SB 11.23.45 – Chanting offers the best opportunity to fulfill the ultimate purpose of all our activities

Transcript

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to focus on the holy name and neglect the mind thank you is giving a list of various activities that often are done in spiritual life and religious life in general dhanam giving charity swadharma doing one’s prescribed duty so the regulations of daily life the recognition of spiritual life the do’s and don’ts shrutam shrutam is here hearing the scriptures doing ones are doing general good karma su-karma or karma and taking up a pious vows pure vows real good true pure vows the purpose of all of them is control of the mind in fact he concludes the supreme yoga is samadhi fixing the mind in samadhi samadhi means meditation on the absolute to the supreme being in trance so the centrality of disciplining the mind for the sake of any spiritual advancement is stressed in this verse so therefore we have to focus on recognizing that without mind control everything else that one may do is useless it may not be entirely useless certainly some progress may be made but it is useless from the ultimate perspective in the sense that it one will continue to go on in the cycle of birth and death the only way out of that cycle is when one recognizes that the mind that is detached to that is attached to matter has to be made detached and only when the mind becomes detached can one move out of material existence of course the purpose of mananigraha controlling the mind not just to detach the mind it is ultimately to detach the mind from matter and attach the mind to krishna that is the ultimate perfection in 6.47 he says the highest of all yogis is one who has fixed the mind in the supreme and similarly in the next verse that is 7.1 he says that the mind should be attached to me so that is the perfection and we want to control the mind so that we can focus the mind on krishna and make it attached to krishna and the chanting of the holy names offers us the opportunity to do both in one go in chanting we not only have to draw control the mind because we have to draw it away from every other thoughts but also krishna manifests himself in the most portable and appreciable form as the holy name portable because the holy name can go anywhere with an appreciable because the holy name is far more accessible to us than is say just a mental conception of some absolute truth because we utter the holy name and we hear the holy name the senses get involved in it and because the mind’s consciousness gets connected with the outer world through the senses involving the mind enables us to involving the mind is easier and the senses are also involved in a particular process of sense control and because krishna slowly in proportion to our devotional disposition manifests his all attractiveness when we chant the holy names so progressively it becomes easier and easier to become attentive in chanting and to become attracted to krishna as he manifests his holy name through chanting so we have many other responsibilities even in practicing sadhagas in our material life as well as in our spiritual life but we have to know that whatever we may be the ultimate purpose of all our activities is to chant is to make the mind attached to krishna and when we recognize this is the goal it is not that i have to do other things which are more important no all the other things their ultimate hmm survey manohar nigraha lakshananth so when we remember this then we are able to keep things in perspective often the pressures of daily life make us want to finish chanting and get on with other things yes we have other things to do they are also important but the ultimate purpose of getting on with other things is not just to get the things done but it is to get the mind turned around to get the mind regulated and redirected towards krishna and best opportunity for that comes during our chanting therefore to neglect that and to try to go to other things is to miss the essential and most important purpose of life by remembering how chanting offers us the best opportunity fulfill the mind’s fulfill uh the life’s most important purpose that is make the mind attracted to krishna by meditating on this we can get the impetus to put our heart put our entire being into the process of chanting and relish krishna’s sweetness and all attractiveness as it manifests through the holy name