Question: While chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra sometimes the mind deviates and I am not able to concentrate on the chanting. How to obtain the concentration while chanting the holy name of the Lord always? Please clarify.
Answer by Romapada Swami: This is an exhaustive topic! It can be discussed endlessly from many angles. Earlier we discussed this in Digest 20B. Some further thoughts: When Prabhupada was asked this question, he replied very simply — “Just chant and hear, where is the question of mind?” !! In other words, initially we should try to focus upon just hearing the sound vibration, chant and hear and chant and hear. By practicing like that in a sustained manner, the mind becomes captured between the senses of hearing and speaking. In fact, that is the meaning of mantra: man=mind, tra=that which delivers. By focusing on the mantra one becomes delivered from the material mind. Setting aside the best part of one’s day for chanting, especially the early morning hours when one is undisturbed by other responsibilities is especially helpful in this effort.
Another more fundamental feature is to try to call upon Krishna from the core of one’s heart, in a very prayerful attitude: “My dear Krsna! I am Your eternal servant. Having turned my attention away from you, I have fallen into this miserable material existence. Let me take shelter of You. Please engage me in Your service.” The japa time is thus a period of continuous prayer, calling out to Krishna helplessly, like a lost child crying for its mother. The material mind is just an external feature of the conditioned soul. As Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, the soul is higher than the mind and intelligence. When we offer our soul, our very self at the lotus feet of the Holy Name, in a mood of surrender, inattentive and mechanical chanting automatically ceases.
