God gave us this exceptionally gifted but, rare human body, so that we may gain knowledge of our true self and be happy forever. But because of our ignorance we use this body for self- indulgence. Because of the bad company we keep, we give in to our lust, and like animals, do not think of anything else, but food, sleep, fear and sex. Due to which our invaluable life is wasted.

The bad companies we keep, are, mental instability, bad thoughts, manipulative behavior, etc. .Root of all miseries, is the presence of bad traits in our character. Lust is the result of our mental conditioning over a period of many births.

This human body is rare, but it can also be destroyed in a moment. It can be useless and exceptionally virtuous. Why is human body rare? All these things we see around us, rocks, trees, plants, microorganisms, insects, animals, birds etc.. A soul has to take birth as these life forms, 8.4 million times, before it can be born as a human.

Human body is considered useless, in the sense, when animals die, parts of their bodies are used for various purposes. But, after death, human body is useless.

Destroyed in a single moment of time? What does that mean? Like a rainbow in the sky which keeps changing every moment and disappears as you are watching it, a baby's body and face changes as she grows up. And from youth to middle age, middle age to old age, there is a constant change in the body. It's there today, gone tomorrow. It's there now, gone the next moment. When it will be destroyed, you can never tell.

Human body is called exceptional because, just like a plane will take you faster from one place to another than any other vehicle, human body will take you towards god faster than any other form of life.

Like a cat waiting to catch a mouse, immediately after a person is born, death is waiting to grab him. He may be anybody, man-woman, king-beast, idiot-genius, doctor-patient, or a saint, when death arrives you have to leave. But, even when a frog is trapped in a snake's mouth, he will, as is his character, try to catch a fly. Similarly, knowing he is going to die eventually, man, instead of making his life worth something, he will, as is his character, continue to be selfish and self-indulgent and continue making big plans for the future. Therefore, even after reading, listening and practically seeing the fact that, body is not a permanent entity, he understands it for a moment, but the next moment its completely forgotten. You never know when and how death will stand in front of you. So, just like you hurry when the time for your train draws near, you should think fast as to how you can make this life worth its while.

The experience of happiness after unhappiness and unhappiness after happiness, which a man gets in his life, there is no truth in either of them. Only when you experience only happiness, without any unhappiness, it's the true happiness. It is also the ultimate and eternal happiness. Saint's experience this happiness. It can be achieved only in this land of death, and only by the human body.

You cannot be friends with a thief and hope to remain rich for long, similarly you cannot find this ultimate happiness by increasing your love for your body. Therefore, instead of trusting the body, which will surely send you to hell one day, you should learn to acknowledge the real owner of your body, your soul.

Man, above all, wants happiness. In happiness there are 2 types : one physical and the other is spiritual. Physical happiness is got by the physical activities of your parents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends and yourself. Closer you are to the person, more the happiness. But, any one of these people you called your own, dies, you cry. Why? Because the physical body that was in front of your eyes for so many years, is no longer there? But, the body, is still there, the soul has departed. If you had no relation with the soul, why should you cry? A cage becomes an attraction when the parrot is in it. If the parrot flies away, you throw away the cage in the attic. Similarly, when the spirit that moved the body has left, you either burn or bury the body.

Before acquiring a human body, the soul is unhappy due to lack of knowledge. Even after taking birth, until the animal instinct in him is replaced completely by humanity, he cannot achieve happiness. Only when knowledge gets a push from a saint's preaching, does man start looking more closely at himself. And then, if he follows the path, charted out by his guru, with complete devotion, will he achieve his aim in life and be a master of his own happiness.

The body, which is tiny and not so attractive at birth, soon grows to become a beautiful, healthy baby. As a baby, he likes to crawl and play with small toys. Later, as he grows up and his interest changes, he now plays with balls, tops, kites etc. And further, when he becomes a teenager, his interest has changed completely. As a teenager, he has all the confidence and energy he needs. He can eat as much as he wants, walk as far as he likes, work long hours, without any complaints. Because of his strength and energy, and most parts of his body being in good working condition, there is lot of enthusiasm and excitement in his life.

