Dear devotees,

This is the first vaisnava meeting festival mela that we are celebrating in St. Gallen, or exactly in Rebstein, one village. We are very happy to meet together with devotees from different countries from Europe and to have Gurudeva Atulanadna with us, and the Chilean delegation as well.

What is the greatest need in this world? What are the top most priorities or emergencies? According to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura: Even if the whole world would burn to ashes, there would not be as much much loss, as if I lose my nama-bhajan. That is a very nice extreme explanation, how important the nama bhajana is.

The meaning of Nama Bhajana

Nama bhajana means the chanting of the holy names; the sankirtana yoga which connects us congregationally to the sweet will of the supreme. Nama bhajana also means preaching, speaking to others about the sweet names of the Lord. And it also means writing about the Lord in form of journals, books, internet pages, so that others may read about this divine message later. And of course nama bhajana extends into the puja, the worship of the deities and into the worship and the service of the vaisnavas.

We organize ratha yatra and Sunday feasts to spread nama bhajana, and the greatest and most beautiful nama bhajans is when our heart is crying for shelter and we are trying to become pure. Life in true Krishna consciousness is nama bhajana. When the fathers instruct their children on the path of devotion, that is also nama bhajana. Whatever helps to carry the divine invitation to the conditioned souls is all part of nama bhajana. If we lose that, it would be a greater loss than if the whole world would be burned to ashes.

So we should not risk this life at any cost. Much less for some personal comfort or prestige. Any type of offensive or frustrated mentality with a touch of anger towards other devotees is just a trick of maya to disturb or to destroy your nama bhajana. Extreme examples are there to make points extremely clear. Obviously we do not want this world to be burned to ashes, but we have heard from the scriptures, that in the end of the creation, through Lord Shiva's power, it will be burned to ashes. What is the big deal? The sun alone with its rays can burn everything to ashes, and that even without getting too close. If you take one glass and you pin point the rays to one point, it starts burning immediately. So the phenomena of fire was not so far, it can be created with any crystal. It is the power of nature which is the power of Krishna extended.

Matter and Consciousness

The world famous quantum physicist, Hans Peter Duerr, recently reported on the latest discovering of the physics. He said that actually there is not such a thing as matter. Matter is a state of dried up consciousness. Consciousness and the principles of consciousness are the underlying principles of matter as well. Everything in quantum physics can be understood as connected with each other. An amazing vision which can be perfectly collaborated with the Vedic teachings. The Vedic aphorism aham brahmasmi and other similar slokas give very clear indication that everything is consciousness in different stages or that everything belongs to the supreme Brahman, which is the original supreme consciousness. How amazing, the physics is confirming the teaching of our acaryas.

The utmost consciousness is Krishna consciousness. We should not bother too much with the science of the atoms with the dried up consciousness. We should be more concerned with consciousness itself. Since we are conscious beings, we are entitled and we are urged by the Vedas to focus on the miracle of consciousness and its potentials. And of all potentials, the highest potential is called love. It is really the only potential which is really auspicious and attractive. Consciousness without love is rather some dangerous thing. It is not charming to think of scientists and their consciousness which is inventing weapons to kill others. More interesting is the consciousness of those who are looking for ways to release others from sufferings. And that is precisely the spirit of nama bhajana.

Nama Bhajana is Sankirtana Bhajana

Nama bhajana is not self centered. Nama bhajana is hari nama bhajana. Or sankirtana bhajana as promulgated by the supreme Lord Himself, the singing and dancing form of God, who walked upon this earth. We all belong today to Sri Gaurangas movement. That should always be clear to us. And within the pure nama bhajana, the secret ontological identity -- the siddha svarupa of every soul as an eternal servant of the sweet madhurya lila of the Lord -- will be revealed in due course of time.

Even though we are establishing temples and think about preaching Lord Gaurangas message and the glories of his pure devotees in order to give a tangible access to conditioned souls to the divine realm, simultaneously -- by the grace of our guru varga -- we are dancing in front of Radha Syamasundara and worshipping Their transcendental forms. Thus we are actively preparing ourselves, knowingly or unknowingly, to become an eternal maid servant of the Lord. But in the meantime our main engagement, according to vaisnavas tradition, is to distribute the prema phala, the fruits from the love tree planted by Sri Gauranga. Anything done in this world to help the distribution of these love fruits, is certainly the most auspicious effort. Nothing could be more desirable than that.

Concern for the suffering

Therefore we cherish any opportunity to address the devotee audience with our speaking nama bhajana, which by the grace of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada we hopefully never loose. But please, do not forget this dear friends: If you do not want to lose it, you have to take it seriously and cultivate it. Like anything in this world you cherish, you want to keep, you have to be very cautious, attentive and lovingly concerned. Especially in relationship to other people. Within the nama bhajana, we are especially concerned with those, who are willing to receive the divine connection or those for whom we make a specific effort, that they may soon accept a divine connection. Like we do in our preaching work. We are not so concerned with those who are inimical to the divinity. We are more concerned with those who are suffering and who cannot tolerate it anymore and who are crying for help.

Srila Prabhupada made this point very clear: Poor are not those people who have little money. Poor are all those who have no nama bhajana, those who have never heard or sang or danced to the holy names of Lord Gauranga and Lord Nityananda. They are truly poor. And you can notice it when they, enamoured by their materialism, simply cultivate material attachments and live a life of intoxication or other mad attempts to substitute love and the supreme with some material effort, item or person. For those who have never heard of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda, their whole human life has not had the chance to experience some fulfilment. Maybe they are lucky enough to become pious through some other type of influence.

You can see that people are basically very nice in their potential. People are sometimes very friendly and seem to be very intelligent and smart. Sometimes they are compassionate and charitable. And then these same people turn around and kill animals or show some prejudice against other people, other races, or do other things which are self destructive or slow forms of suicide, like smoking, drinking and other mundane activities. From that you can see how poor they are.

True and bogus spirituality

Even some people profess, that they belong to a certain religion, and they may exhibit some piety within their religious congregation, but then they turn around and violently and intolerantly act against others who do not share their belief. From that we can understand, that their religiosity was just an extension of their false ego. Such situations are found all over the world. Even amongst the so called brahmins of today. To a larger degree they have destroyed the integrity of the brahminic culture by subscribing to the cast system, which does not recognize qualification and work, but applies a privilege system of rights by birth, something which is entirely bogus according to the Vedic tradition.

We are in kali yuga from any point of view, and without the mercy of Gauranga and Nityananda, I cannot see a way out of it. I really wish there would be many ways out of it. The other day I was in Oman, and I had a lay over there on a journey. So I walked to a nearby mosque that looked beautiful. So when I was trying to get into the mosque, I was stopped by a good English speaking Muslim. He told me: "You cannot go in, but if you become a Muslim, I can bring you inside." So then we had a very nice theological discussion. If I would have faked and taken off my sannyasa dress, and if I would have said: "Now I am a Muslim", then he would have let me in.

If spirituality would be something what you could fake, and if you are not faking it, then you cannot reach the goal. You can easily understand that this is not what we are looking for. There is no spirituality without pronunciation of universal love. It is a fanatical distorted spirituality. If somebody coming from a different background wants to visit our temple and exclaims "Allah akbar" or "Hallelujah", the hearts of the vaisnavas will dance in joy. Because if God is not one for all, how can he offer blessings and shelter to all?

True philosophy

The famous fallen angel story is told in different ways in different traditions. Obviously there is truth to the story, it repeats itself everywhere. And it is in Krishna consciousness, that we understand, that all of us are those fallen angels. And that if we remain sectarian, unfriendly and violent, we will also remain fallen angels. There is a more popular term how to describe them, that is demons. Demons are those who make it their plan and profession to excerpt their own superiority over others and entitling themselves to have the right to give pain, suffering and death to others in the name of their bogus philosophy. It would not be fair to call it theology, what entitles one son of god to torture the other. And actually it is also an offence against philo-sofia, because philo means friendship and love and sofia means wisdom. What a beautiful word, but how misused it is.

