OCEAN OF NECTAR

Primordial Sound

Sri Rupa has written, “O Holy Name! The tips of the toes of Your lotus feet are eternally worshiped by the glowing effulgence radiating from the gemmed chapters of the Upanishads, the crest jewels of the Vedas. You are eternally adored and chanted by great liberated souls like Narada and Sukadeva Goswami. O Holy Name, clearing myself of all offenses, I take complete shelter of You.”

Sri Rupa says that so many liberated souls worship the Holy Name of Krishna, offering their respects from all sides. He explains that the greatness of the Holy Name may not be found in the ordinary scriptures, but if you study all of them as a whole, you will find the very spirit of the Holy Name. Ordinary people may not find this in their study, but there are those who can collect the real substance, the real purpose from those vast writings, and detect the greatness of the Holy Name as the whole purpose of all the main Vedic scriptures.

The Vedas are giving hints about the Holy Name of Krishna: they naturally tell us that we can approach the supreme reality only through sound. Otherwise they would be suicidal. If they do not say that by sound only we will attain the truth, then what is the necessity of the Vedas, which are only embodied sounds? So, if we can trace their real characteristic, we shall find that the principal Vedas say that by the cultivation of sound we can attain the Lord. The absolute sound alone can deliver reality.

So Rupa Goswami says that a superficial study of the Vedas will only frustrate us. But if we search with a positive mind, by the grace of the saints, the spiritual masters and the great souls, we will find that the principal sound forms of the revealed truth are leading us towards the conception that the whole object of all the Vedic sounds is that central sound: the Holy Name of Krishna.

There are so many sections of the Vedas that have come to distribute the tidings of the absolute realm, but there must be a centre. So, the principal sounds are all emitting light, like a torch, to show us that they have a central sound which represents the supreme whole, and that sound is ‘Krishna’. So many liberated souls are all around, offering their respects to the Name of Krishna, that central sound from which all Vedic mantras have come to give us some idea of the sound aspect of the absolute centre. This is Sri Rupa’s argument.

The branches of the Vedas are all sounds, and so many sounds must come from a central position. They cannot but direct one who has a proper eye towards that fountainhead of sound, saying, “Go! Run towards that direction! In our source you will find everything. We are all partially representing so many things, but we have a centre, we have a fountainhead, Go in that direction and you will find the sound that can sufficiently satisfy you, and you may also be introduced to other aspects of that sound.”

The Holy Name of Krishna is the most important; it is no less than Krishna Himself. It fully represents the whole. Sri Rupa says, “O Holy Name, I take refuge under Your lotus feet. You are the grand, central sound who has given cohesion to all the sounds in the revealed scriptures.” And Sri Sanatan, who is the spiritual master of Sri Rupa, says, “Let ecstasy in the service of the Divine Name be victorious. If somehow we can come in contact with that sound, then all our other activities will be paralyzed; we will have no necessity of performing any other activity. Our many variegated duties will have no importance to us at all if we can achieve the service of the Divine Name of Krishna.”

The Holy Name will take us to the perception of Krishna’s own abode, where we will have to completely retire from any work, even if it may be done for Krishna. We will have to give up internal meditation and calculation, and even worship in awe and reverence. The Holy Name will stop all these tendencies and we will find so much sweetness in chanting the Name that we won’t be able to give attention to anything else.

When we really come in contact with the sound aspect of the absolute, then all our enthusiastic endeavors and functions will be paralyzed. We will be unable to attempt them: we will take to the Name only. Then, when the Name allows us to perform other services again, we will be able to do them. The Name has such power, such a high degree of potency, that it will stop all other branches of service and charm you.

When the Holy Name of Krishna descends and captures the tongue and the lips, it controls them so strongly that it engages them in chanting the Holy Name as if the lips and tongue have gone mad. In this way, the power of the Name descends in them and one feels that only one tongue and one mouth are not enough; thousands of mouths are necessary to taste the Name.

Then the Holy Name of Krishna enters the ear with such a great force and current that the ears are captured, and one thinks that only two ears are insufficient; he wants millions of ears to attend to the sweet current entering the ears. Two ears are nothing to him; he wants millions of ears. The nectar of the Holy Name is coming like a flood through his ears, pushing its way within the heart.

It is so sweet that it goes to capture the heart, the centre of all senses—everything is paralyzed. Wherever the sweet aggressor touches, the whole thing is captured with such intensity that everything else is ignored.

Sri Rupa writes, “These two syllables, ‘Krish-na’, contain so much sweetness, and such a high quality of sweetness, that I don’t know, I can’t say, I fail to express how much nectar there is in the Holy Name of Krishna.”