Anger, meditation and mantra
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 818
Keeping silence means that no matter how much a man does to wrong me, I will not try to disgrace him. But if I meet him in a corner somewhere, I'll tell him, 'Look, you know you did a bad thing – you shouldn't have done that.' So, that is to my advantage. But if I start poking a finger at him or picking him out for every little thing he says then I'm the vicious man, not him.
Anger is a sin itself. So I shouldn't resort to anger at first. At first.
A lot of people tell me that Sri Rama got angry – that Ravana got angry. No Ravana and Sri Rama didn't get angry. It looks like anger to us but they were doing that particular thing out of a sense of duty.
For instance, a judge is sitting there and someone is being tried for murder. The judge finds the man guilty. In this country they say, 'Hang him by his neck until he is dead.' [This was before the death penalty was repealed in South Africa]. That's the sentence he passes. Now, when the prisoner is being taken away the judge says, 'I'm so sorry, do you want a glass of water? Can I bring it for you' You see, the judge doesn't manifest any anger, he only does his duty.
Man the animal acts out of anger – godly people act out of duty.
On Meditation and Mantra
Devotee: During meditation, when the mantra gets synchronised with our breath, sometimes thoughts come in and take over and the mantra floats away. But if the thoughts keep coming back should we increase the number of mantras? Can we say it mentally more strongly?
Swamiji: Yes, you should increase it.
Devotee: But the breath gets out of tune, the mantra doesn't come in tune with our breath.
Swamiji: Do it mentally. Just mentally keep thinking about it. What you think, your mental breath will take that shape. What you say, your mental breath will take that shape. Think about it. Repeat the mantra mentally. It doesn't matter about the breath, the breath will come right later on.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites – please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham