англ. название записи: Q&A: Prasadam, Chaturmasya and Japa - 2025-04-05 - Sri Prem Prayojan
0:20Auspicious Guru-aṣṭaka, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, where he says, caturbidha śrī bhagavad-prasāda, because in the kavayogrī-guccha the meaning is whatever is chewed, licked, drunk, but I think that's just one understanding that I want to ask. Yes, this is a straightforward thing, someone may make some other interpretation in a poetic way, but this is a basic thing. You know that prasādam is a very important part of our spiritual life, because in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad it is said,
1:53and all the knots of material existence are untied. So if someone
2:11that if you eat the foodstuff which is materialistic or cooked by a materialistic person or sponsored by a materialistic person, then the mind becomes contaminated and with a contaminated mind you cannot remember Krishna. So when the spiritual master, he sees that all the devotees are taking the remnants of his iṣṭa-deva, the Deity, he is very satisfied because he knows that it is liquidating, it is neutralizing all their karmas.
2:53Krishna said, those who honor the remnants that have been offered in sacrifice to me, all their sins are destroyed, but those who eat for their own enjoyment, then they're eating all these sins and they become more contaminated. So the living entities, they're bound in this world, and when they start to take prasādam, their body is purified, their mind is purified, they can engage in smaraṇ, and very soon the soul will be liberated. Of course, the advanced devotees, when it's time to honor prasāda, they have so many bhavas, they have so many ecstatic moods, just like our Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when Govinda used to bring him Jagannātha-prasāda, he would just sniff the prasāda and by the fragrance of the prasāda he would be in ecstasy, but he would not taste because Caitanya Mahāprabhu follows maryādā, he strictly follows ethical,
3:49so he told himself, oh take mahāprasādam to my Paramānanda Purī, Brahmānanda Bhāratī, seniors, my seniors should get the prasādam first, and when they receive the prasādam then I'll take. And then Mahāprabhu just smelling the prasādam, then he would become, he would become lost.
4:27As soon as Mahāprabhu would have just smelled the prasādam, he would remember, oh, this is the nectar of Śrī Krishna's lips. And then this verse would appear in his heart spontaneously from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where Vraja-gopīs, they're criticizing Śrī Krishna's flute. So, who is this flute? We knew Krishna since our childhood. And now this newcomer came along and he's with Krishna all the time. He's in his hand, he's tucked in his belt, he's tucked in his turban, he sleeps with his flute. And now this flute is drinking all the nectar of Krishna's lips and not giving any to us. So the gopīs, they become mad in love because that's the nature of love.
5:50So, kāmatā prakṛti-kṛpaṇāś ca cetanā-cetaneṣu, this often happens, gopīs see things which are not, because in spiritual world everything is conscious, but according to the mādhurya-līlā, they think they are in an ordinary, ordinary land.
6:24When in the afternoon Rādhikā was cooking some sweets, and I will carry those sweets from Yāvaṭ to Nandagrāma, and present them to Krishna, then Krishna, he will taste those preparations cooked by Rādhārāṇī, and something will be left and in the house of Nandabābā and Yaśodāmayī, Dhaniṣṭhā-sakhī, she stayed there and helped so much and she'll take some remnant of Krishna and put them in a box and give to me and I'll quickly come running back to Yāvaṭ and then stand in front of Rādhārāṇī and present to her Krishna's remnant and then Rādhikā will take Krishna's remnant and oh what a bliss, why?
7:10Why? Because when Rādhikā was cooking, she had so many loving feelings for Krishna. And when Krishna was tasting Rādhikā's cooking, then he was realizing her feelings. And then he had so many new feelings. And then when Rati-mañjarī brought that prasāda back to Rādhikā, when Rādhikā tastes Krishna's remnant, then Rādhikā realized what Krishna was feeling when he was realizing what she was feeling.
7:44And Rati-mañjarī is watching, and all the bhāvas of Rādhikā are overflowing from her, and pervading Rati-mañjarī, and she is realizing what Rādhikā is realizing, when she is realizing what Krishna is realizing. So, this is mahā-prasāda. So, Guru is very happy when the devotees are taking mahā-prasāda, first it's neutralizing their karmas, then it's purifying them, and making their mind pure in such a way that they can become absorbed in pastimes, and they become liberated, and then they can taste the rasa, because Rūpa Gosvāmī-pāda said,
8:51substance is beyond this world. So all the aprākṛta-vastu, the substance is from beyond this world, they have prabhāva ko 'py anargalaḥ, they have prabhāva, power, influence, and this influence is anargala. What does that mean? Argala means if you have, in a barn, you have a door, and then you put the wood across, and it blocks it, so you can't get, that's called the argala.
9:21So those creatures inside it makes their limitation, but anargala means there's no bolt on this. So the power of the supernatural substances has no... it is anargala, there's no checking, there's no blocking it, it's just unlimited and powerful and inconceivable. So every transcendental substance has that power and what is the power? The unlimited power of the lokottara-padārtha, ratim tadviṣayam ca, so bhāsate tūrṇam ekadā, tūrṇam means immediately, ekadā means two things at the same time happen immediately, what?
10:07Ratim tadviṣayaṃ tasyāḥ, love awakens and the sphūrti, the sudden vision of the object of love at the same time. So a pure devotee, when they taste Tulasi leaf, when they take Ṭhākurjī's caraṇāmṛta, when they take mahāprasāda, then it has unlimited power and two things happen, the sphūrti of Krishna and the sphūrti of love for Krishna at the same time immediately.
10:35This is honoring mahāprasāda.
10:39So the sādhaka is very happy when the devotees are honoring prasāda. They go through the stages gradually, gradually, until they can really relish the divine nature of the lokottara-padārtha. Understand?
10:56Yes, Dāmamaya. I have some concept of why we must fast from sesame in the month of October, but can you explain this to me? So it's not exactly October, it's the month of Kārtika, so it moves, because it's the lunar calendar, so it may be like towards the beginning of October to the beginning of November, or maybe from the middle of October to the middle of November, but this is the last month of four months, and these four months are called Cāturmāsya, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu used to strictly follow Cāturmāsya, but if it's not possible, then at least you must follow the month of Kārtika, because Kārtika is, Rādhārāṇī's month. In the month of Kārtika, we make some sacrifice. And so, there are many things which are forbidden to take at that time. It's not that, you know, you can get love of God by not eating sesame seeds for one month. But the point is that the diet is restricted and many things that are maybe due to us.
12:11Tahini is very wonderful, right? So, many things that have been due to us, we make a sacrifice, so that every day we're remembering, oh, I will not take this, why? Because I want to attain the service of Rādhā and Krishna by making a sacrifice. So, it is not the actual substance which makes a big change, like biochemically, that in this month, if you don't take the molecules which are in honey and sesame and all of these things, that it has some special effect but rather Krishna and Rādhikā they're so merciful that they're always looking for an excuse to give mercy. So then in the śāstra Krishna will say, okay, I'll make a special arrangement for you to get mercy if you will be submissive to me, if you'll be subordinate, if you'll just obey me because the principle is to obey Krishna. Krishna is satisfied when we follow his order.
13:17So, Krishna gives us a chance, I'll give you these orders, if you become subordinate, if you become submissive, if you sacrifice the base instincts of your body for the sake of being situated in your soul's consciousness, then I'll bless you with spiritual advancement. So Ekādaśī is like that as well. It's just a special arrangement of the Lord to give us a chance every two weeks to sacrifice for Krishna's happiness because that's the nature of bhakti. Bhakti means kṛṣṇārthe akhila-bhoga-tyāga, for the sake of Krishna to leave our worldly enjoyment, and kṛṣṇārthe akhila-ceṣṭā-parāyaṇa, and for the sake of Krishna to make all types of endeavour.
14:04So these are the details that Krishna has given and it takes a certain amount of thoughtfulness, remembrance, concentration and sacrifice and all of these things help us to become paramaikāntī, focused, one-pointed on the attainment of Krishna because everything is down to desire, you know, nothing belongs to us, not our body, not our senses, it's all given, it's all taken away.
14:34But the one thing we have, the soul has, is his icchā, his desire, and it can go towards Krishna or away from Krishna. When our desire turns away from Krishna, then we experience illusory material existence. And when by the association of sādhu, by good fortune, they give us the power of viveka, discrimination, we realize this is wrong.
15:03I have to attune my desire with the desire of Krishna. And then we become transcendental. So Krishna said, I want this. Okay, I also want it. And what are you doing? You're attuning your desire with the desire of Krishna. And that's bhakti.
15:27It is essentially, you give up all extraneous desires and attune your heart exactly with the desires of Krishna, that is bhakti. Because bhakti is a samvit-āhlādinī, Krishna's own pleasure potency. And when it's in Krishna, he's saccidānanda-vigraha, the ānanda portion of his svarūpa gives him svarūpānanda. That means the happiness of his own spiritual form.
15:58So just Krishna having his spiritual body gives him great bliss. His body is made of bliss. but when the ānanda portion from within him comes outside and enters into the devotee then that is called bhakti. So bhakti is his own internal potency that gives him pleasure but the pleasure it gives to Krishna when it's inside him that is called svarūpānanda and the pleasure that it gives to him when it's outside him in someone else is called svarūpa-śakti-ānanda and there's a difference.
16:30The difference is that the same pleasure potency which is within him, when it enters into his devotee, it gives him more pleasure when it's in the devotee than when it's in him. And that's why he's eager to accept the service of his devotees. You may say, well, that is counterintuitive, it doesn't seem to make sense.
16:54So the Purāṇas give one example. They say that if a musician has a flute, so the musician is breathing. So breathing gives us happiness, you know, if someone start us from breathing, we'd be in great discomfort. So there's a certain happiness when the breath is in our own body, but when the same breath is blown into the flute, then it takes a myriad of forms in the form of so many melodies, and sometimes those melodies can make us cry, sometimes those melodies can make us laugh, sometimes those melodies can make us dance.
17:28It's the same breath. When it's in you, it gives happiness. But when it goes into the flute, then it can give so much vaicitrya, so many varieties of emotion. So in the same way, Krishna's ānanda, when it's in him, it gives him bliss. But when that same śakti in the form of bhakti is in a devotee, then it manifests so many varieties of forms that Krishna himself becomes eager and thirsty and actually cannot live without that happiness. You see?
17:56so the essence of spiritual life is to attune our desire with Krishna's desire and that means to come under the control of his bhakti śakti so all these rules and regulations which are given in the scripture the ultimate meaning is the attunement of our desire therefore it says
18:28sarve vidhi-niṣedhāḥ syur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ, it means, all the vidhi, all the rules and all the regulations, don't take the honey, don't take the sesame seeds, don't take the tomato, don't take the bṛṅgī, what does it all mean? it all means one thing, all of these rules and regulations are servants of just two rules, number one, always remember Krishna, and number two, never forget Krishna, so this is how this vidhi works, vidhi can never awaken the moods of Braj, last night we were speaking about the moods of Braj, so it's impossible for vidhi to awaken the moods of Braj, but following Cāturmāsya, following Kārtika-vrata, these are favourable because they increase our ability to do smaraṇam. And then if we do smaraṇam following the pure Vaishnavas who are infusing us by their kathā with the sweet moods of braja, then we can attain. The rules and regulations by themselves will not provide that.
19:41Yes, good question. Another single problem. In regards to japa, I know that there's different instruction like chanting more loudly, chanting like kind of under your breath and then chanting in your mind. And are these instructions in correlation to particular stages in your spiritual development? Like should we be too careful to like not chant too silently or in our mind because our mind is so lost?
20:08Absolutely, absolutely. You know, actually, there's a certain section of our Gauḍīya Vaishnava community, and even I know some of my fallen godbrothers, they're confused on this point, but in some other paramparās as well, like many members in the Gaura-gadādhara paramparā, they say japa should be mānasa-japa, because in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, it says, the mānasa-japa is 100 times more powerful.
20:37So, but this is wrong. There's a wrong conclusion. In Padyāvalī, Rūpa Goswāmī says,
20:52Rasanā means the tongue and mānasī means the mind. Both of them have to be engaged at the same time. The tongue and the mind must be engaged at the same time. So, and the reason is, you know, that Mahāprabhu is, the Yuga-dharma is kīrtana. and Mahāprabhu said, paraṃ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam, now japa is of three types: vācika-japa, which is audible, loudly audible; upāṃśu-japa, which is very soft, you can hear it, but others may hear just a psst, psst, psst, psst, but you can hear it yourself inside, so there's a little sound; and then there's mānasa-japa, which is the lips and tongue are not moving, for kīrtana, the lips and tongue, oṣṭha-spandana-mātreṇa kīrtanam bhavati. The lips and tongue must be moving, otherwise it's not kīrtana. So the mānasa-japa is not kīrtana, it's actually in the category of smaraṇa, and smaraṇa was the Yuga-dharma for Satya-yuga. So if you want to do your japa in complete silence, then you're millions of years too late, because that was in Satya-yuga. What time is it?
22:01seven, not seven. No, it's Kali-yuga. So you have to chant openly, you have to chant, either you can chant loudly, or you can chant softly, but not in the mind, because that is not kīrtana. And so if you promote that, then you're actually uprooting Mahāprabhu's whole mission. His whole mission is kīrtana-sādhanī, and you say, well actually no, don't do that. So it's quite wrong, it's quite wrong.
22:28So, now, we see, Rūpa Goswāmī's Caitanyāṣṭakam, in, I believe, the fifth verse, he says,
22:56He used to make a japa-mālā by tying the string of his kaupīna into knots, and used to count on that, and the holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa, used to come loudly. It was dancing on the stage of his tongue. In other words, he was not chanting, the name was appearing, but it was loud, because some persons say, you know, you shouldn't chant loud, but Mahaprabhu himself, he came to this world to teach us how to practice bhakti, and Rupa Goswami said, I saw him, and he wrote a poem about it, that he was chanting japa, not only kirtan loudly, but he was chanting japa loudly also.
23:34So Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was immersing the entire universe in praying by these syllables, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, that were coming from his mouth. udgīrṇa, like from a volcano, you know, that means that the fire from the volcano comes from deep within the ground, but it, so śrī caitanya-mukhodgīrṇa, from the brain, deep within his heart, it was coming out in the form: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, he chanted loudly. So some persons say that advanced, when you get really advanced, then you... but you should know that when Kṛṣṇa disappeared from the Rāsa-līlā, and all the gopīs were in separation,
24:30did they all sit in meditation? No, gopīs, they're all singing, they're all singing. So the manifestation of the Kṛṣṇa-nāma comes in two ways. It is either the vilāpa, viraha-vilāpa, that means crying in separation. No one does manage it, crying.
24:56When you cry, you cry, right? So hā, the appearance of the holy name is viraha-vilāpa, that means the lamentation of burning separation, or it is the ānanda-śītkāra. Ānanda-śītkāra means like a woman, she's experiencing great pleasure, then she makes a śītkāra. it's like a, it's a, it's a, it's a breathing, a sound, it's an inexpressible joy, that is called śītkāra. So when the devotee is chanting, if they experience the joy of meeting with Kṛṣṇa, then Hare Kṛṣṇa, it comes, it appears as ānanda-śītkāra. So Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, for the advanced devotees, it's always, it comes in the form of singing, and loud chanting, because it's either viraha-vilāpa, or ānanda-śītkāra. Now, it's said that
26:01Haridasa Thakura, he used to chant one lakh, 64 rounds, loudly, and then the next 64 rounds, upāṃśu, softly, and the next 64 rounds in his mind. So if devotees ask about chanting in the mind, I say, 'Sure, when you get to your third lakh.' If you want to do it, when you get to your third lakh, no problem. Just finish your first 128 rounds, and then you can do it.
26:32And what that means is that just like Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī said, I don't know how much nectar these two syllables, Kṛṣ and Na, have produced. When these syllables appear on the tongue, they seem to dance. And it's so intense, it's so beautiful. At that time, one tongue is not enough. I want millions of tongues. And then when the sound of the Mahāmantra, Kṛṣṇa-nāma, goes into the ear, then it's better because I don't have one ear, two ears. But I want millions of ears. And then it goes into the courtyard of the heart and dances in the courtyard of the heart. And all the senses become inert.
27:35So when all the senses become inert, that means the devotee goes into trance, you see, and so then on the outside you see that, 'Oh, he's chanting in his mind,' because what happened is, because we're discussing nāma, the aprākṛta-nāma, the holy name in the form of supernatural nāma, that appears in the mūlādhāra-cakra on the level of prāṇa, then it comes to the maṇipūra-cakra on the level of the manana, then it comes to the anāhata-cakra and becomes the level of madhyamā.
28:12madhyamā; so parā, paśyantī, madhyamā... so sometimes it happens that the name becomes stuck on the madhyamā platform, and it doesn't come, it doesn't get to the throat, the throat is choked, and it becomes stuck on the madhyamā platform. But, and so the devotee, there he's chanting in his mind, but he didn't decide to chant in his mind; it's the play of nāma, always remember this. In nāma-bhajana, nāma is kartā, the name is the doer, you are not the doer. So when the holy name takes over, the holy name may make the devotee chant loudly, or softly, or in the mind. So if the holy name is making you chant in your mind, it's okay, but if you're making yourself chant in your mind, then you're millions of years late, sorry, wrong Yuga, wrong Yuga Dharma, you see. So you should see, and even that devotee, in whose the śabda has become stuck in the madhyamā stage, it's there,
29:16on the madhyamā level, so it's not coming out, he's going, he's gone into trance, he's chanting, that person or she is chanting in the spiritual body, they realize they go perform and they're in Vṛndāvana and they're singing, 'Rādha Ramaṇa, Rādhā Kānta, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare,' they're singing the holy names in the spiritual; it only looks like they're chanting in the mind to you from the outside, but inwardly the kirtan is still going on, you see, so don't forget.
