Divine Sound and the Holy Name I

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the cult of the holy name has been an esoteric practice at least from the time of St. John Chrystostom of Greece. The Early Church Father, born in 349 AD was the Archinishop of Constantinople. While he was known for his golden-tongued oratory and his denunciation of abuses by Church authorities, he is perhaps best known as a contributor to the Philokalia, an important theological work in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. While Chrysostom was an initiator of the cult of the holy name in Orthodox Christianity, the Philokalia was collected by different spiritual masters of the Orthodox tradition somewhere between the 4th and 15th centuries.

In the 18th centuries two Greek monks, Saint Nicodemus and Saint Makarios, gathered the texts and reflections that form the basis of the Philokalia and had them published at Venice in 1782. The text was originally pubished in Greek. But it is the Russian translation of the book that was to capture the imagination of the Eastern world. Paisi Velichkovsky, the translator, was a Russian monk who had visited the Holy Mountin of Athos where Nicodemus had lived an worked. Velichovsky appreciated the transcendental character of the work and translated a section of the work into Slavic. His selection was published in Moscow in 1793 with the title Dobrotolubiye.

A popular novel, The Way of the Pilgrim, or The Pilgrim’s Tale incorporated this fragment of the Philokalia into its story. The Way of the Pilgrim recounts the story of a spiritual truth-seeker and pilgrim who wanders through Russia while chanting the holy name of Jesus, in the formula first mentioned in the Philokalia. The pilgrim carries with him a copy of the fragment of Philokalia referred to above as the Dorbrotolubiye.

The fictional story of the pilgrim serves as a device for exploring the Philokalia’s teachings about constant inner prayer, using the holy name of God, as well as surrender.

The version of the holy name prayer found in The Way of the Pilgrim was widely read and known in 19th Century Russia. Sections of the book may have served as a model for Dostoyevksy’s own Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov.

A Russian Pilgrim

The religious passion that animates the Way of a Pilgrim resonates through the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoyevksy, and echoes though even such modern works as Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. The Way of the Pilgrim unfolds a profound mystical initiation into the ecstasy and reality of the Kingdom of God promised by Jesus Christ and promises to raise the practitioner up into a transcendental state of divine knowledge and love.

Father Zossima

In his foreword to “The Way of a Pilgrim” the Jesus Prayer Journey--Annotated and Explained, translated by Gleb Pokrovsky, 2013, Andrew Harvey explains his experience, comparing the Jesus prayer with the practice of chanting japa he had discovered in India:

“In India I had encountered for the first time the practice of japa--of repeating the name of God in the heart--and now realized that in the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” the Eastern Orthodox tradition had made the same simple, all-transforming discovery of the power of the divine name.

The ecstasies and revelations of the anonymous narrator of the Way of a Pilgrim were no less profound and poignant than those that had so shaken me in Mirabai, Kabir, and Toukaram, the great hindu and Sufi mystics the discovery of whom had changed my life. And in the string of quotes from the Philokalia--from figures such as Symeon the New Theologicn, Isaac the Syrian and Gregory Palamas--then totally unknown to me--I recognized the pure sober note of mystical certainty and rigor that had thrilled me in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads.”

The esoteric path followed in the Way of a Pilgrim is not to be penetrated by the uninitiated. The pilgrim or truth-seeker is unsatisfied in his quest until he meets a starets--the Russian equivalent of a mystic holy man of guru. Since his attempts were unguided forays into wisdom before meeting the starets, the pilgrim could not enter into the secrets of a holy life. Mere curiosity wasn’t sufficient for divine illumination. But as the spiritual mentor guides the steps of the pilgrim, he understands the need for humility and surrender. The guru instructs him, “It is the humble, simple heart that attains to such prayer, through poverty of the spirit and a living experience of it.” The pilgrim’s surrender to God and his communion through prayer is realized through constantly taking the holy name.

J.D. Salinger

The Way of a Pilgrim might have been consigned to the dusty back shelves of used book stores and university libraries had it not been for the writing of J.D. Salinger. Salinger was the notoriously reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, a short novel about a crazy mixed-up teenager in the 1950s. While disarmingly adolescent in its appeal, the novel was originally written for adults. Salinger had been shell-shocked during the Second World War and returned shaken from the violence. His maladjusted teenager was a metaphor for the adults who had been devastated by the ravages of war. The World War II generation, the “Greatest Generation” fought and defeated Hitler’s program of genocide, but returned marked and wounded by the experience.

