Holy Mother’s ‘prasad power’
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
676
[The Divine] Mother's shakti is very great. It is the shakti in the devatas [gods] that we worship. It is the strength, the power. There must be shakti; jnana [knowledge/wisdom] shakti, karma [action/work] shakti, raja [philosophical] shakti. That is my Mother. And Sri Sarada Devi is that Mother embodied today.
When Sri Ramakrishna passed on there was a lot of trouble at the [Belur] Math. And those who had no faith in Swami Vivekananda had to get the faith from Sri Sarada Devi. She sorted out a lot of problems there.
One person asked Sri Sarada Devi: 'We see that Naren [Swami Vivekananda] is making hospitals and all these things. Do you think that he is following Master's teachings?' Do you know what she did? She sent a ten rupee donation to the Benares ashram and by so doing she put a rubber stamp on Swami Vivekananda's work. She said, 'I saw Master [Sri Ramakrishna] himself supervising and permeating the whole ashram.' That ten rupee note is still kept there it appears.
No other deity has proved what a miracle prasad can work. Holy Mother is the proof of giving prasad. Sri Ramakrishna had to talk a lot and then he transformed people. Swami Vivekananda had to talk and talk, argue and argue, and then he transformed people. Swami Vivekananda even showed his power by giving various people visions – appearing and disappearing. But Sri Sarada Devi did not do anything like that. She only used to cook, cook, cook, feed, feed, feed. The people would get up from the meal [prasad] and think, 'What's happened with me? I am transformed, I am becoming loving.' They did not even know that Mother's cooking had done that.
Nowadays when the mothers cook they make me very rajasic, I get irritated with them. They put so much salt, sugar and chillies in the food. But when Sri Sarada Devi cooked all the sinners, prisoners and murderers who ate the food felt something had changed in them. They became sattvic. Some of them even renounced [became monks].
This is the greatest proof of prasad: Mother converted and transformed people's lives without lecturing.
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