Avoid the second offence to the holy name 28th December 2019

28 December 2019

Avoid the second offence to the holy name

I am watching you chanting and the Lord also sees all of you chanting. When the Lord sees you all chanting the Lord becomes very happy. He not just sees you but He also listens to you. When the Lord listens, He knows or He is watching our thoughts and emotions also. And depending upon that the Lord is more pleased by someone and less pleased by someone. Lord sees your bhava. Lord is bhavagrahi so you should chant with love and attention. We should avoid nama-aparadha /offences against the holy name.

The second offence is:

To consider the names of demigods like Lord Siva or Lord Brahma to be equal to or independent of the name of the Lord Vishnu.

I was reading caritra of Chandi Dasa Vidyapati who was a great poet. Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to relish his poems. Such was Chandi Dasa. He has demonstrated his bhava bhakti, love for the Lord through his poems. Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to like the poems of Chandi Dasa. So this Chandi Dasa was a great devotee of Durga Chandi. They were two brothers Chandi Dasa and his brother’s name is not mentioned. Chandi Dasa used to worship Chandi Devi and his brother used to worship Saligram Sila.

Chandi Dasa was rich. He had a farm, land and a big garden where he had many flowers and with those flowers he would worship Chandi Devi. But his brother who used to worship Saligram Sila did not have any garden. So he could not even offer flowers to the Lord.

One day Chandi Dasa’s brother saw a very special flower in the garden. He thought, ‘I wish I could offer this flower to my Saligram’. He not just thought it, but in his mind he offered the flower to his Saligram Sila. The next day Chandi Dasa was preparing the worship of his Chandi Devi. He went to the garden and picked the same flower which was offered to Saligram by his brother. He offered that flower to Chandi Devi who was very pleased. She knew that flower was offered to the Lord. She appeared and gave darsana to Chandi Dasa. Chandi Dasa was surprised, “What happened today? I worship you daily. I offer you flowers. What is so special today that you are so happy and giving me darsana?”

Chandi Devi said, “Thank you Chandi Dasa. Today you offered me prasadi flower of my Lord Saligrama or Narayan or Visnu. The flower which was offered to Him you have offered me today. So I am very happy.”

Chandi Dasa said, “So Narayan is more powerful than you?”
Chandi Devi, “Yes, Yes. He is my Swami, my Lord.”

aradhananam param devi visnor aradhanam param

Once Shivji had also told me this. So Chandi Devi is saying “Of all aradhana, visnu- aradhanam is the best."

bhoktaram yajna-tapasam sarva-loka-mahesvaram  [BG 5.29]

The only enjoyer whom we should try to please is Lord Visnu, Saligram, Sri Krsna. So from that day Chandi Dasa understood that he had wasted his lifetime.

radha-krishna na bhajiya, janiya suniya visha khainu

Chandi Dasa was lamenting. ‘I wasted by life. Why didn’t I worship Visnu since the beginning.’ He corrected himself and started the worship Lord Visnu. Demigods are not the Lord, they are not Visnu tattva. Demigods also worship Lord Visnu.

om tad visnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti surayah

These are the words of sastra. What do demigods do? om tad visnoh paramam padam. They meditate on the lotus feet of Lord Visnu. So Chandi Dasa’s name remained the same but Chandi Devi was pleased only when Lord Visnu’s prasada was offered to her. So Chandi Dasa became a great devotee of the Lord and he achieved the Lord’s love and devotional service by worship of Lord Visnu.

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje ahaituky apratihata (SB 1.2.6).

This is siddhanta of Bhagavatam. .Yato bhaktir adhoksaje. Lords name is Adhoksaja. Worshiping Him is param dharma. How should you worship Him? ahaituky apratihata. There should be no motive, no desire to enjoy or sense gratification. The devotees of demigods are not performing devotional service, but they are engaged in bhukti since in return they desire sense gratification. So the Lord’s worshippers are called bhaktas or yogis. On the other hand demigod worshipers are bhogi.

saar-saar-ko-gahi-rahe-thotha-dey-udaaye

The Lord’s devotees are saragrahi, that is they only accept the essence and throw away the useless. So we need to understand Visnu tattva and tattva of demigods. Their tattva of worship is different and the benedictions they give are also different. Worship of the Lord will enrich us with love of Godhead and worship of demigods will enrich us with lust. Your desires for material enjoyment may get fulfilled but you not get love of Godhead.

devan deva-yajo yanti mad-bhakta yanti mam api [BG 7.23]

Lord has said in Bhagavad gita, it’s very simple and very clear. Those who worship the demigods go to the planets of the demigods, but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme planet.

So where do you all want to go? Heaven or Vaikuntha or Golok? So try to understand who is Lord and who Demigod are? So to chant with attention one needs to avoid second offence to holy name. So I tried to explain this through the story of Chandi Dasa. Chandi Dasa was worshipping Chandi Devi but ultimately Chandi Devi only reformed him and directed him towards Visnu. Then he became a great devotee of Lord Visnu and achieved Krsna prema. And after achieving the love of Godhead he wrote poems filled with love that Caitanya Mahaprabhu liked his poems. Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to say “I want to hear Chandi Dasas poems.” So once he was Chandi Dasa and then he became Krsna Dasa. To understand this nicely and preach these things.

Jare dako tare kaho krsna upadesh

Keep distributing gita then people will understand the principles of devotion life. Many other siddhants are given in Bhagavat-gita by the Lord and Srila Prabhupada has explained them very nicely.

yanti deva-vrata devan
pitrn yanti pitr-vratah
bhutani yanti bhutejya
yanti mad-yajino 'pi mam [BG 9.25]

People are still worshipping demigods and not worshipping Lord. So many of them can turn to the Lord once they get Gita. So many of them are wasting their lives. Let this message reach to them and make them chant

Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
Krsna Krsna Hare Krsna
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

You are worshippers of the holy name.

Avoid these offences against the holy name so that their devotion is pure, attentive
and pleasing to the Lord.