Daily Reading 121. Swamiji quotes Sri Ramakrishna about ‘tasting sugar’ vs.’becoming sugar’.
Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
A sadhaka [spiritual aspirant or practitioner] must take refuge with saints and sages – and read the scriptures to learn God’s will.
For you and me the world is full of birth and therefore death [samsara]. For Sri Ramakrishna it is a place of mirth – this was because he saw the [the Divine] Mother’s will in everything. Otherwise it consists of birth and misery. Thus I pray: ‘Let me win God’s grace.’
The proof of Master’s [Sri Ramakrishna’s] divinity is self-evident – the fact that so many people worship him makes it self-evident.
Traditionally there are three states, sattva [balance], rajas [excessive activity], tamas [sloth]. Now Sri Ramakrishna says there is a fourth state – the Ishta Devata [or Turiya] state.
Hinduism [or Sanatana Dharma] is the mother of all religions and must have all kinds of devotees. Sri Ramakrishna said that a Hindu family may worship different deities in the same household. If I am in a Hindu family whose deity is Rama but I wish to worship Christ, I must only give up the tamasic [negative] aspect of the worship to make it harmonise with others in the family.
Sri Ramakrishna is a world teacher [jagadguru]. He said, ‘Take a man from where he is. If he is tamasic, make him rajasic. If he is rajasic, make him sattvic.’ This is Sanatana Dharma [the Eternal Religion].
God is One – but He acts out of His grace, out of His free will. He is not bound by anything. He becomes the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer. We use this free will [inappropriately] and are bound again – we start creating, preserving and destroying. We are bound again because we do not know the Seer [Brahman] of creation, preservation and destruction. When you do know Him the lila [divine play] is over. God created this lila, this maya [illusion/delusion or ‘partial truth’ as Swamiji used to describe it to us]. Avidya [ignorance] and maya hide the divine from man.
They say there are only three facets of God – creator, preserver and destroyer – but Shiva is known as five – creator, preserver, destroyer, veiler and revealer. And therefore you use the five sounds [of the Shiva mantra] – na ma shi vaa ya. Avidya hides the soul from you but vidya [knowledge] reveals it to you.
Sri Ramakrishna said: Who cares to be sugar? We all say we want to taste sugar. And we feel, ‘I do not want to be God, I want to taste God.’ So you become a bhakta [devotional devotee]. If you want to become God you are a jnani [a seeker on the path of knowledge].
Shiva is the complete revealer. All five functions work through the elements, the earth etc., the visible forms of Lord Shiva. Worship him in any of the functions. Then he is Dakshinamurthi – the Guru of Gurus – he silently reveals himself. Other Gurus instruct you, but Dakshinamurthi does not speak, he sits like a mirror that reflects your real Self. That which you think is poison, in reality is nectar. If you take the nectar of Shiva bhakti [devotion to Lord Shiva], then you will be full of knowledge and you can impart that knowledge. It is Dakshinamurthi that imparts knowledge.
The five functions, the five elements, are the murti [image or representation] of Shiva himself. Nowhere will you find all the elements not present – thus God is omnipresent. May the knowledge that came to the gods and goddesses, when Shiva drank the poison, be your knowledge. So that which is poison may become nectar – and may you be immortalised. Go [from here] with the love of God, the love of the Ishta Devata [personal or chosen Deity or Ideal].
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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.