Subject: Remembering Srila Prabhupada - Personal: His Chanting

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Personal: His Chanting

 

 

Like Prabhupada's preaching, his chanting was

constant. While talking in his room with professors in

Toronto, Prabhupada silently chanted the Hare Krsna

mantra in between their academic words.

When Prabhupada encouraged his disciples to chant Hare

Krsna while sitting with them during a prasadam feast,

one of the devotees replied, "But Swamiji, how can we

chant and eat at the same time?"

"Chant in between bites," said Srila Prabhupada.

We can hear Srila Prabhupada's japa on a recording: he

chants quickly and he said that sixteen rounds of japa

could be done in one and a half to two hours. During

an initiation lecture, he commented that it should

take five or six minutes to chant a round, although he

admitted that it might not be possible in the

beginning.

When a devotee said that it was hard to chant and keep

awake, Prabhupada replied that they should then do as

he does, as he walks in his room in the afternoon

while chanting japa.

In the early morning, after completing his dictation

of Srimad-Bhagavatam translations at maybe 4 or 5

A.M., Srila Prabhupada would sit back and chant japa.

He did not chant very loudly, but from the other room

one could sometimes hear, especially the words, "Rama,

Rama." Then in the afternoon sometimes he would remark

that he had a few extra rounds to chant, and he would

move the counting beads. We took it that Prabhupada's

statements about his own chanting of prescribed rounds

were for our benefit, but it was encouraging for our

own regulative habit.

Often he would spontaneously utter the words "Hare

Krsna," or he would state harer nama harer nama harer

namaiva kevalam, with great feeling and _expression.

When in the course of a lecture Prabhupada would say

the words of the Hare Krsna mantra, the whole audience

of devotees would repeat it word for word in unison

with him. He did not ask them to do this, but it was a

spontaneous response. The devotees could not resist

the chance to chant along with him. On airplanes he

would often chant for long periods, silently or barely

audibly moving his lips, and intently fingering the

beads, sometimes shaking them within the bag. Or

sometimes during morning walks, instead of talking he

would chant, and everyone would eagerly join with him.

Prabhupada's speaking about chanting was also another

type of chanting. He recommended the chanting of Hare

Krsna, and sometimes he would become surcharged with

emotion and his voice would rise in volume: "We are

simply asking everyone, 'Please chant Hare Krsna!'" At

times like that, when Srila Prabhupada put all his

energy into the request that everyone should chant, we

could understand that the Hare Krsna mantra was the

summum bonum of life. Therefore, often in a lecture he

would state it loudly, "Please chant Hare Krsna!" And

yet he would often follow this by saying that people

were so unfortunate that they could not do this simple

thing. (He recalled a cartoon where a man asked his

wife, "Chant, chant, chant," and she replied, "Can't,

can't, can't.")

Srila Prabhupada's japa beads were brown tulasi. He

asked that his saffron beadbag be changed and a clean

one given to him regularly. He gave his servants the

blissful service of changing his counter beads and

transferring them to the new bag. He was certainly a

master at chanting Hare Krsna, and Prabhupada's

followers were always eager to take part with him in

his pure, empowered activities of chanting Hare Krsna

and distributing it to others.

 

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami.

 

- From the Prabhupada Nectar by HH Satsvarupa dasa

Goswami Maharaj

 

 

 

 

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