God realisation
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
668
Swamiji reads on from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma
Daughter: Does God respond to this intense feeling?
Father: Yes. The prasad [literally: sacramental food, something blessed] or grace of God is God's response to man's bhakti. [devotion] All great Hindu saints teach us that as surely as day follows night grace follows the yearning of faith.
[Swamiji] If you faithfully, truthfully and sincerely yearn for God, God's grace must come, God responds.
Father: The author I have quoted also says, 'Worship God at all times with all your heart and with all your mind. Glorify Him in your heart and He will soon reveal Himself to you and you will feel his presence.'
[Swamiji] Now the crux of the matter is 'at all times'. But sometimes you only do half your sadhana [spiritual practice] in the morning, and one sixteenth of your sadhana in the evening and you expect God to come and say, 'My child you have done enough sadhana, you are the greatest person.' Meanwhile you go and eat dirt and filth like the fish in the bay. Sometimes the fish will eat excellent food from men; other times it will be eating dirt and filth that comes out of the ships. That is what we do. Morning and evening we have the Master's prasad in meditation and during the day we enjoy the filth of pleasure. This is us. And yet we expect God to come and say, 'Hello my child, what a lovely person. I haven't found one like you.' [Swamiji laughs]
'Glorify Him in your heart and He will soon reveal Himself to you and you will feel his presence.' As Krishna says in the [Bhagavad] Gita, 'To those that are devoted to Me [the one Universal divine consciousness] and worship Me do I give the steady mind by which they come to Me . . .'
What gives you a steady mind? Not your sadhana. Not breath control. God Himself says, 'I give them the steady mind by which they come to Me.'
' . . . out of compassion for them do I dwell in their hearts and dispel the darkness born of ignorance by the shining lamp of wisdom.'
Why does Sri Krishna say 'in their hearts'? It is, as he says, 'because I feel compassionate towards them. I love them.' He will give you the wisdom to know what to select and what not to select. In other words He will give you discrimination, and out of that discrimination He will dispel the darkness. Even after God-realisation you cannot boast that you have realised God because in the Upanishads it is said, 'The Self reveals Itself to whomever It chooses.' You cannot choose God, God chooses you.
Even if you know that someone is playfully hiding in a big forest, where are you going to start looking for that person? You will not see that person until he or she feels compassion for you and comes out and gets caught. Only then do you 'catch' God. In the big forest you could die looking for Him.
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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
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