Do you give some time for God in your entire day? Hardly any or not at all! That will be your answer, I am sure.
We find time for every other activity in our life but at the end of the day, we do not have any time left for God.
Our day starts with brushing our teeth or having our morning cuppa. Thereafter we get engrossed in our day to day mundane jobs. From eating, drinking, bathing, dressing, going for our daily jobs, school, colleges or wherever that we go for work related activities, we go there! There, the entire time is used up for that which pays us to live. Returning back home, we get engrossed with household matters, play, entertainment, travel or whatever else that occupies our time. It could be a child, wife or husband, cooking, hobbies, entertaining, drinking, etc..
Later as the day becomes a night, it’s sleep, sex, entertainment or other things to keep us engrossed.
In your entire day, God never even featured once. So what is it that makes us think of God?
Anytime there is a calamity in our life or when we want something we look up to Him! Diseases, travel, competitive activity like exams, sports, assessments, death, court cases, police action, etc., these and a lot more times we can think of God. Only because we want Him to give us something. Other times it’s festivals, ceremonies, pilgrimages which evoke His name.
At still other times it’s swear words or exasperation. Or giving thanks for gifts received!
Now you ask yourself whether you have taken His name in reverence at any time just because you love Him? Hardly any time!
Even a sage can falter taking His name. Once Narada the greatest devotee of Lord Krsna, asked Him, who was His greatest devotee? The Lord answered that there was a farmer in a small village. Narada wanted to see that do He came incognito to the farmers place. He found that the farmer, who was supposed to be Krsna’s highest devotee, took His name thrice. Once, when he woke up, second time was when he said grace before meals and lastly before he went to sleep.
Narada was upset that by saying The Lords name only thrice, how could the farmer be The Lords highest devotee so he asked Krsna that! Krsna gave Narada a simple task. A bowl filled to the brim with oil was handed over to Narada and asked to circumnavigate the earth once without spilling a drop of oil! Narada diligently completed the task, paying attention all the time at the oil so that it doesn’t spill.
When he returned back to The Lord, Krsna asked him, how many times did he take The Lords name? Narada replied that not once could he take Krsna’s name since he was doing The Lords job only.
Krsna then told Narada, that the farmer was also doing his requisite job which The Lord has entrusted to him, yet he took The Lords name thrice.
This just goes to show, that whatever job you are doing, even if it is Gods work, we should take His name. Taking His name with love and not for some asks or wants will help us get focused on Him alone.
So don’t have any agenda when you take His name.