The Potency Of The Sound & Re-establishing the Basics

January 11, 2010

Hare Krsna my dear devotees, I hope your 2010 has been fantastic, with lots of realisations on chanting, good practices of devotional service and a deep development of your relationship with Sri Guru and Gauranga.

We are very lucky to have amazing saints that preach the holy glories of Sri Hari Nama, my spiritual master H.H. Giriraj Swami has been traveling and doing japa retreats and this is so powerful to me that I can feel from here his blessings and the heartfelt relationship he has with Krsna and His holy names. This gives me enthusiasm and also just by seeing others chanting with affection, seriously and offenseless. When I focus on those devotees I become inspired and look at myself to find something I can offer to the Lord too. Today is Ekadasi here in Brazil and cooking on these days are not an easy task, it seems all the knowledge and skills I have just disappear from me and I start praying, when I am facing difficulties or scared about some situations I pray and start chanting, as you can see my concentration depends on these events to happen, well at least I am taking shelter on the holy names and Krsna, but I could have my mind trained to also meditate and concentrate anytime, even when there are good times, happiness, and no stress. Yesterday in the japa room there was a very significant question, a devotee asked if chanting with offenses was better than no chanting at all, I think that this is the question I always wanted to ask because my mind wanders about that sometimes, it says: " you are chanting without paying attention why dont you chant later in a situation that you may concentrate more and do not commit offenses " Then I understood chanting is good in any situation but Krsna gives us the intelligent to use it and if we are aware that we need to avoid offenses while chanting, we need to practice that, so after some time we will see this will be so easy and nice to do. Chanting will be peaceful and nice. The main thing is to meditate on the sound vibration and be with the Lord, He is there.

I got this quote from Srila Prabhupada expressing the importance of the sound vibration: " He is present immediately by His vibration. He’s absolute. Therefore try to remember His words of instruction and you’ll not feel separation. You’ll feel that He is with you. So we should associate by the vibration, and not by the physical presence. That is real association...by sound. We are touching Krishna immediately by sound vibration. So we should give more stress on the sound vibration, either of Krishna or of the spiritual master. Then we’ll feel happy and no separation. "

Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.19.12, Montreal, August 18, 1968I wish you have a very nice week of chanting and spiritual practices.your servant,

Aruna devi

Today whilst talking in the Japa Room, I realised that however we chant now, we need to make improvement and keep improving our Japa. Sometimes we unconsciously slip back into bad habits or we are already in bad habits and don't realise it.

Association of devotees is so important for making changes in our sadhana....by seeing other's good example of how we should chant and chanting in their association we can automatically make progress.Along with good association, we also need to make a conscious effort to see what improvements we need to make....pronounce the words more clearly, perhaps slow down a little and really listen carefully to how we chant and absorb ourselves in this wonderful sound of Krsna's holy names.

There is a default setting in our Japa....usually we maintain this default setting but let's all raise that default and really get absorbed when we chant Japa....let's ignore all our thoughts and ignore what is going on around us and in our life.

Let's take advantage of this extremely rare benediction of the Holy names and chant to our best ability.-- LET US NOT MAKE OUR STOMACH A GRAVEYARD. LET US NOT EAT FLESH. LET US BE VEGETARIANS AND STAY HEALTHY. Animals are to be loved, not eaten. Eating flesh is good neither for the mind nor for the intellect, not even for the body. It distorts the basic character of human. Think Soul is Soul and it came from the Supreme Soul...God Head Krishna

Chant:Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare HareHare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare