Give It All I Got
To the degree that I give my all and all to my chanting, to that degree Krishna reciprocates and thus bhakti increases in my heart. As one popular song of the sixties said, “The love you give is equal to the love you take.” What I put into my japa is what I get back. Devotion doesn’t come back where devotion is not put out (garbage in, garbage out).
My daughter is learning to play violin and to inspire her we watched a virtuoso eleven year old violinist on You Tube. This eleven year old was so good we couldn’t believe it. As I watched in disbelief I thought, “If I took my japa as seriously as this kid takes her violin, I would be completely Krishna conscious by now. The reality is that if I only give 50% of my energy to my japa, then 50% is going somewhere else. If I want to properly chant and hear the holy names and reap the results that the holy name can offer, I need to give all my energy to my japa (both physical and mental). If I really value my relationship with Krishna, I will do this. And doing this shows Krishna how important that relationship is to me.