Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura has written a beautiful song describing what must happen in our life when we chant the Holy Names of Hari and Gauranga.
He yearns for the day when his entire body will shiver on chanting Gauranga’s name, and his eyes will pour streams of tears on chanting Hari’s name.
gaurāṅga’ bolite habe pulaka-śarīra
‘hari hari’ bolite nayane ba’ be nīra
In the conditioned state, when we realize that many of our rounds are pending, tears of frustration come from our eyes that we have to chant so many rounds! But we all aspire for the stage when tears of affection, tears of separation decorate our eyes.
Narottama Dasa Thakura enumerates the following results that are obtained by a sincere practice of bhakti:
1] Shivering of Body and Tears Cascading from the Eyes.
2] Attaining Lord Nityananda’s Mercy
3] Material Sense Gratification is seen as Disgusting
4] Pure MIND
5] Beholding the Real Vrindavan
6] Understanding the Deeper Mellows of love of Radha Krishna
All the aspects mentioned above are results attained by the practice of devotional service. A direct attempt to imitate the result won’t lead to the attainment of the result. There are many people, technically called as sahajiyas, who practice crying for Krishna, exhibiting their advancement in devotional service. But these people are like neophytes trying to squeeze out honey from a tightly closed bottle and taste it from outside.
Narottama Dasa Thakura mentions in the same song what things we MUST do in order to attain the above results:
1] Give up Sense Gratification :
A sadhaka must endeavor to give up sense gratification by all means. If we want help in life, we must be ready to help ourselves. If we engage in sense gratification willingly and expect the Lord to show His mercy, that won’t work.
Therefore, Narottama Dasa Thakura is longing for the day when the desires of sense enjoyment will fade away from our heart – viṣaya chāriyā kabe śuddha ha ‘be mana.
2] Yearn for Mercy:
In the beginning of the song, Narottama Dasa Thakura mentions – āra kabe nitāi-cānder koruṇā hoibe. Our cries should reach Nityananda Prabhu to persuade Him to grant us mercy. Just by sitting idle, we cannot get grace.
Therefore, at the end of the song also, he says,
prārthanā koroye sadā narottama-dāsa
He prays to be at the lotus feet of his predecessors. A devotee must never give up begging for grace. We need grace to survive each and every day in our spiritual life. The myriad of temptations that maya puts forth before us is overwhelming at times. We must desperately yearn for the grace of Krishna and His devotees in every phase of our progressive spiritual life.
3] Following Rupa and Raghunatha:
This essentially means following the footsteps of our previous acaryas, and following Shrila Prabhupada. Narottama Dasa is eager to read the books given by the six Goswamis. We must be eager to read the books left by Shrila Prabhupada.
If we simply try to do these three things as mentioned by Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura, our hearts will flood with the ecstasy of Krishna’s Holy Name and Holy fame. And the eyes will be constantly moist with tears of love, tears of separation, tears of the Lord’s merciful reciprocation.
The entire song can be viewed here: http://kksongs.org/songs/g/gaurangabolite.html
