Avoiding Offenses to the Holy Name

The bliss of the Holy Name is the highest benediction. The limited happiness of wealth, sense enjoyment, piety or even liberation cannot compare with it. Anything one may desire is obtainable from the Holy Name, for there is no difference between the Holy Name and Kṛṣṇa Himself. All the Vedic scriptures confirm this. Real happiness, peace, and relief from all difficulties are easily obtainable by nāma-bhajan, and this result is eternal.

If this is so, then why do we need to chant again and again? There is no imperfection or fault in the Holy Name, and His purifying effect is certain and immediate. But like intoxicated elephants, after we bathe our minds and hearts by chanting, we again smear them with the mud of our attachments and desires.

As conditioned souls we have a tendency to fall down into material consciousness. We must not only learn the art of chanting nicely, but also of clearing the mentality that habitually contaminates the eternal bliss that is its natural result.

Avoiding nāma-aparāha or offenses to the Holy Name is the only way to retain the eternal benedictions of chanting. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, one of the founders of our disciplic lineage, instructs that we should chant the Holy Name of the Lord continuously and loudly, and it should be performed offenselessly, as recommended in the Padma Purāṇa.

One can be delivered from the effects of all sins by surrendering himself unto the Lord. One can be delivered from all offenses at the feet of the Lord by taking shelter of His Holy Name. But one cannot be delivered if one commits an offense at the feet of the Holy Name of the Lord, for chanting the Holy Name is itself the process of deliverance. Ten such offenses are mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa.

The first offense is to vilify the great devotees who have preached about the glories of the Lord. Blasphemy of the pure devotees is the most serious of the offenses that deprive us of the benefit of chanting. The self-realized pure devotee is not an ordinary human being, but is an authorized representative of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. As such, he has the power to award pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, which is the key to spiritual liberation and eternal happiness. One should not regard the pure devotee with a critical or envious attitude, since this places formidable obstacles in one’s path of spiritual advancement. It is better not to become too familiar with the pure devotee, but to maintain some formality of respect with him. This will help prevent us from committing offenses by cultivating a service attitude.

The second offense is to see the Holy Names of the Lord in terms of worldly distinction. The Lord is the proprietor of all the universes, and therefore He may be known in different places by different Names, but that does not in any way qualify the fullness of the Lord. Any nomenclature that is meant for the Supreme Lord is as holy as the others because it is meant for the Lord. All the transcendental Holy Names are as powerful as the Lord, and there is no bar for anyone in any part of the creation to chant and glorify the Lord by the particular Holy Names of the Lord as they are locally understood. All of His Holy Names are absolute and all-auspicious, and one should not distinguish among different Holy Names of the Lord as one does with material objects and their names.

The third offense is to neglect the orders of the authorized ācāryas or spiritual masters. There are many authorized spiritual masters in the disciplic lineage or paramparā, and all of them have given wonderful instructions capable of saving the entire world. If we follow these instructions we will be benefited, even if we do not understand them. For example, the Vaiṣṇava spiritual masters are unanimous in their glorification of worship of the holy tulāsī plant as a means to achieve pure devotional service. It does not matter if one cannot understand how offering prayers and water to a plant can bestow spiritual advancement. If we follow the instruction without argument, we will gain the benefit. When we become spiritually qualified, Kṛṣṇa will reveal the purpose of all devotional instructions and practices from within our hearts. Our duty is to follow in the footsteps of the great souls in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

The fourth offense is to vilify the scriptures or Vedic knowledge. Although there are many statements in the scriptures that are difficult for us to comprehend, we should not adopt a critical attitude because these are not ordinary books. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam tells us that the Vedas are originally manifested from the breathing of the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa. And in Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa declares that He alone is the true knower of the deep import of the Vedas. The Vedic literature is extremely elevated and pure. Its purpose is the salvation of all living entities from the suffering of material existence. Thus it is meant for our eternal benefit, and we should be careful not to underestimate its value.

The fifth offense is to define the Holy Name of the Lord in terms of one’s mundane calculation. The Holy Name of the Lord is identical with the Lord Himself, therefore one should understand the Holy Name to be nondifferent from Him. We have discussed this point elaborately with evidence from the Vedic scriptures in the Preface of this work. Nevertheless, in the beginning stage of devotion, it is often difficult to see how this is so. The best policy is to accept provisionally that the Holy Name of the Lord is identical with Him, on the strength of the word of the great souls who have passed this truth down to us, and trust that when we are sufficiently purified we will be able to realize it for ourselves.

The sixth offense is to interpret the Holy Name. The Lord is not imaginary, nor is His Holy Name. There are persons with a poor fund of knowledge who think the Lord to be an imagination of the worshiper and therefore think His Holy Name to be imaginary. Such a chanter of the Name of the Lord cannot achieve the desired success in the matter of chanting the Holy Name. There is no material significance or hidden meaning to the Holy Names of the Lord. To speculate otherwise is offensive. The real truth about the Holy Name of the Lord is extensively discussed in the authorized Vedic scriptures. No other interpretation is needed.

The seventh offense is to commit sins intentionally on the strength of the Holy Name. In the scriptures it is said that one can be liberated from the effects of all sinful actions simply by chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. One who takes advantage of this transcendental purification, yet continues to commit sins on the expectation of neutralizing their effects by chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, is the greatest offender at the feet of the Holy Name. Such an offender cannot purify himself by any other method of purification. In other words, one may be sinful before chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, but after taking shelter in the Holy Name of the Lord and becoming immune, one should strictly restrain from committing further sinful acts with a hope that chanting the Holy Name will give him protection.

The eighth offense is to consider the Holy Name of the Lord and His chanting method to be equal to some material auspicious activity. There are various kinds of good works for material benefits recommended in the scriptures, but the Holy Name and His chanting are not merely auspicious holy services. Undoubtedly the Holy Name is holy service, but He should never be utilized for such selfish purposes. Since the Holy Name and the Lord are one and the same, one should not try to bring the Holy Name into the service of mankind. The point here is that the Supreme Lord is the Supreme Enjoyer. He is no one’s servant or order supplier. Since the Holy Name of the Lord is identical with the Lord, one should not try to utilize the Holy Name for one’s material benefit. The real purpose of chanting the Holy Name is to attain pure devotional service to the Lord.

The ninth offense is to instruct those who are not interested in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord about the transcendental nature of the Holy Name. If such instruction is imparted to an unwilling audience, this act is considered to be an offense at the feet of the Holy Name. The reason for this is that by forcing the issue, one has created a bad impression in the minds of the audience about the Holy Name. This impediment will delay their acceptance of the chanting process and can lead to offenses against devotees. Since the Holy Name is meant for the spiritual benefit of the living entities, preaching the glories of the Holy Name to an unwilling audience goes against the Lord’s actual purpose for manifesting the Holy Name in human society.

The tenth offense is to become uninterested in or inattentive to the Holy Name of the Lord, neglecting one’s chanting even after understanding the wonderful transcendental nature of the Holy Name. The effect of chanting the Holy Name of the Lord is liberation from the conception of false egoism. False egoism is thinking oneself to be the enjoyer of the world and thinking everything in the world to be meant for one’s enjoyment. The whole materialistic world is moving under the false egoism of “I” and “mine,” but the factual effect of chanting the Holy Name is to become free from such misconceptions. If one begins the chanting process but then stops due to a mundane conception of life, this is an offense. One should maintain chanting and hearing the Holy Name of the Lord continuously, until the process of purification is complete.

The best protection against committing offenses to the Holy Name of the Lord is to have firm faith in the instructions of the scriptures and of one’s personal spiritual master. One should continue the regular daily chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord with patience, diligence and enthusiasm. It is wonderful if one can accept initiation from a bona fide spiritual master in the disciplic succession from Kṛṣṇa Himself. If possible one should give up all material activities and join the mission of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya’s process, harināma-saṅkītana, is to chant and hear the Holy Name, topics related to the glories of the Lord and His Holy Name, literature such as Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmrta, and nice songs glorifying pure devotional service continuously in the association of like-minded devotees, until the self-effulgent glory of the Holy Name becomes self-manifest in one’s consciousness.

At that point, all the elaborate philosophical instructions of the scriptures that we have summarized herein are reduced to a simple matter of experience, and the glories of the Holy Name of the Lord become self-evident. One who has tasted the full nectar of the Holy Name automatically avoids the ten offenses to the Holy Name, and his path to complete spiritual enlightenment becomes straight and clear.

It is our fond hope that the readers of this volume will apply these truths and instructions to make their own lives perfect in spiritual realization. Certainly, anyone who chants the Holy Name of the Lord even once is a great soul worthy of all respect and praise.

yan-nāmadheya-śravaṇānukīrtanād
yat-prahvaṇād yat-smaraṇād api kvacit
śvādo ‘pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate
kutaḥ punas te bhagavan nu darṣanāt

“To say nothing of the spiritual advancement of persons who see the Supreme Person face-to-face, even a person born in a family of dog-eaters immediately becomes eligible to perform Vedic sacrifices if he once utters the Holy Name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or chants about Him, hears about His pastimes, offers Him obeisances or even remembers Him.” [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.33.6]

Once begun, the process of hearing and chanting inevitably continues, clearing the mirror of the mind of all misconceptions until the chanter attains the perfection of spiritual realization.

Long before achieving that exalted destination, all material pangs will have been erased by the potent purifying action of the Holy Name. We wish the reader all good fortune on this most auspicious progressive journey to the most wonderful state of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.