SATISFACTION AND NAMASMARAN: DR SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

Student: Sir, in spite of years of practice of NAMASMARAN; I am still not able to experience what is described as satisfaction! What should I do?

Teacher: As far as I understand it, satisfaction is even more difficult than achievement of extraordinary feats.
Student: What do you mean?

Teacher: Practice of NAMASMARAN is actually a training of doing an activity where you do not get any “benefit”! Being such a practice; NAMASMARAN does not impart any benefit to us, but actually transforms us to our original omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient state, which is totally devoid of any desires! This is an immortal state. But this may require not years and decades but even more.

Student: I don’t understand!

Teacher: When we are told that don’t expect anything; we think that we should not expect money, name, fame, power etc. So we stop expecting those things and start expecting satisfaction; because we think it is assured by Guru! But this concept of “getting” itself traps us! We mistakenly take the satisfaction referred to by our Guru, to be some kind of gratification or complacence; and keep waiting for it; and are eventually disappointed.

Student: So what to do?

Teacher: Just as we breathe oxygen to survive physically; we ought to practice NAMASMARAN to be what we actually are i.e. to be our self. Just as we breathe at every age and every stage of life, we should practice NAMASMARAN in every condition.
Just as there is no necessity to curb other activities relevant and appropriate to a particular age and stage of life there is no need to suppress any impulses arbitrarily. Our physical, emotional and intellectual needs, desires and aspirations have to be given justice through our efforts; in the light of NAMASMARAN in the form of prompting from deep within; the empowering guidance of our Guru!
Actually our needs and desires go on changing or disappearing in the process of our transformation, without any coercion or suppression. This buoyant life style is called KRAMAYOGA.

Student: In short, we should not expect anything, even happiness, peace, satisfaction from NAMASMARAN?

Teacher: It may appear strange. But it is true. When we feel cold, we should use warm clothes. But how can we expect warmth from a process which actually transforms us to our original state of “fire”? Moreover once we become fire, how can we experience the warmth of warm clothes?

Student: Sir, this explanation is quite different from the overt sentimentality of millions of devotees!

Teacher: Actually, often; we are in need of some solace, some peace; some escapism and so on. Hence we try to cling to some tradition, some cult and feel secure in it. Often we infatuate piety, devotion, surrender, blessings, bounty, freedom from instincts; etc as these are our emotional crutches. We seek some social acceptability, social recognition and some social cohesiveness. This is understandable.

But for me; NAMASMARAN is a straight forward and transcientific process of individual and universal blossoming, which may be termed “holistic evolution” to distinguish it from “organic evolution”. Can we wish to be evolved? Evolution cannot be wished for!
Hence my Guru Brahmachaitanya Shri Gondavalekar Maharaj repeatedly states that practice of NAMASMARAN is appropriate, when it is for the sake of NAMASMARAN only!