Brief Updates from TheHareKrishnaMovement.wordpress.com

Posted: 11 Oct 2011 06:09 PM PDT

Srila Prabhupada Chanting & Dancing

Chanting Hare Krishna
By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

“In the sastra it is said this Kali-yuga is full of faults, so many faults. It is the ocean of faults. But there is a very nice thing, asti hy eko mahan gunah, a very great quality. What is that? Kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet [SB 12.3.51]. If you simply chant Hare Krishna mantra, then you become perfect. Is it very difficult? Chant Hare Krishna and you become perfect. But we are so unfortunate, we are not even prepared to chant. This is our position. So you have to make little determination that ‘I shall chant henceforward Hare Krishna mantra.’ Then everything is all right.“

The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare is the sublime method for reviving our Krishna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krishna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere. The material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called maya or illusion. Maya means “that which is not.” And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful master, this is called illusion. In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle against material nature can at once be stopped by the revival of our Krishna consciousness.

Krishna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind; this consciousness is the original energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. And this process of chanting Hare Krishna is recommended by authorities for this age. By practical experience also, we can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel transcendental ecstasy from the spiritual stratum. When one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding — surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence — one is situated on the transcendental plane. This chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, surpassing all lower stages of consciousness, namely sensual, mental and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation or any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in this transcendental sound vibration without any previous qualification, and dance in ecstasy. We have seen it practically, that even a child can take part in the chanting, or even a dog can take part in it. The chanting should be heard, however, from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that the immediate effect can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of nondevotees should be avoided, as much as milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.

The word Hare is a form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krishna and Rama are forms of directly addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krishna and Rama mean “the highest pleasure.” Hara is the supreme pleasure potency of the Lord. This potency, addressed as Hare, helps us in reaching the Supreme Lord.

The material energy, called maya, is also one of the multipotencies of the Lord. And we, the living entities, are also the energy — marginal energy — of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy. When the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, it becomes an incompatible situation. But when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the supreme spiritual energy, called Hara, the living entity is established in its happy normal condition.

These three words, namely Hare, Krishna, and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, for giving protection to the conditioned soul. The chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the grace of the supreme father Hari, or Krishna, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely. No other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Sri Damodarastakam as explained by Visnujana Swami

Posted: 11 Oct 2011 03:20 PM PDT

Vishnujana Swami with Radha Damodara

This will be an eight part series, with an explanation on each of the eight verses of the Sri Damodarastakam, given by Visnujana Swami. This eight sloka prayer is sung morning and evening during the month of Damodara, and which began today.

Sri Damodarastakam as explained by Visnujana Swami

namāmīśvaraḿ sac-cid-ānanda-rūpaḿ
lasat-kuṇḍalaḿ gokule bhrājamanam
yaśodā-bhiyolūkhalād dhāvamānaḿ
parāmṛṣṭam atyantato drutya gopyā

namāmi–I bow down; īśvaram–to the supreme controller; sat-cit-ānandarūpam–whose form is composed of eternity, knowledge and bliss; lasatkuṇḍalam–whose earrings play and swing; gokule bhrājamānam–who is splendrously manifest in Gokula; yaśodā-bhiyā–in fear of mother Yaśodā; ulūkalāt-dhāvamānam–who gets down from the wooden ricegrinding mortar and runs away; para-āmṛṣṭam–catching Him by the back; atyam–very much; tatam drutya–chasing after Him quickly; gopyā–by the gopī (Srī Yaśodā).

1) To the supreme controller who possesses an eternal form of blissful knowledge, whose glistening earrings swing to and fro, who manifested Himself in Gokula, who stole the butter that the gopis kept hanging from the rafters of their storerooms and who then quickly jumped up and ran in retreat in fear of Mother Yasoda, but was ultimately caught. To that Supreme Lord, Sri Damodara, I offer my humble obeisances.

Purport
The specific attributes of the Absolute Truth of the Lord, tattva-visesa, are addressed first. Satyavrata Muni begins with the offering of obeisances (namami) as an auspicious invocation, mangalacarana. He invokes the mercy of Lord Damodara to empower him to offer this prayer by the word isvara, the supreme controller. It also indicates that the Supreme Lord alone is worthy of the highest praise. It further implies the specific nature of devotional service, bhakti. The Lord manifests Himself in a form that embodies eternal existence, knowledge, and bliss. Thus, His supreme sovereignty is established.

The attribute of His enchanting beauty, rupa visesa, is described next. As He runs from Mother Yasoda, His earrings begin to swing back and forth lasat-kundalam. The earrings naturally sport upon His cheeks as He plays in the courtyard of Mother Yasoda. All the ornaments that adorn the Lord have become super-excellent by contact with His divine body, yet these earrings have attained superiority overall by the great fortune of constantly kissing His divine cheeks while swinging. They are glistening (lasanti) due to being enriched with the effulgence from the Lord’s complexion.

Uddhava describes Krishna’s beauty as so supremely enchanting that His transcendental body is the ornament of all ornaments.

Only in Gokula does Krishna display His most splendid pastimes that surpass all other manifestations of His excellence (gokule bhrajamanam) The word, gokule, indicates the place where cows and cowherds reside. The attributes of His family, parivara-visesa, thus further portray His unique excellence.
The last two lines of the verse describe the lila-visesa, the attributes of His excellent pastime as the butter thief. In fear of Mother Yasoda (yasoda-bhiya) He quickly runs away dhavamanam) from the mortar (ulukalat). Then, she also runs very swiftly (atyantato drutya).

“Krishna, at that time, was sitting on an upside-down wooden mortar for grinding spices and was distributing milk preparations, such as yogurt and butter, to the monkeys as He liked. Because of having stolen, He was looking all around with great anxiety, suspecting that He might be chastised by His mother. Mother Yasoda, upon seeing Him, very cautiously approached Him from behind. When Lord Sri Krishna saw His mother, stick in hand, He very quickly got down from the top of the mortar and began to flee as if very much afraid. Although yogis try to capture Him as Paramatma by meditation, desiring to enter into the effulgence of the Lord with great austerities and penance, they fail to reach Him. But Mother Yasoda, thinking that same Personality of Godhead Krishna, to be her son, began following Krishna to catch Him.

The word, paramrstam, meaning caught from behind, also intimates the supreme love that Sri Krishna has for Yasoda. Therefore, gopya lovingly denotes Mother Yasoda and implies the great fortune of the cowherd caste that the Supreme Lord prefers to mingle amongst them.

Quoting from the Vaisinava-tisani of Sanatana Goswami, Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur explains that the pastime of baby Krishna’s breaking the pot of yogurt and being bound by Mother Yasoda took place on the Dipavali Day, or Dipa-malika. In India, this festival is celebrated in the month of Kartik with fireworks and lights.

“Among all the cows of Nanda Maharaja, several of mother Yasoda’s cows ate only grasses so flavorful that the grasses would automatically flavor the milk. Mother Yasoda wanted to collect the milk from these cows, make it into yogurt, and churn it into butter personally since she thought that this child Krishna was going to the houses of neighborhood gopas and gopis to steal butter because He did not like the milk and yogurt ordinarily prepared.”

These eight specific cows are called padmagandha, and their milk is fragrant as the lotus flower. just as swans live only on lotus stalks, so these cows eat only special grass. Mother Yasoda took particular care of these cows and used their milk to make special sweets for Krishna. She hopes that he will lose interest in the butter and yogurt from the houses of other gopis. In this way she makes an attempt to rectify his stealing habit.