Divine Diaries

What does the mere chanting of the Divine Name really accomplish? One must weep with true longing. Your only responsibility is to experience profound longing day and night, while seated, walking or lying down, in solitude or in the household or marketplace. Suppose you repeat like a mantra, "Wood contains fire and fire contains rice." Can the mere repetition of these words, valid as they are, kindle the fire, prepare and serve the meal? You will enjoy bliss and gain inner strength only when you commune with God directly, only when you actually partake of the rice. Then alone can you distribute sacred nourishment to the humankind.

[Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa]