Dear James,
I heard you mention that you regularly communicate with God. I also find solace in talking to God, particularly during times of anger or fear, when I express gratitude for these emotions “Thank you Isvara for the fear feeling”. I am curious, is there a specific term for this act of talking to God? I tried searching for it on your website and in your books but couldn’t find anything related. Can you please let me know if there is a specific term (maybe a Sanskrit term) to look for?
Thank you.
James: It is called bhakti or devotion. I don’t communicate “regularly.” I communicate all the time without a sense of doership. All communications are communications with God because God is all there is, so I don’t think that I’m communicating with God. I just communicate normally and make a point at some point in the conversation that the person people think they are talking to is as much as object to me as I am to them.
A person who knows that is called a bhakta or a jnani in Sanskrit. The words are interchangeable at the non-dual (paramarthika) level. When you fully appreciate non-duality, you cease to be an individual. You can cease to be one because you never were one in the first place. To yourself and people who don’t know, you look like a person who “communicates” but you aren’t.
To people who have no doubt about non-duality communication happens by the grace of Maya/Isvara but it is known to be unreal. It’s hard for doers to understand because they are so deeply anchored in duality. Non-duality is so simple people don’t see it. It is like gravity, nobody thinks about it because it is always present. When you understand non-duality, you won’t obsess about your diet and your vasanas, etc. You will have a normal relationship with them. Right now, they are an issue for you because you believe they are real because you aren’t clear about reality. Doers think what they experience is real and therefore they feel that they need to change something because fears and desires, which they take to be real, are always operating. But you can’t change something that isn’t real. And you can’t change something that is real. So, doing things to change things is inherently frustrating.
We call this samsara, going round and round like tumble dryer that won’t switch off. This question shows that although you are immersed in Vedanta and doing very well with it, the big picture isn’t yet clear to you. It will become clear at some point. When that point comes is only known by Isvara, which is to say by grace, which is earned by sticking to dharma, in your case, in your relationship with me or someone like me. And by sticking with scripture, i.e. doing karma yoga and listening to satsangs. I was totally into Vedanta for two years and then one day I was sitting on my bed staring at the wall and life suddenly made sense. I got up and walked out of the ashram, which was forbidden. I didn’t need the ashram, my teacher, or the teaching anymore. There was nothing left to do. Isvara keeps the world and the jivas going and I just watch it with amusement. So don’t give up. Keep doing what you are doing.
Love,
James