Giving Respect To The Holy Names

It's natural for us to give respect to Krsna in the form of the Deity but not so natural to give proper respect to the Holy names. If we think about our Japa as a way to call out to Krsna, we are calling His names and naturally the Lord's attention will be drawn. Just like when we call out someone's name and they give their attention, in the same way the Lord gives His attention to us.

Now, if we get the Lord's attention by calling out His names during Japa, and then we ignore the Lord (by being inattentive to the sound of the Lord's names) then that is disrespect and we need to change this. If I call your name and then ignore you, then you may feel offended. The Lord is never offended but it shows us the importance of chanting the Holy names and giving attention to those names.

Let us all give proper respect to the Holy names of the Lord, after all He is present directly in those names.