Lecture

Gaura-Pūrṅimā

Prabhupāda: …commit any sinful activities, that is required. So far his past activities that is excused during the time of initiation as soon as he chants—but one should not commit again. This is very important point, not that I am a great chanter of Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra therefore let me do all kinds of nonsense. No, no, one should be very much careful so; apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato 'pi vā yaḥ smaret puṅḍarīkākṣaṁ [Garuḍa Purāṅa]. This is Kṛṣṅa, the name Kṛṣṅa is identical with Kṛṣṅa,

nāma cintāmaṅiḥ kṛṣṅaś caitanya-rasa-vigrahaḥ pūrṅaḥśuddho nitya-mukto 'bhinnatvān nāma-nāminoḥ [Cc Madhya 17.133]

[The holy name of Kṛṣṅa is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is Kṛṣṅa Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Kṛṣṅa’s name is complete, and it is the form of all transcendental mellows. It is not a material name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than Kṛṣṅa Himself. Since Kṛṣṅa’s name is not contaminated by the material qualities, there is no question of its being involved with māyā. Kṛṣṅa’s name is always liberated and spiritual; it is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. This is because the name of Kṛṣṅa and Kṛṣṅa Himself are identical.]

The name of Kṛṣṅa and Kṛṣṅa: non-different. The name of Kṛṣṅa is as pure, as complete, as spiritual as Kṛṣṅa. Abhinna-tvāt—there is no difference between the name and the Lord, in the material world, relative world, there is difference between the substance and the name. But in the spiritual world there is no such difference everything is spiritual. So this transcendental Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra is not a sound production of this material world.

It is the transcendental vibration from the spiritual world, golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. Golokera prema-dhana, this hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana is not a man-made musical sound. No. Golokera prema-dhana, this is the song to develop love of God and it is descended as Kṛṣṅa descends, avatārān. Avatāra, similarly the sound has descended so there is no difference between Kṛṣṅa and His name. If we chant carefully without any offence then our life is successful. This is the meaning of this verse:

namo apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato ’pi vā yaḥ smaret puṅḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bahyābhyantaraḥ-śuciḥ

Bahya means—external; and abhyantaram—internal; both of them, one should always keep purified, cleansed, bahyābhyantaraḥ. Bahya means—externally; so we should take regular bath three times with soap, oil or even if one cannot get soap. Then ordinary dirt he can smear over the body and become fresh. Cleanse the teeth, cleanse hands, legs, no nails, these are the cleanliness. “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” unless you cleanse yourself outwardly externally, you cannot be purified internally. And internally purified means always chanting, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Hare Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa Kṛṣṅa, so keep yourself always cleansed by bahyābhyantaram.

Then gradually you will be completely purified. How it is possible? This material body how it can become purified? Yes it can be, the example is just like you take an iron rod and put it in the fire and get it warm, it becomes warm, warm, warmer and at last it becomes red hot. At that time it is no longer iron rod, it is fire. You touch anywhere it will burn, similarly if you chant Hare Kṛṣṅa mantra regularly according to the principles then gradually the your whole body becomes spiritualised. Then it is apāpa-vidham no more skin. So you have to make your life completely pure then you will be admitted into the kingdom of God, back to Godhead, back to home. Thank you very much.

Devotee: All glories to …

Brahmānanda: Śrīla Prabhupāda. The 10 offences.

Prabhupāda: Now you just hear the 10 kinds of offences. Read it.

Brahmānanda: Yes. There are 10 kind of [break]

The offences are as follows:

To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord.

To consider the names of demigods like Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā to be equal to or independent of the name of Lord Viṣṅu. Sometimes the atheistic class of men take it that any demigod is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṅu. But one who is a devotee knows that no demigod however great he may be, is independently as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore if someone thinks that he can chant "Kālī, Kālī!" or "Durgā, Durgā!" and it is the same as Hare Kṛṣṅa, that is the greatest offense.

To disobey the orders of the spiritual master.

To blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.

To consider the glories of chanting Hare Kṛṣṅa to be imagination.

To interpret the holy name of the Lord.

To commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name of the Lord. Because by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can be freed from all kinds of sinful reactions. It should not be taken that one may continue to act sinfully and after that chant Hare Kṛṣṅa to neutralize his sins. Such a mentality is very dangerous offense and should be avoided.

To consider the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṅa to be one of the auspicious ritualistic activities which are offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities karma-kāṅḍa.

To instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name. Anyone can take part in chanting the holy name of the Lord, but in the beginning one should not be instructed about the transcendental potency of the Lord. Those who are too sinful cannot appreciate the transcendental glories of the Lord and therefore it is better in the beginning not to instruct them in this matter.

To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintain material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. Every devotee who claims to be a Vaiṣṅava must guard against these offences in order to quickly achieve the desired success.

Prabhupāda: [Bengali]

Devotee: [Bengali] [break]

Guest speaker (1): [Bengali]

Prabhupāda: [Bengali] [break]

Guest speaker (2):

om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṅavebhyo namo namaḥ

[I offer my respectful obeisances unto all the Vaiṣṅava devotees of the Lord. They are just like desire trees who can fulfill the desires of everyone. They are oceans of mercy and are the purifiers of the fallen souls.]

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṅa-prema-pradāya te kṛṣṅāya kṛṣṅa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ [Cc Madhya 19.53]

[O most munificent incarnation! You are Kṛṣṅa Himself appearing as Śrī Kṛṣṅa Caitanya Mahāprabhu. You have assumed the golden color of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṅī, and You are widely distributing pure love of Kṛṣṅa. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You.]

Revered Swamiji, and the devotee’s, I first of all offer my prostrations before you. As today is an auspicious day and we are staying here in Śrīdām Māyāpura where Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu over 186 years back appeared. There today is His birthday and an auspicious because our revered Mahārāja has laid the foundation stone for the future temple which will be higher and the highest one in Bengal. He has done a lot of service in this cult propagating the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu throughout the world as it is told in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,

tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta-jīvanaṁ kavibhir īḍitaṁ kalmaṣāpaham śravaṅa-maṅgalaṁśrīmad ātataṁ bhuvi gṛṅanti ye bhūri-dā janāḥ [SB 10.31.9]

Bhuvi gṛṅanti ye bhūri-dā janāḥ, one who distributes śrī-nāma, nāma-saṅkīrtana, the divine name he is called a great... donor. That is not an ordinary donor, but the greatest one. Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu though he was born in the poor brāhmaṅa family He never give anything solid to the public but he gave kṛṣṅa-prema.

So now who is distributing the nāmam throughout the world? He can be called the greatest donor. That is he is scattering the divine name throughout the world. From north pole to south pole, eastern and western hemispheres none prior to him has done such greatest service to humanity. So we can respect him and we cannot able to... We cannot able to describe it he is greatness through our few words. So this much I can say now because all of our people will speak in Bengali, please hear, and of course one thing is many of you do not know Bengali.

But in Kṛṣṅa has got 64 guṅāms in it He has got one qualification, vividhādbhuta-bhāṣā-vit. Kṛṣṅa knows all the languages spoken, animate and inanimate so naturally the jīva also has got infinite simile. That quality to know the languages even languages spoken by others. So if one speaks in Bengali though you don’t understand actually ātma can understand it. So don’t bother about it, so they will speak in Bengali [Bengali] our Dāmodara Mahārāja will speak.

[18.43]

Dāmodara Mahārāja: [break]

…mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam

namas te gaura-vāṅī-śrī-mūrtaye dīna-tāriṅe śrī-rūpānuga-viruddhāpasiddhānta-dhvānta-hāriṅe

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṅavebhyo namo namaḥ

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṅa-prema-pradāya te kṛṣṅāya kṛṣṅa-caitanya-nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ [Cc Madhya 19.53]

[Bengali] [break]

[27:52]

Guest speaker (3):

…sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya vande guroḥ śrī-caraṅāravindam

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṅavebhyo namo namaḥ

namo mahā-vadānyāya kṛṣṅa-prema-pradāya te kṛṣṅāya kṛṣṅa-caitanya- nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ [Cc Madhya 19.53]