Nama-smarana Best for Self-interest
A gentleman met me and said, "I desire to see God. Have you seen Him?" I said, "Yes, I have." "Can I see Him, too?", he asked. I replied, "Yes, most certainly; but not with physical eyes. The sight with which to see Him is different." There is only one way to see Him, and that way is ceaseless nama-smarana. There is no other way. I say this to one and all, and it is necessary to heed to it in order that they should know whether they are following the path of their interest. But heeding will be effective only if put into practice. What is put into practice will alone serve you. Dedicate yourselves to nama-smarana; there is no other means of achieving ultimate self-interest. If there is anything which is naturally ours, which is free of all conditioning and restrictions, which is dependent on nothing else, it is the divine name. Therefore, whosoever repeats it with purity of heart and action, Rama will surely look after his interest.
Believe implicitly in the sadguru's behests. If he says, 'you will find the treasure if you go a hundred paces in this direction,' he evidently cannot be held responsible for failure to find it if you walk even twice as much but in a wrong direction. You say you desire to see God in form; but if seeing the sadguru and talking with him fails to satisfy you, what use will it be to see God in a tangible form? The idea that your well-being lies in something other than what the sadguru has told you to do, should not even enter the mind; so implicit should be your faith in him; you should wholly identify yourself with him, whole-heartedly belong to him:
There is nothing that achieves true self-interest except nama-smarana. To desire that, with the help of this potent nama, a member of the family should be cured of illness, is simply expending the power of nama for a petty mundane purpose.
When our need ends, we forget God, just as we throw away the remnants of medicine on getting over an illness. If we place implicit faith in the words of the sadguru, pleasant and unpleasant happenings cease to disturb the mind, implicit faith accompanied by unceasing sadhana breaks the shackles of worldly life; this constitutes genuine spirituality.
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