I BECOME EVERYTHING

 
Today we will have a "poor" program. While I wash their feet and bow down to them, all of you should repeat continuously and audibly enough to be "heard" by yourselves, any one of God's names. Pick the one which you are used to, and keep up the repetitions so long as the program lasts.

Do this so sincerely that I will hear it. God is deaf, and only the sincerity of the devotee makes Him hear. So repeat the name of God from your hearts, and while repeating His name, think of God also.

Now let us return to the matter of washing the feet of the poor and my bowing down to them. When I bow down, it is neither for show nor as an expression of humility. I do it out of my love for humanity....

When you see me washing their feet and wiping them dry, and when I put my forehead to their feet and give them four rupees each as prasad [a gift from a spiritual master which is regarded as carrying a spiritual blessing], I am actually the poorest of the poor. It is of no use then to repeat my name. When you see me behave as an ordinary man, I am an ordinary man. When you find me angry I am angry. When I express ignorance I am ignorant. I am whatever I say I am, and I am also whatever you see and feel I am.

There is no need for me to act or keep up appearances. When I come to this plane I become everything in the entire material universe. Just as you see me as a man, so an ant simultaneously sees me as an ant. Just so, I am the poor of Arangaon, too....

When you realize your own self you will find that nothing such as the "poor" program has taken place. Nothing has ever happened or will happen. There is no such thing as time. The present moment is, from the beginningless beginning. And everything that IS, IS at this moment. There is no past or future.

God has always existed. HE IS. Truth is truth. It cannot be changed. In order to appreciate truth, approach it through itself without any game of hide and seek.