Edited from a lecture given by Jagad Guru on the prayers and teachings of the great transcendental personality, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the foremost proponent of Bhakti yoga and the inaugurator of the worldwide kirtan movement.
Lord Chaitanya prayed:
O my Lord, Your Holy Name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of Names like Krishna, Govinda, etc. In these transcendental Names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these Names.
In this prayer by Lord Chaitanya, we have the Absolute Authority, the Supreme Person Himself, telling us that the way to come to know Him is not difficult. It’s very easy.
It’s very sad. I’ve known so many highly learned people in my life, but one thing they are always afraid of, is they are afraid of silence. They’re afraid of being alone. They’re afraid of questioning, “Who am I?” They are so afraid. They don’t know what’s on the other side if they look too deep or question their identity and purpose in life, so they just keep going the way they are. They have a niche or position in the world. They have a false identity that they can spend their time reinforcing. They’re afraid. But they needn’t be.
Here Lord Chaitanya is saying that the process of self-realization is very simple. In the previous verse He says:
Glories to the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord! This hearing and chanting of the Lord’s Names cleanses the heart and mind of all contamination, all the dust which has covered one’s heart and mind for lifetimes and lifetimes, and it actually gives a person a taste of that nectar for which we are always anxious.
A person is always anxious for some actual spiritual happiness to satisfy our aching, empty hearts. And we seek that happiness in so many places, in so many love affairs or whatever. Or we try to run away from that longing and try to drown ourselves in forgetfulness by watching television or reading newspapers. We try to stay on the surface lest we be sucked under like a person gets sucked into a whirlpool while swimming in the ocean.
People try to avoid being sucked under by staying busy. When they get really depressed, they go to the psychiatrist. And the psychiatrists and psychologists say, “Well, stay busy.” Keeping busy is a way to cruise on the surface. If you go fast enough, you won’t drown.
People are afraid that if they go too deep in prayer, they abandon all self-protection, they abandon all frivolous activities, they abandon all those things that keep themselves from looking at themselves, looking at their situation and then praying to God, please save me. They are afraid of going deep. But Lord Chaitanya makes it very clear that it’s very easy to go deep and you don’t need to go alone—but you go deep taking shelter in the Holy Names of God, hearing and chanting the names of God. This is the method and this is the goal. It is both. It is both the shelter itself and the means by which one can achieve that shelter.
Someone may say, “It’s just a sound. We can make up and chant any sound: table, table, table.” No. The Name of the Supreme Person is not just a sound. It is non-different from the Supreme Lord Himself.
As a person chants the Holy Names, gradually he’ll experience the superficial security of the world and the real security in the Name, “Govinda, Govinda, Govinda.” A person can take shelter in the Names of the Supreme Person and repeat the Holy Names. And while he repeats the Holy Names, he listens to his own chanting, “Govinda, Govinda, Govinda.”
There is no difference between the Holy Name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. As such, the Holy Name is as perfect as the Lord Himself in fullness, purity, and eternity. The Holy Name is no material sound vibration, nor has it any material contamination.
PADMA PURANA
If you accept the existence of God, and you accept that He’s all-powerful and that His potencies are inconceivable, then you must believe Him when He says, “I descend as My Names. My Names are invested with all of My transcendental power. You can take shelter of My Names. The Supreme descend in the form of sound. It’s His energy. All energy is His. Everything here belongs to Him. It is all coming from Him. He’s the origin, the Cause of all causes. That He has the power to appear as His Names is not very hard to appreciate.
Lord Chaitanya describes that the Lord has hundreds and millions of Names, not just Krishna, Govinda, etc. The Supreme Person has so many Names, and in each of these transcendental Names He has invested all His transcendental energies–His transcendental energies being different than His material energies. The transcendental energies of the Supreme as well as the spiritual world itself, which is full of unconditional love and without anxiety, are contained in the Holy Names. When a person chants and repeats the Holy Names, he begins to become increasingly purified of material contamination and begins to experience actually being situated in the spiritual world, the world of no anxiety, the world of pure, unconditional love for the Supreme Lord and all living beings. This is the effect of regularly hearing and chanting the Holy Names.
Lord Chaitanya specifically says that there are no hard and fast rules for chanting the Holy Names. If you want to go deep, here’s your chance. You can go as deep as it’s possible to go. Right now, you can begin chanting the Holy Names. You don’t need to join anything. You don’t need to pay anything. You don’t need to believe anything. All you need to do is chant the Holy Names no matter where you are. You can chant and sing the Holy Names while you’re walking, while you’re working, while you’re sitting, while you’re standing, while your eyes are closed, or while your eyes are open. This is wonderful.