PRACTICAL HINTS ON SAI NAMA JAPA SADHANA

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)