Niśānta-bhajana - Śraddhā

I worship the purifier of the age of Kali: He who continually utters Kṛṣṇa's name, whose radiance is not dark, who appears with His limbs, subordinate limbs, weapons, and companions, and who is worshipped chiefly through sacrifices of congregational chanting.

Having accepted the Gauḍīyas of this world as His very own, the Lord repeatedly instructed the bees at His feet: "O people, chant 'Hare Kṛṣṇa' according to a counted discipline." When will that son of Śacī set His feet upon the pathway of my sight?

To deliver the souls of Kali, Hari, the Supreme Reality, revealed His golden form and came to Navadvīpa. The dharma of the age is remembrance and chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name. Together with His limbs and associates, He distributed the treasure of prema. Congregational chanting of the Name is the soul's eternal and intrinsic dharma; every other dharma reaches fulfillment through the Name.

The complete fruit obtained in Satya-yuga by devoutly worshipping Hari through hundreds of sacrifices is gained in Kali-yuga by singing Govinda's name.

In Satya-yuga Hari was adored through sacrifice upon sacrifice. In Kali-yuga, that same fruit is won through the name of Govinda.

So great is the power of Hari's Name to carry sin away that no sinner can commit sin in equal measure.

No rite of atonement can equal the Name. Knowing this, the wise relinquish fruitive ritual action.

People attain remembrance of the destroyer of Agha only with great effort. Better still is kīrtana, accomplished by the mere movement of the lips.

Meditative yoga pursued through austerity is exceedingly difficult. Take refuge instead in kīrtana, which needs only the movement of one's lips. If the lips cannot move, remember the Name inwardly. Every perfection gathers in remembrance and chanting. Scripture has therefore established that remembering and chanting the Name surpass even formal arcana.

O descendant of Bharata, the names of Hari dwell forever upon the lips of one who worshipped Vāsudeva through a hundred former births.

The Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra has sixteen names arranged in eight pairs. The Lord disclosed the meanings of those eight pairs through the eight verses of His Śikṣāṣṭaka. The opening "Hare Kṛṣṇa" destroys ignorance and indicates congregational chanting of Kṛṣṇa's name endowed with śraddhā.

The next "Hare Kṛṣṇa" reveals that Kṛṣṇa's Name bears every divine potency. Taking shelter of the Name in saintly company produces attachment to bhajana. As bhajana unfolds, all anarthas are destroyed; when they withdraw, steadfastness in the Name blossoms.

With the third pair, "Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa," one adopts the character of a purified devotee and chants with unwavering constancy day and night. The fourth pair, "Hare Hare," kindles unmotivated devotion and calls forth nāma-saṅkīrtana suffused with taste.

The fifth pair, "Hare Rāma," joins taste with pure servitude and prescribes both chanting and remembrance. In the sixth pair, another "Hare Rāma," the first shoot of bhāva appears: worldly taste fades, and all relish is offered to Kṛṣṇa.

In the seventh pair, "Rāma Rāma," attachment to the sweet amorous mood awakens, shelter is taken at Rādhā's feet, and love in separation arises. In the eighth pair, the sādhaka enters Vraja's eightfold daily cycle in gopī-bhāva and attains the ultimate purpose: loving service to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

First comes śraddhā; then saintly association; then the actual practice of bhajana. Thereafter anarthas recede, steadfastness arises, taste awakens, attachment deepens, bhāva appears, and at last prema dawns. This is the order in which divine love manifests in a sādhaka.

Śraddhā arises from sukṛti rooted in bhakti. When śraddhā has awakened, saintly company comes naturally. Through that company one receives instruction in bhajana, together with initiation into the Name and mantra.

As bhajana continues, anarthas diminish. When they have been humbled, niṣṭhā arises. The firmer one's constancy in the Name becomes, the more completely anarthas are destroyed; then taste for the Name gradually reveals itself.

As the Name is chanted with taste, anarthas depart and the devotee acquires attachment to the Name. When that attachment has driven every anartha far away, bhāva certainly arises.

Yet if, amid this progress, corrupt association gives birth to hunger for prestige, hypocrisy and intrigue will cast the practitioner down. Therefore, brother, remain intensely vigilant. Abandon unholy company and worship Hari's Name ceaselessly in supreme joy.

Better to remain shut within a cage of blazing fire than to suffer the misery of living among people who turn away from contemplation of Śauri.

I would sooner embrace a serpent, tiger, or crocodile than associate with those pierced by material desire who render exclusive service to many other gods.

I may burn in fire or be confined within a cage, but I will not accept the company of anyone averse to Kṛṣṇa. I would sooner embrace a serpent, tiger, or crocodile than ever seek the association of one devoted elsewhere.

O treasury of virtues, let your mind be deeply colored by faith and worship Him without deceit: the purifier of all who purify, the crown of those praised by the finest verses. When even the first gleam of the sun of His Name rises within the heart's hidden chamber, it scatters the accumulated darkness of the gravest sins.

Kṛṣṇa is supremely purifying, as are His feet. Worship Him with guileless faith. When the sunlike radiance of His Name enters the heart, it destroys the vast darkness of the greatest sins.

The Śikṣāṣṭaka reveals the sequence of Kṛṣṇa's līlā. By following its graded bhajana, the līlā progressively dawns. Practice in the light of the first verse for some days; then become accomplished in the second.

Let bhajana mature gradually through the first four verses. In the fifth, embrace your own perfected spiritual identity. Taking refuge at Rādhā's feet in that identity, begin the inward service and advance step by step.

Through practice of the sixth verse, anarthas withdraw; then true understanding and eligibility for the perfected identity arise. If one imagines that identity without first receiving the necessary qualification, weakened spiritual power gives birth to inverted understanding.

If you desire perfection, carefully honor the sequence. Observe the conduct of sādhus and thereby gain purified intelligence. When the perfected identity has awakened and bhajana is pursued in proper order, the joy of service throughout the eight periods comes without difficulty.

Contemplate the Śikṣāṣṭaka; practice remembrance and chanting. In due course, service through the eight periods will blaze forth. Every anartha will disappear, the treasure of prema will be gained, and the four conventional aims of human life will fade away as hollow and insignificant.

Supreme victory to the congregational chanting of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It cleanses the mirror of the heart and extinguishes the great forest fire of worldly becoming. It pours moonlight upon the night-blooming lotus of highest good and is the very life of the bride of divine knowledge. It expands the ocean of bliss, grants a complete taste of nectar at every step, and bathes the whole self.

Through saṅkīrtana, sin and worldly bondage are destroyed; the heart is cleansed, and every practice of bhakti begins to unfold. Love for Kṛṣṇa arises and its nectar is tasted. Kṛṣṇa is attained, and the devotee plunges into the nectarean ocean of service.

O Name, You destroy the mountain of distress borne by those who take refuge in You. You are the beautiful embodiment of concentrated spiritual joy, the great festival of Gokula, and Kṛṣṇa's own complete form. I bow to You again and again.

The Name dispels every sorrow of the surrendered and sports as the supremely beautiful form of condensed consciousness and bliss. It is complete Kṛṣṇa, Gokula's festival. Bowing to that Name, I obtain extraordinary prema. Through congregational chanting every anartha is destroyed, every blessing dawns, and love for Kṛṣṇa swells with joy.

A person repeatedly assaulted by lust and greed does not become truly peaceful through restraint and the other limbs of yoga as fully as through service to Mukunda.

Yoga may cleanse and concentrate the mind, yet in many cases its promised result proves uncertain or incomplete.

Even stainless knowledge that has risen beyond fruitive work possesses no beauty when it is bereft of loving awareness of Acyuta. How much less can perpetually inauspicious action be beautiful when it is not offered to the Lord, even if performed without selfish motive?

Knowledge may be spotless and transcend karma, yet without pure bhakti it can never shine. Action is inauspicious by nature; even desireless duty bears no blessing unless it is offered to Kṛṣṇa.

O all-pervading Lord, those who abandon bhakti, the path of highest good, and labor only to acquire abstract knowledge retain nothing but their labor, like people who beat empty husks and obtain no grain.

One who leaves the path of devotion to strive after knowledge gains only fruitless hardship and brings ruin upon oneself. However fiercely one threshes empty husks, no rice emerges. In just that way, days spent pursuing knowledge without bhakti are wasted.

For those who seek liberation, nothing severs the binding knot of karma more completely than singing of Him whose feet sanctify every holy place. Through such chanting the mind does not fasten itself to action again; by other means it remains clouded by passion and ignorance.

By chanting Kṛṣṇa's name, bring the bonds of karma to a decisive end and attain liberation. There is no other way to leave completely the wheel of action governed by rajas and tamas.

Whoever once pronounces the two syllables "Ha-ri" has already made firm provision for the journey toward liberation.

The person in whose mouth the Name dances even once effortlessly gains the joy of freedom.

Kṛṣṇa's Name is sweeter than all sweetness and the auspiciousness within every blessing. It is conscious reality itself, the finest fruit upon the entire creeper of revealed scripture. O best of Bhṛgu's line, whether sung once with faith or even carelessly, it carries any human being across.

More auspicious than everything auspicious, the eternal Name is consciousness itself and the fruit of the Vedic vine. Whoever voices Kṛṣṇa's name even once, whether with faith or inattentively, is assuredly delivered.

O foremost king, if you desire supreme knowledge and the highest state that knowledge bestows, then sing Govinda's name with reverence.

If you seek the supreme destination born of the highest knowledge, perform Govinda-kīrtana with śraddhā.

O Sustainer, O Lord, living beings in this worldly existence are struck by the threefold miseries and find no peace within themselves. Therefore, Bhagavān, we take shelter beneath the shade of Your feet, together with the true knowledge found there.

In this world the multitude of souls, battered by threefold suffering, finds no well-being, O Kṛṣṇa. The flawless wisdom beneath the shade of Your feet bestows every good; by taking that shelter, every auspicious fruit is gained.

True knowledge is that by which the mind turns toward Him.

The potency that awakens one's awareness of Kṛṣṇa is called vidyā, for it breaks ignorance apart. Kṛṣṇa's Name is the life of that bride called knowledge, because it steadies the mind at Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet.

Those exclusive devotees who have surrendered to Bhagavān desire nothing whatsoever. Singing His supremely wondrous and auspicious deeds, they remain submerged in an ocean of joy.

One who becomes akiñcana, possessing nothing, and performs single-hearted kīrtana is immersed in the ocean of bliss.

I bow to the sandals of those who skillfully release souls sunk in the ancient mire of the ocean of becoming. When they hear the two syllables "Kṛṣ-ṇa," bliss surges within them and the hairs of their bodies begin to dance.

Hearing Kṛṣṇa's Name, all their bodily hairs dance and their frames tremble with joy. Expert in lifting souls submerged in the mud of worldly existence, they are the great ones at whose feet I bow.

When the unlimited Bhagavān, whose glory is heard and experienced, is praised in saṅkīrtana, He enters the human heart and sweeps every affliction away, as the sun dispels darkness and a mighty wind scatters clouds.

All anarthas acquired through hearing and experience are severed by the chanting of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Entering the heart, it destroys every fault, just as wind disperses clouds and sunlight ends darkness. By taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa's Name, the mirror of the heart is polished, and the soul very quickly gains the treasure of kṛṣṇa-prema.

O Kṛṣṇa's Name, You are the overflowing sweetness distilled from nectarean waves, giving life to Nārada's vīṇā. Please manifest forever upon my tongue in abundant rasa.

The exhalation of Kṛṣṇa's Name, filled completely with sweetness, brings the sage's vīṇā to life and releases the essence of waves of nectar. May that Name dance without interruption upon my tongue, accompanied by rasa. This alone is my heart's desire.

Victory to You, O Holy Name, sung by hosts of sages. You assume the form of supreme syllables to delight all people. Even when uttered only slightly and without due regard, You plunder the entire mass of dreadful suffering.

For the soul's highest welfare, You have taken the form of transcendent syllables. Assemblies of sages sing You ceaselessly with faith. All victory to Hari's Name! So immense is Your majesty that even careless chanting destroys every terrible affliction.

"Oṁ" is the name nearest to Brahman. Because its mere utterance carries one across the fear of worldly existence, it is called tāra, the deliverer.

O Viṣṇu, knowing this conscious and distinct Name of Your splendor, we take refuge in excellent understanding. Oṁ. That is Reality.

Then the threefold syllable Oṁ arose from the unmanifest, self-sovereign source. Its three elements signify Bhagavān, Brahman, and Paramātmā.

Kṛṣṇa is self-ruling and independent, beyond the unmanifest. Brahman, Paramātmā, and Bhagavān are the three realities indicated within this system. The sounds a, u, and m point particularly to the names Hari, Kṛṣṇa, and Rāma. Every name of Hari is nondifferent from Hari Himself. Though the expressed Reality and the word expressing Him may be distinguished, together they fulfill the devotee's longing.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare;
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

The Lord said: "I have given you this mahā-mantra. Sing it and always perform japa with disciplined resolve. Through it everyone will attain every perfection. Speak it at every moment; there is no further restriction."

Those whose intelligence is firmly resolved to comprehend true dharma very quickly find every cherished purpose fulfilled.

One who chants Kṛṣṇa's Name with unwavering resolve very soon receives from that Name the fruit of prema.

A japa-mālā made of tulasī wood or jewels grants the desired fruit of every undertaking to all practitioners. It should be fashioned like a cow's tail, or else in the auspicious form of a serpent. Do not touch its cord with the forefinger, shake it, or swing it. Reverse direction while the beads rest at the middle joint of the thumb. Do not touch them with the left hand or allow them to fall from the hand. A wise person drawn toward enjoyment or liberation should perform japa with the middle finger.

The causes of success in japa are withdrawal of the mind, purity, silence, contemplation of the mantra's meaning, freedom from agitation, and perseverance without discouragement.

During japa, gather the mind into one-pointedness. Keep the heart pure and do not speak uselessly. Always contemplate the meaning of the Name and take shelter of patience. Honor the Name deeply and remember Kṛṣṇa's Name.

Bhagavān-tattva is known as the embodiment of concentrated consciousness and bliss. Because He removes ignorance and all that ignorance produces, He is remembered as Hari. Śrī Rādhā is the very form of Kṛṣṇa's delight and steals Kṛṣṇa's mind; therefore She is proclaimed by the name Harā. The dark, lotus-eyed son of Nanda, master of the one supreme joy and source of Gokula's happiness, is called Kṛṣṇa. The complete essence of amorous artistry, the embodied presiding deity of līlā, eternally delights Śrī Rādhā and is therefore named Rāma.

Śrī Bhagavān is the form of concentrated consciousness and bliss. His descent in the form of the Name is the proof of this truth.

Because He performs the work of removing ignorance, His name is Hari. Thus one crosses over by the names "Hare Kṛṣṇa."

Our Śrī Rādhā is the embodiment of Kṛṣṇa's joy. Because She steals Kṛṣṇa's mind, Her name is Harā.

The words "Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa" signify the glorious form of eternity, consciousness, and bliss. The words "Hare Kṛṣṇa" contain the essential identities of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

Rādhā is joy embodied. Her eternal Lord is lotus-eyed Śyāma, who longs to bring delight to Rādhā.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Nanda's son, is Gokula's bliss. He remains forever thirsty to taste happiness in Rādhā's company.

He is the complete essence of refined amorous skill, the embodied Lord of līlā. Because He is Śrī Rādhā-ramaṇa, He bears the name Rāma.

The Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is the Name of the Divine Couple. Contemplate Their united līlā without interruption.

Hari's Name, Hari's Name, Hari's Name alone! In the age of Kali there is no other way, no other way, no other way.

Leave aside every other dharma and ritual act; Hari's Name is the essence. In Kali-yuga there is no destination apart from it.

Suppose that, by night and day, a solitary practitioner has become fearless, conquered sleep, grown disenchanted, fixed the gaze upon the path, eaten sparingly, and become peaceful, yet the mind still does not attach itself to Bhagavān Acyuta. Then, casting shame aside, one should recite the Names that awaken love for Him.

Day and night, wakeful, untroubled, fearless, moderate in food, peaceful, secluded, and absorbed in contemplation, the devotee who longs for attachment to Kṛṣṇa abandons embarrassment and voices the Name that kindles kṛṣṇa-rati.

In this world, the supreme dharma for human beings is remembered to be bhakti-yoga directed to Bhagavān, beginning with the taking of His Name.

Bhakti-yoga assumes a form that begins with receiving Kṛṣṇa's Name. Its essential nature has been determined to be the supreme dharma centered upon the Name.

At night's end, while chanting, meditate upon the breaking of the kuñja tryst. As the heart becomes attached little by little, the experience of rasa unfolds.

I remember Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa at the close of night. Alarmed by the coming dawn, Vṛndā has many cries sounded, and the verses of the male and female parrots, some pleasing and some unwelcome, wake the Couple from Their blissful bed. Attended by the sakhīs, They gaze at one another in delight, and fresh desire makes Them playful. Then, apprehensive at Kakkhaṭī's call, Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, though still thirsting for one another, reach Their beds in Their respective homes.

Seeing the reddish dawn, Vṛndā Devī becomes busy and causes many sounds to arise within the bower. Hearing the verses of the male and female parrots, Rādhā and blue-jewelled Kṛṣṇa awaken; the sakhīs rejoice to see Them.

At the proper moment, while the tender longing between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa remains intense, They become frightened by Kakkhaṭī's cry. Each returns to Their own home and lies down in seclusion. Worship Them both while remembering this līlā.

Remember this pastime and sing Kṛṣṇa's Name. You will attain Kṛṣṇa's līlā, the treasure of prema, and Kṛṣṇa's abode.

Thus ends the practice for the first period in Śrī Bhajana-rahasya.