Chanting: Maha-Mantra and Bhajans

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, 8 March 2015

A girl came to me yesterday and argued with me. She said, "Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math follows mostly Guru, and Iskcon follows mostly Krishna, that is why I do not like to stay here." What can I do? This is the main conception here—Krishna came to this world in the form of Guru.

We do not follow Mirabai because, as Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, she follows only Krishna: Mirabai wants Krishna without the mercy of Radharani, but without Radharani's mercy you cannot get Krishna. Who is Radharani? She is dearmost to Krishna and because Gurudev is nondifferent from Her, Gurudev is also dearmost to Krishna. This is our conception.

The girl argued with me like this for an hour and in the end she said that ** Maharaj had sent her to me, "Take permission from Acharya Maharaj that I can give you the second initiation." I told her I could not do that: it is not my duty—they can do as they like, but I am a busy person and cannot waste my time on this.

They also say that we chant so many bhajans, and they mostly chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra. I told her that we do not want to chant so much Nama aparadh—we want to make less Nama aparadh. We sing many songs—songs from Saranagati, songs by Bhakti Vinod Thakur, Narottam Das Thakur, and other Vaishnavs—because it is necessary to practise Krishna consciousness, to be humble, tolerant and give honour to others. We do not have these qualities, but if we sing and sing these kinds of songs, then one day humility, tolerance and giving honour to others will come. That is our hope.

If somebody says, "I have humility, tolerance, and I give honour to others—I have these qualities"—they are telling a lie. We cannot say that we have such qualities. You cannot say you are a great Vaishnav or you are becoming a Vaishnav—that is a lie. We always give food to the mind, and our mind becomes strong—the mind can any time take us away, remove us from Krishna consciousness. Great devotees are very unhappy when they waste even one minute of their time on something that does not have to do with their Guru, does not have to do with the service to Krishna...

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