, this will become very clear.

Doing effort or Kriya cesta steers the doing-attention and

knowing effort or jnana cesta steers knowing-attention .

156
Attention from soul is also like the light from light torch. Soul
is like an ever-lit attention torch. You can observe your
attention by its changing effect when you move it from one
domain to the other. You cannot catch it directly and control.
The soul can indirectly control the domain of application of
attention by controlling its another faculty called cesta shakti
or personal effort which is in direct control of my free will.
Please note that cesta is the point of controlling attention. This
is very important to understand for attentive japa.

I can decide where to shine my ever-lit attention torch of my

soul using my atma-cesta shakti. Atma cesta shakti is
amenable to my free will.

When the soul wants to attentively 'do' something it uses its

doing effort or kriya cesta using his iccha-sankalpa shakti
which polarises attention into doing-attention on to that
domain of the task. When it wants to 'know' something it uses
knowing effort or jnana cesta using his iccha-sankalpa shakti
which polarises attention into knowing-attention on to the
domain of knowing.

Attention is one energy but when applied for my-doing, it is

doing-attention and when applied for my-knowing it is
knowing-attention.

In chanting and hearing, the soul or me has to apply my doing

effort to direct my doing-attention on chanting the sound and
my knowing effort to direct my knowing-attention to hear that

157
very sound. And cesta is guided by vidhi or direction of how to
do and how to know. In japa, vidhi or direction is to distinctly
chant and sharply hear. Thus vidhi purvaka cesta applied with
iccha-sankalpa shakti of the soul it directs attention. Note that
it is not impersonal attention we are talking about but my
doing attention and my knowing attention. It is personalised
attention.

The secret of controlling attention is to control my

cesta by my free will.

Cesta is soul's action potency. Iccha-sankalpa is soul's free will

potency. Asha is soul's desire potency. So to attentively chant
and hear, asha-iccha-sankalpa shakti has to be applied on my
cesta shakti which in turn will cause our attention energy to be
locked in chanting and hearing. Simply trying to observe the
'attention' energy as plain awareness and trying to control it is
not the method of controlling attention. Free will has to be
applied on atma cesta shakti to produce my attentive 'doing'
and 'knowing' of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama as per the vidhi or
direction. You have press the right lever with your free will and
that lever is personal cesta shakti with a sense of 'me doing'
and 'me knowing' and not just impersonal auto-doing and
knowing.

158
Training

What are the skills to do this will be discussed when the

training sessions are discussed in later modules. But we will
discuss in broad terms on what we achieve by training.

Srila Prabhupada says, Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.16.

26-30, Hawai, Jan 23, 1974

Even impure … therefore we must have fixed chanting process.

Because we are not in pure stage. Therefore by force….Just like
a boy in school. We had this training in in our childhood
school. Our teacher would ask me , you write ten pages
handwriting.” So that means practicing ten pages , my
handwriting will be set up. So if we do not follow sixteen
rounds, where is the question fo chanting Hare Krishna? Don’t
be artificial.

During training one has to desire and determine that I will do

this or that, then that is called positive free will or sankalpa.
Also we have to desire and determine that I will not do
anything else, then that is called negative free will or
vikalapa.To only chant & hear we need sankalpa śakti. To do
nothing else like 'thinking' during japa requires application of
vikalpa śakti. it is the desire & determination to reject
distractions during the training stage. When trained, the mind
will slowly learn and form a Ego-intelligence-mind-doer
(EIMD) slice or cittam-slice to carry out this task.

159
Once trained, self-control through strong will power is not
necessary. However there can be no meaning to devotional
service without conscious effort or 'my' atma cesta being
offered resulting in 'my' doing attention to chant and 'my'
knowing attention to hear.

Soul, mind and body is to be involved in Japa. Training will

make our japa automatic as far as actions of body and mind are
concerned. My yantra is trained for auto-japa to support my
atma-japa. After training it only means offering spontaneous
atma-cesta as against consciously disciplined cesta. It is
struggle less because body-mind's default conditioned actions
are fully aligned to the atma cesta. Training is not done so that
one day I can do auto japa. The goal of training the yantra is
fine tune auto-japa to support my atma cesta and to prevent it
from acting as a drag to such atma-japa.

And when such alignment happens, one does not have to

mobilise strong sankalpa and vikalpa sakti to be attentive.
What is required is only spontaneous sankalpa and vikalpa,
which is not tiring to the mind and as there is absolute
cooperation from the yantra through trained actions.

Room Conversation: 1968, July 16

Prabhupäda: Yes. If you give attention, it is better. Even if you

don't give attention, simply hear, that will also have some
effect.

160
Shivänanda: Now, can... We should be able to control our
attention then, to direct our attention to where.

Prabhupäda: Then what is the use of sitting if you don't control

your attention? Then you are simply wasting time. Why do you
come? That is understood. When you come to hear, that means
you must hear with attention. But this is a concession, that
even if you don't hear with attention, you become purified. But
if you do it, it is very nice. You make progress. You get the
result very quickly. So success of life is to please Krishna, or
the Supreme Lord, by one's occupational duty.

We all know atma cesta to serve someone can never be

generated artificially by any technique. It can sustain only
through priti or love. We all have some priti for Lord Krishna
though it may not be as much as priti for oneself or others in
our life. That is why you are even reading these modules. Priti
is a matter of heart or the soul. The adjustments at the yantra
level in the form of training our japa is only an expression of
our soul’s desire to improve japa process.

The mind never stops working. Default thinking, feeling and

willing which are the winds of the mind, consume the attention
of the soul. They never stop blowing and sucking our attention.
A disciplined mind is like the sails that harness these winds.
Training the mind is only to set up these sails to use the mind
force favourably and avoid the unfavourable counter forces of
an untrained mind. This is the thrust for training the mind.
Disciplined mind can be our friend and an undisciplined mind
can be our enemy of japa.

161
When the Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu sees our sincere effort
to experience pure Krishna consciousness expressed through
our struggle by executing a disciplined japa with priti, He
becomes pleased and helps us

Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.10.2/ Mayapur, June 17,

1973

Similarly, Krishna is always ready to help us, provided we are

also ready to cooperate with Him. If we cooperate with Him,
what Krishna desires, if we want to do little, immediately
Krishna will help you. If you work one percent, Krishna will
help you ten percent. Again if you work one percent, Krishna
will help you another ten percent. But the cent percent credit
you get, by the help of Krishna. Krishna gives you intelligence.

END

162
Module 24/2

Quality of chanting-attention is called Ēkatva and

Quality of hearing-attention is called Anutva

The Ayurvedic students are taught that there are two qualities
of mind. One is ēkatva, and other is anutva. These two are a
measure of the qualities of our attention. Eka means one and
tva indicates quality. Ekatva means quality of doing only one
well defined thing without being distracted to other doings.

Anu means minute details. Anutva means sharpness and

agility in knowing the details of what you are knowing.

Ekatva in japa is the quality of chanting-attention or

doing-concentration.

It means single pointedness of my doing-attention to only

chant on each bead the full mantra and repeat it and not to do
anything else till I reach my prefixed target like 108 beads.
Doing only one thing and nothing else. Thinking is thought
processing and hence it is also a doing which is competitive to
chanting. Therefore our mind should not indulge in thought
processing. Please note that 'no thinking' does not mean no
static thought-feelings like I am serving Nama Prabhu etc.

163
'No thinking' means no processing of those thoughts or
internal chat between one part of the mind and another part of
the mind. We can never be totally free from thought/s even for
a single moment. We are not talking about thoughtlessness
when we say 'no thinking'.

Anutva is a quality of my knowing-attention to hear or

knowing to recognize the unique sounds that we speak.
General knowing is knowing without the quality of anutva of
recognizing each sound. Knowing with anutva to recognize is
different from general knowing or hearing without recognizing.
Hearing with anutva means fineness of catching each word by
recognizing the sound by our knowing-attention to recognize
the signature of the sound.

It means my knowing & recognizing of one word should we

quickly done without overlapping with the next. Each of the
names Hare, Krishna, Rama of the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu
should be heard by recognizing its unique way of sounding,
which are different from each other, in quick succession with
agility without overlap between one and the next name-sound
that I am uttering. This is high resolution hearing-cum-
recognizing. High resolution seeing of digital pictures is
example of anutva in seeing. You need high resolution of your
seeing faculty to see the separate dots of a colour picture.

The general awareness that I am chanting is not enough.

Anutva means specifically 'knowing to recognize' the sound
form of the current name on the tongue as against the past one

164
and the next one coming and recognizing the combined sound
of 16 sounds of the mantra's sabda swarupa.There is clear
distinction though not separated with any time gap. All this is
done extremely fast by the mind at the speed of your chanting
as soon as you chant each Nama. Without it cannot happen. I
am just giving an exploded view as to what happens at the
speed of mind after we have trained our mind once. That is
called good quality of anutva or discretely knowing each sound.
This is the reason we use the word hearing to recognize and
not just hearing. Srila Prabhupada uses the term " carefully
hearing".
For instance, take the example of a table tennis game. First,
you offer doing endeavour to strike the ball that comes into
your court by applying your doing-effort with doing attention.
Then without distraction of doing anything else you wait for
the ball to return to your side of the court. It should be single-
pointed on playing the game by offering kriya-cesta. That is
ēkatva-the quality of doing.

Next, immediately after striking the ball, you need to move

your knowing-effort to move your attention swiftly in knowing
the detailed location where the ball is moving every moment.
That sharpness and agility of knowing-attention to pick up
details of changing location of a moving ball while doing is
called anutva in this case. Ēkatva is a quality of your undivided
doing-attention and anutva is a quality of your detailed,
discerning, sharp knowing-attention. Discerning means ability
to see each word sounds different from the other.

In the case of the table tennis doing effort is followed by

knowing effort to know where the ball is moving and we exert
doing effort followed by knowing effort. I have given this

165
example for you to clearly see the two kinds of efforts (cesta)
and the two kinds of attention that they release.

However in the case of japa doing effort to chant and knowing

effort to hear is happening concurrently on every sound.

In Japa we also recognize the hearing of one integrated long

Name of 16 words as one unit formed of these 16 names. We
have to be on current mantra without overlap with its
preceding and succeeding mantra in our attention. This is done
with a micro break between two beads of japa. Hearing and
recognizing each mantra as a unit is important since Sevya,
who is receiving the service is one full mantra. High resolution
hearing is anutva.

It takes time and training of the mind to develop concurrent

ēkatva and anutva on each Mantra by offering respective
deliberate doing effort and knowing effort applied on each
Mantra. There are some secrets Srila Prabhupada has revealed
how to do this. We have dealt with it from module 44.

What is concentration? Concentration means ekatva in ‘doing’

and anutva in ‘knowing’. Both these cestas are heart action or
act of the soul. Concentration in japa means simultaneous
ekatva in chanting the sound combined with anutva in
knowing that sound.

A good ekatva-anutva atma japa, not only purifies our heart or

contaminated consciousness but even the mind, intelligence
and ego will develop excellent material abilities to concentrate
on any task with sharpness for details and swiftness or agility
in comprehension of what is being heard. Thus, doing good

166
japa will sharpen even the material abilities of our body-mind-
cittam yantra.

To touch the sound incarnation through two kinds of soul’s

serving-attention is the goal. Serving-attention, both doing-
attention through tasteful kriya cēstā with quality of ekatva
and knowing-attention through appreciative & grateful jnana
cēstā with anutva quality on the same sound is the only conduit
for flow of spiritual mercy to the soul from the Nāma Avatāra
who is manifest before our senses.

Chanting with ekatva means 'Doing without doing anything

else' and hearing with anutva means 'knowing to recognize' the
sound-signature of each mantra of 16 names.

END

Module 24/3

Good hearing is not just knowing but is appreciative

knowing to recognize.

Deliberate sharp sound-discerning knowing attention can be

understood easily in the case of tasting food. We recognize
sweet taste, bitter taste, sour taste etc using our detailed sharp
knowing-effort releasing detailed discerning knowing-
attention and not by general careless knowing-attention. We
have to know the sound with appreciation from your heart that

167
He is Krishna Himself with flow of gratitude to Him for having
descended for me.

Another example of a deliberately directed detailed sound-

discerning knowing-effort releasing detailed discerning sharp
knowing-attention is when one enters a perfume store with the
intention to smell different perfumes to select the one that you
like. Behind that smelling there are feelings of hope to find
what you want etc. Here we hear with appreciation, gratitude
and hope for mercy.

Letter to Radha Vallabha Dāsa January 6, 1972

Concentrate fully on the sound vibration of the mantra,

pronouncing each name distinctly and gradually your speed in
chanting will increase naturally. Do not worry so much about
chanting fast, most important is hearing.

As already analysed, ‘knowing to recognize ’ the string of 16

name-sounds of the Mahamantra is hearing. Hearing has to
have the quality of sharp attention for details. What is sharp
attention for details? Detailed sharp attention means
differentiating attention, by which one recognizes differences
of the sound of Hare, Krishna, Rāma by recognizing how it
sounds in the background mind. Once it is practiced, this kind
of recognizing each Nama super fast and tasty too. The
background mind is intuitive mind and works at very higher
speed than the foreground thinking mind.

168
It is not enough to perceive all of them as general sounds. Each
of these discrete sounds are perceived as part of the entire
string of names of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

Just like if you have a very tasty prasadam you will enjoy every
bit of its taste. Each of the sounds have a unique signature-
sound with its own sweetness. ‘Hare’ is a signature sound
different from other sounds. ‘Krishna’ is a signature sound
different from other sound. ‘Rāma’ is a signature sound
different from others. And the sound of the string of Hare
Krishna Mahamantra is again different. There varieties of
sound flavours are in the mahamantra namely Hare, Krishna
and Rama.

Not losing sight of Sevya

That sound signature has to be recognized by our attention by

‘knowing’ it in a time frame of ‘here and now’ as part of
progression to complete the full mantra which is there in our
perception as Sevya who is to be repeatedly served bead after
bead.

The Sevya's sabda swarupa has a Hare Krishna string of eight

names and a Hare Rama string of eight names. It is this
personal sound identity of Nama Prabhu who is being served
as the Sevya.

169
Many japa chanters, while focussing on hearing each word.
they loses sight of the identity of full sound string as a unit
Sevya in their perception by not recognizing of the entire string
as one unit after each bead. He gives attention only to the
specific components of the sound string. He is left with only
chanting and knowing of each component Name without
simultaneously holding the ‘knowing’ of the full mantra as a
single unit being served. The purpose of bead is to help is
maintain the identity of the mantra. Parts building towards the
whole is required.

During the entire japa the 'hearing' or ‘knowing’ to recognize

the sound identity of the full mantra, who is the real Sevya
should never be lost from the awareness of the japa doer.
Individual chants build up the to the full string. So sound
string itself should not be forgotten as the one being served.
Just like if you are so absorbed in details of serving a feast to
the guest, you cannot forget the guest himself . Therefore, the
importance of the recognition of the sound string consisting of
Hare Krishna string and Hare Rama string, who is receiving
our service as the Sevya. That is why japa with each sound
recognition is also called as Nāma smaranam.

One should understand there are surely transcendental

reasons that the different names have decided to join together
into a single sound identity of sound incarnation whose sabda
swarupa is these sixteen names and then descended into this
world as the Nāma Avatāra. He is the personality of the mantra
who is being served. Not individual names alone which are
components of the whole mantra.

170
One has to respect and recognize this particular combination
for relating with the mantra in that particular form and not
just go on doing japa like an unbroken train of names like a tap
water flow while mechanically moving the beads. The beads
play a great role is prompting the mind to recognize the
specific identity of the full mantra as the Sevya by splitting the
continuous attentions into discrete bits of attention over each
mantra and each bead. We call it as offering quantized
continuous attention as against mere continuous attention on
japa. Each mantra chant is as absolute as every other chant.

Thus, attentive hearing is not just giving general knowing-

attention on the Nāma sabda through a general casual
knowing-effort. Hearing is the knowing attention with
intention to recognize the unique sound identity and
remember Him. The practice of offering deliberate knowing-
effort to know with intention to recognize each of the specific
sounds through the knowing-attention as part of the
recognizing the full mantra, is the real practice of hearing.
Once practiced discerning & recognizing the sound string is
done by the background mind while the foreground mind
hears.

END

171
Module 25

Attentive sound-connection, Attentive sound-touch

and Attentive sound-embrace

The satcitananda Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu is a self-sounding

and self-conscious and spiritually effulgent nama sabda that
not only resembles the sound that the chanter is producing
externally but also not hearable by material ears. Self-sounding
and self-aware means there is no need for a material tongue to
generate the sat-çit-ānanda Aprākrta Nāma Nāma Prabhu.

The self-sounding sound is a self-willed expansion of the

eternally sounding Nāma Avatari or the Suddha Nāma of the
spiritual world. This self-sounding aprākrta sound of the
spiritual world descends and overlaps its sound features into
the sound features of the sound produced with our material
tongue and spiritualizes those sound features fully and makes
such materially generated audible sound features potentially
omnipotent called Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Once the Lords decides to incarnate in any matter form, like

Śaktyāvēşa Nama , there remains nothing material there.
Material energy regains its original status of being spiritual
energy. Maha maya becomes yoga maya. For the the Lord there
is no difference between His soul and His body at all times

172
whether in the spiritual world or in the material world because
entire existence is sourced from Him and is His.

When chant (calling out) distinctly with attention (my doing-

attention) , we invoke the Nama Avatara on our tongue and
that forms the our attentive sound-connection with Nama
Prabhu.

The purpose of the satcitananda Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu

incarnating with sound features resembling externally
sounding Śaktyāvēşa Nama is for these sound features to act as
a gateway for my soul's attention to connect the soul to world
of spirit by touching the materially audible Śaktyāvēşa Nama
with my hearing attention.

Touching God with our attention

Application of our mind on the sound features of Nama

Avatara by way of sharply perceiving those sound features
through our knowing attention to know each discrete sound or
sharp hearing amounts to touching the Avatara and is called
the attentive sound-touch of the Nama avatar by the materially
trapped soul. When the chanter distinctly pronounces and
carefully hears in detail the external sound features with his
knowing-attention, that very same attention simultaneously
also touches the transcendental sound features of sound of the
sac-cit ananda Aprakrta Nama Prabhu. Because the sound
features of the Lord is the Lord Himself, the chanter is directly

173
touching God Himself with his attention that recognizes those
sound features with his knowing attention.

Embracing God with our attention

Sustained attention-touch or holding the attention by means of

uninterrupted tasking of repetition of concurrent chanting-
cum-hearing is called attentive sound-embrace of the Nama
Prabhu. Uninterrupted tasking amounts to sound embrace of
the Nama Prabhu with our respectful attention. We will
discuss more on tasking ands it's importance in the practice
section.

The sat-çit-ānanda Aprakrta Nama Prabhu cannot be touched

by material senses. Atah sri Krishna Nāmaadi bhaved grahyam
indriyam. Chanting and hearing sharply sound features in a
manner where one carefully discerns each sound by its unique
signature sound with knowing-attention is the secret of
associating with that incarnation and transforming ourselves
by our attention-touch.

So proper quality hearing can be described as carefully

respectful hearing, or discretely hearing or sharp respectful
hearing.

174
External sound features equivalent to transcendental
sound features.

We have already discussed several times that the sat-çit-

ānanda Aprakrta Nāma Prabhu with all His satcitananda
energies, descends into the features of external sound and
spiritualizes and empowers it just like electricity electrifies the
wire through which it passes.

Normally spirit cannot be accessed with material senses. It has

to be accessed with spiritual senses. Yet the Aprakrta Nama
Prabhu mercifully makes it possible by His omnipotency to
serve Him by serving His Śaktyāvēşa external Nama. Therefore
hearing Him sharply is a great opportunity to associate with
Him through our attention who is verily the ocean of
satcitananda spirit.

The omnipotent Lord mercifully creates this functional

oneness of the aprākrta sound and sound we produce by
making the sound we produce regain its status as pure spiritual
energy. And there is no difference between the Lord and His
body. His body is HIs soul and His soul is HIs body. For
functional purposes, at the plane of perception of the chanter
both the Lord and His energy become one. The Lord can
anytime become or unbecome any of His energies. This
understanding is derived from the achintya beda abheda
tattva.

175
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu does not need a external
Nama to act in this world but we need.

The Aprākrta Nama does not actually need any matter sound
body to act in this world as He is already the real mover of
everything in existence as the Supersoul or Paramatma-
Krishna. Merely by His will He can move anything and
everything. But it only for us alone to be audible, He takes on
as a matter manifestation or incarnation like the Śaktyāvēşa
Nama.

Aprākrta Nama acts always from His transcendental plane of

existence even in His incarnation as the Śaktyāvēşa Nama. The
external Śaktyāvēşa Nama mimes such transcendental acts of
the Aprākrta Nama as His body in the material dimension for
our sake as we cannot at present chant or hear Him
transcendentally but can chant and hear only the Śaktyāvēşa
Nama. This is the reason we never get tired chanting the Lord's
Name unlike how we get tired if we have repeatedly chant a
same material sound. The energy from the Śaktyāvēşa Nama
will move the tongue which we call as divya cesta shakti. The
Nama Avatara enables us to relate with Him through our
material senses. Nama Prabhu thus exists in the material world
and performs wonderful pastimes through the omnipotent
body of Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Nama Prabhu can do anything in
the material world and manifest the same through the
omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama order to reciprocate with His
devotees.

176
Nama Prabhu receives and accept services through
the Śaktyāvēşa Nama

Though the sat-çit-ānanda Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu is

transcendental to material dimension , He accepts directly
every service that is rendered to the tangible or audible sound
features of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama sound body which is not a
material sound . When we are embodied in our material bodies
we interact with each other through our bodies but in illusion.
Further, in our mutual interaction, we the conditioned souls,
are limited by the what the body is capable to offer and receive
though our wishes may be beyond such limitations. Suppose
you are 1 km away from me then I cannot serve you a nice
prasadam meal nor can you receive my service even if we wish
due to limitation of our bodies.

There is no limitation of space and time and substance for the

Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu to receive any service rendered to the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama or give out any mercy to the chanter because
Śaktyāvēşa Nama is His omnipotent sound in this world who
has no material limitations of space, time and substance as it is
no longer a material sound though it is a sound produced by
our material tongue. Instantaneously to our uttering, the
Aprakrta Nama Prabhu incarnates into it that sound vessel.

However because the conditioned soul is trapped in the

material mind , the limitations of such a mind limits his
capacity to absorb His mercy reciprocations. I can absorb such
mercy flow only to the extent the purity of my body-mind

177
system allows. For instance, a pure devotee's spiritualized
body-mind system can receive and manifest transparently His
Will in this material world than one who is still under influence
of three gunas.

Nama Prabhu engages in wonderful pastimes

Nama Prabhu , who is a transcendental sound body along with

His incarnated Śaktyāvēşa Nama sound body performs
wonderful pastime or activities in the life of the chanter as He
wishes, like any other person of this world would act and live
with you. He is in a relationship with the devotees in
accordance with his surrender and heartful service to Him.

So also the devotee sees the Lord before Him out of love and
does not even note the intervening material energy because He
focusses on the divine sound features which are as good as the
sound features of the transcendental Nama Prabhu. Aprakrta
Nama's act of matching His features with the sound features of
the external nama sabda while He descends into it is done to
create a gateway for the trapped soul to touch Him
transcendentally with his knowing attention. Attention on
hearing the sound features is a big secret of good quality japa.

178
Lord's own features and the features formed of
Lord's energies become one at the plane of
perception.

Focussing our active serving attention on the tangible sound

features of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama by distinctly chanting and
sharply and discerned hearing , it amounts to simultaneously
serving the transcendental sound features of the sat-çit-ānanda
Nāma Prabhu. The sat-çit-ānanda Aprakrta Nama Prabhu
overlaps the very features of Śaktyāvēşa Nama not only on the
tongue but also at the plane of perception of that Nama on my
mind screen or consciousness. Thus you should have faith that
simultaneously you are touching with your attention both
sound features of His matter manifestation that has become as
good as Himself and the sound features of Lord in person as
Nama Prabhu and also as. You are associating with total
existence, energetic and the energy. Lord who is the Aprakrta
Nama is the energetic and His personal energies is the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Every unit of chanting and hearing is received by the

Nama Prabhu.

By serving of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama, the Supreme sat-çit-

ānanda Nāma Prabhu accepts that service and reciprocates
through His shaktis infused in the sound. Though, as
neophytes, we cannot spiritually experience, with our serving
attention, the transcendental features of sat-çit-ānanda Nāma
Prabhu due our sleeping spiritual senses, nothing bars loving
reciprocation between devotee and the satcitananda Nama
Prabhu through the via medium of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama based

179
on the spiritual principle of as we surrender Krishna
reciprocates.

So I should not think that since my spiritual mind and senses

are sleeping and therefore I cannot have personal
reciprocations with Aprākrta Nama Prabhu and create an
artificial distance from Him. The very appearance of the Lord
as Śaktyāvēşa Nama itself is a personal reciprocation of the
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu who is before you.

The main function of the externally perceivable sat-çit-ānanda-

ized Śaktyāvēşa Nama is to kick out the influence of three
modes on our cittam by infusion of sat, cit and ananda energies
and to spiritualize it. Just thinking of Aprakrta Nama is not
enough. Hearing is required. To create an impact on material
plane of cittam or material subtle body, we have to invoke His
material manifestation which is the Śaktyāvēşa Nama and
touch Him with our attention.

Omnipotency & Causeless mercy.

Normally through matter the jivas can never access spirit. This
transcendental possibility of simultaneously touching the
transcendental sat-çit-ānanda Nama Prabhu with our attention
when we touch with our attention the sat-çit-ānanda-ized
Śaktyāvēşa Nama of material dimension is made possible by
two qualities of the Nama Prabhu namely the omnipotency and
compassionate mercy upon the jivas. The Lord says he
incarnates by His ‘sva-atmamayaya’.

180
It is exactly this omnipotent ‘atmamaya' which makes it
possible for a spiritualized matter body to become a bridge to
access the Aprākrta Nama. The possibility of the conditioned
soul's to access the transcendental features of transcendental
lord in any kind of incarnation is due to the mystical and
omnipotent action of His 'atmamaya' potency.

The cycles of incremental purification

Every attention connection by attentive chanting followed by

attention-touch or association of the Lord through attentive
hearing with appreciative and grateful remembrance results in
incremental awakening of our spiritual sleeping and dreaming
soul a little more than before the touch due to purification or
removal of ignorance by infusion of fresh spiritual cit & sat
energy from the Nama Prabhu during that association. This
results in development of little incremental increase in faith &
awakening of relationship with Krishna than before, however
tiny it may be and not recognizable.

And because of this the soul in turn becomes a little more

better enabled spiritually or more awakened to do the next
chanting and hearing of Him with little more purity than the
previous bead. When we again chant and hear Him with
freshly achieved increased purity we the faith deepens with
increased awakening. And this cycle of constant incremental
purification of our cittam moves our consciousness to situate
ourselves higher and higher self from bodily self, to our
authentic self when the soul’s mind and senses is fully
awakened some day.

181
This is the self purifying cyclic process of japa described by
Lord Chaitanya as ceta darpanam marjanam. Cleansing of our
heart of three gunas. This results in dissolving the covering of
the soul more and more to eventually uncover the soul of all
ignorance and awaken our spiritual mind. Unfortunately
invariably we undo the purification effected thus if we engage
in fruitive activities and sense gratification. So we see the net
effect of both cleansing & dirtying going on in a beginner. Build
up of awakening therefore requires that we do our japa and
also rest of time we don't dirty out cittam with fruitive
activities and sense gratification. We have to be engaged in
different kinds of devotional service to achieve quick
awakening of our original Krishna consciousness.

We gradually begin to experience the transcendental chanting

and transcendental hearing over and above normal ordinary
chanting and hearing with our material senses to the extent
our lording attention is purified into purer and purer serving
attention manifesting as genuine humility. As japa progresses
over time, not only the transcendental nature of personality of
Nāma Prabhu is experienced, even the japa doer identity is
awakened into a purer spirit doer and a purer spirit
experiencer of Nama Prabhu free from false ego.

Self realization & God realization happens

simultaneously.

182
Thus, realization of one's true authentic self as spirit servant of
Krishna and realization of the Aprakrta Nāma of the Lord
keeps happening together. There cannot be realization of
satcitananda Nāma Prabhu without simultaneous realization
of self as satcitananda beyond this material body. The chanter
by virtue of association with Nāma Avatāra first realizes that
the soul is distinct from bodily concept of life due to flow of
pure 'satcit' energies from Him into our cittam extraordinary
because our attention is now contaminated with purposes,
desires and intentions disconnected from Krishna's plans and
pleasures. As we get more and more purified, the direct
experience of Aprakrta Nama is realized proportionately.

Nama smaranam

When someone admirable is not before your senses but you

think of the identity features of that person like how he looks,
sounds, thinks etc without break in an appreciating spirit, then
that is called smaranam of that person. Features of self could
be form or name or talk or any quality etc. Similarly active
doing-attention to chant and knowing-attention to hear
applied on the sound-features of sat-çit-ānanda-ized
Śaktyāvēşa Nama with feeling of appreciation of His
compassion and separation from experiencing the
satcitananda Nama with spiritual senses is called Nama
smaranam. Further nama smaranam expands into
spontaneous smaranam of His pastimes in the heart of a pure
chanter by the mercy of the Nama Prabhu.

183
Nama avatara reveals the form, qualities and
pastimes.

Brahma samhita describes the personal body or vigraha of the

Supreme Perosnality of Godhead as ananda-cinmaya-sad-
ujjwala vigraha or sat cit ananda vigraha. So the Name of His
vigraha is also satcitananda Nama. The form of His vigraha is
also satcitananda-rupa. The qualities of His vigraha is also
satcitananda. The activities of His vigraha is also satcitananda-
lila etc. His Nama vigraha or body is the culmination of
everything about Himself.

Suddha Nama can reveal His satcitananda vigraha which

comprises His form, qualities, pastimes etc. Anyone of then
contains every one of the other. This principle is called advaya
jnana or non-dual knowledge.

Letter to Jagadisa-Feb 27 1970

“When we chant, we must concentrate our mind on the sound

vibration and in that way everything will be revealed one after
another; the form, qualities, pastimes, etc. of the Lord. And
this is the way of cultivating spiritual realization.”

Thus sharp knowing attention or discretely hearing of the

sound features of Nama Avatara not only purifies our cittam
but also eventually reveals Krishna's form, qualities, pastimes
etc.

184
“Entire Krishna's pastimes are present in the Nama.”
HariNāma Cintamani 2.31

krishnera samagra lila naame vidyamāna

Nāma se parama tattva tomara vidhāna

“ The entire panaroma of Lord Krishna’s pastimes is present in

the Hare Krishna maha mantra. Lord Gauranga has personally
declared the Hare Krishna mahamantra to be the highest
Absolute Truth ”

Since Aprakrta Nama sound is absolute, one should have faith

that all transcendental existential truths will be revealed by
that Absolute sound by chanting & hearing Him. Our
consciousness does not need the help of material mind or
intellect or false ego to generate thoughts by artificially
thinking of Krishna’s līlā, etc. during japa. Our cittam only has
to receive the name, form, qualities, and pastimes that will
bestowed upon us by Śuddha Nāma on His own will based on
our desire and greed for the same. The mind is required only to
receive the name, form, qualities, and pastimes that will
bestowed upon us by Śuddha Nāma on His own will based on
our desire and greed for the same and played into our minds

185
like a television through a top-down process as revealed by
Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu Ki Jai !!!

END

186
Module 26/1
Journey of self-purification and awakening of the
spiritual mind.

In the spiritual world everything is made of cit or self

conscious substance or cinmaya vastu. However the body,
social ego, intelligence and mind in the material world
surrounding the soul is not spiritual. It is not made of self-
conscious energy called 'cit' like the soul stuff. But we act as if
it is cinmaya vastu due to identification of 'myself' ego feeling
with it.

Who are we ? The status of uncovered jiva in the

spiritual world.

Jiva or brahman means spirit person (contrary to impersonal

school) . Brahman means the eternal individual person with
his individuality and functions of cinmaya ego, intelligence and
mind and body. Brahman is capable of eternal personal
functions of identifying with His own spiritual gross body of
spirit substance and create an experience for himself about
'being' a gross cinmaya body with a corresponding bodily ego
by 'operating' them both by means an eternal constitutional
doer identity as an eternal servant of Krishna using his
precious free will. All of which manifest as the eternal egotism
comprising of I, my body, my actions and mine. That is the

187
core personality of the soul as an eternal loving servitor of
Krishna.

The core personality, through His free will 'operates' his

spiritual intelligence, mind, body and its senses to serve and
please Krishna who is the most intimately related to each soul
in some particular relationship in one of the five primary rasas
or mellows namely santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and
madhurya. This core loving servitor personality, through his
faculties of seeing, desiring, hoping, thinking, feeling, wiling
and doing seeks to give varieties of ananda or rasa (rasa-ing) in
relationship with Parabrahman and other brahman beings in
the spiritual world created by the internal energy of Krishna.
His constitutional happiness is His eternal loving bond with
Krishna and is in partaking in serving the purposes, plans and
pleasures of his eternal lover, Krishna.

That doer-identity applies his faculties of seeing through all the

jnana indriyas, desiring, hoping, thinking, feeling, willing and
doing with all his karma-indriyas to contribute to the pleasure
of Parabrahman. He partakes in the ananda of serving Krishna.
This puts the jiva in the eternal state of itself experiencing bliss
and pleasure called Krishna consciousness. He has discovered
the eternal truth that I belong to Krishna. He seeks rasa or
mellows in loving service of Krishna, by operating his spiritual
body with his spiritual mind and spiritual intelligence or
spiritual 'cittam' is spiritual world of spiritual beings.

Then what happens in the material world ? Srila Prabhupada

says; SB 4.30.20

188
“At present we have contacted a material body, material mind
and material intelligence, but when we become free from these
material conditions, our spiritual body, spiritual mind and
spiritual intelligence become manifest.”

But what is our present situation?

I, the real self as described above goes into forgetfulness of my

eternal doer identity as servant of Krishna and my eternal
spiritual bodily identity and then go on a trip only in the
imagination of my spiritual mind exactly as it happens when
we watch a movie we forget who we are and our real world and
go on an emotional trip of the role play characters of the movie
and identify with emotions (rasa-ing) of the movie world. We
lose our self consciousness of our real body, real senses, real
world, real purposes and engage in passively rasa-ing the
movie world steadily being weaved in our heads.

These mental concoctions are all happening on the screen of

material mind, supported by the gross material body which
dances to these concoctions . The action of concoction is not
happening in the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind is a mere
spectator, decision giver and experiencer of interactive movie
that is woven by the material mind. This entire gross and
subtle robotic system is animated by the sanction of Supersoul
residing in these bodies to make this movie completely real.
This makes it all so real that it sounds odd to say I am not this
body till it gives pain of sickness, old age and death and start
questioning called 'brahma jijnasa'.

189
Choosing, an existence of self-centered rasa independent of
our own eternal other-self Krishna is the original sin. He is
the common other-self of every jiva as their one loving father
of counteless jivas.

Once I make that spiritual choice my spiritual mind

immediately falls down from his spiritual dignity as a servant
of Krishna and made to forget Krishna. It is made to identify
with the material world through the material mind screen and
its concocted contents. It is made to adopt an independent
false identity of being the material body with a doer-identity to
operate that material body with working senses and knowledge
acquiring senses for self-centered rasas totally in forgetfulness
of his true 'myself' feelings of being a lover of Krishna. Thus
the self gets lost in this world.

The role of the objective world in the analogy of

movie

This movie in our material mind is created out of 3D world

outside us. It is an interactive massive movie and many other
souls outside the movie screen have also forgotten who they
are and have also fixed their gaze on their respective 3D movie
screen of material mind. Each of our 3-D movie is mapped out
of the common 3D objective material world and is centered
around the false belief that I am the robotic body-mind system.
And there is mechanism by which my soul's willing from
outside the movie system turns into corresponding action in

190
the 3D world as well as in the movie screen of my material
mind by the sanction of Supersoul.

Suppose I have identified with a particular robotic body in the

mind screen and I give a decision to raise my hand, then that
decision gets activated instantly and the movie character or
false ego in the mind screen as well as gross hand moves. It
becomes a interactive movie with a real 3D world of dead
objects. Thus this objective material world is practically an
infinite 3D feed for our 3D material mind screen centered
around the theme that I am my material body and others are
their material bodies. And the feed for movie screen is
continuous mapping from an objective world through the
bodily senses. Infinite jivas identify their souls with their
material bodies in their own 3D mind screen and are watching
the common objective changing world. Laws of karma of
action-reaction regulates the functioning of the combination of
3D world and the 3D mind screen resulting in identified-
experiences of happiness, distress etc. Each life is a separate
movie centered around identification with the body and bodily
identity of that life.

How we lose our true ' myself ' ego-feeling

Let us call the original sense of 'being' a spiritual body in our

minds as 'body-ness'. Once we are born into a mind-body
system, our material mind starts a fresh weaving of new
'myself' story centered around that body by pasting my soul's
'body-ness' faculty (natural identification with a body ) on to a
mapping of a material robotic body onto my material mind
screen through inputs from my material senses. And the gaze
of soul's spiritual mind is locked on to the material mind

191
screen. Consequent to that a bodily ego, I am this body' called
false ego is pasted in the material mind. Instantly the soul's
sense of different personal functions like seeing-ness, doing-
ness, desiring-ness, hoping-ness, thinking-ness, feeling-ness,
willing-ness of the spiritual mind identifies falsely with the
corresponding functions of the material intelligence-mind-
body robot system. My spiritual mind is lost in the concocted
contents of 'myself' in the material mind screen.

The soul thus incarnates into a material body, not physically

but by looking at the mapping in the mind screen and
misidentifying ' myself ' with it. Then the soul, seated in this
material body, attempts to fulfil its deepest soul-instincts of
seeking experience of ever fresh sat, cit and ananda rasas
consisting of existence rasa, love rasa, happiness rasa, intimacy
rasa, sense pleasures rasa, and curiosity-knowledge rasa,
freedom-power rasa and doing-rasa without reference to
Krishna at all but as an imagined stand-alone personality.
Originally all these rasa-ing tendencies are centered around
giving pleasure to Krishna who is my inseparable Whole other-
Self.

Whether in the material world or spiritual world, the spiritual

mind's nature is to project body-ness, bodily ego-ness and
other life symptoms on to a mapping of the body and bodily
identity and its sense activities on one's body awarded by
spiritual nature or material nature. In the material life the
spiritual mind's role is to simply identify and take part in the
interactive movie being played in the material mind by

192
concoctions of what it perceives with his senses and experience
rasas centered around idea of 'myself' as this material body.

Memories of all these situations create our cittam or the

consciousness body that surrounds the soul. It consists of
recording of all our different situations of interaction with
other objects, people and activities and multi sensual rasas
experienced out of these impersonal and personal interactions.

The cause of our fall down

The idea of seeking self-centered rasa for myself rather than

Krishna-centered rasa is called lusty intelligence. This one idea
& hope in the spiritual mind is the very cause of material
existence. Immediately the external energy of the Lord puts us
into a spell to identify with a material intelligence, material
mind, material body & senses as the' myself' in the material
dimension of existence to facilitate the imaginative experience
of material life giving a chance to fulfil that unconstitutional
desire. If we kill this and hope we are on our way back to our
true self.

This world of my material experience is centered around

illusion that I am this material body and my ego is a member of
this material society of other material bodies. The individual
worlds being woven in the minds of people is a mass illusion of
millions of souls as to who they are, though matter bodies and
matter world itself is not false. My self-identification with the
body in my mind screen is false. Feelings of I, my body, my

193
actions and mine are all projected around my material body
and its bodily ego which is false ' myself '.

However in either case the spiritual mind's nature is feel

'myself' and to want a body and bodily ego and sense activities.
My spiritual mind is capable of only simply seeing (kshetrajna)
and willing, just as we are only capable of seeing an interactive
video car race by applying my inputs into the video game
through some mechanism (joy stick). Rest is all software and
hardware outside me. This is what Krishna means in the
bhagavad gita when he says prakrte kiryamanani gunaih
karmani sarvashah, ahankara vimudatma kartahm iti mayate.
Eveything in this world is carried out by the three modes of
material nature and the foolish thinks that he is the doer.

'I' and 'myself' feelings is the heart of our life

Our spiritual mind has the ability to create an experience for

itself of body-ness, identity-ness, ego-ness, desiring-ness,
doing-ness, thinking-ness, feeling-ness, willing-ness and
doing-ness, experience-ness from out of identifying with a
body and bodily ego outside itself and its desiring, thinking,
feeling and willing, doing in the material mind. I end up
creating a world of "myself '' in my cittam out of thinking the
robotic body as 'me', identify it as my real ego, its actions as
'my' doing, things related to my body as belonging to me or
'mine' and the resulting experiences of rasas for the body and
bodily ego as my own rasas. All of us live for the experience of
'myself consisting of I , my body, my actions and mine,
whether in spiritual world or in the material world. One is true
'myself' experience and the other is false 'myself' experience.

