What is the position of Mukunda Mala Stotra? Is it better than “Hare Krsna Mahamantra”?
From: Subir Das
In your “Daily Thought” dated 8.11.2011 you have mentioned Mukunda Mala Stotra (32). Where do I get this? I mean in which book? Is it better than “Hare Krsna Mahamantra”?
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Question from Subir Prabhu. What is the position of the Mukunda mantra? Is it superior to the Hare Krishna Mahamantra? There is a series of verses written by Kula Shekhar Maharaj, who was a great Alwar among the 12 prominent Alwars in the Sri Vaishno Sampradaya.
The Alwars are extraordinarily great saints who appeared before Sri Ramanujacharya and they have created an inspiring legacy of bhakti whose inspiration continues down to this day. And we can learn, we can take inspiration for bhakti from them. Now Kula Shekhar Maharaj himself tells us that we should chant the holy names of Krishna.
In many verses he says, Krishna, Krishna. He talks about how the names of Krishna are so valuable to him. So he says that Krishna, Krishna, Tiwani.
If a person chants the names of Krishna, if even once a person chants the names of Krishna, that person will become free from so many great sins. And if he actually develops bhakti for the Lord, then all the other results, dharma, artha, kama, moksha, all will be readily available at his fingertips, at his palms for him. So the Kund Mala Sutra can give us inspiration to chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra because that is the yuga dharma.
So although this koan is connected with the Gaudiya Vaishnu Sampradaya and Kula Shekhar Maharaj who was in the Sri Vaishnu Sampradaya, still, ultimately, he is also a devotee and here he is expressing devotion to Krishna. So Srila Prabhupada and before him, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, they published his works as translations. Bhaktivinoda Thakur translated and published the Kund Mala Sutra in Bengali and Srila Prabhupada translated and published it in English and Satsvarupa Maharaj completed the translation.
So, before that, even in Chaitanya Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would come to greet Lord Jagannath when he would come out of the Jagannath temple Pratyatra then he would chant the words from the Kund Mala Sutra Jai Tu Jai Tu Devo Devaki Nanda Noyam Jai Tu Jai Tu So like that, all glories to that Lord Krishna who is the son of Devaki. So, that means within our Sampradaya also there are precedents for the Kund Mala Sutra being considered as an exalted book of Bhakti. So, certainly, Kulasekhar Maharaj doesn’t tell us that we should recite that in place of the names of Krishna.
No, in fact, that whole book is a glorification of the names of Krishna. Glorification of the potency, the sweetness of the names of Krishna. So, the works of the Bhakti saints can inspire us to take shelter of the process of Bhakti.
The books of the Bhakti saints are not a substitute for the process of Bhakti. They are meant to be accelerators, inspirers, catalysts for us to take shelter of the process of Bhakti