CC daily 165 – 6.242 – Ten intensifiers heighten the clarion call to chanting

Thank you Harer nama Harer nama Harer nameva kevalam Kalav nasteva nasteva nasteva gatir anyatha Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit Madhyamila chapter 6 text 242 this is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu quoting from the Puranas in fact he is speaking the same verse again he has spoken this earlier in the Adil it has been spoken earlier in 17th chapter 21st text and this is a verse which emphatically conveys not just the glory of the holy name but its absolute necessity its utter indispensability for our spiritual growth the essential point of this verse is simple take shelter of the holy name chant the holy name Harer nama but to convey that the verse uses multiple epithets sorry not epithets intensifiers intensifier is a word that a word or a phrase or a clause or a sentence usually a word or basically a way of speaking which intensifies the preceding message so let us see how in this verse the message about the indispensability of the shelter of the holy name is conveyed how the exhortation to chant the holy names is emphasized so the essential message is Harer nama now that same message is conveyed positively and negatively both so Harer nama Harer nama Harer nama eva kevalam the first two lines talk about this message in a positive sense and the next two lines convey the same message by a negative assertion kalau nasteva nasteva nasteva gatiranyatha so nasteva gatiranyatha that is the essential message of the second half there is no other way the holy name is the only way that is the essential message so now how is that conveyed there is no direct action word in the first part that chant the holy name but it is implied the holy name the holy name the holy name just like if a doctor is discussing what medicine should a patient take then if from the overall context it is clear that the subject is about the medicine then the doctor just take the medicine the doctor says that about malaria and you have to take chloroquine chloroquine chloroquine and other medicines won't work for this no other medicine nor the medicine nor the medicine so second part is fairly clear no other medicine nor the medicine nor the medicine but the first part just even if the doctor says chloroquine chloroquine chloroquine that just naming the medicine is anyway enough to convey from the context that it's not that a person is to take the medicine and keep it in the showcase that medicine has to be taken so like that the holy name also has to be taken now Harer nama Harer nama Harer namaeva kevalam so let's look at how the positive sentence the positive assertion is intensified so first is positive assertion is Harer nama and there are two intensifiers that come through repetition Harer nama Harer nama Harer nama because it comes three times with the second and third occurrence of the Harer nama are intensifiers and then in the positive assertion itself there are two more intensifiers eva certainly kevalam only certainly take this medicine and take this medicine only certainly and only are very forceful unambiguous and unhesitant intensifier so in this way the positive assertion Harer nama has got four intensifiers and in a sense naasteeva naasteeva naasteeva gatiranyatha so naasteeva gatiranyatha that is also an intensifier for Harer nama because anyatha other when you say no other way now if we just heard someone make the statement no other way it would not make much sense to us because immediately the word other begs the question what was the what was the antecedent antecedent means what has come before so without antecedent the other anyatha doesn't make sense so in that sense naasteeva gatiranyatha is also an intensifier of Harer nama and this intensifier which is the naasteeva gatiranyatha that itself has got further intensifiers naasteeva so eva there is no other way naasteeva gatiranyatha so eva is an intensifier that's one intensifier and again this naastee naastee gatiranyatha naastee naastee is conveyed twice so those are two those repetitions are two intensifiers and even these two repetitions also contain eva so those are also two repetitions that those are also two intensifiers so in this way this naasteeva gatiranyatha has got five intensifiers and considering that naasteeva gatiranyatha itself is an intensifier for Harer nama which had already four intensifiers so totally the Harer nama exaltation has got ten intensifiers and there is if we think from the sheer point of view of English language or not as English any language this was in Sanskrit put it in the Bengali book right now but from the point of view of any language it is difficult to imagine how any author could make a message more emphatic how how anyone could ever put in more intensifiers in one short sentence so the sheer number of intensifiers and the sheer way in which they are presented convey the intensity of the message in a very graphic evocative unforgettable way so our mind often has a tendency to look for shortcuts maybe this doesn't work out I'll try something else and this sort of unambiguous scriptural statements this way and no other way when you come across a statements so statements can help us to break free from that ambivalence of the mind the recalcitrance ambivalence means the inability to decide recalcitrance means a reluctance to commit oneself obstinate reluctance to commit oneself so the ambivalence and the recalcitrance of the mind can be very strongly countered by meditating on the forceful assertion of this verse and the more we meditate on this verse the force of the message that is being conveyed will hit us and that forcefulness will jolt our mind out of its inertia and impel us to take shelter of the holy name thank you.