CHANTING, It enters through the ear and goes to the heart

Guest (1): When you chant, do you have to think what you’re saying? How can you do other things?

Prabhupada: Other things?

Guest (1): Well, many things require your concentration.

Prabhupada: Well, let us first of all chant the holy name. Then we shall think of concentration.

Guest (1): You see, two, two things... You can’t...

Prabhupada: No. Concentrate, concentration automatically. If I chant Hare Krsna and I hear, that is concentration. That is concentration. Immediately.

Guest (1): But you can’t read or talk to someone.

Prabhupada: There is no question of reading. We are simply asking to chant. Reading will come later on. Just like a small child, he’s taught... In our educational system they chant... What is that? That...? (Hindi) Pahara pahara.(?)

Indian man: Pahara. Alphabet. A.I.E.

Prabhupada: They chant. By chanting, by hearing they learn. “A,B,C,” like that. “2 plus 2 equal to 4.” We did it in our childhood. One boy will chant like that. “2 plus 2 equal to 4.” And we shall repeat. “2 plus 2 equal to 4.” So repeating three times, I understand 2 plus 2 equal to 4.

Guest (1): Do you find that the chant goes on in your heart?

Prabhupada: Huh?

Revatinandana: Do you find that the chant goes on in your heart?

Prabhupada: Why not? Why not?

Guest (1): It goes deeper and deeper?

Prabhupada: Yes. Everything we hear, it goes to the heart. If I call you by name, it does not go to my heart? “You rascal. You stupid.” You hear. Does it not go to my heart? Why I become angry unless it goes to my heart. If “rascal,” “stupid,” and all these bad names go to my heart, why God’s name will not go to my heart? If by calling you by ill names you become angry, that means it goes to your heart. Why not good name? It goes. It enters through the ear and goes to the heart.

Guest (1): I’m doing that, saying sometimes a little prayer...

Prabhupada: So if you repeatedly chant, it will remain. It will always remain in your heart.

Guest (1): Always going on.

Prabhupada: Yes. There is no chance of escape. Chant constantly, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. It remains in the heart. Not only my heart. Others’ heart, they also joke, “Hare Krsna!” If it can remain in others’ heart, why not my heart? Those who are joking me, imitating me. We... Last time, when I was going in Africa, I stopped for few minutes in Athens. Some of the younger residents chant, “Hare Krsna!” You see? As soon as they saw us, they began to chant Hare Krsna. They could understand, “These are Hare Krsna people.” Yes. So by their dress, by their tilaka, they oblige others to chant Hare Krsna, either for imitating or for joking. So they gain. But if Hare Krsna chanting has got any effect, even by joking like that, he’ll get gain. If it is actually spiritual, by simply joking he will get gain.

Revatinandana: In Manchester across the street from the temple there’s a big park. Sometimes I would go over there to walk and chant rounds, and there’s many little children in the park. They’d follow me, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna!” All day. Hundred times.

Prabhupada: Everywhere. Everywhere. In Bombay, everywhere we go, “Hare Krsna.” In Montreal. They joke, they’ll clap, but they’ll chant. And that is wanted. I want to see that everyone is chanting. And if chanting has effect, then either he’s chanting jokingly or seriously it will have the effect. Fire, if you touch either jokingly or seriously or cautiously, it will act. So our request is that you also preach this cult. Let us cooperate. The whole world is suffering for want of God consciousness. So it is the duty of all religious sects to teach this simple art of chanting Hare Krsna or any other name which you have got. That’s all.

Revatinandana: They have got this prayer, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me, a miserable sinner.” And she was showing me they have a, almost like japa beads. Show him.

Guest (1): You see, here.

Revatinandana: They’re almost like japa mala.

Guest (1): We do it in some, together, in the orthodox church. And we take turns doing two hundred.

Prabhupada: That’s nice.

Guest (1): And... These are for counting.

Prabhupada: That is nice. We also do the same thing. We chant Hare Krsna.

Guest (1): “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us.”

Prabhupada: Oh, what is the wording?

Guest (1): “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us.”

Prabhupada: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God...”

Revatinandana: “Have mercy on us.”

Guest (1): It’s a little prayer.

Prabhupada: That’s nice.

Guest (1): And they also pray to the mother of God.

Prabhupada: Sinful? “We are sinful?” You say, “sinful” something? “Forgive some sins” or something like?

Hamsaduta: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us.” That is the prayer.

Guest (1): And you say it in your own language.

Prabhupada: That’s all right. “Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, have mercy on us.” That’s
nice. Very good.

Guest (1): (indistinct)

Prabhupada: That is nice. Now, the, by praying, it is expected that one should have mercy of
God. So what is the test that he has got the mercy of God?

Guest (1): The mercy of God is the love of God, isn’t it?

Prabhupada: That’s it. Mercy of... So... That is the test, that he has learned how to love God. Krsna-prema-pradaya te [Madhya 19.53]. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is also worshiped, that “You can give love of God.” Krsna prema-pradaya te. Namo maha-vadanyaya. “You are the most munificent of all incarnations because You are distributing love of God.” Krsna-prema-pradaya te [Madhya 19.53]. Krsnaya krsna-caitanya-namne. “You are Krsna in the form of devotee of Krsna. So I offer my respects.” This is Rupa Gosvami’s prayer.

Guest (1): Do you find that you chant, it clarifies you?

Prabhupada: Yes, certainly. God and God’s name, and God or God’s son, they are nondifferent. So either I be in touch with God’s son or God’s name, I am in touch with God. But they are nondifferent.

Guest (1): What happens to your mind? What do you do with your mind when you chant?

Prabhupada: Whatever it may be in my mind, it doesn’t matter. My mind may be different.

Guest (1): Where does it have to be? It has to be fixed?

Revatinandana: What will the mind be doing?

Hamsaduta: While chanting.

Revatinandana: What should the mind be doing?

Prabhupada: My mind should be absorbed in God consciousness. That is, that is the effect. He can think of God only, nothing else. That is the effect.

Guest (1): It’s very difficult to think of God.

Prabhupada: No. It is not difficult. It is difficult for the sinners. Those who are not sinners, it is not difficult. Because in the Bhagavad-gita it is said:

yesam tv anta-gatam papam
jananam punya-karmanam
te dvanda-moha-nirmukta
bhajante mam drdha-vratah

One can chant the holy name of the Lord if one is free from all sinful activities. A person who is engaged in sinful activities, he cannot concentrate. Therefore we ask our students, first discipline is that he must not have illicit sex life, he must not eat meat, he must not take any kind of intoxication, he must not indulge in gambling. Because these are sinful activities. So if one is engaged in these sinful activities, he cannot concentrate. It is impossible. One who is sinner, he cannot concentrate his mind on God. So voluntarily we should give up these sinful activities. Then it will be possible.