Talks Excerpt 359. Swamiji says: Nachiketa is the voice of Consciousness, his father is us, and Yama is the guru.

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

Offer all at God’s feet, especially your sadhana.

In the story of Nachiketa, [click HERE for the fuller story of Nachiketa] Nachiketa is the voice of Consciousness, his father is us, and Yama is the guru.

In days gone by they used to go to the guru for 12 years, but now we do not have to do that. You can get It in two days if you want. But God-realisation is not instant – you must earn it. So take it all, the suffering and the sickness. See it like taxes; and pay off karma – get it finished. You cannot go till then.

In the Katha Upanishad Nachiketa asks Yama for three boons: He says, ‘Firstly, grant that I go back to my father, and that he recognises me.’ Meaning: you go back to the source, back to the world after living in the forest. They will recognize you as an evolved being when you come back and will bow to you, worship you, give you gifts, and you will be the richest man in the world. But Nachiketa had rejected Yama’s offer of wealth and so on. He says, ‘Secondly, teach me Vishvarupa Yagna,’ – the universal fire sacrifice which burns ignorance, desire and action. Ignorance is ignorance of Reality (the ultimate Truth) and desire is ‘I want’ and leads to action. Desire is destroyed by sacrifice, tapas [austerity], charity, and even by saying ‘I do not want that.’

Nachiketa had to die to go to Yama [the Lord of Death] and so do we. He renounced all. Charity is in thought, word and deed.

I desire only you Lord. Yearn, cry in secret, long for Him, until He is the only desire in you. And then Nachiketa says, ‘Thirdly, tell me what happens after death.’

The Guru is within. Where is within? God created heaven but, where was God before that? Do you think that by ‘within’ we mean the thumb-sized purusha in the heart? No. It is unthinkable; inexplicable.

Pray: ‘Ma, I do not know You at all, but You know all, so reveal Thyself to me.’

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.