Postwar America did its best to console itself with cheap gasoline, TV comedies, and Rock and Roll, but the psychological damage had been done. Salinger’s promising career never really quite gelled as he never overcame the trauma from the war. Salinger was present at the liberation of the Dachau death-camp and later told his daughter, “you could live a lifetime and never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nostrils.” He invested the dark traumatic psychology of war-torn Europe in the psyche of his adolescent hero, Holden Caulfield.

"Rebel without a Cause" James Dean

His book’s “troubled teen” syndrome was an instant hit. Holden Caulfield exemplified the 50s teenage "Rebel without a Cause," later incarnated by James Dean. Catcher in the Rye continues to sell millions and is often assigned reading in high school lit classes, both for its breezy prose and conversational style as for its theme of maladapted youth. His criticism of “phony” people hit home. Holden Caulfield became the emblem of existential teenage angst for generations. But fans of Salinger waited in vain for a follow-up book that would equal or surpass Catcher in the Rye. Salinger never published a major novel after his initial offering.

Readers who loved Catcher in the Rye waited years for a sequel or a new novel, only to be offered a curious short story, called Franny. Later published as a small book with the novella Zooey under the title Franny and Zooey, Franny tells another story of teenage angst. This time the protagonist is an intellectual college undergraduate, a young woman, who, estranged by the phoniness of the consumer society around her suffers a nervous breakdown. In the story, she escapes her tension and anxiety by following the spiritual discipline explained in a book she’s reading, The Way of a Pilgrim.

Just as the truth-seeking pilgrim in the story carries with him the Dorbrotolubiye given him by his mentor, Franny carries in her handbag The Way of the Pilgrim and takes shelter of the Jesus Prayer when she can no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of American middle class society in the 1950s. Franny is concerned with overcoming ego, I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody,” she says, “I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.” 

In an attempt to achieve some modicum of psychic peace, Salinger had gone from Jewish mysticism to Zen Buddhism to the teachings of the Bengali mystic Ramkrishna and Kriya-yoga. Just as Franny recovered her composure by taking shelter of the Jesus prayer, Salinger himself is rumored to have passed hours in meditation, intoning the ancient mantras of the Vedas. His reclusive life precludes our entering too deeply into his own mystic search for the truth, but it is quite clear that this quintessential of American authors, whose work is required reading for high school students everywhere, took great interest not only in the Christian mystic tradition of the holy name, but also in its far more profound Hindu version, the chanting of the holy name of Krishna.

Salinger’ Franny explains the power of the Jesus Prayer in the voice of an undergraduate student sharing a soda with a friend, "Anyway," she went on, "the starets tells the pilgrim that if you keep saying that prayer over and over again—you only have to just do it with your lips at first—then eventually what happens, the prayer becomes self-active.

Something happens after a while. I don't know what, but something happens, and the words get synchronized with the person's heartbeats, and then you're actually praying without ceasing. Which has a really tremendous, mystical effect on your whole outlook. I mean that's the whole point of it, more or less. I mean you do it to purify your whole outlook and get an absolutely new conception of what everything's about."

This dialogue takes place in a restaurant. Franny tries to explain to her boyfriend how mysticism works, while he eats a plate of Frog’s legs and she smokes.

"As a matter of fact, that makes absolute sense," Franny said, "because in the Nembutsu sects of Buddhism, people keep saying 'Namu Amida Butsu' over and over again—which means 'Praises to the Buddha' or something like that— and the same thing happens. The exact same—"

If you keep in mind that Franny was published in 1955, this dialogue seems quite advanced, considering that a friend of mine was recently arrested in Russia for discussing yoga.

"You get to see God. Something happens in some absolutely nonphysical part of the heart— where the Hindus say that Atman resides, if you ever took any Religion—and you see God, that's all." She flicked her cigarette ash self-consciously, just missing the ashtray. She picked up the ash with her fingers and put it in. "And don't ask me who or what God is. I mean I don't even know if He exists. When I was little, I used to think—"

She stopped. The waiter had come to take away the dishes and redistribute menus.

"You want some dessert, or coffee?" Lane asked.

Salinger did his best to hide from publicity, from the press and from the outside world, living as a recluse in upstate New York and dedicating himself to religious study. It is said that he may have come in connection with the teachings of A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda who advocated a life of strict discipline and dedication to the chanting of the holy name.

Bhaktivedānta Swami first came to New York in the 1960s where his Hare Krishna movement influenced poets like Alan Ginsburg, Bob Dylan, and later the Beatles.

Poets of the Beat with Dylan and Alan Ginsberg

But perhaps his influence was most deeply felt on J.D. Salinger whose fascination with the holy name had already become manifest in his novels. If the key to enlightenment expressed in Philokalia and the Way of a Pilgrim involved humility, surrender, and constant absorption in the holy name, Bhaktivedānta Swāmi stressed exactly these elements to his students and in his books.

Poet Alan Ginsberg with spiritual leader Bhaktivedanta Swami

Bhaktivedānta Swami was a tireless exponent of the holy name of Krishna and left behind volumes of writings supporting the thesis that the holy name gives deliverance from all evil. In support of this thesis, for example, he quotes from different authorities. You may find the following in his writings.

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura quotes the following verses from the scriptures:

नाम्नो हि यावती शक्तिः पाप-निर्हरणे हरेः

तावत् कर्तुं न शक्नोति पातकं पातकी नरः

nāmno hi yāvatī śaktiḥ pāpa-nirharaṇe hareḥ
tāvat kartuṁ na śaknoti pātakaṁ pātakī naraḥ

बृहद्-विष्णु पुराण

"Simply by chanting one holy name of Hari, a sinful man can counteract the reactions to more sins than he can commit." (Bṛhad-viṣṇu Purāṇa)

अवशेनापि यन्-नाम्नि कीर्तिते सर्व-पातकैः

पुमान् विमुच्यते सद्यः सिंह-त्रस्तैर् मृगैर् इव

avaśenāpi yan-nāmni kīrtite sarva-pātakaiḥ
pumān vimucyate sadyaḥ siṁha-trastair mṛgair iva

गरुड पुराण

"If one chants the holy name, even in a helpless condition or without desiring to do so, all of one's sinful reactions immediately depart, just as a lion's roar causes the small animals in the forest to flee in fear." (Garuḍa Purāṇa)

सकृद् उच्चारितं येन हरिर् इत्य् अक्षर-द्वयम्

बद्ध-परिकरस् तेन मोक्षाय गमनं प्रति

sakṛd uccāritaṁ yena harir ity akṣara-dvayam
baddha-parikaras tena mokṣāya gamanaṁ prati

स्कन्द पुराण

"A person who once chants the holy name of the Lord, consisting of the two syllables ha-ri, guarantees his path to liberation." (Skanda Purāṇa)

Bhaktivedānta Swāmi founded a worldwide association of truth-seekers dedicated to the chanting of the holy name Kṛṣṇa, the Personal Godhead. The movement's main purpose is to promote the well-being of human society by teaching the science of God consciousness (Kṛṣṇa consciousness) according to the timeless Vedic scriptures of India. But while the ancient Vedic scriptures define universal truths and values, the Godhead may be known by many names, according to His different qualities and activities. In the Bible he is known as Jehovah ("the almighty one"), in the Koran as Allah ("the great one").

The Way of a Pilgrim and the Philokalia advocate the Jesus Prayer and the taking of the holy name in that way. The ancient Bhagavad-gītā reveals God as Kṛṣṇa. The world Krishna means “infinite beauty, infinite love.” a Sanskrit name meaning "the all-attractive one." There are many conceptions of the infinite--infinite time, infinite space, infinite power. But these are external to the ultimate reality. Infinite love attracts infinite love and surrender infinitely and irresistably. The holy name calls upon God’s mercy and his mercy and love are infinite. This is the most elevated concept of infinite--divine love. And one who calls upon that divine love by immersing herself in the holy name of God--be it, Krishna or Christ--will ultimately achieve the goal.

Bhaktivedānta recommended the chanting and vibration of the holy name of Krishna: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. This is transcendental sound vibration. It will help us to cleanse the dust from the mirror of the mind. At the present moment we have accumulated so much material dust on the mirror of the mind, and as a consequence we are unable to see things in perspective. This vibration of transcendental sound (the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra) will cleanse away this dust and enable us to see clearly our real constitutional position. As our consciousness is purified by this process of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, all our material miseries will disappear.