Daily reading 31. Swamiji on the flexibility of Hinduism.

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

You may ask: What is the need to have ‘Ramakrishna Consciousness‘? You may love Hanuman, Kali, Buddha or Christ. But we look at it through the eyes of Ramakrishna, our teacher, so we see what (He) Master realised.  But we still worship the Divine; that which we always worshipped. Hinduism is flexible: I love Hanuman, but if you force me to worship Rama, Rama can become my guru, and I can still worship Hanuman.

Reading from Meditation and Spiritual Life, by Swami Yatiswarananda: Take up the holy Name, the holy Form. It is a special manifestation. Then this gradually leads to That. Thus, from the form to the formless, from the name to the nameless. To worship God as a male or a female is not the highest stage.

Swami Vivekananda used to go about America saying: ‘We are all Brahman.’ What you are within, you see without. Swami Vivekananda was Brahman, so he saw that everything was Brahman. If within you see that you are Satchidananda, then outside you will also see others like that. We think our forms are real. Let us rather think we are the soul, not the body and mind. Think of yourself as a point of light.

Swamiji: That is a very beautiful meditation – but only for those that like it. Or, you think of yourself as an ocean of light and merge in it.

Reading: Always remember you are a soul that wants to put on a body and mind to play in the drama of life. You must also be playing in the world of spirit.

Swamiji: Such a beautiful feeling that is. Girish [Chandra Ghosh] came drunk to Master and said, ‘I am a sinner.’ Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Who told you that you are a sinner? You are Brahman!’ Master saw Brahman inside and so he saw Girish as Brahman. Transformation must happen.

Imagine you are spirit. That is the greatest secret of sadhana [spiritual practise]. Slowly
you will be de-hypnotised from the body and mind. But we are not imagining this, and so we make no spiritual progress.

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.