If we chant while doing other activities, won’t that chanting be inattentive and thereby offensive?

Transcript

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Yeah, sure. Hare Krishna. Question.
Isn’t it important to chant attentively? In one of your classes, you mentioned that, in one of your question answers, you mentioned that even when one is not chanting attentively, while doing other things, that is okay. But we also hear that attentive chanting is extremely important and an attentive chanting is an offense. So, how do we understand this? In that answer, I clearly mentioned that this was not in reference to our regular chanting of 16 rounds.
With respect to our 16 rounds chanting, which is our prescribed chanting, given by Srila Prabhupada, that has to be exclusive. We cannot do that while driving or talking or doing other activities. I am talking now about supplementary chanting, which can be done in the background.
Only when we have done our basic rounds, minimum rounds attentively, with as much exclusive attention as possible, then at other times, what do we do? We should try to be Krishna conscious in some way. Now, if we are chanting, it’s not possible that we can be exclusively attentive because we are doing other things. Now, there is a difference between chanting while walking and walking while chanting.
Walking while chanting means that when we are looking to chant attentively, but somehow we feel sleepy or our legs start paining because of sitting, and then we don’t want to walk. So, at that time, when we are walking, actually, the primary activity that we are doing is chanting. So, we are walking while we are chanting.
That means the primary activity is chanting and walking is secondary. Generally, that walks in the temple hall or will be in our house or will be in some area where we are able to chant attentively. Now, the other is chanting while walking.
Chanting while walking means that when we want to go out for a walk and at that time, what do we do during the walk? We chant. So, chanting while walking is not as high a standard as walking while chanting. So, generally speaking, if you want to combine the two, if you want to do the physical exercise as well as the spiritual meditation, then the best way to do that is not by actually going for long walks but going for short walks over a long time.
It’s walking back and forth again. Because if we go for a long walk, then what happens is that we keep seeing new things and those new things distract us. So, that way we are regulating and restricting ourselves to the same area while walking and the area shouldn’t be too big so that there’s not too much fresh scenery and fresh events happening to distract us.
Then, that is focused chanting. We call it chanting. But if we go out for a walk to new new places every day and then we are integrating sightseeing, walking and chanting, then obviously that’s not going to be a very attentive way of chanting.
So, certainly, when we are chanting our 16 rounds, we have to be attentive. Now, other times, should we chant or not, we have to be Krishna conscious as much as possible and chanting is one very accessible and universal way by which we can be Krishna conscious. So, at that time, obviously, we cannot be as attentive as we would be normally, which is fine because Krishna wants us to stay connected with him and he offers us accessibility at various levels.
So, even when we approach Krishna, not out of love, but out of some self-centered desire, Krishna accepts that and Krishna calls such a person also as udaraha, a large-hearted person, sukhruti, such a person at least coming to me instead of going to somebody else. So, Krishna loves us and any way we connect with him, he’s happy about that. At the same time, that doesn’t mean that, especially during our sadhana, chanting 16 rounds, we should connect anyway.
That is serious chanting. To give another example, if we are hearing, now, serious or quality hearing would be that we sit down at one place and hear the class. But often we hear recordings and when we are hearing recordings, we may not be sitting down attentively at one place.
Some housewives might be cooking while they are hearing. Some people might be driving and at the time they are hearing. That is the only time that they get for hearing.
Now, if they decide that I should hear only when I can be exclusively attentive, then the amount of time that they will be able to get will be very rare, will be very less. So, therefore, doing this background hearing may not be the most attentive. And if that person were actually present, you are unlikely to do that.
If that person were actually present, if we are in a class, in a temple, sitting in front of the person who is giving class, we would sit attentively and hear. And that’s one way of hearing. Now, when that person is not there, when we are hearing a recording, is it okay or not okay to hear while they are also doing other activities? Is that a sign of disrespect that we are doing other activities while hearing? No.
We have work pressure, we have limited time for exclusive Krishna consciousness. Then while doing other activities which do not involve direct intellectual involvement, then we can use our intellect to hear. And although we may not be fully attentive, some amount of spiritual substance does go in.
So, it’s if our intention is to stay Krishna conscious and it is not to be disrespectful and we are trying to be as attentive as possible under the circumstances, then Krishna in Bhavagrahi appreciates our intention and thereby he accepts what we are doing. And we do make spiritual advancement. We do become purified.
We do stay Krishna conscious by this kind of hearing and chanting also. So, to summarize, I am in no way condoning inattentive chanting during our sadhana or japa. But apart from that, we should try to be Krishna conscious at other times also.
And even if we are not 100% attentive, then that is fine. Now, of course, sometimes our chanting can become an irritation for others and we have to be sensitive. We are talking with somebody and in between the talking only we start chanting.
That can be irritating, especially to new people and even for devotees. So, when we are doing other activities that require attention, we should give attention. But the principle is we try to be Krishna conscious at all times and the Krishna consciousness will vary depending on what situation and what activity we are in.
And hearing or chanting are powerful ways in which we can keep ourselves at least background Krishna conscious, if not foreground Krishna conscious. Thank you.