Talks Excerpt 266. Swamiji confirms the power of a Deity’s picture.

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

Something hurts me. What hurts? [the ego] Something pleases me, what is pleased? Give all that away too and take the good and the bad as it comes.

If you put your mind on God it leads to purity. Purity is sattvic and leads to Self-realisation.

Give all to God and guru and say, ‘This pleasure is Yours. This pain is Yours. This love and hate is Yours. O Lord, all, all is yours.’ Try this for 3 months and see the results. This is not book learning, it is experience that I speak from.

The first quality you need on the path is fearlessness.

When you begin worshipping a photograph of the Lord, it is just a photo. Gradually it becomes alive if you are sincere, and reveals itself to you. It must. This is the [divine] Law.

[Disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi: ‘Does the Master (Sri Ramakrishna) really live in the picture?’ Mother: ‘Of course, he does. The body and the shadow are the same. And what is his picture but his shadow?] Disciple: ‘Does he live in all the pictures?’ Mother: ‘Yes, if you pray to him constantly before his picture, then he manifests himself through that picture. The place where the picture is kept is a shrine. … the Master will pay special attention to such a place.’ – Gospel of Holy Mother.

Do you think you can reach God-realisation by criticising others? Never, never.

All life comes from Him, The Ancient One, God. There is no death, only change.

The life living in this form is now called Y, in a previous birth it was Z. And before that? Other names in other births.

The bhakta loves like Christ – even if it kills him. He gets strength to bear suffering.

Try to keep the feeling of meditation all day. See God in all his creation, and love the creation, thus you see Him everywhere.

We all want to receive love but we have forgotten how to give it. In my absence, love one another. Give, give, give of yourself, give it all to God, it is God’s already. God is beyond name and form, beyond thought and feeling.

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.