Kirtan is (devotional) chanting. You could say, “Well, I can chant with my voice, like in the beginning we were chanting, ‘Radhe Govinda.’ So I can do that without the involvement of my mind.”
Just like if you’re singing the Aarti and you’ve sung it so many times that you have it memorized. Your mouth is moving, you’re saying all the words of the Aarti, but you might be thinking about something totally different. Your mind can be somewhere else, and your mouth is still repeating all the words of the Aarti.
So this is not true Kirtan.
In fact, where our mind has gone, that is the action we’re performing. That’s a key point.
If we’re singing, “Radhe Govinda, Radhe Govinda,” but your son’s name may be Govinda or your daughter’s name may be Radha, so if you’re singing “Radhe Govinda” but thinking of your children, then whose name are you really taking? You’re not taking God’s name. You’re taking your child’s name.
So even Kirtan requires the involvement of the mind. You have to be thinking about the One whose name you’re calling.
Just like if you want to get someone’s attention and, for a minute, their name has slipped your mind. So you’re thinking of them. “Oh, that person. They look like this. Their nose is like this. Their eyes are like that.” You’re picturing that person in your mind, and you’re trying to think of their name. “Oh yes, Mohan.” Then you call him, “Oh Mohan, come here.”
So you thought of him. You thought of his form, his personality, and his qualities. That whole package—you thought of that and the name associated with it.
So both go together.
In the same way, when we’re doing Kirtan, basically what we’re doing is calling God to come to us. So if we’re not thinking of Him and it’s just our mouth doing the chanting, it’s not really Kirtan.
It means that Shravan (listening to Divine knowledge) is listening with the involvement of the mind so that all the knowledge registers in our mind.
Kirtan is chanting God’s name with the involvement of the mind so that our mind is thinking about the One whom we are calling, whose name we are calling.
And Smaran (loving remembrance of God) is just the mind.
If you sit and think of Krishna, but you’re not chanting His name and you’re not listening to any philosophy or Leela (Divine pastime), but you’re thinking of Him, that is Smaran.
So, in fact, you could say Smaran was there with the other two. Thinking of Him is Smaran. So thinking of Him plus chanting is Kirtan plus Smaran.
Listening with the involvement of the mind is Shravan plus Smaran.
