[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 921
Our Rishis [sage-seer-saints] are very great. I am talking about our great saints and sages who, no matter what caste colour or creed they belong to, were full of compassion, full of love.
Once a person understands this any ashram [monastery, hermitage, spiritual retreat] will be a heaven to him.
Sometimes something overwhelms me to give. I feel the inspiration and I know that if I feel inspiration then others will be inspired. That is my gauge of inspiring others. If I say a thing and if it hasn't inspired me, I know that it will do nothing to inspire the other person. It won't even touch him. It must inspire me to make me fill up with that Spirit. Then I know it will help others. And it will inspire them in the same way.
[Swamiji to the renunciates – monks, nuns]
You have two obstacles: lethargy [tamas] and not fully prepared ground - impure mind. