Daily Reading 90. Swamiji explains the impact of Sri Ramakrishna as ‘Jagadguru’.

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

Jagadguru means the guru of the world and universe. To show this, Sri Ramakrishna took religion after religion and practised each one until he realised the Truth in that particular religion.

This is why he was able to say, ‘All religions flow crooked or straight into the sea called Brahman.’ Nowhere does Sri Ramakrishna suggest we change your religion. First we must realise the truth of our own religion, then we can try other religions.

Sri Ramakrishna gave transformation, not information, just by a touch, a look. An ordinary guru cannot get you to obey one instruction, so the knots of the heart cannot be undone. If you try sincerely to obey the guru you will be happier. Sri Ramakrishna gave the world bhakti [love], Jnana [knowledge], karma [unselfish work]. Out of that is born Dattatreya [God the Trinity].

The Universal Mother incarnated Herself as Sri Ramakrishna – and he projected Mother Saraswati as [Holy Mother Sri] Sarada Devi and blessed the whole world. Sri Ramakrishna did not teach disharmony, he always practised spiritual discipline and prayed.

In the scriptures we read that one’s wife must not touch the body of another man.

I am not learned but I know one thing in my heart: The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] loves me. Remember what I am saying. The knife must lose some metal to help others. So you must sacrifice something in service of mankind.

In the Upanishads we read: The light is there and therefore you see it. No sooner do you become aware of Brahman [the ‘ONE’ undivided consciousness], than the fact of Brahman is revealed. As long as you grumble and grouse you have not realised Brahman. Brahman is Eternal Bliss, Freedom.

That which is Eternal and free cannot be produced by doing dharma [righteous acts and practices]. You cannot say, ‘I did this and I produced Brahman.’ In olden times the man did the tapasya [austerities] and his wife worshipped him as God. When he died, she wanted to be with him, and to take birth with him again. So she sacrificed herself on his funeral pyre.[*see footnote 1].

That is spiritual sacrifice – that is why she did it.  But today the men cannot do that, but they [the remaining family] still force the wife to do it using drugs, injections etc.

Lift Sri Ramakrishna’s name up high. Do not be [egostically] proud to ‘belong’ to the Ramakrishna Centre [*see Footnote 2]. Be humble. Just say, ‘Thank you God. You have given me shelter.’

Lust, anger, greed are open doors to hell. Every second you must keep a check on it. Why did [Lord] Krishna say in the Bhagavad Gita] that ‘Lust, anger and greed are the open doors to hell’? Because he made heaven and hell and he knows.

Do not go about fault-finding. If you go to the vegetable market and see a sheep’s head there, it is just something in the wrong place.

[Footnote 1: Swamiji was referring to the now legally-outlawed practice of sati or suttee, self-immolation, in India.]

[Footnote 2: The Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, founded in 1942 by our beloved Swami Nischalananda Puri [Swamiji’s Guru], was housed in a delightful but old building on the Avoca site. Until his mahasamadhi on 1st October, 1994, Swami Shivapadananda worked tirelessly to raise funds for the construction of the magnificent temple and administration complex which today graces that same site.

Swamiji oversaw the project to almost total completion before he left his body. The Centre is now a branch of the worldwide Ramakrishna Math and Mission and is under the leadership of its 7th President, the revered Swami Swatmaramananda.

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.