The Master, Ramakrishna Paramahansa continued: "But you should remember that the heart of the devotee is the abode of God. He dwells, no doubt, in all beings, but He especially manifests Himself in the heart of the devotee. A landlord may at one time or another visit all parts of his estate, but people say he is generally to be found in a particular drawing-room. The heart of the devotee is the drawing-room of God.
Keshab Sen asked me: “Why can’t I see the Lord?” I replied: “You are busy with name and fame, scholarship and so on. That’s why you don’t see Him”. As long as the infant continues to suck on the pacifier, the mother does not come to him. After a while the infant throws away the pacifier and cries aloud. The mother then takes down the rice pot from the fire and comes to it.
You are engaged in arbitration. The Mother says to Herself: “My son is doing fine as a leader. Let him enjoy himself”.
All this time Ishan has been holding Thakur’s feet. He says humbly to him, still holding his feet: “It is not that I have been doing all this willfully”.
Sri Ramakrishna: “I know, it is the Mother’s game. Her sport indeed! Mahamaya wants to keep everybody bound to the world. You know how it is?
Many boats float on the ocean of the world. How many of them sink!
Again, out of a hundred-thousand kites, only one or two have their strings cut through and are thus set free; oh, how then You laugh and clap Your hands!
Similarly, out of a million people, only one or two attain Liberation. All the rest remain bound by the Mother’s will.
Haven’t you seen the game of hide and seek? It is the Grand-dame’s will that the game should continue. If everybody were to touch the Grand-dame, the game would not continue. So the Grand-dame does not want everybody to touch her.
You see, in large shops big sacks of rice are placed as high as the roof. Besides rice, lentils are also stored there. To save them from mice, the shopkeeper puts some sweetened puffed rice in a straw basket. They taste sweet and have their own smell, so all the mice busy themselves eating from the basket, not knowing about the big sacks. Similarly, man is enchanted with “lust and greed’”and does not seek the Lord”.
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
("Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita" word to word translation by Sri Dharm Pal Gupta, V2, Section XIX, Ch. V, “Sri Ramakrishna with Devotees in Dakshineswar”, 11 October, 1884)
"Why doesn't God free us from the world? Ah, He will free us when the disease is cured. He will liberate us from the world when we are through with the enjoyment of 'woman and gold'. Once a man registers his name in the hospital, he cannot run away. The doctor will not let him go away unless his illness is completely cured."
-The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
The Mystery of Karma and Divine will
"Nothing can happen without the will of God. Not even a straw can move. When a man passes into a favourable time, he gets the desire to contemplate on God. But when the time is unfavourable, he gets all the facilities for doing evil actions. Everything happens in time according to the will of God. It is God alone who expresses His will through the actions of man. Could Naren [Swami Vivekananda] by himself have accomplished all those things? He was able to succeed because God worked through him. The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] has predetermined what he is going to accomplish. If anyone surrenders himself totally at his feet, then the Master will see that everything is set right. One must bear with everything, because all our facilities are determined by actions [Karmas]. Again, actions can be cancelled by actions."
-Sri Sarada Devi
[Conversation of The Holy Mother]
💧 It is suffering which makes us conscious of a higher force.
That is true, in many cases it is like that and that is the apparent justification of suffering. If human beings did not suffer, per- haps they would never make any progress. Aspiration is quite lukewarm when one is perfectly satisfied.
Now then, here we are quite muddled up! Well, this is an exact example of the way the human mind functions; and after that there are people who have caught the tail of something and are so satisfied with this tail, they say, “I have the truth, and you ought to believe what I tell you, otherwise you will never get out of it.” The fact is that in the state of your thought at that moment, anyone at all could come to tell you “I have the truth”, and you would be happy to catch on to it to come out of your confusion.... Let’s see, we have two minutes, and during those two minutes we won’t speak, and all our confusion will disappear. Then we shall disperse. So, do not talk, try to be as silent as possible for two minutes.
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.295-296)
The Master was an embodiment of truth and purity, but he practised hard austerities to achieve that exalted state. Once he decided that he would see the Divine Mother in the sun. For three days he gazed at the sun from sunrise to sunset. The following day he saw the Divine Mother in the sun. The secret of obtaining God-vision and spiritual illumination is to possess infinite longing for them both - Swami Vijnanananda
🍀 Is it the world which is ignorant or is it we?
Ah! Then I must ask you, “What do you call the world?” Is it the earth or the universe?
The universe.
Then, the whole universe is not ignorant — there are parts of the universe which are not ignorant. When you say “we” you iden- tify yourself with the universe or with mankind? Because this is a very important question. We say the world is unhappy because it has forgotten its origin, that is, its divine origin. You say, child, that we are unhappy because “we” are ignorant — the “we” is men. Consequently, unhappiness has come into the world with men — here is something serious! That is, with man mind has come upon earth, you see, for man is a mental animal, and with the mind has come misery. The mind is capable of objectifying, and so it finds that such and such a thing is miserable — without the mind there would be no such discovery and no unhappiness. So, there is no unhappiness for animals nor for plants, and yet less for stones. Are we agreed on this: there is no unhappiness for animals, plants and stones? We say unhappiness has come with the mind which has become conscious of it. Mark that I am trying to lead you to something which is not so stupid, for in the ancient Teaching it was said, “Change your consciousness and what appears to you unfortunate will not so appear to you any longer.” The Buddha taught that if you are free from desire, things that seemed to you unfortunate would no longer seem to you unfortunate at all. Therefore, we come to this: it is the thought you have about it which makes you consider this or that thing unfortunate. If you thought an event happy, it would become happy for you; and that is what it is, in fact. In most cases when the thought has accepted that a thing ought to be, for whatever reason, it is no longer unhappy; when the thought has not accepted this, it finds this unhappy. So, as long as you are in the field of emotions, of sentiments and thoughts, all this is true. That is, the notion of “unhappiness” has entered the world with the capacity to consider that things were unfortu- nate. You follow the logic? Thus, plants do not suffer because they do not know that they suffer and animals do not suffer because they do not know that they suffer. You are sure of it? Aren’t you?
