Offering Obeisance with Words - Part 1

Date: 2014-11-27 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

From scriptures we hear that we can bow down to the Lord in three ways - with body, mind and words. Along with bowing down to the Lord with our body, we should also offer our words and mind to Him. Offering obeisances with words is done by uttering 'namaḥ'. This will help us progress in devotional service by leaps and bounds. Srila Prabhupada explains the meaning of word namaḥ in the commentary of the verse 8.3.13 as follows. "Every living entity in this material world is struggling for existence, and the only salvation or relief from the cycle of birth and death in the evolutionary process is full surrender. This is indicated by the word namaḥ, "I offer my respectful obeisances unto You." Also the names of the Lord become mantras when they are combined with 'Om' and 'namah'. Vasudeva, Narayana, Narasimha etc are names of the Lord and when combined with 'Om' and 'namaḥ' we have mantras like 'Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Oṁ namo Nārāyaṇāya or Oṁ namo bhagavate Narasiṁhāya etc.

So we have the pranam mantra for Srila Prabhupada and spiritual master starting with "Nama oṁ visnu-pādāya" and also the vaishnava pranama mantra ends with 'vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ'. All these mantras contain 'namaḥ'. So while bowing down before the devotees or spiritual master, we are advised to chant the respective pranam mantras so that our words are also engaged in bowing down. Similarly at the beginning of class on Bhagavad Gita or Bhagavatam we recite "Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya" which means obeisances to Bhagavan Vasudeva. And while singing Narasimha arati we start with "namas te narasiṁhāya (Obeisances to you Bhagavan Narasimha). And while singing Tulasi arati we offer obeisances to Tulasi Maharani by saying namaḥ (namo namaḥ tulasī kṛṣṇa-preyasi).

In Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam we see that great devotees offered their obeisances to the Lord verbally by saying 'namaḥ'. Kunti Maharani and Bhishmacharya were elder to Lord Krishna and hence as per the social custom, they could never bow down to Him physically. Only Lord Krishna was bowing down to them whenever they met Him. And Kunti Maharani was also the aunt of Lord Krishna and hence the Lord always sought her blessings. So she could not bow down to the Lord even though He is Supremely worshipable due to social etiquette and the Lord also would not accept that. However, when Lord Krishna was departing to Dwaraka, He protected Parikshit and Uttara from the brahmastra of Ashvatthama. When He was about to leave Hastinapura, Kunti Maharani offered her famous prayer. In that prayer, she offered many obeisances to the Lord by saying namaḥ. She starts of her prayers by saying, "Namasye puruṣaṁ tvādyam", and ends her prayers by saying "bhagavan namas te". And in the below sloka she offers her obeisances verbally to each part of the Lord's transcendental form by saying "namaḥ".

namaḥ paṅkaja-nābhāya namaḥ paṅkaja-māline namaḥ paṅkaja-netrāya namas te paṅkajāṅghraye

My respectful obeisances are unto You, O Lord, whose abdomen is marked with a depression like a lotus flower, who are always decorated with garlands of lotus flowers, whose glance is as cool as the lotus and whose feet are engraved with lotuses.

Krishna willing, we will meditate more on this in the subsequent offerings. Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Offering Obeisance with Words - Part 2

Date: 2014-11-28 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering wherein we were seeing how we can offer obeisances by words and how Kunti being aunt of Krishna, paid obeisances to the Lord by her wonderful prayers. Now let us continue to see from the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam the other devotees who had paid obeisances by words.

2. Obeisances offered to Supreme Lord pleases Him as well as demigods: Like Srimati Kunti Maharani Bhishmacharya also was elder to the Lord. The Lord always used to offer obeisances to Bhishmadev and Bhishmadev was in a position to bless Him and he could never bow down to the Lord due to social etiquette. But in his final moments he was lying on the bed of arrows, he offered prayers to the Lord which are recorded in Mahabharata and the prayers are full of obeisances, 'namo namaḥ' (I offer my repeated obeisances to the Lord). Thus he offered his pranams verbally by chanting namaḥ and also in his mind and the Lord accepted it and was pleased with Bhishmadev.

