Power of the Holy Name:
Abode of Sweetness

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
14 December 2010

The Name of Krishna is so sweet...

tunde tandavaniratim vitanute tundavali-labdhaye
karna-kroda kadambinighatayate karnarbudebhyah sprham
cetah prangana-sanginivijayate sarvendriyanamkrtim
no jane janita kiyadbhir amrtaih krsneti varna-dvayi

When the holy name of Krishna descends and captures the tongue and lips, it controls them so strongly that it engages them in chanting the holy name as if the lips and tongue have gone mad. In this way, the power of the name descends in them, and one feels that only one tongue and one mouth are not enough; thousands of mouths are necessary to taste the name. Then the holy name of Krishna enters the ear with such a great force and current that the ears are captured, and one thinks that only two ears are insufficient; he wants millions of ears to attend to the sweet current entering the ears. Two ears are nothing to him; he wants millions of ears. The nectar of the holy name is coming like a flood through his ears, pushing its way within the heart.

It is so sweet that as it goes to capture the heart, the center of all senses, everything is paralyzed. Wherever that sweet aggressor touches, the whole thing is captured with such intensity that everything else is ignored. Rupa Goswami writes, "I don't know, I can't say, I fail to express how much nectar there is in the holy name of Krishna. These two syllables contain so much sweetness, and such a high quality of sweetness. And this sweetness is so aggressive that it captures everything."

(Vidagdha-Madhava, the translation is quoted from 'The Search for Sri Krishna')

Rupa Goswami composed this sloka, and when Haridas Thakur heard it he said, "I have heard glorification of the Name so many times, but I have never heard anything like this!"

Actually, in this age of Kali, chanting the Holy Name, sravanam, kirtanam, Nama sankirtan are the main practices.

eka-bara krishna-name yata papa hare
patakira sadhya nahi tata papa kare

"A sinner cannot commit more sin than once chanting Krishna's Name can remove."

koti janma yadi kare sravana kirtana
tabu na paya vrajera nandera nandana

"If you practise hearing and chanting for millions of lives, you may still not get the Son of Nanda who dwells in Vraja."

You can chant the Holy Name one time, and all sin will be removed—you cannot even commit as much as sin as one Holy Name can remove—but we chant the Holy Name and the sin is not removed. Why? It says here, "You can do sravanam and kirtanam for millions of lives, but you will still not get Krishna-prema because so many offences are there":

hena krsna-nama yadi laya bahu-bara
tabu yadi prema nahe, nahe asrudhara
tabe jani, aparadha tahate prachura
krsna-nama-bija tahe na kare ankura

"If you chant this Name of Krsna so many times but still there is no love, there are no tears streaming from your eyes, then as I understand there are too many offences and the seed of Krsna's Name does not sprout."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta, Adi-lila, 8.29-30)

'krsna-nitya-dasa'—jiva taha bhuli' gela
ei dose maya tara galaya bandhila

"When the jiva soul makes the mistake of forgetting that it is an eternal servant of Krishna, Maya captures the soul by its neck."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.24)

kama-krodhera dasa hana tara lathi khaya
bhramite bhramite yadi sadhu-vaidya paya

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.14)

"You always get kicked by anger and lust. What is the solution? When you get some good association, then the sadhu will give you some advice, some mantra, and Maya the pisachi will run away." Mahaprabhu says it very nicely.

samsara bhramite kona bhagye keha tare
nadira pravahe yena kastha lage tire

"Wandering throughout the material world, some souls get good fortune and somehow cross this ocean of material life just as a wooden stick floating in the water gets washed ashore."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.43)

It is written very nicely. Everything is there, in Chaitanya-charitamrita, you can read it.

krsna yadi krpa kare kona bhagyavane
guru-antaryami-rupe sikhaya apane

"When Krishna gives His mercy to a fortunate soul, He personally instructs this soul from within in the form of an internal Guru." [47]

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.47)

naivopayanty apachitim kavayas tavesa
brahmayusapi krtam rddha-mudah smarantah
yo 'ntar bahis tanu-bhrtam asubham vidhunvann
acharya-chaittya-vapusa sva-gatim vyanakti

"O Lord, expert poets who remember You with so much joy would not able to express how indebted they are to You even if they got a lifetime of Brahma—Your mercy is boundless for You appear externally as an acharya (spiritual master) and internally as an antaryami (chaitya-guru) to destroy all evil and impurities of the embodied souls and reveal them the path to Yourself."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 22.48)

When the fortunate souls get mercy of the Lord (some sukriti), the Guru can come to them in an antaryami form, in their heart, and teach them something. This Guru is called chaitya-guru. He is already in your heart, and he can teach you something, through which you get the mahanta-guru, the original bona fide Guru. Next, through the association of this mahanta-guru you get a bhakti lata bij, the seed of devotion. Then, if you practise, you can easily get prema-phala, the fruit—you can eat that fruit and go to Vaikuntha, Goloka Vrindavan.

This is how it is necessary to practise. Some problem can come also:

yadi vaisnava-aparadha uthe hati mata
upade va chinde, tara sukhi' yaya pata

"Offences to Vaishnavs bring about a mad elephant that uproots or breaks everything. It makes the leaves of the creeper of devotion dry up."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.156)

By the offence to Vaishnavs that seed can dry. Vaishnav aparadh (offences to the Vaishnavs), seva aparadh (offences committed during service), Nama aparadh (offences to the Holy Name), bhukti-mukti-siddhi-adi vancha (desires for enjoyment, liberation, bodily perfections, and so on), kutinati (insincerity)—if these kinds of things come to your mind, they can finish your devotional activities...

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