Talks Excerpt 702 and 703 combined. Swamiji invites eligible youth to renounce.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Those people who live near the ashrams should make a habit of going there every week. Go and see what is to be done and offer your help. In that way you will be serving the ashram and helping yourself. Do not come here only to attend a yoga camp. Yoga is to be practised every second of your life, not once a year or once in six months.

Those young girls and boys that want to lead a spiritual life must learn to renounce; they must come here. Do not fear. But before coming here read the lives of Sri Sarada Devi and of great sannyasis and sannyasinis. Read about Sri Rama and Mother Sita; read about Raja Janaka and his family. Then think carefully. If your mind says, ‘Truly I have love for God and I want to give my whole life to God,’ then come. With open arms I welcome you. I am not yet out of the body. I will be the first one to say to you, ‘Come my child, live in the ashram and learn to become a sadhu.’

Parents must see that the children are inspired and that their minds are going towards God. Parents should never take them away from God. They should actually encourage them.

Once a lady requested Sri Sarada Devi to order her daughter to marry. Holy Mother replied, ‘Is it not a misery to remain in lifelong bondage to another? If one is not inclined to lead a married life, one should not be forced into it and be subjected to lifelong worldliness. Girls that are drawn to the life of renunciation should be encouraged to lead a celibate life.’

Thus [Holy] Mother made it clear that she allowed renunciation for women.

Excerpt 703: Parents should not obstruct their sons if they are going towards God. It is better than taking to substance abuse (smoking, drinking, etc.), it is better than wasting time at the movies. If the child’s mind is drawn towards God, offer it to God. But every child that comes here should first see that he or she finishes matric and gets a degree. Then when they renounce, they will be equipped to serve God in all.

We do not want lazy children. A lazy man should go and work, get married and have a wife and children. Only a man who is not lazy, one who works so much for himself that later, he can work selflessly for others, must renounce.

I think that in this Kaliyuga a man should try to renounce at about fifty years of age. He should get away from his wife and children and try to become strong and independent. Do not hate your wife; do not hate your children; love them but try to be detached. Today people who are sixty or seventy years old want to remarry. This kind of a life is not good. Ultimately renounce for God.

Never ever, not even in dream, forget your Gurusthan, your spiritual home. Never talk ill about any holy man from any religion. All holy men are doing holy work to uplift their own minds and the minds of others towards God.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography, ‘A Life Lived For Others‘, is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial booklet, ‘Memories of my ashram days‘ at the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, 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 those with him at the time.