Programming the mind
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
745
Swamiji sings: 'O Mother mine, make me Thine, make my life divine…..'
You can become divine by only sacrificing that which is not divine. That which is not divine is called lower self. That which is Absolutely Divine is called Higher Self. Thus, sacrificing the self in the Self, one is established in the Higher Self.
In spiritual life there are two things we must balance: one is responsibility; the other is personal upliftment.
Supposing I have to serve five people who are dying. Who knows how important it is for me to look after them? If my mind says, 'Go and meditate,' I must refuse it and rather look after these five people. My reasoning is that out of those five people we don't know who is going to be a saint.
From that point of view even abortion, in our religion, is forbidden. Once again it is because we don't know what the child, if it is born, will be like, or how it is going to help the world.
If, in the beginning stages, a sadhaka's [spiritual aspirant or practitioner's] mind says, 'Go and meditate,' what he should say to his mind is, 'Work is also a way of meditation because it is karma yoga.' But if his mind is dry, if he doesn't have the feeling of religiousness then it is better to go and meditate. But the way we should train our minds is to see everything in renunciation and renunciation in everything. Like seeing everything in God and seeing God in everything.
Therefore our gurus say that we must watch our mind; be sure that it doesn't become bogged down only in meditation; only in karma yoga; only in raja yoga. It must be shaken. At will you must be able to detach and attach. At will. So therefore you program yourself. Supposing I have ten sadhakas with me and at karma yoga time one of the sadhakas says, 'I want to go and meditate.' I will not allow him to go and meditate at that time. I will say, 'No, you do this karma yoga.' I'll say this until such time as I see he is not attached to sitting and meditating.
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 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