Talk Excerpt 244. Swamiji quotes Sri Ramakrishna: ‘You are not a sinner, you are a child of God.’

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

Swami Vivekananda explains that life is the unfoldment and development of a being under circumstances tending to press it down.

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘You are not a sinner, you are a child of God.’ You are born in a new school of thought. Pray thus: O Lord, by your grace I am here.

You must do sadhana. You must get up on time. If you do not, the seed of laziness lies there. When you start to do sadhana properly, questions pop out. I know that from personal experience.

Do everything moderately. But whatever is taboo for brahmachari life, you should not do.

Question: How do we surrender? Swamiji: When you are oblivious of yourself and only conscious of the Deity, then you have surrendered. That is the key to surrender.

A saint’s life is based on Unity. As he unites with God, he unites the whole world and that is why it is called Yoga.

Miracles can be spiritual or not spiritual. When they deceive the senses they are not spiritual. If you perform a miracle with a motive, to get something out of it, it is not spiritual.

What a God-man does, an ordinary man cannot do. A holy man’s action is knowledge. When Sri Ramakrishna does a miracle it increases love for God in you – that is spiritual.

The free-to-read or download, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE.

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.