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.292-293)
Mother of All
Holy Mother could see inside human beings and knew their potential. Jnana [later Swami Jnanananda] was a daredevil vagabond boy of East Bengal who came to Calcutta. He knew Arupananda and through him went to bow down to the Mother in Udbodhan House. After some months he went to Jayarambati and met her there. She received this youth and asked him to stay at her place. Jnan recalled:
"One afternoon the Mother asked me, 'Jnan, do you go to bathe in the Amodar River?' 'Yes I do ,' I replied. The Mother than said: 'Tomorrow you go a little early in the morning for your bath. There is a yellow flowering tree on the bank of the river. Collect a basket of flowers from that tree for the Master's worship.' Saying, 'All right Mother,' I went back to my room with the basket. The next morning when I went to the Mother with the flowers, she sat for worship in front of the Master 's picture. She signaled to me to sit on an asana next to her. I sat there quietly. After finishing her worship, she asked me to come a little closer and she gave me a mantra and a few spiritual instructions. Pointing to the Master's picture, she said, 'Bow down to him'
As I was obstinate by nature, I argued: 'Why should I bow down to him? I don't know him.' The Mother looked at me and commended sternly; 'I say bow down to him. You don't know him? He is all in all. He is the teacher of the universe - the guru of all beings.' Again I protested: 'How can he be my guru? You have given me the mantra, so you are my guru.' Interrupting me, the Mother said: 'I am no one's guru. I am the Mother of all. He is the only guru.' Again I said: 'How can you be my mother? My mother is at home and she is still alive.' ' I am that Mother,' she said. 'Look at me closely. See whether I am that mother of yours or not.' Stupefied, I saw that my biological mother was seated in front of me. My body was thrilled with awe. I fell at her feet, saying, 'Mother, Mother!' All my arguments ceased and I surrendered at her feet forever. She gave me this knowledge: that she was not only the mantra-guru, she was my own mother, the Mother of All Beings, and the Mother of the Universe."
-Sri Sarada Devi and Her Divine Play
Patriotism of Swamiji:
The famous editor of Hitavadi, Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, came to see Swamiji along with two friends, one of whom was a Punjabi. Knowing this Swamiji talked with them very earnestly about the grim food situation facing Punjab. Swamiji's mind at that time was so occupied with the terrible famine going on in India that he did not discuss spiritual matters with Deuskar and his friends. Before taking leave the Punjabi gentleman said to Swamiji, 'Sir, we expected to hear something spiritual from you today. But unfortunately, our conversation drifted towards mundane matters. I believe it was a mere waste of time.'
On hearing this, Swamiji become very serious and said, 'Sir, as long as even a stray dog of my country remains without food, my religion will be to feed and take care of him. All else is either non-religion or false religion!' The three visitors were struck dumb by Swamiji 's flaming words. Years after his passing away, Pandit Deuskar, when relating the incident, said that those words remained ever grafted on his mind and made him realize, for the first time, what true patriotism meant.
-My India, the India Eternal
🌺 If everyone were happy the world would be happy.
If everybody entered a beatific state the world would be beatific; as a reason, it is very good. But it is a cure, it is not a cause. You are asked here what the cause is. Whence comes the unhappiness if it is not from God — who is, of course, all beneficent and who would never do such a horrible thing!
The world does not exist, it is an illusion of our false consciousness.
Ah! Try telling this to someone who is suffering from liver colic, for instance!
The world has been made, somebody said, to teach the poor to suffer and the rich to give.
That is what I was saying, isn’t it (laughing), that if there were no misery upon earth what would become of philanthropy?... If we explore all the fields like this, we shall end up perhaps by understanding that all was necessary, otherwise the world would not have been. This is perhaps one conclusion. No, it is not a con- clusion, for it would justify the indefinite perpetuation of what is.
Why is there imperfection, if the world is as it ought to be?
No one has said that, if so there would be nothing else to do but sit down and not move any more!
We have already granted that the world is not what it ought to be and that we are here to work so that it may become what it ought to be. But to know this one must first know what it ought to be, isn’t that so? That is the problem. What should the world be?
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.290-291)
Paramahamsa:
"In the case of a paramahamsa, like Shukadeva, all karmas - all puja, japa, tarpan, sandhya, and so forth - drop away. In this state a man communes with God through the mind alone. Sometimes he may be pleased to perform outward activities for the welfare of mankind. But his recollection and contemplation of God remain uninterrupted."
-The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Savitri
If you are depressed, if you feel miserable, if you do not succeed in anything that you undertake or else if what happens is always the contrary of what you expect, however much you try -- if it has come to such a pass that you lose your temper, life becomes disgusting and you are unhappy, then immediately take Savitri and, after a moment`s concentration, open it at any page and read.
You will see that all your misery disappears like smoke.
And you will have the strength to overcome the worst gloom of sorrows; you will no more feel that which tormented you.
Instead you will fell a strange happiness, a reversal of consciousness along which the energy and force to conquer everything, as through there was nothing impossible.
And you will feel this inexhaustible joy that purifies all.
Read just a few lines and that is sufficient to establish the contact with your inmost being. Such is the extraordinary power of Savitri.
Or else, after having read some lines, if you concentrate deeply, then too will you find the solution to what was tormenting you.
You have only to open Savitri just at random without reflecting and you will have the answer to your problems.
Do this with faith and simplicity, the result is certain.
The Mother.
🍃 I have known some truly extraordinary instances. If you can at the moment... Wait, take an example which is quite concrete: sunstroke. This upsets you considerably, it is one of the things which makes you most ill — a sunstroke upsets everything, it disturbs the inner functions, it generally causes a congestion in the head and very high fever. So, if this has happened, if it has succeeded in getting through the protection and entering you, well, if you can just go into a quiet place, stretch yourself out flat, go out of your body (naturally, you must learn this; there are people who do this spontaneously, for others a long discipline is necessary), go out of your body, remain above in a way to be able to see the body (you know the phenomenon, seeing one’s body when one is outside? This can be done at will, going out of one’s body and remaining just above it), the body is stretched out on a bed, a bench, on the ground, anywhere; you are stretched just above it and from there, consciously, you pull the Force from above, and if you are used to doing it, if your aspiration is strong enough, you get the answer; and then, from there, taking care not to re-enter your body, you begin to push these forces into the body, like that, regularly, until you see the body receiving them (for, the first few moments they don’t enter, because the body is quite upset by the illness, it is not receptive, it is tensed up), you push them gently, gently, quietly, without nervousness, very peacefully, into the body. But you must not be disturbed by anyone. If someone comes along, sees you stretched out and shakes you, it is extremely dangerous. You must do this in quiet conditions, ask people not to disturb you or better shut yourself up where they can’t disturb you. But you can concentrate slowly (this takes more or less time — ten minutes, half an hour, one hour, two hours — it depends upon the seriousness of the disorder which has set in), slowly, from above, you concentrate the Force until you see that the body is receiving, that the Force is entering, the disorder is being set right and there is a relaxation in the body itself. Once that is done you can get back and you are cured. This has been done for a sunstroke, which is a fairly violent thing, and also for typhoid fever, and many other illnesses, as, for instance, for a liver which was suddenly upset somehow (not due to indigestion, but a liver which doesn’t function properly for the moment); it may also be cured in the same way. There was a case of cholera which was healed like that. The cholera had just been caught, had entered, but was not yet lodged; it was completely cured. Consequently, when I say that if one masters the spiritual force and knows how to use it, there is no malady which cannot be cured. I don’t say it just like that in the air; it is said from experience with the thing. Of course, you will say you don’t know how to go out of the body, draw the Force, concentrate it, have all this mastery.... It is not very frequent, but it is not impossible. And one can be sure that if one is helped... In fact, there is a much easier method, it is to call for help.
But the condition in every case — in every case — whether one does it oneself and depending only on oneself or whether one does it by asking someone to do it for one, the first condition: not to fear and to be calm. If you begin to boil and get fidgety in your body, it is finished, you can do nothing.
For everything — to live the spiritual life, heal sickness — for everything, one must be calm.
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.270-271)
🌼 What are the causes of accidents? Are they due to a disequilibrium?
If one answers deeply... Outwardly there are many causes, but there is a deeper cause which is always there. I said the other day that if the nervous envelope is intact, accidents can be avoided, and even if there is an accident it won’t have any consequences. As soon as there is a scratch or a defect in the nervous enve- lope of the being and according to the nature of this scratch, if one may say so, its place, its character, there will be an ac- cident which will correspond to the diminution of resistance in the envelope. I believe almost everybody is psychologically aware of one thing: that accidents occur when one has a sort of uncomfortable feeling, when one is not fully conscious and self-possessed, when one feels uneasy. In any case, generally, people have a feeling that they are not fully themselves, not fully aware of what they are doing. If one were fully conscious, the consciousness wide awake, accidents would not occur; one would make just the right gesture, the necessary movement to avoid the accident. Hence, in an almost absolute way, it is a flagging of consciousness. Or quite possibly it may be that the consciousness is fixed in a higher domain; for example, not to speak of spiritual things, a man who is busy solving a mental problem and is very concentrated upon his mental problem, becomes inattentive to physical things, and if he happens to be in a street or in a crowd, his attention fixed upon his problem, he will not make the movement necessary to avoid the accident, and the accident will occur. It is the same for sports, for games; you can observe this easily, there is always a flagging of the consciousness when accidents occur, or a lack of attention, a little absent-mindedness; suddenly one thinks of something else, the attention is drawn elsewhere — one is not fully conscious of what one is doing and the accident happens.
As I was telling you at the beginning, if for some reason or other — for example, lack of sleep, lack of rest or an absorbing preoccupation or all sorts of things which tire you, that is to say, when you are not above them — if the vital envelope is a little damaged, it does not function perfectly and any current of force whatever which passes through is enough to produce an accident. In the final analysis, the accident comes always from that, it is what one may call inattentiveness or a slackening of consciousness. There are days when one feels quite... not exactly uneasy, but as though one were trying to catch something which escapes, one can’t hold together, one is as though half-diluted; these are the days of accidents. You must be attentive. Naturally, this is not to tell you to shut yourself up in your room and not to stir out when you feel like that! This is not what I mean. Rather I mean that you must watch all the more attentively, be all the more on your guard, not allow, precisely, this inattentiveness, this slackening of consciousness to come in.
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.272-273)
Eternal, unquestioning self-surrender to Mother alone can give us peace. Love Her for Herself, without fear or favour. Love Her, because you are Her child. See Her in all: good and bad alike. Then alone will come "sameness" and Bliss Eternal, that is Mother Herself, when we realise Her thus. Until then, misery will pursue us. Only resting in Mother are we safe.
Swami Vivekananda
(CW/V8/Notes Of Class Talks And Lectures/The Worship Of The Divine Mother)
Have faith. Depend on God. Then you will not have to do anything yourself. Mother Kali will do everything for you.
Jnana goes as far as the outer court, but bhakti can enter the inner court. The Pure Self is unattached. Both vidya and avidya are in It, but It is unattached. Sometimes there is a good and sometimes a bad smell in the air, but the air itself is unaffected.
- Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
<3
Sri Ramakrishna listed the five signs of a 'jnani householder':
"First, a householder devotee must maintain calmness under all circumstances; second, he must be humble; third, he must act like a lion [meaning, as an efficient and energetic leader] in the working field. fourth, he should be lighthearted and make people happy; fifth, he should regard himself as a servant of monks and devotees."
-Mahendra Nath Gupta
The Recorder Of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
What Savitri means to me
On her recent visit to Auroville, Governing Board member Ameeta Mehra gave a talk about her experiences of exploring Sri Aurobindo's epic poem ‘Savitri'
In 1988, when I was just out of college on my second visit to the Ashram, Nirod-da (Nirodbaran) asked me, ‘Do you want to learn poetry?' to which I said ‘Yes'. He said I should begin with Savitri , but that I must first learn about the iambic pentameter and scansion. He showed me how and then said, “Now go and scan these lines, and bring them back to me.” He would correct it later and this went on for about a month. All I was doing was this scanning – I didn't understand a word of Savitri – perhaps imbibing a little of its rhythm in the process. Since then, there have been others who have introduced me to Savitri, but the one I would like to mention is Sri Aurobindo himself.
I had this deep inner aspiration to hear Sri Aurobindo read Savitri. I had asked around in the Ashram if anyone had got a recording of Sri Aurobindo himself reading Savitri. They all said no. Many months later, when I was in Delhi , I saw a vision involving Sri Aurobindo. We were sitting at a table, and he asked me “So what would you like me to read – Essays or Savitri?” And I replied, Savitri. He began reading Savitri in the most musical, soft, clear voice I've ever heard. After the dream, I remembered the canto he read, but was unable to find those lines, not knowing Savitri in those days. That experience remains with me to this day – what struck me was his clear, soft, beautiful voice, un-dramatic and quiet.
The first thing about Savitri that caught my attention is that it is an invocation of the human soul to the Supreme – an awakening of the human aspiration for the divine consciousness, and it has the power to resonate that seeking and experience in the reader.
That hour had fallen now on Savitri.
A point she had reached where life must be in vain
Or, in her unborn element awake,
Her will must cancel her body's destiny.
This is especially relevant to those in the Ashram and Auroville, as they certainly have reached this point in their development, the point when we feel that life itself is vain unless there is something greater than this human ego and human existence as we see it today.
A second aspect of Savitri is that its stanzas can be experienced as mantras of healing. Just listening to Savitri can heal and invoke energies that are far beyond our normal reach. This is my personal experience. In 2007, I had a terrible pain in my back and wasn't able to get up and do my work. I decided to do something useful. I had Nirod-da's CDs of Savitri with me, and spent the next eight hours listening to his recitations.
I must have gone into a very deep slumber. Then, suddenly, I felt there was a golden light on my back. I don't know what it did, but I got up from my bed and felt perfectly well. There had been no pain killers, no medicines whatsoever. This showed to me the power of Savitri. When one listens to Savitri or reads it, the key thing is aspiration. If there is an aspiration to understand, to go deeper, to call the divine, to call the Supreme, to ask Her help to transform our lives and our nature, to ask Her help to get rid of oneself from oneself so to speak, then there is a help. Like all mantras, Savitri has to be invoked; the power of the mantra has to be invoked.
A third aspect of Savitri is its help towards the growth of consciousness. Savitri creates the conditions for receiving spiritual experiences and developing capacities. If one reads with invocation, the power of that invocation creates a vibration in the body, in the mind, and in the consciousness that brings forward something new. It brings to the seeker new capacities – for example of poetry – and an intensification of consciousness. That is a great gift of Savitri.
Reading Savitri keeps the consciousness at its highest point. Whenever one feels that one has come down to the ordinary level, one word or one passage of Savitri is sufficient to uplift one from the ordinary consciousness. I believe that is because Savitri has been written from the overmind consciousness. There is nothing mental in it. And that explains the impact it has on the human consciousness. Yet, it also makes it very difficult to explain Savitri. At the Gnostic Centre in New Delhi , we read Savitri once a week, without much explanation, as the intrusion of the mental consciousness causes a lowering of the vibration, perhaps because the mind cannot explain what has come from a much higher level of consciousness.
I discovered a fourth aspect of Savitri that is personal to me: Savitri creates a new prototype of the woman. The main protagonists of all our great epics so far have been men: Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed. But Sri Aurobindo creates a woman as the main protagonist. Why? I think it has something to do with fact that Savitri is the first epic poem written for the new species. There is the coming to the fore of the Mahashakti in a human body of the woman, Savitri, who conquers death with the supreme power of Love. Savitri is a mantra of love, of human love turning divine and the Supreme Love changing the laws of life and death, and transforming it into a Life Divine.
Fifthly, Savitri contains some of the greatest passages, describing the human condition. I have not read a better exposition on the nature of the human being and the problem of pain and suffering, and more importantly the way towards equality and bliss here on Earth. Savitri not only states the problem but also gives the solution. This exploration into man's consciousness, into the nature of human beings, is something unparalleled.
A sixth aspect of Savitri are the passages revealing the supramental world. In one of my favourite passages, Sri Aurobindo writes:
I saw the Omnipotent's flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life.
I saw them cross the twilight of an age,
The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,
The great creators with wide brows of calm,
The massive barrier-breakers of the world
And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,
The labourers in the quarries of the gods,
The messengers of the Incommunicable,
The architects of immortality.
Note that He has not written in the past or future tense. He uses the present tense. This aspect of Savitri, where Savitri, reveals a new world, the birth of a new species, of a new consciousness in human form descending down the stairs of birth, is fabulous. Nothing can give you more confidence, a greater sense of the future that lies before humanity, than reading these lines. You feel almost that Sri Aurobindo says here ‘tatasthu'– That is done. Now we have to wait for this new world that is already present to manifest fully.
Mother has said that everything is in Savitri. The answer to every problem can be found in Savitri. All the issues of human existence are in Savitri. All the secrets of a Divine existence are in Savitri. The future is in Savitri. She said to concentrate for a moment and if you do it in sincerity, if you have a real problem, if there is a real question, open Savitri. You will come straight to the page that gives you the answer. This is the power of Savitri. Every page, every word, has in it the new consciousness. And it evokes that in us.
Another power contained in Savitri is the material certitude of a physical immortality, not in a hereafter but here on earth. It is this supreme revelation and experience that Savitri has the power to transmit to those who seek Her.
Finally there is the aspect of Savitri as the autobiographical epic of the combined yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. We know of many instances when Sri Aurobindo read passages from Savitri to The Mother, and she would say “Ah! Voila this is what I went through last night!” He wrote what She was experiencing. Similarly, Sri Aurobindo's Record of Yoga shows that Sri Aurobindo's own sadhana has been at the basis of his description of the yoga of King Aswapati in Savitri. At the Gnostic Centre after studying the ‘sapta chathusta' in the Record of Yoga with Richard Hartz of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives, we began to appreciate the extent to which the ‘sapta chathusthya' is reflected in the yoga of Aswapati, and the yoga that preceded Sri Aurobindo's writing of Savitri. ‘He drank the Infinite, like a giant's wine' is truly a testimony of his own sadhana in the Record. As one begins to go deeper and deeper into Savitri one gets a glimpse of the experiences He had.
Ameeta Mehra
Photo courtesy Savitri Bhavan
THE MOTHER ON FINANCE AND POLITICS
"There are two things which it is very difficult to change: finance and politics; the field of money and the field of government are the two points where man is weakest and most attached to falsehood. So, probably, transformation will come there last of all."
—The Mother
(Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 7, p. 297–298)
To the well-known story of Shiva as Nilakantha Mahadeva, - the Great God with the Blue Throat, Swami Vivekananda gave his own interpretation:
"All beings, he said, who dwell within the folds of earthly consciousness, churn the ocean of Maya, that is human life, and obtain treasures that are pleasing to the senses; but soon the poison, death, must come to end the show. The monk, however, stands apart. Absorbed in the Self, he desires none of the enticing gifts which Maya offers; but like Mahadeva, he is ready to come to the assistance of those who lust after sense-pleasures, when, in the presence of death, they come to him (the monk) to save their souls. Then he destroys their Maya - their ignorance - and releases them from the fear of death. He also shows by this that the man of Realization has no fear of death.
-Life of Swami Vivekananda
The Divinity of Holy Mother
Swami Arupananda narrated the following incident, which took place in Jayarambati:
Arupananda: "Mother, shall I pass my whole life in this way - constructing houses, marketing, keeping accounts? What shall I gain from doing such work?"
The Mother calmly replied: "Well, my son, what else do you want to do? In this age, Swamiji has inculcated these works as the means of God-realization. If you you perform this work without any motive and as worship, you will attain liberation. What else do you want to do? Do you want to practice austerities in the solitude of the Himalayas? There you will find the monks fighting among themselves over a piece of bread or a blanket! Will the Lord appear before you if you go to the mountains and forests and sit there with closed eyes? Is there any better path than the path of action that has been delineated by Swamiji? While working, think that you are working only for God and are serving Him. The work that you are doing here is truely my work. Rashbehari, look at me."
Rashbehari [Arupananda] looked at the Mother's face and saw a luminous goddess seated in front of him in place of the plain and elderly women who had been talking to him. Her entire form was radiant with an effulgent light. Rashbehari could not keep looking at that luminous form. Struck with awe and fear, he closed his eyes. Immediately he heard the familiar voice of the Mother: "O Rashbehari, what happened to you? Why have you closed your eyes? Look - look at me." Rashbehari opened his eyes and saw Holy Mother sitting in front of him as before - the same familiar look with the usual sweet smile on her face.
-Sri Sarada Devi and Her Divine Play
Krishna and the fruit vendor
One day a fruit vendor, well versed in moral laws, stood outside Nanda's gate trying to sell fruits. Hearing her calling for customers, Krishna came out to see. The fruit vendor was enchanted by seeing the two pink land lotuses of Krishna's feet. In the cup of His small lotus hands Krishna brought some food grains to trade for fruits. By the time Krishna reached the fruit vendor, however, most of grains had already slipped out of His hands.
The melodious jingling of Krishna's golden ankle-bells captivated the ears of fruit vendor. She absorbed her eyes in the full experience of seeing Krishna, the personified stream of bliss who was more enchanting than a beautiful rain cloud. Absorbed in the bliss of Krishna's association, that pious woman filled her palms with fruits and gladly offered them to Krishna. At that moment the fruit remaining in her basket magically transformed into costly gems and jewels.
Bondage and liberation are both of Her making. By Her maya worldly people become entangled in “woman and gold” and again, through Her grace they attain their liberation. She is called the Savior, and the Remover of the bondage that binds one to the world… .
The divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This universe is Her play. She is self-willed and must always have Her own way. She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand…
~Sri Ramakrishna
Monday, January 1, 1883
At eight o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was seated on a mat spread on the floor of his room at Dakshineswar. Prankrishna and M. were seated in front of him. Rakhal, too, was in the room.
A devotee had brought a basket of jilipi for the Master, which the latter kept by his side. Eating a bit of the sweets, he said to Prankrishna with a smile: " You see, I chant the name of the Divine Mother; so I get all these good things to eat.(Laughter.) But She doesn't give such fruits as gourd or pumpkin. She bestows the fruit of Amrita, Immortality--- knowledge, love, discrimination, renunciation, and so forth."
" My Divine Mother is not only formless, She has forms as well. One can see Her forms. One can behold Her incomparable beauty through feeling and love. The Mother reveals Herself to Her devotees in different forms."
FROM: THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA , PAGE 175
Do Not Forget The Mother's Name
Master said:
"Some people pride themselves on their riches and power - their wealth, honour, and social position. But these are transitory. Nothing will remain with you in death.
There is a song that runs:
Remember this, O mind! Nobody is your own:
Vain is your wandering in this world.
Trapped in the subtle snare of maya as you are,
Do not forget the Mother's name.
Only a day or two men honour you on earth
As lord and master; all too soon
That form, so honoured now, must needs be cast away,
When Death, the Master, seizes you.
Even your beloved wife, for whom, while yet you live,
You fret yourself almost to death,
Will not go with you then; she too will say farewell,
And shun your corpse as an evil thing.
-Mahendra Nath Gupta
The Recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Disciple: I remember a difficult question: Is it in keeping with Yoga to get oneself insured ?
Sri Aurobindo: Thakur Dayananda (of Bengal) would say " No." He was always depending on God and did not believe in storing things. If you don't get anything, it means God wants you to starve. The whole group used to sing and dance, there was an excited expression of their devotion, some kind of vital demonstration. Later on he complained that the disciples were drawing out his vital forces and turned towards knowledge.
They had the faith that nothing could happen to them. Once when the police came to arrest them they were all singing and dancing. Seeing them in exaltation the police went away. They thought that they were invincible. The Government sent soldiers who arrested them. Then their faith was shaken. One of the prominent disciples, Mahindra Day, also lost his faith, though he was the victim of his own enthusiasm.
EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO
RECORDED BY A B PURANI (page no 630)
You have all heard of that rich man in Rome who learnt one day that he had only about a million pounds of his property left; he said, "What shall I do tomorrow?" and forthwith committed suicide. A million pounds was poverty to him. What is joy, and what is sorrow? It is a vanishing quantity, continually vanishing..
#VoiceofVivekananda
"The easiest way to get hold of the mind is to sit quiet and let it drift where it will for a while. Hold fast to the idea, "I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I." Then see it think as if it were a thing entirely apart from yourself. Identify yourself with God, never with matter or with the mind. Picture the mind as a calm lake stretched before you and the thoughts that come and go as bubbles rising and breaking on its surface. Make no effort to control the thoughts, but watch them and follow them in imagination as they float away. This will gradually lessen the circles. For the mind ranges over wide circles of thought and those circles widen out into ever increasing circles, as in a pond when we throw a stone into it. We want to reverse the process and starting with a huge circle make it narrower until at last we can fix the mind on one point and make it stay there. Hold to the idea, "I am not the mind, I see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act', and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less, until at last you can entirely separate yourself from the mind and actually know it to be apart from yourself. When this is done, the mind is your servant to control as you will. The first stage of being a yogi is to go beyond the senses. When the mind is conquered, he has reached the highest stage."
- SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Disciple: “Well, Mother, what is the necessity of taking initiation? What if one should merely repeat “Kali, Kali” without being initiated? Will he not realize the Divine Mother by so repeating Her Name?”
Mother: “Initiation is necessary. It purifies the body. By repeating the mystic syllable of the Lord, man becomes purified. There is a Pauranic story about this. Narada had been to Vaikunta - the Heaven, where the Lord resides. At that time Narada was not initiated. Narada left after a short talk with the Lord. When he left the place the Lord asked Lakshmi (the divine consort) to sprinkle Ganges water, where Narada was sitting, and thus purify the place. Lakshmi said to her Lord: “Why do you ask me to do this? Narada is a great devotee”. The Lord replied: “He may be a great devotee, but he is not yet initiated”. Unless one is initiated his body is not purified. For the purification of the mind and the body initiation by a Guru is necessary.
The Vaishnavas after initiating one say: “Now this mind is yours”*. The mind is everything. Unless the mind is purified nothing can be accomplished. “In spite of the grace of the Guru, the Lord’s devotees, and the Lord Himself, the soul went a-begging for want of the grace of the mind””.
Disciple: “Well, so many people receive initiation, what do they get thereby? One seems to be the same man before and after”.
Mother: “The Guru imparts spiritual power to the disciple through the mantra (mystic syllable) at the time of the initiation. The spiritual powers flow from the Guru to the disciple or vice versa. That is why after initiation of a disciple one gets ill, for one has to take the sins of the disciple. That is why Rakhal is reluctant to initiate people. He says that immediately after initiating people he gets ill. But if the disciple is good the Guru is benefited thereby. Some people get a sudden spiritual awakening immediately after initiation, but that depends upon one’s Samskaras (past tendencies)”.
(*There is a pun on the word “Mantra” pronounced in colloquial Bengali as “Mantor”, which can be split up as “Man tor”, which means “This mind is yours” in Bengali, i.e. it depends now on you to exert.)
(“Spiritual Talks: by the first disciples of Sri Ramakrishna”, Advaita Ashrama, The Holy Mother, V, pp. 15-7)
Bankim: “Sir, why don’t you preach?”
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): “Preaching! It comes from pride. Man is an imperfect creature. Only the one, who has created the moon and the sun and is lighting up the world, can preach. Is it an ordinary thing? Until He manifests Himself and commands you, preaching is not possible. Why? Unless there is God’s command, people go on talking nonsense. Some listen to you for a couple of days but forget – it’s only a short-lived fancy and nothing else. As long as you talk people will say: “Oh, how nicely he speaks”. But when you stop, there’s nothing left.
As long as fire is under the milk pot, the milk will boil and make a gurgling sound. Pull out the firewood and the milk is as it was before. Only it’s deflated.
A person should add to his power by spiritual effort. Without it, preaching is not possible. “You have no place to sleep and you call out: “O Shankara, come here and lie down and sleep with me!” (laughter)”.
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
("Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita" word to word translation by Sri Dharm Pal Gupta, V5, Appendix II, Ch. II, “Sri Ramakrishna and Bankim”, 6 December 1884)
I met Lele when I was searching for some guidance and practicing meditation under his guidance. I had the Nirvana experience in Sardar Majumdar's house in the room on the top-floor. After that I had to rely on inner guidance for my Sadhana. In Alipore the Sadhana was very fast – it was extravagant and exhilarating. On the vital plane it can be dangerous and disastrous. I took to fasting at Alipore for ten or eleven days and lost ten pounds in weight. At Pondicherry the loss of weight was not so much, thought the physical substance began to be reduced. It was in Shanker Chetty's house. I was walking eight hours a day during twenty-three day's fast.
The miraculous or extraordinary powers acquired by Yogis on the vital plane are not all true in the physical. There are many pit-falls in the vital. These vital powers take up even a man like Hitler and make him do things by suggesting to him – "It shall happen". There are quite a number of cases of Sadhaks who have lost their Sadhana by listening to these voices from the vital-world. And the humour of it all is that they all say that they come either from the Mother or from me!
EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO
RECORDED BY A B PURANI (page no-614)
🍃(3/3) I am not saying this to discourage you, but to give you patience and perseverance — for there is a moment when you do arrive. And note that the vital is a small part of your being — a very important part, we have said that it is the dynamism, the re- alising energy, it is very important; but it is only a small part. And the mind!... which goes wandering, which must be pulled back by all the strings to be kept quiet! You think this can be done overnight? And your body?... You have a weakness, a difficulty, sometimes a small chronic illness, nothing much, but still it is a nuisance, isn’t it? You want to get rid of it. You make efforts, you concentrate; you work upon it, establish harmony, and you think it is finished, and then.... Take, for instance, people who have the habit of coughing; they can’t control themselves or almost can’t. It is not serious but it is bothersome, and there seems to be no reason why it should ever stop. Well, one tells oneself, “I am going to control this.” One makes an effort — a yogic effort, not a material one — one brings down consciousness, force, and stops the cough. And one thinks, “The body has forgotten how to cough.” And it is a great thing when the body has forgotten, truly one can say, “I am cured.” But unfortunately it is not al- ways true, for this goes down into the subconscient and, one day, when the balance of forces is not so well established, when the strength is not the same, it begins again. And one laments, “I be- lieved that it was over! I had succeeded and told myself, ‘It is true that spiritual power has an action upon the body, it is true that something can be done’, and there! it is not true. And yet it was a small thing, and I who want to conquer immortality! How will I succeed?... For years I have been free from this small thing and here it is beginning anew!” It is then that you must be careful.
You must arm yourself with an endless patience and en- durance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, “I want to do yoga”, I reply, “Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed.” I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world.... They are there, do you know why? They have been tolerated, do you know why? — simply to see how long one can last out and how great is the sincerity in one’s action. For everything depends upon your sincerity. If you are truly sincere in your will, nothing will stop you, you will go right to the end, and if it is necessary for you to live a thousand years to do it, you will live a thousand years to do it.
🌸 The Mother ( Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.250-251)
"One cannot realize God without being guileless and liberal-minded. One cannot be guileless and liberal-minded unless one is free from worldliness."
Then the Master sang:
"You will attain that priceless Treasure when your mind is free from stain....."
He continued:
"You cannot make a pot without first carefully preparing the clay. The pot will crack if the clay contains particles of sand or stone. That is why the potter first prepares the clay by removing the sand and stones."
-The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Master: “One needs Sadhana. Mere study of the scriptures will not do. I noticed, that though Vidyasagar had no doubt read a great deal, he had not realized, what was inside him; he was satisfied with helping boys get their education, but had not tasted the Bliss of God. What will mere study accomplish? How little one assimilates! The almanac may forecast twenty measures of rain; but you don't get a drop by squeezing its pages".
Mahima: "We have so many duties in the world. Where is the time for Sadhana?"
Master: “Why should you say such a thing? It is you, who describe the world as illusory, like a dream.
Rama and Lakshmana wanted to go to Ceylon. But the ocean was before them. Lakshmana was angry. Taking his bow and arrow, he said: “I shall kill Varuna. This ocean prevents our going to Ceylon”. Rama explained the matter to him, saying: “Lakshmana, all that you are seeing is unreal, like a dream. The ocean is unreal. Your anger is also unreal. It is equally unreal to think of destroying one unreal thing by means of another””.
Mahimacharan kept quiet. He had many duties in the world. He had lately started a school to help others. …
A devotee: "Sir, what is the way for worldly people?"
Master: "The company of holy men. Worldly people should listen to spiritual talk. They are in a state of madness, intoxicated with “woman and gold”. A drunkard should be given rice-water as an antidote. Drinking it slowly, he gradually recovers his normal consciousness.
A worldly person should also receive instructions from a sadguru, a real teacher. Such a teacher has certain signs. You should hear about Benares only from a man, who has been to Benares and seen it. Mere book-learning will not do. One should not receive instruction from a pundit, who has not realized the world to be unreal. Only, if a pundit has discrimination and renunciation, is he entitled to instruct”.
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna
(“The Gospel of Ramakrishna” translated by Swami Nikhilananda, V2, “At Ram’s House”, Saturday, May 25, 1885)
Day and night think and meditate on Brahman, meditate with great one-pointedness of mind. And during the time of awakeness to outward life, either do some work for the sake of others or repeat in your mind: “Let good happen to Jivas and the world!” “Let the mind of all flow in the direction of Brahman!” Even by such continuous current of thought the world will be benefited. Nothing good in the world becomes fruitless, be it work or thought. Your thought-currents will perhaps rouse the religious feeling of someone in America.
Swami Vivekananda
(CW/V7/Conversations And Dialogues/XXI)
Dear Mother,
You no longer call me “my child”? Am I so bad and unworthy? Mother, I believe that I am doing all I can and if I still cannot be good, what is to be done?
Yes, I know I am not what I was before.
I did not mean anything by not writing “my child” on the little note I sent you this afternoon.
I was in a big hurry and I wrote as few words as possible.
Of course I miss the time when you were truly the eternal little smile, spontaneously and effortlessly, when you felt satisfied with your work, happy to be near me, and trusting and simple enough not to put a false interpretation on all I do.
Who has poured this poison of doubt and dissatisfaction into your heart?
Who has taken away at once your happiness, your simple joy of life and your beautiful smile which was a pleasure to see?
I don’t ask the question in order to get an answer from you, for I think that I know it; it is only so you may understand that I don’t hold you responsible for this change which has come over you from outside.
Now there is only one way open, the way of progress — since it is impossible to go backward, you must go forward and what was merely instinctive must now become conscious and willed.
And never doubt my affection, which is always with you to help you make this indispensable progress.
The Mother, Some Answers from The Mother, Vol. 16.
THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI
Vijay: " How can one see God ?"
Master : " One cannot see God without purity of heart. Through attachment to ' woman and gold '( lust and greed) the mind has become stained --- covered with dirt, as it were. A magnet cannot attract a needle if the needle is covered with mud. Wash away the mud and the magnet will draw it. Likewise, the dirt of the mind can be washed away with the tears of our eyes. This stain is removed if one sheds tears of repentance and says, ' O God, I shall never do such a thing.' Thereupon God, who is like the magnet, draws to Himself the mind, which is like the needle. Then the devotee goes into samadhi and obtains the vision of God.
" You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God's grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive the grace of God ? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels, ' I am the doer.' Suppose, in a family, a man has taken charge of the store-room; then if someone asks the master, 'Sir, will you yourself kindly give me something from the store-room ?' , the master says to him: ' There is already someone in the store-room. What can I do there ?'
" God doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his own master. But God can be seen the moment His grace descends. He is the Sun of Knowledge. One single ray of His has illumined the world with the light of knowledge. One can see God only if He turns His Light toward His own face.
FROM : THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, PAGE 174
Dance Of Destruction:
Swami Vivekananda wrote in his famous poem 'Kali the Mother':
Who dares misery love,
And hug the form of Death,
Dance in Destruction's dance,
To him the Mother comes.
The dance of destruction is the annihilation of the self - of all smallness, littleness, self-seeking, egocentricity. When all these get burnt up in 'jnanagni', 'the fire of divine Wisdom', then and only then, does the Mother come.
-Swami Atmapriyananda
Digital Rare Book:
Legends and Miracles of Buddha, Sakya Sinha
Translated from the Avadan Kalpalata (Former lives and good deeds of Buddha) of Bodhi-Sattwas, of the great Sanskrit poet Kshemendra (11 century)
By Nobin Chandra Dasa
Published by Jadu Nath Seal, Calcutta - 1895
Read Book Online:
http://bit.ly/2q3eTGq
Download pdf Book:
http://bit.ly/2qTB7eU
Kshemendra (c. 990 – c. 1070 CE) was a Kashmirian poet of the 11th century, writing in Sanskrit.
Born into an old, cultured, and affluent family, both his education and literary output were broad and varied. He studied literature under "the foremost teacher of his time, the celebrated Shaiva philosopher and literary exponent Abhinavagupta". He also studied — and wrote about — both Vaishnavism and Buddhism. His literary career extended from at least 1037 (his earliest dated work, Brihatkathāmanjari, a verse summary of the lost "Northwestern" Bṛhatkathā; itself a recension of Gunadhya's lost Bṛhatkathā — "Great Story") to 1066 (his latest dated work, Daśavataracharita, "an account of the ten incarnations of the god Visnu"). In addition to the genres listed below, Kshemendra also composed plays, descriptive poems, a satirical novel, a history, and possibly a commentary on the Kāma Sūtra (all now known only through references in other works)
- Wiki
Image:
Gods and Animals in a Landscape, Fragment from a Scene of Buddha Shakyamuni's Sermon to Indra
Pakistan, Peshawar Division (?), Gandhara region
2nd-early 3rd century
Sculpture
Gray schist with traces of paint
Credit: Museum Associates, dba Los Angeles County Museum of Art
THE LAST DAYS OF MRINALINI DEVI AND SRI AUROBINDO’S LETTER TO HIS FATHER-IN-LAW This is the last of the posts we have published ...
