Visnu or Krsna bhakti

[Guest guest]

> thank you urmila mataji for your text. however, i was interested to know

> also why different temples say different things, and where this practice

> came from. is it an aberration, or did Srila Prabhupada introduce it.

 

Different temples say "krishna-bhakti" because that is how the prayer is

universally given in all of the Bengali songbooks. I have heard that this

Sanskrit mantra is from Padma-purana although I don't have the reference.

When Srila Prabhupada wrote his letter to the devotee wherein he says

"vishnu-bhakti" it was likely something that he wrote from memory and not

from a book.

 

It may be significant to note that Srila Prabhupada also originally

introduced the panca-tattva mantra as:

 

bhaja sri krishna chaitanya prabhu nityananda jaya advaita gadhadhara

srivasadi gaura bhakta vrnda

 

Later he instructed some of his disciples to investigate how the mantra was

given in different temples in Bengal. When he found out that it was given as

"sri advaita" and not "jaya advaita" he instructed the devotees to change to

"sri advaita". The reason he gave for the change was that he wanted that we

should have the proper standard for our society.

 

It doesn't make much difference if someone wants to chant "vishnu-bhakti" or

"krishna-bhakti". However I find it rather absurd when devotees say that we

should disregard the actual wording of the mantra and insist that it only be

chanted as given in this particular letter from Srila Prabhupada. If Srila

Prabhupada had commented that, "No you should not chant 'krishna-bhakti' you

should only chant 'vishnu-bhakti'" then there would be a case for this

insistance. However he never made such a comment. I have visited several

temples where they insist that the mantra be given as "vishnu-bhakti" and

have even seen devotees stop the kirtan to enforce this rule. I would

suggest that if someone wants to chant vishnu-bhakti, let them chant that

way and if someone wants to chant krishna-bhakti what is the harm?

 

(As given below) Srila Rupa Goswami describes that in terms of tattva there

is no difference between Sri Isa, Lord Narayan and Krishna. However in terms

of rasa, Krishna is superior and in our prayers we do often make a

distinction between the two. We are not interested in vishnu-bhakti nor do

we pray to tulasi: kripa kori koro tare vaikuntha dhama basi, "O tulasi devi

please give me residence in Vaikuntha."

 

siddhAntatastvabhede 'pi ZrIZa-kRSNa-svarUpayoH

rasenotkRSyate kRSNa-rUpameSA rasasthitih

 

Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.59

 

Das anudas, Madhavananda Das