In plain words
The money has come,’ he said. His mother was astonished. ‘Has he stolen it somewhere, or has he begged it from someone? Has he ruined our good name in some other way! I live quietly with my family, keeping to myself. Has he spoilt my honour?’ she fretted, and told the boy to take her to whoever had given him the money. And the boy, just as it had happened: ‘That Nārāyaṇa sent it to me. I did not steal it anywhere. I asked no one,’ he said, speaking the truth. She came to the postmaster: ‘Sir! Is all this true?’ she asked. Then the postmaster: ‘Mother! It is God Himself who sent it. Left to myself, my heart is a hard one. The moment I saw the boy’s letter, God Himself put that feeling in me. It is He who had this money given to you. It was not I who did it. I am only an instrument,’ he said. In short, this is what it means: when we pray to God with a spotless heart and an unselfish mind, leaving no room for doubt, He changes some heart or other and brings our purpose to fulfilment.
To pray to God, you must become a little child
‘Where is God? Where is the Divine? It is all sheer madness’: if a man enters into arguments of this kind, he will lose even what he has. That is why Rāmakṛṣṇa too said: ‘If you would pray to God, you must become like a little child.’ So it was with Jesus too! When he saw little children he would go to them and kiss them. Not only that; he used to think, ‘If I too could be like this little child even for a moment each day, how pure I would become.’ The hearts of little children are all divine hearts! We must become people with hearts like these. We must believe the words our mothers tell us. And mothers must not teach evil feelings. When mothers and children grow in this way, the world will sway like a green festoon of unending festivity. It will glow with life. It will ripple with laughter. Today good mothers and good children must grow.