Verse 2.1.407

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.1.407:

“(হরে) হরযে নমঃ কৃষ্ণ যাদবায নমঃগোপাল গোবিন্দ রাম শ্রী-মধুসূদন” ॥ ৪০৭ ॥

“(हरे) हरये नमः कृष्ण यादवाय नमःगोपाल गोविन्द राम श्री-मधुसूदन” ॥ ४०७ ॥

“(hare) haraye namaḥ kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥgopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdana” || 407 ||

“(hare) haraye namah krsna yadavaya namahgopala govinda rama sri-madhusudana” (407)

English translation:

(407) “O Lord Hari, O Lord Kṛṣṇa, I offer my obeisances to You, who are known as Hari, Yādava, Gopāla, Govinda, Rāma, Śrī Madhusūdana.”

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In this instance, the fourth case of the names Hari and Yādava is used to

indicate śaraṇāgati or ātma-samarpana (surrender). In other words, a person who is desirous of chanting the holy names of Kṛṣṇa should first receive transcendental knowledge by fully surrendering at the lotus feet of a bona fide spiritual master whose only resolution is to chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa; he should constantly engage in hearing the topics and holy names of Kṛṣṇa from the mouths of the spiritual master and the Vaiṣṇavas; and he should loudly call out and always chant the holy names of Kṛṣṇa without offense.

If one wants to chant with full surrender and without duplicity by using the fourth, or dative, case of the holy names of the Lord, then he is chanting mantra; and if one chants the holy names of the Lord as an address, by using the vocative case [as in the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra], then he is engaged in bhajana, or worship, of the holy names. Chanting the holy names in their fourth case indicates full surrender, whereas chanting the holy names in the form of an address indicates a desire for eternal service. An initiated person is liberated from the bondage of material existence by chanting mantra, and a liberated soul exhibits his eternal bhajana by chanting the holy names as an address. By accepting kṛṣṇa-mantra as sādhana and kṛṣṇa-nāma as sādhana and sādhya, both sādhya and sādhana are accepted as nondifferent from one another and as adjacent categories of devotional service. Both mantra and nāma are nondifferent from Viṣṇu Himself. The practice of chanting mantra is meant to achieve knowledge of one’s relationship with the Lord, and when one achieves perfection in chanting mantras, then the bhajana of such a liberated soul begins. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 7.73) it is stated:

kṛṣṇa-mantra haite habe saṃsāra-mocana kṛṣṇa-nāma haite pābe kṛṣṇera caraṇa

“Simply by chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa [in the form of mantra] one can obtain freedom from material existence. Indeed, simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra [in the form of address] one will be able to see the

lotus feet of the Lord.”