Anything, any spiritual process, is meant for cleansing the heart. Either you take karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga or dhyāna-yoga or bhakti-yoga, the ultimate goal is that cleansing the heart. At the present moment I am under misconception, dirty things accumulated on my heart that, "I am this body," and therefore I do not try to realize that I am soul, and under bodily concept of life . . . as the animals they are also in bodily concept of life, they are busy eating, sleeping, mating and defending, similarly, human civilization has become like animals. They are interested only in eating, sleeping, mating and defense. That's all. But that is not our position. It is a chance to get out of the entanglement of birth, death, old age and disease. This is our real business. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12).
We are misguided. Our so-called leaders are mis-leaders. They do not know what is the aim of life. That is the difficulty at the present moment. Not at the present moment; in the material world this problem is always existing, but due to this Kali age, that problem is more acute. That's all. So this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without offenses, ten kinds of offenses, will cleanse the heart, and then you will be liberated. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvā . . . because we know the path how we can get out of these clutches of birth and death. There are so many big, big scientist, philosopher; they don't talk of this important subject matter, how to get out of birth and death. They have no solution, neither they can think of. But our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving us the knowledge that "You can get out of these clutches of birth and death, old age and disease."
That is our desire. Nobody wants to die, nobody wants to go again into the womb of the mother. Nobody wants disease, nobody wants old age. But the so-called scientist, they have no proposal to get out of these clutches. Here, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives you hint that hari-nāma-dheyaiḥ. By chanting hari-nāma, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21), you can get out of this. And when hari-nāma will be perfect . . . that symptoms are given here: netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ. By chanting, when you will—not always—sometimes, out of ecstasy, when tears will come down and there will be shivering on the body, that means you are coming to perfection. This is not to be artificially practiced. When you actually come to the perfectional stage, these will automatically appear. So this verse suggests that if a person is chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, but his eyes are not tearful or there is no ecstatic shivering of the body, then that is . . . means he's not coming to the perfectional point.
So if we chant this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without offense, according to . . . and observing regulative principles and numerical strength . . . saṅkhyā-pūrvaka-nāma-gāna-natibhiḥ (Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭaka). The Gosvāmīs, in Vṛndāvana, they used to chant, keeping in numerical strength. They were all liberated person; still, for teaching us an example, they also used to chant keeping a numerical strength. Haridāsa Ṭhākura, he used to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra keeping a numerical strength, three hundred thousand times. Three hundred thousand times. So our prescription is only twenty-five thousand; not hundred thousand even. So it is not very difficult; it takes utmost two hours. We can find out, out of twenty-four hours, two hours. We can find out time.
So if we actually follow the rules and regulation and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, then these symptoms will come: netre jalaṁ gātra-ruheṣu harṣaḥ. When this comes, then you know that "I am coming to perfection." And if it is not coming, then it is to be understood the heart is steel-framed. Steel-framed. So it is steel only. Stone. Stone . . . if we keep our heart stone or steel-framed, then it cannot be melted. This . . . these symptoms mean heart is melting or changing.