Stay Vigilant to Spot Offenses in Your Japa | HG Vaisesika Dasa | 05 Sep 2020

The best way is to, as Prabhupada said, train your eyes to spot offenses and take the ten offenses as very important. Don't take it as rote, that it's something we recite early in the morning before we start chanting. Instead, look into it and see how you can integrate those prohibitions into your lifestyle. And that's the only blockade between us and śuddha-nāma. As Bhaktivinoda points out in the Harir Nāma Cintāmaṇi, there are clouds and mist that block us from getting the full effect of the holy name. Those come in the form of aparādhas. Apa- rādha means we're not worshiping properly; we're making some offense. So, there are offenses to the holy name, offenses to devotees, and offenses in worshiping Krishna. If we study these very carefully and practice avoiding them as much as possible, then we move very quickly into the nāmābhāsa stage. In fact, just the endeavor to remove offenses means that we are in nāmābhāsa. When we're not, when we don't care for the offenses—in other words, we're not thinking about it, we're just chanting and we don't attend to the offenses, meaning we don't try to remove them, we are not vigilant—then we are a nāmāparādha. So, cultivate those and try to vigilantly avoid them. Then the holy name starts shining through much more quickly, and we can rise to the point of śuddha-nāma by that process: chanting and avoiding offenses. This is confirmed by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who says it's not just chanting Hare Krishna through which we attain perfection, but it's chanting Hare Krishna and avoiding the offenses at the same time. Of course, if one is offensive and you don't know how to avoid offenses, then the Padma Purāṇa says: nāmāparādha-yuktānāṁ nāmāny eva haranty agham aviśrānti-prayuktāni tāny evārtha-karāṇi ca Then, just chant non-stop. Don't stop chanting so that your mouth says some offensive thing. Just keep chanting and don't stop, and then you'll develop the intelligence to avoid offenses. ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://iskconsv.com/book-store/ https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ https://thefourquestionsbook.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868 For the latest videos, subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@FanTheSpark For the latest in SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/fan-the-spark ------------------------------------------------------------ #makejapagreatagain #mantrameditation #chantharekrishnaandbehappy #spiritualawakening #soul #spiritualexperience #spiritualpurposeoflife #spiritualgrowthlessons #secretsofspirituality #vaisesikaprabhu #vaisesikadasa #vaisesikaprabhulectures #spirituality #bhaktiyoga #krishna #spiritualpurposeoflife #krishnaspirituality #spiritualusachannel #whybhaktiisimportant #whyspiritualityisimportant #vaisesika #spiritualconnection #thepowerofspiritualstudy #selfrealization #spirituallectures #spiritualstudy #spiritualquestions #spiritualquestionsanswered #trendingspiritualtopics #fanthespark #spiritualpowerofmeditation #spiritualteachersonyoutube #spiritualhabits #spiritualclarity #bhagavadgita #srimadbhagavatam #spiritualbeings #kttvg #keepthetranscendentalvibrationgoing #spiritualpurpose