![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-aQl30sfsQhU\/Ve1xqa9u6GI\/AAAAAAAATbk\/7jIqz2HLZ0U\/s0\/2015-09-07_13-14-46.jpg\")
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By Mahatma Das<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNish, nish, ram, ram, nish, nish, ram, ram.\u201d Prabhupada once imitated how we sometimes chant without focus, without concentration, without proper pronunciation \u2013 how we chant when we don\u2019t feel like chanting. You know the mood behind this chanting; \u201cI have to chant but I\u2019d rather be doing something else.\u201d And in our minds we are thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get these rounds out of the way.\u201d We all do this. And it can get pretty bad. I know devotees who chant rounds while watching football games on TV.<\/p>\n Prabhupada explained that this type of chanting is more or less useless because it will not produce the desired result, love of Krsna. To even call this chanting is a stretch. It is closer to a ritual. But Prabhupada acknowledged the value in the ritual by saying that although this kind of chanting is not very productive, at least those who are chanting this way are keeping their vow to chant.<\/p>\n I call this kind of japa, \u201ccourtesy japa.\u201d \u201cCourtesy japa\u201d means that since you have taken a vow – either to your spiritual master or yourself – to chant a certain number of rounds daily, you keep that vow while chanting the kind of japa I described above.<\/p>\n Here are a few other examples (methods) of what I call \u201ccourtesy japa:\u201d<\/p>\n * Chanting while talking to someone (you talk, and when they reply you chant). Note, these are all excellent ways to ruin your japa and thus put your Krsna conscious transmission in park. You can make incredible advancement during japa. Good japa is like flying down the highway in fourth gear. Good japa produces inspiration, realization, detachment, increased desire to serve, attraction to study scripture, and an ability to see maya\u2019s workings more clearly. And there are so many more gifts japa delivers. Yet we deprive ourselves of these gifts when we chant \u201ccourtesy japa.\u201d<\/p>\n THE NEW MANTRA IS \u201cDOWN WITH \u2018COURTESY JAPA\u2019.\u201d \u201cCourtesy japa\u201d is like shooting a gun with blank bullets. When the trigger is pulled it just sounds like a bullet is being fired. Obviously you can\u2019t win a battle firing blanks. Similarly, \u201ccourtesy japa\u201d sounds like the Hare Krsna maha mantra but it is just an empty sound, a shadow of the real thing. Certainly you can\u2019t win the battle with maya firing blank mantras.<\/p>\n The problem is – and this is something we have to accept philosophically as well as practically \u2013 if you keep practicing the wrong way, you’ll continue to get wrong results. What\u2019s more is that bad chanting tends to produce more bad chanting. Let me say that in another way because this is really important. The more you practice the wrong way of doing something, the more it gets engrained\/programmed within you and the harder it usually becomes to fix it.<\/p>\n THUS IT DOESN\u2019T NECESSARILY FOLLOW THAT THE LONGER YOU CHANT THE MORE ADVANCED YOU WILL BECOME.<\/p>\n Do you have a severe case of courtesy japaitis programmed into you? If so, ask yourself how you are going to kick the habit. This is an important question to answer because good japa is one of the pillars of spiritual life.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about fighting apathy in our japa. As Lord Caitanya said, playing the part of a conditioned soul, \u201cI am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for chanting Your Holy Names.\u201d So we have two choices during japa. One is to go with the flow and just let the mind wander. The other is to go against the flow and make a valiant effort to focus on the holy name and chant in a prayerful, devotional mood. That\u2019s not so easy. It takes effort. It goes against everything \u201ccourtesy japa\u201d stands for. And this is not much fun for lazy japa chanters like me. After all, concentrating is hard work.<\/p>\n Japa can be a creative time. Often when I chant I get all kinds of ideas. Also the many things I have to do in the day – and even creative ways of doing them – keep popping up in my mind (or should I say keep pooping in my mind). Don\u2019t dwell on these. If they come up, either neglect them (those good ideas will most likely come up later) or stop chanting and write them down so you don\u2019t have to think about them while you chant. How will you break the habit of \u201ccourtesy japa?\u201d Krsna is in your heart and He will help you as much as you want to be helped. Krsna says from Me come knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness. So He will show you how to become a master of japa or a master of \u201ccourtesy japa.\u201d It all depends on what you want. If you want to improve, He will show you when to chant (hint \u2013 early in the morning), where to chant (hint \u2013 where you are not distracted), how to chant (hint \u2013 in front of devotional pictures, tulasi, Deities, etc, not in front of a television or a non Krsna conscious magazine). Let\u2019s put an end once and for all to \u201ccourtesy japa,\u201d the great enemy of Krsna consciousness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cNish, nish, ram, ram, nish, nish, ram, ram.\u201d Prabhupada once imitated how we sometimes chant without focus, without concentration, without proper pronunciation \u2013 how we chant when we don\u2019t feel like chanting. You know the mood behind this chanting; \u201cI have to chant but I\u2019d rather be doing something else.\u201d And in our minds we are thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get these rounds out of the way.\u201d We all do this. And it can get pretty bad. I know devotees who chant rounds while watching football games on TV. Prabhupada explained that this type of chanting is more or less useless because it will not produce the desired result, love of Krsna. To even call this chanting is a stretch. It is closer to a ritual. But Prabhupada acknowledged the value in the ritual by saying that although this kind of chanting is not very productive, at least those who are chanting this way are keeping their vow to chant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-mahatma-das"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104738,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85582\/revisions\/104738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n * Chanting while reading (which could really work if you have two heads, one to read and one to chant).
\n * Chanting while listening to a CD or the radio (this is especially challenging while listening to the news or listening to rock and roll music).
\n * Chanting while shopping.
\n * Chanting while window shopping (this often happens on early morning japa walks).
\n * Chanting while you are dosing off (sometimes known as dive bomb japa).
\n * Chanting while site seeing or looking around at a million things (sometimes known as radar japa).
\n * Chanting while watching movies (Krsna Conscious movies are included in \u201ccourtesy japa\u201d).
\n * Chanting a little, talking a little, chanting a little, talking a little (sometimes known as jibber japa).
\n * Chanting while \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 (fill in your favorites). <\/p>\n
\n So here\u2019s the exercise. Write on top of a piece of paper, How To Improve My Japa? Below that write the subtitle, Putting an end to\u201ccourtesy japa.\u201d Then make your list.<\/p>\n![\"Hare](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-ICsRj2n20wQ\/WyYOnmCrL6I\/AAAAAAAAk_4\/jJazbLql-A8MSGIBM4j6kiVjDl1DSAf6QCHMYCw\/s0\/2018-06-17_09-30-59.jpg\")
By Mahatma Das<\/strong><\/p>\n