Can I chant the ‘om namo bhagavate vasudevaya’ mantra?
Question from Mukul Joshi I am chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra but sometimes I feel more attracted towards Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudev. So apart from 16 rounds of Hare Krishna, can and should I chant extra rounds of Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudev or preferably Hare Krishna Mahamantra only? Answer certainly one can chant any name of Krishna that attracts our hearts and that will always purify us so you are fortunate that you are attracted to a particular name and a particular mantra that comprises of the names of Krishna and please cherish that attraction and that can help one to overcome temptation and gain strength in the face of difficulties and fears and doubts and go deep in one's Krishna consciousness so Krishna has given many many names and those various names are a part of the spiritual variety and the happiness that the spiritual variety brings so certainly we can chant other names also.
In general every mantra has its particular potency and in Kali Yuga because of the Lord's recommendation as given in the Kali Santhana Upanishad and the special grace which Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given, Hare Krishna Mahamantra is the most powerful and that's why if we focus on chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra, sixteen rounds. Now beyond that if we feel attracted there is no harm in chanting other mantras, in fact there is only benefit but in general whatever inspires us personally in our Krishna consciousness should not be done excessively in public for example if we like to take Darshan of the Deities it is wonderful but if I stand for several hours in front of the Deities taking Darshan it's because I like to do it and it can have unwarranted results some people may start thinking that I am Sahajyik, I am making a pretence of being advanced and unnecessarily our relationship with them will get strained others may think that oh this devotee is so advanced that he is so attracted to Krishna that he can stand for hours taking Darshan now we are fortunate that we are attracted to Krishna that we can take Darshan of Krishna for hours but that is not the central sign of spiritual advancement our central sign of spiritual advancement is in terms of our commitment our commitment to Krishna's mission and our willingness to take responsibility for Krishna's mission especially Prabhupada translated Bhakti as not just devotion but devotional service so therefore we focus on doing the limits of devotional service as are recommended by Racharyas and as our senior devotees are guiding us in a public visible way and if there are certain aspects of Krishna Consciousness that we like to do so if we like to chant Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudev we can do it in private we should not create an example which unnecessarily leads to misunderstandings about us or it creates misunderstandings about the process of Krishna Consciousness so all of us can have our individual inspirations and we should understand because Krishna is individual, we are individual we can have individual attractions to him but our individual attractions to Krishna should not be portrayed publicly so that it creates wrong perceptions so Krishna Consciousness has a universal or standard aspect and it has an individual aspect actually Prabhupada never denied the individual aspect but he did not over emphasize the individual aspect also so that the universal aspect is all of us read Bhagavad Gita all of us read Srimad Bhagavatam but within Bhagavad Gita I may like some verses and you may like some other verses and that is perfect we have full right for our particular specific devotional attractions but just because I like a particular verse doesn't make that verse the most important verse in the Bhagavad Gita that doesn't mean that other things are unimportant so yes if something gives me strength I can do that but let me not make an exhibition of that if especially it is not a standard recommended practice by Raksha Kriyas, another point is that many times when we are attracted to some other aspects of Krishna Consciousness apart from what is standard recommended by Shri Prabhupada, often that attraction is more mental than spiritual mental means that our mind is always looking for something new and therefore it looks for something new even in spiritual life actually in spiritual life the newness is not in the action the newness is in the experience the action may remain the same I may chant the same Hare Krishna Mahamantra but as my loving relationship with Krishna deepens my experience of fulfillment will become deeper I don't have to chant new mantras it is not that a devotee who is new to Krishna Consciousness chants Hare Krishna and a devotee who is 25 years old in Krishna Consciousness has revealed some new mantras no the same actions when we invest them with greater devotion Krishna reciprocates through those those same actions when we perform them with greater devotion Krishna reciprocates through those same actions and gives us greater and greater experiences of spiritual happiness so we don't have to do new actions when a mother is expressing her love for a child the mother has to offer her breast milk to the child she doesn't have to invent some new milk to express her love to the child but every time there is that reciprocation mother offers the milk to her child the relationship between the child and the mother deepens similarly every time we practice Krishna Consciousness if we do it with a devotional intention, our devotional relationship is deepening so sometimes if we are not seriously Krishna Conscious deeply Krishna Conscious and we are not striving to deepen our Krishna Consciousness also then the new tastes within Krishna Consciousness don't come by going deep within Krishna Consciousness and then we start looking for tastes by going laterally instead of deeply instead of going deep and digging into the water digging into the ground deeply to find water we start digging in different places and the newness within bhakti, within the limbs of bhakti may also attract us because Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudeva is a name that is relatively less chanted by us that newness may attract us temporarily and if we chant it for a few days afterwards that charm may also go away. It's not that Krishna has become less attractive but rather our mind had created an illusion that this particular name is very special but we were still at the material level and when the illusion of the newness at the material level went away we were left with again Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudeva also not sounding so sweet, not seeming so attractive so essentially sometimes our attractions to certain limbs of bhakti may be devotional and spiritual if they are we should cherish them and use them as Krishna's gift to deepen our attraction to Krishna and do it in a way that doesn't set a confusing example for others at the same time if we have some attraction we have to examine whether those attractions might be mental and if they are mental and if the mind says today chant Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudeva tomorrow chant Om Namo Narayanaya the day after tomorrow chant Sri Krishna Sharanamam so like that we may just go around exploring different mantras so if it is mental within a few days it will become apparently tasteless for us because the taste is not at the material level, the taste is at the spiritual level and to experience the taste at the spiritual level we have to deepen our Krishna consciousness so it's not good for us to keep changing and trying out new and new mantras to see what works for me the Hare Krishna mantra will work but we have to do our work, we have to concentrate we have to focus we have to hear the holy name to pray to Krishna, then we will see it working and then we will find the taste being revealed.