The Sweetness of the Name KUSUMA HARANATH

The Sweetness of the Name KUSUMA HARANATH

Everything is rooted in you o Lord, you are present in everything and cannot remain even for a moment away from your devotees. You make your nearness felt in so many ways. Nityananda is always moving near us – sometimes he manifests himself but we take it to be a dream.The more we come away from our small self through repetition of your holy Name and selfless service, the Ego gets thinner and thinner and the mind purified and more expansive.Then we reach a state in which we  see you in ourselves and others. 

By repeating  your  Name and thinking of your Lilas  we dwell continuously in your presence. Success in meditation comes when we feel that it is you yourself who  repeats the Name in us, that you are verily in front of us and aware of all our thoughts.  You perform Kirtan of your own Name in order to sanctify our unclean hearts and to make us fit for Seva.  From our side must come yearning, extreme restlessness, piteous prayer and unfathomable faith. We have to become like a vessel, emptied of the Ego,  waiting  for the divine influx to come when and how it will. Constant remembrance of the Lord and His Name is as good as associating with Him. Without the power of the holy Name  its sweetness and  holy love is impossible to experience. So sweet is the Name that it dances on the tongue and creates a desire for having millions of tongues and ears as it enters the domain of the heart and stops all sense-activities.*) It is the Name itself which spreads its glories within the heart. This  sweetness arises from within as result of  the hearts melting. The Lord resides in the hearts, it is by His will that mystic vibrations or waves of love and bliss are generated therein. When the Lord’s Name finds place in the soul oceans of sins of darkness will be crossed as it were in a life-boat or as the sun once risen all darkness vanishes. So it is with sins when the holy Name is uttered.

Chanting or mental repetition of the divine Name Kusuma Haranath with an  attitude of profound and exclusive devotion initiates in the soul  powerful  vibrations that unlock many doors, chief of which being the door of the heart, in which the Lord eternally sports. His Name dissolves the human personality and brings to birth a Bhav Deha (transcendental sheath) for the soul with the thinnest possible Ego.The physical body is then made so light that it becomes virtually without weight.**) When the physical body has been re-fashioned in this divine substance then only is it able to enter the secret bower called Krishna Kunj. Then days and nights are spent in singing His praises and hearing His glories. One remains merged in the Lord, is no more conscious of the external world, laughs, weeps, cries, sings  aloud, dances. Through excess of joy  horipulation is experienced or one sits motionless. This is the state of identification or union with the Lord in which one has no own will, no separate existence.It is His Name which brings Him to our reach, by taking His Name we are sure to get back our ability to recognize Him.The power of Name is infinite, it can even bring the dead back to life. Without the mercy of the Name one can neither achieve Prema nor enter the realm of the divine Lila. Once Prema is generated the Jiva swims in an ocean of unfathomable bliss, something active, not mere dead bliss. It makes the Lord and the devotee actively flow towards each other in form of a Rasa. Prema is a saturation of the heart. By its very nature it overleaps all bounds and reaches the Jiva to the feet of the Lord. The Lord watches our movements at all times. When we totally surrender we come under His influence and protection and Maya affects no longer. As our love and faith in Him grows, as we surrender mind, ego, body totally, by constantly repeating  His sweet Name, He will destroy our ego, which separates us from Him. For as long as the ego-sense persists spiritual effort can’t be fruitful. Even the slightest assertion of the Ego frustrates all made progress. We have to forget every egoistic pleasure, become simple in mind and heart and contemplate constantly and joyfully of that abode of abiding joy. All thoughts must be only on Him. The more we try to eliminate the “I” the more life becomes enjoyable. An egoless mind is full of love. His pleasure, not ours should be always foremost in the mind. We have to give up all ideas of agency to Him who alone acts.

Here I quote what Lord Krishna said:” All souls are my favorites. I play many games with them till they forget all that is selfish, till they love me for the sake of love alone.”

And Thakur Haranath said:” May the Lord’s Name be in everybody’s mouth, such is my desire and prayer. You are each a limb of mine, I want you to remain supremely pure. Do not take the Name for Name’s sake. Bear in mind that it is His Name. The Name generates love and love leads to the Lord of Love. Name is more efficacious than Mantra as the latter requires a prescribed place, time and method and hard training. Mantras are related to the doctrine of the head whereas the Name relates to the doctrine of the heart. Name is infinitely more fruitful than sacrifices, austerities, penances. By itself it is always pure. Even once uttered it has the power to blow away such a heap of sins as no Jiva could ever dream of accumulating through a whole lifetime.You will realize after I pass away what potency the Lord has kept in the Name Kusuma Haranath. Love the Name, then you will be happy in loving me also.”

*) ex Chaitanya Charitamrita

**) Whoever witnessed during Bangalore Namsapthahams  Sri Sade Poli Reddy dancing, leaping in joy of divine bliss, has seen a wholly wonderful manifestation of the human spirit transformed into a body of PREM

Ruth Baur

^28.09.2015

Lord’s Leela

Lord’s Leela

O eternal Light transcending all our thoughts of being,

                        Wider than all boundaries, full of Glory, Wisdom, Bliss.

                        Thou holdest all things within Thyself, steeped in beauty.

                        Help us by Thy glorious compassion in our efforts  for those

 of Thy children that Thou sendest in our path. Reveal  to us

Your will for them so that their footsteps may be guided to Thee.

In Your presence we lose all sense of separateness and find ourselves

at  Oneness with You.

The Lord’s play is eternal, beyond time, space and causation – it is a play of joy with the whole universe as His stage. His actions have no object to achieve, they are expressions of pure delight. It is a game of joy.He remains seated with His own Maya surrounding Him on all sides,  forever shining in the innermost region of the soul. We are all players. If He does not take us up in His hand and sound,  the instruments cannot produce a sound. He is holding the string and makes us dance in any way He likes, a mechanic who operates us. Our souls are your Amsa, a ray of you. You are the totality of everything and of infinite compassion – always loving and waiting to bless your Bhaktas. The universe and Jivas are Asat, having no reality of their own. They become Sat because you invest them with your substance.His play is free from any purpose and its dramatic is constantly increasing. Vaishnavas regard His creation as a spontaneous, eternal play (Leela). From time to time does His play go into this material  world (Brindavan). You are playing your wonderful game of love in so many hearts and forms but who can realize or perceive it as our thoughts are not centered around You, not being aware of You in their hearts? Sadly most indulge in sensual pleasures that only degrade them and make them wretched.

O Lord you are always available like a dear friend or kinsman and you as Antaryamin – the soul of every soul –always loving, are only waiting to bless your Bhaktas. You so deepen our faith, purify our hearts and lift us up into heavenly states of ecstasy. We never have even the suspicion that You are in our hearts and indeed the nearest and dearest to us. Lord Haranath said:”You are very fortunate as Krishna is pulling you by the hand and gives assistance. Never leave my hand, I am waiting with full hope in you. All of you are playing in my heart every hour of day and night. You are verily my springs of joy. What will sustain Me if I leave you?”

We human beings are truly alive if we love and worship You, otherwise we are mere bellows, lifeless things that breathe. What do we achieve when we don’t strive to know You, who are the foundation of existence, the embodiment of bliss? O Lord, You enter into the hearts of those who listen to your legends, hymn you, meditate upon you, repeat your Name and adore you. By doing so they make ashes of sins in countless lifetimes and of evil accumulated tendencies. You manifested Yourself in every heart in the form of Your Name to sanctify our unclean hearts and make us fit to surrender. It is You Yourself who becomes active in performing Japa and Kirtan of Your own Name, but You do not show Yourself as that would mar the fascination of Your play, but no one has the capacity to realize this or perceive it as their thoughts are not centered around You and because they have not established Your presence in their hearts. Whoever chants incessantly Your Name becomes mad after You and gets PREMA.Your NAME IS THE RAFT WHICH CARRIES US ACROSS Samsar and is the quickest and safest way to reach You in this Kali Yuga. Your Name gives us Prema and through Prema we reach You.

We have to understand that the Lord alone performs all works, we are mere spectators. Let us give up the idea that we act as He alone is the actor. His pleasure, not ours should be always in the mind. He so deepens our faith, purifies our hearts and lifts us up into heavenly states of ecstasy. He is the dispeller of difficulties. Every minute our thoughts, deeds must be regarded as Yours. We have come here to adore You. That is our duty. You will do the rest. In our ignorance we take up Your assignment and forget our own duty as ordained by You, thinking always about food, clothing, and bodily enjoyments. By Your Maya the deluded Jivas identify themselves with body and mind and lose their inherent nature of infinite ecstasy, becoming victims of birth and death in the Samsara cycle.

We have to live according to His ideas and desires and always bear in mind that it is He who has occupied our mind, body. He is guiding us, He plays, speaks through us. Why do we worry so much when he is performing all actions? He is always calling us by singing our name on His bansari .  When You, beloved Lord, touch our hearts all reasons, skepticism cease, doubts vanish, hearts begin to melt. Like tiny children we weep in love and ecstasy. Sublime emotions arise without effort, we offer ourselves unconditionally to Your service like Akasa, subtle beyond mind and words. You are the same towards every being, favoring none. It is only the Karma of the individual being which creates varying destinies for them. Every living being is part and parcel of You. Therefore our duty is to serve You. Without such service the living beings fall into material contamination. We have to see You in all things around us and seeing You in them serve You. We are a divine channel through which should flow divine love, bliss, power, wisdom, but this channel is blocked by holding the body for the Self and by identifying with the perishable body. The blockage is the Ego which must be removed. When gone divine grace can flow freely. Once we go beyond the Ego we are nothing, infinite nothingness filled with divine consciousness. As long as the Ego remains we cannot be selfless. One has to try and try to get rid of the Ego. When the individual soul surrenders to God it gets entirely under His influence and protection. Maya has no more effect on him. Then Sattwa flows from the Lord’s Lotosfeet towards the devotees mind. All desires melt away, the senses no longer wander about and the mind gets absorbed in Him.

May we come back through a succession of lives as one of Your people, may we satisfy You by playing our roles as  per Your desire and be considered as belonging to You .

Ruth Baur

16.09.15

SO  HAM

I AM HE  and AHAM BRAHMA ASMI, meaning “my individual Self is the Universal Self and our true individual Self is not different from God”. This material body cannot be identified with our real self nor is our mind our real identity, nor the intellect. Our individual self is not different from God but due to ignorance we think to be separate from Him.Ignorantly we take upon ourselves the Lord’s responsibilities, forgetting His commands in respect of our own duties, and always think what to eat, drink, how to clothe etc. Our identity is that of an eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. We are eternally minute individual particles of the Lord, endowed by Him with  powers. From the very time we came into existence He has kept us in His arms and left us not even for a moment apart from Him. His blessed hand is always above our head.

The Lord is the Supreme Being shining forever in the innermost region of the soul. His heart is saturated with mad love for one and all. From eternal bliss we came and to eternal bliss we must return. Every Jiva is a divine channel through which should flow divine love, bliss, power, wisdom but by holding the body for the Self and by identifying ourselves with the perishable body this channel is blocked.HHHhiis own Rasa in all its phases created the Jivas and used them as so many vessels to contain his Rasa. This Rasa made enjoyable is named PREMA. It is a manifestation of Lorfulful

When we lose the body feelings and identify ourselves with the Atma we become close to the Lord. As long as we have body feelings, sex feelings we cannot get rid of  Ahamkara (I-feeling) and Mamakara (Mine-feeling) it is difficult to overcome attachments. Those who do not seek God will not find true awareness of the Atma. They will continue to identify the soul with the body and from this delusion be enslaved by every kind of desire and attachment.  We have to watch our inner self, travel inwardly. Only then can we obtain Atma Anand and are nearing the Lord. Live in the Bhava “everyone is mine”.

As long as we depend on our own exertions, our own individual independent power we live under the Ego-spell which is worthless in value. Instead of sense satisfaction the sole object of our desire should be only to satisfy Him and to behold Him everywhere. Even if engaged in spiritual practice, believing that with the strength of discipline we will overcome difficulties is a mistake. God alone is the dispeller of difficulties. As long as the Ego functions Lords divine grace remains suspended. The scriptures say that the moment a Jiva whole-heartedly says “Krishna, I am yours” all his responsibilities cease,  the Karmic law loses its hold over him. The Self unfolds when the Ego breaks and disappears.  Effort is only where  the Ego exists. Success in meditation comes by feeling that it is the Lord, who is doing everything, that He is verily in front of me and in my heart, aware of all my thoughts. Once self-realization is attained the Ego loses all its significance. A new world opens up  - a world of understanding heavenly beauty. When a Jiva throws off its Maya-addiction through the Lord’s grace he finds his only work is to carry back Prema to Him, to serve Him in and through it. Through this Prema he is bound to Him for ever and ever . Let us be contented with whatever duties are placed before us by Him together with the means for doing the same as well as with the fruits of such acts. He alone possesses complete and true knowledge of our needs and what is good for us. When Prema for the Lord is attained love for all beings automatically follows because He is the sum-total of all living beings.

Lord Krishna said: “All souls are my favorites. I play many games with them till they forget all that is selfish, till they love Me for the sake of love alone as you, oh Radha.” And He said to Uddhava:”If you cannot fix your mind one-pointedly upon Me then live your life as an offering to Me, dedicate whatever you do with no selfish motive. Who constantly thinks of Me without any other thought easily reaches Me.”

And in His manifestation as Lord Haranath  He assured us:” I am always with you and will remain so forever. Did you call me? I came myself, whether you called or not. If you think me not of your own you will cause me pain. All of you are constantly playing in  my heart. What will sustain me if I leave you? When once I accepted you I cannot leave you, even if you leave me.”Lord Kusum Haranath, out of spontaneous love infused and continues to infuse love and devotion into our dry hearts in many mysterious ways. His grace is ever ready to call us His own and to shower benedictions. He has taken us under His sheltering wings, no moment passes when we are free from his benign grace.

As Virat Purusa (cosmic divinity) we form part and parcel of His manifested body and what exists in us must necessarily exist in Him also. He who sees the Paramatma accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and understands that neither the soul nor Paramatma within the destructible body is ever destroyed actually sees  (Bhag.Gita 13/V.28). The Lord, when He desired to taste His own Rasa created the Jivas and used them as so many vessels to contain His Rasa. This Rasa, thus made enjoyable is named PREMA. It is a manifestation of His Hladini Shakti which keeps Him always blissful.

Except our Lord all things are always changing and perishable. May we feel His presence every moment of our life; never say that He is not with us. His nearness will destroy all our weaknesses, all evil thought. Who lives in such a way can neither commit evil acts nor feel disturbed or depressed when he has to face danger, loss, infamy or censure.

Constant waiting with intense longing for the Lord’s arrival is a sign of a true devotee, this mental attitude should be constant. Let us renounce personal glory, greatness, even if there is  only a trace of it. Whatever we do, think, let us dedicate everything, the entire life to the Lord and make a complete offering of ourselves to Him. This is the Bhagavata Dharma as described by Him in Srimad Bhagavatam.

Into the hearts of  Devotees who listen to the legends of the Lord, hymn Him, meditate upon Him, worship and adore Him the Lord enters and by so doing makes ashes of their sins in countless lifetimes of accumulated evil tendencies. Such disinterested love and devotion delights Him. May we always feel His presence every moment of our life, may we never say “He is not with us”. When the heart is full of Prema the Lord draws the soul like a magnet to Himself.

Ruth Baur