Talk Excerpt 445. Swamiji says: We should try to greet others before they greet us.
Recorded by Mother Radha at Swamiji’s feet.
[Yoga Camp/Retreat talk continued.]
Try to do japa as much as you can. Here at the yoga camp all your spare time should be given to japa, likhit [written] japa, reading of some religious book, or reflecting on the thoughts you have heard.
When you practise the spiritual disciplines then you are a man – otherwise you are just like another animal. Both types go to the temple. The rich man takes his dog when he goes there. The rich man is supposed to come out improved, but he comes out worse than the dog. So we want to convert the dog – the mind – transform it into God, into selflessness.
Sri Ramakrishna’s [mode of] dressing was something extraordinary. Sometimes he used to walk in the streets of Calcutta [now Kolkata] and find hundreds of people following him, nay thousands, and he would think, ‘Oh, these people are taking my mind away from God.’ So he would take off his dhoti and put it under his arm [so now naked] and look around – all had disappeared. Then he would repeat God’s name.
You have to dress in such a way that you don’t expose your body – that would look very vulgar. Just as you take pride in dressing your Deity at the time of prayer at home, dress yourself like that.
Speak to others with respect, speak truthfully and above all, as Gurudev [Swamiji’s beloved Guru, Swami Nischalananda Puri, and our revered ‘Gurudev’] said, speak sweetly.
We should try to greet others before they greet us. Are you not meeting God each time you meet somebody? This idea or thought is subjective rather than objective. [The standard greeting Swamiji taught us was not ‘Namaste‘ but rather ‘OM Namo Narayanaya.’ Meaning, ‘I (greet and) prostrate to [the omnipresent] God [Narayana] in you.’
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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.