— Chapter Thirteen —

Maintaining Material Attachments
of 'I' and 'Mine'

All glories to Sri Gadadhara Pandit and Lord Sri Gauranga; all glories to Lord Nityananda, the life and soul of Srimati Jah- navadevi; all glories to Sri Advaita Acarya, the Lord of Mother Sita; all glories to all the devotees of Lord Caitanya.

The worst offense against the holy name

DRENCHED IN TEARS of ecstatic love, Srila Haridasa Thakura went on to explain, in a choked voice, the last of the offenses to the holy name. "My Lord, this last namaparadha is the worst kind of offense. Its presence restricts the free flow of divine love, prema.

When you close your eyes and watch your thoughts, it is the mind that you, the self, are viewing, not the brain. The stream of mindstuff (the stream of thoughts, feelings, and so on) is all within the mind. The mind, not the brain, is the storehouse of memory.
Chris Butler Speaks

Even after having taken spiritual initiation, most materially attached persons cannot fully give up bodily designations. They maintain a 'me' and 'mine' mentality that sidetracks them from the path of devotion. Physical designations, e.g. 'I am a brahmana', 'I am Vaisnava', 'I am a King'; or 'this is my position, wealth, son, grandson and so on', symptomize spiritual immaturity and are deterrents to proper cultivation of devotional service. This terrible offense is only ameliorated when one surrenders to the holy name.

The necessity of surrender to the holy name

"Every devotee must cease all namaparadhas and surrender completely to the holy name. According to the scriptures, the