Swamiji talks about the pursuit of ‘happiness’.
Swamiji talking about spiritual development. He says, 'Every stage has happiness'. And in almost every stage, you have the opposite, which is misery.
But only in one stage – that is the last one – that is bliss in the spirit or the Self – that has no pairs of opposites. Because in that state there is no second. There's only one and one alone.
Swamiji quotes Sri Krishna Bhagavan who gives us some practical advice. The Lord says the first thing is to keep the mind pure. And Swamiji quotes the Lord Jesus in saying, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.'
Swamiji discusses whether or not we're following the advice of the great ones to keep ourselves pure. A beautiful addition here: Swamiji says don't just try to keep yourself pure, but at the same time, try to contact the Universal Spirit. Which we term as God, Nirvana, the Tau, these are terms for the Universal Spirit. And how to contact it? We do this by following the advice of the Ishavasya Upanishad, which says see this Universal Spirit dwelling in everyone, and permeating everything.
Swamiji talks about the role of imagination, which some people pooh-pooh. But Swamiji has said time and time again that imagination is the greatest gift. Not 'a' great gift, but THE greatest gift. [He told us from our early days at the Avoca ashram that, 'What starts out as imagination, becomes reality.'] Because everything manifested has to start with a thought. Swamiji gives several practical examples of this. From house plans, to moral and ethical laws. From the mental, conceptual and intangible to the tangible.
Swamiji explores the concept of 'happiness' from a variety of perspectives. He stresses after these illustrations, that there is only one state which is above the pairs of opposites [happiness/sadness, peace/chaos, sour/sweet] and that is when the stage of 'One without a second' is reached. Because then there is no 'other'.
Some people seek happiness in alcohol, says Swamiji – others through drugs, and even sleep, but there's always the opposite called unhappiness, waiting at the end of those experiences. Many examples follow, about the extent to which we go, in our quest for an unrealistic, but permanent state of 'happiness'.
Swamiji explains what this means for married people. No, it doesn't mean withdrawal from responsibilities for them. Listen to the guidelines. Swamiji always exhibited the highest respect for the householder or 'grihastha' [married], state. [Swamiji once said to me, 'This time, I have come for (the benefit of) the householders.']
The big lesson to be drawn from all of this says Swamiji, is that whether happiness comes along, or suffering comes along, we must be indifferent to both. Swamiji uses a fun allopathic vs. homoeopathic medicine proponents analogy. At the ashram, these two groups people were in constant conflict, much to Swamiji's amusement. The conclusion being that something may produce happiness, but the side-effects of the happiness may turn out to be undesirable.
To learn from these pearls of wisdom, please click on the on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 10:21
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. The Ramakrishna Centre of Johannesburg is also active in Gauteng province in South Africa.
There are various publications [The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna etc.] which you can download at no charge, from the Ramakrishna Centre of SA website page, HERE.
The image in today's post was generated using Microsoft Copilot AI.