Dialogue with the Divine
The following questions to Bhagavan by a devotee and Bhagavan’s answers have been taken from a devotee’s diary.
Q: When the Avatar is incarnate on earth, can His message be received even when one is not in His physical presence?
A: Yes, God’s voice can be heard by man in his heart. It may come in the form of some signs, or it may be an inner experience, where God’s approval is felt. More than this, each aspirant can do some introspection as to whether he is practicing qualities dear to God. If he is practicing, he will get self‑satisfaction. When one is not satisfied with oneself, how can God be satisfied?
Q: Swami often speaks of “experience of oneness.” Whatever may be the sadhana [effort] done by a sadhaka [devotee], is it not a fact that Swami’s grace alone can confer that experience?
A: God’s grace automatically follows sadhana. This is the law.
Q: But, still, is there not the factor of ‘time’ for such an experience to come to a sadhaka?
A: There is no such thing as ‘time’ (being decided earlier). Everything depends on the intensity of sadhana because that experience is timeless. But as long as you keep fixed hours for sadhana (like meditation in the morning and evening), the factor of ‘time’ for the ultimate experience to come is there. That experience, which is ‘kaalaatheetha’ (transcending time), will come when you lose the sense of time.
Q: Swami was telling us about ‘contentment’. Does it apply to one’s attainments in the spiritual domain also?
A: No, one should have contentment regarding worldly possessions. Spiritual field has no end. There should be contentment regarding things that have a beginning and an end. The Spirit has neither a beginning nor an end.
Q: The spiritual pursuit will end with man reaching God?
A: You cannot call it the ‘end’. It is ‘merger’.
Q: Many times, I am getting intense noble emotions thinking of some situations in the Ramayana or Bhagavatam. Is there any ‘dosham’ (defect) involved in it?
A: There is no ‘dosham’ in it. You can experience that. You can experience anything that is acceptable to your heart.
Q: But it is said that one should have ‘Avyabhichara bhakti’ (fidelity in devotion).
A: ‘Vyabhicharam’ means the mind straying away from God to worldly things. As long as the mind is concentrated on divinity, it is not ‘Vyabhicharam’.
Q: But, Swami, there is change of forms (involved in such experience)—from Rama to Krishna and to Sai.
A: If you give up one form and go to another, it is ‘Vyabhicharam’. Here, there is no giving up of the form (no change of Ishtadevata). All the experiences ultimately merge into one form and finally into ‘Divinity’.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, May 1988
