Talks Excerpt 499. Swamiji speaks on the 5th Yama – abstain from greed.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

[Yama and Niyama continued.]

Five: Abstain from greed. If you eat over-limit you are greedy. If you accumulate a lot of money you are greedy. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said, ‘Triple is the gateway to hell: lust, anger and greed.’ This means it is natural for human beings to do those things – and human beings will go on doing them. They are open doors, and to close them needs effort. From the time you are born lust is there, greed is there and anger is there too.

Wanting is also lust – wanting this, wanting that, wanting wife, wanting children, wanting everything except God. That is why Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Lust will be a good thing if you redirect it to God. Instead of wanting the things of this world, yearn for God.’

The highest quality one can have as a sadhaka is intense yearning for God.

These five are called yama and are good for all people.

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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.