Talks Excerpt 647 to 649 inclusive. Swamiji explains how to identify your Ishta Devata.

‘Do not make any distinction between the Master and me. Meditate on your Ishta and pray to Him. The meditation begins from the heart and ends in the head. Neither Mantra nor scripture is of any avail; Bhakti, love, accomplishes everything. The Master is everything – both Guru and Ishta. He is all in all.‘ – Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Excerpt 647:
When we say ‘Ishta Devata’ the word devata means: self-effulgent Being; that which
is self-effulgent light. Ishta means one’s very own or ‘Chosen One’. To understand this let us assume that there is a diamond that is ten feet long, thirty feet wide and egg-shaped. You may look at the diamond from all sides, but take a liking to one of the facets of that diamond. You like to think about that particular facet the whole day because you love it the best.

Similarly, God has many aspects, billions of aspects. He has as many aspects as there are minds. And by meditating on even a single facet of the diamond you are still meditating on the diamond itself.

The aspect that you begin loving from a young age, the aspect that you want, the aspect that your mind naturally settles on, or that your mind is naturally attracted to, becomes your saving grace; that becomes your Ishta devata. It saves you from thinking worldly thoughts, and from that which will take you away from purity. You should know which aspect of God you were attracted to from a young age.

But there is another way to identify your Ishta devata: You can go to the pundits, they read up in the astrological books and from there they choose your Ishta devata. But sometimes a contradictory idea comes from the books – maybe you do not like that particular deity, even though the book says it is yours.
Notice to which deity your mind is drawn the most – not because it has a beautiful nose or it is good looking. [laughter] You will find that when you are in trouble or when you are happy your mind goes directly to that particular Deity. But the best way to identify the Ishta devata is when the guru, through the Ishta devata’s grace, guides you on that particular aspect of God that makes you progress in your spiritual life.

Excerpt 648:
Swami Vivekananda worshipped Sitaram from a young age. But as he grew up he learned that Sri Rama was married and had two children. He said, ‘What? This man I am worshipping, who we call God, has two children.’ He went to the Ganga and consigned Sri Rama to the river. He then took Lord Shiva’s picture and began worshipping it. When he went to Sri Ramakrishna, Master simply looked at him and said, ‘You worship Shiva? No. You must worship Rama. Rama is your Ishta devata.’ And he made Swami Vivekananda worship Sri Rama again.

Only Lord Shiva can have love for Sri Rama; and Hanumanji is Lord Shiva himself. Ultimately we find that Swami Vivekananda was Lord Shiva himself so he could not worship Lord Shiva. He had to worship Sri Rama and his spiritual progress gained momentum, his love increased by leaps and bounds and he became a world teacher.

Devotee: How can I increase love for the Ishta devata? Swamiji: You must read more about your Deity. Hear more about it. The more you read and hear about the glories of your ishta devata the more the love will increase. If you do not hear and read about your Deity then your devotion will definitely be stagnant, it will not increase. That is why at these Yoga Camps (spiritual retreats) I insist that we speak about Sri Ramakrishna. Otherwise He can just be a man, and we will not see His divinity.

The speaker gave a talk about Sri Ramakrishna today, so you have love for him. Similarly you must speak about your Deity and hear about your Deity. The Vaishnavites do that. They think about Lord Vishnu, they recite stories about Lord Vishnu and they glorify Lord Vishnu. So their love for Lord Vishnu is naturally increased.

Excerpt 649.
Strange things happened in my life. I started worshipping Hanumanji first. When we were little children, we used to imagine and play that we were worshipping Hanumanji. We used stones to give him Prasad; we used stones to offer him arati. But as I grew up, I got attracted to Mother Kali. I started worshipping Mother Kali. Later, I worshipped Lord Shiva for a long time. But when I came to the ashram, I found that Lord Shiva and Mother Kali and Hanumanji were not different from Sri Ramakrishna himself.

One day, I do not know why, a sense of sadness overcame me. I prostrated to the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] and said good-bye to everyone. It so happened that I had a minor car accident. The last word that I remember saying was, ‘Jai Sri Mahavir.’ I said to myself, ‘My deity is Lord Shiva. So why am I saying, Jai Sri Mahavir?’ This shows that Hanumanji is still my Ishta devata (though he came in the form of Lord Shiva himself).

Birth after death you worship them; they will not leave you even if you leave them. In me, my Mother’s grace is combined with Lord Shiva’s, Hanumanji’s, and Sri Ramakrishna’s and Sri Sarada Devi’s. They have truly blessed me.

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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.