Seeker: Dear teacher, please tell me what naam is.
Teacher: Naam is the essence of God. It is the energy which is the active, creative and most importantly, loving force that actually does things. God created naam for this exact purpose - while God mostly just watches.
Seeker: Sir, did you say that God mostly just watches?
Teacher: Yes, but God does things too ... mostly loving things, like merging back with souls. God has delegated most things to naam.
Seeker: Is that why naam meditation is paramount in Guru Nanak's teachings?
Teacher: Yes - it is one of the most blissful ways to Truth. Naam is in everything, including unconscious things. But the easiest way to get to naam is to meditate on things which have more consciousness in them. For example a True Guru is the most conscious form in existence, so meditation on a guru is very fruitful, meaning when you listen to the Guru, you make rapid spiritual progress.
Seeker: How do I meditate on naam?
Teacher: There are many stages, but ultimately you will have to feel it. How you will feel it most effectively depends on your nature, some find it easy to use their body (yoga), while others use their minds (knowledge), while still others use their hearts (devotion). Guru Nanak prescribes to devotional awareness.
Seeker: How do I feel naam?
Teacher: At first you will have to listen to "pointer Words" that Gurus have created over the ages eg WaheGuru, YahWeh, Allah Hoo etc. Then you ultimately will feel the unutterable and unfathomable loving energy which is naam. Naam cannot be described in words, it can only be felt.
Seeker: How does feeling naam help in self-realization?
Teacher: The reason most of us are not self-realized is because our minds have lost the ability to be focused. At any given time, our mind is thinking, actually worrying, about multiple unresolved things. For instance, your car might be needing an oil change, but you haven't had the time to change it, so that little errand is bothering your mind at the unconscious level. Then there are deeper things that your mind is worrying about.
Seeker: Such as?
Teacher: Such as your unresolved childhood traumas. Perhaps in your childhood, someone hit you and said hurtful things to you, but instead of dealing with the issues, you put them away because as a child you did not have the capacity or skill to handle them. But they stayed in your unconscious mind, bothering you to this day.
Seeker: That's why therapists are so much in demand?
Teacher: Yes, exactly. Therapists will dig deep into your subconscious mind and try to dislodge those unresolved issues to the surface so you can face them and free your mind from them. Ultimately, good therapy will also make you self-realized.
Seeker: How is naam different?
Teacher: naam at first does the same exact thing as therapy. That's why it takes a considerable amount of effort and time to start enjoying naam - because it is mostly work at first. But once the mind becomes clear, naam turns into joy and bliss. With practice, it turns into easily-accessible ecstasy.
Seeker: Where is naam?
Teacher: In everything, including us. Naam already exists within each of us, so once the pathway is clear of unresolved issues, the "outside naam" merges with the inside naam and the inside naam comes out overflowing. Have you noticed that when wells are dug, a pipe is sent into the well and water is pumped from the outside. The outside water then connects with the well's water and only then does the well water rise to the top. It is the same with naam.
Seeker: What happens then?
Teacher: Once naam comes out, naam is so intoxicating, so fulfilling and ever-green that our ego, which the mind has found to be the most interesting thing so far, becomes shallow and even painful. Then, the mind becomes interested in naam and naam only - it becomes a creative force to be reckoned with. The only difference is that now it is creative rather than destructive. It's like a magnifying glass, which can start fires when concentrated. It is then that we transform into naam, and that is our most true form-self.
Seeker: Are we done then?
Teacher: Almost, from there on, there is still the path to merge with our formless self, but that path is crossed only with God's grace. For instance, if you start counting 1, 2, 3... you will never get to infinity. Similarly, you can't get to the formless self, the formless self gets to you!!
Love of naam will wash away the darkness within us
----- Guru Nanak, Jap Ji, 20th pauri
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