Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

SECTION XXIII. VAISHNAV, CHRISTIAN OF CHRISTIANS.

The Krishna-Worshipper is either a householder or a hermit. He is either a devotee who cultivates the love for Krishna amid the duties and distractions of the world or a devotee who leaves the temptations and turmoil of the world and sojourns in some sylvan retreat in the holy forest of Brindāban, the earthly abode of Krishna, or in the outskirts of a town or village within a humble monastery composed of a couple of huts with a little flower garden fenced around. But the most advanced Krishna hermit tarries nowhere longer than a few days, but ever roams about in the land sanctified by the touch of the Lotus Feet of his Lord.

The formula of worship and religious rules of life practised by both the hermit and householder are practically the same. It consists of mental and physical practices, more mental than physical. The moment the householder awakes from his sleep in the morning he utters the name of Krishna thus:

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna!

O Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna!

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, nourish me!

Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, protect me!

I salute Thee, O Krishna, give Thou me Thy Love!

Then before he leaves his bed and puts his foot upon the earth, he prays and salutes Mother Earth thus:

"O thou ocean-girdled, mountain-breasted goddess! I salute thee, O thou Consort of Vishnoo! Forgive me, thy suckling. O Mother, this my touching thee with my feet!"

Then, after answering the calls of Nature, and after rubbing his hands and feet with pure earth and washing them for many times, he takes a full bath either in the Ganges or in any river if it is near by. If not, he bathes in a pond or at a well or at home with two or three large jarfuls of water. While bathing, he utters many a hymn and prayer to Krishna. After the bath, he wears a piece of dry cotton cloth which has been washed in clean water, or a piece of pure silk cloth. He then goes to a flower garden and culls some scented white flowers for Krishna, whom he then sits to worship in his sacred room. He mentally repeats for one hundred and eight times the Mantram he has received from his Gooroo, counting it on his fingers. Then he takes a few tiny leaves of the sacred Tulsi plant, smears them in sandal-wood paste and, closing his eyes, mentally offers them with the sacred white flowers to the Lotus Feet of his Deity upon whom his mind is concentrated. This concentration is helped from outside by the spiritual vibrations of his sacred room and the inspiring effect of the perfume of the incense, the sandal-paste and the flowers. He then chants long prayers and hymns in Sanscrit to Krishna and His Love-Energy, Rādhā, and to all the saints and great devotees of Krishna of the past, begging, them for their blessings of Krishna's Grace. He then sings songs of the Lord's Love, and tears of ecstasy roll down his cheeks as he sings in the abandon of his devotion to the accompaniment of a pair of small cymbals he keeps striking to keep time.

The Mantram is composed of three, four or five Sanscrit words beginning with what is called the Seed Word with the Name of Krishna and a dedicatory word attached to it. The Seed Word is the Seed of Krishna-Love. It awakens in the heart spiritual passion. This Seed Word, if mentally repeated with intense concentration, bursts open the shell of the Sound-Form of Krishna—His Name—which contains the Nectar of Absolute Love. The word "Sanscrit" means pure, refined. The Sanscrit language is the language of the pure, undefiled voice of Nature. Hence it is called the "language of the gods" who are representatives of Nature's attributes. These attributes are blendings of forces. Each force has a name (sound), a form and a quality. A man in intense pain expresses it in such sounds as "Oh-h!" "Ah-h!" This "Oh-h" or "Ah-h" may be called the sound (voice) of pain, the contortions of the face the expression of its form and the feeling it produces is its quality. The quality is the substance of the force called pain and its sound and sign (form) are its expressions. If there were a microscope powerful enough to reveal to our view the figures which sound-vibrations create on ether, we would then find that the above-mentioned sound-expressions of pain create forms in ether much like the combined letters "Oh-h" and "Ah-h." This means that it is from the impressions of sound vibrations on Ether that characters of all languages have been formed; the pictures reflecting themselves on the inventor's mind through the medium of its subtle force called inspiration.

The characters (Sanscrit, "charitra") of the Sanscrit language, the parent language of all languages, are born with creation. They are entities in Nature, form-expressions of her forces. They are eternal and indestructible "akshara," as characters are called. The vowels are masculine forces, the consonants are feminine forces. The masculine characters (vowels) are independent, the feminine characters (consonants) are dependent. The vowels can be pronounced by themselves, the consonants can only be pronounced when united with the vowels. The vowels are the expressions of the Essence of the Deity (Krishna), the consonants are the expressions of the Will-Force of the Deity ("Prakriti," that which procreates). Nature. Nature is born of Sound, the attribute of Ether, (Akas) which was the first manifestation of creation. That first sound was "AUM"—mispelled and mispronounced in English as The vowel A, (pronounced "Au" in Sanscrit), the initial letter of "AUM" is the parent of all letters and languages. This "AUM" in sound represents the distant vibrations of Krishna's Flute, the Music of Love, while its character-form in Sanscrit resembles the Form of Krishna playing on His Flute as the reader will see from the little outline picture of Krishna with its back-ground of "AUM" in Sanscrit character printed on the title-page of this book. This is the mystery of what Krishna Himself says in the Gita, "I am the Word AUM."

The different combinations of the other Sanscrit characters (forms of natural forces), called words, represent, similarly, pictures of sound-forms of different attributes and objects. Sanscrit words, in fact, are sound-shells which hold within them essences of the attributes they represent and the objects they signify. The letters K, R, I, SH, N, A joined together form the word Krishna, which is the sound-shell of the Essence of Love, Nature's Absolute Attribute, produced by the fusion of the forces of which the composing characters are sound-forms. When frequently repeated together with the Love-Passion Seed word, its vibrations, after purifying the atmosphere of the mind, illumine in time its inner chamber, the heart, which is the door of the soul, and fills it with the ecstasy of Bliss.

The Tulsi plant is the most spiritual plant in the world, hence its leaf is the best medium for conveying prayers, especially when it is smeared with sandal-wood paste, the perfume of which is much like the aroma of the Lord's Body.

But this morning worship is not all that the householder Vaishnav performs to attain to the love of Krishna. He eats or drinks nothing without first offering it through some mystic formula to Krishna, and his food is pure vegetables, his drink is pure water. In the evening, he joins other Vaishnavs to talk of Krishna, hear of the sacred earthly acts of Krishna, sing of Krishna, and, when the spirit of song moves him, he dances with others in ecstasy. Besides these practices he repeats many thousand times the name of Krishna over his Tulsi rosary. In fact, he never misses any means or opportunity to keep alive an unbroken Krishna-consciousness, the result of which is that he enjoys the joy of Goloka here on earth in this earthly body. He is rewarded with the foretaste of what he seeks to enjoy after he lays down his physical body.

This is enjoyed by the hermit Vaishnav, who generally lives in Brindāban, in a higher degree. He is unhampered by all the disturbances and difficulties of the householder, and so he devotes every moment he breathes to the service of his Krishna. He has renounced the world and with it all its thoughts. From the earliest morning up to very late at night he prays, chants, talks, hears, reads, sings and dances by turns. He eats but once and that very little, a few wee bits of unleavened bread begged from pious homes. His only world's goods are the scanty clothes on his body, his earthen water bowl and his volume of scriptures. He has made peace with the whole world by his humility. He has nothing but blessings for all, sincere blessings even in return for curses, and prostrates at full length prone to the ground before everyone. He follows the saying of the Lord Chaitanya that a Vaishnav should be lowlier than a blade of grass; more forbearing and charitable than a tree, which spreads its shade and offers its fruits even to one who cuts down its branches; should never seek respect for himself but pay respect even to those who are respected by none; that a Vaishnav should at all times sing of Krishna. Thousands upon thousands of such Vaishnavs, both male and female, can be found to-day in the Holy Land of Brindāban and the Holy City of Nuddea, the birthplace of Chaitanya, whose Christ-spirit and ecstatic life are unparalleled in the religious history of any other country, ancient or modern. They represent demonstrated living proofs of the power of the Lord's Name upon the human mind.