My chanting comes down at times due to negative thoughts. What to do?

My chanting comes down at times due to negative thoughts. What to do?

COUNSELLING:

A female devotee who requested anonymity, asked like this:

“Jai shree krishna! I have a query.....i was really upset and distressed past month and started listening to Iskcon Hare krishna on my mobile fone which calmed me down and helped me alot....i startef lisytening to chanting for all day....and i started enjoying....but now from the last few days everything is ok in my life and listening to hare krishna has lower down.....however i miss last month when i used to listen to hare krishna all day long. Does that mean that we enjoy chanting and bhakti only when we are upset? It implies that we are human beings are very mean....i want to enjoy hare krishna chanting again and feel at peace again...what should i do ? Please keep me anonymous.

Also i am aware of my negative energies....i call them my demons....aggression anger and urge to bitch about people or talk negative. These are my demons and i am trying to control over them. Mostly I stay calm and at peace.....but sometimes i feel negatve and feel talking negative which is wrong and i know i should not do it. Please tell me how to control my negative thoughts.”

REPLY:

It is the fight with the maya. When we clean our house, we can see more dusts coming up. Only if more dusts come out, that means, we are cleaning well. Similarly, when you start chanting, all your negative qualities and bad things come out. So, be happy that you are facing negative thoughts and energies.

When we bring krishna into our heart, maya will say GOOD BYE from us. Where there is Krishna, there will be no place for maya. That is why, Srila pprabhupada wanted us to ALWAYS be in the thoughts about krishna. When you are in touch with Krishna, you will not get such disturbances.

Actually, as mentioned by me earlier in this column, maya is always standing near Krishna watching whether we allow any gap in krishna Consciousness. When we divert our mind towards material things atleast for one hour, maya will suddenly come forward and brings us under her control. Then, we wil be diverted towards so many bad things that wil bind us with this material world further deeply.

So, you should not allow maya to catch you. That is the point here. In your case, it sems, that you are following Krishna Consciousness , but, have some material attachments also. That is why, you are disturbed by maya frequently.

So, first trust the fact that Krishna is the Supreme Lord. If you have full trust, you will become ready to devote yourself for His service fully. Plan all your assigned activities in such a way that the benefits are dedicated to Krishna. Do all your duties as the service to Krishna. Even while doing your duties, keep thinking of Krishna. You can even chant in low voice while doing some works like washing, cleaning house, eating, travelling, etc. Thus, you can avoid the entry of maya. When you follow this for atleast one year, this will become your habit. So, after that, you will always be thinking of Krishna habitually, and hence, there wil be no disturbance from maya.

You are travelling in a bus. You find a Time Bomb under your seat that shows the time set as 11 am. Now, it is 10.58. What will you do? You will immediately alert all the passengers and make all of them jump out of the bus. All will happen within 2 minutes before the bomb explodes.

We are also in that position now. This human birth is rare one. So, we should use this birth to escape from this material clutches of maya and enter into the eternal blissful kingdom of Krishna. As you are in a position to escape from this painful material world, in this effort, you should involve totally.

With this sustained efforts, you can always remain in Krishna Consciousness.

Bhagavad Gita Kannada

Bhagavad Gita Kannada

ಒಬ್ಬ ಕೆಟ್ಟದ್ದನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯವನು ಎಂದು ಯಶಸ್ಸನ್ನು ಗಳಿಸಬಹುದು. ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಜೀವಮಾನವೆಲ್ಲ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡಿ ಬೇಡವಾದ ಅಪವಾದ ಕೇಳಿ ದುರಂತಕ್ಕೊಳಗಾಗಬಹುದು. ಇದು ತೀರ್ಮಾನವಾಗುವುದು ನಮ್ಮ ಜೀವನದ ನಡೆಯ ಮೇಲೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಈ ವಿಷಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಲೆ ಕೆಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಾರದು. ಅಪವಾದ ಬಂದಾಗ ಹೇಗಿರಬೇಕು ಎನ್ನುವುದನ್ನು ಕೃಷ್ಣ ತನ್ನ ಜೀವನ ಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮಗೆ ತೋರಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ಶಮಂತಕ ಮಣಿಯನ್ನು ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಕದ್ದ ಎನ್ನುವ ಅಪವಾದ ಕೃಷ್ಣನಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗ ಕೃಷ್ಣನ ನಡೆ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಉತ್ತಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಾಂತ.

