THE MOUNTAIN PATH OCTOBER 1964 A. Devaraja Mudaliar

[Guest guest]

THE N A M E

 

 

 

In most religions (though not in Christianity) invocation of the Divine Name is

one of the most important techniques of bhakti marga, that is of the path of

devotion and submission.

 

The following passage in praise of it is taken from Namdev, one of the great

Maratha poetsaints of the 13th and 14th Centuries, In his youth he was a bandit

and murderer. One day he came upon a young mother comforting her fatherless

child and with sudden horror it flashed on him that it was he who had slain the

father. In violent remorse he rushed to the nearby temple and tried to commit

suicide, but he was prevented. He then vowed the rest of his life to penance and

worship. He became an ecstatic bhakta and a saint.

 

All-pervading

 

The Name permeates everywhere from the heavens to the lowest regions of the

entire universe. Who can tell to what depths in the nether regions and to what

height in the heavens it extends? The ignorant undergo endless types of rebirth

without knowing the Essence. The Name is immortal, says Namdev. Forms are

innumerable but the Name is all.

 

The Name itself is form, and form is the Name. There is no distinction between

Name and form. Becoming manifest, God assumed Name and form. Thus the Name and

the Vedas were established. Remember that there is no mantra beyond the Name.

Those who say otherwise are ignorant. The Name is God Himself says Namdev. This

is known only to loving devotees of the Lord.

 

The all-pervading nature of the Name can be understood only when one realizes

his Self. As long as one's own name is unrecognised it is impossible to grasp

the all-pervading Name. When one knows one's Self one finds the Name everywhere.

To consider the Name different from the Named creates illusion. Ask the Saints,

says Namdev.

 

None can realize the Name by the practice of Knowledge (Jnana), meditation or

austerity (tapas), Surrender yourself first at the feet of the Guru and learn to

know that the 'I' itself is the Name. After finding the source of that 'I',

merge your individuality in that Oneness which is Self-existent and devoid of

all duality, that which pervades beyond all duality. The Name has come into the

three worlds. It is Parabrahman Itself, where there is no action arising out of

duality.

 

Namdev's Enlightenment

 

 

 

This was read out before Bhagavan, in the hall and he said: " Namdev must have

written this after he had obtained full Realization on touching the feet of

Vishobakesar. " The point of this remark is that for a long time Namdev, although

a saint and an ecstatic, was not fully realized. He worshipped God under the

name, of Vithoba (as is common in Maharashtra), and so intense was his devotion

that the image of God in the temple used to come to life for him and speak to

him as a friend. This sort of manifestation is apt to occur for the ecstatic

bhakta. A modern example, is Sri Ramakrishna, for whom the image of the Mother,

Kali, came alive.

 

Bhagavan continued with the following story of Namdev's final Enlightenment.

 

Gora, another saint, who was a potter by trade, held a feast to which he invited

the saints, including Namdev and Jnanadev. In the hope of enlightening Namdev,

Jnanadev said to Gora: " Your job is making pots. You daily test them to see

which are properly baked and which are not. There sitting in front of you are

the pots of God, so test them to see which are sound. " Gora, who had been told

privately of the purpose of the test, agreed and, taking up the stick with which

he used to test his pots, went round among his guests, tapping each one on the

head. They all submitted meekly till he came to Namdev, who cried out

indignantly " What do you mean, potter by coming to tap me with your stick? " Gora

thereupon replied to Jnanadev: " All the other pots are properly baked; only this

one is not yet baked. "

 

At this everyone burst out laughing, Namdev was so humiliated that he got up and

rushed out of the house straight to the temple of Vithoba where he complained

bitterly, crying out: " Am I not your child and your closest friend? How could

you let such a humiliation befall me? "

 

Vithoba appeared before him as usual and seemed to sympathise, but then said Why

could you not sit quiet and submit to the tapping, like all the others? Then

there would have been no trouble. "

 

At this Namdev became still more upset and cried: " You too want to humiliate me!

