Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.
This is in conclusion of the previous topic "The All Munificent Puurushottama" wherein we meditated on the different manifestations of the Lord and His manifestation as Srimad Bhagavatam.
And in order for a person to understand the message of Srimad Bhagavatam and also relish the activities of the Lord in His various incarnations, one needs to purify the consciousness, And in this age of Kali, the easiest way to purify the consciousness is to chant the holy names of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord (Purushottama) appears in the form of His holy name in Kali yuga. He has invested all potencies in His holy name and there are no rules for chanting them. Vedic mantras need lot of qualifications in terms of spiritual initiation, purificatory rituals and rigorous pronunciation rules. But holy name can be chanted any time by anyone and even with incorrect pronunciation. In Mahabharata, when Bhishma was lying on the bed of arrows, Yudhishtra asked which is the highest dharma of the living entity and by chanting which one can attain liberation? Bhishma answered as follows.
jagatpatim devadevam anantam purushottamam
sthuvan nāma sahasrena purusha satottithah.
A person should chant the thousand names of the Purushottama who is the Lord of all universes, Supreme God of all gods and who is infinite and elevate himself.
So if even if a person is incapable of any other processes of self-realization, He can take the association of the Purushottama who has mercifully manifested in the forms of His name. He makes Himself accessible to one and all in the form of His holy name. Srila Prabhupada proved it practically in his preaching mission. When he went to USA for preaching, all he had was great commitment to the order of his spiritual master and strong faith in holy name. He simply started chanting in the park of Newyork and gradually people started coming towards him and it exploded into a world wide spiritual movement. The westerners were totally new to Vedic culture but by the association of the Purushottama in the form of His holy name, they were all elevated to highest level of spiritual perfection. In the Puranas also we see that one who takes shelter of the holy name of Purushottama can attain Supreme perfection.
There is a nice story in Vishnu purana about the Lord's mercy in His manifestation as holy name. Once a great sage named Kandu rishi who was learned in Vedic knowledge was meditating on the banks of the river Gomati. Indra wanted to spoil his penance and sent a heavenly girl named Pramilocha. The sage was attracted by her beauty and engaged in conjugal life with her for 100 years. After this period the girl told him, "O sage, please allow me to go back to heaven." The sage said, "Please stay with me for some more time". She agreed and stayed for 100 more years. Like this many times she wanted to leave and the sage requested her to stay back. Due to her pity on him and due to the fear that he would curse her, Pramilocha stayed with him.
One day suddenly the sage thought he should do his evening rituals and left the ashram to reach the river. Pramilocha stopped him and asked, "Where are you going?". The great sage replied "Evening has come and I need to do my Gayatri chanting. If I skip it, it means I have slipped from my prescribed duty". The girl laughed and said "Many many years we have passed in conjugal love and for you it seems only few hours have passed. You have missed all your spiritual practices for years". The sage said "No. morning I met you near the river and we enjoyed only for few hours. Now it's evening and thats why I want to do my rituals." The girl replied, "Yes, we met in the morning only but not today. We met many years back in the morning and we have been enjoying for 907 years 6 months and 3 days till now".
The rishi was shattered to know that all his meditation on the Lord has been broken and he has fallen from the spiritual path. He told Pramilocha, "I'm not cursing you since I have enjoyed with you for all these years. Just get lost from here." And she left in fear to the heavenly planets. The rishi repented for his fall down and said to himself, "Now I will take shelter of the Lord's deity form and He will relieve me from all material attraction." He went to mountain called Purushottamam and worshipped the Supreme Person (Purushottama) in His deity form by reciting a wonderful prayer called Brahma para tuti which glories the name of the Lord and attained the spiritual world. In this prayer (Vishnu Purana 1,15.57, 58) Kandu rishi exalts the holy name of the Supreme Purushottama as follows.
brahmāksharam ajam nityam yathāsau purushottamah
tathā rāgādayo doshāh prayāntu prashamam mama
The Supreme Absolute Truth Vishnu is eternal, unborn, imperishable and free from all inferior qualities. That same Supreme Person (Purushottama) with all His perfections and beauty has manifested in the form of deity here. Let Him pacify all my attraction to lower modes and purify me by His association in the form of His holy name.
Let us pray to the all merciful Supreme Purushottama, Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva, for blessing us with great attraction for His holy name and eternal association in the spiritual world.
Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna das
Chennai.
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