When you are engaged in Japam and Dhyanam other thoughts might enter into you at first; but you should not worry about this. There is no great danger on account of them. When you begin Namasmarana, sit down with enthusiasm. If you enter upon any task with firm determination, no impurity can affect you. Your concern is only to see that you are fully pure when you start the Japam etc. Do not worry about formalities for this. Select the Namam that you like and the Form of that Name. That Namam is itself the Manthram. That Manthram is ever pure, ever active, everything. But do not change the Namam and the Rupam to suit the fancy and have one thing one day and another the next. Whatever the Name and Form that first gave you contentment, hold fast to them without swerving. They will get implanted in the heart, without fail. Afterwards, everything will happen through His Grace. If the worker is ordered to dig the earth, his work is simply to go on digging. The gardener alone knows how much of that earth is to be put under which plant and how that earth is to be so put. So too, the order is 'Do Namasmarana'! Provided you continue to do that work, He will direct, Himself, and how that has to be utilised.

The value of Nama and Rupa consists in the training that they give to the Manas. What need is there to train a horse that has already been trained? It is the untrained horse that is 'broken' through many devices. Similarly, it is to tame the unruly mind that we have prayer, bhajana, japa and smarana. In the initial stages, the horse runs in many directions; the trainer should not worry. He should hold fast to the reins. The mind, too, naturally runs in different directions when you begin Namasmarana and Japam, but you must not yield to despair, anxiety or indecision. Hold fast to the reins, the Namam! Within a short time, your speech and your thoughts will come under your own grip. Only, do not allow anything to come near you that might make you forget the name of the Lord. The profit of that Namam, you will yourself realise in due course.

Do not crave for the fruit the moment the sapling is planted! Do not pluck and chew the leaves and the twigs in the hope of inferring therefrom the taste of the fruit! If you do so, you cannot enjoy the sweetness of the fruit; besides, the plant itself will not survive.

Similarly, your task is simply to cultivate the sapling called Namam. Do not while doing so, doubt and examine whether it has the glory ascribed to it. That sapling will, without fail, grow into a tree and it will give you the fruit you hope to eat. You can achieve it. The Namam is capable of yielding that fruit. So the purpose of Ekagratha or Concentration is to make you stick to the Namam, without altering it and to keep its Rupa always in sight. The net of 'Namasmarana' should have no torn holes; that is to say, it must take place always with no intermission. If there is any gap, the fruit that falls into the net might escape through it! Perform Dhyanam until your mind comes firmly under your control. This is the primary task.