When real sadhana [spiritual practice] takes place there is no time in calculation. Time moves so fast that you don’t realise it.
There are three ways of repeating a mantra [sacred word or sound syllable]. One is aloud. Second, with your lips and tongue [no voice]. Third, neither your tongue nor your lips move [mental repetition].
Look at your Deity within and repeat its mantra ten times. The highest way to do it, after much effort, is the third one [mental repetition]. With calmness and proper breathing, you repeat your Deity’s name. When you look at the world without, silently repeat the Guru mantra and you will feel that the whole world is permeated by your Guru. Struggle to bring your mind, again and again, to the One without a second. That is concentration. Looking at his form is contemplation. When you contemplate and concentrate you enter into meditation.
All of us are used to the physical manifestation, the gross. When you look at your Deity outside, in the murthi [sculpture, statue or picture of the deity], it is still physical. You must make the effort to realize the subtle.
Some people enter the mental realm where they see the Deity mentally. And as they utter the mantra they will slowly, from the physical realm, from the mental realm enter the subtle realm. Thus from the subtle you enter into the subtler; and from the subtler you enter into the subtlest.