Direct Hankering - Prema Dharma

The beauty of the path given by Sriman Mahaprabhu.

By Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj

Krishna’s Name, Krishna, and Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are nondifferent and transcendental. There are many verses in the scriptures for glorification of Krishna’s Name, but this verse is very nice:

nama-chintamanih krsnas chaitanya-rasa-vigrahah
purnah suddho nitya-mukto ‘bhinnatvan nama-naminoh
(Padma-purana)

[“The Name of Krishna is a wish-fulfilling jewel and an embodiment of spiritual rasa. The Name is complete, pure, eternally liberated, and non-different from whom He names.”]

This will be revealed in your heart if you can give your mood of devotion fully to the lotus feet of Krishna. Then, you will be worry free.

atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah
(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.2.234)

[“Although Krishna’s Name, Form, Qualities, and Pastimes cannot be grasped by the material senses, they manifest themselves to the material senses in response to one’s service attitude.”]

When you take Krishna’s Name, Krishna will reveal Himself in your heart if it is kept very clean. Clean means free from offence. Offence is a very dangerous thing. Mahaprabhu described the result of chanting Krishna’s Name in the first verse of Sri Siksastakam:

cheto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam
sreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam

Here within one verse everything is expressed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Cheto-darpana-marjanam: dirtiness, all the undesirable things in your mind and heart, will go away by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra. Bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam: all the suffering you are experiencing in this mundane world will also leave you. Sreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam: you will get good nourishment, the nourishing rays of Krishna’s Name will be revealed in your heart like moonlight, like the full nectar of the moon. Vidya-vadhu-jivanam: you will enter first into raga-marg. It is not that you will come from vidhi-marg to raga-marg. No. As the direct source, you will start from raga-marg. This is the process: chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra with hankering. When hankering comes into your heart, you will not be satisfied with anything except the ecstasy of Krishna’s Name, and you will get everything through that.

There are ten kinds of offences to Krishna’s Name, however, and especially three or four of them are very dangerous. First, you should not abuse any sadhu. You should not criticise Guru, the Sadhu, or the Vaisnava; you should not make any offence to them. Also, Guror avajna and sruti-sastra-nindan: you should not criticise anything in which there is glorification of the Hare Krishna mahamantra. You should also not take any unnecessary facilities from Krishna’s Name. The only thing you need is Krishna-prema; that is your life’s goal, and you should think, “The mercy of Krishna and Krishna’s devotee, I need only this to attain my life’s goal: service to Krishna in the transcendental world.”

Sriman Mahaprabhu has given us a very nice process:

nacha gao bhakta-sange kara sankirtana
akantha bhariya kara prasada bhaksana

“Chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra, take mahaprasadam, and dance with the devotees.”

Go where the sadhus are glorifying Krishna, hear from the sadhus, and chant Hare Krishna mahamantra without making offence to the sadhus, Guru, or the Vaisnavas. Through this process, your mood of devotion will develop, and through that you will get everything.

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha

In this Age of Kali, you can get everything through the Name. Sriman Mahaprabhu has given only this process to satisfy Krishna and Krishna’s devotees: chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra without offence.