"Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached and proved the potency of Sri Krishna.s Name - that His Names is the Lord Himself. If anybody says, "Krishna Krishna", mentally, or loudly, and concentrates his mind on It, he is bound to absorb its Love Nectar, be drunk with Its Ecstasy, see Krishna in Form and in everthing and finally go to Goloka after passing out of this life. The world has never seen such an Avatara, the manifestation of All-Love Krishna" SBSS
What is the best thing that we humans can see around us? Wherein lies the embodiment of life,s youthful nature and sweetness? What pastimes of life portray depth and surrender, endurance and commitment, art and simplicity, winsome beauty and determined lust for life? What is the highest perfection of man,s pastimes that we can readily recognize and relish? Is it not the beauty of love shared between God,s creation Woman and Man? Does it not hold forth to our reason that the Source of such completeness partakes of and displays such a nature because it is Its innermost Nature to display? Is there not conceivably a Divine Template, the perfection of this sentiment? The Divine Logos. If such temporary aspiration of completeness is present in the temporal sphere, then can we just imagine a plane of existence beyond imperfections of time, wherein the Original Man and Woman reside in perfection and pleasure without limit eternally? This is the nature of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.
Even if this is but our wish, then what is the wrong in pursuing such a wonderful poetic Absolute Goal and contemplation? What better absorption for the mind than such complete sweetness and potential of real fulfillment? Let us appreciate this fine ideal, as we are assured by the Divine Avataras, Shri Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananada, that indeed, such is the case, as we intuit and as seems right, because it IS right!
Radha and Krishna are the perfection of the exchange of love that we take as the Divine Logos, as presented in the thoughts of Plato and Socrates and other thinkers of the ancient Greeks, but as explained in completeness by Sri Krishna Chaitanya in our modern era, ie the uninhibitted uncontaminated unrestricted infinite perfection of pleasure in life,s fullest embrace. This is Krishna prema, appreciation of the perfect love exchange of God and His Divine Consort. It manifests as tears in the eyes, a taste for ever more, shivering of the body, laughing and crying aloud, seeming madness, dancing and singing in loving pleasure and true freedom from cloying matter once and for all, and mostly in an unquenchable taste for and desire to give service of love to the very Source of our pleasurable inherited right.
"He, who descends as Svayam bhagavan Sri Krishna in Dvapara, will certainly descend as Gaura in the following Kali Yuga, indicating thereby that the Gaura Avatara is the special Descent of Sri Krishna Himself possessing a natural excellence and elegance."
Being Merciful, the Lord manifests Himself, yada yada hi dharamasya , glanir bhavati bhaaratah, abhyutanam adharmasya tadat manam srjam yaham, (Bhagavad Gita As It Is, HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada) para..., whenever and wherever there is a decline in religion and rise in darkness of irreligion and sin, I come to deliver them true religious principles.
Having been granted free will, there is no forced love, no slavery in His Kingdom, all are pure volunteers of the highest order. Acintya bheda abheda tattva, and being one and at the same time different, according to our categories of energies, we are Krishna, we may rightly say, we are not entirely different from Krishna, but we are categorized as tiny sparks of Him, eternally. We have two possible natures: to express ourselves as seperate, seeking our own alone fulfillment, or we may live as One with His dances and play of Life, and actually thus fulfill our spiritual purpose given to us in harmony like unto a family.
In spiritual perfection as enthusiastically surrendered voluntary actors in the Divine Plays, ours is to dance and play the instrument of our love in our every action and thought as part of a perfect symphony of the highest poets and lovers, should we choose. Radha and Krishna shall enjoy this symphony as adjunct to their pleasures, and we as part and parcel shall dwell forever in this house of the Lord.
In recent times, to give us this option, to free us from the bondage of our imagined seperateness, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends to show us the process of deliverance from our accumulated karma or the results of our actions for millions of lifetimes, sometimes hurting others, sometimes stealing, sometimes killing, sometimes being cheated and sometimes killed by those we forced our selfish greedy seperatist wills upon in pasts, always bound by limits and deaths as we struggle against a greater infinite material nature that is not in full reality in us to overcome alone. Seeing our pain, the perfected Beings come to bring us succour from this mislife, to end the suffering and the struggles and the madness once and for all and return us to our original happy God-given state and roles.
Sri Chaitanya brings us the holy Names, which have such power of deliverance, and by power of His loving merciful Will, we can be released from the prison of our own insanities. Krsna varnam tvisa krsnam, sangopagastra parsadam yanjaih sankirtana prayair, yajanti hi sumedhasah, Krsna comes in a golden Form with His associates, etc., to perform the sacrifice recommended for this difficult age, Kali Yuga, the pure chanting of the holy Names! And lest we doubt, harinam harnama harinama eva kevalam, kalau nastyeva nastyeva nastyeva gatir anyatha: no other process will work, none of them, forget them, cannot possibly, but this alone, bearing His blessings in full. Your yoga and austerity and charity and penances and rituals and logical reason are but weak semblances of sat chit ananda bestowed easily by Harinama! When the Lord is satisfied, then everyone is satisfied, all purposes are fulfilled, there is no need of anything else. Have confidence, find out the way, and do it ! Do it now, death can come creeping like a hungry tiger in the dark of the night in the jungle.
"Oh the wasp-like mind! Clasp fast to the Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Who descends on this earth to manifest the glory of His loving devotion, which had disappeared with the lapse of time".
So seeing the highest Aristic Perfection presented to us, who is so crude, stupid, and blind not to take it? They are most unfortunate, when the physician brings the healing medicine, to abstain and forsake it. Will you forsake God's mercy? That is a great darkness and misfortune indeed.
Those of us who have yearmed for this perfection , if we are wise, we will take the mercy of Lord Chaitanya with all enthusiasm and satisfaction ...
"Hast thou a heart, to cross life's stormy ocean,
And yearnest thou for luscious Sankirtana's fruition,
And blessings of Fulsome Bliss of Krishna prem ?
Then take absolute refuge in Gaura-Krishna's Name!"
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati Thakura Prabhupada
How can we gain genuine prosperity?
Answer: SBSTP; " I only know that by keeping our mind and intelligence inclined towards Śrī Bhagavān and calling out for Him, we can achieve complete welfare. My request is that all of you should do this.
Śrī Bhagavān is the one and only Supreme controller, He who allots all the progress, comforts and discomforts in this world. We are thoroughly dependent on Him and surrendered to Him. Whatever He arranges for us we should accept with humility.
Question 3: Is loudly singing the holy names in the association of other devotees (nāma-saṅkīrtana) the easiest and the topmost means to achieve true spiritual welfare?
Answer: There is no path beyond that. Only those who understand that they have no other responsibility in this world besides nāma-saṅkīrtana are engaged in chanting the holy names. Nāma-saṅkīrtana alone is the path. It is the only path. Apart from this there is no other way to enter the realm of transcendence.
Nāma-saṅkīrtana is the only path to achieve the topmost goal – divine love (prema). There is no second path. This is why it is said in scripture:
harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā
There is no other way, no other way, no other way. It is repeated three times.
kalau tu nāma-mātrena pūjyate bhagavān hariḥ
In Kali-yuga, Śrī Hari is worshipped through the chanting of His holy Names alone.
Comments
"Gaura! Gaura!" Not Kirtana?
"A person who is infested with offenses cannot chant the transcendental name of Krishna. Even millions of lives spent chanting namaparadha will not give Krishna-prema. But there is no consideration of offense in chanting the names of Gaura and Nityananda. If a jiva who is infested with anarthas chants the names of Gaura and Nityananda, recognizing Them to be the Supreme Personalities of Godhead, then his anarthas are cleared off. But if the names of Gaura and Nityananda are chanted in a spirit of enjoyment, thinking that Gaura and Nityananda are meant for filling my belly, or that I will be honored as a devotee by chanting Their names, or that Their names are to be enjoyed by my senses according to my speculation, then vocal utterance of "Gaura! Gaura!" will not be Gaura-nama kirtana, but an illusory name intended for supplying fuel for sense gratification. There was a gang that used to perform dacoity while calling out "Prana Gaura-Nityananda! Prana Gaura-Nityananda!"—but that is not actual chanting of the names of Gaura and Nityananda. " (Srila Prabhupadera Hari-kathamrita, Vol. 1, pp 24-25)