PRACTICAL HINTS ON SAI NAMA JAPA SADHANA

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PRACTICAL HINTS ON SAI NAMA JAPA SADHANA

Beloved Sairam,

By now many of us experienced the miracle powers of Sai Nama Japa Sadhana in our

life. This Sai Nama Japa Sadhana is a infinite, limitless and continues process

and will go as long as this world exists. This japa sadhana is ageless

tradition followed by our ancesters, being continued by us, and will be

followed by our future generations too. In short, this spiritual sadhana will

exist as long as the world exists.

Quantification of Maha mantra such as billions and trillion marks for a certain

period of time is easily achievable, yet we are lacking the system of

co-ordination and collection of information. The world had already crossed all

those landmarks on Japa quantification. Recently Sai Sevak Sri SrinivasaRao

Kasturi Garu sent me an e-magazine, ‘Glory of Shirdi Sai’ Volume-V.

In that magazine, H H Saibhakta Ramdass Swamiji had written foreword message for

the book "The Incridible Sai Baba - by Arthur Osborne" during 1957. This

Saibhakta Ramdass Swamiji stressed the importance of Nama Japa Sadhana and

leading many devotees towards this Nama Japa cult in India and abroad. His

Anandashram in Kanhangad, Kerala recently published in their official journal

‘The Vision’ February 2003 issue, that they want to make 15 billion

Nama Japa in one year period and achieved 5.5 billion up to December 2002.

Now let us consier some practical hints on Sai Nama Japa Sadhana. First of all,

let us begine with Baba’s words, "The simple remembrance of My name as

"Sai, Sai" will do away with sins of speech and hearing. He alone knows the

ways of getting things done, as he likes. Neither the flute, nor the harmonium

knows, how the sounds are produced. This is the concern of the players. ....

this is the simple Sadhana for attaining salvation." (Sri Sai Satcharitra

Ch.III).

Baba said, Sai Nama Japa Sadhana is not only a simple Sadhana for a sadhaka but

also Supreme Sadhana for our salvation. It is possible to make the mistake that

only certain things in the world are aids in the realisation of truth, and that

others are obstacles. But this is not true, because everything in the world is

interconnected and it is not possible to divide the necessary from the

unnecessary, the good from the bad, etc., except in a purely relative sense.

The so-called unnecessary items or the useless ones are those subtle

connections with our central purpose in life is not clear to our minds. This

happens, when our minds are carried away by sudden emotions or spurts of

enthusiasm.It is impossible to concentrate on Sai Nama Japa Sadhana unless one

has a firm conviction and faith that whatever one expects in this world can

also be had from Japa Mantra; nay, much more than all these things which the

world has as its treasures and values. It is difficult to have the vision of

one's Aim of Life, when the mind goes out of meditation to whatever it longs

for in the world. "If there be even a little trace of greed in mind, all the

Sadhanas (spiritual endeavours) are of no avail. " (SSS Ch.XVI & XVII) "Being

quite desireless, you should meditate on God, who is in all the creatures and

when the mind is concentrated, the goal will be achieved". (SSS Ch.XVIII & XIX)

Hence, a deep study of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, the

Srimad-Bhagavata, Sri Sai Satcharitra and such other scriptures is necessary to

drive into the mind the conviction about the Supremacy of God.

Study or Svadhyaya, Japa of Mantras, and Meditation are the three main aspects

of spiritual practice. Svadhyaya does not mean study of any book that one may

find anywhere at any time. It means a continued and regular study, daily, of

selected holy texts, or even a single text, from among those have been

suggested above. A study in this manner, done at a fixed time, every day, for a

fixed duration, will bring the expected result.

The Nama Japa of the Mantra should, in the beginning, be done with a little

sound in the mouth so that the mind may not go here and there towards different

things. The loud chant of the Mantra will bring the mind back to the point of

concentration. Later on, the Japa can be only with movement of lips, but

without making any sound. In the end, the Japa can be only mental, provided

that the mind does not wander during the mental Japa. A convenient duration,

say, half an hour, or one hour, should be set up at different times, so that

the daily Japa Sadhana should be at least for three hours a day. It can be

increased according to one's capacity, as days pass.

During Japa, the mind should think of the meaning of the Mantra, the surrender

of oneself to the Deity of the Mantra, and finally, the communion of oneself

with that Great Deity. Baba said, "I always think of him, who remembers Me."

(SSS Ch. XL) Hence effort should be put forth to entertain this deep feeling

during Japa, every day.

Meditation can be either combined with Japa, or it can be independent of Japa.

Meditation with Japa means the mental repetition of the Mantra and, also, at

the same time, meditating deeply on the meaning of the Mantra, as mentioned

above. Meditation without Japa is higher stage where the mind gets so much

absorbed in the thought of God, surrender to God and union with God, that in

this meditation Japa automatically stops. This is the highest state of

Meditation.

Throughout one's Sadhana, it is necessary to feel the oneness of oneself and the

universe with God. Let us conclude this article by taking an advice from Sri

Ramana Maharishi on Nama Japa Mantra sadhana. One devotee asked Maharishi, "Can

people wipe out the consequences of their bad actions by doing Mantras or Japa

or will they necessarily have to experience or suffer them?" then Maharishi

replied, "If the feeling ‘I am doing Japa’ is not there, the bad

actions committed by a man will not stick to him. If the feeling ‘I am

doing the Japa’ is there, the consequences of bad actions will persist."

Beloved blessed Sai bandhus, please consider this important practical hint among

other hints while performing Sai Nama Japa Sadhana.

OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI

Ever yours

At the Feet of the Master

Sivanandam

(Courtesy: Glory of Shirdi Sai, Issue No. 6)

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