How to visualise your deity in meditation
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Day 991
If you can't meditate [internally] on your deity [Ishta Deva], look at the deity's photo or picture. Rather just look at it. I used to do that for years. I look at my Shiva Bhagawan, I dance, my [pre-monastic] mother used to think this fellow is mad. I dance, I kiss him. Until now I have the idea of kissing – you'll see how I kiss [the picture of] Sri Ramakrishna. I kiss him, I give him a dot [tilak] and I do all those things. Then I close my eyes I see 'Oh, he's there!' But yet without the photo I can't do it. If I close my eyes and I can't see him, I open my eyes. Better that I open my eyes and see him. If you can't close your eyes and see him inside, then open your eyes. Sometimes it may take a couple of years – who cares? As long as you are keeping your mind, what?…pure. And colouring it [with God thought] – that's the period of colouring. If you're not going to do it now, then you've had it.
Sri Ramakrishna said lukewarm devotion is not good. Why is it not good? Because one time you'll do in fits and starts and another time you'll be depressed. The great saints [mahatmas] were very clever and full of compassion. They tried various means to bring us to God. That's why, as a lower-level approach he says, if you can't love God for God's sake, then alright, go and give certain gifts [offerings], do certain worship if you want to get a good husband, a good child, you want to get wealth, he'll make you get caught in that. That's still a lower type of worship. Because whether you ask God or you don't ask God, if you work hard, all that will come automatically because that's all God's grace. What is it? God's grace. The very fact that he's given you a body and a good mind, a good intellect, is all God's grace, not yours. If you were such a master, when sleep comes along, how is it that you can't push the sleep away? [Swamiji chuckling]
They say you [the spiritual aspirant, sadhaka] must eat 'golden food'. What kind of food?…golden food. Meaning that if you are really hungry you will not look to see whether it is brown bread or white bread or what curry it is, you will just want to eat the food, because of hunger. That's the golden food. You eat it out of necessity.
Swamiji addressing a devotee: Hanumanji [the great devotee, disciple of Lord Rama, feature in the Hindu Epic, the Ramayana] won't keep giving every time my boy. There's come a time when he'll say 'Come on, chalo, get a little tired of the world now!' So now start desiring him, don't ask him for anything. When you've got him you have everything.
Even in my dreams I used to cry, 'Shiva I want to see you, I want to see you!' I don't know where I got that from. I just wanted to see my God, I wanted to see him. I used to cry like that. I'd sit in the quiet when my friends were enjoying themselves and I used to think, 'How can I see him? Which is the way to see him?' I would read books, try and find out – until I came to my guru. The guru [spiritual Preceptor, His Holiness Sri Swami Nischalananda Puri Maharaj, first President and Spiritual Head of the Ramakrishna Centre of SA] was a light – he cleared certain darkness. After giving me a taste he threw me back into the world to get it [that state] back again.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites – please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham