Talks Excerpts 596-599 inclusive. Swamiji gives a comprehensive overview of religious evolution and spiritual revival.

[Dear Devotee, we’ve grouped Talk Excerpts 596-599 together here, so that there’s better topic continuity for you.]

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

The way God works is so wonderful. People do not know how, in invisible ways, He puts things together. In India in the last century [1800s] there was a need for a change and assistance. The life, the heart, the very existence of India is only spirituality. But the people had forgotten this ideal and without the backing of spirituality they were trying to accumulate material wealth.

Of course in the olden days when Sri Rama and Sri Krishna lived (in the body that is) India was prosperous, not only materially but also spiritually. The secret of that was that the leaders, the kings, the rulers, were deeply religious people. Thus there was no fear. India’s foundation was spirituality, and the walls built were material prosperity.

Our scriptures say that the root of this world is in God. You and I know for sure that the root that gets nourishment from the all-powerful Being, God Himself, can never perish. How can it? It will not run short of anything when its root is in God. To destroy this world you would have to destroy God Himself, and this is impossible.

But the difference is that the world we are living in is not steeped in God, it is not deriving its nourishment from God. Your world and my world (we have individual worlds) is not in God. It derives its apparent vitality from pleasure, from ego, from name and fame. Therefore our world must perish, because the supply of the vitality is adharma. When our world is embedded in dharma then it will never perish because the nourisher of dharma is God Himself.

We call Sri Rama the embodiment of dharma and therefore Sri Rama never perishes. We call Sri Krishna the embodiment of dharma because Sri Krishna never perishes. In ancient times when India had its roots in dharma, it flourished. India at that time was known as the Mother of the whole universe. But now that Mother has become very old, and, with so many changes, it appears that people have left dharma.

Talks Excerpt 597.

Then came the time when dharma was embodied in the form of Sri Ramakrishna, in the form of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, and other great men like Dayanand Saraswati, in the form of Rabindranath Tagore and Keshab Chandra Sen. Hence, we realise that our roots had been planted in the wrong place, so we are now uprooting them from there and [re] planting them in these dharmic ideals, so that they will be revitalised, rejuvenated.

In the Western world, though people grew materially strong, they starved spiritually. But amongst them were people like Sister Nivedita who were striving for spirituality. And Swami Vivekananda accepted, selected, and gathered many disciples from the West, who yearned for a higher purpose in life.

In this case we find that though Sri Ramakrishna was born in India his fruits are scattered all over the world. Is he confined only to India? He is the Universal tree. A tree that is even in the three lokas. He is the Universal loka. His fruits fall on all.

Sister Nivedita was one and Mr [Josiah] Goodwin was another fruit that dropped in a place other than India. In my opinion all the saints and sages who came after Swami Vivekananda (no matter to which organisation they belong) are all the fruits of Sri Ramakrishna. I say this because the principles that were preached, were started by Sri Ramakrishna and are now embodied and preached under the names of many other organisations.

Sri Ramakrishna did the work of Sri Krishna himself. He actually said to Swami Vivekananda in his last days: ‘He that was Rama and he that was Krishna is now Ramakrishna, in this body.’

It shows that He Himself came to uplift His own principles in the form of the scriptures.

Sri Ramakrishna uplifted all the scriptures of the whole world, regardless to which religion those scriptures belonged.

Talks Excerpt 598.

In the Vedas you will find it said that only those who practise religion as embodied in the Vedas will get immortality, will dwell in heaven or will be eternally free. Because of this you may say that we must stick to the religion of the Vedas. But let me ask you: If I was born now do you think my name would be mentioned in the books that were printed a hundred years ago? No. It is logical to say my name would not be found there. When the Vedas were written there was no Bible, so the Bible is not mentioned in the Vedas. There was no Koran at that time so it is not mentioned in the Vedas. There was no Dhammapada, so it is not mentioned in the Vedas.

That is why Sri Ramakrishna did not say, ‘Practise religion only as laid out in the Vedas . . .’ He said, ‘Practise religion as laid out in all the scriptures.’ Sri Ramakrishna did not say, ‘Follow the Bible’, but by practising its teachings himself, he followed it. By becoming a Christian he followed it. By virtue of this fact he is telling us: ‘There is truth in that.’ By practising the Koran he is telling us, ‘The truth is also in that.’

But we as Hindus must not be blind. We do not owe anybody anything. We are proud to be Hindus. And Sri Ramakrishna himself said that a Hindu should not become a Christian, he should become a better Hindu; a Christian should not become a Hindu, he must become a better Christian. Why is this? If there is a tap in your house and another tap in my house what is the need for you to leave your house and come to my house to drink water? The water is already there, drink it.

The Ramakrishna Centre [of South Africa] in no form whatsoever preaches conversion. But a bad man can be converted into a good man by following his particular dharma. If he is born in that dharma it will be easier for him to understand it.

Talks Excerpt 599.

The Ramakrishna Centre in no form whatsoever preaches conversion . . . Whilst we accept all as human beings, we also accept all as religious people. But above all we definitely stick to our principles like tenacious bulldogs. We must not give up our religious principles. They are our birthright.

At the Ramakrishna Centre we preach introversion not conversion. Mankind has gone out too much seeking pleasures in this world. While our dharma allows us to enjoy certain pleasures, we will enjoy them – like having a wife, having children, owning a building, owning a motor car and so on. Our dharma allows us to have these things but to have them in such a way that we do not get attached to them. Ultimately we must leave these too.

We want to be attached only to God but we take aid from these various things. If I have to climb a tree, I may take the aid of a ladder; but I do not get stuck to that ladder. So these things are different ‘ladders’ to help us. They are not there to break our inner spirit but rather to assist us. Whilst going up we take the aid of ‘this’ and let go of ‘that’.

Sri Ramakrishna is the most Universal Being. Maybe there are others who will come in the future, but he is the most Universal Being so far.

Sri Ramakrishna said that all the scriptures have contained truth but by following one scripture you yourself must try to improve your life and progress towards the spiritual goal – God-realisation. He himself did this.

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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.