One-ness of God
[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 878
Swamiji speaking on the boyhood of Sri Ramakrishna
Being a boy who was born in a Brahmin family, he was sent to the [Kali] temple [pictured above] at Dakshineswar at an early age, where he worshipped the Divine Mother of the universe as God.
People give It [God] various names and various forms. Truth is one but people call it by many names. Like electricity. Electricity expresses itself as light, in the refrigerator as ice, and on the hot plate as heat. So God is One, expressed under different names and forms.
He [Sri Ramakrishna] worshipped God as the Mother in the temple of Kali. He prayed to the Mother, 'Ma, reveal yourself to me. If you really exist, if there is a God that exists, I want to see this God, I do not want to play fools. One day he was about to commit suicide because he had not seen God – and lo, he saw a flood of light. And this light, later on, took the form of his chosen Deity, called Mother. She in turn taught him and he reached the highest state called God-realisation.
Later in his life he followed the Muslim religion and saw the Truth in that. He followed the Christian religion and saw the Truth in that. In the end he said: 'All religions are true, whether they are flowing crooked of straight, they all end in the sea called God'.
So, you can see the greatness of this Being: Sri Ramakrishna. He did not come here only to uplift his own religion or particular sect. He injected the germ of life into all religions.
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