Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-Aug. 19.

Do You Feel a Desperate Need for God?

A certain man started on a journey, well-equipped with the things he expected to need. Being a habitual betel leaf and tobacco chewer, he carried those accessories, too. After a while the train started, he took out the tobacco kit and proceeded to making ready the chew when, to his chagrin, he discovered that the lime box had been left out. He repeatedly searched his baggage but failed to find it. His longing for the chew whetted, he was almost beside himself; when he heard the sound of anything dropping on the floor, he thought it was the lime box. When anyone made as if to speak, he imagined that it was to ask if he wanted lime. How desperate one feels when one desires a certain thing with real longing!
Do we want God with the same degree of desperation? There are a hundred things about which we know the minutest detail – the wife and children and other things animate and inanimate; have we ever felt equally keen about the gods we worship every day? In this state of affairs, how can we expect love for God to arise in ourselves?
If we are really keen for the love of God, we must give up our great regard for worldly things and affairs. Not that we should disregard them and neglect practical needs and duties, but the keen attraction that we feel today for sensual pleasures and conveniences should be applied instead to God. There should arise a burning need for God, who should be a sine qua non for living.
Constant or frequent association leads to love, and love leads to yearning. This is a matter of common experience. For instance, we meet a congenial co-passenger in a journey; we sit with him, talk with him, perhaps share the meal with him. When his station arrives and he prepares to get off the train, we feel sorry to have to part, we express regret for briefness of the companionship. Far much more love will ensue if we keep constant company of nama. So maintain constant repetition of nama, and entrench yourself in the conviction that you are nobody, that it is God who is the doer in all happenings. Even what happens through you is prompted by Rama. He will surely rush to your succour if you earnestly call on Him to do so.


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