Japa

Japa

Nine Keys from the Çikñäñöaka

Bhürijana Däsa
Copyright (c) page
 Dedication

Çréla Raghunätha däsa Gosvämé spoke sweetly of Çré Caitanya Mahä­

prabhu in his “Eight Prayers Glorifying the Son of Mother Çacé”:
The son of Mother Çacé, who, accepting the people of Bengal as His
own, taught them as a father would: ‘Please chant the Hare Kåñëa man­
tra a fixed number of times.’ When will He again walk on the pathway
of my eyes?

I dedicate this book, Japa, to Çréla Prabhupäda, who accepted all the peo­
ple of the world as His own, and taught them, as a father would, saying,
“Please chant the Hare Kåñëa mantra a fixed number of times.” When
will Çréla Prabhupäda again walk on the pathway of my eyes?
 Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Chapter 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
 Introduction

Even after forty years of practice, I have often found chanting quality
japa difficult because of my wild and uncontrolled mind. Yet over the
years I have noticed that certain principles – in this book I have referred
to them as keys – have been effective in helping me increase the qual-
ity of my chanting regardless of the level of my chanting at any given
moment. In presenting these principles here in this small book, I pray
that Kåñëa’s holy names, as well as the servants of His holy names, will
be pleased.

How this Book Came to Be Written

Years ago, as I was chanting japa and walking around Våndävana, I
began to consider how to improve my chanting. What would it take
for me to become a more enthusiastic chanter? I realized that I needed
to become more aware of the potency of chanting Kåñëa’s names. I also
took a serious look at the many obstacles I would have to overcome to
be able to chant, steadily, in a way that would push me toward ­spiritual
­advancement. I still find myself repeating today the thought I had those

1
years ago: I must chant Kåñëa’s holy names attentively. But whenever
I attempted to be more attentive, I was forced to realize my incapac-
ity. Humbled, I ­continued to chant and began to pray for the mercy of
Kåñëa’s holy names.
I am a teacher by nature and learn best what I teach, so I decided
to also try to help others improve their chanting. In the mood of both
seeking to learn and to teach others I began to study Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu’s sacred and powerful words, the Çikñäñöaka.
What I found there amazed me. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu had
already completed the research and arranged the curriculum: the
Çikñäñöaka was already organized according to the principles I had some-
how come to consider. Studying further I discovered that in his Hari­-
näma­-cintämaëi and especially his Bhajana Rahasya Çréla Bhakti­vinoda
Öhäkura had also described the necessary details and practical clues to
assist me and others to better their chanting.
I have mined nine jewels from these sources and fashioned them
into the keys I now present at japa retreats. This book is an expansion
on those ideas.
I have extracted all nine keys from the first four verses of the
Çikñäñöaka. These keys can help a chanter unlock the treasures of Kåñëa’s
holy names. Which key each person will find most useful will depend
on the quality of japa he or she is chanting at the moment. In my own
chanting I have noticed that the key I most need to emphasize at the
beginning of a chanting session may differ from the key I find most
relevant after I have been chanting for some time. In other words, the
immediate quality of one’s chanting will dictate which key should
be applied.

Levels of Chanting
In his Bhajana Rahasya Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura correlates the first
four verses of the Çikñäñöaka with the first four stages of advancement

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listed by Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé in the Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu:

Verse one: ceto-darpaëa-märjanam – çraddhä, faith

Verse two: nämnäm akäri bahudhä nija-sarva-çaktiù – the acceptance
and performance of Kåñëa conscious practices, which
cause unwanted desires and habits to be removed from
the heart (anartha-nivåtti)
Verse three: tåëäd api sunécena taror api sahiñëunä – niñöhä, fixedness in
devotion to Kåñëa
Verse four: na dhanaà na janaà na sundaréà – ruci, taste in ­chanting
Kåñëa’s holy names

Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu offers these verses both as descriptions and

prescriptions. That is, by chanting Kåñëa’s holy names while following
the guidelines indicated in each verse, especially as Çréla Bhaktivinoda
Öhäkura has expanded on them in Bhajana Rahasya, our love for Kåñëa
will develop progressively though stages – from çraddhä to ruci and
upward to äsakti (attachment), bhäva, and prema-bhakti (stages described
in the Çikñäñöaka’s final verses).

The Qualities of One Stage

But it is not that as we pass, for example, through the initial stage,
­çraddhä (faith), to bhajana-kriyä and anartha-nivåtti and onward that
we are done with faith. Rather, the quality of advancement men-
tioned in one stage is included and intensified in the next. For example,
­bhajana­-­kriyä and anartha­-nivåtti naturally deepen faith, çraddhä, because
as we clear anarthas we feel the heart being cleansed by the holy name.
Similarly, niñöhä brings an even deeper faith (and a cleaner heart) than
the previous stages. As the heart is cleansed the holy name tastes
sweeter and our longing to chant it increases. This longing and taste
define ruci. But at ruci it is natural to experience a further loosening of

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our unwanted tendencies (anartha-nivåtti) and an ever-increasing faith
(çraddhä) in Kåñëa’s names.
The glorious qualities that characterize each stage continue to
increase as we progress. It is clear that the residents of Våndävana,
Kåñëa’s dearmost devotees, who stand supreme at the highest level
of prema, have unequaled faith (çraddhä), purity of heart (bhajana-kriyä
and anartha-nivåtti), fixedness in their devotion (niñöhä), taste (ruci),
­attachment (äsakti), and love (prema) – and they express their prema
both toward Kåñëa Himself and in the act of singing about Him, which
includes chanting His holy names. Indeed, the Vraja gopés fully exhibit
the qualities of all the stages in the madness of the prema they experience
in their ecstatic distress as they search for Kåñëa when He disappears
from among them during the räsa dance. At that time, at the pinnacle of
their ecstasy, they too take shelter of Kåñëa’s holy name:
Singing loudly of Kåñëa, they searched for Him throughout the Våndä­
vana forest like a band of madwomen. They even asked the trees about
Him, who as the Supersoul is present inside and outside of all created
things, just like the sky. (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 10.30.4)

All the gopés, including Rädhäräëé, began to proceed further into the
forest until they could no longer see the moonlight. When they saw
that it was getting gradually darker, they stopped. Their minds and
intelligence became absorbed in thoughts of Kåñëa; they all imitated
the activities of Kåñëa and His speeches. Due to their hearts and souls
being completely given to Kåñëa, they began to chant His glories, com-
pletely forgetting their family interests. In this way, all the gopés assem-
bled together on the bank of the Yamunä, and expecting that Kåñëa
must return to them, they simply engaged in the chanting of the glories
of Çré Kåñëa – Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/ Hare
Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. (Kåñëa book, pp.234–35,
2006 edition)

When Çrématé Rädhäräëé first saw Kåñëa, She suddenly became ­

conscious of all transcendental happiness, and the functions of Her

4
 different limbs were stunned. When Lalitä, Her constant companion,
whispered into Her ear the holy name of Kåñëa, Rädhäräëé immedi-
ately opened Her eyes wide. This is an instance of alertness caused by
hearing the sound of Kåñëa’s name. (Nectar of Dev­otion, p.259)
In the Kåñëa-karnämåta there is another statement about the chanting
of Rädhäräëé. It is said by one of the associates of Rädhäräëé: “O Lord
Govinda, the girl who is the daughter of King Våñabhänu is now shed-
ding tears, and She is anxiously chanting Your holy name – Kåñëa!
Kåñëa!” (Nectar of Devotion, p. 138)
 . . . the ladies of Vraja, who were so attached to Kåñëa, felt extremely
agitated by their imminent separation from Him. They forgot all
shame and loudly cried out, “O Govinda! O Dämodara! O Mädhava!”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 10.29.31)
While describing the autumn räsa dance, Paräçara Muni says in
the Viñëu Puräëa (5.13.52, 56): kåñëaù çarac-­candramasaà kaumudé­­
kumudäkaram jagau gopé-gaëäs tv ekaà kåñëa-näma punaù punaù,
“Kåñëa sang about the autumn moon and its light upon the lotus
ponds, while the gopés simply sang Kåñëa’s name over and over
again.” Räsa-geyaà jagau kåñëo yävat täräyata-dhvaniù sädhu kåñëeti
kåñëeti tävat tä dvi-guëaà jaguù: “While Kåñëa sang a räsa-dance
song in a resonant voice, the gopés congratulated Him and redou-
bled their chanting of ‘Kåñëa! Kåñëa!’” (Båhad-bhägavatämåta, 2.7.136,
commentary)

At all stages of advancement, from the highest to the lowest, beginning

stage, devotees chant Kåñëa’s holy names and sing about His quali-
ties and pastimes. “O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the
Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless
way of success for all, including those who are free from all material
desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those
who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.” (Çrémad-
Bhägavatam 2.1.11)
Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura comments on this verse and

5
offers chanters further encouragement: “It is understood that in this
­scripture bhakti is described. Among the aìgas of bhakti, which is
defined as the chief one, standing out like an emperor exerting power
everywhere? This verse answers that question. Among the aìgas of
bhakti, hearing, chanting, and remembering are the three chiefs. . . .
Among these three, chanting is the chief. In chanting, however, there
is ­chanting of the Lord’s name, chanting of His qualities, and chant-
ing of His pastimes. Among these anukértana (chanting of His name
according to one’s own bhakti) is best. Anukértana also means continu-
ous ­chanting. This is not only my conclusion; this has been concluded
(nérëitam) by the ­previous äcäryas. Therefore there is no need for further
inquiry or proofs.”

Chant Hare Kåñëa and Be Happy

Confidently following this conclusion, Çréla Prabhupäda asserts: “This
is the advantage of chanting Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa,
Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. One may
be put in any condition, but God gives him the prerogative to chant
Hare Kåñëa. In any condition of life, if one goes on chanting he will
never be unhappy.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 3.15.49, purport)
He also told many of disciples at the time of their ­initiation, “Now
chant Hare Kåñëa and be happy.” To Aditi Däsé in 1970: “Chant Hare
Krishna Mantra always and be happy.” And to Hlädiné Däsé, also in
1970: “So please chant Hare Krishna and be happy. That is my desire.”
jayati jayati nämänanda-rüpaà murärer
viramita-nija-dharma-dhyäna-püjädi-yatnam
kathamapi sakåd-ättaà muktidaà präëénäà yat
paramam amåtam ekaà jévanaà bhüñaëaà me
“All glories, all glories to the all-blissful holy name of Çré Kåñëa,
which causes the devotee to give up all conventional religious duties,

6
meditation, and worship. When somehow or other uttered even once
by a living entity, the holy name awards him liberation. The holy name
of Kåñëa is the highest nectar. It is my very life and my only treasure.”
(Båhad-Bhägavatämåta 1.1.9)
Along with this book I have included a separate “japa” booklet
containing sixteen of my photographs of Vraja. I hope that these pho-
tos, along with the simple prayers I have composed to accompany
them, will help you increase the depth of your meditation on Kåñëa’s
holy names.
I would like to thank those who have devotedly offered their skills
in the fire of producing this book. Thank you Kaiçoré Däsé for help
with conceptualizing, editing, and production, to Suman Sankar, Hare
Krishna Däsa, and Tal Avital for layout and design, to Yaron Shagal for
cover design and photo layout, to Linda Hodgkinsons for proofreading,
and to Braja Bihari Däsa for working with the printer. My thanks also to
the VIHE for both ­hosting japa retreats and allowing me to participate
in them.
By the grace of the holy name and His servants, if this small book
and its nine keys helps to improve even one reader’s chanting, and that
chanter becomes happy by the grace of Kåñëa’s names, I will consider
my effort in writing this book a success.

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 1

Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s Çikñäñöaka, Verse One

The Çikñäñöaka, spoken by Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, leads us from a
beginning understanding of the value of chanting to the prayojana of
chanting, or the topmost, experiential position of love for Kåñëa in the
mood of the Vraja-väsés. We are meant to attain this prayojana; it is the
gift Caitanya Mahäprabhu came to give us.
To strengthen our faith and increase our enthusiasm to chant Kåñëa’s
holy names, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu lists, in the Çikñäñöaka’s opening
verse, seven perfections that arise from chanting:
ceto-darpaëa-märjanaà bhava-mahä-dävägni-nirväpaëaà
çreyaù-kairava-candrikä-vitaraëaà vidyä-vadhü-jévanam
änandämbudhi-vardhanaà prati-padaà pürëämåtäsvädanaà
sarvätma-snapanaà paraà vijayate çré-kåñëa-saìkértanam
“Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord
Kåñëa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the ­miseries
of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing

9
 moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living enti-
ties. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy
name of Kåñëa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It
gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at
every step.”
Ceto-darpaëa-märjanam: Chanting Kåñëa’s names cleanses (mär-
janam) the mirror (darpaëa) of the heart (cetas). Because we have taken
so many births, during which we filled our consciousness with dust,
dirt, material desire, and unlimited other material impressions, the mir-
ror of the heart has become buried. Our consciousness has been covered
for ­millions of years.
Imagine a mirror covered by thirty kilometers of dust. If we were
to look in such a mirror, what would we see? We certainly wouldn’t
see our self – we would see only dust. When we see ourselves only
through material consciousness and then act based on what we perceive,
it means the dirt in the heart is reacting only with itself. Who we truly
are remains forever unperceivable.
But chanting cleanses the mirror of the heart and consciousness.
This cleansing process can take years – even lifetimes – or we can
complete it in a moment if we chant Kåñëa’s name even once without
offense. The Caitanya-caritämåta (Madhya 15.107) states, eka kåñëa-näme
kare ­sarva-päpa kñaya: “Simply by chanting the holy name of Kåñëa once,
a person is relieved from all the reactions of a sinful life.” Pure chant-
ing can remove our whole material existence and establish us as loving
servants of Kåñëa.
Bhava-mahä-dävägni-nirväpaëam: When enough dirt is removed,
the great forest fire (mahä-dävägni) of material life is extinguished
(nirväpaëam).
Çreyaù-kairava-candrikä-vitaraëam: The awakening of our spiri-
tual identity, the white lotus of our true good fortune, (çreyaù-kairava),
spreads (vitaraëam) its leaves and begins to blossom in the cooling
­moonbeams (candrikä) of Kåñëa’s holy names.

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 Thus far Mahäprabhu has used two metaphors to illustrate the effe­
cts of chanting Kåñëa’s names: a mirror to describe our identity – ­telling
us that we must cleanse this mirror in order to see ourselves – and the
blossoming of the lotus flower, the gradual revelation of our eternal
identity in relationship with Kåñëa.
Vidyä-vadhü-jévanam: This phrase literally means “the life of the
wife of knowledge” and requires clarification. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta
Saras­vaté Öhäkura explains that just as a wife naturally follows her hus-
band, so transcendental knowledge naturally follows the chanting of
Kåñëa’s holy names. Transcendental knowledge begins with the under-
standing that we are eternal souls and not the body, and approaches
completion when we realize our relationship with Kåñëa (sambandha).
­Çréla ­Bhakti­vinoda ­Öhäkura explains, “Blossoming fully, the flower
of the holy name takes me to Vraja and reveals to me His own love-­
dalliance. This name gives to me my own eternal spiritual body, keeps
me right by Kåñëa’s side, and completely destroys everything related
to this mortal frame of mine.” (Çaraëägati, Çré Näma-mähätmya, verse 7)
This means that chanting the holy name is sufficient; it can reveal to
us our eternal ­relationship with Kåñëa. No other spiritual process
is required.
Änandämbudhi-vardhanam: Bliss is the natural condition of the soul.
Chanting the holy name releases in the heart an ever-increasing ocean
of transcendental ecstasy.
Prati-padaà pürëämåtäsvädanam: Prati-padam, step by step, our taste
(­svädana) becomes full (pürëa), and that taste is nectarean (amåta). We
will be able to relish the nectarean taste for which the soul hankers.
The soul separated from Kåñëa lives in a desert. When someone lives
in a desert his tongue becomes dry, and while searching for water he
tends to follow mirages, sometimes to his death. There is no water in
a desert – no way to satisfy his hankering. But the holy name is ­fully
satisfying, and chanting it saturates the soul with the rich nectar of
Kåñëa’s service.

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 Sarvätma-snapanam: The holy name bathes the soul, cleansing it of
all subtle and gross contamination, and immerses it in ecstasy. The
­mahä­-­mantra is capable of inducing the highest ecstasy in the heart.
Because the holy name gives these seven effects, paraà vijayate
­çré-kåñëa-saìkértanam, it is supremely (param) victorious (jayate) over
material existence. It destroys the material world and establishes the
soul in a world of joy (viçvaà pürëa-sukhäyate).

The First Key: Chant Hare Kåñëa!

Chanting Hare Kåñëa is the method of self-realization for ­Kali-yuga,
the iron age of quarrel and strife: “(A)lthough Kali-yuga is an ocean
of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by
chanting the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra, one can become free from
material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 12.3.51)
How often should we chant? If possible, always. Caitanya Mahä­
prabhu recommended kértanéyaù sadä hariù. If unable to chant constantly,
we should chant at least our prescribed number of rounds on beads. But
whether on beads or off beads, we should chant Hare Kåñëa as much as
we can. “Whether you are a family person living at home or a sannyäsé
living in the forest, constantly chant and call out ‘Hari! Hari!’ Whether
you are in a condition of happiness or distress, do not forget this
­chanting. Just fill your lips with hari-näma.” (Gétävalé, Çré Nagara-kértana,
Song 2, verse 2)
Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu declares: “I shall personally inaugurate
the religion of the age – näma-saìkértana, the congregational chanting of
the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four
mellows of loving devotional service. (Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 3.20)
By chanting the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra as constantly as pos-
sible, our hearts will gradually become cleansed and all seven effects
described by Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu will manifest in us.

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 2

Why We Achieve Neither Attraction for Kåñëa’s Name

Nor the Seven Results of Chanting
The holy name is all-victorious. Why, then, don’t all those who chant
quickly achieve these seven results? Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu explains
the reason for this in His second Çikñäñöaka çloka:
nämnäm akäri bahudhä nija-sarva-çaktis
taträrpitä niyamitaù smaraëe na kälaù
etädåçé tava kåpä bhagavan mamäpi
durdaivam édåçam ihäjani nänurägaù
“O my Lord! Your holy name alone can render all benediction upon the
­living beings, and therefore You have hundreds and millions of names,
like Kåñëa and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have
invested all Your transcendental energies, and there is no hard and fast
rule for chanting these holy names. O my Lord! You have so kindly
made approach to You easy by Your holy names, but unfortunate as I
am, I have no attraction for them.” (Çikñäñöaka 2)

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 Durdaivam means misfortune. In his commentary on the Çikñäñöaka,
and in more detail in his Bhajana-rahasya, Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura
lists the causes of our misfortune – our lack of attraction – despite our
chanting of Kåñëa’s holy names.

Four Causes of Lack of Taste

The first of these causes is tattva-vibhrama: if we only superficially
understand the truths (tattva) of Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s teachings we
become confused (vibhrama) about how to progress.
Lacking the spiritual depth to realize just how tiny we are bewilders
us into the conviction that we are actually significant. Filled with our
own importance we think the world should revolve around our desires
and we become frustrated and angry when it doesn’t. Then mistaking
the identities of others we quickly divide them into friends and enemies.
So much suffering ensues from all this ignorance.
That our consciousness becomes captured by false ego proves that
we lack self-knowledge. We do not understand that we are Kåñëa’s eter-
nal servants or that our identity in relationship with Him cannot be
altered. It’s simply who we are. Although being Kåñëa’s eternal servant
implies that we have an eternal relationship with Him, we neverthe-
less have turned our back on Him and have tried to separate ourselves
from this intrinsic relationship. Because of that, we suffer existential
­emptiness; we are incurably lonely.
Aside from not knowing ourselves we also don’t know Kåñëa. Nei­
ther do we deeply understand the prescribed sädhana process. Yes, we
chant Hare Kåñëa, but how deep is our realization and surrender to
this practice? We also lack clear understanding of what is favorable and
unfavorable to our devotional service. Thus we tend to do things that
hinder our bhakti and fail to do those things that could help.
The second cause of our misfortune is asat-tåñëa, thirst for the
­temporary. We thirst for the temporary in four forms: we maintain petty

14
 desires for material comforts, we desire heavenly pleasures, we desire
mystic powers (control of the material energy by subtle means), and we
tend to desire liberation, or freedom from suffering. This last anartha
appears when, while we are chanting Hare Kåñëa, our desire to go back
to Godhead is strongly motivated by the desire to escape suffering. This
attitude is actually self-centered and has little to do with bhakti; the core
of it is salvation, not Kåñëa’s satisfaction.
The third cause, hådaya daurbalhyam, refers to two related weak-
nesses: attachment to objects unrelated to Kåñëa, and deceit, faultfind-
ing, envy, and the desire for fame. Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura notes that
sädhakas should be especially careful of the hankering for fame. Such
outpourings of false ego are extremely difficult to eradicate.
Finally, the fourth cause of misfortune is aparädha. We commit off­
enses when we chant. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu tells Sanätana Gosvämé,
“Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to
always chant the holy name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the
ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of
Godhead.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Antya 4.71)
It is wise to avoid the ten offenses against the holy name. These
offenses are listed in the Padma Puräëa, and Çréla Prabhupäda presents
them in his purport to Çrémad-Bhägavatam 7.5.23–24:

While chanting the holy name of the Lord, one should be careful to
avoid ten offenses. From Sanat-kumära it is understood that even if a
person is a severe offender in many ways, he is freed from offensive
life if he takes shelter of the Lord’s holy name. Indeed, even if a human
being is no better than a two-legged animal, he will be liberated if he
takes shelter of the holy name of the Lord. One should therefore be
very careful not to commit offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord’s holy
name. The offenses are described as follows: (a) to blaspheme a devo-
tee, especially a devotee engaged in broadcasting the glories of the holy
name, (b) to consider the name of Lord Çiva or any other demigod to
be equally as powerful as the holy name of the Supreme Personality

15
 of Godhead (no one is equal to the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
nor is anyone superior to Him), (c) to disobey the instructions of the
spiritual master, (d) to blaspheme the Vedic literatures and litera-
tures compiled in pursuance of the Vedic literatures, (e) to comment
that the glories of the holy name of the Lord are exaggerated, (f) to
interpret the holy name in a deviant way, (g) to commit sinful activ-
ities on the strength of chanting the holy name, (h) to compare the
chanting of the holy name to pious activities, (i) to instruct the glo-
ries of the holy name to a person who has no understanding of the
chanting of the holy name, (j) not to awaken in transcendental attach-
ment for the chanting of the holy name, even after hearing all these ­
scriptural injunctions.

To understand aparädhas and why they adversely affect our ability to

achieve the results of chanting, we should remember that Kåñëa and His
holy name are nondifferent. This means that as Kåñëa is a person, so His
holy name is a person. Committing nämäparädha ­therefore means that
we are insulting Näma Prabhu. It is only natural that He does not award
His full potency – that is, He does not give Himself – to offenders.
If a great and influential person wishes to bestow his wealth on us
but we maliciously criticize his devoted servants, he will be offended.
If we consider his inferiors equal to him, again he will be offended. If
we disobey his assistants, especially those who have introduced us to
him, or if we criticize the books that describe his wealth and power and
position, or if we misinterpret his glories or consider them made up, it
is only natural that he will be offended. Even worse, if we act criminally
and then misuse our relationship with him by expecting him to pro-
tect us simply because he can, then that great man will shake his head
and consider how to teach us some valuable lessons. He will change
his attitude toward us and withdraw his protection and kindness (even
as he continues to keep an affectionate eye on us). We would expect
anyone to become offended by the behavior I just described. Why not
Näma Prabhu?

16
 In Bhakti-sandarbha (anuccheda 153) Çréla Jéva Gosvämé notes that apa­
rädhas are those things that block us from achieving attachment to the
holy name. Blaming the holy name for our failure to become attach­ed
to Him is simply the fifth nämäparädha in Çréla Prabhupäda’s list above:
considering the glories of the holy name to be exaggerated or imaginary
(hari-nämni kalpanam).

Unfavorable Results Stemming from Committing Offenses

In the Bhakti-sandarbha (anuccheda 153),* Çréla Jéva Gosvämé describes
five unfavorable effects resulting from nämäparädha. These effects may
be ­carried in the heart from one birth to the next:
1. crookedness, or performing devotional service to gain something
other than Kåñëa’s pleasure
2. faithlessness
3. attachment to things that destroy faith in the Lord
4. slackness in the performance of devotional practices
5. pride in one’s devotional advancement
Offenses are extremely deleterious to our devotional progress. Çréla
Prabhupäda’s translation of the second verse of the Çikñäñöaka (in
Caitanya-caritämåta, Antya 20.16) underlines this point: “My Lord, O
Supreme Personality of Godhead, in Your holy name there is all good
fortune for the living entity, and therefore You have many names, such

* Further from the Bhakti-sandarbha (anuccheda 153): “Because most people are
inclined to commit offenses, they should perform spiritual activities again and again.
That those who offend Näma Prabhu should chant the holy name again and again is
explained in the Nämäparädha-bhanjana-stotra of the Padma Puräëa: ‘The chanting
of Hare Kåñëa is recommended for persons who commit offenses, because if they
continue chanting they will gradually chant offenselessly. Even if in the beginning
one chants with offenses, one will become free from such offenses by chanting again
and again.’”

17
as ‘Kåñëa’ and ‘Govinda,’ by which You expand Yourself. You have
invested all Your potencies in those names, and there are no hard and
fast rules for remembering them. My dear Lord, although You bestow such
mercy upon the fallen, conditioned souls by liberally teaching Your holy names,
I am so unfortunate that I commit offenses while chanting the holy name, and
therefore I do not achieve attachment for chanting.” (Emphasis added)
Again, this second Çikñäñöaka verse indicates the importance of
anartha-nivåtti, cleansing the heart. This verse glorifies the fact that chant-
ing is not restricted by time or place; it is a fully transcendental pro-
cess and we are free to chant Kåñëa’s holy name in every circumstance.
But although Kåñëa is so kind (tava kåpä bhagavän), we are so unfortu-
nate (durdaiva). Because of the anarthas in our heart – our lack of under-
standing, our material attachments, our weaknesses, and our offenses,
we remain unfortunate, devoid of attachment to Kåñëa’s holy names.
Although we are attracted by so many things of this world, we have no
attraction to Kåñëa’s holy names. What can we do to help ourselves?

Don’t Criticize Devotees

Criticism of devotees is born of pride and inflames envy. Often our
criticisms take place during casual conversation, when we’re not even
thinking about what we’re saying. But every time we express envy and
malice toward a devotee the lotus of the heart contracts. Those who
want to chant purely must avoid all sädhu-nindä, including the cheap
and unthinking variety. Caitanya Mahäprabhu warned Raghunätha
däsa Gosvämé, gramya-kathä nä çunibe: “Do not talk and gossip like
­people in general or hear what they say.”

Avoiding Pramäda (Inattention) While Chanting

Whenever devotees discuss chanting and how to improve it, they
inevitably come to the central problem, pramäda, the inability to keep the

18
 mind focused on the holy name. Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura devotes
chapters four through thirteen of his Harinäma-cintämaëi to the Padma
Puräëa’s list of ten offenses to avoid while chanting. Chapter twelve
is devoted solely to curing the problem of pramäda. There he states,
“Pramäda may mean madness, but here the meaning is inattention or
carelessness. It is from this offense that all other offenses spring.”
Inattention has three basic categories, and Çréla Bhaktivinoda
Öhäkura lists them as audäsénya, apathetic devotional service or the
lack of a fixed resolve in sädhana; jaòya, laziness or inertia; and vikñepa,
distraction or the misplacing of one’s attention on engagements not
directly connected with sädhana-bhakti.
Apathy indicates that we lack a deep concern for either our chanting
practice or the holy name itself. As a result we have no taste for chant-
ing. Laziness creates sleepiness and feeds distraction, and again we find
ourselves with no taste. Distraction relates to the grasshopper mind
­jumping everywhere and anywhere and remaining unable to maintain
its focus on the holy name.
Clearly, to attain taste while chanting Kåñëa’s holy name we must
overcome our inability to pay attention. To accomplish this it is helpful
to understand the nature and workings of the mind.

19
 3

The Function and Nature of the Mind

Kapila Muni describes the mind in the Third Canto of the Çrémad-
Bhägavatam (3.26.14) as follows:
mano buddhir ahaìkäraç
cittam ity antar-ätmakam
caturdhä lakñyate bhedo
våttyä lakñaëarüpayä
“The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in
the shape of mind, intelligence, ego, and contaminated consciousness.
Distinctions between them can be made only by different functions,
since they represent different characteristics.”
While all four subtle senses – mind (manaù), intelligence (buddhiù),
false ego (ahaìkäraù), and covered consciousness (cittam) – make up the
subtle body, each descends in subtlety from consciousness to false ego
to intelligence to the least subtle of the four, the plodding mind.
Although the mind and the false ego are in practical terms the same,

21
 the mind is functionally less refined than the false ego. We tend to think
that the main obstacle to focused chanting is the mind, but it is the sub-
tler false ego that is causing the problem. The mind, being grosser, is
subordinate to the false ego and serves it by maintaining and protect-
ing it. In his song, Keno Hare Kåñëa Näma, Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura
actually refers to a conditioned soul’s self-concept as maner mänuç, “the
mentally imagined man,” the false sense of self.
Kåñëa’s words in the Bhagavad-gétä (7.27) indicate how the mind
functions in its protective service: the mind provides a sense of dual-
ity to help the false ego maintain its illusory sense of being lord in the
world. “O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of\ the foe, all living enti-
ties are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire
and hate.”
Çréla Prabhupäda speaks of this dualistic functioning of the mind:
“The distinctions between happiness and distress in the material world
of duality are simply mental concoctions, for the so-called ­happiness
and distress are actually one and the same. They are like the happi-
ness and distress in dreams. . . . A sleeping man creates his happiness
and distress by dreaming, although actually they have no existence.
The mind is the via medium in both dreams and wakefulness, and
everything created by the mind in terms of saìkalpa and vikalpa,
­acceptance and rejection, is called manodharma, or mental concoction.”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 6.17.30, purport)
If we are insulted by someone, the mind rises to defend. If we are
praised, the mind is pleased and considers the praise-giver ­intelligent.
In both instances, the mind protects the false self and thereby assists us
to maintain our ignorance of our true self.
Who is that true self? Who are we? When we entered this world we
acquired a covering of ahaìkara, which provided us with a false sense of
identity. This false identity is all we know.
Then who are we according to our false identity? We might be
anything. There are 8,400,000 species to choose from, divided into

22
innumerable classifications. The false ego can adopt any one of these
bodily identities – and the mind and intelligence that go with them – to
create a sense of self. The false ego will embrace any identity other than
its true, eternal sense of self, the identity as Kåñëa’s loving servant. The
false ego so fills our consciousness that we ­forget that we belong to
Kåñëa and He to us.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam tells us that the mind is a transformation of
egoism in goodness (3.26.27); intelligence is a transformation of ego-
ism in passion (3.26.28). The mind’s business is to protect both our
false understanding and our forgetfulness of Kåñëa, and uses the two
mechanisms of saìkalpa and vikalpa (acceptance and rejection) to do so.
The intelligence, which is passionate by nature, serves the subtle false
self by making plans to satisfy the mind’s fluctuations between these
two polarities.
It may be surprising to think of the mind as influenced by goodness
and the intelligence by passion, because we usually consider the intelli-
gence higher than the mind and goodness higher than passion. But the
intelligence is constantly scheming for the future and reframing the past,
both functions of rajo-guëa. We experience the reality of the inter­action
between the mind and intelligence every day. In Çrémad-Bhägavatam
(11.13.9–10) Lord Kåñëa explains the interaction between false ego,
mind, and intelligence to His ­devotee Uddhava in slightly different lan-
guage: “My dear Uddhava, a person bereft of intelligence first falsely
identifies himself with the material body and mind, and when such
false knowledge arises within one’s consciousness, material passion,
the cause of great suffering, pervades the mind, which by nature is situ-
ated in goodness. Then the mind, contaminated by passion, becomes
absorbed in making and changing many plans for material advance-
ment. Thus, by constantly thinking of the modes of material nature, a
foolish person is afflicted with unbearable material desires.”
The entire material world – gross matter and the subtle body
(which includes the mind, intelligence, false ego, and contaminated

23
consciousness) – has been created simply to maintain our delusion that
we are something other than servants of Kåñëa. The mind has the spe-
cific function of acceptance and rejection. We accept specific objects that
the mind identifies as pleasurable and become averse to others cate-
gorized as unpleasant or sources of misery. Again, Bhagavad-gétä (7.27)
states,
icchä-dveña-samutthena
dvandva-mohena bhärata
sarva-bhütäni sammohaà
sarge yänti parantapa
“O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born
into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.”
We are born into this world bewildered by desire (icchä) and aver-
sion (dveña), and we fill our time following the mind with the passion-
ate intelligence, trying to satisfy its demands. Yoga practitioners have
been aware of this dynamic for thousands of years. Pataïjali wrote in
his Yoga-sütras, yoga citta-våtti nirodha: “The purpose of yoga practice is
to stop the mind from its fluctuations based on saìkalpa and vikalpa.” If
we are successful in this, the effects of the material energy will stop and
the mind, which by nature wants to support the false sense that we are
meant to enjoy this world, will slow down and settle back into its source,
the mode of goodness.
So determined is the mind to maintain the materialistic ­conception
of life that simply by engaging in the Buddhistic (or Advaitistic) forms
of meditation to control and slow the mind down – even if one engages
in no other form of meditation – the soul will be carried close to
­transcendence – toward Brahman realization!

24
 4

Chanting with the Mind’s Help

The mind, the least subtle aspect of the subtle body, is a simple entity,
capable of being brought back to the mode of goodness. If we wish
to control the mind during japa, we need to simplify its function,­
separating it from the influence of passion.

The Second Key: Listen to Just One Mantra

We are about to begin chanting. We know that Kåñëa’s name is so pow-
erful that it destroys all sinful reactions (sarva-päpa kñaya), and that one
who chants even a single name of Kåñëa becomes the topmost human
being (eka-bära kåñëa-näma, sei püjya, – çreñöha sabäkära). We also under-
stand the mind’s nature and that inattention is our greatest obstacle.
How, we ­wonder, can we capture the racing mind and focus it on the
holy name?
The easiest way to slow the mind is to give it a simple task. We have
to stop trying to listen to our “rounds” – that task is too complicated

25
for the mind and causes it to jump ahead to all the yet-to-be-chanted
rounds. Instead, make the mind’s task easy: listen to only one mantra,
the mantra you are chanting now.
Don’t be tempted to add anything to this task. Keep it simple. Don’t
even attempt to hear only one mantra at a time. This will push the mind
to think of the future, demanding to know how long we plan to hold it
captive. Keep the mind’s task simple and gradually the mind will act
simply.

The Third Key: State Your Determination

Giving the mind a simplified task only works in conjunction with the
third key: determination. To direct the mind, we need to form a saìkalpa,
a statement of fixed determination or purpose. The mind will always
tell us we have something more important to do than to chant Hare
Kåñëa; we have to be determined enough to disregard the mind and
to focus on the mantra. In my chanting I have seen that unless I form
a saìkalpa I generally will not have the ability to listen carefully to one
mantra. Understand the task and be determined to execute it: “All I
have to do is listen to one Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra.” Nothing more and
nothing less.
The saìkalpa can be stated quickly and subtly – it can touch our think-
ing as lightly as a gentle breeze – and there’s no need to pause between
mantras to reaffirm it. We simply have to remember why we are sitting
with bead bag in hand. Chanting japa is not an invitation to the mind to
wander wherever it chooses; it is the time to enter our personal relation-
ship with Kåñëa. Everything we aspire for is available in the Hare Kåñëa
mahä-mantra, but to fulfill those ­aspirations we must give the mantra
our full attention.
When we have gathered the necessary determination, we should
then focus the mind on its simple task: to listen to one mantra. We
shouldn’t worry about the mantra that will follow the one we’re ­

26
chanting now, and certainly we shouldn’t worry about the one that may
have preceded it. Don’t try to chant sixteen good rounds or ten high-
quality mahä-­mantras. Just chant and attentively hear one mantra.
We can be determined only about the one mantra we are chanting
now. If we think ahead, even to plan greater determination for subse-
quent mantras, the mind will respond with increased passion and will
lose its focus on the holy name.
What have we accomplished when we have chanted one mahä-
mantra with attention? We have allowed our consciousness to touch
Kåñëa’s transcendental holy name. We have bathed our ­consciousness
in sweetness.
These are the results that come from simply listening to one Hare
Kåñëa mahä-mantra.
But, we might say, “My mind is too quick. It’s off before I can catch
it.” If it won’t listen to one mantra, then request it to listen to one holy
name – one “Hare” or one “Kåñëa” or one “Räma” – until it slows down
sufficiently to focus on the entire mantra. Chanting and hearing only
one name is also wonderful and carries with it wonderful results.
If the effect of listening to a single mahä-mantra is so incredible,
imagine what it would be like to hear many mahä-mantras, by Kåñëa’s
grace. Listening to our chanting is the beginning of offenseless chanting,
and offenseless chanting will allow us to experience the full effect of
chanting the mahä-mantra. Otherwise, we can chant for millions of
lifetimes without attaining prema-bhakti: “If one is infested with the
ten offenses in the chanting of the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra, despite
his endeavor to chant the holy name for many births, he will not
get the love of Godhead that is the ultimate goal of this chanting.”
(Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 8.16)

27
 5

The Fourth Key: From Wherever the Mind Wanders . . . 

The Bhagavad-gétä (6.26) states,
yato yato niçcalati
manaç caïcalam asthiram
tatas tato niyamyaitad
ätmany eva vaçaà nayet
“From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady
nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the
­control of the self.”
Part of applying the third key, Determination, is to be determined
to bring the mind back from wherever it wanders. We have to be deter-
mined to listen to one mahä-mantra no matter what the mind says.
By nature the mind is niçcalati asthiram, agitated and unsteady, and
caïcalam, flickering and fickle. It’s always prepared to jump, without
reason, from topic to topic. But we have formulated our saìkalpa: we’ve

29
decided to listen. To fulfill our saìkalpa we must draw the mind back to
its simple task of listening to one mantra.

The Fifth Key: Detachment

Freedom in chanting comes from focusing on the one mantra we are cur-
rently chanting. Even if we have chanted hundreds of terrible mantras,
we cannot go back and rechant them. Neither can we know whether
we will chant attentive mantras in the future. Therefore we must chant
detached from past and future and place all our ­attention on our ­present
attempt to hear.
I remember the first time I heard the Hare Kåñëa mantra. It was 1970,
and I was a brahmacäré in the Tokyo, Japan temple. I was pacing back
and forth on the tatami mats when suddenly I heard myself pronounce
a Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra. I had been chanting for more than two years
by this time, and my sudden hearing – and the power and sweetness of
the mantra – shocked me. I thought, “This is why they tell you to listen
while you chant!” Imagine what it would have been like to have heard
all the mantras in sixteen rounds.
We focus on one mantra because it is impossible to listen to two
mantras at the same time, what to speak of sixteen rounds’ worth of
mantras. We are only capable of listening to the one mantra we are utter-
ing in the moment. Therefore we have to keep bringing the mind back to
the simple task of listening. Make a vow to do this, then bring the mind
back – always.
Sometimes devotees who have tried this technique have noticed
that their mind wanders during the first half of the mantra and they
don’t begin to concentrate until they reach the second part. Don’t worry.
Catch your mind and allow the sound of Räma to lead you to the first
Hare of the next mantra.
And be detached. If we find we haven’t listened to our first fifteen
rounds – even if we didn’t properly hear any mantras, even any one

30
name of Kåñëa – never mind. We do not have the freedom to bring those
mantras back. Neither can we promise to do better in the future. We
have only enough freedom to listen to the mantra, starting with the one
holy name, we are chanting now. There is no point lamenting about the
past or worrying about the future. Better to simply hear the one mantra
we are chanting in the present.

Hearing Even One Mantra is Wonderful

We should know that if we chant one mahä-mantra and actually listen to
it – hearing it – we have done something wonderful and our life is
already successful. Focused chanting is actually the clearing stage of
japa ­(nämä­bhäsa), and the scriptures are full of glorification of such chant-
ing. This is where detachment helps. If we understand how wonderful
it is to chant one mantra attentively, then instead of thinking about all
the mantras we haven’t heard we will free the mind to focus on a fresh
attempt to hear Kåñëa’s name. Be detached. If the mind wanders toward
other thoughts, bring it back and try again. We have this freedom, by
Kåñëa’s mercy.
Practice of these first five keys will gradually slow the mind, and
that will make it easier to stay focused while chanting. Although it’s
true that we need Kåñëa’s grace at each stage if we hope to advance,
we can still use our own free will properly and become determined to
hear Kåñëa’s holy names. By our own efforts, based on our faith in the
holy name, we should try to listen to one mantra – the mantra we are
­currently chanting.

31
 6

Chanting Through Anything

Perhaps we hear a mahä-mantra and suddenly intuit that Kåñëa is
pre­sent in His name – that Kåñëa’s name is Kåñëa. Where did that feel-
ing come from? Did it take birth in the mind? Is it coming from Kåñëa
Himself? Don’t worry about it. Simply chant. Don’t try to capture any
thoughts that pass through the mind. If the thoughts are coming from
Kåñëa, then we can be assured that Kåñëa will come to us in other ways
as well. As He says in Bhagavad-gétä (4.11), ye yathä mäà prapadyante:
He appears to us in proportion to how much we want to meet Him.
If we can simply learn to chant properly, our desire to be with Him
will increase and the impurities that block us from that pure desire will
­dissipate. So keep the mind focused.
Devotees who consciously follow their thoughts realize how com-
mon it is for the mind to converse with itself while they chant. Perhaps
a devotee sits down to chant and finds his mind captivated by visual
impressions. He decides to close his eyes but begins to nod. Within
­minutes his mind is weighing the relative value of chanting with his

33
eyes open and his eyes closed. The discussion goes on with endless
­commentary – that is, until it spins off onto another topic.
But it doesn’t matter whether we chant with our eyes open or
closed. Draw the mind back to the name. We have to be determined
to keep it focused on the sound of the mantra we are chanting at
that moment.
If we find our determination temporarily derailed, we can take the
moment we notice the derailment to restate our saìkalpa. No matter
what we may think or feel, best to stay with simple hearing. When the
mind understands that we are serious in our task, it will tend to relax
and cooperate. The mantra will reveal Kåñëa if we can hear the sound
vibration “Kåñëa.”
Devotees are often afraid that Kåñëa will never reveal Himself
to them. But our äcäryas have guaranteed that we will be successful
through appropriate endeavor. Simply chant one mantra. Once the
mind is trained, a gentle reminder will become sufficient. Chanting is
not meant to be a mechanical process. If we listen to Kåñëa’s names, we
will find Him present there.

Let the Mind Embrace the Holy Name

Embracing the holy name means tasting the holy name, and tasting
begins with listening and then hearing. If we hear the name, we will
naturally experience taste for it. The name, after all, is Kåñëa. When
the mind and heart embrace the holy name it will no longer be d ­ ifficult
to chant.
At present we struggle to force the mind to listen to Kåñëa’s name,
but if we can slow the mind down enough to hear, the name will begin
to manifest its sweetness. Then our consciousness will embrace the
holy name and the holy name will hold us. We cannot control the holy
name’s response to our chanting, but we can do out part: make a
­determined attempt to fix our attention on Kåñëa’s name.

34
 Çréla Prabhupäda writes: “[S]piritual perfection is not limited
by material qualifications but is developed by dint of one’s sincere
endeavor to render transcendental service. Voluntary endeavor is the
only ­qualification for spiritual perfection.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 3.9.38,
purport)
In 1975 a disciple asked Çréla Prabhupäda how to control the rest-
less mind while chanting japa. Çréla Prabhupäda gave a surprising and
grave reply: “What is the use of controlling the mind? You have to
chant and hear. You have to chant with your tongue and hear the sound.
That’s all. What is the question of the mind?” (Room ­conversation,
February 3, 1975, Hawaii)

The Highest Benediction

The Skanda Puräëa, as it is quoted in the Haribhakti-viläsa, states, “The
holy name of Kåñëa is the highest benediction.” This is important to
remember. The Padyävalé (text 18) encourages us: “Let the twice-born
enter the fearless kingdom of yoga. Let them enter Vedic study and sol-
itary meditation in the forest. Let them become liberated in that way.
As for us, we will spend hundreds of thousands of births chanting the
holy name of Lord Kåñëa, whose splendid dark complexion and yellow
garments are like a host of blue lotus flowers blossoming in a grove of
­yellow, ­flower-bearing kadamba trees.”
What can cause a chanter to truly understand the holy name as the
highest benediction, and to find satisfaction in doing nothing but chant-
ing and meditating on Kåñëa? Kåñëa is nondifferent from His names.
Devotees who bathe their entire selves (sarva ätma-snapanam) in such
nectar (pürëämåta) taste the nectar fully (äsvädanam). This is the beauty
and power of the holy name and this is Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s gift.
That is, Mahäprabhu’s special gift was to make the highest goal of life,
prema-bhakti, attainable by the simple process of chanting Kåñëa’s names
without offense.

35
 But to receive this gift we must chant properly, and the foundation
of proper chanting is attentive hearing. All the spiritual attainments that
follow attentive hearing are like ornaments of this essential practice.
The more we listen with attention, the more we will hear and the more
love we will feel for Kåñëa. As our love for our beloved naturally blos-
soms when we hear his or her name, how much more intense will our
love be when the one we are calling is nondifferent from His name?
To illustrate the depth of meditation a true lover of God sustains, the
Gauòéyas tell a story. There once was an elderly brähmaëa who had been
walking in a forest. He realized that it was the sandhyä and time to chant
his mantras. He sat at the edge of the forest path and began his recitation,
thinking himself quite alone. Suddenly a young woman came running
along and knocked into him. She didn’t stop to see if she had hurt him,
but continued running into the forest.
The brähmaëa was upset. He had been engaged in the sacred duty of
reciting his mantras as peacefully and attentively as possible, but he had
been forced to suffer this insult. Still, it was the sandhyä, so he continued
to recite his mantras despite his disturbed mind.
Two hours later the same woman returned, this time ­walking quite
peacefully. As she approached the brähmaëa she immediately offered
her obeisances, asking him if there was any service she might offer
him. The brähmaëa was confused by her contradictory ­behavior. Re­­
membering her previous neglect he asked, “I don’t ­understand. You are
offering me respect now, but earlier you ran over me while I was chant-
ing my mantras, kicking me in the process. You didn’t even stop to help
me, nor did you inquire if you had caused me any harm!”
The young woman was mortified. She then humbly and with
embarrassment told him the truth. “I am sorry, but when I was run-
ning in the other direction I was hurrying to meet my lover. I didn’t
notice you but saw only my lover in my mind. Now I am returning
from my ­rendezvous and have regained my awareness of ­everything
around me.”

36
 Note the respective absorption of the young woman and the ­
brähmaëa. When one is in love, absorption in the object of love is so
deep that practically speaking, nothing else exists. In Sanskrit such
absorption, or attachment, is called räga. As the Haribhakti-viläsa states,
“The holy name of Kåñëa is the highest benediction.” It can award every-
thing we desire in spiritual life. If we seek deep absorption in Kåñëa we
must become attached to chanting His names. Such attachment devel-
ops from attentively hearing the name of the one we wish to love. As
our attachment increases, then everything the çästra has promised will
come true.
We want pure devotion, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s gift to us, but
we cannot jump to such high consciousness without going through
the process to attain it. We must begin with the foundational practices.
“[The holy name] is the eternal fruit of transcendental knowledge of the
tree of the entire scriptures. O best of the Bhärgavas, O Bhågu Muni, if
anyone chants Lord Kåñëa’s name just once without offense, whether he
chants with faith or indifference, the holy name immediately liberates
him.” (Haribhakti-viläsa 11.234)

The Simplicity of the Task

Touch your consciousness to the sound of the name; simply touch the
transcendental sound vibration with your mind and heart. Kåñëa’s
name is spiritual and not of this world (golokera prema-­dhana, hari-­näma-
­saìkértana). Take yourself and Kåñëa in the form of His holy name and
bring them together. All that’s needed to accomplish this task is a tongue
and an ear.
That the task is easy does not imply that we won’t have to work
to control the unruly mind. Despite the struggle, however, bringing
­ourselves to Çré Kåñëa’s feet is the simplest and most natural thing we
can do.

37
 7

More on the Mind

Devotees often become more aware of the mind’s rebellious nature
when they try this one-mantra approach. The mind doesn’t only tend
to wander, they notice, but it comments on what they’re doing at every
moment. Perhaps it starts with encouragement: “You’re doing well now.
You are probably the best chanter around!” Two minutes later it might
present the opposite: “You’re chanting terribly!” It can feel like a battle
to keep the mind on track. But the moment we listen to the holy name
we are present with Kåñëa.
At other times the mind will convince us that we’re bored. We’re
chanting, but we’re wondering whether it’s time to take prasäda. What
time is it, anyway? Wherever the mind wanders, whether into gross or
subtle distractions, our determination and mission should be to listen to
one Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra.
Both boredom and all the distracting irritations we experience in
a day are functions of the mind, and tasting such distractions is the
mind’s business. Have you noticed that what bores or disturbs you

39
 today may bring you pleasure tomorrow? This means that it is not the
activity itself that is causing the feeling; rather, the mind is engaged in
its whimsical saìkalpa-vikalpa behavior. The only way to cure the mind’s
­distractedness is to become determined to listen to Kåñëa’s name.
The mind is like a small child, naughty, crafty, and demanding of
attention. Like a small child, however, it is also easily engaged – and
when the engagement is progressive, it becomes focused and peace-
ful. Because the mind’s function is to protect the false ego, don’t let it
become absorbed in things that give rise to pride or envy. The mind is
prepared to rise at the least provocation, and this seems especially true
while chanting. If we feel we have been insulted the mind may respond
by becoming as disturbed as the ocean on a full moon day, subtly and
internally crying out, “How dare you! Don’t you know who I am?”
It’s more likely that we don’t know who we are. Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu teaches that addressing our identity in truth disallows us
from being disturbed. After all, we are only tiny, insignificant servants
of Kåñëa.
Of course, the mind will never agree to this self-assessment. Like a
two-year-old child in a toy store, the disturbed mind grabs onto things
and doesn’t want to release them. The Bhagavad-gétä explains the mind’s
workings: “While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person
develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust devel-
ops, and from lust anger arises.” The mind is constantly bombarded
by sensory images and becomes attached (and averse) to them. There
is no peace for those who see themselves as the center of existence, as
enjoyers of this world. The awarding of this illusory self-concept is the
specific function of the false ego. We are not the identity that the false
ego has designated us to be; therefore whatever illusion the mind fixes
itself on in relation to this illusion has nothing to do with us, the real
self – who we are in our eternal identity with Kåñëa.
What does the mind want? Everything – anything. It moves from
one thing to another quickly and with unrelenting demands – rejecting

40
one thing, accepting another, and then suddenly rejecting that very
same thing it has only just accepted! This is because it is the mind’s
nature simply to want. To overcome and train the mind requires a
battle – a battle of neglect. As Çréla Prabhupäda states in his purport to
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 5.11.17, “There is one easy weapon with which the
mind can be conquered – neglect. The mind is always telling us to do
this or that; therefore we should be very expert in disobeying the mind’s
orders. Gradually the mind should be trained to obey the orders of the
soul. It is not that one should obey the orders of the mind.”

The Avanté Brähmaëa

In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam Kåñëa tells Uddhava the story of the Avanté
brähmaëa. The Avanté brähmaëa was an extremely wealthy merchant
who was such a miser that he refused to spend money on himself, even
for his own sense enjoyment, on worship of the demigods, on his fam-
ily, to give charity, or to pay his taxes. He was held fast in the mind’s
grip, simply collecting, and he lived a miserable existence. Because of
his miserliness, all those to whom he should have given money turned
against him. Gradually at first, and then suddenly, the Avanté brähmaëa
lost everything.
Instantly his family rejected him and he was turned out onto the
street, penniless. It causes great suffering to have had wealth and then
to have lost it, because the loss challenges one’s illusory sense of iden-
tity. The Avanté brähmaëa’s mind was tortured by his sudden change
in circumstances.
But despite his miserliness he was a pious man, and by Kåñëa’s
grace he gained realization, the gist of which is given in the twenty-third
chapter of the Eleventh Canto (texts 42–57). His realization brought him
peace because he came to understand the cause of his misery. Although
people were unspeakably cruel to him – spitting on him, ridiculing him,
passing urine on the food he had begged, taking his few clothes and

41
throwing them away – he found the place within himself where his
happiness could not be disturbed by anything external. He realized that
so many of our dealings relate to dividing the world into friends and
enemies, another form of icchä and dveña (attraction and repulsion). But
these dealings relate only to the mind. The Avanté brähmaëa found a
shelter other than his own mind and achieved peace.
We too want to reach a shelter beyond the mind. As long as we take
shelter of the mind we have to live separately from Kåñëa – actually, in
hell. The Avanté brähmaëa says, “These people are not the cause of my
happiness and distress. Neither are the demigods, my own body, the
planets, my past work, or time. Rather, it is the mind alone that causes
happiness and distress and perpetuates the rotation of material life.”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 11.23.42)
It is the mind alone.
çrotraà cakñuù sparçanaà ca
rasanaà ghräëam eva ca
adhiñöhäya manaç cäyaà
viñayän upasevate
“The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain
type of ear, eye, tongue, nose, and sense of touch, which are grouped
about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.”
(Bhagavad-gétä 15.9)
To become free of the mind’s tyranny, it is imperative to become
detached from the mind’s wanting and hating.
The Avanté brähmaëa continues, “All the senses have been under the
control of the mind since time immemorial, and the mind himself never
comes under the sway of any other.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 11.23.47)
When we’re attached to something and someone else tries to take
it from us, we might do anything to protect that object of our attach-
ment. Hundreds of thousands of people have killed one another over
­attachments. Text 47 adds, “[The mind] is stronger than the strongest,

42
and his godlike power is fearsome. Therefore, anyone who can bring the
mind under control becomes the master of all the senses.”
Text 48: “Failing to conquer this irrepressible enemy, the mind,
whose urges are intolerable and who torments the heart, many people
are completely bewildered and create useless quarrel with others. Thus
they conclude that other people are either their friends, their enemies,
or parties indifferent to them.”
The mind is the only source of both material happiness and distress.
Other people – and this is almost impossible to accept – are not the
cause of our pleasure or grief. This is true of the demigods, who control
the material elements; the planetary controllers, who may fight with
one another and reveal that battle in our astrological charts; our karma,
which is simply a reaction to our previous actions; time, which moves
and pushes us from place to place against our will; or even our own soul,
which is our true self.
Think about this deeply. It is common for us to take shelter of the
mind and whatever it is attached to or repulsed by at any particular
moment. This is because we tend to believe that what we think and feel
is true. But it is not.
The Avanté brähmaëa offers another shelter:
etäà sa ästhäya parätma-niñöhäm
adhyäsitäà pürvatamair maharñibhiù
ahaà tariñyämi duranta-päraà
tamo mukundäìghri-niñevayaiva
“I shall cross over the insurmountable ocean of nescience by being
firmly fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Kåñëa. This was
approved by the previous äcäryas, who were fixed in firm devo-
tion to the Lord, Paramätmä, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 11.23.57)
The Supreme Lord is the shelter we seek; there is no other shelter.
Everything else is duräçraya, a false shelter. We have no way to move

43
the planets into more favorable configurations (according to our own
estimation) or to move any other person to line up with our desires. We
cannot send all those people we hate or who disagree with us to distant
lands. Nor can we protect ourselves from separation from the people we
love. And even if we could do these things, the mind, by its very nature,
would still not be satisfied.
That we have no control over our world, of course, causes great fear
and frustration for us. Yet this is how Kåñëa has constructed the uni-
verse. The universe simply refuses to cooperate with our false ego; it
refuses to align itself with our vision of ourselves as the central figure
in the world or with our attempt to organize everything and everyone
around our conception of happiness. The universe is designed to make
us miserable so that we learn. Kåñëa wants us to understand that to take
shelter of the mind and false ego is to take shelter of illusion. Rather, let
us cross over the insurmountable ocean of nescience by becoming firmly
fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Çré Kåñëa.
The task of finding our real shelter and then surrendering to that
shelter has been approved by our previous äcäryas, who were all fixed
in firm devotion to the Lord. None of these äcäryas have recommended
listening to the mind. Rather, they have given us the sädhana of chanting
Kåñëa’s holy names with the mind controlled and attentive.

44
 8

What is Important?
It’s useful in dealing with the mind to try to gain a perspective of
what in our life has been of any true value. So much in our life evokes
emotion – family, friends, enemies, mistakes, attachments, repulsions,
money, the body, our country. From a Kåñëa conscious perspective we
know that we have lived many lives before accepting this body and
that we are likely to live many more. The experiences, possessions, and
persons to which we are attached in this life are not that significant,
­therefore, in the overall flow of our existence in the material world. If we
could turn our present life into a film – mine would run sixty years to
date – then speed up the movie so that it took only one minute to show
our whole life (the good, bad, friends, enemies, and everything else),
what would it all mean in that short span of time? We are eternal souls;
what does our current “spot life,” as Çréla Prabhupäda called it, signify
in the face of eternal time? When we were four years old, we might have
experienced something that felt terrible to us. Now, seeing it from the
perspective of a sixty-year-old, the event is insignificant – if we even

45
 remember it. Or perhaps something wonderful happened – we won an
award in the fifth grade. Completely insignificant now.
To protect our false sense of self the mind imposes a sense of sig-
nificance on the inconsequential. Whether good or bad events cross the
mind, all of them are insignificant from the point of view of eternity. In
that sense material attachments are truly ridiculous. Perhaps I desire to
accumulate money. But if I become a billionaire for an eighth of a second,
what value would it have?
In the eleventh chapter of the Third Canto of Çrémad-Bhägavatam
Maitreya Muni speaks to Vidura about time. The chapter is called
“Calculation of Time from the Atom.” There Maitreya gives Vidura a
perspective by which to judge reality. He begins with the smallest incre-
ment of time – the time it takes an atom (paramänu) to combine with
other paramänus to form a molecule – and gradually increases the incre-
ments of time until he is discussing seconds, minutes, hours, months,
and years, then human lifetimes, lifetimes of demigods, and finally
Brahmä’s lifetime.
Brahmä’s lifetime is inconceivably long from the human perspective,
but Maitreya Muni says, “The duration of the two parts of Brahmä’s
life, as above mentioned, is calculated to be equal to one nimeña [one
eyeblink] for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is unchanging
and unlimited and is the cause of all causes of the universe.” (Çrémad-
Bhägavatam 3.11.38) Or, in Çréla Prabhupäda’s words, the fantastic and
interminable life of Brahmä – “from the viewpoint of eternity it is as
brief as a lightning flash.”
Take that perspective and look at the emotions the mind evokes
whenever you think of something you’ve experienced, positive or neg-
ative, in this life. Everything we have and have done is completely insig-
nificant. Still, the mind holds each of these things as most important and
lures us with them especially, it seems, when we are chanting japa. This
is one way the mind protects the false ego: If we were to realize our true
position as tiny servants of Kåñëa we would see our life in a different

46
perspective. Instead, the mind convinces us that all the impressions and
thoughts it holds are all-important and essential to tend to – especially
while we are supposed to be listening to Kåñëa’s names.
But we have been tricked – lied to. If we want to chant good japa, we
have to become detached enough not to identify with the mind. While
the mind may tell us that there is nothing more important in existence
than – and here we can each fill in our own blank – we have to know
that in the next moment that same all-significant event, person, or feel-
ing will be replaced with another all-significant event, person, or feeling,
complete with its own imperative significance. We love, we want, and
we hate endlessly and with no rationale.
This is how advertising drives people to buy on impulse. The mind
sees something and becomes attached. At that moment the object
becomes the most important thing in creation and people will buy it
without thought, spending thousands of dollars on some scarcely
needed item. Later, when the mind has released its grip, that same pur-
chase is revealed as impractical and frivolous. Unfortunately, because
we fail to realize that we were victimized by our own mind and senses,
we foolish mind-worshipers repeat this pattern throughout our lives.
What ruins our japa more than anything, dragging us into inat-
tention, is that we believe our mind’s advertisements. We are easily
­convinced that we must follow every mental impulse, every thought,
now, even while we are doing something as vital as chanting the holy
name. And the mind makes every passing thought epic. But if we
simply focus on the holy name we’ll see within seconds that the epic
thought that attempted to capture us has been punctured and that noth-
ing is left of it because another thought or emotion or urge has taken its
place. If we watch this process we’ll see that the new thought carries
the same urgency and importance as the last one. Can every tempo-
rary thought have the same importance? The mind will tell us yes and
we believe it easily. How many times have you convinced yourself that
unless you do one very important thing or another, you won’t be able

47
to chant your rounds? Icchä-dveña samutthena, dvandva-mohena bhärata:
the mind ­bewilders us by its ­attachments and aversions.

The Village Prostitute, the Unsteady Intelligence

The Çrémad-Bhägavatam states, “Mixed with the mode of passion, the
unsteady intelligence of every living entity is like a prostitute who
changes dresses just to attract one’s attention. If one fully engages in
temporary fruitive activities, not understanding how this is taking place,
what does he actually gain?” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 6.5.15)
Sensual and mental attractions and aversions are ultimately empty
of pleasure and as incapable of awarding variety in experience as a pros-
titute who simply changes her dress. We should learn to soberly unveil
the truth behind the mind’s unending presentations. Çréla Prabhupäda
comments, “[T]he intelligence of a living entity who does not turn his
attention toward Kåñëa or the Kåñëa consciousness movement simply
changes dresses like a prostitute. What is the benefit of such foolish
intelligence? One should be intelligently conscious in such a way that he
need no longer change from one body to another. . . . a Kåñëa conscious
person[’s] . . . only profession is to attract the attention of Kåñëa by chant-
ing the Hare Kåñëa mantra and living a very simple life. . . One should
always be fixed in Kåñëa consciousness and take the cure of devotional
service with firm determination.”
Through intelligence and with firm determination, listen to the Hare
Kåñëa mahä-mantra. Neglect the mind and its prostitute-like attempts
to attract us. Make progress in devotional life. What is the significance
of having proved ourselves right and someone else wrong? What is
the significance of having achieved a crowning success in this world?
What is the significance of again dredging up those past pains and plea-
sures? In a thousand years – in even a hundred years – no one alive
will ­remember that we ever existed. Even our names will have been
­forgotten! What contribution can we make during our brief life span

48
 that will actually stand the test of time? Try viewing success and failure,
pain and pleasure, significance and insignificance from the perspective
of Brahmä’s lifetime and then from eternity.
What could possibly be more important than focusing on the holy
name? For us insignificant souls, nothing is more important than to
­listen to Çré Kåñëa’s names and learning to turn toward Him.

49
 9

The Sixth Key: Neglect the Mind

There is no way around it: if you want to chant good japa you have
to neglect the mind. This is, of course, not the end of our practice.
This is not the International Society for Mind Neglect. Mind neglect
as an ultimate purpose is the focus of Buddhism. Those who prac-
tice Vipassana meditation, for example, try to experience their sense
stimulation as separate from the mind’s interpretation of those expe-
riences. Eradicating their interpretations, they believe, will remove
the essential experience of human suffering. Vipassana adherents and
others on similar paths therefore simply observe the mind, slowing
it down and ultimately ­trying to stop it from interacting with sense
perception.
Observing the mind does quiet it, and when it is quieted, the
mind reverts to its natural state in the mode of goodness, uninflu-
enced by passion and the plan-making intelligence. Buddhists are not
wrong to think that by slowing the mind they can realize ­something
beyond matter.

51
 The Bhagavad-gétä (14.17) states:
sattvät saïjäyate jïänaà
rajaso lobha eva ca
pramäda-mohau tamaso
bhavato ’jïänam eva ca
“From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode
of passion, greed develops; and from the mode of ignorance develop
foolishness, madness, and illusion.”
Usually we accept the mind as the self – as our authority – and reac-
tively try to appease it. When the intelligence joins this conspiracy and
begins to react, reformulate, and plan, we touch the creator of the intelli-
gence, the mode of passion. We may think that we have to just make this
one plan before we can return to attentive chanting, but as soon as we
allow the mode of passion to increase, the mind and intelligence move
quickly. To return the mind to the simple task of listening to the mantra
– to the mode of goodness – becomes almost impossible. Befooled, we
have again accepted our mental fluctuations as vital, as more essential
to our well-being than ­listening to Kåñëa’s names.
Better to neglect the mind. Don’t take it seriously. We will not be
able to chant properly until we apply this key, at least while we’re
chanting japa.
Picture the mind as a projector projecting on smoke. What will we
see? Perhaps we will make out the form of a tiger, or a train racing
toward a car, or someone of the opposite sex. But smoke has no sub-
stance. Similarly, none of the mind’s imagery, no matter how intensely
the mind presents it, has substance. Again, pull the tricky mind back by
assigning it the simplest of tasks: chant one ­mahä-mantra and listen to
it. If we make the task complicated – if we try to chant all our rounds
at once – then we will be forced to plan how to accomplish it. How will
we listen to so many mantras at once? How will we remain ­attentive
through so many mantras? The mind will demand answers and the

52
intelligence will be forced to supply them. Soon, the mode of passion
will carry us away.

The Mind is Not to Be Trusted

Mahäräja Parékñit asks Çukadeva Gosvämé an important question: Why
didn’t Åñabhadeva use His mystic powers even for the good of others?
After all, Åñabhadeva is the Supreme Personality of Godhead; He can-
not be bewildered by mäyä or deviated from the devotional path the way
jévas can. Çukadeva responds, “My dear King, you have spoken correctly.
However, after capturing animals a cunning hunter does not put faith
in them, for they might run away. Similarly, those who are advanced in
spiritual life do not put faith in the mind. Indeed, they always remain
vigilant and watch the mind’s actions.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 5.6.2)
It is dangerous to let the mind run wild. All the learned scholars
agree. The mind is by nature restless, and we should not make friends
with it. If we place our full trust in the mind it can cheat us at any
moment. Even Lord Çiva, the great ascetic, was sexually agitated when
he saw Lord Viñëu’s Mohiné-mürti form, and Saubhari Muni fell down
from his mature stage of yogic perfection after watching fish copulate.
Çukadeva Gosvämé continues, “An unchaste woman is very eas-
ily carried away by paramours, and it sometimes happens that her
husband is violently killed by her paramours. If the yogé gives his mind
a chance and does not restrain it, his mind will give facility to enemies
like lust, anger, and greed, and they will doubtlessly kill the yogé. The
mind is the root cause of lust, anger, pride, greed, lamentation, illusion,
and fear. Combined, these constitute bondage to fruitive activities. What
learned man would put faith in the mind?” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 5.6.45)
In his purport Çréla Prabhupäda asserts that “the mind is the origi-
nal cause of material bondage.”
These are not the sweet instructions most of us long for; in fact, they
may fill us with fear. Yet they are vital to our Kåñëa consciousness. It is

53
imperative that we understand the reality of our ­precarious situation in
this world.
Fortunately, Çréla Prabhupäda provides a solution: Always engage
the mind in Kåñëa consciousness. Don’t trust it. Neglect it, especially
while you’re chanting japa, and engage it simply in h­ earing the mantra.
But a problem arises. They say “What we resist persists.” Therefore
we may require some additional techniques for ­controlling the mind.

The Mind as a Taster of Mundane Rasa

The truth is that unless we have something spiritually relishable on
which to focus the mind, the mind will not stay controlled. Deter­
mination is rarely enough. The mind wants to taste. In its mundane form
it relishes the material emotion evoked by the world’s dualities. When
we think of pleasant things – our family or friends, for example – we
feel the heart, the seat of the mind’s emotion, expand. When we think of
unpleasant things – our enemies or a trauma – the heart contracts. This
expansion and contraction is actually the mind tasting emotion. We tend
to think that the mind wishes to taste only the sweetness of friendship
or success, but it tastes negativity with equal vigor. Each side of a dual-
ity creates an opposite but equally powerful feeling. Because the mind
wants to taste both poles, it will drag us from pleasure to pain and back
again. If we think we can focus only on positive emotion we are delud-
ing ourselves. This is the relative world. Everything that creates posi-
tive emotion has its counterpart in the negative; there is no meaning to
“friend” without “enemy.”
Traveling between dualities is how the mind keeps us engaged in
materialism, forcing us to remain in the cycle of repeated birth and
death. Although we want to taste the pleasure of friendship without tast-
ing the pain of enmity, to taste the pleasure of success without the mis-
ery of failure, to taste love without hate, we are unable. Still, we become
bound by the desire and by our attachment to emotional experience.

54
In this world every emotion can only be defined against its opposite.
The mind can literally keep us engaged forever in the struggle between
dualities.

If Only . . . 
Those of us who are getting older can see that as we age we lose some
of our power to engage in material activities. We were once more physi-
cally active, but now our knees are weak and our shoulders hurt, our
teeth are beginning to fall out and our vision is blurred. Our bodily parts
are gradually or quickly breaking down. Seeing young people running
or doing any of the things we can no longer do reminds us of our youth.
We think, “If only I could run again.” The mind grasps such thoughts
and magnifies them, and immediately a seed of desire is planted that
will fructify in the next life. Yes, it then becomes likely that we will
run again.
What have we missed out on in this life? What have we seen others
possess that we wanted intensely but lacked? Beauty? Strength? Wea­
lth? Knowledge? Success? What color hair have you always wished you
had? Have you envied and longed for the fame others have enjoyed?
Do you desire to have your coffers overflowing with money? A more
­beautiful and affectionate spouse?
“If only I had been more intelligent.” Or “If only I had had a better
memory.” Or “If only I was taller.” Or shorter, or more handsome, or
had straighter or more curly hair. What do we still wish to taste? People
accept these mental fluctuations and embrace them, thinking “I could
have been happy if only . . . ” These fanciful, dreamy thoughts are neither
innocent nor harmless. Rather, as hopeful desires in the mind they are
the fixed thoughts that carry us from birth to birth to birth – an endless
future of aimless wandering.
It is far better to find a spiritual focus. Don’t listen to the mind’s
continuous “if-only” reveries, especially when chanting japa. The only

55
 r­ everie worth listening to is the one that says, “If only I had love for Çré
Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa.” Nothing else has any value. Neglect the mind
that does not take you to Kåñëa. But if the mind becomes attached to the
hankering to become a true devotee, don’t neglect that mind. All other
emotional attachments will trap us in the material world and ­effectively
stop our japa; we will be forced to fulfill our long list of desires or
dreams, our search for happiness in the desert of material life. Will we
actually be happy if we never learn to hold the lotus feet of Rädhä and
Kåñëa in the heart? Don’t find yourself asking forty years from now,
“Why did I neglect to hear the holy names?”
We have been given so much hope. Näma cintämaëiù kåñëaù: the holy
name is a touchstone. When cintämaëi touches base iron it turns the iron
to gold. Similarly, Kåñëa’s holy name can turn the iron of the heart into
the gold of the desire to serve Kåñëa.
But for that to happen, we have to embrace the holy name with our
consciousness. It’s simply not possible to embrace the holy name while
thinking of an incessant succession of mundane hopes.

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 10

Techniques for Controlling the Mind

We have discussed controlling the mind by giving it a simple task.
Ultimately, the restless, fickle mind can only be controlled by placing
it at Kåñëa’s lotus feet. Hearing about Kåñëa helps, but the first and
most basic process is to bathe the mind in spiritual sound by listening
to Kåñëa’s name. Use the ear and tongue together and vibrate Kåñëa’s
names.
Still, the mind is so strong that we may find ourselves needing
extra help to control it. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura sug-
gests the broomstick-and-shoe method. Çréla Prabhupäda writes: “Çréla
­Bhakti­siddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura used to say that in the morning our
first business should be to beat the mind with shoes a hundred times,
and, before going to bed, to beat the mind a hundred times with a
broomstick. In this way one’s mind can be kept under control.” (Çrémad-
Bhägavatam 5.6.4, purport)
There is one easy weapon with which the mind can be conquered –
neglect. The mind is always telling us to do this or that; therefore we

57
 should be very expert in disobeying the mind’s orders. Gradually the
mind should be trained to obey the orders of the soul. It is not that one
should obey the orders of the mind. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté
Öhäkura used to say that to control the mind one should beat it with
shoes many times just after awakening and again before going to sleep.
In this way one can control the mind. This is the instruction of all the
çästras. If one does not do so, one is doomed to follow the dictations of
the mind. (Çrémad Bhägavatam 5.11.17, purport)

In a lecture given in Calcutta, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura

describes what he means by his technique: “This wicked mind, which
is never to be trusted, should be broom-sticked every morning with
such warnings as, ‘Be not anxious to find fault with others or to pro-
claim ­thyself as a true, sincere, bona fide bhakta, which certainly thou
art not.’”
When the mind is always critical of others, we can ask ourselves,
“Who do I think I am?” We know our own problems and failures better
than anyone, so what right do we have to criticize others? Don’t let the
mind get away with such misbehavior.
Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté continues: “There is an adage to the
effect that para-carccakera gati nahi kona kale, ‘a man who is habituated
to criticize others’ conduct will never prosper.’ Let others do whatever
they like – I have no concern with them. I should rather find fault with
my own damned mind . . . ”
Beating the mind is the first technique. But it doesn’t work for every-
one because sometimes if we are too aggressive in the attack the mind
goes into a spasm and ignores our orders. For those who have this expe-
rience, Raghunätha däsa Gosvämé has offered a second way to control
the mind: pleading with the mind to become a friend.
He writes in the Manaù-çikñä:
O mind, I grasp your feet and beg you with sweet words. Please
throw away all your pride and develop intense extraordinary love for
my ­spiritual master, for Vraja-bhümi, for the people of Vraja, for the

58
 Vaiñëavas, for the brähmaëas, for the Gäyatré mantra, for the holy name,
and for the transcendental shelter that is the youthful couple of Vraja.

Pride sits in the mind, the ever-present representative of false ego. But
pride can be conquered by offering oneself wholeheartedly as the affec-
tionate servant of the spiritual master and the holy persons, places, and
things mentioned in this verse.
Don’t perform the pious and impious deeds described in the Vedas.
Intently serve Çré Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa in Vraja. Always remember that
Lord Caitanya is the son of Mahäräja Nanda and that my guru is most
dear to Lord Mukunda.
Mind, listen to me. If you desire to reside in Vraja birth after birth,
and if you desire to directly serve the Divine Couple, then with great
love always remember and bow down before Çréla Svarüpa Dämodara
Gosvämé, Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé, his elder brother Çréla Sanätana
Gosvämé, and all their associates and followers. Give up the prostitutes
of friendship with nondevotees, prostitutes who will steal the treasure
of your heart. (texts 2–4)

His words should make us examine our own heart. What do we

treasure?
Don’t listen to the words of the tigress of impersonal liberation, which
devours everyone. Give up attraction for Lord Näräyaëa, which leads
to the world of Vaikuëöha. O mind, in Vraja worship Çré Çré Rädhä and
Kåñëa, the two philanthropists who give away the jewel of pure love.
The highwayman lust and his friends have bound me at the neck
with the painful rope of wicked deeds. O mind, please scream, “O
Kåñëa, O killer of Baka, I will be killed by highwaymen!” O mind, do
that and he will save me. (texts 4–5)

Devotees often notice that when the mind tries to grasp something
there is a point where they retain the soul’s freedom to choose Kåñëa.
At that point, if they actually call out to Kåñëa for help – to Kåñëa, to
Raghunätha däsa Gosvämé, to Çréla Prabhupäda, to any pure person –

59
the mind recedes and they are saved. The mind cannot stand in the pres-
ence of these personalities’ spiritual potency. As Çréla Prabhupäda wrote
in a number of initiation letters, “The example is when the sun is in
the sky, there is no question of darkness. Similarly, when Hare Krishna
Mantra is vibrating on your tongue and you are hearing attentively, then
your consciousness becomes clear or Krishna Conscious, and there is no
question of maya or hazy consciousness. Just as when the light and the
darkness come together, the darkness cannot stand before the light, so
maya cannot remain in the presence of Krishna. Always remember there-
fore to chant Hare Krishna, and that will save you in all circumstances
without any doubt.”
The sädhana process presents us with choices. If we use our freedom
to choose, we can know that whatever we choose will reveal what we
actually want to achieve in life, what we think will make us happy. Is it
the service of Çré Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa or one of the phantasmagorical
presentations Mäyä offers? During japa Mäyä will present endless dis-
tractions, but that’s not our concern. Our task is simple: listen to Kåñëa’s
holy names – to a single holy name or one mantra, and call out to the
Lord. You may have spent years on the journey to acquire the spiritual
jewels of realization and taste. Will you allow the highwaymen of lust,
pride, and envy to steal the jewels of realization you have already gath-
ered? Misplaced anger can steal everything we have spent a lifetime
gathering. Call out to Kåñëa to save you. He will come immediately; He
is already present in His name (abhinnatväà näma-näminoù). The mind
may be holding tightly to its lust, but as darkness flees before light, the
mind will release its attachment as soon as one actually takes shelter of
Kåñëa’s names. Raghunätha Däsa continues:
Mind, why do you burn both you and me by bathing in the trickling
urine of the ass of deviousness and hypocrisy? (text 6)

Contemplating these verses force us to become introspective, even

if such introspection causes us pain when we see in ourselves the

60
ob­noxious qualities Raghunätha däsa is describing. We are devious and
hypocritical, and we are bathing in the burning urine of an ass. The
mind, often ever so subtly, seduces us into seeking fame, and it is will-
ing to use hypocrisy, deceit, and even self-deceit to attain it. Prathiñöha,
pratiñöhädi’ yata upaçäkhä-gaëa: pride is a weed that chokes the devotional
creeper, a weed that often survives by deceptively disguising itself
as humility.
Material desires, anarthas, offenses, weakness of heart – have we
invested our hope in these obstacles, expecting them to actually deliver
the happiness we long for? Yet the mind relentlessly grasps at them,
hoping for satisfaction by bathing in “the burning urine of an ass.”
Raghunätha däsa suggests a different type of bath:
You should delight both you and me by eternally bathing in the
glistening nectar ocean of pure love for Çré Çré Gändharvä-Giridhäré.

The mind will never be satisfied with its material activities. It can only
become truly satisfied by bathing in the nectar of the holy names sin-
cerely chanted in the association of devotees.
Çréla Prabhupäda had his own technique for dealing with the mind:
simply ignore it and keep busy in Kåñëa’s service either by chanting,
hearing, or otherwise serving the holy name. He also suggested that
we not chant to enjoy the holy name but as servants of the name. Çréla
Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura instructed his disciples to pray to
the personified name to make them worthy of serving Him.

Becoming a Servant of the Holy Name

What does it mean to become a servant of the holy name? Çréla
Prabhupäda was such a great servant of Kåñëa’s name, because
he fulfilled the desire of the holy name – and of Çré Caitanya Mahä­
prabhu – that the holy name be spread throughout the world. Çréla
Prabhupäda exemplified incredible dedication to this service. And as

61
Çréla Prabhupäda saw everything else he did as part of this main ser-
vice, so we too can remain consciously aware how our services are either
directly or indirectly ­connected to ­serving Kåñëa’s holy name and
spreading its glories
Kåñëa states in the Bhagavad-gétä (18.57):
cetasä sarva-karmäëi
mayi sannyasya mat-paraù
buddhi-yogam upäçritya
mac-cittaù satataà bhäva
“In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My
­protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me.”
Don’t let mäyä divide serving the holy name from serving Kåñëa, the
person. The materialistic mind is so clever that it will turn “service” into
work. Service should not become a “job,” which is part of our career; it
should remain sevä, our devotional offering.
Kåñëa states in the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad-gétä that ­devotees
can offer flowers, fruit, and water. But what do these particular items
mean in and of themselves? Does Kåñëa need flowers? They may have
a beautiful fragrance, but when offered they assume still more signifi-
cance, because they become the external manifestation of our devotional
appreciation. When someone presents us with a rose, we take it as a
­gesture of affection. The rose is only the external manifestation of inter-
nal affection. While it’s possible to make mechanical offerings in which
one never gets past the external ritual, we want to deepen our internal
devotion to imbue real meaning to the external gesture.
Serving the holy name is the same. Chanting a fixed number of
rounds is an external manifestation of a desire to express love for Kåñëa.
If we want to deepen the significance of our gesture we have to bring
Kåñëa and our näma-sevä together. Kåñëa tells us to be fully conscious
of Him in whatever we do. “Fully conscious of Me” means that we
approach Him as servants performing sevä. Chanting or anything else

62
we do is not our work or even our devotion; it is our devotional service,
the external gesture of our internal desire to please Him. If we want to
find depth, we have to surrender to our service.

Neglecting the Mind in Order to Serve

Neglecting the mind in order to become absorbed in sevä was how Çréla
Prabhupäda and his own Guru Mahäräja trained their disciples. Çréla
Prabhupäda wanted everyone to be engaged, and he considered the idle
mind “a devil’s workshop.” He kept us busy.
In a similar mood and in regard to book distribution Çréla Prabhupäda
gave his Western disciples the perfect mantra: “Double it.” No matter
how many books were distributed, the next year the amount was to be
doubled, and doubled again the year after that. This mantra is appli-
cable in other areas of service. But Çréla Prabhupäda didn’t want us to
make this increase while leaving Kåñëa out of the equation. We were to
“double it” for Him.
Therefore whatever our service, we should not let it become our
work or simply the source of our maintenance. Regardless of our posi-
tion in life, we should offer our endeavor to guru and Kåñëa. Aspire to
give them pleasure. Devotion has to enter deeply into the conscious-
ness. For this to occur, we must neglect and become disobedient to our
ever-shifting, always-grasping, forever-lamenting, materialistic mind.
Nothing other than devotion to Kåñëa will ­satisfy us.

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 11

The Seventh Key: Humility

The first verse of the Çikñäñöaka glorifies the holy name and describes
the results of chanting, especially mentioning the holy name’s ability to
conquer the material energy, which is otherwise unconquerable. In the
second verse, however, Caitanya Mahäprabhu explains that although
Kåñëa has kindly filled His many holy names with His full çakti, we fail
to get the seven effects of chanting mentioned in the first verse. This is
because of our anarthas, especially the offenses we commit.
We hear this and we are sincere, so we work on our anarthas. We real-
ize that they prohibit us from seeing Kåñëa. Our anarthas and ­apa­rädhas
pull us away over and over again from simply listening to Kåñëa’s
name. Our efforts should lead to perfect chanting and on to ecstasy. One
would expect, then, that the Çikñäñöaka’s third verse would describe the
ecstatic symptoms one attains after imbibing the ­knowledge of the first
two verses.
But no, the third verse describes a humble condition. After hearing
everything we’ve heard, and after recognizing our condition and what

65
we must do to improve it, jäniyä çuniyä biña khäinu – still we drink poison,
still we remain attached to the material world and its sense objects, and
still we remain afraid of giving ourselves to the holy name of Kåñëa.
Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu speaks the third verse of the Çikñäñöaka to
teach us the essence of the devotional process. After we develop faith in
the holy names we gather our knowledge and intelligence, and on the
strength of our faith try to concentrate while we chant. It doesn’t take
long to notice that our strength and intelligence are insufficient. Our
high estimation of ourselves as capable and sincere – estimations based
on false ego – are unable to help. The mind, which works endlessly to
protect our false sense of self, cannot help either. Instead we find that
when we sincerely try to chant and to perform devotional service for
the pleasure of Kåñëa and the Vaiñëavas, the first result isn’t ecstasy
but humility.
Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu therefore writes:
tåëäd api sunécena
taror api sahiñëunä
amäninä mänadena
kértanéyaù sadä hariù
“One who thinks himself lower than the grass, who is more tolerant than
a tree, and who does not expect personal honor but is always prepared
to give all respect to others can very easily always chant the holy name
of the Lord.”
Actually, humiliation seems to come even before humility. If I com-
pare the saìkalpas I made with what I actually did and the results of that,
the truth becomes clear: my determined effort to advance in Kåñëa con-
sciousness, renouncing once and for all my anarthas, my offenses, and
the petty material desires that have invaded my consciousness, has not
been successful. I become painfully aware of my incapacity. Overcome
by things unrelated to Kåñëa – things I have chosen to indulge in – I now
find myself embarrassed.

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 Caitanya Mahäprabhu prescribes humility as the path to pure chant-
ing, for it will in time be followed by full dependence on Kåñëa.
Humility is the natural result of the sincere desire to advance in
Kåñëa consciousness. It’s easy for those who are not serious about
advancement to think that they are advancing quickly. They may even
wonder why so many devotees struggle when Kåñëa consciousness
is obvious, natural, and easy. These young souls conceive of devo-
tional service as a series of activities rather than a full ­surrendering of
the heart.
But those who actually want to love Kåñëa and purify the heart
have to turn on the light in the room of their consciousness – a room,
they discover, that has not been cleaned since time immemorial. Kåñëa
consciousness seems easy when the light is off because we cannot see
the dirt. But as soon as the light goes on, we see only dirt. This vision
­awakens humility.
Caitanya Mahäprabhu said that prospective chanters of the pure
name see themselves as lower than grass. When someone steps on
grass, the blades spring up again as soon as the person has passed.
Vaiñëavas, however, do not spring up. They always consider themselves
fallen because they are only too aware of that dirty room. When some-
one criticizes them they consider that the critic has had only a fleet-
ing glimpse in the door of the room of their ­consciousness. They are
aware more than anyone else of the state of the room and are disgusted
by it. Even pure devotees, whose consciousness is ­fully pure, share
this mood.
After speaking about the quality of grass Caitanya Mahäprabhu
turns to the exalted qualities of trees. If one comes to cut down a tree
the tree doesn’t complain. Even when a tree is dying from lack of water
it doesn’t cry out. When it is hot, the tree provides shade even to the
woodsman with the ax. Trees also offer their fruits freely, even to those
who have failed to provide them with water.
When we cry out it’s usually because we think we don’t deserve the

67
way others are treating us. But if we examine our heart we will see that
we do deserve our suffering. In this mood Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura
states, “O Lord of my life, how shall I tell You my shameful story? There
is no sin that I have not committed thousands of times and more, O
Lord.” (Çaraëägati, Ätma-nivedanam, Song 2, verse 1)
Therefore tolerance is an important Vaiñëava quality, and lacking it
is a sign of a flourishing false ego. An intolerant person wonders why
others have dared to remain ignorant of his or her role as the center of
the universe.
Vaiñëavas are tolerant because they realize their insignificance
and how much lies between their desire to surrender to Kåñëa and
the actual fulfillment of that desire. Instead of focusing on perceived
insults they focus on cleaning their consciousness, and they spend no
time criticizing others, even those who may try to offend them. They
practice seeing everything that happens to them as Kåñëa’s mercy for
their rectification.
But real humility is difficult to achieve; it is not the product of the
intelligence but of deep spiritual realization. To be fixed in humility is
called niñöhä. Those who become serious in Kåñëa consciousness begin
to understand the deep lamentation of an äcärya like Bhaktivinoda
Öhäkura and feel a little of it themselves. They are forced to become
humble, especially when they attempt to chant attentively and without
offense. I have heard that Çréla Prabhupäda glorified even the attempt
at pure chanting when he told a disciple, “Simply the sincere and con-
tinuous attempt to chant attentively without offense is the nämäçraya
(nämäbhäsa) platform.”

Kåñëa’s Response to a Humble Appeal

We cannot control Kåñëa’s response to our humble attempts to chant.
Neither can we control what karmic reactions He has arranged for our
purification. We are completely dependent on His mercy.

68
 Still, what we can control is the choice to make a sincere attempt. In
a 1974 lecture in Hawaii, Çréla Prabhupäda told his disciples,
So we must be purely chanting. But we should not be disappointed.
Even impure . . . Therefore we must have fixed chanting process.Because
we are not in the pure stage. Therefore, by force . . . We had this train-
ing in our childhood school. Our teacher would ask me, ‘You write ten
pages, handwriting.’ So that means practicing ten pages, my handwrit-
ing will be set up. If we do not even follow sixteen rounds, where is the
question of chanting Hare Kåñëa? Don’t be artificial; don’t be . . . a show
bottle. Be real thing. And that is wanted. If you want real benefit of
spiritual life, don’t be show bottle. . . . If one can chant purified offense-
less once kåñëa-näma, he is free from all material bondage. Once only.
Eka kåñëa-näme kare sarva-päpa haya.

When the light goes on in the consciousness we see our shortcomings

and naturally become humble. Then amäninä mänadena, we will require
no respect for ourselves but will give all respect to others. When we
reach that state of mind, kértanéyaù sadä hariù, we will be able to chant
the holy name constantly.
What is the connection between humility and constant and inoffen-
sive chanting? Humility makes us beg to serve the devotees, our spiri-
tual master, Caitanya Mahäprabhu and Nityänanda Prabhu, and Çré Çré
Rädhä and Kåñëa. As our aspiration grows we will see how weak it is
and yet we will treasure it. We will soon realize that our only hope to
attain our goal is to take shelter of the holy names. When the desire to
serve Kåñëa is mixed with humility and a full awareness of both our
impurity and our inability, we will have found the key to taking shelter
of Kåñëa’s name.

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 12

Kåñëa is Capable of Protecting Us

We’re generally not aware that the things we strive for in this world,
either subtly or grossly, are anartha, contrary to our true purposes. They
actually cause us misery. What we really need is our one true artha, our
true wealth, love for Kåñëa.
Kåñëa is described in the first chapters of the Çrémad-Bhägavatam
as the paraà satyam, the Absolute Truth, as the source of the incarna-
tions, as majestic and all-powerful, but we meet Him personally for the
first time in the Bhägavatam’s seventh chapter, just after Açvatthämä has
beheaded Draupadé’s five sons and Arjuna has vowed to capture the
assassin. Arjuna is armed with his Gäëòéva bow and is in close pursuit.
Kåñëa, the Absolute Truth and the source of all the puruña-avatäras, is
driving his chariot – serving His devotee.

71
 When Açvatthämä releases a brahmästra to protect himself, Arjuna
turns to Kåñëa for shelter. He says, “O my Lord Çré Kåñëa, You are the
almighty Personality of Godhead. There is no limit to Your different
energies. Therefore only You are competent to instill fearlessness in the
hearts of Your devotees. Everyone in the flames of material miseries can
find the path of liberation in You only.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.7.22)
Arjuna has stated two things about Kåñëa. First, he says that Kåñëa
has unlimited power. As Mahä-viñëu the universes emanate from Him,
but that does not define the limits of Kåñëa’s power. He has power
without end. Arjuna also says that Kåñëa saves His devotees from fear
(­bhaktänäm abhayaìkara). Therefore only Kåñëa can protect us, and He is
the only true and ultimate shelter.
What will it take for us to believe these words, to know that Kåñëa
really will care for us fully both in difficult times and at the most diffi-
cult time? How do we trust Him? Accepting the reality of Kåñëa’s pro-
tection is çaraëägati, the doorway to bhakti. Without çaraëägati we cannot
actually begin to love Kåñëa.
Only when we surrender can we have a confidence that parallels
Arjuna’s. Arjuna was not confident in his own strength, abilities,
intelligence, beauty, learning, family, or wealth. Conditioned souls
tend to take shelter of whatever they think gives them power, but
when it comes to the desire to serve Kåñëa these have limited value,
and when it comes to attaining Goloka Våndävana they have no
value. Whatever material assets we have are insufficient. Because
devotees recognize this fact, like Arjuna, the powerful warrior
with his Gäëòéva bow, they humbly turn to Kåñëa: “I have no hope
unless You accept me and are merciful to me. I am Yours. Please
protect me.”
This giving of the self to Kåñëa is the process of surrender. Surrender
means giving up the concept that we are separate from Him – that we
are His competitors. It means accepting our actual position as His tiny
servants, fully under His protection.

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The Servant is Sold to the Master
Great Vaiñëavas don’t feel the need to understand Kåñëa’s plans or the
reasons for their suffering. They have given everything to Kåñëa and
He has purchased them. Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura writes, goptåtva
varaëaà tathä: Kåñëa is my maintainer, my master. Like a cow purchased
by its owner and kept on a rope, the devotee accepts Kåñëa’s complete
shelter. The master may feed the devotee or not, but there is no question
of the devotee leaving the master’s shelter.
The result of allowing ourselves to be fully maintained by Kåñëa
is that it fills us with a sense of belonging to Kåñëa. If we belong to
Kåñëa, then viñvaà pürëa-sukhäyate: we become happy. Imagine always
living with the most wonderful person, acting solely for His plea-
sure, and feeling ourselves always maintained and protected by Him.
Surrendered devotees are not in anxiety because they rest always in
Kåñëa’s hand.

Fear
The Çrémad-Bhägavatam assures us that Kåñëa is bhakta-vatsala, affection-
ate to His devotees. What stops us from giving ourselves to Him in
devotion? What are we hoping to gain from this world? More to the
point, what do we fear? Çréla Prabhupäda has said that we fail to sur-
render because we doubt whether Kåñëa is a person, and especially a
person who loves His devotees. In other words, we suffer from athe-
istic tendencies. But our misconceptions leave us alone in the uni-
verse. If we fall, will Kåñëa be there to catch us? We aren’t sure. The
best antidote for doubt is full faith in çästra, where Kåñëa points to
Himself as our “seed-giving father” (Bhagavad-gétä 14.4). Less than
best, but still essential to removing our deepest doubts, is experience.
What molds our mentality to allow us that experience is attentive
and thoughtful hearing. We should also try to live a life that attracts

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Kåñëa’s mercy so that we can witness His kindness and tolerance
first-hand.
We can trust Kåñëa because He is infallible. He falls neither from His
all-powerful position nor His bhakta-vatsala nature. Kåñëa will not sud-
denly become selfish or reject us.
Still, Kåñëa protects us in proportion to our surrender. If we want
full protection we must fully surrender. When Draupadé was being
stripped in the assembly of Kurus, she eventually called out with full
dependence, “He Govinda!” Kåñëa said, “This call from her has put Me
in her debt, and that indebtedness is gradually increasing in My heart!”
(The Nectar of Devotion, p. 166) If we just once sincerely call out, “O Kåñëa,
please accept me, please allow me to serve You, I am Yours,” Kåñëa will
never forget us and will never let us go.

sakåd eva prapanno yas

taväsméti ca yäcate
abhayaà sarvadä tasmai
dadämy etad vrataà mama

“If one surrenders to Me sincerely, saying, ‘My Lord, from this day I am
fully surrendered to You,’ I always give him protection. That is My vow.”
(Rämäyaëa, Yuddha-käëòa 18.33)
Çréla Prabhupäda writes about the surrendered devotee, Kuntédevé:
Kunté is described herein as saté, or chaste, due to her unalloyed devo-
tion to Lord Çré Kåñëa. . . . A chaste devotee of the Lord does not look to
others, namely any other living being or demigod, even for ­deliverance
from danger. That was all along the characteristic of the whole fam-
ily of the Päëòavas. They knew nothing except Kåñëa, and therefore
the Lord was also always ready to help them in all respects and in
all circumstances. That is the transcendental nature of the Lord. He
reciprocates the dependence of the devotee. One should not, there-
fore, look for help from imperfect living beings or demigods, but one
should look for all help from Lord Kåñëa, who is competent to save

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 His devotees. Such a chaste devotee also never asks the Lord for help,
but the Lord, out of His own accord, is always anxious to render it.
(Çrémad Bhägavatam 1.8.17, purport)

Lord Näräyaëa’s words to Durväsä Muni on this point are both encour-
aging and instructive: “I am completely under the control of My
­devotees. Indeed, I am not at all independent. Because My devotees are
completely devoid of material desires, I sit only within the cores of their
hearts. What to speak of My devotee, even those who are devotees of
My devotee are very dear to Me.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 9.4.63)

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 13

The Eigth Key: Nämäçraya

Nämäçraya literally means finding shelter at the feet of the holy name.
We are servants who need the shelter of our masters, especially of Näma
Prabhu. If we actually wish to offer sevä we must become humble and
then seek shelter. Steadily and fully taking shelter of Kåñëa is the niñöhä
platform; there is no way to circumvent it if we wish to reach the higher
stages of bhakti. Fortunately, the universe cooperates with the endeavor
to become humble and seek shelter. Just try to do anything in this world
and you will discover this truth for yourself.
But few of us willingly choose humility, which is so bitter to the false
ego. Still, humility is a reflection of the true self: we are not only servants
but insignificant servants – eternally.
If we accept the truth that this is all we can ever be and then take
shelter of Kåñëa, regardless of how dirty our consciousness is, we can
consider ourselves on the devotional path. A devotee who has attained
niñöhä is worthy of all respect.
In Harinäma-cintämaëi Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura describes the one

77
devotional quality that supersedes the other twenty-five: kåñëaika-çaraëa,
the quality of having taken shelter of Kåñëa. Those who see Kåñëa as
their only refuge, even if they possess none of the other devo-
tional ­qualities, are Vaiñëavas. We should be careful not to offend
such persons.
Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura discusses nämäçraya in his song describing
the third verse of the Çikñäñöaka. Note what the Öhäkura concludes (in
the last verse) about attaining the attributes required to chant Kåñëa’s
name (Çré Çikñäñöaka, song 3):

If your mind is always absorbed in chanting the glories of Lord Kåñëa

with great care, then by that process of çré-kåñëa-kértana you will attain
transcendental qualification.
You should give up all false pride and always consider your-
self to be worthless, destitute, and lower and more humble than a
blade of grass.
You should practice forgiveness like that of a tree, and giv-
ing up violence toward other living beings you should protect and
maintain them.
In the course of passing your life, you should never give anxiety
to others, but rather do good to them while forgetting about your
own happiness.
When one has thus become a great soul, possessing all good qual-
ities, one should abandon all desires for fame and honor and make
one’s heart humble.
Knowing that Lord Kåñëa resides within all living creatures, one
should with great respect consistently show honor to all beings.
By possessing these four qualities – humility, mercifulness, res­
pect toward others, and the renunciation of desires for prestige – one
becomes virtuous. In such a state you may sing the glories of the
Supreme Lord.
Weeping, Bhaktivinoda submits his prayer at the lotus feet of the
Lord: “O Lord, when will you give me the qualification for possessing
­attributes such as these?”

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He also discusses nämäçraya in a Gétävalé song:
jévana anitya jänaha sär
tähe nänä-vidha vipada-bhär
nämäçraya kori’ jatane tumi
thäkaha äpana käje
“You should understand this essential fact: Life is temporary and filled
with various kinds of misery.” (Gétävalé, song 1, verse 6)
What should we do about this inescapable truth?
“Therefore carefully take shelter of the holy name and remain always
engaged in His service as your eternal occupation.”
jévera kalyäna-sädhana-käm,
jagate äsi’ e madhura näm,
avidyä-timira-tapana-rüpe,
håd-gagane biräje (7)
“Desiring to shower benedictions upon all living entities, this sweet
name of Kåñëa has descended to this material universe and shines
like the sun in the sky of the heart, destroying the darkness of
ignorance.”
kåñëa-näma-sudhä koriyä pän,
juräo bhakativinoda-präë,
näma binä kichu nähiko äro,
caudda-bhuvana-mäjhe (8)
“Without the holy name there is nothing within the fourteen worlds.
Drink the pure nectar of the holy name of Kåñëa and thus satisfy the
soul of Bhaktivinoda.”
There’s obviously a difference between chanting mechanically,
unconscious of our position or need in relationship to Kåñëa, and
the sincere chanting that comes when we chant with humility, taking

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shelter of the holy names. As soon as we feel that we have no capac-
ity and that our one hope is the holy name, we will find ourselves
approaching full dependence on Kåñëa and surrendering ourselves to
His names. Nämäçraya awards us the sense of belonging to Kåñëa, of
being His.
Nämäçraya is called both çaraëägati and niñöhä, the position of sur-
rendered firm faith and steadiness. Niñöhä is naturally followed by ruci,
taste. Of course, such consciousness cannot be forced; like humility, sur-
render is not an artificial or intellectual adjustment. It is attained only
when we realize that we have no shelter and therefore no hope other
than kåñëa-näma.

Becoming Akiïcana
Devotees find as they grow older that their lives provide them the
opportunity to develop humility. Life is full of problems; we all suf-
fer. But where do we seek shelter during difficult times? Often we seek
it in our intelligence, money, physical beauty, or whatever other mate-
rial opulence that may have fallen into our laps. But for each of us, at
some point in life, we find that our abilities are insufficient and we
suddenly fail miserably, falling flat on our face. Can that failure, diffi-
cult and painful as it may be, be transformed into a conduit of Kåñëa’s
mercy? Kuntédevé prays, “I wish that all those calamities would happen
again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing
You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths. My
Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who
are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress,
trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence,
high education and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere
feeling.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.8.25–26)
Our abilities fail us many times a day. What do we do when such
moments occur? If we wish to advance in spiritual life we must become

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akiïcana,* materially bankrupt, with faith that no configuration of our
meager portion of opulence has the capacity to award us true shelter.
Certainly at death we’ll have nothing. Which of our possessions
and abilities will give us shelter then? We will have only Kåñëa. To act
steadily on this platform is called niñöhä, and when we have attained
this steady faith – when we are fixed in the realization that Kåñëa is
ours and we are His – the mind will no longer seek refuge in anyone but
Him. Suffering is at an end for such persons because they are living, as
Çréla Prabhupäda explains in the Bhagavad-gétä, by and in Kåñëa’s mercy.
Kåñëa is alive in them, which means the holy name becomes alive in
them. And they become alive in Kåñëa.
samo ’haà sarva-bhüteñu
na me dveñyo ’sti na priyaù
ye bhajanti tu mäà bhaktyä
mayi te teñu cäpy aham
“I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever
renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also
a friend to him

* It’s important to note that the quantity of one’s material possession doesn’t
necessarily indicate one’s level of material exhaustion, one’s position as an akiïcana
devotee. Çréla Prabhupäda explains: “Caitanya Mahäprabhu said that niñkiïcanasya
bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya. Bhagavad-bhajana, to advance in spiritual life, to be
engaged in Kåñëa’s devotional service, that is the aim of life. . . . So for him he should
always remain niñkiïcana. . . . therefore Gaura-kiçora däsa Bäbäjé, he remained
niñkiïcana. And his disciple, Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté, he also remained niñkiïcana
although he possessed so many temples, because nothing was for his personal . . . but
for Kåñëa. . . . Just like Rämänanda Räya. He was gåhastha, very opulent, governor.
He is also akiïcana because nothing was possessed by [him] personal[ly]; everything
for Jagannätha. . . . On one side Rüpa Gosvämé, and one side Rämänanda Räya. And
Rämänanda Räya is the most confidential devotee of Caitanya Mahäprabhu although
he’s a gåhastha because he is akiïcana – as akiïcana as Rüpa Gosvämé. So we have to
become akiïcana. . . . Then we shall realize Kåñëa.” (Lecture, Mäyäpur, October 6, 1974)

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Çréla Prabhupäda writes:
[Kåñëa] is just like a cloud which pours rain all over, regardless of
whether it falls on rock or land or water. But for His devotees, He gives
specific attention. Such devotees are mentioned here: they are always
in Kåñëa consciousness, and therefore they are always transcendentally
situated in Kåñëa. The very phrase “Kåñëa consciousness” suggests
that those who are in such consciousness are living transcendental-
ists, situated in Him. The Lord says here distinctly, mayi te: “They are
in Me.” Naturally, as a result, the Lord is also in them. This is recipro-
cal. This also explains the words ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàs tathaiva
bhajämy aham: “Whoever surrenders unto Me, proportionately I take
care of him.” . . . Living entities in a pure state are called devotees. The
Supreme Lord becomes the devotee of His devotees. If a reciprocal
relationship is not present between the devotee and the Lord, then
there is no personalist philosophy.

Worshiping the Lord with devotion is what it means to be a devotee.

But before we can become devotees, we have to become humble and
materially exhausted because only from that position can we truly take
shelter of Kåñëa.

Beg for the Holy Name

In one of the first songs Çréla Prabhupäda introduced in the West,
Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura calls us to awaken (jév jägo!):
Lord Gauräìga calls, “Wake up, sleeping souls! Wake up, sleeping
souls! You have slept so long in the lap of the witch, Mäyä.”
You came into this world saying, “O My Lord, I certainly wor-
ship You,” but having forgotten this promise you remain in great
ignorance . . . ”

The mode of passion makes us think that we are functioning under our
own power; we forget Kåñëa. Become materially exhausted and depend

82
only on Kåñëa. Otherwise, the mode of passion will put you to sleep.
[Lord Gauräìga is calling,] I have descended just to save you. Other
than Myself, who else is your friend? I have brought the medicine for
destroying the illusion of mäyä.

Now hear what we have to do to receive this medicine:

Now beg for this mahä-mantra and take it.

We have to call sincerely from the heart, from the soul, because we are
aware that our need for shelter is as urgent as a fish’s need for water to
breathe. If we can learn to beg for the mahä-mantra we will have learned
to take shelter of the holy name. Begging requires that we approach our
benefactor without false ego, with full humility.
In this regard, it’s important to note the vast difference between
humility and low self-esteem. When persons suffer from low self-
­esteem they think only of themselves. Humble persons also recognize
their shortcomings, but after briefly touching on their faults they turn
instantly to Kåñëa for shelter and protection. The fruit of the sincere
effort to chant is humility, and the fruit of humility is nämäçraya. Seeking
the name’s shelter means to chant with sincere feeling, and from there
we begin to taste the name and develop ­unwavering attachment.

Remain Dependent
The discussion of nämäçraya addresses the question of why our chant-
ing hasn’t brought its promised result: the false ego has not allowed us
to chant Kåñëa’s names in a mood of a soul urgently requiring shelter.
We have been tricked into thinking ourselves doers of even our spiritual
practices. Bhakti is not something we can accomplish. As long as we con-
sider ourselves the doer (kartäham iti manyate), we will be bewildered by
false ego (ahaìkära-vimüòhätmä). False ego means to see ­ourselves as the
center: we want to go to Kåñëaloka, and there we will be . . . insignificant

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 servants? Kåñëa has billions and billions of servants. Why does He need
one more? Is there any consequential service He needs me to offer?
Actually, we can do nothing when we are overcome by false ego.
Surrender eradicates false ego, and from there we can become truly
empowered. Real devotees know they can accomplish nothing; what-
ever they do is only by the causeless mercy of guru and Kåñëa. Pure
souls view even their own advancement as a gift, an opportunity
to serve and glorify higher personalities. Kåñëa tells Arjuna, nimitta-
mätraà bhava savyasäcin, “You, O Savyasäcé, can be but an instrument in
the fight.” (Bhagavad-gétä, 11.33) We will be happy when we can become
­instruments in Kåñëa’s service – conscious, willing servants.

How to See Difficulties

Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura presented four simple points
regarding how a devotee sees the material world and its difficulties:
That person is entitled to the attainment of the service of the feet of
Godhead, the redeemer from worldly bondage, who lives by submit-
ting to Him by heart, speech, and body, realizing by his good vision
Kåñëa’s mercy in the sufferings entailed caused by his own misdeeds.
There is no other way of being delivered from this world. What­
ever Godhead does is for our good. We can be redeemed if we behold
His mercy in every event and in every activity. But if we notice any
defects in His works or realize any cruelty therein, it is sure to result in
evil and difficulty for us.
All my difficulty is due to the fact that I happen to be engrossed in
activities other than the service of Kåñëa.
If taste for the service of Kåñëa is really increased day by day, then
I shall be indeed blessed. The darling son of Çré Nanda, who is the sole
object of worship, by means of His attraction, has kept the attracted
[those who are actually devotees] so ­effectively drawn toward Himself
that they do not experience any other desire. Such service is the only
natural function of the soul.

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Sometimes even in the guise of service to Kåñëa we engage in activities
to promote our own glories. As a result Kåñëa’s mercy will appear in the
form of difficulty. At that point a sincere devotee has no choice other
than to bow to the soul’s natural function and surrender to the Lord.
In summary, these sixth and seventh keys, humility leading to
nämäçraya, mean we have no shelter other than the holy names and no
independent ability of our own. We have no material opulence on which
to depend, and we sincerely need Kåñëa’s mercy. Nothing else is capable
of carrying us into a sense of belonging to Kåñëa as His surrendered ser-
vants. Therefore, we should chant Kåñëa’s names in a fixed and humble
mood, “I am Yours, Kåñëa, and You have kindly come in the form of
Your holy names.”

Back to Basics
Nämäçraya is the foundational goal of our chanting. We should chant
Kåñëa’s names and avoid all nämäparädhas, especially inattention. Seeing
the limitations of our own sincerity and abilities, we should humbly
seek shelter in Kåñëa’s holy names and bathe our ­consciousness in
Their mercy.
harer näma harer näma
harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nästy eva nästy eva
nästy eva gatir anyathä
“In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is
chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no
other way. There is no other way.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 17.21)

85
86
 14

Progressing from Niñöhä to Ruci

The Consciousness of One at the Level of Niñöhä
Why do we chant Kåñëa’s holy names? What moves us to chant? Is it
because it feels good? Because we promised we would? Because chant­
ing has become our habit? Despite any public response we might have
to this question, those of us who contemplate the question seriously
probably have a private response to it as well. That private response
reflects the level of our advancement.
In his Mädhurya-kädambiné Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura des­
cribes the consciousness of devotees fixed in their shelter, ­surrendered
to Kåñëa, devotees at the level of niñöhä: At the stage of niñöhä one can
detect the spiritualization of the consciousness in many ways, but the
materialistic influence is still prominent (präyiké). (p. 59) At niñöhä there
is still a trace (äbhäsa) of attraction to ­mundane topics, but although
“traces of the qualities born of rajo-guëa and tamo-guëa may be present,
they no longer affect the devotee.” (Mädhurya-kädambiné, p. 35)

87
 These lingering effects may not impel a fixed soul to perform inap­
propriate activities; nonetheless they are troublesome because they con­
flict with the purity of his heart, just as the grit of sand on the floor
hampers the feeling of auspiciousness one has in an otherwise clean
room. Complete purity means removing even the smallest grains of
“sand” from the consciousness. Çréla Prabhupäda writes:
By His practical example, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu has shown us
that all the grains of sand must be picked up thoroughly and thrown
outside. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu also cleansed the outside of the
temple, fearing that the grains of sand would again come within. In
this connection, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura explains that
even though one may become free from the desire for fruitive activ­
ity, sometimes the subtle desire for fruitive activity again comes into
being within the heart. One often thinks of conducting business to
improve devotional activity. But the contamination is so strong that
it may later develop into misunderstanding, described as kuöi-näöi
(faultfinding) and pratiñöhäçä (the desire for name and fame and for
high position), jéva-hiàsä (envy of other living entities), niñiddhäcära
(accepting things forbidden in the çästra), käma (desire for material
gain), and püjä (hankering for popularity). The word kuöi-näöi means
“duplicity.” As an example of pratiñöhäçä, one may attempt to imi­
tate Çréla Haridäsa Öhäkura by living in a solitary place. One’s real
desire may be for name and fame – in other words, one thinks that
fools will accept one to be as good as Haridäsa Öhäkura just because
one lives in a solitary place. These are all material desires. A neophyte
devotee is certain to be attacked by other material desires as well,
namely desires for women and money. In this way the heart is again
filled with dirty things and becomes harder and harder, like that of
a materialist.

Hearing and chanting Kåñëa’s holy names in the association of devo­

tees causes our Kåñëa conscious desires to increase. Our humility then
deepens as we become painfully aware of whatever impurities still
remain hidden in our hearts. We may still have desires springing from

88
our long association with passion and ignorance, but devotees on the
level of niñöhä do not wish to cultivate those desires; they don’t want
them fulfilled. Rather, they deeply desire only to attain Kåñëa’s service.
Their sincere desire for Him attracts Kåñëa to purify them further and
award taste.

The Journey from Niñöhä to Ruci

In the fifth chapter of his Mädhurya-kädambiné Çréla Viçvanätha Cakra­
varté Öhäkura gives an illuminating description of the journey from
niñöhä to ruci:
What can I say? I am unfortunate, for I am the lowest criminal. Though
I have received the mercy of my spiritual master I have not understood
its proper value. Instead I have been wandering everywhere, and in
that way I have wasted my life.
Keeping a precious jewel tied in the hem of my cloth, I have been
searching out a cracked cowrie, a spot of false happiness between the
banks of the river of material engagements. Not practicing any aìga of
bhakti, I have simply manifested lack of energy. So deceitful am I, such
is my sense of taste, that I lick up acrid-tasting profane gossip like nec­
tar and remain apathetic to hearing the names, qualities, and pastimes
of the Lord. How unfortunate I am! When I start to hear about the Lord
I comfortably fall asleep, and at any opportunity for vulgar discussion
I prick up my ears and become wide awake. In this way I have con­
taminated the assembly of devotees and everything else. Old and bent
as I am, what sinful act have I not performed simply for the satisfaction
of my insatiable belly? I do not know what type of hell I will have to
­suffer in for all my activities. (p. 37)

In this way the devotee despairs over his previous state of conscious­
ness, feeling real disgust.
Then, as Viçvanätha Cakravarté describes it, the devotee, in a remote
place, like a swan, begins to taste and reverently speak nectarean

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k­ åñëa-kathä, “the juice from the fruit of the desire tree, the great Upaniñad,
the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, which teaches the mystic science of bhakti.” He
talks constantly with devotees, excluding any topic not related to Kåñëa,
first like a curious spectator, then standing closer, then sitting, and
finally entering into the discussion with full attention. He also takes ref­
uge in the Lord’s dhäma and fixes himself purely in the Lord’s service.
Ignorant people think he has gone mad.
The blissful devotional service performed by the expert devotees
is like a dance, “and the devotee begins to learn the steps of that dance.
Then, his hands being caught by the dance instructress, ruci, he
learns everything, experiencing an extraordinary, unprecedented,­
unimaginable golden bliss that cannot be described.”

Acquiring Taste for Kåñëa’s Holy Names

Devotees at the level of niñöhä have taken full shelter of Kåñëa and His
holy names. Yet their chanting is not yet pure for they are still plagued
by lingering subtle and even gross desires for things in this world. But
rather than cultivating those desires they decry them: “This is not what
I want! I am such a fool. I suffer unlimitedly due to my impure heart,
which still reeks from my petty, selfish desires as an empty bottle still
reeks of the wine that once filled it.” Their humble yet firm resolve to
become free of any desire other than the desire to serve Kåñëa coats
their chanting. To gain strength they take deeper shelter in the mercy
of Kåñëa’s holy names. Their humility and dependence increases, and
the intensity of their desire to serve Kåñëa also increases. The mercy of
Kåñëa’s holy names flows to such sincere chanters and increases the
purity of their desire for ­unmotivated devotion (bhaktir ahaituké).
In summary, one should chant Kåñëa’s holy names with ever-
­deepening humility and dependence on the holy name’s mercy. By
prayerfully chanting in this mood – recognizing one’s lack of qualifi­
cation yet desiring nothing but to attain Kåñëa’s service, and urgently

90
begging Kåñëa in the form of His holy names to purify the heart – Kåñëa
will award one ruci, taste, by His own causeless mercy.
In His fourth Çikñäñöaka verse Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu describes
the consciousness of one who chants Kåñëa’s names on the level
of ruci:
na dhanaà na janaà na sundaréà
kavitäà vä jagad-éça kämaye
mama janmani janmanéçvare
bhavatäd bhaktir ahaituké tvayi
“O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic
followers, a beautiful wife, or fruitive activities described in flowery
language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to
You.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Antya 20.29)

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 15

Mixing the Negative with the Positive

To truly taste the sweetness of Kåñëa’s holy names we need to
strengthen both the negative (our “nondesiring”) and the positive (our
spiritual desiring).

The Negatives
In this fourth verse Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu first describes the
­negatives – those things souls wishing to taste the sweetness of Kåñëa’s
names should not desire. Such souls want neither wealth nor ­followers
nor beautiful wives nor to enjoy the results of their pious, materialis-
tic activities. Kavitäà sundarém can include the desire to taste the subtle
beauty of literature and poetry. Even these finer pleasures, pleasures
flowing from both reading and writing, are rejected. Instead, these
devotees focus all their desire on tasting the true fruit of chanting,
­kåñëa-prema.

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 Çréla Prabhupäda spoke on many occasions of the foolishness
of approaching Kåñëa to have our material desires fulfilled. Here’s a
­sample from one of these occasions:
People generally pray for material benefits: “O God, give us our daily
bread. Give me nice position. Give me nice wife, nice following or
this or victory,” so on, so on, so on, simply for material enjoyment.
My Guru Mahäräja used to say that if we pray to God for all these
nonsense things, it is just like a man goes to a king and the king
says, “Whatever you want you can ask from me,” and if the man
says, “Kindly give me a pinch of ashes.” It is like that. If we ask
from God for some material benefit, it means that I am asking from
a king a pinch of ashes. When king says that “You ask whatever you
want,” he can say, “So give me half the kingdom.” . . . why a pinch
of ash? Similarly, it is our foolishness. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gétä 2.14,
London, August 20, 1973)

His Holiness Bhakti Tértha Swami’s 1987 Vyäsa-püjä offering asserts the
danger of such foolishness:
Every day another associate from ISKCON joins us, and I am begin-
ning to wonder who those rare few were who went directly to the spiri-
tual kingdoms. Here we are, Çréla Prabhupäda, enjoying like anything
in the heavenly planets. Most of us have wonderful empires. We have
beautiful bodies that have tremendous longevity. We’re surrounded
by luxuries, extremely potent intoxicants, and gorgeous damsels. We
are all, however, suffering tremendously, as we are slaves to all these
opulences. . . . I don’t know how the others got here, but I can clearly see
how I built my staircase to this heavenly dungeon. . . . I remember you
so often stressing that we are not the body. I, however, found myself
many times thinking, “Why does he repeat this so much?” I remem-
ber you attacking the impersonalists with tumultuous vigor, but I
could not at that time appreciate the significance of these attacks. I
recall you pleading with us to give up sense gratification once and
for all. In those days I thought that you were speaking mainly to the ­
nondevotees, and I did not realize these instructions were for us. . . . But

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 due to our lack of becoming more internally connected with you, we
are mostly now ­prisoners of the heavenly dungeons. . . . our devotion
could take us only this far.

What to speak of cultivating desires for sense enjoyment, in the fourth

verse of the Çikñäñöaka Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu decries even the desire
for liberation! The sweet devotional taste fully faithful devotees expe-
rience makes even the sufferings of the material world insignificant.
Therefore they desire to serve their Lord – even in this world – life after
life: mama janmani janmanéçvare.
In his purport to Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura’s Mänasa Deha
Geha Çréla Prabhupäda makes graphic the selfless intensity of the
surrendered serving mood:
You have got every right to do whatever You think right in relation
with Your servant. I am Your eternal servant. . . . Because a ­devotee
[generally] goes back to home, goes back to Godhead, therefore
Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura proposes, “If You like that I shall again take
birth, it doesn’t matter. My only request is that if I have to take my birth,
please kindly give me the chance of taking my birth in a devotee’s
house. I don’t mind if I am born as an insect, but I must be in the house
of a devotee. I do not like nondevotee life, even if I am born as a Lord
Brahmä. I want to remain with the devotees. I want the association
with a devotee who doesn’t care for material happiness or spiritual
­liberation. I simply desire to be associated with such pure devotees.

A devotee’s service isn’t motivated by desiring relief from suffering.

Rather, devotees simply want to please Kåñëa. Miçra-bhakti, devotional
activity mixed with self-centered desire, does not lead to prema-bhakti.
Only devotional service performed solely for Kåñëa’s pleasure
defines the abhidheya-tattva, the process of achieving love for Kåñëa.
(­Bhakti-sandarbha, 165–169)

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 16

The Importance of the Positive

Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu also unequivocally states His positive desire
in the fourth verse of the Çikñäñöaka. There He says bhavatäd bhaktir
ahaituké tvayi: that He wishes to attain unmotivated devotional service
to Çré Kåñëa. Clearly, the more experience devotees have in tasting the
sweetness of Kåñëa’s loving service the greater their detachment from
matter. Kåñëa Himself says this in the Bhagavad-gétä (2.59): “The embod-
ied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for
sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a
higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.”
Çréla Prabhupäda reiterates this point in his purport to Çrémad-
Bhägavatam 4.22.39: “The bhaktas, by their transcendental devotional
service unto the lotus feet of the Lord, become so overwhelmed with
transcendental bliss that automatically their desires for material enjoy-
ment stop....The conclusion is that by developing a loving desire for the
service of the lotus feet of the Lord, we subdue all material desires for
sense gratification.”

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The Process of Sädhana: Increasing our Desire to Serve Kåñëa
The general flow of our desire to serve Kåñëa should be ever deepening,
although at any particular moment we may not feel particularly deep.
From Çréla Prabhupäda:

The first principle is one must be very enthusiastic. He must believe

that Kåñëa has said that, na me bhaktaù praëaçyati, “My devotee will
never be vanquished.” So “Let me become Kåñëa’s devotee sincerely.
I must become Kåñëa’s devotee sincerely.” This is called enthusiasm.
Then dhairyät. “I have become Kåñëa’s devotee, but still I’m not feel-
ing happy. How is that?” So therefore you have to become patient.
The enthusiasm must be there. You must be patient also. And ­niçcayät.
Niçcayät means you must be confident. “Oh, Kåñëa has said that His
devotee will never be vanquished, so surely I shall not be ­vanquished,
even though I don’t feel now. Let me do my duty.” (Lecture on
Bhagavad-gétä 2.13–17, November 29, 1968)

How do we increase our devotional desires in both good times and

bad? And how do we increase our attachment to Kåñëa? The processes
of Kåñëa consciousness (sädhanas) taught by Çréla Prabhupäda, Çréla
Rüpa Gosvämé, and Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu are meant expressly
for this purpose. Çréla Prabhupäda writes, “ . . . to increase attachment
for the Supreme Personality of Godhead one has to accept a bona fide
spiritual master and learn from him the methods of devotional ser-
vice and hear from him about the transcendental message and glorifi-
cation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this way one has to
increase his conviction about devotional service. Then it will be very
easy to increase attachment for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
(Çrémad-Bhägavatam 4.22.22, purport)
Çréla Prabhupäda is, of course, referring to sädhana-bhakti when
he mentions “methods of devotional service.” He cites Çréla Rüpa
Gosvämé’s definition of sädhana-bhakti in his purport to Çré Caitanya
caritämåta, Madhya 22.105:

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 kåti-sädhyä bhavet sädhya-
bhävä sä sädhanäbhidhä
nitya-siddhasya bhävasya
präkaöyaà hådi sädhyatä
“When transcendental devotional service, by which love for Kåñëa is
attained, is executed by the senses, it is called sädhana-bhakti, or the reg-
ulative discharge of devotional service. Such devotion exists eternally
within the heart of every living entity. The awakening of this eternal
devotion is the potentiality of devotional service in practice.” (Bhakti-
rasämåta-sindhu [1.2.2])
And from Çréla Prabhupäda:
Kåñëa is so kind: He is coming Himself. He’s teaching Bhagavad-gétä.
Again He is coming as Caitanya Mahäprabhu, as devotee, to become
a devotee of Kåñëa. Kåñëa-prema-pradäya te. He’s not only teaching
Kåñëa but love of Kåñëa. Kåñëa, when He personally came, He did not
teach how to love Him. He simply asked, “You rascal, surrender to
Me.” That’s all. “You are all rascals. You have forgotten Me. I am the
Supreme. You are searching after so many wrong things. You have cre-
ated so many so-called occupational and religious duties, but these are
all useless.” That much. But again Kåñëa came to teach people how
to love Kåñëa. Therefore Rüpa Gosvämé offers his respect to Caitanya
Mahäprabhu, namo mahä-vadanyäya kåñëa-prema-pradäya te: “You are
not only giving Kåñëa but giving love of Kåñëa.” That is very rare
thing. Prema pumärtho mahän. People are after dharma, after käma, mokña,
but Caitanya Mahäprabhu says, “No, above this, there is fifth perfec-
tion. That is prema, kåñëa-prema.” Prema pumärtho mahän. (Lecture on
Çrémad-Bhägavatam 7.9.15, February 22, 1976, Mäyäpur)

Hari-näma: The Heart of the Process

The heart of all Kåñëa conscious practices is to chant Kåñëa’s holy
names. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu Himself cites this quotation from the

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Båhan-näradéya Puräëa:
harer näma harer näma
harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nästy eva nästy eva
nästy eva gatir anyathä
“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other
means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the
holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.” The Lord adds,
“This verse clearly states that anyone who accepts any other path can-
not be delivered. This is the reason for the triple repetition ‘nothing
else, nothing else, nothing else,’ which emphasizes the real process of
­self-realization.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 17.21, 25)
Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura uses Çréla Jéva Gosvämé’s
words to make the same point: “In his Bhakti-sandarbha (273) and in his
Krama-sandarbha commentary on Çrémad-Bhägavatam (7.5.23–24) Çré Jéva
Gosvämé Prabhu has given the following process regarding the chanting
of the holy names as instructed by Çré Gaurasundara: yadyapy anyä bhak-
tiù kalau kartavyä, tada tat (kértanäkhya-bhakti) saàyogenaiva – ‘Although
other processes of devotional service should be performed in Kali-yuga,
they must all be accompanied by the chanting of the holy names.’”
(­commentary on Caitanya-bhägavata, Ädi Khaëòa 2.26)

Serve the Devotees

After Lord Brahmä has stolen the cowherd boys and calves, he apol-
ogizes. His prayers to Kåñëa are recorded in the fourteenth chapter
of the Tenth Canto. In text 30 he asks to be counted among Kåñëa’s
devotees both in his present life and in future lives: “My dear Lord,
I therefore pray to be so fortunate that in this life as Lord Brahmä or
in another life, wherever I may take my birth, I may be counted as
one of Your devotees. I pray that wherever I may be, even among

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the animal species, I can engage in devotional service to Your lotus
feet.”
Çréla Sanätana Gosvämé comments: “Kåñëa’s mercy (prasäda) is
achieved when one has an attitude of servitude toward Him, and thus
Brahmä asks for such a serving mood. . . . [Brahmä says:] ‘O fulfiller of all
desires, my fortune to have achieved the highest position in the material
world is not the greatest fortune.’ The implied completion of the idea is:
‘The greatest fortune for me, Your eldest son, would be to serve even one
of Your servants.’ . . . Kåñëa is satisfied only when one renders full service
to His devotees, and thus Brahmä prays in this verse beginning tat. The
word eka means “(even) those who are just now engaged in devotional
service” – in other words, the new devotees. [One should serve] even
their lotus feet.

Associate with Advanced Devotees and Hear Kåñëa-kathä

In Çrémad-Bhägavatam 3.25.25, Kapila Muni describes the value of hear-
ing kåñëa-kathä in the association of pure souls: “In the association of
pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the
heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced
on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction
becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.”
Çréla Prabhupäda spoke continually of this essential Kåñëa conscious
practice:
The whole thing is in my hand. If I want to be degraded, I can pre-
pare myself in this life for such degradation in the next life. And if we
want to elevate ourselves to the highest perfection of life, as to become
one of the associates of God, we can prepare ourselves like that. You’ll
find in the advanced chapters that yänti deva-vratä devän pitèn yänti
pitå-vratäù. Now, we are trying to go to the moon planet. Now, here,
in this life, if we cultivate ourselves for the same thought, the moon

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 planet . . . That means the moon planet, about moon planet we have to
hear, and we have to think that “I shall go in such and such place.”
Unless you hear, you cannot abide here. Just like our friend, Mr.
Cohen. He has left for California. Now, so far I am concerned, I have
no idea of California. Now, he has told me that after reaching there he’ll
write about the description of the place. Now suppose if, reading that
description of the place I think of going there, so I prepare myself, “Oh,
I must go there.” So just like I was describing that cintämaëi-dhäma,
what sort of trees are there. And you were very much pleased that “I
must go there.” So we have to hear. Unless we hear what sort of God He
is, what sort of God’s place is, what is the mode of life there, we cannot
be attracted. We cannot be attracted.

Påthu Mahäräja helps us glimpse the sweetness of kåñëa-kathä in his

prayer to Lord Viñëu: “My dear Lord, I therefore do not wish to have
the benediction of merging into Your existence, a benediction in which
there is no existence of the nectarean beverage of Your lotus feet. I want
the benediction of at least one million ears, for thus I may be able to
hear about the glories of Your lotus feet from the mouths of Your pure
­devotees.” (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 4.20.24)

Preach: Taste and Distribute

“The characteristics of Kåñëa are understood to be a storehouse of tran-
scendental love. Although that storehouse of love certainly came with
Kåñëa when He was present, it was sealed. But when Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu came with His associates of the Païca-tattva, they broke
the seal and plundered the storehouse to taste transcendental love of
Kåñëa. The more they tasted it, the more their thirst for it grew. Çré
Païca-tattva themselves danced again and again and thus made it eas-
ier to drink nectarean love of Godhead. They danced, cried, laughed,
and chanted like madmen, and in this way they distributed love of
Godhead. In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahäprabhu and

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His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was
not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They
made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity, the members
of the Païca-tattva distributed love of Godhead. Although the members
of the Païca-tattva plundered the storehouse of love of Godhead and
ate and distributed its contents, there was no scarcity, for this wonder-
ful storehouse is so complete that as the love is distributed, the supply
increases ­hundreds of times.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 7.21–24)
And: “For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees,
pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back
to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor
will there ever be one more dear. (Bhagavad-gétä 18.68–69)
Çréla Prabhupäda’s purport to Bhagavad-gétä 18.68: “Anyone . . . who
tries sincerely to present Bhagavad-gétä as it is will advance in devotional
activities and reach the pure devotional state of life. As a result of such
pure devotion, he is sure to go back home, back to Godhead.”
And from the purport to Çrémad-Bhägavatam 7.6.24: “Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu therefore advised everyone to become a guru-devotee and
preach Kåñëa consciousness (yäre dekha, täre kaha ‘kåñëa’-upadeça). That
is the easiest way to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By
such preaching, the preacher becomes satisfied, and those to whom he
preaches are also satisfied. This is the process of bringing peace and
tranquility to the entire world.”

Pray
Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura pleads with His Lord in the mood of the
fourth verse of the Çikñäñöaka:
O Lord! This is my humble submission at Your lotus feet. I do not ask
from You sensual pleasure, learning, wealth, or followers. I do not beg
for residence on the celestial planets, nor do I wish liberation from this

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mundane existence. Nor do I pray for the attainment of any mystic
powers. Whatever birth I may obtain due to the faults of my previous
worldly activities, I pray that I may sing the glories of Your holy name
birth after birth. This is my only desire, O Lord, and I submit it at Your
lotus feet: that unmotivated devotion to You may constantly awaken in
my heart. As much attachment as I now have for worldly affairs, I pray
that a similar degree of attachment may develop for Your holy feet. I
pray that my love for You may remain undisturbed both in misfortune
and in prosperity, and that day after day it may increase by the power
and influence of Your holy name. Be my life in heaven or in hell, be it as
a bird or a beast, may devotion to You always remain within the heart
of Bhaktivinoda.

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 17

The Ninth Key: Kåñëa’s Causeless Mercy

If we wish our attachment to Kåñëa and our desire to serve Him to
increase, we need this ninth key. It is the master key – the key that opens
all the doors to our advancement and to everything that has been dis-
cussed in this book. Ultimately, we can depend only on this key, on
Kåñëa’s causeless mercy. We may try to advance using all the tricks
and techniques we have been taught (and may have taught others),
but it won’t be long before we realize that all technique and all form of
endeavor will always prove two fingers too short.
The Çrémad-Bhägavatam tells an instructive story in this regard about
Mother Yaçodä, in her çuddha-vätsalya-prema (pure parental love), want-
ing to reprimand her naughty Kåñëa. Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura’s
commentary on this pastime explains the master key. The Bhägavatam
(10.9.15) states: “When Mother Yaçodä was trying to bind the offend-
ing child, she saw that the binding rope was short by a distance the
width of two fingers. Thus she brought another rope to join to it.”

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From Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura:
Although Yaçodä could bind her child by love, though the size of
her lap was small, the small form of the boy was all-powerful. This
is shown in three verses. Kåñëa was thinking, “I cannot be bound up
because I must do my daily duties of stealing yogurt and playing with
My friends. How can I do these things if I am bound?”
Kåñëa’s vibhüti potency [potency of opulence], inspired by his
­satya-saìkalpa çakti, or His icchä-çakti [the potency that fulfills His
desires – and Kåñëa desired not to be bound], further inspired Kåñëa’s
vibhüti-çakti to display His power (aiçvarya).

Suddenly Kåñëa’s vibhüti-çakti entered His body and the rope remained
two fingers too short no matter how many ropes Mother Yaçodä tied
together.
The Bhägavatam continues (texts 16 and 17), “This new rope also
was short by a measurement of two fingers, and when another rope
was joined to it, it was still two fingers too short. As many ropes as she
joined, all of them failed; their shortness [of exactly two fingers] could
not be overcome. Thus Mother Yaçodä joined whatever ropes were
available in the household, but still she failed in her attempt to bind
Kåñëa. Mother Yaçodä’s friends, the elderly gopés in the neighborhood,
were smiling and enjoying the fun. Similarly, Mother Yaçodä, although
laboring in that way, was also smiling. All of them were struck with
wonder.”
Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura comments:
All the elderly gopés in the neighborhood were laughing. In her aston-
ishment, Yaçodä thought, “A rope of 150 feet does not fit around my
son’s small waist. And His waist is only this amount. His waist is not
getting any bigger, the rope is not getting shorter, but still the rope does
not reach around Him. This is the first amazing thing. Furthermore,
when I tie the ropes together, each time they are two fingers too short –
not three fingers or four fingers. No matter how much rope I tie on it’s
still two fingers too short. That is the second amazing thing.”

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Text 18: “Because of Mother Yaçodä’s hard labor, her whole body
became covered with perspiration, and the flowers and comb were fall-
ing from her hair. When child Kåñëa saw His mother thus fatigued, He
became merciful to her and agreed to be bound.”
Here is Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura’s comment, and this is the
essence of what I wish to say:
“As you cannot bind Kåñëa even with all the ropes in this house, then
it must be concluded that it is Kåñëa’s good fortune that it should not
be. Listen, Yaçodä, give up this attempt.” Although the village women
advised Mother Yaçodä in this way Mother Yaçodä was determined.
“Even if evening comes, and even if I tie together all the ropes in the
entire village, I must find out just once the extent of my son’s waist.”
Yaçodä wanted to teach her son a lesson, and in her persistence
she would not give up her attempt to bind the Lord. In the competi-
tion between Kåñëa and His devotees, the devotee’s determination always pre-
vails. Thus seeing His mother’s fatigue, Lord Kåñëa gave up His own
­persistence. He became merciful and allowed Himself to be tied.

Next, Çréla Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura offers us a jewel of great

value: “Kåñëa’s mercy, which reigns as the king of all His potencies and
illuminates them, melts the Lord’s heart and turns His heart into fresh
melted butter.”
In this incident, Kåñëa’s heart had become very, very soft. We heard
about two of Kåñëa’s potencies evoked during this pastime. The first
was His satya-saìkalpa çakti in which everything He desires happens.
Then when He didn’t want to be bound, His satya-saìkalpa çakti called
on His vibhüti- or aiçvarya-çakti to enter His body and cause the rope to
be two fingers too short.
When Kåñëa’s mercy potency entered, however, then both of these
other potencies disappeared and the distance of two fingers was filled
by the devotee’s hard work, determination, and persistence – and by the
Lord’s mercy. One finger, therefore, represents the devotee’s endeavor,
and the other finger represents kåñëa-kåpä, Kåñëa’s mercy.

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 Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura concludes, “The bhakta-niñöhä, the
firm faith of the devotee, which is manifest in his tireless endeavor to
serve and worship the Lord, and the svaniñöhä, the steady quality of the
Lord, which brings forward His mercy on seeing the ­devotee’s effort
and fatigue, caused Kåñëa to be bound.”
In the absence of these two the rope will always remain two fingers
too short. Bhakta-niñöhä means fixed determination (“I may have to go
to hell for the offenses I’ve committed, but I will never give up serving
and chanting”), persistence (“I will serve Kåñëa with my full heart even
if He doesn’t show me mercy”), desire (“I want only to serve Kåñëa and
nothing else”), and a willingness to accept responsibility for any fail-
ing (“My inability to serve Kåñëa properly is due to my own offenses”).
Bhakta-niñöhä is an essential part of the formula.
When bhakta-niñöhä, which is all we can offer, combines with sva­
niñöhä, Kåñëa’s steady mercy, the Lord can be bound. In this pastime
Lord Kåñëa showed Yaçodä and the whole world that only love can bind
Him. Therefore, we should make a steady effort to chant the holy name
with sincerity and surrender and depend on Kåñëa for the rest.

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 18

Qualities that Can Help Attract Kåñëa’s Mercy

One chanting at the level of nämäçraya realizes the need for the holy
name’s mercy. Although we are indeed dependent on Kåñëa’s indepen-
dent desire to offer us that mercy, our own sincere attempt makes the
field of our consciousness fertile to receive it and can attract the gentle
rain of Kåñëa’s compassion to fall on us.

Guru-sevä
Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu describes to Sanätana Gosvämé the plight of
all living entities: they are bound by the neck by the chains of mäyä.
Why? Because they have forgotten their eternal identities as servants of
Kåñëa. “Chains of mäyä” refers to material consciousness filled with its
false hopes, aversions, and anxieties. Mahäprabhu then offers the cure,
which requires dual action:
täte kåñëa bhaje, kare gurura sevana
mäyä-jäla chuöe, päya kåñëera caraëa

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“If the conditioned soul engages in the service of the Lord and simul-
taneously carries out the orders of his spiritual master and serves him,
he can get out of the clutches of mäyä and become eligible for shelter at
Kåñëa’s lotus feet.” (Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya 22.25)
In his purport Çréla Prabhupäda points us to the practical applica-
tion of this instruction: “(I)f by Kåñëa’s mercy he gets in touch with a
bona fide spiritual master, abides by his order, and serves him, engaging
other conditioned souls in the Lord’s service, he then attains liberation
and Lord Çré Kåñëa’s shelter.”

Faith
Faith is an essential ingredient in chanting because unless we have faith
in the holy name, we will have no interest in taking shelter of the name.
Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura calls faith the “entrance gate into the palace of
the holy name,” [reference] and he specifies the importance of under-
standing that the holy name is nondifferent from Kåñëa. In other words,
when we chant we are in Lord Kåñëa’s presence.

Sincerity
The dictionary defines sincerity as “honesty of mind” or “freedom from
hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy is pretense, and when we are free of pretense our
external behavior and statements match our internal state.
Once, at 26 Second Avenue, a young Satsvarüpa Däsa asked Çréla
Prabhupäda about the philosophers he had been reading before joining
ISKCON. He wanted to know whether Nietzsche and other such philos-
ophers had any God consciousness. Çréla Prabhupäda replied that “their
sincerity is their God consciousness.”
As I’ve grown older in my Kåñëa conscious practices I have
­understood more of the depth of Prabhupäda’s reply. Sincerity is all
we really require if we want to become servants of guru and Caitanya

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Mahäprabhu. In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam (11.20.28) Kåñëa tells Uddhava,
“My devotee should remain happy and worship Me with great faith
and conviction. Even though he is sometimes engaged in sense enjoy-
ment, My devotee knows that all sense gratification leads to a miser-
able result, and he sincerely repents such activities.” (Çréla Jéva Gosvämé
states, carefully, that Kåñëa does not mean to say that we can engage in
sinful activities.)
The devotees’ sincere desire to please Kåñëa is their Kåñëa con-
sciousness. Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura’s commentary on this point,
which is included in the BBT purport to the above verse, describes
sincerity:
By my previous shameful life my heart is polluted with many illu-
sory attachments. Personally I have no power to stop them. Only Lord
Kåñëa within my heart can remove such inauspicious contamination.
But whether the Lord removes such attachments immediately or lets
me go on being afflicted by them, I will never give up my devotional
service to Him. Even if the Lord places millions of obstacles in my
path, and even if because of my offenses I go to hell, I will never for a
moment stop serving Lord Kåñëa. I am not interested in mental specu-
lation and fruitive activities; even if Lord Brahmä personally comes
before me offering such engagements, I will not be even slightly inter-
ested. Although I am attached to material things I can see very clearly
that they lead to no good because they simply give me trouble and
disturb my devotional service to the Lord. Therefore, I sincerely repent
my foolish attachments to so many material things, and I am patiently
awaiting Lord Kåñëa’s mercy.

Hope
Hope is connected to our faith in Kåñëa’s merciful disposition. We hope
that Kåñëa will see whatever small spark of sincerity we have and accept
it (although we often do not extend such a liberal attitude to others).
When Vibhéñaëa came to surrender to Lord Räma, the monkey soldiers

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rejected him, considering him a spy from the enemy, but Lord Räma
said, “It is My vow that if one only once seriously surrenders unto Me,
saying ‘My dear Lord, from this day I am Yours,’ and prays to Me for
courage, I shall immediately award courage to that person, and he will
always remain safe from that time on.” (quoted in Caitanya-caritämåta,
Madhya 22.34)
Offer yourself to Kåñëa even once, then place your hope in Kåñëa’s
merciful response. The Nectar of Devotion tells us to hope against hope:
“O my Lord, I do not have any love for You, nor am I qualified for dis-
charging devotional service by chanting and hearing. Nor do I possess
the mystic power of a Vaiñëava, knowledge, or pious activities. Nor
do I belong to a very high-caste family. On the whole, I do not pos-
sess anything. Still, O beloved of the gopés, because You bestow Your
mercy on the most fallen, I have an unbreakable hope that is con-
stantly in my heart. That hope is always giving me pain.” (The Nectar of
Devotion, p. 137)
We also maintain hope by knowing that Kåñëa’s desire is that we
return to Him. We have been told that Kåñëa will reciprocate with what-
ever bhakti we express (ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàs tathaiva bhajämy
aham [Bhagavad-gétä 4.11]). But even if by our own estimation we possess
only a small amount of bhakti, we can still hope. Kåñëa’s beloved devo-
tees are filled with bhakti, and they wish to bestow it on everyone. Our
hope is not in ourselves but in the mercy of the Vaiñëavas and Çré Kåñëa.
We should deeply cherish such hope.

