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Philosophy: Why isn’t prayer more a part of what we do?

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    Is it strictly a western construct? Sure, we have the maha-mantra which is begging Krishna to engage us in His personal service, but how many of us chant like that… or are we just “doing our rounds”?
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      CommentAuthorVEDA
    • CommentTimeOct 13th 2007 edited
     
    Imho, the intensity of a prayerful attitude in our daily life shows how far we are really conscious of the fact that Krsna is in control of everything. If we think we can do almost everything ourselves, the prayers will be infrequent and mechanical.

    And no, it's a (mono)theistic 'construct' if you wish.
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    All Vedic Mantras are contained within the Maha-Mantra,hence the " Maha " part of the Maha-Mantra.

    Here's the link to " Songs of the Vaisnava Acharyas " : http://www.krishnamedia.org/e-books/Vaishnava_Songbook.pdf ( click the PDF file )
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      CommentAuthorsitapati
    • CommentTimeOct 13th 2007
     
    I think the development of english translations of the vaisnava prayers is a good one. Krishna Dharma is recently publishing english versions of the sanskrit and bengali songs that can be sung to the traditional melodies. In South America Atulananda prabhu has done this in Spanish. I definitely found that this helped me to appreciate the songs. Learning them word for word has helped me to imbibe the mood, but that's not possible for everyone.

    I have a few english versions, particularly of Bhaja hure mana "Oh my mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless". People here love it when we sing it. The Bhajans of Narottama das Thakura and Bhaktivinode Thakura were written in the local language and sung to popular melodies of the time in order to help the people "get it".

    My wife can remember the words to the english versions done by Umpati Swami, Hayagriva Prabhu, and Hrishikesh prabhu at NV, but struggles to remember the words to the sanskrit versions. Fair enough. It's about emotional connection and philosophical content travels along that connection.

    Otherwise we can sing prayers for decades without even knowing what they mean. Sure there is some use in that, but how much? and how can we make it more effective?

    btw, I'm not suggesting supplanting or changing any programs, I'm just happy that Krishna Dharma and others are producing nice versions in the local languages of devotees.
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    Maybe there's plenty of avadhutas around?
    Avadhutas are devotees,who do not follow strictly rules and regulations,but are sincere lovers of Krishna.
    Whilst sahajas are pretenders,with nice tilak and clean dhotis,the hand always in bead bag,have a sinister agenda in their mind:imitate great devotees or even Krishna.They are the pharisees of vaisnavism.
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      CommentAuthorrasa108
    • CommentTimeOct 13th 2007
     
    I always remember singing bhajans in the temple and the english translation would also be read out...
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      CommentAuthorabrennan
    • CommentTimeOct 13th 2007
     
    Dear Sitapati

    perhaps if time permits your wife could write them out. Or video singing them and post on youtube and we can all us linguistically challenged FOLK could learn them

    : )

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