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D.: I have been reading the Five Hymns. I find that the hymns are addressed by you to Arunachala. But you are a nondualist, so how can you address God as a separate Being? B.: The devotee, God and the hymns are all the Self. D.: But you are addressing God. You are specifying this Arunachala Hill as God. B.: You can identify the Self with the body, so why shouldn’t the devotees identify the Self with Arunachala? D.: If Arunachala is the Self, why should it be specifically picked out among so many other hills? God is everywhere. Why do you specify Him as Arunachala? B.: What has attracted you from Allahabad to this place? What has attracted all these people around? D.: Sri Bhagavan. B.: How was I attracted here? By Arunachala. The Power cannot be denied. Again Arunachala is within and not without. The Self is Arunachala. D.: Several terms are used in the holy books. Atman, Paramatman, Para, etc. What is the gradation among them? B.: They mean the same to the user of the words but they are understood differently by various persons according to their development. D.: But why do you use so many words to mean the same thing? B.: It depends on the circumstances. They all mean the Self. Para means not relative, or beyond the relative, that is to say the Absolute.1 Bhagavan would often make remarks, which the superficial critic might take to be agnostic or atheistic, just as has been done by superficial critics of the Buddha. For instance he might say: 1
T., 273.