Total Abidance

A devotee asked, “How does the repetition of the name of God help Realisation?”

Sri Bhagavan replied, “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 the name leads one to mental repetition which finally resolves itself into the eternal vibration. The mind or the mouth cannot act without the Self.” Thereupon Sri Bhagavan told the following story.

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 the call of nature and also saying “Ram, Ram”. An orthodox priest was shocked at the uttering of the holy name by the saint when his body was not clean. Hence he reprimanded him and ordered him to be silent. 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.”

Quiet Piety

THERE WAS A king with a devoted queen. She was a devotee of Sri Rama and yearned that her husband should similarly be a devotee. One night she found that the king mumbled something in his sleep. She kept her ears close to his lips and heard the word ‘Rama’ repeated continually as in japa. She was delighted and the next day ordered the minister to hold a feast. The king having partaken of the feast asked his wife for an explanation. She related the whole occurrence and said that the feast was in gratitude to God for the fulfilment of a long cherished wish.


The king was however annoyed that his devotion should have been found out. Some say that having thus betrayed God he considered himself unworthy of God and so committed suicide. It means that one should not openly display one’s piety. We may take it that the king told the queen not to make a fuss over his piety and they then lived happily together.

The Siddhas’ Lesson

IN THE VASISHTAM it is stated that Rama, after his return from a pilgrimage, found that the whole world was full of misery and that bearing the body was itself a cause of misery. He, therefore left everything, even things like eating and drinking, and remained motionless. When Viswamitra asked Dasaratha to send Rama to guard his oblations ceremony (yagna), Dasaratha said that Rama was like a mad man and described some of the signs of his madness. On hearing them, Viswamitra said that he was very pleased to hear of those symptoms, that such madness did not come to many people and that he would like to see him and asked for him to be brought. Rama accordingly came, prostrated before all those present and sat down.

Viswamitra saw him and asked him the cause of his madness, and addressing Vasishta, said, “Please teach Rama the knowledge of the Self, the knowledge which Brahma taught you and me.” Vasishta agreed to do so. While he was teaching, siddhas from all over came to listen to him and they thought to themselves, “Rama has gained so much knowledge at such a young age. How surprising! How great! What is the use of our living so long?”