Transcribed lecture on the topic - Process of improving habits
We are discussing here, 2008, on the Puri beach, Japa meditations. And we are on page 31. Radha Vallabhadas, he gives three parts to reform japa. If we want to improve our japa, reform our japa, there are 3 parts.
First we should spend one week observing our japa. Because the idea of reform, it is called ‘japa reform’, reform means to improve. So you can’t improve something unless you recognize the need for improvement, right? If you think everything is fine, then you won't try to reform or improve. So for the first week… because we want to change our habits, our chanting maybe isn’t very good. We want to improve the quality of our chanting, the quantity and the quality.
So the first step of the reform, the first principle of changing a habit is to become conscious of your practice and determine what most needs to be reformed. You will see many bad habits, but to make best use of your energy it is important to focus on just one or two key habits at a time. If we try to change all our bad habits, we are going to fall on our face and wind up where you started. So, one has to be thoughtful in this practice of changing habit.
So the first week, we spend in observation. We observe our chanting of japa. What is the quality of our chanting? Are we chanting with attention? Are we chanting with feeling? Are we distracted when we chant? Are we finishing our rounds or are they dragging on through out the whole day? How is our chanting?
So the second part of our japa reform is to spend the second week, you spend on changing the habit you have chosen. So first you make observation and sankalpa, sankalpa means a resolution, that yes, I recognize that I am not chanting very attentively so I make a resolution to chant with great attention, with more concentration. So then, the second week you spend meditating on changing the habit you have chosen. And the way we meditate is by making a regular prayer. It can be something like this.
“Krsna, this is the change I will make. (this could apply to anything, any type of behavior, pattern, so we pray… the first week we observe to problem that we are facing in our japa or in our practice and then the second week we make a resolution that I have to change this, I have to improve this)
“Krsna please, I am not chanting very attentively, Krsna please, I am making a resolution, a sankalpa, that from now on I must chant my rounds very attentively, really focus and concentrate.” (Or any type of other behavior you want to change.) “Krsna, this is the change I will make. I will do this, or I am doing this.”
And then you conclude your prayer to Krsna by saying, “Krsna please help me.” So first we make a sankalpa, “Krsna I will do this. From now on I will chant my rounds with great concentration and great attention. I won't let my mind be distracted. I won't listen to my mind.” And that is our determination and then we say, “But actually Krsna please help. Krsna please help me do this. I am very confident; I am very bold that I can do this. But actually I can’t do this without Your help, without Your mercy.”
At this time, during the second week, when you make your sankalpa, it is important not to try to change anything. First develop internal momentum - that is essential for effective long term habit change. So the first week you observe and the second week you make a sankalpa. Yes, you just keep meditating on your sankalpa. “Yes Krsna I have to do this, I must do this, I will do this. I have to chant with attention, I will chant with attention, I must do it, I will do it. Krsna please help me to do it, to chant with attention.” And we just meditate on that for one week, over and over again.
So, in other words, don’t actually try to chant with attention, just pray for one week or one month. Without some internal strength built on prayer the old habits will gradually creep in.
Now this is a very good psychological discussion here about the mind because this person studies some courses in habit changing. We are creatures of habits, we become habituated to do certain things and we like the things that we do and then we do them over and over again, because they give us some pleasure.
We actually like to space out when we chant. It’s easy, it’s easier than concentrating, it’s hard work to control the mind. It is hard work to concentrate. So that’s why you have to develop internal momentum, you get the speed, you get the determination, the sankalpa developed in the mind.
So to have a long term habit change… in other words we want to change our bad habit, once and for all, so that from this day forward we are always chanting with attention and never being distracted (or whatever behavior we want to do) and never slip back into the wrong chanting or the wrong behavior, wrong habit.
So making a new habit is like samskara. It is actually making new samskaras in the citta, in the consciousness. So it is very interesting, he says, without internal strength… how do we develop internal strength to fulfil that sankalpa? How do I develop that internal strength? So he says, we pray to Krsna, “Please help me.”
So without internal strength which is built on prayer, the old habits will gradually creep in. So we get internal strength by praying.
So he is saying, one week we just try to cultivate, “I want to do this”, and everyday, “Yes I want to do this, I want to do this, I have to do this… I want to do this, I have to do this, I must to do this, I will to do this. Krsna please help me to do it.”
Then everyday, you say your sankalpa. Yes, and you build the strength for one week or 2 weeks. This is the system of changing habits.
First observation and then, develop the internal momentum with repetition of your sankalpa, repetition of the resolution or change of habit that we want to execute or implement and then prayer, repeatedly praying.
So in order to really break a habit, we have to build some momentum. Thinking, “Ok I am really going to change this. This is going to happen. On the first of July, I am going change this habit.” On the first of the year, since the new year is coming up, so we can make a resolution. “On January 1, 2009, I am going to stop this habit of falling asleep when I am chanting japa, of being inattentive, it is a nice thing.”
So this is all going on, for one week or a couple of weeks you just build up the internal…. “I must do this, I have to do this, I will do this. Krsna please help me. On the first of the year, this is my new behavior, I am going to do this, I am not going to go back again to my bad habit, no matter what.”
So you build up that strength, the inner strength. So this is the thought, “Ok Krsna I am really going to change this, this is going to happen, I am going to stop this habit on the first of the year, 2009.” So by spending a week, or even longer, seriously meditating on this change you become empowered to follow your convictions for transformation.
Who gives you the power? Krsna, right? Because you are sincere.
tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te
(Bg 10.10)
Translation by Srila Prabhupada:
To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
So someone who is actually … Priti means sincerity, Priti means love, if someone is a loving person or has love for another person then they are very sincere about that person. They are very sincere in how they treat that person and how they deal with that person. So if we have love for Krsna then we are very sincere about our relationship. And we try to improve. Then Krsna gives that buddhi. He says tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam.
Bhajatam means effort, tesam, teshtata, means efforts or activities of sincerity, priti, sincerity is one aspect of love. If someone loves someone then they are very sincere.
So we are trying to love Krsna, so we are sincere. “Yes Krsna, I sincerely want to improve my japa. I must do it. I have to chant… from now on…”
So then Krsna says, oh you are so sincere. I’ll give buddhi, I will give you the intelligence. Intelligence is a type of power. He says you will get empowered. He says by seriously meditating for one week or two, whatever it takes, on the change, then you become empowered to follow your convictions for transformation. Means you become empowered to implement your change to make it solid without wavering or without falling - slipping back to the bad habits.
It is not that you have to recite your prayer during japa, this prayer for improvement. Habit transformation experts say that the most powerful time to meditate and pray for transformation is right before you go to sleep and immediately when you wake up, or before a regular activity like eating.
Before you stat chanting japa you say, “Oh Krsna, yesterday my rounds were all spaced out, my mind was going everywhere… Today, Krsna I made my new habit, I want to chant with full concentration and full attention. So now Krsna, please, I am about to start, please help me to be fully attentive and absorbed in Your holy name.”
So for a week or two, I make a prayer for reformation, at least at those times. So his prayer for reformation, “Oh my dear Lord Krsna, please help me. I want to change my bad habit.” So he makes his prayer before he takes rest at night. Because it’s a little bit quite time. And then he wakes up, he is fresh and he wakes and he says, “Oh Krsna it’s a new day, it’s a new beginning…”
It's like a pralaya. When I sleep its like partial devastation. When I wake up, again creation. When I die, its complete devastation. So everyday we are dying and taking rebirth. Right?
So each day is a new day to be a new person, turn a new leaf, start a new path, implement a new habit. Just because everyday before this and every year before this I had bad habits, and bad japa, doesn’t mean it has to go on forever.
Make a firm sankalpa and you meditate on that for a week or two. And you say, “Krsna, I have to do this. I want to chant properly, with attention and concentration and attraction to Your holy name.”
And then you say that when you wake up. And then when you go to sleep, “Krsna, tomorrow when I chant…” so then you build some momentum.
One bad habit is to always chant inattentively. That’s a habit. Habit reformation is… in terms a karmis, they overeat. Every time I sit down to eat, I eat too much and so I am fat. This is my habit! When I sit down, I can’t stop eating. I have a habit, I just can’t stop. So people become fat. It’s a bad habit, I know I should stop, but once I start I can’t stop.
It’s a lack of mental control, but it makes it a bad habit. My bad habit is I always talk back to my husband. I always slap my wife when she… whatever… so many habits we have. We have to think it in terms of Krsna consciousness.
My bad habit is when I sit down to chant I fall asleep. My bad habit is when I hear Hari-katha I fall asleep. Alright, it’s a habit, doesn’t have to be that way. You can be wide awake. So then you pray, you say, “Yes Krsna, from now on, whenever I sit down to hear Hari-katha I am going to be wide awake and if I feel sleepy, I am going to stand up. I am not going to surrender and just fall asleep. That is terrible. It’s a bad habit I have. I fall asleep and I feel ok about it. I don’t feel that it is bad.”
I have a bad habit that I can’t control my tongue. As soon as something happens, I get angry and I yell at the devotees. I can’t control my anger – it’s a bad habit, it's an imperfection. So we pray, I have to change this habit; self improvement.
So these are obvious prayer times, before u take rest, when you wake up, when you are a little bit quiet in the evening, finished the day, maybe you are in a mood of repentance, or a mood of reflection. “Krsna this day was… please…” when you make your vow or your prayer at the time of taking rest… “please I want to change this habit. Please help me.” And when you wake up you say, “Alright, today I am going to act correctly. Today I am going to chant correctly. This is my new habit, my new vow, my new sankalpa.”
Or the time before you begin the activity, before you begin japa or begin eating. “Oh now I am going to have a conversation with my wife. We are going to discuss some serious matters. And every time I talk with my wife, we always end up having a fight and I always end up yelling at her and then I feel bad for days and she feels bad and it’s just because I can’t control my anger. So now, this morning when we have this meeting, I am going to change my habit, I am going to keep cool…” you see what I am saying?
So everyday I make a prayer for chanting better japa. I make this as my daily practice. Thus I have incorporated into my day the simple prayer, here is the prayer. “Oh my dear Lord Krsna, I will always chant my rounds in a mood of surrender. Krsna please help me to chant this way in a mood of complete dependence and surrender to the holy name.”
I found that by doing this prayer during the day I am much more focused on japa in the morning, as its importance has already been internalized. So in other words, he is leading up, like tomorrow… alright, I finished today’s japa. Now throughout the day I’m doing different…I am cooking, I am doing whatever I am doing in my particular position as housewife or working or whatever. But I am always thinking of my japa. “Oh tomorrow when I chant I am going to chant in a mood of surrender.” Then an hour later – “tomorrow when I chant my japa I am going to chant in a mood of surrender, I am fully depending on Krsna’s holy name.”
So he said, it’s like an internal build up. Then again before you take rest, “Krsna tomorrow in 6 hours I will begin my japa again, my japa time will be there,” because everybody has set times. So then when he wakes up – “Oh Krsna, now it’s here, it’s almost time.” I am about to meet my beloved. Now I better get all dressed up and now is the acid test. Now I am going to pick up my beads. “Oh Krsna, now I have been building up for this and internalizing and meditating on this and preparing myself mentally.” As soon as we finish japa we start preparing ourselves mentally for 24 hours till we start again.
But you know, we have to do this on an individual basis. Srila Prabhupada said we have to fly our own plane. You practice on a computer, now they have computerized flying and everything. You practice on a computer and a teacher shows you how to fly a plane and he says, ok so here is your solo. Here is your test, take the baby up. And then they you are on the ground in the watch tower, the air control tower, I hope all the terms are correct.
So the teacher, the pilot, the flight trainer teacher, he is sitting in the traffic control tower. He is sitting and watching and he is talking over the radio. Ok, take it up to 20,000 feet. Alright, now do a spin. Turn left, turn right… he is telling him what to do.. now climb, now dive, now cut your engines, and do free fall, when you have the cessna, twin cessnas, twin cub. Cut off the engines and do free fall, then the plane just goes like this… and then you turn on the engines, hopefully it will work and then you pull out of the free fall, just to test your nerves. The teacher will test you in different ways.
You can sit a few times a day to meditate on your transformation by thinking about the past and envisioning yourself and the way you want to be now. So that’s the second stage, it’s not even the third stage.
So the first stage of changing habits is to observe your bad habits. That’s for a week. The second stage is to make a sankalpa of how you want to change the habit. What improvement do you want to make or see in yourself, in your own behavior or in your own japa or whatever. That goes on and you are praying. You are praying in the morning when you wake up, you are praying in the evening, before you take rest and before the activity you pray, then throughout the day you sit down a few times and meditate. “This is the change I want to do, I have to do this, I must do this, please help me Krsna.” This is all the internal or mental preparation.
Now the third stage is putting it into practice, putting your habit change into practice. This is the third stage of habit reformation. This the stage of actual practice, when you finally adopt your habit without fail. In the second stage you are meditating, you are praying and you are trying to adopt that new habit and practice in the new way but you are slipping back to your old habit. And you are trying and you are slipping back to your old habit. And you try to chant attentively. And then finally you get to a point where you are solid. They, the karmi psychologists who develop all these things, say you have to do something for 30 days without fail to get a solid habit.
Then that habit is yours. It’s your habit, it’s your way of life, it’s the new you. So for 30 days you have to chant attentively. Everyday you struggle, “Oh I have to chant attentively.” And then next day you say, “Oh alright I chanted attentively with great concentration today.” And then you finish your japa and then for 24 hours you are praying and meditating, “Yes I have to do it again tomorrow.” Then next day and next day… and if you can do that for 30 days - which is not easy – then you can always be an attentive chanter. Or maybe it takes longer if it’s a really bad habit.
But it has to be done without fail in order to give a strong imprint in the psyche of a fixed habit. Otherwise, you can’t 25 days chant attentively, then 3-4 days space out. Everyday, 30 days, it’s like some magic number. 30 days then, ting, it’s like… you practice driving, you practice driving, and finally you got it down and then for the rest of your life you are driving the car right?
Its not like, “Oh where is 1st gear, where is 2nd gear?” You are sleeping and eating and driving, talking to your friend, isn’t it? It’s automatic. So attentive chanting becomes … every time you sit down, you are like… Hare Krsna Hare Krsna … you are locked in.
So the third stage is implementing your sankalpa, implementing and following your plan.
There are 5 quantitative changes to observe. First, the number of rounds you chant. That’s quantity - 16 a day, or 17-18. The number chanted without interruption. Like you chant 1-2 rounds, ‘oh I have to answer the phone, oh I have to do this, oh I have to do that, I have to go, I have to go there.’ The number of rounds you chant before your day starts. Before you go to work, you get up early and chant and then you chant your 16 rounds before you take breakfast. Like today, before mangal arati, we had 18 rounds done. So, this is quantitative changes.
1. The number of rounds you chant.
2. The number chanted without interruption.
3. The number of rounds you chant before your day starts.
4. The time you go to bed at night.
5. And finally, your posture.
Hari Bol!
I don’t know about the quantity, but I guess quantity means how many rounds did you sit up straight? Half a round? One round? No rounds? That’s quantity. Now these are changes, we are talking about habits. So you tell me, what’s example of a bad habit?
Bad habit is that I always chant a couple of rounds then I go to all my things and I put up my rounds till later. So that’s a bad habit, because later rounds are spaced out. I have to make a new habit. Oh I have to get up earlier, I have take rest earlier. I have the finish at least 16 rounds before I send the kids to school and I go to work, this that the other thing… right?
Or another bad habit is, whenever I sit down to chant japa, I always slouch, I lean against the wall, it is not a good habit. Sit properly. Srila Prabhupada is telling about posture, he is speaking about posture. Sit properly, baba!
You should be awake while you are chanting. If you can be awake while walking, then be awake. You can also sleep walk! If you can be awake by sitting, then sit. If you can lie down and chant your rounds, then do that. But be awake. Be fully conscious, fully attentive, fully absorbed; whether you do that by walking or by lying down or by sitting. But generally we sit down, next to Tulasi or some advanced devotees or the Shaligram or Thakurji’s deity and we chant, sitting straight.
It’s like a habit. So that’s a bad habit. So then at night when I take rest, “Tomorrow when I chant japa I have to sit straight.” Then we wake up, “Oh now I am going to chant japa, now I sit down to chant japa, oh I have to sit straight.” I made a resolution. I made a sankalpa. “Krsna, please help me do this because I am a lazy bum.”
But Bhaktisiddhant Saraswati Thakur sat straight, Srila Prabhupada sat straight, my guru sat straight. This is the ‘SSC’ parampara - Straight Sitters Club parampara.
Where do you find in our parampara anybody not sitting straight? Jagannath Dasa Babaji, but he is a 150 years old. So when you are 150 years old, you can slouch a little bit!
So we are talking about reforming or changing our habits. And there are 3 parts. One is to spend time – a week or 2 – observing the bad habit, of chanting, whatever our bad habits are in sadhana. Then make a sankalpa and just meditate on that sankalpa for 1 or 2 weeks. “I will do this, I must do this, Krsna please help me to do this.” Before we take rest, we meditate on that sankalpa, we repeat that prayer. “Oh Krsna, tomorrow when I chant japa I want to chant with full concentration, full attention and absorption. Please help me.” So then the third step is to implement it - to actually chant.
“Today I am going to chant with full concentration and absorption” and somehow we do that one day. Then if we do that everyday for 30 days in a row, then that will become our fixed habit. Then we will chant attentively for the rest of our lives. That is what the premise is.
We say we have a bad habit. Whenever we sit down to eat we eat more than we require we just eat and eat and eat and eat and we can’t stop. So that’s a bad habit. It’s a habit, overeating is a bad habit. We have to control our eating. udaropastha-vegam, controlling the pushing of the belly. Udar-vegam…
So now we already observed this, we already know that tendency in ourselves, then we make a sankalpa. “From tomorrow, I am going to be very conscious and careful when I am eating and when I know that I am actually full and had enough, then I am going to stop. Krsna, this is my sankalpa, Krsna please help me to do this.”
So then we pray to Krsna. So then at night, before we take rest, we meditate and repeat this prayer, the first thing when we wake up in the morning we repeat this prayer and sit down a few times during the day and meditate. “Oh Krsna, I have this bad habit. Help me to implement this new habit of eating properly, not overeating.” So this is what he is saying. It is very practical.
Then he talked about quantitative changes. There are 5 quantitative changes.
The number or quantity of rounds; the number of rounds we chant without interruption. Like often times when I have met advanced devotees, they ask me this question, advanced vaisnavas, they say, you chant your rounds sitting on an asana or do you walk around? I say no, I sit on an asana. They say how many rounds can you chant at a stretch without moving, sitting on asana? I said 16. I can sit down and chant 16 without jumping up. Or maybe 20. So they say, very good, very good. That’s very nice.
Many of these advanced devotees they sit on one asana and chant 64 rounds… they chant 4 hours. I know sanyasis from Gaudiya math who have been chanting for 30 years, they chant 16 rounds an hour. Obviously it is manasic japa. And it is very hard to chant manasic also, proper manasic.
So we, sit down to chant, we do one round, ‘oh I have to do this! oh I have to do that! I have to go here, I have to go there…’ so this means cancal man, mind is jumping. So then body is jumping. So this is quantity. We should improve the quantity of rounds that we chant at one stretch or without interruption and sitting in one place.
Then the other quantity, how many rounds do I chant before I start the day? Do I only chant 4 rounds and then I squeeze in a few rounds here and there; while I drive the car, while I ride the bus or train or before I eat or this or that?
Like Srila Prabhupada, he told Sruti Kirti a nice system to finish japa. He said when I was a grhasta I used to do my japa like this – I would chant 4 rounds when I got up in the morning. Then I took a sankalpa that before I take my meals I would chant another 4 rounds. So in this way unless I chanted my 4 rounds I couldn’t eat! So Srila Prabhupada was very busy with his work. So when he woke up as a grhasta, working man, family man, he chanted 4 rounds. That was his vow, chant 4 rounds, then before breakfast chant another 4 rounds, and before lunch another 4 rounds, and dinner another 4 rounds, that becomes 16 rounds without fail. So this was his habit, this was his sankalpa.
So we can improve, increase the quantity of rounds we chant before we start our day.
Then the other quantity is the time we go to bed at night and finally the quantity of our posture - How we sit. How many rounds do I chant while sitting perfectly straight? Do I chant 1 round, 2 rounds or no rounds?
Now the next thing is qualitative change. There are 2 fundamental mental approaches to qualitative change. One is to focus on being the person hearing the chanting. The other is focusing on being the person that is calling out to the Lord.
I believe that in real attentive chanting you concentrate on both these things – the devotion with which you call the Lord and the quality of the sound vibration coming into the heart through the ears. This is a very analytical point here about quality.
So one is that we are chanting but we are also hearing. We are chanting for the pleasure of Krsna. We are chanting for self improvement and purification and to please the Lord and become attached to the Lord, become lovers of the Lord.
