In plain words
… in the familiar singular itself, he kept calling: ‘O Rāmacandra, protect me! Protect me in this way, with Prema!’ Even at times when Rāma could not be seen, he kept addressing Him in the familiar singular still.
Where am I to search for You? Rāma, where shall I seek You? Where indeed shall I search for You!
Where is one to search for Him who is there wherever one looks? In a bond of Prema such as this, honour finds no place there at all. Prema grows. Honour and fear decrease. It is just such a close bond that God wants. Formalities without Prema are not needed. For everything it is Prema: through this Prema, through feeling, through remembering the Name, God becomes close. But to some extent we must … this close bond.
As one goes on remembering and remembering the Name, one becomes absorbed in Him. One becomes intoxicated. One becomes mad with it. In the world today, seeing those who keep up remembrance of the Name without a break and … the Ānanda of God in many ways, people all think, ‘This fellow is a madman.’ In the world today there are as many who are mad as there are who are not. If you look into it a little, it is the mad who appear the best. The madman has little responsibility. He performs few actions. So, as between the mad and those who have cleverness and wit, we can recognise that it is the mad who are the better. Even this word ‘mad’ is a very fond word. When a boy is playing at something, the father says, ‘Hey, madcap, what is this game of yours?’ Calling him ‘madcap’ is a fond word; it is not a word that means he is mad. When a wife weeps because no reply has come from their son yet, or wondering how the boy is, the husband says, ‘Silly one, it will come today or tomorrow; why do you cry?’ Just because he called her ‘silly one’, the wife has not gone mad. But this is the use of a fond word. So to call one who is mad with the Name of God ‘mad’ is not madness: it is calling him with Prema. So whatever anyone may call us, we need not fear the world's words in the least. We must go on seeking the right path for our Prema, for our faith, for our resolve. If we fear the world, what is there for us to gain? Thus we need not fear the world. We must keep up remembrance of God's Name without a break, with courage, with Prema, with faith. Within this Prema a kind of close bond of kinship forms for us. At any time, in worldly matters, we must treat God with great honour and courtesy.