The austerity of chanting Hare Krsna

[Bhakti Vikasa Swami]

Human life is meant not for becoming a hog or dog, but for tapo divyam [SB
5.5.1], transcendental austerity. Everyone should be taught to undergo
austerity, tapasya. Although it may not be possible to undergo tapasya like
that of Prsni and Sutapa, the sastra has given an opportunity for a method of
tapasya very easy to perform -- the sankirtana movement. One cannot expect to
undergo tapasya to get Krsna as one's child, yet simply by chanting the Hare
Krsna maha-mantra (kirtanad eva krsnasya [SB 12.3.51]), one can become so pure
that one becomes free from all the contamination of this material world
(mukta-sangah) and goes back home, back to Godhead (param vrajet). The Krsna
consciousness movement, therefore, is teaching people not to adopt artificial
means of happiness, but to take the real path of happiness as prescribed in the
sastra -- the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra -- and become perfect in every
aspect of material existence.

-----------------------------------------
From Srila Prabhupada's purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.3.34-35