• In :
• Personal Growth

May 2004

By Luis S R Vas

Repetition of any mantra or name of the Lord is known as japa. From Buddhists to Muslims, Christians to Sufis, this path is hailed as one of the most meritorious forms of prayer in many spiritual traditions

Anu Parshuram belongs to Sanathan Sanshtan. “We chant our Lord’s name through our activities, whatever they may be, and we become like Him,” she discloses. The chant,  japa, can be vocal or silent. “Silent chanting is more powerful, but if you need to do it aloud in the beginning, that too is all right,” reveals she.
As for the benefits, Anu rattles off a litany of them. “My personality has changed. I now feel bliss. The mind is much more balanced, and I feel spiritually uplifted. The heartbeat also slows down and becomes normal.”
Japa (muttering is one of its meanings in Sanskrit) practice is perhaps the highest common spiritual factor among all religious traditions. It is a discipline involving the (silent, or sub-vocally muttered, or chanted aloud) invocation of a word or phrase, usually pertaining to the divine, sometimes termed a mantra. It is practised among Hindus—across the board from the Vedantists to the followers of Sri Ramdas at Anand Ashram in Kerala—Buddhists, Sufis and Christians alike. Moreover, despite its apparent simplicity, it is regarded as one of the most meritorious forms of prayer in all these traditions.
Purnimaben of the Swaminarayan community chants Om Swaminarayan using her 108-bead mala. It’s a daily practice during the morning puja which all family members perform individually, chanting as they finger the mala beads several times over depending on their inclination or possibility. Also the community during its Shanti Yagna ritual gets the name of the Lord written down on paper that is then burnt in the holy fire. The rewards include increased sense of conviction, freedom from fear, greater alertness, forgetting all the world’s ills and healing, in the case of the diseased.
Uday Acharya is a Vedanta teacher who gives courses on the Gita and the Upanishads. He, too, chants Om Namah Shivaya as his mantra to become united with the universal mind. So do members of his family. There is no particular place or time when he does it, combining it with any other activity, like travelling, for instance.
The practice, he says, is relaxing and promotes an accepting frame of mind. “It can be combined with prayer or merely used as a technique to quieten the mind. You must look for silence in the gap between the repeated mantra. With practice, the gap widens and the silence deepens.”
Says Sri Chinmoy, an Indian mystic: “Japa is the repetition of a mantra. If you want purity, then today repeat the name of God 500 times. Then every day increase the number by 100. After one week, you will repeat the name of God 1,200 times. From that day, start decreasing the number daily by 100 until you again reach 500. Continue this exercise, week by week, just for a month. Whether you want to change your name or not, the world will give you a new name. It will call you by the name purity. Your inner ear will make you hear it. It will surpass your fondest imagination”.
Swami Sivananda writes in his Japa Yoga: “Repetition of any mantra or name of the Lord is known as Japa. It is a spiritual food for the hungry soul. Japa is the rod in the hand of the blind Sadhakas (aspirants) to plod on the road to realisation. Japa is the philosopher’s stone or divine elixir that makes one God-like. In this iron-age, practice of japa alone can give eternal peace, bliss and immortality.”
If Sri Chinmoy refrains from prescribing the use of any particular mantra for japa practice, Swami Sivananda offers them by the dozen, accompanied by numerous aids.
Meena Kapur is a consultant psychotherapist and a follower of the Bhakti Marg. She was also part of the team that conceived, created and researched the spiritual albums Maha Mrityunjay, ‘A tribute to Lord Shiva’, and Surya, ‘The one and only manifest God, the omniscient and omnipotent Lord of light and energy’, both released by Times Music.
Meena discloses that japa chanting came naturally to her since her maternal side is very spiritual. Her mantra is private and should not be disclosed to anyone else. “You start chanting the mantra, then after a while it disappears and a space of silence follows. The mantra conjures up images in the brain that eventually drop away leaving you in mental silence. It benefits you by creating an environment of vibrations that eliminates the negativity in your life by substituting it with positive thoughts and feelings.” She believes that your karma determines which mantra you get, from your guru or anyone else, and adopt.
