Talks Excerpt 444. Swamiji says that when we are comfortable, we forget about God.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
The purpose is in your own heart, the purpose is in your own mind, the purpose is in your own hands. You have to choose otherwise it [Mother Nature] will choose [it for] you. [Swamiji told us many times that if we didn’t pursue sadhana by choice, Mother Nature would create circumstances that force us into it.] When you choose, you’ve got your mind under control. When other things choose you, your mind is weak.
This is the time for you to know that God dwells in all [omnipresent] and that you should join all – be in the company of devotees. Simultaneously, this is the time to know that you should be detached [vairagya].
You come to the Retreat/Yoga Camp to make your mind very, very uncomfortable, so that the comfort of the Spirit can manifest. When we are comfortable, we forget about God.
Devotee: You said that nothing can burn truth, but how is it that a true man or an honest man can be sent to jail or be punished?
Swamiji: You see, son, that is not truth. We didn’t say that a man who is following a truthful path will not go through trials and tribulations. Sri Rama himself went through trials and tribulations; Mother Sita went through trials and tribulations. That has nothing to do with it.
When a man [innocent] goes to jail that is the time to test him – to know if he is going to leave the truth now and go to untruth. If he can stay in jail and yet take the punishment, and in his heart be convinced that, ‘I am speaking the truth,’ then he is a blessed man.
Christ was crucified, yet if Christ wanted, he could have told a lie – but he preferred, just like Sri Rama, to give up his life rather than break away from truth or principle.
You should ask the guru those questions which trouble your mind in sadhana. If you don’t ask these questions it will delay your sadhana. Ask the guru those questions which pertain to God Himself, and the way to live your life to go towards God. If we have certain doubts, we must ask about them in order to clear them up.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click 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.