Sound Bhakti

In the Nāmāṣṭakam by Rūpa Gosvāmī, which is a great inspiration to anyone who's practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, he says, 'ayi mukta-kulair upāsyamānam' (verse 1). That is, "Oh how wonderful it is that all the great sages worship The Holy Name." This is the main focus that they have in their worship. I often think of Vālmīki Muni because he was in such a slump as a living entity that when he got an instruction to come out of his stupor; that is, he had sunk so low that he had become a hunter and he felt completely contaminated by that. So when Nārada Muni told him to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, he said, "I can't do it." Have you ever been in a state where you knew what you were supposed to do, but you couldn't do it? Nārada Muni considered it so important and the main means for him to come out of the condition he was in that he kind of tricked him. He said, "Then don't chant Rāma, just chant Marā (death), because that's the state of mind you're in as a hunter, that you've actually become attached to killing other livi