The Lord Will Glance Into the Direction of Those Who Plead for Mercy! HH Sacinandana Swami: As I’m sitting here in Vrindavan, as the minutes, hours and days go by, I am more and more interested in the close God, not so much the distant God. I’m less interested in the God, Who is only thought about, but not experienced, Who is philosophized about, but not seen. As I chant, I think deeply about how to establish real contact with the Lord. What he says is, “My Lord, I am directly calling out to You now, I am directly approaching You now, by Your various names. And as I do this, I imbue them with one request: Please invest a glance of mercy in my direction! Lift me out of this ocean of worldly sorrows! Then, when You have done that, deliver this ignorant fool and take him to You.” This is also my motto. I have heard from Srila Prabhupada, “Don’t try to see God, try to serve Him.” The best way to serve is to chant and call His names in loving devotion. The Lord will glance into the direction of those who plead for mercy. I chant the famous Damodarashtakam prayer every day. In this song the saint Satyavrata Muni begs the Lord to be able to see His beautiful, smiling face as young Krishna. He says, “Thousands and millions of other benedictions are of no use to me.” But then, after requesting, “I want to see You!” three times, he shifts his request in verse six and prays, “I want to hear You.” He says, “Namo Deva Damodar Ananta Vishnu!” He calls out four sacred names of Krishna, “O Deva (Supreme Lord)! O Damodar! O Ananta (unlimited Lord)! O Vishnu! Please, be pleased with me, my divine master. I’m immersed in an ocean of worldly sorrows. Please, shower Your glance of mercy upon this fallen soul. O Supreme Lord, deliver this ignorant fool and become visible to my eyes!”