194
That is the only difference. Paramatma just watches us play
this game of trying to extract sukha for this false 'myself' but
ending up always with both sukha sometimes and dukha
sometimes.

Bhakti yoga awakens the soul

The process of bhakti yoga is to awaken our spiritual minds to

the eternal spiritual world to where we belong and live a life
there with our original awakened spiritual sense faculties and
engage them to in partaking of Krishna's ever expanding
ananda.

The most powerful of all awakening methods is engage in

chanting, hearing and tasking repetition of the sound
incarnation of the Lord but without thinking.

The most powerful of all awakening methods is engage in

chanting, hearing and tasking repetition of the sound
incarnation of the Lord, the Shaktyavesha Nama who will
infuse into us the pure sat-cit shaktis or the much needed
enlightening energy.

The result is that it dissolves our mental concoctions of life

which make us stop futile hunting for my soul food of sat, cit
and ananda on my own from out of the material world.

195
Chanting and hearing with attention, full of serving attitude
frees us from lording attitude and influence of the three modes
of material nature on our cittam and awakens our original doer
identity as the eternal servant of Krishna.

Even in the impure stage through our attention on the features

of external sound leads to attention-touch and attention-
embrace of the all-spiritual Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Thus the Nama Avatara can give us everything beginning with

dis-identification & detachment from material body, true self
knowledge, awakening of love for Krishna and taking the soul
to the spiritual world and giving us a spiritual body.

Such is the priceless treasure of Nama Prabhu given to us by

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through Srila Prabhupada which
he has received through the disciplic succession starting from
Krishna Himself.

Note that both the empowered omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama

and Aprākrta Nama are simultaneously acting upon the two
planes of existence from day one to purify material mind-body
system and also awaken our love for Krishna. One at material
or vyavaharic mind body plane and the other at the
paramarthik or plane of soul.

196
By hearing the sound we chant, our serving attention from the
soul is touching both of them simultaneously. Just see the
importance of attention acting as a conduit that connects the
soul to the Nama Avatara so that the soul can engage in
attention-touch and attention-embrace of Nama Prabhu.

Association with Nama Prabhu Spiritualizes our

material bodies

Srila Prabhupada's Lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.1 –

(New York, April 10, 1969)

The same example, as I have given several times: just like iron
rod. You put into the fire, it becomes warmer, warmer. The
more it is touched with fire, it becomes warm, warm, warm.
And at last it becomes red hot, so that at that time, if that iron
is touched to any other thing, it burns. It does not act as iron; it
acts as fire. Similarly, by this Krishna consciousness,
continuous chanting, you will make your body spiritualized. At
that time, wherever you go, wherever you touch, he’ll be
spiritualized. Similarly, the iron... Without being spiritualized,
without being red hot, if you touch, it will not act.

The satcitananda energy from the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma purifies

not only the subtle body or cittam and awakens the soul, it also
purifies the gross body. Srila Prabhupada says our material
bodies are spiritualized. It will act like a spiritual body. It will
be free from the influences of three modes of material nature.
Such a body does not have any lusty intelligence and urges and

197
all his senses only serve Krishna and never serves illusory
ideas.

Just see even the most difficult problems of a spiritualist

namely getting rid material desires and sense gratification is
solved by simply associating attentively with the Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma Prabhu to awaken the soul to its true 'myself'
experience. This is because Hari Nāma is said to be purna
shuddha or completely pure. Touch of Him makes chanter also
pure. It is not that first we have to become pure and then only
begin to chant. We should instruct people to chant in whatever
situation they are and they are sure to get purified. It is a
question of time.

One should take complete shelter of the most merciful Nama

Prabhu for all success in self realization and God realization
and serve Him soulfully as our soul's sole ambition.

And as gratitude to Srila Prabhupada for giving us this Nama

Avatara and teaching us to serve Him we should serve His
personal mission to distribute to everyone the science and art
of chanting as a preacher of the holy name mainly by
distributing his books.

More on our trip into the material world

198
Bewildered by Maya's offer of an existence of self-seeking rasa
through the material mind , my spiritual mind, remains fixed
in illusion on the material mind screen and does nothing
except 'knowing' and 'free willing' at the spirit plane just like
watching an interactive movie on a screen and giving decisions
in the movie world and experiencing the rasas as if being part
of the movie world. Here the screen is our material mind which
maps the external objective world as per our own
interpretation centered around getting rasa for myself. The
central point of the movie is the concept that 'I am this robotic
material body, its possessions are my possessions. its actions
are my actions, its rasas are my rasas etc'.

But all these are only an experiences and I never really

becomes this body. just like in video game I only experience 'I
am so and so character' but in reality I don't have the real body
of the character. I am sitting outside the movie. I identify with
a body images made of light patches. It is natural for me to
have a spiritual body and I believe in my cittam that my
material body and its form made of material elements mapped
into the material mind(like light patches on movie screen) is a
satcitananda spiritual body made of spiritual elements with
qualities of sat, cit and ananda. Material life is simply a life of
only spiritual imagination read out of the material mind screen
which concocts and play this interactive movie for independent
rasas by different mappings from the objects and events of the
objective world.

Soul's nature being sat cit ananda, we all intrinsically desire

and expect eternity, knowledge and bliss for our identified

199
material body and mind though it can never be experienced in
a material body. Birth and death of the material body are
common sense proof that it is not my own eternal spiritual
body.

To keep the illusion going, tiny drops of experiences of fake sat,

cit and ananda is offered which are chemically generated in the
brain and translated into an experience due to the magic of
Supersoul in our heart. This interactive movie experience is
facilitated by the Supersoul. I just identify, will and experience
the rasas of sukha and dukha.

All this I do with the spiritual mind falling into the world of
the material mind by applying its faculty of identification.

This journey of seeking Krishna less stand-alone rasas of

material existence, material knowledge and material happiness
and material pleasure is governed and stringent laws of karma
executed by eternal Kala, the agency of Krishna.

What is purification?

It means purifying the contaminated cittam of false egotism or

false 'myself' experience which is currently covering our soul's
original 'myself' or egotism. Our original egotism is that of an
eternal loving servant of Krishna engaging one's mind,
intelligence, body and senses in pure devotional service. How
does our egotism get purified? By beginning to engaging

200
'myself' in Krishna's service with the material body-mind
system and its desiring, thinking, feeling, willing in loving
devotional service as if I am in the spiritual world. This begins
with chanting and hearing His names.

Adi lila 8.28-

As a result of chanting the Hare Krishna mahä-mantra, one

makes such great advancement in spiritual life that
simultaneously his material existence terminates and he
receives love of Godhead. The holy name of Krishna is so
powerful that by chanting even one name, one very easily
achieves these transcendental riches.

Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavana - September 16, 1976

" The holy name, chanting of holy name, if we chant it

properly, without any offense, then we are directly in
connection with Krishna "

What is spiritual awakening ?

It means waking up the soul and its spiritual mind from the
spell of illusory material bodily ego and world of other false
egos and realizing its own eternal spiritual ego, spiritual
intelligence and spiritual mind with its functions of being,
desiring , thinking, feeling, willing and seeing. touching,
smelling, tasting and hearing and doing loving service to the
eternal Lord in a spiritualized material body now and later on
in a spiritual body when we go back to the spiritual world.

201
When we, as a sadhaka, chant and hear attentively, our
material mind is engaged in thinking, feeling, willing, desiring
and relating or rasa-ing (experiencing rasas) in service of
Nama Avatara and our dreaming spiritual mind identifies with
those actions. This exercise gradually activates and wakes up
the soul's true 'myself' experience of the presently dreaming
spiritual mind which is currently employing his soul faculties
in dreamlike state to operate on dream-like material body for
extracting illusory material rasas. The sadhaka's effort is just
like an accident patient, with multiple bone fractures and has
been motionless in traction for several months, has to put
efforts to undergo physiotherapy to reactivate his muscles.

Japa attracts flow of spiritual energies from the Nama Avatara

which first spiritualize our egotism from false 'msyelf' to ture
'myself'. When the material mind dissolves its dream that it
has woven around the ignorance that 'I am this material body'
and I am a stand-alone independent enjoyer and starts
mapping the objective world 'as it is' and recognizes it as Lord's
property and engages everything in His service a sHis eternal
servant, then the soul is said to be awakened even in this
material world. All His acts are free from false ego and he is
said to be engaged in pure devotional service.

Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 22.105, Purport

"When mind is purified, the senses are also purified. Instead of

using the senses for sense gratification, the awakened devotee

202
employs the senses in the transcendental service of the Lord.
This is the process by which dormant love for Krishna is
awakened

It is the merciful flow of pure self-knowledge from Nama

Prabhu that frees the soul from the trap of false 'myself' or
egotism of identifying with the material body. He sees the
body-mind merely as an instrument or yantra with which to
serve the Lord with his awakened spiritual mind.”

Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Antya Lila 20.12

"One who hears the Hare Krishna mantra thus vibrated is

awakened to spiritual consciousness or Krishna consciousness.
In this way one's mind gradually becomes purified as stated by
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu "(Cato darpana marjanam)

In Chaitanya Bhagavat, Mahaprabhu says, " With joy hear the

maha mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna
Hare Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare. The name of the Lord is this maha-mantra. Chanting
japa of this mnatra with deligence (nirbandha) you will attain
all perfection. Chant the mantra at all times. There is no other
rule.

HDG Srila Prabhupada answers in a letter, three

stages of cleansing that happens :

203
Letter to: Susan Beckman -- Herts, England August 29, 1973

" The chanting is a process of purification. Just like we use

soap to cleanse the body, this is material, but the chanting is
spiritual cleansing.

The three stages of cleansing are *first* to clean the mirror of

the mind. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said, " The mind is the
best friend and the worst enemy, for one who has learned to
control the mind it is the best of friends but for one who has
failed to do so it is the worst enemy." Due to long term
association, the mind absorbed in material things has become
contaminated, or dirty, the chanting process purifies the mind.

Then the *second* stage, when the mind is cleansed one

becomes free from the symptoms of material existence.
Material existence means to be always hankering and
lamenting. I must have a new automobile, I must have more
money, I must have good wife, I must have this I must have
that. Then when I have the thing, I lament, I have lost my wife,
I have lost my money, I have lost my car, simply lamenting. So
the second stage is to be free from this anxiety.

The *third* stage is "He never laments nor desires to have

anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that
state he attains pure devotional service unto me." Bhagavad
Gita 18/54. The next verse continues, "And when one is in full
consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can
enter into the kingdom of God." It is further stated in the Gita

204
that when one is so situated even in the midst of greatest
danger he is not disturbed.

In other words when one has achieved perfection in chanting

the Holy name of God he is always joyful, even death does not
disturb him, what to speak of other things.The conclusion is
that one should learn the art of chanting the Holy name of
Krishna 24 hours a day and that alone is the remedy for all
problems of material existence. How is it possible to chant 24
hours a day?

Lord Chaitanya gave the hint, "One can chant the holy name of
God in a *humble* state of mind, thinking himself lower than
the straw in the street, more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all
kinds of sense of false prestige, and always ready to offer all
respects to others. In such a humble state of mind one can
chant the Holy name of God constantly." So I cannot give you
any better advice for your problem, simply chant Hare Krishna
and everything will be all right.

Thus chanting and hearing and begging for Nama Prabhu's

merciful energies to flow into me can finally reinstate my true
original eternal 'myself' feeling experience as dignified servant
of the greatest Supreme Person Krishna.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai!!!

END

205
Module 26/2

Awarding of spiritual body

Nama Prabhu can liberate us from this material world and

place us in the spiritual world in a spiritual body to serve the
all spiritual satcitananda vigraha, Krishna and His eternal
associates. By associating with the Nama Prabhu our
contaminated consciousness or material cittam covering the
soul is purified and also awaken my original cittam or
consciousness body consisting of spiritual ego, mind and
intelligence awakens to its natural Krishna consciousness.

Following that when one quits such a fully spiritualized matter

body, one gets a spiritual body in the spiritual world offered by
the internal energy of the Lord to be engaged in loving service
to the Lord. This is just like how around the material cittam
external energy gives us a material body for material activities.
The spiritual body has no birth death old age and disease.
There is no force of kala that deteriorates such body. Spiritual
body is a cinmaya body. Here are some interesting things Srila
Prabhupada has to say about jivas getting a spiritual body.

[1]. Srimad Bhagavatam 1.6.28

Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an

associate of the Personality of Godhead, I quit the body made

206
of five material elements, and thus all acquired fruitive results
of work [karma] stopped.

Purport

Informed by the Personality of Godhead that he would be

awarded a transcendental body befitting the Lord's association,
Närada got his spiritual body as soon as he quitted his material
body. This transcendental body is free from material affinity
and invested with three primary transcendental qualities,
namely eternity, freedom from material modes, and freedom
from reactions of fruitive activities. The material body is
always afflicted with the lack of these three qualities. A
devotee's body becomes at once surcharged with the
transcendental qualities as soon as he is engaged in the
devotional service of the Lord. It acts like the magnetic
influence of a touchstone upon iron.

The influence of transcendental devotional service is like that.

Therefore change of the body means stoppage of the reaction
of three qualitative modes of material nature upon the pure
devotee.

[2]. Srila Prabhupada Conversations, 710217 , 1971,

Feb 17

Prabhupada: Liberated means at the present moment under

this material, in this material world, he is accepting material
body, and when he is bona fide servant of Krishnaa, he'll be
offered a spiritual body. Just like a soldier. A person, so long
he's not a soldier, he does not, he is not awarded the uniform.
But as soon as he accepts the service as a soldier, immediately

207
he is given the uniform. So you are accepting different bodies
in the material world, and that is bhutva bhutva praliyate [Bg.
8.19]. You are accepting one type of body, it is becoming
vanquished, again you have to accept another. But as soon as
you become perfectly Krishna conscious, tyaktva dehah punar
janma naiti [Bg. 4.9], then, after leaving this body, he does not
come to this material world. He is immediately... Mam eti, he
transfers. Similarly, he accepts spiritual body. Is it clear or not?

[3]. Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, Introduction

The name Krishna and the Personality of Godhead Krishna are

identical. There is no difference in the absolute realm between
the name, form or person of the Absolute Truth because in the
absolute realm everything is transcendental bliss. There is no
difference between the body and the soul for the Personality of
Godhead, Krishna. Thus He is different from the living entity
who is always different from his outward body. Because of
Krishna's transcendental position, it is very difficult for a
layman to actually know the Personality of Godhead, Krishna,
His holy name and fame, etc.

His name, fame, form and pastimes all are one and the same
transcendental identity, and they are not knowable by the
exercise of the material senses.

[4]. Sri Chaitanya caritamrta (Madhya 17.132)

deha-dehira, nāma-nāmira krishne nāhi ’bheda’

jivera dharma—nāma-deha-svarüpe ’vibheda’

208
“There is no difference between Krishna’s body and Himself or
between His name and Himself. But as far as the conditioned
soul is concerned, one’s name is different from one’s body,
from one’s original form and so on.”

This confirms that quote (c) above that living entity is always
(its dharma) different from his outer gross body awarded
either by internal energy or external energy. And quote (b) also
explains clearly living entity is awarded a spiritual body and he
accepts it over his cit-svarupa which is His own spiritual
'cittam' or consciousness.

The jiva is eternally ruled over either by internal energy which

awards us a spiritual body or external energy which awards us
a material body.

END

209
Module 27

Intention = Purpose+Desires+Plans in Japa

Purpose means what do we want to ultimately achieve.

Existential purpose means what we want achieve with our very
existence. Desires are personal goals to be achieved to achieve
the purpose. Plans means action plans to achieve those desires.
Intentions mean the combined emotional force of purpose,
desire and plans put together that drives all actions to its
respective work goals. Now we will see how these three
interconnected items generate the feelings of intention which
can drive spirit of japa. Strong intention locks attention
completely.

Chanting of Hare Krishna is not meant for achieving

any other better things than Krishna.
Letter by Śrīla Prabhupāda, July 14, 1968

All forms of incompleteness are experienced due to incomplete

knowledge of the Complete Whole. The human form of life is a
complete life in the cycle of birth and death. If in this human
life of full consciousness the living entity does not realize his
completeness in relation to the manifestation of the
consciousness of the living being, and it is obtained after

210
evolving through 8,400,000 species of Complete Whole, he
loses the chance to realize his completeness and is again put
into the evolutionary cycle by the law of material nature.

Because we do not know that there is a complete arrangement

in nature for our maintenance, we make eff orts to utilize the
resources of nature to create a so-called complete life of sense
enjoyment. Because the living entity cannot enjoy the life of
the senses without being dovetailed with the Complete Whole,
the misleading life of sense enjoyment is illusion. The hand of a
body is a complete unit only as long as it is attached to the
complete body. When the hand is severed from the body, it
may appear like a hand, but it actually has none of the
potencies of a hand. Similarly, living beings are part and parcel
of the Complete Whole, and if they are severed from the
Complete Whole, the illusory representation of completeness
cannot fully satisfy them.

The completeness of human life can be realized only when one

engages in the service of the Complete Whole. All services in
this world—whether social, political, communal, international
or even interplanetary—will remain incomplete until they are
dovetailed with the Complete Whole. When everything is
dovetailed with the Complete Whole, the attached parts and
parcels also become complete in themselves.

Sri Isopanishad, Invocation-

Bhaktivedanta Purport

Purpose of Japa

211
One line answer is 'to feel eternal completeness by
reconnecting with the Complete Whole, Krishna. In the face of
the glaring transiency of life in these material bodies, everyone
of us feel incompleteness of existence in this world. Our
constant effort is to make our existence feel more complete by
doing something, to enjoy something or possess something.
The urges to feel complete in existence, knowledge and bliss or
sat-cit-ananda are very deep constitutional urges of every
living entity for the simple reason that the living entity is not
complete by himself as he is part and parcel of Krishna who
alone is complete existence, knowledge and love. He can feel
completeness only if he develops love for Krishna. He can
develop love for Krishna only if he associates with Krishna's
devotees and His incarnations.

We try to feel more sat-completeness in the form of more

wealth, our health, security and power. We add so many loving
relationship in our life to feel more ananda completeness
through our sense of belongingness and experiences of loving
exchanges. We acquire knowledge to feel cit-completeness of
our understanding of self and existence.

But we can feel that completeness only when we connect with

Krishna, the real absolute supremely complete personality
whose eternal parts we are. This is the purpose of japa.

The eventual purpose in doing japa is to get association of the

Nāma Avatāra in order to rejoin with the Lord who completes
our existence by engaging us in pure loving devotional service.
It is to become one with Him in quality and serve Him

212
eternally. It is to dissolve all kinds of separateness of my desire
from what Krishna desires for me.

The nature of the part and parcel is same as the nature of the
Whole. A piece of gold jewellery is same quality as a ball of
gold. It is the completeness of achieving an eternal existential
position of awakened loving relationship with Him and
eternally engaging in the sweet mellows (rasa) of loving service
including the eternal service of purely chanting and hearing
His eternally sweet names.

In this state of completeness with the Lord one is fully

satisfied. That will make us stop seeking any illusory material
desires of the false material ego-'I am this body'. One is
irrevocably freed from the illusion of bodily concept of life and
its concomitant body-serving illusory desire called lust. He
comes under the protection of daivi prakrti or internal energy
of the Lord. Daivi prakrti takes care of his material needs and
is under her protection. He is outside the jurisdiction of Maha
maya. A devotee who has tasted this spiritual completeness in
association and relationship with Krishna sees lust as a poison
for the soul camouflaged as pleasure by Maya.

Lecture on Bhagavad-gita(4.8), June 14 1968.

"As soon as the consciousness is pure, you get your eternal

existential life. That is the sum & substance of becoming
Krishna conscious. And this movement is for that purpose,
Krishna Consciousness".

213
The purpose of japa is to attain God realization, which means
to see God face to face, taste the love of Godhead and to
lovingly serve Him. This is the purpose of japa. This purpose
trickles down as different desires that lead to plans for
attainment of the purpose & desires. Strong purpose, desires,
and plans set up a strong intention in the background mind for
action in the foreground mind.

Immediate Intention of Japa is to anchor attention on chanting

& hearing; Desire is to please every Nama Prabhu who appears
on my tongue; Purpose is to associate with Nama Prabhu to
awakens our love for Krishna.

Whenever someone speaks to us, how quickly our attention

fixes on what he says. If a speech is interesting, we can sit
silently, rapt in attention, hearing for hours together.

Why? Because of two things:

1. The intention to get some purpose & desire or need to be

fulfilled like the need of ‘knowledge’ that the speaker had to
share etc.

2. And hope of fulfilling and progressive fulfilment of receiving

that knowledge as he speaks and unfold his ideas

214
When we stop getting what we expect from the speaker,
attention will gradually drift away from the speech.
Understanding the reasons for this difference is extremely
important. The reason is lack of intention or desire or purpose
to be achieved anymore from hearing the speaker.

Our purpose of japa is to attain transcendental completeness in

shelter and association and loving service of Krishna. For
attaining this purpose we need to awaken natural loving desire
to please Him always. The desire of sadhaka's japa is to train
ourselves to please Him by chanting, hearing. The plan of the
sadhaka's japa is to multiply pleasing Him by uninterruptedly
repeating chanting and hearing, And for all this we need flow
of mercy of satcitananda energies from Nama Avatara who has
descended before us. The desire for mercy flow of satcitananda
cannot be fulfilled unless first unless you set up the attention-
connection to Him and maintain it by uninterrupted tasking.

The intention of japa action that trickles down from the above
purpose and desire is to establish attention-connection &
attention-embrace with the Nama. The above is the
understanding of how strong purpose of japa generate strong
desires of japa and strong desire generates strong intention of
Japa. And strong intention locks the attention on the Nama
Prabhu.

Purpose- To experience satcitananda completeness of

existence in association of ocean of satcitananda Krishna.

215
Desire-

1. To please each Nama Prabhu by concurrent chanting with

delight -cum-hearing with joy

2. To accumulate more and more beads of such pleasure-

givings to Nama Prabhu 3. To receive sat, cit & ananda
energies from Him.

Intention of action –

1. To establish attention connection with Nama Prabhu

2. To maintain that attention-embrace by uninterrupted

tasking with tasking delight or Karya cesta ruchi.

To desire to please the Nama Prabhu can best be done through

desire to please the spiritual master by obedience to his
directions and guidance to serve the Lord. Therefore the desire
in japa is to please both guru and Nama Prabhu.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura remarks in this

connection that a disciple must accept the words of his
spiritual master as his life and soul. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu
here exemplified this by saying that since His spiritual master
ordered Him only to chant the Holy name of Krishna, He
always chanted the Hare Krishna mahāmantra according to
this direction (‘Krishna-mantra’ japa sadā,—ei mantra-sāra).
And I do not know what is happening to me. I am going mad
with love for Krishna.

216
We have discussed in earlier sections the instruction from Śrīla
Prabhupāda that we should simple "chant and hear that very
sound" without indulging in any kind of thinking so that
through our full attention we can maintain the the sound-
embrace of Nāma Avatāra and purify our soul by pleasing Him
and receive the mercy of the sat cit ananda energy that flows
from Him.

Culturing strong need for intention, desire and

purpose

The need to be fulfilled by the achieving the desire and purpose

of japa is something that has to become a compelling need and
is not just a preference. And we have already discussed that
strong purpose is the compelling need to achieve the
transcendental feeling of completeness of one's existence in
Krishna consciousness service even on a day to day basis. Our
strong intention to touch, embrace and desire to please and
yearn for His mercy, it will surely lock the attention on to the
sound incarnation to chant and hear.

This mercy in the form of the self purifying sat, çit and ananda
energy from Krishna who is the reservoir of Sat, Cit and
Ananda awakens our eternal relationship with Krishna.
However we only can hope in anticipation of mercy without
demanding it. That is the meaning of krpa apeksha.

217
However, when it comes to hearing the Nama Prabhu, we
cannot keep our attention on hearing, even for a few minutes.
Why is it so?

Again the reason is lack of strong intention. Unless you culture

a strong purpose, desire and plan of action. you cannot build a
strong intention for japa. Intention is what holds attention on a
domain of doing and knowing. Immediate intention is to
establish uninterrupted attention-connection and maintain the
attention-embrace of the Shaktyaavesha Nama. To make that
intention strong the purpose to associate and desire to please
Nama Prabhu has to be strong.

A strong need to get purified and go back to Krishna from this

material life provides a strong purpose for japa. My need for
receiving sat-cit energies to dissolve all acit and asat from my
consciousness creates a compelling need that fulfil my above
purpose. This sets up a strong intention to establish attention-
connection with Hare Krishna Nāma seeking satcit energy
from Shaktyavesha Nama. Seeking a constitutional need of
satcitananda is a not a considered as selfish desire. Wanting to
experience love of Krishna for oneself is not a selfish desire
because it is constitutional desire of the soul.

Desire to please- why the Lord is pleased ?

It is not that only an offering of japa by a pure devotee pleases

the Nama Prabhu. Even the attempt of a sādhaka devotee to
serve Him in a less than pure manner due to material
attachments etc, under the guidance of another pure devotee
also pleases Him. Just like a father is thrilled with every

218
attempt of a lost son to come back to him. In fact he gets more
attention. Help from the Paramatma-Krishna will flood the life
of such a devotee who though not pure himself surrenders and
follows a pure devotee.

Our sādhana bhakti pleases Him as long as it is an attempt of

ours to awaken our constitutional love and service unto Him
and not for any stupid purposes, desires, plans & intention of
this world. A sādhaka is asked to chant to please guru and
Krishna. It is by following their instructions by the sādhaka,
that guru and Krishna is pleased because that makes Them
happy for us. Krishna is complete in Himself. We cannot add
something to give him extra pleasure as if he lacks anything.
But the act of a devotee sincerely calling out His name by itself
adds pleasure to the Lord. He likes to hear His own names
when called out sincerely. As much deeply as we call out for
Him out of desperate existential need for his association that
much the heart of the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu is also
moved.

But when a sādhaka chants and hears as per the rules it gives
Him pleasure because of the hope it generates in Him for our
eternal benefit and not necessarily because your calling is
completely pure. So Krishna being pleased by a sādhaka’s
chanting and hearing means He is pleased for the sādhaka. He
has never forgotten us. It is only we who have forgotten Him.

He has everything except each of our love which cannot be

substituted by another's love. A father loves every child. Love

219
from one child cannot substitute for love from another child.
So I can offer 'myself' in the form of giving all my soul faculties
to chant and hear His Names with proper purpose, desire, plan
and intention.

Other competing intentions carries away the mind

and the attention

When someone wants to tell you something, but if you go on

talking to yourself, with no intention to get anything that you
need from the him, then it is not possible to give him an
attentive hearing. In the same manner, if we continuously chat
in our mind for some other need-intention or want-intention
during japa, we will be unable to give attention to hear and
receive the transcendental knowledge or pure ‘çit’ energy that
is emanating from the Hare Krishna Nāma which awaken our
eternal relationship with Krishna. No connection- no flow of
spiritual energy.

Other stupid worldly desires and intentions engage the

thinking during japa which obstructs us from receiving the
mercy of the Lord. only because of not having a strong
purpose, desire and intention for japa. We must determine
(vikalpa) to kill all extraneous intentions other than to connect
with the Shaktyaavesha Nama and please the Nama Prabhu
and yearn for the causeless mercy from Him.

If negative determination, vikalpa, is applied to stop

extraneous intentions and apply positive sankalpa is applied to
maintain the Our desire to please each manifesting Nama

220
should not be conditional to getting a reciprocation of flow of
energy from Him. Desire to please Nama Prabhu is
unconditional. Sometimes Krishna tests the devotee by not
giving him that divya cesta ruchi to see if he is still determined
to offer concurrent chanting cum hearing against the forces of
the mind.

If we love Krishna, that love will not be destroyed as love is in

the material world. In the material world, a servant serves the
master as long as the servant is pleased and as long as the
master is pleased. The servant is pleased as long as the master
pays, and the master is pleased as long as the servant renders
good service. However, in the spiritual world, if the servant
cannot serve under certain conditions, the master is still
pleased. And if the master does not pay, the servant is also
pleased. That is called oneness, absolute.

TLK vs. 38

To have desires, plans and intention is not always

selfish

Even in bhakti the sastras declare that the ultimate desire of

the soul is to attain Vishnu; Svartha gatih hi Vishnuh. Even in
pure love one desires and plans the satisfaction of having
pleased the beloved. Even soul's purpose, desire, plan and
intention for the eternal sat, cit & ananda needs of the soul is
not out of place because he is eternally dependent for his
spiritual needs and is never complete in himself without
depending on the mercy of Krishna. But the devotee prays to
the Lord that his purpose, desire, plans in life are only those
inspired by the guru-Krishna for him to please Him.

221
The desire to experience the divya cesta ruchi or pleasure of
concurrent chanting cum hearing is not a selfish desire
because it is for giving pleasure to Krishna.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

222
Module 28

Nama Vigraha and Archa Vigraha compared

The Acaryas in our parampara have perfectly combined two

parallel devotional activities in our daily life. Pancharatrika
vidhi of Deity worship and bhagavata vidhi of chanting and
hearing holy names and Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Srimad
Bhagavatam.

Nama is also vigraha

Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Mayapur, February 20, 1976

The nāma is also vigraha, another form of the Lord, rasa-

vigraha. So if we take shelter of this avatāra, rucy-avatāraiḥ...
Every avatāra, every incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, is very pleasing.
Because Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure, therefore His
avatāra.

I am repeating the key principle of avatara again. Please read

scrutinizingly the following two quotes as there is an open
secret in them. I say it is an open because once you discover it
then it is appears open. But until you discover it is a secret
right before our eyes but not understood. That secret is in the
underlined words in the two quotes. The word 'resembling' is
to be noted which we will explain.

You assume a form resembling a material body just to give us

instructions like those of Bhagavad-Gīta, but actually, you are

223
the Supreme original person. I, therefore, offer my respectful
obeisances unto You.” Śrīmad-Bhagavatam 9.8.24

Another similar quote:

Only for us, who cannot experience anything beyond matter in

our present conditioned state, do the dhamas and the Lord
Himself, in His arca form, appear before us resembling matter
to give us the facility to see spirit with material eyes. In the
beginning this may be difficult for a neophyte to understand,
but in due course, when one is advanced in devotional service,
it will be easier, and he will appreciate the Lord’s presence in
these tangible forms.

Bhakitvedanta Purport . CC Adi 5.20

The three components of Nama Avatara are Satcitananda

Avatari, Satcitananda Avatara and Satcitananda-ized Avatara.

1. The first component: The absolute Suddha Nama who is the

Avatari in the spiritual world which is of Aprākrta or spiritual
or transcendental nature. Avatari is the source of all
expansions. In the analogy of electricity Avatari can be
compared to electric power generator or source of electricity.

2. The second component: The expansion of Avatari Nama

into the material world whose nature is Aprakrta or spiritual or
transcendental and whose features are resembling the sound
vibrated by our tongue is called the Aprākrta Nama avatara.
This can be compared to the intermediate power house or

224
distribution centre that distributes electricity to individual
consumers of electricity.

3. The third component: The Aprakrta Nama taking on

features identical to external sound produced with our
material tongue and making that sound potentially
omnipotent, Shaktyaavesha Nama for the time being. This is
compared to the electrified copper wire caused by infusion of
electricity into the copper wire of the local circuits in your
house.

Similarly the three components of Archa avatara are:

1. First component : The pure original spiritual satcitananda

form of the Krishna in the spiritual world who is the source of
all expansions and incarnations. He is the Avatari. This can be
compared to the source of all electricity in the city

2. Second component: The expansion of Avatari whose is

Aprakrta archa avatara whose nature is spiritual or
transcendental or satcitananda but having features that
resemble the features of externa deity or archa vigraha. This
can be compared to the electric power house or electricity
distributing centre.

3. Third component: The external Deity vigraha that we have

carved out of matter and made potentially omnipotent by the
Aprākrta Archa avatara. It is like the electrified copper wire.

225
Let us see what happens in the case of Deity
incarnation.

Let us start from beginning. A vigraha is made of material

elements that fits description of the Lord's form in the sastra.
Sastric rituals of installation ceremony are done under the
direction of the Acharya. These rituals prescribed in the sastras
are for purifying the material elements and also for invoking
total subtle material energy or virat energy with senses and
infusing prana into the gross vigraha.

Then Lord in the spiritual world understands the Acharya's

desire to invite Him to incarnate into that external archa
vigraha. The omnipotent Lord expands Himself into a
satcitananda spiritual form whose form-features resembles
form-features of the external Archa vigraha (eg.The features of
form of Vrindavanchandra of Vrindavan temple are different
from Krishnachandra of Bangalore temple. Different Deities
look differently). This is the Aprākrta Archa vigraha whose
features resemble the external vigraha. Aprākrta Archa vigraha
is the second component of archa incarnation who cannot also
be seen with material eyes or touched with material hands. The
third form is sacitananda-ized external Archa vigraha which is
made of material energy (prakrti) is like an identical twin of
the sacitananda Aprākrta Archa vigraha. This is the external
Deity that appears to our eyes. The fact that Aprakrta Archa
vigraha has adopted the features of the external Archa vigraha
is only for our attention to touch Him through attention on the
external Archa vigraha.

226
When the Lord with His satcitananda energies (like sun
surrounded with its brilliance) incarnates into the external
vigraha, the matter of the Deity gets spiritually energised by
satcitananda or gets satcitananda-ized (like by the brilliance of
the sun is reflected on different water bodies) and becomes
free from qualitative reactions of three modes of material
reactions. Matter is converted for time being to spirit because
it acts like spirit for the time being as long as the Aprakrta
Archa vigraha resides therein.

Note that the omnipotent Lord can expand Himself into

unlimited number of forms and names and they are all non-
different from each other. As jivas it is inconceivable of one
person having so many transcendental bodies, names and
forms and each acting like a complete person with unique lilas
and yet non-different from each other.

That is how God, the Supreme Person is different

from jiva, the tiny person.

Now let us understand the differences in the three components

of Nama Avatara.

What is difference between first and second. Both are Krishna

Himself and are Absolute Name. Only the features of the sound
differ. If the chanting you produce with your material tongue
and the sound incarnation that has descended were compared
with each other they will have sound features that are identical.

227
What is the difference between the second and third? Second is
Krishna Himself but third is His spiritualised and empowered
matter energy like the electrified copper wire. Basically
substance of third is Lord's immediate energy and the
substance of second is Lord Himself, the source of all energies.
there is big difference in substance of the two, though the
features of both are alike.To think that copper is electricity is
ignorance of the truth of electricity. There is big difference
between saying the live copper wire is electricity itself as
against saying that it acts as good as electricity when it flows
through it. The latter is the accurate description.

Archa Avatāra Vs. Nāma Avatāra.

1. External vigraha is omnipotent and is as good as

Lord Himself.

a. Archa avatara

Matter form or prakrta form of the Deity is fully spiritualized

and made potentially omnipotent by the descending into it of
the omnipotent sac-çidānanda Aprakrta Archa vigraha .
Omnipotent external form is as good as Lord's transcendental
form to receive and reciprocate services of His devotees.

b. Nama Avatara

Matter namasabda is fully spiritualized and invested with all

energies and made potentially omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama
by the descending into it of the satcitananda Aprakrta Nama
Prabhu. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija sarva śakti. Omnipotent

228
Śaktyāvēşa Nama is as good as as Lord Himself to receive and
reciprocate services of His devotees.

2. Lord incarnates with local features resembling

external incarnation.

a. Archa Avatara

Sac-çid-ānanda Aprakrta Archa vigraha, who cannot be seen

with material eyes descends into the Deity, assumes a
transcendental form that resembles the prakrta-rupa or the
form of external Deity and is a merciful incarnation of original
sac-cid-ānanda form of the Lord (Avatari) in the spiritual
world. He merges His form-features into the form-features of
external matter form of the Deity and resides therein to receive
and reciprocate services from the conditioned souls rendered
through the spiritualized external Deity.

b. Nama Avatara

Sac-çid-ānanda Nāma Prabhu who has descended into the

externally vibrated Nama assumes a transcendental sound-
feature that resembles the sound-features of the externally
vibrated Nama and is a merciful incarnation of the original
Suddha Nāma (Avatari) in the spiritual world. Nama Prabhu
merges His transcendental sound-features into the sound-
features of the externally vibrated Nama and resides therein to
receive and reciprocate the services from the conditioned souls
rendered through the spiritualized externally vibrated Nama
called Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

229
3. Serving with attention and faith and love

a. Archa Avatara

The external form of archa vigraha whenever rendered service

with faith and love, it is same as serving the Aprakrta Archa
vigraha, who has descended and merged His transcendental
form features into the spiritualized matter though He is seen
directly only with our spiritual mind and senses. He is served
with attention that is charged with faith and love even though
we may not yet be capable of seeing the Aprākrta Archa form
with our spiritual senses as they are not awakened due to
ignorance covering our spiritual mind and eyes.

b. Nama Avatara

The empowered externally vibrated Nama or Śaktyāvēşa Nama

whenever chanted, heard and remembered with faith and love,
it is the same as serving the sac-cit-ananda Nāma Prabhu
having sound-features resembling Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Even
though we may not yet be capable of chanting and hearing the
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu with out material senses, still He is
served with attention that is charged with faith and love.

4. Offensive stage of serving:

a. Archa avatara

We can commit offenses to the Deity by not respecting His act

of descended presence of Aprakrta Archa vigraha by not
treating or serving Him attentively and respectfully as God
should be served. This is called sēva aparadha.

230
b. Nama Avatara

We can commit offenses to the Nāma Prabhu by not respecting

His act of descended presence by not treating and serving Him
attentively and respectfully as God should be served. Instead
we see the sound like any other ordinary sound. That is called
Nāma aparadha.

5. Devotional service to the avatara purifies our

mind and senses and minimizes offenses.

a. Archa Avatara

When service is rendered to the Archa vigraha attentively with

shraddha and priti on the instruction of Guru while
remembering the presence of the Aprakrta Deity form and
carefully minimizing offenses, we are gradually purified and
liberated and our mind and senses become purified.

b. Nama Avatara

When service is rendered to the Śaktyāvēşa Nama attentively

with shraddha and priti on the instruction of Guru while
remembering the presence of the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu and
carefully minimizing offenses, we are gradually purified and
liberated and our mind and senses become purified.

6. When purification is completed the transcendental

Lord is manifest to our purified senses according to
our intensity of eagerness

231
a. Archa vigraha

By regular service and association through the practice of

devotional service of worship of the Archa avatara, our
purification is completed someday. The soul achieves
qualitative oneness with the Absolute with the flow of self-Self
knowledge or cit prasadam from the Deity. At this stage,
according to our intensity of eagerness we transcendentally see
and serve the pure sac-sid-ānanda Deity and experience His
experiential or manifest presence with our spiritually
awakened senses.

Thus, unmanifest presence turns into manifest presence of the

Aprakrta Archa vigraha before our purified senses. When one
is blessed with seeing of the sac-çidānanda Aprakrta Archa
vigraha with one's awakened spiritual eyes, one gets all
symptoms of ecstasy just as Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu fainted on
having the darshan of Lord Jaganath on the altar.

b.Nama Avatara

By regular service and association of Nāma Avatāra, through

devotional service of the Nama avatara by way of chanting and
hearing offenselessly, the purification is completed some day.
The soul realizes qualitative oneness with the Absolute with
flow of self-Self knowledge or cit prasadam from the Nama. At
that stage, according to our intensity of eagerness, we can
transcendentally perceive and serve satcitananda Nāma
Prabhu (Shudda Nama) with our awakened spiritual tongue,
ears and mind. Then, unmanifest presence pf Aprakrta Nama
Avatara turns into manifest presence of satcitananda Nāma

232
Prabhu before our spiritual tongue, ears and mind. At that
time we will seek a million ears and tongues to taste the
sweetness of Nāma Prabhu as Rupa Goswami has described.

But as beginners, we can touch experientially the empowered

Śaktyāvēşa Nama with our prakrta senses along with only
attention-embrace of the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu. By such
regular spiritual touch the understanding and the faith
develops of the Avatara's fullness as three features of the
incarnation in one. It means to see the Avatara as three in one
consisting of Aprakrta God (Avatāri), as God’s own expansion
as Aprakrta Nama Prabhu with sound features similar to
external sound, and as spiritualized matter or Śaktyāvēşa
Nama . Of the three, the second and third are on our tongues
and the first is in the spiritual world and all three never
distanced from each other by material space and time

Thus the Nama or Archa Avatara is one complete absolute

truth or Advaya jnāna experienced by the chanter partially in
the beginning and completely experienced in advanced japa. It
is similar to realization of Brahman, Paramatma and
Bhagavan.

Realization of omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Namais like Brahman or

realization of the spiritual energy of the Lord. Realization of
Aprākrta Nāma avatara or satcitananda Nama Prabhu with
prakrta-namasabda-resembling features is like Paramatma
realization because Namasabda features are local features .
And the realization of the Avatari Aprākrta Nama is like the
Bhagavan realization.

233
 " The Deity is known as the arça-vigraha or arça-avatāra, an
incarnation of the Supreme Lord in the form of a material
manifestation (brass, stone or wood). Ultimately there is no
difference between Krishna manifest in matter or Krishna
manifest in spirit because both are His energies. For Krishna,
there is no distinction between matter and spirit. His
manifestation in material form, therefore, is as good as His
original form, sat-çidānanda-vigraha"

Brahma Samhita 5.1

Srila Prahupada in Teachings of Lord Kapila chapter

4

“Krishna is always Krishna, but because we cannot see

anything beyond material elements like wood, stone, and
metal, He appears in a form made of these elements. But He is
neither wood, metal, nor stone. When we associate with the
Deity, we associate with Krishna personally. Because Krishna
is invisible, He very kindly takes a form that is visible to us.
This is Krishna ’s mercy. Do not think, “Oh, here is a stone
Krishna.”

Thus Krishna's vastu is never made of material energy or maya

as He is the eternal source and master of all energies including
the material energy. But He incarnates 'as He is' into a prakrta
form or sound and makes that sound as good as Him in order
to mercifully receive, relate and reciprocate with our services.
He is achyuta or eternally infallible and does not fall down into
any of the three gunas which are eternally serving Him.

234
It is obvious from the comparison that Nama is more
accessible to masses than Archa avatara. You have to go to the
Archa vigraha to meet Him but in the case of Nama avatara,
He comes to where we are just for moving the tongue with
faith. Installing and worshipping Archa avatara requires very
elaborate prerequisites and procedures. But worshipping
Nama avatara does not require any ingredients nor any
preparations, not even a bath. Simply we have to receive the
Nama with faith from a pure devotee and chant and hear
concurrently (hear that very chant) with attention, faith and
devotion under his guidance.

We have to appreciate the super merciful nature of Nama

Prabhu and take full advantage of His free distribution of His
mercy.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

235
Module 29/1
The Lilas of Nama Prabhu goes beyond just to purify
our hearts

The potent Śaktyāvēşa Nama can enact any acts of this world
on behalf of the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu for any of His lilas as
He wishes in reciprocation to the bhakti of his devotees in the
material plane. Lord has created such a wonderful situation
wherein by a connection of chanter's yantra (material mind-
body system) with the Śaktyāvēşa Nama through serving
attention-embrace, the flow of spiritual sat cit ananda shaktis
are infused into the yantra so that the soul and yantra can both
get purified. Śaktyāvēşa Nama also engages the yantra of the
devotee in an empowered way to serve Aprākrta Nama Prabhu
in His mission to spread Krishna consciousness. Our business
is only to surrender or let go our yantra to the Nama Prabhu to
be used by Him exclusively without me using it to serve my
soul's false ego trips.

The Lord does His personal lilas, whether in material world or

spiritual world, always with His Aprakrta spiritual body. For
Him to act in this world there is no need for a materially
produced sound.

Only for us who are materially conditioned the Aprākrta Nama

expresses HIs transcendental acts in the material plane
through His Śaktyāvēşa Nama. And Śaktyāvēşa Nama in turn

236
acts on the yantra of the chanter as much as the chanter is
spiritually transparent to receive the mercy by becoming free
from false ego and its material purposes.

Though empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama is not identical to

Aprākrta Nama, we have to always remember that the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama is an omnipotent spiritualised sound vigraha
of this world to enact lilas with jivas. It is very important to
understand that the whole truth of the Nama avatara
comprises of Aprākrta Nama Prabhu acting with his
Śaktyāvēşa Nama as His omnipotent body for the time being
when the sound is produced.

The original name or form etc of the Lord in the spiritual world
can expand into unlimited forms as declared by Brahma in
Brahma samhita, adviatam, acyutam anadim ananta rupam.
The Nama avatara acts first to purify the yantra by engaging
our yantra in chanting purely and also engages us in service of
his mission on this earth as the sound incarnation.

Aprakrta Nama's mind is that He is expecting us to associate

with Him through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama by clearly chanting
and carefully hearing and get all the power required to purify
the yantra and receive intelligence to serve His mission.

Powers of Śaktyāvēşa Nama

When, we, as aprākrta souls get a prākrta body according to

our karma, our activites through that prākrta body are limited

237
by what the laws of nature allows that prākrta body to do. In
the case of the Nama incarnation, the equivalent of the soul in
our body is the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu who is shining in the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama, who is the Lord of entire Prakrti. Hence
Śaktyāvēşa Nama is potentially omnipotent and can to do
anything and everything without any limitations of time, space
or substance.

Srila Prabhupada says in Srimad Bhagavatam Purport

10.2.20

"But human society has become so fallen that instead of

understanding the living force within the body, people have
become busy with external things. This is a discrepancy in
human duties. Therefore Kṛṣṇa has taken birth or taken shelter
within the womb of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

The movement will go on increasing more and more, provided

the leaders of the movement remain firmly Kṛṣṇa conscious by
following the regulative principles and the primary activities of
chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra regularly." Nama Prabhu will
do extraordinary feats in this material world through His
devotees by unleashing all powers that are required to preach
Krishna consciousness in every town and village as predicted
by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

238
The Śaktyāvēşa Nama is potentially capable of making the
chanter's yantra also act beyond the limitations of time, space
and substance imposed by karma for His preaching mission
provided such desires are sanctioned by the Aprakrta Nama
Prabhu, who is the source of the empowerment. How much of
Shakti of Nama Prabhu we can attract by our following the
orders of Srila Prabhupada, that much good to the world we
will be able to bring about by Krishna conscious changes in this
present world. All material resources will be made available by
Nama Prabhu for His mission.

It is said that the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama is feared by

death personified. Yamadootas could not touch Ajamila though
his chanting was not pure chanting but was only capable of the
chanting of Śaktyāvēşa Nama as a Nama abhasa. That too in
the consciousness of calling out his son Narayana and not
calling the Lord Himself.

Thus degree of manifest power of the empowered Śaktyāvēşa

Nama into the chanter's yantra released is beyond the purpose
of self-purification. He releases all potencies required to
protect his devotees. He empowers the devotees to preach His
mission depending on the personal reciprocation by the
Aprākrta Nama Prabhu with the chanters.

The Aprākrta Nama fulfils His wishes to enact deeds of saving

his devotees trapped in the prākrta or material plane through
the Śaktyāvēşa Nama through His omnipotency. He does these
Lilas seen or unseen without any limitation of material time or
space or substance. Śaktyāvēşa Nama has all the powers to

239
serve the Aprakrta incarnation on real time basis as per his
wishes in the material plane just my little body carries out
what I wish.

Just because one learns that the electricity in a live copper wire
is beyond copper wire that carries it, you must know that
touching it is a good as touching the electricity and the
powerhouse itself. Further the atoms in copper when
electrified are themselves in a different state of existence than
dead copper wire. Copper itself is transformed for the time
being. So also the Namasabda vigraha that we externally
produce with our tongues is a spiritualised potentially
omnipotent sound.

Chanters ability to draw the power into his yantra.

Just for expanding our understanding, imagine that the

electricity was a person and had free will and the electricity out
of his sweet will decides how much current should be sent
through the wire irrespective of the resistance of the wire by
even having the power to change ordinary wire into a
superconductor which allows unrestricted drawing of current.
In the same way the Aprākrta Nama Prabhu expresses through
the Śaktyāvēşa Nama on our tongue, as much spiritual
satcitananda power as He wishes into the yantra of the chanter

240
in reciprocation to the purity of purpose of the chanter.
Prabhupada has said that the sound chanted of a pure devotee
is more powerful than the Names chanted by a neophyte
devotee.

Offense from thinking that nama sabda on our

tongue is an ordinary sound

Sometimes just after gaining the little knowledge that real

absolute Nama is Aprākrt Nama, the neophyte devotees jumps
to offensive conclusion that the Lord has nothing to do with
the prākrta sound as it a material sound forgetting that it has
become the Śaktyāvēşa Nama by him entering into it.. For the
Lord all energies are spiritual. Absolute truth is not only about
Krishna alone but also how His energies serve His purposes &
pleasures as in the case of all incarnations as arranged by His
internal potency.

We should see the whole truth of avatara as a combination of

Aprākrta Lord and His relationship with the empowered
Śaktyāvēşa Nama as a sound-dress adopted by Him for our
sake when He descends into this world to enable jivas to access
the otherwise materially inaccessible Aprakrta Lord. They both
are served together and their action in the material plane is
joint action as Energetic Lord and Energy Lord upon the
chanter. Nama Prabhu is never without His Śaktyāvēşa Nama
and vice versa in this material world. And whenever He takes
any dress, then there is no difference between His soul and His
dress because He is Himself all energies of existence, being its
very source. This is unlike the jivas where there is always a
difference between his soul and the body that it takes on.

241
The Aprākrta Nama Prabhu as soon as He perform any specific
lila in the material plane, He does it through the Śaktyāvēşa
Nama as the medium. This includes the lila of infusing the
spiritual power and external resources to the pure chanter to
preach and expand the Hare Krishna movement in this world.
This mercy was showered upon Srila Prabhupada by Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu. Therefore Srila Prabhupada is a Śaktyāvēşa
avatara or empowered incarnation of the Nama Prabhu.

Cc. Antya 7.11

krishna-shakti vina nahe tara pravartana

' One cannot distribute the holy names of the Hare Krishna
maha-mantra unless he is empowered by the Supreme
Personality of Godhead .

It is not possible to spread the holy name without being

empowered by the Nama Prabhu through Śaktyāvēşa Nama.
The manifestation of these soulful japa series into this world is
also lila of the Nama Prabhu and His Śaktyāvēşa Nama

The external vigraha of Deity incarnations in this

world is as good as Virat rupa of the Lord.

Bhaktivedanta Purport SB 3.6.4

“The virāṭ-rūpa is not, therefore, an eternal form of the Lord

exhibited in the spiritual sky; it is a material manifestation of
the Lord. The arcā-vigraha, or the worshipable Deity in the
temple, is a similar manifestation of the Lord for the

242
neophytes. But in spite of their material touch, such forms of
the Lord as the virāṭ and arcā are all nondifferent from His
eternal form as Lord Kṛṣṇa.”

During the pancaratrika Deity installation, one of the steps is

to invoke the virat rupa or total material energy along with the
Supersoul of the universe into the external body of the Deity
through a prescribed process even before the Acarya invites the
particular transcendental Deity form into the external vigraha
of the Deity.

Though we cannot see with our senses, the total material

energy enters the external vigraha and is serving the Aprākrta
Lord who descends into such an external vigraha. This is very
mystical because how can a big trunk fit into a smaller match
box. Yet it is a fact the external vigraha of any incarnation of
the Lord contains not only what we see with our senses but
total material energy, serving Him.

After all He is Lord of everyone and everything in this material

world and when He descends into this world of His, the total
material energy or virat energy along with Supersoul of the
universe is at His beck and call to participate by facilitating His
lilas. When He descends He descends in style not only
accompanied by His immediate spiritual energies consisting of
Sandhini, Samvit and Hladini shaktis but also by His whole
material estate serving Him.

243
This is true even in the case of the the sound incarnation in a
sound body of Śaktyāvēşa Nama. The Śaktyāvēşa Nama too is
materially potent to do everything which the Aprākrta Nama
Prabhu wishes to do as His lila in the material plane. Total
material energy is also contained in the external Śaktyāvēşa
Nama including the Supersoul or Paramatma-Krishna. The
analogy of copper wire being electrified has limitations and it
fails here unless you take electricity as a omnipotent person in
the analogy. Therefore never underestimate the powers of the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. It is Krishna's limitless power.

Teaching of Lord Chaitanya

"The chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it gradually

establishes its supremacy above everything in the world."

END

244
Module 29/2

Extraordinary activities by different avatara sariras

With just two steps, Lord Vamana covered all three planetary
systems and pierced the covering of the universe with the toes
of His left foot. The externally seen Vamana sarira or body of
Aprākrta Lord Vamana could do this only if omnipotent.
Though He acts with His own Aprakrta Vigraha, He also
expresses those acts in the material field through His
omnipotent externally seen virat sarira or body for conditioned
souls to see. His 'atmamāya' mystic potency arranges this . His
body grew so big that second step punctured a material hole in
the covering of material universe through which causal water
flows into the universe in the form of Ganga devi. Srila
Prabhupada writes in Bhaktivedanta Purport 10.2.34 :

The Supreme Personality of Godhead appears in order to teach

us Vedic principles intended for understanding Him (vedais ca
sarvair aham eva vedyah [Bg. 15.15]). We should always know
that when Krishna and Lord Chaitanya appeared, They
appeared in suddha-sattva bodies. One should not mistake the
body of Krishna or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be a material
body like ours, for Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
appeared as needed for the benefit of the entire human society.

Out of causeless mercy, the Lord appears in different ages in

His original suddha-sattva transcendental body to elevate

245
human society to the spiritual platform upon which they can
truly benefit.

Krishna showed His universal form to Arjuna. The universal

form or Virat rupa is Supersoul's Prākrta form. The universal
form is not His transcendental satcitananda form. Because His
two handed vishuddha sattva body is the very source of the
entire existence. Krishna could show the universal form within
and without that transcendental form. It also shows that
material energy is also ultimately spiritual energy and not
some non-existing illusion but it is a real temporary
manifestation. Illusion is always about our mapping of the
outside world in the mind.

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.19.24 purport

By His inconceivable potency the Lord can become the

universal form, as explained in Bhagavad-gītā, and at the same
time He can remain within the box of His devotees as their
worship able Deity. There are many devotees who keep a statue
of the Lord in a small box and carry it with them everywhere;
every morning they worship the Lord in the box.

The Supreme Lord, Keśava, or the Personality of Godhead,

Kṛṣṇa, is not bound by any measurement of our calculation. He
can remain with His devotee in any suitable form, yet He is
unapproachable by any amount of demoniac activities.

246
Krishna sat down under a tree with his left leg over his right
thighs and allowed an ordinary arrow of a hunter to strike his
pink toe. This was set up as part of the drama of winding up
earthly His pastimes. Our Acharyas have commented that
when Lord returned to the spiritual world, though he returned
in His own transcendental body, by arrangement of yogamāya
He left a virāt body.

SB Purport 1.14.8

Therefore it should be understood that when Lord Krishna was

apparently killed by the bow and arrow of the hunter, the Lord
left His so-called material body in the material world. The Lord
is kaivalya, and for Him there is no difference between matter
and spirit because everything is created from Him. Therefore
His quitting one sort of body or accepting another body does
not mean that He is like the ordinary living being. All such
activities are simultaneously one and different by His
inconceivable potency.

When Mahäräja Yudhistira was lamenting the possibility of

His disappearance, it was just in pursuance of a custom of
lamenting the disappearance of a great friend, but factually the
Lord never quits His transcendental body, as is misconceived
by less intelligent persons. Such less intelligent persons have
been condemned by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gita, and
they are known as the mudhas. That the Lord left His body
means that He left again His plenary portions in the respective
dhamas (transcendental abodes), as He left His virat-rüpa in
the material world.

247
It was meant to bewilder the non-devotees to see and think
that he left a body like any ordinary person leaves his body. It
was just a show. Even ordinary humans cannot die if an arrow
pierces a toe. It is the game of yogamāya fulfilling His purposes
of voluntarily winding up His avatāra but at the same time
hiding His transcendental nature from non-devotees.

Srila Prabhupada in SB Purport 3.4.29

" The name and form of the Lord cannot be perceived by the
material senses, but when He appears within the vision of the
mundane people He assumes the form of the virāṭ-rūpa."

When Krishna lifted the Govardhana Hill with his little

omnipotent finger, ordinary mortals, even atheists could see
with their material eyes this lila. This is because the activities
of His Aprākrta satcitānanda vigraha, His original form lifting
the satcitananda Goverdhan was simultaneously being enacted
by the omnipotent virāt body by the arrangement of yogamāya
potency of the Lord so as to be seen even by everyone with
material eyes including the demons.

Demons can never see His vishuddha sattva body with their
material eyes. Only those eyes imbued with love for Him can
get to see His own spiritual body with which He descended as
He is. Under any circumstances His transcendental vishuddha
sattva body never gets covered by material energy. It is our
senses that are covered which cannot see anything beyond
matter. These appearances of His virat form and activities

248
before the material eyes are all executed by His yogamāya
potency.

When we act in this world the aprākrta soul is only a knower

and not the actual doer of anything in this world. But Lords
original sacitānanda vigraha is fully active in the material
world in His original Vishuddasattva body merely by His will.
Virat rupa just mimes those lilas for the benefit of humanity to
see and relate. His acts in the material world are no different
from His acts in the spiritual world. Both being performed in
His original body. Pure devotees simultaneously witness the
lilas in both His virat rupa as well as His satcitananda rupa as
they are indistinguishable from one another in their features.

Those with faith never see the external vigraha as plain matter
but sees it as being omnipotent total matter energy serving
Him who has incarnated into the external deity in a
transcendental form resembling the external deity form.
External deity body is fully spiritualized and omnipotent and
serves the Lord's wish without any limitation of time or space
or matter because He Himself is the very source of all of space,
time and matter.

Our Acharyas have explained that when the gopis ran to

Krishna in the night by hearing his flute leaving their homes
and husbands, they actually left behind their material bodies at
home and went in their spiritual awakened or Aprākrta bodies
to Krishna for participating in the rāsa dance in their original
spiritual bodies with satcitananda body of the Lord. Their

249
husbands never detected their absence because of this. That is
the reason the rasa dance lila is very confidental of all his lilas
on this earth.

The role of atmamāya or yogamāya potency of the

Lord

Thus the lilas enacted by the Aprākrta body are always in

transcendental plane and alongside that, Yogamāya arranges
the potentially omnipotent body of virāt rupa to act as per His
wishes for sake of giving access to His Lilas to the conditioned
souls. The form and role of such an omnipotent virāt body
could be either to enact a copy of that Lila for conditioned soul
to see with their material eyes or to bewilder the non-believers
as in the case of his disappearance Lila. Or sometimes to
support Aprākrta lila such as in case of gopis leaving behind
their prakrta bodies and going to Krishna in their aprakrta or
spiritual bodies.

Yogamāya's role is different in each case. In each case whatever

is required is managed with the virāt body which is a body of
total gross and subtle material energy and not just small chunk
of virāt that appears to our eyes. Our bodies are only a tiny
chunk of virāt with limited powers governed by karma. The
external virāt rupa vigrahas of incarnations have no material
limitations and can act as omnipotent in this world as the Lord
decides. Yogamāya's service is to manage the different
situations of avatara lila in order to facilitate rasa for Him.
Krishna keeps acting in His original shuddha sattva body
unhindered in any manner whatsoever.

250
Krishna talks about His appearance in this material
world in Gita

Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 4.9, 'janma karma ca me

divyam' meaning His lilas of birth and activities here are
divine. He continues,

evam yo vetti tattvatah

tyakt a deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna.

One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance

and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth
again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O
Arjuna.

Krishna also says only fools think that He takes shelter of a

limited human body (tanum āsritah) like everybody else
without knowing that He descends on His own as He is in His
transcendental body into His virat body. He does not need a
material body to act in this world. His potency Yogamāya,
through the materially omnipotent virāt energy, arranges an
appearance like having a limited human body for material
eyes. Such virāt energy serves Him in order to cover the view of
non-devotees but can never cover Him. Just like a cloud can
cover an individual's vision but can never cover the sun.

251
Krishna says this Bhagavad Gita 7.25

nāham prakāshah sarvasya

yoga-māyā-samāvrtah
müdho 'yam nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I

am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not
know that I am unborn and infallible.

Krishna descends in His original form.

avajānanti mām mudha

mānushim tanum āsritam
param bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhuta-mahesvaram

Lecture on Oct 9, 1973 in Bombay, Bhagavad Gita , Text 13.15 -

purport

Therefore anyone who thinks Krsna's body is also materially

covered... The Mayavadi philosophers, they say that "God,
when He comes in this material world, He accepts a material
body."

That is rascaldom. He never accepts material body. That is

confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita. Avajananti mam mudha

252
manusim tanum asritam [Bg. 9.11]. If God also accepts a
material body, then what is the difference between God and
ourself? He has nothing material. Everything spiritual.
Everything spiritual. Even if He accepts material body, He can
act spiritually. That is His power. Because material body,
material energy is also His energy."

In the case of Nama avatāra, Nama Prabhu takes on sound

features resembling the prakrta namasabda that we utter. But
in the case of the dashavataras, the prākrta sharira (practically
the virat rupa) takes on features resembling the transcendental
features of the original spiritual body of the Avatari.

A pure devotee, who is anointed with love for Krishna, sees the
Aprākrta lila of the incarnation. He chants and hears from the
Aprākrta plane through and beyond the omnipotent
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. Just like when you see through your glasses
you are not conscious of the glass through which you are seeing
things. Yet the glass is intervening medium.

Never separate Aprākrta Nama Prabhu and the

Śaktyāvēşa Nama

In conclusion though Aprākrta Nama Prabhu and the

empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama are two categories (in tattva) of
Absolute Truth, namely the Lord and His energies, they are
never to be separated while serving. They both have to be
served simultaneously as two aspects of the Nama Avatāra. For
knowledge that the Lord is never matter, we have to
understand that there are two identical sounding namasabda

253
namely Aprākrta Nama Prabhu and the Śaktyāvēşa Nama
before the chanter. One that you can hear and the other that
you cannot vibrate with material tongue or hear with material
ears till you awaken your spiritual chanting and hearing. But
when it comes to rasa of serving, we lovingly offer our service
to the combined as one Nama Avatāra who is all-spiritual and
all loving incarnation without differentiating between the Lord
and His body which is all His own energies. Abhinatvān nāma
nāminoh.

When we serve the sound incarnation, we feel experience of

the presence of Śaktyāvēşa Nama through our material senses
and also simultaneously feel unmanifest presence of Aprākrta
Nama Prabhu through our eyes of transcendental knowledge
and faith.

Further for the Lord there is no difference between spiritual

energy and material energy. Everything is spiritual existence
for Him as Srila Prabhupada explains below:

" There is no difference between matter and spirit for the Lord,
although there is a gulf of difference between the two in the
case of the conditioned living being. For the Lord there is
nothing but spiritual existence, and similarly there is nothing
except spiritual existence for the pure devotee of the Lord in
his intimate relation with the Lord."

- Srimad Bhagavatam1.12.9

Thus whenever we say Harer Nama Harer Nama eva kevalam

and Kali Kali nama rupe Krishna avatara, it means the

254
omnipotent and all loving, all-spiritual Nama Prabhu with
spiritualised sound-body of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama. There is
nothing material at any point of time even in the empowered
Śaktyāvēşa Nama as the matter energy is transformed into
spirit energy by His atmamaya potency.

END

255
Module 29/3

Some extraordinary lilas of Nama vigraha & Archa

vigraha

The sound incarnation of Lord which fulfils all the desires of

those who chanted the Holy Names is most well known in
vedic history or puranas. Like how Vālmiki transformed
himself from being a cruel criminal minded person into the
greatest devotee just by serving the sound ‘Rāma’ by
incessantly chanting that name. He became such a great
devotee that he was blessed by the Lord to scribe the
Rāmayana.

How Hanuman made his tail so heavy that hundreds of

soldiers of Rāvana could not lift it from the floor, while he kept
chanting the name ‘Rāma, Rāma, Rāma…….’. How just by
writing the name of Ram on the rocks, they started floating in
the ocean to form a bridge to go to Lanka.

When dushasana tried to disrobe Draupadi, she cried out the

names Krishna! Krishna! , Lord Krishna mystically supplied
her unlimited length of saree that she could not be disrobed.

256
Prabhlad Maharaj simple chanted always Narayana. He was
personally protected by Lord Narayana from all kinds of
dangerous torture from Hiranyakashipu and finally killed him
to please His devotee Prahlad Maharaj.

Ajamila chanted Narayana at the time of death and

He was protected from Yams dhootas.

Srila Prabhupada made the western world dance with the Hare
Krishna chant for the first time and transformed the
consciousness of millions to Krishna consciousness and he is
continuing to change the world by invoking the power of the
Hare Krishna mahamantra.

When the Lord incarnates into anything, it is His own energy

and it is the same as Him. There is no difference between
Lord's soul and His body like in the case of ordinary jivas and
their bodies in this world. How carefully we have to respect
and serve His body when the Nama Prabhu has incarnated into
that body just to enable us to offer Him service.

The lila of Sakshi Gopal

There is the historical lila of the Deity of Sākshi Gopal in which

the external stone vigraha walked behind the brahmana,
jingling

His ankle bells for hundred of miles to bear witness to a

conversation between a brahmana and rich man. The Deity's

257
condition to the brahmana was that he should not turn back
and look and he would follow him to his village to bear witness
to an assurance given by the rich man to marry his daughter to
him in front of the Deity. Even today one can go to the village
in Orissa to have darshan of Sakshi Gopal.

The Lila of Gauridas Pandit

The Lila of the deities of Gauridas Pandit where the Deities

walk in and out of the altar at will is very interesting and
instructive. Gauridas Pandit was a great devotee of Lord
Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda. Once Their Lordships were
staying in his house. After staying for few days, it was time for
them to leave. Gauridas Pandit was heart broken. He requested
them to stay on with him. But they said have to go for the sake
of so many others.

Then Gauridas Pandit asked the Lord to allow him to make

deities identical to them so that he may serve them when they
are gone. The Lord conceded and the deities resembling
exactly like them were made. After that Lord Chaitanya and
Lord Nityananda bid him farewell. But Gauridas Pandit would
not leave them. He held onto their hands and was not allowing
them to go.

When Lord said that ‘you can serve the Deities’, he said ‘no, I
want you to stay. Then immediately they stood still and
became the Deity bodies, while so called matter body of the

258
Deities just changed into a walking matter body or sarira and
started walking out. Then he ran towards them and pleaded
'you cannot go' and caught them. Immediately whom he caught
just then become Deities and stood still. Meanwhile the other
set of Gaura Nitai started walking out.

He ran back to Them and held them back pleading, 'you cannot
go'. Then they transformed into Deity bodied and other Gaura
Nitai turned into a walking sarira and started again moving
out. This happened so many times back and forth that finally
Gauridas Pandit could no longer differentiate between the
Deity Gaura Nitai and the walking Goura Nitai before him.

Finally Gauridas Pandit let them go and He continued to

worship the Deities realizing Lord can descend into any kind of
body that He decides to incarnate He fully becomes that. There
is never a difference between Lord and His body, whether it his
original satcitananda body or His incarnated body. It does not
matter whether that matter-body is stone or metal or painting
or sound or any medium of matter. This lila of the Lord brings
forth the entire principle of incarnations of the Lord that any
sarira He incarnates into is omnipotent virat sarira and is Him
irrespective of its finite appearance to our senses.

The Lord resides in such incarnations in His own unchanging

eternal satcitananda body as He is by taking on an aprakrta
form resembling that sarira's form, whether visual form or
sound form or any other form.

259
 As we develop love for the Deity or the sound incarnation, our
perception will move beyond the spiritualized sariria to include
the aprakrta Lord in these incarnations who resemble the
spiritualized sarira. One should respect and serve His Nama
Vigraha of this world, the Shaktyaavesha Nama by distinctly
chanting and carefully hearing with full faith that there is no
difference between the Lord's own sound body, the Aprakrta
Nama, and other unlimited bodies of Shaktyavesha Nama that
He incarnates into.

Just like when I see the world through the eye glasses, I am not
aware of the glasses at all. But first few days, when I wear a
new pair of eye glasses, my mind will be conscious. In the same
way as a neophyte devotee advances in the above faith, he
stops seeing matter any more in the Deity though present fully
spiritualised. He begins to see Aprakrta Nama with his eyes of
attention filled with faith and devotion. He sees unconsciously
the external vigraha and consciously and directly the
transcendental vigraha as in the example of seeing through the
eye glasses. The material energy becomes transparent . There
is no three guna effect in our perception of the Shaktyavesha
sarira of the Lord. The Shaktyaavesha Nama itself is anyway
free from three guna effects as it is spiritualised as it is Lord's
own body of this world.

Every body assumed by the Lord is Virat or omnipotent. Any

matter body that the Lord incarnates into is just for us to sense
with our physical senses, whether wood or sound or any
moving sarira. They are all omnipotent virat bodies though

260
that body appears to our physical eyes like only a little chunk of
matter like our bodies are. Such bodies of the Lord are worship
able as Lord's original body.Thus the externally produced
Nama which becomes the shaktavaesha Nama is worship able.

There is always a difference between our body and our soul.

For Him there is no different between matter and spirit like it
is for us. Any body He takes in this world by His sweet will
becomes as good as His own transcendental body.

Further what is 'material' for us is not the matter itself but its
effect on our consciousness when see it disconnected from its
source who is Krishna. This effect is in the form of three
material modes. Thus only a particular way of seeing matter
makes it material. Thus plain matter itself is not material but
one way of perceiving of matter is material.

Similarly the external sound vigraha of the Hare Krishna

mahamantra is omnipotent and functionally non-different
from the spiritual vibration , the Aprakrta Nama of the Lord.
He resides therein in a transcendental sound form resembling
that very external sound.

And the Aprakrta Nama of the Lord is the Lord Himself.

Therefore it is said Kali kale Krishna Nāma rupa avatara. And
namnam akari bahuda nija sarva shakti-the holy names that
we vibrate with our tongue is invested with all the spiritual
potencies of the Lord. Especially the cleansing and awakening
potency.

261
 Every Deity /Avatāra has His social world of His devotees with
whom He is exchanging His compassionate līlā of receiving
loving services and giving out mercy on the eternal principle of
‘as you surrender I reciprocate’ first liberate them from
material three guna effects and then awaken their love of
Godhead.

END

Module 30

Summing up the discussion on Nāma Avatāra

1. The eternally sounding sat-cit-ānanda Krishna Nāma in the

spiritual world is the Avatāri or the source of Nāma Avatāra
There is no difference between Krishna Nama and Krishna
Himself. When He decides to incarnate into His material

262
energy, He, with his effulgent sat-cit-ānanda energy expands
Himself into several spiritual sound forms resembling the
detailed features of the form of the external sound or
individual namasabdas on our tongues.

It is just like one sun reflects on different waterbodies on the

earth. Reflection of the absolute is non-different from the
absolute. This is the self-effulgent satcitananda Aprakrta Nāma
Prabhu having aprakrta sound features resembling sound
features of external nama.

2. Satcitananda Nāma Prabhu transmits the sat-cit-ānanda

energies just as sun distributes its light and heat through
sunshine. This is His specific act of mercy as the avatara.
Because the sound features of the Nāma Prabhu are
resembling the sound features of the externally produced
namasabda features of both of them indistinguishably merge
into one common overlapping perception in the mind of the
attentive chanter at the point of perception. The prakrta
namasabda is spiritualized completely and becomes the
potentially omnipotent empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

The combination of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama and the empowering

Nama Prabhu is called the Nama Avatāra. The empowered
nama-sabdha or Śaktyāvēşa Nama is the sabda sarira or
vigraha of the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu in this world like how
Krishna walked amidst us 5000 years back. Here the Aprakrta
Nama is present amidst us in an empowered potentially
omnipotent sound body called Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

263
3. A simple sense contact with our attention on calling out or
distinctly chanting these spiritually charged and externally
tangible empowered potentially omnipotent sound features
establishes what we call as attentive sound-connection with
Śaktyāvēşa Nama. That purifies the contaminated
consciousness of the person who touches those features further
with his attentive hearing. Attentive sound-touch of the sound
features means being attentive to the details of sound
incarnation by carefully hearing and recognizing the sound and
person whose name it is with faith that Aprakrta Nama is
receiving my service. Sustained attention touch for prolonged
duration is called attentive sound-embrace. To do both these
two functions properly, serving attention is a must to set up
both the attention-connection by chanting and attention-
embrace by hearing the Nāma Avatāra.

4. Since the detailed features of the sat-çit-ānanda Aprākrta

Nāma are resembling the features of the externally produced
Śaktyāvēşa Nama, when our serving attention touches and
serves the features of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama with our senses
and mind, our attention is also enabled to touch and serve the
Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu at the plane of our consciousness.
Therefore, it is extremely important to perceive the sound by
means of serving attention-touch of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama as
they appear to our senses, in order to establish contact of our
attention with the satcitananda Aprākrta Nama Prabhu,

5. So soulful japa means distinctly chanting and carefully

hearing concurrently each Nama that manifests and tasking of

264
repetition of the same bead after bead while in the background
there is constant effortless recognizing and remembering of the
all-merciful

effulgent satcitananda Nāma Prabhu with feelings of affection,

faith, humility, devotion, gratitude and surrender and
repentance for making offenses in past and present and
seeking forgiveness.

6. This makes our serving-attention touch and serve the

incarnation of the Lord in the form of remembrance of His
effulgent Nama Prabhu and receive the flow of causeless mercy
from Him. When we do mindful japa with existence-faith and
relationship-faith in the background soulful japa begins.

7. Note that doing-attention on the sound features to chant is

the connecting pathway for the soul to connect with the
empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama and also the knowing attention
to hear sharply is the sound-touch / embrace of Śaktyāvēşa
Nama. And faith is the doorway for entering the treasure house
of transcendental satcitananda energies of Nāma Prabhu.

And due to inattentiveness, we are deprived of the direct

association of the Lord’s Avatāra who is an ocean of
satcitananda. By such association of the Nāma Prabhu, all
spiritual perfection is achieved. By absorbing the attention on
some other thought processing during japa we get
disconnected from the incarnation

265
8. The Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu is described in Padma Purana
as one whose vigraha or body is chaitanya rasa vigraha.

Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ Krishnaś chaitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ pūrṇaḥ

śuddho nitya-mukto ’bhinnatvān Nāma-nāminoḥ

‘The holy name of Krishna is transcendentally blissful. It

bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is Krishna Himself, the
reservoir of all pleasure. Krishna’s name is complete, and it is
the form of all transcendental mellows. It is not a material
name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than
Krishna Himself. Since Krishna’s name is not contaminated by
the material qualities, there is no question of its being involved
with Māyā. Krishna’s name is always liberated and spiritual; it
is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. This is
because the name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are
identical.’

Śri Chaitanya-Charitāmrta Madhya 17.133

When Lord Chaitanya says that the holy names are invested
with all energies, (namnam akari bahuda nija sarva shakti) He
is referring to investing energies into the externally perceivable
namasabda since the question of empowering Aprākrta Nāma
Prabhu does not arise as He is Krishna Himself.

Aprākrta Nāma is not generated by the phenomenon by

vibration of air molecules like the Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Aprākrta
Nāma or transcendental Nama is eternally self-sounding, self-
manifest, all-powerful, all-loving and all-intelligent

266
satcitananda person emanating effulgent rays of satcitananda
descending from the spiritual world in His into the Nama
chanted by me with my material tongue. Even when He
incarnates into this world into the namasabda created by our
tongue, He is fully pure (Pūrna śuddha), eternally liberated
(nitya mukta). He is Krishna Himself as His Nama. And that is
the Nāma Prabhu. But Śaktyāvēşa Nama comes into existence
as soon as we vibrate. By vibrating we create this powerful
sound body of Śaktyāvēşa Nama . And therefore we should
hear the Nama concurrently as we chant for effective attentive
sound-connection and attentive sound-embrace which is the
essence of mindful Japa. We will be talking more modules on
how to concurrently chant-cum-hear.

9. In addition to empowering, He inconceivably becomes

functionally one with this external Śaktyāvēşa Nama on our
tongue for the time being.

Even ordinary jiva spirit can take up a material body and

identify with itself for rasa then why God cannot become a
sound of this world for his lilas while always remaining
transcendental as the Aprākrta Nāma .

This is not difficult for God for He is eternally linked with

material energy as its eternal source and cause. The Nāma
Avatāra as a combination of Aprākrta Nama and Śaktyāvēşa
Nama interacts with the chanter on the principle of as you
surrender I reciprocate.

267
One should never think that the external Nama itself is not an
important component of the incarnation and that it is just a
material thing. That would amount to not recognizing the wish
of the Lord, who, for the sake of mercifully awakening the love
for Him in the conditioned souls of this world, has decided to
empower external sound into a Śaktyāvēşa Nama with His
omnipotence and make it as good as Him.

10. All the benefit for the soul is coming from the association
of the external Śaktyāvēşa Nama, because our access is only to
what is perceivable by our prākrta senses. The Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma, to whom our senses have access, is as good as the
Aprakrta Nāma Prabhu for (rasa) purposes of receiving and
reciprocating our services.

11. The Lord being absolute, He is in the material world in His

original body and still directly sense everything 'as they are'
with His transcendental senses being free from all illusion.

But because we will not be able to perceive Him, for all His
lilas in this material world His spiritual body is accompanied
by a parallel Śaktyāvēşa body into which He incarnates for us
to see, hear, etc.

The Lord always act in His satcitananda spiritual body even

when He acts through the Śaktyāvēşa component of the
incarnation in this world unlike conditioned jivas who act only

268
with their material body forgetting their spiritual self and
going into a deep spiritual slumber.

12. One should have faith that if the Lord decides He can
become any of His energies. And that is how, just for us, the
Aprākrta Nāma mercifully not only empowers the external
Nama but also mercifully and transcendentally becomes that
Śaktyāvēşa Nama for the time being and receives our services
and reciprocates with us. Just like I can validly say 'I am my
hand' but my hand cannot say 'I am the whole body.' Though,
He, being the energetic is spiritually different from His energy,
whenever He wants He can decides to manifest His person in
the energy by becoming that energy. That is His omnipotence.
When He does that, then the energy is as good as Him. This is
the principle of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and
difference between the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama and the
transcendental Aprākrta Nama Prabhu of the Avatāra. Only
those who faith in the above can have access to the full mercy
of the Lord’s incarnation.

13. If the Nāma Avatāra is pleased by sincere devotional

service of attentive chanting and hearing, in obedience to the
order and directions of a sadh-guru, He will enlighten the
chanter with pure self- knowledge within a very short time. He
will liberate him from misidentification with matter and
continue to spiritualize his attention, intelligence and mind
resulting in awakening of his spiritual sensibilities.

He takes charge of the material life of such a surrendered

devotee. Nāma Prabhu enables the soul one day, to chant and

269
hear Him with the soul’s awakened spiritual mind and
spiritualised tongue and ears than mere attention-touch as in
the beginning. If we submit ourselves to the Nāma avatāra for
the association, the Lord will enter our lives in all of its details,
to the manner in which we surrender to Him.

14. Gradually He will mercifully reveal to the chanter, the

Aprākrta or absolute name, form and lilas by His sweet will.

ataēva kṛṣṇēra ‘Nāma,’ ‘deha,’ ‘vilāsa.’

prākṛtendriya-grāhya nahe, haya sva-prakāśa
“The holy name of Krishna, His body, and His pastimes cannot
be understood by the blunt material senses. They are
manifested independently.”
Sri Çaitanya-Çaritāmrta Madhya 17.13

15. We develop faith and a relationship of loving service with

the Nāma Avatāra by the daily service of chanting and hearing
and make it our aspiration in life to surrender and serve Him
and His mission through the sađh-guru,

Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu becomes the master of our life. He

takes us closer and closer to Him by active reciprocation and
relationship as His loving servant.

16. Potentially we can be guided and empowered by Him every

moment in His service. All depends on our level of surrender.
This connection is not limited to the only japa but every aspect
of our lives in this material body throughout our day. The

270
devotee under the shelter of the Nama avatara serves the
spiritual ambitions of the pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada.

17. The three components are 1. The Nāma Avatari or Suddha

Nama in the spiritual world. 2. The Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu
who descends as avatara. 3. His external, empowered sat-çit-
ānanda-ized Śaktyāvēşa Nama. There are three stages of japa
seva and realization of the Nāma Avatāra namely Nāma
aparadha stage , Nāma abhasa stage and Suddha Nāma stage.
Soon we will see how these three stages are related to
progressive realizations of above three different component of
Nāma Avatara. Now let us understand a most important
component called shraddha of faith in Japa seva.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

271
Module 31/1
Shraddha or faith

Anchoring Attention through Faith:

As a sādhaka, direct experiential attraction by touch of sat-çit-

ānanda Krishna is not known to the conditioned souls since
the material senses cannot normally touch or experience
Krishna’s sat-çit-ānanda vigraha, which is revealed to be
infinitely sweet and attractive for the spiritual senses and
spiritual mind and also for the spiritualized & material senses.
Meantime, how to fix attention at the stage where there is no
‘experiential attraction’? The answer is attraction arising out of
‘faith’. Faith on all the sublime attractive qualities revealed by
sastras about the Sevya, Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu generates
deep intention to associate and spiritually benefit by such
association and attain perfection of life. Thus attraction by
faith in the attractiveness of the object of faith will anchor the
attention on the Sevya. Faith fuels intentions, desire & purpose
which in turn anchors attention.

