The most important thing in spiritual life is that at some point in your life, you take six months to a year to concentrate on chanting the Holy Names offenselessly. That is the best way to attain self-realization.
The key here is ‘chanting offenselessly.’ You can chant from now until the end of time, but unless you can chant offenselessly, you will not get the ultimate fruits of self-realization: Kṛṣṇa-darshan and realization of your eternal identity in relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
Let’s discuss this one piece at a time. You remember in the Esoteric Teaching Introductory Seminar video, I told you that to attain perfection in self-realization, you have to give up everything and chant the Lord’s Holy Name day and night for at least six months. Well, I wasn’t kidding about that. As we discussed yesterday, that is what I did to attain the goal self-realization.
This chanting process is given in the Vedic literature as the yuga-dharma, the only bona fide means of self-realization in the Age of Kali:
harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha“Chant the Holy Name [in the offensive stage], chant the Holy Name [in the clearing stage], chant the Holy Name of Lord Hari (Kṛṣṇa) [in the perfect stage]. In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy (Kali-yuga) there is no other means [by jnana], no other means [by karma], no other means [by yoga] for self-realization.” [from Kali-santarana Upanisad, quoted in Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 17.21]
In this age, we do not have the personal qualifications and facilities necessary for success in the practice of jnana (self-realization by knowledge and meditation), karma (self-realization by Vedic sacrifices) and yoga (self-realization by controlling the mind). These are bona fide Vedic processes of self-realization, but they are appropriate for other yugas (historical eras) not Kali-yuga.
The chanting process is comprised of three stages: the offensive stage, the clearing stage and the offenseless stage. In the beginning, we are very conditioned by material consciousness, and we will certainly commit offenses against the Holy Name. As we advance and accept initiation from the spiritual master, we enter the clearing stage, where we work to overcome these offenses by study and purification through selfless service and austerity.
Finally we come to the offenseless stage, where we obtain the fruits of the chanting process. The good news is that I am just an ordinary person, so if I could do it, you can too. The bad news is that this whole process took me about 35 years to complete, from my first offensive chanting to the perfection of self-realization. But is it really bad news to know that our journey of thousands and millions of births and deaths in the material world can be ended in less than one lifetime by application of this powerful spiritual method?
If you could just immediately chant offenselessly, you could reach this perfectional stage in six months to a year of intensive effort. The problem is, we cannot chant offenselessly. Therefore we have to go through the offensive and clearing stages before it makes sense to camp out in the woods and just chant until we attain perfection.
But at some point you will have to do it, just as I did, my spiritual master did, and his spiritual master before him. In fact, that is how you become a spiritual master: by chanting the pure Holy Name without offenses. Then Kṛṣṇa will be attracted by your pure devotional service, and reveal Himself out of His sweet will.
The ten offenses against the Holy Name are as follows:
- To blaspheme a devotee of the Lord
- To consider the Lord and the demigods to be on the same level or to think that there are many gods, or that the names of the demigods like Indra and Siva are equal to the Holy Name of Lord Kṛṣṇa
- To neglect the orders of the spiritual master
- To minimize the authority of the Vedic scriptures
- To interpret the Holy Name of God
- To commit sins on the strength of chanting
- To instruct the glories of the Lord’s name to the unfaithful
- To compare the chanting of the Holy Name with material piety
- To be inattentive while chanting the Holy Name
- To be attached to material things in spite of chanting the Holy Name
To blaspheme a devotee of the Lord is the first offense against the Holy Name, and it completely disrupts one’s spiritual life. The good qualities of a devotee have been personally described by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Srimad-Bhagavatam. The devotee is merciful, tolerant, equal to all; does penance without injuring the body; is truthful, pure-hearted and compassionate; is free from lust in his intelligence and is master of his senses; makes no claims of ownership; is gentle, clean, and regulated in eating; is peaceful, apathetic to materialism, is patient and steady; takes Lord Kṛṣṇa as his only shelter; is free from illusion, grave, has conquered over hunger, thirst, lamentation, envy, old age and death; does not expect honor from others; offers respect to others; is expert, not a cheater, and knowledgeable.
When one has developed a real taste for chanting, then a single utterance of the Holy Name can eradicate all previous sins. Some vestiges of sinful reaction may still remain in a particular devotee, but these will be removed by the steady process of chanting. When these last traces of sin disappear, he emerges a pure devotee. Of course, the lingering traces of sin are seen by ordinary people as actual sin; if a devotee is criticized because of the traces of almost extirpated sin in his character, that is a grievous offense. If criticism is made against a devotee for sins committed prior to his surrendering to Kṛṣṇa, that is likewise another serious offense. Such a faultfinder surely invites the wrath of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Worshiping the demigods independently of Kṛṣṇa, or thinking their names are as good as Kṛṣṇa’s Holy Name, is the second offense. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the supreme non-dual Absolute Truth. Though He is the ultimate lord of the material creation, His own form is transcendental, being always situated in pure goodness. Lord Kṛṣṇa in Goloka is the original and supreme form of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa is embellished with sixty-four extraordinary excellences, and He is the shelter of all transcendental mellows. Lord Narayana possesses sixty of those excellences, and to a lesser degree of fullness than Him, so do Lord Visnu and the other Visnu expansions of the Lord.
The ordinary jiva souls possess only fifty of the Lord’s transcendental characteristics, and these in limited degree. Though the demigods are superior jivas, the Supreme Lord Visnu is the master and controller of the jivas and demigods alike. Out of sheer ignorance, foolish people try to equate the Supreme Lord with the demigods, but Siva and the other demigods are simply the servant of the Supreme Lord Visnu. Since they are devotees of the Lord, the names of Lord Brahma, Lord Siva and other demigods are certainly auspicious, but they cannot replace the Holy Name of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
To disrespect or disobey the spiritual Master Teacher is the third offense against the Holy Name. The soul travels through many lifetimes in different bodies and at last gets a chance of a rare human birth, which is auspicious in every respect. The soul finally attains a human body by ajnata-sukriti or unintentional pious activities. A birth in the human form is most uncommon, and unlike any other species, only in the human body is it possible to perform spiritual activities and attain liberation.
A demigod or denizen of the heavenly planets is destined only to enjoy the reactions of his past good karma. He cannot voluntarily initiate any spiritual activities. Animals are likewise bound by karmic reactions, and are too steeped in gross ignorance to undertake any pious activities independently. The human birth alone is most conducive for spiritual life and service to the Supreme Lord.
A spiritual master is essential for everyone. Yet the fact remains that this body is transient. If one does not carefully endeavor for self-realization, which is the greatest benediction, then he returns again to the endless cycle of birth and death. An intelligent person will therefore utilize this rare opportunity. He will search out a spiritual Master Teacher who can lead him to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Such a spiritual master is the only guide who can help the jiva cross the ocean of material nescience. Only the most foolish person will attempt to cross this ocean by their own intelligence. The achievement of any success in this world requires the help of a teacher’s instructions. How, then, will one obtain perfection in the best of all subjects, spiritual science, without the aid of a teacher? Only a man who is self-realized and fully proficient in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is fit to teach this science.
A few of the characteristics of a bona fide spiritual Master Teacher are that he is peaceful, unperturbed and a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. The Master Teacher should be approached with humility. The chela should satisfy him with service and receive from him formal initiation into the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa. This is his best chance to surmount the material entanglement. The jiva’s inherent love for Kṛṣṇa lies dormant in the heart, and can easily be revived by a qualified spiritual master.
But the jiva can just as easily lose this chance by challenging the spiritual master through speculative debates and mischievous logic. He must evade such pitfalls, surrender to the spiritual master’s instructions and receive the proper mantra from him. As for householders, they should take shelter of a bona-fide spiritual master and remain within the varnasrama system.
A good brahmana is fit to be a spiritual master for all the other varnas or social orders as long as he is a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. But if a brahmana spiritual master is not available, then a spiritual master from another varna should be searched out. If there is a choice, the householder would be best advised to accept initiation from a spiritual master in the brahmana-varna.
A real spiritual master is one who is conversant with the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A spiritual master can be from any varna or asrama, but he must be a transcendental touchstone that can fulfill the spiritual needs of people from all varnas and asramas. He must be able to give the jiva suddharati (pure attraction) for Kṛṣṇa.
There are two kinds of spiritual masters: the initiating spiritual master or diksa-guru, and the instructing spiritual master or siksa-guru. Both gurus have to be respected equally. This is the key to success in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
The diksa-guru initiates his disciple into the chanting of the Holy Name and gives diksa-mantra. The siksa-guru imparts sambandha-jnana or the knowledge of the jiva’s relationship with the Supreme Lord and His energies. The diksa-guru is one but the siksa-guru can be many. In fact, all the pure Vaiṣṇava devotees who benedict the world by distributing the Holy Name are siksa-gurus.
Never make the mistake of judging the guru as an ordinary mortal. The spiritual master is the representative of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s potencies, sent by the Lord as the eternal master of the disciples. He must always be worshiped as an eternal associate of the Supreme Lord, empowered by the Lord’s superior spiritual potency.
On the other hand, the spiritual master must never be considered to be the Supreme Lord Himself, for this is Mayavadi philosophy and is not in line with the pure Vaiṣṇava conclusions. The Vaiṣṇava devotees are very wary of such misinterpretations because the Mayavadi whirlpool of word jugglery is so contaminating to the heart. The spiritual master must always be worshiped according to the scriptural conclusions, for when properly executed, this worship results in pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Before one can worship Kṛṣṇa, he must first worship the spiritual master. While doing guru-puja, one should offer the guru a seat, foot-wash, arghya, bath, cloth, ornaments and so on; then with the spiritual master’s permission, one may begin worship of Radha-Kṛṣṇa Deities. The Deity’s prasadam is given to the spiritual master first, then to the demigods forefathers. Just as the disciple is required to get the spiritual master’s blessings before worshiping Radha-Kṛṣṇa, before chanting the Holy Name the disciple should remember the spiritual master and his instructions by reciting the Guru-pranati prayer.
One who disrespects the spiritual master commits a serious offense that will expel him from the path of bhakti. The spiritual master, Lord Kṛṣṇa, and the Vaiṣṇavas must be worshiped with equal attention. Undeviating faith in the spiritual master will lead to pure chanting and the final goal of Kṛṣṇa-prema.
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