Once a railway booking clerk met Sri Maharaj. Sri Maharaj asked him, "Is it not true that signboards advising people to buy return tickets when travelling to the suburbs are displayed at railway stations?"The booking clerk said, "Yes, and well-informed people usually do buy return tickets". Sri Maharaj said, "Whenever God sends a living being to earth, He sends it with a return ticket in the form of its death warrant.If a traveller asks you for a one-way ticket,you can give him one. But it will never be possible for God to do likewise. One ought to remember that every being born into this world does so with a return ticket in the form of its death warrant in its pocket. When one constantly remembers Death, sinful and selfish behaviour will automatically diminish. With a reduction in sinful behaviour, good desires will awaken, and one will be drawn, little by little, towards attainment of God; when this happens, one will have a mind to chant Nama. When Nama is chanted love for God will automatically arise. With the arising of love for God, a continual awareness of God will result. Such awareness will cause the heart to be cleansed.With the cleansing of the heart, a steadfastness of the mind may be accomplished. And when this occurs, one's task will have been fulfilled."
