Spiritual names

Before you can be eligible for a spiritual name, you have to be a member of your particular Centre for at least a year or two. I will observe your inner progress right from the beginning, from the day you accept me as your spiritual guide and I accept you as my disciple. After a year or two I will see if you are ready for a spiritual name.

There are disciples who have been with us for three, three and a half or even four years who have not been blessed with a spiritual name. The reason is very simple: I am not fully satisfied with their inner progress, their inner achievement. There is an inner standard which I won’t be able to explain to you outwardly, but if you come to that inner standard you are bound to get a spiritual name. You will feel the necessity of bringing your soul’s predominant qualities to the fore and thus make the fastest progress toward realising the highest Supreme. Sometimes husband and wife have come to me together. But I wish to say that although you have come together, it does not mean that I will give both of you your spiritual names at the same time. If both partners have made the same progress and have satisfied me equally, then naturally both of you will get your names together. But if I see that only one of the partners is in a position to receive a spiritual name, then only that particular person will get it. If the wife has made most satisfactory progress, then the wife will get her name and the husband will have to wait. Similarly, if the husband has made tremendous progress and the wife is lagging behind, then the wife will have to wait.

It is like running a race. A runner wins the race when any part of his body touches the string first. All the limbs don’t have to touch it together. If one foot has reached the destination, that is enough; he is the winner. So both partners are inseparably one, but one has reached the destination a second earlier than the other. In that way, the partner who doesn’t get a name can divinely console himself or herself. There is much truth in this. Each one has to wait for his own time, for God’s Hour.

To get a spiritual name is really important. At that time you consciously know the meaning, the significance of your soul. If you know what your soul’s main qualities are, then only will you one day be able to bring them to the fore. If you do not know what you are trying to bring to the fore, then it is more difficult. But the moment you know what you are expected to do, what you are going to bring to the fore, then there is not only every possibility but every assurance that you will do it eventually.