The “Deity mantras”

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued)

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 29

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In 1976 Śrutadeva Dāsa, when Temple President in London, wrote to Śrīla Prabhupāda asking if it was acceptable to chant in kīrtana “Jaya Rādhā London-īśvara. . . Prabhupādera prāṇa-dhana he” (adapted from the song Rādhā Kṛṣṇa Gīti).¹ Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Yes you have my permission to sing as you have requested.”² New Vrindaban, I’ve somewhere heard, received similar approval.

But what Śrīla Prabhupāda permitted has now become de rigueur. You’ve got to do it, or devotees look at you like you hate the Deities. Such “Deity mantras” now seem to have become obligatory at the end of every kīrtana. And in fact they can pop up anywhere: in the middle of maṅgala-ārātrika, after Gurv-aṣṭakam, after Nṛsiṁha ārātrika or tulasī pūjā or “jaya rādhā-mādhava” in the Bhāgavatam class. Anywhere.

This practice – not begun or followed by Śrīla Prabhupāda – has become so entrenched that in response to my kīrtana seminar one of my godbrothers railed in a Bhāgavatam class:

Because we’re personalists and we’re not impersonalists, we chant the names of the Deities: Nitāi Gaurāṅga Jaya Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Jaya Jagannātha Jaya Jagannātha Jaya Baladeva Jaya Subhadrā, Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa. Are you a personalist? You don’t chant the name of the Deity? . . . We always chant the names of the Deities. We’re personal. What, do you stand in front of the Deities and ignore Them? Does that make any sense? [imitating:] “I’m chanting for the Deities, but I don’t chant Their names. That’s not necessary.”³

What this godbrother’s argument seems to have missed, of course, is that, as far as we know, Śrīla Prabhupāda himself never chanted the names of the Deities. Nor did he teach us to chant such “Deity mantras.” Does it mean that Śrīla Prabhupāda was an impersonalist? That he was ignoring the Deities?

Before the Deities, Śrīla Prabhupāda chanted, always:

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hareb

That was personal enough for him. You can decide whether or not it’s personal enough for you.

Sometimes if a visiting kīrtana leader doesn’t know the names of the Deities, we see him lean over to ask someone, because we must chant the names of the Deities.

Where can this all lead? Here are some “Deity mantras” I’ve heard in different parts of the world.

In one of our temples in the Middle East we have Deities named “Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.” So – you’ve got to sing a “Deity mantra” – there I’ve heard:

Jaya Rādhā Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Rādhe!”

In Los Angeles, I saw a very respectable visiting sannyāsī lean over to ask the names of the Deities and then chant:

Rādhā Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa, Rādhā Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa, Rādhe!⁴

Then there’s this from South Africa:

Jaya Rādhā-Jagannātha, Rādhā-Jagannātha, Rādhe!

It seems devotees think they’re supposed to chant the names of all the Deities on their altar. And so, again from the Middle East:

Jaya Rādhā Lāḍḍu-Gopāla, Rādhā-Lāḍḍu-Gopāla, Rādhe!

But sometimes chanting the names of the Deities before whom we stand isn’t enough. And so (perhaps in the interest of good inter-temple relations) we chant the names of the Deities of other temples nearby. And then (wherever I may be, “I lost my heart in Vrindāvan!”) we hear devotees adding “Jaya Rādhā-Śyāmasundara, Rādhā-Śyāmasundara, Rādhe!” And (for those who lost their hearts in Māyāpur) “Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava, Rādhā-Mādhava, Rādhe!” And whichever other Deities might be on our favorites list.

And of course after we chant “Jaya Rādhā Something Something Rādhe!” we can burst into an ecstatic chorus of “Jaya Rādhe! Jaya Rādhe! Jaya Rādhe! Jaya Rādhe!” regardless of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions to the contrary.⁵

Here and there I’ve heard:

Jaya śālagrāma, Jaya śālagrāma!

Śrīla Prabhupāda approved of chanting “Jaya Jagannātha!” But in recent years creativity has again appeared. And so there’s a fancy new trick. First you chant

Jaya Jagannātha, Jaya Baladeva, Jaya Subhadrā, Jaya Jagannātha!

Then you start moving the names around to create new variations:

Jaya Baladeva, Jaya Jagannātha, Jaya Subhadrā, Jaya Jagannātha!

Jaya Subhadrā, Jaya Jagannātha, Jaya Baladeva, Jaya Jagannātha!

Śrīla Prabhupāda, of course, didn’t do this. But once these things get started, they’re hard to stop.

Reliably attested from Brazil:

Jaya Sudarśana! Jaya Sudarśana!⁶

In Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, once the large Pañca-tattva Deities were installed, of course we needed a new “Deity mantra.” And so:

Jaya Pañca-tattva! Jaya Pañca-tattva!
Jaya Pañca-tattva! Jaya Pañca-tattva!

Because “we’re personalists,” we have to chant the names of the Deities. But in this case we’re not going to chant Their names. Instead of what Śrīla Prabhupāda said to chant– “these five names”–we’ll chant “Jaya Pañca-tattva.”

Again, of course, this didn’t come from Śrīla Prabhupāda. But now, “This is what we do.” We make up new mantras, the only requirements being that the mantras have to consist of names of Deities, they should have “Jaya”s, and ideally they should fit a standard rhythmic pattern:

Jaya Something Something! Jaya Something Something!
Jaya Something Something! Jaya Something Something!

And so, we think, the “new Pañca-tattva mantra” works.

But Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote:

Strictly speaking, when chanting the names of the Pañca-tattva, one should fully offer his obeisances: śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. By such chanting one is blessed with the competency to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra without offense. When chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one should also chant it fully: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.⁷

Again:

[T]he method prescribed by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s pure devotees is to first chant the full Pañca-tattva mantra and then chant the mahā-mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.⁸ [emphasis supplied]

An unfortunate effect of the “Deity mantras” we have added to kīrtana is to further cut down our chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa. A typical maṅgala-ārātrika kīrtana lasts only about twenty-five minutes. We start with the Gurv-aṣṭakam prayers and Śrīla Prabhupāda’s praṇāma mantras. And after we add our “Deity mantras” and so on, the time left for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa gets pretty thin. My guess is that if we replaced all the Deity mantras with “Hare Kṛṣṇa,” there might be a ten percent increase of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra in the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

But chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa is our main business. Everything is in the mahā-mantra.

As we find in the Nārada Pañcarātra:

trayo vedāḥ ṣaḍ-aṅgāni
chandāṁsi vividhāḥ surāḥ
sarvam aṣṭākṣarāntaḥ-sthaṁ
yac cānyad api vāṅ-mayam
sarva-vedānta-sārārthaḥ
saṁsārārṇava-tāraṇa

All Vedic rituals, mantras and understanding are compressed into the eight words Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare.⁹

Similarly, in the Kali-santaraṇa Upaniṣad:

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
iti ṣoḍaśakaṁ nāmnāṁ kali-kalmaṣa-nāśanam
nātaḥ parataropāyaḥ sarva-vedeṣu dṛśyate

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—these sixteen names composed of thirty-two syllables are the only means to counteract the evil effects of Kali-yuga. In all the Vedas it is seen that to cross the ocean of nescience there is no alternative to this chanting of the holy name.

May we chant “Deity mantras”? Yes.

Did Śrīla Prabhupāda? No.

Must we? No.

What can we do instead? We can do what Śrīla Prabhupāda did: Just keep chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

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Notes:

1 Śrutadeva Dāsa, personal communication, January 22, 2015.

2 Letter to Śrutadeva, 30 October 1976.

3 Class on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 9.10.14, Los Angeles.

4 This unfortunate chant, of course, like several others mentioned here, is an instance of rasābhāsa, an incompatible mixing of mellows. When the large Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deities were installed in Los Angeles, the GBC man at the time (as I later heard him say) asked Śrīla Prabhupāda what names the Deity could be given. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “You can call Him Dvārakādhīśa.” The GBC man asked, “Rādhā Dvārakādhīśa?” With a long face and a sorrowful tone, Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Rādhārāṇī has no scope for Dvārakādhīśa.” Then he said They should be called Rukmiṇī-Dvārakādhīśa.

5 These days I often hear that last “Jaya Rādhe” turned into a “Jaya Śrī Rādhe,” I suppose because the extra srī is meant to add zest and because that’s what the kīrtana leader has heard others do. Another, more recent variant (I suppose for those keen to chant “Rādhe Rādhe!”): After “Rādhā Something Something, Rādhe” we can add one more “Rādhe”: “Rādhā Something Something, Rādhe Rādhe!”

6 According to my informant, “A very senior devotee told us, ‘Every time you chant ‘Jaya Jagannātha’ you have to chant ‘Jaya Sudarśana!’ ”

7 Cc. Ādi 7.168, purport.

8 Cc. Ādi 7.4, purport.

9 Translation given in Teachings of Lord Caitanya, chapter 18. The purport to Cc. Ādi 7.76 gives this translation: “The essence of all Vedic knowledge—comprehending the three kinds of Vedic activity [karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa and upāsanā-kāṇḍa], the chandas, or Vedic hymns, and the processes for satisfying the demigods—is included in the eight syllables Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is the reality of all Vedānta. The chanting of the holy name is the only means to cross the ocean of nescience.”