Understanding Krsna and Christ 113
and the Holy Spirit. We believe we can know the name of God only by
revelation from the Son of God. Jesus Christ revealed the name of the
father, and therefore we take the name Christ as the revealed name of
God.
Srila Prabhupada: Actually, it doesn’t matter— Krsna or Christ—the
name is the same. The main point is to follow the injunctions of the Vedic
scriptures that recommend chanting the name of God in this age. The
easiest way is to chant the mahd-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna
Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Rama and Krsna are names of God, and Hare is the energy of God. So
when we chant the mahd-mantra, we address God together with His
energy. This energy is of two kinds, the spiritual and the material. At
present we are in the clutches of the material energy. Therefore we pray
to Krsna that He may kindly deliver us from the service of the material
energy and accept us into the service of the spiritual energy. That is our
whole philosophy. Hare Krsna means, ‘‘O energy of God, O God
[Krsna], please engage me in Your service.”’ It is our nature to render
service. Somehow or other we have come to the service of material
things, but when this service is transformed into the service of the
spiritual energy, then our life is perfect. To practice bhakti-yoga [loving
service to God] means to become free from designations like ‘‘Hindu,”’
‘‘Muslim,”’ ‘‘Christian,”’ this or that, and simply to serve God. We have
created Christian, Hindu, and Muhammadan religions, but when we .
come to a religion without designations, in which we don’t think we are
Hindus or Christians or Muhammadans, then we can speak of pure
religion, or bhakti.
Father Emmanuel: Mukti? ;
Srila Prabhupada: No, bhakti. When we speak of bhakti, mukti [lib-
eration from material miseries] is included. Without bhakti there is no
mukti, but if we act on the platform of bhakti, then muktiis included. We _
learn this from the Bhagavad-gita [14.26]:

| mam ca yo ‘vyabhicarena

bhakti-yogena sevate

| sa gundan samatityaitan .

brahma-bhiyaya kalpate
‘‘One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down

under any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature

and thus comes to the level of Brahman.”’
