Swamiji on how God becomes a ‘slave’ through love.
Swamiji speaks about Radhe – what we call Nature or Prakriti.
The Vedantists says Swamiji, call it Maya, the Samkhaya's call it Prakriti and the Vaishnavites, Saivaites or Mother worshippers call it Sakti.
So Radha [Radhe – the same] - is that Sakti. That Sakti which reveals Krishna. Swamiji speaks about the kind of Sakti [power] which Mother Radha had – love. Swamiji describes how she 'binds' God – literally – with her love.
Please listen to Swamiji explaining how you normally can't bind God – but with simplicity of heart, you can not only bind God – but quite incredibly, as Swamiji says, 'make God your slave.'
Not in a derogatory sense. But we know that when we love someone unconditionally, we'll do anything for them. So imagine the extraordinary love of God for the sincere, pure-hearted devotee, without any agenda except to love God for God's sake?
That's what this short and affecting audio post is about. Although Swamiji's emphasis is that the devotee never considers God to be his or her slave, but prefers to feel rather, that we are God's slaves. [We can likely relate this to this scenario at human level, where as caregivers or grandparents, we become virtual slaves to our loved ones. Bound through love.]
Swamiji reminds us that in the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna tells us that he is seated 'in my devotee's heart.' So if the heart if full of love, says Swamiji, Radha must be there. What an exquisite and comforting thought.
Swamiji asks 'What part of our body is Radha?… The heart.' Swamiji says God is rendered powerless by love, and his intellect, in the form of Lord Krishna, 'dissolves' like a block of ice already in the ocean. So if your heart is full of love, that is Radha, and where Radha is, Krishna can't stay away.
This is a deeply comforting post. To listen fully to it, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 04:05
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.
Context: As always, care should be taken to remember that what Swamiji was saying, may have been very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
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 image was generated using Microsoft Co-Pilot AI.