Chanting and Service

[Guest guest]

Sri Sri Guru Gaurangau Jayatah

 

Chanting and Service

 

by His Divine Grace Shrila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Deva

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

Jai Shrila Gurudev. Hare Krishna. Dear devotees of

Krishna, fortunately I am getting this chance to

discuss Krishna consciousness. I am feeling so

fortunate for that, because in this material world

what is truth? Truth is God. And we trust it. We are

from childhood writing on the letterhead, " God is

good, God always is good " . And by the Grace of the

Lord we have gotten the opportunity to use many things

in this material world, and if we try to use these

things properly then we will be benefited supremely.

What I want to say I cannot express properly, but

after hearing my lectures so many questions are coming

from the searcher section. And I am happy to give that

answer. This time I have got this question, " Chanting

and service which is more important? " It is the truth,

if we cannot understand what is service and what is

chanting we will be frustrated. The actual fundamental

basis of spiritual live is necessary to know first

then everything will be clear to us.

Faith to the Lord and surrender to the Lord, that is

the fundamental basis. Surrender to the Lord.

Faithfully we offer our self for service to the Lord,

that is the fundamental basis of spiritual life. But

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, " This is not the

deepest thinking, deeper things than this also we can

see in the Scriptures. " And He said to Ramananda Raya,

when He questioned Ramananda Raya, Ramananda Raya gave

the answer, " Totally abandoning all kinds of religion,

surrendered exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you

from all kinds of sins, so do not despair. " (Lord Shri

Krishna said in Bhagavad-gita 18.66.) Mahaprabhu said,

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu He said, " This also is not the

deepest thinking, more than that in the scriptures you

can say. " And through that question I asked Shrila

Guru Maharaj, " 'Totally abandoning all kinds of

religion, surrender exclusively unto Me.', why is this

not the highest thinking. Why is this not the highest

conception. " Guru Maharaj answered me, " Because you

surrender to your Lord, here [in Bhagavad-gita] up to

that Lord Krishna has given the advice, but after

surrender what you will do that is not mentioned here.

And because of that Bhagavad-gita 18.66 is not

sufficient. " Then we will understand sufficient, what

is sufficient. After surrendering wholeheartedly what

will we do? We must do everything for the service of

the Lord. That will be sufficient; without hesitation,

without any interest in our mundane life, if we try to

serve wholeheartedly to the Lord, 24-hour service to

Lord. After surrender, when we will engage ourselves

in service, then we must get super benefit in our

spiritual life.

We are receiving the mantram from our Gurus. Guru is

giving the instruction, " Chant 16 rounds, or chant 4

rounds. " That is also service to Hari Nam [the Holy

Name]. Service to Hari Nam and service to

Guru-Vishnava [the spiritual master and the devotees]

is almost equal, but still to a certain extent the

basis must be the service of the Holy Name. Actually,

24 hour engagement is necessary for the service to the

Lord. Hari Nam is the non-different form of the Lord

and service to Him, to do directly, some obstacles we

can see and they are called the 10 kinds of offenses.

And we cannot easily leave those offenses. But Guru

and Vishnava are very kind. When they are accepting us

as a servitor of the Lord, they are engaging us in the

service to the Lord. And 24 hours they are giving that

opportunity to us. They themselves are doing that and

engaging us in service. For the service of the Holy

Name it is essential that side-by-side also we want to

serve the Lord not directly but through Guru-Vishnava.

That will give us a safe position.

Then Prabhupada A. C. Bhativedanta Swami instructed a

daily minimum of 16 rounds you must chant and do the

service of the Lord. Our Guru Maharaj instructed that

we must chant at least 4 rounds per day on the mala,

the rosary, but this is a minor difference because our

Guru Maharaj wanted that we be very busily engaged in

the various services. We must see that the mala does

not fast. Some sort of service must be done to Her by

way of chanting at least for rounds daily. That was

his instruction, but he also instructed that when one

had the opportunity he could chant more and more, and

he gave the example of Hari das Takur. Two kinds of

devotees we are seeing, one is bhajananandi and

another is gosthyanandi. Who always is trying to

chant, he also can do that, if he can chant properly,

that means without offense. But with the devotee by

the instructions of Guru-Vishnava who is doing

service, his service is also getting the same position

and category of chanting the Holy Name. Because for

the satisfaction of the Lord it is necessary. And that

will come through the service of Guru-Vishnava.

