Answers by

PROF. HR NAGENDRA,
Vice Chancellor,
SVYASA, Bangalore, India

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Transcription

Yes. Japa is to repeat a single shloka, a single thought again and again. So, Vishnusaharanama, Lalitasahasranama, Aditya Hrudaya and many other things can be used but in the longer things Vishnusahasranama, Lalithasahasranama and others there is a series of thoughts which are there and therefore it is not a single thought. In that sense it is not strictly Dhyana. Because in Dhyana you should have only one thought. But if you consider the whole thing as one single entity then you are repeating that again and again in that sense you bardus on Dhyana. So use long mantras to begin with, then reduce the length of the mantra and then choose only one or two; Om Nama Bhagavathe Vasudevaya, then you come to only Om, OoooMMmm, OoooMMmm, Amatra. So go on doing only the Omkara. So this is how the mind has to be brought under control. The beginning of the mind is very haphazard therefore you give a lot of these Strotras, you do a lot of the long mantras, all that you can use. But as you progress then it should become shorter and shorter, it should become only three words or four or the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra; Trayam Bakam Mija Mahe Sugandhim Pusthivardhanam Gururukayambandhana Mrutyu  Mukshiyamam Amrita. You can go on doing that. So then as you go forward you must reduce the length, make it one single thing. And finally what should happen, the Japa should become Ajapa. That means your mind should stop thinking, it should become silent. Even that single thought should vanish. From multiple thoughts to single thought, the single thought also should vanish. This is the whole. Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, what he called it as transcendence. He called it transcendental meditation. Use a Japa to transcend the Japa. Use the ladder to go up the roof and leave the ladder down. So Japa as a tool to go to the very source from where thoughts come. Therefore you can certainly use these long mantras or the Strotras and long Shlokas, everything.