Cc Madhya 15.109-169

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I was just thinking this morning, when I was chanting my japa, the first time I heard of the Hare Krishna mantra. As I really relish that memory, just hearing it and thinking, "That is really some mysterious thing they're doing." Then I remember the first time I said "Hari Krishna" was to the devotees. They were walking away from the Harinām on the UC Berkeley campus. I just happened to be down there taking a music lesson, walking with my brother, and we saw them walking away from the Harinām. One of them had a mṛdaṅga slung over his back. And to impress my brother, I shouted out to the devotee. I said, "Hare Krishna!"

The devotee turned around, and he looked at us with such enthusiasm; he said, "Hare Krishna!" And it was almost written in his countenance that, "Okay, boy, you blew it because we own you now." My brother actually looked at me and said, "What did you do?"

Although there's fine print, the fact of the matter is, it's very direct. Kṛṣṇa is in his name 100%, 110%, because, as Rūpa Gosvāmī says:

vācyaḿ vācakam ity udeti bhavato nāma svarūpa-dvayam (Namaṣṭakam verse 6)

dṛśaḿ tattvāndhānām api diśati bhakti-praṇayinīm (Namaṣṭakam verse 3)

That is, he says, "Okay, Kṛṣṇa and his name are the same 100%," but he goes, "No, wait a minute. The Holy Name is 110%." Because he said, "Kṛṣṇa, we may leave Kṛṣṇa, turn our back on him, but the Holy Name comes after us, and the Holy Name is more merciful." He said, "That's the difference." He said, "Same, same, but," as they say in Thailand, "same, same, but different."

So the Holy Name is same, same, but different, because it is same 100%. But then 110% means the Holy Name is more merciful than Kṛṣṇa, because he just enters into your ear. People walking down the street, they are defenseless. When we do Harinām, we watch, and we see even the dogs go by, and they're a little freaked out, usually, because kartālas are intense. But still, the Holy Name is going in, and we think, "Okay, doggy, we'll see you soon, somewhere."

And then, the people—the looks on their faces! It's the greatest show on earth to see how the Holy Name is entering their ears, entering their hearts, and then rearranging everything with the first hearing of the name, wherever somebody is starting from, whatever platform. Then that process: it's effective. It's always effective. And even if you can't see it at first, just like radiation—you say, "I didn't feel anything"—but then the symptoms will come, because Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful.

(excerpt from the discussion)

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