Back to Basics, Back to Apexes

I just came from a lesson by Srimati Mataji, part of the three-session workshop "Making Friends with the Holy Name."

One of the first activities was to chant a couple of songs from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, two recognized "anthems" of Nama-hatta preaching: Nadiya Godrume (describing how Lord Nityananda established the market of the holy name, and the fundamental teachings related to it) and The Song of the Broker (announcing the good news and dynamics of the market of the holy name).

This helped me to remember that, after all, all we are doing ("we" in the extended sense of all the preachers, congregational developers, and the very few Congregational Development Ministry workers) is to facilitate people get the full benefit of the holy name, to advance from sraddha to prema through the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. That is the active principle:

[Isvara Puri to Lord Caitanya]: "In this age of Kali there is no other religious principle than the chanting of the holy name, which is the essence of all Vedic hymns. This is the purport of all scriptures"

CC Adi 7.74.

So, all the efforts to organize, inspire, manage and sustain the building of the congregation should ultimately fructify in the individuals' realization of the highest aspects of love of God that chanting allows.

All the structure, the supervision, the sociological analyses and the group dynamics are certainly useful and essential. At the same time the goods, the product circulated by the whole system is the name, and the price is pure faith: more faith and dedication, more access to the higher aspects of the Absolute Truth. This is the business; this is what the Nama-hatta, the market of the holy name, is all about.