Rama Navami
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2004
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Purifying the heart through Hari Katha
So I will talk a little bit about Lord Ram.
Because as it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ, hṛdy antaḥ-stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām. That when we speak about Lord Ram, when we speak
That when we speak about Lord Ram, when we speak about Krishna, when we do Ram Katha, Hari Katha, Krishna Katha, then Krishna, who is in our heart, who is situated within the core of our heart, becomes very pleased.
So because he is pleased, he starts working in our heart, he purifies our heart from within. And the pure heart is actually the guarantee of our happiness.
If we want to be happy in this world, the only thing which we need is the pure heart.
If our heart is dirty, if our heart is diseased, if our heart has this hṛd-roga or the disease of envy and malice, then we cannot be happy under any circumstances.
And vice versa, if our heart is clean, then no matter what our external conditions are, we will be happy.
So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that everyone is entitled to be happy. But the happiness comes from within, not from without. People they wrongly assume that the happiness is coming from external circumstances,
from our wealth, from our relatives, or whatever. But happiness is coming from the loving heart. And if the loving heart is there, one is happy.
And if the loving heart is not there, if the heart is eaten up by our envy, by malice, by krodha, by lobha, then no matter what we do, we will not be happy.
So in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said that when we listen about Krishna, stories about Krishna, when we listen the holy name of Krishna, then Krishna becomes pleased.
This is a natural psychology because everyone wants to listen about himself, right? Did you notice this? When somebody is talking about you, you become really attentive.
If somebody is speaking about Krishna, you may or may not be attentive. But if somebody is talking about you, you will be attentive. So, Krishna is within your heart. And when you listen about Krishna, he also listens.
And when you speak about Krishna, he also listens there within your heart. And when you speak something nice about Krishna, and when you listen to something nice about Krishna, he becomes pleased.
And he starts cleaning your heart from within. So this is the mechanism, and the story about Lord Rama has been heard again and again so many times by everyone. Basically, everyone knows the gist of the story.
Everyone knows that you know there was a demon named Ravan, and there was a king named Ram. And then his wife was kidnapped. It's a very simple story, and everyone knows the story, the plot of the story.
But still everyone has such a nectar by listening to this, and only because by listening about Lord Rama your heart becomes purified. If you just listen about somebody's wife being kidnapped, your heart is not necessarily being purified at that time. There is no guarantee for this.
But if you listen to how Mother Sītā was kidnapped, your heart will be purified. There is no doubt about it. This is a very ancient recipe. And this recipe has been proven again and again and again over centuries.
Sita's benediction to Hanuman
So many people over centuries, over thousands of years, have been listening about Lord Rāma. In fact, it is said that Hanumān has these blessings.
The blessings which he was given is that he would always listen about Lord Rāma.
Mother Sītā, when she became pleased with Hanumān, when Hanumān came to Lanka and she became very very pleased that he basically found her and she said Hanumān, I want to ask to give you a benediction. You served so nicely to Lord Rāma. And therefore I want to give you benediction. And who is Mother Sita?
Mātā Sītā is the energy of the Lord. She is Shakti of the Lord Himself. So when she says that I will give you the benediction, you know it will be a very powerful benediction.
So she said to Hanumān, Hanumān, you want a benediction? And he said, Of course I want a benediction. So I bless you. From now on you will live a long life and you will be very healthy. And Hanumān became very morose.
He said, Why do you curse me? You said you give me blessings and instead you give me long life. What am I going to do with this long life? This is not the blessings. And she said she became really, you know, disturbed.
And she said, okay, you will live eternally. And Hanumān became even more morose. And then she said, no, no. When actually she was testing him. Because she wanted to know what he wants.
And Hanumān said, no, no, this is not a real blessing. What are you giving to me is not a blessing at all, you know. What is the use of long life if this long life is just wasted, if this long life is just completely spoiled?
And Mātā Sītā gave him the benediction: okay, Hanumān, I give you the benediction that from now on you will be very dear to Lord Rāma. And in fact, when you hear about Rāma, you will see his presence. You will see him personally.
And Hanumān, he became very pleased. He said: now you're talking. You know, before that you were just bluffing. You were just trying to cheat me.
But the real blessings is to hear about Lord Rāma and to understand that Rāma is the manifestation of eternity. He is knowledge and bliss personified.
And when we hear about him, we kind of inherit this qualities of this properties of Lord Rāma. There is an interesting story in this regard.
That the story which shows that Indian culture, the traditional Indian culture, is based on Krishna Katha, Hari Katha, Ramkatha. This is the basis, this is the foundation of Indian culture, Indian tradition.
In fact, the great Indian Great Indian culture kept uh its purity only because of this one simple factor. Because this Rāmāyaṇa or Harikatha or Krishna Katha is still very much present within the depths of Indian culture.
This is how you remain pure, this is how you keep your purity, and this is how you guarantee your purity, purity of your mind for the rest of eternity, in fact.
The little story goes like this: once it was maybe some 60 years ago. It's a it's a true story.
Once a foreigner came to India, and he wanted really to know how this people live, because these people live quite differently from the Western people. And he wanted to know what it's all about.
So he went to a grocery shop. And in a grocery shop he, saw a scene, he saw a middle-aged man who is in the shop and he's selling goods. And he saw a little boy, and this little boy is playing something there nearby.
And he saw an old man, and this old man was sitting there in the back room and he was reading Rāmāyaṇa. He was reading the chapter of Rāmāyaṇa, how monkeys were building the bridge to Lanka.
So and he asked this old man, you know, what are you doing? Can you explain what is what is your life is all about? He said, This is my son, and this is my shop. This is my son. My son is doing my business and he's working.
And this is his son, my grandson, he's playing there in the ground. And here I am, I am retired and I'm reading about Lord Rāma.
So and he was, you know, somehow rather it struck him, you know, there was some kind of very peaceful setting, and he was quite impressed by this. So he went back and he kept it in mind.
And some 30 years after this, he went back to India.
And somehow rather he remembered this scene how there was a grocery shop, an old man is reading Rāmāyaṇa, and the middle-aged man is selling, and the young man is playing, young boy is playing.
So he went and he found the same grocery shop.
And to his complete, utter amazement, he saw a middle-aged man selling the goods, and he saw the same old man reading Rāmāyaṇa. And in fact, he was reading the very same chapter about monkeys building the bridge to Lanka.
And he saw a young boy who was playing there in the mud. And he went to this old man and he said, My dear sir, why did it take you 30 years to read this one chapter? Can you please explain me how that nothing changed?
He said, Can you explain me what are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about. He said I was here in India in this grocery shop 30 years and I saw exactly the same scene.
You know, I saw middle-aged man and he was selling, I saw the boy, and it seems like nothing changed. 30 years passed and everything is the same. And then the old man realized and he said: No, no.
The man who was reading Rāmāyaṇa at that time was me, sir. He's dead now. And the boy who was playing at that time, it's uh this middle-aged man who is now selling the groceries goods.
And the boy who is playing there, he's my grandson and his son and great-grandson. this man was even more impressed, because he saw that there is an eternal basis for the culture.
What we see now, the modern culture, which we see around us, everything is changing so quickly.
And because it is based on the mode of passion, you know, sometimes we feel a little pleasure, you know, it's a uh it seems like you know it's boring the same thing, you know, reading the same chapter about monkeys building the bridge to Laṅkā. But in fact, this gives you the stability.
This gives you śānta, peace in your heart. It gives you actually the real clarity of the mind. In this passionate culture, nobody is clear in his mind. And nobody is clean as his heart.
You know the heart is craving for more and more and more. And people are, you know, they're totally running and running and running. But the only result of all this chase and everyone is engaged in this chase.
But the only result of this chase is that everyone is sad, everyone is morose, and everyone ultimately everyone is unhappy. And here we see the eternal culture.
And this eternal culture is based on this one simple principle, Rām-kathā. You know, you listen about Lord Rāma and you're not getting tired about listening, Lord Rāma.