Later when he crosses 40, his eyesight starts diminishing. At 50, his hair starts turning gray, his teeth are aching and they are coming loose, soon they will fall. He now cannot speak very clearly. He may have blood pressure, heart trouble or diabetes. Lot more illnesses are waiting to torture him.

At 60, his eyes have gone deeper and his body has lost most of its strength. His skin has wrinkled and he cannot remember things very clearly. Earlier, he could see farthest of objects, but now, he cannot even see what's close to him. Earlier, he could hear a whisper. Now, even when people are talking loudly, he has to strain his ears, to catch the words. Some may become disabled, and may have to depend completely on others.
By the time you reach 80, your movements have become more restricted. Now, its difficult to stand up if you are sitting, or sit, if you are standing. All in all, towards the end, body's state becomes very pitiable.

In old age, when you are suffering the most, nobody around you can do much to relieve the pain. And now, if you think, you can ask god for help, that is not possible. Because, at that age, your mind and body are not open to change. Their ideas and beliefs are rigid. Therefore, when your body was in good condition, and your mind more flexible, you should have prayed to god, and taken his help to break away from the bondage of your mind and body. In our old age, we cannot earn money to feed ourselves. So, when we are young, we work harder, and save for our old age. Similarly, if you had prayed, and asked for god's help when you were younger, you would have been able to spend your old age in peace and happiness.

Though, the human body is not perfect, this is the only way you can discover the spirit within you. You should not ignore your body's needs completely, nor should you pamper it too much. At all times, be aware of the fact, that, the body is just a means to self-realization, so you should indulge it enough to achieve your aim. You have to be a jeweler to recognize the value of a gem, similarly, you have to stay in the company of saints, to understand the value of human body.

Our forefathers have always believed that one should go on a pilgrimage atleast once in their lifetime. Why do we have to go on a pilgrimage? Over the years, all the saints have advised us to do only one thing, and that is, to spend every moment of our life taking god's name. What should we do?

Though it may look like two different paths, their destination is one. You are not promoted to second standard, unless you have cleared first, similarly, unless your tired mind is cooled by pilgrimage, it will not turn to meditation. The idea behind pilgrimage is mainly, to broaden your mind. After you have seen the outside world, your mind rises above your routine life and is ready to achieve something higher.

Millions go on a pilgrimage, but, because of lack of knowledge, nobody really understands the importance of this ritual. Man stands to gain a lot from this. Human mind being very unstable, keeps wandering, constantly thinking of totally useless things. Because of this a lot of money and energy is lost. To avoid this, our forefathers have shown us the way of marriage and children. And then to relax our tired minds from the stress in our lives, the path of pilgrimage was shown to us. Of the two advises given to us, we, very religiously follow the first one. But the second one is followed incorrectly, therefore, we cannot find our lost happiness.

The main aim of fasting was to control our desires and in turn our mind, by denying ourselves the pleasures of eating tasty food. Secondly, the time saved by not cooking elaborate meals, was to be used for prayers. But, due to lack of understanding, women spend more than usual time preparing special meals and if they have extra time on hand, they spend it trying to catch up with their pending housework.

Men also take this opportunity to do their pending work around the house. So, in effect, the real aim of fasting is not achieved. If you prayed to god everyday, then fasting days are no different for you, but, for people who are too engrossed with their lives, this is a good opportunity to think of god. For, without prayers, it is very difficult to get god's help.

You may not want to be god's disciple, but in this life, at every step, you encounter problems, and if you do not want these problems to trouble you, you certainly need god's help. For specifically this reason, our forefathers had set aside a few days for fasting.

"May we always be in the company of saints and may good advise fall on our ears." Said Moropant. This is because, good company makes us a better person while bad company creates bad influence. Our behavior largely depends on the influences in our lives. Good behavior always gives us satisfaction while bad behavior makes us feel guilty. For this reason man should always try and be in good company.