The Vedas state the glory of uttering namaḥ before the Lord (or chanting His names along with namaḥ) as follows:

yo devebhya atapati yo devanam purohitah purvo yo devebhyo jato namo rucaya brahmaye rucam brahmam janayanto deva agre tad abruvan yas tvaivam brahmano vidyat tasya deva asan vase

Obeisances (namaḥ) to that Supreme Lord who is ever shining who shines for the sake of all the gods, who benefits the gods from time immemorial, who is the foremost of the gods. The gods uttered this word "namaḥ" which generates love for the Supreme Absolute Truth, in front of the Supreme Lord for His pleasure. One who understands the Lord in this way (adored by namaḥ), will be liked by the devatas and they will love to be under his control

The above mantra was proved during the departure of Bhishmadeva. When he was about to depart, all the devatas and Rshis assembled eagerly to have darshan of his final moments. On his departure, they showered flowers and kettle drums were sounded by the devatas and they were pleased to see him attain the spiritual world. And the Supreme Lord Himself pleased by Bhishmadev's devotion and glorification, personally stood near him and heard all his prayers and gave His darshan to him during his final moments.

Krishna willing, we will meditate more on this in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Offering Obeisance with words - Part 3

Date: 2014-11-29 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled, "Offering Obeisances with Words", wherein we saw the below

1. Obeisances could be offered by body, mind as well as words. 2. Obeisances offered to Supreme Lord pleases Him as well as demigods.

We will continue to meditate on the glory of offering obeisances verbally by saying namaḥ.

3. Potency of offering obeisances verbally: The scriptures tell us even if a person accidentally calls out, "Obeisances to the Lord", he can be freed from sinful reactions. In Bhagavata purana, Suta Goswami says to Parikshit Maharaj in verse 12.12.47

patitaḥ skhalitaś cārtaḥ kṣuttvā vā vivaśo gṛṇan haraye nama ity uccair mucyate sarva-pātakāt

If when falling, slipping, feeling pain or sneezing one involuntarily cries out in a loud voice, "Obeisances to Lord Hari!" one will be automatically freed from all his sinful reactions.

One need not be a great devotee like Bhishmadeva or Kunti Maharani to do this. Even if he is sinful by nature and even if he does not know the glories of uttering namaḥ along with the Lord's names, by uttering it accidentally or involuntarily or even hearing it, he will be freed from sinful reactions and can make advancement in bhakti. There is a beautiful story in Vishnu Dharma purana explaining this point. Once a great Brahmana and a devotee of the Lord called Mudgala travelled to the abode of Yamaraj to meet him. When he saw the torturous punishments inflicted by the Yamadutas on the sinful living entities, he looked at them with compassion and they saw him. At once they became purified and felt momentary bliss and relief from their hellish suffering. Yamaraj explained to Mudagala that this was possible because of his glory of worshipping the Supreme Lord in your third previous life, and offering of charity made along with chanting the Lord's names along with 'namaḥ' such as 'kṛṣṇāya namah', 'vāsudevāya namah'. Yamaraj also said, "Those who remember Lord Krishna, bow down to him, take shelter of Him and worship Him by chanting mantras like kṛṣṇāya namaḥ, vāsudevāya namaḥ, they are not under my jurisdiction."

Hearing this the living entities who were suffering in hell started chanting, "kṛṣṇāya namaḥ, govindāya namaḥ, vāsudevāya namaḥ etc". Though they could not bow down because they were being tied up and punished, but they verbally offered obeisances by saying namaḥ. Because of the potency of the names coupled with namaḥ, all the devices in the hell which were used to torture them stopped working; all the weapons in the hands of the Yamadutas became blunt; the fire burning in the hell became extinguished and all the Yamadutas became diminished in their strength and could not exert any further punishment on the residents of hell.

As the chanting continued more and more, fragrant and cool breeze started flowing in that hell; everyone started hearing pleasing musical instruments of flute, vina etc; they became free of the hellish coverings and became endowed with heavenly dress and ornaments. Understanding the purifying effect of their chanting, Yamaraj immediately got up from his seat and started worshipping those residents of hells by offering water at their feet and said, "Those who bow down to Lord Vishnu, who is known as Yajnavaraha and who is the Lord of all gods, I bow down to them again and again. Even those who say 'vishnave namaḥ, kṛṣṇāya namaḥ, to them I bow again and again ." As he was saying this, a heavenly plane came there and all the residents boarded into that plane and were transferred to heavenly planets.Their punishment was severely reduced by their offering obeisances to the Lord with words by uttering his names joined with namaḥ.

We can see the glory of offering obeisances verbally from the above story. However the real benefit of removal of sins is not to attain heavenly planets. But it is to remove the obstacles on the path of spiritual progress. Our previous sinful reactions creates impressions in our mind which distract our focus from the path of devotional service. When they are removed, spiritual progress becomes much easier and we become unflinchingly attached to the path of devotional service. There is a nice prayer in Isopanishad (mantra 18) stating this point.

agne naya supathā rāye asmān viśvāni deva vayunāni vidvān yuyodhy asmaj juhurāṇam eno bhūyiṣṭhāṁ te nama-uktiṁ vidhema

O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.

