Nothing but the holy name

A lecture given by HH Kadamba Kanana Swami Maharaja at the Durban Ratha Yatra Festival 2009 - 10 April, South Africa

What is this miracle of chanting the holy name? We are chanting, chanting and chanting again, we are dancing and somehow or other, this chanting is making us more and more�it transforms us. It brings a side out of us that we never knew. What is the magic in this chanting? Why is it uplifting us so much? The chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra gives us a direct experience of Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krsna Himself appears as we are chanting, because the name of Krsna is non-different from Krsna Himself, abhinnatvan nama-naminoh, that is not just a simple thing because Lord Krsna is unlimited. Krsna is known as akhila-rasamrta-murti. This means that He is the unlimited reservoir of pleasures. So many different tastes and pleasures are there but how to approach Krsna? In order to approach Krsna, to really understand Krsna, we must approach Krsna as a servant. By serving Krsna and understanding that Krsna is the Supreme enjoyer, bhoktaram yajna-tapasam, then we can understand Krsna, because Krsna can only be understood when He reveals Himself. Naham prakasah sarvasya, yoga-maya-samavrtah, Krsna is not known to those who are not engaged in His service.

Therefore the chanting of the holy name is so powerful that anyone who somehow or other gets in contact with His name, becomes transformed. The holy name has the potency to transform any place or anyone who becomes touched by it. When the harinama goes through the street, not only does it purify all the people in the street but the harinama purifies the street itself. The street itself is permanently transformed; the harinama is not only transforming the people in the tent but the tent itself has been changed.

So, this chanting of the holy name, it becomes the life and soul of the devotee. We may not be so much aware about the power of this holy name but it is more than any other mantra. Vedic literature offers us many mantras and all these mantras have the potency to purify the mind, to deliver us from various entanglements of karma. But the chanting of the holy name is of a different nature; the chanting of the holy name captures our heart. The chanting of the holy name gives us a new taste in life! The servant of Krsna can realize this and therefore Lord Caitanya said that in the art of chanting the holy name�Lord Caitanya never became the master of the holy name but rather He was always the servant of the holy name.

The perfect example is found in Srila Haridas Thakura. Srila Haridas Thakura is known as the nama-acarya, or the perfect teacher of the chanting of the holy name. Srila Haridas Thakura was everyday absorbed in chanting 300 000 names of the Lord. And it�s said that he was chanting these names simply for the pleasure of the Lord- not for any other purpose. So that�s very uncommon because we are chanting for various reasons: we may chant because we may desire blessings, we may chant because we may desire protection, we may chant because we may desire to become purified, we may chant out of curiosity because we heard that the chanting will give us spiritual experience and we wouldn�t mind having one! But Haridas Thakura was chanting simply for the pleasure of Krsna all day. And to him, Krsna manifested Himself; the Lord entered into his heart and filled his heart with such transcendental taste of ecstasy that he became so overwhelmed with love of Krsna, that in his love he could only call out �Krsna! Krsna! Krsna!�� In this way, the name of Krsna came from his heart as an expression of his deep love for Krsna. This is the nature of chanting Hare Krsna.

It may come into our life in some casual way; it may come�we may hear it somewhere in the street; we may hear it sung by some famous celebrity. Many of us were touched by George Harrison, who somehow or other sang the holy name. Somehow or other George Harrison spread this holy name and not only did it reach everywhere, but because he was chanting it, it was something you could do! It was okay, it was authorized! By the holy name being on his album, that made the holy name overnight something acceptable to all young people in the world- it was an okay thing to do. So his service was tremendous! And so many of us, through him, could take and the holy name filtered throughout the world.

Srila Prabhupada was also such a devotee, such a devotee like Haridas Thakura, who was so deeply absorbed in glorifying Krsna and chanting the name of Krsna, that his heart being so filled with appreciation and love for Krsna, the name would just spring from his heart. And thus Srila Prabhupada�s chanting was on the platform of ecstatic love. With great faith that the holy name had the potency to change the entire world, he came to the western world and he began to hold regular kirtanas. He chanted in Thompkin Square Park or his Matchless Gifts storefront, and gradually carried forward. And from him so many others started chanting.

The echo of Lord Caitanya�s personal kirtana

Now this chanting has reached the beachfront today; we are celebrating our Ratha Yatra. We have opened, inaugurated with a bathing ceremony dedicated to Lord Gauranga. This is the right and appropriate way to open this festival. Ratha Yatra had been going on for millennia; it had been performed in Jagannatha Puri for thousands and thousands of years and undoubtedly it was every year a great ecstatic event! Because Lord Jagannatha is non-other than Krsna and to pull Lord Krsna on His chariot, is undoubtedly a very wonderful occasion. But when Lord Caitanya appeared 500 years ago, that same Ratha Yatra transformed into something else! That same Ratha Yatra, at that point, became something totally different! Whereas previously, certainly there had been ecstasy in the Ratha Yatras, but never before had such ecstasy been experienced.

Before the Ratha Yatra began, Lord Caitanya�s devotees assembled in Jagannatha Puri. And when Lord Caitanya�s devotees came to Jagannatha Puri, they started sankirtana; they started to chant and dance! And the residents of Puri, they had been running from everywhere because no one had ever heard or seen such kirtana. Lord Caitanya was dancing in a way that no one could imagine! Soon the Ratha Yatra was to take place and it is described that Lord Jagannatha was waiting with great eagerness in His temple to see the dancing of Lord Caitanya.

