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Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna

Bhakti Yoga-Devotional Service to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna
Gopis performing Devotional Service to the Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna

Why do we chant 16 rounds, what is special about this number?


Question: Why do we chant 16 rounds, what is special about this number?

Srila Guru Maharaj: Actually in some places, in the Vedas, it is said that if you chant 100,000 names of Krsna, that is enough to get you back to the spiritual world. So the number is 100,000 which should be 64 rounds. But then Prabhupada, when he came to the west, he found that the people are active and so many requirements, he said that if we do a regular practice of Bhakti yoga, of service, so that more or less we are always staying in the yoga environment, then even 16 rounds should be enough. So then he would guarantee us to get back to Godhead in this one lifetime, to get back to the spiritual world.
We are all spiritual in nature and we are taking so many births here in the material world. To end the cycle of repeated birth and death, that requires some spiritual focus. So he is saying that if you do 16 and follow a very good lifestyle then you can get back in this one lifetime. He would promise that. But as Minister of Congregational Development and Community Development,  I am seeing people who are not living in temples, 99% of all our followers are practicing from home. So many people obviously they are not able to chant 16 rounds, some chant 8 rounds or 4 rounds. At least chant something that is a minimum, because that brings steadiness in your spiritual progress. It also helps you to control the mind and make a decision to do something and actually do it. One has to know what you can do as a regular thing, 1 round or 2 rounds or 4. It may not be guaranteed that you may go back to Godhead but maybe someone can go back to Godhead . But they have to start somewhere and later get taste when you chant more rounds. It is more of an experience. With the first 4 rounds you feel peaceful, the next 4-8 you start to get some energy and after the 8th to the 16th you actually get the spiritual taste in the mouth and heart and you start to develop a deeper spiritual reciprocation with the chanting, the living mantra. The mantras are living, they are spiritual, they are alive and dynamic.

I had a situation once where just as I was newly practicing; I was working outside in a restaurant.Although my parents and grandparents were very wealthy due to emergencies I was working in a restaurant. The person who was the cook there he suddenly fainted. So everybody there ran but didn't know how to revive him. That time I was already chanting and practicing Bhakti yoga. I didn't know what to do but I went over and just chanted Hare Krsna in his ear and then all of a sudden he started like shaking and his eyes opened and sat up. He looked around and he asked me 'What is it you chanted?I left my body and from Montreal reached Belgium. Somehow this astral body was out of my gross material body and when you chanted this Hare Krsna, at first I felt very far away.Then it got louder and louder there was reverse echo. It was not static, it was dynamic, it filled my whole system. It brought back my astral body to my gross body and then I came back to consciousness.' This was for me also  interesting, to know how this mantra is dynamic and how it increases in our consciousness and how it purifies our different emotions and thoughts.

So try to do your minimum chanting and that will build up. 16 rounds will amount to 10 million names in a year. Prabhupada's guru had also told his followers that those who are living as monks in the temple they were advised to do 64 rounds. But those who are going out and preaching and doing different activities, he said 16 will be enough. So Prabhupada has kept it at 16. 64 is pretty much out of the range. Just fix some minimum number.

HH Jayapataka Swami Srila Guru Maharaj
Atlanta, Georgia, September 2007
 
chant
Hare Krsna  Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
 





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If we keep jumping about something to everyone without considering the situation, it's fanaticism

Sometimes it becomes a habit for devotees to just keep making statements from the sastras and always saying contradictory things without the ability to see how it can be applied in practice in the current situation. They simply repeat the statements from their leaders and not be independently thoughtful like the story of horse with boil at neck. It's actually escaping from taking responsibility. It's a habit for men to say whatever they want to say. But the point is they don't consider the consequences. If we have to criticize someone or something positively, We have to be very careful about the audience and make sure that it really helps them and those around without creating scars in their hearts <3. Otherwise we are just doing more harm to the society and ourselves as well.

Yours
Dinesh

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Panca Tattva Deity Installation - Sri Dham Mayapur 2004





--
Yours
Dinesh
Blog:http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.com

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Who is uncivilized?

Business plot 

India is well known for its rich cultural
heritage, spirituality and philosophy. The British eased the transportation system in India by bridges, railways and other means and the Indians liked this part of British. The British  were also freely distributing free tasty tea drinks all over to promote the business of tea manufacturing within India and abroad. They imported tea plants and started growing tea plants within India to export and make local business. There's no history of people in India drinking tea before that.

Internal civil wars:

After all these, the British called Indians as uncivilized and saying that they are making Indians civilized. Actually it is a masterplan for the British to plunder the natural resources and the surplus wealth in India by creating internal riots and using politics. Foolish Indians didn't understand the rich spiritual culture and its value by then and even now. 
  
Language

People in India were self sufficient and leading simple happy lives. To break the culture, the British introduced the English language and their educational system which all of us now pursue and suffer. They made people think vedic literature, the scriptures and the cultural  things of India as useless. Earlier people were simply reading scriptures and performing dance, drama and other arts as their main profession.

Spread of Christianity

Some of the vedic literature were manipulated, edited reprinted by the British to give the Indians a false understanding that Jesus as part of the vedic writings and so they urged and used certain tactics to spread Christianity. Even today poverty is used as a means to spread Christianity. There are many monster leaders  around the world that create groups of people with a particular identity and at appropriate times provoke the group to create civil wars and internal inflexibilities in the country.

Economy

People in India need not work like asses in factories and industries for making plastic, iron products which are not really required. Agriculture has been the backbone of India for millions of years. Ask everyone in the major cities that majority of the people don't like the stressful life in the big cities. If we do farming we can grow our own food and no need to even travel long. So food will not be dependent on oil prices then. And the economy was not based on oil as like now. It was based on food grains, gold and gems and other precious stones and ornaments.
The paper based economy has no real value in it if the government fails. 


Who is civilized?

People in India who predominantly followed the vedic literature or sanatana dharma were highly civilized for millions of years in the history and ruled the whole world. 

Running like asses everyday to factories to work, what civilization is this? It's merely animal civilization that's all. 

Yours
Dinesh

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