Daily Reading 18. Swamiji speaks on the stages of meditation.
Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
An Excerpt from Meditation and Spiritual Life, by Swami Yatiswarananda: First of all you must do something to increase the yearning in your heart, to know God.
Swamiji: That is what Sri Ramakrishna felt. He was restless because he was yearning for God – and that is why he took the sword [held in Mother Kali’s hand in the sanctum sanctorum in the Dakshineswar Kali temple] and was about to slash his throat, when in that restlessness, the ‘Mother of rest’ came to his aid.
Meditation starts with imagination. When I say, ‘See your Deity in your heart, see the Lord in your
forehead, see the lotus,’ whatever I say, you actually imagine first. You imagine: That is the lotus. The Lord looks like this and He is standing there on the lotus. Later on that will disappear and the light of Intelligence will take its place – which is Brahman. This is very, very important.
[Editorial note: On numerous occasions, Swamiji said to us: ‘Imagination is the greatest gift. What starts out as imagination, becomes reality.’]
Swamiji: Many people ask me questions about this. They say, ‘I cannot see the Deity,’ or ‘I cannot do this and I cannot do that.’ They do not tell me ‘I can,’ but only ‘I cannot’. Never say: ‘Oh, my mind is so
very restless, how is it possible for me to meditate?’ Because your mind is so very restless, you must meditate all the more. A perfectly calm mind does not need so much meditation. Some people are very fond of saying: ‘Oh, I am tired, I must rest.’ Yes. But not on the bed, in meditation!
Reading: Meditation and japa are natural ways of resting and filling the mind with new freshness. Through them the mind flows naturally towards the source of all energy, the Self. All strength, all poise, all power comes from the Divine, and meditation is the direct means of tapping this source.
Swamiji: Holy Mother [Sri Sarada Devi] would awake and straight away she would sit up on her bed and meditate. Then she would have a wash and meditate again. But this was the Holy Mother, who is eternally naistika brahmacharya – who had a pure mind and thought of the Lord alone.
[Thumbnail on the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, by Swami Nikhilananda, a direct monastic disciple]: ‘When Holy Mother came to Dakshineswar [near Calcutta, at the temple of Kali] at the age of sixteen, Sri Ramakrishna asked her whether she had come to pull him down to a worldly life. Without hesitation she said, ‘No, I am here to help you realise your Chosen Ideal.’ From then on, Holy Mother lived with Sri Ramakrishna as his spiritual companion, devoted wife, disciple, and always the nun. She was the embodiment of purity. Her mind was never sullied by the faintest breath of worldliness, though she lived with Sri Ramakrishna for the greater part of fourteen years. She never missed communion with God, whom she described as lying in the palm of her hand, though she was engaged day and night in various activities.’
Underlined words are 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.