Talks Excerpt 554. Swamiji says: Pray for anybody, ask anything, but the highest thing to ask for is love and devotion.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Once, when his mother, sister and brothers were dying of starvation, Swami Vivekananda went to see Sri Ramakrishna. He asked Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mother for him so that she would give him work and bless him. But Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘No, I will not ask. You yourself have to have faith in Her. You must ask Her directly.’

So Swami Vivekananda went into the Kali temple at Dakshineswar. There he saw Mother Kali pulsating, living, breathing. He prostrated to Her and prayed for selfless love, devotion and knowledge.

When he came out of the temple Sri Ramakrishna asked him if he had asked the Mother for work. He said, ‘No.’ So Master said, ‘Go to the Temple again, and this time ask Her for work.’ On seeing Mother, Swami Vivekananda again asked [only] for devotion and knowledge. And for the third time the Master asked him to go back and ask Mother Kali to help his family. But all three times he could only ask for love, devotion and knowledge.

Swami Vivekananda’s real nature was selfless; his nature was to love God. So when he went into the shrine it was his real nature which manifested. If you plant a mango seed it will produce mango flowers and mango fruit – not anything else.

After having been unable to ask for work for the third time Sri Ramakrishna said to him, ‘I bless you that your family will not starve. They will have simple food, shelter and clothing.’ And so it came to pass.

Pray for anybody, ask anything, but the highest thing to ask for is love and devotion. Start in the heart. God is everywhere because He is Omnipresent and Omnipotent (all powerful).

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.