CONTENTS:
- THIS IS HOW SPECIAL THE HOLY NAME
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. THIS IS HOW SPECIAL THE HOLY NAME
This Maha mantra is the greatest of all mantras. What is a mantra? Mantra is something that delivers us from our material bondage. Our mind is tying us down to the material nature but this mantra delivers the mind. This mantra is not a sound or vibration of this world; mantra is a sound vibration of the spiritual world. It comes from the spiritual sky to help us go back to the spiritual sky. Because, it is very powerful and offers a very special benefit therefore mantras were usually kept as a secret. It was kept as a secret, only one who received it from his guru used to have the mantra. He used to give it only to a qualified person not to anybody.
THE MANTRA WAS A SECRET
The guru who had 
the mantra, he used to be very selective about whom to give the mantra and then to a qualified disciple he used to give the mantra. The process of diksha is actually the process of guru giving the secret mantra to his disciple. Guru used to give the mantra in the ear of the disciple so that nobody else could hear, that is how secret the mantra used to be. In the age of Kali Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu not only made the mantra public but He made the maha mantra public and gave it to anybody and everybody.
CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S SPECIAL MERCY
This is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s special mercy. Mantra is a secret and maha mantra is a maha secret but Mahaprabhu gave this mantra to everybody. This maha mantra is Krishna Himself. This maha mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, this maha mantra is no different from Krishna. This mantra is Krishna.
WHEN YOU CHANT THE MAHA MANTRA KRISHNA IS THERE
When you chant the maha mantra Krishna is there. Actually, from this maha mantra Krishna just appears there because this maha mantra is Krishna Himself. This maha mantra has ten offenses and if those offenses are involved in chanting by the chanter, then the mantra does not become Krishna. Therefore, it is very important that we chant the maha mantra without offense. When the mantra is chanted without offense then it becomes the pure chanting of the holy name of the Lord is Krishna. Sudha nama means name without offenses. A devotee should be very careful as to not committing offenses while chanting the holy name.
There are three stages of chanting:
1. Chanting with offense;
2. Clearing stage of chanting; and
3. Pure name.
It is said that in the clearing stage of chanting when the offenses are not completely removed one becomes liberated. Namabhase sukhe mukti haya. Haridas Thakur mentioned that koti janme brahma jnana yei mukti naya ei kahe. Only in namabhase one becomes liberated and in Sudhanama, pure chanting of the holy name gives Krishna prema. Krishna prema means getting Krishna. This is how special the holy name is. We should be very careful not to commit any offense while chanting the holy name now that we got the Hare Krishna maha mantra from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
To be inattentive while chanting, while we are chanting our minds should be completely absorbed in chanting the holy name. We should be so absorbed in the holy name that our mind will not go anywhere. When you chant like that then the holy name is Krishna. Who is the holy name? RadhaKrishna.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA’S APPRECIATION
Srila Prabhupada gave everything, the perfect thing in the most perfect way. The gift of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is confirmed by Nityananda. The door to Vrindavan opens. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is RadhaKrishna and when we achieve perfection of devotion to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we will see RadhaKrishna and You will be in Vrindavan and wonderful lilas are there to create attraction. We are not going to settle for anything less than Vrindavan as Srila Prabhupada has given us the highest and we won’t be satisfied. Sanatana Goswami describes Gopa Kumar’s journey when he went to Vaikuntha, Ayodhya, Dwarika and was not satisfied. Narada Muni detected Gopa Kumar’s dissatisfaction and he said my heart is attracted to the boy who plays a flute and Narada Muni told him that his attraction is to Krishna in Vrindavan. Those who have informations of Vrindavan would not settle for less. So magnanimously this was distributed by His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- This maha mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, this maha mantra is no different from Krishna. This mantra is Krishna;
- Therefore, it is very important that we chant the maha mantra without offense;
- We should be very careful not to commit any offense while chanting the holy name now that we got the Hare Krishna maha mantra from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; and
- We should be so absorbed in the holy name that our mind will not go anywhere. When you chant like that then the holy name is Krishna.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 11 December 2010 in Bhubaneswar)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)