Lecture before Initiation Ceremony
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Вриндаван · 2015
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Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale, śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe.
vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca, patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda, śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda.
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare, hare rāma hare rāma, rāma rāma hare hare. namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te,
Honoring the guru's order to speak
kanaka-vadātau saṅkīrtana-paitarau kamala-patrākṣau, viśvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-pālau vande jagat-priya-karau svānukāra-māyā- mānuṣa-rūpiṇau tam aham śrī-caitanya-mahāprabhu-madam idaṁ tatra dhāraṇā-param.
vṛṣabhānusute devī praṇamāmi hari-priye. It's a great honour for me to be together with all of you and especially with His Holiness Guru
Rāja Mahārāja who is my guru. Just before this he asked me to speak and I said I would rather listen to you and he said it's your selfish desire and you're here to serve, therefore you should speak.
And it's only because of his order I dare to open my mouth and speak in front of him.
He is the legend of our movement and his service to Śrīla Prabhupāda is unparalleled and his steadiness and kindness and spirit are very much inspiring. So I asked for his blessings before I can say something. Today
morning I was reading the purport of Sanātana Gosvāmī to the ten offenses in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. And he comments, he makes a very interesting observation commenting on the last offense.
The last offense from Padma Purāṇa sounds: śrutepi nāma-māhātmyam yaḥ prīti-rahito ’dhamaḥ, manyate ’haṁ-mamādīti sa vai narakam aśnute. paramo yo hi nāmani aparādha-kṛt.
Anyway, we all know this usual explanation of the tenth offense, which is perhaps the offense from which all other offenses are stemming out. It is said very clearly in Sanskrit: śrutepi nāma-māhātmyam,
even though one has heard so many times the glory of the holy name, still prīti-rahita, he is still devoid of prīti, devoid of love. ahaṁ-mamādīti. Yeah, that's very important. I missed the very important word.
He still thinks that aham and Mama and Adi, whatever coming from this concept of I and Mine, is more important than the holy name. Parama means Parama means supreme. Ahamadi Parama.
Despite hearing the glory of the Holy Name, knowing that the Holy Name is non-different from Krishna himself. One still thinks that this concept of I and mine in this world is something more important.
Something, because prīti basically means I don't think about myself, I think about the object of my prīti, object of my love. So Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī says, he explains, he expands on this concept of Aham and Mama.
What does it mean? And it is said there that somebody who is doing this is Adhama. In our formulation of this offense it doesn't say Adhama. Adama means the lowest of the mankind.
In our usual Sanskrit of this offense, there is simple Naraha, the person who is doing this. But there it is said he is the lowest of the mankind, who despite
of hearing the glory of the holy name, doesn't give attention to the holy name, doesn't put his heart in the chanting of the Holy Name. His chanting is still mechanical because there is something more important for him.
And uh uh you know if if something is important for us, uh we put our heart into this thing. If somebody is really dear to us, he is the object of our investment of our heart. That's natural.
So, and if something is not really dear to us, our relationship with this object or subject is mechanical. If prasadam or if some food stuff is very dear to us, we put all our heart into this process.
Nobody should say to us that we should be very attentive while eating. If we are hungry we are very attentive while eating. It's um yeah if we're not hungry we are quite mechanical while we're eating.
But if we are hungry we're not mechanical, we're we're doing it with full heart attention into the process. So the same thing works with the Holy Name. If the Holy Name is something important to us, then
False ego as the barrier in chanting
the chanting will have a special quality, which in this verse of Padma Purāṇa is characterized as prīti. And it is said that it constitutes the offense to the holy name because still we are we hold more important positions within our consciousness.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, he gives quite elaborate commentary on this verse and he says that there are different uh ways one can manifest his ahaṁ and mama while chanting the holy name.
The usual way of manifesting the concept of aham and mama of this ahaṅkāra is to enjoy the material world.
So, one explanation of this verse: if we are still attached to sense gratification and put more importance into sense gratification, and if the sense gratification is something you know more important in our life and it always interferes with our chanting. That's an offense to the holy name.
But then he says that there is another way of expressing one's
ahaṅkāra or false ego while chanting the holy name, he says that sometimes we can manifest false ego by saying that I am chanting so nicely. I am chanting so many rounds of the holy name. I am such a great chanter of the Holy name.
And it will still be the same good old or rather I would say, bad old manifestation of the false ego.
Ultimately, this last offense to the Holy Name is describing the greatest enemy of the chanting of the Holy Name, the greatest enemy of the spiritual life. This is our ego.
When our ego, our concept of me as somebody who is very important, and mine, while I'm reflecting or projecting my ego onto some other subjects or objects of this world, it becomes mine.
So while doing this and while holding this as important, more more important than the holy name of God. While I am remaining in the center of this world, trying to compete with Krishna. This is an offense.
And because of the offenses, we know there is there is no fruit of the chanting of the holy name. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also very beautifully explained this point while giving the anatomy of the cloud of anarthas.
He says that the power of the holy name is blocked. In Sanskrit it is called pratibandhaka. If something is blocking the power of some object,
like for example if, if the heat or the light of the sun is blocked by the cloud, then even though the heat and the light, the energy of the sun is still there, we cannot get the benefit because it's blocked.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, while analyzing this anatomy of the cloud of anarthas, he explains uh it in a very beautiful way. Without going into details, we can see the design or the logic of his explanation.
He says that in the beginning of the Anartus, the root cause of all anarthas is the false conceptions. Vi Brahma.
And he says Svatattva Vibrahma, Paratattva Vi Brahma, Sadhana Sadhya Vi Brahma, and uh the uh the whatever the force. What was Swatattvi Brahma
Paratattva Vi Brahma Sadhana Sadvi Brahma and Devi Brahma of the what is wrong, what is what is the hindrance in this way. Anyway, it doesn't matter.
But he says that originally all the anarthas are coming from the false conceptions. And all false conceptions are coming from the false conceptions of who am I? Svatapuri Brahma.
And ahaṅkāra, long false ego, is actually the pinnacle of this false conception or manifestation of this false conception of who am I? I am in the center. I am the most important. Everything should be my way.
You know there is a beautiful joke in Russian once a sadhu or whatever a sage was asked, How can you prove the existence of God?
And his answer was: it's very easy to prove the existence of God because since I remember myself, uh something is always going not my way. Uh so it must be going his way. Because it's not going my way.
It must mean that God exists because if I was God everything would go my way. So the the beginning the the very root cause of all the problems which we have is this svarūpa-vibhrama, which manifests as uh as false I,
ahaṅkāra, false conception, false ego, false conception of who I am and what I'm doing this. What is this world is all about? Why this world is somehow rather plotting against me and not giving me what I want.
So and then he says after that, because of this false conception of myself and God and sādhana and sādhya, we uh develop Tucha Sakti, we develop very petty attachment in this world.
Naturally because we have this false understanding of who I am, then attachment will come. And then the third one is aparādha.
And the fourth one is uh of course uh the fourth one is uh khridda Urbaliamy, the weakness of the heart, or general general flaws in our character.
But if we see this logic in which these uh problems are put first is the false conception of who I am and uh who is God and uh what I am supposed to do in this world and what is my purpose in life and what is the hindrance?
Then the attachment inevitably comes next. And when the attachment comes, because of the attachment, we develop uh offensive attitude. Because what is offenses?
Offenses is our subtle or sometimes not so subtle uh mechanism to destroy the hindrances to our attachments to manifest to or develop our attachments.
Overcoming offenses with humility
So, and then from offenses, the general flows or the general defects of our character will develop in the very natural and spontaneous way.
So again, what I'm trying to the point which I'm trying to And I will still come back to the Sanātana Gosvāmī's commentary because he ends this commentary in a very beautiful way.
Basically all the offenses of the Holy Name which are blocking the power of the Holy Name, which are depriving us the real fruits or results of the chanting of the holy name are coming from the false understanding who I am.
This false pride which is there.
And therefore, Sanātana Gosvāmī ends his purport or explanation of this verse, the last verse of the ten offences, by saying, therefore, Bhagavan himself says, Trinada Pisunichina, Taro, Apisa Hishnuna, Amanina, Manadana, Hirtaniya Sadhahari.
Therefore, the remedy from all the offenses and the only rule and the only understanding which we should have while chanting the holy name to counteract all the offenses is that we should become humble, we should become tolerant, we should become very respectful towards everyone and we shouldn't expect any respect towards ourselves.
Nam kirtaniya sadahari. Actually sometimes uh people are very diligently repeating all the offenses uh while before chanting of the holy name.
But most offenses against the holy name we commit not while we are chanting the holy name. Most of the offenses we commit some other uh time and uh moreover it's the whole mentality which is offensive.
The whole mentality which does not allow us to chant with the proper mood. Because ultimately Krishna wants to hear some love within our chanting. He wants to hear our heart.
Not just, you know, Krishna isn't really interested to hear some material sound, some material mumbling. Krishna is not egomaniac. He's not you know sitting there and listening. Is he, you know, what is he doing?
You know, Krishna Krishna wants to hear the call of our heart. And therefore this last offense, uh the formulation or the uh the definition of this last offense is this Yah priti Rahita Adham.
The somebody who is chanting without priti, without paying attention to chanting, without giving importance to chanting, without understanding that this is the most important thing which one can do, he is adma, he is the lowest of mankind.
And if you give importance to the chanting, it's not difficult to chant all the time. You know if something is really important for you, you will do it all the time, without any problem.
If the child is important to mother, she will take care of him 24 hours a day. It's not that she will just, you know, take care of him one half hour while looking in the watch. And that's it.
The rest of the day is for me. I'm free now. No. If the child is important, you know, perhaps the mother would like to do it, but it's not possible because the child is there and the child is important for her.
In the same way, if the holy name is important for us, uh it's uh it's very natural to chant all the time. Uh to chant again and again and again. And it's very easy to chant all the time.
You know, sometimes devotee we know that the the standard definition of the standard vow uh vow uh initiation vow that I have to chant at least sixteen rounds every day.
And um oftentimes people give the slightly different uh version of this vow. I promise to you to chant sixteen rounds every day and I say please say at least sixteen rounds because otherwise you will break your vow while chanting 17 rounds.
You know, but uh the reality is not 16 rounds. 16 rounds is just to give us some discipline. The reality is actually Śrīla Prabhupāda said 24 hours, that's that's the minimum.
And if you cannot do this then 24 free well, 23 hours is also okay But at least 16 rounds. But the point is not 16 rounds. The point is to give importance to this process. The point is to give heart to this process.
And then the offenses will not be there.
Maintaining proper consciousness over mechanical vows
Unless we give real heart to this process, unless we really pay attention to this process and uh do it uh uh in a proper mood, then our chanting will be offensive and uh this offensive chanting uh will not bring satisfaction and we will have to look for satisfaction somewhere else.
You know, I've seen people who are giving this initiation vows and they're very bold and brave. You know, but after some time they change their mind.
It's actually very important to understand that it's not our mind who gives the vow today. Therefore, it's not an excuse if the mind is changed and the vow is also changed. It's me, the soul.
Again, this is the false conception. People because they identify with the mind when the mind is changed then they feel justified to break the vow. I'm different now. No, you're not.
Uh, the soul is the same and now the soul is giving the vow to put his consciousness into this process of the chanting of the holy name.
This is the meaning of the first initiation because every one of us is already chanting before being recommended for the first initiation one one is supposed to chant. So what is the difference?
The difference is that now we are not just giving the vow to chant. By giving the vow to chant without offenses, by giving the vow to try to get rid of the offenses, by giving which will ultimately fulfill all our desires and purify our hearts and which will ultimately fulfill all our desires and purify our hearts and purify everyone around us, not only our own heart.
So this is the few points which I wanted to make uh while speaking today. Any manifestation of the false ego or ahaṅkāra while chanting is the enemy. And sometimes we will use the chanting to manifest our ahaṅkāra.
Once Śrīla Prabhupāda made a very peculiar statement. He said that sometimes people use Krishna consciousness to avoid Krishna consciousness, to escape Krishna consciousness.
