Verse 2.23.76

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.23.76:

`হরে কৃষ্ণ হরে কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ কৃষ্ণ হরে হরে হরে রাম হরে রাম রাম রাম হরে হরে’” ॥ ৭৬ ॥

`हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे’” ॥ ७६ ॥

`hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare’” || 76 ||

`hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare’” (76)

English translation:

(76) “Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.”

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Although “mantra” is composed of the Lord’s names, since the fourth (dative) case is used in the address, it indicates self-surrender. Every name in the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is a vocative address. There is no use of the fourth (dative) case as in mantra.

The smārtas refer to the mahā-mantra as tāraka-brahma nāma, the holy name that delivers one. All smārtas are more or less impersonalists, so their belief is that one can attain impersonal renunciation after finishing one’s material enjoyment. Persons who are liberated from the clutches of the karmis and jñānīs are devoid of material desires. People controlled by selfish desires become sense enjoyers, whereas people desirous of liberation give up material enjoyment and endeavor to achieve liberation to rectify their situation. But by chanting the mahā-mantra under the shelter of such desires, the urge for insignificant fruits becomes strong.

The vocative address for the name “Hari” is “Hare”, and the vocative address for the name “Harā” is also “Hare.” When the svayaṃ-rūpa name of “Kṛṣṇa,” the omnipotent svayaṃ-prakāśa name of “Rāma,” and “Hari” are chanted by a tongue devoid of material desire, it is no longer possible to engage in service within the fourteen worlds, the Virajā River, or

Brahmaloka. Then the opportunity for engaging in service begins only in the paravyoma, or spiritual sky. If one considers the degree of rasa found in Kṛṣṇa’s svayaṃ-prakāśa-tattva [Baladeva] and in His [Baladeva’s] subsequent prakāśa and vilāsa expansions, one will find that the full manifestation of all rasas is Kṛṣṇa, who is akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti, the transcendental form of attraction for all kinds of devotees. Therefore there is no possibility of the full manifestation of rasa in personalities who are abodes of partial rasa. That is why the plenary portions and the portions of the plenary portions of the Lord more or less engage in the service of the svayaṃ-rūpa. When people realize devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, they attain the service of “Rādhā-ramaṇa” rather than considering themselves “ātmārāma, one who takes pleasure in ātmā, or spirit self.”