Srila Prabhupada translates nama-uktiṁ as, "words of obeisances" and bhūyiṣṭhāṁ as "most numerous". We cannot repay to the Lord for freeing us from our previous sinful reactions. All we can do is offer obeisances to Him unlimited times by chanting 'namaḥ' and the Lord becomes so much pleased with this and feels obliged to the devotee.

Krishna willing, we will meditate more on this in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Offering Obeisance with Words - Part 4

Date: 2014-11-30 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled, "Offering Obeisances with Words", wherein we saw three points. Now we will continue to meditate on the glory of offering obeisances verbally by saying namaḥ.

3. Potency of offering obeisances orally: One can offer obeisances verbally, if one is put in a physically difficult situation where he cannot bow down to the Lord with his body. This can happen when we are sick or the body is affected by old age or disease. If one does so sincerely with all his heart, the Lord is pleased and delivers the person. This is stated by the Lord Himself in the Vaishnava dharma chapter of the Mahabharata as follows. (verse -13.68.051)

nama ity eva yo bruyaan madbhaktah shraddhayaanvitah tasya syur akshayaa lokaah shvapaakasyaapi naarada

For My devotee who utters the word 'namaḥ', "Obeisances to You O Lord", with great faith and love, for him promotion to the imperishable spiritual world is guaranteed even if he is from the family of dog eaters.

We see a typical example of this in the story of the elephant Gajendra. Gajendra was captured by the crocodile while trying to bath in the lake and it fought for thousand celestial years on its own strength and sought the help of its relatives. When there were no hopes from any side, then he appealed to the Supreme Lord with his famous prayers he learnt in the previous life. Actually Gajendra's leg was badly wounded by caught by the crocodile and his bodily strength was completely down and he was pained greatly. So he could not physically bow down to the Lord. But his mind was fixed in transcendence and he verbally offered his obeisances in his prayers. He started off the prayer with " Oṁ namo bhagavate" (My obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and he chanted namaḥ 22 times in the course of his prayers to the Lord. And at the end when the Lord arrived at the lake to protect Gajendra, he wanted to offer his obeisances by bowing down. But he could not do so due to his precarious condition. So he bowed down with his words as follows:

SB 8.3.32 so ’ntaḥ-sarasy urubalena gṛhīta ārto dṛṣṭvā garutmati hariṁ kha upātta-cakram utkṣipya sāmbuja-karaṁ giramāha kṛcchrān nārāyaṇākhila-guro bhagavan namas te

Gajendra had been forcefully captured by the crocodile in the water and was feeling acute pain, but when he saw that Narayana wielding His disc, was coming in the sky on the back of Garuda, he immediately took a lotus flower in his trunk, and with great difficulty due to his painful condition, he uttered the following words: "O my Lord, Narayana, master of the universe, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. Srila Prabhupada states in the purport that even Gajendra's voice was feeble due to his exhaustion.The " King of the elephants was so very eager to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead that when he saw the Lord coming in the sky, with great pain and in a feeble voice he offered respect to the Lord." This devotional attitude of Gajendra pleased the Lord and He awarded the elephant eternal residence in the spiritual world confirming the above sloka of the Mahabharata.

Srila Prabhupada also gives the direction how we can utternamaḥ while bowing down to the deity or when we’re unable to bow down in his commentary to Bhagavatam verse 7.5.23.Deity " worship should be continued along with hearing and chanting. Therefore every mantra is preceded by the word namaḥ. In all the mantras there are specific potencies, of which the grhastha devotees must take advantage. There are many mantras preceded by the word namaḥ, but if one chants the holy name of the Lord, he receives the result of chanting namaḥ many times." So while bowing down to the Lord's deity form we should chant the mahamantra so that we get the benefit of chantingnamaḥ many times. And when we are unable to bow down also, we should chant the mahamantra in front of the deities.

