Burlingame, CA
The Chatak bird drinks water only from the sky. Unless it rains, his tongue remains dry. And even if dying of thirst, he turns his beak determinedly upward, as if to say, “rainwater or death.”
Learning that Krsna’s divine names are full of vital spiritual juice, beginners in bhakti repeatedly chant and hear the maha-mantra and practice bringing their attention back to its sound.
Through such steady practice they gradually get a taste for the mantra and then finally, like the Chatak for rainwater, they become fully devoted to chanting and hearing it.
“All glories, all glories to Lord Murari in the form of His all-ecstatic name! If any living being puts aside such tasks as meditation, ritual worship, and social duties and even once takes the Lord’s holy name, the name will grant him liberation. That holy name is the greatest source of eternal pleasure and is my very life and ornament.” (Sanatana Goswami; Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Part 1, text 9)
With gratitude and affection,
Vaisesika Dasa
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