29:55na, mānasi, nirodha... look at Kṛṣṇa-Nāmāṣṭakam. What does Rupa Goswami... if you want to know about how to chant, just look at what Rupa Goswami himself has written, don't speculate, see. Kṛṣṇa-Nāmāṣṭakam has eight verses, and the last verse is the highest verse of the eight verses. What does Rupa Goswami say in the last verse? Come on, Yes, correct, yes, yes, yes. Oh, you should learn, learn Śikṣāṣṭakam, of course, learn Kṛṣṇa-Nāmāṣṭakam, because one of the ways to overcome nāmāparādha is to learn the prayers that glorify the holy name and say them. I say, Rupa Goswami's Kṛṣṇa-Nāmāṣṭakam, every... when I finish my Gāyatrī, I give praṇāma to guru, take up my japa-mālā, and I hold it on my head, and I say,
31:03The whole Kṛṣṇa-Nāmāṣṭakam, before I chant, so the last verse is, It means, O Harinām, you who give life to the vīṇā of Nārada. You know, we all speak about Nārada playing his vīṇā. Actually, most of the time, he doesn't even play it. He just sings, he just sings, 'He Kṛṣṇa.' And the vīṇā comes alive and plays itself. That's what it means. Nārada-vīṇod-jīvana, udjīvana means comes to life.
31:39O holy name, you who make Nārada's vīṇā come to life, Nārada-vīṇod-jīvana... sudurmī, sudurmī means waves of nectar, sudurmī-nīrya-samudra-pūra, there is an essence of sweetness, and this name is like the high waves in the ocean of the essence of sweetness, O Kṛṣṇa-nāma, fulfill my desire, sphurame, sphurame means manifest your sphura-dharma, make a sphūrti, appear, burst into my consciousness. How? Rasena, with rasa, not alone, not only with bhāva, but with rasa, and rasanā means on my tongue, appear with rasa on my tongue, you see. So if Rupa Goswami, in the highest verse of his Nāmāṣṭakam, is praying for the holy name to dance on his tongue, and you're saying, 'Well, you know, that's for the neophytes.' Rupa Goswami, what does he know? I am advanced. You should chant in the mind. This is all foolishness.
32:53So try to be in the anugatī of Guru and Gaurāṅga and Srila Rupa Goswami. All the pramāṇas are there in Śāstra. Chant loudly because we discussed it's a prāṇa. And the prāṇa manifests on four levels. And when you're chanting, then you also hear it. And again, it causes the control of the mind. So loud chanting is the best. And actually, saṅkīrtana, doing kirtan along congregation with devotees, Jiva Goswami said, that's even better than japa. He said, because it produces the camatkāra-bhāva, it makes astonishing ecstasies that you cannot experience even when you're chanting japa, will come in loud saṅkīrtana.
33:36And especially it's valuable because if there's a group of devotees having kirtan together, if at least one of them there has bhāva and has so much realization, if you do kirtan with that devotee, then that devotee's bhāva spreads out and everyone gets uplifted and have realizations they could not have if they had kirtan alone or without such an advanced devotee.
33:58So to have loud saṅkīrtana in the association of advanced devotees, this is the best of the best.
34:06What did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do in Navadvīpa in his nitya-līlā? Every night, every day he's doing saṅkīrtana through the town, and every night he goes to Srivasa Aṅgana and he's dancing in kirtan with all his, the whole night.
34:20So ucca-kīrtana, loud kirtan, this is the best, this is the best thing. Don't think, 'Oh, I'm like the Six Goswamis, sitting and chanting for hours and hours, and I'm not going to do this neophyte singing and dancing with everyone.' Srinivasa Acharya, he saw the Six Goswamis, he's a direct disciple of Jiva Goswami, and when he remembered his gurus, the first thing he remembered The first thing: Kṛṣṇa-ucca-kīrtana, loud kirtan, gāna, singing, nartana, dancing, apārādha... absorbed in that.
35:02So don't think that the... you know, the Six Goswamis are a bunch of bespectacled nerds, you know, just writing books and not talking to anyone, staying alone like hermits. They were out there together singing and dancing loudly. That was their main occupation.
