Q. Sri Bijoy Krishna Goswami has said, “With an impure mind, how can I call You?” How does one then get a taste of liberation?

A: Dear brother, why do you worry about these things? In the Infinite, while there is no finite, there is no love either; the Infinite One is alone, without company. He wants to be in company. Remember the Lord’s own submission, “I am One, I desire to be many”. The union of the Infinite with the finite is in itself Mahamilan. That is why Thakur named this matha ‘Mahamilan Matha’. And as far as the taste of liberation goes, you can get that very easily. Just go on singing Naam, incessantly.

Q. We have no taste for chanting Naam, we have no inclination for japa, dhyana, etc, as a matter of fact, we don’t even have no real hunger for Sri Sitaram’s teachings, no attraction whatsoever. This is a critical ailment we suffer from. We hear that Guru is bhavaroga vaidya, the physician for the disease of transitory worldly existence – what is the treatment he can offer us?

A. Thakur says in Sudha Dhara: Poison to treat poison, is doctor’s prescription, talk to the Lord, for the mind’s dissolution. It is by chanting Naam that you will gain a taste for Naam. With time, as you go on listening, you will begin to relish it. If you sit in a solitary spot and keep chanting Naam you will be immersed in the nectar of Naam.

Q. How would you explain the significance of the popular counsel हाथ में काम, मुँह में नाम (errand in the hand and God’s name on the lips…)

A. Actually, people don’t have time which is why this saying came into being. Either you chant Naam while you do your work or you do your work while you chant Naam.

Q. This devotee comes late for your functions because he goes here and there doing sundry works for you. This other devotee never late but mainly renders Naam sitting in one place. How do you compare the two?

A. Our Naamkaris too sing Naam their whole life. Rendering Naam too is work or service of a type. They do many other services too, quite invisibly! Some of them cook, some keep accounts. Some do anything from cleaning to cooking, to checking stocks of books to translating from Shri Sitaram’s text...as per the need...! There is no question of whether a service is performed by moving about or being in one place. There can be no excuses, only good reasons, for a devotee always arriving late... of course his rendering of service of any sort, is very valuable to me and it is an offering to none other than Hari. Each one renders service according to the temperament. There are some devotees who are simply not in a state to render just any service. Some of these confine themselves to a room and do only japa day and night. And that is fine.

See, when you say Harer Naam Harer Naam Harer Naamaiva Kevalam, make sure you don’t forget namaiva. Hari is one who snatches away your sins. Even Allah or Jesus can do this job, so they are also Hari. So is Ma Kali. You know Her pranam mantra, don’t you? ‘Kali Kali Mahakali Kalike paaphaarini’… So, She too snatches away the sins. Hari can be any God.

Twin Forces

First Ram. Ramati yah sah Ramah — Ram is He in whom the whole world has delight. Bathe in that delight. Then go to Krishna. Krishna brings attraction, sattvic bhavas appear when there is attraction.

He sang a song describing the enchanting blue complexion of Krishna. “His beauty is like that of a thousand Kandarpas, the lord of love!” he said. The devotees realized he had chosen to sing this song because it was the day of Janmashtami.

Q. The Hare Krishna Naam that you preach…why is it necessary to be sung aloud? And what is the need for clapping?

A. Human body is likened to a tree. Sin is the bird sitting on the body. Birds sitting on the tree are to be driven away. When you clap, the sins are driven away. Vitthal Maharaj walked around with karatala and sang Naam throughout the house. He continued, “Naam is all powerful. I have consecrated all the parts of the house with the holy Hare Krishna Naam. भूत पिशाच सब भाग जायेंगे (Ghosts and all other evil spirits will flee with Naam). You have nothing to fear! In his voice one could hear the voice of a maestro co-mingling with the voice of a pure folk-singer, an impossible-sounding combination. Great was the charm exerted when he rendered Naam, in a voice which seemed grounded in the soil, while resounding through the very skies!

“There’s no end to problems. It would be impossible to solve all of them. So, you must find the joy within. And you can get it through Naam: Hare Krishna Naam or Guru Naam.”

Q. When you die in a hospital, there is no Naam Kirtan or Gita Paath that goes into your ears, so what happens to the soul as it does not get to hear God’s name at the time of last breath.

A. What is more important is your ability to take God’s name at the time of your last breath. If you take the God’s Name, a devaduta (messenger of God) comes to take you. Don’t you remember Ajamil’s story? Yamdutas (messengers of the god of death) were very upset and even complained that devadutas had beaten them and left with Ajamil’s soul. Ajamil was liberated by calling out “Narayan Narayan” (his son’s name) specifically before dying, despite being a fallen soul.

Yamaraj (Lord of Death) comes to take all the souls in the normal course. If punyas are more than paap, you get to heaven, else hell. If both paap and punya is equal (50- 50), you return to earth. Advanced souls don’t go to Yamaraj but to the respective lokas of their deity. It is your Ishta who comes to take you if you chant Lord’s Name during your lifetime.

On Naam & Pranaam

Q. If you were asked to give just three instructions as your counsel, what would these be?

A. Well, if I had to advise just one thing, it would be chanting Naam to the best of one’s ability. If I had to give two instructions, it would be Naam & Pranaam. And if I am to give three pieces of advice, it would be, Naam, Pranaam & Sharanagati (surrender).

Q. Which are the simplest and most effective instruments for spiritual growth?

A. Naam and Pranaam of course!

Q. Sri Sri Thakur has always maintained, and so have you, that Naam and Pranaam are the two highways – which of these must one exert more on?

A. You will have to give equal importance to both. If you don’t chant Naam, you will be unable to offer pranaam. And if you don’t practice pranaam from within, you will not develop the resoluteness in chanting Naam.

With heart-felt pranaam if one thinks that my body, my home, and even my soul itself isn’t mine (it’s His!), a devotee can even merge his soul at the lotus feet of Sri Bhagawan.

“If he or she is an elder, do not think. Just bow down and offer your pranaam.”

Q. What can one gain with pranaam…what is the fruit of the practice of pranaam? By fruit I mean what is the tangible gain?

A. Direct gain of pranaam is riddance of enemies. As soon as you wake up, one by one contemplate the enemies and the discomforting things related to them, and offer pranaam to each. You will personally experience that your enemies are being placated, so much so, that one day you will find you have no enemy.

You have become ajaatshatru (sobriquet for someone who has no enemy). Think that every single person is none other than the leela-vigraha (an image of the divine sport) of Gurudeva. As the sins wear out with this practice of pranaam, your sense of aham (me) and mam (mine) will go away

Q. Is this really possible?

A. Why don’t you do it and see for yourself? Just practice it once. Thakur has taught this to us with personal warmth, hand-holding us through the lesson – ‘Everywhere, it’s You alone, why have recourse to false pride and vanity?’

Ananda

Q. Which is one thing that the whole world starting from a child to the most evolved person wants?

A. It’s Ananda! (Gurudeva now started out on another song. ‘Ananda loke mangalaa loke viraajo satya sundara.’ He discoursed, “You reside in the abode of the pleasant and blissful world. You are truth and beauty. ‘Truth is beauty, beauty is truth…’ you will get it in Keats too).”

The Kasturi Mriga

“Real happiness does not lie in the external world. It lies within. But we are not able see it. It’s like the tragedy of Kasturi Mriga (musk deer). The deer courts a strange, fascinating smell coming from the musk, but cannot fathom where it’s issuing from. It runs helter-skelter, desperately trying to look for the origin of the smell. It finds it not, loses its sanity and in its frenzied search, frantically bangs against trees and rocks, hurting itself in the process. Blood gushes out and then it realizes, the smell it was looking for was in its own abdomen. It is so with human beings too. Introspecting thus and inundated with the Ananda, Vitthal Maharaj composed a song on the holy banks of Narmada. It went like this “Mori Mori Mori Mori Aha Ki Ananda Re …” The song was based on Raga Pahar.

Q. Where is Ananda?

A. Well, between ida-pingala nadis (spiritual nerve chanels), there’s a small nadi, which runs through the spinal column… all joy rests in it! Well, if you don’t believe me… if you don’t believe the mahatmas… you will surely believe a man of this world.

Rabindranath Thakur who was bestowed with the Nobel Prize also discusses God, sadhana, ananda and so on.

(Quoting roughly from a poem of the nobel-laureate poet, Rabindranath Tagore)

In the bazaar haat of life
I shopped day and night
But the Ananda for which I strive
I never got, that’s my plight
I never got you in my life
Never let me forget my plight
Remind me, remind me of my misery
Never let me forget my plight

You must strive for this Ananda from today itself. Don’t forget your days are passing by, you could be dead any day, if you don’t commence now; there will be no time for regret. So, start today!

Q. All the people seek Paramananda, Supreme bliss – what does this lie in?

A. Everyone is entitled to ordinary bliss. But to gain Supreme bliss, one has to put in a lot of spiritual effort. It is only through japa, dhyana, leela chintan, etc, that the nectar of ultimate bliss can be had. He who chants Naam incessantly, dives deep into this bliss.

Thakur says in Sudha Dhara:

All austerities come with folded hands and place flower-offerings. At the feet of the chanter of the Name.

Naam (Divine Name), Rupa (Divine Form), Leela (Divine Sports), Dham (Divine Abode) – One can continue along any one of these four paths and gain the supreme state. Everyone accepts the premise that Naam (Name) and Naami (one Who is named) are one and the same. It is also well established that everyone has the right to chant Naam.

Through Naam Samkirtan one can achieve unbroken remembrance of God. Brother, this bliss is in our clenched fist. It is through Ananda (bliss) that Naam of Sri Bhagawan manifested. Each one will reap as much bliss as he chants Naam.

Chiramangalamaya Bhagawan

The notes of the song first rang from the harmonium and then Vitthal Maharaj opened his eyes:

Chiramangalamaya Bhagawan
Ja Karen tini sakale mangal
Gaahe Ved Puran
Ajay mangal vijay mangal
Mangal maan apamaan

The disciple had manjira in hands. He began to play them diffidently. “This is called vilambit raga…so do it like this, one-two-three, one-two-three…”

He followed Gurudeva’s instructions… one-two-three, one-two-three.

“Raga Todi… you can sing it between nine and twelve,” Maharaj observed and continued. “Chiramangalamaya Bhagawan…it was a wonderful concept. God is always good. Whatever He does is for our good. This is the dictate of the Vedas as well as the Puranas. Even if there is dishonour, disorder, debacle, those are also for good for the very reason: the Lord God cleanses us through discomfiture, adversities and even diseases and makes us ready for the greater or greatest gain— this is called Bhumananda, Satchitananda.”