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How do you increase your level of concentration in prayer and chanting? Sometimes you feel when you’re chanting or
praying that there’s nothing there. It becomes like a regular practice that you do and it seems like there’s nothing there.
You feel like you have to force yourself.

 

Answer by HH Radhanatha Swami

You see, the process of advancing in spiritual life is pleasing guru and pleasing God or Krishna, whatever name you call Him, pleasing the Lord. Now, what pleases the Lord is our effort, by how much we are trying according to our capacity. He is not concerned with the result. The Lord does not need your  concentration. The Lord does not need your money. The Lord does not need your abilities. The Lord does not need anything we have or anything we do or anything we say or anything we think. Does He? The Supreme Truth is perfect and complete, but the Lord wants our love. Now, what is the expression of our love? How much we are willing to endeavor for the pleasure of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even if our mind is very turbulent and very unsteady, if we are honestly and sincerely trying according to our capacity to offer humble prayers, to attentively contemplate upon His Holy Name and chant, to serve His servants—we are all His servants—then the Godhead will reciprocate with that offering of your love. Even if we feel we have no love, we should act for the desire for that love. Even if we do not have the desire for that love, if we act and live with the desire, for the desire for that love, the Supreme Lord will hear the sincerity and honesty of that prayer. He will reciprocate with the sincerity and the honesty of our effort. And it is the Lord, it is Krishna who will reciprocate and give you everything, if God sees you are giving everything you have.

It is said that Krishna does not see how much you give Him, He sees how much you hold back. If a rich man who has ten million dollars offers one million dollars to the Lord, he is not as dear to the Lord as the beggar in the street who has three cents and offers all three cents to the Lord. Whatever we have, whatever power of concentration, whatever power of intelligence, whatever power of  austerity, just honestly and sincerely offer it all to Krishna and your life will be perfect. Our material capabilities can never give us entrance into the kingdom of God. It is only through faith and devotion that God will respond from within our hearts. So simply try the best you can under the divine guidance of the Lord’s pure representatives on this earth.

Just keep trying !

Have you heard of Hanuman?  He is the most magnificent servant of Lord Rama, and the story of Hanuman is in the Ramayana. Recently we went on a pilgrimage with about 110 devotees to Hanuman’s birthplace in South India. It is a place called Kishkindhasetra. That is the scriptural name. The modern name is Humpi, and there is a mountain called Anjanaparvat. Anjana is the name of Hanuman because his mother’s name is Anjana. Anjana means the son of Anjana. On the top of this mountain Hanumanji appeared in this world. It’s a beautiful story how he appeared, but we can discuss that another time.

There’s a story that Hanumanji was building a bridge across the Indian Ocean from Ramesvaram in India, the coast, to Sri Lanka in the service of Lord Rama. He was

lifting big, big, big, big stones and boulders and mountains. He was so powerful he could rip off the peaks of mountains. He was so powerful that he could make them float on the ocean by writing the name Rama. Whenever the name of Rama was written on the rock, and whatever the size of the boulder or the rock or the mountain peak was, it would float. They were tying all these huge pieces of stone together to build a wide bridge for a whole army to cross. Now Hanumanji, we know from Ramayana. Oftentimes, we have seen pictures of Hanuman, and usually he’s carrying a mountain. Do you know the story of Hanuman carrying a mountain? One time, Lord Rama’s brother, Laksman, was injured during a battle, with a very sharp lance, by the demon Ravana, that went into his chest. And he was laying unconscious. A doctor came and said, “The only way to heal this man is that there is a special herb on a special mountain in the peaks of the Himalayas, and somebody has to get that herb immediately.” (We recently went to this mountain). Hanuman was  thinking, “Somehow or other this herb must be brought, and it’s in this mountain somewhere. I don’t know where, but it’s in the mountain.” He lifted the entire mountain. He lifted it with his hand, and he jumped thousands of miles back to Ramesvaram. He told the doctor, “Here, you have to find it here, somewhere in this mountain.” Then they healed Laksman.

So this is the power of Hanuman. He was very mighty. So he was lifting mountain peaks, building this bridge, and while he was working, there was a tiny little spider. You know how spiders are. They are like this (spider sounds). What is the strength of a spider’s arm? Hanuman’s arms were like mountains, but a spider’s arm is like a piece of thread. So the little spider was kicking, with all of its might, one grain of sand at a time onto the rocks. When Hanuman was carrying this mountain peak, he saw this spider and said, “Spider, get out of my way. I have my business to do. Rama looked at Hanuman and said, “Why are you saying like this? This spider is doing as much as you. You are doing everything within your power to please Me, and this spider is doing everything within his power to please Me. Your capacity is to lift mountains, and this spider’s capacity is to lift one grain of sand.” The Lord doesn’t need a mountain and He doesn’t need a grain of sand. He needs our love. He wants our love. Therefore, Lord Sri Rama told Hanuman, “You and the spider are equal. You should not interfere with this spider’s service to Me. You should offer him all respects, then wait for him and go around him.” Then Hanuman bowed down to the spider and said, “Haribol.” He said, “Welcome home, brother.” So we simply try the best we can for the pleasure of the Lord in our surrender, to fulfill the desire of guru and the desire of Krishna, and our life is perfect. We should not be in anxiety of what we can do and what we cannot do. We simply must honestly and sincerely try. That is why it is very important to have the guidance of a saintly spiritual teacher to help us on the path, and guide us forward, someone whom we can love, someone we can trust.

 

 

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