Chanting of the name

[Bhadraiah Mallampalli]

Sri Sadananda garu,

>Repeating the name of the Lord in the form of japa - is redirecting >the
>thought pattern to a single thought with the exclusion of all >other
>thoughts.

Instead of meditating on the name of Lord such as 'Jagannaadham', if we
consider a mantra like 'sarvam Jagannaadham', isn't it easier to handle the
"other thoughts"? In this case there no fighting involved to exclude any
other thoughts, as we are including all thoughts in the Istha devata. If we
still see other thoughts/objects we just ignore them as part of the Ishta
devata's creation.

>Since there has to be silence in between the same thoughts, meditation >or
>upasana ultimately rests on the silence between the thoughts - when >the
>object and the subject merge into one. There is beautiful song by >Leelesha
>anganaa anganaa antate madhava

This is beautiful, like Sankara's illustration in introduction to Ch.U.7.1
about showing moon to a child as sitting on the branch of a tree, then take
the child away from the tree to show the moon. First you are telling the
child that there is a silence between the thoughts, and then you are telling
that this silence is Lord Krishna (and not some non-existence as Buddists
believe it!)

A more rigorous approach would be to actually follow up with the current
thought to that silence. This involves actually studying and "naming" a
multitude of infinitismal thought changes that intervene any two thoughts.
This is as tedious as rock climbing. In this method there is hardly any
silence.

Best regards
Bhadraiah



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