The Soul is Called to Chant the Name

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

The conditioned soul is first called upon to utter the name of Kṛṣṇa. He should hear the name of Kṛṣṇa from an unconditioned soul who has no attachment whatsoever to the world, for it would suffice to follow the model set by such an unconditioned soul. The conditioned soul will then come to know that chanting is possible for him all twenty-four hours of the day, without using a single moment for any other purpose. If he is thereafter found to be impatient, if he is found to be hankering after a position in this mundane world, he will be a defaulter in chanting the name of Hari, the Transcendental Being.

Kṛṣṇa, or Hari, has no mortal coil to be subjected to worldly assessment, as we have. He does not require any labour on our part, for chanting His Name with devotion involves no effort. So we should accept the views of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya in our transcendental march, in preference to any other advice.

The true self, or unalloyed soul, should adopt a policy of not interfering with either the mind or body. If we can thus isolate the actual position of the soul, we will find that we are relieved of all mundane anxieties in the form of matter or in the subtle form of intelligence. Leaving these aside, the true function of the soul is to take the name of Kṛṣṇa, for Kṛṣṇa is the fullest representation of the Transcendent Absolute and the ever-existing Divinity, and He is All-Knowledge and All-Bliss.

He is sat-cit-ānanda – eternality, knowledge and bliss – and that sat-cit-ānanda will prevail within us upon our welcoming of the transcendental world. If we are sincere, He will appear within our vision and we will easily discover Him.

We must not consider this material world to be the full aspect of His manifestation, for our senses cannot approach Him – our eyes cannot see Him, our nose cannot connect with the fragrance of His body, the flowers that we offer cannot reach Him. We cannot relish mahā-prasādam if it has not been accepted by Him.

In all that we do, we must rely on Him as the sole enjoyer of everything, knowing that we are subservient to Him in every way. In the Gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna this truth in the śloka beginning “yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi”.

Since the transcendental name of Śrī Hari is identical with His person in every respect, the holy name Himself also possesses all of the attributes and everything else connected with His person. And since all of this is found in the transcendental name, we can safely follow in the footsteps of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

Whatever we desire, we get from His name. Ignorance can never be ascribed to Him. He is enriched with all sorts of Rasa. Kṛṣṇa Himself is full of all senses. He is embellished with all the Rasas required by His associates.

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Within the manifest world, we find a phenomenon that passes by the name of “rasa”, and which implies the object of relishable taste. But that is a perishable thing. In contrast, rasa in Kṛṣṇa is the emporium of all the transcendent, eternal and supremely relishable humours, in which all five primary rasas are included.

We must not be under the impression that the rasa involved in serving Śrī Kṛṣṇa is in anyway identical with mundane rasa, which is inadequate and full of deformities. The revealed scriptures describe the rasa that exists within Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we find the following explanation:

Rasas are drinks that are relished by the soul’s eternal senses and they are categorically different from those that are presented to us in this world, which last but a few hours or a few days. That worldly rasa is not ever-lasting. But the eternal rasa, which is not allied with ignorance, presents no miserable face and no signs of vanishing, like the rasa of this mundane world. That mundane rasa has limitations imposed on it in order to teach us that even if we solely rely on the tiny spark of taste found in this world, we can go to the higher rasa if we are anxious to be rasika – that is, tasters of the eternal tastes.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa is ‘rasa-maya’ and we are to offer our loving service to Him for the sake of Him tasting rasa. In other words, we are not to approach Him for our own enjoyment. These senses are really meant for actualizing enjoyment for Him to experience. We see every manifestation as existing within Him, so the orientation of even perverted rasas should be corrected so as to go back to Him and not merely end with us. We should always place ourselves in a serving mood; we should always welcome the name of Kṛṣṇa and bend our speech, thoughts and actions toward service to Him.