Find Your Japa Inspiration

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week of chanting has been nice and you have been able to concentrate. I know sometimes it's difficult to forget all our duties and responsibilites and just chant, especially when you are a parent and have to take care of kids or go to work and the grhasta life has a lot of concerns that are also necessary to solve. The Lord for sure sees all our efforts even when we try hard to be with Him having so many other things in our minds, He blesses us so much for these efforts because He knows how difficult is and also how we dedicate our little time to Him. I understand that for me it's impossible to be engaged in service all the time since I have to work and do other things. When I am on the streets walking from one place to the other, I pray to the Lord....I am grateful for having this job so I can use the results in his service and offer Him nice prasadam and also not to be so worried about things while I chant.

Good health....good relationships....nice prasadam and also a very good place to live sometimes helps our japa, making it proper and more peaceful. We may have to protect our bodies and we need to be happy so we can have good japa, but at the same time if we don't have any of these things we can start from chanting and everything that is necessary to improve our chanting will come to us and the Lord will bless us in many different ways. The main aspect is faith and faith develops when we see the purifying effects of chanting which are revealed by Krsna each day in the life of the chanter. The one who is concerned about chanting with attention and meditating on the lotus feet of Srimate Radharani and Krsna.

Today I looked at Sri Sri Gaura Nitai's face and felt Their mercy coming through this association, I started to pray and be grateful for every detail of my present life....how They are protecting me every day and how I need Them near me. This weekend devotees in Japa Room sessions expressed their own improvement and showed how important association is. We could notice their desire to chant nicely and interest in dedicating to achieve pure chanting.
I am lucky to have such nice association which inspires my spiritual life and makes my chanting more focused.

I don't know what inspires your japa, maybe you could find out like I did....it's very helpful to have good sources that lifts you up when you need.

May your chanting be peaceful and constant this week.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Guidelines For Japa - Part 2

In the second part of this 10 part series, Mahanidhi Swami talks about association during Japa, the mind and the importance of reciting prayers before Japa.

Time, Place & Mind - Start chanting very early in the morning, either with devotees, Tulasi-devi, Thakurji or in a place free from disturbance. Sit before your Deities or Tulasi-devi and chant prayers to Shri Guru and the parampara, the six Gosvamis and the Panca-tattva. Remember Namacharya Thakura Haridasa and pray for his mercy. Pray to the holy name to help you chant with full attention, purely, and free from offenses.

In this second guideline, the Maharaja starts by talking about the importance of devotee association during Japa and the association of Tulasi devi and your Deities. It's quite common amongst some devotees to not be able to chant Japa directly with other devotees...especially if we are working in a job or have a business that takes alot of our time. Devotee association, especially good chanters, is very important. If you can't then it's very good to chant before Tulasi devi or if this is not possible, chant in front of a picture of your Deities.

Another good point the Maharaja mentions is to chant in a place free from distburbance...this is essential if we want to chant with attention. It's no good chanting if a place where people are constantly interrupting you or where there is alot of noise around you. If your home is a disturbance, then go for a Japa walk or to a secluded place, where the chance of disturbance is reduced greatly.

Next the Maharaja mentions prayers to Sri Guru and the parampara, the six Gosvamis, Namacharya Thakura Haridasa and the Panca-tattva. These prayers are very important to get the mercy of the Lord and His pure devotees. We can also pray to the holy name to help you chant with full attention, purely and free from offenses. A very important aspect of spiritual life is this prayer.

Based on The Art of Chanting by Mahanidhi Swami

The Glistening Diamond

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed by the Lord and your chanting is nice. Today is holiday in my city but I am still busy with work at home, I chanted most of my rounds in the morning and took the afternoon to work at home. In Brazil is winter time and I have found out from a devotee friend that I can keep my Tulasi Devi seeds until the weather gets warmer and grow them nicely. So I am waiting for the best time to grow and by doing that I will be following my spiritual master instruction of chanting in front of Tulasi Devi which will be an auspicious experience. Now that I have got the beautiful picture of Lord Nrsinhadeva from Mayapur I got the habit of praying to Him all the time, whenever I am passing through a difficult situation in my chanting...my mind wanders...thoughts come in...I just pray and then He protects me and I feel calmer.

I have learned thought daily experience that japa meditation is precious to anyone and when you find out the amount of realisations you can get from chanting you just can't live without. It seems that taking spiritual life seriously makes us more aware of our anarthas and the Lord Himself...maybe through an arrangement shows us where to find them so when we see our layers of dust being uncovered we start being scared saying "Wow look at me, how couldn't I realise I have such a bad quality and now that my chanting is becoming more serious the Lord wants me to work on this anartha and develop good qualities". These days passing by a downtown street, I saw beggars and this made my heart cry. How could I help those people and I realised that if I chant the Holy Names, many people in the future can be blessed and a nice devotee and devoted chanter is always a bliss to the universe because everywhere he goes he spreads love of God. So this is a good aim to have and I really want to seek for this state of mind and by constant faith that the Holy names clean our minds and deliver our soul to the Lord, I remain steady in my practice. Below is a nice quote from H.H. Sacinandana Swami that he shows the effects of the maha mantra meditation on people:

Self-realization is the prime necessity of every human being. The process for attaining it is to remove everything that is not `self’. The self is like a diamond buried in a mountain, covered with many layers of earth. When one removes the layers, he will find the glistening diamond. In the same way, we have to remove the layers covering the self to find our original blissful existence.

How to do that? The Vedic scriptures tell us of the very effective method of mantra meditation. By chanting pure spiritual sound vibration, all accumulated conditionings are removed from the mind. It is very practical. I have conducted meetings with up to 30,000 attendants and in the end have requested them to chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra together:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Immediately, the hall fills with a blissful spiritual atmosphere and people who have no previous information about the efficiency of the mantra start to dance. It has been effective even in war-ridden areas like the former Yugoslavia, where old enemies became friends by chanting and rediscovering their true selves. Please try it out!

Question to His Holiness Sacinandana Swami on the Times of India Web Show, 10/2002

May our lives be blessed by the association of such devotees so we can develop our eternal relationship with Krsna.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Relationship Between Sound & Form

"The relationship between sound and form is particularly relevant to chanting japa. Just as material sound vibrations produce visible forms, similarly, the transcendental vibration of Krishna’s name produces the visible form of Krishna in the heart of a devotee. When chanting the holy name of Krishna, one will eventually see the form of Krishna. This is because the sound of Krishna’s name carries within it the trancendental form of Krishna as well as His abode, associates and pastimes."

