[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 962
A spiritual sadhaka [aspirant or practitioner] is he who tries to realise the spirit which is designated by different terms and terminology by different groups of people. For example, the Vedantists call It Brahman [the One universal consciousness]. The Saktas call It Sakti and the Sankhyas call It Purusha. Maya [the deluding, illusion-creating power of God] is called Prakriti [nature]. And on the other hand you find the Christians call It Father, the Muslims call It Allah. All these different names are given to designate that which they think is the Supreme Spirit.
How does the sadhaka try to realise this? The sadhaka should always be very, very serious inside especially where his spiritual exercises are concerned – called sadhana [spiritual practice]. If you will not treat these exercises seriously and at the same time as sacred, then you will miss the goal. Any mind that enjoys unnecessary fun, frolic and laughter – the word unnecessary should be underlined – his mind becomes fickle. His mind, unknown to himself, becomes weak. It has no principle – called spine [backbone] – to stand on. All of us must have spine. And sadhana spine is principles. These principles were discovered by the great Rishis [sage-seer saints] – great Rishis of yore [old]. Now you and I may not understand in reality, the lives of these Rishis. The lives of these Rishis were not like yours and mine. Now modern discoveries have made life very easy. And to the extent they have made it easy, to that extent they have made us slave to it. We have become jellyfish [spineless].
The Rishis of yore, like real scientists – Rishis are in reality are scientists. The scientists of today explore the physical. They ignore the mental and spiritual worlds. The scientists called Rishis – and the word Rishi itself means 'the seer of truth' – they did not stop short of truth. They were called Rishis because they were the knowers of truth of the physical, mental and spiritual. Not only spiritual. They were no fools. Like you and I, we look at a holy man with disrespect. If you put him in this function he'll make a first class businessman. If you put him to do farming he'll be a first-class farmer. If you put him to sweep the house as a labourer, he'll be a first-class labourer. He's a model [of versatility] that will fit in anywhere and adapt itself. That is a Rishi. A Rishi is a knower of all these different truths. But they are indifferent to that which is not permanent. They themselves are indifferent to that which is not permanent because they say, 'I waste time trying to find out that which one day will not be. Let us find out that which will always be'.
So, apparently, they look like fools. Because they are indifferent to certain things, people call them fools. They are no fools. The [Bhagavad] Gita that was written – up to now there are thousands of commentaries on that which is a spiritual treatise. Up to now scholars cannot find the depths of that. Not even the shallows. Why? We theorise and try to draw a hypothesis [Swamiji chuckles] but those people were very practical, they practised and they never spoke from a hypothesis. Whatever they discovered they told you the truth. Like a little child. Whatever they're taught inside, they tell you outside. This is a very important fact about a sadhaka. That he is not supposed to be unnecessarily fickle in his mind and those things which contribute to fickleness must be done away with. You have to be serious.
If this word 'serious' has got in your mind, 'sacred' is got in your mind, which is what a sadhaka should be, then from that point of view to do sadhana, even if it pains, you will do your sadhana at the appointed hour.
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.
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