ಹೀಗೆ “ಈ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಭಾವಗಳು ಜೀವಜಾತಕ್ಕೆ ಬರುವುದು ನನ್ನಿಂದಲೆ” ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾನೆ ಕೃಷ್ಣ. ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಯಾವ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವ ಭಾವ ಬರಬೇಕು ಅನ್ನುವುದು ಭಗವಂತನ ನಿರ್ಧಾರ. ನಮ್ಮ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಯ ಒಂದೊಂದು ಚಲನ-ವಲನ ಭಗವಂತನ ಅಧೀನ. ಇದು ನಾವು ನಮ್ಮ ಉಪಾಸನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ತಿಳಿದಿರಬೇಕಾದ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸತ್ಯ. ಇದು ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಮಾನಸಿಕ ಉಪಾಸನೆಯ ಅದ್ಭುತ ಚಿತ್ರಣ...

Mayapur,The Land of the Golden Avatar

Mayapur,The Land of the Golden Avatar

If one chants the holy names of the lord, even in helpless condition or without desiring to do so, all the reactions of his sinful life departs, just as when lion roars, all the small animals flee in fear. - Bhaktivinoda Thakur
Если один повторяет святые имена Господа, даже в беспомощном состоянии или не желая этого, все реакции его греховную жизнь уходит, так же, как когда лев ревет, все мелкие животные бегут в страхе. - Бхактивинода Тхакур

Why do we chant 16 rounds, what is special about this Number? 16 Rounds

Mayapur,The Land of the Golden Avatar

Why do we chant 16 rounds, what is special about this Number?

16 Rounds

Answer by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami: Actually in some places, in the Vedas, it is said that if you chant 100,000 names of Krsna, that is enough to get you back to the spiritual world. So the number is 100,000 which should be 64 rounds. But then Prabhupada, when he came to the west, he found that the people are active and so many requirements, he said that if we do a regular practice of Bhakti yoga, of service, so that more or less we are always staying in the yoga environment, then even 16 rounds should be enough. So then he would guarantee us to get back to Godhead in this one lifetime, to get back to the spiritual world.

We are all spiritual in nature and we are taking so many births here in the material world. To end the cycle of repeated birth and death, that requires some spiritual focus. So he is saying that if you do 16 and follow a very good lifestyle then you can get back in this one lifetime. He would promise that. But as Minister of Congregational Development and Community Development, I am seeing people who are not living in temples, 99% of all our followers are practicing from home. So many people obviously they are not able to chant 16 rounds, some chant 8 rounds or 4 rounds. At least chant something that is a minimum, because that brings steadiness in your spiritual progress. It also helps you to control the mind and make a decision to do something and actually do it. One has to know what you can do as a regular thing, 1 round or 2 rounds or 4. It may not be guaranteed that you may go back to Godhead but maybe someone can go back to Godhead . But they have to start somewhere and later get taste when you chant more rounds. It is more of an experience. With the first 4 rounds you feel peaceful, the next 4-8 you start to get some energy and after the 8th to the 16th you actually get the spiritual taste in the mouth and heart and you start to develop a deeper spiritual reciprocation with the chanting, the living mantra. The mantras are living, they are spiritual, they are alive and dynamic.

I had a situation once where just as I was newly practicing; I was working outside in a restaurant.Although my parents and grandparents were very wealthy due to emergencies I was working in a restaurant. The person who was the cook there he suddenly fainted. So everybody there ran but didn’t know how to revive him. That time I was already chanting and practicing Bhakti yoga. I didn’t know what to do but I went over and just chanted Hare Krsna in his ear and then all of a sudden he started like shaking and his eyes opened and sat up. He looked around and he asked me ‘What is it you chanted?I left my body and from Montreal reached Belgium. Somehow this astral body was out of my gross material body and when you chanted this Hare Krsna, at first I felt very far away.Then it got louder and louder there was reverse echo. It was not static, it was dynamic, it filled my whole system. It brought back my astral body to my gross body and then I came back to consciousness.’ This was for me also interesting, to know how this mantra is dynamic and how it increases in our consciousness and how it purifies our different emotions and thoughts.

So try to do your minimum chanting and that will build up. 16 rounds will amount to 10 million names in a year. Prabhupada’s guru had also told his followers that those who are living as monks in the temple they were advised to do 64 rounds. But those who are going out and preaching and doing different activities, he said 16 will be enough. So Prabhupada has kept it at 16. 64 is pretty much out of the range. Just fix some minimum number.

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami at Atlanta, Georgia, September 2007

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