A Collective Chanting session is one in which seekers sit or stand together and chant aloud the prescribed Name of The Lord. When there is only one seeker, he, too, can derive its benefits by chanting aloud, sitting in front of an altar, etc., with the spiritual emotion that he is chanting with other seekers and the Deities or the Guru Himself. The Sanatan has recommended this mainly for overcoming the effects of distressing energies and to gain energy to sustain one’s spiritual practice given the recent tremendous increase in negative energy obstruction in all aspects of life, including spiritual practice.

    Currently, the Sanatan has advised that seekers do two hours of collective chanting per day. For the first hour and 20 minutes, the collective chant consists of the Names of Lord Ganesh and Lord Krishna:

|| Om Gan Ganapataye Namaha | (3x)
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya (3x) ||

    As noted, each Name should be done three times. Also, the bold syllables should be emphasized when chanted; the italicized spoken softly, with devotion. Before beginning this chant, seekers should offer the following prayer:

    "O Lord, may our chanting reach Lord Ganesh and Lord Krishna. May the benefit of this chanting go only to Your seekers gathered here, and not to any negative energies. May this chanting invoke the Destroyer Form (marak roop) of the respective deities. O Lord Ganesh, please hear our call and bestow Your protection upon Your seekers gathered here. Please create a protective shield around us with Your Noose, so that our spiritual practice is shielded from any negative energies. O Lord Krishna, please keep a continuous protective shield on Your seekers gathered here; please protect our spiritual practice from negative energies, so that our spiritual practice can go on improving."

    Every two sets of repetition, one should stop and make a short prayer. An example of a prayer is: "O Lord Ganesh and Lord Krishna, may be benefits of repeating Your Names go only to Sanatan's seeker <put your name here> and not be taken by distressing energies. May the distressing energies be destroyed and the obstacles to the reinstatement of the divine kingdom be removed."

    For the remaining 40 minutes of collective chanting, the Name of Lord Krishna is chanted:

|| Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya ||

     Before beginning the chant, one should offer the prayer:

    "O Sri Krishna, let the satseva given to us due to Your Grace and Blessings occur as per H. H. Gurudev’s expectations. While doing satseva let our mistakes be realized by us well in time and let them get corrected. Let our feeling of devotion and fighting spirit (kshatravrutti) increase. Let a protection sheath get created from Your Name around us. Let Your grace be always upon all of us seekers. This is the prayer at Your holy feet. "

    After every ten repetitions, one should stop the repetition and offer a prayer to Lord Krishna:

‘Let a protective sheath form around ……………….. (your name).’

     During these sessions, seekers should sit together in a circle with the images of Lord Ganesh and Lord Krishna. If there is only one seeker, then that seeker can chant by sitting in front of the images of the deities or an altar he may have at home. Focusing (especially mentally) on the images of the deities as well as visualizing the Destroyer Form (marak roop) of the deities helps generate spiritual emotion and facilitates smooth chanting.

   The Sanatan has recommended collective chanting mainly for overcoming the effects of negative energies and to gain energy to sustain one’s spiritual practice, given the recent tremendous increase in negative energy obstruction in all aspects of life, including spiritual practice.

    Note: Since some seekers, especially outside India are located cities and countries apart from each other, it may not always be possible to have collective chanting sessions. At such time, one can focus on doing individual chanting with as much quality and quantity as possible, and do chanting aloud of collective chants by chanting along with the tune of the chant with the spiritual emotion that one is chanting with seekers, in the presence of deities. In such cases, collective chanting is done mainly to develop Kshatravrutti or fighting spirit against one’s obstacles, be it distressing energies, circumstances or one’s internal defects.