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Sri Siksastakam: songs of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura
7th August 2011
Venue: ISKCON Radhadesh, Belgium

What we have understood so far is that chanting the Holy Name is the way to
achieve ultimate
perfection. We become what we actually are. The process is simple: we are
spirit souls and by chanting we regain our actual spiritual identity.

But there is a factor that makes it difficult: maya, or illusion. We are
spirit souls, but forgetting our actual identity we think that we are this
body. Maya means that which is not. We came into maya because we forgot
Krishna. Krishna comes Himself to remind us who we are. How wonderful that
is! Not only He is reminding us, but He assumes the role of a devotee. He
becomes one of us, to teach us how to become situated in our spiritual
identity.

What is the process of reinstating us in our actual spiritual position? The
chanting of the Holy Name. Krishna said, "I have come in the form of the
Holy Name and you can receive Me in the form of the Holy Name." How do
receive the Holy Name? The Holy Name is sound, it enters through the ears by
hearing and chanting. Call out to Krishna by chanting! He made Himself
available through the Holy Name.

The name is Krishna Himself. If you say 'Krishna', His response is "Yes, I
am here!" But unfortunately we are not able to hear. Krishna is there but we
are not able to hear. Why is that? Due to the offences. Our spiritual senses
remain dormant and do not answer to the spiritual response of Krishna.
Offences are synonymous to material attachments. You can get rid of the
offences by chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
reassures us not to worry, keep on chanting, try to avoid committing
offences and some day you'll be able to chant purely.

There is a song by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura about what happens to you when
you start chanting purely. It is called 'Krishna Nama Dhare Koto Bal.'

(Guru Maharaja actually had intended to explain another song “Sri Krishna
Chaitanya Prabhu Jive Doya Kori”, but by accident the copies of this song
were handed out to the devotees. So Guru Maharaja first discussed this song
and at the end of the lecture the second song by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura
was sung.)

Translation of Krishna Nama Dhare Koto Bal

1) How much power does the name of Krishna possess? My heart constantly
burns in the fire of worldly desires, like a desert scorched by the sun. The
holy name, entering within my heart through the holes of my ears, showers
unparalleled nectar upon my soul.

2) The holy name speaks from within my heart, moves on the tip of my tongue,
and constantly dances on it in the form of transcendental sound. My throat
becomes choked up, my body violently trembles, and my feet move
uncontrollably.

3) Rivers of tears flow from my eyes. Perspiration pours from my body. My
body thrills with rapture, causing my hair to stand on end and my skin to
turn pale and discolored. My mind grows faint, and I begin to experience
devastation. My entire body is shattered in a flood of ecstasies.

4) While causing such an ecstatic disturbance, the holy name showers liquid
nectar on my heart and drowns me in the ocean of divine love of Godhead. He
does not allow me to understand anything; For He has made me truly mad and
has stolen away my heart and all my wealth.

5) Such is the behavior of Him who is now my only shelter. I am not capable
of describing all this. The holy name of Krishna is independent and thus
acts at His own sweet will. In Whatever way He becomes happy, that is also
my way of happiness.

6) The holy name is the bud of the flower of divine love, the abode of
devotion’s wonderful mellows. Such is the power that He manifests, that
although He displays His power only slightly, He reveals His own divine form
and qualities, steals my heart and takes it to Krishna.

7) Being fully manifest, the holy name of takes me to Vraja and reveals to
me His own love dalliance. He gives to me my own divine, eternal body, keeps
me near Krishna and completely destroys this mortal frame of mine.

8) The name of Krishna is touchstone, a mine of all devotional mellows,
eternally liberated,
and the embodiment of pure rasa. When all impediments to the pure chanting
of the holy name are taken away and destroyed, then my happiness will know
its true awakening.

Regarding this song it is significant to note that the Holy Name rises in
the heart by itself. It is not by our own endeavor that we can make it
appear there. Our present condition is that it is a real endeavor for us to
chant 16 rounds and after that we want to do all kinds of other (nonsense)
things. But when the Holy Name rises in the heart one will want to chant
continually.

