Talks Excerpt 452. Swamiji says that all of us must have unflagging devotion to truth. A vow is a vow.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
A vow is a vow, and Rabindranath Tagore drives that point home very, very well. [‘Mahatma’ Gandhiji went and asked him one day, ‘Maharaj, you are sick, why don’t you have a rest?’ He said, ‘No, no. At the time when I took my sacred thread I promised that I would not sleep during the day. Now I am already sixty something, how many more years have I to go? Why should I agree with you?’
What beautiful inspiration – to stick to truth.
In the scriptures we read: Raghu kula rit sada chali aye prana jaye para vachana najaye. This means: It is the practice of the Raghus to speak the truth [satya]. They will give up their lives to uphold truthfulness. But that is where the majority of people’s weakness lies. Their vows are given up for something else.
Even those who are engaged in worldly activities such as office work or business should hold to truth. Truthfulness alone is the spiritual discipline in the Kali Yuga. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna especially instructs householders that if a man leads a householder’s [Grihasta] life he must have unflagging devotion to truth. And that God can be realised through truth alone.
Even in trifling matters Sri Ramakrishna could not deviate from truthfulness. Example: As a [Brahmin] child he had promised the blacksmith woman, Dhani, that he would receive his first bhiksha (alms) from her after his upanayana (investiture with sacred thread) ceremony. At the time of the upanayanam, Gadadhar [Master’s pre-monastic name] insisted on fulfilling his promise and the custom-bound elders had to agree to this unorthodox step.
Lord Vishnu took the form of Vaman (dwarf) Avatar to beg from King Bali. We read how Bali’s guru said, ‘Don’t give this gift to him – he is Lord Vishnu in a different form.’ Bali said, ‘But Lord, I’ve already made him a promise, and you told me I must keep my promises. How can I give up that promise? You are the one who taught me not to speak an untruth.’ Just like that.
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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.