Because Lord Rāma's name, the very name of Lord Rāma, is full of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. And if you just keep on repeating Rāma's name, you know, your heart will be filled with eternity, knowledge and bliss.
I have been repeating Lord Rāma's name for how many years? Twenty-four years now, right? It's a long time.
And usually when people here in Russia want to scare somebody off and they say this Hare Krishna are bad, because they repeat the same thing 1,728 times.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. And that's a fact. We repeat the same thing one thousand seven hundred twenty-eight times. 24 years every day. And sometimes more.
Sometimes much more. But still, we are not tired. You know, I have been repeating it 24 years and I'm still repeating it.
Efficacy of the holy name
And I'm still thinking, what is it all about? But in fact, the story of Rāmāyaṇa shows the main plot of the story is to show the potency of the Holy Name.
It is said that in all the scriptures, the essence of all the scriptures is to prove to everyone the efficacy of the Holy Name. You know, people are they need to be saved. They need to be saved from greed in the heart.
They need to be saved from envy in the heart. They need to be saved from malice, from lobha, from greed in the heart. This is our enemies. Our enemies are not without. Our enemies are within.
And the solution means to be saved from this enemies. And it's very difficult. When the enemies are within, it's very difficult to fight with them. Because you don't think they are enemies, right?
If greed is yours, you think it's good, right? Because it's a part of you. If anger is yours, if if lust is yours, you think it's very good, it's my lust, right? We have this psychology: whatever is mine is good, right?
It doesn't matter, uh you know you may have so many bad habits, but because because it's yours it's it's good. You know? So therefore we're used to this lust, envy, greed, everything within our heart.
And it's very difficult to purify our heart. So the only means is to purify to purify the heart is to chant the holy name. The story of Ramayana is the best proof for this.
In fact, we know that the holy author of Rāmāyaṇa, Vālmīki Muni, he was tricked.
Valmi Ki Muni in his previous life, in his previous existence was a hunter. And hunter is a sinner. Hunters they kill animals, they kill innocent animals.
And this hunter was a very dutiful hunter. He was a very good family man. He had big family, many sons and daughters and big wife.
And he was killing animals just to make his wife even bigger. He was earning livelihood for his family, you know. And if somebody would tell him that you're doing wrong, you're doing sins, he
would say no, I'm not doing wrong because I'm performing my duties. My wife has to be has to remain her status quo, and my children have to eat, have to eat, and my relatives have to do this, and I have to do this. I have no other means for survival. I have to do this.
And of course, everyone of us have heard this so many times. I have to commit sinful activities in order to survive. Basically, this is the story of this world.
If you are in this world, you have to commit sinful activities just to survive. So, but at the same time, perhaps there was some purity in his heart or some sincerity, spark of sincerity.
So some big Rishis, they wanted to... And he was not only hunter, he was a robber. He was a thief. He was killing people even who were passing by the forest.
So some, you know, saints were passing by the forest, some, some say it was Nārada Muni, some say it was Saptarishis. It doesn't matter really. And when they were passing by in the forest, this hunter and this thief,
rogue, he stopped them and he said, Stop, give me money. And they thought we don't have money, we're mendicants, we're munis. And he said, if you don't have money, if you don't give me money, I will kill you.
And they asked, Why do you want to kill us? Why? And because he was little honest in his heart, he said, You know, I know it's sinful, but I have to feed my children. I have to feed my wife.
And then these munis they said to him, You please go to your wife and you ask your wife whether she will be willing to share the sinful reactions which you will acquire by killing all these animals, by killing all these people, by performing all these sinful activities, whether she or your children will be willing to share the sinful reactions.
And he said, you're just tricking me. You just want to escape. They said, no no, we're not tricking. You can tie us up. You go and ask them.
And somehow or other he became thoughtful under this influence of this saintly association.
He went back to his family and he asked his wife, you know, every day I'm performing sins. Are you willing to share a little bit with my sinful reactions? He said, Why? Why should I? What do I have to do with this?
