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In India, we call it dāna or bhēta—donation. There are many kinds of dāna, but the greatest is nāmadāna: the gift of God's name. If someone can give you the name of God, even if someone gives you mines of diamonds and mountains of gold, it is not enough compared to the name. That name of God, that mantra, is nāmadāna. The one who gives you a mantra has given you the property, the richness, the treasure of the entire three worlds; now it belongs to you. But it depends if you are capable or not to keep it, to preserve it, to realize it, to have it. That name is nāma, and that nāma is mantra. It should go through and through in our consciousness, into the very marrow. This is the prayer: "I will never forget your name, O Lord; this is my prayer to Thee, that I never forget Thy name." "Ye nāma terā dina rāta gāūṅ"—may I sing Your name night and day, day and night—"Govinda Dāmodara Mādhava iti." O Kṛṣṇa, Thy name. "Dehana ṭakale tuma śamane ho"—I have only one wish, Lord, at the time of my death. As I leave this body, may You appear in front of me. "Dehana ṭakale tuma śamane ho." "Bāṁsī bajāte, manako lubhāte"—and You play, Kṛṣṇa, Your sweet flute, so that the melody attracts my mind. Thus, from all this worldly prapañca, my mind is liberated. I don't want to remember anything else. There is a story of a ṛṣi who was meditating. He had a beautiful deer that he loved very much. The ṛṣi went into samādhi and left his body, but his mind and feeling remained attached to that deer. In his next life, he was born from her womb as a small fawn. When he opened his eyes, he saw his own āshram and wondered, "How is this possible?" That was his attachment. Therefore, the time of death is very important; one must remember nothing other than God. It is not easy to remember Gurujī's mantra at the last minute. It is not easy. One may lose memory completely, or in an accident, one might say, "Oh, devil, terrible!" during a typhoon. There are very rare exceptions, like Mahātmā Gandhi. When they shot him, Gandhi did not say anything cruel. He said, "Hey Rāma." This tells us two things clearly. First, he was a bhakta of Rāma. Second, he was repeating the name of God all the time—ajapa, ajapa. These are the five steps of repeating a mantra. "Bāṁsī bajāte, manako lubhāte." At the time of the end of this body, may You manifest in front of me. "Bāṁsī bajāte"—O Kṛṣṇa, may You play Your flute. "Manako lubhāte"—may my attention go more to You. "Gāte yehī nāma tana nahiṁ tyāgū"—while singing this name, Lord, I renounce my body. Not "I die," but tyāgūṁ, I relinquish. "Gāte yehī nāma tana nahiṁ tyāgūṁ"—while singing this name, O Lord, as I relinquish the body, may I be singing. I renounce this body. Which name? What name? "Govinda Dāmodara Mādhava iti." Kṛṣṇa, Thy name: Govinda, Dāmodara, Kṛṣṇa. This must become reality. The mantra should go through and through in your consciousness. The first step is called likhita: writing. Write your mantra every day. Akṣara Brahma. It is said, "Akṣara Brahma"—that Brahman, that Supreme, is that letter. That is why it is called Devanāgarī. Akṣara means everlasting. There is a beautiful āshram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, of one Swāmījī, Swāmī Pārmukh. He has made a very beautiful āshram called Akṣara Dhāma. Dhāma means a pilgrim place, a holy place. So akṣara Brahma: the letters. It is not only some letter. Therefore, many mantras have only one alphabet: Oṁ, the symbol. Do not think it is only written in Sanskrit; it has something inside. They all appeared in meditation. When you write your mantra, it should be like this: the writing can be listened to like music, and music can be painted like writing. Become one with that. The second step is called vaikharī. Vaikharī means loud. "Nādaḥ parabrahma"—the sound, the resonance, is the Supreme. And that resonance is akṣara. Akṣara is that resonance: "Nādaḥ parabrahma." Now, pronounce exactly what you wrote. This is kīrtana; from that comes singing. That singing does not need translation. Singing is something all can do collectively. Collectively, all cannot give a lecture. If I give you a microphone, everyone one by one, and we all try to give a lecture at the same time, you know what will happen? There is no harmony. There are different taraṅgas, different waves. Taraṅga means waves on the water. But singing is the same taraṅgas. This is mantra. Singing unites writing and singing, conscious and subconscious, unconscious. Then after singing, the third step is upāṁśu. The lips move, the tongue moves, but no sound comes. Yet you still listen to that sound, as if you are singing. The fourth level is mānasika. You repeat the mantra in your spirit. You do not pronounce it aloud at all, but just as when you think, in the same way you repeat the mantra. And whenever you need to think of something, then you think of that. Free your mind from the mantra, but when meaningless thinking comes, then free your mind from that. It is better to repeat a mantra than to think nonsense. Finally comes the fifth: ajapa. "Hot jibya hale nai. Bin japya jap hoy." Ajapa, what is to be repeated? "Bin japya jap hoy," said Mahāprabhujī in one poem. "Hot jibya hale nai." The lips and tongue do not move. Ajapa, what is to be repeated? Now it is ajapa. You do not have to practice it. "Bin japya jap hoy." It happens spontaneously. And when that level of consciousness is reached in your mantra, now there is perfection. Then you wish for something with your mantra, and that wish is fulfilled. Otherwise, you practice only for half an hour. While practicing mantra, Swāmījī said many things, but I know. So, you know, concentrate somewhere else. For many people, repeating the sumaraṇī has become a habit, not repeating the mantra. Then they sometimes realize: "Oh God, I have the sumaraṇī, I must do the mantra." So many of you just move the sumaraṇī like this. We do not do it without the mantra. So it should be repeated consciously. It has greater benefit. Of course, whether you repeat the mantra consciously or unconsciously, the effect is there. If you drink poison consciously or unconsciously, the effect is there. But if we do the mantra very consciously, with concentration, then it will be more. So achieve the state of ajapa, but not in such a way that you become fixated on something that is not good. There are some people who record a mantra on a tape, put on a Walkman, and for 24 hours it repeats this mantra. That is called a brainwashing technique. And it has happened in many, many cases that disorders appear in the consciousness. It should not be like that. Love is different. Where there is love, there is no suffering. And where there is no love, there is suffering and attachment. That is different. So mantra is the path. Without mantra, meditation is a body without a soul. Without mantra, this life is a body without eyes. Therefore, mantra was created by great ṛṣis, great seers. There are also negative things and positive: black magic, white magic, curses. If you believe in a curse, then you must also believe in mantra. If you believe in sin, then you must believe in karma. So it is the same thing. Knowledge is knowledge. God is God. Whether a cow is black or white, the milk is always white. This is the truth we should develop. It will awaken you and open your heart. So mantra is the path, perfection, protection, and liberation, because in the mantra is the name of the divine, some divinity. So there is prayer. First is the lecture, then the essence of the lecture is prayer. The essence of prayer is mantra. The essence of mantra is bīja mantra. And bīja mantra is the origin. Bīja is the seed. It is the great tree under which we sit. The entire tree exists, and it is a small seed. So you should be able to grow that tree from this small seed. We cannot carry the tree, but we can carry the seed. And so it is necessary to understand that the name of God is mantra, and there are some good words before and after which complete it. And that mantra cures the disease of birth and death. Mīrābāī said about it that this disease of my birth and death is cured.