God's Name: A Hotline to the Divine

If you have the sense of what I'm saying, it's a supreme privilege that God has given us his name. You see, God has given us in fact his names and we can call upon them. So like Bai said, even we are not so heartless that somebody keeps saying 'Ananta, Ananta, Ananta' and we don't turn towards them. Suppose somebody came to the hall and kept saying 'Ananta.' No, I have an important point I'm making, you see. So for some time, and then at the tenth time I will turn, no? 'Okay, yes please, what?' You see? So if we mere humans are not that heartless that we cannot not respond if somebody is calling our name, especially with love, then it's not possible for God not to respond. So what a great privilege that we have his name, her name, all the names possible, and he responds. Like he will not say, 'Oh, you called me Rama, actually my name is Ram, so sorry,' you know? It doesn't work. That is stupid. It doesn't. You see, do we feel like any of us, even if we're pundits in Sanskrit, will really be able to pronounce his name? Has he given us the name so that we pronounce them perfectly? No. They are just handles that we can hold on to to invoke him. You see, so whatever the name of God appeals to us in our heart, we can call upon him. Then what happens? It's not that he now starts looking at me. You see, but I am now in that faith that he is looking at me because I have called him. And that changes my position to openness, to love, to faith. You see, but I feel like in Maya's trick, what has happened is we don't realize the magnitude of this fact that we call upon God with his name or her name. You see, it's like saying that suppose somebody you really admire—thank you—suppose somebody you really admire, you got their phone number. You see, then you're like, 'Oh, I got this one's phone number.' You see, I don't know why I always say Tom Cruise, but I got Tom Cruise's phone number. You see, somebody who's a real fan will get really excited. But not only have you gotten God's phone number, you've gotten his hotline number. Like he has to respond, like prime ministers have on their desk. No, apparently that's the emergency hotline that you have to respond to. So we have that for God. What a privilege that is. See, but the master skeptic which is the mind will always say, 'No, but this can't work like that. There are eight billion of us. How can you answer every phone call? It's not possible.' You see, so our mental beliefs which we use to limit our own shape and say we are this shape, we use to frame God also in a construct. You see, or we just get distracted. Like I'm sharing this and your mind is saying, 'Oh, but he's not looked at me whole Satsang.' What is that? Just tricks you into all kinds of foolishness. So I'm telling you about such an important, important, life-changing, transformative truth and your mind is saying, 'See, but he's not even looking at you.' So you see, that is the game that Maya tries to play. That is how it nags like that Montessori child. No, it'll say, 'Listen, listen, look at that, look at this,' to take you away from the wonder about this fact about the greatest privilege that we have. We can call upon God. The greatest privilege that we have, we can really inquire into who we really are. Who am I? Who are we invoking in that? Who are we trying to get a Darshan of in that question, 'Who am I?'