pieces of the puzzle

A suffering person is humble.

A humble person seeks shelter.

A saint, by causeless mercy, helps a soul take the decision to surrender to Krishna

A soul who experiences, by causeless mercy, the shelter of Krishna, tries to get that experience again

Krishna waits for the soul to surrender, a little or as much as it can, and helps it execute the will of its higher self and resist the temptations of its lower self

The soul seeking Krishna is still attached to old ways of thinking, enjoying, and acting. It cannot surrender completely due to lack of faith in Krishna and strong faith in maya or the material mind

Association with those who have given up faith in maya and who have strong faith in Krishna is the only means to transform oneself

Association means to hear submissively from pure Sadhus, to be eager to perform menial service to please them. Pure sadhus are at least on the level of nishtha. One may also associate with those who are determined to associate with pure sadhus, but very cautiously because the fault finding propensity is not gone

Maya bewilders the soul by feeding it lies about others and temptations. Any soul that considers itself better than others, believes all her lies. Any soul considering itself the controller enjoyer and possesor falls for the temptations of maya to enjoy, control, or own, but falsely or temporarily.

The soul determined to cross over realizes its helplessness, begs Krishna's internal energy to engage it in His service, regrets falling for temptations that lead to misery, and tries to chant offenselessly.

Chanting must be with humility, realization of one's awkward and dangerous condition and helplessness. It must be with a sincere desire to serve or a desire to have such a desire. It must be without duplicity or the attempt to cheat by trying to enjoy Krishna, enjoy His facilities selfishly, enjoy and still try to be known as a devotee.

Service and association during the time one is not just chanting japa is what determines the quality of japa.

How we use the time and facilities Krishna gives us is what determines the quality of our japa.

If we're surfing the net, planning sense enjoyment for us or our extended familial social or other selves instead of absorbing our consciousness in the eternal, ie., serving the acaryas, the Holy Name, Bhagavatam, sadhus, dhama, etc. then we are misusing our time, energy, and resources

As soon as we surrender, we are lifted up

As soon as we resume control thinking, I know what is to be done, we lose shelter and fall back down

As soon as we accept the temptation of controlling others through anger, we fall back down

As soon as we accept the temptation to be greedy and satisfy the material senses like the tongue, we fall back down

As soon as we associate with those averse to Krishna, opening our hearts and minds to them, we fall back down