Swamiji speaks on our mistaken sense of ‘ownership’ and sounds a warning on psychic powers or siddhis.
Says Swamiji: Ramakrishna was the perfect scientist of the Kali Yuga.
People ask, 'Why did he have [throat] cancer?' Swamiji explains. Master could of course, have healed the body with a mere thought, but he didn't allow his mind to descend to that level of body-consciousness.
When the Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] body was so unwell, Swami Vivekananda [then Narendra] had some doubts. It was then that Master said to him, 'He who was Rama and he who was Krishna, is now Ramakrishna.' Knowing that the world would misunderstand the statement, he added, 'But not in your Vedantic sense.' Swamiji explains: In Vedanta, everyone is a manifestation of God. In the Puranas [ancient Hindu scriptures] there is this manifestation of God as 'Saviour', as Avatara [incarnation] of Lord Vishnu. In that sense Master was saying it.
When you see that there was no rejection whatsoever in Master's life, you begin to wonder, then what is there to renounce? How does the sadhaka [spiritual seeker or aspirant] behave? The sadhaka has a relationship and an attitude. He is a trustee [for all of God's creation], an honest trustee. But he becomes a dishonest rogue, when he says, 'This is mine!' Swamiji humorously explains the difference between 'honest rogues' and 'dishonest rogues'. When you say, 'This is mine,' then the trouble starts, because you're supposed to be an honest, honourable trustee.
In the scriptures it is said that we will all, to a certain extent, find that we are rogues. You see, all people have money. The poor have money, and the rich have money. Swamiji elaborates on the dangers of a sense of possession, and very humorously tells the story of Bhasmasura, who asked for and was given a boon by Lord Shiva.
Please listen to Swamiji sharing the story! Swamiji is clearly mimicking the hand movements of the dance that took place, much to the merriment of the devotees. The story has a comical outcome. Bhasmasura, whose [bizarre] boon was being able to turn someone to ash if he put his hand on their head, was tricked into putting his hand on his own head.😂And that was the end of him.
Swamiji then goes into the dangers of siddhis or psychic powers. He says, 'You are mistaken if you think you can control them.' Sri Ramakrishna warned against psychic powers. Because that psychic power, once you have it, you'll want to use it to forge an easy way. Name, fame and money. So you start misusing the psychic power. And in the end, Lord Vishnu's element will come and reduce you to ash.
That is what will happen when you keep your eyes on other people's things. You are supposed to be a trustee, trusted by God, sent to play in his lila [divine play]. But while acting on the stage, you fall in love with different things. You get attached to them. And when God wants his things back, that's heartache, that's pain, that's misery.
Swamiji pulls the thread of this discussion together by saying: So if from the beginning, you have the attitude that 'Nothing belongs to me – everything belongs to God', slowly, day by day, your mind becomes strengthened.
And when your mind becomes strengthened – in that song, what did you hear? Nobody's going to save you. If you've detached yourself, then you don't need a saviour, because God has already sent the saviour [the understanding] to you. To know that all this, the whole world, belongs to him. You have come here, and when you are going, leave it at his feet. Thus, you shall depart honourably from this world.
To be blessed by these insights, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 10:48
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.
However, if you'd prefer a straight-up PDF version, please click HERE. (Depending on the age of your device or the browser you use, you may need to download a a PDF reader.)
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).