Talks Excerpt 585. Swamiji explains the different karmic burdens in which we participate.
Image borrowed with gratitude from HERE.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
The Divine Mother and Sri Krishna are not two different things. It is ONE, called by various names. [In Sanskrit, the phrase is ‘Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti‘ (एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति) – Truth is ONE. Sages call it by various names.] Here She is known as male; there She is known as female.
Devotee: All this depends on the attitude of the mind? Swamiji: Yes, it is definitely the attitude of the mind. Nothing else. If you see good things, you are happy. If you see bad things you are depressed.
Devotee: Swamiji was talking about God coming in different forms. Swamiji: I am not saying this. The Lord is saying it Himself in the Bhagavad Gita. [laughter]
Devotee: When we look at the situation in this country today . . . Swamiji: There is individual karma, there is group karma, there is national karma and there is international karma. We are caught in one of these karmas.
Devotee: Somebody came to our house the other day and begged for water. My wife’s response, due to a recent incident in the neighbourhood, was to tell that person, ‘No. If you do not go away I’ll call the police.’ How do you respond to a situation where . . . ?
Swamiji: She responded from where she was. They responded from where they were. You must respond from where you are. There is not one straight-forward pattern of response. Each one will respond from where he or she is.
Given the same incident every one will respond differently. It may have been dharmic [in this case, appropriate] to say to him, ‘Go away.’ Devotee: That poor fellow may have only wanted water for his car.
Swamiji: It is all right. She acted from where she was. Do not worry about her. M.Y.O.B. Mind your own business! [laughter].
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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.