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Sample Chapter:

Symptoms of an Offenseless Chanter

One who chants without offense will exhibit the four qualities mentioned in the Siksastaka verse trnad api sunicena:
(1) natural humility born of complete detachment from material sense gratification. (2) pure compassion unencumbered by envy. (3) a pure heart free from mundane, false ego. (4) a respectful attitude towards everyone according to their position.

Thakura Bhaktivinoda explains that an offenseless chanter will become overwhelmed with thoughts of other’s welfare and think like this: “O Lord! My friends, companions and all other conditioned souls are very unfortunate. How may they obtain love and attraction for Your all-auspicious name? Blinded by mäyä, they are sunk in the quagmire of family attachments, wealth and property, petty successes and reverses, profit and loss, joys and sufferings, birth and death.
“They are filled with anarthas, and are not the least bit detached from materialistic life. They are hopelessly bound by the strong ropes of unlimited desires for sense gratification. They waste their valuable time in useless affairs of karma and jnana. How can such persons awaken a desire for self-realization?” (Siksastaka tika)