CART BEFORE THE HORSE?

RENUNCIATION OR HEARING & CHANTING

WHICH COMES FIRST?

Q - If we desire to progress on our spiritual journey then we need to shed our attachment to our material belongings and relationships both, this is all required I understand. What about emotional attachment towards spiritual sisters or helpful souls which we gather at times. I get emotionally involved with very soft humble souls sometimes in temple. Nature and frequency matches. Please guide 🙏 🙌

A - You are trying to put the cart before the horse. What comes first is hearing, than chanting the holy name. Take the example of the prostitute who was hired to make Hari das Thakur fall down. She was determined to succeed but in the course of her nefarious assignment, she heard the holy name from the mouth of a pure devotee. For two full nights she listened. On the third night, she surrendered. Then she was ready to give up everything painlessly.

The better the chanting the quicker the attachment to Radha Krishna and Their service will manifest, after all, Love is a two way street. As attachment for Krishna and His name manifest, detachment for all mundane things and temporal relationships vanishes. At that moment, interactions with other jivas changes in nature. You love this or that soul because he is Krishna's, not because he has green eyes, a convincing smile, similar interest or temperament. Your love for jivas becomes either based on compassion or gratitude, not mundane attachment.

“After instructing the prostitute about the process of
chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, Haridāsa Ṭhākura
stood up and left, continuously chanting “Hari, Hari.”
CC Antya 3.138

When a prostitute hired by the envious and malicious Ramachandra Khan was sent to conquer Haridas's senses, she first stayed in the doorway occasionally chanting, waiting patiently for his chanting to be completed so she could enjoy union with him. Although the prostitute had an ulterior motive, somehow or other she got the association of a pure vaiṣṇava and satisfied him by occasionally chanting in imitation, “O my Lord Hari, O my Lord Hari."

"The conclusion is that associating with a Vaiṣṇava, chanting the holy name of the Lord and offering obeisances to the Tulasī plant or a Vaiṣṇava, all lead one to become a transcendental devotee who is completely cleansed of all material contamination." (purport to CC Antya 3.122)

Did she first give up her desires to have union with him? or did she first hear the chanting? She heard pure chanting for three nights and at the end of the third night she begged for forgiveness and surrendered at the feet of Haridas asking for instructions. It is at that moment, with the order of guru empowering her, that she gave up all fineries and luxuries, her house, her former life and habits. She then stayed at Haridas's vacated kutir, worshipping Tulsi devi, chanting the holy name and eating frugally, living the life of an ascetic. 

We need to put the horse before the cart, work on our hearing and chanting first. Hear from sadhus. Hear from Srila Prabhupada, then chant nicely.

"With prīti, with love. Chant every name, "Hare Kṛṣṇa," and hear. Here is Kṛṣṇa, here is Rādhārāṇī. That kind of chanting, quality. Not "Harekṛṣṇaharekṛṣṇakṛṣṇakṛṣṇaharehare . . ." Not like that. Not like that. Prīti. 

Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti (BG 10.10). That prīti is required. That is the essential quality". - Prabhupada Lecture, June 17, 1973, Mayapur

We can try to rise early to chant during a more auspicious time for meditation. We can restrict our eating to strickly Krishna prasad so our body is not encumbered by material desires inherited from contaminated foods. We can be selective in our association. Associate only with those who can help uplifting your consciousness. Theses are favourable circumstances we have some control over, the rest is mercy. Gradually as we develop taste for chanting, material attachment will melt away as they did for the prostitute and countless others.

When one has fresh hot roti, what is the question of attraction to yesterday's stale and cold roti?

Hare Krishna,

I beg for the blessings of the vaisnavas that I may be able to please my guru maharaj.