Talks Excerpt 480. Two topics for you to explore. One on the ‘appearance of life’ on earth, and the other about Master’s lay devotees.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

[Flows on from from Talks Excerpt 479. Click HERE to read that].

Devotee: Did animals and so on come first and then the Rishis? Or were conditions not conducive at the very inception of this evolution, for the Rishis to appear? Did the Rishis come after the plants and animals?

Swamiji: God came, then Lord Brahma came, then Rishis came, and then plants and other things came. In the Bhagavatam you will find they describe it as waves of creation – how the five pranas and the ego came and how the ego manifested itself into other things. But they always start from the highest: the Rishis. So the Rishis came first.

[Swamiji reads from ‘Days In An Indian Monastery‘ by Sister Devamata]

The distance of six miles [9.6 kilometres] from Calcutta to Dakshineswar seemed very long in the scorching heat of the daylight hours, and very lonely and dark by night. Yet many disciples and devotees traversed it habitually on foot, some out of humility, some because they had not the money for carriage hire or boat fare. It hurt Sri Ramakrishna to see them arrive at the Dakshineswar Temple hot and weary. He felt as if he himself had walked under the burning sun, as if his own feet were fevered from the long way. To save his chosen ones from such fatigue, Master went as often as he could to Calcutta and let them gather around him there.

Swamiji: You can see that Sri Ramakrishna’s thoughts were for others. The old idea was that the chela [disciple] must come to the guru, but here it was vice versa. The Master felt pity, he felt love and he went to Calcutta so that those people would not have to walk the six miles. It is not a small thing. It is a thing of the heart.

The house Master frequented most was that of Balaram Bose. It became at once a recognised centre for his work and has remained such ever since. It was in 1882 that Balaram Bose first met the Master. He was already firmly grounded in spiritual living. Although possessed of large estates and great wealth, even his wife was given wholly to God.

Swamiji: Sri Ramakrishna would visit the pure souls, the pure ones, and Balaram Bose’s house became the centre. His wife, instead of being full of pride because she had so much money, gave herself wholly to God.

For many years Balaram had devoted the major portion of his time to devout meditation and scriptural study.

Balaram was spiritually fit before he met Sri Ramakrishna. That shows what kind of a pure soul he was. He gave himself every day to meditation and scriptural studies.

Swamiji: Do you study the scriptures? The scriptures should be read every day. And you should give yourself to meditation according to your guru’s instruction. Do not think that you have become so clever that you can prescribe your own meditation.

Keshab Chandra Sen was in his country home in Orissa at that time, but when he came to Calcutta for his daughter’s marriage, he went to Dakshineswar to meet the Master.

Swamiji: Keshab did not feel proud. He was doing his sadhana. He was a spiritual man. He did not say, ‘What am I going to the ashram for? I am doing it at home.’ That kind of thought should be rejected.

You may think that you are doing yourself a favour by not going for satsang but you do not know that your ego is getting built up in you. If you went there, someone’s love, someone’s remark may just humble you. Thus Keshab went to the satsang, he went to meet Sri Ramakrishna.

Balaram Babu’s widow told me that it was their habit to spend Sundays with the Master, always.

Swamiji: How many of you like to spend each Sunday with me? You say, ‘It’s too much.’ How many of you like even to spend Sundays in a temple? ‘It’s too hot. It’s boring.’ I have heard many people say, ‘It’s boring.’ What is boredom? Learn to love God.

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.