Hare krishna devotees. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees of the Lord.
I had a question that i have been ignorant to ask for a while. I am now putting it here. Please solve my doubt.
Dear Devotees i am currently a B.Tech CSE undegraduate student in my 2nd year. Due to absence of exposure of the pure devotees of the Lord i had been an ignorant and materialistic person throughout my life until....By the grace of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada my sister bought home Bhagwat gita as it is and that too because she got it from a friend of her's who gave it to my sister for just RS 10 as she already had some other copy of Bhagwat gita at her home. So that's how i came to know that a thing like ISKCON exists. I have been following the principles taught by Gaudiya Viashnav Acarayas for past two years. I follow four regulative principles. Wake up at 3:45 A.M and Chant 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mahamantra attentively siiting in trance on Tulsi Mala (I was already chanting for one year before i came to know that uninitiated devotees chant on Neem mala so i continued) after observing online mangala Aarti. Initially 16 rounds felt self satisfying but by the grace of the Lord my taste in Naam developed a little and i was unsatisfied with just 16 rounds. Now as i told you that i am B.Tech student, i had to attend classes from 9 A.M-5 P.M which leaves me very exhaustive such that i find myself unable to sit into trance and do Japa. However i invented a solution which was that i buyed a Hand tally counter which is basically a simplistic device that keeps the count of Japa(To avoid any offense to Tulsi Mala) to chant throughout whole day whether it be attending classes or sitting idle.
Now the thing is that the Japa i do on Hand Tally counter is not very attentive(almost negligible sometimes) such that i utter the Mahamantra but doesn't listen attentively due to me being engaged in classes and other activities and by this i am able to do even 100-120 rounds per day. Is this type of chanting offensive....like chant attentively whenever you want otherwise do not because the the name of the Lord is identical to him so when you utter his name he is present and you have to recieve him by the agency of your ears and if you are not hearing the mantra you are disregarding the Lord although you don't mean to. So my question is that whether i can continue doing this routine of 16 rounds attentive japa on tulsi mala and rest rounds on Hand tally counter non attentively. Is there any harm in doing this?
Replies
Hare Krishna @Chetan Singh Prabhu ji,
First of all. You are really doing great. In Kaliyuga chaniting 16 rounds itself is becoming tough esp. with the mind which is wandering here and there.
If you are following regulative principles you are eligible to chant on Tulasi mala . If not stick to neam mala.
I think now you are following regulative principles so that makes you eligible to chant on tulasi mala without any hindarance.
One more important thing yes as you said Tulasi mala jaap should be done carefully, You cannot do simply sitting anywhere and carrying it around. Well some people do it by carrying in a bag and taking to to every place.
But one thing one must follow is Tulasi mala Japa if u want to do at all places, you must use a bead bag and bead bad should be hanging around you neck not long enough that then the belly button.
You cannot hold it under a table and chant so that during ur class or lecture teacher cannot see it.. If you do so .. then Tulasi mala is below ur belly button which is NOT RIGHT!!!
Tulasi mala should always be held at the heart level or at max above bellybutton not below that .. It become offense.
In place of tulasi mala you can use a counter when you are chanting at any other place.
But yes what u are doing is good.!!!
chanting on Mala strictly 16 rounds attentively and rest of day chanting on counter ..
Naam mahima is very great!!!
You know what Prahalaad maharaj has said in Hari ashtakam?
Stanza 1
" Hari: harati pApAni dushta chitthairapi smrita:
anicchayApi samsprishtO dahatyEva hi pAvaka:
SrI Hari is the specialist , who destroys our sins completely whether we utter His name sincerely or not and with knowledge about the glory of that name or not . The utterance of the "SrI Hari naamam burns away our sins just as Agni scorches us , whether we touch it knowingly or not:
Place faith on the name. Name itself burns away ur sins even when done inattentively also.
Hare Krishna
Thank you mataji for this valuable response. It cleared up my doubt. Keep guiding devotees like us in the future. May lord bless you.
Hare Krishna 🙏
Actually it's because non initiated devotees may sometimes commit offense unto the tulsi mala...so that's why non initiated devotees prefer to chant on neem mala because in this way they don't have to worry about the offenses. But still if one is trying his or her best in being offenseless then he may continue chanting on the tulsi beads.
Hare Krishna prabhuji. I didn't quite got the jest. I am already doing 16 rounds on mala. I was just confirming that the way I do japa the rest of my day is offenseless or ok. It may seem like a silly question as one would tell me to use my own mind that lord gave me but honestly if I listen to my mind , I wouldn't even be able to continue on my path of bhakti because my mind is accumulated with a bunch of unnecessary thoughts earned through lifetime. So that's why I prefer to ask the devotees who I believe are capable of guiding me and have done excellently in the past.
Hare Krishna 🙏
I'll keep that in my mind. Although i filter the responses offered by the devotees based on the sastra evidence they provide and there are many genuine devotees that provide a solution that really solves my doubt. Thank you for responding to my question. I expect to seek timely favours from you in the future.
Hare Krishna 🙏