This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA

iniquity, worldliness and ignorance all vanish before true faith.

The Bhagavan sang:

The Name of the Lord

1. O my Divine Mother, if I die with Thy hallowed name (Durga, Durga) on my lips. Then in the end, O Giver of all Bliss, shall it be seen whether Thou savest Thy poor child drowning in the ocean of sin. 2. I might have slain a cow or a Brahmin or an unborn child!

I might be a drunkard, nay more, the slayer of a woman!

But of all these dire sins I have not the slightest fear.

Through faith in Thy Holy Name I can reach the highest bliss of Brahman.

Yes, faith is at the root of all spiritual progress. Thou canst do without all other things, only thou must have faith. Have but faith in the Lord and thou shalt become at once free from the vilest, the blackest, of all sins. The one thing needed is faith and Bhakti—love, devotion, prayerfulness, self-surrender. It

129