Q: I have a longing for chanting sahasranamas, but my concentration is scattered. How can I concentrate on all the slokas?🔗

This is another big problem. Sometimes, you will enjoy some stotras and chanting. Then you decide, 'Oh, such ecstasy and bliss and joy! I should have this always. Let me start chanting every day.' No! You missed the whole thing. The moment you decided, 'Let me chant every day,' you created a routine.

Understand: bliss happens to you when you are in choicelessness. The moment you choose bliss, you have chosen suffering. All choice, including choosing bliss, is choosing suffering.

Choice is suffering, choicelessness is bliss.

The moment you choose, 'Now I am going to do this every day', you made it as a routine.

I have seen people chanting sahasranama. They would start in full speed. After just two pages, the speed of chanting would increase. After few pages, they would just see the page numbers continuously, 'Oh, there are 400more verses to go…' I always tell people, 'Do not bother about completing the thousand names at all. Take up the book; god is not sitting there and counting like a bank balance, asking whether you have done all the thousand names.

Just sit in the beautiful mood, in a very loving way. If you can chant even five or six names, it is perfectly alright. That is enough. The moment you feel bored, close the book and stop. Do not do chanting or puja when you don't feel connected, when you don't feel that joy. If you are doing it without feeling the joy, you are abusing it.

Chanting some mantra, chanting some sloka without feeling joyful, without being in ecstasy is abusive. When you chant, if your concentration is scattered, it means you are not enjoying it. The moment you feel you don't enjoy, relax and stop.