Introduction: From Meditation to Manuscript
When I was working on my earlier article, Heresiology vs. Bhakti, I began comparing the Christian idea of “revelation” and “inspiration” with how these words are understood in our Indian tradition. In Christian thought, revelation belongs to God while inspiration belongs to human beings. But in India, these two are not separated so sharply. Terms like intuition, revelation, inspiration, and initiation connect and flow into one another.
This is what our own scholar Algondavilli Govindacharya beautifully explained in his lectures on Inspiration, Intuition and Ecstasy. He said:
“I have shown how Indian philosophers discovered one truth or another out of their intuitional depths, and how intuitions become inspirations when men utter them who are known to be saints or God-sent men. I have shown what Revelations are—and how they are connected with inspiration and ecstasy.”
(Three Lectures on Inspiration, Intuition, and Ecstasy, Wesleyan Mission Press, 1897; also cited by Francis X. Clooney, SJ, in The Future of Hindu-Christian Studies, pp. 53–54).
This touched me deeply. While reflecting and meditating, I realized something simple but powerful: the mind runs very fast, but when we try to express it in words, that speed disappears. Thought is like a flash of lightning, but writing is slow like the rain that follows. Out of this insight came my song 1746, which speaks about the freedom of thought and the poverty of words.
The Speed of Thought and the Poverty of Words
From that experience, I wrote:
“You hold the freedom
To think as you please;
But why, it seems,
That freedom deserts me when I write…
To ignore this,
And judge by the letters alone—
That indeed is a fault.”
Every piece of writing, even a holy scripture, is only a limited form of what the heart experiences. Thoughts arise faster and deeper than any sentence can hold. No pen can capture what the spirit feels completely. So, when we read any text—whether it is poetry, a letter, or scripture—we should remember that our understanding is limited to what is written. The truth behind it always goes further and deeper.
As my song says, “Whatever is written can never be whole.” Words are only hints that open meanings in the reader’s heart. If we mistake the text for the whole truth, we may end up missing the spirit behind it.
God’s Grace in Becoming Text
After writing that first song, I sat quietly in the early morning and began thinking: If the human mind is so limited, why did God choose text at all? Then came the thought that touched me deeply — God, out of His mercy, limits Himself to reach us.
Millions of saints have experienced divine revelation within their hearts, but only a few could write it down. Without them, we would have never known what they experienced. Through these few, God gave us the treasure of scripture.
This thought gave birth to my next song, 1747, which reflects on the gracious act of God becoming accessible through written words:
“You who exist
As the thought behind all thought—
To turn You into letters
Was my own foolishness.
And yet… You truly did come to me
Shaped as written word.”
How touching it is that the Infinite One, who cannot be contained, willingly becomes readable—through books, verses, and sacred words! God does not become smaller because of scripture; instead, through scripture, He becomes nearer.
In another verse I wrote:
“The boundless made Yourself simple,
Easy for me to reach,
Offering Yourself as sacred scripture.”
This is what I experienced: though scripture is humanly written and limited, it becomes a divine channel through which God limits Himself—so that I, in my weakness, may know Him better. My own personal experiences, however strong or moving, are often unstable and changing. But through scripture, God gives me a steady light to understand Him more clearly.
Text and Experience
Scripture does not replace personal experience, but it gives direction and clarity to it. Without text, experience can become scattered and confusing; without experience, text becomes lifeless. That is why both are needed.
When I read scripture, I am not confining God to those letters. I am being guided by Him who speaks through them. Scripture helps me to interpret my own experience, and experience helps me to read scripture more meaningfully.
Conclusion: Captured by Grace
Words can never fully hold the divine, yet it is through words that many of us begin our journey toward Him. Scripture is that meeting point—limited but luminous, human but filled with grace.
As I wrote earlier, “Scripture limited in several ways though cannot limit God; however, it helped Him to limit Himself to reach me through those scriptures.”
So God becomes text—not because He must, but because He loves. And when we read with open hearts, we realize that we have not captured God through writing; rather, we have been captured by His grace through words.
Ashram, December 18, 2025
BT Song 1746 – The Speed of Thought
You hold the freedom
To think as you please;
But why, it seems,
That freedom deserts me when I write.
You possess
A strength uniquely your own;
Yet somehow that same power
Fails the written word alone.
Must one explain the reason,
Say it aloud and clear?
Can the swiftness of thought
Ever fully reach the pen?
To shape every thought
Into spoken form—
Is there anyone here
With such perfect skill?
And so, with only
A handful of words,
Whatever is written
Can never be whole.
In the reader’s mind
Those words keep unfolding;
For thought itself
Knows no boundary, no end.
Therefore, whatever
Anyone may write,
Those words alone
Are never just their thought.
Yet the thoughts that rise
Within the heart—
There are no words enough
To tell them all.
Knowing this truth,
One should first read,
Then discern the meaning
That seeks to be said.
To ignore this,
And judge by the letters alone,
Taking the text as the final measure—
That indeed is a fault.
Gurukulam
14-12-2025, 4:30 a.m.
Comments to song 1746
Every piece of literature—whether scripture or otherwise—is a limited text in the sense that the words used to record a thought or reflection can never convey the thought in its entirety. The mind moves in ways and at a speed that cannot be fully captured, not even by AI equipped with the fastest recording tools.
In this sense, all writing is only a limited expression of thought. Therefore, when we read or comment on another’s writing, even if we understand the written record, we must remember that our critique is confined to the text itself—not to the author’s original thought, inner experience, or deeper conviction.
This becomes even more crucial in the case of Scripture, especially when it is granted final authority over one’s faith. Those who claim that their particular Scripture is the very Word of God—revealed yet recorded through human mental faculties—must recognize the context in which such authority is assigned. That authority exists primarily to safeguard the settled doctrines of that faith, not to confine God within the written word of the text or within any single interpretation of it.
BT Song 1747 – You Came as Writing
You who exist
As the thought behind all thought—
To turn You into letters
Was my own foolishness.
And yet, bearing
With that foolishness of mine,
You truly did come to me
Shaped as written word.
From ancient beginnings
Down to this very day,
Many have lived
Trying to change this custom.
Though many strove
And lived their lives for it,
There is no one
Who truly knew Them.
Yet when some
Set Their thought and action
Into written form,
Preserving them as text,
Many indeed
Read and understood,
And found their lives
Enriched and transformed.
Refusing to remain
As thought alone,
Why did You choose
To come as writing?
Having known You
Through those very words,
When I too
Attempted the same,
Keeping my own need
Within my heart,
You came as writing,
Compressing Yourself.
You whose divinity
Spreads and expands,
Crossing all limits
And every boundary,
You made Yourself simple,
Easy for me to reach,
Offering Yourself
As sacred scripture.
And that sacred text,
I made it my own thought,
And in that understanding
I bowed down and worshipped You.
Gurukulam
14-12-2025, 5:00 a.m.
BT Song 1747
Every Scripture limited in the sense that it is written by human. At the same time very people alone recorded their thought or experience which later became scriputure or some followers later recording the teaching and life of their preceptor gave them in the form of Scripture. Unless they have done that, there is no opportunity for us to know about the experience of all those who couldn’t or do not want to record their experience using words.
So now when we read the Scripture, though it cannot limit God in any way, it helps us to interpret our own experience with God using that frame work to express our own experience. In a sense, God knowing my limitation, limiting himself as Word of God revealed through the Scripture which now guides my thought to know Him much better than completely depending upon my own unstable and unpredictable and unreliable EXPERIENCE however it is important and valuable to me. So Scripture limited in several way though cannot limit God however helped Him to limit Himself to reach me through those Scripture.
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