The holy name displays its force even when chanted unknowingly or unintentionally.
In this connection, the story is told of a Muslim who had contracted severe enteritis after eating spoilt meat.
Following the call of nature, he ran into the wood. But he was too weak to be able to get on his feet after evacuating.
All this had been perceived by a wild boar which regarded human excrements as a delicious meal and was impatiently waiting to swallow it.
Finally, the wild boar could no longer control its senses. It attacked the poor man and pierced his heart with its tusks. Dying, the Mus¬lim cried, “Harama!”
Harama, an Arabic word, means something like “cursed”.
In this word, the syllables of the holy name, “Rama”, are contained.
Thus, the Muslim unintentionally chanted the holy name and attained moksa.
Moral of the story:
This is the result of chanting the holy name unconsciously, just for one time.
We can hardly imagine how effective it is to chant the holy name constantly and consciously.
In the Caitanya-caritdmrta, we hear: Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the holy name of the Lord.
If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of Godhead.1 As long as we are on the platform of nama-aparadha or natna-abhasa2, our chanting will not always be tasteful.
But simply by continuing to chant we will certainly make an experience of krishna’s real nature. Srlla Rupa GosvamI compares this to a patient suffering from jaundice:
The holy name, character, pastimes, and activities of krishna are all transcendentally sweet like sugar candy. Although the tongue of one afflicted by the jaundice of avidya (ignorance) cannot taste anything sweet, it is wonderful that simply by carefully chanting these sweet names every day, a natural relish awakens within his tongue, and his disease is gradually destroyed at the root.