I am not selfish. I will not feel elated, 'Oh! Lord is calling me,' and follow you. Crores of people are slogging in 'samsara'. What is the way out ('gati') for all of them?

Nama Article 8th June 2013

 

Srimad Bhagavatam 7:9:44

 

प्रायेण देव मुनयः स्व-विमुक्ति-कामा

मौनं चरन्ति विजने न परार्थ-निष्ठाः

नैतान् विहाय कृपणान् विमुमुक्ष एको

नान्यं त्वद् अस्य शरणं भ्रमतो'नुपश्ये

 

Bhaktha Prahalada prays to Lord Narasimha, "I see that there are many saintly persons who are interested only in their own deliverance and they meditate with vows of silence. They are not interested in delivering others. As for me, however, I do not wish to be liberated alone, leaving aside all the helpless ones. I know that without taking shelter of Your lotus feet, one cannot be happy. Therefore I wish to bring them back to shelter at Your lotus feet.

 

Please check these: Excerpts from a discourse by our Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji

 

Coming out of the pillar, Lord Nrisimha Swami calls Prahlad, "Come! My child! I will take you to Vaikuntam (Lord's abode)."

Prahlad says, "I am not selfish. I will not feel elated, 'Oh! Lord is calling me,' and follow you. Crores of people are slogging in 'samsara'. What is the way out ('gati') for all of them? I may come to your place along with all of them. I am not one to sit on your lap just because you have called me, and make merry. I will come only along with all (the others)."

 

 

You are asking us to do chanting during study time. How do you justify this? - Do chant the Divine Name and Lord will take care."

 

In Srimad Bhagavatam, Prahlada says that it is impossible for one to perform sins to the extent that cannot be destroyed by singing the God's Name.

 

One obtains love of God by constantly chanting His name and singing His glories

 

Prahlada obeyed him in all matters except when he was told not to utter Bhagavannaama (Lord's Name).

 

Let everyone be as he/she is. Why should they change? Let us transform ourselves.

 

Lord here assures that one who is an ordinary bhaktha and even one who does Bhakthi with out total faith will also not be destroyed.

 

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

The words that a saint or a sage utters are not empty sounds that he makes. They are forces that are released like atom bombs; they can manifest themselves in the physical world and events can take place

Nama Article 7th June 2013

Excerpts from Japa Sadhana – by Swami Krishnananda direct disciple of His Holiness Swami Sivananda

 The Name of God, especially when it is given to us in the form of what is known as a mantra, is a power by itself. It has a shakti of its own, and this is the reason why bhaktas, sages and saints have told us that even a mere repetition of the Name of God has the capacity to produce an effect of its own, though we may not be really meditating, though we may not be in a position to contemplate the actual meaning hidden behind it. The mantra-shakti, or the power of the mantra, arises on account of the fact that is beautifully and scientifically described in a science known as mantra-shastra, which is akin to the science of chemistry in our own ordinary life. Chemical elements act and react upon each other. We know the action between acid and alkali, for instance. Different chemical combinations are supposed to produce different effects. Sometimes the chemical reaction is such that it can produce a tremendous effect. Mantras produce such effect, similar to the reaction of chemical elements, because of the peculiar combination of letters. The mantra-shastra is a secret which tells us that every letter of the alphabet is a condensed form of energy. Sounds are really energy manifest. The sound is not merely an empty form of verbal manifestation, but energy that is made to express itself in a particular shape. And this packet of energy, this tied up form of force, which is a particular letter of the alphabet, is made to come in contact with another packet of energy called another letter. They collide with each other, or, we may say, they act upon each other or fuse into each other - whatever be the process that takes place there - so that the utterance of a group of letters, which is the mantra, produces, by the process of permutation and combination of these letters, a new form of energy which gets infused into our system because it has arisen from our own mind, thought and the recesses of our being. We get charged with that force, as if we have touched a live electric wire. There is special name given to this science; it is gana-shastra, in tantrik parlance. Words are forces, thoughts are things, so they tell us. Words are not empty sounds that we make when we speak or utter a name or give expression to an idea. It is because of the fact that thoughts and expressions are powers by themselves that the words of saints take immediate effect. The words that a saint or a sage utters are not empty sounds that he makes. They are forces that are released like atom bombs; they can manifest themselves in the physical world and events can take place. That is why people go to a Mahatma for ashirvada, or blessings. His words are forces, power that he releases to take immediate effect, or even a remote effect, as the case may be.

 Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Lord Jagannatha, who is not accessible even to the devas like Brahma, appears in the midst of sadhus who engage in Shri Nama kirtan

Nama Article 5th June 2013

 

Vaishnava Samhita: Vol. I, Book 1 , Chapter 15. Shloka 3

 

Sankeertito Jagannatho Brahmaa Aadi Sura Durlabhah

Aavirbhooya Kshipram Evam Aanandayati Sajjanam

 

Lord Jagannatha, who is not accessible even to the devas like Brahma,

appears in the midst of sadhus who engage in Shri Nama kirtan

(chanting of the blissful Divine Names) within a short time and

blesses them with all delight.

 

Please check these: Excerpts from a discourse by our Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji

 

Where does THE Supreme Omnipotent wants to be?!!

 

For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them - Matthew: 18:20

 

But, while speaking on Bhakti mãrga, Bhagavãn tells Arjuna, 'na chirãt' - it will not take long. You can attain to Me now, in this very janma.

 

One who utters My Name becomes holy very soon

 

The moment you have started chanting the Nama, you are already on this ship. The Nama is verily the propeller of the ship. The captain of this ship is none other than Sri Krishna Himself!

 

Lord here assures that one who is an ordinary bhaktha and even one who does Bhakthi with out total faith will also not be destroyed.

 

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

One who serves God can never be helpless. The more ardently one seeks communion by engaging in japa, His service and contemplation, the fuller will be His revelation.

Nama Article 4th June 2013

 

Anandamayi Ma

 

One who serves God can never be helpless. The more ardently one seeks communion by engaging in japa, His service and contemplation, the fuller will be His revelation.

 

Please check these: Excerpts from a discourse by our Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji

 

To collect people living around one's home and help them chant the Lord's Name is verily service to the Guru. Or to follow the special instruction given to him/her by the Guru is verily 'service' to the Guru.

 

The service that God has entrusted upon your shoulders is to lend them to me!

 

Take all effort to fulfill our Guru's 'lakshya' (aim) and desire. This is what I truly desire.

 

But for those who perform service in the Ãshram, for the sake of the Guru, the Guru's darshan is their only desire.  These people will definitely attain Moksha, whether or not their Guru attains it

 

If it is even possible for you to make one other person chant the Mahamantra, that is the greatest service you can do to Him

 

To have the opportunity to serve a Mahatma in some way is indeed the rarest of the rarest.

 

So if you keep chanting Mahamantra, actually the Guru reaches you!

 

Take the Name constantly. That is the best Seva.

 

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

For the devotee, the Lord becomes the one great object of ceaseless remembrance, which is attained by an unbroken repetition of His sweet and all-powerful Name and bringing at the same time into the mind His sublime glories and attributes

Nama Article 3rd June 2013

 

Swami Papa Ramdas

 

Devotion as rightly divided is of two kinds – the lower and the higher. In the lower  form of devotion, the devotee looks for guidance and concentration from outside, and primarily attaches himself to the society of saints who have realised fully the greatness and glory of the Lord. To keep himself pure in thought, word and deed, he controls all the forces that are working in his psychical and physical being, and adjusts the conduct of his life so as to free himself from all desires of his mind. Mainly, he will have recourse to three kinds of Sadhana, viz. Satsang, solitude and Sattwic diet. How does the devotee now try to tune his mind in a continuous symphony with the Lord? It must be admitted that every remembrance signifies bringing into the mind the name and qualities of the person or object remembered. A prolonged remembrance means a sustained fixity of the thought on the name and attributes of the person or object. For the devotee, the Lord becomes the one great object of ceaseless remembrance, which is attained by an unbroken repetition of His sweet and all-powerful Name and bringing at the same time into the mind His sublime glories and attributes.

 

As the devotee advances in this spiritual path, he transcends the Tamo and Rajo Gunas of nature and gets firmly seated in Sattwa Guna. Sattwa Guna denotes a consciousness above the animality of human nature, filled with calmness, equality, light and purity. It must be understood that this Sattwic consciousness is a step to a still higher consciousness. The lower form of Bhakti leads the devotee to this most necessary step.

