Talks Excerpt 579. Swamiji praises the compassion and love between Master’s disciples.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

[Swamiji reads from a book on Latu Maharaj – Swami Adbhutananda Puri – a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.]

From 1891 to 1897 [this was after the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886] Latu Maharaj had no fixed residence. He stayed in the homes of various devotees in Calcutta and occasionally left the city. His real residence was the eastern bank of the Ganges.

Swamiji: In India they sleep on the banks of the river Ganges.

But he would take food from a few devotee families and often stayed at the Monastery for a week or ten days at a stretch. During part of 1892 Latu Maharaj stayed at the Alambazar Monastery. The same year Swami Abhedananda suffered from an intestinal disease and Latu Maharaj nursed him. The Swami writes, ‘How great was Latu Maharaj’s love for his brother disciples. He wholeheartedly nursed me when I fell ill at Alambazar although the doctor said that the illness was contagious. Latu and Swami Saradananda used to wash the sores on my body everyday.’

Swamiji: What beautiful love. Can we love each other like that, as brother disciples?

Commenting on this, another Swami wrote, ‘Latu Maharaj would come in the morning every day, spend the entire day with the Swami, and then leave to practise his austerities in the evening.’

One day in 1893 a devotee came to invite Latu Maharaj to visit his house for some holy occasion. When he entered the room where Latu Maharaj was staying, at the same home of another devotee, he saw Latu Maharaj sitting covered with a thick chaddar [cloth] from head to foot. Although the devotee called to him several times he received no reply. It was only after nearly an hour that they were able to talk with the Swami. When he had returned to normal consciousness Latu Maharaj said, ‘Why do you invite me? Ask the sadhus [monks] of the Alambazar Monastery. If Brother Shashi [Swami Ramakrishnananda] goes, it is as good as the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] going.’

Swamiji: What humility. He did not consider himself as great as his brother disciples.

The same year, during the rainy season, Holy Mother [Sri Sarada Devi] stayed at a house rented for her by one of the devotees. Latu Maharaj also stayed there. In reference to this period he said to a few others, ‘While she was there, Mother practised the hard austerity of panchatapa – a severe discipline which is observed by practising japa and meditation while seated encircled by four fires, with the sun blazing overhead. The Holy Mother and her companion, Jogin Ma, practised this austerity for a week.’

Swamiji: Sitting in this burning heat they were able to concentrate their minds on God. Is it any small matter? Today we just have to feel a little heat and we start looking for an electric fan. Why did they do this austerity? To teach man that without austerities nothing spiritual can be gained. Therefore the ashramites [residents of the ashram], the devotees and the householders should not treat lightly the observance of certain rules on holy days. These are austerities [tapasya] for us.

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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.