NITAAI Yoga The Pure Love of the Soul

What is more important to chant or to hear

Dear Swami Gaurangapada Maharaja and dear Devotess,
Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances.

i have a question: What is more important, to chant or to hear? Over and over again i am coming across different opinions our Acharyas and other Vaishnavas are giving in regards to this question.

For example, if there is lack of time, should the priority be given to hearing or chanting? Of course i know, that it isn't so absolute, that it is intertwined and that the question should be appropriately solved in every particular case. So maybe we could analyze the different aspects which may help one to determine on which process to focus under particular circumstances.

Depended on the guidance and mercy of the Vaishnavasm,
Matus

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2 Responses to “What is more important to chant or to hear” Reply Top

Mihir says:

2009-12-14 20:58:21. Replies | Top | End | Reply

Dear Bhakta Matus Prabhu, Nityaananda ! Gauraanga ! Hare Krishna ! Dandavat Pranaams !

I think that chanting is the most important. It is like a king without whom war cannot be possible. However all other things like hearing, reading, association are like soldiers which help the king to fight the war without whom the king can lose the battle. Ofcourse for a pure devotee chanting alone is enough as he is already liberated.

ys,
Mihir.

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ghadgech says:

2009-12-17 10:36:03. Replies | Top | End | Reply

Matus Prabhuji, since last 2 days I was contemplating on the your question of chanting
and hearing. Srinath prabhu once wrote that if you want to find Bhakti in every verse then pray like Advaita Prabhu. I did that: - may be 0.0000000001…. % of what Advaita Prabhu did. The very first thing which came to my help was swamiji’s word “Pure Chanting is pure listening.” This is what Swamiji said in one of the lectures. Yesterday I was desperately trying to find the same but could not do so. May be, Swamiji would know the exact video/Audio.

In one of the recent live sanga videos Swamiji said three most important things.
1. You know why Srila Prabhupada was so successful in preaching,”He was good listener”.
2. Guru is pleased with the disciple who listens attentively
3. Pure hearing comes from pure food, pure thoughts etc.

Through this post, I am trying to tell the importance of hearing, please forgive me as I am not even in playgroup/kindergarten when it comes to understanding Gauraanga Krishna Tatva.

Chanting and Hearing are two sides of a coin. They go both hand in hand.
When we are chanting and are not attentively listening to the sound vibrations of the holy Names then it is definitely not Chanting. Even when it is said that Lord dances on the tongue of the chanter it is because of attentive hearing. According to me the goal of chanting is hearing and how can there be hearing without chanting. So as I said they are two sides of a same coin.

Someone may argue that Parikshit Maharaj was simply listening, he was not chanting. But how do we know that He was not chanting? May be internally He was chanting. I can cite example from the mundane world when we are listening to a song we like, don’t we start humming. And what about the questions raised by Parikshit Maharaj? The questions may not contain the explicit utterance of the Holy name of the Lord, but they were somewhere related to the Lord and according to me questions raised, doubt raised are also some form of chanting. And the questions, doubts aroused in the mind of Parikshit Maharaj were because of attentive hearing. In fact Sukhdev Goswami would have stopped if He had known that Parikshit Maharaj was not attentively hearing.
When we attentively listen, our ego goes for a coffee break!!! And when that happens Lord or Guru implants the seed in the form of doubt or questions. This goes to show how important hearing is. In fact the goal of pure chanting is pure hearing and vice versa.

Bhagwat Gita is not just divine song it is divine hearing. Every questions posed by Arjuna is because of attentively hearing the instructions by Lord Krishna. The 700 odd verses, 18 chapters are because of Arjuna’s questions. Lord would have stopped the Gita the moment Arjuna was found not listening. Arjuna fought the war because after completion of Bhagwat Gita he was not in illusion. The reason why he was not in illusion anymore because he was attentively listening to the divine song.

Sanjaya was attentively listening to the Divine song and that’s why he erupted with joy and said “Where there is Krishna there is victory”. Sanjaya glorifying Krishna is because of his attentive listening. He was patiently listening to the 700 verses, 18 chapters of Bhagwat Gita otherwise he wouldn’t have erupted with joy.

This is what the fruit of pure listening is. Arjuna could accomplish the most difficult task of killing his own swajana then what stops people like me to cut the bondage with the materialistic world. The answer is simple “I AM NOT A GOOD LISTENER. PERIOD.”

If there was one person who was not listening he was Dritrashtra (and people like me). And we cannot find Dritrashtra uttering the name of Lord Krishna and his devotees names (pandavas) even once. Why? The answer is simple he was not listening to the Divine song. Otherwise he would have erupted with joy and would have predicted Pandava’s victory. And according to me what is the most important gift we can offer to our beloved Guru; Hearing! Hearing! Hearing! Chanting! Chanting! Sanjaya could listen to the Divine song because Vysadev, his guru, would have known that Sanjaya is good listener.

Attentive listening is nothing surrendering.

So let me conclude this post by saying “Where there is pure chanting, pure listening there is Lord Gauraanga Krishna and where there is Lord Gauraanga Krishna there is victory”

Parvati was not listening when Shiva was narrating Srimad Bhagwatam. But when Vyasadev’s wife was attentively listening to Bhagwatam narrated by Vyasadev she was wonderstruck. The result is there to be seen. Sukhdev Goswami gave Gem like Srimad Bhagwatam which Gauraanga Mahaprabhu considers as spotless purana.

Shyam sunder Prabhu has adviced me not to discuss Bhagwat Gita with envious people. He is right. If I am not a good listener why do I expect others (especially envious to Krishna) to listen to me?

Matus Prabhu, I am not sure whether this will quench your thirst. But surely your question has helped me.