Why did Lord Chaitanya not give the Hare Krishna mantra to Tukaram Maharaj?

If lord Chaitanya is the spiritual master of Tukaram Maharaj then why is it that he was given a different Mantra than the Maha Mantra
though the Upanishads claim the maha mantra to be the only remedy for removing the effects of Kali……………………………If it’s
just because “Ram Krishna Hari” also is God’s name only, then one may say that he’ll chant that only because that’s shorter and more
verifiable as whole village actually saw tukaram maharaj going back to Godhead.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
him was for his ultimate good. Thank you. That is the shorter mantra and we will chant that mantra.
And it is also verifiable because people saw Tukaram Maharaj actually going back to the spiritual world. So, better chant Ramakrishna Hari instead of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Answer, in spiritual circles, we don’t have to so, monopolize spirituality.
And we don’t need to feel insecure if some other people talk about some things which are different from what we are told in our tradition. There is a room for transcendental subjectivity in the spiritual world. If we read the Brihadbhagavatamrit, when the Gopakumar goes to the spiritual world, he goes to different places.
And when he goes to Vaikuntha and eventually he goes to Dwaraka, in the Vaikuntha verses think of Vishnu as the ultimate. The Dwaraka verses think of Dwaraka Krishna to be the ultimate. And it is not that Sanatana Goswami is talking about this conception is wrong.
For them, it is true. And they completely love Vishnu, they completely love Dwaraka Krishna. Gopakumar, however, feels dissatisfied and he actually wants to behold Krishna as Vrajakumar, as Vrindavan Kishore.
And then he comes back to the material world, the sadhana in Vrindavan and goes back to the spiritual world, eventually to its highest level, Goloka Vrindavan. So, the point is that we will see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also demonstrating this universal spirit. So, we see that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he had devotees who were intimate associates, who were devotees of Ram.
Murari Gupta was there, who is considered to be an expansion of Hanuman. And then there was also Anupam, the brother of Anupam and Sanatana. He was also a devotee of Ram.
And we also see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he went on South India tour, there was a devotee who was in great separation from Ram and he was absorbed in the agony because he was thinking Sita has been abducted by Ram, abducted by Ravana and is away from Lord Ram. So, Lord Chaitanya did not try to tell him that, oh, Krishna is supreme. He completely appreciated and facilitated the devotee’s absorption and he tried to remove the agony of the devotee by bringing the Kurma Purana section where it talks about Maya Sita and he reassured him that Sita was never abducted.
So, we do not have Chaitanya. Both from the point of view, what is there in the spiritual world, I will explain in the way of Bhagavatam and from the point of view of the conduct of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we do not see this attempt to monopolize spirituality. So, now how the Lord will act in different ways, we cannot say.
In some cases, there is another example of a devotee where the devotee is chanting constantly the name of Lord Ram and when he saw Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he was so inspired and transformed his heart, he chanted the name of Krishna. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appreciated that also. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his pastimes has demonstrated both, you know, he has in some cases elevated people who were other kinds of Vaishnavas to Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
Now, that we understand is dependent on the eternal Swarupa of that soul. So, the Lord guides people to become attracted to him according to their Swarupa. And for some people, he encourages them to continue whatever way they have worshipped.
So, when that is demonstrated by the Lord itself, why should we feel insecure if something else is demonstrated elsewhere? So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra through the Gaudiya tradition, through our Acharyas. And elsewhere, he has given a slightly different mantra, the Ramakrishna Hare Mantra. So, now, what we, the Rajasic buddhi always tries to see differences and it magnifies these differences.
Because the Rajasic buddhi is based on the worldly conception and what I have, what others have. Sattvic buddhi sees, you see the commonality. So, one who sees the impersonal spirit and everything, that is Sattvic intelligence.
And one who sees the diversity, constraint and conflict, that is Rajasic intelligence. So, we shouldn’t feel insecure because of this, because we understand this transcendental subjectivity in the spiritual world. And also, whenever there is this kind of diversity, we understand that Lord himself has allowed for this.
There are different rasas in the spiritual world and different devotees are attracted to different rasas. Now, as far as Ramakrishna Hare Mantra being easier, we shouldn’t think that spiritual advancement is a result of doing that which is easy. Spiritual advancement comes by Krishna’s mercy coming through the Vaishnavas.
So, when we please the devotees, we please the Acharyas, we will make spiritual advancement. It’s not that the mantra which is easy will give us spiritual advancement. It is the attitude of pleasing Krishna and offering our love to him that will help us to become spiritually advanced.
