Today, as I went out for sankirtana, I was thinking of how I'd once asked Vaisesika Prabhu whether teaching people to say “Gauranga” is the same as teaching them the Hare Krishna mantra. He'd explained that Krishna's names are the same, but when we teach the maha-mantra we get extra credit. So I had an internal dialogue on why I don't teach everyone the entire mantra; why I'm selective about it. Besides the external reasons, I fear that people might think we are a religion or a cult and perhaps not take a book. So somehow I decided that today I was going to teach everyone the maha-mantra.

I was telling everyone I spoke to the entire maha-mantra, and I was conscious that the doubt in my heart was proving wrong. Toward the end, as I was about to leave, I stopped a lady who was eager to get the Bhagavad Gita. She seemed very familiar with it and quickly gave a donation. As she walked away, I thought that there's no point in teaching her the mantra, since she'll read about it, or maybe she already knows it. But I quickly called out to her and ran up to her to tell her that there's a mantra I need to show her.

She opened her bag, and I pulled out the Bhagavad Gita from her bag and asked her to softly repeat the mantra after me. To my surprise, this complete stranger, right after reading the first two words, threw her hands up in the air and started to sway and sing the maha-mantra (she had the words all messed up but she really got the beats). So there we were, on the street both loudly singing the maha-mantra.

Witnessing the glories of nama-prabhu, I learned my lesson. Sankirtana is the best classroom, and holy names, the best teacher.

“O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names, like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names, you have invested all Your transcendental energies. There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to easily approach you by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.”

Your servant,
Mangal-arti

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