Harer Namashtakam 5: Access the holy name by the mercy of the Bhagavatas
harih sada vaset tatra
yatra bhagavata janah
gayanti bhakti-bhavena
harer namaiva kevalam
Lord Hari eternally dwells in that place where truly exalted, spiritually advanced souls sing in the mood of pure devotion—The holy name of Shri Hari alone is everything.
harih sada vaset tatra, Lord Hari resides eternally, yatra bhagavata janah, where those people who are the Bhagavatas, those who are exalted devotees who are living the Bhagvatam, gayanti bhakti-bhavena, they sing with devotion, harer namaiva kevalam, the holy name of the Lord. This verse indicated that we can experience the presence of Krishna as His holy names, when that holy name invoked by the great souls . Generally when we do our japa we may not feel Krishna’s presence and when we participate in kirtans we may feel some sort of happiness, and that may be musical that may be kinesthetic , that may be in a sense within the realm of devotion but not surely pure devotional, that may not be the heart swelling of joy due to the experiencing the presence of Krishna. However when the great souls chant the hold names at that time that chanting can enable us to experience the presence of Krishna. Shrila Prabhupada in his kirtans would not normally use too many dhuns, we know the tune that Shrila Prabhupada used in the tomkin square park, which has become the famous Hare Krishna dhun, at one level it is a simple tune and generally when devotees do kirtan they would rarely sing that tune because it seems so ordinary so common. But it was this tune singing that Shrila Prabhupada used to attract the hearts to those who were totally ……….. in morality and sin and bring them to Krishna’s lotus feet. Therefore when we join in the singing of the holy names by great souls we understand that whether it has musical value or not it surely has spiritual potency, and same way when we chant the holy names, we may not have the potency to invoke Krishna’s presence, but if we remember that it is our spiritual master who has chanted on our beads during our initiation time or will chant on our beads when we take initiation and he is infusing Krishna’s presence in the mantra, then that will inspire us also to treasure our japa beads given by our spiritual master and to chant whole heartedly, calling out to Krishna. So Bhakta Vinoda Thakura explains that at the time of the initiation the spiritual master is invests the holy name in the mantra. That means the mantra can be chanted even by uninitiated devotees, but they may not be able to invoke Krishna’s presence through the mantra because they did not have sufficient devotion and it is not that when they get initiated, initiation is not like swinging of the magic wand that suddenly it permeates their hearts with bhakti. But at the time of initiation because the spiritual master chants on those beads so he by his spiritual potency invokes Krishna’s presence in the mantra and he prays Krishna please let this soul who wants to come to your lotus feet experience your presence when he tries to serve you by chanting. And when we chant with this remembrance the grace of the spiritual master that is making available to us the grace of Krishna’s presence in the holy name then we can actually feel the spiritual potency and can become transformed by that potency of the holy name during our chanting. thankyou