Talks Excerpt 211. Swamiji emphasises the need for repeating the mantra with every breath.

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

According to Master [Sri Ramakrishna] this world is a mansion of mirth. What you think you become. So it is high time to change your thoughts.

Sit quietly for some time and look at the Deity [Ishta Devata]- or at the Guru’s smiling face.

The Spirit is in you, the same as the Spirit is in me. Now you must yearn for the same thing as in me.

Meditate on the indwelling Spirit.

The Holy Mother [Sri Ramakrishna] Sri Sarada Devi [the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi] said that if you want to feel some spiritual experience – and if you want to see if the test works or not – then for a year or two, you must do 15,000 to 20,000 japa [repetitions] of your mantra every day. Then you will actually change the vibrations of your mind – and that vibration will change the vibrations in your body – and that vibration will change the cells in your body. Thus it becomes pure and you will experience a little spirituality.

You take approximately 21,000 breaths in 24 hours. Therefore sannyasins [monastics] are told that with every breath they must repeat the pranava [OM]. So they do not need a mala [prayer beads] to count the repetition of the pranava, but with every breath they repeat it. If we do this and there is still something wrong then we must look at ourselves.

If you [the renunciates] lead a moderate life and live a modest life, then you will have unflinching strength like a householder. The householder may sleep for 6 hours, or 4 hours, or 8 hours. He is full of worries – doing his sadhana [spiritual practise], yet he has a duty towards his wife, his mother, his father, the family and the children. With all that he has the strength, the vitality, the power, fresh as the ever rising sun, to go to work – and work for 8 or even 12 hours. Then he comes home and still has the strength and the love to give to the family at home.

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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.