Japa and Meditation - Holy Mother's Words:

• "The mind keeps well when engaged in work. And yet Japa, meditation, prayer also are specially needed. You must at least sit down once in the morning and again in the evening. That acts as a rudder to a boat. When one sits in meditation in the evening, one gets a chance to think of what one has done - good or bad -during the whole day. Next one should compare the states of one's mind in the preceding day and the present. ... Unless you meditate in the mornings and evenings along with work, how can you know what you are actually doing?"


• Do you know the significance of Japa and other spiritual practices? By these, the power of the sense organs is subdued.


• "Repeating the Name of God a fixed number of times, telling the rosary or counting on fingers, is calculated to direct the mind to God. The natural tendency of the mind is to run this way and that way. Through these means it is attracted to God. While repeating the name of God, if one sees His form and becomes absorbed in Him, one's Japa stops. One gets everything when one succeeds in meditation.


• What a lot of work I did when I was of your age! And yet I could find time to repeat my Mantra a hundred thousand times everyday!


• A devotee took a tiny banyan seed and said to Mother, "Look, Mother, it is tinier even than the tiniest seed we know. From this will spring a giant tree! How strange!" "Indeed, it will," Mother replied. "See what a tiny seed is the Name of God. From it in time comes divine moods, devotion, love, and spiritual consummation."


• "Just see the power of habit. By the law of habit man attains realization by continuous practice of Japa."


• One should meditate on one’s chosen Deity as one goes on making Japa. In meditation the face of the chosen Deity of course comes first; but one should meditate on the whole figure, starting from the feet upward.


• One must cast aside indolence and put one’s mind to prayer and meditation at the proper time.


• "One has to suffer the consequences of one's deeds. But by repeating the Name of God, you can lessen its intensity. If you were destined to have a wound as wide as a plough share, you will get a pin-prick at least. The effect of Karma can be counteracted to a great extent by Japa and austerities."


• "The Mantra purifies the body. Man becomes pure by repeating the Mantra of God. ... It is said, 'The human teacher utters the Mantra into the ear; but God breathes the spirit into the soul."


• "The conjunction of day and night is the most auspicious time for calling on God. ... The mind remains pure at this time.


• Do not give up Japa even if the mind is unwilling and unsteady. You must go on with the repetition. And you will find that the mind is getting gradually steadier-like a flame in a windless corner. Any movement in the air disturbs the steady burning of the flame; even so the presence of any thought or desire makes the mind unsteady. The Mantra must be correctly repeated. An incorrect utterance delays progress.