The Repetition of the Name

Japa is the meditative repetition of a mantra or a divine name, one of the most widespread of Hindu practices and a technique shared across the Indian religions. The repetition may be voiced aloud, murmured under the breath, or made silently within the mind, and the tradition ranks these in ascending order of subtlety and power, holding the wholly inward repetition to be the highest. The mantra may be a single seed-syllable such as Om, a divine name such as Rama or a formula addressed to a chosen deity, received in the classic case from a teacher at initiation. The aim is to still and gather the mind by giving it one thing to hold, and, in the devotional traditions, to keep the deity continuously present in the practitioner's awareness.

The Bhagavad Gita gives japa a high place, having Krishna declare that among sacrifices he is the sacrifice of quiet repetition, and the later devotional movements made the repetition of the divine name the very heart of religion, a path open to all irrespective of learning or birth.