A friend emailed me this today on the benefits of Japa or mantra
recitation which is an important remedial measure in Jyotish.
It is written by the well known Swami Sivananda who founded
the Divine
Life Society in Rishikesh, India in 1936.
SIVANANDA DAILY READING FOR 19 MAY
THE SAVING GRACE
Japa is the best of all spiritual practices in this modern age.
It
is the easiest too. The divine name alone will give you all
success
and bestow on you the highest spiritual attainments.
The seeker after truth reaches the highest goal by japa or
recitation of the Lord's name (or mantra) alone. This is a
sure
medicine for the disease of birth and death. If you take to
the
recitation of the divine name, all inauspiciousness will certainly
vanish.
Smarana is remembrance of the Lord at all times. The mind
does not think of any object of the world. It is engrossed
in thinking of the glorious Lord alone. The mind meditates
on the glories of the Lord and forgets the body. Even japa
is only remembrance of the Lord.
Ever remember the Lord. His divine name is the greatest treasure
on earth. It has got indescribable power of bestowing blessings
upon all who have faith. It is a good idea to recite the mantras
at
bedtime.
In ordinary self-consciousness there is duality between the
repetitioner and the name. It is discursive. It is within
the fields
of ordinary experience. It is confined within the categories
of the
mind, of limited conceptions. Ultimately the ordinary self-
consciousness is elevated into a transcendental experience,
into a
state of superconsciousness.
The repetitioner and the name become one. The eternally revealed
truth reveals itself to him and he realises his oneness with
the supreme. The sense of duality, the gulf of separateness
between the finite and the infinite is removed.
Spiritual life needs harmony in all parts of your being.
Spiritual
truth can only be realised when the whole being is perfectly
at ease and in tune with the divine. Mantra (the name of God)
has the power to release cosmic and supracosmic consciousness.
It bestows illumination, freedom, supreme peace, eternal bliss
and immortality.
Swami Sivananda, 1887-1963
Copyright 2006. Vaughn Paul
Manley. All Rights Reserved. |
