Japa is a training by which the ever-dancing rays of the mind are compelled to behave in some order and rhythm, and thereby bring out of their cooperative effort a single melody of repeated ‘mantra chanting’. In practising this, the mind becomes single-pointed. In fact, japa properly done can bring about sustained single-pointedness better than all the hasty methods of meditation. A mind seasoned with japa is like tinned food which gets ready for consumption after a few seconds, warming up on the fire.
Meditation can take a japa conditioned mind to unimaginable heights in an impossibly short time. Japa is training for the mind in fixing itself to a single line of thinking. We cannot pronounce a word without a thought arising in us; nor can we have a thought form without its corresponding name. Again, love is not generated where sufficient thought is not bestowed. Performing Japa in a prayer room in all intensity and training oneself to mentally repeat his name constantly during waking hours are sure ways of developing devotion (bhakti).
Japa is the repetition of thinking that brings about quickness in all attachments. The less one thinks of a thing, the less one gets attached to it. The opposite is also equally true: the more one thinks of a thing, the more he gets attached to it. The supreme reality is experienced through meditation alone.
The boat to reach the goal through meditation is rigged with the practice of devotion through japa. In meditation, one is wingless if one has not acquired a decent share of concentration and the perfect knowledge of how to fix one’s mind at will at a single point of time.
Meditation keeps the mind hitched on to one line of thought, to the complete exclusion of all dissimilar thought currents. To succeed in this, we must learn to stop at will all other ‘dissimilar thought currents’. This mental capacity is gained through japa when intelligently practised along with a regulation of the normal life lived.
Japa is a very effective mental discipline for spiritual progress. Japa is the way to perform Japa Yoga. What happened to that holiday-maker who waited on the seashore for waves to subside so he could take his bath comfortably? Don’t waste your time in vain on the shores of life; get into the ocean of bliss and be refreshed.
Japa is a very healthy and effective aid to meditation, if properly practised and regularly pursued.
Regularity and sincerity are the secrets of success in spirituality. Guard the mind against all excesses and make it immune to selfishness and passion. Watch how imperceptibly the mind ties itself down with things and beings, happenings and circumstances by its own unintelligent attachments. Even when all these warnings are faithfully obeyed, there is still a subtle danger of the japa activity being muddled with our incorrigible thirst for fruits. Profit motive is the strongest urge in man in all his strenuous activities.
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