Question: What are the different stages of chanting? How can one understand that one’s chanting is good and pure? Is there any unit to measure the purity of the chanting?
Answer by Romapada Swami: The three stages of chanting are as follows: offensive stage (nama aparadha), clearing stage (nama abhasa) and pure chanting (shuddha nama). In the beginning, a neophyte devotee may commit many offenses while chanting the Holy Name, and the stage of trying to overcome these offenses is called the clearing stage. One has to know what the ten offenses to the Holy Names are, as we recite in our temples every morning, and diligently try to avoid them. The degree to which one has overcome these offenses is the measure of one’s purity in chanting.
