Question: I really feel that I need purity in the mind, so I started doing japa in the morning. But after a few hundred times it is agony for me.

Sri Chinmoy: In India I had malaria. It is a most painful disease. There is not a single part of the body where you don't feel unbearable pain when you have malaria. The medicine is quinine, which is terribly bitter. I suffered very badly from the pain of the disease and the medicine itself was also unbearably painful. But the medicine cured me and my fever went away. If you don't have purity in the mind you will feel miserable. Japa is an antidote. One thorn is inside you and another is required to take it out. When that second thorn touches the thorn that is inside, it creates tremendous pain even though it is trying its best to cure you. But when it finally succeeds you get all joy. So if you feel that japa is painful, you have to remember that this pain will last only a few minutes, whereas the pain of your mental impurity will last for years. Medicine is not always sweet, but if you don't take the medicine, the disease will not be cured.