How can we chant without distractions?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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so how can we chant without distractions yeah firstly we have to be real learn to be realistic when we when we try to practice bhakti krishna himself tells this in 5.26 when he states that yato yato nishchalati manas chanchalam astiram tatas tato niyam yaitar atman yaya wherever and whenever the mind wanders bring it back under the control of the self so the mind has a particular nature that is to be distracted and krishna doesn’t tell us that the distraction will go away just because we are practicing bhakti he says anticipate the distraction and prepare for that distraction just like a mother and a child a child is going to naturally not be steady mother tells the child study child is not likely to just sit and study peacefully the mother has to keep a watch and when the child starts doing something else mother gets the child back to studies so our mind is like the child krishna uses the word chanchala to describe the mind chanchala so the mind is going to be chanchala we have to be like a mother like we have to become mature and a further development of this point is suppose there is a child who has got some learning disability say the child has got dyslexia then the child may want to learn but the disability makes it very difficult for the child to learn now the mother cannot get fed up with the child thinking the child will never learn nor can the mother beat up the child say why are you not learning the mother has to learn how to help the child to learn within the specific limitations that are there because of the dyslexia there are still certain ways some children can see letters better some children can see paint better whatever it is so like that we need to treat our mind like a slow learner and when you when we recognize the mind is a slow learner then based on that we have to find out how it learns the best that means we have to learn how we can make the mind learn that means while we are trying to practice bhakti while we are trying to chant while we are trying to focus on Krishna when the mind gets distracted we find how we can help to focus the mind what can we do some of us may find that having a picture of the divine couple in front of us that may help our mind to focus some of us may find having the letters of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra written out that may help us to focus some of us may find that taking a few deep breaths between our chanting between our rounds that may help some of us may find that reciting some verses about the glories of the holy name in between chanting in between our rounds that may help so we will recite the shikshashtakam one one verse between our rounds so whatever it is we find we have to learn how we can help the mind to learn and by taking responsibility for focusing the mind we will be able to gradually deal with the distractions and increase our concentration during japa thank you