Disc 134 track 4. Swamiji asks: How do you pray and what do you ask for when you pray?
To listen to Swamiji speaking, please open this post fully and then click HERE.
Swamiji continues to talk on the wonderful nature of unconditional love. Meaning it wants nothing in return. He tells the story of a woman about to be married to a king – and she tells the king that she’s in fact already married – but to God.
Swamiji goes on to describe her kind of love. In which she tells God she’ll be happy to be in heaven or in hell, just so long as she’s allowed to love God. She’s not asking for God to love her. She wants to be able to continue loving God. A rare and amazing form of love.
Swamiji goes on to describe people who ask God to let people love them. A dangerous thing – particularly for monastics. Because as Swamiji said, when the Ganga comes down in flood, will you be able to manage it? That’s the big question.
Swamiji describes how the ‘giving’ of love mindset, transforms how one reacts to approaching death of the body. Instead of something to be afraid of, it’s treated as the gateway to meeting the beloved, and is embraced with joy.
This is a powerful teaching about our minds being prepared for the end of this physical life. [Catholics are taught to remind themselves of the maxim, ‘Memento mori’ – which means, ‘remember death’.] Swamiji tells of the beautiful physical departure of Swami Brahmananda Maharaj – a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and the eternal companion of Sri Krishna. His last few days were spent in ecstasy and calling out with joy to his fellow disciples and the Lord who he literally saw coming to fetch him.
It then sounds like Swamiji is reading something in which the author says that men tend to love from a philosophical or mental perspective, whereas women love from the heart.
Swamiji cautions against love for God based on a ‘What can I get out of it?’ mindset. What Swamiji used to tell us was to avoid at all costs, developing ‘a shop-keeping relationship’ with God.
Swamiji talks about the absurdity of asking for really banal things like food [for those us not starving, of course] in prayer, as opposed to asking for something higher.
In the reading, the author [I don’t know who it is] writes that ‘Christians are always asking God for something. They appear as beggars.’ [The author sounds like a bigot]. Swamiji corrects that statement to say, ‘Not only the Christians but Hindus in the Puranic way of worship will do the same thing.
The clip ends rather abruptly, but the powerful point is made. We need to do an audit on how we pray and what we pray for. And most importantly, ask ourselves, what kind of love we’re feeling and directing towards God or the Self.
The free-to-read or download, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
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 an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.