There is a gross misunderstanding amongst the masses about what age to start reciting (“JAAP”) God’s Divine Name (“NAAM”). Most people think that the time for recitation of God’s divine name (“NAAM”) is old age. They think that childhood and youth is not a good time for recitation of God’s True Divine Ambrosial Nectar Name( “NAAM JAPNA”). They think that childhood is to enjoy schooling and playing. And the time of youth is to complete their education and get settled in life. And once everything has settled down, then retirement is the time for Recitation Of True Name (“NAAM JAPNA”). That’s if they want to, but more likely they just lead a retired life of playing with the grand kids and so on.
To be honest, life never settles down. There is no physical event that happens when they can really sit back and relax. As long as they are drenched in the scum of Mammon (“Maya”), life is a never-ending puzzle. Look at your own life and analyze it. Childhood was eaten by youth. You didn’t even realize how or when that happened. Youth is eaten by old age, which in turn is eaten by death. Your entire life is an ever-changing phenomenon. Change happens at every moment of your life. You never look the same as before.
During this process of change there is a continuous depletion of one thing, which will never come back – the depletion of the wealth of time. The depletion of the wealth of your breath. The depletion of the wealth of your own life. Life is due to the soul’s presence in the body, it is the Immortal God’s Life force Energy. So in a real sense depletion of life is the depletion of Ambrosial immortal God’s Life force Energy. With every moment this wealth is depleting and you are going closer to the physical death of your body. The body has to die. This body have been given to you with the great grace of the Almighty to:
- Collect the Ambrosial Nectar God’s Name(“Naam”) and make yourself immortal,
- To do Devotion and be one with Almighty,
- To get yourself relieved of this cycle of birth and death and achieve salvation,
- To realize your own self – self realization and discover the presence of God in your own self,
- To get yourself out of the loop of Mammon (“Maya “) (loop of reincarnation),
- To win over your mind,
- To win over the Mammon (“Maya”) ,
- To get enlightened and come out of the darkness of the Age of Darkness,
- To sow the God’s Name (“Naam”) and reap its unlimited rewards,
- To collect the biggest and highest eternal treasure of the God’s Name (“Naam”) and merge in Name (“Naam”).
- Become Name (“Naam”) by yourself,
- To reach the Supreme Stage and secure a place for yourself in the Divine God’s Divine Truth Court (“Dargah”)forever
- Not waste this life merely in the worldly things.
As you age:
- It becomes more and more difficult to recite God’s Name (“Naam”)
- You become more and more drenched in the world of Mammon (“Maya”),
- The net of Mammon (“Maya”) around you gets stronger and stronger,
- The scum of iMammon (“Maya”) gets more and more deeper around you,
- You get strangled by the shackles of Mammon (“Maya”) deeper and stronger,
- The five thieves and desires influence you more and more.
Finally, by the time you become old and think, “Now I should start to work for spiritual progress,” you are very, very deep in the scum of illusion. That makes it very difficult for you to break the shackles of illusions.
Mammon (“Maya”) (“Rajo and Tamo” aspects) is the disease (“Rog”) and it makes the man diseased (“Rogi”). The effect of a whole life spent under the influence of Mammon (“Maya”) causes the old and aged body to deteriorate so much that it becomes a house of sicknesses. In old age, all these mental and bodily sicknesses keep you busy in just looking after your bodily requirements. You will never be able to concentrate on recitation of God’s True Nectar-His Name (“NAAM JAPNA”).
In old age, the influence of Mammon (“Maya”) is so strong on your physical and mental health that it will become almost impossible to concentrate on God’s name (“NAAM”). When the sickness becomes chronic it becomes very hard or difficult to cure it, and many a times it becomes incurable. It stays with the body until the end comes. So which is a wiser thing to do – to let the sickness become chronic or to work to cure it before it becomes chronic?
A newborn child is totally unaware of the effect of the Mammon (“Maya”) and is completely healthy inside and out as far as spirituality is concerned. The tenth gate (“DASSAM DUAAR”) of a newborn child is open and she is one with God until the Mammon (“Maya”) strikes her (around and after the age of two her sense of self and wants get stronger). After that happens then she starts to get drenched in the scum of Mammon (“Maya”) and continues to do so and develops all kinds of mental sicknesses with the age. Eventually these mental sicknesses (lust, anger, greed, worldly attachments, pride, hopes, wishes, desires, slander, gossip, cursing, vanity and thirst for power) become deeply entrenched. The mental sicknesses permeate her body, senses, actions and reactions. It affects her daily life and daily deeds. These mental sicknesses keep on building a dark scum of Mammon (“Maya”) around her and keep on dragging deeper by every breath in to the net of the Mammon ( “Maya”). These shackles of Mammon (“Maya”) become stronger and stronger with every breath. Eventually these sicknesses become chronic and are not easily curable. These mental sicknesses make her weaker mentally and physically. The organs of the body start to get affected by these mental sicknesses and become a source of bodily sicknesses. She becomes physically and mentally sick at all times. With a sick body and mind it becomes awfully difficult to earn spirituality (“bandgi”).
So what is the solution to the problem? What is the solution to keep you healthy spiritually and physically from birth to death? What is the way to keep yourself free of the mental and physical sicknesses all through your life? How can you lead a life that is:
- Healthy and spiritual,
- Full of eternal bliss,
- Full of eternal joy and happiness,
- Full of truth,
- Serving the truth,
- Delivering the truth,
- Always in Spiritual Bliss (“CHAD DI KALA”),
- Enjoying all the amenities of life,
- Meeting your worldly and family responsibilities while achieving salvation,
- Going to make you immortal and take you out of this cycle of birth and death?
There is only one solution and that is to nip the evil in the bud. The evil is Mammon (“Maya”) and the weapon to nip the Mammon (“Maya”) is recitation of God’s Name (“NAAM JAPNA”) and the bud is to do this from early childhood. However, it may sound impracticable but the truth is that prevention is better than cure. It is a lot easier to do start reciting Divine Name (“NAAM JAPNA”) at a young age. It becomes more and more difficult with age. When disease has not taken deep roots inside your body it will need only a small amount of Recitation of Divine Name (“NAAM JAPNA”) is medicine (“NAAM DARU”) to keep these mental sicknesses away. But in old age the dosage keeps on increasing. If not administered in early life it becomes unmanageable and so chronic that it becomes incurable.
As a child you are much more innocent and innocence is a great help in spiritual progress. With age innocence disappears and your own wisdom takes over. Innocence is divine whereas your own wisdom becomes an obstacle in your spiritual progress. As a child you are not into: –
- Hatred and discrimination,
- The five thieves (anger, greed, lust, attachments and pride),
- Hopes, wishes, desires, slander, gossip, cursing, vanity, thirst for power and so on.
So as a child your spiritual progress will be much faster than in old age. Due to the absence of these mental sicknesses, the Name (“NAAM”) will go inside very easily and quickly within a very short period of time. Whereas the amount of effort increases tremendously as you get older.
So "NIP THE EVIL IN THE BUD" the earlier the better and easier. Never wait for retirement as being the time to start of recitation of Holy Name (“NAAM JAPNA”). No, the younger the better and easier. We have seen it practically in our congregation (“SANGAT”). The young kids go in to deep meditation (“SMAADHI”) very fast whereas the older ones take much longer. Some of the young kids have gone into deep meditation (“SMADHI”) the very moment they first came to the congregation (“SANGAT”). However, most of the youngsters took a few weeks to get to that stage of deep meditation (“SMAADHI”). But the old people never go into deep meditation (“SMAADHI”).
A lot of people also worry about, “What will happen to my family if I start to do recitation (“JAAP”) of divine Name (“NAAM”) and dedicate myself selfless service to others?” This is nothing but a false illusion, which keeps a large number of people away from doing this recitation of God’s Name. For those people we request very humbly that they read and understand the first verse of Sukhmani, the Prayer of Peace. This explains the benefits of recitation (“JAAP”)of God’s Name (“NAAM”).
With recitation of God’s Name you will start to reap all the benefits that are very kindly explained by Great ,great, dear, lovable Guru “Arjan Dev” King of Kings . With Recitation ( “JAAP”) His Name (“NAAM”):-
- Things will become easier for you,
- Life will become more understandable and easy to handle,
- You will see a very good effect on the kids and family as well as friends,
- Things will start to fall in place for you and so on.
Just do it now and start reaping the rewards right away. Encourage your family members and your children to do so too and let them also reap the rewards.