Caru Candra dasa, Sundarangi devi dasi, and Rasamayi devi dasi

My dear and most respected spiritual master and eternal father,

Hare Krsna! Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your most merciful divine lotus feet. All glories unto you and Srila Prabhupada!

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya

caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

 “I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him.”

mukam karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim

yat-krpa tam aham vande sri-gurum dina-taranam

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, the deliverer of the fallen souls. His mercy turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains.”

I was contemplating my position thinking that for me, the river was going to be very very harsh and the level is not going to go down unless I increase my level of surrender. As I was thinking how I can improve my japa, I came across few verses from your lectures on Harinama-cintamani which gave me direction. Chapter 2 Text 46 says,

eke krsna-nama yadi mukhe bahiraya

athava sravana pathe antarete yaya

suddha varna haya va asuddha varna haya

tate jiva tare ei sastrera nirnaya

“If the holy name once comes out of from mouth and enters pathway of ears, whether its syllables are spoken purely or not, the soul speaking them or hearing becomes delivered. This is conclusion of scriptures.” [Harinama-cintamani 2.45-46]

kintu eka katha ithe ache suniscita

namabhasa haile vilambe haya hita

namabhasa haile-o anya subha haya

prema dhana kevala vilambe upajaya

“However, chanting with namabhasa will bring its benefit slowly. With namabhasa chanting the greatest treasure of pure love will come after many births.” [Harinama-cintamani 2.47-48]

So what is the solution to namabhasa chanting? Text 55 has the answer:

namabhasa bhedi suddha nama labhibare

sad-guru sevibe jiva yatna sahakare

“In order to overcome namabhasa and get the pure name, the soul must carefully serve his spiritual master.” [Harinama-cintamani 2.55]

This is the secret of crossing the river quickly. The river represents our material existence. We are blessed with the harinama jewel and the saint standing on the bank of river is our dearest Srila Gurudeva. He is saying “I have given you everything you need to cross the river, now it is up to you how fast you want to cross it.” When we take to chanting suddha nama by carefully serving the spiritual master’s instructions, we are already on the other side of the river.

Our beloved Gurudeva once said, “Anything which is not connected to Krsna is maya and anything that is connected to Krsna is reality”. What we need to understand is that if our chanting is not going to be connected to Krsna, i.e., if while chanting we are not thinking, “I am chanting my rounds because this is what my spiritual master has ordered me to do”, then we are definitely going to think that we are the doer and it contradicts the instruction of Mahaprabhu that one should chant with an attitude of trnad api sunicena. So, the conclusion is that we need to approach Nama Prabhu early morning with an attitude of obeying our spiritual master’s instruction and then the feeling of ‘doer’ will vanish. As soon as the doer mentality is vanished, then all the rounds will be our loving offering to spiritual master and Lord Sri Krsna. Gradually the namabhasa will disappear and the light of pure love will enlighten our hearts. We are then already on the other side of the river.

We pray to Srila Gurudeva in the morning, “I am going to follow your order of chanting sixteen rounds Guru Maharaja, please accept my offering”. After chanting we are expressing our gratitude to Srila Gurudeva, “I just finished serving your instruction dear Gurudeva. I couldn’t have finished it without your causeless mercy. Please help me overcome my imperfections. Thank you very much.”

I pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva that I may not be overcome by greed and may I be blessed with a simple heart of gratefulness for all the benedictions showered by Srila Gurudeva.

I pray humbly that let me develop this culture of deep gratitude in my life.

On this auspicious day, we will try to take a sincere vow by Gurudeva’s causeless mercy, to wake up our minds from the slumber of ignorance, by chanting the Lord names and sincerely request Him to appear in our hearts and thereby lead a peaceful and blissful life.

Appreciate your time and help as always,

Thank You Very Much as always,

A servant of your servants, 

Sundarangi devi dasi, Caru Candra dasa, and Rasamayi devi dasi