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Japa Thoughts

December 15th, 2007

December 13, 2007
Sri Govardhana

Post-Kartik Japa Thoughts:

At the end of Kartik, I asked Jayadvaita Swami about his Kartik vrata. 

“No newspapers,” he replied.

Really?

“No newspapers.”

His answer always seemed a bit impish. It was the same response he gave for the last three years whenever I asked him about his vrata. This time I get the impression that he was serious. I got an important message:

What is separating us from God is our false ego—the manner in this life in which we delimit consciousness to a particular conception of a non-devotee, an enjoyer based on the body. We choose and view mundane news and other frivolous activities according to our tastes and ego in this life. By absorbing ourselves in such activities, we only fortify the false ego, our artificial non-devotional identify for this life.

I also now made that vow*.  It really helps my chanting.  How? The basis of chanting is sambandha, a sense of relationship with Krishna. More and more we have to chant the holy name as our eternal relationship with Him A serious chanter thus has to give up, as much as practical, things fortifying the material identity, the sense of separateness from God. The web, except for occasional pertinent information, is simply swimming in the ocean of ahankara. At best it anchors us to an identity that prevent us from being a servant of God and relishing the holy name.  At worst it is a recipe for misery, encaging us deeply in the bodily concept of life.

* I skim the news once in a week. Otherwise I avoid the internet, except for email.

 

December 14, 2007
Sri Govardhana

Japa thought:

Yesterday I wrote:

“More and more we have to chant the holy name as our eternal relationship with Krishna.”

The holy name is Krishna. How can it also be our eternal relationship with Him? Serving Krishna by glorifying His name is the activity of one’s soul. It is thus our relationship with Krishna. I thus chant as a servant of Krishna feeling satisfaction that this is who I am—the devotee in relationship to Krishna, chanting His name.

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