Just like if someone says in such and such a location there is a

treasure buried under a rock and the person saying that is
trustable and credible, then your mind will be attracted to it
even though you have not had experiential attraction of the
treasure through your senses. So also is the case of faith about
sublime things revealed in the scriptures about chanting and
hearing process. Hearing the glories of Krishna Nāma from the
scriptures develops attraction to Krishna Nāma.

272
What is a belief?

A belief is a kind of perception in our minds. It is a truth-

equation or a statement we make to ourselves that something
is true. Belief is something that we are convinced due to our
own reasoning. Reasoning may be sound or faulty. That does
not matter. The source of such statements of 'truth' may be
ones own mind or it may be by hearing from a source you
believe to be speaking the truth about a particular object,
person, action or situation. Belief is a truth-feeling that
operates at our feeling dimension of what we think is the true
relationship between mappings of things, people, actions and
situation. Example: I believe that consumption of white sugar
is bad for diabetes. Or I believe that ghosts exists. Belief is only
a perception but whether it is really true or not true or 'sat' is
an altogether different matter. Belief is only about ' feeling of
truth' of existence or relationships between different items in
our perception- ghosts and existence or white sugar and
diabetes. Belief need not match with the objective truth or
reality outside our heads. Therefore a belief could either be a
distortion of truth or be factual truth. Belief that are sattvic are
free from ignorance and such truth-equations match with
objective truth. Thus there are sattvic, rajasic and tamasic
beliefs.

What is Faith?

When a belief or perception of truth-equation relates to

sublime truths especially those relating to Supreme Being
accompanied with reverence or respect for that truth, we call
that as faith. Sublime beliefs are called faith. Faith that are
sattvic or free from ignorance produce knowledge. There are

273
rajasic and tamasic faiths too that produces rajasic and tamasic
effect on our consciousness. Faith in the vedic sounds are true
sattvic faiths. In Krishna consciousness we are only dealing
with faith in sastric truths which are not mental concoctions
but are absolute true faiths.

Transcendental faith is about truth feelings relating to

transcendental subject matter

Examples:

I have faith that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of

Godhead. I have faith that the Personality of holy name is
Krishna Himself . I have faith that Krishna is the causes of all
causes. I have faith that Krishna is an ocean of sat cit ananda
etc etc. I have faith that Krishna always help those who help
themselves. I have faith that Krishna never lets down His
devotees is another kind of faith. These are examples of
transcendental faith that are not proved by our material senses
or mind but by transcendental realisations or experiences.

Thus transcendental faith is about how we perceive existence

of different things and thier mutual relationships within our
mind as revealed from the authoritative sources like scriptures
about subjects that are not not yet fully seen or experienced by
material senses. These truths are not seen with our own seeing
ability but are seen by hearing the sastras speaking to you or
pointing out the truth. The sastras are a gift to humanity. So
also faculty of faith is a gift to souls in human body providing a

274
gateway to get preliminary access to the sublime truths
revealed in sastras. This is the descending process of receiving
transcendental knowledge.

The knowledge thus received transforms into realized

knowledge by following the relevant prescribed discipline to
realize the same prescribed by that very sastras. These
materially unseen truths that are not yet realised cannot be
accessed by material sense perception. The first point of access
of these sublime truths is only through faith. Faith has very big
role to play in this purification process through japa. Japa
without background faith or shraddha is very weak.

END

275
Module 31/2

Concept of existential sensing and Experiential

sensing of the incarnation

As revealed by the scripture, the Lord is existentially right

there before the chanter as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma Avatāra and
Aprakrta Nama for access to anyone offering serving attention.
Even to perceive the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma Avatāra you need faith
that this is an empowered sound. Without faith it is just a
sound produced by your tongue. Similarly the Aprakrta Nama
can be sensed only when our serving attention is pure and if
the pure spiritual mind and senses are awakened. But we can
perceive with faith that the sound before you is combination of
transcendental sound who is Krishna Himself having entered
the sound you produce making it potentially an omnipotent
sound.

It is just like if you had a polythene sheet cover the surface of

the tongue, you cannot taste a sweet rasgulla placed over it
though existentially you have access to pick it up and place it
on your tongue.

Or if you wear a rubber gloves and touch a hot plate you will
not experientially feel the heat though existentially you have
the ability to touch it as far as access is concerned. This are
example of how some truth is existentially accessible but not
experientially accessible. This understanding helps us develop

276
faith in the existential presence of the Lord yet not able to
experience Him with our material senses.

My attention is having access to both not having the spiritual

sensitivity to experientially feel Him with my materialised
tongue, ears and mind. But by continuously touching Him
through my serving attention with faith that He is present
before me and serving Him in that spirit of faith in His
presence before you. We will call it as faith-presence. By
chanting and hearing with attention and faith our tongue, ears
and mind becomes purified by flow of spiritual energies from
association with the Avatāra. Hence our association in the
beginning is by faith-presence.

The spiritual energies flows into the chanter’s contaminated

consciousness, senses, mind and soul and sat-çit-ānanda-izes
them just like how a piece of iron put into a fire for long time
becomes red hot and acts like fire. We can say that the fire fire-
izes the iron piece. These merciful energies surrounding the
Śaktyāvēşa Avatāra melt away the material covering of the
chanter and his attention gets gradually purified of the three
modes of material nature to the extent or degree of the
exposure to the Avatāra through his serving attention and
faith-presence.

Lecture. September 8, 1966, New York

The present senses, cannot have any knowledge of the

Supreme God. But how we
can have knowledge? If my senses are unfit, then how can I

277
make it fit? Oh, that is the thing. That is the thing, that you
have to spiritualize, spiritualize these material sense, I mean to
say, organs. And then, when you spiritualize, then you can
have the spiritual vision and see God and yourself. The same
example which I have recited many times: just like the iron
rod. Iron rod, you put into the fire. It gets warm—warm,
warmer, warmer. And when it is red hot, then it is no longer
iron. Iron it is, but it does not act as iron, but it acts as fire.
That iron rod which is red hot in association with fire, you can
take that rod and touch anything; it will burn. That means it is
no longer acting as iron; it is acting as fire.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

Module 31/3
Moving from transcendental faith-presence to
transcendental experiential-presence

The fact is that after intensive practice of hearing of the

transcendental knowledge from scriptures about incarnation,
faith is increased and His faith-presence before us is felt
intensely. Faith-presence is the stage of japa where you get
access to the Nāma’s association through the prakrta Nama but
without any direct spiritual sense perception of the
transcendental aprakrta Nāma Himself. Transcendental
experiential presence is the stage where you get transcendental
experience after His energies allow us entry into that
experiential presence. First we have to access and associate

278
with his transcendental energies loaded in the prakrta Nama
which is the sac-cit-ananda ized Shaktyaavesha Avatara and
bathe our cittam in the satcitananda rays.

The transcendental Nāma cannot be sensed with our material

senses. It requires awakening of spiritual mind and senses and
the merciful sanction of the Nāma Prabhu Himself. Faith-
presence in the beginning does not include experience with
one’s spiritual senses and mind for the simple reason that our
spiritual mind and senses are in deep slumber. But without
faith one never begins his relationship with the Nāma Prabhu.

You have full faith that He is before you and yet He is not
spiritually experienceable. When full faith in the sastras and
desire to experience the sweetness of the sat-çit-ānanda
Aprakrta Nama shabda described in the sastras combine
together, it builds up into an intense painful desire due to the
separation for the chanter from that desired experience. This
develops into a desperate need to close this gap between faith-
presence and experiential-presence in the form of an intense
craving for the most sought after direct spiritual experiential
touch of the transcendental Nāma shabdha.

This transcendental faith combined with this deep

anticipation, greed and craving while at the same time feeling
disqualified to receive the mercy but having implicit faith in
the causeless way in which the Nama gives out mercy, attract
the reciprocation from the merciful Avatāra. This kind of
anticipation, greed and craving accelerates purification and
awakening of our spiritual mind and senses.

279
Serving attention with intense faith gives us full access to the
Nāma’s sat cit ananda energies. Just like before you go into the
sun you have to cross the sunshine. Such association of Nāma’s
energies purifies all our senses. When Nama Prabhu is pleased
by the devotion of the sādhaka, He, out of His own sweet will,
may be gift him with experiential presence of the
transcendental Nāma. It is fully His prerogative as to when.

Such spiritual experiential presence can never be captured by

our material senses. When He allows experiential presence of
the sat-çit-ānanda Nāma Avatāra then that is the beginning of
realization of Suddha Nāma. These are just the purifying stages
of realization of the Nāma Avatāra. Rupa Goswami says that
eventually when we are fully purified and blessed by direct
transcendental experiential presence of the transcendental
sound, one will want a million tongue and ears to taste the holy
name.

Strong faith leads to strong japa intentions

Faith/Sraddha in your mind and heart that Hare Krishna

Nāma Prabhu is an ocean of sat cit ānanda, generates different
kinds of -intention and delight of that sublime association with
Nāma Prabhu. This intention and delight anchors the
attention. Intention, delight and attention makes sense only if
there are strong faiths in the truths about the Nama Avatara in
the background mind.

280
Without sraddhā in Lord’s transcendental presence before you
as the satcitananda surya of Aprakrta Nama sabda and faith
that He is pleased by attentive chanting and hearing and
tasking, and the faith that chanting-cum-hearing is super-most
valued activity that anyone can do, you cannot have a deep
intention or delight or excitement to do japa. Weak faith
means weak attraction which in turn means weak intention
and wavering attention. Strong faith creates strong attraction
and strong intention all of which will anchor the attention to
the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu. Therefore that faith have to be
cultured during off-japa times through contemplation using
the '5R' method found at https://t.me/c/1479406133/5243.
Then such faith has to be applied during japa. Such application
of faith deepens the faith. Faith has to be cultured, applied and
deepened.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

281
Module 31/4

Culturing two kinds of Faith

Existential-faith & relationship-faith or trust in His

love

Shraddhā is a sublime feeling. What kind of feeling? It is a

feeling of unflinching trust in existence, qualities, power,
activities of Krishna with respect, desire & hope of associating
with Him. Faith in Krishna is a 'truth feeling' about sat, cit,
ananda aspects of Krishna as heard and/or experienced
directly.

1. Existence-faith: The faith in truths about the

transcendental existence of Krishna, His Suddha Name, form
etc and about His sound incarnations- Aprākrta Nāma and
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma Avatāra

2. Relationship-faith: The faith in His reciprocal exchange of

love with us or trust in His love

Existence-faith in Krishna: Faith that Krishna exists in the

spiritual world in His original form as well as everywhere as
different unlimited expanded forms in as sat cit ananda forms.
He cannot be seen with material eyes though He is
omnipresent. Krishna’s name is non-different from Him yet
the Name is more merciful that Him. Faith that He is the
Supreme Person, Bhagavan. There is no one equal to or greater
than Him. Krishna is sat cit ananda and is surrounded by
ocean of sat cit ananda like sun is light and also surrounded by

282
an ocean of light. Faith that He is cause of all that exists and
also the cause for which everything exists. He is within and
without of everything and is omnipotent. Krishna's Name is
also an ocean of sat-cit-ananda. Krishna's name incarnates as
Aprakrta Nama into the name-sound we vibrate.

Relationship-faith or Trust in Krishna’s love: Faith that

Krishna is unlimitedly compassionate and merciful. Faith that
Krishna’s love is unconditional and unique with each jiva. Lack
of flow of love towards Him from one jiva cannot be
compensated by love from another jiva. Love is not about
quantity. It is about uniqueness of each jiva. Krishna wants
each of our love. We can never in reality be separated from
Krishna. He is situated in our hearts in the material world as
our true friend. Krishna reciprocates in accordance with which
the jiva approaches Him. Total existence is nothing but
everything being in relationship with Krishna either active or
passive or dormant.

He never lets His devotee down. Krishna says I will give your
intelligence required to come to Me. Krishna says surrender to
me and I will free you from all past sinful reactions. He always
protect him even without praying to Him for protection. It is
also faith with regard to His reliability or dependability in
keeping up his words and assurances. To have unflinching
trust that by serving Krishna through chanting and hearing,
there is nobody else to be served. It is the highest activity.
There is no activity of higher value than this pleasing activity of
attentive chanting-cum-hearing and tasking of successful
repetition of the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu.

283
Why sraddha pleases Him

It is easy to understand that the Lord is pleased with prīti or

love. But why is the Lord personally pleased with someone’s
śraddha? Because when we trust somebody unconditionally, it
is a kind of relationship that please that person because of
reposing confidence in that person's dependability. That is why
faith in Him pleases Him and He reciprocates to that faith in
Him. Sēvya or Hare Krishna Nāma is pleased when the chanter
has faith in His presence in the name-sound before him, based
on the words of guru and the revealed scriptures, despite not
directly seeing His presence.

The foundation of sraddha is the shradda in guru, sadhu and

sastra. Based on the transcendental knowledge of the
scriptures, which are nothing but His words, we should have
faith in the externally perceivable sound vigraha as Krishna
who has mercifully come before me in an audible sound body.
This kind of faith in the chanter pleases the Lord.

What is tangible to the senses is just an ordinary sound and the

rest is all faith or śraddha in materially unperceivable Absolute
Truths. Sat-cit-ananda Lord or His sat-cit-ananda energies
cannot be seen or heard merely by our material tongue and ear
or the mind. Therefore the first feel of transcendental Nama is
through the faith feelings. Strong faith is held steadfastly and
unconditionally. That is why the Lord gives us regularly test in
life to show us where we stand in our faith in Him and His
love.

284
The Lord is pleased if we trust His words in the scriptures
though we don't experience them immediately. He says,

“Since your spiritual senses and mind are covered, you cannot
see Me, face to face and relate with Me in sat cit ananda form.
Therefore, out of compassion for you, I, with my personal
energies incarnate into the perceivable vigraha or the audible
name-sound. Due to My inconceivable omnipotence, I am
present in the materially hearable sound vigraha as a
transcendental vibration resembling the sound you chant.
Further I am not only in the sound vigraha but also become the
perceivable sound vigraha to relate with you and receive your
loving service. The sound vibrated by you is empowered with
all my energies and hearing such sound will spiritualize your
mind and senses by association. Have faith in the spiritual
master who reveals everything that I have revealed in the
scriptures and serve Me through him with faith and love."

To deepen our faith, all this has to contemplated

upon during off-japa times.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

285
Module 31/5

Shraddha or Faith in the unmanifest presence of

Nama Prabhu and His Śaktyāvēşa Nama - the
primary faith

Nama Prabhu, the surya or sun of sat cit ananda is entering the
Nama you utter and that very sound is becoming the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama like wire is electrified by flow of electricity.
Thus your attention is touching an ocean of sat cit ananda.
Satcitananda Lord and His satcitananda energies are
transcendental to material energy and therefore their presence
cannot be sensed with our material senses. It is by shraddha or
faith alone we can experience the presence of both the Lord
and His transcendental energies on your tongue. This is first
part of faith which is about the existence of Lord before you .
There is second part of shraddha in the from of trust in Nama
Prabhu as to what all He mercifully does for you after having
come on your tongue, ears and mind. Let us understand the
first part of shraddha or faith first.

Two kinds of feeling the presence of Lord; un-

manifest presence and manifest presence

As revealed by the scripture, the Nama Prabhu is existing right

here before the chanter after having descended from the
spiritual world. That is why Srila Prabhupada says Krishna is
dancing on our tongue. But we can vibrate or hear Him directly
only when our spiritual mind and senses are awakened. Yet He

286
is there mystically before us though unheard and unseen. This
kind of presence of the Lord before us is called un-manifest
presence. He is present but does not have to be in the physical
space. He is in His transcendental dimension in the spiritual
sky yet through His unmanifest presence, He empowers the
external sound we chant with our material tongue.
Experiencing the un-manifest presence of the Lord through the
principle of faith during japa is fundamental to soulful japa.
The un-manifest presence of Aprākrta Nama can be accessed
by the power of one's faith that He is before you and
empowering the sound you chant into the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.
We will already used the term 'faith-presence' for referring to
the un-manifest presence of the Lord.

But hearing the transcendental Name or the Aprākrta Nama

with our original senses is called the manifest-presence of the
Nama Prabhu or experiencing the sense-presence of the Nama
Prabhu before you. Then we say that the Aprākrta Nama which
was felt till then in his un-manifest-presence through faith has
now becomes spiritually manifest-presence before our spiritual
senses. And Srila Prabhupada says that both kinds of presence
of the transcendental Lord are identical.

This builds up our desire for some day to chant the Aprākrta
Nāma with my spiritual mind and uncovered pure senses over
and above the touch of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with my fully
purified material senses.

Continuous attention-embrace with faith-presence

will awaken the spiritual mind and senses

287
Similarly, even my present attention though it is touching the
Aprakrta Lord, it is not also having the spiritual sensitivity to
feel the Aprākrta Nāma. But by continuously touching Him
through my serving attention with faith that He is present
before (faith-presence), the tongue, ears and mind becomes
purified by the awakening of pure transcendental knowledge of
self and Krishna.

In the example of touching the hot plate with a rubber gloves ,

if I were to keep my gloved hand on the hot plate for long time,
the glove gets heated and eventually it will melt and stop being
an obstruction for my hand to directly touch the hot plate and
experience the heat. Similarly by association of Nama Avatara,
the spiritual energies flows into the chanter’s contaminated
consciousness, senses, mind and soul and sat-çit-ānanda-izes
them just like how a piece of iron put into a fire for long time
becomes red hot and acts like fire. These merciful energies in
the Śaktyāvēşa Nama sterilizes the chanter's body, senses,
mind, intelligence and attention and makes them spiritualized.
Such fully spiritualized matter mind and senses become
spiritually transparent and allows our spiritual senses to sense
the manifest presence of the Aprakrta Lord who has incarnated
in the material world.

CC Madhya 13.155 Purport says:

Krishna has two kinds of presence—prakata and

aprakata, manifest and unmanifest. These are
identical for the sincere devotee. "

288
It is said the gopis of Vrindavan always felt the presence of
Krishna everyday even when He was living in Dwaraka. But
that presence was, by design of Krishna, only the aprakata-
presence or un-manifest presence. It is not that the gopis were
blinded by material senses like us and so they could not
experience prakata-presence. Thus spiritually manifest-
presence is possible only if He decides to be transcendentally
seen or chanted & heard. His sweet will is also required for
Him to be seen by our senses. For Him prakata-presence and
aprakata-presence are both same as being present. This makes
understand the famous statement that Krishna never steps out
of Vrindavan. If He does not give them His direct spiritually
manifest-presence to their senses, He will be give them
aprakata-presence or spiritually unmanifest-presence.

Please note that the meaning of 'aprakata' or unmanifest when

applied to God, does not mean 'absent'. It only means His
presence is not experienced with our spiritual senses. Also
don't confuse the word prakata and prākrta. They are
completely different words with different meanings.

Moving from spiritually unmanifest faith-presence of

aprakrta Nama to spiritually manifest-presence.

The fact is that after intensive repeated hearing of the

transcendental knowledge from scriptures about the Nāma
incarnation, faith is increased and His presence before us is
felt intensely. It is to be noted that faith can be of different
degrees. It is not like black or white. Faith-presence is the stage
of japa where you get access to the Nāma’s energies but

289
without any direct transcendental sense experience of the
Nāma Himself. His transcendental energies in the Śaktyāvēşa
Nama allow your entry first into His un-manifest presence to
degree of faith you have in such presence before you.

The sweetness of the transcendental sat-çit-ānanda Aprakrta

Nama is glorified in the shastras being limitless when chanted
with our spiritual mind and tongue and heard with our
spiritual ears.Till then we have associate with Him in full faith
that He is before us and yet He is not directly experienced with
our present senses.

And as soon as we chant, He descends on our tongue and

overlaps with the features of the Śaktyāvēşa Nama that we
chant and hear.

For those who have strong faith in this act of incarnation of the
Lord, chanting give the experience of the Aprākrta Nama's un-
manifest presence before him. This kind of feeling of
association of the Lord through faith-presence is a rapid
purifier of our material mind and senses. Till the spiritual
blindness is removed I can relate with Him during my japa by
faith feeling of the un-manifest-presence of Aprākrta Nama on
my tongue and mind when I chant and hear His material
manifestation, the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

Two criteria to experience Lord's manifest presence.

As we discussed there are two conditions for experiencing the

spiritually manifest presence. One is awakened pure spiritual

290
mind and senses and the other is Lord's sweet will to come
before you in the spiritually manifest presence. The gopis were
fully purified yet to increase their transcendental joy of feelings
of separation, Krishna did not give His manifest presence to
them once he left Vrindavan for Mathura and never returned.
Although he is capable of being in so many places in his
manifest presence, simultaneously, He did not give the gopis,
His manifest presence for reasons of enhancing rasa. Rasa for
Him and His devotees governs His decision to give manifest
presence or un-manifest presence.

It is said that Krishna never stepped out of Vrindvan because

he was there in his unmanifest-presence in their midst and was
relating with the devotees who were lost in separation from His
manifest-presence and manifest- lilas with them. They were
relating with HIm in His unmanifest-lila. And the author of
Chaitanya caritamra declares that there is no difference
between the two. Both of them are two kinds of transcendental
relationship with the Lord.

As we get purified by such transcendental energies from the

Nama Avatara, there is the stage where you start getting the
transcendental sense experience. So we have to access His
transcendental energies first and purify our minds before we
can experience His manifest presence.

Only by His sweet will, the un-manifest invisible

presence expands into manifest visible presence .

291
Feeling of presence of Aprākrta Nama is faith-feeling of His
un-manifest presence by direct touch of his material
manifestation as Śaktyāvēşa Nama. It is just like how a blind
man stands before a mountain and feels its presence before
him because of faith that it is before him. Likewise till we
become pure to chant and hear the Aprākrta Nama with our
spiritual senses, we can feel only His compassionate un-
manifest presence during our japa through the eyes of faith.
And because of faith, we know for sure that me and the
Aprākrta is having an active relationship of Lord and servant.
It is a real relationship where Krishna is near me and is
receiving my services though I cannot see Him or hear Him
with my spiritual senses. That is why japa is a mystical process
that requires faith. Everything that is really happening during
japa cannot be seen with our senses.

Only the Lord can offer unmanifest presence due to

His omnipotency

In this world also we remember loved persons but by such

remembrance, they cannot be present in any un-manifest
form. Only God and his pure devotees can have un-manifest
presence anywhere and anytime because of His omnipotent
nature as sson as they are remembered. The pure devotee
shares the omnipotent nature of the Lord in his service to His
Lord. When we chant, He appears there as Aprākrta Nama
Prabhu and is present with us in his compassionate un-
manifest presence which is felt only by faith.

292
When Srila Prabhupada says I live in my books, it means he is
present in his books in his un-manifest presence. As soon as
you faithfully and submissively read what he is saying is that
He will give us the experience of his un-manifest presence and
we will hear from Him directly. They respond with their un-
manifest presence and reciprocate.

As the Founder-Acharya of the Hare Krishna movement He is

living amidst us in His un-manifest presence as well as in Deity
form according to our level of faith in Him. In His un-manifest
presence he can transcendentally guide His faithful disciples,
through divya jnana and directions to serve. Srila Prabhupada
can transcendentally do all that by his un-manifest form.

Even when Srila Prabhupada was here in his prakata or

physically manifest lila, only a handful of devotees got his
direct so-called living association. Most of the devotees,
thousands in number, did not get personally chastised and
corrected. His was guiding His sincere disciples even then
transcendentally through his un-manifest presence

Just like before you go into the sun you have to cross the
sunshine. Similarly our cittam will be bathed in the association
of Nāma’s energies from the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma and prepares us
for tasting the sweet transcendental sound-embrace.

Faith in the process of how Nama Prabhu acts upon us

293
Srila Prabhupada beautifully described what happens when we
associate with Śaktyāvēşa Nāma

September 8, 1966, New York

Similarly, there are two kinds of expansions of the Lord. One

kind of expansion is called Viṣṇu-tattva. Viṣṇu-tattva means
the expansion, they are as equal as the God Himself. And there
are expansions which are called the jīva-tattva, the living
entities. This expansion of the living entities, they are not
equally powerful, but the expansion of Viṣṇu-tattva is equally
powerful, as good as God Himself. So, the incarnation.

The present senses, cannot have any knowledge of the

Supreme God. But how then we can have knowledge? If my
senses are unfit, then how can I make it fit? Oh, that is the
thing. That is the thing, that you have to spiritualize,
spiritualize these material sense, I mean to say, organs. And
then, when you spiritualize, then you can have the spiritual
vision and see God and yourself. The same example which I
have recited many times: just like the iron rod. Iron rod, you
put into the fire. It gets warm—warm, warmer, warmer. And
when it is red hot, then it is no longer iron. Iron it is, but it
does not act as iron, but it acts as fi re. That iron rod which is
red hot in association with fire, you can take that rod and touch
anything; it will burn. That means it is no longer acting as iron;
it is acting as fire.

Similarly, if you associate with this transcendental incarnation,

sound incarnation of God, then you will be gradually godly.

294
You will be godly. You can become godly with God’s
association, not by any other material, extraneous things. No.
Just like you can have fire only in association with fire, not
with water. If you want to get yourself warm, then you have to
associate with fire, not with water, not with air. Similarly, if
you want to spiritualize your vision, if you want to spiritualize
your action, if you want to spiritualize the whole constitution
of your existence, then you have to associate with the Supreme
spirit. And that Supreme spirit is very kind because He is
everything.

That we have already explained. Everything is interrelated with

the Supreme; therefore, He is interrelated with sound also. So,
by God’s inconceivable potency, He can present before yourself
in sound incarnation. That is His potency. That is His potency.
He can do that. And therefore, this name, Krishna, and the
Supreme Lord Krishna, there is no difference.

So our, this sound representation of the Supreme

Lord constantly will make us.

Just like our association with the fire, the, I mean to say, iron
rod’s association with the fire makes the rod equally qualified,
exactly— not equally qualified, but almost the quality of
burning it gets—similarly, by our constant association with
Lord.

END

295
Module 31/6

Faith is pre-requisite for soulful japa

Faith in un-manifest presence and his manifestation in matter

as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is necessary for one to move from mindful
japa to spiritful japa to soulful japa. Only if presence of Sevya
in His full form as the combination of Aprakrta Nama and
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is felt, there is meaning in welcoming and
being joyful about associating with Nama Prabhu tasking with
accumulating delight which is the central point of spiritful
japa.

CC Madhya 15.106

With such faith in the holy name one may begin a life of
Krishna consciousness. But an ordinary person cannot chant
the holy name of Krishna with such faith. One should accept
the holy name of Krishna to be identical with the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Transcendence Himself. As the Padma
Purana states, “The holy name of Krishna is identical with
Krishna and is like a cintamani gem, a touchstone. That name
is Krishna personified in sound and is therefore perfectly
transcendental and eternally liberated from material
contamination.” Thus one should understand that the name
“Krishna” and Krishna Himself are identical. Having such
faith, one must continue to chant the holy name.

296
Applied existence-faith is the first part of sharddha

What does chanting with faith mean in practical sense during

japa. Having faith in the mind philosophically is different than
applying that faith when you do your japa. What we need is
applied faith as the Nama is manifesting before us as the
combination of unmanifest Aprakrta Nama with his material
manifestation as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma . When you apply faith it
becomes a truth-feeling beyond just being a philosophical
faith. Thus applied faith is the truth-feeling of un-manifest
presence of Aprakrta Nama as sun of satcitananda though he is
not seen or heard by our senses but is manifest to our tongue
and ears in material manifestation as the Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

During Japa the background mind should have the truth-

feeling in the heart without a shade of doubt that 'it is true that
the satcitananda Lord with His ocean of satcitananda is before
me to share His sat cit ananda association with me through the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama'. This is called existence-faith of Nama.

Only when we feel the the combination of un-manifest

presence of the the Sevya with materially manifest present as
Śaktyāvēşa Nama , our relationship or devotional service
becomes realistic with the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu who is the
Sevya, the recipient of service. Chanting with feeling of faith
that the Aprakrta Nama who is a surya of satcitananda is
before me, the consequent feelings of love and respect also
arise in the heart.

297
Further existence-faith expands into relationship-faith or trust
in Him. It is not only existence faith that He has come before
me but the chanter also feels the trust that He mercifully
receives and reciprocates my services out of His unlimited
compassion. He will release His causeless mercy upon me to
purify my cittam and awaken me and will save me from the
ocean of miserable existence in the bodily concept of life. One
will have faith that He will protect me from the clutches of
material energy and will He is lead me to Him.

Relationship Faith or Trust, the second part of

shraddha

Thus during japa we should have two kinds of faith. Existence

faith and Relationship faith. Both are feelings about truth of
the situation before you when you do japa. One is feeling the
truth of existence of God before you and other is the feeling of
trust about a reciprocal relationship by Nama Prabhu who has
mercifully descended on our tongues. The reciprocation of
Nama Prabhu is not just limited to purifying our heart. He
intervenes in our practical day to day life to the extent we have
surrendered our life to Him to be lead by Him.

Just as Arjuna fought the war of Kurukshetra through series of

day to day battles with Krishna's help by his side, our daily life
battles can be fought with Nama Prabhu by our side just by
faithfully uttering His Name and invoking His presence. Thus
it is not that, in my daily life, there no relevance to my bhakti
or my relationship with Nama Prabhu. It all depends on the
kind of surrendered relationship. Krishna says 'As you

298
surrender, I reciprocate'. Faith means strong trust in Krishna
that He never fails to reciprocate. The essence of the bhakti of
a sadhaka is his relationship of surrender to Krishna.

For instance Krishna tells Arjuna to declare that my devotees

shall never perish. Kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah
pranashyati. Based on this statement when you have trust that
Krishna will always protect me that is an example of
relationship faith or trust in Krishna.

For now we will leave the subject of faith here. As discussed

having faith is one thing, but applying faith on-line as we do
our japa bead after bead is another thing. We will discuss the
matter of applying faith during practice session.

Please read below the real powerful statement to boost your

faith in the presence of the Lord in a personal way before you
during japa. "It is so much kindness of the Supreme Lord, that
He wants to associate with you. So you should receive Him."

SP lecture BG 8.22-27NY, 20 Nov 1966

Just like Arjuna is deriving the benefit, being associated with

Krishna, similarly, you can also derive the same benefit as
being associated with Krishna simply by chanting this Hare
Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare
Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. This is possible.

299
So Lord Chaitanya says... It is not my version... Lord Caitanya
says who are realized soul, who is considered to be the
authority and incarnation of Krishna, Krishna Himself is
saying that "You have been... The Lord, You have become so
kind to these people of this material world or of this age
especially that they cannot have any facility for understanding
God." But God has descended in the form, in the sound, in the
sound form, transcendental sound form. Simply by vibrating,
you associate with God. Simply by vibrating, Hare Krishna,
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare
Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. It is so much kindness of the
Supreme Lord, that He wants to associate with you. So you
should receive Him.

END

Module 31/7

Faith is the doorway to the treasure of infinite fire of

sat çit ananda

The Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu is the sun of the infinite fire of
sat-çit-ananda or eternity-knowledge-bliss. He is there right on
our tongue when we utter the holy name. He is the brilliant sun
of sat çit ananda emanating brilliant transcendental rays of sat
çit ananda. Since none of our material senses can sense sat cit
ananda, we are unable to detect the presence of sat cit ananda

300
energies when we chant except by its effect on our
consciousness.

Just like in a electrified copper wire you cannot see electricity.

But you can know its presence by its effect. But the fact is that
the oceanic source of sat cit ananda is surrounding the
chanter’s soul. It is left to the soul as to how much he can to
receive according to his relationship with Nama Prabhu. .
Nothing is going to be thrust upon the soul unless he is not
begging for. If we beg for purification, it will be fulfilled.

Attention-connection by chanting combined with attention-

touch by hearing is the gateway, attention-embrace by tasking
uninterrupted repetition is pathway and applied faith is the
doorway to transcendental presence of Nama Prabhu.

Faith is the door that opens us to the mercy of Nama Prabhu.

We have to enter the gate and go through the pathway before
we can reach the door. Setting up attention-connection,
attention touch is the gateway. Then maintaining the
attention-embrace through uninterrupted tasking is the
pathway that leads to the doorway called faith. One should
have faith that Shaktyavesa Nama Avatara is an ocean of sat cit
ananda energy and Nama Prabhu will release His mercy upon
me. Hence attention-connection by chanting and attention-
touch by hearing and attention-embrace by uninterrupted
tasking with shraddha or faith is the pre-requisite to start
receiving the flow of satcitananda mercy. To the degree of your

301
faith in Nama Prabhu, the Shaktyavesha Nama will reciprocate
with flow of transcendental energy.

No doubt, the Nama Avatara has decided that even for those
who touch Him even unconsciously without faith also get a
minimum benefit. But if you want more, it all depends on the
principle of reciprocation revealed in the Bhagavad Gita. Ye
yatha maam prapadyante tams bhajami aham.

For every chant done with faith, we are invoking the Lord
along with the spiritual fire of infinite sat çit ananda, into the
sound on our tongue. Though He is right there before us, if we
do not have faith,then we do not get His personal association
beyond those minimum impersonal reciprocation for merely
touching Him with attention which itself burns away all sins.
Attention may give me proximity to Nama Prabhu. But the
faith is the factor that attracts the loving mercy from the Nama
avatara. We have always described that Shaktyavesha Nama is
potentially omnipotent depending on the chanter's faith and
His sweet will. Though the Aprakrta Nama invests all His
potencies in the Shaktyaavesha Nama, how much of that shakti
we can draw depends upon the our faith, devotion and purity
of purpose. A pure devotee when he chants then more shakti is
manifest from the Shaktyavesha Nama than when a neophyte
chants.

302
This is very evident from the following quote.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.31-32

When a mantra is chanted by a great devotee, the mantra

becomes more powerful. Although the Hare Krishna maha-
mantra is powerful in itself, a disciple upon initiation receives
the mantra from his spiritual master, for when the mantra is
chanted by the spiritual master, it becomes more powerful.

The omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama always releases

unconditionally the minimum power to burn to ashes all of
past sinful reactions etc. However according to the purity of
the chanter the mantra becomes additionally more and more
spiritually powerful because of his bhakti's ability to draw the
same from the omnipotent Aprakrta Nama Prabhu.

The only answer is that although it is a fact that though all

powers are invested in it, how much of that spiritual power the
chanter can draw and manifest for his own self-purification as
well as for serving Him varies from chanter to chanter based
on the personal reciprocation of the Aprakrta Hare Krishna
Nama Prabhu. Thus the Śaktyāvēşa Nama is omnipotent is a
fact but the drawing power of the chanter varies. Hence the
word 'potentially omnipotent'. It is like rain that is falling
everywhere on rock and soil equally but the rock is not able to
draw that water into itself but the mud is able to. And different
soils have different capacity to draw the water into itself. River
sand hardly gets wet. Clayey mud can absorb little more than
river sand.

According to the degree of (quality and quantity) of our

surrender and service to the Śaktyāvēşa Nama, the shaktis

303
surrounding Aprakrta Nama Prabhu will express themselves to
different degrees through the Śaktyāvēşa Nama. It is to be
noted that sat, cit and ananda mercy are purely energies or
powers meant to glorify and serve Krishna and never be
available for any purposes which is not connected to bhakti or
for supporting bhakti of a devotee.

A pure devotee is able to draw the sat cit ananda mercy like a
sponge absorbs water and can manifest more of its power than
an ordinary devotee. The 'purity of purpose' of chanting and
hearing can be compared to the 'sponginess'. Because of the
purity of purpose of a pure devotee where they will never
misuse the power for anything other than for pleasing the
Lord, their chant draws down more of sat cit ananda mercy
into this worldly plane for His service.

The soul’s spiritual tentacles that come out into this material
world from out of the body-mind-consciousness system is the
sraddha energy, cesta energy and attention. Attention here
does not mean plain awareness. It means personalised doing
and knowing. 'My' doing attention and 'My' knowing attention.

If our soul does not spiritually touch Him with doing-attention

to chant and my knowing-attention to hear without break, we
simply miss out on the great opportunity of association with
Him. In we do touch Him, then our cittam get warmed up by
the merciful energy of sat cit ananda and burn our ignorance
accumulated from time immemorial, in that spiritual fire.

So if our knowing effort (jnana cesta ) and knowing-attention

in the form of hearing is not offered then the soul is not
touching the spiritual sat çit ananda fire surrounding Nāma

304
Prabhu. And the knowing-attention won’t stay there unless
doing attention is also not on the same sound. For this to
happen, both the doing effort & knowing effort has to be
simultaneously applied on the each manifesting Nama. That is
concurrent chanting-cum-hearing. And both doing-effort and
knowing-effort won’t stay on the Nama unless there is
intention to connect/touch/embrace the Shaktyavesha Nama.

END

Module 31/8

Why is it that we don't immediately become pure by

touch of Shaktyavesha Nama?

We have already discussed that the subtle body or cittam's

purity limits how much of the spiritual energies you can draw
from from potentially omnipotent Shaktyavesha Nama.

Cittam's purity depends on so many factors including our

attitude towards enjoyment in life whether it is regulated as
per dharma or is it demoniac attitude of lording over
everything and everyone possible for one's pleasure. Our
cittam is also like the firewood and this attitude of lording is
like moisture that wets the firewood. And if we break regulative
principles it amounts to getting drenched in the rain of
materialism.

305
The source of wetness is the soul's non acceptance that Krishna
is the only enjoyer and we are all enjoyed and meant to partake
of HIs enjoyment. This leads to lording attitude or attitude of
selfish independent enjoyment without Krishna. Such an
opportunistic attitude of sense gratification and exploitation of
everything and everyone for ones own selfish pleasure is like a
continuous source of wetness that sprays the water of
materialism on to our cittam even if we keep getting dried by
association of Shaktyavesha Nama. Every jiva had this free will
to spray this water of materialism upon his cittam.

It is like an elephant taking bath and then putting mud all over
its body. Visible the wet firewood would not appear to catch
fire or even feel any heat. Because the heat is all being taken
away by the moisture to evaporate. This is the reason that we
do not even experience any big change in our consciousness
sometime inspite of chanting for long time. Cleansing and
sinning again.

A devotee's cittam does get purified by the attention-

connection and attention-embrace of Shaktyavesha Nama. It is
said that not only the cittam gets cleansed but association with
Nama Prabhu can cure us of our lording attitude of life if we
surrender to Him. Accepting Krishna as the Supreme
Personality of Godhead and surrendering to Him is a very very
powerful wholesale purification. If one even tries to surrender
to Krishna, he will see immediate effect of association with the
Shaktyavesha Nama. Of this there is no doubt. That is how we
all began our spiritual journey after reading Srila Prabhupada's
books where he convinces us that Krishna is the Supreme from

306
all the revealed scriptures and that no one is equal to or greater
than Him.

Even if our cittam keeps getting wet due to old sinful habits, if
we continue to be in the fire of satcitananda of the Nama
Prabhu as instructed by Srila Prabhupada, then it is question
of time when the old bad habits will wither away. The fire of
satcitananda evaporates all the existing moisture. Not only that
over a period of time he changes his attitude of enjoyment
from lust to the attitude of exclusively pleasing guru and
Krishna. Then our cittam will catch the fire of satcitananda and
our consciousness will become godly.

Srila Prabhupada Morning walk, Mayapur. March 11, 1976

Prabhupäda: If he is so sincere.... Just like dried wood

immediately ignites. And if it is moist, it does not. It is the
quality of the wood. One takes three hundred years; one in
three minutes. That's it. [break] One is dry from the material
moist of contamination, he becomes immediately ignited in
spiritual...

Devotee: What is that drying process?

Prabhupäda: Drying process is for many, many years one has

tried to become Krishna conscious, for many, many lives,
bahünäm janmanäm ante [Bg. 7.19]. When he actually
becomes man of knowledge he surrenders unto God. Otherwise
he is lost. His drying process may take three minute or three
millions years.

307
Lecture on SB Sept 10, 1976 Vrindavan

But when you go to the fire, you become dry. But wilfully we
put again water. This nonsense business makes us late. This
process is already there, how to become dry. But instead of
taking the process, we put water. Then how it will be ignited?
The rules and regulations is the drying process. But without
following the rules and regulation, if you again become a
victimized by mäyä, then there is water and again dry it. So this
is going on, watering and drying, watering and drying. No
staightforward process for drying. That will help. But difficulty
is that we dry and again water.

