khanda khanda hai deha, yaya yadi prana
tabu ami vadane, na chadi hari-nama
“Even if you cut my body into pieces and I give up my life, I will never stop chanting Lord Hari’s Holy Name!”
(Sri Caitanya-Bhagavata, Adi-khanda 16.94, spoken by Srila Haridas Thakur to the Moslem king)
From Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s commentary:
The spiritual name and the possessor of the name are one. Therefore I can never give up chanting the holy names and repose my faith in my gross and subtle bodies. The constitutional position of a living entity is that he is an eternal servant of Krsna. In other words, every living entity is a Vaisnava. The Vaisnavas have no other activities than chanting the holy names of Sri Hari. The only duty of both the practitioner and the perfected being is to chant the holy names of the Lord. I cannot give this up to follow man-made social behaviour. Even if the result is that society and its administrators torture me as much as they want, I am prepared to tolerate it all with a smiling face. I will never give up the eternal service of Hari to run after temporary material happiness. I have no other activity than congregational chanting the spiritual names of Kṛṣṇa that I have received through disciplic succession.
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