Swamiji speaks on consciousness, powers and universal light.
Swamiji speaks about people saying there must be a 'living God', and says, yes, God is of course alive. Show me anywhere, something that isn't 'alive' with consciousness. But your vision has to be adjusted in such a way that you can see it to be so. And 'vision' here, doesn't mean eyes only, but all of the senses.
Swamiji goes on to caution about the acquisition of psychic powers or siddhis through use of mantras or Indrajal – which may enable the person to do seemingly miraculous things. But, says Swamiji, these powers 'are not God!' And Swamiji gives examples of how these fake 'divine' abilities delude people.
He draws the homily to a conclusion by explaining how a simple jyoti, [light – usually in the form of a diya or prayer oil-lamp] can be a symbol for any of the gods and goddesses, or other aspect of divinity. It doesn't need to be given a name, because it already represents universal light and consciousness.
To gain greater understanding, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 09:46
The original audio recordings of these posts were made by close Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and Swami Shivapadananda devotee, Mother Radha. The audio editing and noise reduction of the original 1970s-onwards tapes, has been lovingly engineered, over many years, by her son and our dear gurubhai, Brother Tim. May Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji bless them both.
Admin tip: Underlined words are links. If you click on them, they'll take you to an explanation of the particular word or term. [In these overviews, Admin comments are typically in a smaller green font, and square bracketed, like this statement.]
Dear reader, if you spot typos or or other errors, please feel free to email the site admin on info@imbizo.com with your suggested correction/s.
Context: As always, care should be taken to remember that what Swamiji was saying, may have been very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
Links to our Guruparampara (spiritual lineage) organisations, which will broaden your knowledge base: Ramakrishna Math and Mission and our alma maters, the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in Durban. The Ramakrishna Centre of Johannesburg is also active in Gauteng province in South Africa.
There are various publications [The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna etc.] which you can download at no charge, from the Ramakrishna Centre of SA website page, HERE.