Entering Into the Mood and Meaning of the Mantra
The maha mantra is a prayer in which the devotee petitions the Lord for pure love. Yet we may sometimes chant in another mood, a mood disconnected from the meaning and intent of the maha mantra. This kind of chanting tends to be more of a mindless repetition of sounds than a prayer full of emotion. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said (real) chanting is not lip deep, it is heart deep. And Prabhupada said the quality of one’s chanting depends on feeling. Feeling is first expressed in the heart before it’s expressed in words. If you say something you don’t mean, it doesn’t communicate. It is when you speak from the heart that it enters another’s heart. The same is true with chanting. Krsna is moved by love, not by parrot like repetition. Our challenge is not just to get our rounds done. It is to bring devotional meditation into our chanting. Chanting is a sacred communication. It is not a ritual. It is not a mechanical, mindless robotic process. It is an offering of the heart, a pleading for mercy, a begging to be accepted by the Lord. It is a crying of the soul to be engaged eternally in the Lord’s service. The emotions these moods invoke nourish our chanting. Devotees often ask, “Should I be thinking of anything when I chant or should I just hear the mantra? And if I just hear the mantra, how can I entertain thoughts that nourish the proper emotions?” When I was young my mother would take me across the street to play with my friend. When I wanted to come home, I would stand across the street from my house and yell, “Mommy.” I didn’t yell, “Come and cross me,” or “I miss you and I really want to come home now.” Yet just by saying “Mommy” I meant all of this. And she understood and felt this. Similarly, so many feelings and desires for Radha and Krsna are meant to be communicated through Their Names (all while focused on hearing). To help you better enter into the proper mood of chanting, I am listing some meanings of the maha mantra given to us by Srila Prabhupada and other acaryas. Chanting is like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. “Please engage me in your service.” “Oh my friend. Oh my friend.” “Please accept me.”“O Krsna, please pull my heart to you.”“O Krsna, may I please develop a taste for serving you.”“O Krsna, please attract my mind and free me from material bondage.”“O Radha, please make me qualified for serving you.”“O Radha, please show me how to serve you.” “O Radha, I beg you to be pleased with me.”
In his commentary on the Brahma Samhita, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes, “Study and try to enter into the spirit of this hymn with great care and attention …”
In the same vein, let us enter into the spirit of the maha mantra so that the proper devotional moods enter our hearts while chanting.
(By Mahatma dasa)
