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Sri Siksastakam - The Eight

Instructions of Sri Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu
Posted by ISKCON Desire Tree on April 13, 2014 at 6:30am

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-

1535) is the most recent incarnation of
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
Sri Krishna. He appeared 500 years
ago in Navadvip, West-Bengal and
started His worldwide Sankirtan
mission of propagating the chanting
of the holy name of the Lord (the
process of self-realization for this age
- to meditate upon the sound of the
maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama
Hare Hare). He left us only eight
verses, called Siksastakam, in which
His mission and precepts are revealed.
Sri Siksastakam
Text 1
ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha--davagni-
nirvapanam
shreyah-kairava-chandrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu-
jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam
purnamritaswadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krishna-
sankirtanam

Glory to the Sri Krishna Sankirtana, which cleanses

the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and
extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated
birth and death. This sankirtana movement is the
prime benediction for humanity at large because it
spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life
of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the
ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to
fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.

Text 2
namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva-shaktis
tatrarpita niyamitah smarane na kalah
etadrishi tava kripa bhagavan mamapi
durdaivam idrisham ihajani nanuragaha

O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all

benediction to living beings, and thus You have
hundreds and millions of names like Krishna and
Govinda. In these transcendental names You have
invested all Your transcendental energies. There are
not even hard and fast rules for chanting these
names. O my Lord, out of kindness You enable us to
easily approach You by Your holy names, but I am so
unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.

Text 3
trinad api sunichena
taror api sahishnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih

One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a

humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the
straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than
a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and
should be ready to offer all respect to others. In such
a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the
Lord constantly.

Text 4
na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagad-isha kamaye
mama janmani janmanishvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki twayi

O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate

wealth, nor do I desire beautiful women, nor do I want
any number of followers. I only want Your causeless
devotional service birth after birth.

Text 5
ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram
patitam mam vishame bhavambudhau
kripaya tava pada-pankaja-
sthita-dhuli-sadrisham vichintaya

O son of Maharaja Nanda [Krishna], I am Your eternal

servitor, yet somehow or other I have fallen into the
ocean of birth and death. Please pick me up from this
ocean of death and place me as one of the atoms at
Your lotus feet.

Text 6
nayanam galad-ashru-dharaya
vadanam gadgada-ruddhaya gira
pulakair nichitam vapuh kada
tava nama-grahane bhavishyati

O my Lord, when will my eyes be decorated with

tears of love flowing constantly when I chant Your
holy name? When will my voice choke up, and when
will the hairs of my body stand on end at the recitation
of Your name?

Text 7
yugayitam nimeshena
chakshusha pravrishayitam
shunyayitam jagat sarvam
govinda-virahena me

O Govinda! Feeling Your separation, I am considering

a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are
flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am
feeling all vacant in the world in Your absence.

Text 8
ashlishya va pada-ratam pinashtu mam
adarshanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

I know no one but Krishna as my Lord, and He shall

remain so even if He handles me roughly by His
embrace or makes me brokenhearted by not being
present before me. He is completely free to do
anything and everything, for He is always my
worshipful Lord unconditionally.

Commentary by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recommended: ceto-

darpana-marjanam. Marjanam means "cleanse," and
darpanam means "mirror." The heart is a mirror. It is
like a camera. Just as a camera takes all kinds of
pictures of days and nights, so also our heart takes
pictures and keeps them in an unconscious state
[Subconsciousness]. Psychologists know this. The
heart takes so many pictures, and therefore it
becomes covered. We do not know when it has
begun, but it is a fact that because there is material
contact, our real identity is covered. Therefore ceto-
darpana-marjanam: one has to cleanse his heart.
(SP: Science of Selfrealization)

And when the heart is cleansed, then a person

becomes eligible for being freed from the clutches of
maya, or the materialistic way of life. He understands
that he is not this body-that he's a spirit soul, and that
his business is therefore different from merely
material concerns. He thinks, "Now I am engaged
only in seeking these bodily comforts of life. These
are not at all essential, because my body will change.
Today, since I am in an American body, I think I have
so many duties as an American man. Tomorrow I may
be in an American dog body, and immediately my
duty would change. So I can understand that these
bodily concerns are not my real business. My real
business is how to elevate myself-as a spirit soul-to
the spiritual world, back to home, back to Godhead."

When the mind is completely washed of all material

contamination, the pure consciousness acts. The
sound vibration from the spiritual sky can
automatically cleanse all material contaminations, as
confirmed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: ceto-
darpanam-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. We need
only take the advice of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
and chant the Hare Krishna mantra to cleanse the
mind of all material contamination, and this may be
considered the summary of this difficult verse. As
soon as the whole material contamination is washed
away by this process of chanting, all desires and
reactions to material activities become immediately
vanquished, and real life, peaceful existence, begins.
In this age of Kali it is very difficult to adopt the yogic
process mentioned in this verse.

Unless one is very expert in such yoga, the best

course is to adopt the ways and means of Lord
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri-Krishna-sankirtanam.
Thus one can gloriously become freed from all
material contamination by the simple process of
chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare. Just as life in this material world
has its beginning in material sound, similarly a
spiritual life has its beginning in this spiritual sound
vibration. (SB 4.23.17 pp)

In His Siksastaka, Lord Chaitanya describes the

progressive benefits of chanting Hare Krishna. First,
ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. The
beginning is cleansing the heart, because we are
impure on account of dirty things within our heart,
accumulated lifetime after lifetime in the animalistic
way of life. So everything-advancement of spiritual
life, culture, tapasya-is meant to cleanse the heart.
And in this process of chanting the maha-mantra, the
first installment of benefit is the cleansing of the heart.
Ceto-darpana-marjanam.

Specifically, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra

purifies one, and this chanting is therefore
recommended by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Ceto-
darpana-marjanam: [Cc. Antya 20.12] by chanting the
names of Krishna, the mirror of the heart is cleansed,
and the devotee loses interest in everything external.
When one is influenced by the external energy of the
Lord, his heart is impure. When one's heart is not
pure, he cannot see how things are related to the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Idam hi visvam
bhagavan ivetarah (Bhag. 1.5.20). He whose heart is
purified can see that the whole cosmic manifestation
is but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but he
whose heart is contaminated sees things differently.
Therefore by sat-sanga, or association with devotees,
one becomes perfectly pure in heart. (SB 4.24.59 pp)

In this way the person who chants Hare Krishna

purifies his consciousness. Then his materialistic
activity is stopped. He knows, "This is simply a waste
of time. I must act spiritually." That is knowledge,
which comes from cleansing the heart (ceto-darpana-
marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]). The illusion of wrongly
working on the basis of the bodily concept of life is
overcome simply by the chanting of the Hare Krishna
maha-mantra. This is the first installment of benefit
from chanting. (SP: Civilization and Transcendence)

 siksastakam
siksastakam, sisastakam
sisastakam, sri
sri, sri siksastakam
siksastakam, chaitany
chaitany,
gauranga
gauranga, mahaprabhu
T
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