```json
{
    "title": "Japa Thoughts: Yogic Chanting II",
    "url": "https://wavesofdevotion.com/2007/10/27/japa-thoughts-yogic-chanting-ii/",
    "datePublished": "2007-10-27",
    "dateModified": "2007-10-27",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "October 27, 2007 Yogic Chanting II What one reads in sastra influences ones practices. I’m studying Vyasa’s commentary on the yogi sutra’s, so naturally I let the truths that I…",
    "author": "Dhanurdhara Swami",
    "publisher": "Waves of Devotion"
}
```

# Japa Thoughts: Yogic Chanting II

October 27, 2007

Yogic Chanting II

What one reads in

*sastra*

influences ones practices. I’m studying Vyasa’s commentary on the

*yogi sutra’s*

, so naturally I let the truths that I gleaned there enter my practice to help steady the mind. I’m fascinated by the notion of

*ahankara*

, the false conception of the self that limits ones consciousness to a certain material sphere. The consciousness of an ant, for example, is filtered by

*ahankara*

to assume the self- impression of a tiny busy body searching for food. Although it cannot see or appreciate the world beyond its small insect ideas, nonetheless, like any conditioned soul, it has a sense of self-centeredness and inflated importance. My meditation today was thus on pride. I want to chant without it. What am I proud of, however? It’s only the limited shape my consciousness takes in this life, which isn’t even me. Today I, the soul, chant round after round, looking at my false-identity, the one I’m proud of, which is not even the person chanting, and laugh at my illusion. It’s a fact - I’m just not anything that was making me proud. I thus do my

*mala*

as a soul, realizing that I am a spark of God, like everyone else.