Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
Taking the Name
Repeat the one Name of God (or ‘Baba’) most dear to you, with love, until remembrance becomes spontaneous and runs through the whole day.
Choose the one Name of God (or “Baba”) dearest to you. Repeat it half an hour daily, with each in-breath, no special posture, and lengthen it over time until it runs by itself — while eating, walking, talking. Let love, not counting, carry it. If you forget, don’t worry; just begin again. “Without love it is not possible.”
What it is
Meher Baba, who kept silence for forty-four years, taught love and selfless service above all techniques — but for those who love God he pressed one concrete, repeatable practice: take the Name continually, with love. It is jap / nam-jap (repetition of a Divine Name), with his particular accent on constancy and love.
In his last years he repeatedly urged followers to “practice taking My Name as continually as possible,” and said, “there is power in My Name. and even I repeat My Name.” The Name may be a name of God most dear to you, or “Baba” for his lovers; the point is not a tally but a current of loving remembrance running beneath all activity.
Baba was explicit that the mechanical act alone is not the goal: “automatic remembrance of God in a natural way is what is worthwhile, and without love it is not possible.”
The Method
Faithful to his instructions on “the proper way to do japa”:
- Choose one Name. “Select an easy one” — the one Name of God (or “Baba”) most dear to you. Keep to it.
- Begin with a fixed daily dose. “First you have to repeat the one name of God most dear to you for half an hour daily, increasing the time gradually until the mental repetition becomes a natural habit.”
- Ride the breath; no special posture. “With every inhalation, repeat it. While doing it, no special sitting or standing posture is required.”
- Extend it into all activity. “Do it in such a way that it goes on spontaneously all the time — while eating, drinking, sitting, walking, talking.”
- Let it become effortless and self-running. “When it becomes a firm habit with you, even while thinking other thoughts, the repetition will be uppermost and you will not even be conscious that you are doing it.”
- Be gentle with lapses. “Don’t worry if you ever forget to take His name. If your thoughts begin to flow into a different channel, stop them and go on repeating His name.”
- Let love be the engine. When “intense thirst for the remembrance of the Beloved” is present, “love is born” and remembrance arises of itself — “this is called real japa.” *(Sourcing note: quoted phrases are Baba’s, drawn from his recorded instructions on japa and the repetition of his Name.)*
Source & Lineage
Meher Baba (1894–1969) framed the practice within his universal teaching that love and remembrance of the Beloved, not ritual or intellect, awaken the soul to its oneness with God.
The practice belongs to the broad stream of nam-jap / nama-smarana, kin to Sufi dhikr, the Jesus Prayer, and the nembutsu. Contrast (don’t duplicate):
- Anandamayi Ma’s constant Name-remembrance shares the “constancy ripening into spontaneous japa” structure; Baba’s distinctive notes are the 30-minutes-then-extend regimen, the gentle “don’t worry if you forget,” and the option of his own Name as focus.
- Sivananda’s / classical japa emphasise count, mala, and technical rules; Baba de-emphasises tallying and centres love (“without love it is not possible”).
- Sufi dhikr is the nearest cross-tradition cousin.
Common refinements
Counting fixation. Baba centres flow and love, not a tally; quality of remembrance matters more than quantity.
- Dry, mechanical repetition. Without love it is, in his words, not worthwhile — let it be warm.
- Self-reproach over lapses. He explicitly says not to worry; just resume.
- Confining it to formal sitting. The distinctive instruction is constancy — carry the Name into ordinary life.
- Forcing absorption. Spontaneous, self-running remembrance ripens; keep returning and let it deepen on its own.