Japa Retreat—Entering the Retreat Day 01

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: I’m very happy to be here between His Holiness Sacinandana Swami and His Grace Bhurijana Prabhu. This way, I can’t tip too far in either direction, that would keep me in the proper balance. Balance is really what the retreat is about, because most likely, well, it’s very difficult to maintain a proper balance when we are so busy with so many things. And the retreat is an opportunity for us to get away from the busyness and go deeper into our relationship with the holy name and Krishna, which in turn will enlighten and animate and invigorate everything else we do. But equally important, it will bring us closer to Krishna in a very immediate and personal and intimate way.

As others have said, “The time when we chant the holy name is our time with Krishna.” And to develop any relationship with anyone, we need to spend time with the person. I’ve heard it’s said that sometimes in a relationship between a husband and wife, the wife will say or the husband will say, “We need to spend more time together,” because relationships require time.

Once, many years ago, Bhurijana Prabhu said to me, “It takes time to be Krishna conscious.” And when I first heard the phrase, I thought he meant it’s a gradual process, it takes time. But he clarified and said, “You have to put time into the process.” So, the first thing is to spend time with Krishna, with the holy name. And when we spend time with Krishna or the holy name, we have to be attentive.

Again, coming back to the mundane example, “Okay, we don’t spend enough time together, we should spend time together. We should talk.” And then they sit down to talk, and one or the other is looking at his wristwatch, checking his SMSs or just maybe looking around the house, seeing what needs to be done. And the other will say, “I wanted to spend time with you. I’m talking to you. You are not even paying attention.” So, spending time and paying attention are basic requirements in any relationship, any interaction. And when we make that effort, as H.H. Sacinandana Swami said, “Very quickly, the holy name will reciprocate, or we will feel the reciprocation of the holy name.” If we just make that effort to hear the holy name and to either bring the mind back to the holy name or just disregard the mind when it wanders away, but to remain focused on the sound of the holy name.

And when the holy name sees that we are making that effort, the holy name will reciprocate. And we will understand by practical realization that the holy name is Krishna, nāma cintāmaṇiḥ kṛṣṇaś. The holy name is alive, it is conscious, and it reciprocates with our endeavors to develop our relationship with Him or with them by the effort to chant and hear with attention. And this is our service.

Once, our godsister, Kaushalya devi dasi, was organizing a program for Srila Prabhupada in Jaipur, and she met with an accident on the rickshaw and broke her arm. And Kaushalya was a very talented, dynamic young lady. She was always busy in some sort of service, and she did many services very expertly. But when she broke her arm, she couldn’t do service like she used to. So, she approached Srila Prabhupada, “Please, give me some service. I could do some service.” So first, Prabhupada said, “Well, you can do the accounts.” “I hate accounts.” And Prabhupada said, “Well, you can chant Hare Krishna.” And she said, “No, I want some service, I need some service.” And Prabhupada said, “Chanting Hare Krishna is service. It’s the best service.”

So, at this time, and again, in this wonderful association and this divine environment, our service is to chant and hear with attention.

Once, a disciple said to H.H. Radhanath Swami, “I am so enthusiastic to do service. I just love to do service so much. Even when I’m chanting, I’m thinking of different ways to do service.” So, Radhanath Swami replied, “Well, that’s nice. But when you are chanting, your service is to hear attentively. So, if you are thinking of other services while you are chanting, it means you are not doing your service of chanting and hearing properly.” So, you can do other service at the right time, but when you are chanting, your service is to hear and not to think of other service.

So, that is our basic purpose here, to chant and hear with attention. I mean, we want to chant and hear without offense, but Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that if one chants and hears with attention, then the other offenses will automatically be vanquished. And if we are inattentive while chanting, the other offenses will be allowed to continue and increase.

So, this is the most basic effort. We spend the time chanting anyway, so why not do it in such a way that we can really experience what chanting is supposed to be? It takes just as much time to chant sixteen inattentive rounds as it takes to chant sixteen attentive rounds. So, why not put in the effort to chant attentively? In fact, when you actually do begin to chant with attention, it’s easier. But it can be a struggle.

I don’t mean to say it’s easy, it can be a struggle. But at least having put our problems and issues in the boxes and locked them up, we don’t have to contend with anything external. It’s a very simplified arena. It’s just me, the holy name, and the mind. There should be no real reason from outside why I have to deal with anything else. And in that simplified arena, we can pray to the holy name to help us to chant with attention.

Of course, we may have many prayers, but because our basic focus during the japa is to chant with attention, we can pray to the holy name to help us chant with attention. And just making that effort will please the holy name. Even if at first, we are not so successful in actually bringing the mind to rest on the holy name, but just the fact that we are spending time with the holy name because we’ve all come here from different places to be at Barsana and this association to chant. That much will give pleasure to the holy name. And then beyond that, whatever we can do to really chant with attention will be even further appreciated. And the holy name will reciprocate. We will actually feel the holy name acting as a person to encourage us.

Now, the reciprocation may not always be immediate. Sometimes we have to be a little patient, but we shouldn’t give up if we don’t get an immediate result. At the beginning of Kartik was Sharad Purnima. We might have recalled the story of Krishna and the gopīs, following the gopīs on the night of Sharad Purnima, and how they came to Him and then He left them. And then when He came back, they, very indirectly, challenged Him. Indirectly, they accused Him of not reciprocating with them. They left everything to come to Him. He called them with His flute song, and they came to Him and then He left them.

And eventually, Krishna replied, “I was never far away from you. I was always near you. And I was watching you and hearing you. And I know that your heart’s innermost desire was to increase your love for Me. And by removing Myself from you, I was actually reciprocating with your heart’s deepest desire, because in My absence and My separation, your love for Me increased.”

So, sometimes Krishna may not reciprocate immediately, and we cannot order Krishna, “Come on, come on, come on,” and challenge Him, “We are chanting for half an hour, come on.” We can’t order Krishna. We are fully dependent on His mercy. But we should know that even if He doesn’t reciprocate immediately in a very obvious way, He is listening to us. We should be conscious of that. And He is mindful of our efforts. And He deals with each and every one of us in a very personal way in the way that’s best for each of us.

But we have to keep our focus on reviving our relationship with Him. Our relationship with Him is already there, but somehow, we’ve forgotten our relationship. And the beginning of reviving our relationship is this effort; to chant the holy name with attention.

And I can only repeat what others have said, because the mind is such that it may have to be repeatedly reminded because it’s always ready to go here and there and find some excuse not to chant or to consider something else more important than chanting. So, I’m repeating that with great effort and difficulty, we’ve come here. We’ve sacrificed time, money, comforts, maybe even some degree of help to be here. We are in the best place, at the best time, in the best association. So, we should take full advantage. We don’t know if we’ll get such an opportunity again. We don’t know what will happen in the next year or the next month, we don’t know. So, we should take full advantage.

I’ll just conclude with one thought that just came to mind. Recently in Vrindavan, we had Madhava Prabhu leading kirtan for six hours every day. And Madhava Prabhu could chant the same tune for hours. He’d just close his eyes and chant the same tune for hours without doing anything else. And one devotee asked him, “When you close your eyes and just chant the holy name hour after hour, what are you thinking?” And Madhava Prabhu replied, “I’m thinking that each mantra I chant could be the last one I ever chant.” And that is a very profound statement.

Of course, we like to believe that most likely, the mantras we chant here won’t be our last, but we should have that mentality of chanting, “This could be the last mantra I ever chant.” And eventually, there will be a last mantra. And it will come to that. And so, we should practice chanting. So, I wish you all the best and look forward to spending the next days with you. Hare Krishna.