T here are seven stages of transcendental purification and elevation that takes place when we chant the holy names of Lord Krishna.
FIFTH PURIFICATION
“Anandam buddhi vardhanam.” When we surrender to Krishna and agree to live in harmony with Krishna, be the servant of His servants, then by the grace of Krishna, He places us in an unlimited ocean of transcendental ecstasy. The happiness of this world is like a drop of water in the desert. But the happiness that is achieved through the chanting of the Holy Names is like being submerged in an ocean of nectar, an ocean of ecstasy. The soul being naturally servant of Krishna is longing for the unlimited ecstatic joy of re-uniting with Krishna. Krishna is all beautiful. Then Krishna reveals to us in reciprocation to our desire and sincerity, what pleasure there is in Krishna; the beautiful form of His threefold bending Swarup. It is so intoxicating. Srila Rupa Goswami warns us, if you are attached to your home, if you are attached to the material aspects of your family, wealth, and society or anything of this world, then I warn you — do not go to the banks of Yamuna — Kesi ghat, where Govindaji, Krishna is standing in His beautiful threefold bending form. Once you see that beauty of Krishna then you are aware that the things of this world that are charming your heart are insignificant. Jamunacarya, the spiritual master of Ramanujacharya and many other great souls, prayed in this way. He was remembering back to the days when he was young and he was a king, and he had so much pleasure and facility for enjoyment. He said, now I am tasting the sweetness and pleasure of service to Krishna when I think of all the enjoyments of this world — and even the king of all enjoyments — sex pleasure, he says, my lips curl in distaste and I spit at that thought. There is no pleasure and no charm. When we realise that we are not this body, what is so great about material pleasure? It has nothing to do with the soul and nothing to do with reality. We see a beautiful thing and it is just some light entering into our eye, and it is making us mad. If it is dark, you cannot even see it. Some frequency entering our ear and we get mad. Something scraping our tongue but what is a tongue? It’s just a lump of flesh wiggling around. But when something touches its surface we go mad. That is what material enjoyment is and we take it so seriously. If we do not taste the pleasures of the soul, all that we have left is to try to enjoy through the senses, through the tongue, through the eyes and all these things. What a humiliating experience for a blissful spiritual soul, which is a part of Krishna that belongs in the spiritual world, to be trying to enjoy like this? It is very sad. It breaks our hearts. But the beauty of Krishna is how He is Hari — one little glimpse of beauty and charm of Krishna will completely take our minds, and steal our minds forever from this material existence. With the sound of Krishna’s flute, the river Yamuna would become paralysed. It couldn’t even flow. The little calves couldn’t even suck the milk from their mothers. The Gopis would leave all their household duties and run to see where Krishna is. The supreme power of Krishna is not in creating this material world, but in His all attractive beauty to attract and charm the hearts of all his living entities for all of eternity because that love can conquer everything. One drop of love for Krishna can conquer the entire 14 worlds in a second. Srila Rupa Goswami explains all that power, all that beauty, all the love, and all the opulence are within His name but we have to chant in the mood of sankirtan, that is chanting in such a way that Krishna completely manifests Himself in the sound of His Name. In one sense, the word Sankirtan means — when Krishna completely manifests Himself within the sound of His name. Rupa Goswami says, when I chant that name with my little tongue, the name dances on my tongue. Krishna is dancing on my tongue. What is this one tongue to taste the sweetness? That sweetness is so great, so unlimited, it is so intoxicatingly ecstatic, what is this little tongue that I have? I want millions and millions of tongues to taste the Holy Name. And when that Name enters into my ears — why has the creator cheated me, by giving me these two tiny little holes for these ears? I want millions and millions of ears to drink the nectar of this spiritually blissful sound of Krishna’s Name and when that Name enters into our heart, then all aspirations, desires, for anything but the service of that Name cease to exist. This is how Rupa Goswami chants the Holy Name of the Lord. This is his experience when he is chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. Anandam buddhi vardhanam. We are merged into the ocean of transcendental love – Bhakti rasamrta sindhu. In fact, Srila Rupa Goswami explains that the aspiration of the jnanis, the Salvationists is to receive mukti. They want to enter into Brahman. He said compared to the unlimited ocean of happiness that is derived from serving Krishna with pure love, the pleasure of mukti is like a particle of one tiny little drop.
SIXTH PURIFICATION
“Sarvatma snapanam, param vijayate.” The next aspect of this great sankirtan movement is this — sarvatma snapanam. This pleasure is very different from the pleasures of the material world. The pleasures of the material world pollute us. The more pleasure we get, the more our hearts are polluted with the misconception that we are the enjoyer. But the pleasure of this anandam buddhi vardhanam, the pleasure of Krishna Consciousness purifies us. The more we are happy, in Krishna consciousness, the more we become purified. Sometimes devotees ask this question, we are not supposed to enjoy, we are supposed to be enjoyed by Krishna but when I am in kirtan, I am enjoying so much. Sometimes, when I am in kirtan, it is more enjoyable than a sense of gratification. So is it bad to be attachéd because I am enjoying it? It is good to enjoy in this way. This type of enjoying from the chanting and hearing the Names and Glories of the Lord completely purifies our heart and through this type of enjoyment, we become sarvatma — completely purified. No trace is left. Not even any seeds in your heart of the weeds of material enjoyment. Sometimes when we cut down the weeds, it appears that everything is safe. But the seeds are still in the ground and it is just a matter of time before they grow again. But the Holy Name has the power to completely purify us to the extent that even the seeds of material desires cease to exist as we are drowning in the ocean of Krishna bhakti and Krishna prema.
This is part 3 of the four-part series.
Gauranga Sundar Das is Iskcon Inc Communication Director and Social media IT Head.