What do I gain by chanting?

A  devotee once asked Sri Udiya Baba, “Dear Sir, you keep on insisting that we should chant God’s name. What do I gain by chanting?”

“You must be a businessman”, replied Baba smilingly. 

“Yes dear master, you know it all”, replied the devotee. 

The saint continued in his deep voice. “You are so much used to thinking in terms of material gain, that you weigh everything in terms of material gain. My dear son, what you gain by chanting God’s name is so precious that you won’t be able to buy it with money or snatch it by using your power. You would gain balance of spiritual energies, inner peace, contentment and long lasting happiness.”

Chanting God’s name purifies your heart and slowly evaporates the coverings of ignorance from your mind. As your inner senses becomes purified,  you begin to appreciate the precious gifts of life that you already possess. At the same time, you slowly begin to give up the tendency to gain more and more in the outer world. On the path of inner peace and spiritual happiness, it is more important to appreciate and feel gratitude towards the Supreme Giver for all the blessings in your life.

As you chant God’s name, your affinity towards God and inner happiness increases, and slowly your viewpoint of the world begins to change. You begin to give less importance to the outer world and begin to appreciate the importance of inner peace. As you continue to chant God’s name, your eagerness to gain the wisdom of the Self increases. As your inner senses shines and as you gain wisdom of the Self, you begin to enjoy chanting and gain inner peace. This relation is that of a boat and the boatman. Batman row the boat to move forward and the boat move the boatman forward.

In Upnishads, the progress of chanting is beautifully illustrated in terms of four stages – Vaikhri, Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para. The initial stage of chanting by the seeker is known as Vaikhari, which is the grossest level of speech and sound comes out through the mouth. In the second stage of Madhyama, the seeker begins to chant mentally, without external audible sound. Madhyama is the intermediate unexpressed state of sound, whose seat is in the heart. Slowly, the seeker possesses inner vision and progresses into the third stage of chanting called as Pashyanti, in which there is near oneness between the word and the experience. Pashyanti is the finest impulse of speech. And then the stage comes, when the seeker attain highest form of Self consciousness. In this stage, the chanting reaches the fourth stage of Para. Para is the transcendent sound. Para means the subtle most, and in this connection it indicates that sound which is beyond the perception of the senses. 

While describing the highest form of chanting, Kabirji recited in hindi:  
                     Haath se japu, na mukh se japu, na ur se japu mai Ram;
                     Ram sada mujh ko jape, mai pau vishram.

Translation: Neither by hands, nor my mouth, nor by mind, I chant the name of God; 
                     God continuously chants me, and I rejoice in peace.