Taste or no taste- you are getting a lot of mercy!

Sometimes we think that, “My chanting, to be very honest, is hopeless. My chanting is of such a bad quality that when I try to chant and fix my mind on the Holy Name it tends to go everywhere and anywhere except the Name. Even if by chance it touches the Name, than it is for a micro second. It is very, very difficult to concentrate while chanting.” What can be said?

Some people become discouraged when they think of how much stress there is in the scripture about the attentive chanting. And they feel actually thoroughly discouraged because-it does not work- no matter what they do. And they feel very guilty, and thus their spiritual life is just mixed with guilt and failure and depression and all these type of things.

Not required! Of course we must try to improve our concentration in chanting. And there are techniques, and we will get to that. But first of all one has to have the faith that even if my chanting is not perfect- it does not matter- in one sense- because at least if I am trying, than it is nama-abhasa, and nama-abhasa will purify the heart without the doubt. This works anyway- one makes anyway spiritual advancement. And because of that purification eventually one will come to pure chanting. In this way we should with full courage, and with great hope embark upon the chanting of the Maha Mantra.

And we should realize the even although I have no taste for this chanting, that also does not matter. Someone wrote me a letter and it was one of these letters, “I have stopped chanting, because I just have no taste for it”, that’s it- I have no taste. So what? Who cares that you have no taste? You are getting a lot of mercy. Taste or no taste- you are getting a lot of mercy from it. Maybe the taste is not there, but the mercy is just amazing! So therefore do it anyway.

Not everything in this world is so full of taste, but if it is beneficial - you do it. You are also working- that is also not always full of taste, but you like the money. Isn’t it? Yes? Well, this chanting is a lot of wealth- spiritual wealth- not just material wealth. Because material wealth is temporary and how much pleasure can it give… besides that it is temporary, the pleasure that one gets from material wealth is limited. And the nature of matter is that it is basically different form spirit, and therefore it can never offer fulfillment to the soul. So no matter how good it is in the material world, even if it is the best- it is still not good enough to satisfy the soul.

Yes, whereas a spirit is of a different nature. In the material sense the dream is always greater than the reality- Have you also experienced that? Your dream- than- the reality… yes… The spiritual reality- the dream and then the reality exceeds the dream. In the spiritual sense, the reality is greater than anything one could dream.

(HH Kadamba Kanana Swami 20.06.2009 Cc-Mad-17-133)