"Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna"

Nama Article - 7th March 2007

Sin and God's name

SUB-JUDGE : "Sir, I am a sinner. How can I say that God dwells in me?"

SRI RAMAKRISHNA : "That's the one trouble with you Brahmos. With you it is always sin and sin!
That's the Christian view, isn't it? Once a man gave me a Bible. A part of it was read to me, and it was full of that one thing-sin and sin! One must have such faith that one can say: 'I have uttered the name of God; I have repeated the name of Rama or Hari. How can I be a sinner?' One must have faith in the glory of God's name."

SUB-JUDGE : "Sir, how can one have such faith?"

SRI RAMAKRISHNA : "Have passionate love for God. One of your Brahmo songs says:

O Lord, is it ever possible to know Thee without love,
However much one may perform worship and sacrifice?

Pray to God in secret and with yearning, that you may have that passionate attachment and devotion to Him. Shed tears for Him. A man sheds a jugful of tears because his wife is sick or because he is losing money or because he is worrying about getting a job. But tell me, who ever weeps for God?'

Power of God's name

Dr. Sreenath had a copy of the Gita in his hand.
DR. SREENATH (to his friends): "Everything is under the control of Prakriti. Nobody can escape the fruit of past action. This is called prarabdha."
SRI RAMAKRISHNA : "Why, if one chants the name of God, meditates on Him, and takes refuge in Him-"
DR. SREENATH : "But, sir, how can one escape prarabdha, the effect of action performed in previous births?"
SRI RAMAKRISHNA : "No doubt a man experiences a little of the effect; but much of it is cancelled by the power of God's name. A man was born blind of an eye. This was his punishment for a certain misdeed he had committed in his past birth, and the punishment was to remain with him for six more births. Be, however, took a bath in the Ganges, which gives one liberation. This meritorious action could not cure his blindness, but it saved him from his future births