The Sinner Who Called the Name

The sages told the Pandavas of Ajamila, a fallen brahmin who was saved at the very hour of death by calling, almost without meaning to, upon the name of the Lord - a tale of the boundless power of the divine name and of the grace that reaches even the worst of sinners.

Ajamila was born a brahmana, raised in piety and learning, devoted in his youth to right conduct and the service of his elders and the gods. He had every promise of a virtuous life. But one day, sent on an errand, he chanced upon a wicked man and a low woman together, and his senses were inflamed; and from that hour he abandoned his virtuous wife and his good upbringing and all his learning, and gave himself up wholly to that woman and to a life of vice. He fell utterly from the path of dharma, and the brahmin who might have been a saint became instead a sinner.

For the rest of his long life Ajamila lived in sin and degradation. To support the woman he had taken and the children she bore him, he abandoned every scruple, and gained his livelihood by cheating, by gambling, by theft and robbery and every dishonest means, harming others without care, sunk in wickedness, having cast away the whole inheritance of virtue he had been given. Year after year he lived so, growing old in his sins, far from the path of righteousness, seemingly beyond all hope of redemption.

Yet amid all his wickedness, one small thread of grace remained, though he knew not its worth. He had many sons by the woman, and the youngest of them, a little boy born in his old age, he loved beyond all the rest with a doting love; and that youngest son he had named, as it happened, Narayana - a name of the Lord. And so it was that the old sinner, all day long, in his fondness, was forever calling out that name: 'Narayana! Come here, Narayana! Eat, Narayana!' - calling the holy name of the Lord again and again, though he meant by it only his little boy, and thought nothing of the Lord at all.

At last the hour of Ajamila's death drew near. He lay dying, an old man worn out with his sins, and as the life ebbed from him there came to him a terrible vision: the messengers of Yama, the lord of death, fearsome and grim, with ropes and nooses in their hands, come to bind his soul and drag it away to the regions of punishment, to answer for the long lifetime of wickedness he had lived. For by the strict reckoning of his deeds, Ajamila had earned only suffering, and the agents of death had come to claim him.

The dying man beheld the dreadful messengers of Yama closing upon him to seize his soul, and he was filled with terror. In his fear and helplessness, casting about for any refuge, his eyes and his heart turned to his beloved youngest son, who was nearby; and with the last strength of his failing breath, in his terror and his love, the old man cried out the boy's name - 'Narayana!' - calling on his little son to come to him, as he had called a thousand times before. But this time, in his extremity, the name was wrung from the very depths of him.

In the very instant that the dying Ajamila cried out the name 'Narayana,' though he meant only his son, the holy name of the Lord rang out from his lips from the depths of his being; and at that holy name there appeared, swift as thought, the messengers of the Lord Vishnu himself - radiant and beautiful beings, the agents of the Lord, who came and stood between the dying man and the grim servants of death, forbidding them to take his soul.

The servants of Yama protested: 'This man is a sinner, who has lived a whole lifetime in wickedness; by his deeds he is ours, and we have come rightly to take him to his punishment.' But the messengers of the Lord answered: 'He has uttered, at the hour of his death, the holy name of the Lord, Narayana; and the name of the Lord, even uttered unknowingly, even meaning another thing, has a power that outweighs a lifetime of sin. By the utterance of that name his sins are countered, and he is not yours to take. The name of the Lord, spoken even in ignorance, even by a sinner, even meaning his own son, is not without its saving power; for the name itself is holy, and it has been uttered, and it has done its work.'

The messengers of the Lord prevailed, and the grim servants of death were turned away; they could not take the soul of Ajamila, for the holy name had been uttered and had shielded him. And so the dying man was granted a reprieve: his death was held back, his soul was not dragged away to punishment, and Ajamila, who had been at the very gates of death and the regions of suffering, found himself, to his astonishment, still alive, given back his life and a space of time he had not earned.

But more than his life was given back to him. For in that moment, having beheld the messengers of death and the messengers of the Lord, having heard the whole matter argued over his dying body, having understood that it was the holy name, slipping from his lips, that had saved him from the doom his sins deserved, Ajamila was utterly changed. The terror of what he had seen, and the wonder of the grace that had reached him, broke open his hardened heart; and the old sinner, given this undeserved second chance, was filled with remorse for his wasted and wicked life, and with a new and burning longing to turn at last to the Lord whose name had saved him.

Ajamila, restored to life and awakened to remorse, did not waste the second chance that grace had given him. He abandoned at once the woman and the wicked life he had clung to for so long; he left his home and his sins behind him, and went to a holy place, and there gave himself up wholly to penance and devotion, fixing his whole heart now, with full knowledge and full love, upon the Lord Narayana whose name had unknowingly saved him.

The old sinner became a true devotee. Where before he had called the holy name a thousand times meaning only his son, now he called it with his whole heart meaning the Lord; where before he had lived in vice, now he lived in devotion and self-discipline, his remaining days given entirely to God. And so completely did he purify himself by this wholehearted devotion that, when at last he truly died, the messengers of the Lord came again - and this time bore his purified soul away not from punishment but to the very abode of the Lord. The man who had been the worst of sinners was made, by grace and by his own answering devotion, into a saint, and attained the highest goal.

There was in the tale a teaching the sages drew out with wonder: the boundless power of the holy name of the Lord. For if the name, uttered even unknowingly, even by a hardened sinner, even meaning only his own son and with no thought of God at all, could yet call down the grace that turned away the servants of death and saved a soul from the punishment a lifetime of sin had earned - then how great must be the power of that name uttered knowingly, with love and faith and a devoted heart. The name itself, the sages said, is holy and full of saving power, and is never uttered wholly in vain.

And there was in it, too, the teaching of grace: that no sinner is beyond redemption, that the door of mercy is never wholly shut, that even the worst of the fallen may be reached and saved if some thread, however slender, draws down the grace of the Lord. Ajamila had wasted a whole life in wickedness and stood condemned; yet grace found him through a single name, and gave him back his life and the chance to turn, and he was saved. So the tale proclaimed that the mercy of the Lord is greater than the sins of men, and that the holy name is a refuge open to all, even at the very hour of death.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'See, first, the boundless power of the holy name of the Lord. Ajamila uttered it unknowingly, meaning only his son, with no thought of God, at the hour of his death; and yet that name turned away the servants of death and saved him from the doom his sins deserved. If the name has such power uttered in ignorance, how much greater is its power uttered with love and faith. The tale teaches that the name of the Lord is holy and full of saving power, a refuge for all, never wholly uttered in vain; remember it, then, and call upon it, especially in your last hour.

'And see the greatness of grace, and that no sinner is beyond hope. Ajamila wasted a whole life in wickedness and stood justly condemned; yet grace reached even him, through a single name, and gave him back his life and the chance to turn - and turn he did, becoming a saint and attaining the Lord. The tale teaches that the mercy of the Lord is greater than the sins of men, that the fallen are never beyond redemption, and that a single thread of grace can lift up even the worst, if he will answer it. Despair, then, of no one, and least of all of yourself; for grace is greater than sin, and the door of mercy is never wholly shut.'

And the Pandavas took to heart the tale of the sinner saved by the name, and the grace that is greater than all sin.