If You Love Your Guru, Chant Nice Rounds

Excerpts from an Interview with Tamal Krishna Goswami New Govardhana, Australia October 10, 1983


"Without developing a spirit of service, chanting the holy name is in vain.
Real devotion can be cultivated only when one receives the blessings of an
unalloyed devotee. . . . Therefore to give up namaparadha one must first
give up sadhu-ninda, or finding faults with the devotees."


--Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

1. "If you love your guru, chant nice rounds."

2. "There are different ways you can chant sixteen rounds. You can chant
very intensely; you can actually see if it is possible to chant without
letting your mind deviate once in sixteen rounds. Let's see someone
undergo that test."

3. "Similarly, someone may get an order, an instruction, or even a general
instruction to the devotees. Are you going to take it? Are you going to take
it seriously, to heart, as your life and soul, or are you going to take it lightly?"

4. "Each of us should know that every morning when you chant your rounds,
it is the most intimate service that you are offering to your spiritual master.
It is the actual service that he asked of you at the time when you were initiated."

5. "This chanting of Hare Krsna is the basis on which your spiritual master
has accepted you as his disciple. You should remember when you chant every
morning, 'I am offering this very intimate service to my spiritual
master.'"

6. "My godbrother Visnujana used to sit and chant with a blown-up picture of
Srila Prabhupada's ear. So, we are chanting for our spiritual master's pleasure."

7. "Everything we are doing is for our spiritual master's pleasure."

8. "Tatra laulyam api mulyam ekalam--the only price is hankering: 'I want You.'
There is no other necessity but the heart's hankering--hankering for Him, hankering for His service.
That should be our mood when we chant our rounds."

9. "Just hear the sound vibration--that's the best chanting of all. There
are different levels of recommendations, but you will see as you advance
that the best chanting is when you simply hear the holy name, which is
Krsna. And that is service to Krsna."

10. "In Hari-nama-cintamani it is said that inattentive chanting leads to
all the other of the ten offenses."

11. "Chant sixteen rounds with full concentration, preferably sitting in
one place, fully absorbed in hearing the sound vibration. Thus very quickly you
will get krsna-prema and become a strong devotee. Take this to heart."

12. "Our morning program (chanting) is like an inoculation to protect
ourselves when associating with diseased persons throughout the day."

13. "Service begins with hearing and chanting. It begins with hearing and
chanting and ends with hearing and chanting. Hearing and chanting go on in
the beginning, and they go on in the liberated stage. In the spiritual
world the devotees are expert in hearing and chanting Krsna's glories. That is
always there."