When Lord Caitanya came to the Ratha Yatra, at that time kirtana was present like it had never been seen in the world. And that kirtana, that kirtana didn�t stop. The kirtana of Lord Gauranga echoed in all directions; it echoed in the hearts of so many! And thus today we are experiencing, that when Lord Caitanya is being worshipped, and the kirtana is going on, it is the echo of Lord Caitanya�s personal kirtana that He performed at Ratha Yatra. And the kirtana that we are performing here is the same echo of Lord Caitanya�s kirtana; echoing through His devotees. The kirtana of Lord Caitanya touched the heart of all the people present who continued chanting, who touched the heart of people present, who carried on chanting, who touched the heart of people present�in that way, from one generation to the next, the kirtana carried on, until from generation to generation the kirtana just carried on.

Then Srila Prabhupada became the leader of that kirtana and began to play the mrdanga that was handed to him by his spiritual master, known as the brhat-mrdanga- the great mrdanga. And he began to make a plan to flood the whole world with this harinama sankirtana, with this glorification of Lord Caitanya. This glorification then reached an extraordinary height; it was inconceivable that no one could imagine that such a devotee as Srila Prabhupada simply glorified Krsna, chanted the holy name�people everywhere became touched and it penetrated deep into their hearts and changed their lives so much that they were ready to really make a commitment to a total different way of life.

When I first saw devotees coming into my town, there was a little grey Bedford that pulled in and the back door flapped open and unlimited pink men came out of there- too many, if you know what I mean! Too many for one van! So I wasn�t quite sure; for a moment I thought that maybe a disguised space ship possibly? I wasn�t sure; I wasn�t quite sure what they were! They formed a line and came into my direction. In anxiety and shock I looked from behind the glass staring at them�someone said, it�s a dangerous sect- dangerous they looked, for sure! In this way, I first saw Lord Caitanya�s movement. I could have never imagined that I would have myself�that I would one day take such a drastic step to go through life in such an alien costume, in such a way of life. I could not imagine! But Prabhupada�s purity in chanting, Prabhupada�s simplicity in chanting, Prabhupada�s faith in chanting, Prabhupada�s complete surrender to chanting and to glorifying Krsna, was just overwhelming! How could anyone just walk away? I tried; I was saying to Indradyumna Maharaja that I really tried to avoid the Hare Krsna movement- very much- but how could you consider yourself sincere after reading Prabhupada�s books and not surrender? When he explained it systematically and then on every page he was calling for surrender�I couldn�t live with myself anymore because I had always thought of myself as sincere but after reading Prabhupada�s books I knew, if now I don�t surrender then I�m not so sincere. That was the dilemma; it was simply Prabhupada�s selfless glorification of Krsna that made us completely convinced.

His glorification of Krsna was completely transparent to Lord Caitanya. With great care and with great attention, he simply repeated, he repeated, very carefully the same message of Lord Caitanya and His immediate followers- the six Gosvamis- and gave us that very same Krsna consciousness, which Lord Caitanya brought. And then when Prabhupada lit up the hearts of so many people, all just changed their lives and became devotees. It exploded in all directions! And then from them it carried forward and touched the hearts of others who are now also somehow or other captured and can longer give up this chanting, and who have a great taste. And to them now also, the materialistic endeavors in this world look so shallow- a cricket tournament here now, over the Easter weekend? Who cares! This festival of Lord Jagannatha- that�s what we care for! Everyone is out there advertising their various sports or activities or advertising their business, but we care only about one thing- this movement of Lord Caitanya! Because we know that it is filled with the wonderful taste and that the more one enters into it that taste increases and increases, and we know that there is no limit. These festivals are like that; we come together and we don�t know what is going to happen!

Everyone is looking at spiritual leaders who are meant to lead the glorification of Krsna, but even these spiritual leaders don�t know what�s going to happen- no one knows. Rather it is the exchange between the vaisnavas where it is happening. I saw Govinda Maharaja and I thought, how does he do it? Besides that he does difficult tunes and difficult rhythms, but that�s not what it was. I was thinking, how does he do it again and again, this intensity? What expertise! But when I�m at the back stage, he lost voice, and I realised he�s just like me- he just throws himself there and just leaves it up to the holy name! It looks so controlled when he sat there but I realised that it just wasn�t�he was just simply losing himself in the chanting and letting ourself be carried by the holy name and taking him to wherever it was taking him.

And this is the transcendental adventure of this festival! We don�t know where this festival will take us. We have come here to experience it, we have come here to glorify Krsna, we�ve come here to give it our everything, to go beyond our limits and to somehow or other see where it will take us, and one will be carried by the ecstasy of another and together we will reach heights where we have never experienced before. And in this way we are churning and churning the nectar- the nectar ocean of this chanting of the Holy Name! And it becomes an addiction; we have to do it again and again. And thus come again and again for this Ratha Yatra festival hoping to taste new inspiration, new flavors, new tastes of this chanting of the Holy Name. This is the miracle of this festival. It�s not a show, it�s not at all a show with different actors on stage and different acts; it�s a purely spiritual experience and whenever the devotees really throw themselves into glorifying and worshipping Krsna and to chanting His Holy Name in ecstasy, then the spiritual world descends! And thus we have come from far�from wherever we came for that experience- that transcendental experience of ecstatic taste in glorifying Krsna again and again and again!

Sri Sri Jagannatha Ratha Yatra maha-maha utsava ki, Jaya! Sri Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ki, Jaya! Harinama sankirtana yajna ki, Jaya! Ananta koti vaisnava-vrnda-ki, Jaya! All glories, all glories to the assembled devotees! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Hare Krsna!

(Applause)