Talks Excerpt 639. Swamiji gives instructions for behaviour on holy days.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

You must carry your own asana [seat for meditation]. Our gurus have told us that when we sleep overnight anywhere else, we must put a piece of cloth on top of another’s bed. So, I am trying to keep to tradition and the advice given.

Later Avatars, as far as Sri Krishna, all had responsibilities. They transformed that responsibility into tapasya [austerities] when they realised God.

Householders [grihasthas] must observe brahmacharya to get mind and sense control. How? Fast during ekadashi. Sleep in separate rooms on holy days, on the birthdays of saints and sages and on your birthday. Practise this yourself. Do not tell anybody. Just keep doing this and suddenly, as love for God grows, you will love each other to love God. And you will not hate each other. Sri Ramakrishna did not hate [Holy Mother Sri] Sarada Devi nor did Sarada Devi hate Sri Ramakrishna. There is a sacred vow that the householders take to live like that.

A true guru always wants to give, he never wants to hide anything. A guru never gets jealous of his chelas. Did you see a mother getting jealous of her own child?

NEW! For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial ‘memoir’ of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.

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.