During chanting how much is thinking of other related things acceptable?
Hare Krishna.
So in chanting the mind goes to how far is it acceptable to think about other things it's not a matter of acceptable or unacceptable it's a matter of what works and what doesn't work the mind is like a child when a mother is taking care of the child the mother cannot work with a rigid formula sometimes the child is crying and the mother does one thing the child becomes pacified. Next day the mother does the same thing child doesn't become pacified so the mother has to be creative with that whatever works so like that with our mind we try to focus on Krishna as much as possible. If it doesn't work can't hear the holy name let it fix on something else we try to have as I said the picture of the deities, we can have the written Hare Krishna Mahamantra in front of us we can have Tulsi Devi in front of us we can have we can maybe take a pause in our chanting, recite some verses maybe some shikshaashtakam, something about the glories of the holy name sometimes we may just stop and take a few deep breaths sometimes we just stand up for sitting, we can walk so we have to see what works the point is to fix the mind on Krishna and whatever way we can fix the mind on Krishna we do that and over a period of time we will find out what it is that brings our mind back to Krishna there is a point of concentration which is the sound of the holy name and there is a circle of concentration if the mind can't focus on this then let it go somewhere which is related to the holy name, related to Krishna that may be the as in any of these things the picture of the deities some verse about the holy name whatever it is like that so if it doesn't work on the point it can work on the circle and how far that circle can extend we have to see whether that circle it helps me to come back to Krishna or it takes me further away from Krishna so if I am chanting I think of a program oh I have to do this thing I have not done that I have to do that and I start doing that so then what is happening then if I think of that program that program you know that devotee he or she is so serious about chanting so basically the idea is when the mind wanders we let that wander and become in a circle it goes off there and comes back to the holy name that wandering just becomes an endless journey further and further away from Krishna it is undesirable so which kind of scope for wandering for the mind helps it to come back and which causes it to go away that is something which we have to be vigilant about and we learn by experience so rather than worry about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable because this is unacceptable but the mind does it what can you do at that time so we just see what works for the mind what works for your mind may be different may not, may be, will be different from what works for my mind so we all have to find it out what works for our mind and adapt that.