Sharanagati

Krishna Priya: What does real chanting mean?

Tirtha Maharaj: Yashoda can tell something about it.

Yashoda: I also want to listen to your answer.

Tirtha Maharaj: Real chanting, right? So for you it is when the lamps are not exploding in your company. Why? Water is energy. If it is too less – no result, if it is too much, it will wipe your house. So, too small energy – no use; too much energy – problem. You’ve got a small piece of uranium in your hand – nothing happens. But after a certain amount it will just explode – this is called atomic bomb, right? But if you keep that energy under control this is called atomic power plant. And if you control the water energy, the flood, this is called water energy system. Fire – the same. Too much fire is called forest fire. If you control that energy it is in your fireplace. Fire helps, smoke disturbs.

So what is real chanting? Real chanting is to touch the higher realms. And to satisfy Krishna. Real chanting is a beautiful practice. What is the meaning of japa, word by word?

Damodar: Glorification.

Yashoda: Repetition.

Tirtha Maharaj: Yes, to repeat softly, almost unheard. This is japa. And our chanting the japa is japa-japa. There are some practices, which are called ajapa-japa. Non-chanting chanting. It’s a very interesting concept, right? Chanting by not chanting. Have you heard that ajapa-japa? Not really. Do you like the idea? Well, if you like ajapa-japa, then you should like aprasad-prasad also. But of course, there is a positive version of ajapa-japa also – when you don’t depend on counting and touching and doing and rules and how many numbers and this and that, but it starts to be permanent. What is the self-vibration of the human body? How much hertz? Seven hertz is the self-vibration of the human body. The brain goes down to even smaller numbers in some phases. You know in the awake state, in dreaming, in deep sleep and in the fourth phase the brain cells have different vibration. But the general vibration of the body is seven hertz. So, minimum seven rounds per day.

Krishna Priya: And maximum?

Tirtha Maharaj: Maximum? Very good question! It is said that with every breath we should glorify God. What is the rate of your breath? Let’s calculate with eighteen. One minute – eighteen breaths. How much in one hour? Calculate!

Kripadham: 1,080.

Tirtha Maharaj: All right! Day is divided in two – day and night. Уou can skip the nights, because then you sleep. But during the day you have some 10,800 breaths. And as it is said that with every breath we should worship and glorify God, if you cannot do that, at least do hundred times less. And this is how much?

Yadunath: 108.

Tirtha Maharaj: 108. So the… well, I would not say the maximum chanting is 108 rounds. Haridas Thakur was chanting how much? 172 rounds, 300,000 names. You don’t have to imitate yet.

Real chanting is an art. Shrila Prabhupada said: “It took 30-40 years for me to chant nicely, to understand what is chanting.” Of course we don’t really agree with this, because he knew very well what is real chanting.

So, real chanting is not simply repetition of the names, but repetition plus feelings.