So the first stage of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is full of offenses.
But if one sticks to the principle... Therefore we have to chant regularly sixteen rounds at least. So even there are offenses, by simply chanting and being repentant that "I have committed this offense unnecessarily or without knowledge," so simply be repentant and go on chanting.
Then the stage will come. It is called nāmābhāsa. That is offenseless, when there is no more offenses. That is called nāmābhāsa. At nāmābhāsa stage one becomes liberated immediately. And when one is liberated, if he goes on chanting—naturally he will go on chanting—then his love of Kṛṣṇa becomes manifest.
These are the three stages of chanting:
chanting with offense,
chanting as a liberated person
and chanting in love of God.
There are three stage of chanting. The same thing, the example is just like a mango, unripe mango, going on, changes.
It is not that chanting brings another thing as a result. No. The same thing becomes manifest in different feature.
Just like unripe mango, you taste in a different way; it is very sour. But when it is ripened and it is fully ripened, the taste is changed. The taste is now sweet.
So in the beginning we may be very much reluctant in the matter of chanting, but when you become liberated the chanting will be so sweet that you cannot give up.
Just like Rūpa Gosvāmī. He has composed a śloka. He says in that śloka that "If I had millions of tongues and trillions of ears, then the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra would have been relishable. How, what can I do with one tongue and two ears?" So that is liberated stage.
That is prema.
But that stage is attainable. If you follow regularly the principles, everyone will attain to that stage when he simply likes to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rama, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
(Lecture on SB 6.2.9-10 -- Allahabad, January 15, 1971)