END

308
Module 31/9

The key faith points with regard to japa

1. Krishna is the Supreme Personality and He is the cause of all

causes. No one is equal to or greater that Krishna.

2. Krishna is a surya of satcitananda emanating energies of

sat-cit-ananda.

3. Krishna's Name, is also a sun of satcitananda radiating

satcitananda energy and is called the Suddha Nama.

4. Krishna cannot be seen or heard with material senses or

ears. He exists in a transcendental dimension. HIs
transcendental Names, forms etc are non-different from Him
and are all aprakrta and are all self-effulgent personalities and
are suns of sat, cit, ananda potencies.

5. We are also transcendental and made of satcitananda stuff

having satcitananda body and senses but are now covered by
material body and senses which is asat-acit-nirananda. We
cannot see ourselves too with our material eyes.

309
6. We are constitutionally belonging to Krishna as His eternal
loving servants.

7. Krishna incarnates in this age as the Nama Avatara.

8. Suddha Nama expands from the spiritual world and

descends as an incarnation. He is the Aprakrta Nama or Nama
Prabhu. He enters the name-sound produced by my tongue.

9. Nama Prabhu invest all His energies into the sound and the
sound on the tongue becomes potentially omnipotent sound.
This Nama is called Śaktyāvēşa Nama. Śaktyāvēşa Nama is the
sound body of the sound incarnation, the Aprakrta Nama.

10. Aprakrta Nama takes on sound features that resembles the

sound features of Śaktyāvēşa Nama.

11. Nama Avatara means combination of Aprakrta Nama plus

Śaktyāvēşa Nama and their combined action on us.

12. Serving the Śaktyāvēşa Nama is as good as serving

Aprākrta Nama.

310
13. Attention is spirit energy coming from the soul and when
applied on the features of Śaktyāvēşa Nama, it connect us to
Nama Avatara which we call as attention-connection. Spirit
energy alone can connect to Spirit. If I touch this Śaktyāvēşa
Nama through the pipe line of attention my cittam gets
connected to the ocean of satcitananda.

14. Serving attention for japa consists of application of doing

effort-doing attention for chanting and knowing effort-
knowing attention for hearing the sound features of the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama and repeating it for interrupted embrace of
the Nama Avatara with our attention.

15. Each and every chant is too valuable and important.

Tasking of chanting and hearing uninterruptedly is sound-
embrace or attention-embrace of the Nama Avatara. We
should not let go even one sound without attention-embrace.
That is attachment to Nama.

16. Tasking uninterruptedly without distracting our attention

builds up our spiritual energy in our cittam. Initially
uninterrupted tasking will be a practice but eventually it comes
naturally as energy flow from Nama Prabhu Himself.

17. Attention-connection followed by continuous attention-

embrace of Nama Avatara spiritualizes our material mind and
senses and parallelly energises our spiritual mind and senses.

311
18. The flow of sat-cit-ananda energies from Śaktyāvēşa Nama
cleanses my cittam of asat, acit and nirananda perception. The
Śaktyāvēşa Nama is potentially omnipotent and releases
potencies for self realization and God realization unto our
heart based on our relationship of surrender to the Nama
avatara.

19. The Śaktyāvēşa Nama purifies our material yantra and

awakens our original spiritual ego, mind and senses as eternal
servant of Krishna the Nama .

20. Chanting and hearing directly the Aprakrta Nama Prabhu

after awakening the soul with our spiritual senses will reveal
the Lords form, qualities pastimes etc in the purified heart of
the devotee. At that stage one would want a million tongues
and ears to taste the sweetness of the Aprakrta Nama of the
Lord who is Krishna Himself.

Apply the 5R contemplation method

(https://t.me/c/1479406133/5243 ) to transform these 20
thoughts into thought-feeling or bhāvana by repeating to
yourself with feeling that 'this is true', 'this is true', 'this is true'
with conviction.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

312
Module 31/10

How to establish a rapport or a two way relationship

of worshipper-worshipped with Nama or Deity

Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvati–lecture 10th November 1936

recorded ‘Śrīla Prabhupāda, Gaudīya 16.24.403-6

"I see the statue”- This kind of thinking is in the spirit of

enjoyment, whereas " The Deity sees me, my uncovered pure
self is Deity Darśana or Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra."

Best way to feel the presence of the Aprakrta Deity is by feeling

in your mind the true fact that the Deity is seeing you. With
this thought about Him in our background mind that He is
seeing me, one should have darshan of the Deity form.

In the same manner the best way to feel the presence of

satcitananda Nama Prabhu is by perceiving that He is aware of
my soul, mind and body chanting and hearing.

This is a basic paradigm on how to perceive the the Nama

Prabhu. When we hear the Nama, immediately we must
become aware in our mind that the Nama Prabhu is seeing me

313
with all my limited purity and yet receiving my chanting
service mercifully. This is not imagination but it is a fact.

Perceiving a person means perceiving the person's

mind and what is in his mind about us

Perceiving a person in relationship means perceiving his mind,

his intentions for you and expectations from you. Perceiving
what is in the mind of the Deity or Nama Prabhu in
relationship to you as worshsipper is not at all difficult as it is
revealed in the sastras. The mind of the Nama Prabhu is "I
have mercifully descended as an incarnation for you. I have
taken a sound form resembling the external or prakrta
namasabda and have entered that sound and made it
Śaktyāvēşa Nama and am waiting to bless you by accepting the
devotional service of chanting and hearing of the Śaktyāvēşa
Nama"

And what is His expectation from us? " I want you to chant and
hear My Śaktyāvēşa Nama with faith, attention, humility,
respect, affection and surrender and desire to please Me and
take My association in this way". There is no doubt that this is
in the mind of the incarnation as per the revelations of the
sastras.

Further how does the Deity or Nama Prabhu see our situation?
It is important to feed our subconscious mind with that reality
too, so that as soon we are before Him that thought of how He

314
sees our situation gets loaded into the background of conscious
mind.

The Deity or Nama Prabhu sees us differently than

how we see ourselves in ignorance

Obviously, the Deity or the Nama Prabhu does not see my

situation in my body as myself and others see me in ignorance.
His seeing is absolute and is free from illusion. He perceives
me as the pure uncovered spirit jīvas with my ‘beingness’
manifest as I, me, mine is actively trapped into illusory
perceptions around my material body and therefore have
surrendered my being, thinking, feeling, willing, desiring,
doing and experiencing for the pleasure of that false 'being'. By
the mercy of my pure devotee spiritual master, he is now
chanting my Names and I will deliver him from the
entrapment on the basis of love-principle of "As he surrenders
I reciprocate."

Our mind must be charged with these bonafide thoughts of His

perception of our situation, His intentions for us and His
expectations from us. This is called situational perception of
Nama Prabhu's mind during our japa. It is only with a mind
charged with these vichara or thoughts in the background citta
as well the thought that the Nama Prabhu is seeing me
attempting to chant and hear, that we build a rapport with
Nama Prabhu as the Sevya or served.

315
We should feel the personal presence of the Aprakrta Nama
Prabhu’s mind as the knower of each of my chant which is the
medium through which the Nama Prabhu receives and
reciprocates to my services. Though I cannot touch Him with
my prakrta senses, from His side He has no such limitations as
everything is His energy. He receives our serving action to
chant and hear our even if it is done by the prakrta senses since
everything is spiritual for Him.

Then a spiritual rapport is established between the mind of the

worshipper and the Deity or Nāma Prabhu just like a rapport is
established between two people’s mind.

Establishing a rapport with Nama Prabhu

Before you start your japa, meditate on your ongoing

relationship with the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu of serving so
many years etc. It is not a new relationship every bead or
everyday japa. Every bead you do japa, you are accumulating
His mercy and eternal history is being built up and Krishna
never forgets even a bit of service rendered to Him. It is not
some new relationship. It is an historical relationship which
has now been forgotten. When you practice to see the Lord in
that way after ‘Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra’ in the mind, by the mercy of
the Lord one can actually realize the transcendental
experience.

316
This meditation that the satcitananda Nama Prabhu is also
hearing me as we chant and hear the avatara with our prakrta
senses is Nama darshan equivalent to the Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra for
Deity darshan as advised by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati
Thakura. Vichara means thoughts.

It is a very powerful spiritual perception to feel the presence of

Deity or Nama Prabhu in the passive background mind or citta
while we worship Him with our actions in our active
foreground mind.

Knowing the situational mind as per guru, sadhu and

scriptures of the one who is worshipped is Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra.
Perceiving Him this way means you are automatically
presencing His situational consciousness in relationship to
you. You are in rapport or in a two way relationship with the
Nama Prabhu.

Constitutional situational japa and temporary

situational japa

If our background vichara during japa is about our eternal

situation as servant of Krishna beyond all the temporary
situations that normally preoccupy our cittam then that kind of
constitutional japa is like being at home with Krishna. For this
we have to understand that my eternal relationship with
Krishna is as the soul and not as this body and its temporary
concerns of life. These situations are only circumstantial which
will all pass by.

317
I am relating with Him during japa for just being with Him as
my eternal Lord seeking nothing else for the current life
situation from him, knowing well those life situations come
and go and is in His control. Let me not have a relationship
with Nama Prabhu during japa with concerns of temporary
situations in the background. We should shut off during japa
from temporary daily life situations. Japa time is the time to be
home with the Lord in our constitutional situation as Krishna
sees us without any agenda. You should tell, 'I just want to only
chant and hear Him relish His association of pleasing Him and
not for any kind of transaction'. There is enough time 24-22
hours for dealing with all those matters even if it is connected
to preaching by involving Him. Japa is home-time with
Krishna and not work-time with Krishna.

For this one has to cultivate a constitutional cittam slice of an

eternal Nama Sevak. We have to culture an ego, mind, intellect
and its desiring, hoping, thinking, feeling, willing and doing
suitable for this constitutional situation. As soon as we start
our japa, one's likes and enjoys being that Nama Sevak ego.
That will push out all temporary situations. We will discuss
this in the practice sections.

Powerful self realization exercise of seeing ourselves

as the Lord sees us.

Thus, there is no better practice of our our self-perception and

self-awareness of what we really are beyond this body than by
meditating on oneself as being transcendentally seen by the

318
Lord in this 'as it is' manner. That perspective of authentic self
as spirit beyond the body, we get from the scriptures. It is
quickest way to attain qualitative oneness with Him and
separation from matter. We have constitutionally nothing to do
with matter. Soul is not matter but it has a relationship with
matter.

Whenever we naturally close our eyes before the Deities to

pray, we first have to engage our mind in Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra
instead of filling our mind with only our problems and
petitions. We should think that Lord is seeing me as a eternal
part of Him while he is seeing me being subjected to illusion
imposed actively by my mind in the form of illusory
perceptions of my own self as the material body or false ego.
With that perspective we should beg Him that such influence
of illusion on my pure ego be removed or I get exorcized from
all false egos.

First things first. Before beginning Deity darshana or japa fill

your background consciousness with Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra or these
generic meditative thoughts of the incarnation's
compassionate mind.

This viçāra does not have to begin only when you stand before
the Deity or when you are doing your japa. Even when you are
approaching the Deity your viçāra should begin. As you walk
towards the temple for Mangal ārati, charge your mind with
the situational thoughts of the Deity towards the worshippers
which is true reality.

319
This ability of establishing a rapport with the mind of another
person who comes before you, is quite common faculty in all of
us. The feeling of intention and expectation is the way we see
each other as persons of ‘cittam’ beyond the body.

But when it comes to the Lord we hardly activate this ability to

come in rapport with another person. What is urged here is to
proactively activate this kind of rapport by invoking faith
(without concocted imagination) as per the revelations of the
śāstras about the mind of Deity and Nama incarnation, Their
merciful mood, intentions and His expectations from
worshipper and act accordingly to please the Nama in a loving.
serving relationship.

Thus, worshipping Arça Avatāra or Nāma Avatāra becomes a

real relationship between the sēvaka and the Sēvya based on
feeling the presence of His Mind. Such a relationship is not a
ritual or any imagination though none of our senses are able to
yet transcendentally hear the sweetest sounding Aprakrta
Nama or transcendentally see the most beautiful Aprākrta
Deity form for want of full purification.

The Lord and His service are identical, being on the absolute
plane. Therefore, the unalloyed intelligence and the mind are
merged into the Lord, and thus the living entity does not
remain a seer himself but becomes seen by the Lord
transcendentally.

320
Śrīla Prabhupāda Purport: SB 2.2.16

Note the words ' seen by the Lord transcendentally'. It means

he does not see me as others in this world see me or even as I
see myself ignorantly as my bodily and worldly identity. But He
sees me as spirit soul who is His eternal servant who is serving
Him. He will see the chanter's real situation of either being
situated in a pure liberated platform or now being in a
sadhakas situation of being still entrapped within a material
body in world of false egos and trying to take shelter of
devotional service unto Him in order to purify himself. In all
cases He sees us in our actual condition.

Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra should always in the background

mind

Having said all about Dŗg Dŗśya viçāra, please note that during
japa our active attention cannot be on this vichara and it
should always remain in the background. Active attention is
always on distinctly chanting and discerningly hearing sharply
keeping such viçāra as appreciative remembrance only in the
background of attentive japa.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

321
Module 32/1

Nāma aparādha, Nāma abhāsa and Suddha Nāma

Purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.30

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu recommends that the devotee

sow the seed of bhakti-yoga in his heart and nurture it by the
watering of hearing and chanting the holy name, fame, etc., of
the Lord. The simple process of offenselessly chanting and
hearing the holy name of the Lord will gradually promote one
very soon to the stage of emancipation. There are three stages
in chanting the holy name of the Lord. The first stage is the
offensive chanting of the holy name, and the second is the
reflective stage of chanting the holy name. The third stage is
the offenseless chanting of the holy name of the Lord. In the
second stage only, the stage of reflection, between the offensive
and offenseless stages, one automatically attains the stage of
emancipation. And in the offenseless stage, one actually enters
into the kingdom of God, although physically he may
apparently be within the material world.

Nāma aparādha, Nāma abhāsa and Suddha Nāma

Nāma aparadha , Nāma ābhasa and Suddha Nama are three

kinds of progressive relationship with the Nama Avatara based

322
on progressive realization of the transcendental nature of
Nama. The first two are progressive relationship based on
chanter's relalization of two consitituents of Nama Avatāra
namely Śaktyāvēşa Nāma and the Aprākrta Nāma that
remebles the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. Suddha Nama relationship is
the relationship of the chanter with the satcitananda Nāma of
the spiritual world.

There are no sharp boundaries for these different stages of

realization. There is no definite point as to when Nāma
aparādha relationship matures into Nāma ābhasa relationship
or the point when Nama Abhasa matures into Suddha Nama
relationship. Nāma apradha japa gradually moves into Nāma
ābhasa relationship and further to Suddha Nama relationship.
It is not all of a sudden. The three relationships are description
of the chanter gradually evolving in his spiritual relationship
with Nāma Avatāra.

Nāma aparādha relationship

Nama Avatara's personality is the Aprākrta Nāma with his

body in this world as sound body of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. It is not
an impersonal sound.

When a devotee is unable to hear that Krishna Nama before

him as a personality who is having His own mind and is
expecting an interpersonal relationship of right kind of attitude
of respect for Him by hearing Him, it will lead to the chanter
falling short of those expectations of attention, reverence,
respect etc. This will result in offenses to the holy name and

323
this stage of relationship with Nama avatara called the 'Nama
aparadha' relationship. Basically not hearing respectfully.

'Nāma aprādha' relationship of a chanter is a stage where he is

ignorant of and/ or hence no faith in the concurrent
transcendental presence of Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu who is
Krishna Himself who is empowering the external sound. By
default he is thinking that what exists before him is only the
holy external impersonal namasabda produced by his prākrta
senses.

He is faith-blind to the presence of the Aprākrta Nāma who is

Krishna Himself as being the very soul of that external
nāmasabda. Also he does not have knowledge or faith that the
external sound becomes a potentially omnipotent empowered
sound or Śaktyāvēşa Nāma by the action of the omnipotent
Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu upon entering the external sound.

In Nāma aparādha relationship the chanter has no applied

faith or only a philosophical faith about the existential
presence of the Aprakrta Nāma Prabhu which leads to not
welcoming and hearing Him respectfully as God should be.

If we take the analogy of Nāma Avatāra to be an electrified

copper wire, a chanter who has little or no knowledge or faith
about the wire's connection to the electric power house
(Aprākrta Nāma) does not know how electricity is flowing

324
through it (nija sarva shakti) and is ignorant of how it becomes
electrified copper (Śaktyāvēşa Nāma).

It is a situation of chanter having no faith or little faith in these

transcendental happenings of incarnation around the
externally produced namasabda is at the lower end of
spectrum of range of Nama apradha relationships.

Assume that the electrical powerhouse was conscious person

and would release the electricity when a consumer of electricity
touches the copper wire only in accordance with the toucher's
degree of faith in the powerhouse (ye yatha mam praparyanta
tam taithaiva bhajami aham). Then If the toucher, who does
has only little knowledge and faith about the power house and
then the powerhouse will release electricity into the copper in
proportion to the quality and quantity of faith (shraddha) of
the toucher in the power house. The flow of different extents of
power into the potentially omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
depends on the degree of knowledge and faith and decreasing
offenses.

Because of still continuing to perceive the sound as ordinary

sound or that it is an impersonally powerful sound, this kind of
Nama aparadha chanting has a tendency to be emotionally dry
and rituaiistic inattentive chanting-hearing due to lack of
proper background faith, recognition, respect and appreciation
for the presence of the personality of Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu
who has incarnated into the external sound.

325
Whether the chanter knows or not, the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma acts
upon the attentive chanter just as a child burns his hand
irrespective of whether it has knowledge or not of
consequences of putting the hand in the fire. The act of
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is to purify the mind and heart of the
chanter. Ceto darpanam.

Padma Purana lists ten such offenses which a devotee can

make knowingly or unknowingly. Please read the ten offenses
in Quote no 41 below. Most of these offenses are due to lack of
faith, knowledge with regard to who is on our tongue during
japa. Inattentiveness itself is an offense because of neglecting
His presence due to lack of sufficient knowledge and faith.

As a new devotee, the chanter is in Nāma aparādha

relationship. He is ignorant or weak in conviction or faith that
Krishna is the Supreme Personality and that He is
transcendental and His devotional service of chanting and
hearing and remembering is also transcendental. Because of
his ignorance he is prone to commit offenses to the Nāma of
being inattentive.

Gradually being in association of devotees he develops faith in

guru and the devotee becomes an initiated disciple. When
under the guidance of the guru, sadhu and sastra, he executes
his daily Nāma seva of 16 rounds on the order of guru with
conscious efforts to avoid the ten offenses to the Nāma
Avatāra, his heart and mind begins to get purified and
transcendental self knowledge or sat-cit energy begins to flow

326
into the heart of the sadhaka by the mercy of guru and Nama
Prabhu.

Even though one is in ignorance of the Nāma tattva in the

beginning, if he sincerely executes the order of the spiritual
master everyday trying to be free from offenses, that service to
the is as good as serving the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu who
receives that devotional service. With the gradual rise of
transcendental self-knowledge in his heart by the mercy of
Nāma Prabhu, there is dawning of faith also in the Aprākrta
Nāma Prabhu's unmanifest or unseen presence during his
chanting leading to His remembrance over and above hearing
the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. His relationship with Nāma Avatāra
slowly progresses (through lessening of aparadhas or offenses )
leading to the beginning stages of Nāma abhāsa relationship.

He cannot understand transcendental truths or realities

beyond gross and subtle material reality. However when a
person in Nama aparadha relationship chants and hears
attentively as directed by the spiritual master, the repeated
attentive-touch of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma in Nāma aprādha
relationship will still gradually infuse and awaken pure self-
knowledge in his heart by flow of sat and cit energy from the
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

As cloud of ignorance starts dissolving a bit, the chanter slowly

realizes the existence of alternate eternal reality called
brahman or spirit and that he himself is eternal brahman and
not this body and that the Lord, His Names, qualities, lilas etc

327
are all of the same brahman substance beyond matter or
prakrti. This flow of transcendental knowledge itself will help
him reduce the offenses to the Nāma avatāra and move
towards the full Nāma abhāsa relationship.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

328
Module 32/2

Nāma abhāsa relationship

The Aprākrta Nāma that resembles Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is

transcendental and therefore we cannot chant Him with
material tongue or hear with our material ears and mind. The
beginning of Nāma abhāsa relationship is when we serve and
please Him by chanting and hearing with faith the Śaktyāvēşa
Nāma almost free from offenses even if he does not know all
the avatara tattvas like Śaktyāvēşa Nāma, Aprākrta Nāma, etc.
Then such association results in revealed knowledge & faith in
the presence of Aprākrta Nāma before him and His merciful
action of endowing him with purifying satcitananda energies.
Thus he moves up in Nāma abhāsa relationship with
increasing degree of faith in the holy name.

And when one is able to add appreciative and grateful

remembrance or smaranam of Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu in the
background before each mantra over and above chanting and
hearing the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma, while begging for forgiveness for
any traces of offenses, then japa moves into advanced Nama
abhāsa relationship leading to the appearance of early rays of
pure transcendental ananda or twilight of pure love for
Krishna in the form of affection and attachment for Krishna in
our consciousness.

329
When we associate with the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma Avatāra, we
associate with Krishna Nama personally.......” Srila Prahupada
in Teachings of Lord Kapila chapter 4.

In the quote above ' Krishna Nama' means

transcendental Name of Krishna or Aprākrta Nāma.

In the Nāma abhāsa relationship, the chanter patiently

continues sustained service and association of the externally
manifest Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with faith in the compassionate
existential presence & grace of Aprākrta Nāma before him and
becomes gradually sensitive to offenses and becomes
successful in freeing oneself from all offenses. It is the flow of
divya jnana or spiritual knowledge from Nama Prabhu that
helps one to avoid the offenses.

This leads to an affectionate grateful relationship with Nama

Prabhu with appreciation for showering enlightening spiritual
knowledge and giving His graceful association through the
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

In progressive Nama abhasa stage, different degrees of

awakening of affection for Nama also rises in the heart caused
because of experiencing loving reciprocations of Nama Prabhu
in the form of flow of divya jnana and also help and protection
in one's practical life to help the devotee in advancing in
devotional service.

330
Reciprocations from Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu generates natural
feelings of affectionate relationship of service with gratitude,
respect, and surrender. The devotee builds a relationship of
trust with Nama Prabhu.

Nāma abhāsa relationship is a stage between Nāma

aparādha relationship and Suddha Nāma relationship.

100% freedom from offenses is possible only in Nāma abhāsa

relationship because of pure transcendental knowledge rising
in our heart as a reciprocation from Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu.

Nāma abhāsa relationship experience is a spectrum of

relationship experiences with the Nāma Avatāra.

At the lower end of the spectrum is the highly improved Nama

aparādha relationship where offenses have been minimised
and the higher end of the spectrum is the beginning of Śuddha
Nāma relationship where offenses have been eliminated fully.

In summary, in the Nāma abhāsa relationship phase, the focus

is on chanting and hearing of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with the
following in the background mind at different stages of
developing the relationship.

1. Faith in the compassionate presence & grace and

reciprocation of Aprākrta Nāma and

2. Increased shining of divya jnana in the heart and

331
3. Appreciative smaranam or remembrance of the unmanifest
presence of Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu with

4. Feelings of begging forgiveness from Nāma for offenses on

realization of His presence more and more

5. Affectionate feelings caused by loving reciprocation of Nama

Prabhu in one's spiritual and the supporting material life.

6. Increased feelings of gratitude & affection, respect &

humility, self-surrender & service towards the Aprākrta Nāma

The meaning of abhāsa.

The meaning of the word abhāsa is 'shadow' or 'semblance' or

'energy' different from the original vastu whose shadow it is.
The external Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is a abhāsa manifestation of the
Aprākrta Nāma because its sound features are identical to the
sound features of the Aprakrta Nāma like a shadow of an
object is like the object. But the shadow of a real thing is
separate from the thing itself though their features resemble
each other.

Entire material energy is shadow energy separated from the

Lord. Representation of Krishna's name, form etc in the matter
energy is spiritualised matter and are called abhāsa name,
form, etc. The sadhaka soul begins performing abhāsa bhakti
with feelings of his material mind and senses by touching the
empowered abasa name, form etc. Eventually this purifies him
elevates him to pure bhakti seva of suddha sacitananda rupa
and nama with his spiritual mind and senses .

332
Chaitanya caritamrta. Madhya 25.118
yaiche süryera sthäne bhäsaye ‘äbhäsa’
sürya vinä svatantra tära nä haya prakäsha

Sometimes a reflection of the sun is experienced in place of the

sun, but its illumination is never possible independent of the
sun.

In Nama abhāsa stage we are largely experiencing the

association of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma which is the Krishna's
empowered abhāsa Nāma of this world with our senses and
mind while only remembering the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu who
cannot be touched with our material or abhāsa senses and
mind. From abhāsa name you go to pure name or Aprakrta
Nama. The material world itself is an abhāsaor perverted
reflection of the spiritual world.

Whereas the Aprākrta Nāma Prabhu is not a shadow but an

expansion of Suddha Nāma Prabhu with features identical to
the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. In spiritual dynamics the expansion is
same as the original thing. So Krishna and His Suddha Nāma
Prabhu and His expansion in this world as Aprākrta Nāma
Prabhu who empowers the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is of the same

333
satcitananda nature. Aprākrta Nama is Suddha Nama Himself
except that he has adopted features that resemble the
Śaktyāvēşa Nāma for purpose of incarnating on our tongue .

Nama abhāsa stage of relationship is also said to be the

'clearing stage' of offenses where there is increasing effort to
avoid all ten offenses completely. In this stage the 'sat-cit'
shakti or spiritual knowledge that one receives from the
association of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma helps the chanter to clear the
offenses since most of offenses are due to ignorance of the real
nature of soul and Nama. One also receives 'sat' shakti or
spiritual power making us want to chant more and more malas
leading to attachment for 'kirtaniya sada hari'. Of course even
'ananda' is experienced in the form of loving shelter and
exchange of relationship with Nama Prabhu in reciprocation to
the surrender of the sadhaka in Nama abāsa stage.

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in – Renunciation through wisdom

3.1

Citing many appropriate verses from the scriptures, Srila

Haridäsa explained that just as fear of nocturnal creatures like
thieves, ghosts, and hobgoblins evaporates at dawn’s first light,
so all sins and offences are erased and liberation is attained in
the clearing stage of chanting the holy name, called Nāma
abhāsa, which comes long before pure chanting. Only a
liberated, highly evolved soul can utter the Lord’s name purely
and thus achieve the highest realization, untainted love of
Godhead.

334
As we have discussed the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma is potentially
omnipotent because of entry into it of all of Lord's shaktis and
it drives away all sins and offenses. Srila Prabhupada is saying
above that nāmābhāsa is the clearing stage of chanting and
that it precedes Suddha Nama relationship.

nāmābhāsa haite haya sarva-pāpa-kṣaya

“If one offenselessly utters the holy name even imperfectly, one
can be freed from all the results of sinful life”

Nāmācārya Haridāsa Ṭhākura CC Antya 3.61

nāmābhāsa haite haya saṁsārera kṣaya

“Even a faint light from the holy name of the Lord can
eradicate all the reactions of sinful life”

CC Antya 3.63

nāmābhāsa-mātre ’mukti’ haya

Haridāśā Thäkura said, “Why are you doubtful?” The revealed

scriptures say that one can attain liberation simply by a
glimpse of offenseless chanting of the holy name.

CC Antya 3.195

By continuing association in advanced Nama abhasa

relationship gradually the material enjoying attitude that seeks
self-centered security, power, pleasure, knowledge, happiness,
love and pleasure undergoes gradual transformation into an

335
attitude which seeks the higher taste of taking pleasure only in
partaking in the giving pleasures to Krishna by chanting and
hearing His Name. When japa is done by pure ego with this
cleansed consciousness free from false ego, one begins the
Suddha Nama relationship.

END

336
Module 32/3

Suddha Nāma relationship

As association (by chanting, hearing, tasking & remembering)

with the Nama Avatara continues in advanced Nāma abhāsa
relationship with the additional ingredients of intense desire,
eagerness and craving and hope to experience the spiritual
taste of Suddha Nama with one's spiritual senses about which
so much has been heard from guru, sadhu and sastra, Suddha
Nama relationship begins. Such chanting and hearing, in
advanced Nāma abhāsa relationship in separation in the
background from much sought after experience of Aprākrta
Nāma Prabhu, accelerates the awakening of one's spiritual self
and mind and one's affection for the Lord .

Awakening of spiritual self and mind also means awakening

the spiritual mind's pure attachment, taste and love for
Krishna. Thus one continues to chant Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with
remembrance of the Aprakrta Nama with an awakened
spiritual mind longing for meeting the Aprakrta Nama
experientially with his senses. His material mind- body-senses
are also fully spiritualized or satcitananda-ized by virtue of
rapid purification effected by the above feelings of intense
separation and eagerness for purifying his senses and to direct
experience of Aprākrta Nāma.

337
Srila Prabhupada talks about the ingredient of 'intense
eagerness' in Nectar of Devotion lecture (Bombay, Dec 26th
1972)

This is called laulyam. Laulyam means just like we become

very much greedy in achieving some success or receiving
something sometimes. We become mad. That is required.
Laulyam eka mülyam. To achieve Krishna consciousness
perfectly, this ecstatic eagerness or greediness, to serve
Krishna, that is the only price to achieve success in devotional
service. That is the only price. Not money, not anything. Not
prestige, not good parentage, not beauty—nothing. Simply this
ecstatic, intense desire, "How I shall get Krishna?" Then you'll
get Krishna. He'll take you. That is the example of the gopis,
intense desire. Tatra laulyam eka mülyam.

Now, janma-koti, na labhyate janma-kotibhih sukritnah. This

ecstatic desire, that "I, this life, I shall get recognition by
Krishna, that I have sacrificed everything for Krishna," this is
required.

When one cultures this laulyam, he cries in his heart out to

Nama Prabhu desperately begging Him to awaken his spiritual
mind and senses and then enable him to get a glance of the
taste in infinite sweetness of His Suddha Nama by his all-
spiritual chanting and hearing.

338
All this accelerates the self-purification and awakening of
spiritual-self, mind and senses. At this point, if allowed by
Krishna he can chant and hear the Suddha Nāma with his
spiritual mind and his original spiritual senses in pure
untainted love of Krishna along with parallel chanting and
hearing of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma with his spiritualized material
mind, tongue and ears. Srila Rupa Goswami says that in that
stage one would desire millions of tongues and ears to taste the
sweetness of the Suddha Nāma & Śaktyāvēşa Nāma, the total
Nama avatara.

The Suddha Nama or the Aprākrta Nāma of the Lord being

transcendentally blissful, He immerses the soul in bliss of
ecstatic love of Krishna as exemplified by the life of Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Once one comes to this stage, what
else happens further to our consciousness, it is not under his
control any longer. The soul will be under siege and the
transcendental form, name, qualities, pastimes of the Lord
play in the heart of such a pure devotee just like a television.
No more philosophy.

In Bhaktivedanta Purports to Srimad Bhagavatam

1.6.33, Srila Prabhupada explains this:

The Absolute Personality of Godhead is not different from His

transcendental name, form, pastimes and the sound vibrations
thereof. As soon as a pure devotee engages himself in the pure
devotional service of hearing, chanting and remembering the
name, fame and activities of the Lord, at once He becomes
visible to the transcendental eyes of the pure devotee by

339
reflecting Himself on the mirror of the heart by spiritual
television. Therefore a pure devotee who is related with the
Lord in loving transcendental service can experience the
presence of the Lord at every moment.

What are the qualities of Transcendental Name of

Krishna?

Śri Çaitanya-Çaritāmrta Madhya 17.133 says:

Nāma cintāmaṇiḥ Krishnaś çaitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ pūrṇaḥ

śuddho nitya-mukto ’bhinnatvān Nāma-nāminoḥ

‘The holy name of Krishna is transcendentally blissful. It

bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is Krishna Himself, the
reservoir of all pleasure. Krishna’s name is complete, and it is
the form of all transcendental mellows. It is not a material
name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than
Krishna Himself. Since Krishna’s name is not contaminated by
the material qualities, there is no question of its being involved
with Māyā. Krishna’s name is always liberated and spiritual; it
is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. This is
because the name of Krishna and Krishna Himself are
identical.’

The above are the qualities of Suddha Nama or the Aprākrta

Nāma Prabhu as well as the Shaktyavesha Nama who are
identical with Krishna Himself. One has to learn the above
verse with meaning and engage in repeated contemplation of it
during times other than japa time along with desire for
transcendental experience for chanting and hearing the
Suddha Nama some day with ones spiritual tongue.

340
Such practice will involve grateful appreciative remembrance
or smaranam of these qualities in the background with intense
eagerness, hope, begging and anticipation for direct chanting
and hearing of the Suddha Nama with ones uncovered spiritual
mind and senses. The fulfillment of Suddha Nama seva is
chanting and hearing with one's original spiritual senses in
pure love of Krishna from a completely liberated state which is
very very high stage and ultimate goal of japa.

Kṛṣṇa says sukham ātyantikaṁ yat [Bg. 6.21]. That

superhappiness, super-sense gratification, can be achieved by
your transcendental sense, not by these covered sense.

Lecture-Day after Śrī Gaura-Pūrṇimā, Hawaii, March 5, 1969

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

Module 32/4

Conclusion on stages of japa

It is only in our Gaudiya parampara this simultaneous oneness

and difference between Aprakrta Nama and Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
is explained based on the absolute principle that Absolute
truth is a Person with His unlimited opulence of His energies.
He, being the source of all, He is one with and different from

341
His energies. He can become as good as His energy for the time
being that He wishes.

As a sadhaka the name we touch with our material tongue, ears

and material mind is the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma. But the goal is to
some day chant & hear endlessly the nectarian Suddha Nama
after prolonged attention-connection through chanting with
attention-embrace through hearing of the Śaktyāvēşa Nāma
which purifies our contaminated cittam and transforms it into
pure cittam capable of resonating with our spiritual mind,
intelligence, ego, senses etc and awakening them all.

Progress in Nāma aparādha relationship means different

stages of moving towards Nāma abhāsa relationship. And
progress in Nāma abhāsa relationship means different stages
of moving towards Suddha Namā relationship leading to full
awakening of spiritual mind and senses.

How fast we want to move from one relationship to the next

depends on how fast we offer the respective additional
ingredients required to progress from one stage the next stage
of japa and how patient and determined we are.

Essential ingredients for progressive japa

Nāma aparadha to Nāma abhāsa

Note the additional ingredients for moving our Nāma

aparadha relationship to Nāma abhāsa relationship is to chant

342
and hear with shradda or faith with effort to avoid offenses
especially inattentiveness or neglect of presence of Nama.
Simply by continuing such japa even if it is with unavoidable
offenses due to ignorance but with effort to avoid all kind of
offenses to the Nāma and also putting efforts to learn about
transcendental knowledge from guru, sadhu and sastra, he can
move his japa towards improved Nāma aparadha relationship
where offenses get highly reduced. Thus begins the Nāma
abhāsa relationship. This pace of our progress depends on our
efforts and mercy of Nāma.

Nāma abhāsa to advanced Nāma abhāsa

Further when the beginning stages of Nāma abhāsa

relationship is sustained daily and patiently for over extended
periods then faith increases and knowledge about the Sevya as
the combination of Śaktyāvēşa Nāma and Aprākrta Nāma
Prabhu becomes clearer in our heart leading to the additional
ingredient of offering background appreciative remembrance
of Nama Prabhu for each mantra and feelings of humility,
respect, affection, existential surrender to Nama Prabhu. And
by mood of begging forgiveness for offenses to the Nāma
Prabhu, the chanter progressively moves toward advanced
offenseless Nāma abhāsa relationship.

Nāma abhāsa to Suddha Nama

When advanced offenseless Nama abhasa relationship is

sustained daily for prolonged period of time, along with
releasing the additional ingredient of genuine and intense

343
desire, eagerness, craving, hope and begging to be allowed to
chant and hear the transcendental pure Name or aprākrta
Suddha Nama with one's awakened spiritual mind, its leads
one to the beginning of Suddha Nama relationship.

Please note that with the help of this knowledge of different

progressive stages of japa one should identify which stage he is
and offer appropriate ingredients for moving to next stage. For
instance if one is in Nama aparadha stage there is no point in
offering 'laulyam" for Suddha Nama.

We should patiently offer effort or chesta to move towards

Nama abhasa stage by minimizing offenses with increased
shradda and determination. Then patiently continue such
association to be liberated from the three modes of material
nature and bodily concept by seeking mercy of flow of pure
self-knowledge from the Nama and develop affection and
attachment for the Aprākrta Nāma. With rise of realized self-
knowledge and affection there is meaning in offering laulyam
for the direct experiential realization of Suddha Nama. Suddha
Nama further reveals to our spiritual senses Krishna's
transcendental name, form, qualities, dhams, pastimes etc.

END

344
Module 32/5

Padma Purana and ten offenses to Nama Prabhu

The ten offenses to the holy name are listed as follows in the
Padma Puräëa, as quoted in the Caitanya-caritämåta (Ädi 8.24,
purport):

[1] satäm nindä nämnah paramam aparädham vitanute

yatah khyätim yätam katham u sahate tad-vigarhäm
To blaspheme the great saintly persons who are preaching the
glories of the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra is the worst offense at
the lotus feet of the holy name. The Näma-prabhu, who is
identical with Kåñëa, will never tolerate such blasphemous
activities, even from one who passes as a great devotee.

[2] shivasya sri-vishnor ya iha guna-nämädi-sakalam

dhiyä bhinnam pashyet sa khalu hari-nämähita-karah
In this material world the holy name of Viñëu is all-auspicious.
Viñëu's name, form, qualities, and pastimes are all
transcendental, absolute knowledge. Therefore, if one tries to
separate the Absolute Personality of Godhead from His holy
name or His transcendental form, qualities, and pastimes,
thinking them material, that is offensive. Similarly, to think

345
that the names of demigods such as Lord Çiva are as good as
the name of Lord Viñëu is also blasphemous.

[3] guror avajnä

It is offensive to consider the spiritual master material and

therefore to envy his exalted position.

[4] sruti-sastra-nindanam

It is offensive to blaspheme the Vedic literature such as the

four Vedas and the Puränas.

[5] artha-vädam

It is offensive to consider the glories of the holy name

exaggerations.

[6] hari-nämni kalpanam

It is offensive to consider the holy name of the Lord imaginary.

[7] nämno baläd yasya hi päpa-buddhir

na vidyate tasya yamair hi shuddhih

The greatest offense at the lotus feet of the holy name is to

think that since chanting the holy name can counteract all
sinful reactions one may therefore go on sinning and at the
same time chant the holy name to neutralize the reactions. One

346
who thinks in this way cannot be purified by any program of
sense restraint and severe austerities, nor by the various
punishments of Yamaräja.

[8] dharma-vrata-tyäga-hutädi-sarva-
shubha-kriyä-sämyam api pramädah
It is offensive to consider the chanting of the holy name equal
to the performance of ordinary religious ceremonies or fire
sacrifices, the observance of austere vows, or the practice of
renunciation, all of which are materialistic auspicious
activities.

[9] ashraddadhäne vimukhe 'py asrnvati

yash copadeshah siva-nämäparädhah
It is an offense to preach the glories of the holy name to those
unwilling to hear, to atheists, or to those who have no faith in
chanting the holy name.

[10] srutväpi näma-mähätmyam yah priti-rahito 'dhamah

aham-mamädi-paramo nämni so 'py aparädha-krt
If a person has heard the glories of the transcendental holy
name of the Lord but nevertheless continues in the
materialistic concept of life, thinking, "I am this body and
everything belonging to this body is mine," and if he thus
shows no respect or love for the chanting of the holy name,
that is an offense.

347
api pramädah

It is also an offense to be inattentive while chanting.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

Module 32/6

Don’t Take the Lord’s Name in Vain

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada in Amṛta

Vāṇī, a collection of statements from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Saraswati Thakur. Originally compiled in Bengali. Page 166

Pure devotees do not chant the Lord’s names to counteract

sinful reactions, accumulate piety, attain heavenly pleasures, to
mitigate famine, devastating epidemics, social unrest, disease,
civil strife, or to obtain wealth or an earthly kingdom.

Since the Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to ask

him to fulfill our wishes is to treat him as our servant. This is
an offense. Therefore, calling the Lord’s names for any reason

348
other than to attain his devotional service is useless. Jesus
Christ told us not to take the Lord’s name in vain. However,
this does not mean we do not need to always chant the Lord’s
names — while sleeping, remaining awake, eating, or enjoying
happiness. To chant the Lord’s name, begging for his service, is
not a useless activity. It is our only duty.

But to make a show of chanting for some other purpose — in

other words, to fulfill our own desires — is useless. We should
not take to the chanting of the Lord’s names uselessly. We
should not chant to attain religiosity, economic development,
sense gratification, or liberation. Instead, we should always
chant to attain the Lord’s service.

Our Acharyas have always advised that one should not take
Lords Name for material reliefs including liberation. The
chanting of the holy names is to be done only to serve Nama
Prabhu more and attain eternal service to the His Name, form,
dhama, pastimes etc. It makes sense because instead of serving
Him you are asking service from Him. No doubt everything we
have and will have has to be given by Him only. By asking Him,
we are imposing our tiny foolish intelligence to decide what is
good for our eternal life or what is good for the world on a long
term perspective.

We may think some epidemic is bad for the world. But it could
be a purification of the world too. Just like Kurukshetra war
was planned by the Lord for cleansing the world. With our
limited intelligence we get bewildered what direction a small

349
worldly organisation should take to achieve its objectives. So
only the Supreme Lord who is the Parameshara of this material
world knows best what is what. Not that he is waiting more
people to pray and then he will respond. He is already
responding to the huge accumulation of sinful activities on the
earth through the stringent laws of material nature.

How to free oneself from the 10 offenses.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.23-24

There is no way to atone for any of these offenses. It is

therefore recommended that an offender at the feet of the holy
name continue to chant the holy name twenty-four hours a
day. Constant chanting of the holy name will make one free of
offenses, and then he will gradually be elevated to the
transcendental platform on which he can chant the pure holy
name and thus become a lover of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.

It is recommended that even if one commits offenses, one

should continue chanting the holy name. In other words, the
chanting of the holy name makes one offenseless. In the book
Nama-kaumudi it is recommended that if one is an offender at
the lotus feet of a Vaishnava, he should submit to that
Vaishnava and be excused; similarly, if one is an offender in
chanting the holy name, he should submit to the holy name
and thus be freed from his offenses....

350
One should be very humble and meek to offer one's desires and
chant prayers composed in glorification of the holy name, such
as ayi mukta-kulair upasyamanam and nivrtta-tarsair
upagiyamanad [SB 10.1.4]. One should chant such prayers to
become free from offenses at the lotus feet of the holy name.

END

351
Module 32/7

Offenseless chanting and initiation

In the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa (17.4,5,7) it is stated:

“Without performing the puraścaryā activities, one cannot

become perfect even by chanting this mantra for hundreds of
years. However, one who has undergone the puraścaryā-vidhi
process can attain success very easily. If one wishes to perfect
his initiation, he must first undergo the puraścaryā activities.
The puraścaryā process is the life-force by which one is
successful in chanting the mantra. Without the life-force, one
cannot do anything; similarly, without the life force of
puraścaryā-vidhi, no mantra can be perfected.”

In his Bhakti-sandarbha (283-84), Śrīla Jīva

Gosvāmī states:

In other words, the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is

so powerful that it does not depend on official initiation, but if
one is initiated and engages in pañcarātra-vidhi (Deity
worship), his Kṛṣṇa consciousness will awaken very soon, and
his identification with the material world will be vanquished.
The more one is freed from material identification, the more
one can realize that the spirit soul is qualitatively as good as
the Supreme Soul. At such a time, when one is situated on the

352
absolute platform, he can understand that the holy name of the
Lord and the Lord Himself are identical. At that stage of
realization, the holy name of the Lord, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra,
cannot be identified with any material sound. If one accepts
the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra as a material vibration, he falls
down. One should worship and chant the holy name of the
Lord by accepting it as the Lord Himself.

One should therefore be initiated properly according to

revealed scriptures under the direction of a bona fide spiritual
master. Although chanting the holy name is good for both the
conditioned and liberated soul, it is especially beneficial to the
conditioned soul because by chanting it one is liberated. When
a person who chants the holy name is liberated, he attains the
ultimate perfection by returning home, back to Godhead.

In the words of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 7.73):

"Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa one can obtain

freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting
the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra one will be able to see the lotus feet of
the Lord."

The offenseless chanting of the holy name does not depend on

the initiation process. Although initiation may depend on
puraścaryā or puraścaraṇa, the actual chanting of the holy
name does not depend on puraścaryā-vidhi, or the regulative
principles. If one chants the holy name once without
committing an offense, he attains all success. During the
chanting of the holy name, the tongue must work. Simply by

353
chanting the holy name, one is immediately delivered. The
tongue is sevonmukha-jihvā-it is controlled by service. One
whose tongue is engaged in tasting material things and also
talking about them cannot use the tongue for absolute
realization.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

Module 33

Material desires and bhakti

CC Madhya 19.160-

"If one does not distinguish between the bhakti-latā creeper

and the other creepers, the sprinkling of water is misused
because the other creepers are nourished while the bhakti-latā
creeper is curtailed.

PURPORT

If one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra while committing

offenses, these unwanted creepers will grow. One should not
take advantage of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra for some
material profit. As mentioned in verse 159:

'niṣiddhācāra', 'kuṭīnāṭī', jīva-hiṁsana'

'lābha', 'pūjā', 'pratiṣṭhādi' yata upaśākhā-gaṇa

354
The unwanted creepers have been described by Śrīla
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. He states that if one hears
and chants without trying to give up offenses, one becomes
materially attached to sense gratification. One may also desire
freedom from material bondage like the Māyāvādīs, or one
may become attached to the yoga-siddhis and desire wonderful
yogic powers. If one is attached to wonderful material
activities, one is called siddhi-lobhī, greedy for material
perfection. One may also be victimized by diplomatic or
crooked behavior, or one may associate with women for illicit
sex. Others may make a show of devotional service like the
prākṛta-sahajiyās, or one may try to support his philosophy by
joining some caste or identifying himself with a certain
dynasty, claiming a monopoly on spiritual advancement.

Thus with the support of family tradition, one may become a

pseudo guru or so-called spiritual master. One may become
attached to the four sinful activities-illicit sex, intoxication,
gambling and meat eating, or one may consider a Vaiṣṇava to
belong to a mundane caste or creed. One may think, "This is a
Hindu Vaiṣṇava, and this is a European Vaiṣṇava. A European
Vaiṣṇava is not allowed to enter the temples." In other words,
one may consider Vaiṣṇavas in terms of birth, thinking one a
brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava, a śūdra Vaiṣṇava, a mleccha Vaiṣṇava and
so on.

One may also try to carry out a professional business while

chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or reading Śrīmad-

355
Bhāgavatam, or one may try to increase his monetary strength
by illegal means. One may also try to be a cheap Vaiṣṇava by
chanting in a secluded place for material adoration, or one may
desire mundane reputation by making compromises with
nondevotees, compromising one's philosophy or spiritual life,
or one may become a supporter of a hereditary caste system.
All these are pitfalls of personal sense gratification.

Just to cheat some innocent people, one makes a show of

advanced spiritual life and becomes known as a sādhu,
mahātmā or religious person. All this means that the so-called
devotee has become victimized by all these unwanted creepers
and that the real creeper of bhakti-latā-bīja has been stunted."

What constitute material desires?

Desires for subsistence of life is not material desire that

obstructs bhakti. A devotee does his worldly occupational duty
doing his best to get the results while remembering Krishna
and accepts whatever final results come of its own accord. He
conducts his life as per the instructions of the Lord in the
Bhagavad Gita.

He knows that he is tiny and even his enjoying capacity for

sense gratification is limited but the mind has no limit to its
desiring capacity. Mind can desire anything. He is always in
fear that his mind, if left free can create havoc and contemplate
on sense objects and amplify pleasure by the emotion of hope
and pain by the emotion of fear. These material desires are

356
very scary for a chanter, because careless desiring immediately
fructifies due to the power of chanting and indulgence with
sense gratification will waste his life. And if some desires are
unfilfilled, he will have to take birth again just to fulfil and
experience those material desires.

He desires only those things and situations which helps him in

developing his bhakti, love for Krishna. Whatever few desires
as per pararabhda karma (sukha-dukha that has to be
experienced in this life ) is there will unfold of its own accord
and get fulfilled without having to over work to chase or run
after those desires. That is the meaning of 'accepting what
comes of its own accord'.

Maintaining material attachments is different from

surfacing of old material desires

The tenth offense is to be inattentive to chanting and to

maintain material attachments. Just doing japa without
applying endeavour to avoid offenses, our material desires
which may be bad for spiritual growth will get quickly fulfilled
and it may completely choke our bhakti lata. Such is the piety
power of chanting the holy name.

As sadhakas we all have the anartha of material attachments.

That is a reality and it is not problem as such. But to maintain
such attachments without desiring and endeavouring to
become free from it is the tenth offense.

357
Thus there is difference between finding ourselves having so
many attachments in our subconscious mind as against
actively maintaining and holding and fuelling those
attachments. For awakening one's bhakti, the latter attitude of
maintaining a material attachment is an obstacle. Otherwise
material attachments are cleansed slowly by association of the
Nama Prabhu either by fulfilling some desires that help us in
executing bhakti or by developing detachment from desires
that can be potential obstacles to bhakti. This makes the
devotee materially also peaceful as everything is left to the will
of Nama Prabhu by applying the instruction of Krishna in
Bhagavad gita "yadrachhaa-labha-santhusto" that we should
be happy with what comes of it's own accord. Nothing
impractical is advised in Krishna consciousness.

Otherwise it is like pouring water over fire of bhakti

that is built up by chanting and hearing.

Hence so important to put continuous effort to move our japa

from Nama apradha relationship to Nama abhasa relationship
to advanced Nama abhasa relationship free from all offenses.

He knows that he is tiny and even his enjoying capacity for

sense gratification is limited but the mind has no limit to its
desiring capacity. Mind can desire anything. He is always in
fear that his mind, if left free can create havoc and contemplate
on sense objects and amplify pleasure by the emotion of hope
and pain by the emotion of fear. These material desires are
very scary for a chanter, because careless desiring immediately
fructifies due to the power of chanting and indulgence with
sense gratification will waste his life. And if some desires are

358
unfilfilled, he will have to take birth again just to fulfil and
experience those material desires.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

Module 34

Impersonalist and thier offensive understanding of

Krishna

Those preaching in India have to know what is the

understanding of impersonalists about Krishna. It is 180
degree opposite of Vaishnava understanding. Impersonalists
say that Vishnu and His incarnations including Krishna have
come from aprakrta brahman and that such an identity-less
impersonal brahman accepted a karmic triguna material body
and identity of Krishna, Rama etc (maya body) exactly how we
have been embodied with material bodies except that it is very
high sattva guna. And then He became fully realized back into
that one formless brahman without a second. And they say the
lilas of all these incarnations are within the jurisdication of
Maya or illusion. Krishna does not have any Aprakrta
existence, nor His Nama, guna or lila. Everything about Him is
part of prakrti or material nature.

359
Mayavadis say "All identites , form, name, bodies ,
relationship etc are Maya, Krishna is no exception"

According to them any kind of persons, identities, forms,

names, bodies, senses activities etc can be only within the
domain Maya. There is no absolute personality of God. So
where is the question of any absolute Aprakrta Purusha, nama,
guna, lila etc. Absolute spirit or brahman cannot be a person
and does not have all these variegatedness of identity, form,
name, master rasa, servant rasa or rasa of any personal
relationship. Therefore bhakti is not eternal since worshipper
and worshipped are all prakrta and has to eventually merge
individual existences into that One existence. Bhakti is only a
means for them to focus their mind on one Deity to facilitate
merging.

Deities, mantras, vedas are all within maya.

They hold that all deities and mantras and their worship
described in the vedas are all meant for this one purpose of
helping us to attain self realization of merging into that
Aprakrta impersonal Oneness. Only variegated-less nirguna
brahman is the Aprakrta vastu and that even vedas are not
absolute and very much are part of Maya world. They say that
there is nothing like Aprakrta Archa, Nama, sabdha, etc. Note
that even sastras are not absolute for them. Vaikuntha is also
not Aprākrta.There are no two brahman like Para brahman
and brahman.They say that God and bhakta are only Maya's
differentiations till we attain self realization.

What impersonalists miss out

360
 What they unfortunately miss out is the absolute concept of a
transcendental person unlike a limited mundane person.
Therefore they are called impersonalists. What escapes them is
positive variegatedness of the of Absolute Existence belonging
to an Absolute Personality of Godhead as His energies. They
misinterpret all the absolute personal varieties we talk about as
simply high sattvic state within Maya and you have to go
beyond all variegatedness of existence to realize that One
Brahman above the gunas.

To common man this impersonal philosophy trickles down by

saying the following " That there is some impersonal power
that incarnates as different personal Gods as described in the
vedas. And you can practice bhakti and worship any of them
with exclusive devotion only to help you merge into nirguna
brahman where the worshipper and worshipped, who were
both illusion, just vanishes like how darkness vanishes when
light comes on. Including guru and disciple identities has to be
transcended for perfection of self-realization. Guru and
devotion to guru is not eternal and it is only a stepping stone to
realization of that One Absolute truth where the identity of
guru as well as on oneself merges into one identity-less
nirguna brahman. "

Fortunately most of the common people in India who are

traditionally connected to these schools of thought are not
hardcore impersonalists. They love Krishna as God and are
devotees . Thanks to their ignorance of Mayavada philosophy.
They are with a clean slate. To be a real impersonalists like
described above it requires lot of twisting of scriptures and

361
high level grammar logic and arguments to get this concocted
understanding of absolute truth out of the vedas and become a
hard core impersonalists. Most of them are simply ignorant
and innocent.

I have changed many Hindus who have this idea by one simple
example. I tell them if I right now punch you, whom will you
attack as the cause of that punch. Is it the energy that came as
the punch or the person behind that energy? Naturally he will
say it is the person. Then I establish that person comes before
power in all cases and not other way round. Brahman comes
from a para brahman, a Supreme Person who is the owner of
brahman and all energies in existence. And that is declared by
Krishna himself in Bhagavad Gita as Himself in umpteen
verses.

Buddha Himself is counted by us as one of the ten incarnations

of the Lord, who preached non-violence by rejecting the vedas
in order to stop, in those times, rampant misuse of vedas for
indiscriminate killing of animals on the strength of a little
licence in the vedas for animal sacrifices. It is revealed in
Padma Purana that it was Lord Vishnu's plan to spread
impersonal philosophy to convert atheistic Buddhists and re-
establish the vedas in the society after years of Buddhism.

And therefore by higher arrangement of Lord Vishnu, vedas

were brought back into the society through an impersonalist's
twisted interpretation of vedas which was easy for atheistic
buddhists to accept. Just one form of atheism to another form

362
of atheism. Through this twisted interpretation, many
buddhists were brought back to the vedic fold. That is the
genesis of the philosophy of nirguna or impersonalism
brahaman both of which do not accept Absolute Truth as an
eternal person.

However, Sripada Sankaracarya composed the famous

'govindam bhaja govindam' song and told his disciples don't
waste your time in analysing the grammar of the vedas but
simply worship Govinda. Apart from that, here and there in his
writings he has revealed the real truth that Personality of
Narayana is transcendental or Aprakrta or beyond the three
gunas especially in His commentary on Vishnu Sahasranama.

Therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says one should never hear

impersonal philosophy that denies personhood to Absolute
Truth. That philosophy was meant for another purpose as
explained above. Just like even though Lord Buddha is one of
dashavataras we do not accept his philosophy knowing very
well, Buddhism was spread by Lord Buddha for another
purpose.

Note in Srila Prabhupada's pranam mantra we glorify Srila

Prabhupada as one who has driven out the western world
(nirvesesha sunyavadi paschatya desha tarine). Bhagavad Gita
presents a highly personal philosophy of Absolute Truth. To
get over highly personal direct statements by Lord Krishna in
Bhagavad GIta wherein He is declaring His Absolute
Supremacy, the impersonalists give so many indirect
interpretations and commentaries to make it ultimately

363
impersonal. On the other hand to bring forth direct meaning of
what Krishna spoke Srila Prabhupada called his translation
and purports Bhagavad Gita As It Is.

One should not even hear Krishna Nama bhajan and Bhagavat
katha from impersonalists who do not have faith in Absolute
existence of Krishna as the Lord of everything. Such Krishna
katha is mixed with their subtle energy of poisonous
faithlessness and denial of His Absolute existence as the
Supreme Person. Such katha is just like how when milk is
touched by a poisonous snake becomes poisonous. By
submissively hearing about Krishna from an impersonalist,
there is this danger of subtle offensive faithless understanding
of Krishna entering the hearer's heart. Bhakti in the beginning
stages depends a lot on faith. Especially if you have respect for
such a speaker as person as a sadhu who knows so many lilas
of Krishna.

If anyone wants to know what is impersonalist philosophy to

counter the same while preaching you should hear from Srila
Prabhupada about it. Please read wonderful Bhaktivedanta
purports of Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi lila volume 1 to know
their philosophy. A devotee cannot tolerate hearing that
Krishna is an object of illusion. If you trust the statements of
Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita as He has spoken there can be
no doubt that the Supreme Absolute Truth, who is cause of all
causes is an eternal person and that is Him.

Lord Krishna Himself clarifies that He is foundation

of impersonal brahman.

364
brahmano hi pratishtaham
amrtasyävyayasya ca
shäshvatasya ca dharmasya
sukhasyaikäntikasya ca

And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is

immortal, imperishable, and eternal and is the constitutional
position of ultimate happiness.

Arjuna declares in the Bhagavad-gita (11.18),

tvam aksharam paramam veditavyam

tvam asya vishvasya param nidhänam
tvam avyayah shashvata-dharma-goptä
sanätanas tvam purusho mato me

You are the supreme primeval objective. You are the ultimate
resting place of all this universe. You are inexhaustible, and
You are the oldest. You are the maintainer of the eternal
religion, the Personality of Godhead. This is my opinion."

Srila Prabhupada writes (Renunciation through Wisdom 4.3)

“ We should understand that those passages in the Gitä which

describe Parabrahman as akshara ("indestructible") are
references to Lord Krishna, the Supreme Controller Godhead.
Not once is Lord Krishna equated with the kshara, the
conditioned jivas.... The Lord maintains the entire cosmic
manifestation merely by His separated energy. Just as fire,

365
though situated in one place, spreads its light and heat in all
directions, so the unborn Supreme Lord, Krishna, while
maintaining His full personality, eternality, and
imperishability, expands Himself into countless Visnu forms,
jivas, and internal and external potencies. Expanding Himself
in this way, He never diminishes or in any way affects His
status as the Absolute Whole.”

As the Ishopanishad, Invocation declares, pürnasya pürnam

adäya pürmam evävashiishyate:

Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete

in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so
many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the
complete balance.

The Lord is the eternal Supreme Person, and therefore His

name, form, qualities, pastimes, and so on are all eternal. The
Sanskrit word purusha means "enjoyer." An enjoyer can never
be a formless, impersonal, impotent being. Certainly Lord
Krishna is without material qualities, yet He is the enjoyer and
possessor of all spiritual qualities.

In the Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna glorifies Lord Krishna as akshara,

Parabrahman, and ädi-deva (the original Personality of
Godhead. "

Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta (Madhya 17.129-132 and 134-135),

the Lord speaks about the impersonalists thus:

366
Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu replied, 'Mäyävädi impersonalists
are great offenders unto Lord Krishna; therefore they simply
utter the words brahman, ätmä, and caitanya. The holy name
of Krishna is not manifest in their mouths because they are
offenders unto Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
who is identical with His holy name.

The Lord's holy name, His form, and His personality are all
one and the same. There is no difference between them. Since
all of them are absolute, they are transcendentally blissful.
There is no difference between Krishna's body and Himself or
between His name and Himself. As far as the conditioned soul
is concerned, everything is different. One's name is different
from the body, from one's original form and so on. The holy
name of Krishna, His body, and His pastimes cannot be
understood by blunt material senses. They are manifest
independently. The holy name of Krishna, His transcendental
qualities and pastimes, as well as Lord Krishna Himself are all
equal. They are all spiritual and full of bliss.

Krishna Himself resolves that His person is supreme or He is

originating from some impersonal Supreme Bhagavad Gita
7.24

avyaktam vyaktim äpannam

manyante mäm abuddhayah
param bhävam ajänanto
mamävyayam anuttamam

367
Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think that I,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, was impersonal
before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their
small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is
imperishable and supreme.

Please note the usage by Lord Krishna the two words namely
avyaktam-impersonal and vyaktim-personal by Lord Krishna.
What more is need than Krishna Himself says only foolish
people think that impersonal energy becomes person. Krishna,
the Supreme Person is the source of impersonal brahman
energy.

There is a reason why they miss this truth. Krishna covers this
knowledge from them as they are not ready to surrender to a
God who is a Person.

näham prakäshah sarvasya

yoga-mäyä-samävrtah
müdho 'yam näbhijänäti
loko mäm ajam avyayam

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I

am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not
know that I am unborn and infallible.

368
So we have to be a devotee first to understand Krishna.
Bhaktya mam abijanati. What is the meaning in bhakti if you
really don't believe that Krishna exists eternally and is the
Supreme loving person who is very source and maintainer of
all jivas. And accepting directly what Krishna is declaring in
Bhagavad Gita is the way one becomes a devotees of the Lord
and His Names which are non different from Him.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

369
Module 35

Matter world is not an illusion but it causes illusion

of material world in our cittam

Limitations of dream analogy

Having anyway introduced the analogy of our daily dream

earlier I have to caution you also on the limitations of
extending this analogy too far by saying that the objective
external world itself is an illusion. That does not represent the
real truth about the material world as per Srimad Bhagavad
Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

I will attempt to explain that below as it is a very basic

understanding of Vaishnava philosophy vis-a-vis impersonal
or mayavadi philosophy and helps us detach ourselves from
material world.

In our daily dream our minds create an exclusive dream for

each of us. You and me are dreaming independently in our own
dream worlds. Total experience is my mind's imagination.
There is nothing of the dream outside my mind in an objective
sense of reality. Our spiritual dreaming is not like that at all. By
extending the analogy of dream we should not think that the
world outside us is all soul's dream. This is the caution. The

370
external world is not soul's dream. It is an objective world
made of real energy of the Lord an it is one of His opulences.

Just as we read a world of movies out of objective light patches

of a movie on tv screen, we are weaving a world in our minds
out of play of matter energy including our material bodies. The
dream we are talking about is the one that our minds weave
out of the objective world based on the seed of illusion that the
my true self, the soul, is my body and other bodies are other
souls and the world made of those false identities and their
inter-relationship is the real society and relationships,
friendship and love.

This material creation is an opulence of Vishnu which

undergoes the cycle of creation, maintenance and dissolution.
It is called eka pada vibhuti or 1/4 th of opulences of Krishna.
His tripada vibhuti is the manifestations of the spiritual world.

To say that the external matter world itself is a dream woven

in my mind is to deny the objective existence as one of the
majestic opulences of Krishna.

Understanding rope and snake analogy from the

vedas

If I mistake a rope to be a snake in darkness can I say that the

rope does not exist out there just because my mind sees it as a
snake? No. The fact is that rope's existence is independent of
my misperception of that rope as a snake. The snake is only in

371
my mind. But snake also is an item that exists somewhere.
rope is not imagination. snake is not imagination. But seeing
rope as snake is the illusion in the perceiver.

Let us apply this to self-perception. Rope can be compared to

our material body and snake can be compared to my spiritual
body. My 'lifeless' body is not an illusion by itself. It is a real
energy called āparā prakrti by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.
The 'knower' in these body is also not illusion and that is parā
prakrti energy. The 'knower' creates a mistaken perception in
his material mind that the lifeless body of mine and its ego is
same as my spiritual body and my eternal ego.

This misperception is called false ego and they exist in the

mind and they act as a permanent coloured glass stored in our
subconscious mind. A red glass on our eyes will make the
world look red. In the same way false ego makes the real ego
'know' the world for the interests of the false ego that I am this
body rather than the real interest of the real ego having his real
identity as servant of Krishna.

After the soul leaves his previous body, he appears in the gross
world as a new born baby. As the newly born baby grows, he
slowly sees the world through his senses and interprets his
body as himself as other bodies of other people around him as
their bodies and stores these false egos in the cittam or
subconscious mind as 'I' and and 'them' and weaves his new
world. Slowly the baby mind builds a illusory world of people
around him who also nurture the same belief that they are
their respective bodies. Thus perceptions of 'I' and 'mine',

372
'they' and 'theirs' centred around the idea of a mistaken self of
being the material body is very seed of mind-dream.

The soul's nature is to seek sat cit ananda rasa. Now a new
born baby tries to seek this sat rasa by wanting to 'be' the body
by identifying with it. A web of bodily relationships and desires
is woven into a illusory world by the material mind (manah
gatah). Day after day and he reinforces his world with
experiences of power (sat), knowledge (cit) , love and pleasure
(ananda) rasa both successful and unsuccessful.

The spiritual mind simply identifies with the contents

(interpretations) of the material mind that are stored as cittam
or subconscious mind. Thus slowly his cittam or subconscious
mind grows as a storehouse of emotional memories of his
haunted role-play as false ego as the material body, its desires
and its activities experienced as a false 'myself'.

The world outside us is a real world but designed to facilitate

our illusory reading that we are our the matter bodies and
maya tempts us to seek out our so called satcitananda rasa in
each of our inner dream world of false egos. Illusion consists of
the mapping of false meanings of things, people and situation
he sees with the material mind and therefore illusion is not
outside the mind.

All jivas in this world are real persons stuck in a common

ignorant belief about themselves that they are their lifeless
bodies. The truth is that both the jivas and their lifeless bodies

373
are two different substances or categories of truth or tattvas.
Whether a car is parked or is running it is still a lifeless object.
So also is our body whether living or dead, it is intrinsically a
dead thing. The living person is the soul or the knower of the
self-created dream under influence of our own
unconstitutional desire facilitated by maya.

Our ignorant conditioned misreading of that reality with the

help of the factory of the conditioned intelligence and mind
and stored in the subconscious mind is ever ready to
constantly interpret our perception of the world around the
desires of the body-centred false egos.

We should not mistakenly think that material world itself is the

soul's dream like Mayavadis think. The world is real world
designed, created and controlled by a real Lord as Maha
Vishnu and His expansions is to be appreciated as one of His
unlimited glories.

The actual spinning of illusion is done by material mind-

intelligence and not by the spiritual mind. The spiritual mind
acts only as a kshetrajna or knower and just experiences the
illusion through its dreamy attention, like watching an
interactive movie where you can take some decisions of the
movie world and the movie world will respond to it. Everything
that is going on in the material mind like experiences of the
duality of likes and dislikes, success and failure, happiness and
distress, pain and pleasures and victory and loss are produced
by the material mind by continuous mental concoction also
called mental speculation.

374
How does this happen?
SB 4.30.20
"At present we have contacted a material body, material mind
and material intelligence, but when we become free from these
material conditions, our spiritual body, spiritual mind and
spiritual intelligence become manifest."

The soul or eternal real ego's dream activities of identifying,

falsely ego-ing, desiring, thinking, feeling and willing and
doing are produced by three modes of material nature acting
upon the material body-mind system. Material system consists
of a machine made of body, bodily ego, intelligence and mind
which is animated by the standing order of the Supersoul or
Paramatma-Krishna.

The dreamy spiritual mind identifies with the material mind-

body system and its activities displayed on the material mind
screen and ' knows' material life story through its dreamy
attention experiencing 'myself' as temporary enjoyer and
sufferer of these identified experiences.

Lord Krishna in Chapter 13 of Bhagavad Gita reveals the

transcendental position of jiva as only a kshetrjna and what it
sees is called the kshetra or field.

What does awakening or self-realization mean?

375
We have to wake up means to see things as they are (tattva
darshinah) in this world with our material minds by first
taking help of spiritual knowledge from guru, sadhu and
sastra. Spiritual mind's only action now is to simply identify
with thoughts, feelings and willings of the material mind. If the
contents of my material mind is free from ignorance through
hearing true knowledge from guru, sadhu and sastras and
turning into realization by association with Nama Prabhu then
the material mind acts as a friend of the spiritual mind and the
soul become free from identifying with false 'myself' and still
perceive and live in this world for a spiritual purpose.

The seed of illusion is the mis-reading by my material

intelligence that ' I am this gross and subtle body'. it is followed
by the most complicated emotional networks in the material
mind of 'I, me, my, mine etc propping up the false egotism or
false 'myself'. These emotional networks based on this mis-
mapping of the objective world of things as world of people
who are their material bodies can be busted only if pure 'sat-
cit' shakti or energy mercifully flows from the Nama Prabhu
through the conduit of attention to the cittam and purify it.

The contamination is on cittam surrounding the soul and not

in the soul itself. When pure sat-cit flows from Nama Prabhu,
we awaken our real ego as being brahman and a servant of
Krishna and our true love for Krishna. After that, the devotee's
ego, as servant of Krishna use their bodies only as very nice
material instrument for the service of his eternal master and
never use it for their own sense gratification.

376
Detachment-False emotions thought to be absolute
are only emotions as in a drama.

In the example where the rope is being mistaken for a snake I

generate a false emotion of fear of snake ego as a poisonous
killer. The moment I get out of the illusion and realize that it is
only a rope and not a snake, all fearful emotions will
intellectually vanishes but conditioned feeling responses
remain for some time like a fan switched off runs for a while
before its stops fully. I can even think of safely touching the
rope and using it for what all it can do for me. Like it can be
used to ties somethings etc.

In the same way when we become free from false ego or

perception of mis-identification of our real ego as our material
body, all illusory emotions of our dream world is transformed
gradually into secondary emotions of role play to continue
living in this world to interact with people who are in illusion
to talk them out of the illusion and make them aware of their
divine self beyond material body. Since rest of the world is in
this common illusion, If you have to relate with them, you need
to exchange emotions as if they are their bodies. But such
interaction will be with a higher purpose to wake them up also
from illusion of their true self without ourselves falling back
into the illusion.

As long as we are in continuous association and relationship

with Nama Prabhu by engaging devotional service of chanting,

377
hearing, remembering, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has assured
protection form such falling down back into illusion.

Emotions are always associated in the mind to a particular

'myself' that feels the emotion. If a particular 'myself' is
realised to be just a temporary role play ego in a temporary
drama, then all emotions connected to that particular 'myself'
also loses it real punch just as fear of snake vanished when
snake vanished from our perception by seeing the rope.
Purification of our real ego from false ego is self realization.

And positive feelings and emotions of relief, fearlessness and

hope replaces fear and hopelessness. When the fake material
'myself ' 'I am this body' and things connected to body are
mine dissolves, detachment from material world arises. Then
our perception of the external world becomes an 'as it is' or
tattva darshinah perception as everything belonging to Krishna
to be used for Krishna's pleasure to wake up the spiritual
sleeping souls indulging in sleep walking in this material world
in their material bodies. He is not interested in any illusory
maya rasas but only bhakti rasa of engaging material energy
and the jivas world in service of the Lord. He derives pleasure
for his true eternal self from such service with his body and
senses. That is the higher taste of 'mind taking pleasure in the
soul' that Krishna reveals to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita 2.55.

By association of Nama Prabhu, the real eternal ego,

intelligence and mind awakens itself as the eternal servant of
Krishna. We start seeing the world of other eternal egos
trapped in their bodies by mis-identification. We start living in

378
a world of my real egos see other people as eternal loving
servants of Krishna lost in forgetfulness and as being haunted
with false 'myself' and suffering. Except being those devotees
who in the ship of Srila Prabhupada trying to get of this
illusory ocean.

His new world is the world of Krishna's ego, guru's pure ego,
Nama Prabhu's ego, other pure devotee egos, egos of aspiring
pure devotees etc and experiencing real absolute emotional
relationships or rasas with them even when living in this body.
He lives for spiritual intents, desires and purposes .

Since the Nama Avatara is full of knowledge (cit) energy, just

by being attentive to the chanting and hearing the empowered
Śaktyāvēşa Nama, that pure knowledge energy will dissolve all
illusory perceptions about ourselves and the dream situations
in our cittam which becomes purified.

When the cittam is purified of misconceptions of self, it will

cause the spiritual mind to wake up too from self-ignorance
and it starts chanting the Aprākrta Nama with its awakened
attention. Thus our material mind is mirror by which we can
realize our true identity as eternal servant of Krishna. Right
now the material mind is covered with the dust of false 'myself'
of being our material body.

As sadhaka we begin our japa of omnipotent Śaktyāvēşa Nama

with our material senses, material mind and even false ego.

379
After purification we end up chanting and hearing Aprākrta
Nama Prabhu with our awakened spiritual ego, awakened
mind and senses also in addition to our yantra's involvement.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

Module 36

First step of Humility is to surrender to guru

Normally in the material world we all are independent of

others. Even in pursuit of truth we are independent.
Independence from

God, who is all knowledge, in pursuit of truth means pride. The

very first practice of humility is to accept a bonafide spiritual
master coming in parampara from Krishna who is authorised
by his predecessor Acharya. He should have full faith in him
and surrender unto his instructions.

In Srimad Bhagavatam purport 3.32.42 Srila Prabhupada

writes:

“ In the beginning, no one can be elevated to the highest stage

of devotional service.”

380
Here bhakta means one who does not hesitate to accept the
reformatory processes for becoming a bhakta. In order to
become a devotee of the Lord, one has to accept a spiritual
master and inquire from him about how to progress in
devotional service. To serve a devotee, to chant the holy name
according to a certain counting method, to worship the Deity,
to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam or Bhagavad-gita from a realized
person and to live in a sacred place where devotional service is
not disturbed are the first out of sixty-four devotional activities
for making progress in devotional service. One who has
accepted these five chief activities is called a devotee.

We have been roaming around independently many many lives

with speculative understanding of self and existence. Find a
spiritual master, serve Him, make enquiries from him and
learn true knowledge of self and this world and replace our old
speculations with these transcendental truth.

This is the first step of expression of humility by a sadhaka.

Before I accept this descending process of knowledge through
guru, sadhu and sastra, either I do not know anything about "
who I am, what is purpose of life, who is God, what is life, what
is this world etc" or all that I know is all speculation and not
the truth. Surrendering to the spiritual master's teachings and
instructions and giving up one's speculative theories of
existence is the first step of humility.

It is humility because you realize your limited ability and

helpless nature to find out who you are, what is God, who is

381
God etc by means of analysing the imperfect data abtained
through our imperfect senses about the self and existence.

He has to not only desire to learn from guru but must be ready
to carry out his orders and change life style etc designed to
make us attain Krishna's lotus feet. Tad viddhi pranipātena
pariprashnena sevayā (Bhagavad Gita 4.34). And render
service to him to the best of one's capacity. So first step of
humility is guru bhakti.

Svetaasvatara Upanishad 6.3;

Yasya deve parā bhaktir yathā deve tathā gurau

tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakashanta mahatmanah

Srila Prabhupada explains this verse (Lecture on SB 1.5 June

10, 1969) as follows;

yasya deve parā bhaktih. One who has got unflinching faith...
Deve. Deve means the Supreme Lord. Parā bhakti:
transcendental devotional service to the Supreme Lord. Yathā
deve tathā gurau.

And as he has got unflinching faith in Krishna, similarly he has

got unflinching faith to the spiritual master. Tasyaite kathitā
hy arthāh: all these Vedic literatures and their purport and

382
their meaning will be revealed to him. Tasyaite kathitā hy
arthāh prakāshante. It becomes revealed. Prakāshante
mahātmanah.

All of Krishna’s mercy is available for a sādhaka easily through

the mercy of a bonafide spiritual master on having full faith in
him as much as faith in and respect for Krishna.

Thus the secret of success in spiritual life is that kind of quality

of faith and respect for the bonafide spiritual master and in His
divine words and instructions.

Srila Prabhupada wrote in a letter on August 9, 1976

If you feel at all indebted to me then you should preach

vigorously like me. That is the proper way to repay me. Of
course no one can repay the debt to the spiritual master, but
the spiritual master is very much pleased by such an attitude
by the disciple. If we do not see that each of us have what we
have only by the will of the Paramatma-Krishna, then there is
place of pride and envy

And these possessions come and go as He wills. If we do not

regularly de-weed sprouting seeds of pride and envy by
introspection and beat our minds, the weeds will consume all
the water (chanting) that you are pouring and grow wildly and
can choke the growth of bhaktilata or the creeper of devotion.
For this we should come out of the decease of habitual
comparision of oneself with others vis-a-vis possessions and

383
abilities. One should be content with what Krishna has given
us and what He may give us in future.

Therefore Srila Bhaktisiddantha Saraswati Thakura asks us to

mentally beat our minds (out cittam or ) when we wake up
with our shoes 100 times and before you sleep beat the mind
with a broom 100 times. This is because mind of a sadhaka
always seeks self-importance and prominence among the
devotees as a great devotee.

This mental exercise is very useful. One cittam-slice or EIM-

slice (E= Ego, I= Intelligence & M=Mind) can be beaten by
another cittam-slice. Remember the concept of cittam-slice
headed by a situational ego is like a person. If you do it with
feeling, it will check the disease of ego of self-importance and
pride.

Striving for social gratification in the name of devotional

service by exploiting the services of other devotees for one's
own name, fame and adoration is even worse and will not last
long. All these happen unknowingly due to anarthas if we are
not cautious while living in a society of vaishnavas.
Such self-centered desires becomes a poison that fattens one's
false ego and covers the real ego (satcitananda ego) resulting in
one day covering one's taste for devotional service. Devotees
are always careful in relationship with other devotees to give
due-credit to where-all it belongs and not protest in one's mind
if he is not given credit even if his mind thinks he is due for
that credit. He always execute services is the mood of servant

384
with all credit for the master, whether one is a leader or
follower in each of his practical engagement.

Even if he is a leader, he should think I am a servant of these

devotees under me but with service to lead. Humility will
naturally follow if we cultivate such a servant-leader
paradigm.

Another subtle pride is to think that one is qualified to directly

serve and please the Lord. This is also not very pleasing to
Krishna. One should chant the holy name in a state of
consciousness of feeling of being unqualified and not deserving
direct service of the Lord due to being impure and not capable
of giving Him the right kind of respect and fear making
offenses from such shortcomings. He should think that I have
got the privilege of serving His Nama directly only because of
mercy of my spiritual master on whose order alone I chant 16
rounds daily.

One begs for the causeless mercy with full of faith that the
holy name will forgive me for all unknown offenses upon my
trying to follow his order to the best of his abilities.

There is no end to explaining and elaborating what is humility.

Being humbler than a blade of grass who does not protest after
being trampled upon and being more tolerant than a tree
which continues to give shade despite its branches being

385
chopped is the formula given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to
decide how to relate with every other jiva, especially devotees.

Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura sings that the pure Nama will

manifest His sweet taste to us only when one can offer due-
respects to all jivas without malice towards anyone.

In Srimad Bhagavatam purport 3.32.42 Srila Prabhupada

continues to writes:

“One must be prepared to offer the necessary respect and

honor to the spiritual master. He should not be unnecessarily
envious of his Godbrothers. Rather, if a Godbrother is more
enlightened and advanced in Krishna consciousness, one
should accept him as almost equal to the spiritual master, and
one should be happy to see such Godbrothers advance in
Krishna consciousness.

A devotee should always be very kind to the general public in

instructing Krishna consciousness because that is the only
solution for getting out of the clutches of mäyä. That is really
humanitarian work, for it is the way to show mercy to other
people who need it very badly.....”

And the best of the servants for a sādhaka is one’s spiritual

master who is not only a pure devotee but a confidential
servitor of the Lord entrusted with the mission to distribute
His mercy to the conditioned souls. He is also eager and willing

386
to become a servant of any sincere servant of His spiritual
master. That is called sadhu sanga and sadhu seva.

Krishna is especially pleased with those devotees who have a

internal mood of being ready to be servants of the servants of
His servants and who never wants themselves to be served
personally by anyone. He understands the secret the
advancement is the attitude of servitude. When even a younger
devotee allows me to serve him as his leader or mentor, I
should feel that he is favouring me by giving me a chance to
giving up my lording attitude and develop the most valuable
attitude of servitude. Therefore he embraces the principle of
being the servant of servant of servant of Krishna, wherever he
finds an opportunity to practice the same.

On the other hand a truly senior devotee does not expect

anyone to respect him and serve him thinking that he is a
senior devotee or because he is an achiever of some wonderful
preaching result by the mercy of guru and Krishna.

This kind of social rasa is distraction from the path of our pure
bhakti which is our main business. Srila Prabhupada said that
the attitude in the community should be that of a silent worker.
Not drumming one's own glorious achievements.

Even if Krishna makes it happens by His arrangement to

glorify his devotee, he shies away from such name and fame.
He always knows that everything is happening only by the

387
blessings of guru and Krishna and he is simply rejoices within
in being a recipient of such causeless mercy.

All-respect and due-respect

All-respect in the heart for all jivas as part and parcel of

Krishna is cornerstone of humility. But there is this concept of
due-respect when it comes to the practical matter of expressing
all-respect in the heart. The injunction in this world for
expressing humility is to give due-respect to all jivas. Degree of
respect is not binary value of either having respect or no
respect.Though there are grey shades of expression of external
due respect in terms of vaishnava etiquette, in the heart of
heart he has all-respect for every jiva.

