Swamiji stresses that the Guru-chela relationship is eternal.
Swamiji tells the story of Tulsidas attending a satsang in a little mandir [temple] in which there was regular reading of the Ramayana.
He'd noticed an old man with a gnarled walking stick, who would shuffle his way into the temple before anyone else arrived, and always be the last to leave. Tulsidas intuited that this was Lord Hanuman himself, in disguise. Listen to Swamiji relating what happened.
Swamiji urges devotees not to get too caught up in rituals. He says they're a stepping stone to higher levels of God-awareness. Fasting and any other processes must give us love for God.
Swamiji touches on the revolutionary and transformative role of Sri Ramakrishna and how he 'lit the fire' of spirituality, to bring man back to his rightful heritage – God.
Says Swamiji: Blessed be the chela [disciple] who has met the blissful Guru – apparently man, but in reality, 'IT' [the ONE divine Consciousness]. Apparently a beggar, but in reality, above all kings.
Swamiji wraps up the homily by saying that when we think of the downfallen, we typically think of the poor. But we are actually the downfallen, because we've been caught in Divine Maya [God's power of illusion and revealing only partial truth].
He [the Guru] is our real friend. All other friends are motivated. Blessed be that relationship. And once a Guru accepts a chela, the chela can crucify him, can shoot him, the chela can talk ill about him, but he will never let go of the chela.
To listen to the clip, please click on one of the links below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
[There's low-frequency lack of clarity in this audio clip, despite best efforts, – so an AI 'slightly enhanced' audio transcription link is below the regular link. It, too, battled.😉]
Duration: 10:40
Click here for the Flipbook version of: → Swamiji's biography
It's a free-to-read, draft 396 page, extended version of 'A Life Lived For Others. No need to install a PDF reader. It'll work in your present browser.
However, if you'd prefer a straight-up PDF version, please click HERE.
Dear Devotee, if we use the term 'He or he', when referring to Swamiji, it's not impolite or disrespectful. It's to minimise the repetitiveness of saying or writing 'Swamiji' too many times.
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, was often very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
Links to our Guru Parampara (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.