| Home | “…never eat your first meal of the day until all of yesterday’s rounds are finished.” |
Some people say that we should simply chant our japa on a circular string of 108 sacred tulasī beads (See: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=702), like Śrila Prabhupāda did, but Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “There are not even hard and fast rules for chanting these names.” [Śrī Śrī Śikṣāṣṭaka, Verse 2 - http://causelessmercy.com/TMG.htm?t=3818] Therefore, to say that it is wrong to count one’s rounds using a “clicker” is to say that Lord Caitanya is wrong, which is an offense.
1. Never use a bead bag. Always use a clicker. Then you’ll be able to chant discreetly in public places such as while using public transportation, while walking down the sidewalk, while using the laundromat, etc. A clicker will allow you to easily switch hands if you get tired of clicking with your right hand or if you get tired of carrying a heavy bag in your left hand.
A clicker will also allow you to easily count your rounds while chanting in bed, even on a cold winter’s night while bundled up under the covers or snuggled inside a warm sleeping bag!
2. Make it a habit to always chant while driving or riding in a car or other conveyance.
3. Whenever you get a chance, walk instead of driving. Not only will it give you more time to chant, but it’s good exercise and it will save on gasoline.
4. Relaxing sound effects such as a babbling brook, waves lapping against a shore, or the sounds of a forest make a good background for chanting. Such sound effects can be obtained for free on the Internet in the form of MP3 or WAV files. Soothing instrumental music, even if it is “mundane,” also makes a good background for chanting. Such backgrounds will not only relax you, but will also allow you to chant more loudly without feeling embarrassed or self-conscious.
5. Before taking your first meal of the day, try getting half of your rounds done, but, at the very least, make sure that all of yesterday’s rounds are done. (This means that the first meal of the day will represent the absolute latest dividing line between yesterday’s and today’s rounds instead of some impractical, rigid dividing line such as midnight.)
6. Before taking your second meal of the day, try getting all of your rounds done, but, at the very least, get half of them done.
7. Before taking rest for the night, try to get all of today’s rounds done.
8. If you get a good opportunity to chant japa after all of today’s rounds are finished, take advantage of it and count the rounds chanted as tomorrow’s. (Śrīla Prabhupāda authorized this, because many ISKCON temples begin “japa class” in the temple room at 5:15 am, which, in the Northern temples in the winter time, is long before sunrise, the beginning of the day according to the Vaiṣṇava calendar.)
“[Kṛṣṇa consciousness] is simple for the simple, but it is very hard for the crooked.” (From an initiation lecture by Śrīla Prabhupāda in Boston, December 26, 1969 - http://pratyatosa.com/691226IN.BOS.html?p=13)
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