That is why God delays in coming to His devotees :

A gentleman, who happened to be sitting by the side of the young man, took up the thread of the conversation and said,

“Swami, you say that finding out the Self is the greatest thing in life. But for finding it out, is the Nama Japa (repeating the name of the Lord) good? Can we attain moksha in that way?”

Bhagavan said, “Yes, it is good.

That itself will take you in due course to the goal.

The repeating of the Name is to remove all extraneous things.

Then everything extraneous disappears and what remains is the Name alone.

That which remains is the Self or God or the Supreme Being.

Nama Japa means we give a name to God and call HIM by that name.

You give Him that name which you like most.”



That devotee asked,

“Will Ishwara manifest Himself if you give Him some name and pray to Him to appear in a particular form?”

Bhagavan: “Yes. He will answer your call by whatever name you call Him and will appear in whatever form you worship Him.

As soon as He manifests Himself you ask something. He grants the boon and disappears, but you remain where you were.”



I said, “I suppose Bhagavan also will do likewise, if we ask him for some material benefits.”

Without taking any heed of what I had said, and by way of avoiding the question, Bhagavan said,

“That is why God is afraid of manifesting Himself.

If He comes, the devotees will ask Him to give away all His Powers and retire.

Not only will they say, ‘Give everything to us’, but they will also say, ‘Do not give them to any one else’.

That is the fear. That is why God delays in coming to His devotees.”

Sri Ramana Maharishi