God works through multiple instruments, in a proportional way.
[This visual simply illustrates Swamiji's lesson in this post.]
Swamiji says that the key is patience. And when patience is lost and everything is chaotic, then you go to God. So in man, when the patience part of him is lost, then, that very thing that we call mind, runs to him. To who?…God. Because the mind has somehow recognised that God is its friend, and not its enemy.
Swamiji uses an analogy to explain how we call on God, expecting some direct, high-level intervention for a possibly trivial need. Subconsciously somehow, says Swamiji, we do trust god. But consciously we don't do so. Why? Because we get deluded and think some worldly thing will help us.
Meanwhile, even through the worldly things, when something happens, and helps, it is God helping. Swamiji tells a story: A man came to me the other day and said, 'I pray so much, I pray so much, I pray so much. I was so sick. Nobody cured me, so I went to XY person, and that fellow cured me. What do you think about that?' I said, 'Very good, very good.' He said, 'What do you mean, very good?' I said, 'Good.' He said, 'What's the use of me praying then?' Swamiji proceed to tell him how foolish he was being.
Swamiji uses the glorious example of a king being asked to clean up a mess made by children playing outside the royal palace. Swamiji says there's no way the king will need to come and do that. He'll send a servant, and the servant will wipe up the mess.
This man was in trouble, he prayed, prayed, prayed, and nothing happened. So God told his servant in the form of that other man, 'Go and do it for me. Why must I do what you can do?' Swamiji says that this has a very deep meaning. Someone has to do it, but why must God [personally] go and do it? [Old idiom: You don't use a 50mm cannon to swat a fly.]
Swamiji explains how you may pray and pray, and go from temple to temple, and you get cured, but you think your Deity didn't help you. Yet that temple person is a servant of the Deity or Ishwara. Let them do what they can do, why should he [God] come and do it?
If 15 volts is needed says Swamiji, why must 120 volts be used? This is the idea behind it all. I can't see anything else, but God's power working. [Let's say] there are clothes to wash, and someone tells you, 'Come and wash the clothes' – and you delegate the task, and they do it. Then you might say, 'She did it.' But whose power is that? Your authority, your power.
So don't think that if somebody cured you and blessed you, then they are better than your Deity. Your Deity is the supreme, in all ways. The saviour, born specially for you. To the Deity, no one is a friend and no one is an enemy. It is all his, and his alone.
Swamiji concludes by referring to a parallel experience by Lord Brahma.
Please click on the link below, to listen. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 04:56
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.
Admin tip: Underlined words are links. If you click on them, they'll take you to an explanation of the particular word or term. [In these overviews, Admin comments are typically in a smaller green font, and square bracketed, like this statement.]
Dear reader, if you spot typos or or other errors, please feel free to email the site admin on info@imbizo.com with your suggested correction/s.
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.
The visual is borrowed from Optimum Output.