Giriraj Swami read and spoke from Bhagavad-gita 9.3 during the Sunday Krishna Fest in Dallas.
“I was at an airport in America with Srila Prabhupada when a reporter asked him, ‘What does this chanting achieve?’ Srila Prabhupada smiled broadly—this oceanic, effulgent smile—looked at the reporter and replied, ‘Chanting accomplishes chanting.’ There is nothing higher than chanting. And chanting accomplishes more chanting. In the beginning, one may chant a certain number of rounds as a regulative principle, which is good. But later, when we develop taste, we don’t want to stop chanting; it’s as if twenty-four hours is not enough. A devotee at a retreat commented that earlier he felt that chanting was something that got in the way of his life but now he feels that his life is something that gets in the way of his chanting. Srila Rupa Gosvami prayed, ‘With one mouth and two ears, what can I chant? If I had millions of mouths and billions of ears then I could begin to chant.’ Because there is so much relish. One mouth and two ears is not enough. That taste follows from associating with devotees who have taste.”