Your true nature revealed
[Pictured: Swami Vivekananda]
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 824
Devotee: Taking the incident where Swami Vivekananda came to Master [Sri Ramakrishna] for help for his family, Master sent him to Mother Kali to ask for the needs of his family [they were in dire financial circumstances following the death of his father]. But when he went to [the Divine] Mother he could not ask for these needs, he could only ask for love for Mother's feet. Now we said we have free will – how can we differentiate between free will and God's will?
Swamiji: That answers one very vital question which is in the Srimad Bhagavatam. A lot of people doubted Sri Krishna. They said to him, "All these gopis [cowherd girls] that came to you were not pure minded, they had ulterior motives." No matter how the holy people tried, they couldn't give an answer to this.
In this incident Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda have shown us that whatever your real nature is, it will manifest in front of God. In other words, you may not know what seed it is, but when you plant it, and when the sun shines on it, and the five elements are there, then, when it manifests you will come to know if it's an orange tree, a lemon tree, a banana tree or a pear tree.
So the vital question was answered here. Swami Vivekananda went to the Temple to ask [Mother Kali] for work but on reaching there his mind became so pure that his real nature manifested itself. His mind was clinging on to money and food but when he went there "money and food" disappeared. Just like when you go into the light, darkness disappears. What did he utter instead? "Ma, give me knowledge. Ma, give me bhakti, pure devotion."
Similarly, when the gopis went to Sri Krishna they must have gone to him with the idea in mind: "Well I'm going to get married to Sri Krishna." But no sooner did they go there than they forgot marriage – they only said, 'Ah, Sat-chit-ananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss – Absolute]. Himself and I are One and not two.'
What is God's will? Anything that is in the Scriptures is God's will. Anything it forbids you to do and you do, that's your own will.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites – please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham