Last Day in Vrindavan

This is our last day in Vrindavana on this trip. The last day in Vrindavan is invariably bitter-sweet. While on the one hand it is the sweetest nectar to be here in Lord Sri Krishna's most holy transcendental abode, to be on the verge of leaving it always adds a pinch of melancholy to the sweetness. This is the site of innumerable pastimes of the Supreme Lord and his pure devotees. Simply by coming here in a mood of pure devotion one gets an immediate connection with all of these amazing pastimes. It was here 500 years ago that the six Goswamis of Vrindavan discovered the lost sites of Krishna's pastimes and compiled a huge quantity of transcendental literatures to guide the conditioned souls of this material world how to go back to home, back to Godhead. The six Goswamis are Rupa Goswami, Santana Goswami, Jiva Goswami, Ragunatha dasa Goswami, Ragunatha Bhatta Goswami, and Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Now on our last day here, we are especially begging these six Goswamis to bless us that we can always carry the loving devotional mood of Vrindavan with us within our hearts wherever we may wander in this material world for the purpose of expanding the glorious Krishna conscious movement to every town, village, home, and heart.

The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Caution When Hearing Hare Krishna

Please accept my humble obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada

Respected Sir, I am really grateful to you because you provide an excellent means wherein a very advanced Srila Prabhupada disciple is so approachable through cyber space for so many neophyte devotees like me. You connect us to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna! Thank you so much!

The question that I am asking arose when I heard Srila Prabhupada's Hare Krishna mahamantra purport audio. Srila Prabhupada said that the mahamantra should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee for immediate effect and that hearing from lips of a non devotees should be avoided just as milk touched by lips of a serpent causes poisonous effects.

When finding a pure devotee is so difficult and rare in the Kali yuga, what should we do? Should we be cautious while listening to audios of the Hare Krishna mantra and taking part in kirtans? I mean a person may be singing kirtan ecstatically, but he may not be a pure devotee. So will listening to the mahamantra from him will leave poisonous effects on me?

Your insignificant servant,

Devesh

Answer: Hear from those on the Pure Bhakti Path

In ISKCON we have all received the Hare Krishna mahamantra from the lips of Krishna's pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada. A Hare Krishna kirtan that is chanted by any of us who are sincerely trying to please Srila Prabhupada by our chanting is beneficial to be heard. Whether we have heard Hare Krishna directly from his lips, as most of his disciples have, or have only heard it from his recordings, as is the case with most of his grand disciples, the potency is the same. So any kirtan which is being sung according to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada is invested with his divine potency and will thus have an uplifting effect on all those who hear it.

The kirtans to be avoided are those that are sung by non-devotees such as the Mayavadis who chant Hare Krishna with a desire to merge into the impersonal Brahman or kirtans sung by those who are chanting for material gain. Even though such kirtans have the holy names present, because such kirtans are tinged by the poisons of impersonalism and sense gratification, they have a poisonous effect, just as milk that has been touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari