Talk Excerpt 237. Swamiji highlights the ‘4th state’ – Turiya – beyond the 3 gunas.

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

A sadhaka must take refuge with saints and sages – and read the scriptures to learn God’s will.

For you and me the world is full of birth and therefore death [samsara]. For Sri Ramakrishna it is a place of mirth – this was because he saw the [Divine] Mother’s will in everything. Otherwise it consists of birth and misery. Thus I pray: Let me win God’s grace.

The proof of Master’s divinity is self-evident – the fact that so many people worship him makes it self-evident.

Traditionally there are three states [gunas]: sattva, rajas, tamas. Now Sri Ramakrishna says there is a fourth state – the Turiya or the Ishta Devata state.

Hinduism is the mother of all religions and must have all kinds of devotees.

Sri Ramakrishna said that a Hindu family may worship different deities in the same household.

If I am in a Hindu family whose deity is Sri Rama, but I wish to worship Christ, I must only give up the tamasic aspect of the worship to make it harmonise with others in the family.

Sri Ramakrishna is a world teacher [jagat Guru]. He says that we must take a man from where he is. If he is tamasic, make him rajasic. If he is rajasic, make him sattvic. This is Sanatana Dharma.

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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.