Passage 10

Tap any word for its meaning.

In plain words

Rukmiṇī came.

Be it a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water: that You yield to the one who has Bhakti, if that is true, may You Yourself, against this tulasī leaf, be weighed level!

The leaf: my body is offered to You. The flower: my heart is the flower. The fruit: the fruit of my mind. The water: my tears of Ānanda. With the one Name I am offering them to You. With the one Name you can offer everything. An offering without Prema He does not accept. That is why, if one keeps remembering the Name of God with Prema, there is no easier way than this, none other than this.

Embodiments of Prema! By Prema itself, by remembrance of the Name: however innocent, however foolish, however learned people may be, Prema is in all of them. Prema is the fruit that ripens in all beings and in the trees; but on that fruit of Prema lies a thick skin of hatred, envy, anger and the like. That is why we do not perceive the sweetness within it. Only when one peels away that skin and throws it off does that sweet essence come to us. So if we put away qualities like rāga and dveṣa and take up the rāga of God alone as our song, if we take God's Name alone as our support, you need not search for God. He will be close at hand.

Embodiments of Prema! God fills everything everywhere. A small example. We have kept a fire beside us. But we kept it carelessly. While it was left unattended, ash came from that fire. That ash covered the fire. Where did that ash come from? The very ash that came from the fire covered the fire. But the fire is within. Only when you blow on it, ‘phoo’, does that ash go and the fire appear. So the Name of God, a gem, keeps shining within us. If we would see the … of that gem, the Name: we have neglected it. That is why the ash called Māyā has covered it. It is not that the gem of the Name is absent from us; it is there. If we push that Māyā far away, that very gem shines. Pushing away that Māyā is remembrance. As we keep up that remembrance of the Name, that ash goes far away. That gem of the Name comes into our sight. With it we experience every Ānanda. So practising remembrance of the Name is the easy way to make God our intimate. People of every religion have accepted it. This Name is the meeting point of all religions. Apart from us Bhāratīyas, none of the others, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, accept yoga and prāṇāyāma.