Sravanam (hearing) is the first of the nine items of bhakti. Kirtanam(chanting) is the second. These two processes go hand in hand. One chants, one hears, both are rendering devotional service and thus adding capital to their spiritual bank account. In regards to hearing my Guru Maharaj often quotes the saying that goes, “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Meaning we should be at least twice as eager to hear than to speak. Of course this must be understood in the proper context. In the company of materialists whose motive is to drag us down into material consciousness, we should be more eager to speak than hear. Yet in the company of devotees, specifically senior devotees who have much more experience in devotional life than we do we should be more eager to hear from them rather than speak.Something I have noted is that many times inexperienced devotees are very much eager to speak their realizations or to jump in when someone else preaching. It’s not that this is merely an observation, but I have firsthand experience of being that neophyte devotee eager to speak my two cents at said times. Typically devotees are very tolerant and kind and will not check us in doing this but, humbly encourage us and gently correct any mistakes we have made in speaking. Recently I have seen this escalated to the next level, where devotees think that in actuality many of the standards Srila Prabhupada set are in fact not right, but rather based upon some material attachments or mundane upbringing or what have you that Srila Prabhupada had. His Grace Hari Sauri Prabhu wrote about this in his blog, here(part 1) and here(part 2).Hari Sauri Prabhu nicely explains Srila Prabhupada’s position pointing out that he was not just another conditioned soul but rather a shakti-avesa-avatar (empowered representative of Krishna) sent here to spread the chanting of Hare Krishna around the world. No other acarya in the history of the world has done what Srila Prabhupada has done. Seeing things in this light, how is it that an ordinary fallen conditioned soul can dare to claim that they have a way that is superior to Srila Prabhupada’s. That only if we allow unrestricted sex life, or some meat eating, or playing sports or hearing mundane music or eating karmi grains or whatever other attachment that you can think of…..can the world become Krishna conscious. Srila Prabhupada greatly reduced the standards of sadhana-bhakti to accommodate the Western mentality. He distilled the process of Krishna consciousness down to the very essence, giving us a prescription whereby we would be able to at least keep our heads just above the raging waters of the material energy. Who do we think we are that we can change that?As my Guru Maharaj often reminds us, “the process is perfect, but our practice is not”. While I may not be a perfect Prabhupadanuga or even close, and I have my fair share of struggles in attempting to live up to the standards Srila Prabhupada has set. I fully accept that that the process he has given us is perfect. There is no need to change anything about the process, there is simply a need to change ourselves.Hare Krsna.
Whoever has claimed they have a better way than the way shown by Srila Prabhupada are misled. Japa is the highest spiritual practice, and among Japa practices, although many such practices exist, Harinaam Japa is the highest.Some schools of yoga teach Japa on syllables (Om,and other mantras).That only leads people to an impersonal platform, Brahmagyan, or knowledge of Brahman and Brahmjyoti, but Parabrahman, the Supreme Lord remains hidden behind the effulgence of Brahmjyoti.Those who sincerely accept the Harinaam,and practice chanting it daily, will attain the perfection of Bhakti. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
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