Chanting Hare Krishna automatically performs meditation by forcing the mind to hear God's name directly.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.28.19 — October 29, 1975, Nairobi 751029SB-NAIROBI [26:00 Minutes] SB-03.28.19_751029SB-NAIROBI Harikeśa: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Third Canto, Twenty-eighth Chapter, text number nineteen.
[leads chanting of verse, etc.] sthitaṁ vrajantam āsīnaṁ śayānaṁ vā guhāśayam prekṣaṇīyehitaṁ dhyāyec chuddha-bhāvena cetasā [SB 3.28.19] [01:43] Translation: "Thus always merged in devotional service, the yogī visualizes the Lord standing, moving, lying down or sitting within him, for the pastimes of the Supreme Lord are always beautiful and attractive." Prabhupāda: sthitaṁ vrajantam āsīnaṁ śayānaṁ vā guhāśayam prekṣaṇīyehitaṁ dhyāyec chuddha-bhāvena cetasā [SB 3.28.19] This is meditation. These haṭha-yogīs, they meditate in their impersonal feature, but our meditation, Vaiṣṇava, devotees' meditation, is very easy. For the haṭha-yogīs, they have to select place, āsana. Dhyāna, dhāraṭā, āsana... Āsana is also one of the activities.
But here, in Vaiṣṇava philosophy, you are seeing the Deity always, at least daily, so you have got some impression that "Our temple Deity is like this." That impression, either you are sitting in one place without any activities, sthitaṁ vrajantam... While walking on the street also, you can think of this Deity. There is no difficulty, either you are sitting or you are walking or you are standing—any way—because the mind is there in Kṛṣṇa, in Kṛṣṇa's form. Therefore Deity worship is so essential for the neophyte.
He can have always the opportunity to think of the Supreme Lord by the impression of the Deity within the mind. Śayānam, even in lying down, even talking. So this is our process. This is the perfect process. You don't require any artificial method to think of God. It is natural.
If you simply come to the temple daily, chant in the front of the Deity, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, then you become advanced immediately. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor vacāṁsi vaikuṇṭha-guṇānuvarṇane [SB 9.4.18]. Now there are books. Either you chant, sit down in the Deity room in front of the Deity, see how āratrika is going on, how Deity is nicely dressed with flower, ornaments, so if you constantly be engaged in thinking of the Deity, that is first-class meditation, not artificially going to...
That is not possible at the present moment, that, as it is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, you have to select a very solitary place and you have to sit down under certain posture, looking half-opened eyes on the tip of the nose so that you may not sleep in the name of meditation. There are so many. And you have to follow brahmacārya. All these rules and regulations are there: dhyāna, dhāraṭā, āsana, prāṇāyāma.
Prāṇāyāma... Then? What is called? Pratyāhāra.