Radhanath swami – “When we blame god”
Posted on : 10-10-2011 | By : Krishna Yoga | In : Chanting, What do I think of during the Hare Krishna meditation?
Tags: blame, Chanting, fault, free will, radhanath, radhanath swami, swamy
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Radhanath swami tells that if our chanting session has gone bad, we could drift into two extremes. One extreme is we become morose at our inability to chant well; this leads to hopelessness in spiritual life and makes us more negative and cynical about spiritual life. The second extreme is to justify our bad chanting by resigning to the fact that the mind is beyond our control, and there’s nothing we can do about our poor japa. This justification leads us to reject good counsel and we don’t progress in our Hare Krishna meditation. We may eventually even blame the process for its ineffectiveness and resign to the fact that God has made me this way- poor in controlling the mind- and there’s nothing I can do to improve my situation against the barrage of attacks by the mind.
Radhanath Swami says blaming God for our weak resolve is unacceptable. At the same time sometimes when our chanting is good we are tempted to take credit for our good chanting and feel we are special. However no sooner we feel we are good in chanting, the Holy Names withdraw the grace and we realize once again that chanting is beyond me. Radhanath Swami offers a nice meditation that we can practise during success in chanting, “We can’t do anything without God’s help. We cannot see or even breathe without God’s help. So how could we take credit for what we do?” A premature understanding of this philosophy leads us to blame God for our bad chanting as well; ascribing our weak resolve to God’s desire that we don’t make progress.
Radhanath swami – As sincere Hare Krishna chanters we have to know that we are responsible for our poor chanting. We’ve to remember the instructions that the Lord gives us in all scriptures; He’s told us what He wants us to do. Yet when we refuse to obey His order and don’t endeavour to break the jinx of lethargy or mechanical chanting, we are guilty of neglecting God’s order. Then it’s our fault.
Radhanath Swamy gives a nice example to illustrate the point, “Suppose your mother gives you one million dollars and tells you to give it in charity. But you use that money to buy drugs instead, and then try to make ten million by selling that. Somehow you get caught and you are brought to the judge. The judge gives you thirty years of imprisonment. Then, you can’t say, “I am not the doer, my mother is the doer. Because it wasn’t my money, it was her money.” Similarly God has given us the free will and also told us through the scriptures and holy saints what he wants us to do with the free will. By resigning to our ‘fate’ and not endeavouring hard in spiritual life, we are guilty of misusing the wealth of ‘free will’ that the Lord has mercifully given us.
The ideal way to deal with the bad chanting session is by reaffirming our resolve to chant attentively. We beg forgiveness for the bad japa and then pray to the Lord for giving us the determination to pull the mind back the next time we sit to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.
Over a period of time this constant desiring to improve our chanting helps us translate the desire into action. Until then we chant with faith, and practise the process with patience and determination.
Pareshan is troubled by his inability to chant attentively. He feels frustrated as the chanting session leaves him tired and dry. He’s heard in classes that the Holy Names of Krishna is sweeter than the sweetest. 
God is the source of all my thoughts and all my actions,every single thought!
I fail to decide or realize due to my inabilities, that even my freewill is coming from Krsna. That,according to kundali or fate would go as writen,but if I take spiritual life surrendering unto the lotus feet of the lord, or take the process, then Krsna slowly starts taking my sins and guides me as I surrender and realize him,free of Karma partially at one time,in the beginning or nearby stage. But, even those thoughts or decisions or freewill then must come from god, my desiring,isn’t that too coming from the god and isn’t that too part of his arrangements? Because, learning of Lilas, god arranges it that way so that we may learn,hence even the control of the desires would be under God’s control(desire of the participants and the associates of the lord in the Lila). So if desiring is also under God’s control(if),hence would be free will too,so I am confused,pretty confused, KINDLY HELP!
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Over a period of time this constant desiring to improve our chanting helps us translate the desire into action. Until then we chant with faith, and practise the process with patience and determination.
Very very powerful statement, I pray that I could remember it always and always have constant desire to improve my chanting.
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As rightly said by HH Radhanath Swami, till the time all our anarthas are removed, we should chant with faith, determination and with patience.
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I also liked this statement by Radhanath swami.“We can’t do anything without God’s help. We cannot see or even breathe without God’s help. So how could we take credit for what we do?”
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This is really very helpful for us. We should beg forgiveness for the bad japa and then pray to the Lord for giving us the determination to pull the mind back the next time we sit to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra
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Yes the mind is very difficult to control. But by japa and chanting of the holy names, we can try to focus our mind to do the right thing.
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yes we have only ourselves to blame for our bad chanting! thank you for showing us the way to improve our chanting by attracting the Lord's grace.
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Good suggestion for mantra chanters. All glories to HH Radhanatha Swami Maharaja.
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Thank you Radhanath swami for giving us the hope that one day we chant attentively if we constantly pray to lord and taking guidance of the senior devotees.
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Thank you Radhanath Maharaj for letting us know such great mportance of chanting depending on God titally.Hare Krsna !
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wonderful article.
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Thank you for the wonderful article. It gives us hope that with our sincere efforts, we might be able to chant attentively by the mercy of the Lord.
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It’s unfortunate that for bad things we blame the God while we forget Him during our good times.
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All Glories To H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj
Exceptional! You read it as many times and you will still find a lesson or a two in it so that you can chant and resolve to make chanting better.
Hare Krishna.
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thank you for thiswonderful article pointing out our weakness and at the same time listing ways to overcome it
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Thanks for sharing the words "we can at least constantly desire to chant attentively. “This nursing of a healthy desire to be sincere, eventually leads us to chant attentively”"
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We can't blame the fruits of our own karma. Only by Krishna Consciousness can we blissfully accept whatever comes our way.
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“Nursing of a healthy desire to be sincere, eventually leads us to chant attentively”. This instruction of H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj can transform the lives of people. Thank you Maharaj.
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What a wonderful point articulated through this article!! It has helped me understand the importance of using the free will in a right manner. Exercising free will as per God's (or His pure devotees) will just does not apply to the realm of chanting ,but to all actions that we perform during the course of our day.
Thank you so much Radhanath Swami Maharaj for helping me understand this wonderful point.
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A very beautiful read. Every word of Radhanath Swami in this post deserves to be “Gold Framed”! Especially loved the last few statements in the post, “The ideal way to deal with the bad chanting session is by reaffirming our resolve to chant attentively. We beg forgiveness for the bad japa and then pray to the Lord for giving us the determination to pull the mind back the next time we sit to chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. Over a period of time this constant desiring to improve our chanting helps us translate the desire into action. Until then we chant with faith, and practise the process with patience and determination.” Very encouraging words. Thank you for sharing.
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All Glories To H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj.
How essential is it to chant attentively. All such lessons that help us resolve time and again to chant attentively are so much necessary that if we have to read this narrative everyday then only probably we may be able to break our lethargy or ignorance of being bad chanters.
Earnest Chanting is our only chance to win over the love of God.
Hare Krishna.
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'The ideal way to deal with the bad chanting session is by reaffirming our resolve to chant attentively.' very simple yet complicated solution. But if we regularly take guidance of saints like Radhanath Swami that attentive chanting can be attain.
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I was deeply inspired by the statement msde by Radhanath Swami "By resigning to our ‘fate’ and not endeavouring hard in spiritual life, we are guilty of misusing the wealth of ‘free will’ that the Lord has mercifully given us". Thank you form the core of my heart for such a timely relevant article!
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Radhanath Swami says blaming God for our weak resolve is unacceptable. At the same time sometimes when our chanting is good we are tempted to take credit for our good chanting and feel we are special. – This does happen sometimes, thank you Maharaj for reminding me of my mentality
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HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj explains The Lord has given us the independence to desire purely through our free will to utilize the time for CHANTING,HEARING and READING.
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"We can’t do anything without God’s help. We cannot see or even breathe without God’s help. So how could we take credit for what we do?" These words of H.H Radhanath swami Maharaj are enough to become humble. Thank you Maharaj.
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All Glories To H.H Radhanath Swami Maharaj
A very wonderful narrative. How essential is the session of Japa and hoe it is pivotal in taking us closer to our goal by making us firm on the path of spirituality.
Hare Krishna.
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one should feel really guilty atleast now , for the poor quality of chanting, after reading this article
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All our endeavours in the process of devotional service is due to the causeless mercy and blessings of our Guru Maharaj, very senior vaishnavas, saintly people. However we should do on our part to be very sincere, humble and dedicated in our sadhana completely depending on the will of the supreme lord.
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Thank you maharaj for your valuable words. Yes we can always utilize our free will and always can be victorious over this notorious mind. Thanks for guidance and encouragement.
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By the Mercy of the Lord we lifted the beads to chant His holyname…. by the Mercy of HH Radhanath Maharaj we have continued to chant the Lord's holyname even though many challenges pop up to deviate or sometimes make us feel great about our chanting…. by the Mercy of the disciples of Maharaj we have got beautiful association to chant…. thanking God for giving us an opportunity to come closer to Him… by chanting His holyname… as Krsna is non-different than His name…
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Very important article for improving chanting. Thanks for sharing
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Yes..we must desire sincerely and thats the key…As Radhanath Swami says: we must desire properly. If We don't have desire then we must desire to have desire….Thanx for very important reminder.
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thank you for this nice message
nursing of a healthy desire to be sincere, eventually leads us to chant attentively
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Thank you HH Radhanath swami maharaj for suggesting to always have a desire to chant attentively. And we should not blame anyone else expect our mind when we have a bad chanting and we should appreciate God for our attentive chanting.
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very encouraging, even if we sincerely try to chant attentively Krishna will be pleased and help us progress,
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This indeed is a very powerful advisory, when meditated upon can surely get us out of our mechanical chanting… Thanks! for sharing!
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Radhanath Swami really speaks what’s exactly going on with me! thank u for this revelation!
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So well explained the wandering of the mind and how it can be brought back to the present
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very inspiring article to keep up the struggle in endeavouring to chant attentively.
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Even if we are unable to pull the mind back to hearing the sound vibrations, we can at least constantly desire to chant attentively. “This nursing of a healthy desire to be sincere, eventually leads us to chant attentively” – Radhanath swami.
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Thank you very much for giving this timely wake up call. Its true. It’s very easy to get into a rut especially when it comes to chanting the holy names. However wise words like those of Radhanath Swami really help us to come back on track. Thank you very much for this wonderful website with its brilliant articles on how best to chant the holy names.
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A very systematic presentation herein by author about how one can practice chanting of the Holy-Names in a "Vyavsaitmika" way.(in professional way).Often mind try to take credit for a good rounds and a good prescription is given herein by author to avoid such credit taking.Also our resolve to follow God's order is very important else progress on the path is impossible.Thank you very much for such nice advice.
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