--svatantramasvantantraM cha dvividhaM tatvaMishyate--
--svatantro bhagavAn vishnuH--
Sri Madhvacharya, in his tatvasaMkhyAna
Note on Japa
Ed: A Japa is the act of silently repeating a mantra/phrase in one’s mind with conviction.
Various kinds of japas are based on the following (and there may be many more)
1. Number of times a person does the japa every day i.e Starting with minimum of ten (10 or dasha signifies completeness), shatha (100), sahasra (1008) etc.
2. Japas performed to attain siddhi. For example, if a person does a japa of Shri Krishna Mantra japa for 600,000 times ( Shri Krishna mantra is shadAkshara mantra, meaning it has six Aksharas) 6 * 100,000, a person will attain siddhi of this mantra (of course, the japa has to be done getting upadesha from a qualified Shri Gurugalu and japa performed with extreme devotion and faith).
In a similar way, Shri nArAyana AsTAkshara mantra requires 8 * 100,000, i.e 800,000 japas to get siddhi. Shri Gayatri mantra requires 24 * 100,000 = 2,400,000 japas to attain siddhi.
Some mantra-s are counted using japa mAlA-s and some using the fingers.
Counting of the Gayatri mantra japa is to be done using our fingers only. Also, there are different ways of uchchAraNa while doing a mantra japa.
1. Recitation involving of movement of lips and tongue,
2. Moving only the tongue with the lips closed,
3. Recitation of the mantra is done by the mind, lips and tongue don’t move
There is increased concentration in the order listed above with the highest concentration being possible in 3.
Ed: As posted by Shri Balu and Shri Vikram on SVBM (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svbm/message/4519)
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