We are all drowning here in this material world. Chanting japa is our life line.
In this material world we are all in:
ILLUSION
We are:
COVERED OVER
Because of this covering of the soul, this illusion, we do not know what is to be done, and what is not to be done. We do not know what is important, we do not know what our priorities are.
Because we are in illusion we cannot make any estimation of the degree of danger we are in here, and therefore we do not take our situation seriously enough.
Srila Prabhupad has said that we do not take Maya seriously enough.
This is a dangerous condition we are in. We cannot estimate all the ways that we are being tricked by Maya into wasting this human form of life and missing this valuable opportunity to be with Krishna eternally.
Chanting japa is our life line out of this situation.
16 rounds of japa every day. If you are not chanting 16 rounds then the most important thing you have to do in your life, is to find a way to start chanting those 16 rounds a day.
If you are already chanting 16 rounds a day, then the most important thing you can do in your life is find a way to improve the quality of those 16 rounds.
Chant them early in the morning, chant them attentively, chant without doing other things at the same time.
This is our life line. We are drowning and the time is passing very quickly. None of us can know how long we will live for. Even a very long life is still a flash in the pan, and any older person will tell you that. That is if you live long enough to hear it.
We have been given this precious gift of a life line while we are here drowning in the material world. Srila Prabhupad has thrown us all a life line:
Chant 16 rounds of japa every day.
Yes, the process is simple, but we have to take it very seriously.
We have to stop thinking it's more important to make a detailed inventory of all the varieties of fish swimming around in the ocean we are drowning in.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Navasi devi dasi
This is a good wake up call,
This is a good wake up call, thank you for this post Navasi. I have to constantly remind myself whenever I get distracted: "NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CHANTING HARE KRISHNA!"
Wake Up Calls
Chanting Hare Krishna
IS
The Ultimate Wake Up Call
Truly, it's the chanting that wakes the sleeping soul from it's illusion and it then remembers Krishna.
Jiv Jago ~ Wake up sleeping souls.
I like your capitalized reminder there J, it would make a good little poster to keep on a wall in a strategic location, since it's true, we all get distracted. The material energy is all about distracting us from our real purpose.
Nice comment, thanks J
Hare Krishna!
Navasi
That's a great point, I
That's a great point, I didn't even think of that - Hare Krishna IS the wake up call.
As for the poster, I was just laughing to myself yesterday about an idea I had for a bumper sticker along the same lines-
harer nama harer nama harer nama eva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha
Can you imagine someone driving past and looking at that and just going "????" loool.
:)
That is pretty funny J....
lol
You might cause traffic accidents while people tried to figure out what it meant. (not that I think that part would be funny of course)
:)
Navasi
Chanting is must
Hare Krishna Mataji!
Absolutely. It is 100% truth. Chanting is our lifeline. We have to take it seriously. In this world we are giving more importance to breathe. Because without breathing, We cannot live even for a moment. So breathing is more important. Therefore We have to give more importance than the breathing to chanting. To escape from this temple of miseries (dukhalayam asasvatham), It is the only way.
Kamala Kesava Das
Spiritual Breath
So very true, Kamala Kesava Das,
Without our next breath of oxygen we would die.
Chanting is our spiritual "oxygen". Our spiritual life dies without chanting.
That's such a good example, the one of breathing. If we could only realize that this is essential, like breathing, only, as you said, actually even more important. It's more important because we can breath away our entire lifetime in millions of births, but only in this human birth do we even have the chance to chant.
We are so very fortunate, those of us who have been given the opportunity to chant this maha mantra. So many souls have not even heard of it, what to speak of understanding that they need to chant it. So, here we are with this great benediction.
We can certainly take it seriously.
It IS our breath.
Thank you for your comment prabhu.
Hare Krishna,
Navasi
Very True Indeed
Thank you Navasi for directing me to your wonderful post...yes, we need to all realise that no matter how many priorities we may have, we need to understand that Chanting Japa is our top most priority...Personally, during my first two weeks of vacation, I got a bit dillusioned, and soon I was feeling a sort of discontentment in everyday things and my time was not being used productively. I immediately then got back on my japa rounds and since then, things are smoothening out and I feel so much peace :)....However, I need to still make sure chanting is the first thing I do everyday
Priorities
Dear Krsna Shweta,
Yes, I know you have been a little bit distracted, that's why I wanted you to read this.
We all need others to keep reminding us to stay on track and keep us aware of our priorities in this life.
There are so many thousands of things that occur in the course of a lifetime that are going to take up time and distract us.
First there is school.
Then there will be a new job, work.
Then there will be marriage, and most especially:
Children.
(if you think it is hard to find time to chant now, just wait until you add children to your life! ;)
Well, you can see, it goes on and on, endlessly.
That's why it's so very important, when you are young, like you are, to start out making a very strong habit of chanting your rounds, understanding that priority and keeping committed to it.
It's just the nature of the material world to always give us "other things to do" so if we don't keep our priorities straight, we will never be able to find the time.
I'm glad you are getting back on track now. You told me to be strict with you, so I am.
: )
Hare Krishna,
Navasi