Swamiji – see God everywhere – including through song.
This audio clip, unintentionally, became a transcription: 😉
Says Swamiji: To the real devotee, God is not only outside, like Rama and Sita seated outside, but also inside. To the ordinary devotee, God is only outside. To the real devotee, the sincere devotee, God is everywhere. See the Lord, on the altar, with open eyes. But better than that, is to see the Lord inside you. [Swamiji would quite often sing a simple English bhajan, with the words repeated: 'God is here, God, is there, God is, God is, everywhere!']
And when we are singing, you must sing to the Lord inside you, or to the one that you see there [on the shrine]. But when you are singing, you must not be 'lost', so that you just sing anyhow. You must speak to God in the form of kirtan and bhajan. And you must consciously, deliberately, say it sweetly, how….? Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri – Swamiji's revered Guru] said in the 'First Precepts' [a very early publication of the Ramakrishna Centre] 'Speak sweetly – with love.'
But, if you do it with love, you must do it with intense feeling. Like how you hug someone and hold them tight, feel like that. Intentionally. To make the outside spiritual, you do the same thing, but loudly – sing it – loudly. [To be found frequently in the Book of Psalms in the Christian Bible too: 'Sing unto the lord with a joyful heart.] So outside is purified and inside is also purified.
Swamiji relates a Puranic story about tapasya and how Mother Ganga, essentially the element of purity, came to earth to purify everything. For those, like me, who don't know the story, here it is:
The story of King Radha Sagara in Hinduism revolves around his quest to retrieve his sons who were lost while searching for his lost horse, leading to the descent of the Ganga River onto Earth. Sagara, a king of the Ikshvaku dynasty, was known for performing the Ashvamedha Yajna (horse sacrifice) but his horse was stolen by Indra. Sagara sent his 60,000 sons to find it, and they followed its trail to the netherworld (Patala), where they found the horse near the meditating sage Kapila. Mistaking Kapila for the thief, they disturbed him, and Kapila, enraged, incinerated them with his fiery gaze.
Sagara's grandson, Bhagiratha, later sought to redeem the souls of his ancestors. He performed severe penances to please the goddess Ganga, asking her to descend to Earth and purify the ashes of Sagara's sons, thus liberating them. Ganga agreed, but her immense force of descent would have devastated the Earth. Bhagiratha then propitiated Lord Shiva, who agreed to break Ganga's fall with his matted hair. Ganga descended, and her waters flowed over the ashes, finally liberating the spirits of Sagara's sons.
This story is significant in Hinduism as it explains the origin of the Ganga River and its importance as a sacred river that purifies and liberates.
Swamiji continues: And purity is the one that gives you moksha [liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth].So by singing these things morning and evening, day and night, automatically your life becomes purified by the invisible Ganga. Invisible power. Electrical power of God, penetrating our heart. Thousands of years of karma is binding our soul and mind, it slowly loosens it. Like when it came from heaven and washed and loosened the karmas of the sons of the thousands of sons of the great king Radha Sagar.
Says Swamiji: The greatest curse – the curse of the greatest Rishi, Kapila, had fallen on them. But that curse itself could not stand against the purity of Mother Ganga, who let loose the souls of this great king's sons. And we are not cursed by the Rishis, so it won't take Mother Ganga two seconds to destroy that sin.
Swamiji concludes the homily by saying: Provided that we have the shraddha [faith], when you have the shraddha, the faith, that power MUST come! It is a must.
To be blessed by these insights, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 04:11
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 is borrowed from here.