In plain words
‘Ekātma sarvabhūtāntarātma’: they have gone on giving this so many names.
To Each His Own Faith
Embodiments of Prema! All of you are nothing but embodiments of Prema. Make Prema directly present for yourselves. Experience your own Prema for yourselves. Experience your own Ānanda for yourselves. Whatever anyone says, do not argue. They say, “What's this, fellow, falling into madness crying ‘Prema, Prema’?” Sir, my madness is mine, your madness is yours. My desire is mine, your desire is yours. My longing is mine, your longing is yours. My hunger is mine, your hunger is yours. If you eat for my hunger, will my hunger be satisfied? For my hunger I myself must eat. If you eat for my hunger, my hunger is not satisfied. No one has any authority at all over this. Some people or other keep mocking. What? Where is God? Why are you scrambling after God, crying “God, God”? Do you know what kind of answer we should give him then? ‘Sir, you may not have faith in God. You have the courage to say that for you there is no God. You have that freedom. But who are you to say that my God is not there? My God is there for me. I have no right to say He is not there for you. If He is not there for you, well and good. You have no right to say He is not there for me.’ Only when we argue in that way will understanding be set right. Each one's madness is his own. The whole world is a mental hospital. In the mental hospital there are some who keep singing their own praises. There are some who beat others. There are some who abuse others. They play many kinds of mad games. But how fine a madness is the madness of those who sit quietly without saying anything to anyone! It is a help even to the doctor. “Ah! How good this madman is! How excellent he is!”: and they are so very glad. The whole world is a mental hospital, nothing else. Each one has a madness of his own. But to be seized by madness for God is a very great thing. This madness is a very great madness. God makes the madness for God take hold and drives away the worldly madness. Madness for God does not come to everyone. It comes only to the fortunate. If that madness takes hold of us, it is great good fortune indeed. If madness for God took hold of everyone in the world, these upheavals would not be in the world at all. Then there would be no need for us to say, “Śānti, Śānti, Śānti.”