Mantra Japa and the silence between thoughts

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On mantra japa

 

Swami Dayananda wrote in his Talks on Upadesa Saram (Essence of the teaching of

Ramana Maharshi) the following comment

to vers 6 which is:

"Compared to the loud singing of His praise,

repeating His name aloud,

(repeating) in a murmor or meditation

in the form of mental (silent) chanting is better (in the order)"

 

"Japa is a prayerful occupation for the mind. Every chanting is the same as the

preceding one. Suppose we chant: om namah sivaya, om namah sivaya ... Every

chanting is fresh without any connection with the previous one and yet the same

as the previous one. Each chanting is complete: "Salutation to Lord Siva." This

is not so with the train of thoughts such as car - Honda - Japan ... They are

dissimilar - there is a connection between thoughts by association. This process

is like a monkey jumping from one treetop to another, very rarely coming to the

ground. The thinker is carried away with the thoughts.

 

Each thought is an occupation involving an object. When the thought does not

pertain to an object, the mind is with itself. Between two successive thoughts,

similar or not, there is a gap - however short. There must be silence between

successive thoughts: thought, silence, thought, silence... But this silence is

missed when one thought leads to another. In a buildup you walk on thoughts

without being aware of the gap between thoughts. Silence is leisure. If one is

conscious of thoughts as well as silence, there is no problem whether one is

thinking or not. The problem is due to wrong thinking - buildup, mechanical

thinking - in which you lose yourself. It is born of self-forgetfulness. It is

like a trapper who goes from one top of a betel nut tree to another (successive

trees are close to each other) and so he does not come down until the trees in a

given area are covered. Mechanical thinking denies you the silence and you miss

the opportunity of being conscious of yourself.

 

In japa, the same mantra being repeated, there is no connection between one

thought and the next. Consequently there is no builtup. The occupation being the

same, you have mantra, silence, mantra, silence... One cannot miss oneself as

silence. Silence is nearer; in fact, silence is myself. With or without

occupation I am myself. But because I generally miss the silence, I have to make

an effort to see myself as a being who is free from occupation. Before the

thought I am silence; after the thought I am silence. Even a million thoughts

cannot disturb the silence that I am. Thinking is never a problem; mechanical

thinking is a problem. All that one has to do is to learn to think properly.

 

During japa, observe the silence between successive chants. The observer of

silence is the silence and the observed also is silence. This can as well be

called "meditation" as it takes you to yourself. You are conscious of the

silence that follows the chant and so the very chant becomes meditation,

japadhyanam wherein the japa itself is dhyanam or meditation. You see yourself

as silence all the way - not merely at the end. When you observe silence, you

are silence. When you drop chanting, you are silence; when you are chanting, you

are silence. Silence is not disturbed by chanting nor by thinking, provided the

thinking is not mechanical. You learn to be silence by japa and before long, you

are silence all the time. The teaching that atma, Self is santah, all silence,

becomes meaningful."