The Flickering Mind of Monkeys

“One should never think that they have been chanting for a long time yet the Lord did not come to them and therefore stop chanting. Such thoughts are a product of the illusory energy. One should remain humble and chant, thereby inviting Krsna to come.

If one cannot peacefully chant, they should look to their own shortcomings and humbly correct their frame of mind to receive the Lord’s blessings so He will come to them. People thinking that they have served the Lord and chanted for a long period of time, yet did not receive any result have flickering minds and are compared to monkeys.

Once monkeys observed that everyone eats mangoes, whereas they do not. So they researched and found that if a mango seed is planted, a mango tree will grow and produce mangoes. Therefore they gathered seeds discarded from people after they had eaten mangoes, planted them and waited for some time. Impatient for mangos, they dug up the seeds to find why they had not yet grown. They saw the seeds had sprouted, but mangoes were not produced. Because they did not allow the seed to fructify, the sprouted mango seeds died. Similarly, people that only chant for a short time expecting to receive the Lord’s mercy are referred to as having the flickering mind of a monkey. Just as the sprouted seeds the monkeys uprooted died, similarly spiritual or religious deeds performed by flickering minded people remain fruitless. Therefore the scriptures state one should not give up chanting the Lord’s names and serving Him until the Lord comes to see them face to face.”

[Sri Krsna Balaram Swamiji, How to Spend Your Last Seven Days on Earth, KBS0054]