One may ask, ‘even though I have chanted the Lord’s Name a million times, why have I not succeeded in realising the Lord’? Bhagawan shares with us the answer He would give when this question was posed to Him.
Examine your own effort and achievement, and judge your own spiritual practices. For example, have you yearned, have you pined, have you wept for the Lord as Tyagaraja did? Have you shed tears of contrition and exultation while repeating His name, or visualising His form so full of sweetness, loveliness and beauty? You might have wept, but who knows for what? Were they tears shed out of fear or greed or pride – or because the Lord was not near? A little child sits with a book of the Upanishads on its lap and turns over the pages, intent on the printed lines and watching the curious types, deliberately, slowly and with great care. A monk does the same. Can you equate the two and say they are both engaged in the same act? The child is unaware of the treasure it holds in its hand; the monk gets into immediate contact with the spiritual power the lines convey. Find out for yourself whether your spiritual practices have also been purposeful and sincere, wakeful and worthwhile.
– Divine Discourse, Mar 04, 1962.
