Talks Excerpt 507. Swamiji says how you retain spiritual information, reveals if you have a sattvic, rajasic or tamasic mind.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Sing: Gauri, Shankar, Sitaram, Sarada Ma, Sri Ramakrishna, Radheshyam: These names give us bhakti [divine devotion/love]; these names give us jnana [higher knowledge]. Anything or anyone that gives you bhakti and jnana is a manifestation of God’s power of dispelling darkness. That which disperses darkness and takes away maya [partial truth as Swamiji used to remind us] is a special manifestation of God’s power.
We must create seriousness in the minds of students so that they become Self-enquiring people. You will find that if you are dull you will become duller after a Yoga Camp [Spiritual Retreat] – you will only remember patches here and there, and most probably you will find that your mind only remembers those things which were jovial. The serious part of it, to which you really should give thought, you forget. This is one of the ways to find out what kind of mind you have – a sattvic mind, or a tamasic mixed with a rajasic mind.
I feel that these are very serious studies but when we gather like this, the seriousness is lost. What I say to you is: You are born ignorant, do not die more ignorant. In the previous birth you may have improved, so in this birth try to improve more. [Swamiji always contextualised ‘ignorant’ by saying it meant not enough insight, information or understanding at that point.]
I gave you an interpretation of [Holy] Mother’s teaching: Do not find fault with others. I gave it to you from three different levels just to give you an inkling of how – when you think seriously – you can draw so much from those simple words and improve your life. You can only improve it from where you are.
The idea is that every stage of life must be harmonised. The householder’s stage [Grihastha] of worldly life must be harmonised, so that you get to the next stage of harmony: dualism i.e. devotees and gods. Then you go on to the next stage which is being united in the Self.
Wherever you are, if you can get that stage harmonised, the next stage will come, and you will progress steadily to the ultimate goal [moksha].
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.