Talks Excerpt 527. A devotee asks what role they can play in the reformation/revitalisation of Hinduism in South Africa.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Devotee: What role can we as devotees play in the reformation of Hinduism in South Africa today?
Swamiji: First, you can improve your own religious life. This is done by obtaining information from satsang and understanding the scriptures in the light of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Sarada Devi. When people see you living a good, sattvic life they will automatically follow your example. This is because people always want to obtain or imitate anything that they see which is good and which is doing good.
Devotee: Swami Vivekananda said that the emphasis should be on the principle rather than on the personality; but are we not doing the opposite of this with pictures and murtis of the Master [Sri Ramakrishna], Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda?
Swamiji: What Swami Vivekananda said does not mean that you should give up the personality altogether. Remember we are not forcing anyone to worship Master [Sri Ramakrishna]. If what we do appeals to others, they are free to choose the teachings or the personality.
We know, through the examples of past devotees who have realised God, that personality worship has brought about peace in them. There are examples of this amongst the Shaivites, the Vaishnavites and the Shaktas. Remember too that Sri Chaitanya and others were also personality worshippers and it brought them peace.
There are various methods of sadhana [spiritual practice]. One of the methods is to worship a God-realised soul as God, and by doing this you will reach God. This is also a kind of personality worship.
Patanjali gave us another method. If you study Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras he does not say that we must accept Ishvara [i.e. personal God] or that we must accept Om [the Impersonal]. But he gives us the principles that will make our minds concentrated. He describes this state as the mind having no thought waves. Thus you become God-realised.
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.