Religion is One, But Don't Kill Cows

Here in Riga I met, along with my wife and disciples, Mr. Russell Watterson, the president of the Mormon Church for the entire Baltic region. It was a very nice meeting in which we both mutually appreciated each other's dedication to the principle of serving the will of God. God, after all, is one, even though He has innumerable names. But when he mentioned that every human being is dear to God I had to remind him that not only is every human being dear to God. All living beings are dear to the Supreme Person.

How can we be so cruel to kill the cow after she stops giving milk? When we stop taking the milk from our first mother we then take the milk from our second mother, the cow. So we should allow her to live peacefully and happily even after she stops giving milk. We should not subject her to the horrors of the slaughterhouse. If we subject our mother, the cow, to such torture, what kind of karmic reactions can we expect to come upon us?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Meeting with the Head of the Mormon Church
for the Baltic Countries

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Focus on Quality Chanting?

Hare Krishna. Please accept my pranams. I have a concern about chanting.

How to focus on quality of chant without being concerned with quantity?

Whenever I start chanting, I am always concerned about the time required for this effort. As a result I am unable to chant clearly but rather race through my chanting. The intention at start of chant is to focus on quality of chant, but as I complete rounds or run out of time my speed of chant increases and I am concerned about quantity or completing rounds rather than chanting with devotion.

I do work and allocate some time daily for chanting. I honestly feel that I can only chant 1 mala with devotion and rest of the malas are for the sake of completing the rounds. As a result the chant gets inaudible as I get more and more anxious to complete the rounds.

Please advise on how to overcome this . I do not use a watch or a timer during chanting, but I still unable to escape this anxiousness.

Hare Krishna
-krish

Answer: Savor Every Minute

If you want quality japa without any concern for quantity, you may chant japa 24 hours a day. But since you are not able to do that you should chant at least 16 rounds a day. Even the highest quality medicine available must be taken in sufficient quantity to cure the sick person.

If you will chant your 16 rounds before the sunrise when there is nothing to do except meditate on the Lord's holy names, you will find it easy to stop analyzing your chanting from the material point of view.

Always remember that the holy names are Krishna Himself. They are not a material commodity. If you were meeting with Krishna would you look at your watch to see how soon the meeting will be over? No. You would be savoring every second of it and hoping that it will never end. This is the mood you must have when you are chanting japa.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari