Title: Pronoun Address to a Sannyasi

User: Swami Gaurangapada Date: 2007-03-13 15:20:22

 

 

Some years ago, before I visited a sannyasi from the a non-Vaishnava Mission, I was told it was unproper to address a renunciate with pronoun. Instread of saying @Do you want something?@ we should say @Does Swamiji/Maharaja wants something?@. Was this information correct? Can a renunciate eat the food prepared by householders? Stay overnight in their house?

 

 

Answer by Swami Gaurangapada:

 

This way of address surely is more respectful but not expressLY or compulsorily recommeded in the scriptures.

 

Ideally a renunciant should eat in the house of a householder devotee who is chanting 100,000 Holy Names of the Lord daily. This is explained in my book Mahamantra Yoga:

 

SRILA SACCIDANANDA BHAKTIVINODA THAKURA:

 

Sadhu-vrtti, Sajjana Tosani 11/12:

 

tinei sad-grhastha -- jini pratyah laksa-nama grahana karena, tanhara grhei suddha-vaisnavagana prasada grahana karibena

 

"Only those devotees are sad-grhasthas (or the topmost ideal householders) who chant 1,00,000 names of the Holy Names daily. And the pure devotees should accept prasada (offered food) only in the homes of these sad-grhasthas."

 

sri caitanya-bhagavate

 

(1) prabhu bale,-"jana, 'laksesvara' bali kare?

prati-dina laksa-nama ye grahana kare"

 

In the Caitanya-bhagavata Madhya Khanda 9.121-122, Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu instructed us on whose worship and service He will directly accept:

 

"Do you know who is a laksheshvara? He is someone who chants one laksha, or one hundred thousand holy names everyday."

 

 

 

PURPORT:

 

 

 

sri gaurasundera balibena - "jini pratidina laksanama grahana karibena, tanharai grhe bhagavan sevita hana."

 

Sri Gaurangasundara spoke as follows - "The Supreme Personality of Godhead accepts service only in the home of those who chant one hundred thousand names daily.

 

bhagavan tanharai nikate bhoga-dravyadi grahana karena.

 

"The Lord accepts bhoga (foodstuffs) and other ingredients only from such personalities.

 

 

 

jini laksanama grahana karena na, tahara nikate haite bhagavan naivedya svikara-dvara seva-saubhagya pradana karena na.

 

"Those who don't chant one hundred thousand names daily, are never awarded the great fortune of rendering service to the Lord by offering Him naivedya (bhoga). This is because never accepts (svikara) their offerings."

 

 

 

bhagavad-bhakta matrei pratyaha laksa-nama grahana karibena natuva vividha visaye asakta haiya bhagavad-seva karite asamartha haibena.

 

The Lord continued - "Those who consider themselves devotees of the Lord must compulsorily chant 1,00,000 names everyday otherwise they will gradually but surely become attached to varieties of sense-objects and thus become incapable to rendering any kind of service to the Lord."

 

 

 

tajjanyai sri caitanyadevera asrita sakalai nyunkalpe laksanama grahana kariya thakena. natuva gaurasunderera udesya pradatta naivedya tini grahana karibena na.

 

(Srila Sarasvati Thakura continues) Therefore all the devotees who have taken shelter of Lord Gaurangadeva perform the chanting of 1,00,000 Holy Names daily as their first and primary duty. Because they know that if they don't do so then Lord Gaurangasundera will never accept the bhoga (naivedya) which they will cook for Him daily.

 

(2) "se janera nama ami bali 'laksesvara'

tatha bhiksa amara, na yai anya ghara"

"I call such a person a laksesvara. I only accept meals in that person's house. I NEVER go anywhere else."

 

PURPORT BY SRILA SARASVATI THAKURA:

 

 

 

sri caitanya bhaktagana abhaktera sahita sambhasana karena na. jini bhaktivyatita karma, jnana o anyabhilasara kathaya pradatta tahara sahita bandhutva karibe na.

 

 

The devotees of Lord Sri Gauranga never talk with such non-devotees. They never do friendship with those who are engaged in the cultivation of karma,jnana or other desires which are devoid of bhakti.

 

 

 

 

pratyah laksa-nama grahana na karile patita vyaktiganera visaya-bhoga pravrtti vrddhi paya; takhana ara tahara sri gaurasunderarera seva karite pare na.

 

Those who don't accept this vow of chanting 1,00,000 names daily, they fallen down even more although they were fallen in the first place (due to contamination of Kali-yuga). Thus their propensity for enjoying the senses and sense-objects increases and ultimately they are not able to render any kind of service to Lord Gaurangasundara.

 

 

 

 

 

laksesvara vyatita gaura-bhaktira adarsa gaudiyajana kehai svikara karenana.

 

That is the precise reason why the real Gaudiya-bhaktas do not accept any other ideal (adarsha) in Gauranga-bhakti except the process of chanting 1,00,000 names daily.

 

 

 

adhapatita va adhapete gana eka-matra bhajana-sabda-vacya sri-nama-bhajane vimukhata-vasata laksa-nama grahana karibara parivarte anyabhajanera chalana korena, taddvara tahadera kona mangala haya na.

 

Those spiritual aspirants who are already fallen or will fall in the future are averse to this sole means of deliverance called nama-bhajana which is also the topmost worship of the sound incarnation of God in the form of chanting 1,00,000 names daily. Coming under the sway of their averseness to chant laksa-nama (100,000 Names) daily, they duplicitously invent other means of devotional service to justify their not chanting laksa-nama but it is to be understood that by this action they will not achieve anything auspicious in their life.

 

 

 

SRILA BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASVATI THAKURA PRABHUPADA IN UPADESHAVALI:

 

22. Bhagavan will not accept anything which is offered by a person who doesn't chant the Holy Names one-hundred thousand times daily and such a person is considered a 'patita'.

 

23. By sincerely endeavoring to chant the Holy Name without offences and remaining fixed in chanting constantly, one's offences will fade and pure Nama will arise on the tongue.

 

Srila Bhakti Promod Puri Goswami Maharaja about his guru Om Visnupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada:

 

"Unfailingly as a daily vow, he used to chant one lakh Names of the Lord and his instruction to all his disciples was to do likewise. Keeping this vow intact, he would allot his times incredibly to cover all his preaching schedules and literary work, being a source of inspiration to all who came in contact with him."

 

Those who have chanted laksa-nama (100,000 Holy Names) for fifteen or twenty years should know such things (rasa-sastra). The beginners need not hear these topics or they will misunderstand.?(Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, From an article in The Gaudiya, 1934)

 

Yours in service, Swami Gaurangapada.