Talk Excerpt 227. Swamiji says we must acknowledge good, wherever it is, through whomsoever it works.
From Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
Sannyasa [monastic renunciation] is absolute self-dedication to humanity. Sannyasa goes from the personality to the principle. In a temple it is first the murti [image/sculpture/representation], and this leads to the Ideal.
In the murti of Master [Sri Ramakrishna] see the personality first – remember his holiness. But his principle is what we worship. A few people see the principle first and then try and find a personality that embodies that principle.
Swami Vivekananda says that we must understand the life of Sri Rama who is the embodiment of principle, and understand the principles of Lord Shiva. Act like Sri Rama – the soul, Brahman, Satchidananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute], the transcendental Reality, the Self.
Sita is the mind constantly thinking of Rama, constantly attuned to the Atman, the Divine. This is the Indian or the Hindu mind, the self-controlled, developed mind.
Serve them with the body, sing to them with the body, serve God with the hands, see the Divine form with the eyes, hear the Divine Name with the ears.
We read how Sita was attracted to a worldly deer – that means for a while Sita was distracted from the divine and attracted to worldly things. Rama went away and in the absence of God-realisation, of Self-illumination, she was caught – that means the mind is caught by the three gunas [pairs of opposites].
Never seek to possess the wealth of others – or even your own body. You are only a trustee.
Swami Vivekananda walks in the footsteps of Sri Rama, to bring back national pride.
Sometimes we think we will be robbing our Ishta Devata [Chosen Deity or Ideal] and so fight shy of [acknowledging] different saints and sages. It is good to acknowledge good, wherever it is, through whomsoever it works.
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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 an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.