![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/LUPo8Ob.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u2013 Bada Hari, what does chanting of holy names mean for you? What inspires you?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2013<\/span> For us chanting means chanting the maha-mantra. In this modern age the method of self-realization, God-realization, which means to awaken love for God, is to chant the holy names. Lord Chaitanya, who is Krishna Himself, has appeared in this age and has recommended the names of God in the particular form of maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare\/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. These are very beautiful names of God. Hare is an address to the energy of the Lord, His feminine portion, known as Srimati Radharani. This energy is very merciful. Then we approach Krishna, the supreme all-attractive personality, the source of all other manifestations of God. Rama \u2013 another name of God \u2013 means He is a source of all strength, all beauty and all pleasure. These sweet names contain all the essential energies of God. Krishna, Radharani and all spiritual world manifest in these names. In our diseased material condition we don\u2019t see that the name and the person are the same. But as we chant more and more Krishna and Radharani reveal themselves to us in our hearts, and we can see that there is no difference between the name and the person of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada used to say: \u201cWhen we chant Krishna, He says \u2018Yes?\u2019 Our answer should be: \u2018I just want to serve you\u2019\u201d. That\u2019s our natural position \u2013 to serve God out of love. In the material world we always want something. As we chant the holy names, we become satisfied serving Krishna, we don\u2019t want anything else. By chanting we awaken our spiritual nature to serve Krishna without any material desires. And as our spiritual nature awakens Krishna reveals Himself to us more and more. We can talk a long time about the holy name. To answer your original question, for me chanting means my time to be with Krishna. See what happens (laughing). It\u2019s like before this interview I didn\u2019t think what I would say, I had no idea. You\u2019re just here and I\u2019m responding to you. Similarly, when we are with Krishna in the form of His holy name, we want just to be present and try to respond to Him. So chanting means to be with Krishna. Or how Prabhupada said: \u201cChanting means returning Krishna to your heart\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2013 It was the most important question, thank you. Bada Hari prabhu, in Vedic culture every person should have a mentor. What\u2019s the role of mentor, from your experience?<\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 In the material world sometimes you can learn things on your own. Maybe you can learn to play music, learn to cook by experimenting. But if you learn from someone who is expert you can do it much faster and learn things you may never learn otherwise. In spiritual life spiritual things are inconceivable to our material senses. There is a nice verse that says: what you cannot touch with your material senses is called inconceivable. It\u2019s like the eyes or ears can\u2019t smell. You can do it only with your nose. There are things that are perceivable only to a certain extent. In a similar way spiritual things, spiritual world, our soul imperceptible to our material senses. So if you want spiritual realizations you need to approach a spiritual master. Even in material world if you want to become a doctor you need to study in a medical college. You can\u2019t just read a book and say \u201cI am a doctor\u201d. No one will let you operate. So if we want to advance in spiritual life we need a spiritual guide, a guru. And guru should be genuine. A spiritual master is one who has heard from his spiritual master a spiritual knowledge in disciplic succession. And this knowledge received in a pure way comes ultimately from Krishna Himself. Krishna is the original teacher. One who comes in a disciplic succession and speaks what Krishna speaks can be a guru. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2013 <\/span>What is it like to be a travelling preacher and a family person at the same time? <\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 <\/b>I really can do this because my children have got older. And my wife is very sympathetic. We talk a lot on the phone. Sometimes she travels with me. She is a wonderful devotee, so she appreciates that I have an opportunity to do this service. Because she is supportive, I\u2019m able to do this. But it\u2019s a little difficult, I want to go home sometimes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2013 This question is related to the previous one. How can we maintain a mood of service in family life? <\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 It is very important. First, we need to understand that we are serving anyway. It is kind of our hallucination to think that we are enjoying. Prabhupada pointed out in the introduction to the \u201cBhagavad-gita\u201d that everyone is serving. We serve others, our body to survive. So if we understand that we are servants anyway, why not to serve Krishna? The illusion that we are enjoyers can come in the family life. And when I want to enjoy and another person wants to enjoy, it usually creates problems and conflicts. Bhaktivinoda Thakura said we should live in our home as a servant, not as the master. We should have Deities or pictures of Krishna to think that this is Krishna\u2019s house, and we are just keeping it for Him. If we put Krishna in the center of our house, our life, then we can keep a service attitude. When we start to feel unhappy and there are some problems, it is a sign to us that we are losing our service attitude. Especially husband and wife have to be on the same page in this understanding. Then they can move towards their goal together. That is something we are trying to learn. If we think about Krishna, offer Him food, try to do whatever we can to serve Him, we will be in a mood of service and happy. But if we become selfish, we are unhappy. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Bhaktivinoda Thakura said we should live in our home as a servant, not as the master. We should have Deities or pictures of Krishna to think that this is Krishna\u2019s house, and we are just keeping it for Him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u2013 Bada Hari prabhu, you travel a lot with Indradyumna Swami, you two are very close. What is the real friendship? What do we need to develop it? <\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 Like a family life, a strong friendship is based on a service. Indradyumna Maharaj is dedicated to serving Srila Prabhupada. He does everything for this, sacrifices certain things. We are committed to deepening our own spiritual understanding, realizations, to becoming more capable of sharing Krishna consciousness with others. So our friendship is based on this service, it develops over time. We became closer in our service. I\u2019m just trying to assist him, and to do this I have to remain strong in my own spiritual life. He has many disciples, he doesn\u2019t need me as another one, although in many ways I feel like that. He needs me as a friend, someone who\u2019s watching his back, cares for him, who\u2019s concerned, who shares his vision and love for spreading Krishna consciousness. And I\u2019m also trying to be a good uncle for his disciples (laughing), because he is a guru, and guru cannot be you buddy. I\u2019m kind of filing this gap a little bit. Because our lives are devoted to serving Srila Prabhupada, we become closer. That\u2019s the basis of a spiritual friendship \u2013 service to Krishna, because we are servants of Krishna. Even when you read about the greatest devotees, gopis, you see they are just helping each other to serve Krishna, talking about Him, so all their relationships are centered on Krishna. In material life we think: \u201cIt\u2019s just you and me, we\u2019ll be very close\u201d. But it\u2019s not just you and me because there is always Krishna there. Without Him it\u2019s just a relationship between two bodies. But when we understand that we are spiritual beings, servants of Krishna, we can actually have relationships on the spiritual platform. This is a general principle I have experienced in my relationship with Guru Maharaj. We can apply the same idea in a family life. It makes the relationships meaningful and lasting.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2013 Please share some meaningful memory about Srila Prabhupada.<\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 I joined the Krishna consciousness movement in 1975, it was already big. I never spoke with Prabhupada, but I\u2019ll share a couple of incidents. The first happened when I had just joined the movement. I was in Los Angeles, and then we drove to San Francisco. There I saw Srila Prabhupada for the first time. I didn\u2019t know much, hadn\u2019t really read books but I could see devotees really loved him. It was in a temple in Berkeley. There is a greeting of the Deities, doors open, all devotees bow down. And at that moment Srila Prabhupada came into the room from the side door. It was as if the room lit up. Many of his disciples had that experience when they saw him first time. He was short but seemed very big and effulgent. I thought: \u201cWow, this person is so powerful. I haven\u2019t seen anything like that. I hope he is good\u201d (laughing). And he was good. We had some exchanges, me looking at him and him looking at me. Later I got to go on a morning walk with him to the Santa Monica beach in California. And at one point I thought: \u201cI want to be next to Srila Prabhupada\u201d. But there were many devotees. Kind of like going on a parikram with Srila Gurudev. You start at the front but then turn out to be at the back of the group (laughing). I thought: \u201cI just want to walk next to Srila Prabhupada\u201d. He walked very fast for a short person so we almost had to run to keep along. He walked fast purposely, it was his exercise. So I ran around the side of all devotees to get closer to Prabhupada. And just at that moment he stopped and turned. I was right there. He looked at me appraisingly, and some devotee said: \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t walk in front of the spiritual master\u201d. I understood something from that experience. I heard Srila Prabhupada explained this later. He gave a nice example: \u201cI\u2019m sitting here, you\u2019re sitting there, and there is a bug sitting on my knee. Does that mean that the bug and I are very close? No. Bug\u2019s business is biting\u201d. We become close not by physical approximating. I could run up and be next to Prabhupada but what could I understand about him? We become close by consciousness. When we become mature in Krishna consciousness we can become close to our spiritual master. Physical closeness doesn\u2019t mean you are close to someone. Of course, if we can be with our spiritual master we should take that advantage. But the real closeness comes by developing the same consciousness, the same mood as the spiritual master. Most of my relationships with Pranhupada have been in separation through studying his books, hearing him speak, trying to dedicate myself to his mission. You can come close to him that way. That\u2019s the real closeness. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2013 Please, give some wishes to the readers of HK Lifestyle blog. <\/b><\/p>\n \u2013 Life goes by quickly. Maybe when you are young, it feels long but actually it goes very fast. We should try to take a deeper look at what\u2019s important in life, try to understand who we really are and what actually makes us happy. If we are seriously introspective and want to truly benefit ourselves and others, we have to try to understand our deep spiritual nature. Fortunately, in this Hare Krishna movement there is genuine spiritual knowledge that can help you in this journey. Try to take advantage of this information and association of spiritual personalities, make your life successful, be everything you can and want to be. Our life is really meant for spiritual growth. Thank you for reading this. I wish you all success on your spiritual path. Hare Krishna. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Source: http:\/\/hkls.ru\/en\/bada-haridas\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Srila Prabhupada\u2019s disciple, one of the best kirtaniyas in the world \u2013 Bada Haridas Prabhu shared with the HARE KRISHNA Lifestyle some of his most intimate life moments. He opened up about chanting mantras, his family life, and his spiritual master. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48622,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48619\/revisions\/48622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/hkls.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/1F9A9495-843x1024.jpg\")
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<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nphotos \u2013 Ananta Vrindavan<\/span><\/h6>\n
translation of interviews \u2013 Shyama Dulali<\/span><\/h6>\n
translation and correction of the English text -Svetlana Hrupkova<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By Hare Krishna Lifestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n