By Muniraja dasa
Many of us struggling sadhakas know that overcoming laya, sleepiness, during chanting, hearing and meditating is not always an easy thing. Some devotees struggle year after year, regularly wandering in a realms of tamo-guna and sleep while Srimad Bhagavatam-class, japa and gayatri. Surrendering to Krsna and guru and having their mercy, developing service attitude are the essence for increasing our taste and first appreciation to the process of chanting, but there are several commonsense external things which are also very helpfull for developing the mode of goodness, sattva-guna. Then we can at least stay awake. There are no hard and fast rules for chanting the holy name, but many rules and regulations are very helpfull for attentive chanting.