Swamiji says stop aiming at heaven.
Swamiji is interpreting, line by line, a scriptural verse, being read by his first monastic disciple and Sanskritist of note, Swami Premananda Puri, our beloved Gurubhai [pictured].
In essence, Swamiji is stressing that we've forgotten our true nature – who we really are. We've become ensnared in Maya to the point that we aim to do 'good' or meritorious deeds in the hope of going to heaven. Only to have our merits run out there, and then we have to come back here to the earthly plane.
Or we've regretfully accumulated negative karma, and have had to go to a lower loka or realm, and again work our way here, and then perhaps back to 'heaven', if that's what we're aiming at.
So we live our lives in such a way that we fluctuate between heaven, earth and 'hell'-type planes of existence, in a self-inflicted and self-perpetuating cycle.
Here's the 'jail-break' suggestion from Swamiji: He says we have to stop aiming at heaven and focus our energies and efforts at going beyond it to return to our true nature. It's up to us to break the cycle of birth and rebirth through concerted self-effort and spiritual practise. [With a large dollop of the Guru's grace of course.😉]
To listen to this sobering lesson, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 11:44
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.