Nama Mahima - Part 1

Hare Krisna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva.

In this age of Kali-Yuga, the best method to worship the Supreme Lord is shown in practise by Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. In Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.32 Sri Karabhajana, one of the Navayogendras, while responding to Maharaj
Nimi says

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of
Godhead who constantly sings the names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa
Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.

Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in one of his classes very nicely stresses on the
importance of always chanting the Holy Names, "It’s not that one minute we do, or one hour we do and then
we forget about Him and roam about everywhere. No, as soon as you get up, utter Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. While you are walking, traveling
, utter Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Sleeping
, you have to utter Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare. Who stops you? Who stops you, tell me. who stops you from uttering? And if you really think that
this is the only way, according to our scriptures, gurus and everybody, then why are we keeping shut?
Who is keeping our mouth shut? Why must we not utter every time? Because we don’t understand the
importance of His name"

In this offering we shall try to meditate on some of the glorification of Harinam Prabhu done by various Mahajans.

In Mahabharata, we see that after the war at Kurukshetra, the Pandavas headed by Lord Krishna approached Bhishma
who was lying on the bed of arrows. Yudhishthira asked lot of questions on various kinds of religious principles such as
Raja dharma (principles for King), Stri dharma (principles for women), apath dharma (principles to be followed in case
of danger or emergency) and Bhishma answered all of them. Finally, Yudhishtra asked the below six questions.

kim ekam daivatam loke kim vāpy ekam parāyanam

stuvantah kam kam archantam prāpyur mānavā subham
ko dharma sarva dharmānām bhavatah paramo matah
kim japan muchyate jantuh janma samsāra bandhanāt

Who is the Supreme Deity? Who is the Supreme shelter? Who is to be glorified? Who is the to be offered
worship and by doing which humans can attain all beatitude? Which is the Supreme religious principle
(highest Dharma) among all kinds of religious principles in your esteemed opinion? By chanting which a
person can attain liberation from material existence which is essentially repeated birth and death?

Bhishmadeva beautifully answered the questions and stated that chanting the thousand names of Lord Vishnu who is
the Supreme Lord is the highest dharma. These names are already glorified and chanted by rishis and chanting these
names is the highest dharma.

jagat prabhum deva devam anantam purushottamam

stuvan nāma sahasrena purusha satato’ ttitah
tam eva cha archayan nityam bhakty
 ā purusham avyayam
dhyāyan stuvan namasyamscha yajamānas tam eva cha
esha me sarva dharmānām dharmo’ dhikatamo matah
yad bhaktya pundarikāksham stavair archair narah sadā

By chanting the thousand names of the Supreme Person is who is the master of the universe, Lord of all
the devatas, one who is infinite in His forms and qualities, a living entity should elevate himself
spiritually. One should worship Imperishable Lord with one pointed devotion. That Lord should be
meditated upon, glorified and offered obeisances. I consider this to be the Supreme dharma along all
dharmas, by which the lotus eyed Lord is always worshipped and glorified.

Yudhishthira just asked what is the Supreme dharma, and hence Bhishmacharya could have just said that chanting the
thousand names of Lord Vishnu is the Supreme dharma and stopped there. But being a Mahajana, Bhishmacharya has
great compassion for all living entities of Kali Yuga. He could understand the living entities in Kali yuga cannot afford to
perform yajnas and perform meditation etc. So he not only said that the thousand names of Vishnu is to be chanted
but also gave what are those thousand names. The Lord has infinite names and Bhishmadeva chose 1000 names
which are glorified by the sages and devotees and gave it to Yudhishthira Maharaj for the benefit of all souls of Kali
yuga. This work is called Vishnu sahasranāma (thousand names of Lord Vishnu) and all great acharyas like Shankara,
Madhvacharya, Baladeva Vidyabhushana have commented on this work.

And till today thousands of devotees chant this prayer of Bhishmadeva. Still, the people of Kali Yuga are not able to
chant these thousand names due to various reasons. So another Mahajana further simplified it to help the fallen people
of this age. We will see it in the next offering, Krishna willing

Thank you very much.

Yours in service Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna dasa
Chennai
 Nama Mahima - Part 2

Hare Krisna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled, "Nama Mahima" wherein we saw how Bhishmadev said that
chanting the thousand names of Lord Vishnu is the Supreme dharma. For the people of Kali yuga who cannot chant the
thousand names of the Lord, is there any alternate method? There is a nice pastime in the Padma purana about this.
This happened thousands of years before the appearance of Lord Rama.

