Start Nama-Smarana and Acquire Love For God.
One who has no selfishness will always have enough; for, where there is selflessness, God would certainly take care of all the needs. The world will not love you unless you give it your love. One who forgets himself in his love for God will be unmindful of everything else. Just as a thief will run away the moment he finds the owner back at home, the 'body-am-I' feeling must make itself scarce if a man cultivates love for God, and thereby he becomes happy. If your imploration to God is so earnest as to bring tears to your eyes, God will also respond with tears in His eyes.
That the company of the saintly will generate love for God there is no doubt, but it may not be the good fortune of many to come across a saintly person. An alternative way is to associate with good thoughts. That God may shower His grace on all, that He may shower good and welfare on all, that all should learn to love Him – to carry such good thoughts always in the bosom, and to contemplate on the teaching of the saints, helps oneself as well as others.
But we often find that our thoughts do not always follow an even tenor. Everyone of us has personal experience of unholy thoughts crowding the mind when we try to compose the mind for nama-smarana. So, it is not in our control to hold holy thoughts in the mind.
The third means is nama-smarana. That is the only thing that you can do with your volition. So all should resort to it with a doubt-free mind. Do not listen to anyone who has something to say against it. Do not split hairs about how to chant it. Straightaway begin chanting it; you can rest assured that you will be filled with love for God. Stick determinedly to nama. Take my word for it, Rama is sure to be wherever nama is being sung. Saints are bound to ensure the spiritual welfare of a person who does nothing but determinedly, persistently chant nama.
Nama is a spark that can be fanned to grow and pervade the whole world. Let us keep this spark alive. One who chants nama naturally burns up all desire and ends indigence. So keep this nama earnestly on your lips, and then you may live normal worldly life happily.
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