Taste the Nectar

HG Aindra Prabhu

The thirty-two-syllable maha-mantra - Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare - is affirmed by the sastras to be the approved taraka-brahma kirtana-mantra for this Age of Kali.
The taraka-brahma kirtana-mantras prescribed for the previous yugas (Satya, Treta, and Dvapara) are aisvarya- or mixed aisvarya/madhurya-maya mantras bestowing the attainment of the Lord’s majestic realms as their fruit.

The Hare Krishna maha-mantra, however, is a kevala-madhurya raga-maya radha-krishna-yugala mantra, which integrates both taraka and paraka potencies, granting to the lobha-maya-sraddhavan jana liberation from material existence and, beyond that, the sweetest fruit of vraja-prema and the attainment of the eternal realm of Vraja.
It is not at all fortuitous that the taraka-brahma kirtana-mantra corresponding to the present age, in which the most munificent Lord Gauranga advented to broadcast the sweetest of all the madhurya mellows of Vraja (radha-dasyam), be absolutely in consonance with the very thrust of His mission. Much stress is therefore given to Hare Krishna maha-mantra sankirtana.

In this age everyone can best access the course of concentrated vraja-bhakti-bhajana through the medium of Hare Krishna maha-mantra-sankirtana, which easily and very powerfully promotes vibrant, all-round nama, rupa, guna, and lila absorption in Krishna consciousness.

Nevertheless, unless we progressively perform maha-mantra-sankirtana with proper depth of internal meditation, recognizing the superlative sense of sambandha-abhideya-prayojana-vicara as our participation in the sankirtana of the Holy Name will not engender the most desirable outcome. As a husband is the life and soul of his wife (vadhu), so hari-nama-sankirtana performed with greed (lobha) to taste the nectar (vraja-bhakti-rasa) for which we are always anxious is, in fact, vidya-vadhu-jivanam, the very life and soul of all transcendental knowledge found in the scriptures. What is the validity of a wife (adhyatma-vidya) without her husband (nama-sankirtana)? Sneha-samyukta-vraja-prema-nama-sankirtana. We read about it. We philosophize about it (to the extent we’re able). We distribute millions and billions of books about it. But to what extent are we actually living it? Let us take account; how much of it do we actually do?

In truth, no external action - preaching, book publication, book distribution, nama-sankirtana, nama-japa, sadhu-sanga, vrndavana-vasa, arcana, prasada-seva, pot-washing, or whatever - can be considered an aspect of either ajata-ruci- or jata-ruci-raganuga-sadhana if it is not prompted by a greed to attain the perfection of one’s abhista-vraja-bhava (deeply desired mood of a vraja-gopa or gopi).

If one does not recognize within oneself a specific attraction to any one of Krishna’s nitya-parikara vraja-bhava exemplars - if one does not have a desired bhava - then there is no question of one’s external engagements in devotional service being prompted by an innate lobha, owing to lobha’s non-appearance. Hence, one’s devotional activities can never be accepted as nija-abhista-bhava-maya, -sambandhi, -anukula, -aviruddha, or even -viruddha, for that matter, simply because there is no nija-abhista-bhava reference point involved to merit the consideration of such judgments.

If one has neither the prerequisite lobha nor the inclination toward relevant internal devotional absorption, the very substance that establishes one’s eligibility to pursue the path of raga, and if one feels no urgency, on the basis of such lobha, to propagate raga-marga-bhakti in the world as per the will of the Lord, then one may preachidy-preach till one is blue in the face or distribute innumerable volumes and volumes of transcendental literatures till the cows come home and still one’s actions will never be deemed any sort of raga-marga-sadhana nor will they engender raga-marga-bhava as their direct outcome. One could hardly expect to gain the outcome of raganuga-sadhana on the strength of one’s external devotional engagements if the inward and outward features of one’s devotional performances do not assume raga-marga characteristics. If a sadhaka’s action is prompted merely by sastra-vidhi and guru’s order, then such action, however enthusiastic, is to be relegated to a status no loftier than vaidha-marga-sadhana, aropa-siddha-bhakti, or perhaps niskama- or even sakama-karma-yoga, depending on the quality of the motivation involved.

Reverential vaidhika devotion (maryada bhakti) done with earnest enthusiasm (utsaha) at the stages of ruci, asakti, or even bhava, for that matter, also cannot rightly be deemed the cultivation of raga-bhakti by dint of the performer’s lack of greed for achieving the madhurya sentiments of a Vrajavasi. For the deserving lobha-maya-sadhaka, however, who unpretentiously endeavors to conscionably cultivate the moods of Vraja, differentiating between favorable and unfavorable practices while inwardly musing upon the eternal vraja-lila archetype features of all culturally transfigured varieties of external devotional engagement, practically anything done as well as any apparatus employed to internally or externally advance Lord Gauranga’s mission to flood the world with vraja-bhakti-rasa can be accepted as an influential part and parcel of the raga-marga dimension, commensurate with the individual’s measure of unalloyed devotional progress...

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Hare Krsna !