Your Japa Creates Your Day

Our daily chanting of the Hare Krishna mahamantra on japa beads is the most significant event of our day. It is our daily opportunity to have a personal, private meeting with God. Therefore the mood in which we chant is of the utmost importance. If our minds are wandering somewhere else during our japa, it will be difficult to remember Krishna throughout the day, and our day will be a struggle. But if we fix our minds nicely on on the mahamantra during our japa meditation, it will be easy to remember Krishna throughout the day, and we'll have a really blissful day. So the essential point is that you create what sort of day you will have every day by how you chant your rounds first thing in the morning. Chanting one's rounds later in the day makes it more difficult to feel connected because one is beginning his day without tuning in to Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada Deeply Absorbed in Japa

Srila Prabhupada Deeply Absorbed in Japa

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question:  Can I Chant a Shorter Version of Hare Krishna?

Respected Gurudeva,

While I chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra, I feel it is too long. I can chant a smaller mantra like "Om Namah Shivaya" and feel equally happy. Is there a shorter version of the Hare Krishna mahamantra which can be chanted?

Please forgive my impudence.

Shriram B.
Mumbai, India

Answer: Take the Prescribed Medicine to be Cured

The physician gives the patient the correct medicine in the proper dosage for recovering his health as soon as possible. The patient does not take the medicine for his enjoyment. Even if bitter, he takes that medicine simply for the purpose of regaining his his health. So are you chanting for your enjoyment or for your purification?

If you are chanting for your purification, you should accept the recommended mantra for this age, the Hare Krishna mantra. If you are chanting for your enjoyment, you can chant anything you like. But do not expect to get the same result which you will get by chanting the full Hare Krishna mahamantra:

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

Taking this prescribed Hare Krishna mahamantra medicine will deliver you from the disease of birth and death. Chanting whatever you like, although perhaps seemingly easier, will not give you the same result.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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