Swamiji confirms: It is more blessed to give than to receive: Acts 20:35 in Christian Bible
What God gives, can not be got from any earthly beings, says Swamiji. In the love that man gives, he expects in turn, to receive something.
It seems that the inbuilt nature of man is focussed in a way that it always wants, rather than to give.
When can that state come, in which you only give, and don't take? To reach this pinnacle of love, one has to take to prayer, meditation and self-surrender.
Prayer is of many different types. There are verbal prayers, silent prayers, there are prayers that ask for one's own benefit, there are prayers for the benefit of others, and there are prayers for no benefit. They just pray. Which prayer is this?
[For interest: In the Christian Bible, the phrase from St, Paul, ‘Pray without ceasing’, appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Not meaning constant vocalised or even silent prayer, but constant God-consciousness.]
Swamiji tells a story about a guru asking his chelas [disciples] why they pray. Each gives their perspective and reason. Swamiji uses the story [please do listen to it] to show that the guru doesn't class one motive as higher or lower than another. He uses it as a starting point, any point, to trigger the switch of spiritual life for that devotee's good.
Ultimately the chela will reach that love which is motiveless. You'll give love because it is the nature of the soul to give light and love. Just like it is the nature of the sun to give light. It just does it. The best comes out when you don't know that you're doing it. Is that an ignorant state? No! It's a state of love.
Swamiji illustrates the point by saying how many of us behave in front of the guru – in an approval-seeking way. There are others who behave naturally. They don't care what the guru thinks or what the [school] teacher thinks. They just behave naturally.
Until one day the guru puts maya [some delusion] on him. You know what that maya is? 'This boy has the best manners. Do you see how he behaves at the table? He makes sure others are served first. He speaks so sweetly.' And so Maya starts. Now watch what happens. Listen to Swamiji explaining the outcome.
So behaviour has moved from natural and unmotivated to unnatural and motivated. It was previously spontaneous. Now it becomes calculated.
In wrapping up the homily, Swamiji says we can become motiveless. The biggest maya is the guru praising the chela, because they know that praise will bring hindrance. But when the child is doing wrong, the Guru will act in the opposite way to the child. There's no 'do' and 'don't', he just acts in an opposite manner. And if you're a first class child or disciple, you'll observe and notice what it is that the Guru really wants.
To grow in spiritual awareness, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 07:49
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 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.
The image in today's post was crafted from prompts to Microsoft Copilot AI – Artificial Intelligence.