Omnipresence, Saints and temptation
[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 890
Swamiji continues speaking on Lord Shiva at the Shivaratri celebration:
The five functions, the five elements, are the murthi [form] of Shiva himself. Nowhere will you find all elements not present [i.e. absent]. This shows God is omnipresent.
A saint does not know he is a saint, but a rogue knows he is a rogue. A saint always thinks of himself only as a servant of God. Shiva is a servant of God. He never thinks he is God (though he swallowed all the poison where others failed).
[After the Maha Shivaratri service]
Swamiji: Did you sleep?
Devotee: Yes Swamiji, I nodded off.
Swamiji: You must be aware of those moments – they are the moments of temptation.
It is not 'becoming' but 'being' that is important. Remove the impurities. Never co-operate with your mind when it seeks to do something else. Otherwise you are doing violence to your spiritual life. The whole purpose is to be pure and humble. The humbler you are, the more pure you will be; and the more pure you are, the more selfless you will be.
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