Offenses hold us down

When a devotee begins chanting the Names of God  (the 16 word Mahamantra) after receiving due initiation from a true Guru,  he may expect all problems, difficulties, pests and negative energies to go away from his life. However, after a few years of chanting,  he finds that those difficulties are still around, the problems may sometimes even magnify in proportion.  He still may suffer immensely like other conditioned beings.

The devotee then begins to wonder whether he is on the right track at all ?

He immediately needs the guidance and support of a senior devotee who is more advanced than himself.

My mother used to describe it thus :

If we go to a jungle looking for the tigers, the leopards, the jackals , the snakes and other fearsome animals, we may not find any. However, once we set fire to the jungle, all the predators and reptiles would at once come out and we may get attacked.

Similarly, on the face of it,  the  person who is living a materially conditioned existence may lead an apparently peaceful life. Fewer troubles from the various agents of the world will occur to him.

However, as soon as he starts chanting and serving the Holy Names of God,  the forces of materialism attack. The forces are situated both inside and outside the body.  Just as an enemy army that is being uprooted from our country might retaliate most fiercely,  similarly the negative energies,  the  mental weakness and dirt that have been accumulated over the past zillions of lives will attack us in order to retain their control.

So, for a while the devotee may get bewildered and even think of completely stopping the devotional process and  lead a "normal" life.

But that doesn't  help him either. Just like the Britishers who regained control over India after the revolt of 1857  executed an even greater control over her natives than before the rebellion had occured, similarly,  the materialistic tendencies and materialistic forces of the world will attack us even more severly than before. As a result, we may plunge deeper into materialism and get a permanent  "leave"  from the school of devotion!

The solution is to continue to chant and to carefully avoid the offenses to the Holy Name, to the Holy Dhams, to the devotees and to the Deities.

Over a period of time, if one is sincere and regular in chanting, the blaze will get reduced.  Indeed, the  flames of the Holy Name will burn to ashes the negative forces both within and outside our bodies.

If someone asks why did the devotee get attacked in the first place, when even One Name of the Lord if chanted properly can cleanse all our karma and grant us liberation from the cycle of birth and death ?

The answer is : offenses are the cause of problems to a devotee who is chanting.

Offenses hold us down, offenses cloud our conscience and as a result while one is chanting offensively, one is not serving the Holy Names but in a way attacking them!

One must approach the Holy Names in a serving mood, feeling oneself to be lower than a blade of grass.  Then the Holy Names will be merciful and destroy our  shortcomings, anarthas.