Talks Excerpt 495. Swamiji says that visions do not transform our inner lives.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
When we become pure, our mind becomes less agitated, more concentrated and therefore our memory becomes stronger. Slowly, when we have built up our character, will-power takes over and we become strong-willed. At the moment we are weak-willed because our senses are ruling us – not our will or our discriminating power [viveka].
The more we cultivate morality the more morality becomes our character. The more character that manifests in us, the more our will-power is strengthened, and when our will-power is strengthened we can do anything and everything.
Happiness must be here. If you cannot find anything here you will not find it there.
Even if a sannyasi shows you a vision of Sri Krishna today you will still be eating flesh and drinking alcohol tomorrow. That is why we do not believe in visions and other things – because they do not transform our inner lives.
We believe in that which permanently transforms our minds. The mind must be attracted and made into that Image itself. That is the basis of spiritual life.
Sri Ramakrishna stuck to truth, his father [Khudiram Chattopadhyay] stuck to truth, and his grandfather also stuck to truth. Therefore in truth, God, the Truth was born.
If you are untruthful do not think that you are going to have a beautiful, truthful baby, a Rama, born in your house. Like attracts like. If you dislike truth you will dislike a lot of things and your child will dislike a lot of things too.
Do not ask me, ‘But what happened? Why is my child like this?’ Nothing has happened. You attracted that kind of soul.
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.