From The Art of chanting Hare Krishna by Mahanidhi Swami

Japa Workshop Part 3

In this third episode of the Japa Workshop, Mahatma dasa encourages feedback from participants as well as emphasises the principle of having goals in Krsna consciousness.

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Japa Workshop Video

In this episode of the japa workshop series, answers to and deliberations on these questions are discussed in detail.

What should be my mood while chanting? How do I know when my chanting is progressing?

Exercise In The Holy Names

"Japa is a workout. It’s like working on a punching bag, exercising your faculties and getting good exercise in the holy names. You move through them quickly and try to remember to pray, but you don’t always do it. Praying means calling on Radha and Krishna to reveal Themselves in the holy name and to reciprocate with you. You have to cry out to them and not just go through the “calisthenics.” Chant the syllables on time, emotional and spiritual content is needed. If you can’t give your all in this way, the chanting has some offense in it. You’re chanting without full devotion."

From Bhajan Kutir #120

Glorification Of The Names

Hare Krsna my dear devotee. Today I received a very nice email describing the power of the holy names, I would like to share that with you, I really hope this gives you strength and determination for your chanting.

These days many places in India are going through a heavy drought, with monsoons late as much as a month. Power cuts are getting longer and longer (almost 15 hours a day in North India ). This means no business, no fruits and vegetables, and very hard to go on even with daily routine things for many.

Hare Krishna devotees in Jalandhar, Punjab planned an idea to have a 12 hours Hare Krishna kirtan singing marathon in the temple, with a hope to be able to please Lord Sri Krishna, and maybe He can give the rains.

June, devotees at ISKCON, Jalandhar went from 7am to 7pm starting from Srila Prabhupad’s guru puja. Roaring kirtan went on with about 200-300 constant participants in the Kirtan and about 2000 visited throughout the day. This unique event received great media coverage in many of the renowned Newspapers: Danik Jagran, Punjab Kesri, Danik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala, as well as TV media. Prabhupada Gurupuja was aired on Aajtak, ZeeNews, New24, IBN7, PTC News, and few others. TV media said that unlike other methods (some people had staged riots at Electricity offices), this was the correct method - to please God through loudly singing His Holy names!

The better part is yet to come. On Monday evening it began to rain. It was amazing! The devotees at ISKCON, Jalandhar were contacted by TV media. They will be playing the clips of gurupuja and kirtan again. They will also be showing some interviews they took of the devotees about how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had prescribed this method of chanting in the Kaliyuga, and that this was a good way to please the Lord. They want to show to all how the method of chanting the holy name has removed this great drought.

All glories to the all powerful Holy Name of the Lord!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare

and make your life sublime

I hope your weekend is blessed by the Lord with nice realisations and the effects of chanting makes you more and more devotional and determined in japa.

your servant,

Aruna devi

At The Regular Pace

"When you’re behind in your quota, you tend to rush, and this is not good. You should be sure that you get your rounds done in the course of the day at the regular pace. Try to go deeply into thoughts of the Divine Couple. Hear each syllable. Don’t let your mind get distracted to other thoughts. I was able to slow down and control my anxiety and chant nicely. I was wide awake and enjoyed the chanting of the holy names. Just don’t worry about your quota; it will be done."

Taken from Bhajan Kutir #119

Success In Japa

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your chanting has been peaceful and with nice realisations coming from the relationship with the Lord. This week I received a very nice Japa Reform booklet from the last Japa Retreat of H.H. Sacinandana Swami given at Bhaktivedanta College in Belgium. This material gave me great lessons about how I can improve my chanting and what to do to achieve the desired results in japa. For sure many of them I have already been learning from my Japa Room sessions, but they are spoken in a different way that gives me the strong desire to study it more. This is something our minds does to us, it is always telling us we need new things to offer and they never get satisfied - they don't like routine and the same thing all the time so we get disturbed because we think we need but it's not that, it's because we try other ways to get to the same goal....just using another direction.

A very nice topic of this booklet is "observation" - saying that we need to observe our chanting and check what our habits are, if we are concentrated, if we are doing other things at the same time while chanting - if we chant without interuption, this is regarding quality. He also talks about quantity and how we can increase our japa weekly, for the ones who want to achieve 16 rounds and still chanting less. Then he gives some forms and you are supposed to fill in and check your japa daily- by the end of the week you take 30 minutes and evaluate your whole week of chanting and see what you need to work on for the next week. He said that if we do that for a month, our minds will be trained and will be more peaceful while we chant.
I liked very much his guidelines and I think we can follow that as an example for our daily japa. Our aim is love of God....offenseless chanting and one day achieve pure love of God through chanting but to achieve this stage, we must focus on the sound vibration of the mantra because the Lord is there in the sound. When we understand that Krsna and His holy names are the same, we perceive that maybe we could give more attention to our japa time and make this time our personal moment with Krsna. The mood of prayer is also mentioned and the reasons why is so important....to have this child calling mood towards Krsna when we chant His holy names. Eagerness to achieve our spiritual goals is the key to success and when we give more attention to that, put efforts on this subject of improving the Lord Himself, gives you everything you need to get there. We just need to trust the Lord is with us all the time, living in our hearts and helping us to understand how we can develop a deeper relationship with Him through chanting....the main thing is to give a head start.

May our hearts be opened to new ways of learning how to improve our chanting so we can achieve pure love of God.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Get Right Down To Business

"Conversing before your japa uses up energy and is a distraction and shouldn’t be indulged in. Get right down to business as soon as you get up. Call to Krishna for help, and He will help you stay awake. Keeping up a good speed is also helpful. Gradually, you gain your wakefulness and take advantage of it. Harinama deserves your best effort."

From Bhajan Kutir #116

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

A Temple Of The Mahamantra

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week of chanting has been successful and full of nice thoughts of how we could serve the Lord better.

Below follows a very nice prayer from a devotee who sent to my email. I hope you like it.

Jai Srila Prabhupada
Oh my sweet Sri Krishna and Srimati Radha Rani
I feel so lonely and desperate in this mundane world
A world full of miseries and sorrows
Oh Lord
but
you have given the fallen souls
The Mahamantra, the Mahamantra
To keep us all the time in your
Loving service.
Oh my sweet Sri Krishna and Srimati Radha Rani
I just want to keep chanting and chanting
Your Holy names
Give me your blessings, oh my Lord
let my heart sink and sink
deeper and deeper into the mellows of your sounds
My heart throb eagerly and earnestly to engage
My mind in chanting Your names
Oh Sri Krishna, Oh Srimati Radha Rani
Please hear my desperate call
My tears roll down and
The separation from YOU
Is so intense and and my heart
Cries and cries for You
I pray to Thee for your Mercy
Let my mind for ever be engaged in
Your pastimes
Let my mind ever be engaged
In Chanting the Mahamantra
Let my body be the Temple
Of Chanting the Mahamantra

Koshita Mataji

I specially liked the part that she said let my body be the temple of chanting the maha mantra -when we engage our whole senses and abilities in this chanting we give 100% of ourselves, it also means we are dedicated to that and we are not distracted with something else, this is being completetely absorbed. That's my desire when I chant, just be with the Lord at that time, nothing else.

May our minds be engaged in the sound of the maha mantra making your senses, body and soul be the temple of the Holy names of the Lord.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Only Krsna Can Save Us

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed with many nice thoughts of how you can serve the Lord better and also your chanting has been peaceful.

This week we have seen many things happening around the world, here in Brazil many people are worried with this flu that is spreading around the world and is coming here also....others are sad because their dear friends and idols are just passing away. All these situation made me think of one thing that a student told me this week. We are here in this world looking for happiness in many things....some people....some situations but we never get satisfied if our happiness is not connected to the Lord.

When I heard that I thought Krsna was trying to tell me something and also that I should try to strengthen my relationship with Him through better chanting. Anyone in this world can perceive we have no other happiness if this is not related to the Supreme - we can look for it anywhere but our soul will always hanker for more, but when we think of ourselves as devotees of the Lord, who have this knowledge, we become more aware of what we should be doing to develop more and more our relationship with Krsna and also serve Him in many different ways.

We can see Krsna everywhere and in many different ways if we look around and see how many of us suffer when we try to do something ourselves for our own pleasure and satisfaction but when we achieve that, we start looking for something else because it was not enough for our pleasure since our happiness is connected to the Supreme - we are part of the Lord, we can only achieve eternal bliss when we are in service of Him and the first step of service is hearing and then chanting...so we chant and hear and by doing this simple process we can certainly develop our love....I mean awake our dormant love for Krsna who is here around us waiting for our attention while we chant. Our Lord provides to us the best and gives us the intelligence so we can achieve prema bhakti, we are very blessed to have this knowledge and understanding that we are eternal souls and we got from our Founder Acharya this process of chanting the holy names that easily connects our hearts to Krsna's heart and make us understand we are not this body. We have no need to search for love since we have the eternal reciprocation coming from Krsna who is easily achieved by a simple effort of chanting and hearing
Because we are identified with this body we think we don't need to chant or that we can live without spiritual life but when we see these difficult situations happening around us, we get convinced we need the Lord because He is the only one who can solve our problems and also the only one who can give us one more minute of breath if we lack on it. More than that, we are here trying to develop this relationship because we know our Lord is first one in our lives and we want service - more and more of His association and for sure everything will fall into place, like our dearest father He will always protect us in any situation.
There is a medicine for that - the maha mantra....the chanting of the holy names of the Lord can change the whole situation and firstly can give us the feeling that we will never be alone even when we have no-one else we still have the Lord's association which is enough for our living soul.

May your life be blessed by the presence of Krsna everytime you pronounce His names and that you develop the mood of giving these names to anyone.

your servant,

Aruna devi

We Need The Holy Names

"The whole twenty-four hour day has to be arranged so that japa is chanted under the best conditions. You have to go to sleep early so that you’re not tired in the morning. Alert, awake chanting is very important. Drowsy chanting is no good. A round should not take nine minutes, as one of mine did today. Chanting should reach meditation or calling out, like a child calling for the mother. It should be a real emotional confrontation, not a mechanical act. We’re calling to the persons Radha and Krishna from our needful position. We need Them; we need the holy names."

From Bhajan Kutir #113

Guidelines For Japa - Part 1

Sometime ago I wrote a 10 part series on avoiding offenses to the Holy names. Today I was reading a very good article written by Mahanidhi Swami and came across some very nice guidelines to help us with our Japa, so I thought I would start an 8 part series based on these guidelines.

Night before-Give up rice and eating heavy foods at night. Take simple foods such as milk and fruits. By eating a light meal you will sleep soundly, rise early without difficulty, and have full energy for attentive japa the next morning. The night before make a sankalpa or firm vow: “Tomorrow morning, I will chant with full concentration and sincere feelings.” Upon waking, take a full bath or at least wash the mouth, face, hands and feet with cold water before chanting. If you feel sleepy or dull headed, a kirtana with karatals will immediately invigorate the dull mind and purify the environment.

This first guideline is very simple and practical but sometimes overlooked in our spiritual lives. How we sleep and what time we sleep impacts greatly on our Japa the next morning.
If we eat very heavy foods including grains will force the body to try to digest prasadam at a time when the fire of digestion is very low and thus the body works hard to achieve this and makes it difficult to rise and be fresh for our Japa in the morning.

What we think of before we take rest is very important, so the idea of a sankalpa is a very sound and simple idea...if we vow to chant good attentive rounds, and by saying this in our minds or verbally the night before, this impression will stay with us during the night and can help us to remain determined to chant good quality Japa in the morning.

Another good point the Maharaja mentions is to take full bath upon waking...if this is not possible for some reason, then at least wash your mouth, face, hands and feet with cold water before chanting. I personally find that to also chant the Hare Krsna mantra upon waking is very good...I continue to chant during my shower and I find this is very helpful to get me in the mood for Japa. Not only are we cleansed outside, but also inside in preparation for Japa.

The final point is also helpful for our dull sleepy mind....if you have kartals and it's appropriate (i.e., you won't wake your surrounding neighbours or sleeping family) then you can have a private kirtan, singing the holy names to invigorate your body and keep you awake to avoid inattention - there is no possibility of chanting proper and attentive Japa if we are falling asleep.

We Can Overcome With Persistence

"This morning I found this tastelessness when I began, but it did not last long. Within a couple of rounds, I was feeling better and cheerful, and I was chanting at a good speed. I didn’t give in to the poor start, which could have lasted longer. Maya is always waiting to catch us and tell us that the chanting is not working and that we are worthless and might as well give up. But actually we are just having a little bump in the road that we can overcome with persistence. It is just a temporary mood that can easily be overcome by chanting several rounds of japa without quitting. Krishna does not want to withhold the sweetness of the holy names, and He is just testing us."

From Bhajana Kutir #109

Keep Going Resolutely

"Sometimes when you begin your japa, you feel reluctant. It just doesn’t have a taste. The only solution for that is to keep going resolutely. The taste eventually comes, always."

From Bhajana Kutir #109

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Poor Man Japa Diary

Jaya Nitai-Gaura

Last two months have been bit of a downward period in chanting. There are various factors that I have tried to analyze:

For several years I had a habit that I didn't take any prasadam before finishing 16 rounds. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain, lately I was a pujari for a week and there was often 12 or 14 rounds to be done at 1pm. And then devotees should take prasadam together, it's not nice if someone disappears somewhere to chant while others honor prasadam.
These maybe valid reasons, but when I started to compromise chanting in the morning, basically always there were rounds left in the evening, and usually the chanting is not very first class in evening...

Anyhow, around two weeks back I firmly decided that I'm not gonna compromise my old good habits, no matter what and there is certainly positive change in my state of mind.
Another small realization came from our ashram renovations and maha-cleanings. If you keep your belongings simple and everything very clean, there is direct influence in our abitility to concentrate on chanting.

ys

Muniraja dasa

Free From Anarthas

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your japa is going well. Very good reminder was the last post of Rasa prabhu talking about how the mind can trick us in so many ways trying to persuade us telling we don't need to follow the basic guidelines anymore, the ones we may become familiar with and may sometimes think we are done with them.

A good example of how the mind can trick us is when she comes with the thoughts that our anarthas are so many that we will never clean our hearts to chant nicely and we just become comfortable with this situation we are in and accept this preaching of the mind. A devotee asked me this question today, how he could be free from his anarthas since he was chanting and the anarthas kept inside his heart. So I said that sometimes it takes time so we can see the purifying effects of chanting, but as we have learned in the japa room sessions, we need to try to get to the stage of avoiding offenses and by doing that we may achieve namabhasa - the clearing stage of chanting and feel our purification - the Lord reveals Himself to us and we become more aware of our anarthas so we can work on them.

Another important thing is to pray and ask the Lord to help us get purified and free from our material desires, in the beginning we all have our chanting with material desires and we still perform unfavourable activities which may interfere with our japa. After some time we experience the Holy Name's effect on our lives and we don't even meditate on the anarthas we have but focus on our aim which is pure chanting, Krsnas' service and our relationship with the Lord.

Below is a quote from the Harinama Cintamani that points talks about this subject so we can learn more from the Acharyas, specially Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur who always brings us the humble and prayer mood.

Overcoming namabhasa and attaining prema

Anyone wanting to attain the highest spiritual success of chanting purely must approach a bonafide spiritual master and serve him carefully and sincerely. Gradually, as all the anarthas or unwanted desires in the heart are destroyed, the
transcendental name of Krsna appears and dances on the tongue of the devotee. The holy name, now nectarean in taste, cannot but be relished by the devotee at every moment. Thus spiritually intoxicated, the devotee always feels like dancing. As the holy name dances, the devotee likewise dances, and at that moment the ecstasy of love of Godhead also enters dancing into the devotee's heart. Then the entire world will dance and maya will flee away.

In this quote it's nicely explained how the anarthas and unwanted desires are destroyed when we are focused on chanting to achieve prema through the guidance of a bonafide spiritual master.
I hope you can meditate with me on this nice quote and about what you would like to have fixed on your chanting. If you still have anarthas you would like to be destroyed, let's pray so the Lord can help us to chant nicely and get them vanquished by the pure association of Krsna's names.

yr servant

Aruna devi

Training to Achieve Pure Chanting

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. How is your chanting going this week? I hope it has been a nice week of chanting and that your mind hasn't been an obstacle to overcome. Today I read in the verse 12.8 of the Bhagavad Gita that when we are engaged in service we are able to see Krsna and His holy names as not different. This thought made me realise that Krsna consciouness is more than taking our beads at a certain time of the day and trying to be with Krsna and the other times we are thinking of something else. It's training that we need to engage the mind the whole time...it's important to focus our mind on the holy names during the day, chanting on our minds and thinking of the many ways we could serve Krsna better in our lives.

The main thing is to see that we have this body and soul together to serve the Lord, engage our senses and intelligence in his pastimes and names...by doing that we are able to see the Lord everywhere, in all situations specially in His names...because our senses become purified by service and Krsna reveals Himself in many ways to us.

It's difficult sometimes to be detached from feelings - we want to love Krsna and develop a relationship with Him. Actually we wish to revive our dormant consciousness that we are eternal servants of Krsna and stop thinking we are here to control....to receive everything from Him as if we were like children that ask and the parents give. On the other hand our chance in this life is to awake this love, develop it and show the Lord we are here to serve Him with the blessed body and intelligence He gave us. It's so nice to see when the Lord reciprocates with every little effort we make, when we show Him we are really dependant and our everyday life depends on His mercy to be succesful. Iam wrong sometimes because I most of the time just see this dependance and surrendered mood when I am passing through difficult situations and I need the Lord - very very much, so I wish my mind were more obedient to the chanting of the maha mantra and start giving value to the blessed association of devotees and never get distracted while japa.

I am sure the Lord will bless us with more service to His lotus feet and His devotees and give us a heart felt japa to help us to get to the suddha nama stage of chanting.

your servant,

Aruna devi

The Mind Can Trick Us

Recently in the Japa Room we were discussing about the nature of the mind and how it can trick us. Even if we are reforming our Japa and have aquired good habits to overcome inattention, pronounciation and hearing etc. after sometime the mind may start to talk to us - "Don't worry about all those guidelines, your advanced in Japa now, you have reformed yourself....just let your mind wander and think of other things, don't worry about pronounciation or hearing, your on a higher level so it doesn't matter"....the mind can present these thoughts to us but it's essential everyday and for every mantra to preserve the basic guidelines given to us by Srila Prabhupada.

Before we start our chanting we can pray to the Lord for assistance with our Japa.....we can also remind ourselves about the quality and how we need to maintain that....I personally reflect on what I need to strengthen in my Japa and make a mental note before I start chanting.
I know some devotees like to make notes about their Japa, normally after their Japa session....notes that they can read over later and reflect on.
If we remain humble, realising that we can always make improvements in our spiritual lives, then we will give ourselves the best chance to make advancement.

Best Time For Spiritual Duties

"It is so much better to chant early in the morning, when the mind is calm and the atmosphere is quiet. It’s the best time of the day to chant. You’re usually alert and awake for an early-morning burst. The mind is willing to go along with attentive chanting for a stretch. It seems the later the morning gets, the less your potency. The brahma-muhurta hour is recommended as the best time for spiritual duties."

From Bhajana Kutir #105

Commitment Should Not Waver

"Such a basic commitment should not waver, even though one does not feel he is making progress spiritually by his daily chanting. We realize that we have a mountain of dirty things to chip away at, so it is no surprise that a lifetime can go by of steadily chanting and still unwanted things remain in the heart. That is not a reason to abandon the only chance one has for eradicating the dirt."

Bhajana Kutir #104

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Rasa Rasika dasa

An Offering To Krsna

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed with many nice realisations. My week has been very blessed since I can have nice association of devotees and also be engaged in service, it's a blessing for anyone and I feel like that.

I don't live in the temple so I need to take advantage of any situation and spare time I have to practice devotional service by reading, chanting, worshiping the Deities and being in devotee's association....these are things that makes me feel closer to the Lord and identify me as a devotee. I am very grateful to have this life and I pray so I can get attached to the chanting of the holy names so my faith increases and I can chant without offenses.

This weekend devotees were making their own prayers in the Japa Room, some of us were showing what we would like to include in our prayers and others were just taking advantage of the association. We could notice that the mood of prayer does increase our faith, mood of surrender and the strength our relationship with the Lord. The main thing is that we may do with our hearts opened, must be something we feel and meditate on from within....we need to have our japa improved and more devoted.
Surrender is a word that means we are completely in the Lord's hands, we don't care about anything else that would disturb us but we remain firm and fixed on what we should be doing...our sadhana and Krsna protects us in every situation. I got a quote that shows this:

"Even there may be some problems, always try to remain in Krishna Consciousness. Do not give up chanting simply due to some external difficulties. Under all circumstance you should always chant Hare Krishna."

Prabhupada Letters 1975

I take shelter of the Holy names and my desire is to have complete faith that just by chanting these names I can be completely protected in any situation, this needs to come from the heart and it arises when we chant with attention and by engaging our senses....specially the tongue and ear to chanting and hearing the sound can come straight to the heart.

May your week be blessed by the Lords names and that your mind just listen to the holy names and become fixed in this japa meditation. This is our everyday offering to guru and Krsna.

your servant,

Aruna devi

The Most Important Part Of The Day

The chanting of the holy name resonates in your mind and comes out your mouth. You pay attention to the quality, that each mantra is uttered clearly, each syllable pronounced and heard. You try as usual for reciprocation with the Divine Couple. Have faith that They are hearing you and are pleased with your recitation. This is the most important part of your day. “Of all the orders of the spiritual master, the order to chant sixteen rounds is essential.”

Taken from Bhajana Kutir #101

Chant With Feeling

"For japa to really be done with feeling, you have to call out to Krishna. Cry like a child calling for its mother. One gets so occupied with the accumulation of the rounds and the proper enunciation that he leaves out the most important part, the feeling. The feeling must be at the center of the exercise in order for the japa to be complete. One has to have faith in reciprocation with Radha and Krishna, faith that the holy names are Krishna Himself and Radha Herself. Otherwise, you are just chanting the outer syllables of the name and not chanting offenselessly. Suddha-nama is a rare, advanced stage. We have to be patient with our chanting and hearing clearly, making the sounds audibly and keeping the mind fixed on the utterance of the words themselves."

Taken from Bhajana Kutir #99

My Day With The Maha Mantra

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed by the power of the holy names and that you are feeling protected and enthusiastic by your japa.

Today is a holiday here in my city so I am not working, I woke up at about 5:30am....later than usual but it was so nice because I could see all the boys including my son Uddhava who arrived this week. Imagine on Monday I received two unexpected gifts, one is my son and the other is the Tulasi devi seeds with a manual for caring specially sent from the Vrindavan Temple.

Now I can grow Tulasi Devi and be blessed by her association while chanting, that's very nice and important for every devotee and because of that I am feeling very happy that I will be able to improve my japa.

Well let me continue telling you about my day - I started chanting and I was very enthusiastic to finish almost all my rounds in the morning and it was almost that....I could chant 13 rounds and they were really dedicated. I tried to concentrate my mind on the sound of the mantra and all my thoughts were going away and sometimes I closed my eyes and the maha mantra was so powerful coming from my mouth and entering in my ear....maybe it was just lips chanting but one day by avoiding offenses I can have a heart chanting.
The main thing was that I felt like chanting more and more and after a long time I could feel peacefulness and also desire to chant more....my heart was calm and soft, even though I have been very distracted and facing some hard times this week, I was able to be with the Lord.

I had the Deities with me, the picture of Lord Nrsimhadeva from Mayapur and also the smell of a very sweet flavoured incense from Mayapur temple. All this nice atmosphere I tried to create was to give myself more to Krsna and take the Lord's association through chanting. I felt blessed by Nama Prabhu today.

May your days be deeply connected to the sound of the maha mantra so you can feel the Lord coming to your heart and showering all the blessings you deserve to have.

your servant,

Aruna devi

A Time To Be Alone With Krishna

"When we chant japa, we’re alone. We should not be thinking of other people or other things. It’s a time to be alone with Krishna in the form of His sound vibration. Prabhupada repeatedly quoted the verse, sarva-dharmam parityajya/ mam ekam saranam vraja/ aham sarva papebhyo/ moksayisyami ma sucah. “Give up all forms of religion and just surrender unto Me. Do not be afraid. I will protect you.” We should give up all forms of altruism, philanthropy, and other “isms.” Just concentrate on surrendering to Krishna."

From Bhajana Kutir #97

The Importance of Prayer

Recently in the Japa Room we had a very nice session talking about the importance of prayer for assistance in our Japa. I thought I would share a few of the comments that were made during the session.

"I would like to add to my prayer the intention to attain a humble state of mind not only while chanting but everytime, surrender to the names and also give me strength to always make efforts to improve my chanting."

"When I Re-started chanting after some time (as I had mentioned before) I prayed to God to help me to give me the dedication and determination to continue with it and never lose track again and He has really helped me and as before he has also attracted my husband towards it."

"I would like to increase the number of rounds that i do and never forget Him or lose faith no matter what the situation is."

"I always pray to God to help me so that I never get too ahead of myself and never feel proud no matter how more or little advance I make in my journey because pride is one of the biggest test by Mayadevi that only a few can overcome. Sometimes I have noticed (no offence to anyone) that some devotees compete and take pride in the number of rounds they do - I do not want myself in that situation."

"I think we should also pray AFTER the japa to thank God to give us the opportunity and knowledge of the Holy name and help us chant it and be happy :-) and finally tonight I would also be thanking God to help me discover this Japa room and and a chance to associate with devotees online."

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

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ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Japa Is Easy To Perform

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed by the Lord and that your chanting is being focused. This week I received a very nice lecture in my email about chanting without offenses and this caught my attention....everything I have already listened to was there being said by someone else. All the basic things like paying attention to the sound vibration of the mantra, receiving the Lord as our guest at home and treating Him with proper attention - meaning attentive japa. We listen to this at least 3 times a week here even though it seems brand new to me because I still couldn't figure out why my japa is offensive sometimes and my mind insists to wander to so many thoughts that I try not to think during japa.

Japa is always coming with service, today was my day to bathe the Deities, the boys just said, "Today is your turn to put on your sari, tilaka and bathe the Lord", wow thats a lot of responsability that makes me nervous because I don't know if my service is good or not, so my lips couldn't even pronounce the mantra for bathing which they do so naturally, why with me it's hard. Everything for kids are easier to perform, maybe because we are so engaged in many others things and for them service and chanting is natural and nice to perform. Kesava picked his beads today so naturally and chanted his four rounds then he said "I am going to play soccer ok?Let me know when we can go to the market and buy the Lord's bhoga for the bathing and offering"...they are like this, it sounds natural and easy to perform. Actually it is, we make it difficult because our minds tell us it's difficult to achieve the offenseless stage and we need a lifetime or maybe lives to get there, but that's not true...we may get there easily if we have the desire for it. By following the acharyas footsteps and advice we can go further and go back home back to Godhead in this life.
There is a very nice quote I would like to share with you from this lecture I read last week, I hope you like it.

"Sri Hari-nama-cintamani indicates that the clearing stage really begins with dealing with inattentiveness. So if we find ourselves stuck--if you material desires are not decreasing; if lust, greed, and anger are not going away; if we're feeling, "I've been so long in this movement and my enthusiasm is not there"--the effect of continued offenses is being felt. The effect of maintaining offenses is described in The Nectar of Devotion: it is like a waning moon Inexplicably, for no reason, your enthusiasm for devotional service goes "pfft" and you can't figure out why. When we find ourselves in that position we can understand that somehow or other, not only are we committing offenses but we are not trying to rectify them."

Ravindra Svarupa das
October-November, 1996
Vrindavan

Let's make our week brighter by dedicating our japa time to Krsna with love and devotion.
Hope you are able to concentrate on the sound of the mantra and feel all the purifying effects of chanting.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Attracted By Your Devotion

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week of chanting has been blessed with nice realisations, inspiration from the vaisnavas and the pure association of Krsna through His holy names.

I was just thinking how lucky we are to have the holy names, we maybe don't give the real and necessary value to Harinam sankirtan but this is so necessary nowadays. There are always some catastrophes happening around us and we, as devotees, feel compassionate towards other people, but we can't do much....maybe the level of our advancement is not so high that every living entity we see we talk about Krsna and preach His glories, if we could do it then maybe we could help relieve the distress some people feel in this material world.
We have the holy names and we are happy just to know we depend on these names, we can take shelter anytime and we will always see our relationship with the Lord increasing. Each day we take our beads we give the first step to this connection and if we insist on making this relationship serious by avoiding offenses...we easily can come into the namabhasa stage and by constant practice, our taste for japa will go deeper and offenseless stage can be achieved.
The Lord is there waiting for us and He is eager to establish this connection with us, He is ready to share His love and have a heart to heart association with us.
One day someone asked me what love is and how can we perceive when we feel love, then I said that love is when we have the great desire to serve the other, so we become humble towards that person and we just want to please through our activities - just like mother Yasoda, Srimate Radharani, and even Srila Prabhupada who dedicated his time to serve us all by giving us Krsna consciouness, what can we do to pay this debit to him...maybe just by following his instructions of chanting the holy names, following the 4 regulative principles and being in association of devotees. Krsna is our only shelter and He can come from Vrindavan to your room just to give you His association, the only thing you have to do is to welcome Him with love and devotion, by opening the door of your heart and letting Him enter to stay....paying attention on every syllable of His name and by doing this He will never leave and will remain in your place.

I wish you a very nice weekend and hope that you can establish your connection with Krsna through chanting today and that you can be able to feel Him at your side. He is attracted by your devotion, always remember that.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Try To Do Your Best

Japa should be done in a composed way, without being frantic or losing track of your count. If you lose track of your count, then you have to arbitrarily set a new count and just go on with that. Make the best of the bad situation. Try to do your best, giving the benefit of the doubt to the count rather than to cheat. It’s always best not to cheat Krishna in your japa.

Taken from Bhajana Kutir #93

A Careful Balancing Act

Keeping the mind concentrated on hearing the holy names and not straying to other thoughts requires a careful balancing act. It is like balancing yourself on a railroad track. You can’t overconcentrate on your walk, but you have to go ahead, just keeping your mind on balancing and walking confidently ahead. It is like writing this japa essay. I can’t think that I have run out of worthwhile things to say. I have to go ahead and keep moving. This means depending on Krishna. It is beyond your own power.

From Bhajana Kutir #92

Chanting Our Japa Faithfully

Even though we may not be advanced chanters, we feel the presence of Krishna directly also on our lower status. And so we chant happily to sustain our lives. We are committed to this prayer on a daily basis. We refuse to go without it. May Krishna always bless us with taste and determination to chant our japa faithfully, day in and day out, and may He give us the attentiveness to make a decent performance. May we not cheat ourselves with inattentive chanting but do our part according to the free will given us to hear the holy names with attention.

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami

From Bhajan Kutir #90

Krsna Is Waiting For You

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed and you are being able to focus on the sound of the holy names.

Last time I wrote here I said that the Lord is our companion and also that when we chant we feel He is closer. Yesterday I arrived home and Advaita said that he had chanted his 4 rounds and also that he worshipped the Deities with flowers and incense. I said "That is very good, keep doing that and the Lord will reciprocate with your efforts". When I looked at his face he was feeling sick....here in São Paulo it is pretty cold, it's almost winter time and most people are getting sick because of weather changes. Kids suffer in those times. Although feeling bad, he chanted and I was very proud of him and told him he would get 6 stars on his service notebook - the one I got for the boys so they could be complimented anytime they made rounds and service. It's working because they are chanting and also trying to make efforts to worship the Lord nicely with mantras and a nice mood.
Its very important to chant in association of good chanters but when we are alone like he was, for a child it's hard to perform service alone, but he did it and I am sure the Lord reciprocated with his efforts.
Krsna is amazing, He speaks through many different situations and this is for our advancement. We sometimes give excuses not to perform service or to do this or that but we can see that by making efforts the Lord sends us the strength to carry on....He is our support and also our companion any time of the day. Aren't we here to develop a loving relationship with Krsna through service? So we may start by having a desire to serve Him, learn how the Lord likes this service to be performed by checking with the spiritual master and also senior devotees....by doing this we are preparing our hearts to love Krsna and receive His love.
Japa is our time with the Lord, the precious time we have to feel Krsna's powerful presence through the sound vibration and experiment the position of being in Krsna's hands....dependant & surrendered and grateful for this gift.
Have you ever thought about how Krsna wants you near Him? How he wants this relationship to happen? How you are so important to Him?
If so, show Him your love by praying and making your beads the powerful tool to develop this heart to heart exchange.

Wishing you a nice week of chanting from the heart.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

Japa - A Love Exchange

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. This weekend in the Japa Room we had very nice sessions and devotees could share their obstacles and also successes. It is very inspiring to hear from devotees when they can feel the purifying effects of chanting and also that this can affect the family making them more inclined to devotional service.

We have a good example of that here at home - we improved our standard for Deity worship, adding more to the bathing and also the boys learned some mantras to chant while bathing...the Brahma Samhita verses. We are also using tilaka with lemon for polishing and Tulasi devi is coming from Vrindavan and Mayapur to make sure we can offer bhoga with Tulasi leaves.
I can say this is all due to chanting....we are always engaged in chanting japa and taking part in the Japa Room sessions. Even Uddhava living in Mayapur joined us in the rooms.
Rasa prabhu always emphasises the importance of making japa the number 1 priority of our day and when we do that we really feel how the Lord reciprocates giving us the best - His association. We start seeing Him blessing our lives in so many different ways, supplying what we need and giving what is necessary to carry on with service.
I have very good advice to give you - everytime you feel lost....chant because you will feel the Lord closer....if you feel your life needs a change, just chant and the Lord will come up with all the solutions you need to solve your problems and especially if you are happy....just chant because it means you have all the reasons to be grateful to our Lord, He is blessing you with joy.

Chanting must be done with our hearts opened and with the sincere desire to serve Krsna more, by having this mood internally and externally, you will be cleaned and purified making all the dust accumulated disappear and giving a place to love and devotion towards the Lords creation including yourself.

Make your day brighter, offer the Lord good rounds today just because you want to feel this reciprocation of love with Him.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Refreshing And Life-giving

Beginning japa in the morning is like waking from the dead. You feel like a zombie until you begin your morning prayers. They are so important. It’s like being underwater without air until you start them. As you chant, you come to life again. I’m glad it’s this way. Chanting has become such an important part of my life.....I’m happy to be chanting and to be alive in the holy names. There is nothing so refreshing and life-giving as chanting the maha-mantra. I feel like I’m a good person, obeying the parampara and obeying Srila Prabhupada. I don’t feel foreign to it; I feel I’m in my element.

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami - From Bhajan Kutir #87

Number Or Quality?

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your chanting is going well and that you able being able to enjoy all good things that come to the ones who hankers for nice chanting.

Today I was just thinking about how important it is when we make our japa a priority, I mean we can feel the Lord approaching our hearts more effectively. It's difficult to express such feelings but we tend to say that chanting is part of our duty, something we promise the spiritual master at the time of initiation and then we have to chant our 16 rounds, nice...we struggle every day to have our rounds finished and sometimes we hanker for quality when its possible to concentrate....wow that's perfect but at others times we feel blessed and happy because we are following our master's instructions.
If we analize this situation we can see that....well at least I am chanting my 16 rounds, what else do you want me to do? What is the main thing, number or quality? Well we need to see that both need to be there - yes we have to chant 16 rounds and follow the 4 regulative principles but when we try to grow up in spiritual life, we see that we need to avoid offenses and come to the following a level that is namabhasa so we may one day achieve Krsna Prema. That's why we are here, but this needs to have a start and we need to start saying that....yes we can reach pure love of God and my gurudev has given me the guidelines. That's just a preaching of the mind, that we are unable to be nice devotees....on the other hand we are completely able to overcome the mind by chanting nicely and engage our senses in service, with our ears and tongue engaged there will be no question of listening to the mind.
The holy names are our shelter....how can we be without them? It's just like nectar that we get addicted to, so when we have it we never want to be without.
That's what our hearts may desire when we chant with attention, we will wish to chant more and more....this will be the effect.

I hope you have a nice weekend of japa and that your heart flows with love and devotion towards this chanting.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Japa Is Very Important

"Japa is very important. I need to keep that in mind. At every chance, think “this is important.” Press down on the accelerator of good quality and good speed. Remember what the sastras say about the holy name and the importance of it. Never think of it as something minor or as something that you have to get out of the way. It’s the centerpiece of my sadhana. Early-morning chanting is the most important part up to breakfast. But after breakfast, when I have rounds left over, I also chant with concentration. And then in the late afternoon, I chant extra rounds, beyond sixteen. Don’t forget to do those."

From Bhajan Kutir #84

Approaching Krsna Through Chanting

I was listening to a very nice lecture by the famous Mayapur pujari Pankajanghri prabhu. He mentioned in his lecture that we cannot approach the Lord directly but by the process of Vaidi bhakti to Lord Caitanya, we can approach the Lord. As we know, Lord Caitanya brought to the material world the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra and exclaimed that everyone should chant the Holy names of the Lord. If we chant the Hare Krsna mantra with great devotion, throught the spiritual master and the guru paramapara system....we can satisfy the Lord by this chanting in our expression of devotion.

It takes practice and determination and a sense of honesty and humility, to admit to ourselves that we need to improve the quality of our Japa. When we admit something we can actually change it for the better, and why not try to improve the most precious thing in all the three worlds? We are extremely fortunate to have the chance to chant the Holy names of the Lord....let's do that to our best ability and invoke the reciprocation of the Lord.

Developing A Humble Mood

Hare Krsna my dear devotees, I hope your chanting has been peaceful these days. Today I heard something very special. Japa can be nicely chanted at any time of the day, the most important is quality. We should take some time of the day to chant our rounds, forget everything and just chant....have that moment with the Lord and dedicate only to Him and His holy names by doing our japa so it won't have this tendency for distraction or be innatentive. We will for sure dedicate more and pay more attention - since this time you devoted to Krsna and the service of japa.

According to Srila Prabhupada, the brahma muhurta time is essential for japa and should be done every day but we have our jobs, living at home is different even though we may wake up early and chant japa early....at least some rounds....you will notice that it is really effective and different.
Today I woke up earlier than usual and chanted my 12 rounds before work. There were times I was sleepy, others I was mispronoucing the words and others I was feeling tired. I slept not more than 4 hours - it's not good sadhana, but I like doing this sometimes, so I can perceive the effects of japa on me.
I could notice that I was able to control the mind more easily and also that there was no anxiety for some problems that came.
I devotee wrote on my post on krsna.com that he is trying to be more grateful in his life and thanking the Lord for every little situation that comes to him and also his material achievements that can be used in the Lord's service. I thought this is very nice because we tend to complain or always desire more than we have....we are never satisfied with what we have and this makes our hearts hard and the mood of surrender takes more time to be achieved.

Aren't we hankering for the humble state of mind, so we can constantly chant the holy names?....but how can we be humble if we are never satisfied with what the Lord gives us? So this is a head start - if in our prayers instead of asking, we just pray and thank the Lord for everything we already have....He will be pleased and give us more and more.
I learned the importance of that by association of serious devotees who are also serious chanters and they helped and showed me how important is to be sincere and grateful to the Lord. He always knows what is the best to us in any situation.

I hope you are blessed by Krsna and is able to develop a deep relationship with the holy names.

your servant,

Aruna devi

Please Join The Japa Group

Please share your realisations with other devotees from around the world...simply send me an introduction email and I will be happy to make you a member:

rasa108@gmail.com

ys

Rasa Rasika dasa

From The Heart

Hare Krsna my dear devotees. I hope your week has been blessed by the Lord and your association of saint devotees is feeding your spiritual life.

I have so many things to tell you about my japa and the times I was caught by Krsna's mercy during this week. By the mercy of a vaisnava we can be touched deep in the soul.

I was this week I was listening to my Gurudeva's lecture on Srila Prabhupada's qualities. This influences our chanting because when we are strong in our faith, we want to make chanting even better. At least this happens to me - cooking for the Lord increases my desire to chant good rounds, so I know my cooking will be more devotional. Listening to devotees preaching also makes me more aware of what I can do to make my spiritual life better and make japa a priority in my life.
Another important point is that when I preach to the kids about chanting, this remains inside me because they also look at my japa as an example. This week I bought a small notebook for them and this will be like a japa diary where they will write their realisations on japa and also how many rounds they are able to do every day. This is very inspiring for me too.
Sometimes I look at myself and my mind tells me so many things - I believe it when my intelligence can't preach so the mind takes over saying "I can't go beyond this level".

After some time I see the Lord is already blessing me - one thing is that the Deities came home to bless me. They were a gift and are here because They want to be - another thing is that a mataji from Vrindavan Temple is giving me a book on how to care for Tulasi devi and also is sending me some seeds....wow some days before I wrote about getting the mercy from Srimati Tulasi devi and it seems She wants to bless me by coming here. Now I think my mind can't come up with so many excuses not to serve or saying I am not able to do this is.....but that everything that is helpful to my japa and my spiritual life should be done.
This weekend we had nice questions asked in the Japa Room which covered the topic of being aware of what is detrimental to our japa - next week we will be discussing about what to do to overcome those obstacles. It really worth coming!
Listening to H.H.Sacinandana Swami singing on the 24 hour Kirtan in Birmingham Temple made me cry, he sang the mantra in such a sweet and heart deep mood that I couldn't stop crying and feeling how the words of the mantra can go deep in our hearts.
The same way we may concentrate on japa, as if it were a song sung from our hearts to Krsna with all the love and devotion we can have.

May our Spiritual Masters bless our chanting and give us the mood of Radha to serve Krsna with our japa.

your servant,

Aruna devi

The Cornerstone

As time goes on in spiritual life I reflect on what is helpful for spiritual advancement - definitely good quality Japa is number one on the list....because Japa is the cornerstone of our sadhana, it supports the rest of our spiritual life, much like a cornerstone is the strong part of the building that the rest of the house is built upon. If the cornerstone is solid and strong, then the rest of the house will be the same....so with your Japa, if it is strong and solid, then the rest of our spiritual life will be the same.

I personally found that by good concentration during Japa, where the mind is under the control of the Maha mantra and is not distracted and not wandering, this enables the mind to do the same when hearing the philosophy and also whilst reading.....the mind is able to be submissive to sadhana and it is not distracted.

Also by good Japa, I find I can remember the Holy names during the day....if we are getting some result from Japa then we want to continue that feeling we experience during the day, so automatically we chant in our mind or out loud, because we are feeling the effects of the chanting. It's easy to allow ourselves to just chant like a ritual, because we have to do it and not because we want to do it.