10 Affirmations for Chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra
Sound has the ability to affect our consciousness to a large extent. The quality of sound vibration that goes into our ears determines the quality of our consciousness. Sound has the highest capturing potency; our ideas, conceptions and visions all come to us from sound. We can transform our lives depending on the sound vibration that we hear. The Yoga texts recommend the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra as the prime sound vibration for this age which is full of anxiety and distress. The Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, is a spiritual sound vibration which brings us out of bodily consciousness and attaches our consciousness to the Supreme consciousness.
Chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra:
(1) helps to revive awareness of your spiritual identity;
(2) helps to revive awareness of your connection with the Supreme being; and
(3) gives awareness of the love Supreme and the dynamics of the reciprocal relationship between your spiritual self and the Supreme spiritual self.
Thus, it is important that we spend time working on our internal attitude and motivation for chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. In this article, we will explore the practice of affirmations to help improve and increase our presence while chanting. Saying affirmations out loud and meditating on their core meanings before chanting the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra may allow us to further enhance our chanting experience.
1. I chant to be accepted by Krishna, and to repair my broken relationship with Him
Have the desire and the need to reconnect with the Supreme, Lord Krishna, after having been separated from Him for so many lifetimes. Envision yourself as a child who has run away from their parents (Krishna) and after many years of suffering wants to be accepted again. Chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra enables you to rekindle and revive your relationship with the Supreme being.
2. I chant from my heart, feelingly praying to come closer to Krishna
Connect deeply with what the Holy Name, the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra means. Chanting of the Holy Name means “Krishna please engage me in Your service”, “Krishna please accept me”, “Krishna please bring me closer to you”, “Krishna please purify me”, “Krishna please uplift me”. If you had to translate the feeling of the Maha-mantra intro words it would say, “Krishna I want to come closer to you, I want to serve you, I want to be pure”.
3. I meditate on the meaning of the Holy Name as I chant
Be conscious on an emotional level of what the Maha-mantra means. In order to connect deeply with the Holy Name, we have to cultivate an appropriate mood before and whilst chanting. Ask yourself “Why am I chanting?”, “What is the goal of chanting?”, “What does chanting mean?”. This may help to bring your consciousness and heart in alignment with the meaning of the Holy Name.
4. I turn off my world and turn on Krishna’s world when I chant my rounds
Create an internal space free from distractions when you begin chanting japa. Tell your mind that you are turning off from everything, for example, turn off tasks that have to be carried out for the day. This enables you to control your mind better while chanting. We are able to turn off our world when we are reading a book for example or when we are engaged in a particular hobby, so turning off our world while chanting the Maha-mantra should not be so difficult.
Also, it is useful to create a “time free zone” early in the morning by imagining that your day will start only after japa. So, for example, if your day usually begins at 6am, wake up earlier to chant japa and remind yourself before chanting that the day has not yet started. In this way, there is nothing to think about other than Krishna during your japa session.
5. I chant with no other motive than to render pure devotional service
Chant the Maha-mantra in a humble state of mind, with the mood that you are an eternal servant of Krishna. Chanting with this mood helps to awaken a pure service attitude. Krishna descends in His name when we chant the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra with a service attitude.
6. My beads are my connection with Krishna and my ticket back to Godhead
Make chanting the Maha-mantra the most important activity of your day. Srila Prabhupada said that the real purpose of reading his books is to convince you to chant the Holy Name as chanting the Maha-mantra is the most important process in devotional service.
7. I am totally dependent on Guru and Krishna to chant quality japa every day
Remind yourself that your efforts to chant the Maha-mantra more effectively attract the mercy of Guru and Krishna. When you endeavour to improve your japa, Guru and Krishna reciprocate by helping you improve in the ways you are endeavouring to. In other words, mercy comes in proportion to your efforts.
8. I organize my life to make japa the most important activity of my day
Be aware of how your lifestyle, attitude and activities are supporting your chanting. The more you change your lifestyle, around the sound vibration of the Maha-mantra, the more your consciousness will change. The more your consciousness changes, the more your lifestyle will change. Purified consciousness leads to purified lifestyle, and purified lifestyle leads to purified consciousness. Therefore, it is important to consciously organize your lifestyle to support better chanting of the Maha-mantra.
9. I make excellent japa my standard and focus on continually improving
Set a high standard internally for japa. What you give importance to, you do well. If you give more importance to your japa, it will naturally improve. Reading books and/or listening to lectures on how to chant the Maha-mantra may keep you focused on how to chant better.
10. I relish chanting the Holy Name
Be grateful to be blessed with an opportunity to be able to chant the Maha-mantra. When you chant, your consciousness is transformed, and all impurities can be cleansed. Chanting of the Maha-mantra elevates your consciousness to its original state of purity. In this way, remind yourself that, you, the soul, certainly relish chanting the Holy Name every single day.
The Hare Krishna Maha-mantra is a transformative sound vibration. Chanting and hearing of the Maha-mantra not only transforms our consciousness, but it also allows us to become agents for change for society at large. Therefore, make sure to set out your goals on how to improve your chanting and gradually work towards them. If you really want to improve your japa, you can!
Pamho agtacbsp,well one must chant to get the own self realization in vijnana Maya,all the deities,kavacham,etc… Can’t help one unless one chant because a fraction of a second that’s a lava matra can give us all that we are searching but it must be in suddha Nama,we are chanting daily to get that lava matra in suddha Nama because is not possible to do everything with love especially in this dark age ,so all our improvement in chanting will successful if we are lucky enough to get at least a lava matra in suddha Nama,this is our request in chanting the holy name of liberation,one must destroying all the false designation, identification of aham mameti through hrikena hrisikesa sevanam bhaktir ucyate,ahituki apratihata come through loulyam kalatvam spiritual greediness in engaging our dirty senses on the master of the senses until our polluted hearts become completely pure as a court yard for Sri Krishna pastimes only,we don’t want more garbage in the form of disgusting guru hoaxes,so let all the foolish of Kali Chela to die in their same rubbish ,we don’t care ,what we care is to get that famous lava matra in suddha Nama by the causeless mercy of the most magnanimous avatar Sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu ki jay
Agtacbsp ys haribol
Pamho agtacbsp, it’s the greatest benediction to chant Hare krsna only demons rejected the chanting of the holy name,actually here is the way to become perfect by chanting Hare krsna, it’s a personal business with Sri krsna in establishing our lost eternal relationship with Him because at the end only Him care about us and here is what we been looking in for from ages,loulyam kalatvam come by chanting in chanting more in getting perfection in this world where everything is imperfect, this is our eternal lost connection with our best friend Sri krsna bhagavat, agtacbsp ys haribol
Pamho agtacbsp, whoever want to become a nitya siddha of Sri caitanya mahaprabhu must chant Hare krsna verbally, mentally and physically,is not impossible because even the heart of Srila jaganath das babaji was chanting Hare krsna when the doctor visited him,of course the foolish people think that we are fools by becoming mad for this chanting but Sri krsna don’t forgive such offenders very easily I mean they will understand how fool they been to take a person who is not a fool for a fool , they will suffer very badly about that,a devotee is very tolerant even if a serious offence is been done against him he don’t take revenge but Sri krsna don’t like to see some part and parcel of His transcendental body to be disrespected therefore Sri krsna will punish all the degraded souls who disrespect Him and His devotees,just keep chanting at least to not be punish by everyone who will take you for a fool because you chant Hare krsna, agtacbsp ys haribol
Hare krsna, as part and parcel of the not ordinary body of Sri krsna we can see everything in the body of Sri krsna used to say Srila prabhupada, especially if one chant Hare krsna seriously because everything is situated in the body of Sri krsna , we already done some services for Sri krsna that’s why HE put us in the same track we used to be before to be able to keep going in the search of our lost spiritual body but not all of us use to serve krsna in the previous lives I mean some people just got connected through the mercy of the golden avatar Sri caitanya mahaprabhu that’s why there’s confusion through their nasty activities , all the guru hoaxes are even worse then neophyte devotees with their hearts polluted by janam , dhanam and sundarim therefore they can’t see everything in the transcendental body of Sri krsna, they are blinds including their fake disciples, they can chant Hare krsna for thousands of life by getting the same guru hoaxes garbage, one must chant Hare krsna with the pure devotees like Srila prabhupada and not with the betrayers of our guru maharaj, agtacbsp ys haribol
Pamho agtacbsp, whoever already accepted the chanting of the maha mantra hare Krishna as the goal of life is in the list to become a liberated soul through ananya cintayanto mam,they said that a mukta purusa don’t pay his last karma by the mercy of the most magnanimous avatar Sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu normally was paying the last karma ,iha yasye harer dasye karmana manasa gira…jivo mukta sa ucyate, when one is liberated one don’t care anymore about the karma because one is situated in akarma ,jay Sri harinam sankirtan agtacbsp ys haribol