Devotional Mood When Chanting

Recently I was asking Mahatma prabhu a question about chanting with the heart and not like a tape - repeating the words mechanically...he gave me a newsletter link to read and while reading I got into a very important point again inattentive Japa - what he calls "Courtesy Japa".
It's a really bad habit and if we keep on going it gets harder and harder to fix. Attentive Japa requires faith, determination and love for our spiritual master. There is also something very important that my Gurudev used to say - pure devotional service requires strong desire to attain...eagerness. This is the only way. Getting advanced in Krsna consciousnesss depends on good chanting...its the basis of everything we want to get and then everything is pure devotional service.

"It���s all about fighting apathy in our japa.  As Lord Caitanya said, playing the part of a conditioned soul, ���I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for chanting Your Holy Names.��� So we have two choices during japa. One is to go with the flow and just let the mind wander.  The other is to go against the flow and make a valiant effort to focus on the holy name and chant in a prayerful, devotional mood. That���s not so easy. It takes effort. It goes against everything ���courtesy japa��� stands for.  And this is not much fun for lazy japa chanters like me.  After all, concentrating is hard work."

Putting an End to Courtesy Japa by Mahatma Das

Haribol

Aruna dd

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