11. When by continued practice of Japa and meditation, the mind will have become calm and purified, then mind itself will be your Guru, or guide, and you will have proper understanding of everything, and find the solutions of your spiritual doubts and questions within yourself. The mind will tell you what you should do, one thing after another, and how you should conduct yourself.
12. When doing Japa, meditate on the form of your Chosen Ideal also; otherwise Japa never becomes deep. Even if the whole form of the Deity does not appear in meditation, begin with whatever part of the form comes. Try again and again, even if you fail. Why should you give up, if you do not succeed? You have got to carry on with tenacity. Does meditation come easily by the mere wish? Repeated efforts should be made to collect the mind from other objects and fix it upon the object of medi�tation. Success in this will come as one goes on practising.
13. Japa, or mental repetition of the Mantra, counting it on the fingers, using a rosary, or keeping the number of the repetitions-all these are only preliminary means to help withdraw the mind from other objects and fix it on the object of worship. Otherwise, you will not know when the mind may have run away in another direction; or you may even have dozed off. So, though these processes may appear to some to cause a little distraction at the outset, they will enable one to keep watch over the mind's vagaries, detect them easily, and draw the mind back and keep it fixed on the object of medita�tion.
Source: Parmarth Prasanga -Towards The Goal Supreme- Swami Virajanandaji of Ramakrishna Math
Tags: spirituality,self effort,japa
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