Japa is a training by which the ever dancing rays of the mind are compelled to behave in some order and rhythm and thereby bring out, of their co-operative effort, a single melody of repeated mantra chanting.
In this practising, the mind becomes extremely single pointed. In fact, japa properly done can more effectively bring about a sustained single pointedness than all the hasty methods of meditation. A mind seasoned with japa is like tinned food which gets ready for consumption after a few seconds’ warming up on the fire.
A short period of meditation can take a japa prepared mind to unimaginable heights in an impossibly short time.
Japa is a training for the mind in fixing itself to a single line of thinking. .
We cannot pronounce a word without a thought form rising up immediately in us; nor can we have a thought form without its corresponding name.
Try! Can you repeat the word ‘pen’ without its form? Can you? In this close connection between the name and the form lies the underlying principle in the technique of japa.