[Advaita-l] Your views and advice please

[Magesh N]

Pranams to everyone,

Thank you very much for your advise and tips about performing Sandhya
vadanam properly. I have shown slight improvement and believe that I need to
keep my faith and continue the practise with more devotion. I have i) slowed
down considerably to hear the words in mantra ii) do pranayamam properly
iii) being conscious about my thoughts. Special thanks to Shri Ramesh
Nagarajan for a detailed reply and also his blog link.

I stumbled upon the website about Japa and thought might be useful for
others.
http://www.hinduism.co.za/japa.htm

There were two questions presumably answered by Sri Ramana Maharishi and
find it relevant to me. I am reproducing the same here as it precisely
points out the mistake that I am currently doing.

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*Question*: How should I carry on japa?

*Sri Ramana Maharshi*: One should not use the name of God mechanically and
superficially without the feeling of devotion.

*Question*: So mechanical repetition is unproductive?

*Sri Ramana Maharshi*: Acute disease will not be cured merely by repeating
the name of the medicine but only by drinking the medicine. Similarly, the
bonds of birth and death will not cease merely by doing many repetitions of
Mahavakyas such as ‘I am Siva’. Instead of wandering about repeating ‘I am
the supreme’, abide as the supreme yourself. The misery of birth and death
will not cease by vocally repeating countless times ‘I am that’, but only by
abiding as that.

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God bless you all

Magesh N