Feel Loved
Many devotees struggle with chanting because before they can take
­shelter of Kåñëa’s names they have to travel through the desert of seeing
the truth about themselves – that they have little sincerity and no taste,
that the mind is uncontrolled and filled with anarthas, and that they
have no power to help themselves. This stage is necessary because it

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convinces us that we have nothing to depend on except Kåñëa’s holy
name. Only when we understand this fact can we chant with a full
heart.
But it is not easy to cross that desert, and some devotees give up
before they reach the other side. It helps to understand that Kåñëa
loves us, and He is with us even when it appears He is not (éçvaraù sar-
va-bhütänäm). Perhaps we wonder why Kåñëa should love us. But His
love is completely natural, for He is the seed-giving father of every
soul (Bhagavad-gétä 14.4). He not only loves His devotees but the devo-
tees of His devotees are also dear to Him (Çrémad-Bhägavatam 9.4.63).
Whatever faults exist in us, great as they may be, are only coverings
over our true selves, mere impositions on our actual nature. Can we
trust Kåñëa’s unswerving affection for us? Out of His affection He stead­
fastly ac­companies us as we transmigrate from body to body, from
human to hog to worm to germ. Who but our dearest well-wisher would
do that?
Kåñëa offers Himself to us through His holy names, and we should
accept His merciful gesture by continuing to chant Hare Kåñëa through
any difficulty. We should also continue to offer Him service regardless
of how seemingly insignificant our service is. That Kåñëa is personally
reciprocating and assisting us will gradually become more and more
apparent; Kåñëa will let us know from within that He is present now,
that He has always been present, and that He will always be present in
the future. When we perceive Kåñëa’s affection for us, naturally our own
love for Him will increase.
In the Båhad-bhägavatämåta (2.6.55, 60) Çréla Sanätana Gosvämé illus-
trates just how specific Kåñëa’s love for each soul is. Gopa‑kumära has
just returned to the spiritual world and is now waiting on the path
where Kåñëa will appear after a day of cowherding.

Then from a distance I saw Him, His charming flute in hand. Running
quickly, He emerged from among His friends and animals and

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 approached me, saying in a sweet voice, “Look, Çrédämä! Here is my
dear friend Sarüpa,* the sun who shines on the lotus of your fam-
ily!” . . . He leaped forward and came close to me, compelled by the
affection of His helpless devotee. I fainted in love at seeing Him.
He caught hold of me by the neck. And suddenly He too fell to
the ground.

In his commentary Çréla Sanätana Gosvämé writes:

Gopa-kumära was already aware, at least theoretically, that Kåñëa is
very affectionate to His helpless devotees, but now he learned that
Kåñëa had affection specifically for him. Merely seeing Kåñëa was
enough to utterly enchant Gopa-kumära, but this new discovery
pushed him toward the limit of ecstasy.

Even after hearing such things, though, devotees still wonder why
Kåñëa does not appear to them while they are chanting or ­offering
service. After all, we want to be with Him, and it would help our
devotional service so much if He would simply make His presence
known to us more often. Why doesn’t He surrender to our need to
see Him if He loves us and wants to help us reach Him? Viçvanätha
Cakravarté Öhäkura’s commentary on the räsa-lélä section of the Çrémad-
Bhägavatam offers illumination. There he reveals Kåñëa’s mind in how
He deals with His sädhakas. He especially mentions the chanting of
Kåñëa’s names:
For those surrendered souls who worship Me through näma-kértana
and other means, I do not respond in order to make their worship more
perfect. O gopés who cannot understand My real intention, not seeing
Me, those surrendered souls develop deep humility, feeling “Alas, alas,
everything I have done has been useless. Because I am an offender,
Kåñëa has not shown even the slightest favor toward me. Let me
be damned.”

* Sarüpa is Gopa-kumära’s name in Goloka Våndävana.

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 By constantly thinking in this way, those who have not yet devel-
oped mature love for Me will become free from lust and anger and will
awaken pure devotion that is full of power and brilliance.

Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura is referring to sincerity, faith, and

fixedness, all constituents of bhakti. We do our part and then, as in the
Dämodara lélä, if Kåñëa wills He will add the second finger of His cause-
less mercy to our attempt. We cannot force His response, but we can
faithfully offer ourselves to His holy name and wait.
This is obviously important to keep in mind as we cross the desert
and then begin to climb the great mountain into the universe of chant-
ing Kåñëa’s names. We should always remember that Kåñëa is pres-
ent in His names. How can we encourage Him to manifest Himself?
Chant ­offenselessly. Avoid the sevä-aparädhas. Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura
has explained the anarthas that make us unfortunate. Give them up and
develop the generous heart of a Vaiñëava.
Kåñëa is present in His name, and when we are eager to chant
He becomes eager to reveal Himself to us. Kåñëa is unlimitedly
deep, but Viçvanätha Cakravarté Öhäkura was kind enough to reveal
to us His ­psychology: even while we are attempting to surrender
ourselves and worship Kåñëa through the sevä of näma-saìkértana,
Kåñëa does not respond immediately in order to make our worship
more perfect.
This means that His seeming lack of response is how He has chosen
to respond. He is not ignoring us; He is being very personal in His deal-
ings. He is not trying to show us that He does not care or that He is not
aware of our struggle, but He uses His absence to help us develop a deep
and humble yearning for Him. We have committed unlimited offenses
to other living entities, to Vaiñëavas, to the holy name, to the Deities,
and to the dhäma. Even though we are now attempting to chant, the
mind is still filled by an offensive mentality. The independent Supreme
Lord Kåñëa does not appear before us according to our desire but as

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He wishes. Our purity, our humility, our dependence, and our desire
should all be intensified.
“Let me be damned – my critical nature and all the things I do
that come from false ego rather than from my desire to serve Kåñëa.”
Let such repentance wash away our offensive mentality and our lust
and anger with it. This is Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura’s
­broomstick-and-shoe method. “Look, O mind, how you are keeping me
from Kåñëa.” Such thinking frees the mind from passion and awakens
pure devotion “that is full of power and brilliance.”

If You Want Kåñëa’s Mercy . . . 

Although we are very, very tiny and fallen souls we are not hopeless.
Our hope is the mercy of the holy names. If you want Kåñëa’s mercy,
place yourself in the hands of the holy names and give up any sense
you have of being the controller, even of your spiritual experience. All
you can do is to listen carefully to your chanting and allow your con-
sciousness to touch the holy names. We must bathe ourselves as well as
our mind-intelligence-false ego-material ­consciousness in the nectar of
Kåñëa’s names.
Do you feel discouraged when you chant? Is chanting too hard?
Your mind or body tired? Good. It means you have no qualification and
that you have only Kåñëa to depend on. Now you are free to try your
best to serve Kåñëa by chanting His holy names.

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 19

Questions and Answers

Q: I notice with this one-mantra approach that it takes me longer
to chant. I am afraid that it will now take me forever to chant my
rounds.
A: I could answer this question in several ways: Is there a problem
with chanting “forever”? Or I could suggest that you chant one mantra
attentively and the rest inattentively. That is definitely a choice you can
make.
But I think you will find that once the mind quiets, your chanting
will naturally speed up. At the same time you have to find a balance.
Finding the balance between the physical, mental, intellectual, emo-
tional, and spiritual is in itself difficult, but fortunate are those who
can successfully harmonize the elements of their life with their deepest
­spiritual aspirations.
It can take longer to chant, but if it does, it means that all these
years we have probably been chanting without listening. This is why we

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 continue to get the same result from our chanting. There is such a dif-
ference between chanting with attention and chanting without it. The
effect on the consciousness is like night and day. I think ­everyone has
that experience.
So I cannot say that you shouldn’t offer services other than chant-
ing, and neither can I say that you should chant inattentively, so you
will have to find a balance. Theoretically it takes the same amount of
time to chant an inattentive round as it does to chant an attentive round,
although practically attentive rounds may take a little longer at first.
But once the mind has become addicted to the taste of the holy name,
­chanting will be faster and easier.

Q: How do we deal with the mind’s constant chatter?

A: No matter what happens, bring the mind back to the same sim-
ple focus. And don’t worry about the mind. If you do worry about
it, it will alternately criticize and praise you. By the end, you will be
confused and the mind will have gone on to something else. Don’t
worry about anything other than hearing. Choose the speed of your
chanting so that the mind has less room to escape and is forced to
stay focused on its simple task of listening to the next word, the
next mantra.

Q: I become disturbed when I chant among other devotees. I find I

cannot concentrate.
A: It may be better for you to sit a little apart while you chant. If that’s
not possible, then simply concentrate on the holy names and use the dis-
turbance to drive you to deeper attention. When something disturbs us,
we can’t superficially force the mind to take shelter of the holy names.
We may be good devotees, but when someone does something we really
don’t like, our fangs grow and we become angry. At such times we have
to ask ourselves where our actual ­shelter lies.

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Q: How do I maintain chanting in the mode of goodness when my
other services require so much passion?
A: When you are chanting your rounds you should allow your con-
sciousness to become absorbed in Kåñëa’s holy name. Then when you
have other services to perform you will see your work as sevä. Arjuna
had to fight on a battlefield. That means he had to become angry. How
else could he fight? We too have to fight in the service of Prabhupäda’s
movement, but we should do it as sevä, as Kåñëa’s instruments. As soon
as the false ego rises and wants credit and prestige, wondering why oth-
ers don’t acknowledge our hard work and all that we’ve accomplished,
then we are not trustworthy enough for Kåñëa to allow us into His most
private chambers. We are not actually servants.
The first step in dealing with this problem is to accept our role as
servants. Then everything we do will be service. How do we keep this
consciousness and not allow the passion that comes naturally from
dealing with the material world affect us? Chant at least sixteen good
rounds every day. Chanting good quality, attentive rounds is probably
the best thing we can do. It will give us a chance to survive the attack of
the modes of nature.

Q: I find it much easier to focus in difficult situations, such as when

I’m on saìkértana, than when the atmosphere is too pleasant. How do
I become a serious chanter even when I am not facing challenges?
A: We have to first understand that the material world is designed to
give us difficulty. We will not be able to avoid it. We will get old if
nothing else, and then one day, we will face the difficult task of dying.
Therefore I will rephrase the question: How can I understand the
­seriousness of Kåñëa consciousness?
There are two ways. Perhaps the most important way is to know
what Kåñëa consciousness is. Kåñëa consciousness is about serving Çré
Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa. It is so sweet, but we miss out on this most

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wonderful thing because we are enamored by mäyä and therefore
remain complacently in the mode of goodness. If we are fortunate
enough to have a naturally peaceful mind, we should use it to reach
Kåñëa. Please use it to attain that most wonderful person.
In order to get a real taste for Kåñëa consciousness, carefully study
Çréla Prabhupäda’s books. We should also associate with serious
devotees, and perhaps they will share with us some of the jewels of
the ­sweetness of the relationship between Rädhä and Kåñëa and
Våndävana.
Your question is sincere and open-hearted. On the one hand you
will be pushed by the material energy – you should know that. I never
thought I would get old. When I was twenty I used to say, “Never trust
anyone over thirty.” What can I say now? Perhaps, “Never trust any-
one under fifty!” The material energy is relentless. By continuing with
your saìkértana service, certainly Caitanya Mahäprabhu will give you
so much mercy.

Q: If the Lord’s pastimes come to mind while I’m chanting, should I

allow such thoughts to enter or shut them out and instead only focus
on the sound of the name?
A: No, we should not shut out such thoughts. But neither should we try
to bring them in artificially. Let such thoughts coat your chanting with
extra sweetness. When they come naturally, they won’t stop you from
hearing the holy names.

Q: If it’s late and I still have rounds left and I’m tired, should I chant
the rounds or save them for the next day when I can chant with more
attention?
A: If you are asking me about the best thing to do, I’d have to say
that it is best to chant attentively on that day. We should try to hear
the holy name. It’s the same simple instruction: try to listen. When

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devotees are pure and spiritually strong, then no matter how tired they
are, when they touch the holy name their consciousness awakens. But
for those of us who are not so pure, it’s sometimes better to take a lit-
tle rest and then chant, or to bathe and refresh the body. Fresh air can
also help.

Q: I find sometimes that I have to finish my rounds on the train

because I travel a lot. It’s probably not the best place to chant.

A: It doesn’t matter where we chant, whether on the train or somewhere

else. The point is to chant where we can listen to the name.
If chanting on the train means you have to chant softly, you can
consider using a technique that increases your hearing. Some ­devotees
chant by holding a hand cupped around one ear. This channels the
sound from the mouth to the ear. Or they wear ­earplugs, which seems
to amplify the voice.
What makes chanting on a train hard is the distractions and not
wishing to appear strange. Still, the principle is to listen. If you can ­listen
on the train, then you can chant there.
Hundreds of years ago, Gauòéya sädhus protected themselves from
materialistic sounds by chanting in underground caves. Those sages
were concerned about the vibration people were creating with their gos-
sip and the ethereal disturbance it caused. Imagine what we deal with
nowadays with radio, television, the internet, and mobile phone waves,
all of which disturb the ether. Chanting is difficult in this age.
But if somehow or other you can hear the holy names – whether it
requires that you get up a little earlier or adjust in some other way – you
will gain great benefit. And because it’s difficult in Kali-yuga to control
the mind, you should gather with others for saìkértana.

Q: How do I distinguish between my mind simply being inattentive

and when I am inattentive as a result of having offended someone?

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It seems if I have committed an offense, I will not be able to focus on
the holy name.

A: Yes, the effect of offending devotees is that we lose taste. But we

can’t worry about that while we are chanting. Just listen. Otherwise, we
will again be tricked by the mind: “Oh, maybe I’m not paying atten-
tion to my chanting because I committed an offense. I wonder whom I
offended today? I shouldn’t do that again. I should apologize.” But
then we won’t hear anything. We shouldn’t worry about anything
while we’re chanting because the best cure for offenses is to chant
constantly. Of course, if we know we did something offensive we
should ask forgiveness, but in any case, the cure is constant chanting.
Don’t become entangled in all these worries. Just try and listen to the
holy name.
At the same time, we should be wary of committing offenses when-
ever we are not chanting. But when we’re chanting, simply listen. To not
listen to the holy name is in itself offensive. So just listen to Kåñëa’s holy
names. Japa time is not for thinking about our life.

Q: Sometimes suffering drives me to the holy name, but how do I

actually take shelter there?

A: One problem we may face when we approach the name out of suffer-
ing is this: Instead of approaching the name for service, we approach to
have our suffering removed. Such an attitude will not give us çuddha-
näma because our chanting is contaminated by the self-centered desire
for liberation.
The second problem we may face is that the mind will tend to revisit
the suffering while we’re chanting. But we can simply listen to the name,
driven to Kåñëa’s shelter as we are by our pain. If we endlessly cultivate
our desire to serve Kåñëa and make our prime focus attentive hearing,
we will be able to chant more purely.

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Q: Using the one-mantra technique is harder when walking while
chanting japa. The mind so easily wanders and is distracted by the
place where I’m walking. Do you have any advice on how to chant
attentively while taking a japa walk?

A: It is undoubtedly difficult to control the mind, but chanting japa

means to listen to the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra. We have to accept this
definition and work with it if we wish to chant offenselessly. Pramäda,
inattention to the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra, is an offense. If we were tak-
ing a walk with Prabhupäda, who would be at the center of the walk?
If we were to say in Prabhupäda’s presence, “Look at how beautiful
these daffodils are! Look at the green hills and fluffy white cloud being
driven by the wind! Let me see what’s over here . . . ” he would consider
us sightseers rather than serious spiritual aspirants. And neither would
there be any value to our having been with Prabhupäda.
Similarly, if we wish to admire the beauty of the area where we’re
walking, then we can go on parikrama. But going on a japa walk means
going out with the understanding that we are chanting the holy name
and all our attention should be fixed on that.
Again, unless we understand the technique of chanting attentive
japa and become determined enough to follow it, then whether we are
walking or sitting, we will not be able to pay attention. We are accus-
tomed to touring the universe when we chant japa. We are free to con-
tinue our touring, but if we wish to chant and attain the promised
results, we must chant attentively.
I have also noted that sädhus in Våndävana who are in an internal
and introspective mood, or who are chanting seriously while walking,
tend to look solely at the ground directly in front of them as they walk.
This practice helps them focus their thoughts and also informs others
to allow them their privacy. Downcast eyes serve as a sort of nonver-
bal “Do not disturb” sign. In my opinion, offering chanters this type of
respect would be a positive addition to our ISKCON culture.

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Q: While chanting the mahä-mantra my mind becomes like a vacuum
and I don’t know what to do with it, so I tend to look for things to
stimulate me. This, of course, hampers or even halts my concentration.
What should I do?

A: Everything negative can become positive if we are conscious. Act­

ually, it is our duty to make them positive. If we have no taste for the
holy name, if our heart and mind are empty when we chant, or if we
find ourselves absorbed in material desires, then we should take these
problems to the holy name and to our worshipable Deities and use the
negative to serve the positive. The stronger the negative pole of a mag-
net is, the more powerfully it can draw the positive. Çréla Prabhupäda
writes, quoting Çréla Jéva Gosvämé’s Bhakti-sandarbha (270):

Chanting the holy name is the chief means of attaining love of God­
head. This chanting or devotional service does not depend on any
paraphernalia nor on one having taken birth in a good family. By
humility and meekness one attracts the attention of Kåñëa.

That is the verdict of all the Vedas. Therefore if one becomes very humble
and meek, he can easily attain the lotus feet of Kåñëa in this Age of Kali.
(Cc. Antya 4.71, purport, emphasis added)
Turn the vacuum, the material desire, the lack of taste into a prayer
for help and take real shelter of the holy name. “O Kåñëa, just look at my
heart. O holy names, look at my heart. It is empty. I have no taste. I am
dependent on You as I take shelter of You in the holy names.”
It is good to go to the holy names empty and beg Kåñëa’s name to
fill you. Çréla Prabhupäda exemplified this mood at the end of the poem
he wrote on his arrival in America: “I have no devotion, nor do I have
any knowledge, but I have strong faith in the holy name of Kåñëa. I have
been designated as Bhaktivedanta, and now if You like You can fulfill
the real purport of Bhaktivedanta.”
If you go to Kåñëa in the mood of taking full shelter, ­understanding

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that you have no capacity on your own, then you have learned the art
of spiritual life and can turn misfortune into fortune, ­powerlessness
into power.

Q: When I visit certain holy places or temples I feel strong emotions

and often cry. Where do these emotions come from? I then find myself
trying to feel the same emotions later. Is this all right or am I trying to
enjoy my senses in the name of spiritual life?

A: Imagine a curtain hanging over a window. The thicker the curtain,

the less light will come through into the room. In the dhäma the curtain
or veil between the material and spiritual worlds is thin. Therefore it’s
quite natural to feel spiritual emotion in the dhäma.
But you say you are trying to feel the same emotions later, and you
wonder if this is okay or are you trying to enjoy our senses in the name
of spiritual life? It is important that we don’t become peak-experience
addicts. It is very dangerous to our spiritual life to want only peak emo-
tional experiences at all times. It’s also dangerous in material life. We
can use marriage as an analogy. A newly married couple goes through
a period we call the “honeymoon.” But there is no honeymoon after the
honeymoon. Marriage means duty and mutual respect, and when one
is dutiful in marriage, one finds a more proper and much deeper affec-
tion for one’s partner.
If we want spiritual life to simply be a series of honeymoon expe-
riences, then perhaps we will find ourselves going from one guru to
another, one movement to another, one dhäma to another, and nothing
will be enough to satisfy us.
The problem with this mentality is that we ourselves remain the
center of our concern. But we are meant to serve Kåñëa no matter what
experiences we have.
What we want to understand from truly spiritual experiences is
that we are servants of Kåñëa and completely dependent on Him. By

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His grace, even though we don’t deserve the spiritual happiness that
is bubbling up inside us now, we accept it. But we understand that we
are receiving the mercy of the dhäma, of our guru, and of the Vaiñëavas.
Instead of thinking how to get more spiritual emotion for me, me, me,
and me, we should shift ourselves to a service mentality: How can I offer
something in gratitude to my spiritual master, to the holy dhämas, and
to the holy names?
So the way we can discern whether we are engaging in sense grati-
fication or having truly spiritual experiences is by measuring whether
or not we feel a deepening desire in our heart for service. This is the
foundational principle of spiritual life: We are servants of Kåñëa (jévera
svarüpa haya nityera kåñëa däsa).
Other than this, our quest in spiritual life is to become more and
more deeply immersed in humble and loving service to Çré Çré Rädhä
and Kåñëa (and Their devotees). The result of this “lowly” position is
that the spiritual energy will bestow on us more spiritual emotion and
pleasure than we can imagine from our present point of view.
As to where these emotions come from they are natural to the soul,
but they come by the mercy of the dhäma, the holy names, Çré Caitanya
Mahäprabhu, the devotees, and Çréla Prabhupäda. They are simply
mercy. We are not qualified for anything. Therefore they are the gift
of Mahäprabhu because He uplifts the unqualified: patita-­pävana-hetu
tava avatära, mo sama patita prabhu nä päibe ära, “Caitanya Mahäprabhu
appeared as an incarnation to deliver all fallen souls like us and directly
bestow upon us love of Godhead.” As soon as we think we are qualified
for such mercy, we should know that the false ego is expanding.

Q: Is everything a trick of the mind? In other words, even if I feel

something with all my heart and it is not purely spiritual, is it false?
If yes, what do I do when I am intellectually convinced of something,
yet my heart or intuition doesn’t follow me to Kåñëa? Does it mean I
have entered spiritual life prematurely?

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A: There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gétä (6.6) that states,
bandhur ätmätmanas tasya
yenätmaivätmanä jitaù
anätmanas tu çatrutve
vartetätmaiva çatru-vat
“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends;
but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest
enemy.”
The mind is either friend or enemy based on whether or not it is
bringing us to Kåñëa. So how can we tell? Sometimes it’s difficult to
know whether the mind’s latest attachment is favorable or unfavorable
because the mind is so tricky. It’s also strong. But we can be guided by
guru, çästra, and sädhu and should not simply prescribe what is best for
ourselves.
Therefore the çästra insists that we accept a spiritual master and take
guidance from senior Vaiñëavas. These persons can act as absolute refer-
ence points for us. Otherwise, we will be doomed to follow the mind’s
whims and will find ourselves in unlimited trouble. That trouble will
keep us cycling through the various species of life.
From another angle, what happens if we have a material desire and
the mind really wants something? We try to push it away, but the mind
still wants it, so we try again to push it away, but the mind still wants
it. We may have to accept while dealing with such situations that we
cannot go straight to Kåñëa on our present path; we are just too fallen.
But under the guidance of guru, Vaiñëavas, and çästra we may learn of
another way to go. Acting on higher guidance is much better than inde-
pendently surrendering to our material desires. An old adage applies:
Even an experienced doctor doesn’t prescribe for himself.
Is everything a trick of the mind? Everything other than the desire
to love Kåñëa is simply an interaction of the modes of nature. The mind
keeps us in the material world.

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 If we suffer from the vagaries of the mind, does it mean we have
entered spiritual life prematurely? We can never enter spiritual life too
early. Therefore, let’s rephrase the question: When we know that we
should pursue Kåñëa consciousness but we simply don’t have the depth
of purity or the desire or sincerity to follow what we know is right, what
should we do?
First we should recognize that we are not alone with this prob-
lem. It is the nature of every conditioned soul to be attracted to
things other than Kåñëa. And it is undoubtedly difficult to control the
mind. Yet Kåñëa consciousness means to surrender to the ­process our
guru has given us. Such surrender helps control the mind and will
purify us of material identification. And the process we have been
­prescribed will become sweeter with practice and with our absorp-
tion in it. Certainly it is much sweeter than anything the mind can
provide.
If we are attracted to the beauty of this world even though we know
it is temporary and can lead us toward sense gratification, then turn
to look at the Deity’s beauty. If we are attracted to the sweet perfumes
bottled for our body, smell the sweet fragrances of the oils and gar-
lands offered to the Lord. This is what it means to be Kåñëa conscious.
If we find ourselves attracted to mundane books or philosophy, study
Vaiñëava literature.
Everything we do in Kali-yuga should be accompanied by chant-
ing the holy names. By Mahäprabhu’s mercy we don’t require full­
surrender to participate in His movement. Full surrender is defined:

änukülyasya saìkalpaù
prätikülyasya varjanam
rakñiñyatéti viçväso
goptåtve varaëaà tathä
ätma-nikñepa-kärpaëye
ñaò-vidhä çaraëägatiù

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“The six divisions of surrender are the acceptance of those things favor-
able to devotional service, the rejection of unfavorable things, the con-
viction that Kåñëa will give protection, the acceptance of the Lord as
one’s guardian or master, full self-surrender, and humility.” (Caitanya-
caritämåta, Madhya 22.100)
Who among us is powerful enough to make a complete ­surrender?
Who is so fully sincere that without hesitation he will embrace what-
ever is good for his Kåñëa consciousness and will push away ­whatever
is unfavorable? Kåñëa demands such surrender, but Caitanya Mahä­
prabhu does not. Rather, He simply offers His mercy and allows us to
chant Kåñëa’s names.
So chant Kåñëa’s names again and again – constantly, if possible –
and taste the sweetness of the spiritual world that hari-näma-saìkértana
offers. Chanting congregationally offers even easier access to the sweet-
ness of Kåñëa’s names than japa. Chant Hare Kåñëa in ecstasy: änande
bolo hari bhaja båndäban, çré-guru-vaiñëaba-pade majäiyä man, “Call out the
names of Lord Hari in great ecstasy and worship the transcendental
realm of Våndävana while absorbing your mind in meditation upon the
divine feet of the spiritual master and the Vaiñëavas.” Let the mind clear
off some of its dust in this way. Then meekly, humbly, we should under-
stand our fallen condition. After that, we should do whatever ­service
we can.
Your question can be taken to mean, Is it too early to practice spiri-
tual life if I am not a pure devotee? A devotee I know once applied for
Indian citizenship and was rejected on the basis that he was a ­foreigner!
If he wasn’t a foreigner, why would he need to apply for citizenship? We
are also foreigners in the land of Kåñëa, so we too have to apply for citi-
zenship. We are not pure; that’s why we have to practice spiritual life. If
we didn’t we would face disaster in the form of death and rebirth.
Take to spiritual life. As soon as we come to any consciousness of
the nature of life, we should chant Kåñëa’s names in the ­association of
devotees and very humbly pray for mercy.

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 Çréla Prabhupäda once told the story of how Mahatma Gandhi had
a fight with his wife. He told his wife to get out and never come back.
Later, he heard a soft knocking on the door. He opened it to find his wife
standing on the sto\op. He said, angrily, “I told you to go!” She hum-
bly replied, “I had nowhere else to go.” We should be like that with the
holy name.

Question: Could you please summarize the first four texts of Çikñä­
ñöaka as they relate to chanting japa?
A: The first verse of the Çikñäñöaka (ceto-darpaëa-märjanam) prescribes
­çraddhä. Blessed by faith, we begin to regularly chant Kåñëa’s holy
names. Then, as we advance, we see the need to improve our chanting
by removing anarthas and other impediments to advancement. This is
described in the second verse of the Çikñäñöaka (nämnäm akäri bahudhä
­nija-sarva-çaktiù). At this stage we are trying to chant properly, but
because we see our inability we begin to feel humble, as described by
the third verse of the Çikñäñöaka (tåëäd api sunécena taror api sahiñëunä).
That humility fixes us in the understanding that we are dependent on
Kåñëa’s mercy (niñöhä). Then, fixed in chanting and dependent on Kåñëa,
we understand the need to cleanse the heart of remaining material
desires, as described in the fourth verse of the Çikñäñöaka (na dhanaà na
janaà na sundaréà). That attempt, by Kåñëa’s mercy, gives rise to ruci.

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 20

From Çréla Prabhupäda

“Now when you chant Hare Kåñëa, if we chant mechanically, then the
effect is different. I have already given you ten kinds of offenses there
are in chanting Hare Kåñëa. So mechanical way of chanting is also
another offense. So offenseless chanting . . . Of course in the beginning,
neophytes, we are apt to commit so many offenses. But we should be
careful that the chanting should be offenseless. Then we shall realize
that Kåñëa is present by His name. He is present. You’ll realize and
you’ll have the same effect as you expect by meeting Kåñëa personally.
You can see Kåñëa and you can hear Kåñëa. Because Kåñëa is absolute
there is no difference between seeing and hearing. That is the abso-
lute sense. People give more stress on the eye: ‘Oh, can you show me
Kåñëa?’ Oh, can’t you hear Kåñëa? Why do you give . . . ? This is also one
sense, that is also another sense. Do you think by seeing you’ll under-
stand ­everything? You are seeing so many things daily. Do you under-
stand? So this is all foolishness, that “Can you show me?” Now we have
got so many senses. So perception through any sense, because He is

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absolute, the same effect. Either you see Him personally or you hear
Him. . . . So hearing is so perfect. . . . And one who is very much eager to
hear about Kåñëa is very expert, because hearing is knowledge. So if
we hear Kåñëa, about Kåñëa, His name, His fame, then Kåñëa is present
before us.”
– Lecture, Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya 22.3134, New York 1967

“A Kåñëa conscious person is not afraid of any place, but he wants to

chant constantly in all circumstances.”
– Letter to Cäru Däsa, September 10, 1972

“The world is full of dangers in every step. Just like in the ocean there is
danger at every step, but if we take shelter of the boat that is known as
the lotus feet of Lord Kåñëa, then this great ocean of danger becomes as
harmless as a small pit and we shall be able to cross hundreds of such
pits simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord, the Hare Kåñëa
mahä-mantra.”
– Letter to Allen Ginsberg, December 21, 1968)

“One must come to the understanding that the holy name of the Lord
and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself are identical. One
cannot reach this conclusion unless one is offenseless in chanting the
holy name. As such, one is understood to be an eternal servant of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead if he considers Himself an eternal ser-
vant of the holy name and in this spirit ­distributes the holy name to
the world. One who chants in that spirit, without offense, is certainly
elevated to the platform of understanding that the holy name and the
Supreme Personality of Godhead are identical.”
– Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi 8.16, purport

. . . Kåñëa is there in the topmost Goloka-dhäma. But still ­goloka‑dhämni

nivasati, although He is living there, akhilätmä-bhüto, He is ­everywhere.

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He’s everywhere. That is Kåñëa. Just like we are sitting in this hall.
We are not in our apartment house. Kåñëa is not like that. He is in
the goloka-nämni nija-dhämni, in His own planet, He’s engaged in His
occupation. Somewhere He’s tending cows, somewhere He’s danc-
ing with the gopés. He is going on with His enjoying occupations. But
still He’s everywhere. . . . He’s within your heart. Éçvara sarva bhütänäà
håd-deçe ’ rjuna tiñöhati. . . . Not only within the heart, He is within the
atom also. . . . So Kåñëa is everywhere, and if you are devotee, then you
can catch Him. This is the secret. . . . Just like electricity is everywhere,
electrons. One who can tackle the electrons, they can talk without any
direct connection by electronic method, thousand-thousand miles
away. Just like radio message, television message. So similarly, Kåñëa
is also everywhere. Just like the sound wave is going on. As soon as
you produce, I produce one sound, immediately within a second the
sound goes round the earth seven times. So if a material thing has
got so much power, just think how much power God has got. So He
is everywhere. Simply you have to catch Him. And He’s also ready
for being caught. Yes. If somebody wants to catch Him . . . Suppose
you are a devotee. If you want to catch Him, He comes forward ten
times than your desire. He’s so kind. Therefore, we have to simply
receive Him.
– Çré Çré Rädhä-Gokulänanda Deity installation, London,
August 21, 1973

“All materialistic men are mad after possessing all these material opu-
lences, and this is known as the advancement of material civilization.
But the result is that by possessing all these material assets one becomes
artificially puffed up, intoxicated by such temporary possessions. Con­
sequently, such materially puffed up persons are incapable of uttering
the holy name of the Lord by addressing Him feelingly, ‘O Govinda, O
Kåñëa.’ It is said in the çästras that by once uttering the holy name of the
Lord, the sinner gets rid of a quantity of sins that he is unable to commit.

133
Such is the power of uttering the holy name of the Lord. There is not the
least exaggeration in this statement. Actually the Lord’s holy name has
such powerful potency. But there is a quality to such utterances also. It
depends on the quality of feeling. A helpless man can feelingly utter the
holy name of the Lord, whereas a man who utters the same holy name
in great material satisfaction cannot be so sincere. A materially puffed
up person may utter the holy name of the Lord occasionally, but he is
incapable of uttering the name in quality. Therefore, the four principles
of material advancement, namely (1) high parentage, (2) good wealth,
(3) high education, and (4) attractive beauty, are, so to speak, disqualifi-
cations for progress on the path of spiritual advancement. The material
covering of the pure spirit soul is an external feature, as much as fever
is an external feature of the unhealthy body. The general process is to
decrease the degree of the fever and not to aggravate it by maltreat-
ment. . . . The principle of life should be to decrease the degree of mate-
rial intoxication which leads one to be more and more illusioned about
the aim of life. Grossly illusioned persons are quite unfit for entrance
into the kingdom of God.
– Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.8.26, purport

Devotee (3): Çréla Prabhupäda, it’s very difficult to control my mind

when I chant. It wanders.
Prabhupäda: So what is the controlling of mind? You have to chant and
hear, that’s all. You have to chant with your tongue, and the sound you
hear, that’s all. What is the question of mind?
– Morning Walk, February 3, 1975, Hawaii

“Your sincerity and desire for doing some service for Krishna is very
much encouraging to me. Please go on chanting nicely, and steadily.
Chanting 16 rounds is prescribed, but you can chant more rounds and
hear them very attentively.”
– Letter to Devänanda Däsa, March 18, 1968

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“If you stick to these principles with determination, then you will
become free from all attachment to maya, by Krishna’s Grace. The exam-
ple is that when the sun is in the sky, there is no question of darkness.
Similarly when Hare Krishna Mantra is vibrating on your tongue and
you are hearing attentively, then your consciousness becomes clear or
Krishna conscious and there is no question of maya or hazy conscious-
ness. Just as when the light and darkness come together, the darkness
cannot stand before the light, so maya cannot remain in the presence
of Krishna. Always remember therefore to chant Hare Krishna, at least
16 rounds daily, and that will save you in all circumstances without
any doubt.”
– Letter to Rüpa-viläsa Däsa and others, June 20, 1972

“Chanting japa should be done early in the morning with full concen-
tration preferably during the Brahma Muhurta time. Concentrate
fully on the sound vibration of the mantra, pronouncing each name
distinctly and gradually your speed in chanting will increase natu-
rally. Do not worry so much about chanting fast, most important is the
hearing.”
– Letter to Rädhä-vallabha Däsa, January 6, 1972

Guest (1): [break] She is also doing that japa. And while this mälä, doing
mälä, and doing the japa, the mind doesn’t remain fixed in God. You
know, it wanders about. So what is the way of fixing the mind?
Prabhupäda: To hear. Hare Kåñëa. Chant and hear.
Guest (1): Speak loudly.
Guest (2) (Indian lady): Speak loudly but still the mind goes away here
and there.
Prabhupäda: Then that is called . . . abhyäsa-yoga-yuktena cetasä nänya-
gäminä. That you have to practice. . . . We have got a säìkhya [counting],
that “You must perform so many times.” . . . Then gradually, (Hindi).
This is the only . . . harer näma harer näma harer nämaiva kevalam, kalau nästy

135
 eva nästy eva nästy eva gatir anyathä. . . . So we have to follow, and actually
it is becoming effective.
Guest (2): I think it takes many births to have the effect.
Prabhupäda: No, you can have immediately, provided you follow
the rules and regulations. That’s all. Not many births, immediately.
­Tat-kñaëät. Çuçrüñubhis tat-kñaëät. In the Bhägavata it is said. Éçvaraù sadyo
hådy avarudhyate çuçrüñubhis tat-kñaëät. The tat-kñaëät means immedi-
ately. But one must very eager. That’s all. That is the only qualification.
Otherwise, Çukadeva Gosvämé would not . . . Vyäsadeva would not have
used this word tat-kñaëät, immediately.
– Morning Walk, December 21, 1973, Los Angeles

“There is no way to atone for any of these offenses. It is therefore rec-

ommended that an offender at the feet of the holy name continue to
chant the holy name twenty-four hours a day. Constant chanting of the
holy name will make one free of offenses, and then he will gradually
be elevated to the transcendental platform on which he can chant the
pure holy name and thus become a lover of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. . . . One should be very humble and meek to offer one’s desires
and chant prayers composed in glorification of the holy name, such
as ayi mukta-kulair upäsyamänam and nivåtta-tarñair upagéyamänäd. One
should chant such prayers to become free from offenses at the lotus feet
of the holy name.”
– Çrémad-Bhägavatam 7.5.23–24, purport

Another point established in this verse is that meditation should be car-

ried on with the chanting of a mantra. Chanting of the Hare Kåñëa man-
tra is the easiest process of meditation in this age. As soon as one chants
the Hare Kåñëa mantra, he sees the forms of Kåñëa, Räma and Their ener-
gies, and that is the perfect stage of trance. One should not artificially
try to see the form of the Lord while chanting Hare Kåñëa, but when the
chanting is performed offenselessly the Lord will automatically reveal

136
Himself to the view of the chanter. The chanter, therefore, has to concen-
trate on hearing the vibration, and without extra endeavor on his part,
the Lord will automatically appear.
– Çrémad-Bhägavatam 4.8.53, purport

From Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura’s letters:

“If we chant the holy name loudly, then the temptation of laziness will
not be able to swallow us up.”

“Remain in this place and chant the Holy Name in a regular fashion.
Read the Caitanya-bhägavata and the Caitanya-caritämåta . . . Mahäprabhu
is particularly merciful to those who are humble in mind and who
­consider themselves incapable . . . ”

“Do not be preoccupied with the end result of chanting. Rather, chant
Kåñëa’s name constantly with patience and tolerance, forbearance.
The Lord will certainly not sit silently and do nothing. Gaurahari will
certainly reward every practitioner according to the nature of his
practice.”

“All auspiciousness comes from the regular chanting of a fixed num-

ber of holy names. It gives me great joy to know that you have under-
stood this. Do not let up simply because various mundane thoughts
disturb you while you are chanting the holy name. Such useless
thoughts will gradually disappear as a result of chanting, so don’t
become agitated on account of them. You cannot get the results of
chanting prematurely. When you have a great deal of attraction for
the holy name, the allure of mundane thoughts will diminish. If we
do not have great enthusiasm for chanting, how will we ever get
rid of such thoughts? . . . If we serve the holy name with our bodies,
minds, and souls, then the Named will reveal His all-auspicious form
to us.”

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“If one is interested in advancing in chanting Hare Kåñëa, Caitanya
Mahäprabhu advises that one be humbler than the grass and more tol-
erant than a tree. One should not be very proud of his intelligence but
should give all respects to others. In this way, one can chant Hare Kåñëa
offenselessly.”

“We should constantly pray to the holy name for His mercy.”

“As you run your hands over your japa-mälä, think that you are
touching Lord Gaurasundara’s lotus feet. That is the way we should
chant.”

“If you wish to give up offenses while chanting, then just go on chanting
constantly and the offenses will stop. Çrémän Mahäprabhu gave all His
powers to Rüpa Gosvämé. So pray to Çré Rüpa and his followers and
beg them to bestow Mahäprabhu’s mercy upon you. You should espe-
cially pray to the personified name to make you worthy of serving Him.
Through the Lord’s name, the Lord of the Name (Näma Prabhu) will
take up residence in your heart.”

“Narottama Däsa Öhäkura has written, ‘I have died without worship-

ing Gaura. I have spent my life striving for things without any value
and made no effort to attain the truly valuable.’ Chant the holy name in
the way that Narottama did. No distress born of ­contact with the sense
objects will be able to touch you.”

“No one should reduce his service to the Lord, even unto his last
breath . . . The only real necessity in this human form of life, which can
produce the only true value, is hari-kértana. Leading a life of lethargy in
the name of worshiping in solitude is one type of ­deception; meaning-
less poverty in the name of renunciation is another. These are unneces-
sary as they obstruct hari-kértana. Hold off living in a secluded cottage
for many lifetimes, for your mind will lead you to engage in subtle or
hidden sense gratification. I advise you rather to begin by engaging

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your every act in the service of Kåñëa. . . . With this mental attitude
we should attempt to spread the glories of the spiritual master and
Mahäprabhu, and in this way, we will win Mahäprabhu’s blessings and
be able to truly worship the Lord’s name. . . . ”

From Padyävalé:
“Extracting the four syllables that are the heart of the four Vedas, Lord
Hari makes the word Näräyaëa. Day and night, chanting this name, we
become purified. We do not know any better way to please Lord Hari.”
– Author unknown, text 17

“Let the twice-born enter the fearless kingdom of yoga, Vedic study, and
solitary meditation in the forest. Let them become liberated in that way.
As for us, we will spend hundreds of thousands of births chanting the
holy name of Lord Kåñëa, whose splendid dark complexion and yellow
garments are like a host of blue lotus flowers blooming in a grove of yel-
low flower-bearing kadamba trees.”
– Çré Éçvara Puré, text 18

“If the opulence or knowledge of many millions of universes were clus-

tered together, they would hardly equal a small fragment of the glory of
Kåñëa’s holy name. Kåñëa’s holy name is my life. It is the goal of my life.
It is the means I will employ to attain the goal of my life.”
– Author unknown, text 23

“I am drowning in a painful, fathomless whirlpool of repeated birth and

death, O Lord. O friend of the shelterless, O effulgent moon of mercy,
this one time quickly extend Your hand to save me.”
– Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé, text 60
“This mango tree in Våndävana is now overwhelmed by remembering
You. It dances, moving its branches in the breeze. It sings in the form of

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these humming bees. It shed tears in the form of these many drops of
honey. Its hair stands erect in ecstasy in the form of these new sprouts.
O Mukunda, as dear to me as my own life, why is a tree filled with so
much love for You? Why am I so hard-hearted that even Your name will
not enter my heart?”
– Çrépäda Éçvara Puré, text 62

“O Lord Hari, O form of mercy, You quickly rescued both Draupadé and
Gajendra. What has happened to that quick action now that I suffer so
acutely?”
– Çré Autkala, text 63

“O Lord Yädavendra, I am fallen. When I remember Your name Déna-

bandhu (friend of the fallen), I become encouraged, and when I hear
that You love Your devotees my heart trembles.”
– Çré Jagannätha Sena, text 64

“O Lord, no one is more merciful than You, and no one is more pathetic
than me. I am very lowly and fallen. O Lord Yadunätha, please reflect
on my case and do to me whatever is appropriate.”
– Author unknown, text 66

From Rüpa Goswämé: Stava-mälä, Çré Prärthanä-paddhatiù

“O Queen whose fair limbs are more splendid than pure gold. O Queen
whose eyes are as charming as the eyes of a doe. O Queen whose face
defeats millions of moons. O Queen dressed in garments as dark as
monsoon clouds.

“O Queen who is the crowning garland of mälikä flowers on the braided

hair of the young gopés. O Queen whose beauty is served by many tran-
scendental splendid jewels and other ornaments.

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“O teacher of the entirety of expert gopés, O Queen elaborately decorated
with a host of transcendental virtues, O Queen accompanied by Your
eight very dear friends.
“O Queen who pleases Lord Keçava with the waves of Your restless side-
long dance. O Queen whose nectar bimba-fruit lips have become the food
of the prince of Vraja.
“O Queen of Våndävana, I bow down and roll about on the Yamunä’s
shore, and with an agitated heart and a choked voice, I appeal to You.
“Even though he has committed offenses, and even though he is unquali-
fied, and even though his intelligence is crooked, please give this person
a small particle of Your devotional service.
“Because the fresh butter of Your heart is always melting in the splen-
dor of Your transcendental mercy, it is not proper for You to neglect this
foolish person.”

From Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura’s Harinäma-cintämaëi,

Chapter 12:
“The devotee should make it a regular practice to spend a little time
alone in a quiet place and concentrate deeply on the holy name. He
should utter and hear the name distinctly. It is impossible for the jéva to
single-handedly avoid and overcome the illusion of distraction. By the
mercy of the Lord, however, this is accomplished with ease. Therefore
it is essential to prayerfully beg for the Lord’s grace with great humility,
for this is the only means to salvation from this offense.”
“Those who attempt to take up devotional service on the merits of their
individual intelligence and mental expertise will find that all their
endeavors are fruitless. Lord Kåñëa’s mercy is the prime cause of all
successful work. One who does not aspire to obtain the Lord’s mercy is
indeed a very unfortunate soul.”

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Appendixes
 The Nine Keys and How They
Correlate with the Stages of Chanting
Key 1: Chant Hare Kåñëa!
Key 2: Listen to one mantra
Key 3: Saìkalpa: be firmly determined
Key 4: Yato yato niçcalati: Bring the mind back to hearing the mantra
Key 5: Be detached
Key 6: Neglect the mind
Key 7: Humility
Key 8: Nämäçraya
Key 9: the Master Key: Kåñëa’s causeless mercy

Key 1 is the most essential key. The willingness to chant is based on

the initial stage of çraddhä, yet chanting Kåñëa’s names is carried out
throughout one’s devotional life regardless of one’s level of spiritual
attainment.
Keys 2–5 help us move through the stage of anartha-nivåtti, the stage
of removing all that is unwanted in the consciousness.
Keys 6–8 lead the chanter to niñöhä, fixedness in taking shelter of
Kåñëa.
Detachment from material desires coupled with a fixed, humble
desire to serve Kåñëa carries a chanter from niñöhä to ruci.
Kåñëa’s mercy, the master key, is required at every step. In this
sense, the ninth key is unique among the keys because all the other keys
depend on it.

144
 Practical Application
of the Levels of Chanting
Each japa session is different. Sometimes we are focused and attentive
when we begin to chant and other times not. Sometimes we are prayer-
ful and surrendered to the name and other times we struggle. It is best,
therefore, to recognize our ability at the moment we pick up our beads
and to begin chanting at the highest “Practical Application” level of
which we are capable.

First Four Levels of Chanting

Çikñäñöaka Attainment at
Keys Practical Application
Verse Mature Stage

Chant Hare Kåñëa

1 1 Çraddhä
Chant without offense; attempt to
2 2, 3, Anartha- chant with attention; listen to one
4, 5 nivåtti mantra, one holy name.
Humility is chanting Kåñëa’s
3 6, 7 Niñöhä names with the awareness that
Their mercy is your only hope.
Your chanting is coated with pray-
ing for shelter.
Awareness of one’s insincerity and
4 8 Ruci impurities drives one to prayer-
fully beg the holy name for mercy
and shelter, and to fulfill one’s
longing to serve Kåñëa.

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 Syllables of the Holy Name

Devotees often ask whether it is beneficial to look at the written syllables

of the mahä-mantra as they chant. After all, great devotees like Gaura-
kiçora däsa Bäbäjé and others recommend the practice.
The principle is to increase one’s focus on the sound of Kåñëa’s holy
names. We should try not to become distracted from that point by end-
lessly shifting from one technique to another. Rather, we should try to
concentrate on the sacred sound of Kåñëa’s names.
But if looking at the mahä-mantra in written form helps one’s con-
centration – if it helps cure inattentiveness and increases hearing – then
one should do it.
A sample mahä-mantra chart I sometimes use is shown on the next
page. I have placed dots down the center to aid quick chanting. The dots
tend to draw one’s eyes downward rather than from side to side, from
word to word.

146
hare • kåñëa
hare • kåñëa
kåñëa • kåñëa
hare • hare
hare • räma
hare • räma
räma • räma
hare • hare