(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24th August 2012, Amsterdam) Lecture: SB 4.29.56
One has to have a lot of faith in the holy name, and who has such faith in the holy name? We are all chanting, but how much faith do we have in the holy name?
Everything is attained from the holy name. It is the most powerful of any process. So it’s not a simplified process. People think that it’s a simplified process for the fallen souls of the age of Kali. They think that because we are not qualified to do the more complex Vedic rituals, we were given a simpler process. No, actually it is a more powerful process. It was there in the Vedic times but because so many rituals were followed it wasn’t in the foreground, but it was there. Then Srivasa Thakura read this verse in the Narada Purana:
‘harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā,’ (CC. Adi 17.21)
When he read that then he introduced kirtan in Srivasa-angana. At the time no one was practising it. There was kirtan, but that was a secondary thing, because the main thing was the ritual, and people thought that something was not correct. But he read that verse:
‘harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā,’ (CC. Adi 17.21)
He had full faith in that verse, and just started to make that the activity. That is what he was doing, which was extraordinary since he had that realization. Srivasa was outstanding in his time because he was not conforming to the social standard, since he was conforming to the sastras, and just chanting Hare Krishna.