True daily prayer and sadhana must be for attaining God, the eternal, the immutable. We should, therefore, aim at delivering ourselves to Him, body, mind, and soul, to repose these completely, continuously in Him. The mind, as it is today, will not so reside in Him; while the body, being material and impermanent, cannot be associated with one who is subtle and eternal. The only thing, therefore, that we can and should do is to dedicate ourselves to repeating unremittingly the divine name, which can be uttered by the body but transcends it and, being subtle, is related to God, that subtlest of the subtle. This alone can be a real daily observance. Observing the rules laid down by the shastras, the daily reading of the scriptures, saint’s works, or puranas, chanting of hymns, etc. may be done if possible, but without insistence. Pardonable, nay, desirable, is insistence on repetition of nama.
God manifests Himself if nama is uttered with a pure heart. Quite often, the humble and the uneducated prove superior in this respect. We should persistently repeat nama; this gradually cleanses the heart. In the field of spirituality, repeating the Lord’s Name is as important as, if not even more than, breathing is for the survival of the body. Everyone should resolve to spend not even one moment without nama. The Lord is not attainable by mere stubbornness or physical self-torture or chastisement. We try to imitate only the importunities of the great devotees, but not their intense love. Anyone who repeats Rama-nama three and a half crores of times will not fail to realize divine love.
Doubts die hard; they are tough and persistent. Some doubts are self-resolved, by experience. So persist in nama- smarana. Constant repetition will gradually clarify the mind and resolve doubts. It is described in the Ramayana that during Sita’s sojourn in the Ashok-vana of Ravana, even the insensate things around, such as trees, birds, and stones, came to echo with love for nama. This love for nama is identical with love for Rama. He wins the race of life who breathes his last with Rama-nama on his lips.
We should stick to nama-smarana with the intense feeling of Dhruva ; he would not quit nama even when the Lord manifested Himself before him.
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Posted by sganjur 
Pravachan 