Among all the paths that lead towards god, being in company of saints is the best way to get there. Men who believe that worldly pleasures are the right way to happiness and one day that happiness will be theirs, when they meet a saint and spend some time in his or her company, experience the true happiness. Saints with their powers to control minds, give these men a taste of true happiness and convince them beyond any doubt, of its existence within themselves. They go one step further and show these men the way to experience this happiness permanently. The mind that is so engrossed in these worldly pleasures, is not so easily convinced to follow this path. Therefore, until your mind develops a liking for this, it is necessary to stay is the company of saints.

There is a difference between sleeping with the aid of sleeping pill and sleeping normally, similarly, there is difference a between pushing yourself towards god and moving towards him willingly.

Like a man burning under the sun's heat, finds solace under the shadows of a tree, similarly, mind, tired by the stress in this life, finds peace in the company of a saint.

Like the thread that found a place at god's feet because it came with the flowers, holding them together. No matter how low a person's morals are, when he comes in contact with the saints, all his wrong beliefs are wiped out and he is ready to win over the world.
Smoking, drinking, drugs, these addictions are picked up being in the company of addicts. Therefore, if you are looking for true happiness, you should try and be in the company of addicts of true happiness, the saints.

In reality, there is a part of god in all of us, but our ego makes us blind to that fact. When we spend time with saints, we do everything so unselfishly that our ego gets destroyed, exposing us to our true self.

God does not like faith with selfish motives. He likes true devotion. But, orthodox beliefs and blind faith are a hindrance to this. Only saints have the power to break people away from blind faith and turn them towards true devotion.

When Guru Nanak was in Haradwar. He saw some people turning towards the sun in the east and offering water and prayers to the sun and their dead forefathers. After watching them for sometime, Nanak turned towards west and started offering water. These people, when they saw that, thought, 'What an idiot, doesn't he know the difference between east and west'. Nanak looked at them and asked, "What were you doing looking towards east?" One of them answered, "We were offering water to our forefathers.", to which Nanak replied, "Well, I am offering water to my farm, which is 400 miles west." Everybody laughed and one of them said to Nanak "You are so stupid, how can water reach so far with your small push?". Nanak replied, "If my water cannot reach my farm which is 400 miles from here, how can your water reach sun, which is thousands of mile away, and your forefathers who are dead and gone. You haven't seem to have thought of that."

In bad company, lust becomes stronger and stronger everyday. But, in the company of saints it loses it power. Unless lust is killed completely, divine happiness is not born.

Just like fire burns stronger if you keep supplying wood, lust grows stronger the more you indulge in it. And stronger your lust grows, the weaker your mind becomes. Therefore, people looking for happiness should first get into the company of saints, ie company that will not feed lust. With the help of saints, when lust dies, you become a saint yourself.

Religion is a self development path suggested by saints. While following this path, you realise how short your life is and seek permanent happiness.

Religion is like a lamp that lights up a dark path. Religion encourages good conduct, so naturally wrong behavior is eliminated, resulting in happier life. Religion brings out the difference between animal and man. This knowledge paves the path for man to become god. Meaning, this arouses, in man, curiosity about his true self.

To bring up a drowning man, you need something light, like wood, similarly, to pull out man from this sea of life, you need religion.

To release himself from this fear of life and death, man should practice the teachings of his religion. That is, he should instill in himself the following three things : keep a good control on his desires, give generously to the needy and do everything he can to eliminate others sorrows.

To corrupt people's minds and spread chaos in society is against religion, while, bringing everybody together and maintaining peace and harmony is being religious.

Though, there is one principle, seeing it manifest in different forms, is nature, and not religion. But, to see one power, one energy, in these various forms of life, is religion and self-realisation.

Never praise your own religion and criticize others. Just like ten different colored bulbs are lit by single electricity, similarly, different religion may seem different, but they all follow the same principle. When you study and understand all the religions, you realise, they preach the same thing.

