(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 3 February 2013, Prague, Czech Republic, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.19.4)
Srila Prabhupada used to ask, ‘What comes from chanting… more chanting!’
With chanting everything is attained. We are not chanting with the idea in mind that in the end we will get some reward, ‘I’m doing all this chanting and chanting, such an austerity but at the end I will get a great reward.’
No, the chanting itself is the reward. The glorification of Krsna itself is most rewarding because as soon as we chant the name of Krsna, we remember Krsna and when we remember Krsna, then we become gradually overwhelmed with amazement, because the qualities of Krsna are actually very wonderful! It takes a little time for us to register that.
The first time when one sees deities, ‘Well, kind of nice!’ When one hears something about Krsna, ‘Well, these stories are sort of okay.’ Maybe we are attached to other stories. Maybe Krsna is powerful but not as impressive as Superman or Batman! Our minds have become polluted and attached to misconceptions. So we are misguided, looking for happiness in the wrong direction. Our faith is misdirected; that is what it means to be misguided. You go into the forest and you choose, ‘This is the way home. This is it!’ Everyone else says, ‘No, it’s wrong. Look, my compass tells me that the other way… that’s the way.’ Misguided and we think that all these material things will satisfy us and bring us happiness.
As vaisnavas we are not adhering to the philosophy that there is no enjoyment in the material world. There is enjoyment in the material world; we acknowledge that but the impersonalist will deny it. The impersonalist will say, ‘It’s all false… there is only illusion.’ In short, they say, ‘There is no enjoyment in the material world.’
We say, ’No, there is. There is enjoyment and it’s good!’
It’s good but it’s not good enough, not good enough to fulfil the heart! Nothing else can fulfill the heart, only glorification of Krsna can fulfil the heart. And when we are not taking up that mission of glorifying Krsna then we will not be satisfied!