Naam aparadh

There are offenses to the Holy Name that cause the chanter to incur great damage and trouble:

Envy of the Guru, thinking Him material, neglecting the Guru's instructions. Insulting or thinking badly about a great devotee of the Lord. Not beliving firmly that Krishna is the ultimate and the supreme. Not understanding that Krishna is non-different from His name, form, qualities and pastimes. To speak against the scriptures. To think chanting is pious activity. To preach to those with no faith, the confidential Glories of the Holy Name. To think that the Glories of the Holy Name are exaggerations. To chant while committing sins knowingly. To continue in the material conception of life and neglecting the Holy Name in spite of the knowledge available. To concoct some meaning of the Holy Name.

Once a person takes to chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, that person must approach the Lord and ask forgiveness for his past sins.

Krishna forgives the past sins of such a person.

However, after this is done, the person may no longer commit any new sins. Committing sins after accepting the rules and regulations to chant the Mahamantra is most dangerous. One should not even look at the face of such a person.

One who indulges in illicit sex, intoxication, gambling or meat-eating becomes contaminated. Such a person cannot utter the Holy Name of Krishna. Even if such a person chants for millions of lifetimes he will never achieve the fruit of Krishna prema, because the offense holds the person back just like an anchor forces a boat to be stationary no matter how much you row. This offense is the worst Naam Aparadh. There is no remedy for such a person. He must give up bad activities, and chant day and night. Mahaprabhu will then consider such a person. But without giving up bad activities, such a person will never be considered.

One who chants while committing offenses slowly loses all taste for chanting. In the heart of such a person, the unwanted creepers of siddhi, bhukti and mukti start growing. The bhakti lata of such a chanter is completely stunted and curtailed.

One who chants thinking Krishna is different from His name, chants inattentively, and the result is that desires for material pleasure grow in the heart of the person, and he loses all taste for chanting.

If one is trinad api sunicena, taror iva sahisnuna, then he can be saved from this trouble.

That humility comes only if one chants offenselessly.

In order to reach the level of offenseless chanting, which is very easy, one should simply give up contaminating activities and offenses to the Holy Name. If one keeps chanting, slowly the offenses will be eradicated. One must be careful to avoid falling into offenses again.

One has to make an effort to chant without offenses. Otherwise one will become a victim of siddhi, mukti and bhukti kaama.

The solution is to chant constantly and offer prayers of Glorification to the Holy Name. In this way, the Holy Name may forgive the offender. One can then chant offenselessly.

Solutions after this are to develop service attitude, humility and understanding of who is the Holy Name.

Effects of offenseless chanting include development of the 8 siddhis and eventually Krishna prema.

One cannot obtain the result of chanting without taking initiation.

One must have full faith - unflinching faith - in the words of the Guru.