“Can there be anger without duality, or duality without ignorance? Can an individual soul, dull, finite and subject to delusion, ever be like God?

Can suffering ensue from solicitude for others’ welfare? Can the possessor of the philosopher’s stone suffer poverty? Can the malicious be free from fear or the sensualist from stain?

Can one’s line prosper if one injures a Brahman? Can one continue to perform actions (with attachment) even after attaining true self-knowledge? Can sound wisdom issue from association with the wicked? Can an adulterer attain to the felicity of salvation?

Can those who have realize God experience rebirth? Can the revilers of the Blessed Lord ever be happy? Can a kingdom stand without a knowledge of statecraft? Can sins coexist with a recital of Hari’s exploits?

Can there be spotless renown without religious merit? Does one earn ill repute except when one sins? Is there any blessing as valuable as devotion to Hari, as hymned alike by the saints, the Vedas and the Puranas?

And, brother, is there any loss in the world as grievous as that of being born as a man and yet not worshipping Rama? Is there any other sin, Garuda, so bad as backbiting, or any virtue so great as compassion?”

Thus I reasoned and thought out countless arguments (in my favour), never bothering to listen to the sage’s teaching with due respect. Again and again I insisted on my belief in the saguna form of worship, till at last the sage said angrily.