And he asked his little children. Are you willing to take the burden of my sinful reactions? I say no, no, Father, no, no. This is your business. This is. We have nothing to do with this.
And that was, for him, it was the moment of truth. So he became very thoughtful. So he came back and he said, No, they're not willing. And I acquired so much sinful reactions. How can I get rid of all these reactions?
And then these saintly people, they told him, you repeat two syllables Ma and Ra and Ma Ra means death.
In other words, they told Val Meki Muni, or would be Valmiki Muni, you repeat Mara Mara Mara Mara. And he started repeating Mara Mara Mara Mara. And when you repeat Mara Mara Mara, ultimately you will repeat what?
Rama Rama because the syllables are the same. There is no difference. So he started repeating very diligently. And you know he was so diligent in repeating this that the whole anthill grew up.
The ants build their house around around Valmiki Muni. So the purport of this story: the lesson of this story is that actually there are alternatives which every one of us has.
Every one of us has to choose whether he wants to have death or whether he wants to have God. And the only way to have God, to get God within the heart, to have God working within our heart is to repeat His holy name.
You know He was chanting Mara, but in fact He was chanting Ram.
Building the bridge to Lanka
And the holy name of Lord Ram saves. There is a little story in Rāmāyaṇa. How monkeys were building the bridge. Because I already told that. This is the most important part of Rāmāyaṇa. And I'm not joking.
I will give you esoteric purport of this statement now. You know, because we're also about to build a temple in Moscow.
And this is not much different from monkeys building the bridge in Lanka. The monkeys, we're not very sophisticated, they didn't have so much, you know, money. Still they built a bridge.
And in the same way, we are little monkeys here, you know, in Moscow. We don't have a lot of money, we don't have a lot of power.
But still we, you know, very ambitiously we said we will build this temple and so many Ravanas got really agitated about it and started attacking us from different sites.
So, for us, it's definitely the most important part of the whole Rāmāyaṇa. How monkeys succeeded to build a bridge. And how they succeeded, how they did succeed to build the bridge was very simple.
The monkeys, they were told by Lord Rāma, in fact, by Nīla. Nīla was the bear and bear was with the monkeys, and Nīla was the engineer. He was the—he's a cirāñjīvī, he was the engineer.
And Lord Rāma gave him this task, this service. He said: You have to build a bridge over the ocean. And Neil said, there's no problem. We'll build a bridge. You bring stones. You bring big rocks.
And some monkeys who were little intelligent. Those monkeys who were not really intelligent, they just ran to bring the rocks.
But those who were intelligent, they asked, uh, my dear Nīla, how are we going to build the bridge? Because rocks usually drown. You know, and the ocean is so deep.
In fact, it is said that the ocean is—the depth of the ocean is immeasurable. In some places, ocean goes deep to Pātāla-loka. So many planetary systems. In some places there is no bottom in the ocean.
So, the monkeys, they said, Nīla, how are we going to build the bridge? Because all these rocks will drown. And so many rocks we will have to bring. It will take a long time to build this bridge.
And Nīla said, no problem. You get the rocks.
And you carve the name Rāma on the rock. And if the rock has the name Rāma, you put it in the place in the water, and by my mystic power, he said, by my mystic power the rocks will float. And they checked it.
And they took a rock, they carved the name of Rāma, and they placed it on the water. And lo and behold, the rock was floating. And they became really enthusiastic.
And they brought so many rocks rock after rock and they were very enthusiastically writing Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram, Ram. And Lord Rāma was watching.
And he said, Is it possible that my name is so powerful? Is it really possible? He was doubting because he was playing this līlā of a human being. He is Bhagavān himself, but he's playing this role of human being for us.
So he said: is it possible that the name of Lord Rāma is so... He said: if the name... What will happen if I place the rock? Will it float or not? So he wanted to check.
And when the night was there, when the monkeys were sleeping, Lord Rāma came to the shore of the ocean and he placed a rock. And to his surprise, the rock didn't float, it drowned.
