What All Our Gurus Say - Prema Dharma

The substance of spreading Krishna consciousness.

By Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj

Actually, our practice and our preaching are the same thing: we preach what we practice. In our practice, we are not following so many rules and regulations, but we always follow the three directives of Sriman Mahaprabhu: be humble, be tolerant, and give honour to others.

trnad api sunichena taror iva sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih
(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta: Adi-lila, 17.31)

[“The Lord’s Name is to be chanted always, with more humility than a blade of grass, tolerance like that of a tree, respect for everyone, and without desire for respect from anyone.”]

In this Age of Kali, what is actually necessary to rescue the conditioned souls from this illusory environment and take them to the transcendental service world is Hari-nam-sankirtan, and our realisation from all the scriptures is that the three directives of Mahaprabhu give us super strength to practise this in our life.

In other ages, the residents of this material world, the conditioned souls, follow so many rules and regulations to be rescued, but in this Age of Kali, there is only one process to practise: chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra. We must always chant the mahamantra without offence, and when it is revealed in our heart, all inauspiciousness and disturbance—everything—will go away. That will be possible only by following the three directives: be humble, be tolerant, and give honour to others. These three qualities clean everything. Peace in this world will come only through them.

If we are humble, we are tolerant, and we give honour to everyone, then all the inauspiciousness will go away, everyone will be our friend, and peacefully we will be able to practise our spiritual life. Hari-nam-sankirtan is the best in this life, and one who chants Hari-nam must be enriched with these three qualities and qualifications. This is the gift of Mahaprabhu.

Before, many Vedic practices and procedures gave people some relief, but they are hard to practise in this Age of Kali. It is not possible, actually, to purely follow the rules and regulation of the Vedas in this age.

Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavad-gita, and all the other scriptures have given Hari-nam-sankirtan great importance. Everyone knows the mahamantra. Of all mantras, the mahamantra is the best. It is necessary, however, to chant it with some qualification, and that will come through the procedure given by Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev. Mahaprabhu engaged in question and answer with Prakasananda Saraswati and other great scholars, but lastly He rejected everything they proposed and said everything else is not necessary in this Age of Kali and cannot be done perfectly. Hari-nam-sankirtan is the best for everyone, and Sri Hari Himself is joyful to rescue any person who chants Hari-nam without offence.

We are making many preaching programmes and doing many things, but actually what we want to practise and advise others to practise is to chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra without offence and be happy. All the scriptures and all our Gurus said this, and we have dedicated our lives to this mantram. So, our devotees worldwide should always try to practise and preach this Krishna consciousness. What shall I say more?