Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 04.05.2018, Rila)

(continues from the previous Monday)

There are two main obstacles in chanting the pure name, and these are the material desires and the desire for liberation. If you are motivated by the material desires, then this is called karma-kishra-bhakti – through your activity you want to achieve something for enjoyment. This is dangerous, I tell you. If you have a material motivation and you start your chanting, you might go mad.

But if you chant with the desire for liberation, you can go super mad. Because you will feel, ‘Oh, I have achieved it,’ but that’s a mistake, you didn’t achieve anything. If we are motivated by this desire for liberation, this is called the gyana-mishra-bhakti.

They are considered to be two witches possessing the throne of your heart. And by chanting the holy name, the mahamantra – Hare Krishna, Hare Krushna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare – we invite many different things, but basically, we invite the Goddess of Devotion to accept the throne of our heart. But how can Bhakti Devi accept the throne of your heart if there are two witches sitting there – the desire for material elevation and the desire for liberation – She cannot come. So the purity of intention, the purity of desire, spiritual desire, must be there. The pure nama and the grammatical form of a word are totally different. And we can see that difference, because the mahamantra was propagated by many scientists and artists, even in the Western world, with no effect. But when there came one pure devotee, with pure intention, pure dedication – there is a huge effect.

There is a big difference between chanting of the pure name and chanting with some secondary motivation. So, karma-mishra-bhakti, gyana-mishra-bhakti, or politics-mishra-bhakti  – have you heard about that? The political nam. In India there was one prime minister and when she was off the power, some of her supporters and ministers were going on tapasya, meditation and chanting: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, may she get back to power. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, may she get back to power.” This is the political nam. Do you want that? I think not. We all want the pure nama, which is chaitamani. If it touches our heart, touches our substance, then it purifies it totally and turns it into a higher substance.

When you heard this for the first time, I think you all were very much inspired. ‘Yes, I want this transformation. I want that purification.’ Where is that purification? Do you feel the transformation? We feel something, but I think there is still a lot to do about it.

It will bring all different possible blessings – political, material, spiritual, whatever. Why? Because it is non-different from Krishna. Krishna-nam and Krishna are non-different. This is something that we have to learn very profoundly. There is a difference between the water and the word ‘water’. If you are thirsty and you say, “Water, water!”, I am not sure that your thirst will be quenched. Of course, kids are so sincere that their chanting “Water, water!” will quench their thirst, because then you will come and supply the water. This is what we need. We can chant ‘Krishna, Krishna’, yet maybe the thirst of your soul is not diminished; but somebody has to come and supply. “Krishna se tomara krishna dite paro[1] – Krishna is yours, you can give Him to me.” So, we need somebody who takes care of us.

(to be continued)

[1] A line from Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s song ‘Ohe! Vaishnava Thakura’