How can sitting erect like Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati help in our chanting?

Transcript

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Tai Gaur Premanandi Hare Krishna Question How can sitting erect like Bhaktiswami Thakur help us in our chanting? Answer The question is not how can. The question is if.
Sitting erect is a bodily posture. Whereas here chanting is a matter of connecting our heart with Krishna’s heart. So it is primarily a process of the heart.
And certain physical positions may be helpful for us. And if they are, we can use them. Though it is not that Bhaktiswami Thakur always sit erect while chanting.
There are many times when he would walk and chant. And Shila Prabhupada himself was known quite often to walk and chant also. So it is not that Shila Prabhupada was not following Bhaktiswami Thakur when he was walking and chanting.
Bhaktiswami Thakur made no rule that one has to sit erect and chant. But the idea is sitting erect is often conducive for a state of mental alertness. When we are leaning against the back or sitting slouched.
Then that indicates mental apathy or mental lethargy. Apathy means I don’t care about what is happening. Lethargy means I don’t want to take the trouble to bother.
I don’t want to be troubled by anything. I don’t want to be bothered by anything. So quite often the external posture, it expresses an inner attitude and it also affects the inner attitude.
It is a result of an inner attitude and it is also the cause of an inner attitude. So because we feel lazy, we lean back. And because we lean back, we feel like leaning back all the more and then we go to sleep.
So that’s why the important thing is we should be able to have a bodily posture and a bodily disposition that enables us to fix the mind on Krishna in the best possible. Some devotees may have some back problem and because of that they may need to rest their back against a wall. That is okay.
It’s good that we, if we have to rest the back against a wall, it’s good if we don’t rest the head against the wall because resting the head is usually a recipe for sleep. Even when we are resting the back against the wall, we should know that we are not taking shelter of the wall. We should be taking shelter of Krishna and if we are moving our head or keeping our head focused, steady and focused, then it is unlikely to cause sleepiness.
So with respect to any bodily posture, the principle will be Anukundnesa Sankalpa. How can I do that which is most favorable for my chanting? So if an erect posture helps us in increasing our alertness and focus, that is good. But in just trying to sit erect itself takes so much of our mental energy and causes so much physical strain that we have very little physical and mental energy left to focus on the holy name.
Then we don’t have to focus so much on being erect. We should focus more on keeping our mind erectly fixed in connection with Krishna, in trying to straight arrow move towards Krishna. That should be the primary focus and whatever helps us in doing that, we can do it.
Thank you.