DON'T QUIT

Bhaktimarga Swami
Oct 5
1 min read

Sunday, October 5th, 2025

Mississauga, Ontario

My dear godbrother, Mahatma, 75, has been travelling through portions of Canada successfully presenting workshops on japa meditation. He was in Toronto giving helpful hints how to improve upon sound vibration from the tongue. Chanting mantras while sitting or while walking might appear to be easy, but it may not be as easy as one thinks.

One can be purely mechanic al about utterances of mantras, but what truly it requires is the effort made to bring it to a heartfelt level.

When Arjuna expresses to his mystical coach, Krishna, that quiet attention to meditation was challenging, Krishna agreed. He advised to stick to the practice of focusing and to approach it in a detached frame of mind. Krishna admitted nothing is easy, and therefore, to carry on with the endeavours, in all sincerity.

“Just don’t give up,” was the message.

This morning, I was leading the kirtan in the temple. I also played the mridanga drum. I did the best I could. When my support musician playing the kartal cymbals quite well, he stopped suddenly to lend those cymbals to another person (someone who came through the door).

This is one of the rules in the Kirtan Standards Workshop that I support. I told the man who left the instruments at three-quarters of the way through the kirtan that we don’t do that.

“You were doing good. There was no need to switch. Just don’t quit. Play to the end.”

I say don’t be a quitter, or the switcher in the case of chanting and singing.