Question: Is Chanting Four Rounds Purely Enough?What is the importance of following Srila Prabhupada's order to chant at least 16 rounds daily of the Hare Krishna mahamantra on japa mala beads? If a person is so busy that he can only chant four rounds daily but does it with purity, is this right or not?ShailendraAnswer: Pure Chanting Naturally IncreasesIf the doctor prescribes that you need a certain amount of medicine in order to recover your health and you decide independently that you know better than the doctor and you will cut the dosage to one half or to one quarter, what will happen? You will remain sick.Similarly, when the spiritual master prescribes that you need to chant at least 16 rounds daily in order to recover from the disease known as the cycle of birth and death, what will be the result? You will remain in the cycle of birth and death.Purity means to obey the spiritual master. If we disobey the spiritual master that is impurity. There is no question of purity when we disobey the spiritual master.Are you too busy to eat? No. You will somehow or other find time to eat, even if you are super busy. Eating is feeding the body, which is a mere covering of the self. Chanting 16 rounds is the basic diet for feeding the soul, the actual self within. Therefore, if there is purity, your taste for japa will automatically increase and you will naturally find the time to increase the number of your rounds to at least 16, just as you always find time to eat. Pure chanting is not stagnant. It is dynamic, ecstatic, and ever-increasing.Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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