For instance If you find a snake inside your house you don't
pay obeisance to that snake. That is not humility. Give all-
respect in the heart but expression of that comes in the form of
due-respect which is to chase it away or kill it if it is a
poisonous snake that is going to be harmful to the surrounding
habitat. But if you go to a forest and kill a snake it amounts to
not expressing due-respect to that jiva.

Taking association of a Mayavadi sanyasi by hearing Krishna

katha from him is not due-respect to be offered to him.
Expression of humility in such a situation, without being
sentimental, is to quietly avoid association and leave the place.

388
It is not pride that you refuse to hear from a Mayavadi
sanyasi who ultimately denies absolute existence of Krishna.

The Nama Prabhu is so merciful that by allowing the

prarabdha karma (the seeds of past karma that are destined to
fructify in this life and expereince before death) of his devotees
to act upon us either as it is or in any modified way as He
thinks appropriate and takes them through trials and
tribulations in the course of performing devotional service in
the association of other devotees and teaches them lessons on
humility.

This is the gift we get by living and mixing with other

vaishanvas and is called sadha sanga. Sadhu sanga is a major
factor for advancement and that is practical field where we
practice the attitude of 'being' the servant of all vaishnavas.
Guru, sadhu and sastra. None of the three can be missing in
ones life to ensure progress.

Unless one is beaten up nicely by the material energy now and

then in one's life as a devotee, it is very difficult to realize what
is real humility and pride and envy can raise its head more so
among the devotees due to presence of more knowledge, power
and external success bestowed upon him by the mercy of Guru
& Krishna. Soon he will lose that knowledge and power. In a
second it can get covered by the modes.

It is said that the force of prarabdha karma of devotees are

managed by the Lord in one's heart like cat lovingly carrying
its kitten between its teeth. This is unlike the action of force of

389
kala on the karmis which is like the cat crushing a rat between
its teeth. Therefore devotee take all sufferings due to one's past
karma as mercifully being allowed by the Lord to act upon him
to purify him. The Lord never forsakes His devotees who
regularly worships His Names though he may find himself in a
mess from the worldly point of view. He is on the look out for
what spiritual lesson the Lord wants him to learn through the
material mess and learns it.

Pandavas, Prahlada, etc had so many trials and tribulations

in life but they were gifted with Krishna consciousness and
protection from Him.

And for exalted devotees the Lord sometimes does not visibly
save the devotees in their difficulties just to glorify their
devotion. Like Nama Acarya Haridas Thakur. Though he was
whipped in more than two dozen market places, he was
unaffected and was even smiling because he was fully liberated
from bodily concept of self.

Srila Prabhupada struggling to preach in India but not

successful for decades was Krishna's plan to glorify him as his
senapathi, as the world Acharya by facilitating the Hare
Krishna explosion from America through him at the right time
in American History. Krishna always has a master plan for his
devotees rendering devotional service to Him.

390
To be humble always is a tall order. But we, have to at least
know these standards so as to aspire and struggle always
towards achieving true humility.

Srila Prabhupada's example of responding to praise.

He is an epitome of humility.

Srila Prabhupada lecture, Surat, December 19, 1970

Revatinandana: You must be higher than the paramahamsa

stage, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: I am lower than you. I am lower than you.

Revatinandana: You are so beautiful. You are paramahamsa,

but still, you are preaching to us.

Prabhupada: No, I am lower than you. I am the lowest of the

all creatures. I am simply trying to execute the order of my
spiritual master. That's all. That should be the business of
everyone. Try best. Try your best to execute the higher order.
That is the safest way of progressing. One may be in the lowest
stage, but if he tries to execute the duty entrusted upon him, he
is perfect. He may be in lowest stage, but because he is trying
to execute the duty entrusted to him, then he is perfect. That is
the consideration.

None of us in this world really feel fulfilled in our look out for
sense of completeness because we are trying to be and feel

391
complete on our own without God, our counter Whole. God
alone is complete on His own.

All of our material desires, at the soul level, are a constant

attempt to fill one’s existential incompleteness on our own
without God. We try to add so many things into our life for this
purpose.

Guru is to be treated as good as Krishna

It is the duty of the disciple to treat the spiritual master as

good as Krishna. This injunction is meant to teach the disciple
how one should practically respect Krishna. The guru is duty
bound to take such a role with respect to his disciple.

He is a servant in his consciousness but at the same time to

plays the role of guru on behalf of Krishna and therefore takes
worship from his disciples and passes it on to Krishna. One
should know this principle of role play of the guru externally
while internally his attitude is that he is a truly humble servant
of the servant of Krishna including his disciple. If one does not
know this, a new spiritual aspirant is sure to become envious of
such a guru who is receives worship from another jiva.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

392
Module 37/1

What is Sat-cit-ānanda? Who are we ?

In the Introduction to Bhagavad Gīta, As It Is by Śrīla

Prabhupāda, he write:

The Supreme Being is sac-cit-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1]— that

is, His form is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. Our present
body is not sac-cit-ānanda. It is asat, not sat. It is not eternal; it
is perishable. It is not çit, full of knowledge, but it is full of
ignorance. We have no knowledge of the spiritual kingdom,
nor do we even have perfect knowledge of this material world,
where there are so many things unknown to us. The body is
also nirānanda; instead of being full of bliss it is full of misery.
All of the miseries we experience in the material world arise
from the body, but one who leaves this body thinking of Lord
Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, at once attains a
sac-cid-ānanda body.

Krishna is satcitananda and also a reservoir of

satcitananda.

Visualize the sun. There is the personality of sun. His internal

energy is concentrated light and heat, and his outgoing energy,
sunshine is also light and heat. Sun is a good example of what
is meant by 'satcitananda’ vigraha of Krishna. Krishna, the
Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person who is the source of all
of existence is a surya of satcitananda. He is satcitananda and

393
what emanates from His is also satcitananda. Satcitananda can
be split into sat, cit and ananda. God means a person with
eternal energies serving Him.

What is 'sat'? 'Sat' means eternal person or brahman or spirit.

Krishna's sat is eternally existing self-conscious Supreme
Person with unlimited personhood faculties. Personhood
faculties are knowing, being, desiring, seeing, thinking, feeling,
willing , gross doing and rasa-ing. (enjoying rasas). From Him
emanates His unlimited satcitananda personal & impersonal
energies that are serving Him. Our souls are His personal
energy and material nature and kala are examples of His
impersonal energy. These truths are declared by Him in
Bhagavad gita.

The two qualities of 'sat' substance are cit (knowledge) and

ananda (blissful experience). Just like two qualities of the
substance called sun personality is light and heat. Hence 'sat'
or 'I' in its full expression means satcitananda meaning
existence with experience of knowledge & bliss. ‘Sat-cit’ means
pure knowledge energy. ‘Sat-cit-Ananda’ means experience of
pure freedom, knowledge and bliss.

Absolute truth is easily understood if we consider ourselves as

samples of Absolute Person like a rays of that sun and the sun.
Just as a ray of sun has all the same qualities of sun but the
quantity is tiny. God is the Supreme Person with limitless 1.
egotism and limitless 2. personhood faculties and 3. ownership
of energies that serve His desires. We also are persons with
limited egotism and tiny personhood faculties and possess

394
different kinds of limited energies that serve our different
desire for different rasas. For instance this material body is an
energy that we own temporarily. Supreme Person owns all of
existence eternally. Krishna can never be fully conceived
because He is limitless person yet appears with unlimited finite
looking concrete forms for the sake of enjoying different rasas
with His personal energies.

As souls in this body, each of us are originally pure eternal ego

with a sense of a unique 'I' different from every other 'I's in
existence. Ego expresses itself as 'egotism' of 'me, my (my soul
faculties) and mine'. In terms of experience egotism is ego-
feeling of 'myself'. The soul belong to the spiritual world. My
pure ego in the spiritual world expresses itself in the form of 'I
have a satcitananda body and am an eternal loving servitor of
Krishna'.

My personhood faculties like free will, desiring, thinking,

feeling, willing, doing etc serve the Supreme Person with
whom I have relationship of being His eternal loving servant
by engaging my soul and everything under my temporary
possession for his loving service. Possessions create in me the
experience of 'Mine'. This sense of experiencing by our soul as
'me', 'my faculties' and 'mine' is called egotism or ahanta &
mamata. If we can protect our constitutional egotism by
keeping it linked only to Krishna and act as being servant of
Krishna , liberation will wait at our door steps. Try to

395
understand this term 'egotism' accurately as explained above.
And then self control at the highest soul plane becomes easy by
not giving away our original constitutional 'me, my faculties
and mine'.

Currently in this material world, when my egotism is stolen by

maya then my precious 'me, my faculties and mine' is
misidentified with the phenomenally fabricated ever changing
bio-physical material body, actions and possessions of the
material body in a totally disconnected manner from any
relationship with Krishna. This results in my material
consciousness of false ego and covering of my Krishna
consciousness as real ego of being His eternal servant.

Right placement of egotism through detaching and attaching

with my self-identification potency of the soul is so important.
We have to detach that misplaced feeling of egotism or 'myself'
from this material body, its abilities and its possessions and
reapply my egotism feelings as 'myself, at the lotus feet of
Krishna. That is called self-surrender. We have to be
determined not to give our 'myself' ego feelings to serve false
ego concepts or false ahanta and mamata that I am this
material body etc. Without that I am not living my real life. I
am living nobody's real life. Just like a sleeping and dreaming
man is not working for himself but only rasa-ing in the dream
instead of rasa-in the real world.

Krishna is immeasurable or apremaya

Thus Krishna's satcitananda vigraha means

396
1. Unlimited 'sat' or limitless existential potency called
'Sandhini' shakti through which exhibits limitless power &
freedom over entire existence by unlimited forms of personal
expansions.

2. Unlimited ‘cit’ energy or limitless cognitive potency called

'Samvit' shakti by which He knows everything in existence and
exhibit limitless intelligence

3. Unlimited ‘ananda’ energy or limitless pleasure potency

called 'Hladini' shakti through which He eternally enjoys love,
intimacy, play & pleasure with HIs part and parcels.

Thus the unlimitedness of His power, knowledge and love and

enjoyment is inconceivable. The purpose of His existence along
with all His limitless expansions and energies is to eternally go
on expanding satcitananda or loving pleasure.
Anandamayo'bhyasat of entire existence of Krishna with His
part and parcels as an organism is the ultimate purpose of
existence. We, as His part and parcels, are eternally
characterised by limitedness of everything though in quality we
are satcitananda persons like Him who can also enjoy limited
pure power, knowledge and love etc in His association by
lovingly serving His pleasure. This is the vedic concept of
existence, Exactly like how, when the different parts of my
body are cooperating with the whole body keeps the whole
organism healthy.

Krishna is the limitless sun of sat-cit-ananda radiating

limitless satcitananda energy which is this limitlelss existence.

397
Krishna's energies, His power over those energies, knowledge,
love and pleasure cannot be measured by even His immediate
expansion Anantadev with His limitless mouths. Therefore
even though He appears before our limited senses He is never
to be perceived as measurable or knowable in full. We
normally see persons and measure and assess the limits of
finite beings. This kind of seeing should not be applied to
Krishna. He is called Aprameya or immeasurable. Though He
is before His devotees in a concrete form, these concrete forms
have no limiting boundaries like finite forms.

To clarify again, the 'sat' of any person not only means his
'existence' but existence, power & freedom. freedom & power
over his own self and rest of existence. Power and freedom
over one's own self is called self-control. My sat, cit and
ananda is little speck of the infinite satcitananda of Krishna.

Nama Prabhu is the sun or surya of satcitananda

The Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu is a spiritual sound who is

also a sun of sat cit ananda. There is no difference between
Krishna and His Name. His Name is His eternal beautiful,
sweet, merciful ego of the Supreme Person Krishna. Why don’t
we experience this when His Names are uttered by us? It is
because our attention is stuck in the material atmosphere
designed to be asat, acit which is opposite of sat and cit.

In such a spiritually diseased state we are unable to perceive

pure sat, cit and ananda Nama Prabhu who incarnates as
sound-incarnation into the external Śaktyāvēşa Nāma that we

398
utter. We know we are trapped in this body which is not us and
yet we cannot see our own spirit soul.

We, the soul, and the Supreme soul are of same cinmaya
substance. So how can we experience Him with our spiritually
dead material senses when we can even see our own
satcitananda soul. We can only feel our ego being present in
this body in the form of experience of 'myself' or ahanta and
mamata. Symptom of soul is his energy of 'myself' ego feelings.
So also in the present state we can feel the presence of the
transcendental Name of Krishna only with strong faith by
feeling Krishna's Ego which is His ahanta and mamata.

Aham sarvasya prabhavah, mattah sarvam pravartate. I am

the source of everything and everything is serving me.

In brahma samhita it is said

isvarah paramah krrisnah

sac-cid-änanda-vigrahah
anädir ädir govindah
sarva-kärana-käranam

“ ‘Krsna’, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller.

He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of
all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all
causes.”

399
You cannot see the electricity in a wire. You have to see by its
effect. By the effect you will develop faith that there is current
in the wire. In the same way don’t try for direct perception of
the ocean of sat cit ananda that surrounds the sun of Hare
Krishna Nāma with material senses. By hearing about His
glories from authoritative sources of guru, sadhu and sastra,
we develop faith that the surya of satcitananda before us by
feeling His Supreme Ego and relating with that Ego.

Any direct perception of Krishna or His Name can happen only

when He decides to give such direct experience provided our
spiritual senses are purified or opened up. Till then feel His
loving and compassionate Ego before you with knowledge &
faith that He is before you and serve Him through serving His
tangible manifestation as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma.

We can begin to experience the warmth of satcitananda by

hearing, with faith, His incarnation as Śaktyāvēşa Nāma (like
touching the electrified copper wire). From such continuous
association, the chanter can develop experiences of flow of sat-
cit enlightening pure transcendental knowledge energy that
reinforce his faith in the fact that Hare Krishna Nāma is indeed
a sun of sat cit ananda who has mercifully come before me to
save me by His association.

How not to perceive Nama Prabhu ?

When you look at the sun, it looks like a light disk to the
senses. But you do not see in your mind as a light disk in the
sky. You see with shraddha or faith in science through which

400
you learnt in school that it is a huge ball of light and fire. In
fact our your tiny eyes cannot withstand even to stare at the
sun directly in the noon. So also Krishna can be perceived only
to the extent Krishna allows us to have Him perceived by us
even in the spiritual world. In reality He is immeasurable.

After being educated about the sun you experience the sun as
seen with eyes of knowledge & faith and not with our limited
senses. Even for a moment, you never think in your mind
anymore that it is a small disk in the sky as seen to your naked
eyes. This is because of faith in science.

Why do we do this kind of seeing beyond what our

senses tell it is?

This is due to ‘sat-cit’ energy pasted on the perception of sun in

our mind through education (reading of reality in our mind) in
our school days. Though we know that it is a huge ball of light
& fire, our eyes still see only a disk. Our subtle body or cittam
creates the perception of the sun in background mind and the
corresponding thinking, feeling and willing and does not see
anymore what the naked eyes sees. Our mind automatically
processes the vision of a disc into a knowledge & faith based
perception of the sun as it is by virtue of knowledge rather than
what my senses tell me what it is.

Our scriptures are perfect revelations of Absolute Truth and

this knowledge about true identity of Krishna and jiva is
revealed in these scriptures confirmed by those who have
realized these Absolute truths. Because of their experience they

401
show us the way to realize the truth about our eternal self and
our eternal relationship with Krishna.

Krishna's name-sound appears to be regular sound just as sun

appears as disk to our eyes. Extending the above analogy, the
sound of Hare Krishna Mahāmantra is for the gross ears like
any other ordinary sound (like sun appearing like disk of light).
But the fact is that He is an oceanic personality shining an
ocean of sat-çit-ānanda (real sun), manifest before me due to
His infinite mercy.

Krishna Nāma is the sun of infinite sat-cit-ānanda. Sastras

reveal that His Name is non-different from Him and hence His
Name is the sun of sat-cit-ānanda. Practice applying the
template of sun analogy and paste it on to the Hare Krishna
Nāma who is before you as the reservoir of sat-cit-ānanda.

By attentive chanting to invoke these sounds and then hearing

those sounds , we are touching oceanic sat cit ananda
personalities of Sri Krishna and his internal energy Srimati
Rādhārāni which can wake me to my true 'cit' that I am servant
of Krishna and true 'ananda' of devotional service to Him.

Who are we?

That the jivas are minute 'sat' particles of the Supreme Spirit,
Krishna like the sun's rays are revealed by Lord Chaitanya . We

402
are eternal persons, 'sat' emanating from Krishna. Like a tiny
particle of sunshine which also has the quality of radiating
light and heat, we are tiny ‘sat’ or ego capable of expressing
feelings of egotism of me, my faculties & mine. Soul's nature is
sat-seeking (freedom & power over existence) , cit-seeking
(knowledge & intelligence) and ananda- seeking (bliss of love &
pleasure) rays or potencies in loving relationship with Krishna.

Cc Adi . Introduction

All living entities have this pleasure-seeking potency, for all

beings are trying to experience pleasure. This is the very nature
of the living entity.

Therefore my constitution is also satcitananda like Krishna. So

when we say soul is satcitananda, we mean that he is 'sat' or
eternal ego with constitutional 'cit' that I am eternal loving
servant of Krishna and the bliss from that eternal loving
relationship. This constitutional cit and ananda can only get
covered but never lost. All other different situational 'cit' or
knowledge and 'ananda' bliss can come and go like
possessions. But self-knowledge is internal 'cit' energy of the
each soul. My constitutional hunger for sat, cit and ananda is
eternally dependent on my relationship with the Krishna for its
spiritual satiation who is the limitless reservoir of sat,cit, &
ananda.

Soul's position in this body

403
Let us study our position in this body. My soul or the 'sat' is the
living person in the body. Every person is a unique self or
individual and irreducible eternal truth like Krishna is. He is a
real ego and his expression called true egotism consisting of ' I,
me, my personhood faculties and mine' in relationship to
serving Krishna.'I' am eternal servant of Krishna, 'me' means
my sacitananda body and 'my' means my personhood faculties
and 'mine' means my possessions.

This is the world of our eternal existence. However in this

world we forget our true I, me, my and mine and artificially
identify I, me, my and mine on finite temporary material body,
name. forms etc and weave an illusory world using my mind
and our cittam. My pure egotism of 'myself' feeling is stolen
away by a false concept in the mind ' I am this body' and
everything connected to this body is mine and all my
personhood faculties should serve its own pleasure. This is
called false ego experience or 'ahankara' consciousness.

This is exactly like a driver who is driving his own vehicle gets
out and starts driving another vehicle as per the desire of
owner of that vehicle. I have lost 'myself' in this world to
different kinds of dreamlike fake egotism in this vehicle of
material body-mind system. Getting hold of one's absolute
egotism as servant of Krishna and offering it in service of His
lotus feet is self realisation. Krishna wants our feelings of
egotism to be retrieved from false ego concepts and directed
towards Him. That is self-surrender.

Our false social self-concept is slowly built into my 'cittam'

after I take birth. And this social ego too changes as body
changes. Young boy, young man, old man ego.

404
The pure soul's nature is to want Krishna conscious sat, cit &
ananda experience. Just as fire means always it will emit light
and heat. Maya consciousness is not constitutional nature of
soul. Hence that is an identified experience of something
strange to the soul happening outside the soul in the material
mind made to believe it is natural. In such a haunted state it is
my real ego alone who is chasing sat, cit and ananda with all
my soul energies but in my spiritual imagination through false
egos concepts as independent doer-enjoyer false egos.

By association with brilliant sun of satcitananda Nama Prabhu,

the 'sat-cit' energy acts on my 'cittam' and cleanses the
attachment of I, me, my & mine' from all false ego concepts
which are in the form of experiential memories of the haunted
soul when acting in ignorance in the past. One realises that
that ego was not me, I was not desiring, I was not acting nor I
was enjoying. It was all a spiritual imagination of the soul
haunted by misidentification of 'myself' with the material body,
its abilities and possessions. Once false ego concepts are
dissolved by sat-cit energies mercifully flowing from Nama
Prabhu , the real ego & identity as servant of Krishna begins to
awaken. After that the pure 'sat-cit' begins to act for its real self
interest in devotional service.

The cleansing process

This cleansing process is called ceto darpanam. It is delivered

by Nama Prabhu In form of flashes of powerful pure
knowledge or 'sat-cit' to the sadhaka that send cracks in our
false constructs in the mind about 'myself'. The ignorance

405
about self as this body is burnt to ashes in our cittam that
surrounds the soul. It is only then we become free from the
experiences of false egotism or false 'myself' in my cittam. To
intellectually or philosophically dis-identify that 'i am not this
body', is not so difficult but to dis-associate ego-feelings or
emotions from the false 'myself' experiences in the past is not
that easily done. This powerful self-knowledge energy, sat-cit
energy , which flows from the Nama Prabhu alone can give that
detachment from false egotism and awaken my real spiritual
egotism of real 'myself' as doer-enjoyer ego of as loving servitor
Krishna. Soul exists for seeking ever fresh satcitananda
experience in loving relationship with Krishna who is the
owner of all jivas.

Just like if have bottle cleaning brush, you put it inside the
bottle and move it up and down to repeatedly brush our the
dirt on the inner surface of the glass bottle. In the same way,
the repetition of hearing of Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu
respectfully will cleanse our cittam which a bottle full of false
feelings of 'myself' and fill it with clean 'myself' concepts which
eternal facts about the self.

What is false ego?

A question may be asked. What is active live principle in this

material body when we act in false ego. The active principle is
the soul energies though real ego is asleep. Egotism feeling
potency or ' myself' feeling belongs to the soul or real ego.
False ego is merely a lifeless concept or ghostly role play idea
energy that is settled in the heart and animated by the soul's
'myself' ego feelings with all soul energies. I , the soul looks at

406
this animated self in the screen of his material mind and
repeatedly identifies 'myself' ego feelings with it.

Just like if a torch light in intercepted by different color filters

placed before it, it will change the color of the light that comes
out through it. Light is still originally coming from the torch
and though it appears to come from the filter now if you see it
from the side the filter. In the same way false ego is ego filter
that colors the real egotism feelings into I am a man, I am a
woman, I am an enjoyer etc when seen through our material
senses. This world is full of real souls who are haunted by false
egos animated by the soul's 'myself' ego feelings. Preaching
means talking them out of this illusion.

Egotism which is a feeling of 'myself. False ego is a material

element and is not an ego at all. That is why it is not a real ego
but only a false self concept till it is animated by 'myself' ego
feelings from the soul. False ego is only an idea or memory of
that idea in the cittam. It is a memory stuff in our
consciousness. The soul alone can release the precious spiritual
egotism energy of generic 'myself' feleings.

Idea of a pen can exist without a real pen being before you.
Similarly false ego concept is perverted concept in the mind of
'myself' or feelings of ' I, me, my & mine'. Just like I may be a
beggar in reality, but I can create an imagined egotism
bhavana that I am a king in my mind by pasting the 'myself'
ego feeling on an imagined idea of that of a king. The soul's
egotism feelings gets haunted by its own self-animated false

407
ego concepts. The moment your give 'myself' ego feelings , it
gets animated into experience of duplicate self.

My tiny 'cit' potency, when it is influenced by 'maya' potency'

to 'be' the independent enjoyer (which it cannot be in reality),
my real egotism gets infected by false ego concept as an
independent enjoyer. Material bodily concept is a an
opportunity given by Krishna to us to try our enjoying
ourselves unconstitutionally without reference to Him. My
spiritual constitution does not allow a spiritual body to do this.
Therefore material bodies and material world and laws of
karma to facilitate this game of Krishna-independent rasas.

How cittam faculty makes this world real

My cittam is having a stock of different chunks of false ego-

false intelligence-false mind which we will call as cittam-slices.
Every cittam slice is a chunk of subtle body or experiential
memory that gets loaded from the subconscious mind to the
our background conscious mind to enable us to relate with
different situations in a conditioned or trained manner. Every
experience of me-in-action of the past along with intelligence
and emotions of 'me, my and mine' and 'he, him and his' or
'they, them and theirs' of that particular situation is captured
in our cittam which forms a cittam-slice.

Each cittam-slice is a tiny world of ' me, my and mine' like a

ready reckoner to relate with each situation taking advantage
of of our earlier familiarity with the same or similar situation.
For instance when you are before your father, you activate your
stored son-egotism and when you are before your son you

408
activate you father-egotism in your cittam. We can have false
egotism slices and also real egotism slices in our cittam. What
purpose does these cittam-slices serve?

If each time, I have to actively identify with the body afresh, I

cannot have a smooth role play experience as that false ego.
Just like if in drama I have to play a king's role, if I have to
identify myself consciously that I am king each time, then role
play won't be perfect. A good actor believes that he is a king
and then the role comes out as seamless experience of a king to
himself and the audience. So these memorised egotism slices
in the cittam are loaded on to my background mind whenever
we encounter the same situation . Situations like relating with
my friend, wife, father, mother, colleague at work place etc
have egotism-slices each in our subtle body or cittam. It is
these cittam-slice storing facility that makes life look normal in
the otherwise made up world from out of this matter in our
minds.

Egotism slices for different situations is like full personality of

'myself' ego feeling ready to respond to those situations. The
appropriate egotism slice gets automatically loaded into my
background conscious mind as soon as we encounter that
trigger like friend or wife etc.

Cittam slice and its application to japa

Now that the concept of an egotism slice is explained let us see

the usefulness of training a strong egotism-slice for japa
situation. it is a real egotism slice as it is a relationship of the
soul with the absolute personality, Nama Prabhu.

409
It is about 'me' becoming Nama Sevak of my Nama Prabhu
with all the 'my' japa knowledge, 'my' japa faith, 'my' japa
intelligence, 'my' japa skill, 'my' japa desire, 'my' japa
intentions, 'my' japa feelings as faculties and energies of that
Nama Sevak ego. Once that is trained, then other distracting
egotism slices can be pushed away by this japa egotism-slice as
soon as I take the japa mala in my hand.

This egotism-slice is called japa sevak-bhaavana. Developing

such a japa egotism-slice is key to soulful japa. Inattentiveness
during becomes a thing of the past. Just like if you are before a
real person with an intent and purpose and talking to him , you
never become inattentive.

'Sat' or Ego remains unaffected but my egotism

feeling is fallen.

My core ego whether in the spiritual world or material world,

does not change. Only the 'myself' ego feelings is misapplied. It
falls down means soul's pure 'myself' feeling falls down.
Utlimately it is a fall down of our absolute feeling of being a
servant of Krishna to a contaminated feeling a independent
'myself'.

Srila Prabhupada writes in SB Purport to 6.16.55

When the living entity becomes free from false ego, he

understands his superior position as a spirit soul, part and
parcel of the pleasure potency of the Lord.

410
So, in bhakti yoga one does not have to give up this body to be
self realized. If 'myself' ego feeling is that of the desirer-doer-
enjoyer ego as a pure servitor of Krishna to please Him with
devotional servic in this world then there is no false ego or
false egotism in the scene and the bodily-ego and social ego of
this world becomes an expansion of my constitutional-ego as
servant of Krishna for social intercourse in this world. Body is
not me but is only soul's role play.

The japa egotism-slice is a cultured egotism in the cittam to

serve Nama Prabu in a Nama sevak bhaavana. After all, a
sadhaka is not liberated from bodlly concept annd as a
beginner he is not free from identification with the body as the
self. He simply has to think he is servant of Nama Prabhu and
please Him even if his egotism is stuck up thinking he is the
body. Soon his ignorance will vanish and chanting will be done
from a liberated plane by the soul through this body free from
false ego and its desires and interests.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

411
Module 37/2

Knowing more about kshetra-jna and kshetra

Let us know more about ourselves beyond our bodies as

revealed in different scriptures. Soul is described as kshetrjna
or knower of this body. Such satcitananda soul, kshetra-jna or
the knower in this body, being a person desires to enjoy sat,cit
and ananda rasa. For the soul to enjoy, it is equipped with his
own intrinsic personhood faculties of knowing creating
experience of knowledge, identifying creating experience of
identity, ego-ing creating experience of egotism, seeing
creating experience of seen, desiring creating experience of
desire, thinking creating experience of thoughts, feeling
creating experience of specific feelings, willing creating
experience of decisions, doing creating experience of actions.

I, ksetra-jna, who is the 'sat' radiate perpetually consciousness

ot attention energy seeking 'cit' or knowledge content and
'ananda' or bliss energy . 'Cit' is called knowledge potency
which when applied, by using our free will, in any domain
(kshetra) in the form of attention, we become aware of the
knowledge content of the domain. 'Ananda' is called pleasure
potency by means of which we desire to experience joy in
relationship with myself as well as everything else in existence.
Being eternal person, the soul has all the characteristics of
personhood and egotism as described above to fulfil his
intrinsic search for sat, cit, and ananda.

412
Karmaindriyas and jnanaindriyas

Soul has intrinsic spiritual functions of five kinds of

knowledge-acquiring senses and five kinds of working senses
which attracts a subtle body with subtle jnana indriyas and
karma indriyas and a gross body with gross jnana-indriyas and
karma-indriyas from material nature. Natures design of gross
body and subtle body is to suit the soul's functional nature.
Just like a tailor stitches a shirt and coat then both of them will
have hands, neck, chest etc since the person within that dress
has functional need of hands, neck, chest etc.

Sat-cit-ananda soul in this body has the ability to enjoy

knowledge about himself as well as everything around himself
starting from his own body through his five jnana indriyas or
knowledge acquiring senses and intelligence. Similarly the sat-
cit-ananda soul in this body has the ability to enjoy 'work'
through his five subtle and gross karma indriyas and mind to
fulfil his desires.

So when we say sat cit ananda soul, it means all these basics of
self or ksehtra-jna. All these are not philosophy but actual facts
about our own self which we can observe directly. And
understand who we are in a truly as 'persons' than just think
we are this gross or subtle body.

Now my experience of this body is falsely believed to be my

'sat' or soul. The body is false or 'asat' since it is only an effect
and not a thing that lasts. The soul is the 'sat' surrounded by
the ever changing body. In the analyses of an 'instant' of
existence, it appears convincing that we are this body only
because the change is not noticeable easily. But if you take a

413
snap shot from birth the death, we will realize the 'asat' or false
nature of that conviction. Birth, death, old age are clearly
observed realities of this body. Thus living momentarily we
manage to maintain this ignorance that I am this body. This is
my false existence lived by brushing aside the stark reality of
birth, death, old age and disease. Material happiness and
pleasures can never satisfies us. Even if there is momentary
'ananda' in this world that is also fake ananda.

Thus it is an experienced fact that the soul seeks eternity,

knowledge and bliss and it is also an experienced fact that we
do not get fulfilment of that expected experience in this body
except for isolated moments in ignorance as 'asat' an
experience like that of experience of movie.

Soul can experience reality as it is or illusion by reading the

reality whichever way I want in my minds. Our 'sat' instinct is
to want everything of eternal nature or 'sat'. Basically in the
above analysis we are separating the body whose qualities are
asat, acit and nirananda from the spirit person which is sat-cit-
ananda and residing in the body. You know the body but the
body does not know you. You are 'knower' or 'consciousness'
stuff but gross and subtle body of dead matter is only your
instrument or yantra. Only through Hare Krishna Nama
Prabhu's mercy of pure 'sat-cit' energy flow is it possible for
one's self to disassociate one's sat from the feelings of false
egotism of false 'myself' and awaken original feelings of myself
as I am sactiananda vigraha and a servitor of Krishna.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu Ki Jai !!!

END

414
Module 37/3

Our spiritual cittam

We have already discussed the our material subtle body or

'cittam' . The words 'cit' plus 'maya' becomes 'cinmaya' when it
becomes one word.The present contaminated 'cittam' is a
covering over our original pure spiritual cittam which is our
cinmaya cittam consisting of pure servant ego, spiritual
intelligence, mind, with faculties of knowing and doing
through spiritual jnana and spiritual karma indriyas. When
such original consciousness or svarupa is awakened by the
mercy of Nama Prabhu, the internal spiritual energy of the
Lord called sandhini potency awards us a gross spiritual body
with gross working senses and knowledge acquiring senses to
serve Krishna's pleasure in the gross spiritual world.

The spiritual gross body with spiritual gross sense are made of
spiritual elements of spiritual earth, water, fire, air and ether.
Such spiritual earth, water, fire, air & ether are manifestations
of His sandhini potency.

CC Adi 5.53

vaikunthera prthivy-ādi sakala cinmaya

māyika bhutera tathi janma nāhi haya

The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuntha are all
spiritual. Material elements are not found there.

415
The soul or 'sat' belongs to the spiritual world and all souls
have satcitananda spiritual bodies which are free from the
experience of birth, death, old age and disease.

Actually our present cittam gets energised and purified in

association of Nama Prabhu and it awakens our cinmaya
citta swarupa consisting of my spiritual intelligence, mind
and body.

SB 10.3.37 Purport

By chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, we gradually develop

our eternal relationship with the Supreme Person and thus
attain the perfection called svarüpa-siddhi.

On self-realization, I give up identification with the material

gross body and subtle body and awaken my pure cinmaya citta
under the guidance of my spiritual master and attract a
suitable spiritualized gross body of this world or a spiritual
gross body to serve the Lord in the spiritual world. Srila
Prabhupada in a conversation says that at the right advanced
stage of our Krishna consciousness, the spiritual master
reveals all these details in a mystical way even though he is no
longer physically with us.

Our present cittam is also a contaminated consciousness body

influenced by three modes. In the material world the gross
body is only semblance of a spiritual cinmaya body.
Momentary pleasure experiences of material body gives

416
spiritual body-like experience for a moment through chemicals
in the brain but the illusion is busted when you see the body in
a single snap shot from birth to death and before and after by
including the kala as an objective reality.

Sri Baladev Vidyabhuashan in his commentary on Brahma

sutras famously known as Govinda Bhashya gives a simple and
beautiful example of cinmaya bodies made of consciousness. It
is like how concentrated sugarcane juice can mould itself in
sugar candies of different shapes.

The soul's own spiritual cittam body generated by it and the

corresponding spiritual gross body of the soul that is supplied
by the internal energy are both spiritual energy of same quality
of satcitananda and are governed by the dynamics of internal
energy of the Lord just like the gross material bodies are
governed by the dynamics of external energy of the Lord.

The design of the material bodies made by material nature are

imitation designs of the real spiritual bodies of the spiritual
world. We, with our spiritual bodies, originally enjoy
constitutional bliss through primary loving relationship with
the infinite Supreme Being. We also enjoy secondary loving
relationship with other beings in the spiritual world. All in our
cinmaya bodies. All of us have our individual primary loving
relationship with the infinite Supreme Being. Everything there
is a conscious ‘being’ from the dust to water as they are shaped
out of their own self-like substance or consciousness. All
'things' are ‘persons’ there.

417
The limitless spiritual person, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead Krishna has unlimited spiritual forms of His own and
each of them are residing in their respective planets where He
is the presiding Supreme Being. His limitless spiritual bodily
forms are called sac cit ananda vigraha indicating the quality of
the body as eternity-sat, knowledge-cit, ananda-bliss.

Limitless forms originate from the Adi-purusha Krishna in the

top most planet Goloka Vrindavan and expand to Narayanas in
Vaikuntas planets and to Vishnu incarnations of this material
world and to the form of Kshirodhakāśāyi Vishnu in our hearts
and in every atom. God or Hari and His activities are limitless.
One can read more of these transcendental truths in Srimad
Srimad Bhagavatam and Srimad Chaitanya Charitamrta.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

418
Module 38

Satcitananda Krpa apeksha or begging for rasa

Krishna Nama is satcitananda sound vigraha. He is the

unlimited surya of sat cit ananda shining the sat-cit-ananda
energy. Sat rasa means freedom rasa & power rasa. Cit rasa
means knowledge & intelligence rasa. And ananda rasa means
love, intimacy & pleasure rasa. All kinds of happiness and
pleasure comes under these three umbrella rasa whether in
real rasas of spiritual world or fake rasas of material world.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Śrīla Prabhupāda are

distributing the Holy name, the sound or name incarnation of
Krishna as the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu freely to one and
all. The Absolute Name of the Absolute Lord is non different
from Him and is an expansion from Him into this world in the
form the transcendental Name or Aprakrta Nama Prabhu.
Aprakrta Nama Prabhu who incarnates into this world is also a
surya of sat cit ananda surrounded by sat cit ananda energies.
They are inundating the world with the opportunity to all souls
to directly touch the spiritual sat-cit-ānanda energies of the
Supreme Being through their attention to get purified and
awaken their love for Krishna. .

Where does he descend or into what does he descend? He

descends into the Nama that we utter with our tongues. And
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu reveals that when he descends, the

419
Aprakrta Nama Prabhu invests all His satcitananda energies
into that sound. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija sarva śakti.

And Srila Prabhupada's says that when Nama Prabhu descends

into the sound on our tongue, that sound becomes
Shaktyaavesha Nāma. Shaktyaavesha Nāma is potentially
omnipotent Nāma. Thus Shaktyaavesha Nāma is unbelievable
downpour of mercy from the Name Prabhu.

We, within this body is also sat-cit-ananda in nature and

therefore all jivas seek sat cit ananda rasa through application
of our free will on this body and world around us. We are of the
same nature as that of the Lord, just as drop of sea water is
salty like the sea. We are part and parcel of satcitananda
Krishna therefore we are also satcitananda.

But in this material world, because of wrong application of our

free will to enjoy sat rasa, cit rasa and ananda rasa
independent of the Complete sat cit ananda Krishna, material
energy of the Lord puts us in illusion that 'I am this material
body'. And makes us work to extract rasa that looks like sat
rasa but it is asat , rasa that looks like cit rasa but acit and rasa
that looks like ananda rasa but it is nirananda.

Hence the souls in this asat and acit world can never satisfy
their deepest instinct for satcitananda rasa. But we still keep
chasing fake sat rasa of freedom & power rasa, fake cit rasa of
knowledge & intelligence rasa and fake ananda rasa of love &
pleasure believing that they are real sat cit ananda rasas.Thus

420
all the souls in the material world are starved of its real
spiritual food which is satcitananda rasa. They has mistaken
their divine sat or eternal existence to be this asat body that
lasts from birth to death. Soul's misidentification with the body
and bodily interests is at the root of an ignorant material life. I
have sold my pure 'I & 'mine' to maya who pastes the soul's
feelings of egotism of 'I' and 'mine' on something fake which is
this material body and material world.

Flow of sat-cit energy

When the conditioned soul associates with the Shaktyaavesha

Nāma through our attentive concurrent chanting-cum-hearing,
our soul gets a chance to touch and receive the powerful pure
sat-cit-ananda energies of the Lord through his attention
energy acting as a conduit for the flow of such energies from
the Shaktyaavesha Nama. The cit energy from the Lord
dissolves all ignorance or 'acit' energies about the self that 'I
am this body'. This is the first mercy from Nāma Prabhu.
Gradual awakening of self-knowledge.

This flow of mercy in the form of sat cit ānanda energies from
the Nāma Prabhu to our soul is just like how heat flows into a
piece of iron put in fire becomes like fire, when in a long
association with fire. Gaining sat cit ānanda mercy from the
spiritual association with the Lord is the eternal benefit of Japa
for the soul.

421
Thus soulful japa turns into a dynamic relationship of
exchange of sat cit ananda rasa between the chanter and the
Nāma Prabhu. We are capable of offering sat cit ananda rasa
for Him. Our offering of surrender is sat-rasa for Him from us.
Our offering of humility is sat-cit-rasa for Him from us. Our
offering of gratitude is also ananda rasa for him from us. Our
offering of priti is also ananda rasa for Him from us. Different
kinds of feeling of bhakti towards Him is ananda rasa for Him.

Role of Kripa apeksha rasa or hope rasa in mindful,

spiritful and soulful japa.

The question may be asked how can hope be a rasa. Hope is

only anticipation for rasa but not fulfillment of the rasa itself.
There are two stages of pleasure ananda from any situation.
One is happiness of hoping to get the pleasure. This is called
hope happiness and the other is fulfilment pleasure. Hope
happiness or antah sukhah (happiness within) is different from
pleasure of fulfilment (ananda). However happiness and
pleasure are both are bliss.

Suppose I surprise you by saying that there is going to be a

grand prasādam feast today, your happiness of having the feast
starts immediately. That is called hope pleasure within. Note
hope pleasure is also a pleasurable experience in the mind. It is
a kind of advance pleasure experience. It is different from the
fulfilment pleasure (ananda) which you experience when you
enjoy the feast with your senses. Pleasure in the mind that
begins before the fulfilment or actual pleasure is called hope-

422
pleasure. Hope pleasure is fully in our hands to release in our
mind during japa.

