Is the pronunciation of the mahamantra important or is intent alone important?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Isn’t that pronunciation as well as intent both are important or is it intent alone that matters? Actually Krishna is Bhavagrai. So primarily what he looks at is the intent at the same time intent also needs to be expressed through action it’s like we have the principle of Manas Pooja where Manas Pooja is a person who can just worship Krishna in the mind in the mind they can say Oh I want to offer garlands I want to offer necklaces, I want to offer jewels to Krishna and that is also accepted as a form of Bhakti but Manas Pooja is not an excuse for not doing actual Pooja it is when we cannot do the actual Pooja at that time we are not disconnected from Krishna just because we are not able to do the actual Pooja.
Krishna accepts the intention in the mind also but if somebody has a somebody says Oh in my mind I give a million dollars to Krishna in real life I don’t give anything so if Manas Pooja becomes an excuse for not doing any effort practically that is undesirable the point is if there are some material restrictions which do not allow us to serve Krishna practically then the principle of Manas Pooja is the restriction may impede a specific form of service but the restriction cannot stop us from connecting with Krishna when I cannot do something practically still in my mind if I do it I will be connected with Krishna but if I am sincere then I will not just be satisfied with doing it in the mind I also do it practically so in the same way the most important thing is the intent to want to call out to Krishna the intent to connect with Krishna by chanting his holy names at the same time if I have that sincere intent then I should also make efforts to pronounce properly so in some cases for some reasons as I said if a particular word is not there in somebody’s language particular sound then trying to utter that sound itself becomes such a Herculean effort that they just find chanting draining because of that and then ok then Krishna is understanding just utter the name as well as one can but if it is just a small oversight which needs a little attention but it can be fixed then it is not that we can say Krishna is Bhavagrai so I chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra but then Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Hare Krishna Hare Krishna so I am missing out Hare Hare and why? It is not because I am so filled with Bhav it is just I am careless I am in a hurry to complete the holy names complete my mantras and that is not it so that means the intention is what is primarily important but where there is sincere intention there will also be serious attempt at competent execution that sincerity of intention should also be expressed through the competence of execution but if under unavoidable circumstances the competence of execution is not possible then the sincerity of intention is also accepted but the sincerity of intention is not to be taken as a license for incompetence in execution you know if somebody is cooking for Krishna you know oh I was thinking of Krishna I was chanting Krishna’s name the bhoga got burnt no it is all fine because I was remembering Krishna fine it is good to remember Krishna but the sincerity of intention also has to have accompanying the competence of execution so it is as much as possible we try to be competent but the the competence so there are both extremes you know that means earlier I said that some people just look at the competence of execution and they don’t even see the sincerity of intention somebody can just recite the verses so precisely must be a great soul but they are simply reciting to do a performance so that they will get Dakshina afterwards they are not really interested in Krishna so the competence of execution alone is not the proof of spiritual stature and conversely the sincerity of intention alone without any effort at competence of execution both that is also not good so we should have sincerity of intention and couple it with competence of execution as much as we can but in some situations if the competence of execution doesn’t work out that is also fine Krishna will see the sincerity of intention does it answer the question