How can we develop a taste for bhakti and chanting?
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how can we develop a taste for chanting the holy names how long does it take so the first thing is we shouldn’t reduce Krishna consciousness to only chanting the holy names any way we remember Krishna that is auspicious yena kena prakāreṇa maha-kṛṣṇa-viveśamit that is the defining principle of ādhana-bhakti as given by Rūpa Goswami in Bhakti Rasāmṛta-sindhu yena kena prakāreṇa somehow or the other fix the mind on Krishna chanting is a yuga-dharma that is very important but at the same time each of us is an individual we have an individual relationship with Krishna and some of us may be attracted more to kirtan some of us may be attracted to deities some of us may be attracted to verses some of us may be attracted to specific services so whichever way we are attracted to Krishna we should cherish that attraction we see that as a gift that Krishna has given us and based on that all of us will have some way in which we are attracted to Krishna that is our uddhipana uddhipana is a technical word from rasa theory which means that which stimulates emotion so we have to see what is our uddhipana what is it that stimulates spiritual emotions within us and we note that, we cherish that and we make that uddhipana the central impetus for our bhakti and then the chanting of the holy names is something which is a very focused connection with Krishna because when we are chanting we are trying to do nothing else except focusing on the holy names so now in the process of chanting there is a point of concentration and there is a circle of concentration point of concentration means we hear the sound of the holy name and focus simply on that sound now that is not very easy to do on a sustainable way sustainable basis unless we are very advanced or very purified so to assist us in the concentration if we can’t focus on the point we can create around the point a circle a circle of concentration means that we connect with the holy name some other spiritual stimuli which is our uddhipana so for example we are attracted to deities then we keep a picture of the deities in front of us if we are attracted to some verses we describe the glories of the holy name we keep a printout of the verses around us next to us or we recite the verses in Shiksha Ashta Kampra which is very beautiful we recite them before the chanting of the holy names in the temple morning programs so we recite those verses we meditate those verses so by this what happens if the mind can’t focus on the sound of the holy name then we give the mind something else to focus on which is connected with Krishna so the mind doesn’t hear the sound of the holy name look at the picture of Krishna look at the picture of Lord Krishna he is so wonderful he looks so beautiful he is in all of maya oh I am calling out his names let me call out more intensely so basically the mind is going to wander see the mind will stray but don’t let it stay it will stray away but don’t let it stay away Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita that wherever and whenever the mind wanders bring it back under the control of the self that is the process so how do you bring it back under the control of the self by using Uddi mind wanders but have some stimuli so in this way when we use the Uddi whenever the mind wanders rather than letting it wander everywhere in the universe we try to keep its wandering so if we try to stop the wandering entirely that can be so difficult a task that we will stop trying to make it concentrate also so rather than trying to stop the wandering we try to restrict the scope of its wandering it will wander but wander within the scope and then through that we bring it back to Krishna and because if we are having a spiritual deepan for which we already have taste then from there to focus on that will not be that difficult and from there you can bring it back again to the house of the holy name and gradually we develop taste does it address your question? thank you so thank you very much