View source for There are many rascals, they say you can chant any name. Why? Why the sastra says sravanam kirtanam visnoh, chanting and hearing about Visnu, not for any other god?

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{{terms|"there are many rascals, they say you can chant any name"|"they say that any name you chant and you will be free. But that's not a fact"|"when there is question of chanting the holy name, that means Visnu, not any other's name"}}
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[[Category:There Are Many]]
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[[Category:Kirtana]]
[[Category:Visnu]]
[[Category:Hearing and Chanting]]
[[Category:Not For]]
[[Category:Any Other]]
[[Category:For God]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB176VrndavanaSeptember51976_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="163" link="Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1976" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1976">
<div class="heading">There are many rascals, they say you can chant any name. Why? Why the śāstra says śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, chanting and hearing about Viṣṇu, not for any other god? That is not recommended. But they make. Because they are impersonalists, they have no God, they have made "God means imagination." But God is not imagination.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1976|Lecture on SB 1.7.6 -- Vrndavana, September 5, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So bhakti-yoga means chanting. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.23-24|SB 7.5.23]]). This is the beginning. Hear about Viṣṇu, chant about Viṣṇu. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. No, not any other. Śāstra says Viṣṇu. But there are many rascals, they say you can chant any name. Why? Why the śāstra says śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, chanting and hearing about Viṣṇu, not for any other god? That is not recommended. But they make. Because they are impersonalists, they have no God, they have made "God means imagination." But God is not imagination. God—here is Kṛṣṇa. He's not imagination. He says aham ādir hi devānām (Bg 10.2), "I am the origin of everyone."</p>
:ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
:mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
:iti matvā bhajante māṁ
:budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 10.8 (1972)|BG 10.8]])
<p>So because you do not know what is God, so our life is void. But here Kṛṣṇa is personally coming, yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata ([[Vanisource:BG 4.7 (1972)|BG 4.7]]). What is that glāni? Dharmasya glāniḥ. That you are very dharmika, so-called dharmika, but you have no understanding what is God—that is nonsense. That is not dharma. Dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam ([[Vanisource:SB 6.3.19|SB 6.3.19]]). Dharma means the order of God. That if you do not know God, if you manufacture your God, "God has no head, no mouth, no nose, no nothing, no, no, no, ultimately zero..." Ultimately zero. So there are two kinds of dangerous person. One person is atheist, agnostic. And another person is Māyāvādī, impersonalist. Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādī. Therefore these two things are mentioned: Māyāvādī, "God means has no head, no leg," and śūnyavādī, "There is no God." So the person who says "There is no God," he's gentleman, because he does not believe. But the person who takes the shelter of Vedas and professes that "I am vaidika, I am vedāntī," and refuses the form of God, he's more dangerous.</p>
<p>It is the statement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.</p>
<p>veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika</p>
<p>vedāśraya nāstikya-vāda bauddhake adhika</p>
<p>The nāstika, the Buddhists, they are called nāstika according to our śāstra, because Lord Buddha denied the existence, the authority of the Vedas.</p>
:nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ
:sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam
:keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare
<p>Keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra. Keśava, Kṛṣṇa has come, taking the form of Lord Buddha. We Vaiṣṇava, we worship Lord Buddha as the incarnation of Keśava, Kṛṣṇa, but we don't accept his philosophy. So there is a great history. We have mentioned many times. So these Buddhists, they say that "We do not recognize your Vedas." So veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika. Therefore we call them agnostic. They do not... Because why we do not accept them authority? Because if you do not accept the authority of the Vedas, then you become godless immediately. Because Kṛṣṇa said vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 15.15 (1972)|BG 15.15]]). If you do not understand Vedic knowledge, if you do not understand Vedānta, if you do not understand Upaniṣad—without understanding this Vedic knowledge, understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is vague. It is no clear idea. Therefore Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has said,</p>
:śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-
:pañcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā
:aikāntikī harer bhaktir
:utpātāyaiva kalpate
:(Brs. 1.2.101)
<p>If one is not in awareness of the conclusion of Vedas, conclusion of the smṛti, conclusion of the Purāṇas, and pañcarātra-vidhi. Nārada-pañcarātra, aikāntikī harer bhaktiḥ, without reference to this Vedic literature, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has said utpāta, simply disturbance. Simply a disturbance.</p>
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<div id="LectureonSB62910AllahabadJanuary151971_2" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="710" link="Lecture on SB 6.2.9-10 -- Allahabad, January 15, 1971" link_text="Lecture on SB 6.2.9-10 -- Allahabad, January 15, 1971">
<div class="heading">Because the Māyāvādīs, they think that everyone is God—"Even the demigods, they are God. I am God. You are God"—therefore they say that any name you chant and you will be free. But that's not a fact. Here it is said clearly, vyāharaṇaṁ nāma viṣṇoḥ: "Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu's name," viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 6.2.9-10 -- Allahabad, January 15, 1971|Lecture on SB 6.2.9-10 -- Allahabad, January 15, 1971]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Sarveṣām, "Of all kinds of sinful persons," sarveṣām apy aghavatām idam eva suniṣkṛtam, "this is the only process by which he can become immediately freed from the reaction." Idam eva suniṣkṛtam. What is that? Nāma-vyāharaṇam: "Simply chanting this mantra," vyāharaṇa. Nāma-vyāharaṇaṁ viṣṇoḥ. Not that any other name. The foolish persons, they say that "You chant any name, any name," sometimes demigods' names, sometimes his beloved's name. They think that any name, chanting... Because the Māyāvādīs, they think that everyone is God—"Even the demigods, they are God. I am God. You are God"—therefore they say that any name you chant and you will be free. But that's not a fact. Here it is said clearly, vyāharaṇaṁ nāma viṣṇoḥ: "Only the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu's name," viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma. There are list of one thousand names of Viṣṇu. So Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu, the same, and it is stated in the śāstras that by chanting one thousand holy names of Viṣṇu you can get the result of chanting..., once chanting the name of Rāma. If you, say, only chant Rāma, by this chanting, you immediately get the result of chanting thousand times Viṣṇu's name. And by chanting three times Lord Rāma's name you get the result of chanting once Kṛṣṇa's name. Therefore by chanting Kṛṣṇa's name you get all the good results.</p>
<p>Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore recommends this. He recommends, not that He has manufactured. He recommends the shastric injunction: harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam ([[Vanisource:CC Adi 17.21|CC Adi 17.21]]). So the harer nāma or viṣṇu-nāma or devotional service to Viṣṇu... Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 7.5.23-24|SB 7.5.23]]). You should always remember this, because sometimes rascals mislead that "Any name." In Bengal it is very popular. There is a party, they chant kālī-kīrtana. "Kālī, Kālī, Kālī," imitation. Or there are so many so-called avatāras. There was another rascal, he added his wife's name. Yes. And the rascal, foolish scholars also accepted. Yes. "Haro kusuma, haro kusuma, kusuma kusuma, haro," like that. The rascal's name was Haro, and his wife's name was Kusuma, so he made a mantra, "haro kusuma, haro kusuma, kusuma kusuma, haro haro." (laughter) And the rascal followers also accepted that this is... So this is going on. A Māyāvādī philosophers, they are so dangerous that they mislead their followers to the hell. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has therefore strongly warned, māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa: ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 6.169|CC Madhya 6.169]]) "If you attempt to hear some Māyāvādī philosopher, then your life will be spoiled. Your path to devotional service will be blocked, so don't try to hear a Māyāvādī." This is the recommendation by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So we should always remember, when there is question of chanting the holy name, that means Viṣṇu, not any other's name. Vyāharaṇaṁ viṣṇor yatas tad-viṣayā matiḥ.</p>
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