By chanting you can be free

“Tak­ing shel­ter of Krishna-nam is the ulti­mate prac­tice for the real devo­tee.” (p 61)

There are many devo­tional prac­tices one may per­form. Some are more effec­tive than oth­ers. The most impor­tant for fol­low­ers of Chai­tanya is the chant­ing of Radha & Krishna’s names which are non-different from the Divine Cou­ple them­selves. One should call upon them like a child call­ing for its mother-father. They are our only shel­ter. We are com­pletely depen­dent upon their grace and mercy to save us.

We are unqual­i­fied, but by call­ing out in love, they hear us and respond due to the nat­ural, innate love that exists between Radha Krishna and the liv­ing enti­ties. They are present in the sound vibra­tion of their names which are unlim­ited and con­tain their full potency. There are no hard and fast rules for chant­ing these holy names, but the more feel­ing we can put into it, the greater the response will be. Our yearn­ing, long­ing, lov­ing calls to them can­not help but attract them to us.

“They will con­stantly chant the maha-mantra of six­teen names of Krishna while count­ing their chant­ing on beads.” (p 62)

This is the tra­di­tional way of doing it. When I was a renun­ci­ate and able to remain free of admin­is­tra­tive duties, I was able to reg­u­larly chant the Hare Krishna mantra 64 rounds of beads daily. This prac­tice is very good for focus­ing the mind on Radha Krishna. Even when one is not chant­ing on beads, the mantra may still go on mentally.

When I left the renounced order of life, of course, my lifestyle and devo­tional prac­tices changed. “Devo­tees will main­tain body, house and soci­ety as long as they are favor­able for cul­ti­vat­ing the name and will offer them all in the ser­vice of Krishna. They will not labor in any other direc­tion, and even in this devo­tional direc­tion, they will not over-endeavor.” (p 62)

I felt I had been over-endeavoring. Our efforts are not as impor­tant as the grace of Radha Krishna. All our endeav­ors will not bring us to them with­out their grace. I felt there had to be an eas­ier, more nat­ural way to prac­tice devo­tion that would lead to the supreme goal of pure love.

I began to make the men­tal chant­ing of Om my con­stant prac­tice. Om is another name of the Divine Cou­ple and the liv­ing enti­ties in love. I find it is just sort of there as I go about the activ­i­ties of the day. It is my cen­ter. From this cen­ter, I can relate to oth­ers, the world about me and Radha Krishna in a nat­ural way that is more in tune with being present in the moment as well as being able to respond flu­idly to the flow of life.

Another way of putting it is that I become more incar­nate and expe­ri­enced the imma­nence of God rather than just seek­ing a tran­scen­den­tal rela­tion­ship to the exclu­sion of this life. Chris­tians call this “prac­tic­ing the pres­ence of God.” I find it to be a very effec­tive spir­i­tual prac­tice which also allows me to main­tain body, house and soci­ety in a way con­sis­tent with my life sit­u­a­tion, which has var­ied greatly over the years.

“Not being overly ambi­tious in their plans, they will reside in a soli­tary place. Stay­ing in asso­ci­a­tion with those who can nur­ture devo­tion, they care­fully progress. The pur­pose of all these activ­i­ties is to attain fixed chant­ing of the name, with no anx­i­eties.” (pp 62–63)

A year ago, my wife/disciple and I moved from Grand Rapids, Michi­gan to the trop­i­cal rain­for­est of Hawai’i. We live a pretty sim­ple, soli­tary life of devo­tion. Our home is a tem­ple. We chant the maha-mantra and other mantras to Radha & Krishna on our beads as well as singing with instru­ments. Still, I con­tinue to Om. We study the sacred writ­ings, encour­age one another and con­sider our abode to be tran­scen­den­tal. Our love is a reflec­tion of the love of Radha & Krishna. Our chant­ing is becom­ing fixed and our anx­i­eties less­ened as we detach from mate­r­ial life and become more attached to Radha & Krishna.

“In Lord Chaitanya’s teach­ings, there are only two con­cepts: taste for the name and mercy to the liv­ing enti­ties. A per­son is a devo­tee to the extent that these two qual­i­ties are present. It is not nec­es­sary to labor for any other qual­i­ties. The qual­i­ties of the devo­tee spon­ta­neously appear, and the devo­tee nat­u­rally rel­ishes act­ing for the ben­e­fit of all.” (p 64)

A taste for the name has sus­tained me my whole adult life. It is my life-line in the ocean of mate­r­ial exis­tence. I have shown mercy to oth­ers by teach­ing them love of God. This is the great­est mercy one may show. It is what is most lack­ing and most needed in this world to solve all our prob­lems. When we love God, we can also love one another as well as God’s creation.

In this way, I have worked for peace, jus­tice and the envi­ron­ment over the years. Under the cur­rent U.S. admin­is­tra­tion, I lost all hope that sig­nif­i­cant reform in those areas is pos­si­ble. The admin­is­tra­tion is pow­er­ful and hell bent on its own agenda which seems to entail destroy­ing peace, jus­tice and the envi­ron­ment. They are not open to out­side views or the will of the peo­ple. There­fore, my focus is on the spir­i­tual solution—one per­son at a time.

“’Always chant the holy name of Lord Krishna and within your mind ren­der ser­vice to Radha and Krishna in Vrind­a­ban…’ Chai­tanya Chari­ta­m­rita, Antya 6. In these instruc­tions, the Lord also hinted in a cov­ered way about the inter­nal wor­ship of Radha Krishna through the eight time-periods of the day known as astakaliya-lila-bhajan.” (p 65)

Bhak­tivin­ode intro­duces this impor­tant sub­ject here and will take it up again later in the book. As one chants, one should remem­ber the pas­times of Radha Krishna through the day and serve them in one’s spir­i­tual body. Thus, one must know one’s rela­tion­ship to the Divine Cou­ple, their pas­times and how they like to be served fol­low­ing the exam­ples of the eter­nal res­i­dents of Vrind­a­ban and the dis­ci­plic suc­ces­sion. This is revealed by the siddha-pranali guru to the dis­ci­ple. In this way, our rela­tion­ship with Radha Krishna becomes very real and per­sonal and our mutual attrac­tion increases. Jai Radhe!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 12:44 and is filed under Steve's Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.