It All Starts With Giving Attention

By Sacinandana Swami

The degree to which you are able to turn to Krsna while chanting reveals the depth of your relationship with Him and how healthy you are spiritually. If you are unhealthy, you simply cannot turn to Krsna. Your mind will dislike the idea of chanting. It will be very rebellious and everything but Krsna will appear in your mind at that time. Every relationship starts with giving attention, and your relationship with Krsna is no exception. Therefore, you must learn how to chant with attention. It is said in the scriptures that inattention to Krsna is the root cause of all other offences and problems. Thus, inattention to Krsna embodies our main problem in this material existence. We need to fix that – it is most important.

Srila Haridasa Thakura speaks about this: “Even if one successfully overcomes all the other offences in chanting and even if one chants continuously, it may be that one’s love of Krsna does not come about.”(Harinama Cintamani) In other words, it is possible that someone is chanting 120 rounds every day without offences but not have a drop of love of Krsna because they have not cured the root problem – having turned away from Krsna. Unfortunately, this inattention or this turning away from Krsna and trying to enjoy separately is such a deep-rooted problem that Haridasa Thakura says, “Simply by one’s own endeavor the conditioned soul is not able to give up inattention in chanting. No-one can give up distractedness on one’s own strength. Such victory over the material mind can only come about by Your [Krsna’s] merciful blessings.” (Harinama Cintamani)