Says David Godman, a disciple of Ramana Maharshi: “A mantra is a word or phrase, which has been given to a disciple by a Guru, usually as part of an initiation rite. Ramana Maharshi accepted the validity of this
approach but he very rarely gave out mantras himself and he never used them as part of an initiation ceremony. He did, on the other hand, speak highly of the practice of Nama-Japa (the continuous repetition of God’s name) and he often advocated it as a useful aid for those who were following the path of surrender.”
Rekha Krishnan is a professional artist and also a Sri Vidya devotee, and has developed a healing system using the energy of the Sri Yantra, which is the Goddess Energy Healing (www.rainbowray.com).
She prescribes the following Japa-linked practices: “Mantras are tools for focusing the mind, and also for filling the mind with the grace of the deity. Repeating the mantra along with each breath using a particular count focuses the mind on the entire process of breathing, and at the same time
infusing the body with the energy of the mantra. Easy yet powerful mantras are  ‘Om Namah Shivaya’,  ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ and ‘Om Ganesh’.
She adds: “Each syllable of the mantra has energy, and repetition helps in creating a positive energy field around and within us. This helps in guiding us through the day with positive thoughts and actions. Even the structure of our cells and their composition are affected by the energy and transformed by them. The japa is so much a part of me now that the energy flows into my paintings while I am working on them. This has been proved by a person who was stretching my canvases and found a beautiful perfume emanating from them.”Anu Parshuram belongs to Sanathan Sanshtan. “We chant our Lord’s name through our activities, whatever they may be, and we become like Him,” she discloses. The chant, japa, can be vocal or silent. “Silent chanting is more powerful, but if you need to do it aloud in the beginning, that too is all right,” reveals she. As for the benefits, Anu rattles off a litany of them. “My personality has changed. I now feel bliss. The mind is much more balanced, and I feel spiritually uplifted. The heartbeat also slows down and becomes normal.” Japa (muttering is one of its meanings in Sanskrit) practice is perhaps the highest common spiritual factor among all religious traditions. It is a discipline involving the (silent, or sub-vocally muttered, or chanted aloud) invocation of a word or phrase, usually pertaining to the divine, sometimes termed a mantra. It is practised among Hindus—across the board from the Vedantists to the followers of Sri Ramdas at Anand Ashram in Kerala—Buddhists, Sufis and Christians alike. Moreover, despite its apparent simplicity, it is regarded as one of the most meritorious forms of prayer in all these traditions. Purnimaben of the Swaminarayan community chants Om Swaminarayan using her 108-bead mala. It’s a daily practice during the morning puja which all family members perform individually, chanting as they finger the mala beads several times over depending on their inclination or possibility. Also the community during its Shanti Yagna ritual gets the name of the Lord written down on paper that is then burnt in the holy fire. The rewards include increased sense of conviction, freedom from fear, greater alertness, forgetting all the world’s ills and healing, in the case of the diseased. Uday Acharya is a Vedanta teacher who gives courses on the Gita and the Upanishads. He, too, chants Om Namah Shivaya as his mantra to become united with the universal mind. So do members of his family. There is no particular place or time when he does it, combining it with any other activity, like travelling, for instance. The practice, he says, is relaxing and promotes an accepting frame of mind. “It can be combined with prayer or merely used as a technique to quieten the mind. You must look for silence in the gap between the repeated mantra. With practice, the gap widens and the silence deepens.” Says Sri Chinmoy, an Indian mystic: “Japa is the repetition of a mantra. If you want purity, then today repeat the name of God 500 times. Then every day increase the number by 100. After one week, you will repeat the name of God 1,200 times. From that day, start decreasing the number daily by 100 until you again reach 500. Continue this exercise, week by week, just for a month. Whether you want to change your name or not, the world will give you a new name. It will call you by the name purity. Your inner ear will make you hear it. It will surpass your fondest imagination”. Swami Sivananda writes in his Japa Yoga: “Repetition of any mantra or name of the Lord is known as Japa. It is a spiritual food for the hungry soul. Japa is the rod in the hand of the blind Sadhakas (aspirants) to plod on the road to realisation. Japa is the philosopher’s stone or divine elixir that makes one God-like. In this iron-age, practice of japa alone can give eternal peace, bliss and immortality.” If Sri Chinmoy refrains from prescribing the use of any particular mantra for japa practice, Swami Sivananda offers them by the dozen, accompanied by numerous aids. Meena Kapur is a consultant psychotherapist and a follower of the Bhakti Marg. She was also part of the team that conceived, created and researched the spiritual albums Maha Mrityunjay, ‘A tribute to Lord Shiva’, and Surya, ‘The one and only manifest God, the omniscient and omnipotent Lord of light and energy’, both released by Times Music. Meena discloses that japa chanting came naturally to her since her maternal side is very spiritual. Her mantra is private and should not be disclosed to anyone else. “You start chanting the mantra, then after a while it disappears and a space of silence follows. The mantra conjures up images in the brain that eventually drop away leaving you in mental silence. It benefits you by creating an environment of vibrations that eliminates the negativity in your life by substituting it with positive thoughts and feelings.” She believes that your karma determines which mantra you get, from your guru or anyone else, and adopt. Says David Godman, a disciple of Ramana Maharshi: “A mantra is a word or phrase, which has been given to a disciple by a Guru, usually as part of an initiation rite. Ramana Maharshi accepted the validity of this approach but he very rarely gave out mantras himself and he never used them as part of an initiation ceremony. He did, on the other hand, speak highly of the practice of Nama-Japa (the continuous repetition of God’s name) and he often advocated it as a useful aid for those who were following the path of surrender.” Rekha Krishnan is a professional artist and also a Sri Vidya devotee, and has developed a healing system using the energy of the Sri Yantra, which is the Goddess Energy Healing (www.rainbowray.com). She prescribes the following Japa-linked practices: “Mantras are tools for focusing the mind, and also for filling the mind with the grace of the deity. Repeating the mantra along with each breath using a particular count focuses the mind on the entire process of breathing, and at the same time infusing the body with the energy of the mantra. Easy yet powerful mantras are ‘Om Namah Shivaya’, ‘Om Namo Narayanaya’ and ‘Om Ganesh’. She adds: “Each syllable of the mantra has energy, and repetition helps in creating a positive energy field around and within us. This helps in guiding us through the day with positive thoughts and actions. Even the structure of our cells and their composition are affected by the energy and transformed by them. The japa is so much a part of me now that the energy flows into my paintings while I am working on them. This has been proved by a person who was stretching my canvases and found a beautiful perfume emanating from them.” Among the Buddhists Manjira Agarwal is a Jain-turned-Buddhist adherent of the Soka Gokkai branch of Buddhism, which is most prevalent in Japan. The mantra she uses for chanting with her eyes open, vocally and melodiously, is Nam Nyoho Ren Gekyo, a Japanese phrase. She does her chanting in the mornings and evenings though no particular time is recommended. The benefits have been innumerable, she asserts: “My whole life has changed. My son’s and daughter’s lives have also changed.” But she seems reluctant to get into specifics. Probably the best-known Buddhist mantra ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ captures the spiritual quality of boundless, unconditional love and compassion. It is an invocation of the Buddha (or Bodhisattva) of Compassion. The ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ mantra originated in India, in the early Buddhist age, and then travelled with the Buddhist monks into Tibet, China and Southeast Asia. It is now the most widely used of all Buddhist mantras. You do not need to be a Buddhist, however, to use this mantra, nor do you need to be initiated into the use of this mantra by any teacher. It is open to all those attracted to it. Tibetan Buddhists derive the benefits of this mantra by chanting it aloud or silently, by looking at it in written form (commonly on ‘mani stones’ or written on paper) and by spinning the written form of the mantra in a prayer wheel (or ‘mani wheel’). Among the Sufis Dhikr is the commonest prayer form among a sect of Islamic mystics, the Sufis. It means the recollection of God. Dhikr carries you into a state of purity and tranquillity, the Koran proclaiming: “In the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.” Through the centuries, Sufis practising dhikr have developed an extensive repertoire of brief vocal prayer. In its most basic form, the word Allah is repeated over and over again. This act is believed to bring the person who prays directly into the divine presence. In some Sufi circles, Allah is repeated rapidly and finally shortened until only the final syllable, pronounced Hu, remains. Eventually even the Hu is dropped and only breathing remains, the ground of life itself, the essence of Allah. Alternatively, a Muslim might repeat “La ilah illa Allah”, rejoicing in the flowing alliteration of this first half of the Muslim creedal statement: “There is no god but God.” Hiro Bachani, an Indian entrepreneur living in Dubai, is a disciple of the Sufi Master Hazrat Nasir Mohammed Fakir Soofi Alqadri (www.sufijalalani.com) from Pakistan, who has empowered some of his disciples to initiate others into his practices, which includes a species of japa meditation. “Initiation is a powerful technique that achieves the equivalent of placing a beggar in a palace,” Bachani asserts. Once the initiate is given his mantra according to his particular community, he is expected to repeat half of it with the in-breath and the other half with the out-breath. One of his disciples, Guru Jogibaba lives in Powai, Mumbai. Bachani claims that the Sufi Master’s (and his empowered disciples) prescribed practices have brought ‘tremendous and miraculous’ benefits to the initiates. “You experience a new life altogether. You are reborn personally as well as financially,” he testifies. Among the Christians Japa spirituality is not unknown among Christians either. But it is most prevalent among Orthodox Christians, less so among Catholics and Protestants. A famous Orthodox Christian prayer is known as the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart, and goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Have Mercy On Me.” The Jesus Prayer enjoyed resurgence during the 1960s in the West when J.D. Salinger, a bestselling American novelist, referred to it in his book Franny and Zooey. Here Franny, one of the characters, tries to practise the prayer which she learnt in a long forgotten Orthodox Christian spiritual classic, The Way of a Pilgrim, by an anonymous author. In this book, the narrator, a Russian peasant, is in search of a way to ‘pray without ceasing’ as prescribed by St. Paul. He goes through numerous adventures and meets spiritual masters who, however, disappoint him, being unable to prescribe the correct practise to pray unceasingly. Finally, a holy man tells him to say the Jesus Prayer increasing number of times until the prayer repeats itself automatically in his mind. He has begun to pray without ceasing! Dr Rama Coomaraswamy, son of the noted Sri Lankan scholar Anand Coomaraswamy, points out in his book, The Invocation Of The Name Of Jesus: As Practised In The Western Church, that the invocation of the name of Jesus was prevalent in the Western Church as well. The serious aspirant should seek appropriate guidance from a qualified priest who can serve as his spiritual director. However, as Coomaraswamy goes on to say: “In the absence of such, those who feel called and desire with all their hearts to ‘invoke,’ should throw themselves at the Mercy of Jesus and Mary, while consulting the writings of the saints and authoritative texts dealing with the subject.” When I read The Way of a Pilgrim, it became my favourite spiritual text. I started reciting the Jesus Prayer immediately. Earlier, purely for secular reasons, I had practised TM for years and dabbled in some other forms of meditation as well. I found that over and above its spiritual benefits, the Jesus Prayer has several advantages: • It can be recited at any time of the day and at all times. • It can be recited during most manual activities and, after some experience, during mental activities as well, so that it does not consume any extra time apart from your mundane activities—though it is advisable to set aside some special time for it as well. • The prayer soon becomes automatic and tends to spring to mind whenever you are mentally free, so you can again pick it up consciously. A scientific study (see box) shows that this prayer, like other spiritual practises, has various other benefits as well for the human beings.

Among the Buddhists
Manjira Agarwal is a Jain-turned-Buddhist adherent of the Soka Gokkai branch of Buddhism, which is most prevalent in Japan. The mantra she uses for chanting with her eyes open, vocally and melodiously, is Nam Nyoho Ren Gekyo, a Japanese phrase. She does her chanting in the mornings and evenings though no particular time is recommended. The benefits have been innumerable, she asserts: “My whole life has changed. My son’s and daughter’s lives have also changed.” But she seems reluctant to get into specifics. Probably the best-known Buddhist mantra ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ captures the spiritual quality of boundless, unconditional love and compassion. It is an invocation of the Buddha (or Bodhisattva) of Compassion.
The ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ mantra originated in India, in the early Buddhist age, and then travelled with the Buddhist monks into Tibet, China and Southeast Asia. It is now the most widely used of all Buddhist mantras. You do not need to be a Buddhist, however, to use this mantra, nor do you need to be initiated into the use of this mantra by any teacher. It is open to all those attracted to it.
Tibetan Buddhists derive the benefits of this mantra by chanting it aloud or silently, by looking at it in written form (commonly on ‘mani stones’ or written on paper) and by spinning the written form of the mantra in a prayer wheel (or ‘mani wheel’).

Among the Sufis
Dhikr is the commonest prayer form among a sect of Islamic mystics, the Sufis. It means the recollection of God. Dhikr carries you into a state of purity and tranquillity, the Koran proclaiming: “In the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.”
Through the centuries, Sufis practising dhikr have developed an extensive repertoire of brief vocal prayer. In its most basic form, the word Allah is repeated over and over again. This act is believed to bring the person who prays directly into the divine presence.
In some Sufi circles, Allah is repeated rapidly and finally shortened until only the final syllable, pronounced Hu, remains. Eventually even the Hu is dropped and only breathing remains, the ground of life itself, the essence of Allah. Alternatively, a Muslim might repeat “La ilah illa Allah”, rejoicing in the flowing alliteration of this first half of the Muslim creedal statement: “There is no god but God.”
Hiro Bachani, an Indian entrepreneur living in Dubai, is a disciple of the Sufi Master Hazrat Nasir Mohammed Fakir Soofi Alqadri (www.sufijalalani.com) from Pakistan, who has empowered some of his disciples to initiate others into his practices, which includes a species of japa meditation. “Initiation is a powerful technique that achieves the equivalent of placing a beggar in a palace,” Bachani asserts. Once the initiate is given his mantra according to his particular community, he is expected to repeat half of it with the in-breath and the other half with the out-breath.
One of his disciples, Guru Jogibaba lives in Powai, Mumbai. Bachani claims that the Sufi Master’s (and his empowered disciples) prescribed practices have brought ‘tremendous and miraculous’ benefits to the initiates. “You experience a new life altogether. You are reborn personally as well as financially,” he testifies.

Among the Christians
Japa spirituality is not unknown among Christians either. But it is most prevalent among Orthodox Christians, less so among Catholics and Protestants. A famous Orthodox Christian prayer is known as the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer of the Heart, and goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Have Mercy On Me.”
The Jesus Prayer enjoyed resurgence during the 1960s in the West when J.D. Salinger, a bestselling American novelist, referred to it in his book Franny and Zooey. Here Franny, one of the characters, tries to practise the prayer which she learnt in a long forgotten Orthodox Christian spiritual classic, The Way of a Pilgrim, by an anonymous author. In this book, the narrator, a Russian peasant, is in search of a way to ‘pray without ceasing’ as prescribed by St. Paul. He goes through numerous adventures and meets spiritual masters who, however, disappoint him, being unable to prescribe the correct practise to pray unceasingly. Finally, a holy man tells him to say the Jesus Prayer increasing number of times until the prayer repeats itself automatically in his mind. He has begun to pray without ceasing! 
Dr Rama Coomaraswamy, son of the noted Sri Lankan scholar Anand Coomaraswamy, points out in his book, The Invocation Of The Name Of Jesus: As Practised In The Western Church, that the invocation of the name of Jesus was prevalent in the Western Church as well. The serious aspirant should seek appropriate guidance from a qualified priest who can serve as his spiritual director. However, as Coomaraswamy goes on to say: “In the absence of such, those who feel called and desire with all their hearts to ‘invoke,’ should throw themselves at the Mercy of Jesus and Mary, while consulting the writings of the saints and authoritative texts dealing with the subject.”
 When I read The Way of a Pilgrim, it became my favourite spiritual text. I started reciting the Jesus Prayer immediately. Earlier, purely for secular reasons, I had practised TM for years and dabbled in some other forms of meditation as well. I found that over and above its spiritual benefits, the Jesus Prayer has several advantages:
• It can be recited at any time of the day and at all times.
• It can be recited during most manual activities and, after some experience, during mental activities as well, so that it does not consume any extra time apart from your mundane activities—though it is advisable to set aside some special time for it as well.
• The prayer soon becomes automatic and tends to spring to mind whenever you are mentally free, so you can again pick it up consciously.     
A scientific study shows that this prayer, like other spiritual practises, has various other benefits as well for the human beings.