Daily reading 38. Swamiji on the blessing of Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna.

Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

Question: Why is the Ganges so great? Swamiji: Legend has it, that it came out of Shiva’s head – so it is life-giving, holy.

Discipline yourselves. Get up at a certain time, pray at a certain time. Then, think you are Brahman – and you will manifest your Brahman-hood. Do not think you are nothing, then you’ll sink down.

When you chant Sri Ramakrishna bhajan, you must sing from the heart. Bhakti [love] is the greatest jewel in the three worlds.

Reading from ‘The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda‘: The spiritual waters of Truth flow in India. This is the Hindu contribution to the world. Light, light, light – spiritual light – the practical spirituality of the people – the underlying oneness of all beings, is the Infinite and Impersonal.

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Meditate on God with form, then meditate on the same Deity as formless.’

If form is the be-all and end-all, Master would have asked us to stop there. But he said, ‘Meditate on God who is formless, and then the same Deity who is with form.’ [So, both]. It is very, very important to make this point clear in your mind.

If you worship Christ you may think he will take you as far as heaven only. If you worship Shiva, you may think he will take you as far as Kailash, only. This is true, until you meditate on his formlessness.

Where was Christ before he was in heaven? That is where I want to be. I do not want to take birth and death again, so I must go beyond heaven. Ignorance and ‘unknowing’ lead to birth. That is the message of the Upanishads. The Upanishads lead to Brahman – beyond duality.

There are two characteristics of meditation: tranquillity and contentment. Your faith must never shake. Take this very seriously. Blessed are those who belong to Sri Ramakrishna. You have chosen right, when you have chosen him as your guru, your Satguru, as your Deity, as Brahman. You are blessed. He is the current coin of this age. Others may have antique value. But he came as part of [current] world destiny.

You can choose between gossip and gospel [literally: ‘good news’]. How? By doing sadhana morning and evening. So be serious. As you think you become. If you treat sadhana lightly it is a wasted life. Do it in the right place, at the right time, regardless of any condition or work or environment.

You will be blessed. You will improve yourself. You will be an example to the whole world. If we see many holy people, our mind goes towards holy things naturally. Otherwise it goes towards onions and brinjals [trivia, impure, wrong things] etc.

Blessed is the man who takes his sadhana seriously. His mind is concentrated on sadhana and on God. Initiation [by a guru] introduces you to God. Some people ask, ‘Then are the others lost?’ No. They are waiting, they are in preparation. Ask Sri Ramakrishna to reveal your guru to you. 

Give your children books about your Deity, books about the lives of saints and sages, especially here of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. The supreme guru is Sri Ramakrishna. The sangha [congregation] guru is Swami Nischalananda [Swamiji’s beloved Guru and our paramguru and ‘Gurudev‘]. With them you can travel the path knowledgeably and not ignorantly. Without gurus like these, you are open to weakness when people criticise them, and your faith is shaken.

You must know where Sri Ramakrishna’s life is written about. Then your life will become perfect day by day. The tree is the guru; the devotee is the fruit which is planted in the soil of immortality. In the light of your Chosen Ideal [Ishta Devata], you must read the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita.

If someone asks you why you worship Hanumanji, do you answer, ‘Because he has a monkey face’? No! They would be shaken and you would be angry. Instead of being angry you should reflect the love of your Deity and his teaching.

Underlined words are hypertext links to clarification, explanation or other sources. Just tap on them.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography, ‘A Life Lived For Others‘, is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial ‘memoir’ booklet of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.

There’s also a Facebook site for Swamiji’s posts now. They feature newer readings published more recently. Click HERE to view.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to those with him at the time.