Japa Quotes: Japa Reform Notebook (part 6)
The main thing is to fix your mind on the sound of the chanting. As you strain and yearn to keep your attention fixed, this naturally brings a mood of devotion. This is the way you serve the holy name. Just as when cooking, if you try very hard not to burn the preparation, to spice it nicely, and to keep it cooking nicely, then you express your devotion in this way. You may think separately from the cooking, “Please, Krsna, accept this nice preparation I am cooking for You.” But the main devotion is in cooking it nicely for Krsna. So you have to actually chant nicely, and as you concentrate on it this is the best meditation. In later stages spontaneous thoughts of Krsna will come. But you simply keep your mind fixed on hearing the holy name.
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You must be attentive and control your mind. Don’t chant unconsciously. That implies that you have an intellectual conception of chanting: “I just can’t get into it. It’s not important.” Sometimes people will read directions how to operate something, but they have so many other responsibilities that they just can’t pay attention to the directions. It doesn’t mean anything to them. It’s not important to them. They may say, “Somebody else can do it. I can’t concentrate on it. It’s just too trivial.” So don’t minimize the holy name in the back of your mind. It’s absurd if you cannot actually accept that you’re supposed to use your best intelligence to concentrate on the repetition of the holy name.
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If you have an eight-track mind that disturbs you when you are chanting Hare Krsna, the only remedy is to put Krsna on all the eight tracks. Krsna says in the Gita, wherever the mind goes you have to bring it back under the control of the higher self. Be conscientious.
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To say “I tried hard—I almost made it” is not perfection. If you chant with offenses, then your chanting will be offensive. Still, that doesn’t mean that you stop the chanting or stop the preaching. We should be encouraged just by our trying even though imperfect. Just go on. Maybe we won’t attain Krsna for some time by our devotional service, but we have to keep trying—being satisfied by the japa and the nectar we obtain by that trying. The higher stage of chanting is love, and at that point there is no more trying. It is spontaneous.
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But not that the best chanter of the names of Krsna has developed his chanting like some great weightlifter. “Oh, he is a very famous chanter. He tried day after day for many years, and now he has perfected his chanting. He can control his mind!” I remember talking to one professor practicing Buddhist meditation. He was explaining how to keep all different thoughts out of the mind. When some thought enters like an intruder, then with great prowess you push it out; when another thought enters you push that thought out. In this way you meditate—very strenuously. We may think, “Now I’m avoiding the first offense, now I’m avoiding the second offense, now I’m avoiding all ten offenses —I’m awake, I’m attentive,” etc. But we are not like the juggler who puts another spinning plate on top, then another, then another, and then he is perfect. In other words, the holy name is Krsna, who when fully pleased appears on the tongue of an ideal chanter. He is not created by the chanter.
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Ultimately only loving service pleases Him, and that is done by linking with one who is already known to Krsna. Of course, Krsna knows everyone, but in terms of devotional service it is different. I may say I have been a big rascal and now I am letting out a great crying of love, “O Krsna! O Krsna! Krsna!” He’ll say “Oh? Who is this with all these protestations of love for Me? Who is this upstart?” But, if He is informed by one of His intimate associates like Radharani, “This person chanting is actually a very good devotee. I recommend him,” then He will say “Oh, then all right.” He won’t take you without a recommendation; this is mercy.
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Our trying to chant nicely is satisfying to Krsna, and He responds; but ultimately it is not just by our hard endeavor that He does so. In the Bhagavatam Prahlada tells his father, “You cannot know Krsna by the practice of austerities or sannyasa regulations or grhastha regulations.” And he mentions severe examples like going into the river up to your neck on a cold day. It is not that we can finally try so hard to chant our japa that we beat down the holy name into submission—”Now I’ve got you under my foot!” No, you have to cry for Krsna! And the chanter must be avoiding offenses in his service. Krsna will be attracted not just by hard endeavor but by rubbing yourself in the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotees.
