Japa - The Selfless Service

Although I have no qualification of speaking about Japa, I do however have the qualification of speaking about my disqualifications.  I had a small realization last night.  It was about 12.10 am and the baby was still awake, so I thought to myself what should I do occupy my time as Visakha Anjali was being nursed to sleep.
Immediately I thought of reading...there is that wonderful book Saratha Varshani Tika from which Srila Prabhupada quotes from regularly in the Bhagavad Gita As It Is.   Then I thought to myself why not Japa...when Japa is not done with love and attention there is often no observable spiritual or material result.  However this may not be the case with other devotional practices.
With bhajan, even without love and attention, one gains musical aptitude by which one can use to impress others.   With reading sastra without love and attention one can gain knowledge by which one can feel themselves superior to others and impose themselves as authority, but with Japa materially there is not much gained.  However this same Japa, done with love and attention, will enable us to perform all other devotion practices in pure a manner, also with love and attention.

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