Once Lord Shiva was explaining the glories of Vishnu worship and glories of Lord’s devotees to Mother Parvati. Then
Lord Siva advised Mother Parvati to meet the great sage Vamadeva and learn about the method of worshiping Lord
Vishnu. Parvati duly approached the sage Vamadeva and the sage explained the method of Vishnu worship. He also
gave the thousand names of Vishnu to her. He advised her “O you of an excellent face, having everyday worshipped
Vishnu in the morning, repeat the thousand names of Visnu after that.” Parvati returned to her abode of Kailasha and
started following this everyday. After a few days, Lord Siva worshipped the Lord on a dvadashi day and then invited
Mother Parvati to take food by saying “O ParvatI, who is saluted by the world, come to eat with me.” Mother replied "O
God, I shall eat after I repeat the thousand names (of Vishnu). O Lord, you may eat food." Lord Shiva smiled and told
her as follows in Bṛhad-viṣṇu-sahasranāma-stotra Uttara-khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa (72.335)

rāma rāmeti rāmeti rame rāme manorame

sahasra-nāmabhis tulyaṁ rāma-nāma varānane

“O you charming one, I chant 'Rama, Rama, Rama', and take great pleasure in chanting Rama's names.
Chanting Rama's name three times is equal to the thousand names (of Visnu), O you of an excellent face.”

Listening to the instruction of Lord Shiva, Mother Parvati recited the name of Rama three times and ate prasadam
along with Lord Shiva. Then she asked Lord Shiva “You said Rama's name is equivalent to the thousand names (of
Visnu). The enemy of Ravana has other names (also). O lord of Gods, tell them to me. Devotion (for them) has arisen in
me.” Lord Shiva then stated a few important names of Lord Rama covering all events in the entire Rama lila and also
gave her the following sloka which contained the name of Rama three times.

rāmāya rama bhadrāya rāmachandrāya vedhase

raghunāthāya nāthāya sItāya pataye namah

Obeisances to Lord Rama, Ramabhadra, Ramachandra, the creator, to Raghunatha, to the lord, and the
husband of Sita.

Lord Shiva then told her ”Please repeat the above sloka day and night and you will get full absorption in Lord Rama.”
Mother Parvati then recited the above sloka which contained the name of Rama three times and became absorbed in
the love of Rama. The acharyas explain the great compassion of Lord Shiva in simplifying the process of chanting and
they also demonstrate how chanting the name of Rama three times is equivalent to 1000 names of Lord Vishnu.

In case of Sanskrit alphabets we have a series of letters each starting with ka, ta, pa, ya and it is called katapayādhi
sankhya. Each of the letters in these are assigned a number. For example in the series starting with ka we have letters
like ka, kha, ga, gha and these are assigned numbers like 1 for ka, 2 for kha, 3 for ga 4 for gha etc., Similarly the series
starting with ta are also assigned numbers 1, 2 etc in sequence. Like this we have letters starting with pa and ya. The
letter ra appears in the sequence starting with ya and it is assigned a number 2. And the letter ‘ma’ appears in the
series starting with ‘pa’ and it is assigned the number 5. So the word Rama which is combination of Ra and ma is equal
to the number 10 (2*5). And when chanted three times, it has the value 10*10*10 = 1000.

Thus Lord Shiva explained that chanting the names of Rama three times i.e. chanting Rama Rama Rama is
equivalent to chanting the thousand names of Lord Vishnu. And since chanting the thousand names of Vishnu is the
highest dharma, it means chanting the names of Rama three times is the highest dharma. For elevated souls like
Mother Parvati, it gives absorption in the love of God. At the same time for normal people also, it gives purification by
removing all sinful contamination. We will meditate on it in the next offering, Krishna willing.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna dasa
Chennai
 Nama Mahima - Part 3

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Mathajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled, "Nama Mahima" wherein we saw how

1) Bhishmadev said that chanting the thousand names of Lord Vishnu is the Supreme dharma.
2) Lord Shiva told Mother Parvati that chanting the name of Lord Rama three times is equivalent to chanting the
thousand names of Vishnu.

