Dear mind, I say you are the only hope, but I know that the greatest hope is from the Vaisnavas who bathe us in Krishna consciousness and free our minds and senses from material meditation. Still, in terms of the group of sub-persons who equal this one jiva with all his functions, our hope is that you, dear mind, will be humble and try your best. That’s all I’m asking. I know by nature you are fickle—that’s a scriptural statement. You are cancala. You are difficult to control. I can only beg you. Part of begging for the nectar of the holy name is to beg my own mind to please cooperate.
(_Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name_)
Dear Mind, please concentrate …
Complete concentration is necessary. Otherwise
your rounds are done, but they aren’t done well.
You’re just trying to get the job done,
like a factory worker. You get the credit
that “I chanted my rounds,” but there will be
far more credit if you chant with the right quality.
Attentive doesn’t mean only that you don’t
fall asleep or that you don’t leave off a “Hare”,
but it means being attentive to how
Krishna may reveal within your heart
more understanding of the holy name.
But you have to concentrate. Anything that you
want to do well, you have to think about it, and
you have to put other things out of your mind
in order to do it. That’s the very basic definition
of concentration. Concentrated is only one thing,
nothing diluted, nothing impure—just the essence.
The karmis concentrate so that they get
the most out of sense gratification. A yogi,
a bhakti-yogi, has to concentrate also
with all his senses and his mind. We
actually chant japa for just a couple of hours,
but it should be done with concentration.
It’s an easy process. It’s not a hard process—
you just have to chant and hear.
You don’t have to sit in a certain place and
control your breath and give up food.
It’s an easy process for
somebody who’s not very austere—
meaning the average soul in the Kali-yuga—
but it’s also the topmost process.
So if you can’t do even this easy process,
then literally there’s no hope for you.
What other hope is there if you can’t chant?
(_Japa Reform Notebook_)