How fast should one chant his rounds (Maha-mantra, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare)?
Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
A 'round' consists of 108 beads, meaning 108 maha-mantras. The maha-mantra consists of 16 words, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
An initiated member of ISKCON, the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, vows to chant 16 rounds every day. But how fast should one chant?
This has sometimes been a controversial question, and lead to, sometimes, heated debates.
I like to offer a rather scientific answer to this age old question, or at least centuries old.
Any member of ISKCON knows, or should know, that Haridas Thakura, a great saint from the 15th hundreds (see Haridasa Thakur), was granted the title Nama-acarya, or eminent master of the holy name, by Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu). Haridas Thakura vowed to chant 1 crore or 10,000,000 names a month. 10,000,000 names, divided by 30 (days in a month), divided by 16 names (the Maha-mantra consists of 16 names), divided by 108 beads (108 beads is considered one round), is about 192 rounds, this means about 300,000 names per day, or three lakhs (in sanskrit), 64 rounds is about one lakh.
So if one would chant 7 minutes per round, that would mean 7 times 192, is 1344 minutes, (divided by 60 minutes) which is about 22.4 hours, or 22 hours and 24 minutes, which would leaf Haridas Thakura, if he would chant 7 minutes per round, 1 hour and 36 minutes, to eat, sleep, preach etc... Not very realistic.
So from this, one could conclude that one should at least chant faster then 6 minutes per round, which would be: 6 times 192 is 1152 minutes, divided by 60 minutes is: 19.2 hours or 19 hours and 12 minutes, which would leave our Haridas Thakur with 4 hours and 48 minutes, still not a lot.
So we suggest that Haridas Thakur, the nama-acarya or acarya, or teacher of the holy name, was chanting around 5 minutes per round, which would leave him with 8 hours (5 times 192 rounds is 960 minutes, divided by 60 minutes is 16 hours) for eating sleeping, taking care of Tulasi devi (Ocimum tenuiflorum), and preaching with Lord Nityananda (Nityananda).
So we can conclude that Haridas was normally chanting around 5/6 minutes a round not much slower. So if anybody wants to follow in his footsteps, he or she should at least have the ambition to chant this fast.
Off course there is no hard and fast rules, for chanting Hare Krsna, everybody is different, still generally if one wants to chant concentrated, some speed needs to be there, otherwise one gets distracted...
Anyway, every chanter can draw his or her own conclusions, these are simply the facts. Haridas Thakura could not have chanted 7 1/2 minute per round or slower, which would take 24 hours, unless he gave up eating, sleeping and preaching all together....
For sake of being complete, I will add that Haridas Thakura chanted 1 lakh (100,000 names or about 64 rounds) loud, 1 lakh soft, and 1 lakh in the mind...
Adendum:
Danavir Goswami: I remember one time we were in the garden and I asked Prabhupada about chanting fast on japa and he said, "Yes, you can chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare but you must hear all 32 syllables." He demonstrated. And then he said, "Haridas Thakur was chanting fast. He was chanting 333,000 names." So he asked how many rounds that was. Karandhar calculated it was 192. Then Prabhupada said, "So if he was chanting five minutes per round, how many hours would that take?" and Karandhar said, "Sixteen." So he said, "Yes, he was chanting 16 hours of japa."
From Following Srila Prabhupada: DVD 09: May-July 1975
>>> Ref. VedaBase => June 1975: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Arrival at temple, Conversations, Translation, Walks, Morning program
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