CONTENTS:
1. THE HOLY NAME
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. THE HOLY NAME
A devotee did a painting of Krishna in the forest of Vrindavan and then Prabhupada asked, where did you get these descriptions from? Then he said that he got it from his mind, he imagined. Prabhupada was very annoyed and he said there is no room for imagining about Krishna’s dhama, Krishna’s pastimes, we have to just stick to authoritative description, that’s the scriptures. If we want to remember, let us remember through reading because when we read it comes to our memory, it’s a smaranam. When we hear there is lila smaranam but there is another way at a very advanced stage one does not imagine Krishna’s pastimes but the pastimes dawn in the heart, it automatically happens. To give you a description of that Bhaktivinode Thakura is writing kṛṣṇa-nāma dhare koto bal he is saying what kind of power the name of Krishna has? hṛdoya hoite bole, jihvāra agrete cale, śabda-rūpe nāce anukṣan kanṭhe mora bhaṅge swara, aṅga kāṅpe thara, sthira hoite nā pāre caraṇ forcibly it springs forth from the depth of the heart.
The real name actually comes from the depth of the heart. So, it is a pure spirit soul who chants the Holy Name. It comes from the tip of the tongue and there it starts to dance. it dances constantly in the form of sound vibration so it’s not that the Holy Name is chanted through the lips and tongue. Bhaktivinode Thakura in some other places is saying rūpe nāce anukṣan the syllables of the name are uttered but that is not the name. He is saying hṛdoya hoite bole forcibly it rises jihvāra agrete cale, śabda-rūpe nāce anukṣan kanṭhe constantly dances on the tip of the tongue and while it rises it cracks my voice and make my body tremble and my legs cannot become steady, it starts to wobble and my body begins to shake. In my consciousness it awakens all the pastimes of Krishna, so it will automatically happen through the pure chanting of the Holy Name. How the Holy Name will manifest in our hearts? By the mercy of the Guru and Prabhupada is the Founder Acharya, so in ISKCON our business is to just follow Prabhupada’s instructions and everybody in ISKCON is actually pointing to Srila Prabhupada. Everybody joins the movement by reading Prabhupada’s books, by being attracted by Srila Prabhupada and those who are acting as spiritual masters, not only Prabhupada’s disciples, even in the future they will reveal Prabhupada’s instructions, Prabhupada’s teachings through their disciples and in this way the devotees will receive the mercy of Krishna.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
How the Holy Name will manifest in our hearts? By the mercy of the Guru and Prabhupada is the Founder Acharya, so in ISKCON our business is to just follow Prabhupada’s instructions and everybody in ISKCON is actually pointing to Srila Prabhupada. Everybody joins the movement by reading Prabhupada’s books, by being attracted by Srila Prabhupada and those who are acting as spiritual masters, not only Prabhupada’s disciples, even in the future they will reveal Prabhupada’s instructions, Prabhupada’s teachings through their disciples and in this way the devotees will receive the mercy of Krishna.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- The real name actually comes from the depth of the heart;
- Our business is to just follow Prabhupada’s instructions.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a lecture given by HH Bhakti Charu
Swami in Durban, South Africa on 29 December 1994)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)