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O Acyuta (infallible), Ananta (infinite), Govinda (attainable through Vedic Wisdom), Saccidānanda (the essence of existence, consciousness and bliss), śāśvata (eternal), may my mind rejoice well in your beautiful Lotus-feet.

अच्युतानन्त गोविन्द सच्चिदानन्द शाश्वत ।
मच्चेतो रमतां सम्यक् त्वच्चारुचरणाम्बुजे ॥

acyutānanta govinda saccidānanda śāśvata ।
macceto ramatāṃ samyak tvaccārucaraṇāmbuje ॥

This is a verse which our Balan used to chant repeatedly. Throughout yesterday, after I heard that he has dropped his body, this verse has been coming to my mind.

O Acyuta (infallible), Ananta (infinite), Govinda (attainable through Vedic Wisdom), Saccidānanda (the essence of existence, consciousness and bliss), śāśvata (eternal), may my mind rejoice well in your beautiful Lotus-feet.

Ever since we started staying in Narayan Ashram during our Delhi visits, Balan and family felt a bit distanced. They had been hosting me for seventeen years. Balan’s eyesight was steadily deteriorating, apart from his being diabetic for decades. He was finding it difficult to drive to the Ashram and even to spend long time there. I had consoled him saying: “This viraha (grief of separation) is inevitable in the pursuit of love or devotion. Only when we overcome this state, we will have the constant oneness.”

I told him that his present focus should be on dissolving the mind and remaining absorbed in himself. “I have given you initiation which has great power in it,” I said. “Your reading and chanting are all right, but the primary focus now should be on meditation. Chant as you do, but often stop chanting and introspect over what you chant.”

Suppose you chant this verse: “O Acyuta, O Ananta……. let my mind rejoice constantly at your Lotus-feet……, let my mind rejoice…..” It is almost like a mantra. But, by chanting this mantra repeatedly, does your mind really start delighting? While calling Ananta, does your mind really experience the infinitude?

If you go on saying “Let me take sweets, let me take sweets….”, will it satiate your craving for sweets? Will it mean that you are actually taking sweets? You have to get the sweet and start eating it. While enjoying the taste, will you any more go on repeating “Let me take sweets”? Will not the words dissolve, giving rise to the real delight of taking sweets?

In the same manner, my dear seekers, it is one thing to say that ‘may the mind delight in the Lord’s Lotus-feet’, and it is altogether different to make the mind actually delight in the Lotus-feet. To have the delight, the chanting has to stop. Bring the mind again and again to the Lotus-feet of the Lord who is essentially the Infinite, the Eternal, the pure Bliss. Get absorbed in His thought, in His Delight. Finally drop the thought and revel in the Delight. Only then it will be a direct experience of the Mantra, an aparokṣānubhava.

When you crave intensely for this direct experience – and it verily means that you will no longer crave for the worldly constricted enjoyments – your mind will be faced with a crisis, as it happened with Sri Ramakrishna Dev. Ramakrishna Dev wanted to realize the Power and Presence behind the idol he was worshipping. Repeated failure to get at the Truth put his mind in severe turmoil. One day, in despair he took the sword of the idol and was about to cut his own neck! Right then, he had the direct experience of the Spirit.

To have God-experience, similar intense crisis must grip your mind. The mind must become pure and sublime. The sublime mind has to be focused on the innermost Presence. You will find that the whole body is becoming radiant and blissful……

[ Swamiji chants the śloka slowly, melodiously as the whole atmosphere starts getting charged with ineffable peace. ]

अच्युतानन्त…
Acyutānanta…

Throughout yesterday, this verse has been coming to my mind. Meena told me last night that after I had advised, Balan had spent more time in meditation. Ashok (Balan’s youngest son) told me that during the last two weeks he found his father very much absorbed, indifferent too.

For me, Balan has not gone. While alive in the body, I had often felt that he was away. Now Balan is not at all distant. He lives in my heart for ever, inseparable and one with me.

Hariḥ Om Tat Sat.

08th February 1997
– From Prabhata Rashmih Volume 1