From morning to night, what is that one thing that man struggles for? Happiness. This is like carrying your child on your back and go searching for him all over the town. When the root of unhappiness is deep within you, how can you expect to find it outside? Basically, the root from where your unhappiness grows, is, wrong beliefs.

When a man is born, he brings with himself all his wrong beliefs from previous lives. Add to that, the influence of his parents, friends and relatives. All this makes those beliefs very strong. Wrong belief give you wrong thoughts, wrong thoughts generate wrong ideas, wrong ideas are responsible for wrong actions, wrong action is a sin and your sins are responsible for your unhappiness. You need power to destroy wrong beliefs, power that only god has. And only prayers can get you god's help. However strong a man may look, but, unless he takes help from god, he is helpless against all those troubles, that life throws at him. Prayer throw's out all those old, deep rooted, wrong beliefs within you and controls the new incoming ones.

At every step wrong actions are being committed by man, due to which his sins are increasing. The only way to stop this is by praying to god. Therefore, man should pray everyday, at least for a few minutes.

One day, one of the greatest saint, saint Narad asked God, "God, if I feel like asking or telling you something, where will I find you?" God replied, "Wherever people are offering me prayers, I am there."

Though prayers have powers to achieve the impossible, they should be offered with complete concentration or like spoiled food that can poison the body, prayers not offered correctly will do more harm than good.

Finally, when you start enjoying praying, all the bad influences are thrown out of your body like poison and only sweet true love for god remains.

Like a sieve that separates wheat from husk, prayers throw out wrong desires and protect good thoughts. It drives out lethargy and makes room for excitement and happiness. It makes us realize the importance of god. Through prayers, affection for god increases day by day and your mind becomes stronger and more stable.

You have now successfully used your human body for the right purpose. Divine power is now born inside you and you see god in everybody. In this state you do not distinguish between yourself and others. Only infinite happiness remains.

Praying means, begging god for his compassion, pleading him, pleasing him, praising him and calling him with all your heart. Prayers are not just words chanted by your lips. Praying means, admitting that you are incapable of changing your own destiny.

If your prayer strengthens your ego, then the purpose is lost. Worship should strengthen your love and attachment to god. God exist and he loves us. If we can get his love and protection, we will be happy forever. Saint's are born to help us understand this. Therefore, we should trust them and follow their teachings, and do our best to get close to god.

This is the main aim of worship. Worship does not mean all those rituals you follow. It means destruction of prayers ie. Prayers, god and you should all become one.

We all have many questions about prayers. How should it be done? When is the best time? Should I say prayers before bedtime? Do I need to take a bath before saying them? Can I say them in the washroom? Should they be chanted aloud or should we say them in our minds? Etc. These questions worry us a lot. We want to be sure we are doing the right thing.

Saints have answers to all these questions. Prayers can be offered anywhere and anytime, in bed, in the washroom, sleeping or sitting, in the temple or at home, with or without taking a bath. The important factor being, that, they are being said with complete concentration. Though the above statements are true, taking a bath before saying your prayers, makes you feel clean and fresh and helps you pay attention to the words you are chanting. Similarly, if there is an idol in front of you and nothing else in the room, then it will definitely help you concentrate better.

A copper vessel needs to be scrubbed daily, to keep it shining. While a gold vessel never loses it's shine. Similarly, you need to pray daily until your heart is cleansed of all the poison in it. Once the heart becomes clean and pure then there will not remain a need for prayers. Saints have achieved this purity through worship. Therefore, they are so loving and giving.

Just like prayers are a way of mental worship, penance is a way of physical worship. A lot can be achieved through penance too. But, prayer is a higher form of worship than penance. After years of penance, a man learns to control his body but not his mind. While, prayer teaches you to control your mind, which in turn controls your body. A saint can recognize a tapasvi ( a man who has gone through years of penance), but, a tapasvi does not have the power to recognize a saint.

One day one sadhu went to a farm to perform his morning duties. While he was relieving himself he kept his Shivalinga ( Shiva's idol ) on the side and started offering prayers using the water which he had brought with himself for washing his behind. A tapasvi who was a farmer and had performed penance for the past 12 years, was passing by. He was shocked to see the sadhu answering nature's call and offering prayers at the same time. After 12 years of penance the bundle of grass would alleviate a few inches above the farmers head. When he saw this sadhu, his mind was filled with all kinds of doubts. He did not know if the sadhu was crazy or just plain stupid. All these doubts in his mind destroyed the purity of his heart and the floating bundle came crashing down on his head. His years of penance was destroyed in a single moment. He went back to being what he was 12 years ago, an ordinary man. You cannot achieve greatness by physical penance, whatever is achieved in this way, can be destroyed anytime. But, that is not true of mental penance or prayers. Mental prayers slowly destroys all the anger, desires, jealousy and other poisons within our hearts and cleans it permanently. Their place is taken by pure divine happiness. This achievement can never be taken away from you or destroyed. Therefore, man should pray daily, with complete concentration.

A desire to serve can help you to become a very powerful person. But, if you serve god physically, while your mind is elsewhere, then that service is not registered with god.

The main aim of serving god is to clean your heart, removing the rust of all the bad habits that you have accumulated over the years. But, to think you are great because you are serving god will only strengthen your ego and ego always strengthens your ties with your body. Services of god includes - praying, preaching, reading holy books, pilgrimage, meditation, singing gods praises, chanting his name etc. ie. Good work done for God.

God's service is like a farm. You can grow anything you want on your farm. Similarly, you get different kinds of benefit for different kinds of services. If you serve god physically, all your ailments start disappearing and you will feel healthier. If you serve him mentally, you experience peace and satisfaction. If you serve him verbally, your heart will be cleansed of all the bad influences and will become pure once again.

You cannot be lazy or try to avoid work while serving god. Your mind should not wander away from the work you are doing. You should genuinely want to make god happy with your work. This determination will kill the laziness in your body. Then, you will not be afraid of hard work and will then work ceaselessly to serve god.

If sacrifice is not there standing right behind your service, your service is incomplete. A lot of people think sacrifice means staying away from your wife, son, home or money. And that, without this sacrifice you cannot achieve 'Moksha'. With this idea, they go on a pilgrimage and stay there, happy with the thought that they are now on the path of self realisation. Because this sacrifice is only physical, these people do not achieve anything.

To serve god you need mental sacrifice, ie. You need to sacrifice your laziness, your means of entertainment, your indifference to others, your ego etc.

Men and women who realise the real importance of serving god, want their close ones to do the same. They cannot tolerate incompetence in this work. They want everybody to put in their best efforts.

While serving god, faith should go hand in hand with sacrifice. God is mine. Serving him is my duty and its definitely going to benefit me. Believing this with all your heart, is faith. In service done with complete faith, there is only the served, ie god and the one serving, ie you. There is nobody else involved.

On serving god, you become humble. Since less time is spent in chatting and gossiping, your mouth automatically spends more time chanting god's name. When your hand, legs, ears and eyes, all get involved in serving god, your mind soon follows. When your mind, body and speech are all engrossed in serving god, this is called 'cleansing of the trio'. When this happens, the server, the served and the service, all become one and you now become the disciple of god. All your sorrows and pains end at this point.

You see many people serving god, but have you seen one person who's sorrows have ended? No. Because not one of them served god with unconditional love and faith.

You cannot make god happy with service done with expectations of some thing in return. Service done with unconditional love and faith will imbibe god's image permanently on your mind, such that you will never forget him again.

Materialistic or objective happiness, subjective happiness and spiritual happiness are three types of happiness. Pleasure got from eating, drinking, talking, watching, touching are all materialistic happiness. Your dreams give you subjective happiness ie. The happiness you experience by just thinking about something and not doing it physically. The happiness experienced when you are neither sleeping nor thinking, is the ultimate spiritual happiness.

