Japa is one of those times because we have to self-examine and see how we're chanting. There are plenty of opportunities to examine ourselves in chanting japa, just to see what is the intensity, are we finishing at an appropriate time, and so forth. By taking that responsibility then, we can develop spiritual strength. There are various obstacles to that. One of them is if we are lending our ear to those who don't consider it very important, then we can be dissuaded from taking it seriously. That's why Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that we have to regularly hear about the importance of completing the practice in order to stay serious about it.

There's a phenomenon which I like to call 'The Jarāsandha effect', that goes like this: Just like Jarāsandha came to Mathurā and was totally defeated by Kṛṣṇa and Balārama. His armies were slaughtered 17 times, rivers of blood were flowing, every one of his soldiers was annihilated. But every time he walked away, Jarāsandha's ministers told him that his losing the battle was a fluke and he should go back and try again.

So the same thing happens. These same kinds of words come in a regular stream from those who are attached to the material world that just keep saying, "You'll be victorious next time." We have to constantly hear the sambandha-jñāna from Kṛṣṇain the Bhagavad-gītā, who assures us that this material world is not our home and that there's only one shelter—take shelter of Kṛṣṇa. That's why He says in the Gītā, "sarva-dharmān parityajya

mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja," just categorically forget the material world as a place of shelter and take shelter in Me.

So it's our responsibility to take advantage of Japa, its self-examination. It's also our duty to constantly hear about the importance of it so that we can remain in a determined state of mind to complete our 16 rounds, a minimum 16 rounds - every day.

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