If I Were Sincere...

Once again, I'm making my way through Sacinandana Swami's book, The Nectarean Ocean of the Holy Name. In his discussion of the eighth offense ("To consider the chanting of Hare Krishna to be one of the asupicious ritualistic activities...") Sacinandana Maharaja includes the following quote from Harinama-Cintamani. It is a prayer that Haridasa Thakur offers to Lord Caitanya.

My dear Lord, my thoughts and my intellect are thoroughly mundane: therefore I simply mouth the names of the Lord. I am too unfortunate to experience the transcendental touchstone qualities of the holy name. O Lord, I beg you to please appear as the holy name and dance on my tongue. I fall at Your lotus feet and pray. If You like, You can keep me in this material world and deprive me of the spiritual sky; whatever You desire, You are free to fulfill. But please let me taste the divine nectar of Krishna's holy name. You have incarnated amongst the jivas to distribute the holy name, so kindly also consider me, an insignificant jiva. I am a fallen soul and you are the savior of the fallen. Let this be our relationship. O savior, on the strength of this relationship, I am begging from You the nectar of the holy name.

*The fantastic picture above is from Madhva Muni's flickr account. There are many beautiful pictures there.