Everybody has experienced the materialistic and subjective happiness. But very few have experienced the spiritual happiness. While you are sleeping you do get a slight idea of what it could be like. But, to experience it while you are awake, you need to follow the spiritual path. Only then will your mind become balanced, steady, clear, clean and free. To free your mind from its day to day problems, you talk to your friends and family. But, what happens is, that, when you tell your problems to them, they tell their problems to you and your mind gets confused all over again and you are back to where you started. Therefore, you should tell your problems to god and thus clear your mind for good.

Your body retains the Vitamins and chemicals required for its own well being, from the food you eat, and throws out the unwanted. Similarly, your mind should throw away bad memories and wrong thoughts. If it does not do that, they would accumulate in your brain and make you mentally unstable, like the unwanted part of your food would make you sick if it is not thrown out of your body. For this reason, you should talk to god and open your heart to him, so that your thoughts are clear once again.

Just like you get used to darkness when your train passes through a tunnel, man gets used to his own ignorance. As long as you are eating and talking with the help of the lights in the train, you are comfortable for some time. But, you soon get bored with that and wait for the train to come out of the tunnel, so that, once again you can be happy watching the mountains and valleys outside. Similarly, as long as the materialistic things around you are keeping you happy, your mind remains occupied. But, when you get bored with those same things that once made you happy, you start looking for real and more permanent happiness.

Your mind carrying the heavy weight of your ego has to be pushed towards god. If it starts leaning towards god with the same ease that it now leans towards the materialistic happiness, your job is done. Your mind has been running after these worldly goods for eons, it is not going to turn to god so quickly and so easily.

One day few fisherwomen went to another village to sell their fish. It was too late in the night for them to return home. So, they decided to stay over at a gardener's place. The gardener asked these women to keep their baskets and rags, which smelled of fish, in the backyard and gave them a room, full of flowers to sleep in.

The smell of flowers made some of them nauseous, while other started getting a headache. When they couldn't sleep till midnight, they woke up the gardener and asked him if they could at least get their rags in with them. After that they slept well. Moral of the story: When you start working towards some thing good, your bad habits accumulated over the years, make you very uneasy and reluctant to follow this path. When you go back to your old ways, your mind is at ease again.

Happiness is our true self. Achieving happiness is getting to know our true self. Every day you experience this happiness in your sleep, when your mind stops thinking. To experience it while you are awake, you have to clear your mind from all its thoughts and keep it balanced.

A desire is followed by satisfaction, which is followed by another desire. Both these hold a great attraction to your mind. But, as mind starts following the preaching of saints, this attraction decreases. Once your mind becomes free and steady, you achieve freedom from this cycle of birth and death.

Life should be lived with fun and excitement. To keep this excitement alive, you should pray to god, the one with infinite ado. Look at him with your eyes. Listen to stories about him with your ears. Sing his praises with your mouth. Smell the flowers at his feet with your nose. Walk to the temple with your feet. Offer him flowers and water with your hands. Think of him with your mind.

The light of a small candle lit in a big open ground is of no use to anyone. But, the same candle when brought inside a small room, will light up the room. Similarly, your mind wandering around is weak, but when you pull it in and concentrate, it changes your life.

At the river's mouth, if the water did not flow in any one direction, the river will never make it to the sea. If you did not concentrated on god, you will never find him either.

In one garden, a monkey would come every day and eat and destroy all the fruits. One day the gardener caught him and tied him to a tree, using a rope. Every time the monkey felt like eating fruits, it would tug at the rope. But, the rope held him back. After months of pulling the rope, the rope became weak, and one day when the monkey pulled at it, it broke and the monkey escaped. Hope is the rope tying your mind to the desires. When you want true happiness, you tug at the rope, which holds you back. After years of penance, this rope of hope, breaks, and you are free.

With the help of your guru's guidance, if you make strong efforts to focus your mind within yourself, you will be convinced of the truth, that, you are nothing but a free soul. And, in that state, the only feeling you will experience, is happiness.

Chanting god's name is like holding the snake charmer's pipe in front of your mind. Just like the snakes are completely hypnotized by the snake charmer, blowing his pipe. The mind leaves all its thoughts and concentrates, when you start chanting god's name. Materialistic happiness is temporary, so it does not hold your attention for long. Your mind seeks something more permanent. Therefore, when it finds eternal happiness in the name of god, it stabilizes there.

