There are three stages of chanting. One chanting is with offense, beginning. There are ten kinds of offenses, we have described many times. If we chant with offense, that is the . . . that is one stage. If we chant offenseless, that is one stage. And if we chant pure . . . offenseless is not yet pure—you're trying to make offenseless, but not yet offenseless. But when there is pure chanting, that is success. Nāma, nāmābhāsa and śuddha-nāma. So our aim is . . . this was discussed. You'll find in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, discussion between Haridāsa Ṭhākura and a brahmin. So by chanting, you can come to the highest stage of perfection. In the beginning there may be offenses, but if we try to avoid the offenses, then it is nāmābhāsa. Nāmābhāsa means not actually pure name, but almost pure. Nāmābhāsa and śuddha-nāma. When one chants śuddha-nāma, name, holy name of God, then he is on the platform of loving platform with Kṛṣṇa. That is the perfectional stage. And in nāmābhāsa stage—not in pure; marginal, between pure and offensive—that is mukti. You become mukta, liberated from material bondage. And if we chant offensively, then we remain in the material world. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, nāmākṣara bahirāya nāma nāhi haya. It is mechanical, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa," but still it is not Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nāmākṣara, nāma bahira haya, nāmākṣara, nāma nāhi haya (Prema Vivarta).
So we must be purely chanting. But we should not be disappointed. Even impure . . . therefore we must have fixed chanting process. Because we are not in the pure stage. Therefore, by force . . . just like a boy in the school. We had this training in our childhood school. Our teacher would ask me, "You write ten pages, handwriting." So that means practicing ten pages, my handwriting will be set up. So even if we do not follow sixteen rounds, where is the question of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa? So don't be artificial; don't be, I mean to say, a show bottle. Be real thing. And that is wanted. If you want real benefit of spiritual life, don't be show bottle.