There are thousands of holy places throughout India. Some have more spiritual
significance than others, and the benefits and spiritual advancement a person
can receive when making a pilgrimage is relative to the place. Faithful Hindus
visit holy places to perfect their spiritual realization.
There are four dhamas or
kingdoms of God: Badrinath, Rameswaram, Puri, and Dwarka. Each represents a
planet in the spiritual sky. The spiritual sky consists of the brahmajyoti
(the efflugence around God’s body, the light into which yogis seeking
liberation desire to merge) and the Vaikunthas (spiritual planets).
There are seven sacred cities known
as the Saptapuris (Mokshapuris): Ayodhya, Mathura, Mayapuri (Haridwar), Kashi (Varanasi),
Kanchi (Kanchipuram), Avantipuri (Ujjain), and Dwarka. The seven most sacred
rivers are the Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, and Kaveri.
There are four Kumbha-melas, located at
Allahabad,
Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nasik.
There are eight self-manifested
holy places (Svayam Vyakta Ksetras) out of a list of 108 major Vishnu temples
(108 Vaishnava Divya Desams): Sri Rangam, Tirumala, Sri Mushnam, and Thotadri in
South India; Shalagram, Pushkar, Naimisaranya, and Badrinath in North India.
The most important holy places for
Gaudiya Vaishnavas are Vrindavan, Mathura, Puri, and Mayapur. Other important
holy places are Dwarka, Ayodhya, Kurukshetra, Naimisaranya, Nasik, Ujjain,
Rameswaram, Gaya, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath,
Varanasi,
and Prayag. Vrindavan and
Mathura are important because Lord Krishna appeared and performed his childhood
pastimes there. Dwarka is important because Lord Krishna lived there later and
performed many pastimes there.
The Himalayas are considered a holy
mountain range. The Himalaya Range is about 2,500 km long and 350 km wide, and
there are hundreds of peaks over 6000m (20,000 ft) high.
On
Chanting Hare Krishna
Chanting the transcendental vibration Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime
method for reviving our transcendental consciousness, or Krishna consciousness.
As living spiritual souls, we are all originally
Krishna
conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial,
our consciousness is now polluted by the material atmosphere, called maya,
or illusion. And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying
to be lords of material nature, while actually we are under the grip of her
stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-powerful
master, he is said to be in illusion. We are trying to exploit the resources of
material nature, but actually we are becoming more dependent on her. This
illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of
our eternal Krishna
consciousness.
Krishna consciousness is not an
artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original energy of
the living entity. When we hear and chant the transcendental vibration Hare
Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare, this consciousness is revived. This simplest method of
meditation is recommended by learned authorities for this age. By practical
experience also, one can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or
the Great Chant for Deliverance, one at once feels transcendental ecstasy coming
through from the spiritual stratum.
In the material concept of life we
are busy in the matter of sense gratification, as if we were in the lower,
animal stage. A little elevated from this status of sense gratification, one
engages in mental speculation for the purpose of getting out of the material
clutches. A little elevated from this speculative status, when one is
intelligent enough, one tries to find out the supreme cause of all causes,
within and without. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual
understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence, one is
situated on the transcendental plane. The chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra is
directly enacted from this spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration
surpasses all lower strata of consciousness—namely sensual, mental, and
intellectual.
There is no need, therefore, to
understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need of any mental
speculation or intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It
springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and thus anyone can take part
in the chanting without any previous qualification and dance in ecstasy. We have
seen this practically. Even a child can take part in the chanting and dancing.
Of course, for one who is too much entangled in material life, it takes a little
more time to come to the standard point, but even such a materially engrossed
person is very quickly raised to the spiritual platform. When the mantra is
chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord, it has the greatest effect on hearers,
and therefore this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of
the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible,
chanting from the lips of nondevotees should be avoided, just as one would avoid
milk touched by the lips of a serpent because it has poisonous effects.
The Hara is a form of addressing
the energy of the Lord, and the words Krishna and Rama (when mean “the highest
pleasure eternal”) are forms of addressing the Lord Himself. Hara is the supreme
pleasure energy of the Lord, and when addressed as Hare in the vocative, She
helps us to reach the Supreme Lord.
The material energy, called maya,
is also one of the multienergies of the Lord, and we, the living entitles, are
the marginal energy of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior
to the material energy. When this superior energy is in contact with the
inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises, but when the superior
marginal energy is in contact with the spiritual energy, Hara, the living entity
is established in his happy, normal condition.
These three words, namely Hare,
Krishna,
and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting
is a spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy Hara to protect the
conditional soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for
its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the grace of the Supreme
Father, Hari or Krishna,
and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.
Therefore no other means of
spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as
the chanting of the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare.
