Daily Reading 14. Swamiji explains God’s Grace and the power of self-belief.
Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
God’s Grace: A bird laid its eggs on the shore and the sea came and took them away. The bird was angry with the sea and began to carry the sea away little by little in its beak. Varuna [the king of the sea] came and asked the bird, ‘What are you doing?’ The bird said, ‘I’m cross [angry], so I am going to empty the sea.’ Varuna’s heart melted, and he brought back the eggs.
From this we see that the bird’s hard work did not bring back the eggs. It was as if God’s heart melted and He gave them back to the bird. Keep doing sadhana, then God will come. When Arjuna failed, God [in the form of Lord Krishna] came. That is grace.
If you are absolutely pure you will realise God. But as a man you cannot be completely pure. It is as if God’s heart melts with the sadhana of the devotee. Grace is greater than all the four yogas.
As long as you worship the personality, He is a living God. He must listen to you and answer your prayers. The power of the mantra is always there but because your concentration is not great, you are not aware of the change.
Why must you fit Sri Ramakrishna into only one form? He is in every form plus 500 more. Do the
mantra of the Ishta Devata 108 times. Then use any other mantra.
Sadhana is forced evolution. You try to get ‘It’ as quickly as possible. Swami Vivekananda stated: The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been extensively taught and practised, most of the evils and miseries we have, would vanish.
Some are born with the consciousness that they want to be great, and they become great. Swamiji quotes Swami Vivekananda again: ‘The new religion says, he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.’ Swami Vivekananda also said: ‘We will chew up the stars and uproot the three worlds by force. Do you not know us? We are the servants of Sri Ramakrishna!’
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.