Posted on: 29 Jul 2023
[A question by Prof. JSR Prasad]
Swami Replied:- Japa means the literature expressed by mouth as well as thought by mind (vyaktāyāṃ vāci mānase ca). This literature belongs to the divine qualities and divine personality of God. It means, the information related to the greatest position of God that is repeated again and again. Such repetition of the information about God in mind takes place when the devotee is alone. The same repetition takes place through speech uttered by the tongue when the devotee is in association with other devotees. Both these types of memory and speech exist in the word – japa. This is enlightened by Shankara while describing Goddess Parvati in Saundarya Lahari. The verse written by Shankara about the word japa is in the first line of the following verse:-
‘Aviśrāntaṃ patyu rguṇa gaṇa kathā''mreḍana japā’
The meaning in elaborated way is:-
Aviśrāntam = always, patyuḥ = about God Shiva, guṇa-gaṇa-kathā = the stories enlightening the divine qualities of God Shiva, āmreḍana = repeating these stories again and again, japā = such repetition of inspiring stories is called ‘japa’.
The overall meaning is that Goddess Parvati is repeating again and again the stories of God Shiva that project the divine qualities of God Shiva in mind while She is alone and while She is with other devotees speaking the same stories loudly.
Hence, Japa does not mean repeating the name of God again and again, which gives serious headache not only to the speaker or thinker in the mind, but, when the divine qualities of God are heard through His stories, the devotee gets a lot of inspiration and love towards God. This is very much valid since every devotee can easily experience this truth. In fact, when one does penance repeating the name of God again and again for a long time, God gets severe headache and appears before the devotee to sanction whatever boon is asked by the devotee. Such action is done by God without thinking about any other repercussion, because God wants to get rid of the severe headache at any cost. Even God forgets about His own life since He gave the boon to a demon called Bhasmasura and the boon is that anybody will be turned to ash if the demon puts his hand on the head. The demon immediately wanted to put his hand on the head of God Shiva. At the time of granting the boon, God Shiva could not think about this possibility due to the severe headache caused by the repetition of the name of God in the name of japa!
In the Bhakti Sutram written by Narada, one sutra says that Sage Garga told that devotion means the love in hearing or speaking or thinking about the stories of divine personality of God (Kathādiṣviti Gargaḥ). In the Gita also, it is told that the devotees of God speak about the stories of God and become happy with full attraction (Kathayantaśca māṃ nityaṃ, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca). Hence, it is far better to read the stories of God or hear His stories from attending scholars telling the stories of God (kathāpāṭha) instead of sitting alone and repeatedly uttering the name of God by rotating a garland of beads that creates severe headache to God. Some people write the name of God Rama for 1 crore times (Rāmakoṭi) and this also generates severe headache because God is seeing constantly while the devotee is writing the name of God. While hearing or speaking the stories of God, the interest continues forever and thus the generated devotion becomes eternal. While repeating the name of God, after a few minutes, the interest dies resulting in the headache for the devotee also.