Question: In your presentation yesterday you shared that by reciting Sanskrit mantras, the sound has various positive effects. Does the effect depend on with what consciousness one chants? If I am inattentive, is the effect different than when chanted with being present with the names?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Yes, attentiveness has everything to do with the rate of benefit one receives from chanting of Sanskrit mantras. Here is a very simple example to help understand this fact. Suppose you want to cook rice. You put a certain amount of water, a certain amount of rice, and a certain amount of salt in the pot. Next, you have a flame or fire that will be used to cook the rice in the pot. Suppose you place the pot six feet above the flame. Do you think the rice will cook quickly or slowly? Because the heat is rising, chances are the rice will eventually cook. However, if you place the pot very close to the flame, the rice will cook more quickly.
Of course, this is a very simple example, but it can give some idea or picture in the mind of how attentiveness will help the effectiveness of the mantra to give benefits to the chanter.
