Can inattentive chanting cause mental problems?
So can chanting inattentively spoil our mental health or affect our thinking and attitudes negatively? Well, if not chanting inattentively that will do that it is what we are attentive to during the inattentive chanting that will determine it that means when I am not focusing on Krishna, I am focusing on something else so what I am focusing on that can affect me negatively. It is not the inattentive chanting itself that is affecting me negatively.
Chanting itself is always auspicious because we are connecting with Krishna and Bhagavatam says that even somebody who is chanting for musical entertainment whichever way we chant it is good, it benefits us so chanting itself is beneficial now while chanting because we are trying to focus the mind for a long time and it is difficult to focus the mind, the mind may go elsewhere and if we let the mind which wanders during chanting wander towards unhealthy thought patterns then basically we are spending 2 hours trying to chant and if we are not expending adequate effort to be attentive then the very chanting which is meant to help us develop a habit of concentration that chanting itself can perpetuate a habit of distraction because as soon as I start chanting I let my mind wander here, there, there I just have to complete the rounds so I complete the rounds, I am not putting in any effort to concentrate and then depending on where I get distracted say if I think negatively about other devotees or if during chanting I start worrying about finances or worrying about things, whatever it is so the habitual thoughts that we allow ourselves to dwell on during chanting if they are negative those negative thoughts can affect us adversely and in that sense a person's mental health may be negatively impacted so we cannot say that in attentive chanting it is causing it it is rather the attention to something undesirable during attentive chanting that is causing it so sometimes we have this whole, we think of attentive chanting and negative chanting like digital logic, one or zero but rather than that it is more like analog ok if I am not attentively chanting then what am I thinking of if I am not thinking of something negative I am still thinking of something related with Krishna something which is positive then that is helpful so it is not that the spiritual sound vibration of Krishna's holy names it is not that Krishna is angry because we are chanting inattentively and that is why he is going to punish us by spoiling our mental health or anything like that, it is not like that so it is that our own our own habitual distractedness which we which may get perpetuated by our chanting inattentively, that can harm us now usually in terms of brain waves yes, in general researchers have found that when people focus on spiritual subject matter, whether it is by internal contemplation by external observation or by verbalization there are three ways basically I try to think about Krishna or look at a picture of Krishna or chant Krishna's names so either way either of the three ways if we try to focus on spirituality that actually deepens the areas of the brain which are associated with long term thinking, deeper thinking strengthens those areas of the brain so definitely chanting is beneficial in that sense but again that benefit will depend on where I am focusing the mind if I am not focusing then depending on what I am focusing on that object of focus or that kind of thought that pattern of thoughts can affect the brain and then certain waves may become negative or certain wave patterns may become more regular, more perpetuated that can have some harmful effect but I would never say that it is inattentive chanting that is causing the problems it is the object to which we are being attentive during the inattentive chanting that is the cause of the problem.