Title: Lila Meditation

User: Swami Gaurangapada Date: 2005-02-05 00:20:42

 

Q. I am attracted to meditating on the eightfold daily pastimes of Gauranga and visualizing myself somehow participating. How does one discover one's role in Gauranga-lila?

 

Reply by Swami Gaurangapada: You can read the whole process of going from Name to Lila in my book Maha Mantra Yoga at http://mahamantrayoga.gaurangapada.com at the following url: http://mahamantrayoga.gaurangapada.com/index.html?page=the-process.htm . The process of Mantra Dhyana is the same while meditating on the Nityananda and Gauranga Mantrarajas as well as on the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.

 

Q. Do you think it best if I just try to visualize Nityananda Gauranga with out participating in it? Am I jumping ahead of >myself?

 

Chanting has to be accompanied by Meditation on the meanings otherwise it becomes inattentive which leads to all kinds of offenses. First you should fix your concentration on the forms of Supreme Gods of all Gods and creation--­­Shri Shri Nityananda Gauranga while chanting, then gradually realize Their qualities, then Their associates, abode and finally one can realize their pastimes while chanting. The Holy Names are so powerful that even though the sequence is from Name to Form to Qualities and the Pastimes, chanting even in the preliminary stages gives us a glimpse of the nama siddhi or perfection of chanting by giving us a window peek into the pastimes of the Lord. The Holy Names are as independent as the Lord Himself and can reveal many truths to the chanter at any time even in the sadhana stage. But the chanter should never think that one has achieved perfection by this glimpse of the pastimes and slacken one's Nama Smarana (remembrance). That is why a spiritual aspirant who is sincerely chanting the Holy Names requires a spiritual master to guide one through these realizations.

 

Gradually by practicing Mantra Meditation with concentration one will reach the stage of sveccha purvika where one will be alble to recall at will the pastimes of Lords Nityananda-Gauranga while chanting. After one perfects this stage by contant Mantra Meditation, then one will never forget the pastimes of the Lord while chanting, They will spontaneously arise in the mind when one hears the Holy Names or chants Them or even when one is eating, sleeping etc. Such a devotee becomes jivanmukta or an associate of the Lord.

 

Even while chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, one can meditate on Hare as Gadadhara, Krishna as Gauranga, Hare as Jahnava in the second line and Rama as Nityananda. This is recommended for the neophyte devotees because the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra becomes offenseless if one accompanies the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra with meditation on Lords Nityananda-Gauranga in the beginning. Only then one can then gradually and easily penetrate into the pastimes of Their Lordships Shri Shri Radha and Krishna in Shri Vraja Dhama. Meditation on the forms, qualities and pastimes of ­­Shri Shri Nityananda Gauranga while chanting grants us Gauranga-sambandha which according to Shri Navadvipa Dhama Mahatmya is the only way to achieve Shri Shri Radha-Krishna servitorship. By Nityananda Gauranga Mantraraja Dhyana and Japa, one will suddenly and effortlessly find oneself in Vrindavana one day surrounded by the gopies singing Lord Krishna's Holy Names and will drown in the bottomless ocean of nectar.