Nama-Japa in the Yoga of Transformation

By Sri Ramkrishna Das

Sri Ramkrishna Das explains the significance of nama-japa in the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and provides detailed instructions on the method of its practice. The author discusses in careful detail the many obstacles and difficulties with which the sadhak of this yoga is confronted and points out the way for overcoming them with the

• Language: English
• Publisher: PRISMA
• Release date: Mar 30, 2024
• ISBN: 9789395460484

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All texts and photos are the property of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry.

Book : NAMA-JAPA - IN THE YOGA OF TRANSFORMATION

Language : English

Author : SRI RAMKRISHNA DAS

Copyright: Auro Seva Trust

ISBN 978-93-95460-73-6 (print)

ISBN 978-93-95460-48-4 (ebook)

BISAC Code:

OCC000000 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / General

OCC010000 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Mindfulness & Meditation

OCC014000 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / New Thought

EDU040000 EDUCATION / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects

PHI000000 PHILOSOPHY / General

PHI003000 PHILOSOPHY / Eastern

PHI015000 PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body

PSY000000 PSYCHOLOGY / General

SEL000000 SELF-HELP / General

SEL032000 SELF-HELP / Spiritual

REL062000 RELIGION / Spirituality

Thema Subject Category:

QD Philosophy

VS Self-help, personal development and practical advice

VX Mind, body, spirit

VXM Mind, body, spirit: meditation and visualization

Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title is available from the Library of Congress.

PRISMA, an imprint of Digital Media Initiatives

PRISMA, Aurelec / Prayogshala,

Auroville 605101, Tamil Nadu, Indiaa

www.prisma.haus

Contents

Cover Image

Title Page

Copyright & Permissions

Publisher’s Note

Sri Ramkrishna Das

The Role of Nama-Japa in the Yoga of Transformation

Nama-Japa in Work

The Mother on Japa

Nama-Japa in Worldly Life

Nama-Japa Can Remove Obstacles and Dangers

Questions and Answers

Obstacles and Hindrances

Anger

Lust

Ego and Selfishness

Harmony in Collective Work

Causes of Disharmony

The Mother’s Inspiration from Within

Attacks from the Hostile Forces in the Process of Transformation

The Methods of Nama-Japa

The Effect of Ma-Nama-Japa

Meditation

The Greatness of Nama-Japa

PART TWO

Introduction to Part Two

Babaji Maharaj Ramkrishna Das

The Aim of Life and Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga

How do we begin?

More from the sadhak’s diary

Sweet Babaji Maharaj

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo on Nama-Japa

Japa and Science

Footnotes

References

Glossary

International Publications

Featured Titles

Publisher’s Note

Nama-Japa in the Yoga of Transformation was written originally for an Indian audience and published in Oriya, one of the Indian languages. Some of the references to family life and society therefore refer specifically to the Indian setting. In the original version the author makes short references to a number of episodes from India’s two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, in order to illustrate points in the text. Since Western readers are usually unfamiliar with the wider implications of these stories, most of them have been omitted from this English translation.

Throughout this work, the spiritual seeker is referred to as ‘he’ and as ‘the sadhak’, as per convention. This is not intended to imply any discrimination between male and female aspirants.

Except for where the meaning is made clear in the text itself, the meaning of all Sanskrit terms and all English words which have a special usage or significance in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga may be found in the Glossary.

There are two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline), and the other of surrender. The path of tapasya is arduous. Here you rely solely upon yourself, you proceed by your own strength. You ascend and achieve according to the measure of your force. There is always the danger of falling down. And once you fall, you lie broken in the abyss and there is hardly a remedy. The other path, the path of surrender, is safe and sure. It is here, however, that the Western people find their difficulty. They have been taught to fear and avoid all that threatens their personal independence. They have imbibed with their mothers’ milk the sense of individuality. And surrender means giving up all that. In other words, you may follow, as Ramakrishna says, either the path of the baby monkey or that of the baby cat. The baby monkey holds to its mother in order to be carried about and it must hold firm, otherwise if it loses its grip, it falls. On the other hand, the baby cat does not hold to its mother, but is held by the mother and has no fear nor responsibility; it has nothing to do but to let the mother hold it and cry ma ma.

The Mother

* * *

If something wrong happens, at once repeat my name – Ma, Ma.

