[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 871
Shraaddha – ceremony commemorating the dead – discussion, continued from post 870
Where is God? Is God only on Earth? He is Omnipresent [everywhere]. He is in hell, Earth and heaven. When a man passes on he is born on Earth, in heaven or in hell [different lokas or realms of consciousness]. Now when you are praying to Lord Vishnu to vitalise him [the deceased father for example] in dharma [righteousness], wherever he is, you are adding strength to him. And when he gets vitalised he will send out blessings to you, his child [or relative]. Though God is present everywhere it [the ceremony, prayer] still has to travel [be directed] to God; and wherever you are the blessing comes to you.
If the departed one is God-realised [has attained moksha or liberation from the cycle of birth and re-birth, samsara] then that is even better because then, when you pray to him, you are actually praying to God Himself. If he is a God-realised soul - one of the great ones - then you can eat his food because there is no shraaddha ['death']. You are doing it in his memory.
Remember that if you partake of the offering [food offered to the deceased] then that person's impressions [vasanas, samskaras, energies] come on you - whether you like it or not.
What happens to you when you eat the normal prasad [sacramental food] that you have offered to God? You get purified. So by virtue of that fact, if you eat the food of a man who is not purified then know that his impressions - good and bad - will get into you.
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:
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
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