Swamiji in a hard-hitting expose of sensuality, hypocrisy and falling off the spiritual path.
A devotee asks Swamiji 'What's a good way for a young person to start meditating?' Swamiji's response is: The young person should watch first of all, whether their mind is attracted outside or inside.
If it's attracted outside, then they should take something they love, like maybe a photograph, or a dot [see post 126-1], or a deity, and look at it with open eyes.
Then slowly, in time, close the eyes and try to bring the image inside. Open the eyes again. Every two minutes you do that.
Swamiji suggests a similar approach using a candle-flame. And every time you do that, feel that the mind is getting one-pointed. You'll find less agitation [activity] and happiness will come automatically. Start like that. From then onwards, you'll find your own mind will be attracted inwards.
If you believe in God, it's good. You can never beat that. Because it makes your meditation not mechanical, but living. And all the attributes of a good man will be supremely good and positive. From there you work it up. That is for the young person.
Young men, especially, are hero-worshippers. If you ask Benji or Sam [our pottery master and artist brother, Andrew Walford's sons] of mine – who do you like – it'll be Hanuman! What you think, you become. That's what the scriptures say. If you think of the Self [the higher one], you must become the Self.
A man said to the Guru, 'I can't meditate.' The Guru asks, 'What do you love?' He said, 'I love my buffalo.' Guru said, 'Well, describe your buffalo', which the man did in detail. The Guru said, now close your eyes and meditate on it. An hour or two went by and they called the man, 'Come here!' He said, how can I come, the horns are so big I can't come out of the door. The devotees chuckle. He'd identified himself that strongly with the buffalo.
Swamiji reminds us about Sri Ramakrishna concentrating so hard on Sri Hanumanji that his tailbone [coccyx] actually grew. Swami Abhedananda tested the same approach through concentration. He focused on a boil emerging on his skin – and it did. He was standing outside watching a kite flying in the sky, and he focussed on the kite string breaking and it did.
Vivekananda was naughty, too. Ramakrishna gave him certain powers and he decided to test the powers. Swami Abhedananda was there and Vivekananda touched him and sent him into samadhi [a superconscious state]. Master was very displeased and said, 'You did him harm. How many years backward have you pushed him? You must never do that in your life again. No test cases.' Because Abhedananda's meditation was different, and another vibration was superimposed. And it fused the wires. When the wires [of the subtle nadis – spiritual nerves] are fused, confusion takes place. Each one to his own. [Swamiji told us that if people artificially stimulate or arouse these unprepared nerves through drug or other processes, they can permanently burn them out for this birth – and nobody can do anything.]
There shouldn't be any jealousy or competition between devotees. Why? What for? Spiritual competition is a bad thing. Ultimately, you'll see you got nowhere. With whom are you going to compete?
You must do meditation – there's no two ways about it. If you don't get control of your mind, if you don't focus it on one thing, you'll never have peace, nor are you going to give peace to others.
This is especially important for the young ones. The older people know they've had it That's for sure. I know I'm painting a very black picture, but I know they know they've had it. Because now the mind is troubling them more. They're becoming more sensual. No matter what they say, you can see it in the eyes. They're becoming more sensual and they're becoming more conscious of worldly things.
The other day I read that an 86-year-old man got married to a 20-something year-old girl. They become despondent. They know they've been bluffing all this time. They know that they didn't make any headway in sadhana [spiritual practise] and that they were bluffing. So they start to imitate [act it] and make it worse. Despondency sets in and their whole life becomes an imitation.
Swamiji quotes someone [I can't hear the name] who said, 'The mind will never respect you.' He said it's like having a servant and with the servant you go and steal and everything, but you tell the servant not to steal in your house. You think the servant will listen to you? He knows what you do with your neighbour's things. He'll do exactly what you do.
So it's like that with your mind. If you co-operate with your mind and do the things that are not conducive to spirituality, it won't listen to you [when you try to change]. Never! Try it.
And I know – I must say again – a lot of people have reached that stage now. They know they can't make headway. Swamiji explains how quickly the mind will deteriorate – he says 'cut the sinkers [that which weighs you down] of falsehood'. I'm just telling you, gather your mind.
That is why Sri Krishna Bhagavan does it very well. He says it very well in the [Bhagavad] Gita [verses 5.27 and 6.13]. Focus on the root of the nose or the space between the eyebrows. [Note: not the ajna or so-called 'third-eye' chakra in the middle of the forehead]. As you do that, you can actually see light. And the light will lead you. And as you do that, breathe in and think 'So-hum' [I am Siva] or 'Sa-aham' – meaning I am she. Or repeat Ram, Ram, Ram or Shiva, Hari, or Ramakrishna Hari, Ramakrishna Hari. Swamiji gives many alternatives and says just try it! He then suggests individual deity names or combinations of them. Any one of these or the name of any deity, repeated in japa with a degree of focus, must start gathering the mind together. Try it for five minutes. Or try for even three minutes.
Swamiji says, 'I pity you all, from the bottom of my heart. Start now. You see, your strength won't last. Your physical strength won't last. Your physical beauty won't last. Your high intellectual development won't last. Because as you start getting old you know what happens. Being sensual and getting old you lose the power of memory. You know yourself it's gone and you can do absolutely nothing about it. Swamiji says that with the sensuality 'everything will have leaked out'. He says, 'Well if you don't listen to me, one day when I'm ashes to ashes, then you'll know, that old fella said the right thing. I mean it!
If you like a thing, even the gods can't stop you getting it. Didn't you see a man love another girl? Swamiji gives an example of the lengths people will go to, to satisfy desire. He says that neither the guru nor the gods, having taken you to the well, can make you drink.
Swamiji talks about the kicks and blows that will come to the guru trying to pull us into line. Using the example of how the Lord Jesus was treated for doing the same thing. Says Swamiji, 'Someone asked me, 'If Christ was to come again, what do you think the people will do..?'
Swamiji concludes by saying that all the Gurus are trying to get us to do just one thing – gather our minds.
To listen to this noisy in the background, but hard-hitting recording, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 14:17
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 visual in today's post was crafted using prompts to Microsoft Copilot artificial intelligence – AI.