Why should the Japa be counted? Does the counting not help to bloat the ego?

Nama article - 30th June 2007

 

Question:

 

Why should the Japa be counted? Does the counting not help to bloat the ego?

 

Swami Papa Ramadas:

 

The ego will get bloated and will burst. There will be nothing left. It is true even when you repeat it yourself you may have the pride that you have chanted so many times and therefore you are superior to somebody who has done less.

 

The consciousness that you are progressing on the divine path and that you are more in advance of others itself gives rise to the ego-sense.

 

That is why it is said, when you take God's name you must do so in all humility and even go to the length of thinking that it is God who makes you chant the Name and not you. This is the secret of taking God's name.

 

In that spirit it was that Ramdas chanted the Name. He never felt he was repeating it by his own initiative. He was conscious that it was by God's will and command. Then he found the Name could purify him through and through and make him fit to see God within and without.