The Holy Name is the Best Process for Perfection

Śrīla Gurudeva explained again and again, “Chanting the Holy Name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the process for attaining perfection of bhajana”. The age of Kālī is considered the most wretched age, but this present Kālī-yuga is extremely fortunate and rare because of the appearance of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who personally comes to deliver the pure process of devotion. He comes in Kālī-yuga, but only once in a thousand cycles of Kālī-yuga or after billions of years. Śrī Caitanya-devā opens the heart of the sincere chanter of Hare Kṛṣṇa, to an intimate loving relationship with the most beautiful relisher of all relationships, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Without His mercy and the mercy of the entire Pañca-tattva, Śrī Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya, Prabhu Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Śrī Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa and the Gaura-bhaktas, one cannot get the mercy of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Gurudeva continuously explained to us that the Holy Name, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāmā Hare Hare, is the embodiment of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

The loving intimacy with God that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is bestowing is not available or attainable by any other method or in any other religion or at any other time. This invaluable gift that Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to give is brought to us by the mercy of Śrī Guru. The pure Nāma given by Śrī Guru and his pure representatives contains and bestows all spiritual benedictions that can be achieved by following any other process in any of the four yugas.

Any type of sādhana or devotional practice, be it rāgānuga (spontaneous) or vaidhī (regulative) are rendered useless without the presence of Śrī Nāma-saṅkīrtana.

This is confirmed by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī in his Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta 2.3.158:

कृष्णस्य नाना-विध-कीर्तनेषु
तन्-नाम-सङ्कीर्तनम् एव मुख्यम्
तत्-प्रेम-सम्पज्-जनने स्वयं द्राक्
शक्तं ततह् श्रेष्ठतमं मातां तत्

kṛṣṇasya nānā-vidha-kīrtaneṣu
tan-nāma-saṅkīrtanam eva mukhyam
tat-prema-sampaj-janane svayaṃ drāk
śaktaṃ tatah śreṣṭhatamaṃ mātāṃ tat

Of the many ways to glorify Lord Kṛṣṇa, chanting His holy name is the first. Because it has the power to give the great wealth of pure love for Him, it is considered the best.

Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has also written in his Bhakti Sandarbha 275:

नाम-सन्कीर्तन अपरित्यागेन स्मरणम् कुर्यात्

nāma-sankīrtana aparityāgena smaraṇam kuryāt

Without the performance of kīrtana one cannot do smaraṇam, meditation or remembrance.

Although there are fundamental differences in the path of rāgānuga and vaidhī bhakti, in the beginning both stages appear to be the same. Thus the development from faith or śraddhā to prema (love) is almost the same for the vaidhī sādhaka as it is for the rāgānuga sādhaka.

In the path of vaidhī, the sādhaka or practitioner is following the injunctions of scripture in a regulated way and tries to perform devotional service or bhajana. His propensity toward bhakti (devotion) is based only on hearing the injunctions of śāstra.

The devotee in rāgānuga bhakti also meticulously follows the prescribed rules and regulations but internally cherishes an intense transcendental greed to hear the sweet pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and thus he is attracted to serve and have a rasa or a relationship with Śrī Kṛṣṇa such as in mādhurya-rasa.

Such a rāgānuga sādhaka or devotee, while still in his sādhaka-deha (manifest body in the material world), will perform the nine limbs of bhakti or devotional service in his external body, and at the same time meditate internally on his eternal form. This form or svarūpa is not given prematurely and as mentioned previously it is revealed or gradually given by Śrī Guru when one comes to an advanced stage of uninterrupted favorable devotional service. This svarūpa is the devotee’s real constitutional eternal spiritual form. By hearing this, one should develop strong faith in the process of devotional service, beginning with initiation by a bona fide guru.