Nityananda Namlekhan is the instant harbinger of goosebumps throughout our body due to the currents of bliss arising by the direct mental touch of Nityananda Himself in the form of the visualization of the divine meanings of the most merciful syllables of His holy name.
Namlekhan awakens our vivid remembrance. Kirtan with this vivid remembrance sublimates our harmful desires. Namlekhan is the build-up of remembrance and subsequent Kirtan is the relishing of that remembrance. What is the use of building it up if one doesn’t relish the remembrance? And how can one truly and very deeply relish the remembrance if one doesn’t build it up first internally?
It is a two-pronged attack on Maya by first Namakshar and then Namshabda. We sharpen the weapon and our focus by Namlekhan first and then succeed in thwarting her by attacking with that much more effective weapon now when we do Kirtan. There is no sense in sharpening the weapon if we don’t plan to use it and there is no sense in using a blunt weapon against the all-powerful Mahadevi. So one without the other is incomplete.
You have your mind and the capacity to think and visualize, don’t you? So just think of the forms in the syllables of the Name as you airwrite and they will slowly appear to you in Their original forms in front of you. Can’t you do that much? You are thinking about the Lord by Namlekhan. So even if it is by your own effort first, it is transcendental. Namlekhan is so spontaneous that anyone can think of the forms of the Lord while doing it even if one’s consciousness is not pure or ideal, because all it needs is some mental imagination which all of us have the capacity to do, irrespective of our mental state at that time.
â—Ź YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
If we don’t directly touch Nityananda daily by His Namlekhan sufficiently, there is a great probability that Maya will sooner or later destroy our already tender faith in Nityananda’s worship, which is rarely attained after trilliions of lifetimes. We will not feel any bliss in even hearing about Nityananda’s pastimes. Nothing about Nityananda will feel sweet to us anymore. And thus we will gradually leave Nityananda’s worship. If we don’t do ample bye-bye to Maya by waving our palm in Namlekhan daily, then Maya will ensure that we end up doing bye-bye to Nityananda Himself soon.
The more merciful Lord we take shelter of, the more intense are the tests of Maya to take us away from that Lord. So the only weapon which thwarts this intention of Maya is our daily positive experiences of bliss and remembrances of Nityananda in Namlekhan, which are very easy to feel in any condition of consciousness. Raising our palm to do Namlekhan means we pro-actively ward off, keep at bay, attack, and defeat Maya with our hand forcing her to retreat, as well as stopping Maya from returning back with our palm.
Those who are not doing Nityananda Namlekhan daily, even after coming to know about it by some extreme stroke of divine good fortune, are willingly drinking poison. They have the whole nitya-lila of Vraja, Navadvipa, and Ekachakra waiting to instantly manifest in a flash right at the tip of their palms. But no, they won’t raise their palms and do it for some strange reason only known to them. Alas! Due to this sheer neglect of this topmost practice, they may be stripped of this rarest golden chance because they are not grabbing it and who knows in how many lifetimes they will be able to chant Harinam offenselessly.
One will know how much is that ample Namlekhan daily as one does it. One will feel the bliss and love for Nityananda and immunity from Maya growing by doing Namlekhan, so one will just know oneself how much is ample as it may differ from person to person. To get the goosebumps of sheer bliss during Namlekhan even more instantly, try to eat food cooked at home (not readymade or cooked food from outside) which is cooked and offered by a Nityananda Bhakta (the more staunch faith of the cook in Nityananda, the faster the results will be). Also if possible, the food grains should be bought from the money of one who is a Nityananda Bhakta,. It is the ultra best if both the earning and cooking are done while remembering Nityananda via hearing through a speaker or earphones. As you already know, we become what we eat!
â—Ź Is One Time Enough?
Anyone who airwrites, hears, says, or sings Nityananda’s Names or Pastimes once will immediately start his or her journey towards pure love by instantly becoming dear to Gaura Radha Krishna, irrespective of whether he or she practices it regularly or not.
However, those who are more serious to further fasten this journey to pure love even more, should try to practice all the above not just once but for a longer time daily and also try to accept the favorable and reject the unfavorable things to further enhance the quality of these practices.
Serious practitioners should not take the excuse of all the benefits of doing it only once and actually do it only once and just leave it. Instead they should do it regularly and also try to follow the other things which are favorable to the above practices as much as possible, so as to leave nothing to chance and seal the deal as they say. Because nothing is more important than entering both the pastimes after death. So one should leave no stone unturned, which is helping even a little bit for that cause. One should use all one can get to reach our goal of the nitya-lila.
The details should also be accepted if they are favorable to the primary practices. It does not mean that if one statement of the Lord is right, all other statements of His have no value whatsoever. Because the whole shastra are His words only. Of course, a few statements are more important and more relvant to us in Kaliyuga than the others.
â—Ź Envy For Nityananda
Just like our quick attainment of Gaura Radha Krishna by Nityananda’s worship is 100% certain without a doubt, our doom and falldown to the lowest regions is also guaranteed if we harbor even a tiny drop of envy for Nityananda’s worship and thus speak even a word minimizing it even in the subtlest manner. Gaura Radha Krishna will never forgive such a soul. It is spiritual suicide for the one who speaks it and for those who hear such blasphemy. The more merciful the Lord is, the more heavy and long lasting is the reaction and suffering of minimizing His worship. A sharp blade acts in both ways. It shaves fast but it also bleeds us fast if we are not careful.
Lord Gauranga states anyone who says or hears the name of Nityananda just ONCE will become Mine forever. There is however one situation, a fine print, when this may not hold true. If one says once Nityananda’s name, irrespective of that soul being envious of Gaura Krishna Himself, Gaura accepts him or her as His very own.
But this is not valid if that soul becomes maliciously and repeatedly envious of Gauranga’s dearest Nityananda Himself. Gaura means, “I don’t care if that soul is envious of Me but I take back this benediction if that soul becomes maliciously envious of My Nityananda, even if that soul may be taking Nityananda’s name many times, what to speak of only once.”
Also, there are two kinds of envy. Ignorant envy and envy with knowledge and full deliberation. Those who are ignorant of position of Nityananda may pass envious comments about Him, just like stobha namabhasa mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam. Though they may get some reaction for this, this kind of envy is not taken so seriously by Gaura Radha Krishna, as it stems from total ignorance about Nityananda’s position and not due to deliberate and repeated malicious intention towards Nityananda.
Nityananda Himself is always forgiving for both types of envy. But if the envy towards Nityananda is after acquiring knowledge about His position and after practicing devotion, then all the statements of Gauranga Himself and Srila Vrindavana dasa Thakura in Chaitanya Bhagavata come into full effect, like this one for example:
tilardheka tomare
jahara dvesa rahe
bhajile o se amara
priya kabhu nahe
(CB 2.5.102)
Lord Gauranga proclaimed, “Anyone, who maintains even the slightest envy towards You (Nityananda), will never become dear to Me even if he or he worships Me sincerely.”