Japa Joe
Anjana Suta Academy
www.jayarama.us
(rev. 2015 DEC 2)
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Japa Joe – The Man
One time we heard Hansadutta Swami explain to one of his disciples that there was
a tendency to go back to sleep after we got up for Mangala-arati, but, he commented,
if we stay up and chant our Japa like soldiers then we will have strength all day.
We take advantage of that instruction from time to time and have always found it to
be true.
Talking of soldiers we find, “G.I. Joe”, a famous soldier-icon in American culture.
So, here we have the ideal ISKCON “Soldier”, Japa Joe!
Revision Note: This revision of Japa Jose is offered for the satisfaction of H. H.
Satsvarupa Goswami on his birthday anniversay December 2014. We humbly pray
that he would like to write any Foreward for it we will publish it.
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THE ABCs
"In this movement three things are important: Chanting, Dancing and Feasting", Srila
Prabhupada (SP)
"Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten", Popular book title.
(In the Anjana Suta Academy, American Bhagavata Curriculum [ABC], these three
are the Kindergarten)
PRIME RULE
Get up early and get your rounds done. (GURD)
Chant with the proper Posture, Respiration and Meaning.
MEANING
"Oh, Hara! Please pray to Rama and Krsna to swiftly engage You in Their service."
(Sita had lost hope that Rama and Laksmana would engage Her in Their service
again.)
PRASADAM
Our only business is Japa,
And for the strength to chant we take,
Whatever Prasadam Krsna puts,
Upon our little plate.
'Do not eat to dullness', Benjamin Franklin.
PLANS
Our only Plan is to chant,
Sri Krsna's Holy Name.
Let your Plans evolve,
From a happy, captured brain.
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BEADS
Every bead a Gopi,
Who wants to dance for Shyama,
Chant the Mantra clearly,
As they twirl and pass along.
Some folks worship Saligram-silas,
But we worship our Japa beads,
Serving Krsna in all kinds of Lilas.
Though made of wood, 108, they are so great,
Cook for Them, dance for Them,
The Krsna book They'll hear.
For them daily a sun-bath,
See each one, They’re dear.
Our 23rd bead, getting larger, has a tiny channel from one side to the other. A fine
gold wire could pass through. It is not proper for us to discuss such confidential
things, but fire ignited by even a low class person can purify gold.
They might represent 108: Gopis, cows, Upanishads, Some have marks of twig
branches in them. Some go all the way through. Several have slots on the ends. So
many are very unique.
As we count 108 beads, Krsna would count 108 groups of cows. The 108 are
divided into four groups, of 25-each, by the four principle colors: White, red,
yellow, black and their 25-different shades. Then there are 8-principal Gopis,
Upanishads(?), MX missiles, Norse Gods.
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SCIENCE OF THE MIND
[As remembered] In "Mindworks" by Ernst Poppel, he comments that sequential
event discrimination is 3-times faster by touch than hearing, and 3-times again
hearing than touch. So the hand really is quicker than the eye. I can manipulate the
coins and cards by feeling them so fast that you CANNOT see the changes. Then
the hearing is three times faster than the touch.
The Critical Flicker Frequency in movies is 24-frames/second. If the movie is made
of less than 24-frames/seconds we begin to see each frame individually. Hearing is
the finest stimulation for the mind.
In "The Acoustial Sense in Animal", Leonard Stebbins, points out that a human
being can distinguish a one-half cycle change in frequency at 1,000 cycles per
second.
Japa is the best meditation.
SCIENCE OF THE MIND - JAPA JOE
If you look on the internet for images for "homunculous" you will get back diagrams
of how the gross body’s nervous system is mapped onto the cerebral cortex. You will
see that there are many, many nerves in the human body for mouth and fingers.
Chimpanzee probably has similar details for the fingers but not the mouth.
Muzzle the Monkey.
Dogs of course probably have tremendous representation for the nose.
In some dog breeds, such as bloodhounds, the olfactory sense may be up to 100
million times greater than a human's.
We took one very nice picture, but someone put pants on him so as not to
embarrass any body. Japa Joe!
