Question: Can japa be done at any time?

Sri Chinmoy: Japa should not be done just before going to bed. If japa is done one thousand, two thousand or three thousand times, the mind will become agitated because the body wants to enter into the world of sleep. The aspirant will repeat, "Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, ..." but he will only be working the mind like a machine. If he continues beyond his capacity his mind will become agitated. Then he will suffer because he will not get proper sleep. Japa should be done in the morning or during the day. But it should be done only one hundred or two hundred or at most three hundred times before going to bed. I have asked some disciples to do japa every day, but sometimes they forget or they don't feel like doing it during the day. Then what do they do? At night, just before they go to bed, they do it all. This is very bad. If you meditate before going to bed you will invoke peace, light and bliss, but if you do japa five hundred or one thousand times before going to bed you will invoke power and energy and you will become too tense to sleep.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Prayer-world, mantra-world and japa-world, Agni Press, 1974
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