NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT

There is nothing more important than chanting japa.

In order to read and record I had to be up and awake before the peacocks, the gardeners with their noise, the garbage trucks and the pressure washing that everyone seems to love to do all day, etc.

I was a little late getting up so I skipped bathing and just began reading and recording in "Krishna Book" Chapter 45. So much nectar and some realizations. They needed to be written down or they would disappear. Then I would need to start japa or it would be getting too late in the day.

I forgot I hadn't bathed. But once I started the chanting I did not want to stop, thinking, "At least let me chant three or four rounds... then I can bathe." After four rounds I thought, "Let me just do a few more before interrupting the japa meditation. It will be harder to take it up after bathing because then I will be hungry and I will be left with ten rounds around noon. Not good. So I kept chanting.

It became obvious... nothing was more important than chanting japa, sixteen rounds. At ten rounds I was feeling very hungry...not having eaten anything. It was not important. So what. I wasn't going to die if I didn't eat right away.

After twelve rounds I thought maybe I can chant all sixteen without interruption. I have no schedule, appointments, or anything that can't be done at another time. There is nothing that is so important as to warrant stopping. Everything else can wait and some of it can just go away altogether.

Jaya sixteen rounds. Two hours. The thought is there, "Why not just keep chanting? There is nothing else is that is as important. Nothing. Everything will be taken away at the time of death except for the Holy Name."

Srila Prabhupada has given me this mantra and asked that I chant a minimum of sixteen rounds every day. I have accepted the mantra from him and agreed. If I at all want to be Krishna conscious I must do this. Others may do something else, that is their business.
As far as I am concerned there is nothing more important.
The four regulative principles are another topic.