Daily Reading 97. Swamiji was ‘tested’ by young university students. They lost. ;-) Many became lifelong devotees.

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

Traditionally there are three states [known as the three Gunas]: sattvic [balanced, integrated, harmonious, at the fulcrum, centre, of the emotional and behavioural continuum or see-saw], rajasic [excessive, over-the-top] and tamasic [slothful, uncaring, demotivated, anything-goes on down to negative and evil]. But now Sri Ramakrishna says there is a fourth state: the Ishta Devata [chosen Ideal or personal Deity] state.

If you do perfect sadhana [spiritual practise] you will get answers to all your questions within. Come to me [the guru] with your heart – not your mind. [There were those who sought to (unsuccesfully) challenge Swamiji intellectually! They arrived (usually university students) saying they’d ‘come to test him’. Their arrogance, delusion and ego was comical. Swamiji lovingly disarmed, disabused and guided them, and many became life-long devotees]

Think: peace, peace, peace [shanti, shanti, shanti]. All disharmony, internal, external and heavenly, is destroyed. Add OM to ward off all inauspiciousness. ‘OM peace, peace, peace,’ is a very powerful mantra. Repeat it morning, midday and night. You will find peace all around.

Meditate on the sattvic Deity and you’ll become Brahman [the ONE undifferentiated consciousness] itself. Always remember the Deity is living. All we must do is to change our reaction to our environment. You must find happiness inside yourself. Never think you will get happiness from someone else. As you become sattvic you leave out everything else.

Hanuman and guru are body-less. He guards you without a body. Worship a Great Soul and you will realise God.

You can pray for others if you think your God is living – because thought is a living force. Positive thought must affect their subtle body – because your prayer is for their subtle body.

A real devotee never speaks lies. In Lord Shiva’s mantra [OM namah Shivaya] ‘OM’ is thought – namah is word – Shivaya is deed. ‘O Lord, help me to be pure in thought word and deed – let us live in love.’

As Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘The world is a mansion of mirth only when you regard it as a divine lila [play].’

Becoming is not important – it is being that is important. Remove the impurities. Never co-operate with the mind when the mind wants to do something else – otherwise it does violence to your spiritual life.

The whole purpose of sadhana [spiritual practice] is to be pure and humble – then you become more selfless.

Divinity is in all the senses at all times. The greatest fruit of grace is self-surrender. You can’t get it without grace. In ‘self-forgetfulness’ comes God’s grace. In pain you must see Him – surrender completely and know He does all – or praise Him. Take misery as grace, so that you remember God – your own Inner Nature – then that is what you will manifest outside.

Light the fire for desire for God. Protect yourself by seeing God in everything. You do the work and He will reveal Himself in His own time.

God can say, ‘Remember you are only my instrument.’ You must do dharma [righteousness/good/the right thing]. When God sees this, He showers His grace on you. Sometimes, when you have ego, you are not aware of it. If it is a sattvic ego, you are aware that God’s grace is always working but is sometimes hidden by the ego.

For us the world is full of birth and death – for Sri Ramakrishna it is full of mirth [joy, happiness] because he sees his [divine] Mother’s will in everything. So let us win his grace. The fact that so many people worship Sri Ramakrishna is proof of his divinity.

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.