On dispassion
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
650
When at home with the family try to treat every morning and evening as a yoga camp. Pray and worship God in that particular way. At home feel the love that you have for Him here and surely your house can become a heaven. You will feel that freedom. The only difference is that here you are not troubled by your husband, your wife or the children, and you see many smiling faces who are motiveless. At home no matter how much you smile at your mother, you still have a motive – that she will iron your clothes, she will cook the food.
The husband will always say, 'This is my wife.' And that is what binds us. Try to be free, feel that you belong to nobody, you belong to God, you are only a servant of God, serving these people who have come here in the forms which you see. Or, know that they are God who has come here to demand your service.
When we say It is inside our hearts, we call it Atman; the same thing, when It is behind the whole universe, we call it Brahman.
Gurudev [Swamiji's Guru, Swami Nischalananda Puri] always used to ask me, 'Maharaj, are you happy?' I would say, 'Yes,' and he would say, 'Be happy, be happy.' He would ask me three or four times, 'Are you happy? Be happy.' One day I became a little suspicious about this 'Be happy'. I said, 'Swamiji, tell me why you keep asking me this all the time?' He said, 'I ask you if you are happy, then you say "yes," then I say "be happy." By rights you should be not happy and not sad; [i.e. dispassionate – experiencing vairagya] you should be beyond that too. So if you are happy where Swamiji is, be happy.'
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