Why 16 Rounds of Japa is Required?

If you want to awaken the pure ecstatic love of God within your heart as soon as possible, it is essential that you chant the holy names of God as much as possible every day. This is why Lord Krishna orders us in the Bhagavad-gita to constantly chant His holy names. Because we are so much distracted by so many so-called duties on the material plane for keeping body and soul together, we find it very difficult, if not completely impossible, to constantly chant the holy names of God. Srila Prabhupada, therefore, has very kindly given us a concession that we can awaken the pure love of God within us simply by chanting a mere 16 rounds a day of the Hare Krishna mantra on japa beads. But we are so fallen down in material consciousness that we even sometimes find this minimal concessionary amount of chanting to be difficult. Therefore to help us maintain this minimum standard, when we get initiated by the bona fide spiritual master we make a solemn that every day for the rest of our lives we will chant at least 16 rounds of Hare Krishna japa.

Srila Prabhupada Chants Japa in Pure Transcendental Bliss

Srila Prabhupada Chants Japa in Pure Transcendental Bliss

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: Why Do Great Devotees Suffer?

Those devotees who come from the spiritual world to preach here to the earthlings have no negative karma to compensate for. Still, how come they suffer like anything?

For example: Saint Tukaram (abject poverty), Prahlada Maharaja (insurmountable torture), Srila Prabhupada (constant struggle), and similarly with other great devotees. Where is, "chant and be happy" in their cases?

A common man will observe this and think, "If these great devotees are not themselves happy, how they can make others happy?"

Kindly clarify.

With regards,

Golok Das

Answer: Their Suffering Is Only Superficial

That is your material vision to think that these great transcendentalists were miserable. Actually they were in a state of the highest bliss at every moment. Their suffering was an external manifestation only, a demonstration of how dedicated they were to unflinchingly serve Krishna in all conditions of happiness and distress. It is not that they were suffering within their hearts. Because they were fully absorbed in love of God in all external conditions of happiness and distress, they were constantly deep sea diving in the ocean of pure spiritual bliss. Because the common men are not able to understand this they are enjoined to take shelter of the lotus feet of the bona fide spiritual master and learn from him the intricacies of bhakti, the ultimate level of the self-realization science.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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