Daily Reading 119. Swamiji talks about us seeing ‘problem people’ elsewhere.
Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
Excerpt from Meditation and Spiritual Life, by Swami Yatiswarananda: We must take the greatest care of our own mind. We constantly struggle with our environment.
Swamiji: In this ashram they find problems with others. But if they look closely they will find they are the problem. Let them remove themselves and they will find there is no problem.
Reading: There is a never-ending conflict in the external world and the internal world. Life is an incessant adjustment to this. Self-induced illness and drunkenness are flight reactions. Fight the enemy within, this leads to poise, peace.
Swamiji: This is so beautifully put.
Reading: The mind is so strong, it is next door to the Spirit. It must have the full impact of the Almighty.
Swamiji: Doesn’t it sound like medicine? You must not treat the Deity as a dead thing. You must always remember the Deity is living.
Krishnamurti [Jiddu Krishnamurti] said, ‘Most people suffer because they want other people to change – only then do they think they will be happy.’ All we must do is change our reaction to our environment. You must find happiness in yourself. Never think you will get it from someone else.
To become sattvic [balanced, harmonious, gentle] you do not have to leave out anything. As you become sattvic you will renounce everything yourself. Sri Ramakrishna was very careful about self-condemnation. He said, ‘If you pluck the flower first, there will be no fruit. So wait till it drops off by itself.’
Don’t give any advice unless someone asks for it.
If you do perfect sadhana [spiritual practise] you will get an answer within to all your questions.
Come to me with your heart, not with your mind. Think peace, and all disharmony, internal, external and heavenly is destroyed.
OM peace, peace, peace, [shanti, shanti, shanti] is a very powerful mantra. We add OM [the Pranava] because that wards off inauspiciousness. Do this morning, noon and night and you will find peace all round.
As soon as Adam and Eve were aware of the pairs of opposites, they fell.
The sun is full of consciousness of light – but we are only aware of light when we are conscious of darkness.
Meditate on a sattvic Deity and you become Brahman Itself.
Underlined words are hypertext links to clarification, explanation or other sources. Just tap on them.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography, ‘A Life Lived For Others‘, is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial ‘memoir’ booklet of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.
There’s also a Facebook site for Swamiji’s posts now. They feature newer readings published more recently. Click HERE to view.
These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 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 those with him at the time.