13 The holy name destroys the demoniac mentality of the people in general

The Holy Name Destroys The Demoniac Mentality Of The People In General

As Krsna appeared in order to kill the demons, the demoniac mentality of the people in general is killed in this age by the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra:

Whenever there is a burden created by the demons and whenever the innocent devotees are distressed by demoniac rulers, the Lord appears in due course of time to kill the demons with the assistance of His real representatives, who are technically called demigods. In the Upanisads it is stated that the demigods are different parts of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As it is the duty of the parts of the body to serve the whole, it is the duty of Krsna’s devotees to serve Krsna as He wants. Krsna’s business is to kill the demons, and therefore this should be a devotee’s business also. Because the people of Kali yuga are fallen, however, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, out of kindness for them, did not bring any weapon to kill them. Rather, by spreading Krsna consciousness, love of Krsna, He wanted to kill their nefarious, demoniac activities. This is the purpose of the Krsna consciousness movement. Unless the demoniac activities on the surface of the world are diminished or vanquished, no one can be happy. The program for the conditioned soul is fully described in Bhagavad−gita, and one simply has to follow these instructions to become happy. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has therefore prescribed:

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha
[Adi 17.21]

Let people chant the Hare Krsna mantra constantly. Then their demoniac tendencies will be killed, and they will become first−class devotees, happy in this life and in the next.

– Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.64


The Krsna consciousness movement is killing the demoniac mentality of the people by the chanting of the holy name:

Whenever God incarnates He has two missions, as stated in the Bhagavad−gita. There Krsna says, “Whenever I appear, My mission is to deliver the pious devotees and to annihilate the demons.” When Krsna appeared, He had to kill many demons. If we see a picture of Visnu we will notice that He has a conchshell, lotus flower, club, and disc. These last two items are meant for killing demons. Within this world there are two classes of men−the demons and the devotees. The devotees are called demigods; they are almost like God because they have godly qualities. Those who are devotees are called godly persons, and those who are nondevotees, atheists, are called demons. So Krsna, or God, comes with two missions: to give protection to the devotees and to destroy the demons. In this age Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission is also like that: to deliver the devotees and annihilate the nondevotees, the demons. But in this age He has a different weapon. That weapon is not a club or disc or lethal weapon− His weapon is the sankirtana movement. He killed the demoniac mentality of the people by introducing the sankirtana movement. That is the specific significance of Lord Caitanya. In this age people are already killing themselves. They have discovered atomic weapons with which to kill themselves, so there is no need for God to kill them. But He appeared to kill their demoniac mentality. That is possible by this Krsna consciousness movement.

– The Science of Self Realization


In Kali yuga, rather than looking toward the light of mental speculation and atheists, people should take advantage of Lord Caitanya’s movement of chanting Hare Krsna:

During the rainy season, in the evening, there are many glowworms visible about the tops of trees, hither and thither, and they glitter just like lights. But the luminaries of the sky, the stars and the moons, are not visible. Similarly, in the age of Kali, persons who are atheists or miscreants become very prominently visible, whereas persons who are actually following the Vedic principles for spiritual emancipation are practically obscured. This age, Kali yuga, is compared to the cloudy season of the living entities. In this age, real knowledge is covered by the influence of material advancement of civilization. The cheap mental speculators, atheists and manufacturers of so−called religious principles becomes prominent like the glowworms, whereas persons strictly following the Vedic principles or scriptural injunctions become covered by the clouds of this age. People should learn to take advantage of the actual luminaries of the sky, the sun, moon, and stars, instead of the glowworm’s light. Actually, the glowworm cannot give any light in the darkness of night. As clouds sometimes clear, even in the rainy season, and sometimes the moon, stars and sun become visible, so even in this Kali yuga there are sometimes advantages. The Vedic movement of Lord Caitanya’s−the distribution of chanting the Hare Krsna mantra−is heard in this way. People seriously anxious to find real life should take advantage of this movement instead of looking toward the light of mental speculators and atheists.

– Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead


In this age, worship of the salagrama−sila is not as important as chanting the holy name:

It has been a custom since time immemorial that a person born in a brahmana family must worship the salagrama−sila in all circumstances. In our Krsna consciousness society, some of the members are very anxious to introduce the salagrama−sila, but we have purposely refrained from introducing it because most of the members of the Krsna consciousness movement do not originally come from families of the brahmana caste. After some time, when we find that they are actually situated strictly in the line of brahminical behavior, this salagrama−sila will be introduced. In this age, the worship of the salagrama−sila is not as important as the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. That is the injunction of the sastra.

harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha
[Adi 17.21]

Srila Jiva Gosvami’s opinion is that by chanting the holy name offenselessly one becomes completely perfect. Nevertheless, just to purify the situation of the mind, worship of the Deity in the temple is also necessary. Therefore when one is advanced in spiritual consciousness or is perfectly situated on a spiritual platform he may take to the worship of the salagrama−sila.

– Sri Caitanya caritamrta Adi lila 13.86


Author: ISKCON Desire Tree

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