Ok these are the offences:
The offenses against chanting the holy name are as follows:
1) To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord.
2) To consider the names of the demigods like Lord Siva or Lord Brahma to be equal to, or independent of, the name Lord Visnu.
3) To disobey the orders of the spiritual master.
4) To blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.
5) To consider the glories of chanting Hare Krsna to be imagination.
6) To give some interpretation on the holy name of the Lord.
7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the holy name of the Lord.
8) To consider chanting of Hare Krsna one of the auspicious ritualistic activities offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities (karma-kanda).
9) To instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name.
10) To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintain material attachments, even after understanding so many instructions on this matter.
My Question is in this age of Kali.. Anything bad or offencsive thought in the mind is not considered an offence? If I am right so... I will try to go one by one...
1) To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord.
This i assume is preachers of God. I tend to mind my own business so I dont do this.
2) To consider the names of the demigods like Lord Siva or Lord Brahma to be equal to, or independent of, the name Lord Visnu.
This is pretty obvious for Hare Krishna. We know the score here.
3) To disobey the orders of the spiritual master.
I try my utmost to do my best in this regard. I chant daily and read scriptures. And offer food to Guru and Krishna.
4) To blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.
I stick to my own 'religion' and Prabupada has given so much knowledge we dont need go elsewhere. )veda)
5) To consider the glories of chanting Hare Krsna to be imagination.
No I dont ever think this. Krishna has invested everything in His Name >Krishna
6) To give some interpretation on the holy name of the Lord.
Nope I dont do this.
7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the holy name of the Lord.
I dont consider myself sinful. I dont do any bad in my days.
8) To consider chanting of Hare Krsna one of the auspicious ritualistic activities offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities (karma-kanda).
Nope i dont think this ever.
9) To instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name.
Each to thier own, I dont preach.
10) To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintain material attachments, even after understanding so many instructions on this matter.
I just live a normal life.
So why do I feel I dont feel I have taste for the holy name ? AM I missing something here. There is something missing. Please tell me. I feel its easy to avoid these offences. ?
Replies
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
Mata ji has explained very well. I will also add my comments. Just maybe you will get an another angle of thought in another direction.
7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the holy name of the Lord.
I dont consider myself sinful. I dont do any bad in my days.
How can you be so sure that you are not sinful? We all know only this life. But Krishna knows our past, present and future lives. We came to this planet only because we are a sinner. Your opinion to consider yourself not sinful is a big time false ego. I am most pure devotee is like self declaring "I am great". Who is the witness to all our actions If He says we can accept it. Because the purpose of chanting itself is to remove us from the sins. Chanting burns our sins and makes us pure. If you say you are sin-free then what is there to even burn away something bad in you? That means you simply don't need to chant at all.
What for are you chanting? What is the purpose behind this chanting? If you are completely sin-free then you are no longer eligible to stay on planet Earth. As soon as your sins are eliminated you will become mukt aatma. Don't tell me now you don't even need to chant anymore. It is just our false ego if we say so that I am totally sin free.
Because Lord Himself says in BG 18.48
Every endeavor is covered by some sort of fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work which is born of his nature, O son of Kunti, even if such work is full of fault.
Even when we try to do some spiritual actvitiy also we are always having some faults in it. We cannot claim we are totally perfect beings. But Lord out of mercy He is forgiving our sins. Just as a child when he begins to speak he cannot utter a single sentence also properly but father, He is able to understand it because, father loves his son unconditionally. Father can understand what the child is seeking even if he blabbes.
Do you think your chanting is so pleasing to Lord? But still Lord Listens to it.. Thinking okay MY child is trying something to reach out to ME.. I will consider his efforts to reach out to ME. This is out of causeless mercy Lord even considering, your parrot like blabbering of mantra even if is mechanical. You get some credits for that also.
You know gopis and Chaitanaya Mahaprabhu also used to chant the name of Krishna. They have love for Krishna it is pure love. They chanting is not mechanical. They are chanting because their minds are totally fixed on Lord. In two conditions only one can fix their mind on something or someone.
1. when one is fully lost in the love of the other. 2. when they find pleasure in doing that job ( chanting).
Ofcourse I am sure you have not developed the Ruchi stage or bhava stage. I don't think you have even reached the Nishta stage also.
In Bhakti yoga. there are 9 stages -
1. shradhha 2. sadhu sangah 3.bhajan kriya 4. ananarth nivrutti 5. nishta 6.ruchi 7. asakti 8. Bhava 9. prema
Let me know at what level you are in.
And in each stage you have levels 1, 2, and 3 .. level 1 is lowest, level three is highest
Like In Shraddha also we have level 1. where the faith is just there at times and at times not so much
level 2 is shraddha there at all times and level 3 is shraddha or faith is unflinching and unshakeable faith.
Once you have little bit shraadha only you start to find people who are like minded and be in their company.
If you have unshakeable faith then you will always be in the company of devotees. so the second stage also has 3 levels. level one is once in a time you feel you should associate with devotees., sometimes they seems boring.
level 2 is feeling very much interested in being with devotees company. level 3. Cannot bear to even lose one second also without them.
If you come to level 3 in the STAGE 2. then only you can proceed to Bhajan kriya. Stage.
This stage is also having 3 levels. Level 1-- Like to participate in bhajan and aarti, do kirtan sometimes, at home also like to decorate the deity, and do make pasadam offer it to Lord sometimes.
level2- intense desire to do devotional activities. level 3. Always doing it. without decorating the deity, without performing pooja and aarti you don't feel contended, you don't even like to have food.
when you reach level 3 stage of this BHajan Kriya Stage then only you can get to next Stage.
Anartha nivrutti also has levels. level1. partially removed level 2. almost complete. level 3 complete annihilation of sins.
Next stage is Nishta. Once you reach this stage there is no turning back. From here you don't need any association. You yourself are on self start mechanism. You don't need any association to motivate you. You yourself love to chant, do devotion and follow regulations etc. You wake up on time no need of alram clock also. You will do all activities because you start to develop ASAKTi ( Interest) this stage quickly follows Nishta.
Once you have AASakti ( interest in doing devotional practices) the next stage ofcourse is Ruchi these three can come at a time also.
Nishta, Ruchi and Aasakti ( Attachment) at this stage one cannot feel seperable from the Lord's name. He takes Lord's name incessantly. He cannot stop himself from taking Holy names. It become like routine and habitual. and more like you got attached to it. You cannot live without harinama at this stage. Lord's name is continuously on the tongue.
NExt stage is Bhava you get the bhava you will be revealed by the mercy of guru and krishna your spiritual relationship with Lord.
Once you know what is your bhava for Lord. incessantly the love also flows in.
See, one can develop Bhava bhakti by constantly getting attached to a deity form also. Like if you have a deity at home. And you form a bond with it. a relationship. You see, what I want to say is. If you daily offer food to it and treat the deity as your some family member you will start getting attached to it. If one day you don't feed it you will feel sad, just as a mother feels sad if she finds her son is hungry. This bhava once you form na then love will flow automatically. And that time the chanting is never like a parrot. It is 24/7 that time. with more intense feeling of emotional attachment.
See, we have formed so many emotional attachments in this mortal world, We never formed an emotional attachement with Lord that is why that Krishna isn't responding to us. Once you form that emotional bond
daily give him something, make it a ritual. even if it is a leaf, flower, or even water also it seems. He will come to take whateve offered with love.
You just form a ritual first, you will get used to it. One day if you forgot to put that there near the deity or photo. You will feel bad urself.
I heard one story long time back. A lady she was poor maid servant, she used to work in houses. she got always some bread some left overs from the houses she used to work.
She had no one at home. her own sons left her alone. she was used to feeding the sons with whatever she got from the houses. now her kids became old enough they left her with their wives and living on their own. The poor lady now had no one at home. But her habit of feeding someone first and from whatever is left she used to eat. This she felt bad that there was no one to share with, one day some household lady gave her a photo of Lord which was faded, as they didn't want to keep the faded photo anymore. So she got that photo of Lord Sri Krishna and put it in her hut in a corner and used to daily get food from the houses she worked., opened the potli and gave the food first to Lord. and Started to feel that Lord is only her kid and daily she used to sit with Lord's photo give him a plate and put the contents. and it became a habit. One day, she didn't get any food from any house., she came home. She felt very sad that there is nothing to offer to Lord that day. She cried saying Beta, mere pass kuch bhi nahi hai aaj tumko dene. And she really cried sobbed felt emotional as if the photo is real person and the person is hungry. See. she already formed a bhava for Lord here. And she is feeling intensely. That night she searched whole hut nothing was there. She din't even feel sleepy as she was not worried that she was hungry. All she felt was that she couldn't get anything for the her SON today. But at about 2 pm or so, She was just feeling sleepy. One person tall, dark and handsome young man knocks the door and says ..Maa, can you give me some shelter tonight I am a traveller and I am tired walking here and there. If I take rest here I will get up and go next day. After she said okay. The person said, can you give me some water. After drinking the water, the guy thanked her and left next day. Next day she got up to see that the place where the person slept, there was yellow pitambar and flute and the some gold coins. The woman was shocked. This is Krishna. Yeh kannaih, bhava ke bhooke hai. He is always craving for our Love our emotions. She left all that gold and ran with pitambar and flute like a mad lady and went to Vrindavan and was roaming around for another darshan of Lord. This is how Lord evokes the sleeping prema bhava in her and runs off so that her Bhakti now will be totally surrendered to Lord now.
You know Narad muni he gets priliminary darshan in his last birth after he serves the sages with his mother. due to vaishnava seva Lord got pleased and gave him darshan . .. and at that time Narad muni craved for another vision of Lord.. His craving was so much intensified to see Lord again. He became mad for another darshan. This made his bhakti intensify and bhava to form. chanting also intensified only because he wanted to see one more time.
Bhava and emotional attachment to Lord is obtained by guru kripa, or Vaishnava seva kripa, or by Lord's special causeless mercy.
Thru Vaidhi bhakti also one can attain Nishta stage and from there the progress is not happened by ur effort ... It will happen by divine grace.
But till Nishta stage you need to put in ur effort. This is must.
Chapter 4 BG text 11.
ye yatha mam prapadyante
tams tathaiva bhajamy aham
All of them—as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly.
you pray with any desire, Lord will reward you accordingly. "Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is desirous of all fruitive results, or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Krsna consciousness."
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much, that is awesome.
Hare Krsna prabhuji,
PAMHO.
Congratulations!!! If you are not committing any offences to holy name, as you analysed, then you must be chanting pure names of the lord. THat must be giving you so much bliss. Right?
But its not happening like that, I can see from the last sentence.
POssible reasons:
1) Offences being committed unconsiously, without realising. Happens to most of us. (Hint: look at your response to Offence no 1,3,7,10). To find out, more introspection is required. Another way to find out is to associate with devotees. When we see fellow devotees interact among peers and seniors, we understand so many things that cannot be taught in classes or by books.
2) Maybe you could serve devotees to get mercy quickly.
3) To get taste for the holy name, we have to cry and beg at the feet of harinaam, guru, vaishnavas.
4) 10 offences is all about what is not to be done. What is to be done is mentioned in 2-4 here. One of the things that you can do is chant in a group. We chant every morning in virtual sanga. That has improved my chanting and told me so many mistakes I make while chanting.
I dont know if you will be able to digest and accept what I have mentioned. Depending on your answer, I will tell you more. I dont want to offend or hurt you.
I appreciate your sincerity in asking the question. I have asked myself for years. Not that I am able to chant suddha naam. I know few defects by now. Am trying to work on them.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Hare Krishna,
Thank you for replying can you tell me more about mistakes in chanting.
While reading your reply I realized I am chanting usually more like a parrot. You know when I sing a bollywood song or something romantic song it can feel good. But usually if I am doing harinama japa. THIS taste is not coming so much. I can only say for myself that maybe because I am forcing myself (by order of Guru), and that force gives me giant ego (saying No dont do it). Maybe I need to do it spontaneously. (lol while saying this i chanted a little in my mind was pratty nice.), As for virtual japa I am not sure it will help me I like chanting alone but i like reading with others.
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
It is said that we all have a very good opinion of ourselves. We tend to be very lenient with ourselves and strict and judgemental with others around us. This is what happens to us in the material world. As and when we progress in spirituality, we realise that we are not such a nice person after all. THe more we progress, the more we are able to see our anarthas and faults and the less we think of ourselves. This helps to make us humbler.
LIke you have mentioned in your second post, you are chanting mechanically. YOu need to feel the mercy of the lord flowing when you chant. WHat you can do while chanting:
1) Chanting is chatting with the lord. Try to pour out your heart in front of the lord while chanting
2) It is said that when we chant - we are touching the beads. They are at the lotus feet of the lord - FEEL that while chanting. It is to be realised, wont happen first time.
3) THe meaning of the maha mantra is - Oh Lord, Please engage me in Your service. Try to remember this while chanting and start feeling this intensely while chanting.
4) Before the first round, first bead, say the guru pranam mantras, Srila Prabhupada pranam mantras, then Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya...
5) Pray at the lotus feet of harinaam to allow you to take the name.
6) After completing the last round, last bead, repeat - thank harinaam for allowing you to take the name, praying - please allow me tomorrrow also.
7) There are people who memorise the signs at the lotus feet of Radha & Krsna and remember each chinha and its meaning while chanting.
8) Unplug - all your worries, tensions, to do lists of the day. Tell yourself - this is my time with my best friend - I will spend it most fruitfully. And then chant.
9) Read Namamrta every day, one page, before or after chanting.
10) Read SB or Gita daily
11) Listen to a lecture atleast daily.
Idea is - the quality of our 2 hours of chanting is dependant on how we spend the balance 22 hours of our time everyday.
If all of these fail and mind still wanders, doesnt matter. Chant, chant and again chant.
THere is a saying in hindi - upaje sabhi beej, seedha pare ya ulta (something like that) - meaning all seeds sown on the ground wil fructify, regardless of whether they have been sown straight up or reverse side up.
Keep trying and trying.
Regarding 10 offences, be mindful and continue to chant.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Hi do you have a whatsapp group? If so can I join.?
thank you i will try this. Its very good advice. Usually I am not thinking much I am only looking at pancha-tattva picture and radha-krishna picture. (on my tablet) I dont have any good space for altar I live in small place. Harinama_Maha-mantra-3Ed-2012.pdf I am starting to read this daily. It helps me to chant Hare Krishna mantra.