God is Supremely Loving
What an enormous trouble you undertake to reach this remote village ! And, on reaching, you accept a life full of inconveniences of many kinds, what with the lack of city amenities. But then, do you correctly realize what all this is for? Do you truly, keenly, feel the urgent need of God? We usually do not think much about the objective.
When we are faced with a difficulty, a calamity, or loss, our first reaction is to ascribe it to God's injustice or harshness. This is the greatest of sins. In this respect, even an atheist is preferable, for he will at least not impute it to God for the simple reason that he does not acknowledge His existence! As a matter of fact, God is extremely loving, and like a mother, cannot bear to see anyone in pain. So, first disabuse the mind of the idea that unpleasant things and events are the product of God's will.
Remember the misfortune and the most indecent humiliation suffered by Draupadi at the hands of Dusshasana. She had initially felt sure that her brave husbands and other elder statesmen will save her from this humiliation, but that proved to be wrong. It was only when she single-mindedly and most ardently remembered and prayed Lord Shreekrishna, that He rushed to her help and saved her from the worst act of humiliation. He explained to her later on, that He could not come to her rescue earlier, because she had pinned her hopes on others and not singly, to the exclusion of others, on Him.
Our call to God can not be termed really ardent unless we pin our hopes singly on Him, and give up all expectation from anyone or anything else. Such ardency will come only when we look on Him as the last, the only resort. This ardency arises only where there is incomparable love. Such love for God cannot come without long, intimate association. Such association results from ceaseless nama-smarana. I urge you to earn His love by such nama-smarana, devoid of extraneous thoughts and fancy, for such fancy is the weapon par excellence in the hands of maya. Pure, thought-free nama-smarana will be extremely efficacious, for, if you pray to God, thinking exclusively of Him, He hastens to shower His grace.
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