So we are one person that is listening to the chanting, hearing the chanting. So one idea is to concentrate on being the person who is listening to the chanting. “I am listening to my chanting.” Now the second type of quality is focusing on the person who is chanting – Me. “I am listening to this person – me – chanting and I am that person chanting.” Like 2-in-1.
So focus on the person who is calling out to the Lord. That is Me. I am calling out to the Lord. What is the quality of my calling? What is the quality of my chanting? Am I following Srila Prabhupada’s instruction? Is the quality of my chanting the same type of quality that Srila Prabhupada asked us to produce while chanting?
He said that one should chant with this kind of quality. What kind of quality? - The quality and the feeling of a child crying for his mother.
The genuine crying of a lost child calling for his mother. That is the quality. Feeling helpless, feeling frightened, feeling scared, feeling small, feeling dependent, feeling empty… where is my mother? Help! Help! I am a little child. I am only 4 years old! I came to this huge shopping mall with my mother and she has disappeared into some clothing shop and left me out in the hallway. Where is my mother!? There are 150 stores here. Thousands of big people going everywhere and I am a little 4 year old.
So this is a big universe, a big shopping mall called the universe. And we are tiny little devotees in this universe. So we are very insignificant creatures. So helplessly we cry out, “Oh Krsna please!”
Finally he has something called the ‘prayerful’ quality of chanting Krsna's holy name. ‘the prayerful quality’, in other words, is our chanting of Krsna's name full of prayers, the quality of prayers.
A certain feeling and bhava that is mixed into our chanting. This is one section from our Art of Chanting book also – Prayers and the Holy Name.
He is saying that I observe when I am chanting the holy name and japa, how many times I am actually begging for the holy name. And sometimes when I am listening I watch how clearly and attentively I am hearing the holy name. So this person is extremely psychological and analytical and introspective about his chanting. Very serious chanter of the holy name, Radhavallabha dasa. That is his entry here.
He is incorporating some principles of psychology and behavioral improvement. He is a senior brahmacari at the Bhaktivedanta asram at 22nd second avenue in New York. So he also made a little book that he called ‘Japa Reform Handbook.’ So these are some excerpts from that handbook. We can enumerate them.
These are some excerpts from Radhanath Swami's entry. Pujyapada Srila Radhanath Swami ki Jai!
When we are chanting the holy names what is important is our motivation. (Because not only do vaisnavas chant the holy names, mayawadis do also.) Mahaprabhu teaches that the consciousness of a devotee is na dhanam na janam… essentially I do not want wealth or the pleasures of the opposite sex. I don’t want fame and followers. I don’t even want liberation from suffering. My deep desire is only to be a servant of the servant of Your servant, unconditionally, birth after birth. So this is our motivation in chanting the holy names
This is, you could say, an elaboration on Srila Prabhupada's initial definition of the holy name. matrartha cintata – the conception or the meaning of the holy name that one holds in his mind while chanting the holy name of the Lord, the maha-mantra. So Srila Prabhupada gave us the mantra artha cintata… na dhanam na janam na sundarim
So what is our motivation when we are chanting? “Oh Krsna I am chanting Your holy name, please give me a good wife, a good husband. Make my wife peaceful.” But he is saying no. What did Srila Prabhupada tell us? He said chant the holy name, begging, “oh Mother Hara, energy of the Lord, oh Srimati Radharani, please engage me in the service of Krsna.”
So what is this? This is seva bhava. Srila Prabhupada, from day 1, is trying to instill in the mind and hearts of all of his followers, seva bhava. Please engage me in service, dasosmi, Dasa dasanu dasa...
naham vipro na ca nara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro
naham varni na ca grha-patir no vanastho yatir va
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramananda-purnamrtabdher
gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah
Mahaprabhu uttered this beautiful prayer every year before the Rath yatra festival. He would stand before the cart of Jagannath, with tears streaming down His face, His hands folded in anjali, gazing at the beautiful lotus eyes of the Lord. Then He would repeat 4 different prayers before the start of the Rath yatra festival. And one of them was this prayer.
Then He would say, namo brahmanya devaya go brahmanaya hitaya ca jagad dhitaya Krsnaya govindaya namo namah, then this prayer, gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah.
So this is the mood of the followers of Lord Caitanya – I only want to become a servant of the servant of the servant, unconditionally. No payment, no withdrawal, no dividends, no benefits, no vacations, just service. Service, service and more service!
So he goes on… Whatever ritual or whatever spiritual act be performed, if this is our consciousness, as Sri Caitanya has taught, then can we can please Lord Caitanya and Lord Krsna the most and attract His blessings.
If we are eager and greedy to serve and please the Lord, then the Lord reciprocates with that eagerness. This is what chanting Hare Krsna actually means. If we are actually chanting Hare Krsna mantra properly, with proper bhava and proper understanding, when we will finish chanting our japa we will become very enthusiastic to serve, to render service. This is our personal realization. Not only do we become very eager and enthusiastic to serve Krsna and the vaisnavas, when we chant very proper and attentive japa, but we get the ideas how to serve. That is a great magical…
Like some people they come, “Oh Maharaj, can I do some service? Is there any service?” You don’t even have to ask! Because when you are chanting proper japa, Krsna gives all the intelligence. Oh this service needs to be done. Then you approach and say, “Oh I see, I want to do this service, is it ok?” “Yes yes, you do that, it is nice.” So then it is coming from within you.
Service should arise as a by product of inspiration. It's not an army where the sergeant orders the private to do some work. This is a devotional exchange between the Lord, the supersoul and the jiva. And the guru is the via-medium between the supersoul and the jiva, atma and paramatma. So the guru teaches the devotee how to chant. And then the devotee chants, and when he chants properly, then he gets 2 things – enthusiasm and eagerness to serve and ideas for service.
Of course if he already has a guru agya, an order from his guru, and he already has a particular service, then he will get enthusiasm and eagerness to perform that service. Not that he lags around and drags around and sags around. The service lags on, the service drags on, the service sags on… (laughs) “Did you do this service?” “Oh… ya, we are just now coming…” That means japa is bekaar, bekaar japa.
So Radhanath Swami is sharing that if we are eager and greedy to serve and please the Lord, then the Lord reciprocates with that eagerness. So then the question is – how do we become eager and greedy to serve? Simple. Chant proper rounds!
And that enthusiasm, that eagerness is the difference between a hollow ritual and a genuine act of devotion, utsah, seva utsah – enthusiasm to serve the Lord and His devotees; to be a servant of the servant of the servant unconditionally. Not that, well, I’ll serve my guru, but I won't serve you. I only serve my guru, I don’t serve my guru-bhais or my guru-behens, my god-sisters and my god-brothers.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
We should try to understand the content and feeling in which the great devotees are offering their prayers to the Lord. We can recite these prayers of great personalities and that is very purifying. And it is even more purifying when we try to enter into the mood of their prayers.
We should enter into the mood of Srila Prabhupada’s prayers on the Jaladhoota and the prayers of Srila Narottama dasa and Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur. We should try to understand the content and the feeling with which they are offering their prayers.
All these great devotees, all these previous acaryas, they are very eager to access and attain the mercy of the Lord. And they are very eager to give their hearts to the Lord through that activity. That is the content of their genuine prayers.
So he is mentioning that this is a way to improve our japa by improving the content of our mentality - Improving the quality of our mentality and the quality of our heart.
The quality of our heart will improve by associating with high class vaisnavas. So when we read the prayers of the great devotees, we are associating with their hearts. The hearts of the great vaisnavas like Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur and Srila Narottama dasa are compressed in their bhajans and they are expressed in their bhajans.
So when we sing the bhajans and meditate on the meanings of these bhajans of the great acaryas, then that compression, that expression of their heart enters into our heart. Those compressed feelings of their heart are actually expressed through that bhajan, they come in our hearts and we start to feel something about the content of their heart.
And we take on those qualities, of that bhajan, of that heart, of that vaisnava. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur’s qualities, they come into our heart, we become a different person. We become a genuinely humble person. Not just – “yes yes, I am humble.” But actually genuinely humble in the heart. Because their prayers are full of dainya bodhika, means humility and meekness and that’s their hearts, their hearts are like that. And our hearts are full of pride and righteousness and false prestige.
So when we associate with their hearts through their bhajans then our hearts start to change, and start to improve. So that was just few points from Radhanath Swami’s offerings.
Japa Meditations ki Jai!
Hare Krsna maha-mantra ki Jai!