Taking God’s Name As Often As One Can

By Alice Martin

For many, many years, he had carried a burden of great anguish deep in his heart. He had consulted psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors, but it hadn’t helped. In fact, he himself felt it wouldn’t—because he instinctively knew that the problem was spiritual, and that, therefore, it couldn’t be cured simply by taking some medicines or by trying to think positively.

One day, while on a holiday, he chanced upon a board that indicated the directions to a spiritual centre, which happened to be located only a few kilometers away. The board provided a brief description of the centre. “Open to people of all faiths and none” it said. “We stand for universal love and harmony. The One God is the God of all”.

He felt elated reading those words, for they resonated with his own feelings. He believed in universal oneness and had long been looking for a place where he could meet people who shared the same conviction.

Without a moment’s delay, he set off for the centre—on foot. It took him almost two hours to get there.

At the reception, he was given a warm welcome. The daily spiritual routine that was followed at the centre was explained to him and he was informed about meal-times. The receptionist handed him the key to a room, where he was to stay.

He spent almost a month at the centre. The stay marked a major turning-point in his life. He met several times with the spiritual director of the centre, an elderly person who radiated kindness, joy and peace even when simply sitting silently. The spiritual director explained to him the philosophy of the centre. It was based on developing a deep personal relationship with God. Since the One God was the sole Creator, all people, no matter what their background, could have a personal relationship with Him. For developing, maintaining and strengthening this relationship, regular remembrance of God was required. Ideally, one should remember God with each breath.

A principal method that was prescribed for remembering God was constant repetition of one or the other Names of God. God, the spiritual director explained, had innumerable Names. God was known by different Names in different traditions and languages. To remember God, one could repeat any of God’s Names. One could choose the Name that one felt most comfortable with.

Repeating the Name of God as often as possible was an easy method of remembering God, the spiritual director said. One could repeat the Name softly, or in the mind, or, if the context allowed, aloud. One could even sing the Name. If one was engaged in a task that did not require much mental activity—such as having a bath, brushing one’s teeth, washing one’s clothes, cleaning one’s room or taking a stroll—one could engage in the repetition of God’s Name while doing the activity. One could engage in the practice while travelling in a vehicle or while waiting in a queue. One could even repeat the Name of God while eating. Each time one took a bite of something and each time one chewed, one could repeat the Name of God. During parts of the day when one had no particular work to do, one could spend time chanting the Name. One could also set apart some fixed portions of time every day specially for this. Once one got into the habit of doing this, taking the Name might become so natural that it might continue even when one was asleep!

All of this was very new to him. Not that he had not heard or read about the importance of thinking about God, but here was a very practical, easy and joyful method of remembering God often—ideally, every moment!

It was a little bit of a challenge for him at first, but very soon he developed a great love for the practice of taking the Name. By the time his stay at the centre came to an end, taking the Name had become a habit. He was doing it instinctually, often without even noticing it, and it gave him great peace and joy!