Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Mukunda-mālā-stotra 28-29

śrī-nātha nārāyaṇa vāsudeva

śrī-kṛṣṇa bhakta-priya cakra-pāṇe

śrī-padmanābhācyuta kaiṭabhāre

śrī-rāma padmākṣa hare murāre

ananta vaikuṇṭha mukunda kṛṣṇa

govinda dāmodara mādhaveti

vaktuḿ samartho 'pi na vakti kaścid

aho janānāḿ vyasanābhimukhyam

SYNONYMS

śrī-nātha — O Lord of the goddess of fortune; nārāyaṇa — O resort of all living entities; vāsudeva — O supreme proprietor; śrī-kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa, son of Devakī; bhakta — toward Your devotees; priya — O You who are favorably disposed; cakra — the disc weapon; pāṇe — O You who hold in Your hand; śrī — divine; padma-nābha — O You from whose navel grows a lotus; acyuta — O infallible Lord; kaiṭabha-are — O enemy of Kaiṭabha, śrī-rāma — O blessed Rāma; padma-akṣa — O lotus-eyed one; hare — O remover of misfortune; mura-are — O enemy of Mura; ananta — O limitless one; vaikuṇṭha — O Lord of the spiritual kingdom; mukunda — O bestower of liberation; kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa; govinda — O master of the cows; dāmodara — O You who were tied up as punishment by Your mother; mādhava — O Lord of the supreme goddess; iti — thus; vaktum — to speak; samarthaḥ — able; api — although; na vakti — one does not say; kaścit — anything; aho — ah; janānām — of people; vyasana — toward a danger; ābhimukhyam — the inclination.

TRANSLATION

O Śrīnātha, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, divine Kṛṣṇa, O kind friend of Your devotees! O Cakrapāṇi, Padmanābha, Acyuta, Kaiṭabhāri, Rāma, Padmākṣa, Hari, Murāri! O Ananta, Vaikuṇṭha, Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Dāmodara, Mādhava! Although all people can address You, still they remain silent. Just see how eager they are for their own peril!

PURPORT

The Supreme Personality of Godhead manifests innumerable inconceivable qualities, and to remember and glorify these qualities His devotees address Him by innumerable names. The names themselves are fully invested with the power of the Lord. As Lord Caitanya states in His Śikṣāṣṭaka (2), nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ: "O my Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, in Your holy name there is all good fortune for the living entity, and therefore You have many names, such as Kṛṣṇa and Govinda, by which You expand Yourself. You have invested all Your potencies in those names, and there are no hard and fast rules for chanting them."

Śrī Yāmunācārya, who appeared in the same sampradāya as King Kulaśekhara, composed a verse lamenting that although the Lord is fully accessible by His many names and qualities, the nondevotees do not approach Him, and thus they bring about their own destruction. In Bhagavad-gītā (7.15), Lord Kṛṣṇa summarizes the types of persons who do not surrender to Him:

na māḿ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ

māyayāpahṛta-jñānā āsuraḿ bhāvam āśritāḥ

"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are the lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender to Me."

As His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda traveled worldwide spreading the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, he noted that most people could not understand the simplest rudiments of transcendental knowledge. The first lesson of spiritual knowledge is that the self is not the body but rather the soul, and that therefore the soul is the truly important thing. But in Western countries, even among the scholarly elite, people do not understand the nature of the soul, and therefore they fail to understand the real mission of human life — understanding God. One who cannot understand the soul cannot understand God, for the soul is a minute particle of God, and failing to understand the particle, one fails to understand the whole. Instead of even trying to understand the spirit soul, most people ignore it or, even worse, deny its existence entirely. And godless scientists encourage the people in their ignorance by propounding the theory that life arises from matter. Śrīla Prabhupāda decried this atheistic theory and exposed the fact that it could not be proved. Thus he said that civilized countries, especially in the West, were living in a fool's paradise.

King Kulaśekhara notes that we ignore God and His many names and activities at our peril. This peril is not only individual but collective. Materialists try to live in a technological paradise, but the paradise is lost when war breaks out or other calamities strike. Although Śrīla Prabhupāda noted that fools become angry when called fools, he never hesitated to boldly criticize the foolish materialists in his books and lectures. But he didn't simply criticize: he offered the teachings and the example that can bring relief to the whole world. He taught the members of his International Society for Krishna Consciousness to live in a way that leaves ample time for spiritual advancement. The Society is meant to be an example for the whole world, a community whose members have reduced their problems and are simply interested living a God-centered life.

Though the four kinds of unsurrendered persons Kṛṣṇa mentions in the Bhagavad-gītā are not interested in surrendering to Him, the devotees continue their efforts, satisfied to set the example their spiritual master has requested and to help conditioned souls wherever possible.

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Copyright © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari