Practical Solutions for Wandering Minds

Here are some testimonies about how some devotees could fix the wandering mind problems, including myself. Krsna says in the Bhagavad Gita 10.10 that for those who serve Him with love He gives the understanding by which they can go to Him. It means that Krsna sees our service, sees our determination when chanting....He also sees our wish to improve in order to please Him and because He is very merciful we can find out the best way to become better devotees.

There was a mataji friend who used to run an ashram of about 25 girls of all ages in the farm temple gurukul, she used to chant her rounds always thinking of what she had to buy, what she had to do, who she had to talk with and so on. Never concentrated on chanting - nowadays she says her chanting has improved, she lives in her family's house and takes care of her grandson...after she does all housework she takes 2 hours in the afternoon and dedicates that to chanting when nobody will disturb her...she said she is getting good results on her problem of the wandering mind.

Another devotee who runs a big company nowadays said that when he wants to chant his rounds, he takes off his watch, his shoes and turns off the mobile and sits in a comfortable place and dedicates that time to Krsna.

In both cases we can see that improvement comes when we surrender, when we think we need Krsna even to serve him better, we need to dedicate, be determined, pray and ask Krsna to bless us with His association.

Srila Prabhupada says in a lecture that we will only understand that Krsna is the controller by chanting. Sometimes when we are chanting we try to control the mind by ourselves but we forget that we need Krsna for that also...so in my case I try to surrender, make a good prayer before and tell everyone at home this is my Japa time and they respect me. So when my mind is wandering I first understand this is common cause I am improving and second I try to commit more, thanking Krsna for this opportunity of chanting and always be very positive that one day I will do a perfect Japa...not because of my own techniques but cause Krsna has answered my prayer and has also accepted my service.

Hare Krsna,

Aruna Locana DD

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