Japa is a blessing. You bless yourself, as when taking caranamrta. It’s like when you take the flame which is offered by the pujari, or when he sprinkles you with water or offers you the flower to smell. It is like honoring prasadam, only it is better. It is directly Radha and Krishna. You are nourished by your tongue and your ears. Japa is even more merciful than the saksad darsana of the Lord’s form.
(_Japa Transformations_)
JAPA POEM
I declare japa is a blessing.
It is like receiving
the sacred articles
from the pujari
after she offers
them in the arati.
But it is more
than that. It’s directly
Radha-Krishna. “Japa
is more merciful than
the saksad darsana of
the Lord’s form.”
I began my chanting
not writing a Japa Report.
I practiced the method of “just hear.”
I was happy fingering my beads
in the sanctity of my bhajana-kutir.
But I didn’t receive darsana
for fear of eyestrain.
By the second set
I began to fall behind, and
on the succeeding sets
I fell further behind.
I feared that I
would fail to meet
my overall quota
after sixteen rounds and
would have to stop
japa and promise
to finish the balance
later in the day.
It would be a humble
performance, but at
the end, I sped up.
I surprised myself:
I met my overall quota
with three minutes to spare.
I considered it a half-decent session
because for the majority of
the sets, I thought I would
fail to meet my overall quota.
But I was alert and wide awake the whole time.
I felt no head pain
and was grateful for that.
I couldn’t enter a prayer state,
but I chanted all
my rounds with decent
attentiveness. It was a
slow session.
At least I follow the process
of doing a prescribed number of rounds
in obedience to the order of the spiritual master,
a sacred vow.