Sometimes we may use the practice of Krishna consciousness, to escape of being Krishna conscious. It's kind of a protective shield or something which deprives us of Krishna consciousness. We say I'm okay, I'm fine.
Everything is fine with me. Look, I have tilak. And I have, you know, Sri Kanti-mala. And I have my beads. You know, they're there. They're with me. No. Krishna consciousness, it's a matter of consciousness.
In any other process or in any other yoga path you can get away with some mechanical thing and Krishna consciousness mechanical way doesn't work.
It means as soon as you are mechanical in, any practice of devotional service, you're not doing devotional service. It's not devotional service. Because devotional service is the activity of the heart.
It's not the activity of the lips or tongue or even body, it's the activity of the consciousness.
And this is the only way to get rid of the offenses of the Holy Name and get the desired fruit of the chanting of the Holy Name, real love of Godhead.
Importance of servant identity at initiation
And for that the rule is that we have to be very humble and very tolerant. It's very interesting.
I recently had to study the teachings of other sampradāyas because I was engaged in some debate with some followers of Madhvācārya. And to my great surprise, nowhere else I found
so much stress on offenses as in Gauḍīya line. They don't pay so much attention to this point, whereas this
is the central point of our practice to understand what the offense is what is the blockage or what is the hindrance in our spiritual practice?
Unless we understand it very carefully, it will become a useless waste of time. Not entirely useless, but to a greater extent not very fruitful engagement of our lips and tongue.
As it is said in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, you can chant for millions and millions of lifetimes without getting the real fruit.
And of course, for that to get the real fruit of chanting and to get the real mood, this mood of humility is something which is very difficult to understand just by listening about this.
The mood of humility, the real mood for chanting, you can only get from somebody who has this mood. Therefore the personal association is so important and the personal relationships are so important.
Therefore this ceremony of initiation is there to help us to avoid offences, because this ceremony of initiation establishes our position as a servant.
As I said, the greatest enemy of the spiritual practice and the spiritual life is the false conception of myself. So while getting the first initiation, we are getting a new conception of ourselves.
We become dās or devī-dāsī, and you know, sometimes we forget about this. Sometimes one would like to be prabhu. Everyone else is dās, prabhu. And I am on the way to become Mahaprabhu. But
the real point of initiation is to get the right identity. To get the right identity at this point, I'm getting the right identity. I am dāso dāsī. Eternally so.
There is a beautiful story which I read in Śrīla Prabhupāda's memories. One devotee is telling a story about initiation, his or his initiation.
I don't exactly remember whether it was... I think it was him who was telling the story himself. Uh he came in the temple as a new bhakta and he had a very strong controlling tendencies.
And he wanted to, you know, he expressed his tendencies very freely in the temple. And he very soon was appointed as a temple commander, and everyone knew that this is the guy with, you know, very great controlling power.
So the story goes like this, when the time of his initiation came,
he came to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and we know the usual ceremonies like this that one pays obeisances to his spiritual master and then gives the vows and then spiritual master gives him the new name and gives him the chanting beads. But in his case it was different.
So while he was in daṇḍavats in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda, all of a sudden he's chanting Prabhupada's Praṇāma Mantra. He's lying there on the floor, paying his obeisances and chanting Prabhupāda's mantra, and he hears at the same time: "Your name is such and such dās." And then Prabhupāda says: "Dās, you understand? Dās. Thousand times dās, not the lord dās." Before he could get up you know he was completely shocked he didn't know what to do and then he said uh uh he he explained he said uh while I was listening to this, uh uh he said there was only one thought in my mind at that time.
What am I supposed to do with it now? What am I supposed to do with it? So Śrīla Prabhupāda he caught him. You know he knew that you know, uh while he would stand up it would be too late, you know.
While he's still there on the floor. Yes, to tell him this is your constitutional position This is what you're supposed to be. You're dās. Thousand times dās. Not the boss.
You know, and this is this is the point of initiation. This is the real point. This is what this is what is supposed to change change in in our life and uh in general and in our chanting in particular.
And as I said, this this mood of humility we can only get from somebody
who has the humility, therefore I humbly request His Holiness Giriraj Maharaj to speak few words uh to uh to teach us the most important lesson us the most important lesson