Talks Excerpts 709 to 711 combined. Swamiji speaks on the transformative power of Yoga Camp spiritual retreats, and how Sri Ramakrishna opened God-realisation to ALL.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Excerpt 709: [At the start of a Yoga Camp].
Blessed devotees of God, I welcome you most heartily to this sadhana camp (Spiritual Retreat). My beloved guru, Swami Nischalanandaji, held many a camp like this, where he gave out the cream of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna.

The spiritual life of a sadhaka is especially directed during these camps. As sadhakas we get together to take note of the great advantages of spirituality. Whilst comparing notes we find where we are weak. We do this for one reason only: so that we may take great care in the future to correct ourselves and thus improve our lives on earth. We do this to get the instrument of our body-mind-intellect complex ready to receive the Divine grace of God.

Sri Ramakrishna was so very loving, very human and very simple. Just as he realised the many paths to reach God, he also, out of deep concern and love, showed us that we must do something to save ourselves from misery, troubles, trials and tribulations. Regular prayer saves us from many difficulties.

Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said that in the Kali Yuga man is always busy; he is always in a hurry. Master advised that even though we are busy we should at least take some time off from our material life to pay special attention to our spiritual life. Master said that the busy man should get away for a year. If he cannot get away into quietness and solitude for a year then three months would do. Master says, ‘If you desire to live in the world unattached, you should first practice devotion in solitude for some time – say a year, or six months, or a month, or at least twelve days.’ In this way you can have a vacation from this world of impermanence, and concentrate your mind on that Supreme Being who is ever-present, eternally in your heart.

Taking his lesson from this, Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri] thought it fit to have Yoga Camps (Spiritual Retreats). And that is precisely what we do. We take a vacation from our worldly duties to direct our lives positively towards God and his glory.

Excerpt 710:
In this Yoga Camp you will find that you are yourself responsible for achieving the highest. You are here to help each other as satsangis, as the seekers of truth. You are here in particular to taste the flavour of instruction and obedience, to do the exercises given by the teachers of the various yogas or scriptures to purify our minds and hearts and to taste the bliss of God and to seek inspiration. And if we can be inspired to carry on our spiritual exercises side by side with our worldly duties until the next camp, then we have achieved a lot.

This camp appears to me like a filling station where the motorcar stops to refuel itself and then travels on until it comes to the next garage. And this, Gurudev did twice a year. When Gurudev started the first Yoga Camp some of you were children. And if you look at the photographs where Gurudev is sitting with the children you will realise that these camps have influenced our lives to a large extent – consciously or unconsciously.

You are here to ‘Mother Your Own Baby’ [MYOB – which Swamji also used as an acronym for ‘Mind Your Own Business’ which he humorously said was the ‘most powerful mantra in the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa‘] – that is your mind. You are here, not for light fun, laughter and frolic but rather for a serious mode of life. And if each one of you can remind yourselves that you are here to discipline your own mind, to discipline your own life, then you have understood the motive of this camp.

Many people think that this camp will give them God-realisation. But God-realisation is not a ladu in the hands of somebody who can have a bite at it whenever they like – a thing which instead of diminishing the hunger of desire, allows it to grow. It is not like that. You are here to realise the seriousness of spiritual life, to realise that time is very short indeed. Some of us forget that only yesterday we were twenty-five years old, and now we are in our fifties and sixties. Life has gone by so fast. Blessed are those children that can realise this at an early age – just like the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who came to him when they were sixteen or seventeen and eighteen. It was Sri Ramakrishna who first drew the attention of the world to the power of the youth in the spiritual field. His disciples were well educated, well mannered and cultured, and ever thirsty for the nectar of spirituality.

We must realise that life is not meant only to eat, drink, make merry, multiply and die. Nay, you must realise that life is for a higher purpose. The purpose is to know, to realise, that we are a ‘chip off the old block’ and therefore the Block. Then you can truly say: ‘I am that Power that expresses itself in many names and forms.’

Excerpt 711:
When you walk on this hallowed spiritual ground, repeat God’s name. When you meet each other, meet as if you were talking to God; and in meeting God know that in each heart, in each body, is seated that Eternal Being in the form of your Chosen Ideal.

We are conducting an experiment, experimenting with our own minds and trying to know how best to direct that mind towards the highest bliss, the highest happiness and the highest knowledge.

Blessed are we that we enjoy the blessings of the great saints and sages of all ages in this Yuga – crossing the boundary of caste, colour, creed and religion we go to see the rightful kingdom, the kingdom of immortality. And in particular we are blessed that we enjoy the Divine Light and share in the lila of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.

Blessed are we. Who knows? Maybe you will not realise that his grace has drawn us to his bosom, like a father, like a mother, like a brother. Caring for our happiness, God has conducted the experiment in this age at Dakshineswar. And after finding the truth, for the first time in the history of the world, he threw the doors wide open for all, whatever caste, colour and creed. He said, just like Christ, ‘Come all ye that are heavily laden and I shall comfort thee.’

Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘Do your sadhana.’

Christ said, ‘Knock, and it shall be opened.’ Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘The wind of God’s grace is always blowing, just unfurl the sail of your boat. . .’ From the shores of relativity, He will take you to the shores of Advaita [non-duality], to the bliss of Satchidananda [existence-knowledge-bliss Absolute].

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.