- Chaitanya Deva said that there is great importance in the name of the Lord. It may not show immediate results, but sooner or later it does yield fruit.
- Suppose there is a seed on the cornice of a house. After a long time, the house falls down. The seed will then fall to the ground, develop into a tree and, in time, bear fruit.
- To cherish the idea ‘I am free’ is very good. If you say again and again, ‘I am free, I am free,’ you become free. On the other hand, if you constantly say, ‘I am bound, I am bound,’ you indeed become bound. He who repeats ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner,’ that wretch is sure to have a fall. Rather, one should say, ‘I have chanted the name of God, what evil can befall me, what bondage?’
- Name is of great importance. Yet if there is no love, how can it help? Deep yearning for the Lord is essential. What will it avail me if I repeat the Name but my mind remains tied to ‘lust and greed’?
- Repeat the Name and also pray at the same time that you may develop love for the Lord. And that all transitory things, such as money, name and fame, and pleasures of the body, may have less and less attraction for you. You must pray thus.
- By repeating His name you rid yourself of all your sins. Lust, anger, desire for creature comforts and the rest all disappear.
- Pray to God with a longing heart that you may develop a taste for His name. He always fulfills one’s wishes.
- The mystic seed of His name is very powerful. It dispels ignorance. A seed is so soft, and so is its sprout. Yet it breaks the earth and germinates.
- All names and forms are the manifestation of the power of Chitshakti. Indeed, it manifests itself everywhere – in meditation as well as in the one who meditates. As long as I am conscious that I am meditating, I am in Her jurisdiction.
- Let the reins be cut asunder by the sword of His holy name! His name is capable of cutting in twain the bonds of Death.
- I repeat the name of the Divine Mother, so I get all these things to eat. But She doesn’t give gourd and pumpkin. She gives the fruit of amrita, immortality – divine knowledge, intense love for God, discrimination, and dispassion.
- Is the name insignificant? There is no difference between God and His name. When Satyabhama was weighing the Lord against gold and jewels in a scale, it didn’t balance. But when Rukmini put the tulsi leaf with the name of Krishna written on it, lo, it balanced!
- Chant the name of Hari morning and evening, clapping your hands, ‘Haribol, Haribol, Haribol.’
- One should have such burning faith as to be able to say, ‘I have taken God’s name, how can there be any sin in me?’ Imagine a person repeating the name of God day and night, yet calling himself a sinner!
- It is Hari indeed who rids us of sins. Hari removes the three afflictions of the world.
- Chaitanya Deva propagated the name of Hari, so it must be good. Look, what a scholar Chaitanya Deva was! Besides, he was an incarnation of God. Since he preached the name, it must certainly be good.
- Humility is good, but there’s another attitude: ‘I repeat the name of Lord Hari. How can sin touch me?’ People who say every day, ‘I am a sinner, sinner I am; I am worthless, worthless I am,’ indeed become so. What lack of faith! A person who has chanted His name so much and yet says, ‘Sin, sin!’
- As you sweat to earn money, so you should perspire chanting Lord Hari’s name, dancing and singing.
- Leaving all work aside, you should call on God at dusk. The feeling of God comes to mind in darkness. Only a little while ago you could see everything. You think, Who has done all this? You know, Muslims stop all work at appointed times and offer prayers.
- By repeating God’s name, you can realize Him. When you secretly repeat His name in solitude, God’s grace dawns on you, and it is followed by His vision. Imagine a thick log of wood lying under water. It is tied to the bank with a chain. If you proceed from one link to the next, you will at last reach the log and touch it.
- Why do you people harp so much on sin? By saying, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’ a hundred times, you become a sinner. Instead, you should have such faith that, because you have chanted His name, you think, how can sin attach to me? He is our Father, He is our Mother. Just tell Him that you will not repeat the sins you have committed. Then chant His name. Purify your mind, body and tongue completely with His name.
- A person should always repeat God’s name. While working, keep your mind on Him. It’s like this: I have a boil on my back. I attend to all my work, but my mind remains on the boil.
- Repeating Rama’s name is good. Rama, the son of Dasharatha, is also He who has created the world and who dwells in all. He is very near to you – within and without.
- When you chant God’s name, all sins of the body fly away. The bird of sin is perched on the tree of the body. Chanting His name is like clapping your hands. As you clap, all the birds on the tree fly away. Sin flies away when you chant His name and glory.
- Look, water in a reservoir dug in a dry field dries up by the heat of the sun. In the same way, the water of the reservoir of sin evaporates by chanting His name and glories.
- When the eyes are filled with tears at the mention of Hari, or Kali, or Rama, ritualistic devotions are no longer needed. All work falls away. The fruit of action does not touch him.
- A man is purified by God’s name. That’s why you should practice chanting God’s name. I said to Jadu Mallick’s mother, ‘At the time of death, the worries of the world invade the mind – worries about the family, sons, children, writing out a will – come to mind. The thought of God will not come.’ The remedy is to practice chanting and singing His name. If you do this, only His name will come to the lips at the time of death. When a bird is caught by a cat, it only squawks – ‘Rama, Rama’ doesn’t come to it.
- You have to prepare for the time of death. Repeat His name and meditate on Him in solitude for the rest of your life. If an elephant is taken to the stable after a bath, it won’t get dirty again by mud and dust.
- You have to chant His name and glories constantly. You have to renounce worldly thoughts as much as possible. You may have brought water to your field to irrigate it with great difficulty, but it is lost if there are holes in the ridge of the field – all the labour of digging a channel to the field is wasted.
- By repeating the name of God and meditating on Him sincerely, sin vanishes. It’s like a mountain of cotton that burns away instantly with the touch of fire. Or, imagine a group of birds perched on a tree. If you clap your hands, they fly away.
- When you repeat the name of the Lord, it purifies both the body and the mind. Why just talk about sin and hell? Say once, ‘I shall never again do the evil I have committed today’ and have faith in His name.
Anahata Sound
- Sound Brahman. Rishis and sages used to practice austerities to hear this sound. When you attain perfection, you hear it rising automatically from the navel.
- You can hear the sound of waves from a distance. If you follow the sound, you will reach the ocean – when there is the sound of waves, the ocean must be near. By following the anahata sound, you reach Brahman, which is what it indicates. That is called the supreme state. But as long as you are conscious of your I-ness, you cannot have this kind of perception. It is possible only when there is neither ‘I,’ nor you, nor many.