Whatever you do—whether you are selling books, cooking, or worshiping the Deities—you should know that your duties are meant to help you develop your attraction to hearing and chanting. It is the Lord’s holy name that has the power to clean the heart. Our duties are meant to be performed in relation to chanting. The real fruit of these duties is an increased attraction to and meditation on the Lord’s holy name.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 103, 3rd paragraph)
Chanting is not a mindless activity. Srila Prabhupada says that the Lord’s holy name transcends the mind and intelligence because it has descended from the spiritual world and is nondifferent from the Lord. However, if we want to progress in chanting, we have to engage the mind and use our intelligence to follow the correct process. If we do not follow this process, we can chant mindlessly for many births and never attain the real goal of chanting.
(LFD, Vol2, Chanting Purely, Pg 103, 2nd paragraph)
What is the difference between a sraddhabhasa and a sraddhavan?
Kanistha-adhikaris, or devotees still on the lower platform of devotional service, are known as sraddhabhasa because they have no firm faith. Statements about renunciation, austerities, exclusive devotion, or full surrender are theoretical to such persons. Of course, its not that renunciation or austerities or conditional surrender produce prema. In order to be successful in achieving prema-bhakti, devotees must have unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord. The Seventh Canto describes that even though we may be expert in all brahminical activities—we may be religious, moral, detached, humble, tolerant, prepared to offer sacrifices, and know the scriptures—if we are proud of our position and have not surrendered body, mind, and words to the Supreme Lord, we are considered lower than a person who, although born in a dog-eater family, has completely dedicated everything to Krishna’s service. False brahmanas cannot even purify themselves, what to speak of others, whereas those born in families of dog-eaters but who have surrendered body, mind, and words to the Lord’s service can purify not only themselves but their entire family for generations before and after themselves. Those who possess such firm faith and who sincerely want to dedicate their lives to serving Krishna are called sraddhavan.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 100 and Pg 101)
Devotees never resent being punished by the Lord, but they work sincerely without consideration of defeat or hopelessness. Such devotees will surely be promoted to the stage of pure Krishna consciousness. Like Thakur Haridas, the brahmanas who had witnessed his beating, stopped him and expressed their sorrow at the pain he had incurred. However, Haridasa replied, “Why are you lamenting? I deserve to be punished much more than I was. I was taken to prison and I stood there and listened to blasphemy and did not give up my life. Therefore, the Lord was merciful to me! He only gave me a small token of what I should have suffered.” Before being beaten, Haridasa Thakura had been dragged to prison in chains. Being chained, he was helpless to move even his hands or his legs. Still, Haridasa Thakura accepted the beating as the Lord’s mercy, even though he had been helpless to avoid what he considered his crime—listening to blasphemy and not acting on it. He felt no resentment whatsoever for the punishment he received, but simply accepted it as the complete mercy of the Lord. A devotee has such faith.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 99 and Pg 100)
How should householders achieve steady faith?
Maharaja Yudhisthira asked this same question of Narada Muni. He said, “I am a grhamudha-dhi, I have the tendency to forget the goal of life, and you are brahmacari. Please, therefore, describe to me the means by which one can achieve salvation in this world according to scriptural descriptions.” Narada Muni gave him the instruction that the householders must hear daily about the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s pastimes in the association of devotees. By hearing about the Lord’s superior activities, the householders will gradually awaken from their dreamlike condition, just as persons gradually wake from their dreams at the end of night. The relationships of this world are simply a perverted reflection of the eternal relationships in the spiritual world, but without hearing about spiritual relationships in relation to Krishna’s pastimes, it’s very hard to understand that. People tend to accept the contents of their dreams as real while they are in the midst of them. Devotees do not renounce anything that can be engaged in Krishna’s devotional service. Rather, they can care for their families and possessions if they see that by maintaining them the body remains fit for hearing and chanting about Krishna. This will allow them to achieve perfection. It is this striving for perfection that gives householders their impetus to work; it is the root of their enthusiasm, because they know their work will not be a source of misery. As householders live in this way, focused on hearing and chanting about Krishna, their faith increases. It is important that householders adopt activities that increase their faith.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 97 and Pg 98)
When we come into a devotee’s association after suffering so much distress in life, we learn that Krishna is the ultimate goal of life and that there is nothing higher than Krishna’s lotus feet. Our faith has awakened. We then begin to execute devotional service with the strength we have received from that devotee. And by the continued association of devotees who are more advanced than us, our sraddha will be protected and increase. Once sraddha has taken birth in a living entity’s heart, that living entity must always remain in the association of devotees at every stage of his or her devotional service—even up to the topmost platform of prema—in order to nicely protect Sraddhadevi.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 96, last paragraph)
We have come to understand the word sraddha to mean faith, but there is a much deeper explanation of the word. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura uses an analogy to explain this deeper meaning: When sraddha is born, it is like the birth of a baby girl. When a newborn girl appears, her parents are careful to protect her from severe cold, extreme heat, too much exposure to sun, harmful creatures, hunger, and thirst. In the same way, sraddha must be protected from the harmful misconceptions of karma (desire for fruitive gain) and jnana (impersonal conceptions). Desire is an eternal companion of the soul; therefore we must direct it properly. The only genuine desire of a pure spirit soul is to satisfy the Lord by rendering Him favorable service for His pleasure. Any admixtures are compared to the bad elements from which the newborn girl must be protected.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 95 and Pg 96)
Although the holy name is non-different from the Lord, it is more powerful when heard from the lips of a pure devotee, because a pure devotee invokes the presence of the Lord by his pure chanting. Therefore, if we come in contact with the glorification of the Lord from the lips of His pure devotee, it can act upon our hearts. The Lord infuses the holy name with the potency to act upon the hearts of others. Thus if we even once hear the holy name of the Lord from a pure devotee of the Lord, we can be infused with a greater potency to chant, and our spiritual life can actually begin and progress.
(LFD, Vol2, Glories of the Holy Name, Pg 82, 4th paragraph)
Srila Rupa Gosvami describes in the Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu that something is accepted as auspicious if it produces four effects: it can benefit everyone, it can attract everyone, it produces good qualities, and it bestows a superior form of happiness. Because Krishna’s holy name is non-different from Krishna Himself, it produces these four effects.
(LFD, Vol2, Glories of the Holy Name, Pg 79, last paragraph)
When the sun in the sky is reflected on water, its reflection is distorted. Similarly, the Lord’s holy name, when reflected on a materialistic conception, is distorted and is not the Lord’s real holy name. To know the true glories of the holy name, one has to hear of them in the association of devotees. Anyone who experiences Krishna’s personal darsana experiences unlimited ecstasy. The Vaisnava literature contains many examples of devotees receiving Krishna’s darsana, and they cannot contain their bliss. If the Lord and His name are non-different, and if we were chanting the pure holy name, we would be receiving Krishna’s darsana and feeling such ecstasy. If we are not experiencing the ecstasy of Krishna’s darsana, it stands to reason that we must not be chanting the pure holy name.
(LFD, Vol2, Glories of the Holy Name, Pg 78 and Pg 79)