We can also see in the life of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu where Mahaprabhu chanted the following kirtan where the Lord is offered obeisances with word namaḥ and devotees all over the world sing this kirtan thereby offering our words in bowing to the Lord.

hari haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ yādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥ

Krishna willing, we will meditate more on this in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Offering Obeisance with Words - Part 5

Date: 2014-12-01 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

4. Krishna's Magnanimity: When a devotee is ecstatic by seeing the Lord and wants to offer pranams unlimited times, he may not be able to do so physically. In that situation offering obeisance verbally is very practical. And all merciful Lord accepts such verbal obeisances also. We also hear from the life of Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami (one of the six Goswamis) that he used to offer thousand obeisance to Lord Krishna every day and bown down to two thousand Vaishnavas every day and embrace them. Such great souls did this out of pure love for the Lord. We cannot imitate the activities of these great souls but by sincere chanting of the holy names everyday we will be verbally offering obeisances to the Lord. We can see in the example of Arjuna that after seeing the universal form of the Lord, he was overwhelmed by the Lord's greatness and became ecstatic and he wanted to offer unlimited obeisances to the Lord. As physically it is not possible, he did it verbally by offering the following prayers in Bhagavad Gita verses 11.39 and 40 and the Lord accepted it gladly.

vāyur yamo ’gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaś ca namo namas te ’stu sahasra-kṛtvaḥ punaś ca bhūyo ’pi namo namas te

namaḥ purastād atha pṛṣṭhatas te namo ’stu te sarvata eva sarva ananta-vīryāmita-vikramas tvaṁ sarvaṁ samāpnoṣi tato ’si sarvaḥ

You are air, and You are the supreme controller! You are fire, You are water, and You are the moon! You are Brahma, the first living creature, and You are the great-grandfather. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You a thousand times, and again and yet again!

Obeisances to You from the front, from behind and from all sides! O unbounded power, You are the master of limitless might! You are all-pervading, and thus You are everything!

Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport as follows, "Out of loving ecstasy for Krishna, his friend, Arjuna is offering his respects from all sides. He is accepting that He is the master of all potencies and all prowess and far superior to all the great warriors assembled on the battlefield." When a person develops pure love of God and utters the word namaḥ, he will be transferred to the Lord's personal association where he can eternally serve Him personally.

Krishna willing, we will meditate more on this in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai. Offering Obeisance with Words - Part 6

Date: 2014-12-02 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled, "Offering Obeisances with Words", wherein we saw the below points.

1. Obeisances could be offered by body, mind as well as words. 2. Obeisances offered to Supreme Lord pleases Him as well as demigod. 3. Potency of offering obeisances orally. 4. Krishna's magnanimity.

Now we will continue to meditate on how Krishna mercifully accepts even verbal obeisances.

There is a nice story in the Mahabharata which illustrates this point. Once three great sages Ekata, Dvita and Trita did severe penances to see Lord Narayana. After thousand years of penance, they could just hear the voice of the Lord, who described them about the glorious, island Svetadvipa which is situated on the northern side of the milky ocean. The Lord said, "The residents of that island have white and effulgent spiritual forms. They are pure devotees and worship me with one pointed attention. They are free from material senses and free from bodily demands such as hunger, thirst etc. Please go to that place because I reveal my spiritual form in that island always." So the sages went to that island but they could not see anything there because they were overwhelmed by the effulgence radiating in that island. The Lord again inspired them to do penance and they again did penance for 100 years. After that they were able to see the residents of the island who were great devotees of the Lord and who had effulgent forms. Those devotees were standing facing the north east direction and absorbed in the Lord's remembrance. Suddenly there arose great effulgence equal to thousand suns (The Lord manifested his form to the residents of Svetadvipa). The Mahabharata verse (12.323.036) says how the devotees greeted the Lord after seeing Him.

sahitaas chaabhydhaavanta tatas te maanavaa drutam krtaanjaliputaa hrshtaa nama ity eva vaadinah

Those ecstatic devotees folded their hands in great reverence and ran towards that effulgent Lord uttering the word, 'namaḥ' repeatedly.

The sages were able to see the devotees, but could not see the Lord who manifested before the devotees, because of the powerful effulgence. Then the sages saw those devotees worshipping the Lord with different ingredients and chanting wonderful hymns containing the word namaḥ. After this, the sages could hear the Lord's voice again and the Lord said, "One who is not matured in pure devotional service cannot see me personally. But because of your penance and purification you have seen my unalloyed devotees in this island who worship me by uttering 'namaḥ'. So kindly go back and continue your penances so that you can see me in the next cycle of Manu." The sages were enlivened by this voice of the Lord and continued their penances. From this story we see that the pure devotees who see the Lord everyday also greet him by the word 'namaḥ' and offer obeisances to Him.

In conclusion, one should offer obeisances to the Lord, spiritual master and all Vaishnavas with his body and also utter the relevant pranam mantras which contains the word namaḥ' ' or recite the Maha mantra and in this way attain Lord's mercy to advance in devotional service. I pray at the lotus feet of our beloved Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and all the Vaishnavas so that I will try to put into practice these sublime instructions of the scriptures.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai.