Sacinandana Swami: When I was on pilgrimage in Vrndavana, India – one morning while I chanted my japa, a devotee visited and showed me a verse written in a special notebook. He was very happy as he read it aloud for me:
“O golden gopi! (Srimati Radharani) When it touches His splendid teeth, Krishna’s flute looks like a crystal. When it touches His red lotus palm it looks like a ruby, and when it touches His blue lotus cheek it looks like a sapphire. Look! In this way Krsna’s flute looks like three different jewels.” (Ujvala-nilamani 10.34)
Vishaka originally spoke this verse to Radharani, pointing out the effect of Krishna’s touch.
After my early morning visitor had left, I had time to think about the mysterious touch of the Lord which transforms everyone – not only His flute. Everything touched by the Lord changes to become spiritually vibrant.
How does this happen?
Let us first consider that the Lord is in the background of everything. Like a canvas which holds the colours of a painting, the Lord is the foundation of all existence. He is behind every particle of matter – every atom and sub-atom. The Lord is all spirit, and matter is but a covering of ignorance super-imposed over the Lord. To anyone with completely pure consciousness, matter is no longer perceived as a covering veil but a blissful energy of the Lord.
Srila Prabhupada writes, “Factually there is nothing like matter in spiritual enlightenment, and this spiritual enlightenment takes place at once by the contact of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛishṇa.”
It is described that when Lord Krishna visited the town of Dvaraka, He first sounded His transcendental conch-shell to announce His long-awaited arrival before all the devotees suffering the agony of separation from Him. At that time, the “white and fat-bowled conch-shell” which the Lord held in His lotus hand became reddened by the touch of His red lotus lips. (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.11.2)
A similar phenomenon takes place for everyone who comes in touch with the Lord.
How can we come in touch with the Lord?
By serving Him, thinking as much as possible of Him (we want to think of Him constantly!), by worshipping Him and by paying our respectful obeisances to Him, touching His lotus feet in our minds…
There are 64 traditional ways of coming in contact with the Lord and these are so comprehensive, they encompass all other processes, but of all of them, chanting the Lord’s Holy Names is most effective.
The immediate result for one who chants the Lord’s Holy Names purely is to lose all fears.
Srila Prabhupada writes, “We are always fearful due to our ignorance of the next problem. The whole material existence is full of problems, and thus the fear problem is always prominent. This is due to our association with the illusory energy of the Lord, known as maya or external energy, yet all fear is vanished as soon as there is the sound of the Lord, represented by His Holy Name, as it was sounded by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the following sixteen words:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare
We can take advantage of these sounds and be free from all threatening problems of material existence.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.11.3 purport)
Simply by hearing about Kṛiṣhṇa’s pastimes, chanting His names and His glories, touching His lotus feet in the course of worshipping the Deity and offering all kinds of services, one is purified of material contamination. By coming in touch with the Lord, one’s body and mind will certainly become spiritualized so that in the end, one can assume his or her spiritual body and return back home, back to Godhead.
May we not only be touched by the Lord, but once we have been touched, may we stay in touch, always!