Chant Minimum 16 Rounds

Indian man: Prabhupāda, when we do our chanting, the chanting beads contain 108 beads. Why is this, and why do we chant sixteen rounds?

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Not sixteen rounds. You can chant unlimitedly.

Indian man: No, minimum

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Minimum because they cannot chant more than that, therefore minimum. Otherwise kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ [Cc. Ādi 17.31]. So you must have a fixed amount of kīrtana. That is called tapasya, that “We must finish at least this much, if not more.” Saṅkhyā-purvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ. Saṅkhyā-purvaka. By numerical strength one should chant. That is called vow. This is the idea. So these Europeans, Americans, they cannot imitate Haridāsa Ṭhākura, who was chanting 300,000 times. So we do not advise to imitate. Really do something. One name is sufficient. If you can chant one name only, that is sufficient, but that is not possible. So to understand the value of name at least we must have some numerical strength. All the Gosvāmīs used to do that. We follow their footprints. Thank you.

Now chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)

Bhagavad-gītā class Nairobi Oct. 28, 1975.

Chant Sixteen Hundred Rounds

Devotee: … Hare Kṛṣṇa, is it all right to…

Śrīla Prabhupāda: It is not finished. If you have got time, if, if you haven’t got to do anything else, you can continue, (laughter) sixteen hundred. It is not mechanical: “Now I have finished sixteen rounds, that’s all.” Why sixteen rounds? You chant sixteen hundred rounds. That is minimum, because you cannot concentrate your mind in chanting, you have no attachment for chanting, that is a, a regulative principle. You must. You must finish this. Otherwise, those who are actually attached to the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, that, that Haridāsa Ṭhākura, they are chanting whole day and night. But you cannot imitate that. Your mind is not fixed up. Therefore it is minimum sixteen rounds. Not that “Because minimum sixteen, I cannot chant more.” Why not more? You can chant more, more.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class Q’s and A’s Chicago July 14, 1974

Utilization of Proper Time

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Save time. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Go back to home. This is our idea. Instead of chanting twenty-five rounds, you chant hundred rounds. That is utilization of proper time.

Morning Walk May 27 1974 Rome.

That is Quality

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Quality, you’ll understand first of all come to the quality. Without having quality, how he’ll understand the quality? You follow the instruction of your spiritual master, of the śāstra. That is your duty. Quality, no quality—it is not your position to understand. When the quality comes there is no force. You will have a taste for chanting. You will desire at that time, “Why sixteen round? Why not sixteen thousand rounds?” That is quality. That is quality. It is by force. You’ll not do it; therefore at least sixteen rounds. But when you come to the quality, you will feel yourself, “Why sixteen? Why not sixteen thousand?” That is quality, automatically. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura was doing. He was not forced to do.

Even Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He requested, “Now you are old enough. You can reduce.” So he refused, “No. Up to the end of my life I shall go on.” That is quality.

Have you got such tendency that you will go on chanting and nothing to do? That is quality. Now you are forced to do. Where is the question of quality? That is given a chance so that one day you may come to the quality, not that you have come to the quality.

Morning Walk November 2, 1974 Nairobi