SCIENCE OF THE MIND - MINDING MONKEY - SANKHYA
Prabhupada calls the brain the cerebral lump. He says that the mind is like the
business and the brain is like the office. If there is a fire in the office it doesn’t mean
the business is destroyed. The business men come into the office after a fire set off
the sprinklers and reconstruct the office.
Do you see? The Atma is covered by ideas (manas), perspective (buddhi), pride
(ahankara). Ideas are real. Are you chanting with your fingers, mind, intelligence or
soul?
This is a whole other lecture, Sankhya. We’ve done it lot at universities. I guess it is
on Youtube.com somewhere.
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The mind does not exist anyplace in gross space. Gross space is a product of the
intelligence. See E.T.Halls books such as “The Hidden Dimension”, “Beyond
Culture”. See cross cultural studys of space perception. Look for Library of
Congress BF 469 when you are at any library.
The mind is a "body of thoughts" based upon the Buddhi, intelligence, which is a
"body of attitudes, perspectives".
What is knowledge?
Haw Haw! Some times we take thoughts for memorys.
Chant Hare Krsna!
[POPPING BACK]
(with apologys)
TO PROFESSOR POPPEL
Professor Ernst Poppel also states from experimental effort that if an event takes
place within three seconds maximum (his Subjects were probably a certain class of
Europeans [or white rats]), then it can be taken as one event by our consciousness.
We tried this in our Japa.
You must be chanting like 6-minute rounds to be chanting each Maha-mantra in 3seconds. Then your mind goes into an iconographic rather than linear mode. You
are in the present moment and there is very little past or future.
I could experience the whole Maha-mantra at one time and adjust its Form.
ICONOGRAPHIC, NON-LINEAR THOUGHT
Is a Yantra the visual representation of the Bija-mantra eg. <srim> for Laksmi,
<hrm> for Lord Nrsmha?
Investigate!
MAN CITRA PARIKRAMA
In our heart, as we chant, we can keep a vision of our Ista-devata, personal Deity.
We can do Parikrama of His lotus feet. We can offer one Maha-mantra at different
sites.
DIE TODAY
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Sometimes we are tired. We want to stop chanting, but, no! Our attitude is: Today is
a good day to die. Even if we die, our throat collapses, we have to crawl, we will not
stop chanting.
Until we are ready to die for Japa, Maya devi will always have some hold on us.
GET UP EARLY TANTRA
In the evening, put your Deities to rest. Then put a cup of maha-water across the
room by the light-switch with your alarm clock and tell your mind that it cannot turn
off the alarm until the light is on. (Make sure that there is a clear path from your bed
to the light-switch).
Bllluuuuu! 1.17AM. The alarm goes off in the dark. You have almost no
intelligence, but your mind says that you must turn off the alarm before it wakes-up
the neighbors and they come to chastise you with shovels and hoses.
You stagger across the room. Your mind and body demand that you go back to bed,
but you turn on the light. You see the glass of water. Your mind whines, "I don't
want to drink it!" Your intelligence says, "Drink it!" (All in one breath.)
Then you go to the bathroom; wash your hands, face and feet; come back to your
bed, platform, and sit properly and chant Japa. Your mind says, "I want to lie down!"
Your intelligence says, "No, sit up”, an easy thing to do no matter how much you feel
bad. KEEP YOUR FINGERS AN MOUTH MOVING".
After a few minutes you can feel your body hydrating. The intelligence starts to
work, breath, posture, Parikrama, sincere crying for Krsna,
Get Up Early and Get Your Rounds Done with Enthusiasm (Ten Magic Words)
GURU IN THE HEART
Once we are in the mode of goodness {by GURD} then everything else about how
to advance in KC will be automatically revealed. (From NOI Preface)!
TONGUE AND JAW MUST MOVE
Once there was a devotee who chanted all his rounds everyday, but sometimes he
did them while on the telephone, sometimes he rushed, rushed, rushed them so he
could do his "real service", and then he died.
He went to Vaikuntha and there he saw a very, very ugly Diety of Krsna.
"Who are You", he sqwacked!
