How do we see devotees who dont complete their japa in the morning?

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Transcript

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Thank you.
Some devotees practice bhakti seriously, completing the rounds only in the morning. Some devotees don’t practice so seriously, they complete the rounds at night also. And even the devotees who are not practicing seriously say, we don’t have to practice so seriously.
We just chant 16 rounds, we’ll go back to Godhead. So what should we do? The first thing to understand over here is that we shouldn’t reduce serious practice of bhakti down to simplistic formulas like completely chanting in the morning. No, it also depends on a lot of factors.
Now somebody may have slept late at night, because they have some important service to Krishna. And they have some other important, maybe family emergency or whatever. So the tendency to reduce bhakti to simple figures, it can actually make us offensive or it can make us proud.
So, it is good to complete japa in the morning. But we shouldn’t become judgmental based on this. It is not that just because I am completing my japa every day in the morning, that means I am a serious devotee or I am advanced devotee.
No, seriousness in bhakti is a matter of disposition. It is not just a matter of completion of certain rituals at particular times. So, having said that, we shouldn’t become judgmental.
But at the same time, there are certain activities which are important in bhakti, like chanting is important. And the earlier we do it, that we can say is a fair indicator of the priority that we are giving to it. And we can see that it is serious.
So, that indicates seriousness. That is good. But there are many senior devotees, like I know one senior sannyasi, Prabhupada disciple, he says that his primary service is writing.
And he says the best writing he can do is in the morning. So, he wakes up in the morning, but he starts writing. And he does japa in the daytime.
And he has oriented his life in that way. Now, we should think that he is not serious in bhakti. He is serving in some other way.
So, in certain situations, if a particular service requires a certain readjustment of certain things, that we should not consider as a lack of seriousness. What signifies a lack of seriousness is simply letting our mind determine everything. You know, today I’ll do in the morning, tomorrow I’ll do in the afternoon.
And next day, I’ll do some other time only. So, yes, sometimes it may happen that our mind is just too troubling. And if we are just too troubled by the mind, then we may decide that okay, I’ll take a break.
We may just read something or do something else, then I’ll start chanting it. 5 minute, 10 minute break like that is okay. See, it’s a war we have to fight against the mind.
And in a war, you cannot go with the formula. Suppose, you know, I go to fight a war with a sword. I’ll knock off the head of any enemy who comes near me.
But if the enemy comes with a bow and arrow, you know, even before I reach the sword, with my sword, I’ll swing the sword and I’ll be knocked off. So, we cannot battle with the mind with any predetermined formula. Sometimes in our chanting, chanting, chanting, but we’re not able to focus at all, the mind is going all over the world.
At that time, just calm down, maybe read something for a few minutes, recite a few verses, do a little prayer, just trying to force ourselves to chant sometimes doesn’t work. So, in this, we may have to, so sometimes some devotee’s mind may be very agitated, that devotee may say, you know, today morning, I’m not able to concentrate at all. So, I’ll chant in the afternoon.
Now, this shouldn’t again become a regular habit. Once in a while, it’s okay, because the mind does trouble sometimes. So, we have to be understanding about that.
In general, is it necessary that we should chant in the morning? Yes, it is desirable. But seriousness in bhakti is not judged only by chanting in the morning. It is important, but we should reduce bhakti to that level.
And we have to see the overall level of commitment to the person, what is the consciousness of that person, what are the services that the person is rendering, and what is the attitude of that person. Sometimes, some devotees may study scripture, whole day study scripture only. But, you know, overall in their life, they seem very unenthusiastic.
Even in their classes, not many people are inspired by their classes. Then, are they really studying scripture? Somebody has been studying for one or two hours, but they’re vibrant in their bhakti, and when they speak, they’re able to inspire others. So, somebody is studying for six hours, somebody is studying for one hour only.
But how much life do they have in their bhakti? That’s what is also important. So, first thing is don’t be judgmental. Second thing is, yes, try to complain in the morning as much as possible.
And third is, if we strongly feel that chanting in the evening is a sign of lack of seriousness in bhakti, then better don’t associate with the devotee too much. Because every time you associate with the devotee, the first thought will come, he’s not a serious devotee, he’s a deluded devotee. So, that is an unnecessarily critical mentality.
So, we associate, if we feel inspired to practice bhakti in a particular way, then, say, waking up early in the morning and chanting in the morning, it is, I’m not saying that this is not important, this is the way most devotees should do. But we should also understand that there is scope in bhakti for accommodating specific situations. There may be some devotees who have such a terrible cold, some devotees have sinus problem in the morning.
If they chant in the morning, it takes them four hours. If they chant in the daytime, it takes them two hours. Now, should they still chant in the morning only four hours, spending four hours? No, no, this is a different thing.
So, there can be, although these are exceptions, my point is that we have to keep room for exceptions. At the same time, we don’t have to necessarily adopt that definition. If we feel that our chanting is best in the morning, we come to it in the morning and we feel, okay, now this basic seva is done, now I can move forward and do other things, and it is good also, if we chant in the morning, we’ll find that our consciousness is clear and we can do other things better in our life, then we should chant in the morning and we should