God lived with them

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Swami Adbhutananda

Sometime in 1903 Balaram Basu's family invited Latu Maharaj to live in their house in Baghbazar, Calcutta. They kept a room on the ground floor available for monks who needed shelter and food, and from time to time some of Sri Ramakrishna's monastic disciples would stay there. At first Latu Maharaj refused the offer, saying that his hours were so irregular that he would be an inconvenience to the household. But the family insisted that having him at their house could only be a blessing, not an inconvenience, and that arrangements could be adjusted to his way of life. Latu Maharaj finally consented. He ultimately stayed at Balaram's nine years without a break.

 

A sinner becomes a sinless by associating with the holy. Once a devotee had done something wrong and was feeling very bad about it. When Latu Maharaj heard this, he called for the devotee to come and see him. He told the devotee: " Look here, my son, just because you have made one or two mistakes, you should not give up your spiritual practices and brood over your lapses and feel hopeless. To err is human. Call on God. He will give you the strength to overcome weakness and destroy your delusion. He is the compassionate one. However great your sine might be, the current of His mercy will not be kept from you. How little is your sin, and yet you are so depressed!... Do you know what Brother Vivekananda used to say? ' Don't worry about a little spot of ink on the body. It is nothing. If one bathes in God's infinite ocean of mercy, the stains of  a thousand inkspots will be washed away.'So I am telling you, do not grieve. Pray unceasingly. Your bad tendencies will go away in a short time."