Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

has anyone heard anything regarding this subject?

Not me.

Well. There is no limitation of chanting the nama (name/nama is different from mantra in a vedic or puranic sense eg starting with Om), there is no restriction on nama. "aho bata sva-paco to gariyan" - SB 3.33.7

Thank you. Yes CCD that verifies that prior LC Nama Kirtan/japa was bonafied for non brahmans

While the puranas are very strict in their outline of which duties each caste can perform, at least three of the sattvic puranas I know of state that any caste is qualified to chant the Lord names. If you still want/need references please let me know.

A friend of mine and myself have recollected so many classes in which we have heard from various devotees stating that the Maha Mantra was a Vedic mantra similar to "Om Namo Narayanaya" which was only chanted by brahmans as per Ramanuja lila.

Statements such as SB 3.33.7 may only refer to the calling of "He Govinda" "He Gopal" "Jaya Jagannatha"

so I am still not sure what is the history.

So far I havent seen -om- before mahamantra anywhere.
http://www.gaudiya.com/pdf/References_to_the_Hare_Krishna_Maha-Mantra.pdf

It is an interesting topic, but to get a clearer picture one has to look back at the history. Much of the material available on this side is not written from a devotional perspective, it is usually written by professors or graduates etc. but 500 or so years is not that long ago so I would think you could probably get a 70-80% reliable picture from this material which is not bad.

At the time of the advent of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengal and its surrounding areas was mostly dominated by the Tantrics who were even very critical of Sri Chaitanya chanting Hare Krishna on the streets (kirtan) and he was from a brahmin family. Also prior to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu no one challenged the caste system, it was considered an insult if a low class person was attempting to perform some spiritual sadhana without consent from the brahmanas and how would they perform sadhana if the brahmanas refused to teach them?

Although there were many references in many Vedic scriptures that anyone could chant the names of God and get benefit, dont forget the brahmanas were the teachers of students and they refused to teach sudras and labour class. So if they could not read, how would they know? That is not to say it never happened in private, it may have somewhere but not openly.

This is one of great aspects of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he challenged all the brahmanas of the day by freely distributing love of godhead to all, even muslims and low borns.

In Jagannath Puri it is held strongly that the common story of how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left the planet (merged with a deity) is false, they say he did not merge with the deity he was murdered by the brahmins of the day for accepting Muslims and low borns as disciples. But this is a view held by the priests of the Jagannath Temple who were at odds with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on one level because even to this day they will not allow a non-native Indian to enter the Jagannath Temple. It is also a view commonly quoted by historians.

Ok before you attack me with insults remember I did not say the above is true and I said it is not written from a devotional perspective and I did not say I agree with it. I also said its probably only 70-80% correct. The above paragraph is probably in the 20-30% that is incorrect.