"O Arjuna, listen attentively! When the living entity chants My name, whether out of devotion or indifference, then his name will remain forever in My heart, I will never forget such a soul."

We insignificant mortals are so much dependent upon this memory power of the Lord to remember the good things done by us that in Ishopanishad text 17 there is a fervent appeal to the memory of the Lord.

"Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You."

Fearing the worst that we will be overwhelmed by our forgetfulness of the Lord at the time of death, Shri Kulasekhara Alwar prays in his famous prayer "My Lord Krishna, I pray that the swan of my mind may immediately sink down to the stems of the lotus feet of Your Lordship and be locked in their network; otherwise at the time of my final breath, when my throat is choked up with cough, how will it be possible to think of You?"

The magnanimous Lord replies in Varaha purana carama sloka that all that a devotee has to do is to surrender to Him, when in full possession of his faculties. At the moment of death, even if the devotee were to lie unconscious and senseless as a stone, the Lord with the long memory remembers what the devotee did when he was well, takes the person under His wings and bestows on Him the best of all worlds. Lord assures - "aham smaraami mad bhaktam", telling us that not a single good thing we do to Him (!) is forgotten.

As we relax ourselves that the Lord indeed remembers, we shudder at the thought of what would be our position if the Lord starts remembering all our offences so meticulously. Here comes Lord Ramachandra (whose glorious appearance day was celebrated yesterday), pacifying us and assuring us with His magnificent attribute as extolled in Srimad Ramayana

"Lord Ram is eternally pleased by even a single small favor done at some point of time, whereas He forgets in a jiffy all the bad turns done to Him however grave and numerous they are. "

Thus this attribute is of paramount importance for the sinful living entities like us. That is why the Lord is glorified as Hari medhase, whose brain works only for the deliverance of the conditioned soul. (SB 4.30.24 )

Source: An extract from an email addressed to Grantraj Yahoo Groups by H G Vaijayanti Mala mataji, disciple of H H Maha Vishnu Goswami Maharaj.

Your unworthy servant,

Radhakrishnan

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