On one day at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a middle-aged man from Andhra, who had come recently, asked Bhagavan:

 “Swami, as I repeat (japam) Rama Namam (the name of Rama) regularly every morning and every evening for an hour, other thoughts come in, one by one, increase from time to time and ultimately find that I have forgotten my japam. What shall I do?”

 Bhagavan: “At that time catch hold of that name (Rama Namam)”

 Devotee:"How to give up the samsara of the mind?”

[Samsara can be defined as actions, memories, imagination and fantasies of life through repeated births and deaths; the wheel of birth and death; the process of earthly life.]

Bhagavan: "Samsara means samsara of the mind. If you leave that samsara, it will be the same thing wherever you are. Nothing troubles you. That is just it; you said you were doing the japam of Rama Namam. During the train of thoughts, you said you were sometimes reminded of the fact that you had forgotten the japam of Rama Namam. Try to remind yourself of that fact as often as possible and catch hold of the name of Rama frequently. Other thoughts will then slowly decrease. For the japam of nam (repeating the name of the Lord) several stages have been prescribed."

Bhagavan then quoted from Upadesa Saram, verse 6 *

Better than hymns of praise
Is repetition of the Name;
Better low-voiced than loud,
But best of all -
Is meditation (dhyana) in the mind.

    Bhagavan continued: "Dhyana denotes the repetition of the names, etc., mentally (japa) with feelings of devotion. In this method the state of the mind will be understood easily. For the mind does not become concentrated and diffused simultaneously. When one is in dhyana it does not contact the objects of the senses, and when it is in contact with the objects it is not in dhyana. Therefore those who are in this state can observe the vagaries of the mind then and there and by stopping the mind from thinking other thoughts, fix it in dhyana. Perfection in dhyana is the state of abiding in the Self (lit., abiding in the form of ‘That’ — tadakaranilai) . As meditation functions in an exceedingly subtle manner at the source of the mind it is not difficult to perceive its rise and subsidence."

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* Sri Maruganar begged Bhagavan to compose what was to become Upadesa Saram. Bhagavan accordingly composed thirty Tamil verses. Bhagavan himself later rendered them into Sanskrit. The Sanskrit version, Upadesa Saram, was chanted before him daily together with the Vedas and continues to be chanted before his shrine; that is to say, it is treated as a scripture.