Harinama: an excerpt from a lecture by His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami

This world is called dukhalayam asasvatam. This material world is full of misery. What is the misery of this world? The misery of this world is that everything is coming through our senses, and the senses are made up of matter. Just like if you have an air conditioner and your filter is not clean, then all the air that comes through is contaminated. 

So our senses are contaminated. And all the things that we perceive are coming through dirty filters. The process of cleansing these filters is called kriya. Kriya means a type of purification. So what is that kriya, the method of purifying all the senses? 

It is described, in this age, that the easiest way is through harinama. Three times we hear this. harer nama, harer nama, harer namaivakevalam, kalau nasty, eva nasty, eva nasty, eva gatir anyatha. Why three times? For emphasis. Three times it is said, "harer nama". But unfortunately, we don't have time for harinama. 

We have so much time for other activities. This is not something for once a week. You go to church or temple once a week and think, "I've done my duty to God." If we want to follow Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says very clearly, "You have to fully surrender...with fixed determination, constantly chant My glories." 

It is very practical. If I tell you to do hatha yoga now, we're all going to end up with bruised bones. We're either too old or we weigh too much. Half of us are disqualified from hatha yoga. Then what will we do? 

Try jnana yoga? Jnana yoga has very strict requirements. To do jnana yoga properly you have to be a sannyasi. 

Karma yoga? OK, we can do karma yoga. But what is karma yoga? What is the real meaning of karma yoga? Whatever the results of your work are, you have to offer it to Krishna. That is also going to be difficult. In this day and age, with the amount of taxes and the cost of living, to offer all the results of our work to Krishna, we're not going to be able to live well: very difficult. 

Therefore, nasty eva, nasty eva, nasty eva. Not by jnana, not by karma, not by yoga. So what does it mean? By harinama: harer nama harer nama. Because it is practical.

While you're driving, cooking, or while your kids are getting their bath, you can do your chanting. Of course, there are different qualities of chanting, including chanting when you solely concentrate on chanting alone. But my point is this: the holy name of Krishna is so powerful - it is nama avatara, it is the yuga dharma. 

Harinama is so easy, but usually we think, "Something very easy is not very valuable". 

This is the problem. We think it is too easy to be true. But there is a reason why it is so easy. Because we are not very qualified. Do you think you can do hatha yoga 10-15 minutes or 1 hour a day and be successful? No. The great yogis, during the satya yuga, used to do hatha yoga for 60,000 years. Valmiki Muni did hatha yoga for 60,000 years. Not 20-30 minutes once or twice a week. 

Jnana yoga: how many people can study Sanskrit so scrutinisingly? How many of you can study and be a jnani? What is it that you're after with the knowledge? Krishna says, "After many, many births, a jnani comes to understand vasudevah sarvam iti, sa mahatma su-durlabhah". When a jnani finally becomes a mahatma at the end of his jnana, he understands Vasudeva: Krishna. So, from the beginning, if you chant Hare Krishna, that is the conclusion of jnana. 

But again, when I say it is easy, you think, "It is too easy to be true". 

In karma yoga, our work is offered as yajna. Yajna is described in Bhagavad-gita 3.9. The third chapter is all about karma yoga. What does it say there? yajnarthat karmano 'nyatra, loko 'yam karma-bandhanah. Krishna says, "If you do work without offering me the results, it will bind you. But if you offer the results to Me, it will give you mukti, liberation." But how can you offer the results of your work if you don't love Krishna? How do you get to love Krishna?

The easiest way in Kali yuga is the holy name. When you love someone, don't you remember their name? Don't you remember them? When you love someone, you think, "What did they do with me? A year ago, we were doing like this, like that." And you start to think of all the people that person knows. This is what it means - krishna smaranam - it means to remember Krishna's lila, Krishna's friends, Krishna's words. This is nama, nama smaranam. Sravanam, kirtanam, Krishna smaranam. When you chant about Krishna, when you hear about Krishna, you will naturally remember Krishna. This is the purpose of this society - Krishna consciousness - it is bringing to this world the conclusion of Krishna's Bhagavad-gita. 

Krishna is the original teacher of the Bhagavad-gita. Not only the Gita, but all the Vedas: vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, vedanta-krdveda-vid eva caham. Krishna says, "I am the source of all the Vedic knowledge, and I am its goal". Yet so many people think, "Krishna is just one of many Hindu Gods". 

My guru told me Krishna is paramesvara, the supreme God: not just for Indians, but for the whole world. Not just for the whole world: for the whole universe. Not even for the whole universe, but for the whole creation. Krishnas tu bhagavan svayam, Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. Krishna alone is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and everyone else is His servant. And I have experienced that. 

But people say that "You're all simple people, you have not studied carefully." I don't think that Srila Prabhupada is just a simple person. And I don't think Lord Brahma is a simple person when he says govindamadi purusam tam aham bhajami: "I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord". And I don't think Sankaracharya is a simple person when he says, "Bhaja govindam bhaja govindam bhaja govindam muda mate, You intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda." When everyone, including Vedavyasa, Sukadeva Goswami, and all other acaryas say "Krishnas tu bhagavan svayam, it's because Krishna alone is the Supreme Lord. And everyone is subservient to Him. And that is the statement of all the Vedic scriptures.

Who is Tamal Krishna Goswami?

His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami (1946 - 2002) was a Governing Body Commissioner (GBC) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) and an initiating spiritual master.

Born Thomas G. Herzig in Harlem, New York. In 1968, he was accepted as a disciple by ISKCON's Founder-Acarya - His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Receiving the name Tamal Krishna Dasa, he quickly emerged as a leader in ISKCON, establishing temples around the world. 

Tamal Krishna Dasa became one of Srila Prabhupada's most trusted disciples. In 1972, he received sannyasa initiation and the title 'Goswami'. Tamal Krishna Goswami often served as Srila Prabhupada's personal secretary. 

Goswami's lectures, available in audio and video, bring the wealth and vast knowledge of Vedic culture and history into a practical present-day perspective. 

Tamal Krishna Goswami is the author of several books on various religious subjects, including two classical dramas. His publications include: A Hare Krishna At Southern Methodist University: Collected Essays 1995–1997 (Dallas, TX: Pundits Press. 1998); Reason and Belief: Problem solving in the Philosophy of Religion (Pundits Press, 1997); Yoga for the 21st Century (1991); Prabhupada Antya-lila: The final Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Vaishnava Studies, 1988); Jagannatha Priya Natakam: The Drama of Lord Jagannatha (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Bhaktivedanta Institute of Religion and Culture, 1985); and Servant of the Servant (Hong Kong: BBT, 1984). 

Goswami's essay on Dying the Good Death: The Transfigurative Power of Bhakti was published in The Intimate Other: Love Divine in Indic Religions (Schweig, G. M. 2005)

Tamal Krishna Goswami was also a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, under Dr. Julius J. Lipner. His thesis was on the theology of ISKCON’s founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. At the time of his death, he had completed all but the conclusion. This dissertation was published as: A Living Theology of Krishna Bhakti: Essential Teachings of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Graham M Schweig, ed., Oxford University Press, 2012). He completed undergraduate studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies.

Tamal Krishna Goswami passed away in a car accident in March 2002, at Phuliya in West Bengal. He had been attending the Gaura Purnima festival/GBC meetings after not attending for a few years. His samadhi is located beside Srila Prabhupada’s in ISKCON Sri Mayapur Dhama.

Though no longer physically present among us, he lives forever in his instructions, books, and in the hearts of those whose lives he touched.