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"I am, haraere krsnanad harea krasdfh, krsnaen, krsnadn, harea hhareear, haaer
raman, hare randea, ramdf, ranere,m ha,ha and you have been calling my Holy
Name all you life. Now you must stay with Me for all Eternity!"
"Aiyeeee e e
e
e e!"
(It's clearly, funnier, when you say it but,)
We are making a Deity out of sound.
You can make a Deity out of brass, clay, paint, or sound.
It's a physical form, so pronounce it clearly. The tongue and jaw must move.
Even if you are chanting silently.
MUSLIMS
Bhaktivinode Thakura uses this argument to defeat the Muslim claim that you
should not worship deitys. To them the Name of Allah, or Prophet Mohamed, may
his Name be blessed, is sacred, so they worship a Deity of sound. Why not, brass?
STARTS SPONTANEOUS ALL DAY JAPA
Japa is our first service. It is our most practical service. Japa on our beads is just to
get the motor started, our constant chanting of Japa in our heart. That will inform
our mind. That will inform our senses and work. The quality of your early 16rounds will be the quality of your day, work or play. 1728+++
BUSINESS
Japa is our only business. Surrender to the Holy Names, you pig!
PRASADAM
Eat for you heart,
Eat for your soul.
What about eating,
Does your stomach know?
[Are your thoughts coming from you head? Stomach? Heart? SP BOOKS/LOTUS FEET]
We keep our Guru's feet within our heat,
But his books sit in front of them,
So if we want to reach his feet,
His books are where we start.
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And in Vrndavan he stands,
Can we become vibrating grains of that velvet sand.
DESIRE TREE
There was an ill natured old lady with no family or friends. She had to hobble each
day over the hills from her village to where the wood cutters worked to haggle over
the price of a little wood. Then they would tie it in her bundle, put it on her head
and she would make her way with her arthritis back to her village. With help she put
her bundle down and then she would haggle with house-wives for the price of fire
wood and sleep in the market place in the cold with other beggars.
One day as she was walking back to her village, the knot on her bundle came
undone and all the wood fell on the ground. Of course, she could not pick it up and
put it back on her head alone, so she fell to the ground, scratching it with her nails,
crying, "Narayana! Narayana! Narayana!".
And then . . .
. . . the Supreme Lord Narayana, master of innumerable universes, of all the gods,
Shaktis and Elemental Forces of reality, appeared before her and asked,
"What do you want old woman!"
She answered, "Please put all the wood back on my head! !"
"Are you sure that's what you want, Old Woman", asked Lord Narayana?
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"Yes! ! !!!!", she wailed.
"Alright", He said.
MORAL: We have to read Srila Prabhupada's books daily to understand what pure
chanting is. Otherwise we will keep chanting with material desires and keep
reconstructing our own hell again and again, day after day.
“I want to go back to bed, to bed!”
BOOK DISTRIBUTION
Our most important meaning in our Japa is our prayer to be engaged in book
distribution, to deliver Rama's Ring (the NOI) to Sita devi (the innocent soul).
BREATHE PROPERLY
You're not tired, you’re thirsty.
You're not thirsty, you’re suffocating.
Your body needs a conscious help.
Sit erect in a Yoga-asan.
Inhale to your full depth even five full times.
Stretch you lungs and chant the Holy Rhyme.
[Sometimes fixed counts of Mantras for each breathe.]
SMILE!
DIGITAL RAT
Think you're cool,
Your Japa's great!
Record one round on your Digital Recorder,
And lamentate.
[We keep, keep, keep adding an extra "Hare" between the Krsna and Rama section!]
TIC TOC
Time your rounds.
Chant 6-minute rounds.
Chant 25-beads in 1'15".
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Stretch you Mala. Hold both ends with your first finger and thumb. That divides it
in half. Now bring your finger-thumbs, left and right, together and catch the hanging
strand of beads on either side with the next finger and separate. That divides the half
into 1/3 x 1/2 = 1/6. That's a Minute-Mala, 18-beades. Watch the clock.
Catch stretch, catch stretch, chant the strand of 18-beads in 1-minute.
MECHANICAL TRICKS
These are mechanical though transcendental tricks. You must use them with Bhakti,
love.
BEADS [MORE] - BATH THEM
Chant in front of a picture of Radha-kunda. Dip you beads in Radha kunda. Hold
on to them with all your strength when the heart-attack comes and you convulse
from your body through your mouth to Gokula.
FINISH THEM UP!
Only an evil person tries to finish his rounds quickly.
CHANT FROM THE HEART
Chant from the heart not from the head. In the beginning you will feel nothing.
Although maybe not made of stone, you might experience that you heart is like a
pneumatic truck tire - little flexibility, but not much, but round after round, after
round you will see a change. Your heart will become as reactive as your tongue,
belly, gentiles and head. That progress is eternal.
24-HOUR KIRTANS
Do them from time to time on Holy days.
Go out and chant them. Advertise them in the park. Invite the world to join.
One system: 20-minutes of Kirtana, 20-minutes of Reading, 20-minutes of Japa.
PLAN
"Vidya vadhu jivanam...", Siksastakam-1. From chanting will come all the knowledge
you need.
We live in a bubble of time and space,
Predominated by the feet of His Divine Grace.
If they don’t come you don't need to have any plans, knowledge.
Hare Krsna, Hare Rama.
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TOUCH THE NAMES
Whenever you see Them written in SP's books, touch each Name and chant it.
You can write the Maha-mantra on paper or in a book, over and over again, and
give it to a friend, or to the fire during a Temple fire sacrifice.
1728+++
Chant MINIMUM 16-rounds on beads. That’s 1728 Mantras. Then chant while
you work, play, to 64-rounds, 6912 Mantras each day. You can chant one Mantra
for each telephone pole as you drive, for each Dude you see pass as you sit in the
Tran-Sit lounge in the airport.
Have a regular Kirtan while you bathe and brush each morning. Have six scheduled
each day.
FINAL AN MOST SECRET
Vrndavana-dhama-mahimamrta
[Available on-line at: http://www.vrindavan-dham.com/texts/vrndavana-mahimamrta/#15)
By Prabhodananda Sarasvati (trans. Kusa-krata Das)
Sataka-fifteen
73 I shall tell you a mantra that is hidden from all the Vedas
and not manifested anywhere in the most confidential
scriptures. When a person chants this mantra the great
spiritual perfections come before his feet and the opulences
of the Supreme Personality of Godhead stand in his hand.
74 For a person who chants this mantra there are no orders
or prohibitions. A person who understands the dust of this
mantra’s lotus feet purifies they who know
the rules of the Vedas. This mantra is the
sweetest nectar. It is the auspiciousness of
all auspiciousnesses. It is filled with all
limitless wonderful glory. It is the
attainment of all attainments.
75 It is the ultimate goal of all goals. It is
the wild bliss of all wild blisses. They say it
is the secret of all secrets. Without thinking
of anything else, day and night chant this
mantra: Radha.
[Srila Prabhupada on Radhastami in
London(?) said like, “Radha, Hara, no difference! When we chant Hare that is same as
saying Radhe!)
76 This mantra is a flood of sweetness churned from the sweetest nectars. It is a
precious flood of the wild sweetness of the bliss of pure love. O fortunate one, who
understands us? Who understands the meaning of this mantra that is a flood of bliss
flowing into the heart?
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SP BOOKS ON JAPA
CC. Adi 7.4 – Chant Pancha-tattva mantra until your are freed from the interaction
of your offenses and can chant the HK / HR Mantra in ecstacy.
Canto 7.5.23, "sravanam, kirtanam, visnoh smaranam...", the Kirtanam section has
great chanting stuff. Also, NOI 8.
Rupa Goswami has an odd collection of Japa quotes such as: "Oh, Krsna, just as
misers collect and fondle coins and jewels, I collect your Holy Names".
BG 8.5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 18.
5.1.6 -- "While chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, the words Krsna and Hare
immediately remind him of all the Lord's activities."
5.6.16 -- Read SB or chant HK/R 24-hours a day.
6.3. 24 -- Freed from offenses by continuing to chant.
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