Not your power – God’s power!
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 855
Now all of us have faith. But we don't let it grow – we kill it. In our mind we know that this is the wrong thing. This is where, when you are doing something wrong that the conscience in you will say, 'Hey, it's wrong! Swamiji, Shivapadananda, that is wrong. What are you doing?' But I push it aside, so long as other people praise me, what does it matter? The whole night they say he's talking and laughing, it's beautiful.
That conscience is called faith. Faith is telling you, 'this is wrong.' But you take all the worldly things and kill it and Nachiketa [who faced the Lord of death, Yama, rather than disobey his father] is exactly that faith embodied. The embodiment of that faith. From which he got the answer he was seeking [as to what really happens after death of the body]. Nobody could give it to him, no gurus could, no gods could but he had to reach that state himself. How? Through service to the guru [spiritual preceptor], How? Through service to this whole world thinking that it is God's manifestation. How? To have faith in the words of the scriptures [like Nachiketa did]. How? To become ego-less.
Why do you think we Hindus worship Indra Bhagawan [the king of the gods]? Why do you think we Hindus take fire to worship God [through a havan or homa? Why do you think we do pranayama [yoga breathing]? Because these were the first three [instruments] who realised Brahman [the one, indivisible universal consciousness]. That is in the Kena Upanishad. In the Kena Upanishad it is said that Indra Bhagawan and Agni devata [the god of fire] and Vayu Bhagawan [the wind god] became very egoistic. They had beaten the rakshasas [demons of adharma or evil] in battle and they sat down like big kings, saying, 'You see, we did it. We did it!' And suddenly, while they were saying it, God didn't want them to be misled, because they were good people [or gods], they were nice people, but there was still a little pride in them. Why? Because of ignorance. If there is ignorance that is no fault of theirs. [Swamiji quotes Jesus Christ, Christian Bible: Luke 23:34, ] 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' So God is like that. Out of ignorance you do something, he [God] comes [manifests to remove that ignorance].
What happens is that a Yaksha [nature spirit or messenger] appeared. What or who is this Yaksha they wondered? First they sent Vayu [the wind god] to go and find out who it was. Vayu is in an egoistic mood, he who had beaten [in battle] thousands of rakshasas [demons] and spent many years in tapasya [austerity, self-denial, self-control]. Yaksha Bhagawan worships AUM [the universal sound-symbol for God].
Vayu asks, 'Who are you?' He says, 'Well, I am Yaksha. Who are you?' Answer: 'I am Vayu, who won the battle.' 'Oh' says the Yaksha, 'how did you win the battle?' 'I conquered the rakshasas!' So the Yaksha puts down a straw [reed or plant stem] and says, 'Blow this straw away.' Vayu [he's the god of wind, remember] blows from morning until night and nothing happens. So he asks, 'Who are you [really]? And there, the Yasksha dismisses Vayu by giving him the realisation of who he was [God] in reality.
Then comes Agni [the god of fire]. Agni makes the same mistake. 'Who are you?' asks Agni. 'I am Yaksha.' And who are you? 'I am Agni, I can burn anything.' And Yaksha says, 'burn this straw.' Agni tries and tries and he tries and the straw remains untouched by his fire and then he has the realisation [that it is not his power but the power of the one universal consciousness or God].
But when Indra [the king of the gods] comes, he sees [the Yaksha] in the form of Uma Devi [the consort and shakti power of Lord Shiva, and before he can get close [remember Indra is the king of the gods], Uma Devi disappears. And Indra starts yearning. Then he hears a voice. 'You have not killed them. It is the power of Brahman [the one, indivisible, universal consciousness] working through you, that killed them. So, the praise is not yours. You are taking undue praise.
We are the Indras. We are the Vayus. We are the Agnis. We blow [impress] people through words but yet we don't know that we are misusing God's power. It is God's grace. We burn [hurt, offend] people through words. We do not think that it is God's grace, God's word that is God's gift. With our indriyas [senses] we do the wrong things instead of the right things. When all these three are directed towards God, indriyas you get it under you control, you do pranayama and control your speech you must realise Brahman Itself. Thus, our scriptures tell us that we must become ego-less. We must become selfless.
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.
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