Shri Nathji was sitting at Hardwar station en-route to Dehra Dun. A gentleman by the name of Jaswant Singh came to him and said:
Sir, pardon me, but may I know your name?
Shri Nathji said: I am afraid I don’t know my name!
You don’t know your name! said the astonished person, but you were giving such a fine lecture a while ago! Aren’t you the same person? How can you say you don’t know your name?
I don’t, said Shri Nathji, and, what is more, you don’t know your name, either!
How can that be? the man said, I might not know your name, but I certainly know mine.
And I say that if you knew your own name you would surely know mine as well! said Shri Nathji.
Please clarify, said the man.
There is a stick in your hand, said Shri Nathji, but can we call you a stick
No, said the man, it is my stick. I am not the stick.
There is a coat on your body, but can we call you a coat? Shri Nathji asked again.
No, said the man, “it is my coat. I am not the coat.
This is your body, said Shri Nathji touching the man on his hand, what is its name?
Jaswant Singh, said the man.
So, your body is named Jaswant Singh, said Shri Nathji, and just like this stick is yours, but you are not the stick; this coat is yours, you are not the coat; similarly, this body is yours, and you are not the body. The ‘I’, which says ‘this is my body’, is a different being altogether.
“Jaswant Singh is the name of your body but what is your name? What is the name of your ‘I’? What is the name of my ‘I’? In truth, neither you nor I know!
Shri Nathji continued:
The human body is made of dust, and it is into that dust that it mingles. How can there be any relationships between dust and dust? The soul is that which is never born. It has neither a mother nor a father. Therefore, there can be no relationships between souls either. The only relationship that man has is with God, from whom everything, including the soul and the body, originated.
The Sikh gentleman was greatly pleased at the discussion. He had one question to ask:
“What was the state of happiness in God-realisation?
You ask for the taste of God-realisation?” Shri Nathji asked him, and then said the following verse:
“Ham bhee kar denge saroore jauhare zaathi biyaan
Tum bataao farke lazzat aam aur anjeer men
We shall relate before you the taste of divine bliss,
If you will differentiate between the taste of a mango and a fig.”
How helpless was the human tongue in relating the taste of any particular thing! How much more difficult would it be to narrate the taste of God-realisation. One could not describe such a bliss, one could only experience it.