Lord Chaitanya taught us how to chant the holy names

Mahaprabhu taught us how to chant. “Take this verse, put it on the string of holy names and wear it always.

Trinadapi sunichena taroriba sahishnuna
Amanina manadena keertaniya sada Hari

Recently I heard about my god-sister, she was living Vrindavan and was a super excellent cook.

The first temple I ever lived of ISKCON, which was in Amsterdam on the way after India, she was the head cook. In fact she was the only cook. She was the only woman; the whole temple was brahmacharis and one lady who is the cook; she really cooked; she is fantastic, but later on she was cooking in Vrindavan. And one devotee, another god-brother was really, really upset with her and she was really upset with him. And he was taking away her services; so she was very, very, very disturbed, extremely disturbed. And to be disturbed in Vrindavan is a very difficult thing. So she went to one of Prabhupada’s friend, Bhagatji, who lived close to Krsna Balaram Temple and she revealed her heart, “I am so disturbed; this person is not treating me properly; he is really aggressive against me; he is taking away my services, mistreating me, spreading thing about me, what should I do?” Bhagatji said, “You should go to see Prabhupada and just reveal your mind to him and just tell him everything.” But she said, “I am afraid to do that.” He said “No no. You should do it; he is your spiritual master, you can do it.”

“But I can’t do that.”

He said, “I am his friend, I will go with you and I will introduce you and then you can speak.” So she said, “Alright, if you come with me and you introduce the subject then I will speak.”

So they went to Prabhupada’s room. He was in the back room. The secretary brought this lady and Bhagatji and brought them into Prabhupada’s meeting room, and said, “He will be out, he will be coming in just few minutes, he is in other room.” So the secretary left, the two of them are sitting there. Prabhupada comes out into the room. She turned to Bhagatji to introduce the subject. To her surprise, Bhagatji was gone. She was alone with Srila Prabhupada…… in Vrindavan. And she didn’t know what to do; she did not know what to say. And Prabhupada looked at her and said, “So, why have you come?” And then Prabhupada didn’t even look at her…actually he didn’t look at her…. actually he was looking at the beautiful paintings of Krsna on the walls of his room. She wanted to say something to him, but he was ignoring her. It’s hard to say something when somebody is looking at the pictures on the walls, especially such important as this. And she was sitting and sitting and Prabhupada was looking at the pictures, and then without even looking at her, Prabhupada said, “You are in distress, there is only one solution.”

Trinadapi sunichena taroriba sahishnuna
Amanina manadena keertaniya sada Hari

“That is the only way to overcome all of these obstacles; remember this verse always.” And then Prabhupada left the room. Hare Krishna! And she was completely ecstatic; In fact she was so ecstatic that she tattooed that verse all over her body, so she wouldn’t forget it. Now please ladies… don’t’ do that! You cannot imitate the great souls, but you can follow in the footsteps by trying to never forget that verse.

So this is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s essential instructions of how to always chant the holy names. We repeated often, but it’s difficult; we forget. To be humble like the grass, tolerant like the tree, offer all respect to others and really not expect respect in return. Unless we really, really strive for this state of consciousness, it’s not possible to really access the unlimited mercy of the holy name which reveals Radha and Krsna’s full opulences to the devotee. The holy name alone in the age of kali can transport the soul to the highest realm of Goloka, without even leaving this body. That is the power. In this life we can be transported to Goloka.