Lowering the Prescribed Number of Rounds to Sixteen

Lowering the Prescribed Number of Rounds to Sixteen

Below are the commentaries of Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda on the two ślokas of Śrī Caitanya Bhāgavata:

Antya-khaṇḍa 9.121

prabhu bale,—“jāna, ‘lakṣeśvara’ bali kāre?

prati-dina lakṣa-nāma ye grahaṇa kare

Gauḍīya Bhāṣya by Śrīla Prabhupāda—

"Śrī Gaurasundara saying that, — “He who is taking one lakh hari-nāma daily, in his house Bhagavān accepting sevā. Bhagavān accepting offerings only from him. He who is not taking one lakh hari-nāma daily, Bhagavān not accepting any offering from him, thereby to arrange his sevā-saubhāgya (fortune to do sevā). Any bhagavata-bhakta must take one lakh hari-nāma; otherwise he can become unable to do bhagavata-sevā being attached to different kinds of material enjoyment. That is the reason for why those who have taken shelter of Śrī Caitanya Deva, all of them taking minimum one lakh hari-nāma daily. Otherwise any naivedya (offering) offered in the name of Śrī Gaurasundara—He cannot accept."

Antya khanda 9.127

bhakti laoyāite śrī-caitanya-avatāra

bhakti vinā jijñāsā nā kare prabhu āra

Gauḍīya Bhāṣya by Śrīla Prabhupāda—

"Those devotees of Śrī Caitanya Deva— they never associate with those non-devotees. He who is absorbingly busy with different kinds of topics relating to karma, jñāna and anyābhilāṣas other than bhakti, no friendship should be made with them. If one lakh hari-nāma is not taken daily— then those fallen people developing material attachment; then they cannot serve Śrī Gaurasundara anymore.

Except those lakṣeśvaras (those who are taking one lakh hari-nāma daily) none of those Gauḍīya devotees can accept the absolute idealism of Gaura-bhakti. Those who are fallen, due to their aversive mood in Śrī Nāma bhajana, which is the ultimate object of Hari-bhajana, they instead of taking one lakh hari-nāma daily, pretend to show all different kinds of bhajana procedures, thereby they never attain maṅgala."

Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Pūrī Gosvāmī Mahārāja has said:

“Śri Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākur Prabhupāda insisted that everyone should attempt to complete one lakh of Holy Names as a daily function. He used to remark gravely that Śrīman Mahāprabhu would not even accept water from one who did not take to chanting one lakh of Holy Names daily. Thus, his counsel stood, as all would have to find time regardless to complete this chanting of one lakh of Holy Names without fail as a daily practice. He added however that to simply complete that amount was not the main factor, but one had to strive to remain attentive throughout such chanting and try to keep clear from the offences to the Holy Names. Those who had really the slightest regard for Śrīman Mahāprabhu would never in any way neglect His words.”

You could say that Svāmī Mahārāja made some concessions to his Westerner followers, because otherwise it would have been impossible for him to preach. Here is the opinion of Śrīla Prabhupāda:

“The person to whom the ācārya is pleased to transmit his power is alone in a position to convey the divine message. This constitutes the underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The ācārya thus authorized has no other duty than that of delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between the pronouncements of one ācārya and another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the Divinity in the form of the transcendental Name, who is identical with His form, quality, activity, and paraphernalia.”

(Excerpt from ‘The Harmonist’, December 1931, 445 Caitanya era, by Śri Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākur Prabhupāda)

All those concessions could have been considered an act of mercy if the preaching had been done under the shelter of The Prabhupāda and if his idealism had been maintained as the goal. But we see that this is not the case:

"In former days, sixty-four rounds used to be the standard quota from Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ordered his disciples to chant sixty-four rounds daily. Prabhupada saw that his Western devotees could not handle such a high quota. He asked them if they could do thirty-two rounds, and they said that was too much also. So he fixed the minimum quota at sixteen rounds, to be chanted without fail. Nowadays, many ISKCON devotees chant sixty-four rounds on Ekadasi and minimize their other activities. One reason the devotees don’t chant such a high quota is that Prabhupada has given us so many other services to do in prosecuting the Krsna Consciousness Movement. We can’t sit around all day and chant japa. A devotee asked Tamala Krsna Gosvami how he could improve his japa. TKG said that he should observe Ekadasi strictly. He should chant sixty-four rounds and stay up all night singing bhajanas. This would rejuvenate one’s spiritual life. Even that recommendation is hard to do for most of us. The sixteen rounds, chanted attentively and without offense, is sufficient."

(From satsvarupadasagoswami.com Free Write Journal #40)

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"Nevertheless, it was his sheer spiritual genius that he made various transcendental technical adjustments to suit the current times and circumstances in order to propel the movement of Lord Caitanya forward. We should never confuse such unconventional measures with deviation from disciplic conclusion. One such adjustment was the stipulation of chanting 16 rounds a day, when originally it was 64. Another is the ṛtvik system of conducting initiations."

(From iskcon-truth.com Initiations After 1977)

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What to speak of lowering the standard for his disciples to sixteen rounds—according to the diary of Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvāmī, in his later years Śrīla Svāmī Mahārāja himself was chanting sixteen rounds, and eventually he stopped chanting on beads altogether:

“Gradually, I have seen that Srila Prabhupada is no longer chanting japa on his beads. Many years ago, he was chanting sixty-four rounds, then gradually less, until a number of years ago it was sixteen. But now he does not chant on beads.[…]”

(TKG’s Diary: Prabhupada’s Final Days – June 10, 1977)

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“Srila Prabhupada’s condition remained the same today. He was passing sufficient urine, well more than half the quantity of the liquid he consumed. But he seemed to be growing weaker. He began to chant on his japa mala for the first time in many months. In fact, he insisted on always keeping the beads around his neck. Even during his massage, he fingered the beads and silently chanted. His beads also remained around his neck while he slept in his bed.”

(TKG’s Diary: Prabhupada’s Final Days – September 16, 1977)

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Gaura Hari Haribol!