 

Now commences the higher aspect of devotion. Sattwa Guna entitles the devotee to the Grace of the Lord or a saint, and through this grace he is lifted beyond all Gunas and comes, so to say, face to face with the immortal and all-blissful Atman whom he realises as his real being and existence. This is called Jnana or Moksha. The knowledge of the Atman liberates the bound soul from the vicious cycle of births and deaths and grants him unchanging and eternal bliss and peace. It is then the higher Bhakti which is termed Parabhakti dawns on him. This is the summit of God-realisation. With Jnana as the background, the devotee beholds the entire manifested universe as the supreme image of his beloved Lord. All creatures, beings and things in the universe are looked upon by him as the very forms of his Lord. He feels and sees the Lord's presence everywhere. His sense of duality has completely vanished. Oneness of life, oneness of all existence becomes now the keynote of his vision. Not only in the inner realisation of the Atman that the sense of diversity has disappeared but also in the external revelations of the natural phenomena. In this supreme state the devotee enjoys unending and inexpressible bliss. There is no limit to his ecstasies born of his consciousness of unity and oneness with the Lord. He veritably rolls, swims and gambols in the infinite ocean of joy. Blessed, a million times blessed, is the devotee who reaches this highest peak of God-realisation.

 

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

This vast universe Has turned into heaven for me; Such luscious fruit has come into my hands, Only because I cling to His name.

Nama Article 2nd June 2013

 

Haripath - Sant Gnyaneshwar

 

जाणीव नेणीव भगवंती नाही ।

हरि उच्चारणी पाही मोक्ष सदा ॥ १ ॥

नारायण हरि उच्चार नामाचा ।

तेथे कळिकाळाचा रीघ नाही ॥ २ ॥

तेथील प्रमाण नेणवे वेदांसी ।

ते जीव जंतूसी केवि कळे ॥ ३ ॥

ज्ञानदेवा फळ नारायण पाठ ।

सर्वत्र वैकुंठ केले असे ॥ ४ ॥

 

 

Lord Hari never discriminates between the learned and unlearned;

So, whom so ever repeat His name always, get liberated.

The evil effects of Kali will never ever affect the one who sings "Narayana Hari"

How can we know His greatness, when even the Vedas could not explain Him?

Jnanadev says: This vast universe Has turned into heaven for me;

Such luscious fruit has come into my hands, Only because I cling to His name.

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Does our Heavenly Father not love us a million times more than we love our children? Would He not plunge into the murky waters of the samsara-sagara to save His children?

Nama Article 1st June 2013

 

One day Akbar said to Birbal, "I marvel at some of the fantastic beliefs that you Hindus hold. You believe that the Lord comes to this earth in the garb of a human being - what an absurd notion this is!"

 

"What is so absurd about it, sire?" asked Birbal. "The Creator of the cosmos is also the Father of us all. Is it so fantastic that the Father should come down to earth to save His children?"

 

"Of course it is fantastic and absurd," Akbar insisted. "Why should the Creator of the cosmos soil His Divine Form and plunge into the samsara sagara - the ocean of material existence?" Birbal made no reply.

 

A few days passed. Akbar and Birbal were taking a leisurely stroll along the banks of the Yamuna. A pleasure boat was sailing on the river; the Emperor's infant son sat on the knees of his nurse, and was enjoying this leisurely boat ride. When the nurse saw Akbar and Birbal on the bank of the river, she was so startled that she tried to stand up in the boat and the child on her knees fell into the river!

 

Emperor Akbar was astounded! Without a moment's hesitation he plunged into the cold waters of the river to save his son. Swimming fast, he reached the child - only to realize that it was but a doll that had been thrown into the waters!

 

Birbal swam after the king to meet him mid-river. "Even as an earthly father, sire, you plunged into the waters and did not in the least bother about your royal robes getting soiled and wet." he said to Akbar."Does our Heavenly Father not love us a million times more than we love our children? Would He not plunge into the murky waters of the samsara-sagara to save His children?"

 

The Emperor made no attempt to answer his Minister.

 

Please check these: Excerpts from a discourse by our Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji

 

The Lord is attracted only to devotion.

 

Chant the Mahamantra Nama kirtan :

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare