April 23, 2:05 A.M.
I woke a little late, said prayers, and started japa a little late, so I rushed the first six rounds. The sixth one was 6 minutes 25 seconds. Rushing is all right, but of course I am supposed to be praying and savoring and worshiping the holy name. I don’t have anything to say about that. I am always dissatisfied and always eager to do more. Maybe I will overcome the worst and improve, but even when I do better I realize that it still isn’t much.
One devotee I know who doubted the potency of the holy name (and who later gave up chanting) said he could not tell for certain whether his spiritual life was due to chanting or to something else, such as reading, or God’s grace. But we cannot refuse the main recommendation and Srila Prabhupada’s specific quota of a mere sixteen rounds.
One gain from this japa-vrata of three weeks is that I realize the insignificance of sixteen rounds. Srila Prabhupada said, “Sixteen rounds is nothing. My spiritual master used to say that unless one chants at least sixty-four rounds of japa, he is considered fallen (patita).” So Srila Prabhupada has leniently reduced this to an unavoidable number. “According to his calculation, practically every one of us is fallen, but because we are trying to serve the Supreme Lord with all seriousness and without duplicity, we can expect the mercy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is famous as patita-pavana, the deliverer of the fallen” (_Nectar of Instruction_, p. 54). And: “Such chanting must be offenseless in order to be of high quality. Mechanical chanting is not as powerful as chanting the holy name without offenses” (_C.c._, Adi 10.43, purport)
(_Begging for the Nectar of the Holy Name_)
JAPA POEM
Prabhupada said, “Sixteen rounds is nothing.”
His spiritual master taught
that if one cannot chant
sixty-four rounds, he is “fallen.”
Our Prabhupada knew that we
couldn’t do sixty-four, so he
gave the drastic
minimum, sixteen rounds.
Because we are
seriously trying, we can
expect the mercy of
Lord Caitanya who is patita-pavana.
But the chanting
must be without offenses.