Daily Reading 72. Swamiji stresses shrine murti-power, and the need to yearn for God.

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

When you prostrate [bow your head and put palms together, or kneel with forehead touching the floor] in the shrine you do not realise how important this is. Nor do you realise the power you take from the photo or the murti [image, picture, sculpture, statue]. It is not like prostrating to an ordinary man. That is why Sri Ramakrishna says his photo will be worshipped in every home.

Question: How should we clean the murti?
Swamiji: Stand before the Deity and say, ‘Lord, come out of me and enter that murti, and allow me to wash you, dress you, feed you.’ You yourself must be clean. Do not stretch your legs [feet] towards the Deity. You can put them sideways [if you’re seated].

Life is suffering until we realise that all is God’s will.

Question: What should I say when people ask what religion I am?
Swamiji: Say you are a Vedantist.

Question: If they ask what that is, what do I say?
Swamiji: Just say, ‘I believe in one Supreme Being.’
Question: If they ask me what my path is?
Swamiji. Say, ‘I have chosen the path of Yoga.’

In the bright light you can see your path clearly, wherever you are going. This reminds us of something fearless, something blissful, something joyful. But the light must go out one day, and we are thrown into confusion again.

Jesus the Christ said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ But we do not [really] want God, we are bluffing ourselves. Something is wrong, because God is not revealed – we are caught in our whims and fancies.

Sri Ramakrishna cried intensely to the Divine Mother for twelve years for the sacred knowledge. Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘When these three feelings come together, you will realise God: 1. The love of a chaste wife for her husband; 2. The love of a miser for his money; 3. The love of a paramour for her lover.’

Do you know what is the most serious sickness in this world? Boredom.

As long as you have a body there will be happiness, sadness; pleasure, pain; heaven, hell. Right now you are trying to reject hell. But reject both heaven and hell, and go beyond. We want the creator of heaven and hell. We do not want the created. This loka (realm) gave me no end of trouble. I do not want to go to any other loka [plane of existence].

We identify ourselves over and over and over with something we are not. We mistake the body for the Atman and therefore you cannot reach the Paramatman or Self. In the [Katha] Upanishad we read: There is something permanent in the body. ‘अशरीरं शरीरेष्वनवस्थेष्ववस्थितम् । महान्तं विभुमात्मानं मत्वा धीरो न शोचति ॥ Translation: ‘Knowing the Self as bodiless in bodies, as permanent among the impermanent [established in the unstable], as great and all-pervading, the wise one does not grieve.’ This refers to the highest Purusha.

If there was no desire, the eyes and ears and other organs would not be there. The Knower of Brahman knows: This is all One. In dream the mind is in different objects. You dream of a car. You think it is a car but it is really mind. The desire itself is Brahman. What I desire is the power of Brahman and therefore Brahman itself. Desire for the fruit is Brahman. Fruit [results, outcome] is Brahman. Everything is Brahman.

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.