Now we will see how chanting the names of Rama removes all material contamination. So in addition to devotees,
people following the path of Vedic rituals also chant the names of Lord Rama to get rid of our material contamination.
There is a nice sloka from smriti sastrAs chanted in all Vedic rituals. After chanting this sloka people recite the name of
Rama three times as Sri Rama Rama Rama.

mānasam vācikam pāpam karmaṇā samupārjitam

śrī rāma-smaranenaiva vyapohati na samṣayaḥ

All sins committed and accrued by mind, speech and deeds are indeed annihilated by chanting the name
of Lord Sri Rama nāma and let there be no doubt.

Every conditioned soul commits sin by body, mind and words and when one chants the name of Rama three times (one
time for body, one time for mind and one time for deeds), these sins are removed in proportion to the sincerity of the
chanter.

There is a beautiful incident which happened around 350 years back in life of a great saint Bhagavan Nāma
Bodhendra. He was a great sanyasi and acharya in the line of Sripada Shankaracharya and he dedicated his life to
preach the holy name of Lord Rama. His spiritual master by name Atma Bodhendra instructed him, ”You should
establish the glory of holy name of Rama based on scriptures so that even great scholars will be attracted to chanting
it. For that you need to refer a book called Bhagavan Nāma Kaumudi written by a saint called Lakshmidhara kavi.
Please go to Jagannath Puri and meet him in his house and get the book”. Swami Bodhendra set to Puri and reached
the home of Lakshmidhara kavi and it was night. So he did not want to disturb them and rested in the veranda outside
the house.

Prior to this, a brahmana from the south travelled to the North on pilgrimage with his beautiful wife. In a village where
he was resting, his wife was taken away by the Muslim ruler when he was asleep. As none came to his help, he could
not save his wife and continued with his pilgrimage. He returned to the same place after finishing his pilgrimage to
Kashi. While he was doing his daily rituals, a lady came to him in a islamic attire and started crying. She was his wife.
She narrated her story of being made a sexual slave by the kidnappers. She begged her husband to release her from
the bondage even, if he can't take her back as his wife. The brahmana took pity on her and told her that what
happened to her was against her wishes and therefore she is blemish-less and promised to enquire with the erudite
scholars whether any atonement can be done so that he can take her back as his wife. When he enquired the local
people for an erudite scholar on shastras nearby, they pointed him to Sri Lakshmidhara Kavi near Puri.

The couple reached Sri Lakshmidhara Kavi's place around midnight on the day where Swami Bodhendra was also
resting outside the house. The couple knocked the door and explained their predicament. At that time, Lakshmidhara
Kavi ‘s son, Jagannatha Kavi came and informed that as their father was out of town, he could help them - based on
the knowledge bestowed by his father. Sri Jagannatha Kavi gave a solution to their plight immediately - he asked her to
chant "Rama Rama Rama" (thrice) and asked her husband to treat her as his wife as before, since chanting the Rama
Nama thrice had dissolved all the sins. Jagannatha Kavi's mother came out and asked him why he was asking her to
chant thrice when chanting once itself is sufficient to wash away all the sins. Jaganatha kavi replied that he is just
repeating what the dharma sastras are saying (i.e. to chant three times name of Rama) and what was explained in the
book "Bhagavan Nama Kaumudi" written by his father.

Seeing this Bodhendra Swami who was resting in the veranda of Jagannatha Kavi's house was pleased. To prove that
chanting Rama Nama thrice absolves one of all sins. He asked the couple to come to the tank of Puri Jagannath temple
next day and asked the lady to bathe in the tank by chanting Rama nama thrice. When she immersed herself and
came out of the water, she appeared with turmeric and kumkum on her head along with a holy attire (which was her
attire before she was abducted). Everyone was astonished to see this and the entire society saw the purifying potency
of chanting Rama nama thrice and they accepted the lady as purified of all contamination due to abduction etc. Sri
Bodhendra Swami further confirmed her purity by asking her to cook for him that day and took food from her. (A
sannyasi will take food from women only when they are of pure nature). After this, Swami received the copy of the
book Bhagavan Nama kaumudi from Jagannatha Kavi and spread the glories of the holy name based on this book.

Thus chanting Rama Rama Rama absolves us of all sins, purifies our consciousness and results in complete
absorption in love of God. And we saw examples of individuals who attained purification (the brahmana’s wife) and
absorption (Mother Parvati). During reign of Lord Rama, His entire kingdom was absorbed in Lord Rama and we shall
meditate on it in the next concluding offering.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna dasa
Chennai
 Nama Mahima - Part 4

Hare Krisna Prabhujis and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva.

This is in conclusion of the previous offerings offering titled, "Nama Mahima" wherein we saw the glorification of Holy
Names by Bhishmadev, Lord Shiva and Bhagavan Nama Bodhendra. Now we shall see further.

During reign of Lord Rama, His entire kingdom was absorbed in Lord Rama. At the conclusion of the Yuddha Khanda of
Valmiki Ramayana, Sage Valmiki explains how the people of Ayodhya were attached to Lord Rama during His reign. To
show their love of Lord Rama, Valmiki states the below sloka in Srimad Ramayana 6.128.103

rāmo rāmo rāma iti prajānāmabhavan kathāḥ

rāmabhūtaṃ jagadabhūd rāme rājyaṃ praśāsati

When Lord Rama ruled the kingdom, the talks of the people centered Hin only. Everyone chanted Rama,
Rama Rama. The entire kingdom was conscious of Lord Rama.

To denote here that the citizens of Ayodhya were completely conscious of Lord Rama and always chanting His name,
Valimiki mentions the chanting of Rama three times in the above verse. And Srimad Bhagavatam in 9.10.50-51 also
states how Lord Rama ruled and protected His citizens.

prajāḥ sva-dharma-niratā varṇāśrama-guṇānvitāḥ

jugopa pitṛvad rāmo menire pitaraṁ ca tam
tretāyāṁ vartamānāyāṁ kālaḥ kṛta-samo ’bhavat
rāme rājani dharma-jñe sarva-bhūta-sukhāvahe

He cared for the citizens exactly like a father, and the citizens, being fully engaged in their occupational
duties of varṇa and āśrama, accepted Him as their father. Lord Rāmacandra became King during Tretā-
yuga, but because of His good government, the age was like Satya-yuga. Everyone was religious and
completely happy.

Srila Prabhupada states in the commentary “If people take to this saṅkīrtana movement of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare
Rāma, they will certainly be freed from the contamination of Kali-yuga, and the people of this age will be happy, as
people were in Satya-yuga, the golden age. Anyone, anywhere, can easily take to this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement; one need
only chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, observe the rules and regulations, and stay free from the contamination of
sinful life. Even if one is sinful and cannot give up sinful life immediately, if he chants the Hare Kṛṣṇ
a mahā-mantra with devotion and faith he will certainly be freed from all sinful activities, and his life will
be successful. Paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. This is the blessing of Lord Rāmacandra, who has
appeared in this Age of Kali as Lord Gaurasundara.”

Though now we can see Kali yuga rampant now, if everyone takes to the chanting of the holy name of Lord Rama and
become sincere devotees, then we can have re-establishment of Rama Rajya and this will ensure that the citizens are
happy in this world and also advance towards eternal life. The Holy Names of Lord are non-different from Him. Just like
how glories of Lord are unlimited, the glories of Harinam Prabhu are also unlimited. So it is our duty not only to take
shelter of Holy Names sincerely, but also to propagate the same to other suffering souls.

In one of his nectarean class our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj very nicely insists,

Everybody of you are staying in the house, you have your neighbors, you know some people, you have some friends,
call them for this, and this is the way to propagate Krishna Consciousness. This is sankirtan. nāma-saṅkīrtanaṁ
yasya sarva-pāpa praṇāśanam It will completely destroy all the sinful reactions. Please don't pay attention to anything
else. Those who direct you to nām sankirtan, they are real relatives. Otherwise the misguidance is
rampant. Please, please, please. Save yourself from this. Nothing else is important. Otherwise Sukhdeva
Goswami will not sing the glories of nām sankirtan. In the last verse, before he finished Bhagavatam, he thought that
he did not glorify naam sankirtan, so giving two lines only. (SB12.13.23)

nāma-saṅkīrtanaṁ yasya sarva-pāpa praṇāśanam

praṇāmo duḥkha-śamanas taṁ namāmi hariṁ param

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Hari, the congregational chanting of whose holy
names destroys all sinful reactions, and the offering of obeisances unto whom relieves all material
suffering.

Srila Prabhupada established Krishna conscious centres all over the world so that people will chant the names of Lord
Krishna and Lord Rama which are enshrined in the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and attain eternal shelter of the Supreme
Lord Krishna.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service Srila Prabhupada and Gurudeva,
Narahari Krishna dasa
Chennai