In short
- You need no diksha, no fee, no fixed hour, no posture and no minimum count to begin.
- Choose a number so small that you are certain to repeat it tomorrow.
- Tie it to something already fixed in your day, so it never depends on remembering.
- Week two feels like nothing is happening. Keeping it through that week is the whole task.
What you do not need before you start
Premanand Ji Maharaj is explicit that the name is not kept behind anyone's permission, including his own. That removes most of the reasons people give for putting it off.
- No initiation or diksha
- No fee, to anyone, for anything
- No fixed hour, posture or quiet room
- No minimum count
- No journey to Vrindavan: going there is a wish, not a prerequisite
A mala helps, because it gives the hands something to do and the mind a count to hold. It is not a requirement. If you do use one, this is how to hold it. A good part of his instruction is about chanting while walking, cooking or commuting, where no mala is involved at all.
What to chant
The Radha naam. He belongs to the Radhavallabh Sampradaya, founded by Shri Hit Harivansh Mahaprabhu, in which Shri Radha stands at the centre of worship rather than beside it. So his instruction is specific: not simply remember God, but take the name of Radha, which he treats as the most direct route open to an ordinary person.
Say it in whatever language you think in. Nothing about the practice depends on Sanskrit, or on getting a formula right before you are allowed to begin.
Pick the number you will repeat tomorrow
He cares far more about continuity than about the number.
A small count kept every day beats a large count kept for a week and then abandoned.
So choose a count you are certain you will repeat tomorrow, even if it is small enough to feel unserious. Then leave it alone. Let it grow on its own rather than by resolution: a number raised in a burst of enthusiasm is usually the number that gets dropped in the second week.
Attach it to something already fixed
A practice that depends on remembering will be forgotten on exactly the days you most need it. Attach the count to something that already happens without any decision from you: the commute, or the first ten minutes after waking.
The early morning, before the day starts making demands, is the traditional time and the one he keeps himself. He adds straight away that the name is not restricted to that window. The best time is the one you will actually keep.
The first month, week by week
Nobody promises a timetable for inner change, and he does not either. But the order people describe is consistent enough to be worth knowing, if only so that you recognise the difficult part when it arrives instead of deciding you have failed.
- It feels like effort You remember to chant twice and forget four times. That is normal. The instruction is not to feel guilty about the forgetting, which only adds a second problem to the first.
- Nothing happens This is the stretch that ends most attempts. Feeling is not the measure, and this is the part of the road where the practice is either kept or dropped.
- The gap appears Something provokes you and there is a small delay before you react. That gap is the first real result, and it tends to show in your behaviour before it shows in your feelings.
- Others notice first The people around you register the change before you do, because you are comparing yourself with yesterday and they are comparing you with last month.
When you feel nothing
The dry stretch is part of the road, not a detour off it. Practice done without emotion still counts. Practice abandoned because there was no emotion does not.
It helps to understand what the name is for. Most methods ask you to control the mind directly, which is roughly like asking a river to stop. His approach is substitution rather than suppression: the mind will chew on something, so give it the name instead of the grievance. That works whether or not you feel anything while it is happening.
What not to turn it into
Not a technique
The instruction carries no posture, no breath count and no stages. Anything that needed a quiet room would be useless to a person on a crowded train, and most of his listeners are on one.
Not a reason to leave your life
He left home at thirteen and spends a good part of his satsang telling people not to. Family, job and duty are where the practice is tested, not an obstacle to it.
Not a replacement for treatment
He sends people to doctors and has never taught that faith replaces medicine. If you are unwell, chant alongside your treatment, not instead of it.
This is a fan website, not the official site of Shri Hit Radha Keli Kunj. The article summarises what he teaches in public satsang; it does not quote him. If something here is wrong, tell us and it is corrected the same week.
