How is Gauranga Mantra bonafide

Dear Guru-vrata dasa prabhu, Hare Krishna! Jaya Shrila Prabhupada! Jaya Shri Guru Parampara! Thank you for your participation in this Group. I am the Guru of Bhakta Matus and I am happy to join this discussion.

I want you to seriously consider and try to understand the full meaning of the following quote from Shrila Prabhupada:

Shrila Prabhupada in Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita Antya-lila 2.31 purport: "Worshipers of Shri Gaurasundara accept the four syllables gau-ra-an-ga as the Gaura mantra, but pure worshipers of Radha and Krishna accept the four syllables ra-dha krs-na as the Gaura-gopala mantra. However, Vaishnavas consider Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu nondifferent from Radha-Krishna (shri-krishna-chaitanya radha-krishna nahe anya). Therefore one who chants the mantra "gauranga" and one who chants the names of Radha and Krishna are on the same level."

Shrila Prabhupada states that all worshipers of Lord Gauranga accept the Name "Gauraanga" as the four-syllable Gaura Gopala Mantra. And he emphatically authorizes the chanting of the Gauranga Mantra by stating that anyone who *CHANTS* the mantra Gauranga and one who chants the names of Radha and Krishna (in the form of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra) are on the same level. The quotes you have quoted about concocted Mantras in Kali Yuga do not apply for the Gauranga Mantra because it is authorized by Shrila Prabhupada and all the Acharyas and has been chanted by great Acharyas like Shrila Shivananda Sena and Lord Nityananda Prabhu Himself. Pancha Tattva Mantra is regularly chanted along with the Hare Krishna Mahaamantra by all our students and accepted by us according to Shrila Prabhupada instructions. We are teaching our students to gradually increase to the stage of chanting 64 rounds of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, therefore we are not compromising the Hare Krishna Mahamantra or the Pancha Tattva Mantra in any way whatsoever.

Iif someone states that chanting the Gauranga Mantra is a deviation or stops others from chanting the Gauranga Mantra, such a person is not only rejecting outright Shrila Prabhupada's above instructions but also cannot be called a worshiper of Lord Gauranga according to the above purport of Shrila Prabhupada since he or she is rejecting the Gauranga Mantra even though Shrila Prabhupada has established and glorified the chanting of the Mantra himself.

Therfore, I think that before coming to hasty decisions about what is a deviation and what is not, one should study the instructions of the Acharya (like Shrila Prabhupada) in totality and also understand them in accordance to the instructions of all our previous Acharyas. An Acharya may sometimes practically not implement some of his own universal teachings and instructions (in his own books) according to time, place and circumstance, but that does not mean that those universal instructions are to be rejected or ignored or minimized in any way or that they can be never implemented ever in the future. I would suggest that you kindly study all the extensive scriptural quotes from our Acharyas on this important matter, which we have compiled and discussed in our Nityaananda Gauraanga Naama book ( http://nitaai.net/forums/viewforum.php?id=23#top ) before coming to a conclusion. Thanks again.

Yours in the service of the Holy Names,
Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami.

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