78 THE GOSPEL OF NARADA

truly only by cultivating such little love as we already
have—constantly fanning the fl^me with little out-
breathings, ejaculations of love to Him. It is only
through such intimacy with the King, such love for
Him, that we can win His pleasure and our own
satisfaction. Tulasidas says: ^The supreme state of
the Alone (kaivalya} is very hard to win ; • . . that very
satisfaction thrusts itself unasked on Rama's devotee."
Yet the real devotee rejects this isolative bliss, seeking
nothing but unrewarded love for God.

2. Spiritual teachers1 have sung the ways
of its attainment. Well, it (arises) through
the giving up of worldly things and the dropping
of company by means of ceaseless adoration s
(of God) ; and (it comes) even in the world
through hearing and singing God^s glory, but
most of all through the grace of a great man
or a light touch of God's grace. But the com-
pany of a great man is hard to get and (all
but) unattainable, though it cannot fail (if
obtained);3 and even this is obtained only by
His grace. There is no feeling of difference

1 i. €., Acaryas, a word specially used for the great Vaishnava
philosophers like Ramanuja, Vedantadesika, Yamuna, Vallabha,
etc.

2 The word used here is bhajana, which includes the singing
of hymns and especially those constructed of the names and
attributes of God.

3 The immediate effect of the grace of a real Maharsi is testified
to an his own experience by S^ami Rimdis in iiAWiting in
his book In Quest of God the result of a single look from Srx
"Ramana Maharsig i