imp of chanting

[Guest guest]

Namaste, Sowmy-ji, and Akshat-kji

 

The importance of chanting on beads for advaita-sAdhanA can

never be under-estimated. The following are two paragraphs

from my book where I have quoted Shri Ramakrishna on the

subject:

Now there are several several ways to meditate.The

meditation that I am going to talk about here is only one

such way. It is called ‘japa-sahita-dhyAnaM’. It means

meditation with the help of a japa. Japa as you know is

counted repetition of a certain mantra or passage, which

could even be just the name of God. Listen to what

Ramakrishna says about how japa can benefit us and bring us

the Lord’s Grace easily. Suppose there is a boat that lies

at the bottom of a river, but tied to a long chain anchored

to a pole on the bank. Now the boat is not visible from

outside and we don’t know where exactly the boat is. All

that we have to do is to catch hold of the chain and move

our fingers from one link of the chain to the next, and

keep going, from link to link, until we finally hit the

boat itself at the other end of the chain. The Almighty who

is not visible to our senses, is also easily identifiable

like this by the links of a chain of japa of the mantra or

name of God, says Ramakrishna!

 

We all know that the mind is a monkey. It is continuously

thinking of something or other – not necessarily

consistently, not necessarily on the same topic. There is

no end to this flow of thoughts in the mind. In addition

to ideas, policies, objects, events and tasks, it also has

to deal with the sense experiences of convenience and

inconvenience, of physical pain, of excitement of the mind,

of happiness and unhappiness. All these are crisscrossing

the mind. A properly done japa has the power to stop this

continuous thought-flow of the mind. Give the monkey mind

the repetitive work of counting the japa. When the

intensity of the japa increases, the mind will be seen to

stay with the content of the japa, namely, the mantra

and/or its meaning. When it learns not to stray outside the

content of the japa, that will be the time when the japa

can also cease to be a vocalised one. The repetition of the

mantra will now be totally mental. Even the lip movement

will not be there. Not even a movement of either the tongue

or the vocal chords. This is called mauna-japam. A

mauna-japam is several times more effective than a

vocalised japam. It is the mauna-japam that is the first

exercise to be practised before we attempt to enter the

stage of DhyAnaM.

 

For the full portion on Meditation please go to

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/livehappily_3.html

and

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/livehappily_4.html

 

PraNAms to all advaitins

profvk

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

 

New on my website, particularly for beginners in Hindu philosophy:

Empire of the Mind:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/ManversusMind.html

 

Free will and Divine will - a dialogue:

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/HNG/FWDW.html

[Guest guest]

This answer regarding the benefit of chanting by Sri

Sowmy, is correct as far as concentration goes.But

after this there arises one more question : is

chanting on beads a mere lower stage to meditation on

Self recommended for junior sadhaks or throughout

one's life would a sadhak have to do bead-chanting ?

 

have a good day !!

--- Sowmy <nsowmy wrote:

> IMO, chanting is meant to keep the mind always tuned

> towards the

> Divine. It helps re-inforce in one's mind, the faith

> on the Eternal.

> What basically it achieves is that it makes the mind

> to focus on One

> thing, thereby giving the mind less room to wander

> away. i.e. it helps

> achieve Concentration, which is very essential for

> any

> meditation/contemplation on the Self.

>

> Have a Nice Day !