Boston, MA
All troubles and tribulations come from an impure heart.
Before chanting my japa, I remember with profit Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s poem that the maha-mantra is the potent medicine brought to us by Lord Caitanya to purify my heart of all impurities.
Taking time each day to chant the maha-mantra — without any other distraction — is the most important investment in my spiritual advancement. Such submission to the hearing process is in fact, the prime cause for advancing in spiritual life. Of all disciplines, attentive and regular repetition and hearing of Krsna’s divine names is the most fruitful.
In the Gita, Srila Prabhupada writes,
“The living entity, if he submits to this hearing process, will lose his long-cherished desire to dominate material nature, and gradually and proportionately, as he reduces his long desire to dominate, he comes to enjoy spiritual happiness.”(Bg 13.22)
And in the Srimad-bhagavatam, Kapiladeva gives his mother this valuable information:
“Bhakti, devotional service, dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat.” (SB 3.25.33)
To make progress in spiritual life and to feel real happiness, I must schedule time for uninterrupted, fully attentive hearing every day. Even a small dose of such hearing, done with intensity, will bear amazing results.
With gratitude and affection,
Vaisesika Dasa
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