So we can understand that there is no fascistic, dictatorial or sectarian philosophy. These trains of thoughts are nothing but the exhibit of the rebellious justifications of those who are envious of God and their fellow brothers and sisters, in their different demoniac conditions. The most amazing thing though is, how easily we are connected and identified and sometimes even involved with such influences and trends such as materialism that is entirely based on the selfish notions of the subscribers to such deviations of the true responsibility of every human being. Just like when you watch and materialistic movie. If you are not careful, you easily get into a consumer consciousness of these wrong concepts manipulated in the movies. As a matter of fact, if you are careful, you would not even watch the movie, because it may take you months to clean your brain from the influence of the 2 hours of stupidity.

No entertainment with the illusion of others

We cannot entertain ourselves with the illusion of others. Not even by taking a so called observer position. Because after all, we are all not that transcendental or unmouldable by materialistic influence. Tell me what you do, and I will tell who you will be. The increased materialism in our current age is simply due to this fact. It spreads like and contagious disease, and some people do it, others watch it and other talk about it. Krishna already explained, by contemplating the objects of enjoyment, attachment comes and then lust, and the rest you know. The same is there about reading about things which are not Krishna consciousness. So then the people fear. If we do not know what is going on in this world, how can we preach to the people in this world?

But you will be surprised, that in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada mentioned all types of stupidity and explained all their reasons and effects. The so called news are no news, but they are simply entertaining people with the misery of others. One devotee was writing texts for soap-operas. That is how she made her living. And the boss of the tv-station she was working for, called her up and told: Put more sex and violence in your films, otherwise you will be fired. It is that gross. These are lower instincts, but people need that for their entertainment. But the nama bhajana can save us from that. And the nama bhajana is also very entertaining.

Charity from the absolute point of view

You can also discuss new discoveries and things happening in the material world, but you should do this carefully in the association of the devotees, so you will be protected from the material influence. There is one more important thing: Those who are not inclined to universal love may do very nice things in the realm of charity, and we have learned from our spiritual teachers, that any effort, which does not give recognition to the supreme Lord of love, is actually undesirable and unwanted from the absolute point of view. It is bad influence.

How many people try to do god things in their own name and for their own fame? Philanthropists, Bill and Melinda Gate foundation, and people may think that they are the greatest of all, because of the amount of money involved in their effort, but which very easily can be in the the mode of ignorance, and cannot be, in no way, compared to the simple and humble effort of a brahmachari in the streets with the message of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda. So nothing can be compared with the grace of the Lord and His devotee. There is no way to compare something like this, because not the billions and trillions of dollars can give the grace what Mahaprabhu can give, and this is the mercy for kali yuga. This is no fanaticism. Because it is a fact, that if you think of the mercy of Gauranga at the end of life, you will not get born into this world again, and if you are thinking of the dollars, even in a good purpose, you will have to be born again in this world.

The biggest loss

So you can understand why the biggest loss in this world, would be the loss of nama bhajana. We are not interested in constructing walls and temples if they are not helpful for our nama bhajana. We are concerned with the service to our divine master. He is divine, because he engages us in divine activity. And only the divine can save us from the mundane. Our own mind is rather mundane. That is why we need the directive and the projects of the divine, to save ourselves from the bad influences and even from our own mind.

The eternal secret

We wish we could bring this message to the attention of the entire world, but that is not up to us. If at least we can bring it to the precious attention of you, listeners and readers of this message, we have already accomplished what we could. And thus pray for the grace of Sri guru and Gauranga. Guru is siksa guru and diksa guru. There are many, but there are not many Gaurangas. Lord Gauranga is the one who has appeared to give the divine gift. He even brought the love for Sri Sri Radha Govinda in Vrindavana; the eternal secret which is entirely manifested within Him.

The deeper understanding of Lord Gauranga's transcendental position comes along with serious nama bhajana. There is no other intellectual shortcut you can get. And nama bhajana is all what you do to help others, to bring them to Sri guru and Gauranga for their shelter. And when you die and thus symbolically the rest of the existence burns to ashes, you will surely understand why the nama bhajana is the most important thing.

Thank you so much for participating in the mission of the holy Name. And be happy forever by sharing these Names with others. Gaurapremanande hariii bol !!!

Always your well-wisher,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami