Swamiji says all the forms of yoga expose temporary ignorance on our part.
If ever you've wondered what kind of 'yogi' you are on the spiritual path, whether Karma yogi, Bhakta yogi, Jnana yogi or Raja yogi, this beautiful lesson spells out the different types of yogic relationships with God, and has a gently humorous sting in the tail.
Swamiji says the bhakta and the jnana yogi are equally ignorant [just not yet fully informed] in their approach. He points out the absurdity and indeed futility of trying to imagine everything covered by God. Even quoting the Isha Upanishad which says everything is covered, like a tablecloth, by God. Swamiji asks, 'How can you cover it with anything else, because God is already everything!' So it's attempting to cover God with God, as it were.
As with so many of these talks, Swamiji brings it back to basics. There is one, infinite, all-encompassing Divine, saturating every nook and cranny imaginable. It doesn't matter what shape or form we prefer it to be in to worship it – it's all one consciousness and we too are that consciousness. It shouldn't be a scary concept at all. But rather, deeply comforting to think and feel that we're all part of one endless Divine infinity.
Swamiji makes this so encouraging. He says that in our quest for God or Self-realisation, when love (Bhakti) and knowledge (Jnana) get together, what does it do? It intensifies our search and the thirst for the knowledge of God. There's no inferior or superior path in our quest for the imperishable. We may be traveling on different paths, but with the same objective.
[The First People of the United States say: 'We climb the mountain by different paths. But from the top, we all see the same moon.']
Please click on the link below, to listen. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 08:41
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.
Today's post picture is borrowed from the Integral Yoga Institute, San Francisco.