Japa Quotes: Japa Reform Notebook (part 10)
REFLECTIONS/JAPA MEDITATIONS
So somehow, we are chanting, and we are not able to fully associate with Kṛṣṇa. We have to see what is the fault, whether it is inattention and the mind wandering. Of course, I am assuming that we are following the four rules and that we are actually motivated after Kṛṣṇa. Then only do these things apply. If our motive is right, then we will by and by learn how to chant correctly. Then our service to Kṛṣṇa will be enhanced, very very much. We are not talking about trying to just drown in some ecstasy all the time. We want to enhance our service. Just like someone saying, “Oh, I am very troubled with sex life.” But when Kṛṣṇa comes in His holy name, then we will see these other things as pale. We will just want to be the servant of Kṛṣṇa.
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It seems that the good servant is also good at serving the holy name; specifically at the time of uttering his sixteen rounds.
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To be concerned at one’s deficiencies in improving japa is the first requirement. Otherwise, if we just absentmindedly go on chanting without even stopping to think that our chanting needs improvement, then where is the question of actually improving? But if you are actually concerned, you have to do something about it. Do not simply allow yourself to stay on the mental platform. Just as we do not allow our senses to do what they like in other areas, so also the mind has to be restricted and brought under the control of the intelligence. You may not be able to control your mind every second of the day, but you should not become helpless and just let it roll on. Do your best, and Kṛṣṇa will help you as you struggle to chant in the morning.
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Prabhupāda instructed everyone to chant sixteen rounds a day. That is a fact; we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa because Prabhupāda told us to. Although the name of Kṛṣṇa is fully nectarean and we should chant it spontaneously, we actually chant it on the order of our spiritual master. And whatever sweet taste we get progressively in chanting we also know is due to the mercy of our spiritual master, who has given us the hari-nāma.
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We want to serve Kṛṣṇa, and chanting itself is service. In fact, the mahā-mantra, consisting of the three words hare, kṛṣṇa, and rāma, means, “O Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your service.” So, the chanting in itself is a prayer to Kṛṣṇa to engage us further in His devotional service. If one is able to continue chanting like this, he can become purified of all sinful reactions from previous lives, because the chanting washes away all the accumulated dirt in the heart, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam.
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If we chant the holy name, Kṛṣṇa takes that as giving love, even though our hearts are hard and devoid of feeling. Kṛṣṇa regards any little effort favorably. A gulf of qualitative difference lies between the little love offered in our beginning chanting and the love of Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Lord Caitanya’s chanting. In the prayers of lamentation by the ācāryas, like Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, they take the role of the conditioned soul. They cry out that they have no devotion for Kṛṣṇa, and yet within this lamentation is purification. If I lament my sinful nature and yearn for Kṛṣṇa conscious love, then that is also an expression of love, is it not? At least I desire to have that love. So this is sādhana. Although I lack spontaneous love, I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, because I have some love for the order of my spiritual master, rascal that I am.
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Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī says duṣṭa mana, tumi kisera vaiṣṇava? “My dear mind, what kind of devotee are you? Simply for cheap adoration you sit in a solitary place and pretend to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. But this is all cheating.” So he is speaking to the heart about the cheating propensity that we all have to some degree; it can manifest itself even in such a pure activity as chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He’s talking about solitary chanting—a bābājī trying to get some credit. But in other ways also we may try to impress people that we are some kind of great chanter of the holy name. But especially he refers to this solitary bhajana. So, we should not cheat.
