Silence The Mind

Being talkative for Krsna and silent for maya is our aim. One of the 26 qualities of a devotee is that he is silent, he just engages his tongue in talking about Krsna, chanting the Holy Names and eating prasadam. But how can we be silent while chanting? When we chant we try our best to listen to the mantra and focus on the sound vibration, so we can't be distracted by what our minds want to say, however the mind keeps on talking.

First our mind presents those to-do lists....saying you have to do this or that....you can't forget this or that, you should do this or that.

Then you start preaching to the mind..."No I can do this later, I am chanting now"....and at the same time you keep on reminding yourself that you need to focus on the mantra.

The names sometimes go faster and you can't even hear what you chant because you want to fill your mind with the names, but then you say again: "I need to slow down" then it seems the mind has another opportunity to talk..."Ahh I think you are speeding too much, by doing this you can't focus on the names and you may lose concentration, do this another time, you are not into chanting now"....then you stop....make a prayer....try to forget the continuous dialogue of the mind and use the strategy of reading the mantra on your mind.

Well, subduing the mind is hard, we can't do it ourselves, maybe we should always take shelter of the Holy names, by praying to our spiritual master and Lord Chaitanya.

Everyday seems to be a new struggle with the mind, trying to silence the mind through hearing the sound of the mantra, the only way to assure that we are in the right path is when we don't want to stop chanting....like I heard in a lecture yesterday, nice chanting brings more chanting, when we feel like chanting more and more means we are on the right path with our japa....means we are able to listen to the mantra and not to the talkative mind anymore.

Haribol

Aruna dd

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