Chanting god's name without paying attention, will not help you. When the river ganga's water meets the sea, it becomes the sea. Similarly, when your mind assimilates god, it becomes god.

Thoughts make up the mind. When thoughts are completely eliminated, mind stops existing. As a result, you begin sensing god in everything and everyone. Mind is the cause of all happenings. It is also the only means of gaining knowledge. While awake or dreaming, thoughts exist, so the world exists. In deep sleep, there are no thoughts, so there is no world.

The mind of saints is completely dead, they are without thoughts, and therefore completely happy.

In this age, the average life span of man is very short and all the comforts surrounding him have made him physically and mentally weak. Therefore saints have suggested a very easy path to achieve the impossible and that is, the name of god. You can chant god's name anywhere, anytime. There are no rules, as to who should take his name or which is a good time to take it. The one who takes his name with complete faith, wipes out his sins, fears, sorrows, troubles, everything. Everything gets destroyed.

Like a car that has to keep honking to pass through a crowded street in a busy market place, man has to chant god's name constantly to think of god in his crowded mind.

However busy you may be, if your name is called out, you leave whatever work you may be doing to answer the person calling you. If we keep calling out to god, one day he will surely answer us. If you want to meet your friend living in a big city, You have to have his complete address. Similarly, if you want to meet god, your closest and most loving friend, you have to follow the path shown by the saints, with complete sincerity and concentration. If we fall for the temptations around us, we will never reach god and will never find happiness.

Taking a bath in holy waters will not clean the dirt accumulated in your mind. For that you need to take gods name with complete attention and concentration. If you cannot have the smallest thing in the world without first focusing your attention on it, how do expect to find god without concentrating your mind on him.

Do not forget for a single moment the fact that you are taking god's name and only then will you receive the huge reward, god's true and pure love. This is the reason why saints ask us to chant god's name continuously. Practice will make you perfect and then nothing or nobody will be able to change that.

Though god's name is invaluable, you need your guru's guidance to chant it. Only then will the ignorance in your heart disappear and the sun of knowledge shine. When this happens, you will forget the world around you and soon you will forget yourself. Just like there are more than one way to reach a town, there are more than one ways to achieve this. There are many mantras( God's name), which when chanted will lead you to god. But, even though there are many ways to reach your destination, if you are new in the area you will follow the path shown to you by your guide. Similarly, you have to chant the mantra given to you by your guru.

You have to follow your guru's instructions on how to chant the mantra. Why? Though God's name is highly rewarding, if you do not follow your guru's instruction, your mind, instead of becoming clear and balanced, will become more confused. Stepping on this path without holding your guru's hand is like stepping in a boat without the boatman. Holding your guru's hand means taking his guidance. Thus, if you chant the mantra suggested by your guru with complete attention, your every wish will come true.

If accidentally you put your hand in fire, the fire will burn you. Because, that is its character, its property. Similarly, if you take god's name even without understanding its importance, it will still help you. Because, that is its character.

One singer living in Janakpuri, would teach her favorite parrot to say 'Ram, Ram' every morning. Just by taking god's name regularly, her mind lost all interest in this materialistic world and became completely engrossed in chanting the name of god. Everybody who thought her to be a sinful woman, soon started to like and respect her. And now she is a popular historical figure.

In the village Kanyakubja, there lived a Brahmin Ajamali. He once fell in love with a woman of a lower caste and left his family to go live with her. He had ten children from her. For the naming ceremony of his tenth child, he was standing in his front yard thinking of a name for his son. A man passing by was chanting 'Narayana, Narayana'. Thinking this to be a sign, he named his son, Narayana. Narayana being his last child became his favorite child. He loved the child very much, playing with him, calling out his name. Ajamali was effectively taking god's name everyday. Ajamali, who was once an outcaste, soon became a famous respectable figure. This is the power of god's name.