Hope pleasure of satcitananda is in your hands

In japa it is the constant hope pleasure of potentially receiving

unspecified causeless mercy flow of sat cit ananda energies
from the Nama Prabhu. Hope pleasure is not only in receiving
mercy flow from the Lord but it is also from the thought that I
hope to give Srila Prabhupada and Nama Prabhu the pleasure
of 16 rounds of soulful japa bead after bead.

Thus as you task bead after bead you have the fulfilment
pleasure of having hoped what you wanted to offer. That is why
sadhya or the goal of how much you want to serve the Lord in
each sitting is important to generate this hope rasa followed by
fulfilment rasa of having accomplished it.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

423
Module 40

Srila Prabhupada's long letter to you on the purpose of soulful

Japa (This is what Srila Prabhupada is actually loudly speaking
throughout all his teachings)

“You are a satcitananda being”

You are eternal joyful sentient being or the soul who is a part
and parcel of Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. You
can potentially have sweet joyful loving relationship with Him.
For the time being, you are residing, in a temporary material
body being forgetful of this fact about your potential. You are
not this body in which you now reside. It is a leather bag of
flesh, blood and bones. You are entitled for life in a spiritual
body which is the quality of sat-çit-ānanda vigraha like
Krishna’s body.

Krishna is the sun of sac-çid-ānanda or the Absolute Whole

and source of all energies in existence. You are Absolute Part
who has emanated from that Absolute Whole in the form of
tiny sparks of sac-çid-ānanda. Being Absolute Part of that
Absolute Whole, your true nature is eternal existence (sat) ,
knowledge (cit) and bliss (ananda) even at this very moment.
Self realization is not about becoming something new. It is
about unbecoming what you really are not and discovering
what you really are

424
Free will & experience of freedom are the two most unique
feature of the soul. Your free will can create your positive
liberating life experiences of happiness and pleasure or
negative binding life experiences of suffering and pain. Your
nature is to be joyfully enjoyed by Krishna who is the Supreme
enjoyer. When you misuse your free will to independently
enjoy outside Krishna's plan for you, you can lose your natural
life of joyful satcitananda consciousness and get covered by the
life in this material body to enjoy on your own. If you use your
free will properly in this body to associate with Krishna and
His devotees then you can regain your eternal life of joyful
Krishna consciousness not only in life after death but even in
this life in this body.

How did you lose your satcitananda status?

That is the cause, kāranam guna-sanga [Bg. 13.22]. Guna-

sanga. Means associating with different quality. Guna-sanga
asya jivasya, of the living entity. That is the cause. One can ask:
"If the living entity is as good as God, why one living entity has
become dog, and one living entity has become god, demigod,
Brahmā?" Now the answer is kāranam. The reason is guna-
sanga asya. Asya jivasya guna-sanga. Because he's associating
with a particular guna. Sattva-guna, rajo-guna, tamo-guna.

Lecture London August 7, 1973

When you, the satcitananda person, choose with your free will
to associate with material energy in a mood of independent
enjoyment as against partaking of enjoyment of Absolute

425
Whole, Krishna by serving His larger enjoyment, the material
energy covered you, the soul, with a 'asat' or temporary body-
mind system like a shirt and coat over the body. This material
body-mind system has three characteristic ways called three
gunas of influencing the life experiences of an independent-
minded soul inn the material body.

The three gunas convert our pure satcitananda consciousness

into material consciousness of independent enjoyment through
attempts to gain independent knowledge (cit rasa) , gain power
(sat rasa) , love & pleasure (ananda rasa) . The material
consciousness is that of futilely seeking for oneself rasa of
security, power, social position, knowledge, love and pleasure
independent of Lord in your heart. Through that
misidentification with the body, your pure joyful consciousness
has turned into the experience of material consciousness of
combination of three gunas.

Material consciousness means complete forgetfulness that you

belong to Krishna and that He is your eternal shelter and
ananda-partner, soul's eternal father, who is an infinite sun of
satcitananda. This insentient or asat and acit material body is
an embarrassment for the satcitananda soul.

It is explained from Préma-vivarta

So this material world means the living entities are given
chance. They have come here to enjoy.

426
Krishna-buliya-jīva bhoga vānchā kare pāsate māyā tāre
jāpatiyā dhare

You, being eternal joyful sat-çit-ānanda tiny personality ,

intrinsically possess an eternal loving Krishna consciousness
(ananda). The quality of your substance (sat) is as same as that
of Krishna who is the Supreme satcitananda Person.

Covered by the experiences of three modes of material nature,

you, the joyful satcitananda self has become morose in this
world by being forgetful of your divine eternal loving shelter of
Krishna of pure eternal ananda. To enjoy bliss of Krishna
consciousness is your existential right.

But being forgetful of your true self as servant of Krishna, your

mind falsely feels that you are this dead material body and
belong to the material world and that Krishna is a stranger to
you as if you are coming to know of Him for the first time in
our life, though you are related to Him even in this world with
Narayana-Krishna as your the eternal Absolute Whole Father
Personality who is maintaining this material world and
material lives of limitless jivas being seated in your heart.

You are like fish out of the water in this material world. Your
joyful spirit is entitled to be in the satcitananda world with
satcitananda self-conscious body and self-conscious senses
engaged in loving service of Krishna, the perfect lovable
Supreme Person in different rasas beginning in this world with
the rasa of Him being the merciful father of all jivas. There

427
exists only Krishna and His energies and His enjoyment on His
terms everywhere. You are also a bit of that spiritual energy of
Krishna to be enjoyed by Him. Real free will is wanting to be
enjoyed by Him.

Your lording attitude is the cause of loss of

satcitananda consciousness

The original spirit of jiva is the joyful Krishna conscious

attitude of loving service to Krishna. But material
consciousness which is outside of the soul is attitude of
Lording or controlling. When, you identify with the lording or
controlling attitude and do not not surrender to Krishna who is
your eternal shelter, you cannot recover your joyful Krishna
consciousness and have to continue to serve illusion or Maya.

You have been identifying with experiences of lording rasas by

identifying yourself in your mind as the material body, some
life as toy male and some life as toy female of different species
made of material flesh. Only after being trapped in these
artificial bodies, you have been made to play the perverted
lording Karma-Game by Maya as if you are your material body,
the very body in which you are trapped. As long as you
continue to live this big lie of life of forgetting that you are
Krishna's servant, you will be deprived of experiencing, the
real satcitananda nature of your soul. Living in the material
body with joyful Krishna consciousness is life defeating maya
by her own device.

428
You have come into the material world to play the
game of fake satcitananda rasas

The material creation is His set up for those jivas to imagine to

freely do what they cannot do in the spiritual world of pure
love of Krishna. If you have to go to the moon you cannot go
there with this earthly body alone. You need a special suit
designed to be worn over your earthly body. Having forgetting
Krishna we become susceptible to be misled to adopt an
illusory attitude of independent enjoyment presented by
mental concoction. To fulfil an illusory desire, you need to have
an suit appropriate for it. That is the material body-mind
system which is over your satcitananda spirit. That is how and
why you are in the material body in this world. While you
imagine tasting but not really tasting as that is not your soul's
nature, the maya rasa of lording or controlling in this world
through identification with material body, the deeper truth of
your situation is that you are yourself are serving Maya’s or
illusion's dictates through the material mind as your soul's
desire is always to serve Krishna and soul's ego is that it is
eternal loving servant of Krishna.

You have become a servant of illusion or Maya and made to

live a life which is not your own but that of a mistaken
imaginary bodily identity. In the material world you have
surrendered the real powers of your soul like free will power,
self- identification power or being power, desiring power,
thinking power, feeling power, willing power, acting power, to
imagine enjoying illusory rasas, thinking that they are soul's
rasa. You spend real energies to experience fake sat rasa , fake
cit rasa, fake ananda. The jiva is trapped in the prison house of

429
one material body to another, life after life being fully deprived
of his true rasa of partaking in Krishna's eternal enjoyment.

This world is a factory of fake egos and fake sat, cit, ananda
rasas for jivas to identify with as his. All this is facilitated by
the Lord in the heart of all jivas as the Supersoul. Actually you
are not enjoying fake rasas but made to imagine that you are
enjoying it. Imagination need not have any connection to
reality.

Old age, bodily sickness and death hits at the soul's expectation
of 'sat' rasa as your deepest 'sat' instinct is to exist eternally
free from old age and sickness. Life as material body offers
only transient imaginary experience of momentary lording
pleasure of power, knowledge and love and sensual pleasures
for the soul. Thus you have been starving your real soul ego's
need for satcitananda existence by allowing the ghost-like
bodily independent ego to steal away all your soul powers for
body & bodily ego gratification. And you end up living a life of
bondage as a servant of the illusory body & its bodily ego.

Karma-Game is the name of the massive game of fake

satcitananda rasas

430
Krishna is the Supreme Father of all jivas. Srimati Radharani is
the Supreme mother. She is the internal energy of the Lord In
the spiritual world.. In the spiritual world there exists only
pure unalloyed love and service without a tinge of self-
centeredness and exploitation. She protects the spiritual
atmosphere of the spiritual world from the attitude of selfish
enjoyment of any jiva.

As long as the jivas maintain an attitude of Krishna-

uninvolved independent enjoyment, the external
material energy or Durga devi imprisons jivas with
material bodies.

By this arrangement Krishna respects yoour free will to an

absolute degree by creating this material world as a facility for
such jivas to enjoy self-centred Krishnaless so called imagined
happiness and pleasure. He permits you to feel in our
imagination that you freely act and enjoy or suffer as per the
laws of karma in this toy world trying to enjoy Lording rasa as
much as you desire provided you work for it by giving your
soul energies. Here any jiva can become very powerful like
Hiranyakashipu or Ravana by his tapasya as per laws of karma.
This is the Karma-Game of lording that all the jivas in the
material world are part of knowingly or unknowingly.

Each life, from birth to death, is one game of Karma-

Game of fake satcitananda rasas

These imitation rasas in the game called Karma-Game are so

perfectly orchestrated to feel like the spiritual rasas of the

431
spiritual world just for that moment. So much so that it is
difficult to say if it is illusion just by analysing the feeling. Only
when you gain objective knowledge of body that it is not your
eternal self that the illusion is disturbed. And bubble of illusion
for everyone breaks by old age, disease and inevitable death of
the body. Many many times you have experienced birth and
death of bodies along with the different enjoyer-personalities
who all vanishes into thin air, lock-stock-barrel at the point of
death.

Death, though happening at one point of time, it makes entire

life of material desires itself meaningless. What identity you
thought of as your own being and lived your whole life for that
being, along with everything relating to that body itself
vanishes from your consciousness at death. You are eternally
severed from all the life situations you were thinking as your
life.

Though the world we created in our heads vanishes from our

head like bursting of a soap bubble, the objective world
outside does not vanish. It is another energy of Krishna, the
external energy.

Each life just remains a temporary memory in some other

temporary minds and become temporary history to be soon
forgotten in few years or few generations which is irrelevant to
the new false 'you' of next life. Such a world of identities of
material bodies and its relationship to the world outside
consists only of mind's interpreted reality of people,
friendship, society and love.

432
Each of those material lives was a dream that you weaved out
of the mapping of the real material energy out there. Just like
you weave out a movie world by giving a meaning in our minds
to the reality of colourful light patches on the movie screen.
Everything really exists namely the movie director (Superosul)
, projector, screen, light patches and the you the movie watcher
(the soul) except the story.

The experience of the movie's story or meaning exist only in

your perception or cittam. Besides this, your movie story
experience is not fully under your control as the basic elements
of the movie are mappings from the objective world which has
its own laws of changing its configurations every moment
through the force of Kala. Everything is real except the
meaning content of the story weaved by your minds from out
of the ever changing outside objective world.

This is exactly your position in this material world. The stories

of your life based on the body as the soul is a big bubble that
can burst any moment as death. These are stark facts of
illusory life that nobody discusses because they believe that
there is no solution to this situation. But in Krishna
consciousness we have a solution.

Ultimately this material body is not eternal existence unlike

what the soul instinctly expect it to be. Life is real because you
the soul is real but the meaning content of life centered around

433
the body that is experienced is all illusion. The mechanism and
ingredients that creates the illusion and the experiencer of
illusion is always real. This world of matter is real. But you
read the world of matter centered around your body and other
bodies as self.

Though you experience happiness and distress, pain and

pleasures of the characters in the movies they are all merely
identified rasa or feelings of an identified toy-like material
body which is never a person. It is just like while watching a
movie, we identify with the hero along with all his pains and
pleasure. They are not really your own personal pain and
pleasure of your real spiritual body but only interpreted to be
so by your mind by key soul action of identifying the hero as
the your self.

You are living a life of mistaken identity, a fake life that lasts
till movie ends which is death based purely on self-
identification with that bodily life. An experience is said to be
fake only when the expectation of the experience remains only
an illusion which never was an objective reality when perceived
by including the factor of passing time. Material time is both
the causer of illusion and also breaker of illusion. Your
expectation is always sat cit ananda, eternity, knowledge and
bliss and we end up experiencing the opposite namely
temeporary, ignorance and unhappiness in this Karma-Game.
Karma-Game will never satisfy your core instincts for sat cit
ananda.

434
Laws of karma are the rules of Karma-Game for fake
satcitananda rasas

Kala is eternal time energy that continuously reconfigures the

material energy from the way it is at the present moment to the
way it becomes the next moment. Moment to moment the
configuration of matter of this world is changing. There is a
subtle law behind that is beyond natural laws of physics. Your
will is impacting on the material energy of this world creating a
reaction. The subtle rules of this Game-Mind Karma is called
laws of karma.

Kala or time is the dispenser,of different types of perverted

fake rasa in the form of momentary power rasa, knowledge
rasa, love rasa and sensual rasa both at the bodily plane and as
bubbles of social existence of this world in complete
forgetfulness of Krishna.

The entire thing is facilitated by the Lord’s all pervading

expansion in this material world as Paramatma-Krishna. He
remains Himself completely as a neutral person observing and
sanctioning the external results of the activities of every jiva.

The game of this false experience is purely run according to

those laws administered by His agent Kala through gunas as
per built-up karmas of each person. So everything experienced
in this world is a play of guna-kala-karma responding to our
independent actions and sense gratification arising from the
independent attitude. All under the supervision of all
pervading expansion of Paramatma-Krishna.

435
It is to be remembered that though it a life of fake rasas, the
experiencers of fake rasa are that of the real eternal beings. The
experience itself by the experiencer is not an illusion but
always real though the meaning content of experience is false.
Law of karma, which determine the nature of fake sat, cit and
ananda rasa experiences of the jiva, is a manifestation of
universal principle of equality and justice designed by God or
Paramatma-Krishna even in this illusory karma mind-game.

Law of karma is also an expression of non-interference or

impartiality by God in your illusory experiences.

Just as in dream laws of dream operate and you cannot dream

anything you want, in the same way material life experiences,
though illusory by virtue of it being centred around the ego
that I am this body, are governed by laws of karma though they
are fake rasas from an absolute point of view.

You want good dreams you have to sow good seeds in the form
of good deeds in the very same dream world of bodily concept
of life. That is called punya. It is never the choice of God to give
punishing rasas of pain for some bodies or rewarding rasas of
pleasure for certain other's bodies arbitrarily. Life is an
interactive movie being played in our consciousness screen
where each of us are responsible for our deeds earning a forced
experience of pain and pleasure.

436
But remember that you are not the body but the soul. You give
out free willed decisions to move gross and subtle matter and
there is a reaction to each of your actions in the same material
domain. Kala takes into account these things in reconfiguring
matter moment to moment around you.

Krishna’s creation of illusion is so perfect that the jiva cannot

break out of this this Karma Mind-Game of fake experiences
on his consciousness screen. Only by the grace of the Lord in
your heart, you can become conscious that body is toy-like fake
body and conclude that you are just operating the machine
through His will. He discovers who he really is, beyond body
from the revelations of Krishna, guru, sadha and sastra . This
illusion can be busted easily only by flow of transcendental
knowledge energy into our consciousness from the source of all
consciousness, Krishna.

Lord Krishna is a neutral spectator and facilitator of

Karma-Game for fake satcitananda rasa

In the material world, the sat-çit-ānanda Lord as the Supersou-

Krishna , is residing in your material body along with the you
in His invisible expansion to facilitate your miserably failed
unconstitutional journey of perverted rasa to lord over the toy-
like fake forms, names, qualities and activities displayed by the
material energy of the Lord. The Lord in your heart, as a
friend, respects your free will to exploit matter and permits or
sanctions your dream of lording to be successful or to be a
failure as you desire & deserve in accordance with the Laws of
Karma.

437
Without Paramatma-Krishna we cannot experience even the
fake satcitananda rasas

Though He is neutral to all, without His ordained or

sanctioned system of guna-kala-karma not a blade of grass can
move.

Just like no vegetation in the forest can exist without the

common factor rain. Every material experience of jivas is
because of the mere presence of the all pervading Lord in the
body. Just as rain is the common cause for all seeds it is not
the specific cause for a one seed to become a mango tree or and
other to become banyan tree or a pupil tree or any other tree,
Paramatma-Krishna is not the cause of happiness and
sufferings of the jivas. The characteristics of the seed is what
causes it to be the kind of tree by taking help from of the rain.
The rain is not responsible for variety of one seed from the
other seed.

Similarly in this world of karma you become what you are by

you own choice of material actions followed by reactions but
only by the sanction of the Lord in the heart. But if the
Paramatma-Krishna wants He can change anything beyond
laws of karma just by His sanction as He is the prime over of
material energy from one moment to the next. And the
material energy will carry it through. He does this as

438
reciprocation to those devoted to Him as He is the Supreme
master of the material energy.

You are experiencing rasas which is not your own

satcitananda rasa

In this material world you are disconnected from the source of

all sat çit ānanda, Krishna. All sensual, emotional, intellectual
and ego desires are all soul's expressions trying to fulfil its
deepest urge for feeling completeness of sat, cit, ananda
nature, though ending up always unsuccessful through
material life in different material bodies.

You are disconnected from the source of

satcitananda rasa

To fill this spiritual incompleteness due to your disconnect

from the ocean of Sat çit ānanda, Krishna, you go on creating
false material bodies and identities one after another with
hopes and desires to enjoy freedom, power, knowledge, love,
and pleasure through different forms of gross and subtle
material arrangements. All of jivas rasas come under these few
categories. A little careful observation will reveal that your
search of sat cit ananda fulfilment through material energy
only remains a hopeful chase but never a reality.

This is sum and substance of the non fulfilling material lives

you have gone through. It is this satcitananda incompleteness
caused by disconnecting from God, that makes a you run
around madly, trying to seek completeness through different

439
kinds of gross body and subtle body sense and social
gratification in this material world called as material happiness
and pleasure.

You are deeply experiencing what a fish would experience

when kept out of the water.This unnatural state of existence is
caused because of you being of sat cit ananda nature are
swimming in an ocean of asat and acit called samsara.

Your madness begins to subside when you begin your journey

to reconnect with your own forgotten Supreme satcitananda
Person, Krishna through surrender to Him in your heart.

Real world is satcitananda world of satcitananda

bodies

Your real spiritual eternal body is of the quality of sat-çit-

ānanda and not of matter. And the real spiritual world is also a
world of only satcitananda objects, each of them having unique
identities and consciousness. The different identities you
experience in the material world are just role play identities as
your temporary body in the Karma Mind-Game. Material
energy under the supervision of the Paramatma-Krishna
situated within you and everyone creates varieties of material
bodies for varieties of independent Krishna-less fake happiness
& pleasures.

So the material world can be seen as a real world which is full

of real eternal beings being haunted by this ‘I am this material

440
body’ playing the mind-game. The real eternal satcitananda
identity of yours is to be uncovered enabling you to fulfil your
need for being back in the sat cit ananda consciousness.

All the while your eternal friend, the Lord as Paramatma has
been accompanying you within your heart and is waiting to
assist you to wake up to eternal reality of eternal rasas of pure
devotional service to Krishna. Your eternal identity is that you
are lover of Krishna and are eternally loved by the Supreme
Personality, Krishna.

Great comforting truth. Lord's pure devotees and

incarnations are the beacons of light dispelling ignorance of
your existence

In the midst of this grand imagined disaster of this material

life for the satcitananda soul, there is a great comforting truth.
It is revealed by the scriptures that the Krishna as Paramatma-
Krishna who is observing each jiva's journey in this material
world for millions of lives, intervenes in the life of one who is
search of satcitananda rasa. Search for fulfilment of
satcitananda rasa is nothing but search for Krishna.

There are mukta purushas walking in this world to awaken the

jivas' love for Krishna. They are pure devotees of Krishna who
are fully realized and awakened to the absolute situation of
everything free from not only bodily concept of self but also see
everything from beyond material concept of time which is

441
eternity. They operate in this world out of their real ego as
servant of Krishna. They are free from belief there is ananda in
anything that is disconnected from Krishna's pleasure, the
Supreme satcitananda Person. Because you have been looking
for satcitananda rasa or perfect existence, perfect knowledge
and perfect love beyond the temporary fake rasas, the Lord in
your heart has guided you to me.

Even greater comforting truth is Krishna Himself, the

satcitananda Lord incarnates into this world in many different
forms like Nama Avatara, purusha avatara archa Avatara, lila
avatara etc. The basic function of all these incarnations is to
give satcitananda association to the jivas who are seeking to
satisfy the deep instinct for satcitananda after being fed up of
this Mind-Game of Karma of Krishna-less fake rasas. Their
divine association awakens the taste of your original loving
serving consciousness. Their association cures you from the
lower tastes of independent false egos and selfish Krishnaless
pleasures of three modes of material nature . You have been
fortunate enough to be gifted with the shelter of Nama Prabhu
by me.

Krishna brings one to a 'sadh' guru

He lovingly guided you to me and you have surrendered to my

guidance and instructions to come out of this illusion and
awaken your original satcitananda consciousness.

442
From then on Lord, as Paramatma-Krishna in your heart
became your first guru known as Chaitya guru. The combined
effort of Chaitya guru and the external 'sadh'-guru like me
representing Him, you are undertaking this journey towards
satcitananda Krishna consciousness.

Slowly you are beginning to replace your material

consciousness. At every aspect of life there is a loving
reciprocation of the Lord internally within you in the form of
giving you intelligence to understand and reach Him. Even
externally He is arranging things in your material life to be
guided and facilitate you to get liberated from the illusion and
realize your satcitananda nature of eternity, knowledge and
bliss as the eternal loving servant of Krishna.

Paramatma-Krishna also intervenes with the karma account of

a soul who surrenders to Him and desires to go back to Him.
He intervenes invincibly by mixing His perfect intelligence or
directions, with your tiny karmic intelligence, exactly as a good
intelligent friend of this world would advise his friend to come
out of a troubled situation.

Awakening

Therefore, the real need of yours in this material world is

nothing but awakening of your original eternal identity as lover
of Krishna and to wake up others too. Better we die of our
bodily identity before we physically die.

443
Each living entity can potentially become free or liberated from
the material energy, by awakening his own sat-çit-ānanda
nature of consciousness by association with the Supreme
Person and His satcitananda energies. Your awakening will be
characterised by 1. transcendental knowledge enabling you to
separate spirit (eternal) and matter (the temporary) and 2.
humility arising from realizing the vulnerability of the soul to
be again engulfed by Maya.

You will regain your lost wealth of Krishna conscious

happiness and will relish the rasa of uninterrupted
remembrance of Krishna in endless appreciation of Him along
with His unconditional love and compassion under my
guidance as your eternal spiritual master. The Lord as Chaitya
guru or Paramatma-Krishna in your heart and me as your
spiritual master are guiding you in your journey to re-join
Krishna in the spiritual world.

The main process of awakening is by transmission of spiritual

sat-cit-ananda spiritual energies from the Lord to your soul
which dissolve the contaminated consciousness that is now
covering your soul. This transmission of spiritual energy to
awaken your soul happens by the principle of association with
the Lord who is an ocean of sat cit ananda-eternal existence,
knowledge and bliss. Just like if a piece of iron is kept
immersed in the fire, it gets gradually heated and eventually it
becomes red hot and acts like fire, in the same manner when
the soul who associates with the Supreme Personality Krishna
under the guidance of the guru, sadhu and sāstra, he can

444
awaken his original Krishna consciousness. Krishna's different
incarnations are different merciful manifestations in this
material world. And in this age Krishna has decided that he
will liberally give out His association through His Nama
avatara to one and all without pre-qualitfication of any sort.

Japa invokes the unlimited fire of sat-cit-ānanda

before oneself

Japa is a mystical process, by which, through the mercy of the

spiritual master, one invokes the fire-like energy of Sat çit
ānanda, called the internal energy or the immediate energy
surrounding the Lord. As a neophyte, you do not presently
have spiritual eyes to see and experience sat & cit nor the
sensitivity to relish spiritual ananda as an unconscious man
cannot experience his real life.

But by the mercy of the Hare Krishna Nāma, as a sādhaka, you

will slowly start experiencing this brilliant spiritual energy by
associating with the Hare Krishna Nāma. It starts with the flow
into your heart the experience of 'sat' in the form of a sense of
eternity of self, beyond a bodily ego and social ego of this world
and 'cit' the self-enlightening spiritual energy.

You will start seeing this body as machine on which you are
riding in this world for fake rasas. Unless you become charged
by the touch of the supreme eternity or 'sat' energy of God and
receive that energy, you cannot awaken and realize your true
self as pure eternal existence. Serving the Hare Krishna Nāma
Prabhu through soulful japa will cause transfer of real ‘sat-çit-

445
ananda’ energies to your heart from Nama Prabhu and will
enlighten you to realize what you really are along with your
eternal experience of satcitananda.

The early drops of mercy begin flowing from Hare Krishna

Nāma Prabhu when you associate with Him through mindful
japa by serious training of the foreground mind. As you
advance in associating with Nama Prabhu, your original self-
knowledge or 'cit' which is a sense of feeling of my true 'myself'
as servant of Krishna begins to awaken. You advance your japa
to heartful and soulful japa by reading my books to build up
the absolute thoughts of Krishna consciousness and
contemplate on them and turn them into Krishna conscious
feelings towards Nama Prabhu.

This will make your background mind rich with bhakti

bhāvanas enabling your background mind to offer these
bhāvanas to the most merciful Nama Prabhu during soulful
japa every day and awaken your absolute feelings of your soul
for Krishna. You soulful japa will become most blissful activity
and you begin to experience original ananda of an
uninterrupted sense of eternal belonging to Krishna called love
of Krishna and experience the ananda of loving service unto
Him.

The sense of sat-cit-ānanda completeness is possible only in

the association of the Hare Krishna Nāma Prabhu

446
When you connect yourself with Krishna, who is a reservoir of
sat çit ānanda through mindful and heartful japa, you start to
experience spiritual completeness, and begin to quench all
your spiritual thirst for sat cit and ananda. And when that
matures into soulful japa then your perfection of life is
achieved and I will take you to the spiritual world and make
you dance with Krishna. I have explained this in my book the
Matchless Gift;

Those who thus see Krishna are not anxious because they know
where they are going at death. One who has taken the gift of
Krishna consciousness knows that he will not have to return to
this material world to take another body but that he will go to
Krishna. It is not possible to go to Krishna unless one attains a
body like Krishna's, a sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha body, a body full
of eternity, knowledge and bliss.

One cannot enter into fire and not perish unless he himself
becomes fire, and similarly one cannot enter into the spiritual
realm in a body that is not spiritual. In a spiritual body one can
dance with Krishna in the rāsa dance like the gopis and the
cowherd boys. This is not an ordinary dance, but the dance of
eternity, in the association of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. Only those who have become purified in their love
for Krishna can participate in it.

One therefore should not take this process of Krishna

consciousness as something cheap, but as a matchless gift
bestowed upon suffering humanity by the Lord Himself.

447
Simply by engaging in this process, all the anxieties and fears
of one's life, which in actuality revolve about the fear of death,
are allayed.

Thus, the purpose of the soulful japa, is a progressive

experience of spiritual completeness of your satcitananda
consciousness of love of Krishna resulting in eternal
attachment to Krishna and His service and freedom from
material miseries even when in this body. Be blessed."

Thus ends the story of life of all jivas in this world, weaved out
of the transcendental gems of concepts loudly spoken by Srila
Prabhupada in different parts of his teachings to the world, but
presented in our humble language.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki Jai !!!

END

448
Module 41

Krishna Himself speaks to Arjuna about that His Name is the

greatest.

It is so thrilling to hear what Krishna Himself thinks about His

Name as revealed in the Adi Purana.

Quoted from Adi Purana by Srila Sanatana Goswami in Hari-

bhakti-vilasa 11.465-471

Text 465

na nāma-sadrsham jnanam
na nāma-sadrsham vratam
na nāma-sadrsham dhyanam
na nāma-sadrsham phalam

There is no knowledge equal to my Nāma.

No vow is equal to My Nāma.
No meditation is like Nāma.
No result is like Nāma.

Text 466

na nāma-sadrsha tyagi

449
na nāma-sadrshah shamah
na nāma-sadrsham punyam
na nāma-sadrshih gatih

No renunciation is like my Nāma.

No peace like my Nāma.
No piety is like my Nāma.
No goal of life is like my Nāma.

Text 467

nāmaiva paramā muktir

nāmaiva paramā gatih
nāmaiva paramā santir
nāmaiva paramā sthitih

My Nāma is the supreme liberation.

My Nāma is the Supreme goal.
My Nāma the topmost place.
My Nāma is the Supreme abode.
Text 468

nāmaiva paramā bhaktir

nāmaiva paramā gatih
nāmaiva paramā pritir
nāmaiva paramā smrtih

450
My Nāma is the Supreme devotion.
My Nāma is the Supreme thought.
My Nāma is Supreme happiness.
My Nāma is Supreme meditation.

Text 469

nāmaiva karānam jantor

nāmaiva paramā prabhur eva ca
nāmaiva paramārādhyo
nāmaiva paramo guruh

My Nāma is the life of all living entities.

My Nāma is the Supreme Lord and master.
My Nāma is supreme object of worship.
My Nāma is the supreme guru.

This is an interesting perspective to see the Nāma Prabhu the

way Krishna Himself thinks of His Nāma Prabhu is the
Supreme Lord and Master.

451
Text: 470

kim ca
nāma-yuktān janān drstva snigdho bhavati yo narah
sa yāti paramam sthānam vishnunā saha modate

Lord Krishna further explains:

“A person who feels happy when he sees others chant My holy

name goes to the supreme abode and enjoys with Lord
Vishnu.”

Text: 471

tasmān nāmāni kaunteya

bhajasva drdha-mānasah
nāma-yuktah priyo 'smākam
nāma-yukto bhavārjuna

"For these reasons, O Arjuna, you should worship My holy

names. Chant My holy names and become friends with they
who chant My names."

In Vishnu Dharma Purana quoted again in Hari Bhaktivilas

(447-448) the Lord specifically talks about the result of
chanting and hearing His Names is that He is purchased.

Text 447

452
gatvā ca mama nāmāni rudanti mama sannidhau
teshām aham parikrito nānya-krito janārdanah

"He purchases Me who calls out My name. There is no other

price to purchase Me."

Text 448

evam srutvā ca mama nāmāni. ity-ādi.

The Lord also says:

"He purchases me who hears My names."

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

453
Module 42

Harinaam Kevalastakam
Author: Nilakanta Goswami
Book Name: Panca Ratnam
Language: Sanskrit

(1)

madhuraḿ madhurebhyo ‘pi

mańgalebhyo ‘pi mańgalam
pāvanaḿ pāvanebhyo ‘pi
harer nāmaiva kevalam

More sweet than all other sweet things; more auspicious than
all other auspicious things; the greatest purifier of all purifying
things. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything.

(2)

ābrahmā-stamba-paryantaḿ
sarvaḿ māyā-mayaḿ jagat
satyaḿ satyaḿ punaḥ satyaḿ

454
harer nāmaiva kevalam

The entire universe, from exalted Brahma down to the lowly

clump of grass, is a product of the illusory energy of the
supreme Lord. The only thing that is reality, reality, again I say
reality. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything

(3)

sa guruḥ sa pitā cāpi

sā mātā bandhavo ‘pi saḥ
śikṣayec cet sadā smartuḿ
harer nāmaiva kevalam

That person is a true preceptor, or a true father, a true mother,

and a true friend also only if they teach one to always
remember. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything

(4)

niḥśvāse nāhi viśvāsaḥ

kadā ruddho bhaviṣyati
kīrtanīya mato bālyād
harer nāmaiva kevalam

455
There is no certainty when the last breath will come and put an
abrupt halt to all one’s material plans; therefore, it is wise to
always practice chanting from very childhood. The holy name
of Sri Hari alone is everything.

(5)

hariḥ sadā vaset tatra

yatra bhāgavatā janāḥ
gāyanti bhakti-bhāvena
harer nāmaiva kevalam

Lord Hari eternally dwells in that place where truly exalted,

spiritually advanced souls sing in the mood of pure devotion.
The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything.

(6)

aho duḥkhaḿ mahā-duḥkhaḿ

duḥkhād duḥkhataraḿ yataḥ
kācārthaḿ vismṛtam ratna-
harer nāmaiva kevalam

Aho! What a sorrow, what a great sorrow! More painful than

any other misery in the world! Mistaking it as a mere piece of

456
glass, the people have forgotten this jewel. The holy name of
Sri Hari alone is every

(7)

dīyatāḿ dīyatāḿ karṇo

nīyatāḿ nīyatāḿ vacaḥ
gīyatāḿ gīyatāḿ nityaḿ
harer nāmaiva kevalam
Heard again and again with one’s ears; It should be uttered
over and over with one’s voice; It should be perpetually sung
and sung anew. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything

(8)

tṛṇī-kṛtya jagat sarvaḿ

rājate sakalopari
cid-ānanda-mayaḿ śuddhaḿ
harer-nāmaiva kevalam

It makes the entire universe seem insignificant as a blade of

grass; it reigns supreme over all in a splendorous manner; it is
full of eternally conscious divine ecstasy; it is supremely pure.
The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

457
END

Module 43

Liberation can be only through the pathway of

attention

The Nāma Avatara is the sun of sat cit ananda radiating all-
spiritual sat-cit-ananda energy which cannot be perceived by
our material senses of dead matter. We are also particles of sat
seeking satcitananda. Sat-cit-ananda is existence-knowledge-
bliss. We are trapped by misidentification of self with the
material body by ignorance. The only spiritual energy of the
soul that is coming out of this body is the the ksetrajna shakti
or my citta shakti or attention energy. Rest of the qualities of
the soul are covered and influenced by the body & cittam.

Cittam is the contaminated consciousness body or subtle

yantra. We, the spirit souls are all involved in illusory worlds
created in our material minds. Only the souls as the observers
of the illusion in their respective minds, the attention energy
flowing out of them , and the world of objects are real. His
experience of the world of His mappings of the objects of this
world is all concocted story in mind. The external objective
world is designed to facilitate this illusion of rasas (sukha &
dukha). So we should hold on to the valuable attention energy
which alone is the medium through which we can be in touch
with our soul.

458
Since the substance of Nāma Prabhu is also infinitely
concentrated 'citta', attentive chanting and hearing of the
transcendental Nama is the loving sound embrace of the
incarnation by the soul with its attention. Spirit touching
spirit. Matter or material senses cannot touch anything of
attention substance or cinmaya vastu. Attention is the only
route through which every kind of spiritual mercy is received
by the soul. All spiritual mercy or krpa is received through the
vessel of attentive hearing of the sound incarnation whether it
is the holy name, or it is scriptures, or it is divine words of the
pure self realised devotees of the Lord. If we are inattentive we
are cut off from the mercy flow. Such is crucial role of attention
in connecting the soul to the Nāma Avatāra. If we hear the
right sound attentively we progress spiritually in leaps and
bounds.

Dreamy attention and awakened attention

Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.3 delivered at Caracas

Feb 14, 1971

Krishna is eternal, we are eternal, and our dealings with

Krishna is also eternal. But sometimes it becomes interrupted
by the mäyä, which is called svapna.

Svapna means dreamlike. As dream has no fact, it is all

hallucination, similarly our detachment from Krishna is also a
hallucination. Actually, there is no detachment. And when we
are covered by this hallucination... Just like in dream we cry,
"Oh, here is a tiger! Here is a tiger!" Tiger. Where is tiger?
Similarly, this forgetfulness of Krishna is like that. So if we

459
simply follow the rules and regulations given by the great
äcäryas, then immediately we can revive our Krishna
consciousness. It doesn't take even second. The method...(?)
Just like you are dreaming, crying, "There is tiger, tiger." And if
somebody pushes you, "Why you are doing that?" And if you
immediately become awake "Oh! All tiger finished." (laughter)
"All tiger finished." So one has to give the push that

"There is no tiger." Then immediately the whole hallucination

will go.

Attention in dream and wakeful state

When I dream at night I experience that I see, hear, touch,

smell, taste, the objects, people and also think, feel & will for
different situations in the dream. From the point of view of my
real world all these are experienced only in my dreaming mind
by applying dreamy attention on the content of the dream
which is being churned out by the mind without any external
reality. Consciousness never sleeps.

Dream is temporary display in my mind. However dreamer

and attention energy and mental experience of pain and
pleasure is still a reality as far as experience is concerned even
when I am dreaming.

The dreamer is merely the knower of the contents of the dream

with the help of his dreamy spiritual attention as compared to

460
wakeful attention used when he is awake. Attention is always
spiritual. The domain of attention can be real subjects or
dream subjects. When the domain are real subjects we say it is
wakeful attention and when it illusory subjects we say it is
dreamy attention. My real senses of my real body are not
touching the dream objects as they are sleeping.

We are only seers of the dream that is created by the mind and
that world of so called reality that is thus created in our minds
out of the mappings of the external world is limited to my
mind. I am falsely imagining in the dream that I am having a
sensual experience of a so called reality of people, objects and
life situations through an imagined body and senses which is
not my real body and senses. But that is illusion because my
real senses and real world are outside the dream. There is no
real touch of real sense objects by real senses in a dream as the
real senses are asleep.

In the same way, we are spiritually sleeping now and the

dreamy attention of my spiritual mind is locked down into
watching and identifying with this material body as my body or
my real person. My dream in my mind in this body begins at
birth and dream ends at death. Again another dream begins in
another body.

I am not living my own eternal life as my true eternal ego as a

servant of Krishna. My spiritual mind is believing the
interpretation created by the material intelligence and mind
that I am the material body and other people are their material

461
bodies and we are members of so-called real world of society,
friendship, relatives and love.

But when I am spiritually awake my soul separates its egotism

feelings of 'I-ness' and 'mine-ness' from everything material
and sees (knows) oneself as an ego who is a servant of Krishna.
I see the same objects and my own body and other people's
bodies outside me 'as it is' not as bodies but as ever aging
material machines with wakeful spiritual attention without the
mis-reading them in our material minds that I am this material
body. Our spiritual mind and its attention can thus be either
glued on to the illusory 'I' and 'mine' , 'they and theirs' content
created by our material mind or real content as it is. He sees
the world as basically haunted eternal egos and dead material
energy.

My spiritual mind and senses existing in a spiritual dimension

and are sleeping now and is dreaming through the material
mind. Jivas in this world are active in a dreaming state through
its dreamy attention seeing the dream woven by the material
mind which is identifying and equating the gross and subtle
body as the soul. The identifying, desiring, thinking, feeling
and willing content of the material mind is taken as my own
identifying, desiring, thinking, feeling and willing.

However the dreamy attention energy itself that is coming out

of all jivas of this world is real spiritual energy of the soul even
in this material world. But it is not connected to the infinite
consciousness of Krishna. Krishna describes that the jivas in
this world are only kshetrajna or knowers of their gross body,

462
the gross world through its senses & contents in his subtle
mind. The soul, his the gross body and subtle mind and world
outside are all part of an objective world. But what reality my
material mind weaves out of the objective dead world is
illusion or a dream or hallucination. There is total rebooting of
the mind at death.

Even if attention is dreamy, I am touching Aprākrta

Nama

As sadhakas, though our spiritual mind is sleeping, it is that

very spiritual mind who is releasing its attention energy and
touching the empowered Śaktyāvēşa Nama & Aprākrta Nama
Prabhu, who are an infinite ocean of consciousness. Such
attention touch of Nama Prabhu energises our attention to
wake up to see himself as a Krishna conscious being.

In essence even though I am not in a position to touch the

Aprakrta Nama with my spiritual senses, my dreamy attention
is automatically touching the sound features of Aprākrta Nama
Prabhu due to my attention touching the sound features of the
Śaktyāvēşa Nama through attentive chanting-cum-hearing. I
am having an attention-touch of transcendental Nama though
I unable to chant and hear the same due to my spiritual senses
being in a sleeping state.

Hare Krishna Nama Prabhu ki jai !!!

END

463