Children raised by a Guru
This is a particularly interesting talk for caregivers, parents, grandparents or people involved in early childhood education. Swamiji explains how the ancient system of sending children in their formative years, to live with the Guru, nurtured and produced a totally different category of young person.
Swamiji explains how the Guru would gently guide minds and behaviour using what as Swamiji says, today we would call 'psychology.' The natural surrounds of the ashram and the tranquillity and calm of the environment in which the children were raised, played a great role in the development of sattvic minds and behaviour.
Swamiji has some interesting comments to make on noise pollution and how it affects us at so many levels. So it's not just air, water and food contamination or pollution, but also the incessant din of our supposedly advanced world, which has a destructive impact.
The impact of 'attached' love is discussed. It'll be a contentious topic for some. But the guru's love is dispassionate and disinterested. Here's a definition of disinterested as opposed to 'uninterested', (not interested) which is a very different and negative thing. Disinterested: 'Often associated with objectivity, fairness, and the absence of bias or personal gain. It describes someone who is not influenced by personal feelings or concerns.'
A really interesting discussion. To listen to it, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration 07:45
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 crafted by Microsoft Copilot AI.