The first installment of benefit by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is that your consciousness becomes cleansed. And as soon as your consciousness becomes cleansed, the tribulations or the miserable condition of material life becomes extinguished. The miserable condition of material life is compared with the blazing fire in the forest. As it is very difficult to extinguish the forest fire, similarly, the problems of material life cannot be extinguished simply by material benefits. As the blazing fire in the forest cannot be extinguished by the help of fire brigade or bucketful of water, similarly, by material adjustment, the problems of material miseries cannot be solved.
Because we are, by constitutional position, we are spirit soul, any material comforts will not give us actually a favorable condition of life. Just like a fish taken out of the water cannot be comforted by material comfort, er, by comfort in the land. Unless the fish is again thrown into the water, any kind of comforts on the land will not make him happy. Therefore as spirit soul, we must take to the spiritual life, and then we shall be happy.
The spiritual life begins by the process mentioned in the Vedic literature:
- śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ
- smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
- arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ
- sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
- (SB 7.5.23)
Means that you must hear about God, you must chant about God. Then the spiritual life begins. We request you, therefore, to chant the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. This is chanting. And for hearing about Kṛṣṇa, you can read our books. We have got about twenty books like this, as you are seeing in my front.