[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 988
Doing brief sadhana [spiritual practice] early in the morning and the evening is alright for a beginner. But after three years you shouldn't do that. After three years you should watch your mind. Are you taking God's name every second? No? Why? Question yourself – why? What is wrong? Where has it gone wrong? You don't have the strength. When you're taking God's name - I use the word 'imagine' – you're not imagining God everywhere. Image, imagination. When you start imagining you get inspiration.
It all begins with the 'I'. Image – that image, when you look at your deity's image [murti], whether it's painted, a picture, a concrete image or a mental image – it doesn't matter. When you look at the image think about all the divine qualities. When you imagine that – when you look at the image and you imagine those qualities, what will happen? You get inspiration. When you get inspiration, what will happen? You will get intuition. And when you intuit, what will happen?...enlightenment. You will become enlightened – that is what is called samadhi [spiritual superconsciousness]. It's not some foolish man's play that they put the image there. You don't imagine enough. You're offering the agarbatti [incense] and thinking about the child playing outside there. You're doing nothing. You're bluffing. You've lighted the lamp but you're thinking about what's cooking in the pot. That's not it – imagine, there.
Imagination is the most divine instrument given to man to reach God. The mind is the gateway to the world and the mind is also the gateway to God. How does it work? If you think about the beautiful qualities of your deity – nothing happens to the image or statue – everything happens here [to you, in your mind]. It's like I dial a number here – but the phone rings somewhere else. So just like that – if I dial 'love, love' for my deity – 'love, love' - what will happen? That number will ring in me because he's omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. So the love [bhakti] will manifest automatically here. What you think without, you become within. You hate somebody, you hate him there, outside – but yet you become hatred personified. Haven't you heard people say, 'I am angry!' [Swamiji chuckles] Hmm. 'I' am angry! And yet you know he's not anger – but at that moment he becomes anger personified.
So, when you dial [think] good - good will wake up here. If you dial bad, bad will wake up here. When you say, 'Kali! Wake up Kali!' there's an area in our body which is Kali – that area will wake up and when that wakes up, then the whole thing manifests itself. Supreme Ishwari [the goddess Durga] comes in. Do you imagine what I am saying? I love all of you, that's why I keep telling you all. It will be too late.
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, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
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