The Yuga Dharma Madanbhakta prabhu, not GV dharma... There is no universally viable
dharma in this age save the congregational chanting of the Holy Name.
Please don't mind, I will now go on to post
a few short excerpts from Aindra Prabhu’s book, The Heart of Transcendental Book Distribution, emphasizing the philosophy behind harinam sankirtan yajna. I find his writing particularly enlivening
Do more harinam sankirtan!
The Official Website of the Krsna Balaram Mandir 24 Hr. Kirtan Mandali » Philosophy
WHO NEEDS TO PERFORM HARI-NAMA-SANKIRTAN?
(Sanskrit diacritics omitted for broader internet accessibility. Inconvenience deeply regretted.)
In Kali-yuga no other devotional activity supersedes the currently prescribed yuga-dharma, hari-nama-sankirtana. Indeed, all other dharmas and all the various adjunct angas of bhakti must subordinate themselves to the service of the yuga-dharma to be deemed at all conducive, so far as the proper progress of the Krishna consciousness movement is concerned. All doings connected with Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement may be accepted as sankirtana, or facets of the sankirtana principle, to the extent that they factually inspire, promote, and facilitate or at least positively compliment direct performances of yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana.
Kali-yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana is the yuga-dharma for this entire yuga, please. Kali-yugalasts a total of 432,000 years, of which only a mere 5,000 years have passed. The understanding should be that the process of nama-sankirtana is applicable to all souls appearing on Earth, particularly in the human form of life, during this entire 432,000-year period. The yuga cycles functioning on this planet are not effective on other higher or lower planetary systems.Hence, it is we who have presently appeared on Earth who are expected to take full advantage of the golden nama-sankirtana opportunity for easily going back home, back to Godhead. It is not that hardly any more than 500 years after the Lord and His associates descended to inaugurate the system of sacrifice for this entire age some other scheme should take precedence. If we don’t have complete faith in the congregational chanting of the Holy Name, if we have very little taste and attraction for chanting and dancing and are thereby relatively disinterested or diverted to other engagements, leaving ourselves little if any time to seriously take up the religion of the age, if we don’t recognize the beauty and value of hari-nama-sankirtana, and if we are not intent upon practically helping to push forward that most sublime dharma emphatically prescribed by Lord Caitanya, then we should simply understand that we are cursed by Yamaraja, that we have not realized the purpose of the Krishna consciousness movement, and that we have not truly comprehended the highest mercy aspect of the Lord’s ongoing audarya-lila of preaching the sankirtana movement all over the world. The highest mercy aspect of the Lord’s ongoing audarya-lila is to elevate fallen conditioned souls to the topmost perfection of relishing eternal spontaneous loving madhurya service to Radha and Krishna on the platform of vraja-prema. There is no doubt about this. Golokera prema-dhana, hari-nama-sankirtana. Any goloka-rasa may be awakened by the performance of vipralambha-rasa-maya hare-krishna-maha-mantra-sankirtana. However, as rasaraja-mahabhava Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu mainly descended to this world to freely distribute the supremely nectarean mellow of radha-dasya, it should not astonish anyone that sankirtana of the ultimate, matchless maha-mantra – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare –would primarily appear to distinguishedly stimulate and nourish that unnatojjvala-vraja-rasa
Na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante . . . But who are the
mudhas? The term
mudha does not exclusively portray the other guy. As much as we ourselves, like beasts of burden, continue to blunderingly bear the encumbering heaps and piles of corporeal egoism, material attachments, and misconceived notions about the recommended processes by which the ultimate philosophical conclusions of the
Gaudiya sampradaya’s teachings may be practically implemented and realized, that much we ourselves can be considered
mudhas.
naham prakasah sarvasya
yoga-maya-samavrtah
mudho ‘yam nabhijanati
loko mam ajam avyayam
“I am not manifest to everyone. Because I am concealed and guarded by My internal deluding potency (
yoga-maya), dull-headed ***-like individuals cannot recognize Me as the unborn and inexhaustible Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
(Bg. 7.25)
Kaviraja Gosvami has stated in his
Caitanya-caritamrita (
Adi 17.22), kali-kale nama-rupe krishna avatara: in this Age of Kali, Krishna descends from His eternal abode in the form of the Hare Krishna
maha-mantra. Paritranaya sadhunam – it is Sri Hari-nama Prabhu who descends to deliver the
sadhus by augmenting their faith in the process of
sankirtana-yajna while granting a profound taste for its performance, thus mitigating their pangs of separation.
Vinasaya ca duskrtam – it is Sri Hari-nama who anihilates the demonic
anartha-congested mentality that generates the unfortunate reluctance, disregard, and sheer disinterest concerning the performance of
sankirtana. In Kali-yuga, not to engage one’s energies in the performance of
yuga-dharma-nama-sankirtana can be considered the primary form of irreligion. Whenever and wherever there is a decline in its performance –
yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati – and a predominant rise in the negligence of such –
abhyutthanam adharmasya – then,
tada, at that time
– dharma-samsthapanartaya – it is only Sri Hari-nama, appearing through the lips of the Lord’s pure devotee, who can forcefully reestablish the
jivas’ eternal occupational duty,
nama-sankirtana. So also, it is Sri Hari-nama who descends to graciously bestow unalloyed love for Himself through the culture of
nama-sankirtana-yajna. Even so
, Krishna-nama
reserves the right to either expose or conceal Himself in response to an individual’s quality of faith. Regrettably, disoriented neophytes possessed of persistent
mudha-like tendencies do not recognize the true nature of the Holy Name, who, though unborn, inconceivably takes birth from His mother, who takes the form of a pure devotee’s tongue. The beginning, middle, and culmination of
saranagati (surrender to the Lord’s shelter) as a practical expression of one’s level of
sraddha are actualized in this age by surrendering to the service of the Holy Name. And the prime methodology for such surrender is the propagation of the current
yuga-dharma, the congregational chanting of the Holy Name. This truth was profusely demonstrated by Sri Gauranga throughout His manifest earthly pastimes.
Only
prema-ruruksu devotees, who are considerably advanced on the path of pure devotion, can truly understand the power of the Holy Name and the need to wholeheartedly take shelter of the process of
nama-sankirtana.
bhaktya tv ananyaya sakya
aham evam-vidho ‘rjuna
jnatum drastum ca tattvena
pravestum ca parantapa
“My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I [as
nama-rupa avatara] be understood as I am, standing [dancing] before you [on your tongue], and can thus be seen directly [in the proper light]. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding
.” (Bg.11.54)
atah sri-krishna-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality, and pastimes of Sri Krishna through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental names, forms, qualities, and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” (
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234) Here again, in Kali-yuga,
“transcendental service to the Lord” connotes primarily the congregational chanting of His Holy Name.