The Mother

Sri Ramkrishna Das

Sri Ramkrishna Das, lovingly and respectfully referred to as ‘Babaji Maharaj’, was born in 1908 in Rayarpur, a small village in the eastern part of Orissa, India. Already at the age of eight he had determined that as soon as he grew up, he would forsake the ordinary way of life and take up the life of a sannyasi in search of the highest Truth and he began to practise nama-japa. His resolve to realise the Divine remained firm even throughout his youth and finally, as a young adult, Babaji left the fold of his family in order to search for his guru. In the depth of his heart burned the aspiration to become the disciple of the greatest living Mahatma (spiritual master) on earth.

Babaji went to Ayodhya, in northern India, and became the disciple and personal attendant of ‘Mauni Baba’, a well-known realised saint. He served his guruji for many years. As part of his intensive yoga practice, Babaji repeated the name of the Lord constantly and as a result received his direct darshan on several occasions. He used to experience an unceasing stream of intense Divine Bliss while practising nama-japa.

While still in Ayodhya, Babaji eventually came into contact with the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He realised that Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga was not merely the culmination of all the various paths of yoga of the past, but the beginning of something entirely new, the next step in the evolutionary advance of mankind. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga does not aim at the transcendence of life, but at the transformation of the entire human nature, turning mind, life and body, into their divine principles, resulting in a divine life here on earth. Babaji recognised that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were the avatars of the present age. Therefore he joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, South-India, in 1945 and lived there for the next fifty-three years.

Babaji practised the Integral Yoga with great concentration and intensity, repeating the Mother’s name continuously. After the Mother’s passing in 1973, Babaji began to contemplate the importance of nama-japa in the Integral Yoga. By the light of his own experiences and through the careful study of Mother’s Agenda, the Mother’s chronological record concerning her work of transformation of the body, Babaji became convinced that the difficult goal of physical transformation was only possible by the constant repetition of the Mother’s name, since only japa has a direct influence on the cells of the body.

From this time onward, Babaji advised the many seekers who came to him for guidance to repeat the Mother’s name constantly, with an attitude of surrender and aspiration. He wrote thousands of letters answering the questions of seekers with regard to their sadhana and their daily life-problems and unwaveringly insisted that all should repeat the Mother’s name, by which any type of problem could be overcome.

Babaji left his body on the 8th of November, 1998.

A western disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother reports her experience when she saw Babaji for the first time:

"I met Babaji for the first time in the spring of 1984, during my first visit to the Ashram. I was waiting together with a small group of people outside Babaji’s room. Suddenly the door opened and Babaji appeared holding a small green plastic pitcher in his hand. Instantly there was a pin-drop silence. Babaji glanced at the small congregation of people in front of his door and an unimaginably sweet and compassionate smile lit up his face. The moment I saw Babaji I got the ‘goose-bumps’ all over my body and all my body hair seemed to stand on end. Something like an electric current passed through my whole being from the top of my head to my feet and the clear words arose in my mind: This man is all love."

Babaji 1998

The Role of Nama-Japa in the Yoga of Transformation

In the Yoga of Transformation, there is only one sure and certain way to overcome all seemingly insurmountable obstacles, to pass securely through even the most cunning and subtle attacks of the hostile forces and to safely reach the goal. This way is to surrender at the feet of the Mother like a small child and repeat her name. It is never safe to tread the path of this yoga without this impenetrable armour.

The aim of this yoga is to realise the Divine in a transformed mind, vital and body and to attain complete freedom from sorrow, suffering, ignorance, disease, old age and death. This is, without exception, the true aim of life for everyone in this world. There is not a single person who wants sorrow, suffering, ignorance, disease, old age and death; but nevertheless, man has been in the grip of these afflictions from the very beginning of creation.

In the past it was not possible to realise God in the mind, vital and body. This realisation could not be attained either by means of any powerful sadhana of the traditional yogas or by any yoga- shakti. The rishis and sages of the Vedic age, and the saints and yogis of subsequent periods, could not imagine or even conceive of the transformation of the mind, vital and body. Consequently the sadhaks of the traditional yogas separated themselves from their mind, vital and body, attaining Nirvana, Liberation or Divine Realisation with the help of their antaratma (soul), which is an eternal, pure and true part of the Divine. These were individual realisations and did not cause sorrow, suffering, ignorance, darkness, hatred, ego, selfishness and falsehood to disappear from this world. On the contrary, we find that these negative qualities have gradually increased. They are, however, destined to disappear and this death-bound world will eventually be transformed into a Divine Heaven. Since the time for this change had not yet arrived, the rishis and sages of the past had not thought of such a transformation.

Mind has now reached the summit of its evolutionary development and thus the time has come for the transformation of the mind, vital and body and the establishment of the Supramental Consciousness in a transformed mind, vital and body.

In order to make this transformation possible, the Divine Sachchidananda, in accordance with his own predestined will and decree, incarnated on earth in the