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NAAM IS AMRIT
By Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath


MASTER. Jnana, Jyoti are the different aspects of the same Naam.

Q. I cannot quite comprehend this.

A. Take for example sugarcane juice, molasses, sugar and candy. When sugarcane juice is boiled, it becomes molasses. After certain chemical reactions, molasses is turned into sugar or sugar-candy. Though the root is sugar-cane juice, none of it is visible externally in molasses, sugar or candy. From external appearances, it is not at all possible to assume that molasses, sugar and candy are all derived from sugarcane Juice. But the sweetness of sugarcane juice continues in molasses, sugar and candy as well. In the same way Bhaktas taste the same Naam in Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti and in Para and also in Kirtan, Bhava-Samadhi, Saguna-Samadhi or in Nirguna-Samadhi in different ways. But the root is Naam only. It plays about in different ways and in different forms according to the merit of different persons. Vaikhari is the state of sugar-cane juice. Madhyama is the state of molasses which also has some juice left. Pashyanti is like sugar and Para is candy.

Q. In these two states does the Naam dry up?

A. It does not. The liquid goes away and it becomes thick and solid. But the person, who tastes it at any stage, feels the sweetness.

Q. Sugar has some softness but candy is hard and cannot be chewed. How can one get sweetness?

A. One does not have to chew candy. It is enough to keep it on one’s tongue. If necessary one can grind it to a powder like sugar or dissolve it in water to make a drink. But the substance is the same. As the Bhakta progresses, he tastes the different states of the juiciest of all i.e. Naam.

Q. If it is the same juice which everyone is tasting then what is the necessity of different forms of Sadhana? Some do it in company of others, some do it in company of Sadhus only, some do it in a lonely place and still others give up all company and do it in absolute loneliness. What is the need of practising it in so many different ways?

A. When sugar-cane juice is to be converted into molasses, one requires a big tray, fire and many people to help. But once molasses is prepared all this paraphernalia is not required any longer. The other processes follow and molasses gets converted into sugar or candy. Similarly, for Naam Kirtan, one requires Mridanga, Kartal and other musical instruments. Later Naam is tasted in company of good people or Sadhus. Still later one tastes Naam alone in a lonely place. Finally, all difference between Naam and the Naam-Kari (singer of Naam) disappears. Have you followed me?

Q. I cannot say that I have. Let me have time to think. Why is Naam called Amrita?

A. From Brahma to the meanest insect, everyone fears death. Sooner or later death will come with its huge open mouth and swallow everyone on the appointed day and so every living creature is frightened of death. As a person becomes immortal by drinking Amrita so Amrita is considered to be the best substance in this world. Hence one compares Naam with Amrita. Though it is contended that there is no greater substance than Amrita, but Naam is greater. Though the gods became immortal after drinking Amrita, which came out of the churning of the sea, but it did not end their sorrows, jealousies and pain. Indra, the king of gods, is always restless lest someone, by dint of his Tapasya, takes away his kingdom from him. This fear always bothers him. If one is performing severe austerities, Indra has to take to so many subterfuges to disturb his Tapasya. But he, who succeeds in his Tapasya, first attacks the kingdom of heaven and drives away the gods from there. Then Indra, along with other gods, has to roam about the earth like human beings. Therefore, though the gods have been immortalised by drinking Amrita, their sorrows and difficulties have not abated.

But one, who has drunk this Param Maha-Amrita: Naam, has no fears left in this world or in the next. He is constantly floating in the sea of Ananda. By gaining love which is like full ‘consciousness’, he lives in this world but is still out of it. The whole world transforms itself for him into God that is consciousness. Nothing remains for him except God. He sees God, eats God, hears God and talks God; — there is no second for him except God. Gazing at the mountains, the sky or the sea, he thinks of the infinite forms of the Infinity and loses his small Aham (ego) in that limitless ocean. Then he stays speechless having lost all sense of himself and his ownself as well.

Sometimes he prostrates himself on the ground to do Pranam to men or women, animals or birds, trees or creepers, insects or worms thinking them to be the same as his Beloved’s loving body; sometimes the internal touch of God sparks off a sense of Ananda (bliss) in him and he starts dancing raising both his arms like a mad man.

“The great Bhakta sees in each animate or inanimate object nothing but the projection of Sri Krishna. Looking at any object, living or inert, he does not see its form, but sees it in the image of his Ishta Deva only”.

Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita.

Sometimes he behaves as Arjuna did when he said —

 “Thou art Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon,

Prajapati and the Great-grandfather.
Salutation, Salutation to thee, a thousand times,
and again and again salutation, salutation to Thee.”


And he starts doing Pranam in front of him, to his rear, to his right and left and to above and below.
Sitaram, Sitaram, Sitaram.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.