Grace, fruit and awareness
[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 997
The only thing – when you're getting prosperity, is appreciate it and thank God. That does not mean God wants your thanks but you keep your ego [ahamkara] in check by thanking God that it is God's prasad [sacramental food, blessings] and God's grace. But he's already given you the grace to get all that. Work hard. Work hard. Work hard.
It's like saying the farmer has got 1000 acres of farmland and he's sitting there saying, 'cabbages will grow on this, cabbages will grow on this.' Every morning he sits there saying 'cabbage will grow, cabbage will grow' but to his amazement, grass is growing. Grace is there. The farm is there. He has got the farm. God has given him the farm – the grace is there. The grace in the form of his healthy body and healthy mind is there. Now he must get to work. And when he gets to work, he will find the grace flowering and bearing fruit. Fruition takes place.
It's high time that we should wake up and take spirituality seriously – very seriously! Try to get up in the morning and do a little meditation as directed by [Swami] Yatiswaranandaji Maharaj. This is practical spirituality. This is not theory. Try to keep a spiritual diary. Check your ego. By you coming to satsang [spiritual or religious service] once a week it may give you a certain kind of happiness. Like Yatiswaranandaji Maharaj said, worshipping is called 'bhajan anand' [bliss derived from singing or prayer] – by ritual worship you get anand. But that ananda is not supposed to stay there. It's supposed to go higher, until it culminates in meditation and samadhi [superconsciousness]. Don't stop there. He says four times a day one should meditate. That is morning, midday, early evening and midnight. How many of you even meditate twice, sincerely? Think about it. And yet you know, we want spiritual God-realisation.
Although we're in an ashram [monastery, hermitage], there's something wrong there – you've gone numb. You've gone paralysed in your nerves. How can you even feel spirituality? Now the way to make those nerves and spirituality wake up in you, to give you the feeling of it, is to do sadhana [spiritual practice] – self-purification. As long as you don't purify your mind you will never get God. You have to purify your heart. How? By being good and doing good – by doing sadhana. Love is the great criterion. You must love to do it. If you don't love to do it, at least love God and do it for God's sake.
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