Attachment to the Holy Names: By Subhag Swami
Madhu means sweet. It means honey. Krishna is also called Madhu. In this material world there is one type of honey and in the spiritual world there is also a type of honey. The sweet honey in the spiritual realm is the real honey which we should hanker for. In this material world there is Kandarpa (Cupid) but in the eternal world, Madan (Cupid) is Krishna and everyone is attracted by Him.
The holy name and Krishna are non different. Even great personalities such as Brahma chant the holy name in ecstasy with his four mouths. Narada Muni joyfully plays his vina melodiously accompanying the chanting of Krishna’s name. Mahadev too, blissfully calls out the Lord’s names with his five mouths.
In this regard Rupa Goswami desires to have millions of tongues to taste Krishna’s nectarine names. He hankers for millions of ears to relish a tinge of the sweet holy name. Still with this I won’t be satisfied. Can we even estimate what we are missing out? Within the name is everything. Due to the diseased condition of our tongue we cannot delight in this sublime mantra. Still however we are tasting and delighting in prasad but there is a long way to go.
Krishna instructs the kings imprisoned by Jarasandha to become completely indifferent to the body and to constantly serve in Krishna Consciousness. In that way it will be very easy to meet with Krishna. In this life we will become joyful; Krishna is the embodiment of all joy and bliss. So we can ask ourselves, ‘Are we forgetting our bodily needs? Are we becoming joyful?’ Most evident amongst the bodily demands are eating and sleeping. In this way we can see how much we are progressing. Krishna wants to see how much we love Him and how much we are attached to Him. And Krishna’s name is more merciful than Krishna Himself. So we have to develop a taste for His name. Mahaprabhu therefore proclaimed; ‘namnamakari bahuda nija sarva sakti’. How unfortunate that I don’t have an iota of attachment for the holy names.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that we can assess how we are advancing by measuring the extent of compassion we have for other living entities, our attitude to engage in vaisnava seva and how attached we are to the holy names.
