Daily Reading 124. Swamiji gives guidance on a range of spiritual topics.

Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

You may squabble, but remember you are all children of the Master [Sri Ramakrishna]. Afterwards you must be one again.

Question: When a sannyasi comes here to the ashram, how must we behave?
Swamiji: As you would with your father.

Sri Ramakrishna’s devotees have no problem, only that they must not indulge in the free play of the senses, or become greedy.

Sri Sarada Devi said, ‘O my child, when there are difficulties, like a cloud they will go. Difficulties come to all. And when God incarnates, difficulties come to him.’

A small seed [size of a mustard seed] contains the whole banyan tree – but it is unaware of it.

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘All is Narayana [God], [both] the elephant and the mahout [the rider].’

Everyone’s heart’s primary feeling is love. But it is contaminated with ego and becomes anger etc.

Children must be encouraged to make up new games and to spontaneously sit quietly for one minute a day. Then the purity will always be there. One minute of silence will give the ability, when facing a problem, to withdraw into the silence. This early [development] period is most important.

Early in the morning, parents must recite the Lord’s Suprabhatam, and the violent passions will be calmed. Once a week the whole family should sit together, meditate for one minute, then each one sing a godly song. This only takes about ten or fifteen minutes altogether. At six in the morning the mother and father should sit together to meditate. The child will see this. When all the family is involved, there is great impact.

The child learns to seek for its own identity, and wonders, ‘To whom do I belong?’ This leads to, ‘Who Am I?’ There is no answer.

The only work of spiritual people is to love, love, love – nothing else. The more you practise love, the more the impurities are reduced. There are many facets of love.

Eat sattvic food. Speak sattvicly.

In one whose heart is pure, the causal, subtle and gross bodies are pure. If any of them are not pure, the heart is not altogether pure. You are seated here to become pure in heart, then the soul will manifest its true nature. When the three bodies become pure you will not be a hypocrite.

If the intellectual, mental and physical bodies are pure, the heart is pure – then you are pure in thought, word and deed. A God-realised man never does what is wrong. A real devotee of God never speaks lies – in thought word or deed.

Do you know how the all-night Maha Shivaratri [the dark night of Lord Shiva] started here at the ashram [Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]? One Shivaratri night, Gurudev [Swamiji’s Guru, Swami Nischalananda Puri] went upstairs to rest and we youngsters were left alone. So we sat up the whole night and used Sri Ramakrishna’s chamar [fan]. Gurudev came down in the morning and said, ‘Well, you must have been feeling hot that you fanned him [Master] all night.’ And that is how it started.

Thought is AUM [or OM], word is namah, and deed is Shivaya. Pray, ‘Oh God, help me to be pure in thought, word and deed.’ Let us live in love.

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.