Guru-Vishnava are not digesting our service. When we

are serving them they are sending immediately our

service to the Lord. Then we must get super benefit.

Who has much attachment for the Lord and detachment

from this material world, he as a bhajananandi is

chanting the Holy Name always, like Hari das Takur,

trying. Hari das Takur everyday is taking the Name,

chanting the Name three lakhs times. But the

fundamental basis is this: Service to the Lord with

full faith and submission to Guru-Gauranga, that is

necessary. And when service will come 24 hours in our

life we must be super benefited, and everything will

be clean and by the grace of Guru-Vishnava our service

will go directly to the Lord.

The general standard set by Mahaprabhu, He not only

told 16 rounds, He told 4 times 16 which equals one

lakh names. This is particularly said for one who is

not within the body of an organized society and

especially if he is living individually. When he is in

an organized body he always has orders from the

superiors to do this and that, and thereby he is

engaged in service. So the minimum quantity of

chanting becomes a little relaxed from the 64 rounds.

But in the case of a grihastha, a householder living

separately from the main body of devotees, they

especially should chant one lakh of Names daily. That

is the general standard recommended by Mahaprabhu and

by our Guru Maharaj. But when one is in an organized

body and is required to do service running here and

there, sometimes he is so busy that he cannot even

find any opportunity to sleep in the night. In that

case he will try to chant at least 4 rounds. He is so

busily engaged that within 24 hours he is not taking

any rest, but still he is required to chant a minimum

of 4 rounds. Whereas the general recommendation is

that one who lives individually as a grihastha should

chant at least one lakh of Names.

Mahaprabhu asked and advised us to purify ourselves

with the help of Divine Sound, but the sound should be

proper transcendental Krishna consciousness. In this

Kali yuga, the age of controversy there will only be

the minimum demand from us for our purification. The

word Kali comes from Kalaha meaning quarrel,

controversy. We are cautious about everything.

Everyone thinks, " No, I won't accept anything without

some proof. " The mind is very suspicious, so we should

take advantage of Divine Sound. Only the very minimum

demand is necessary from us. Here the transformation

which will appear in us will be very great. To have

some shraddha, faith is the minimum demand, the

minimum admission fee required of us. If I do this, if

I attend to this sankirtan, the congregational

chanting of the Holy Names of God, then everything

will be done. That underground faith must be there and

it will help us. That sincere co-operation from the

heart is necessary for Krishna consciousness and that

can purify very quickly. To have faith that this

process of Krishna consciousness will purify us is the

minimum demand. One must think if I attend to this

everything will be done. If such a sort of generous

wide conviction is there within us along with a

sincere mood of cooperation, then that can help us

very quickly. That cooperation means, cooperation with

the Divine Sound, the sound aspect of the Supreme. It

is easily approachable for the beginners, and from the

many other aspects of the infinite it will come to

help us. Beginning with the universal sound aspect,

which is easily approachable, other aspects will

follow in its retinue gradually, but our faith must be

heartfelt and sincere. I am in difficulty and this

will give real relief to all my troubles. It will put

an end to all the troubles I am experiencing now as

well as any I am to experience in the future. I am a

bona fide student of searching my own real inner

interest. I must be faithful to my own self. I feel

that I am uneasy here in this world and I must search

for some home comfort. If I am sincere I know that the

way forward will be open to me and that it is not

difficult. It is there in the sound aspect of the

Supreme. The greatest reality is Himself present also

within the Divine Sound. This Divine Sound is not an

imaginary thing, even though to my present conception

it is coming and going, appearing and disappearing, it

is not a transient thing, it is the reality. And for

the beginner that ear experience is a great thing.

Sound carries things from faraway and the ear can

catch them, but the eye experience is not able to see

so far. What can I say more? Jai Shri Guru Maharaj.

Jai Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

Shri Chaitanya Saraswat Krishnanushilana Sangha

Calcutta, India