Obedience
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
663
[Swamiji continues reading from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma]
Very often shady things put on the cloak of religion and stand in the way of morality.
Swamiji: In the Ramayana, Ravana [the demon king] put on the holy garb and approached Mother Sita. He said, 'Give me bhiksha,' and she went against the moral law set by Lakshmana. He had told her not to come out of the three lines encircling and protecting the hut where she lived. Mother Sita was supposed to be an obedient sister-in-law but she became disobedient when she thought: 'A holy man is asking me to do something so I will do it.' Whatever your moral law is, you must follow that. And whatever is in the scriptures, you must do that.
Therefore when demands are made in the name of religion which outrage our moral sense and are inconsistent with the fundamental laws of humanity, as in the case of religious persecution, it is religion and not morality that must give way.
Swamiji: A religion will never tell you to go and kill anybody because religion actually wants you to kill your 'I'. You must kill your own 'I'. Do not start killing other people's bodies. Do not practise that kind of religion. Stand and say, 'No I will not do it. Ahimsa paramo dharma. My religion says: 'Do not hurt anyone in thought, word and deed.'
We should carefully distinguish the truly religious man from the pseudo-religious man. The latter is far inferior to a moral man. But of course a truly religious man is superior to a merely moral man.
Swamiji: We must discriminate. A man who is immoral is very inferior. A truly religious man is not only moral, he has love not to do wrong – and he has the love to love God. The moral man only loves not to do wrong.
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 Puri, Swami Shivapadananda
Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read
online…
Reference websites (please mouse-over
the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math
and Mission, Ramakrishna
Centre of SA, Ramakrishna
Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2