High Speed Japa: the Math

[Guest guest]

 

http://www.kuruvinda.com/personal_japa.shtml

[Guest guest]

are you a doble virgo ? the Prabhupad japa tepe 3.5 min per round , the only bad chanting is NO CHANTING !!!! chill

[Priitaa 0]

Ya know, I haven't read that web site thoroughly, but I tend to agree with the second poster - the only bad chanting is no chanting.

 

Which is not to minimize some of the points like poor pronounciation. Yet if they are trying, we should not fault find with them, cuz its hard to see our own faults and easy to see others. The story comes to mind of the man who was illerate holding the Gita upside down, considering himself unworthy, but Lord Krishna viewed him very highly! If someone skips a sylable of the Holy Name, so what? Certainly I dont encourage it, but if they are thinking fully of Krishna in their mind and heart, and trying "their" best, only Krishna knows.

 

As for this speed chanting, Prabhuapda chanted both fast AND slow. Its not a race. In this age of kali we tend to think fatser is better. No. Attentiveness is better. If one needs to go fast OR slow for attentiveness, fine, but no one can climb inside their head and know what their needs are.

 

Regarding clickers lol I didn't even know devotees still used them. In any case, while I think they are (sometimes) silly, if it gets someone to chant, why criticize? To encourage them to switch to beads, yes, but lets not put anyone down. /images/graemlins/smile.gif And there are even some who have jobs in offices or must ride the bus or something else, and can't be seen chanting on beads, so they use clickers to get their japa done. We simply do not know what the details of each indiviudals life involves, and so lets us try to encourage whatever they 'can' do.

 

That's my two cents. I could be mistaken, and this is just according to 'my' understanding so far. Haribol!

[Guest guest]

 

> Ya know, I haven't read that web site thoroughly,

> but I tend to agree with the second poster - the

> only bad chanting is no chanting.

 

I did read that article thoroughly, and frankly, I didn't see "bad chanting" mentioned anywhere, nor any criticism.

 

What stood out to me clearly was that the author is raising awareness of what undoubtedly is a common problem in ISKCON (uhm, perhaps elsewhere, too). At the end he even offers a way to correct it.

 

Priitaa, you are right: attentiveness is better. And if you read that article, that is exactly what the author tries to relay. I think the gist of the article is that chanting unrealistically fast or way too slow is an indicator of the (in)attentiveness of the chanter. And while indeed the only bad chanting is no chanting, unattentiveness is still the 11th of the "10 offenses to be avoided" while chanting. Offenses that, according to sastra, can seriously hamper your spiritual progress.

 

I personally welcome thoughtful articles like this because they make me think and question myself. I actually did the "reality check" as proposed by the author several times and discovered every time, to my pleasurable "dismay," that I fall within category 5 (realistic, relaxed). That left me to question how I have been finishing my (often interrupted) 16 rounds in a little under 2 hours for the last 20 years. Now I chant much more attentively. It takes me the two and half hours now that it is realistically supposed to, but I sure feel better.

 

As far as Prabhupada's japa tape goes, I have no clue how poster #2 arrived at his conclusion of 3.5 minutes per round. There is no indication whatsoever that I can find of where a round starts or stops, and Srila Prabhupada varies his speed of chanting throughout the tape.

 

Bottom line: thank you, whoever you are who put up that article, for making me aware of how easy it is to slip into spacy chanting and just hang there for decades.

 

Name withheld (for obvious reasons! /images/graemlins/smile.gif )...

[Guest guest]

 

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[Guest guest]

amazing new thing - speed! who cares about it?