Swami Shivapadananda on honesty

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 453

An example of just how deeply the spirit of truthfulness was ingrained in Sri Ramakrishna's nature, and how the Divine Mother protected him from the least deviation from truth, was provided by the opium incident. Shambhu Charan Mallik had a dispensary for the poor in his garden. Learning that Sri Ramakrishna was suffering from diarrhoea, he advised him to take a few doses of opium and had offered to give Sri Ramakrishna some. Sri Ramakrishna accepted, but in the course of the conversation both forgot about it. After taking leave the Master walked a few steps and then he remembered the opium. Coming back, he found that Shambhu was very busy. Not wishing to trouble him, Sri Ramakrishna took a little opium from one of the other assistants and again set out for the Kali Temple [pictured]. (If you have no faith you won't understand – you'll just say, "Well this is one of those things." But it's not like that.) To his surprise he found that though he was perfectly familiar with the locality, he kept straying onto the wrong path. Casting his eyes behind, he could plainly see the path leading back to Shambhu's garden, but the way ahead was not clear. Wondering, he started again for the Dakshineswar Temple carefully noting the way. And again he became confused. He could not find the right path and at the same time felt a backward pull. After a repeated struggle it suddenly dawned on him that Shambhu had asked him to take the opium from him and not from his agent who had no right to give anything without Shambhu's permission. (Now this took place in Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana [spiritual practice] period so don't come and ask me, "If he's all-knowing why didn't he know that?" No, this was the sadhana period. So he was in that state of mind.) *See footnote.

Master might have been guilty of falsehood and theft if the Divine Mother had not deterred him. So he threw the package back through a window calling out as he did so, "Look I am returning the opium." Now as he set out for the Temple he could see the way clearly. There was no spell over his mind and he safely reached the Temple.

*Footnote: Although the Incarnations or Avatars are perfect, they faithfully practise what we would need to practise in order to evolve spiritually. Therefore a lesson like this would be to demonstrate the critical necessity for scrupulous honesty under all circumstances.