Religious or moral?
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
664
[Swamiji reads from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma]
Daughter: How is a truly religious man different from a moral man?
Father: You may as well ask me how the whole is different from the part. The moral man is like an honest mercenary while the religious man is like an ardent patriot.
Swamiji: One is a mercenary fighting for something and the other is a patriot encouraging the whole country – someone like Swami Vivekananda.
Both of them fight well but the former (the mercenary) fights for a small gain for himself, while the latter fights for his country forgetting himself. A merely moral life cannot give us the feeling of love, joy and exultation and the spirit of courage and self-sacrifice which religious life gives. Mere morality cannot abolish our separateness and sin.
Swamiji: A moral man is trying to perfect himself. A [truly] religious man is already perfect and he is trying to give perfect love to the whole world. This is the difference. Therefore when you try to boast about your guru you say, 'My guru is this and my guru is that . .' I laugh because that guru still belongs to somebody. But a guru does not belong to anybody in particular; He belongs to everybody. That is the kind of guru my Sri Ramakrishna is; that is the kind of guru my Swami Vivekananda is; that is the kind of guru my Sri Sarada Devi is. In particular the guru does not belong to any caste, colour or country but in general the guru belongs to everyone.
Daughter: Does religious life abolish separateness and sin?
Father: It does not exactly abolish them, it renders them ineffectual. God is the perfection of purity and by seeking and taking refuge in Him we leave our sinful selves behind.
God is the perfection of purity. Christ himself said, 'Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God.' So God is perfection in purity. By going to God, what are you doing? You are leaving your sinful self behind.
Imagine the Inder [Swamiji's pre-monastic name] that always used to be working and fighting for himself. Now he does not do that. What does he do now? He realizes that: 'I take refuge at God's Lotus Feet and because God is omnipresent, therefore my love will become omnipresent.'
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
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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