And he was very happy that it's night that nobody sees this because it's kind of shameful for him, you know. And then he looked around and he saw Hanumān was behind. Hanumān was—he was spying.
And he saw this complete and Lord Rāma he became little confused, you know. And Hanumān, he smiled and he said, My dear Lord, why are you doing this? You know, you're not supposed to do this.
This is not your business to build the bridge, to put the rocks, you know. This is the business of your name. Your business is to enjoy. Because Bhagavān, God is the enjoyer.
You know, he's enjoying with Mother Sītā in the spiritual world eternally. For the rest of eternity. This is your business, Hanumān said. And uh to save people, to really float the souls,
because our souls at the moment they're so heavy with the sins, they're like rocks. You know, our souls are so heavy that if you place our soul in the water they will drown, right? Much quicker than the rock.
Because so many sins are there. But the real business of the holy name, you know, chanting the Holy Name within your heart, then your soul will float. Then your soul will be completely purified from all the sins.
And this is in fact the main lesson of Rāmāyaṇa, Rāmāyaṇa
is there to show that if you live your life and every one of us has to live our life and has to commit some sinful activities every now and then. Born in this world, you are sinful.
The very birth, you know, just imagine. Just by taking birth in this world you already commit sin. Because by taking birth you uh inflict so much pain to your mother. You know, you're a little baby.
You're totally innocent. But the very act of your birth is sinful.
You're inflicting birth to your mother, and then you kill so many animals, so many little germs and little mikrobes and so many other things we do. So the life in this world is sinful.
But to purify the heart completely from the sins, the Holy Name is there.
The Holy Name, it is said that this is nāma-avatāra. And nāma-avatāra, the Holy Name, descends to this world just to give the salvation, the chance for salvation for everyone.
And everyone, no matter who you are, no matter in which condition you are, no matter what you are doing, no matter how sinful you are. It doesn't matter who you are.
You may be Indian, you may be Russian, you may be Armenian, you may be even Jewish, it doesn't matter.
No matter who you are, if you chant the holy name, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare, you will get purified.
And this is the lesson of Rāmāyaṇa. It is that Tulsidas says that by the power of the holy name Sita remained chaste.
For the whole year, Sita was there in Lanka, and so many times Ravana, the powerful demon, wanted to spoil her chastity. He wanted to force her. By the power of the Holy Names, the rock flowed.
By the power of the Holy Name, simple monkeys they killed powerful demons and so many other demons.
Hanuman's flight to Lanka
By the power of the holy name. Det är det läsen av Rāmāyaṇa. When Hanuman flew from Rameshwaram to Lanka, when Hanuman was flying, Hanuman had a curse. When Hanuman was a little boy. He was very mischievous.
He was playing all kinds of stuff, you know, and he was uh he was living in the forest, as all monkeys do.
He was living in the and then in the forest there's not only monkeys are living, in the Vedic forest, so many sages were living.
So Hanuman was so mischievous that once there was one sage living there, and Hanuman he saw his little cottage.
And he saw this sage, and he really became annoyed with this sage and these are, the sages you know, he's wasting his life. You know, he's doing he was so powerful, even when he was young.
So, the Hanuman he took the tiger and the lion and he tied the tails of tiger and the lion. And he put the tiger and the lion tied together just in front of this sage's cottage. And early in the morning, when the sage was about to uh you know answer the call of the nature, you know, he got up and he was supposed to make his duties, you know, morning duties. He opened the door of his cottage.
And the first thing he saw a lion and a tiger just in front of him. And he immediately, he closed the door.
And Hanuman was up there on the branches and he started laughing and he said, ah, so and this sage cursed him. He said, Because you're so powerful, and because you're misusing your power, because you don't know how to use your power properly, I curse you. And from now on you will not know your powers.
Hanumān was given so much powers, but he forgot about all his powers. And when he was about— And he was supposed to go to Lanka and he saw this huge ocean. You know, endless ocean, huge ocean.
And he was standing there on the shore of the ocean, looking there, and he knew that there are so many yojans which he has to fly.
And then he said, How will I fly? You know, because I can jump, you know, but not that long. So and then he said, Am I crazy?
I have the holy name of Lord Rāma. And if I pronounce this holy name of Lord Rāma, I can jump, you know, all over the universe. There is no problem for me, because this is the power of the name.
It is said that the name is no different from God Himself. And when we chant the Holy Name, all the powers of this universe, especially if we chant the Holy Name purely.
If we chant the holy name with love, if the holy name is saturated with love and we pronounce this holy name, we immediately acquire all the powers which God has. So Hanuman said, you know, it's no problem for me.
I can jump even further than Lanka. I only have to, you know, pronounce the name of Lord Rāma. So he climbed over the mountain and he really made a deep deep breeze he breathed in and while breezing
he said, while breathing out, he said, Rāma. And he said, Rāma, and it was a very long Rāma. He said, Rāma. while he was chanting the name of Ram, he was flying.
And when he flew to Lanka, he stopped chanting Lord Rāma's name, and he immediately landed down. So this is again and again, Hanuman and so other so many other you
heroes of Rāmāyaṇa, and they proved the efficacy of Lord Rāma's name. And the again as I said, if we want this purity of
Hearing the inner Paramatma
the heart, the holy name of Lord Rāma should always be with us. And then Rāma will be present in our heart. And this is the greatest benediction. The greatest benediction is that Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā, I am
in everyone's heart. But the problem is that we don't know that Lord is in our heart. We don't feel it. We don't hear Him speak. Lord always speaks to us, right? He is there.
It is said that as Paramātmā, the Supreme Lord is within our heart and within the heart of everyone. But so many times we forget about this. Who remembers about this all the time? Who hears what the Lord speaks to you?
Who can say very openly, you know, in so many difficult situations? We ask this question: Oh my Lord, please help me. Please tell me what I should do? Who heard what the Lord told him at that time. Somebody did this? No?
But actually Lord always answers. Whatever question we may ask ourselves, whatever question we may ask the Lord, He will always answer. The problem is that we don't hear. Why don't we hear? Because we listen to whom?
To our mind. Because there is very loud voice of our mind. And the Lord is speaking with a very soft voice. Lord is speaking very softly. And the mind is screaming. The Lord very softly is saying, You're rascal.
And the mind is screaming: You're the best one! You're glorious! You're the best of all! What will we listen? The truth of the Lord or the lie of the mind? So the point is that if we chant the holy name, what will happen?
We will hear the voice of the Lord. We will feel, we will feel his presence all the time in our heart. And the Lord will always be with us. Who wants to have the Lord always with Him? Only two?
No, it's good to have Him nearby because He is all powerful, He is all intelligent, He knows what we are supposed to do. He is the savior. He is all pure, you know.
To have the Lord always with us, it's the greatest benediction which we may have. But for that, we have to feel this, we have to know this all the time. And to know this all the time, feel this all the time.
There is only one recipe for this. There is only one way for this. We have to chant the holy name. Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare.
Hanuman cracking the pearl necklace
And then then the Lord will always be with our heart, within our heart. We will feel this His presence all the time.
about Hanumān that once when Sītā and Ram came back to Ayodhyā and Lord Ram started rewarding everyone with different gifts. So many monkeys helped him, and Angada was there, and Nila was there and so many others.
Vibisana was there. And Lord Ram, in a very charitable mode, he was giving different gifts. And he said, Angada, you take this, and Vibisana, you take the whole Lanka, and you take this, you know, my statue, my mūrti.
And then Sita and so many gifts Lord Ram gave. And then Sita asked, Why are you not giving anything to Hanuman? You know, you give you rewarded everyone. You didn't reward Hanumān.
And everyone knows that Hanumān, you know, he performed the greatest service. And Ram he smiled and he said, because I cannot give him anything. He doesn't need anything material.
You know, I was thinking what can I give to him? And I couldn't give him anything. And Sītā because she was very compassionate, she's a woman, she said, okay, I will give him something. I will give him reward.
And in fact, it was a līlā arranged by Lord Ram to show the purity and the chastity of Hanumān. So Lord N Sītā, Mader Sītā, she took off the very valuable pearl.
And she saved it to Hanumān and she said, Hanumān, you take this necklace. This is for you. This is reward. And Hanumān, you know, he grabbed this necklace. He said, Jai, Haribol.
And he took this, you know, one pearl. And he placed this pearl here. And then, you know, and then he was not satisfied. And then he put this pearl in his mouth and he started cracking. And then and then he spat it.
And then another pearl and another pearl and another pearl. And you know and everyone started laughing. You know, what this uncultured, uncivilized monkey is doing.
You know, Mother Sita gave him this valuable, priceless necklace. And he's just, you know, chewing this necklace and throwing out this all these pearls. And Mother Sita asked, Hanumān, why are you doing this?
And he said, uh-uh, you know, you gave me this necklace and I thought it's it's it's something valuable but it's completely useless. Why did you give it to me? She said, Hanuman, how come it's useless?
She said, because he said, because you know I saw that these pearls, they're chanting from Lord Rāma's name. But they're not changing, you know. And then she said, Hanumān, how come you know that pearls are not alive?
They're lifeless matter. How can they chant? And Hanumān said, My body is also lifeless matter, and he took you know some hairs from his body he plucked some hairs from his body
and he gave it to Mother Sita and he said to her, you listen. Mother Sita took these hairs, and she heard Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma. The hairs on the body of Hanumān were chanting the holy name.
Sītā was very impressed. And then, you know, and then somebody said, you know, still Hanumān, You know, what is he doing? He is not chaste.
And then Lord Rāma said, Hanumān, somebody said that you're not chaste. Somebody said that you're neglecting the present which Mother Sita gave. And then Hanumān opened his chest.
Transforming the heart through chanting
And then he opened his heart, and within his heart everyone saw Sītā and Rāma, and Hanumān kneeled down in front of Sītā and Rāma and tearing out his chest, and then within the heart of that Hanumān was again Sītā and Rāma and Hanumān.
So again, the purport of this story, if you chant the holy name, the Lord will be there in your heart. You will obtain the greatest gift of chastity, the greatest gift of being chaste to the Lord.
You will remain pure in your heart, pure in your mind all the time. And you will remain the chaste servant of the Lord.
And again, the only way to do it is to listen about Lord Rāma, is to chant his holy name constantly, and is to associate with devotees who will remind you about this.
If you do this, then you will always be reminded that the greatest treasure in this life, in this world, is the holy name.
If you associate with devotees, if you come to this satsang, then you will have the chance to listen the holy name, to chant the holy name. And by chanting the Holy Name, you become happy. And it's very simple.
It's a very simple fact. It can be very easily proved. You just have to raise your hands. And very loudly chant the Holy Name.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. That's it. Are you happy now? It's simple. You do this, you become happy. There's no doubt about it. It can be proven so many times.
You just do this with very sincere heart. In a prayerful mood, you pray to Lord Rama. You pray to Lord Krishna. You're the savior of all. You're the perfect. You're the most powerful.
And I know that by chanting your holy name, I can acquire all these qualities within my heart. And that's what I need. You know, and there is no other way to acquire all these qualities. Every one of us wants to be perfect.
Who wants to be perfect? We all want to be perfect. This desire is living within our heart. Everyone in this world wants to be perfect. But who is perfect? No. Nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect.
But to become perfect, we have to chant His holy name. And by chanting His holy name, we become closer to Him. And by becoming closer to Him, we acquire all His qualities, all His qualities will reflect upon our heart.
And this is the process how it works. This is how it works. And this is a sure process.
By chanting His holy name, we become happy, we become perfect, we become beautiful, we become powerful, we become intelligent, and ultimately we become renounced. And we will acquire the greatest treasure of love of God within our heart. And the only simple thing which we have to do for this is just chant the holy name.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Kṛṣṇa,
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!