This song describes the eight ecstatic symptoms. Murchita hoilo mana. The
mind faints, stops functioning. What happens to the devotee at that time is
that he loses his external consciousness, because he is now experiencing his
internal Krishna consciousness. Internally he is experiencing Krishna.



Krishna-nama ichha-moy. Just as Krishna is totally independent, His name is
also completely independent.  Since He is completely independent let Him do
whatever He wants to do. He is the Lord, I am not the Lord. I am His
servant. So let the lord and master decide what He wants to do, and I will
accept whatever He will do. That is the attitude of the devotee.

Then Bhaktivinode Thakura goes on to describe what happens due to the
chanting of the Holy Name.  Due to the chanting of the Holy Name Krishna
prema develops. Premera kalika nam. The Holy Name is the bud of Krishna
prema, unalloyed devotion for Krishna. It is the reservoir of all the
wonderful, transcendental mellows. Premera kalika nam adbhuta rasera dham.
And as we practice chanting the Holy Name, the bud will begin to blossom,
provided it is properly cultivated. Just opening a little of this bud of the
Holy Name reveals the form and the qualities of Krishna. By chanting the
Holy Name we will be able to see Krishna’s form. We don’t have to imagine
anything, there is no room for speculation or imagination. Just we have to
chant the Holy Name purely and sincerely.



Then due to the pure chanting when the bud of the Holy Name will begin to
open then Krishna’s form and qualities will become manifest. The Holy Name
steals the heart, or the consciousness, or the very self and takes the mind
to Krishna. We lose all interest for material things as if the mind now has
been stolen by Krishna. Mind you, this is the result of a *little *opening
of the bud. Can you imagine what happens when the bud is fully bloomed?
When the Holy Name fully blossoms it takes you to Vraja and shows you
Krishna's transcendental pastimes.

 Is there anything left to receive? EVERYTHING is there in the Holy Name.
That is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave in the eight verses of the
Siksastakam and that is what Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura presented in this
one verse. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu made a gradual elevation, understanding of
the Holy Name. Our previous acharyas have given us such a clear and sublime
understanding, everything is there! Is there anything else to get? To attain
spiritual perfection one should just chant the Holy Name purely and
everything will be achieved. EVERYTHING.


Questions & Answers

Question: What is contrary to not pure, impure?

Answer: You are something that it is not. Something else is there. Like
water. What is pure water? Something other than water is there. Gold mixed
with water, is it pure water? Diamond mixed with water, mud mixed with
water. These are the impurities. Anything other than the substance is the
cause of impurity.

Question: What attitude am I supposed to take when I…

Answer: Surrender, surrender, surrender to Krishna.


Question: It is said that the state of separation is the highest, but why is
it so painful then? When we read about the gopis in the Bhagavatam when
Krishna leaves them it seems they are suffering. Such a high state of
perfection, why is it painful?
Answer: Because they are not suffering. Rather they are enjoying more and
more. How? When the gopis have gone through intense separation and then
Krishna comes to them, how they feel? The joy is multiplied. Separation is
multiplying the feeling of joy. For example, you are eating and eating. How
does it feel? After you relished the food, then there is a break. For four
hours you don’t get any food. And after four hours when you start eating
taking food feels so good. So this interruption enables to experience the
joy of tasting something more. If that union was uninterrupted the joy of
that union would not have been that intense. Therefore there is a need for
the interruption. Interruption is magnified when there is a feeling of
separation. That's why separation is necessary.
Srila Rupa Goswami has explained that this is the way love moves. The
movement of love is not in a straight line, it moves like a snake. That is
the feeling of union and separation.
Krishna made that arrangement of separation. Actually Krishna never left
Vrindavana. It seems that Krishna left Vrindavana. What happened was Akrura
came to take Krishna, when they came to the Yamuna river, the border of
Vrindavana, Krishna and Balarama went to take a bath. Akrura saw the
four-armed form of Krishna at that time. Devakinandana Krishna or Vasudeva
Krishna came and sat on the chariot and Vrajendranandana Krishna, son of
mother Devaki and Nanda Maharaja, went back to Vrindavana. Krishna used to
meet the gopis, but they were thinking that they were dreaming. This is how
separation intensified the feeling of union.

