Swamiji speaks about our spiritual ‘genetic defect’ – ignorance.
[For some reason, this turned into a 95%, verbatim transcript of the audio clip.😉So, happy reading, if that's your preference.]
Says Swamiji: With all man's cleverness, God comes again and again out of compassion, to remind him, 'Don't waste your time.' What is the hope for man? Don't waste your time, and do what?
[Sri] Ramakrishna [Paramahamsa] said, there are two kinds of ego. One is the ripe ego, and one is the green [unripe] ego. Avoid ahamkara [the green ego] – 'I-consciousness'.
I-consciousness in relation to God is mature, ripe, blessing consciousness. But ego, I-consciousness minus God, or having no relationship with God, is a green ego. Immature, green ego. It thinks it can do everything, that it can turn the whole world around.
But you know, God is the supreme light, who comes again and again to say, don't build sand castles. Your ego is a sand castle. Anything you build on it, will wash away in the sea of Maya [illusion or partial truth]. No sooner you realise this, than there's no hopelessness, but there's humility. In this humility, self-effort itself, is a grace.
We expect grace to be something spectacular, something to happen. Nothing will happen. It has already happened. What has happened? The grace is operative in the form of I-consciousness. Now the only thing [necessary] is to get your right relationship. If your relationship is not right, the whole value is lost. Once your relationship is right, the value will be there, the attitude will be there. And attitude is the criterion.
What part does God play? The part he plays is just like the sun. He himself has taken that form. He himself is shining, in a different aspect. If you accept the relationship, then the manifestation is speeded up. And any pain becomes bliss.
You feel that you're giving birth, and whilst giving birth, you're going to have a beautiful child, so what is a little pain? You'll scream, you'll cry because it's painful, but the mind will be concentrated on the fruit [outcome or result].
Similarly, if you know that all this suffering you're having, is in relationship to God, and for God, it is blissful. Otherwise it is all painful. What causes the pain? Ignorance. Swamiji chuckles and repeats, 'What causes the pain?' Ignorance. [We tend to interpret the word 'ignorance' as an insult. But Swamiji has described it many times, as simply not having enough information or knowledge, at that time].
Swamiji says that if a child doesn't know that it's natural to physically grow into an adult, it will look in a mirror from time to time, and wonder what's happening to itself. It will be a source of worry. But if it recognises and knows that this is a natural process, then it won't worry.
What is ignorance? [Swamiji chuckling]. The scriptures say it is a 'natural defect'. This natural defect you must wonder about very carefully. Natural – underlined – it means you didn't create it here. In relation to your [previous] births and deaths, it has become so natural for you, that it's a defect from I don't know when. Don't ask me. You were born with it. How it first started, don't ask me, because that question cannot be asked [or answered]. But the scripture is quite clear.
God showed us how to get up to him. But he didn't tell us how we came down.😉 It's a natural defect, this thing called ignorance. And because of that ignorance, when we come into this world, our senses are so fashioned according to the Katha Upanishad, that they want to go outside only [externalise]. But the same Upanishad says that though the natural defect is there, man can choose between Shreyas [good] and Preyas [pleasure]. But the senses want to enjoy pleasure, they only go for pleasure, and pleasure you can't get inside. [Wait for this!] Inside you'll get bliss. And you'll always want that. But the scripture is quite clear. You have two sides. Because of this natural defect, ignorance, you want to get it outside.
But we want to blame destiny. It's not destiny. In the life of an intelligent person, a spiritually intelligent person, there's no destiny. What is destiny? What I call destiny is only accumulated impressions of my past. And I can swallow that destiny up, by here and now, realising what is good, even from now – unrelated to previous births.
As you start doing good [shreyas] from where you are, you go against the force of nature, and there and then you start breaking that which you call destiny. Let it come. Because of the anchor of good, it will have no say. It will come, knock! knock! knock! but do nothing. Swamiji sounds it out in syllables to emphasise it. Des-ti-ny. The ship will shake a little, but it [destiny] will do nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The good will take over. And in the future, it'll give you such a subtle power, that the natural defect will be destroyed because the mind automatically turns to take the other way – the inward journey. Naturally, again, [because of consistent, deliberate, positive reprogramming] it will take an inward journey.
To quietly absorb these life-altering truths, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 10:24
Click here for the Flipbook version of: → Swamiji's biography
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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 using prompts to Microsoft Copilot AI. (Artificial Intelligence).