Satyam eva jayate. (Truth alone triumphs).
[Despite best efforts, the venue echo in this audio recording may make it difficult for you to hear – depending on your playback device. So we've done a verbatim transcription, as accurately as possible, which you can read instead, if you choose.]
Swamiji starts with a very attention-arresting statement:
He says: As time goes like this, you reach forty, or fifty, or sixty years of age, you now become frustrated, and you die a disappointed man or woman.
But then, you must desire that which is the highest. And once you come to know what the highest is, only then can you go higher.
How do you come to know? Go to satsang, where discussion about the highest good, takes place. Dive deep into the scriptures of the world. Discuss with simplicity and guilelessness, to know the truth, but not to gain victory over somebody else.
When you discuss the scripture, when you discuss with humility and love, you are spirit-centred, God-centric. When you discuss something with others, to win over them, to defeat them, you are ego-centric.
You must pray to God, 'God, now I understand, a tiny weeny bit, but God provide me now, with thy instrument.' Pray sincerely with your heart, not with your mind. If you pray with your heart, your mind will be purified, and then the saying of Jesus the Christ will be fulfilled: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see, what?.. God.'
You can do this simultaneously, practise purity – and at the same time, worship God. When you do this, man will fail you. But God will never fail you. God's foundation stone stands on sincerity, truth and love. You have these three, and you have to be clear about what you want. There must be no sluggishness in you, no excuse-making in you.
Whatever you think, you must be truthful to express it. Why? Because you want the truth. What is the truth? The truth is that which was, before the world came into being. And when the world is there, it's still there and when the world passes away, it must still be there. That which never changes. That which will never change.
[Profound thought here:] Swamiji says, 'Everything changes on the screen, but the screen itself never changes.' [Think projection screen.] The permanent, the everlasting.
Love – what else can you get, when you have nothing to hide? When you are sincere about it. What else can you get, when you are guilelessly truthful? – God's wealth. And everyone must love to live. He must love something. But 'relative' love, side by side, leads you to dislike or hate something.
Let us love THAT which exists in everything and which is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. And that is God and God alone. Love it! Then the saying of the (Bhagavad) Gita will come true. That you will see the Self, the supreme spirit, in everyone. And the Supreme Being that is there, you'll see it in yourself.
Then who to hate? Who to love? Even now, when we do not know who we really are, we love ourselves more than others. But supposing you know that you are everything and everybody? How much more will you not love yourself?
If one man's love is so great, two men's love will be so much, then three men and then the whole world – what will it be like? You will then say, 'There is no good, there is no bad. All is his play.' You will say, 'Play my Lord, play! Play through the world, play through the ants, play through human beings. Thou playest thy holy game. In contradictory ways, thou playest a game, because thou art thyself understanding thy game.'
Then you will realise that this whole world is only bliss. It is Sat – truth. It is based on truth. Chid – it is full of knowledge. And therefore, because it is truth, full of knowledge, you will become blissful – Ananda. [Satchidananda in full]. You can then say, Hail Jesus!, you can then say, Hari Krishna!, you can then say Ramakrishna, you can say Kali, you can say Durga, say anything you like, you'll know that you are addressing the ONE Being, without a second.
Let us break the shackles of our minds, that give us one-sidedness, that hides the supreme, absolute truth. Thus you will find the Upanishad tries to take you to that state. To make you go above sleep, dream and waking state. When you reach that state, you'll see that all this is a drama. Waking state is a stage on which the Atman plays this game. In dream state it plays, and in deep sleep it also plays.
Let us take a stage from where we can watch all of this, like a silent witness. We will become like the invisible guest – God. He's ever our guest, and the 'silent witness'. He never says anything, so you can't contradict him. He just witnesses. What he thinks, he himself knows. (Swamiji now being humorous) If he ever thinks or not, I don't know. He is bliss, bliss personified. Think about it. Chew it. Digest it. And become One.
To listen to the audio recording, please click on the link below. Jay Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 08:26
The original audio recordings of these posts were made by close Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and Swami Shivapadananda devotee, Mother Radha. The audio editing and noise reduction of the original 1970s-onwards tapes, has been lovingly engineered, over many years, by her son and our dear gurubhai, Brother Tim. May Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji bless them both.
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Links to our Guruparampara (spiritual lineage) organisations, which will broaden your knowledge base: Ramakrishna Math and Mission and our alma maters, the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in Durban.