Among a variety of snippets, Swamiji talks the possibility of householders living in an ashram. Disc 142 – 8.

To listen to Swamiji speaking, please fully open the post and then click on the link below.

This is a somewhat topic-fragmented audio clip. But as usual, pearls of wisdom are hidden within. So please just bear with it.

Swamiji: Tables must be turned. You must tell your mind what to do and it must be willing to do it. Then you’ve achieved it. But you find you can tell your mind one thing and then it’s like a naughty child you know. Telling it, ‘Sit down there’, and it says, ‘No, just now. I’m going outside and then coming back.’ Then, it says, ‘I’ll sit.’ The whole thing is play between man, mind and God. Other things [blurry sound…].

By now you should [be able to] throw your mala [Hindu prayer beads] away in the Ganges. [No longer finding a need for it]. Your whole consciousness should become mala itself. Every second, every thought should be a mala – repeating God’s name. That’s the idea. Every time you say God’s name you turn a bead [on the prayer rosary]. Every thought should become a bead.

Well, I hope these two have got a wonderful opportunity. To make God’s name increase. [Swami] Saradananda here, [Swami] Premananda there, they’ve all got opportunity. Everyone’s got equal opportunity. But everyone doesn’t make use out of that equal opportunity. That’s the only problem.

We’ve got vows here. I haven’t yet showed you all the vows on householders. I’ve also got a vow on householders. [Swami] Balaramanandaji sent it to me where the householders who lived a pure life, they got to take it [vows] as well. [Swami Balaramananda was the President of the Ramakrishna Mission in Mauritius. He also participated in consecrating the Murti of Sri Ramakrishna at the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in South Africa on 25th February-4th March 1984. I can’t find a picture of the delightful Swami Balaramanandaji in the Ramakrishna Mission archives. If anybody has one – care to share?]

Living at home they can live. Better still they say, according to him, you must go away to the ashramas and live there. Like Brother and Sister [although married]. Master’s [Sri Ramakrishna’s] teaching is that after a certain stage [after two children] a married couple on the spiritual path should live together as brother and sister. If you can live [like this] at home, it’s good. Better still – at an ashram.

Nag Mashaya was not the only disciple [Householder disciple] living with Sri Ramakrishna. M [Mahendranath Gupta – the recorder of Master’s Gospel is mentioned as well] Swamiji: That time it was needed. It’s OK, you can stay, but now you want people to work – they can come and live in an ashram as long as they adhere to a brahmachari’s life. At home Master made them stay. He had his own reason at that time. Because something new he started.

No ways I’m saying live at home if you want to live in an ashram. When your mind wants to live in an ashram, be there.  They say keep it secret if anything [not sure what this is referring to  – spiritual experiences?], there’ll be a benefit to it. But if you make it public, you lose it. So that has to be kept secret.

How secret? He’s giving correspondence course. People asking each other, ‘What you enrolled [for]?’ No I paid so much to enrol. You used to do that in the beginning because you’re accumulating some wealth. For the ashram of course, not for himself. Getting some funds to print books. So they did correspondence course, one year, two years. Teddy said, ‘No man, give everybody.’ …… up till now, nobody wants to see those pages.  So remember this:  Don’t go about blab, blab, blab. Finished. Just do it. Give, right, finished. If you’re interested you come, if you’re not interested, don’t worry.

Why the people like the gurus so much of India?  They don’t come out in the public [seek publicity and recognition]. They’re sitting there, even if he’s third-grade guru they’ll like him. Sitting there. This is true.

Why [someone – can’t hear name – but ends in ‘ananda’, so sounds like a monk?] had a lot of pens? I thought: How must I answer it [the question about why]? When you see a lot of pens, what do you think? He must be attending lots of classes.  Well, he told he was the eternal student. Otherwise he won’t give so many pens. You don’t see it? Otherwise he must be a lecturer. That’s why he’s a mad fellow – he’s an eternal student that. Inaudible comment from devotee… Swamiji: You’re actually passing a compliment. You know why? That shows that he must come right and start learning. From scratch. So he’s ever-fresh. You are all dead and stale, because you’re already learned. 

Like Ravana asked Mother Sita a question like, ‘Compare me to Rama, what do you think I am?’  So Mother said, ‘Ooh. Ravana, you are a full moon.’  And what about Rama, he asked? Mother answered: Oooh! He’s the new moon. Ravana was very happy. Swamiji: He does not know that when you’re full moon you start dying [waning] from the next day! You see he’s going to overtake you – going to cover you up. To Ravana it was a compliment. But it wasn’t a compliment at all.

The free-to-read, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE.

These recordings were made from the 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.