Dear Karthik,
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances!
Thank you for having asked that. Questions like these can be called 'FAQ's of chanting Nityananda Gauranga' since every new devotee who has joined so far has mentioned this point sometime or the other. I believe that we can compile such questions into basics of Nitaai Gaura Naama for the benefit of newcomers.
Although theory may suggest one thing, practically what one encounters is this :
Although Nitaai gaura naam doesn't consider offences, chanting properly with attention and without committing offense on our part is vastly superior to chanting and committing all types of sinful activities and inattention. Anyone who has seen both the good and the bad quality chanting will testify to that.
Benefit obtained by surrendering to the guru is far more superior than chanting alone. There is no doubt. As a matter of fact without guru we cannot reach the Lord. But surrender should not be equated to the formal diksha process alone.
The very day you have come to this sanga, you have obtained the mercy of guru and Gauranga and so your sadhana will definitely be successful. Remember that all of us obtained the knowledge of the mantrarajas only by the mercy of a devotee in the first place to start with. So we have the mercy of sri-guru eternally from the start.
While it is a fact that diksha takes you a very long way ahead, let us not think wrongly that the mantrarajas will not bestow their unlimited mercy because we are not initiated. Nothing is further from the truth. It isn't a case of all or nothing. Any material work is like that, but this is spiritual. Many of us are not formal diksha disciples but we have also experienced the indescribable power of chanting. Let us not think that we are denied from higher progress because we have not taken diksha.
When you come to the stage where you need diksha, then the Lord will personally arrange for circumstances that will take you to your initiation and further progress. Nothing is impossible for Lord Gauranga Krishna! When we advance sufficiently, the Lord will arrange for opening the doors to higher advancement. So do not worry about that.
Lord Gauranga has himself said that diksha is not a pre-requisite for chanting though it is necessary for higher spiritual advancement of the disciple. The names can and should be chanted under all circumstances whether one is initiated or not. The naama is the Lord and so he knows what to arrange when. So you may not be initiated now, but having started chanting Nityananda Gauranga and Hare Krishna, you have already earned the mercy of the Lord.
So the advice is, "Do not worry about circumstances. Just chant and behold the wondrous power of the Lord!"
Daasos'mi,
Srinath
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