On Chanting!

Verse 1.16.32-33 (Mohan Prji):

* Today's verse is very nectarine because Mother Earth is very poetically expressing her fortune when Krishna was present on the Earth and also her misfortune when Krishna left.
* She is expressing her fortune by saying that because the SPG was walking on her, His feet had the special signs (the impressions of the flag, thunderbolt, elephant-driving rod and lotus flower), it was so auspicious and she became very opulent.
* And she is also saying that by the time she realized her fortune, the Lord left her.
* In the purport, SP puts a question and answers that too:
Q: One may ask how we can detain the Supreme Lord on this earth after His mission is fulfilled and He has left this earth for His own abode.
A: The answer is that there is no need to detain the Lord. The Lord, being omnipresent, can be present with us if we want Him at all. By His omnipresence, He can always be with us if we are attached to His devotional service by hearing, chanting, remembering, etc.
* The Lord is non-different from His holy name.
* Advantage of chanting: One can become immune to the effects of the age of Kali only offense-less chanting.
* So what is the process (from book HH Mahanidhi Swami):
- Definition of namaparadha = you are chanting the holy name without any auspiciousness. Srimati Radharani is missing in the holy name
- Effects of this: One looses the taste to perform sadhana bhakti. With offenses, we start losing that taste and we feel devotional service as a burden.
- Stopping chanting is the worse thing that can happen. One should continue chanting, cause only chanting will bring us out of namaparadha.
- Of all the offenses, first offense is the most problematic. It is the mad-elephant effect. One should be very careful in not blaspheming the devotees of the Lord. The cause of this is asat-sanga, association of materialistic people, which makes one feel envious of devotees and then we can very easily get into performing this offense.
- How do avoid it: one should always cultivate the habit of finding the good in other devotees. One should know that no one is a pure devotee and no one is a bad person eternally. Third is we should know that Krishna is putting me in this situation for my goodness. Fourth is that his mind is a rascal, I just need to turn away from it.