Talks Excerpt 650. Swamiji says be neither happy nor sad, but above the pairs of opposites.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

When at home with the family try to treat every morning and evening as a Yoga Camp. Pray and worship God in that particular way. At home, feel the love that you have for Him here, and surely your house can become a heaven. You will feel that freedom. The only difference is that here you are not troubled by your husband, your wife or the children, and you see many smiling faces who are motiveless. At home no matter how much you smile at your mother, you still have a motive – that she will iron your clothes, she will cook the food.

The husband will always say, ‘This is my wife.’ And that is what binds us. Try to be free; feel that you belong to nobody, you belong to God; you are only a servant of God, serving these people who have come here in the forms which you see. Or, know that they are God who has come here to demand your service.

When we say It (the Divine Being) is inside our hearts, we call it Atman; when It (the Divine Being) is behind the whole universe, we call it Brahman.

Gurudev [Swamiji’s revered and beloved guru Swami Nischalananda Puri] always used to ask me, ‘Maharaj, are you happy?’ I would say, ‘Yes,’ and he would say, ‘Be happy, be happy.’ He would ask me three or four times, ‘Are you happy? Be happy.’ One day I became a little suspicious about this ‘Be happy’ question. I said, ‘Swamiji, please tell me why you keep asking me this all the time?’ He said, “I ask you if you are happy. Then you say ‘yes.’ Then I say ‘be happy.’ In truth, you should be neither be happy nor sad; you should be beyond the pairs of opposites.’

If you are happy where Swamiji is, then be happy.

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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.