Recently I have been dealing with some difficult situations, and although I am familiar with what Srila Prabhupada and our scriptures and previous acaryas have said about such cases, I still wasn’t sure if my present approach was actually in line with Srila Prabhupada’s will and I wanted some confirmation. In this mood, I began listening to a talk Srila Prabhupada gave about Lord Chaitanya’s meeting with the Mayavadi sannyasis in Varanasi—not a likely place, I thought, to find an answer to my question. But soon enough I got an answer:
“ei-mate tan-sabara ksami’ aparadha
sabakare krsna-nama karila prasada
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu excused all these offenders. Anyone who is godless, he is offender. So when they chanted Krishna Krishna and accepted the Vedanta philosophy according to the explanation of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He excused them. That is the significance of Lord Chaitanya. He is very merciful. He excuses. Without excuse, how He can deliver the fallen souls of this age? Their condition is very precarious. Their duration of life is very small and they are not very intelligent, very slow to understand the importance of spiritual life. . . . So there is no other alternative than to excuse them. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu excused them.” (Talk on Cc Adi 7.149–171, March 18, 1967, San Francisco)
In all my time with Srila Prabhupada, I never heard him say, “Haribol!” and I presumed he had reservations about it. But in this early lecture, he spoke about “Haribol” in a most charming and endearing way:
“bahu tuli’ prabhu bale—bala hari hari
hari-dhvani kare loka svarga-martya bhari’
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s special feature, as you see in the picture, He would simply raise His hands and ask anybody to chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. And people will, in the crowd, they will also respond to Lord Chaitanya. So in this way, at Benares He was enjoying.
bahu tuli’ prabhu bale—bala hari hari
hari-dhvani kare loka svarga-martya bhari’
And the sound of ‘Hare Krishna, Haribol,’ . . . There are two slogans. One, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. And another, short, is Haribol, Haribol. You can practice also that. Haribol.”
A devotee responded, “Haribol.”
Prabhupada continued, “Yes. Haribol. That is a shortcut of Hare Krishna. Yes. Haribol. Haribol means ‘the sound of Hari, or the Lord.’ Haribol. So whenever there was some greeting, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to answer, raising His hands, ‘Haribol.’ ”
Such is Lord Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada’s mercy.
Hare Krishna.
Haribol.
Yours in their service,
Giriraj Swami
Source:http://www.girirajswami.com/?p=10773 ;
Comments