Srila Prabhupada gave a very beautiful definition of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. He said that while chanting, we are begging Radha and Krishna to engage us in Their service.
As we chant, we receive opportunities to serve. There can be different levels in which our chanting and our service manifest.
Chanting & Immediate Service
Sometimes, even after chanting just a couple of rounds, we may get an opportunity to engage in some service. Krishna may answer our prayers in a very short time!
This is a nice indication to the practitioner that Krishna hears our chanting!
No Chanting and Service?
Someone may ask – If service is the goal of chanting, why not just serve?
Once, a disciple of Prabhupada kept arguing with him about the need to chant for two hours. He insisted that he would rather do some service in those two hours as well. Eventually, he left Krishna consciousness.
There was another lady in a temple in Europe. She would very professionally dress the Deities and make various items for Them. But she had apprehensions about chanting. She shared this with her spiritual master, who insisted her to chant. But she did not. Eventually, she left the service too.
By chanting, we don’t just get an opportunity to serve, but we also develop an attitude to serve.
Service attitude is the foundation of every sincere practitioner. Without sincere chanting, this attitude dwindles. And finally, one becomes void of any desire to serve.
Chanting as a Service
From another perspective, chanting in itself is a service to Krishna. Kirtan means Krishna’s glorification. When we are chanting Krishna’s Holy Names, we are doing so in accordance with the instructions of guru and Krishna. In fact, chanting is our first service, and in fact, the only service which we have promised to perform daily to the spiritual master.
Chanting for Higher Service
Chanting is also a form of purification and preparation for higher service.
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur chanted one billion names of Krishna before establishing 64 branches of the Gaudiya Math.
Srila Prabhupada would regularly chant 64 rounds in Shantipur while begging the mercy of Advaita Acharya. In Vrindavan, at the Radha-Damodar temple, he would cry and beg for the blessings of the previous acharyas, chanting 64 rounds daily.
This was Srila Prabhupada’s preparation for the highest service of opening and spreading the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world.
Chanting for Service in the Spiritual World
Sometimes when we are chanting, we may not have much service. Neither do we have any sense or intimation or instruction for a higher service. So why chant then?
Chanting, in the ultimate sense, is part of our purification and preparation for our eternal service in the spiritual world.
If we wish to serve eternally in the spiritual world, then no amount of chanting could be ever sufficient.
Therefore, giving up all reservations, whether we have service or not, whether we are going to perform any higher service or not – we must sincerely take to the process of chanting the holy names, to develop the ultra-perfect service attitude of the inhabitants of Vrindavan.
In that service attitude, developed through chanting, lies the perfection of our existence, in this world and beyond.
