Swamiji continues with advice on dharmic behaviour in marriage, and the Guru’s wisdom. Talk excerpt 191.

From Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

[Swamiji continues on dharmic [righteous] behaviour for married couples].

I never allow a married man to drive with another woman in the front seat [of a car] unless it is his mother or sister. [Site admin, tongue in cheek: This was the early 1970s. I guess today you could pretend you’re an uber driver. 😉]

If someone knocks on the door and the husband says, ‘Go and see who is there,’ the wife must tell the husband to go instead.

Tell your husband you are not going to satsang without him. Say, ‘If you don’t come, I’ll fast [go without food or drink]. I am following religion.’ You will see what happens – there will be a change. But how many of you do that? None.

Every time Sri Ramakrishna wanted to teach Swami Vivekananda, he would say, ‘Please read this part of the Ramayana to me.’ But how many husbands or wives say, ‘Read the Ramayana to me?’, or ‘Please explain the Bible to me, if you love me.’ Use psychology.

My Guru [Swami Nischalananda Puri, our revered ‘Gurudev‘] used to look at me and say, ‘Go and enjoy yourself.’ Later he would say, ‘Where did you go?’ I would say, ‘I went to visit this auntie or that uncle.’ But I later realised that ‘enjoy yourself’ means: Go and meditate on your ‘Self‘ and enjoy It there, enjoy God within. [Swamiji used to regularly ask us, ‘Are you happy, X?’ 99% of us would say yes. But it was the wrong answer. We should not have been happy with our spiritual progress towards self-realisation.’

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Think of this [meaning himself] and no intoxication [habit/bad thoughts] will disturb you.’

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘To a pure mind nothing is impure.’ [All is God].

Someone asked Latu Maharaj [Swami Adbhutananda], ‘Why is Sri Ramakrishna so sick?’ Latu said, ‘He is playing [it’s a Lila]. He is in nirvikalpa samadhi even when he is sick. He is testing us. You may not understand but a great mission is starting now to remove man’s sins.’

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These recordings were made from the 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 an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.