Once a Disciple asked The Master, "Is grace more effective than Practicing Naama Bhakti?"
The Master's say, "The Master simply shows us the right path. He gives us the Naama, Simran and Dhyaan of The Naama enables us to make progress in the spiritual path. Th Master helps us to eradicate ignorance, with the help of His Naama.
Just think it over, Does The Master hand over Realisation to us? No. He wants us to tread the path. The Master says it is a Doers' path. One who does, will reap its benefit. So when we do The Simran of Naama, we will earn The Master's Grace."
The Disciple, " O Master, few of us disciples, are Well trained by you. We have gained all the knowledge and are now, world wise. I believe, We are not ignorant."
The Master's say, "As much as you say you are wise, you are ignorant. And as much as we believe we are ignorant, we will make spiritual progress.
Just imagine, a man comes and claims that he is a mad man, will you accept it? You will not, because you know that the mad man will always think he is alright and others are mad.
Similarly, when we go and claim I am Learned, we are being Ignorant. The Master’s Grace is like a hand extended to help us out of the water, or it makes our way easier for the removal of ignorance.
All the knowledge gained by reading of Spiritual books of The Great Masters, Saints and Rishis can only enable us to create an atmosphere to do the practice, as has been advocated by The Master.
We need to do Naama Bhakti to Realise. We need to Realise to Feel. We need to Feel to be."
The Disciple, "Is there no medicine to cure the disease of ignorance?"
The Master, "First we need to understand What we need medicine for. We need medicine to restore our status to the original state of health. That is UnLearn all our Learning and do the practice as has been prescribed by The Master.
Now let us understand what is our Ignorance. Our Ignorance is our thought process that we are the doers. Our Ignorance is to believe that we know everything about The Lord, simply because we have read books. Our Ignorance is that we are not connected with The Naama."
The Disciple, "Can you please explain The Master, Grace, Lord?
The Master's say, "Does The Master hold us by the hand and whisper something in our ear, every now and then. No. He shows us the path once and asks us to do Naama Bhakti regularly.
But, We imagine The Master to be like us. Because we are with a body and we think that The Master is also a body in order to do something tangible to us. His True work lies within."
The Disciple, "How is Guru gained?"
The Master's say, "The Lord is immanent , all pervasive and sustaining the universe. In his Grace, He takes pity on the us and manifests Himself as a being according to our standard. The Lord comes before us in the form of The Master.
We think that he is a man and expect relationship as between bodies. But The Master, who is The Lord or Self incarnate, works from within, helps us to see the error of our ways, and guides us in the right path until we realise the Self within.
After such realisation, we feel, “I was so worried before. I am after all the Self, the same as before but not affected by anything; where is he who was miserable? He is nowhere to be seen.”
The Disciple, "What should we do now?"
The Master's say, "Just listen to The Master's Voice. Live your life in The Master's Will.
Only act up to the words of The Master,
work within. The Master is present both within us and outside too. He creates conditions to drive us inward and prepares the interior to drag us to the eye centre. Thus he gives a push from outside and exerts a pull from within so that we may be fixed at the centre.
In sleep, we are centred within. Simultaneously with waking our mind rushes out towards the worldly thoughts and attachments. It is possible only for The Master to work both within us and outside."
The Disciple, "Can The Master be identified with the body?
The Master's say, "We think that the world can be conquered by our efforts. When frustrated externally and driven internally, we feel “Oh! oh! There is a power higher than us.” The existence of the higher power must be admitted and recognised.
Our ego is a very powerful elephant and cannot be brought under control by anyone less than a lion. It is Lion whose very look makes the elephant tremble and die.
In our Case, it is The Master who helps us wipe clean our mind, erasing away the worldly thoughts and attachments. Our ego becomes Silence, as our mind immerses in Bhakti. whose very look makes the elephant tremble and die.
We will know in due course of time understand that our glory lies where we cease to exist. In order to gain that state, we should surrender ourself. The Master then sees “This man is in a fit state to receive guidance,” and so guides him.
The Master gives The Naama for Simran and Dhyaan. It is The Naama Bhakti which enables our Consciousness to transcend and Realise Self.
It is The Same Master's Naama which enables us to have The Darshan of The Master, within us, in The Naama Form.
Finally, The Master through His Naama lifts our Consciousness to the level of Supreme Consciousness and We have The Darshan of The Lord. Merging into His Consciousness, we too become The Lord.
We have been able to experience all this because of The Master and His Grace. But The Master's say, "You always Reap what you Sow."
Thus, if we Sow Naama, we shall reap its benefit both for spiritual fulfillment and living this life in The Lord's Remembrance. From Ignorant, we become Enlightened, One Who has had The Lord's True Darshan in The Form of Light, within."
Authored by K. Giri
