Sincere Chanting

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 11 October 2020, part 2

Question: How can I chant my japa properly?

Always chant the Holy Name. Even when you have some service, when you are doing some service, you can also chant the Holy Name at that time. We are told, "Sevonmukhe kaha Krsna Nam (সেবোন্মুখে কহে কৃষ্ণনাম). Chant the Holy Name with service mood." But we sometimes evade service on pretext of chanting the Holy Name. For example, some devotee comes to the temple always showing their japa beads in their hand and chanting, and if somebody asks them, "Oh, Prabhu, do you have service? We need help..." they quickly say, "No, no, I am busy doing japa!" Suppose, Gurudev tells you, "Please give me a glass of water," and you say, "Gurudev, I am very busy chanting japa right now." We see this sometimes—such behaviour, or mood, is not good. Therefore, "Sevonmukhe kaha Krsna Nam"—when you are doing some service, chant the Holy Name with your mouth at that time. If you always show people that you are chanting japa, but your mind always goes to bad elements—your heart is covered by bad elements—that is not good.

একবার কৃষ্ণনাম যত পাপ হারে ।
পাতকীর সাধ্য নাহি তত পাপ করে ॥

eka-bara krishna-name yata papa hare
patakira sadhya nahi tata papa kare

"A sinner cannot commit more sin than once chanting Krishna's Name can remove."

Scriptures say that if you chant the Holy Name even once, all sins will be removed, but we chant millions of millions of Names and do not get this result. One time, somebody told Gurudev, "I chant one lakh (100,000) Names every day!" And Gurudev said, "Oh. And I can hardly finish four rounds—when I am trying to finish four rounds, I feel it is too much, I sweat so much to finish it, and you say you chant one lakh Holy Names!"

So, this Hare Krishna maha-mantra is not just alphabet letters—it is the pure Name. So, it must be chanted with service mood (sevonmukhe). Gurudev has planted the Holy Name in your heart and it will spout and jump onto your tongue. That is the main thing. Chanting the Holy Name is not just some finger exercise.

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