Daily Reading 92. Swamiji speaks on yearning for God, Prana, truthfulness and character.

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

If your heart does not cry for God, then yearn for Him – but we are suffering from numbness. Day and night think of this, and read holy stories of how great saints and sages lived and what increased their love for God. Then, one day, we may feel for the Creator, the Provider.

I used to question like this: If I grow up, go to school, enjoy the world, then I will pass away like a worm. Is this all there is to life, or is there a greater purpose to life?

Your real state is when you are at peace with everything. Other things may knock you, but you are always at peace with everything. This is all-round auspiciousness. Say the peace prayer. If God is everywhere He cannot deny you – but in ignorance we deny Brahman [the ONE, undifferentiated consciousness]. We must have faith in the words of the guru and the scriptures; and, if you are broad-minded, in the words of the saints, who are Satchidananda [existence, knowledge, bliss] Absolute.

What makes things expand and contract? Prana [the universal life force, known as Chi or Qi in other traditions] – God – Krishna. When you sleep, prana digests the food for you. Prana is the breath of your breath, the energy of your energy.

As a sadhaka [spiritual aspirant/practitioner] we do not want anything to control our mind. In hypnotism part of the brain is [rendered] non-functional. In God-realisation, the whole brain is functional. It’s like the whole light bulb is functional in the superconscious [samadhi] state. God-realisation is knowing everything, it is Absolute, it is whole, it is not partial.

It is no good saying, ‘Oh, Christ is so great,’ ‘Krishna is so great,’ ‘Ramakrishna is so great. What good does it do us until we put it into action? Religion is subjective, so it needs self-discipline. I can go on telling you, ‘Be good, do good,’ but you must do both. You may do good, but you may be a rogue [at the same time].

You must be truthful unto yourself. No one can eat or sleep for you, or be truthful for you. These are small things but they are very, very important. Duties are very, very important. If you neglect them you will not get God-realisation. Whether your duty [dharma] is sweeping, or sticking on stamps, or washing the lobby [toilet], or answering the phone, it is a duty. Do it with love, do it as worship, so that others feel the love.

The character of a man awakened from deep sleep does not change, as does that of a man who has attained liberation. A donkey goes to a holy place and still comes back a donkey, but a spiritual man goes there and comes back a saint, full of wisdom. When you are God, you see everyone is God.

In a dead man Brahman is still present there, not in the form of life, but as bacteria and germs.

The murti [sculpture/picture/representation of some aspect of God] is not only for concentration. It is first for concentration and then it is the ‘livingness’ of the Deity within you. Therefore you adore God and worship God through the symbol. Besides concentration this gives you a great feeling of livingness [realness of the Deity].

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.