So, in our civilization, we have been given the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and we will chant that mantra. Now, if somebody feels attracted to the Avarakari path where people chant Ramakrishna Hare, the person can go there and chant that also. And whether that will lead to spiritual advancement, it’s not just the utterance of a mantra that leads to spiritual advancement, it’s a whole transformation of the heart.
Anshula Prabhupada through his Kaun is giving us the time-honored spirituality presented in a way that is customized for our times. And we get many like-minded people, we get systematic philosophical education, we get connection with the global community of like-minded devotees. So, we get so much in the Gaudiya tradition as presented by Anshula Prabhupada through his Kaun, which we do not get elsewhere.
But if somebody is attracted to, inspired to go there, it’s not that that person is doing wrong and we have to drag that person back or if that person goes there, we should feel insecure or maybe I am on the wrong path. No, there are different traditions and there are different universities. And ultimately, all the universities have one common goal that is to help people to graduate.
So, Anshula Prabhupada gave the example that the different Sampradayas are like parties. Now, the political parties may have different policies, but their goal is to promote national interest. Similarly, there may be some differences in some different traditions, but the essential focus is to help spiritual advancement in its sequence.
And as far as, say, people observing Tukaram Maharaj going back to the spiritual world, yes, that is definitely a faith-building event that happened over there. But there is no way of saying that that is that only one who follows what Tukaram Maharaj did will go back to the spiritual world. And actually, the level of devotion that he had, the level of self-surrender and absorption God that he had, can anyone and everyone get that? So, that is a specific example.
And if we are going to hang on to that example alone, then what will happen is that we have to stick to the literals. And can we become devotees at the level of Tukaram Maharaj? And if we can’t, then will we go back to the spiritual world? Because if Tukaram Maharaj went back to the spiritual world, but then we don’t see any of his intimate associates going back to the spiritual world. That was not seen.
So, what does it mean? If our faith has to be based only on that which has been seen, then that would mean only one who has the level of devotion to Tukaram Maharaj went back. And others, it’s all uncertain whether they went back or not. So, this sort of handing on the specifics will create a lot of literal issues which will not be resolved at all.
So, we see this specific incident as an example of a universal principle. And that universal principle is that the Lord reciprocates with and rewards his exalted devotees. And if we look at comparatively, the kind of exalted devotion that we see in Tukaram Maharaj, we see in many of the exalted saints in the Gaudiya tradition also.
We see it in Haridas Thakur who is ready to be beaten in the marketplace. We see in the Goswami’s who renounced everything for the sake of the Lord. So, what we should focus on is the principle of devotion.
And if we cultivate the principle of devotion in our heart as is told by our Acharyas, we will go back to the spiritual world. So, it’s not that we are insecure. We see a student who studies and gets the adequate knowledge and graduates from one university.
That doesn’t mean that I have to give up my university and go to some other university. No, I can see that people from my university are also graduating. In another question answer, I have explained what is the proof that somebody has actually gone back to the spiritual world.
If you want to be skeptical, we can say that, you know, maybe people created a myth that Tukaram Maharaj had some Vaikuntha happening and Tukaram Maharaj went back to the spiritual world. Who knows what actually happened. So, what we can see is not whether somebody went back to the spiritual world or not.
That is always subjective to a large extent. But what we can see is that there is a transformation that happens in those who follow the process of Maharaja. And with all due respects to those who chant the Ramakrishna Hari Mantra, there are many who just chant it as a ritual.
And is their life transformed by chanting of that mantra? Do we see any, this world, any transformation? A transformation in this world in terms of them getting, making free from bad habits and living very pure lives? There are definitely pure-hearted, pure-hearted workers who chant Ramakrishna Hari Mantra, no doubt. But is, they are pure-hearted right-wing people. Is it that the chanting of the Ramakrishna Hari Mantra has led to a dramatic transformation in their life? There may be some cases, definitely.
But the scale at which Srila Prabhupada was able to bring about the transformation in the hearts of people all over the world that has practically no parallels in world history. The hippies were degraded not just from the spiritual perspective of Vedic civilization, but the hippies were degraded even from the material perspective of Western civilization. And Prabhupada took them and elevated them to exalted levels.
And he did it not just for one or two people, for thousands of people. So, we see the transformational potency in the Ramakrishna Hari Mantra right in front of us. We can see it in our own hearts if we practice it and we can see it in the hearts of others.
That’s why we remain respectful to other traditions and we also remain faithful to our own tradition. Thank you very much.