Question: You explained how the Holy Name begins to come from within. Does
this mean that the soul is constantly chanting?

Answer: The soul CAN constantly chant (not: is constantly chanting) when he
becomes Krishna conscious. Guru Maharaja refers to the incidence of Lord
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu biting on to His tongue when He came out of the toilet
(see previous Siksastakam notes). He couldn’t stop Himself chanting in such
a dirty place. That means that the Holy Name is rising by itself. He
couldn’t stop it. There is no more need to make an endeavor to chant the
Holy Name (finish the 16 rounds). That is the ultimate perfection of our
existence.

Question: Tribhuvananatha prabhu told that when he saw Srila Prabhupada he
was chanting all the time. Even when he was talking he was chanting all the
time. But how does a pure devotee control the ecstatic symptoms because they
are uncontrollable? How does he maintain his discipline?

Answer: If it is chanting then don’t try to control it. Let it go. Rather
our mood should be: go, go, go! Why should you stop? To do your nonsense?
(Guru Maharaja laughs)

Question: What I meant is, how did Prabhupada control those emotions because
he is chanting pure.

Answer: A pure devotee (uttama adhikari, or someone on the first class
platform of devotion) comes down to the second class platform to preach. For
the sake of preaching they have to control their emotions, or ecstatic
symptoms. Prabhupada is chanting internally. He wants to continuously chant
but at the same time he takes out time for other things for the sake of
preaching. Second class platform is the platform of preaching, in the first
class platform you cannot preach.



Question: There is a devotee who has difficulty chanting the Hare Krishna
Mantra daily. He gets throat problem, concentration problem. He prefers to
chant mantras from scriptures like Bhagavatam in his spare time. Is it
possible that by this practice instead of chanting the Mahamantra one
attains the same stages of pure devotion?

Answer: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave the Holy Name of the Lord to chant. We
have to understand this. Is there anything else more important than
chanting? In general, all of us, do we have enough time to eat and sleep?
Why? Because it is important for the body, we need it for functioning. So if
you can make time for eating and sleeping, then why not for chanting? If
someone makes an excuse that he has no time to chant it means the person
doesn’t take the Holy Name seriously. He is not serious about his spiritual
life.

Ultimately is a matter of surrender. First we have to surrender. And to whom
do we surrender first?  We surrender to Krishna, yes, but we recognize the
surrender by surrender to His devotees. Srila Prabhupada and Krishna’s
devotees are telling us to chant sixteen rounds. If we don’t take the
instruction serious it means we are not surrendering to Srila Prabhupada.

It takes about two hours to chant sixteen rounds. Out of twenty four hours
is it too much to take out two hours to chant for Krishna? When it comes to
chanting there cannot be any excuse. If you can’t do this it means you are
not serious enough.

Guru Maharaja himself always advises people to chant at least one round,
because in that way at least you’re connected with the Holy Name on a daily
basis.

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Translation of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Jive Doya Kori



*1-2)* Out of compassion for the fallen souls, Sri Krishna Caitanya came to
this world with His
personal associates and divine abode to teach saranagati, surrender to the
almighty Godhead, and to freely distribute ecstatic love of God, which is
ordinarily very difficult to obtain. This saranagati is the very life of the
true devotee.
*
3-4)* The ways of saranagati are humility, dedication of the self,
acceptance of the Lord as one’s only maintainer, faith that Krishna will
surely protect, execution of only those acts favorable to pure devotion, and
renunciation of conduct adverse to pure devotion.
*
5)* The youthful son of Nanda Maharaja, Sri Krishna, hears the prayers of
anyone who takes refuge in Him by this six-fold practice.
*
6-7)* Bhaktivinoda places a straw between his teeth, prostrates himself
before the two Goswamis, Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana, and grasp their lotus
feet with his hands. “I am certainly the lowest of men.”He tells them
weeping, “but please make me the best of men by teaching me the ways of
saranagati”



*Final instruction of Guru Maharaja:*

Please memorize the eight verses of the Sri Siksastakam, the song Sri
Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Jive Doya Kori and the song Krishna Nama Dhare Koto
Bal.