Gandhiji and Rama Nama - 2

Dear To All,

We would like to bring here some of the quotes of Gandhi from the book "Rama Nama" by M.K. Gandhi.

Rama Nama in Nature cure

In the armoury of the nature curist, Rama Nama is the most potent weapon.
Let no one wonder at it. A noted ayurvedic physician told me the other
day: 'all my life I have been administering drugs. But since you have
prescribed Rama Nama as a cure for physical ailments, it has occurred
to me that what you say has, too, the authority of Vagbhata and
Charaka.'

The recitation of Rama Nama as a remedy for spiritual ailments is as old as the hills. But the greater includes the less. And
my claim is that the recitation of Rama Nama is a sovereign remedy for
our physical ailments also. A Nature-Cure man won't tell the patient:
'Invite me and I shall cure you of your ailment.' He will only tell
about the all healing principle that is in every being and how one can
cure oneself by evoking it and making it an active force in his life.
If India could realize the power of that principle, not only would we
be free but we would be a land of healthy individuals, too – not the
land of epidemics and ill-health that we are today.

The potency of Rama Nama is, however, subject to certain conditions and
limitations. Rama Nama is not like black magic. If some one suffers
from surfeit and wants to be cured of its after-effects so that he can
again indulge himself at the table, Rama Nama is not for him. Rama Nama
can be used only for a good, never for an evil end, or else thieves and
robbers would be the greatest devotees. Rama Nama is for the pure in
heart and for those who want to attain purity, and remain pure. It can
never be a means for self-indulgence. The remedy for surfeit is
fasting, not prayer. Prayer can come in only when fasting has done its
work. It can make fasting easy and bearable. Similarly, the taking of
Rama Nama will be a meaningless farce when at the same time you are
drugging your system with medicines. A doctor who uses his talent to
pander to the vices of his patient degrades himself and his patient.
What worse degradation can there be for man that instead of regarding
his body as an instrument of worshipping his Maker, he should make it
the object of adoration and waste money like water to keep it going
anyhow? Rama Nama, on the other hand, purifies while it cures, and,
therefore, it elevates. Therein lies its use as well as its limitation.

(Harijan, 7.4.1946)
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Regards & Chant the Maha Mantra
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
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