How can we chant purely?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you How to chant the holy name purely? Actually you are asking the wrong person because I am struggling also we all are struggling but I would say that there are two different things over here chanting the holy name itself properly and seeing chanting as a part of our relationship with Krishna no you know Atamal Krishna Maharaj once went to Prabhupada when he was managing for the Juhu temple in India and he told Prabhupada Prabhupada they were having a lot of difficulty getting permissions and building the temple over there he said Prabhupada all this building business all these buildings is causing me so much anxiety that is disturbing my chanting Prabhupada told him it is disturbing my chanting also I was shocked I didn’t know what to say and then Prabhupada said your anxiety for serving Krishna will take me to Krishna your anxiety for serving Krishna will take me to Krishna that means that yes we want to chant wholeheartedly chant attentively chant purely that is how we are calling to the lord that is how we are calling to the lord at the same time we also have a relationship with Krishna and that relationship with Krishna means that we take up anxiety for him relationship means that we take up responsibility and every responsibility to some extent brings anxiety with it so if we are taking up responsibility for Krishna’s sake and sometimes the anxiety caused by the responsibility is what is distracting us from our chanting we shouldn’t think that is a defect in our bhakti that is actually a connecting with Krishna so chanting if we think of simply as an isolated activity how can I pronounce the word clearly how can I hear the word attentively hear the sound attentively if we see that only in those terms then we are seeing we are getting a fragmented understanding of chanting yes those things have to be done properly pronounce clearly hear attentively but we see that chanting is a part of a process of developing a relationship with Krishna and to the extent we are serving Krishna and we are connecting with him in a relationship to the extent automatically our chanting will become better and so with respect to pure chanting it’s a it’s a symbiotic process that means we endeavor to chant purely at the same time we also try to serve diligently the more we serve diligently our chanting will become pure the more our chanting becomes pure the more we will be able to serve diligently so rather than taking one out of the other we just see it as a part of a life of devotion to Krishna and specifically we can at least during the time of chanting try to minimize or avoid impure thoughts so how do we do that it’s very difficult to focus on the holy name consistently the mind will wander here and there so what we can do is there is a point of concentration and there is a circle of concentration circle of concentration means that if I can’t fix the mind of the holy name rather than letting it wander all over the universe I let it focus on something related to the holy name I let it wander to something related to the holy name so we can put a picture of the deities we can have the Hare Krishna mantra written down we can have picture of our spiritual master we have picture of our initiation we can have some Tulsi Devi we can have some impetuses that some things which remind us of Krishna that way even the mind wanders away from the sound of the holy name it will go to something connected with Krishna and from there it will come back to Krishna so that way we can see it’s like our consciousness is like a sine wave sometimes we feel very good sometimes we feel very bad so what we are trying to do is we can’t just make the consciousness suddenly a flat wave we can try to decrease the amplitude of the sine wave the mind is going to wander but let it wander less we give it some devotional avenue for wandering and through the devotional avenue we get it back with it and especially it is very helpful to meditate to nourish our intelligence Jiva Goswami says that the pure devotees they stay on the spiritual platform because of their priti because they have affection for Krishna they have love for Krishna but the sadhakas they stay on the spiritual platform because of their buddhi because of their intelligence so if we regularly read about the importance of chanting about the importance of developing our relationship with Krishna the importance of remembering Krishna we nourish our intelligence then that nourished intelligence will be better able to focus the mind on the holy name when the mind wanders if our intelligence is also weak we will let the mind wander but if our intelligence is strong we will get the mind back its like the chariot body analogy the charioteer is weak the horses will go here and there the charioteer is strong the horses will pull back so like that whenever our mind wanders if we are regularly hearing the philosophy not just philosophy in general but the philosophy about bhakti directly about connecting with Krishna about remembering Krishna and that will give us the impetus to drag our mind back wherever it wanders and purity is not again like a zero one state its a progression its slowly becoming every day that we are chanting we are becoming pure every day that we are chanting there is purity that is happening the son of Krishna’s love is rising in our heart its like in the morning we may wake up if we are waking up very early its dark its dark its dark and then suddenly we realize its day time naturally the sun has been rising continuously but our realization that the sun has risen it happens at one moment the sun has risen so like that the process of bhakti is evolutionary every day that we are practicing our consciousness is evolving the process is evolutionary the result is revolutionary suddenly we realize oh the sun has risen this desire is tormenting so long its gone now become pure so like that purity will arise in our heart eventually we just focus on practicing the process diligently thank you