Hare Krishna dear devotees,
I have started chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra,
I getup early to chant for 1 hour.
But the problem is i run out of breath during chanting, this breaks my concentration.
I stop to breathe in deeply through my nose and then chant but again i run out of breathe.
how should i breathe to chant continiously?
Please any tips you can give me will be appreciated.
Replies
Chanting continuously means chanting without breaking the rythm or speaking other matters in between and completely devoting your vaani(voice) to the mantra. It is not like you can't have a small pause for a breadth after one mahamatra recital. Infact people who chant slowly take 2-4 breadths one after first Hare Hare and second after second Hare Hare or after every four names in the mahamantra. It goes like this-->
Tempo 1(medium)-
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, (breadth 1)
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare,(breadth 2 and repeat)
Tempo 2(fast)-
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare,(breathe and repeat)
Tempo 3(slow)-
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna(breadth 1) Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,(breadth 2)
Hare Rama Hare Rama(breadth 3) Rama Rama Hare Hare,(breadth 4 and repeat)
It is not a hard and fast rule to follow any of these tempos but these are most commonly used by chanters. We can and should keep changing tempos in between our japa because sometimes it may so happen that we may feel sleepy due to concetrating on mahamatra on a single tempo(basic human behaviour....happens to me atleast😅) and it also generates more fun while chanting. See during the naam sankirtana the tempos change after regular periods and yes we see the effect that we remain concentrated to chanting rather than looking at the temple walls and ongoers.
So in short you can choose a tempo which lets you concentrate properly on the mahamantra which is the most important element of chanting.
http://youtu.be/G4QhFT9rz60 --> Here is a link for tempo 2 for you to get a more clear idea.
Hare Krishna🙏
I just chant... I do not pay attention to my breathing as it is an automatic function (the same as I do not pay attention to my breathing while talking). Bhakti yoga does not require special techniques.
Bhagavad-gita class, Date: March 26, 1968
Devotee (1): Swāmījī, I think she means that do you have to do any kind of breathing exercising besides chanting?
Prabhupāda: No. There is no breathing exercise or gymnastic. No. Nothing. The breathing exercise is there. When you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa there is breathing. There is nice breathing. Yes?