14th December, 1938

Talk 591.

D.: Seekers who are in immediate proximity of the Master can get grace by darsana, sparsana, etc. (look, touch, etc.). But how does one get the same grace when the person is at a distance?

M.: By yoga drishti ^[?](yogic look).

Mr. Chopra, a Punjabi employed in Singapore, is on a visit here and raised a few questions.

D.: What is the efficacy of the name?

Sri Bhagavan read out the extract from the Vision. It was a translation of Namdev's stanzas.

D.: How does the name help Realisation?
M.: The original name is always going on spontaneously without any effort on the part of the individual. That name is aham ^[?]- `I'. But when it becomes manifest it manifests as ahamkara - the ego. The oral repetition of nama ^[?] leads one to mental repetition which finally resolves itself into the eternal vibration.

D.: But these are all mental or physical.
M.: The mind or the mouth cannot act without the Self. Tukaram, the great Maharashtra Saint, used to remain in samadhi in the day and sing and dance at night with large crowds of people. He always used to utter the name of Sri Rama. Once he was answering calls of nature and also saying "Ram, Ram". An orthodox priest was shocked at the unholy mention of the sacred name and so reprimanded him and ordered him to be silent when he answered calls of nature. Tukaram said, "All right!" and remained mute. But at once there arose the name of Rama from every pore of Tukaram and the priest was horrified by the din. He then prayed to Tukaram "Restrictions are only for the common people and not for saints like you."

D.: It is said that Sri Ramakrishna saw life in the image of Kali which he worshipped. Can it be true?

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M.: The life was perceptible to Sri Ramakrishna and not to all. The vital force was due to himself. It was his own vital force which manifested as if it were outside and drew him in. Were the image full of life it must have been found so by all. But everything is full of life. That is the fact. Many devotees have had experiences similar to those of Sri Ramakrishna.

D.: How can there be life in stone? It is unconscious.
M.: The whole universe is full of life. You say the stone is unconscious.

It is your self-consciousness which now speaks of unconsciousness. When a person wants to see if there is an article in a dark room he takes a lamp to look for it. The light is useful for detecting the presence and the absence of the thing. Consciousness is necessary for discovering if a thing is conscious or not. If a man remains in a dark room one need not take a lamp to find him. If called, he answers. He does not require a lamp to announce his presence. Consciousness is thus self-shining. Now you say you were unconscious in sleep and self-conscious in the wakeful state. Which is the Reality? The Reality must be continuous and eternal. Neither the unconsciousness nor the self-consciousness of the present is the Reality. But you admit your existence all through. The pure Being is the reality. The others are mere associations. The pure Being cannot be otherwise than consciousness. Otherwise you cannot say that you exist. Therefore consciousness is the reality. When that consciousness is associated with upadhis you speak of self-consciousness, unconsciousness, sub-consciousness, super-consciousness, human- consciousness, dog-consciousness, tree-consciousness and so on. The unaltering common factor in all of them is consciousness. Therefore the stone is as much unconscious as you are in sleep. Is that totally devoid of consciousness?

D.: But a dog-consciousness is different from my consciousness. I

cannot read the Bible to the dog. The tree again does not move whereas I move and act.

M.: Call the tree a standing man; and call the man a moving tree. An American gentleman who also took part in the conversation would not allow Sri Bhagavan to explain and so it stopped here.

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