Prabhupāda: In this connection, the comments of Śrīdhara Swami is very important. He is putting question, nānu sakṛd ucaritena nāmābhyasena kathāṁ sarva-pāpa-kṣayaṁ syāt, śraddhā-bhakty-avṛtyad eva adityader api vidhānāḥ. Śrīdhara Swami says that simply by chanting without any regulative principles, one becomes liberated. So how is that? So he replies himself also, "No, there are regulative principles."
The idea is that chanting of the holy name is so powerful that it can immediately liberate the vibrator. But because he is prone to fall down again, therefore there are regulative principles. Or in other words, if one is liberated simply by chanting once, offenseless, holy name, what to speak of others who are following the regulative principles. This is the idea.
It is not that . . . just like the sahajiyās. They think that, "If chanting is so powerful, I shall chant sometimes." But he does not know that after chanting, he is again falling down by willingly. This is willing, I mean to say, willful disobedience. Willful disobedience. Because I know that, "I have chanted the holy name. Now my all sinful reaction of my life is now vanished. Then why shall I commit again sinful activities?" That is the natural conclusion.
But if one concludes like this, "Now I have chanted, I have confessed my sinful activities in the church. Let me go now again, begin my sinful activities," such kind of willful negligence is very, very dangerous. Nāmno balād yasya hi pāpa-buddhiḥ (Padma Purāṇa, Brahma-kaṇḍha 25.16).
He's the greatest sinner, one who utilizes the holy name as a means of counteracting or neutralizing the sinful effects. They are very willful sinners. That should not be done. It is a fact that as soon as you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, your all sinful reaction of life is immediately neutralized or vanquished. But you should not do again. That is the idea.
Nānu sakṛd ucaritena nāmābhyasena kathāṁ sarva-pāpa-kṣayaḥ syāt, śraddhā-bhakty-avṛtyād eva vidhānaḥ. Tathā hi, sāyaṁ prātar gṛṇan bhaktyā duḥkha-grāmād vimucyate. He's giving quotation from many scriptures, in which it is stated, sāyaṁ prātar gṛṇan . . . sāyaṁ tri-sandhya: morning, noon and evening, prātar gṛṇan, daily chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Sāyaṁ prātar gṛṇan bhaktyā, with devotion and faith, duḥkha-grāmād vimucyate. Duḥkha-grāmād means volumes of miserable condition of life. One can avoid volumes of miserable condition of life simply by chanting.
Anudinam idam ādareṇa śṛṇvan iti. When it is stated anudinam ādareṇa, with great care and attention one should chant. Not that we should utilize the chanting of holy name for my sense gratification that, "I commit sin, and again I chant, and it will be counteracted. So again I chant, again I commit." No. That is not allowed. Anudinam. Śrīdhara Swami . . . anudinam idam ādareṇa śṛṇvanti.
Or śṛṇvan ādareṇa, with great care. Because the name, the holy name, and the person Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa's name—they are identical. So one should be so much careful and, I mean to say, respectful, that as soon as you are chanting, you should know that, "Kṛṣṇa is dancing on my tongue." Therefore how much careful and respectful we should be. It is very responsible.
Suppose Kṛṣṇa is here . . . just like we offer so respectful obeisances to the Deity. Similarly, as the Deity is arca-avatāra, incarnation . . . this Deity which you are worshiping as the arca-avatāra, arcā means worshipable incarnation. Because we cannot see Kṛṣṇa with our present eyes, material eyes, therefore it is Kṛṣṇa's mercy that He has appeared before us in a form which we can see. That is Kṛṣṇa's mercy. It is not that Kṛṣṇa is different from this Deity. That is mistake. Those who cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa's potency, they think that this is idol, and therefore they say "Idol worship." It is not idol worship.
The same example, as I have given many times, that the postbox, or mailbox on the street, it is post office. If somebody thinks, "It is a box . . ." It is a box, but it is a post office at the same time. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is everything. The bhūmir āpo analo vāyuḥ kham . . . (BG 7.4). Kṛṣṇa says that "My energy." As you cannot separate energy and the energetic, Kṛṣṇa is everything.