Talks Excerpt 555. Swamiji gives advice on a home shrine.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Have even a small shrine in your homes. Without it you will be like a person without a heart, without life-blood; you will have built your life on materialism. God gives all. (If you cannot think that He is the boss, think that He is a shareholder.) Have a small place which you keep clean and pure. When you are angry do not enter there. First calm yourself, have only pure and holy thoughts, then you may go in your shrine.
Keep a vase of flowers near the shrine as a symbol of light, as a symbol of OM. Have a photo of the deity you love; but do not make an art gallery of your shrine, because then you will not know which deity to worship and the mind will jump from one to the other.
You must have a Chosen Ideal. Therefore have your Ideal’s picture, a light and some agarbatti in the shrine. The place must be beautiful and clean, so that the mind becomes naturally calm and allows holy thoughts to manifest. You can worship according to the scriptures, or from the heart with love.
Why do you offer prasad? To purify the mind, to raise it to higher Consciousness.
The guidance of the Guru is absolutely necessary to learn the technique to realise Brahman. ‘I am full, may you also be full’ – this is the prayer of the Guru.
It is not enough to read and talk of the spiritual teacher, you must directly perceive the light within. It is not enough to get instructions from the guru, you must struggle incessantly. Some gurus give initiation through words, but this power is beyond words. Others sit, talk, touch, look. Though the devotee feels nothing at the time, the power is given by the illuminated teacher.
Always remember: God is your protector and guide. If so, who can touch you? He is Almighty. Repeat His name and all fear goes.
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.