Daily Reading 58. Swamiji speaks on Sri Ramakrishna’s tapasya as our example and gives tips for attitude and daily living.

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

Serve, serve, serve. Do selfless service to purify yourself. Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘After realising God you come back to have His lilas and sevas [divine play and service]. Whatever you wish for will come.’

In the Devi Mahatmyam [a Hindu scripture] Shakti asks the question, ‘Who are you worshipping?’ That is the greatest question because when that is asked, there is knowledge – and knowledge manifests itself out of the body of [Mother] Parvati, and says, ‘Worship me.’

Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘In this body there are two: the worshipped and the worshipper.’

Call Sri Ramakrishna the guru, all right. But as long as you think of him as ‘that body’, it is wrong. I get a taste of it inside when I hear these things. I pray you get that taste too. It is here, not over there.

Never even think of stealing, because that is theft already. Sri Ramakrishna transcended Hinduism. He practised the Eternal Religion [known in Hinduism as the Sanatana Dharma].

God does not want you to mortify your body. He wants you to have intense devotion and yearning for Him. He wants you to have moderation, not mortification.

A sadhaka [spiritual aspirant] wants to build a life so that no matter what calamities or trials and tribulations come, he will cling tenaciously to that particular way of life.

To make the wall rise first you must dig deep down [to build the foundations] before it rises. A sadhaka does this spontaneously – as he digs out dirt, so he puts in purity.

Life is suffering until we know all is his will.

Sri Ramakrishna had realised God but he had to do tapasya [austerities] for others to follow. He did twenty years of tapasya – absorbed in God; meditating on the Lord; thinking: ‘I am a worshipper’. Then all distinctions disappeared. He was perfectly identified with Her, Mother Kali, the source of all energy.

Do not rush to get to arti. Bath first and come clean to God. Freshness must be stressed. If you treat your Deity as living, the Deity will become living. If you treat the Deity as dead, the Deity will become dead. Do not worry about the attitude of others. Your ‘livingness’ will make others live.

Your personal sadhana [spiritual practice] must be like breathing. That is where your life comes from.

Advice to Sannyasis [renunciates]: We are here to die to live for Master [Sri Ramakrishna]. One life given to Master is better than twenty lives lived in the world. You must sacrifice something in life. Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother [Sri Sarada Devi] are one soul in two bodies – like Kali and Shiva. Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Worms kept in excreta thrive, in a pot of rice they die.’ Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Thou, Thou O Mother.’ This only comes after great suffering.

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.