Talks Excerpt 578. Swamiji says that formal education is not a requirement for spirituality.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Latu Maharaj (Swami Adbhutananda), one of Master’s [Sri Ramakrishna’s] direct disciples, has a wonderful history concerning his association with Sri Ramakrishna. He was illiterate and worked for Ram Babu, a householder disciple of the Master. Not much is known about his early life.

While Latu Maharaj was serving Master at the Dakshineswar Temple, Master decided to teach him Bengali. Master gave him a couple of lessons but then, realising it was hopeless, they both started laughing and stopped the lessons.

Master took him from where he was, and thus proved to us that having no formal education is no criterion [necessity] for spirituality. Latu Maharaj later became a great saint and thus Master catered for Latu Maharaj’s type of people. You can see how wonderful Master was; he even thought of those people who were illiterate and who may not have come in contact with saints and sages. These people had been left in the lurch as far as spirituality was concerned. Sri Ramakrishna manifested himself through Latu and gave the world a person who amazed even Swami Vivekananda.

Once Swami Vivekananda was talking to a group of Western disciples. He was showing them some ancient ruins and explaining to them what the history was behind it and how it happened. Latu Maharaj was also present and was listening. He asked Swami Vivekananda, ‘But how is that? How can that happen?’ Swamiji tried to explain to him and make him understand but Latu Maharaj could not agree or understand. 

Then Swamiji got upset and said, ‘I cannot explain to you any further. What can an illiterate man like you understand?’ Swamiji was surprised when Latu Maharaj began rolling with laughter. Swamiji asked him what was the matter. He said, ‘I am laughing at your education. If you, with all your education, cannot make an illiterate man like me understand, then what is the use of your education?’This struck Swamiji like a thunderbolt. And Swami Vivekananda, the tornado of spirituality, was humbled.

Do you see what greatness Master had? He compared the apparently low to the high and made that so called low even higher than the one who was considered to be high.

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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.