Why should I submit? Am I not your child? "

 

Vithoba then said: " You have not yet understood and even if I tell you you

won't. But go to such and such a ruined temple in the forest and there you will

find a saint who will be able to give you Enlightenment. "

 

Namdev went to the forest, as he was told, and when he reached the ruined temple

he found a simple old man lying asleep there with his feet resting on a

Siva-lingam. He could hardly believe that this was the man from whom he, the

chosen friend of Vithoba, was to obtain Enlightenment. However, as there was no

one else there, he went up to him and clapped his hands to wake him. The old man

woke with a start and, seeing him, said: " Oh, so you are the Namdev whom Vithoba

has sent here. "

 

At this Namdev was taken aback and began to think that this must be a man of

power to know his name and why he had come. Still, man of power or not, he had

no right to rest his feet on a lingam, he thought; and he told the old man so.

 

" Oh, are my feet on a lingam? " the old man said; " All right, put them somewhere

else. "

 

So Namdev, out of reverence for the lingam, moved them to another spot. There

too a Siva-lingam sprang up, and so in one place after another, whatever place

he put them. Finally he sat down and took them in his lap, and he himself became

a Siva-lingam. And at that moment Enlightenment dawned on him.

 

After this Namdev returned home. For some days he did not go to the temple at

all, although it had been his habit to go there daily and spend most of the day

there with Vithoba. After a few days Vithoba appeared before him in his house

and asked, apparently guileless, why he had forgotten to visit him.

 

" No more fooling me now, " Namdev replied. " I know now. Is there any place where

You are not? Do I need to go to the temple to be with You? Do I exist apart from

You?

 

" Yes, now you understand, " Vithoba said.

 

Commenting on this story, Bhagavan said: " It is to be noted that it was only

when he surrendered and touched the feet of the Guru that he obtained

Enlightenment. "

 

Verily, the Name is God Himself

 

In modern times Swami Ramdas also, like most bhaktas, prescribed the invocation

of the Name. The following is an article about it that he distributed privately

among his disciples. It is printed here with the kind permission of Mataji.

 

God and His Name are not distinct from one another. Name is God Himself. The

moment we think of the Name our mind is filled with the presence of God. There

is no easier way of focussing thought upon God than taking constantly His Name.

When we repeat the Name aloud, we feel our heart is flooded with the ecstasy of

love, because the sound of the Divine Name awakens the heart to the bliss and

love of God.

 

Although mental repetition of the Name is held to be far more efficacious than

the verbal repetition, still the rare experience of sweetness and joy derived by

uttering the Name aloud is incomparable. When the entire being of the devotee

thrills with rapture to the music of the Name he realizes that the Name is

Brahman.

 

God is both manifest and unmanifest. The Name stands for such a God. Here the

unmanifest is the all-pervading, infinite, immutable, tranquil and static spirit

of God. The manifest is the entire universe of name, form and movement with all

its beings, creatures and things. The Name stands for this all-inclusive and

all-transcendent Godhead, who is both personal and impersonal.

 

The Divine Name is thus the beginningless source of all creation and the

creation itself. God, the absolute, is the nameless Name.

 

The Name can free the soul from bondage. The Name can take it to the highest

consummation of spiritual life. The Name can grant a blind soul Divine sight.

The Name can bless an individual with a universal vision full of sublimity. The

Name can lift the soul to inconceivable heights of God-realization.

 

Love, Light, Power and Joy

 

The power of the Name is invincible. A mind which is considered to be

unconquerable, by the soothing influence of the Name becomes docile, yielding

and submissive. The mind itself is transformed into God by the power of the

Name. He who takes refuge in the Name can work wonders. Death itself will stand

in awe of him. He can command all the forces of nature and direct them to bring

about a spiritual awakening in the hearts of men. The Name can make a human

being an embodiment of eternal love and joy. The Name can convert an individual

into a Cosmic Reality — an ignorant soul into a very God.

 

Where the Name of God is sung, the atmosphere is permeated with purity, peace

and bliss; for the symphony of the Name spreads everywhere the splendour of

love.

 

The Name is all-sufficient. The utterance of it is itself meditation. The

ecstasy born of it is itself Samadhi. The Name is love, light, power and joy.

 

The writer can vouch for it from his own experience that the Name by itself

without any other sadhana can grant one the fullest vision of God everywhere and

may merge him in an ocean of never-ending love and joy.

 

There is no sadhana which can be so universally adopted by all people and is at

the same time so simple for realizing God as the Divine Name. It is perfectly

true, in the words of a saint, that he who has God's Name, always on his tongue

is a Jivanmukta, or a liberated soul.

 

So, dear friends, to whatever race, caste, creed or colour you may belong, take

up the Name of God, and feel the sweet communion with it, and you may depend

upon it, your souls through constant bathing in the nectar of the Name will not

only be purified but will also be illumined with the omnipresent and omniscient

light and love of God. This practice of taking the Name will lead the unyielding

spirit of man to complete surrender to the omnipotent power and will of God. In

the earlier stages when the Name is repeated with earnestness, faith and

concentration, the face and the body of the devotee will shine with a peculiar

lustre, his mind will be filled with wisdom and heart with love. This is due to

predominance of Satva Guna in the devotee. Later when the repetition is

continued with the same zeal, he will behold the universe before him as the very

expression of God. Becoming one with God, he will have the vision of God

everywhere.

 

Cure for desires

 

In Islam, as one would expect from a religion whose very name denotes

'submission' no technique is more prized than invocation of the Divine Name.

 

" The food and drink of the saint is remembrance of the Name of the Lord, " said

Abu'l Hasan.

 

Al-Ghazali, the great theologian, said: " What the slave of God derives from His

Name is deification, by which I mean that his heart and purpose are drowned in

God and he sees none other. "

 

" Recital of the Name is a certain cure for all desires, " said Dhu'n Nun Misri;

" Whoever hears it faithfully finds the way to God. "

 

 

 

Bestows Divine Wisdom

 

 

 

For the Sikhs also there is no more potent technique than invocation of the

Divine Name, as the following hymn from the Granth Sahib shows.

 

 

 

 

 

Hearkening to the Name bestows

Truth, divine wisdom, contentment.

To bathe in the joy of the Name.

 

Is to bathe in the holy places.

By hearing the Name and reading it

A man attains to honour.

 

By hearkening the mind may reach

The highest blissful poise

Of meditation on God.

 

Saith Nanak, the saints are always happy

By hearkening to the Name

Sorrow and sin are destroyed.1

 

 

 

Buddhism is the most impersonal of religions. Its essential and original

teaching seems to have no place for a Path of devotion or for personal worship.

In the Pure Land School, however, in China and Japan, Mahayana Buddhism has

developed such a Path for those who need it. A passage in Zendo's Commentary on

the Pure Land Sutras runs as follows: " Only repeat the name of Amitabha with all

your heart, whether walking or standing, sitting or lying; never cease the

practice of it for a moment. This is the work which unfailingly issues in

salvation, for it is in accordance with the original vow of Amida Buddha. " It

was on the basis of this instruction Honen founded the Japanese School of Jodo.2

________________________________

1- The Sacred Writings of the Sikhs, p. 34, Allen & Unwin.

2 - Buddhism. 162. by Christmas Humphreys. Cassell.

 

 

 

by

 

A. Devaraja Mudaliar

 

with ongoing gratitude to his Sadhana

 

THE MOUNTAIN PATH OCTOBER 1964

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Michael,

 

Thank you for troubling to send this most uplifting posting!

 

Every best wish and warm regards,

 

In His Grace,

 

Alan

[Guest guest]

Dear Alan

 

its really uplifting to receive such an email!

 

in Ramana

 

michael

 

 

-

Alan Jacobs

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:44 PM

Re:THE MOUNTAIN PATH OCTOBER 1964 A.

Devaraja Mudaliar

 

 

Dear Michael,

 

Thank you for troubling to send this most uplifting posting!

 

Every best wish and warm regards,

 

In His Grace,

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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