In the present age, for all people the best path to achieve self-realization is to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The conditioned souls in this Age of Kali are so engrossed in sinful activities that it is impossible for them to follow the Vedic injunctions in a systematic way. The chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra is the special concession of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu—Krishna Himself—who appeared five hundred years ago just to deliver the fallen souls by inaugurating the sankirtana movement, the movement of the congregational chanting of the Lord's holy names. Lord Caitanya would often quote the following verse from the Brihan-naradiya Purana (3.8.126):
[Cc. Adi 17.21]
"In this age the only way to attain salvation is to chant the holy name, chant the holy name, chant the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way, no other way, no other way."
We can see the power of chanting the holy name of Krishna by studying the Krishna consciousness movement. In this movement all kinds of sinful activities are being given up by persons who have been addicted to bad habits ever since they were living in the wombs of their mothers. This is their good fortune. As Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says in the Caitanya-caritamrita (Madhya-lila 19.151),
"The living entity is rotating in different lives and in different bodies, transmigrating from one situation to another throughout the universe, but if he is fortunate and gets the mercy of Krishna, he will get a bona fide spiritual master, from whom he will receive the seed of the creeper of bhakti, devotional service."
If he is truly intelligent, he will sow that seed in his heart and water it. If you sow a seed in the earth, you must water it so that it will fructify. Similarly, once the seed of bhakti has been sown in the heart, it has to be watered properly. What is that water? Sravanam kirtanam: [SB 7.5.23] hearing and chanting the glories of Krishna is the watering process that will make the seed of devotional service grow.
By cultivating devotional service to Krishna, we can get out of our unfortunate position in the material world, which Krishna has certified in the Bhagavad-gita as duhkhalayam, a place full of miseries. In other words, by taking shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna in the shape of chanting and hearing His holy name, we will not have to undergo repeated birth and death in this miserable material world.
Written by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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