Seeker: Can one ever believe that a man can get anything he desires by simply uttering God’s Name?
Master: Have you ever desired to get anything this way?

Seeker: No.

Master: Then how do you dare say that the word of the Shastra which God has given through the mouth of Rishis is untrue? Singing of God’s Naam is better even than the greatest of all ‘Mangal’ (good). It increases life, destroys illnesses and gives ‘Bhog’ (enjoyment in this life) and ‘Mukti’ (liberation).

Seeker: If one sings ‘Naam’, does his life-span increase and are his illnesses cured?

Master: Is there any doubt about it? By doing sinful acts, one shortens one's life-span. On the other hand by singing God’s Naam, one increases that span. Where is the doubt about it?

Seeker: How can life-span be increased? The span of one’s life has already been fixed at the time of birth; then how can one live longer by simply singing God’s Name? Please do not try to confuse me.

Master: Life-span depends on breath. One breathes 21,600 times in twenty-four hours. Roughly taking a year to have 360 days, in one year a person breathes 77,76,000 times. If a healthy man lives for 100 years, he breathes 77,76,000,00 times.

Seeker: But what does it prove?

Master: If a man’s life span is for fifty years, the number of breaths in his bank is 38,88,00,000. He will die when he breathes so many times. If he takes to singing God’s Naam, his breathing becomes less frequent. He no longer breathes 21,600 times a day. So, his total life span increases. Naam changes the direction of breathing and it goes inwards. Then even inhaling and exhaling stop.

Seeker: Oh, I have understood. When you do Naam, you can reach the state of Pranayam; so, there is no breathing and the life-span accordingly increases. I presume, this is what you mean.

Master: Yes.

Seeker: But how does Naam cure one's illness?

Master: Have you heard of people going to Tarakeshwar Siva Mandir with ‘do or die’ resolve?

Seeker: Yes, if a man is suffering from a serious and chronic ailment and he goes to Tarakeshwar with resolve to ‘do or die’ he is cured due to Baba’s kindness.

Master: Do you realise that Baba’s kindness is earned only by repeating Baba’s Name? If one keeps lying in the temple without any food and goes on calling Baba with the utmost devotion, then, what to speak of the curing of his illness, Baba gives him ‘Darshan’, acquaints him with the incidents in his previous lives and arranges for his expiation. Everyone knows that one can have Baba’s ‘Darshan’ and get medicine from Him for diseases by lying in His temple with ‘do or die’ resolve? It is not imagery only that ‘Naam’ gives one both ‘Darshan’ and cure; many have got this practical experience. ‘Naam’ is the ‘Kalpataru’ (the wish-yielding tree). Whatever you ask from ‘Naam’, you will get, you certainly will get. Even if you sing ‘Naam’ with only one wish, hundreds of your wishes will be fulfilled. Well, I am not asking you to believe all this blindly. For one month, you practise ‘Naam’ every day for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, and you will be able to realise its greatness and power.

Seeker: Shall I be able to realise it within a month?

Master: You will realise at least partially the immeasurable and infinite greatness of Naam; after that you will not be assailed by doubts.

Seeker: Well, I hear, I read and I try to believe; but I cannot. If Naam alone can give everything, then why do ‘Sankhya’, ‘Vedanta’, ‘Patanjal’ and the ‘Purnas’ prescribe so many different forms of Sadhana? Instead of prescribing only ‘Naam’, some Rishis said – “Yoga is the stilling of the mind”. Why is there all this confusion? Some ask you to stay immersed up to the neck in water in winter and practise penance, others ask you to stay in the open during the rains; yet others say practise penance by sitting in the sun surrounded by fire in summer. Why did not they all prescribe the straightforward Sadhana of Hari Naam?

Master: All this difference is due to the difference of one’s nature. A man must traverse the path to which he is entitled due to his deeds in his previous life; hence the Rishis have spoken of so many paths. A man is born with some aptitude in the path he had followed in his previous life; so, he will take to the path in which he has aptitude; hence at the beginning one hears of so many paths. But in the end, they all merge in one. ‘Saaktas’ (followers of Durga), ‘Saivas’ (followers of Siva), ‘Vaishnavas’ (followers of Vishnu), ‘Sauras’ (followers of Sun), ‘Ganapatyas’ (followers of Ganapati), Hindus, Muslims, Christians — all progress and finally meet in one path.

Seeker: What is the Name of the path?

Master: That is the path of ‘Sushumna’. The whole universe is in ‘Sushumna’, all rest in ‘Sushumna’ Sun, moon, fire, God, all are established in the ‘Sushumna’. Whatever path a ‘Sadhaka’ may take, it will lead him to ‘Sushumna’.

Seeker: Do not different people have different perceptions during ‘Sadhana’.

Master: No. Tears, pleasure, shivers, ‘Jyoti’, ‘Nada’ — all ‘Sadhakas’ experience them; there is no difference between the ‘Saaktas’ and the ‘Saivas’ or the Hindu and the Muslim in this experience.
Seeker: Then the different paths have been laid down due to different aptitudes of the ‘Sadhakas’?
Master: Yes; but by whatever path he may traverse, he will have to take ‘Naam’ as his fare. But sometimes ‘Naam’ may occur in a secondary role. For example, PatanjalIi has prescribed different methods of attaining Samadhi; in one of which one can get ‘Samadhi’ by thinking of God. Here ‘thought of God’ is only the means but the main aim is ‘Samadhi’. But ‘Naam’ itself can give one God’s ‘Darshan’; hence ‘Bhaktas’ do the ‘Sadhana’ of ‘Naam’.
Seeker: Well, can one see God in the same way as I am seeing you? Can one see Him by one's own eyes?

Master: You can see Him by your eyes; you may see Him in your heart when you are awake and you can see Him when you are in a state of ‘Samadhi’. You can see Him clearly. He talks to you and blesses you.

Seeker: I hope this is not all imagination.

Master: Mind cannot imagine that effulgent beauty. He comes and gives ‘Darshan’ without your imagining Him in any way.

Seeker: The sinner, the man who does not do ‘Bhajan’ —  well I am repeating these words time and again - I hope you do not mind.

Master: Not at all; go on.

Seeker: If a great sinner, who is bereft of any ‘Sadhan’ and ‘Bhajan’, sings ‘Naam’, does he still get His ‘Darshan’?

Master: He does, he certainly does. I assert a hundred times, a thousand times — nay a million times, that if one can simply hold on to ‘Naam’, he will get ‘Darshan’, his desire will be fulfilled and he will attain to ‘Param Dhama’. In brief, if one utters ‘Ram Naam’ even once, be it even by mistake or without reverence, he will be freed from all sins.