Chapter
One, Text 9
jayati jayati namananda-rupam murarer
viramita-nija-dharma-dhyana-pujadi-yatnam
katham api sakrid attam mukti-dam praninam yat
paramam amritam ekam jivanam bhushanam me
All
glories, all glories to Lord Murari in the form of His all-ecstatic
name! If any living being puts aside such tasks as meditation, ritual
worship, and social duties and even once takes the Lord's holy name,
the name will grant him liberation. That holy name is the greatest
source of eternal pleasure and is my very life and ornament.
COMMENTARY
Among the various
practices of devotional service, the most important is chanting of the
holy names of the Lord. Chanting the Lord's name is ananda-rupam,
pure bliss, because it makes ecstasy rise in the heart. Chanting the
holy names is also ananda-rupam in the sense that it is the
essence of ecstasy and it makes everything it touches ecstatic.
In this verse, the
author again repeats the exclamation jayati, indicating that hari-nama,
the name of the Lord, is the greatest manifestation of the Supreme
Lord's attractiveness and mercy. One who realizes the value of hari-nama
will choose to rely on chanting hari-nama rather than on other
kinds of spiritual effort. Performing prescribed duties within the varnashrama
system is troublesome. Persons who have lost interest in the ritual
duties of varnashrama cultivate yogic meditation, either for
impersonal perfection or as a means of devotional service, but in
either case, this too is troublesome because it involves the difficulty
of subduing the mind and senses. Worship of the Deity of the Lord is
troublesome because the worshiper must purify all the items to be
offered, and his own body and heart as well. And also troublesome are
the other devotional practices, such as hearing, which can be correctly
performed only after one fulfills difficult prerequisites, such as
finding a suitably qualified Vaishnava to hear from. Therefore, putting
aside concern about success in these methods, an intelligent devotee
will simply focus his attention on hari-nama, and thus he will
easily achieve the results of all the above methods.
Devahuti, the
mother of Lord Kapiladeva, confirms this in a prayer to her son:
aho
bata sva-pacho 'to gariyan
yaj-jihvagre vartate nama tubhyam
tepus tapas te juhuvuh sasnur arya
brahmanuchur nama grinanti ye te
Oh, how
glorious are they whose tongues are chanting Your holy name! Even if
born in the families of dog-eaters, such persons are worshipable.
Persons who chant the holy name of Your Lordship must have executed all
kinds of austerities and fire sacrifices and achieved all the good
manners of the Aryans. To be chanting the holy name of Your Lordship,
they must have bathed at holy places of pilgrimage, studied the Vedas,
and fulfilled everything required. (Bhagavatam 3.33.7)
Similarly, in Sri
Vishnu Purana (6.2.17) we find the following statement:
dhyayan
krite yajan yajnais
tretayam dvapare 'richayan
yad apnoti tad apnoti
kalau sankirtya keshavam
What was
accomplished in the Krita Age by meditation, in the Treta Age by ritual
sacrifices, and in the Dvapara Age by worship of the Deity of the Lord
is accomplished in this Kali Age by loud chanting of the names of
Keshava.
A doubting person
may question the ease of success by hari-nama: "One might earn
religious credit, economic success, and material enjoyment by hari-nama,"
he might say, "but liberation is something else. Liberation can be
gained only by those who are spiritually fit. At best, devotees who
chant hari-nama with perfect faith and devotion may achieve
liberation through long practice." Srila Sanatana Sosvami refutes this
doubt, declaring here that if any living being even once chants Lord
Hari's name, even unintentionally or in ridicule, jest, or material
distress, the holy name will surely grace that person with liberation.
This chanting may be performed without true realization—it may be a
mere reflection or shadow (namabhasa)—but still it will result
in liberation. Srimad-Bhagavatam confirms this again and
again:
etavatalam
agha-nirharanaya pumsam
sankirtanam bhagavato guna-karma-namnam
vikrushya putram aghavan yad ajamilo 'pi
narayaneti mriyamana iyaya muktim
One is
easily relieved from all sinful reactions by chanting the holy name of
the Lord and chanting of His qualities and activities. This is the only
process recommended for relief from sinful reactions. Even if one
chants the holy name of the Lord with improper pronunciation, one will
achieve relief from material bondage if one chants without offenses.
Ajamila, for example, was extremely sinful, but while dying he merely
chanted the holy name, and although calling his son, he achieved
complete liberation because he remembered the name of Narayana. (Bhagavatam
6.3.24)
chitram
vidura-vigatah sakrid adadita
yan-namadheyam adhuna sa jahati bandham
It is
amazing that even a person beyond the jurisdiction of the four
castes—in other words, an untouchable—is immediately relieved of
bondage to material existence if he utters the holy name of the Lord
even once. (Bhagavatam 5.1.35)
yan-nama-sakrich-chravanat
pukkasho 'pi vimuchyate samsarat
Merely by
hearing the holy name of Your Lordship only once, even chandalas,
men of the lowest class, are freed from all material contamination. (Bhagavatam
6.16.44)
The
Prabhasa-khanda of the Skanda Purana also states:
madhura-madhuram
etan mangalam mangalanam
sakala-nigama-valli-sat-phalam chit-svarupam
sakrid api parigitam shraddhaya helaya va
bhrigu-vara nara-matram tarayet krishna-nama
O best of
the Bhrigu dynasty, the holy name of Krishna is the sweetest of the
sweet and the most auspicious of the auspicious. It is the
transcendental fruit of all the Vedas and is purely
spiritual. Whoever chants it but once, whether with faith or with
contempt, is liberated.
Although we
normally think of chanting as being the business of the tongue, all of
one's conscious faculties can be engaged with hari-nama. The
mind can contemplate the syllables of the Lord's names and their
meanings, and the external senses can interact with hari-nama
each in their own way. Speech and hearing are obviously involved in hari-nama,
but the sense of touch can also feel the name written in sacred clay on
one's body, the eyes can see the name written in various places, the
hands and legs can work to carry a banner inscribed with the name, and
so on.
At the end of this verse, Srila Sanatana describes his own
relationship with hari-nama. It is everything to him. Nothing
else is important. For him hari-nama is the nectar of
immortality, the happiness of true liberation. Countless times greater
than the satisfaction of impersonal mukti, hari-nama is
also greater than the bliss of Vaikuntha. It is sweeter than all other
attractive things. It is Sanatana Gosvami's very life and only
ornament, a limitless reservoir of auspiciousness, the entire focus of
his attention.
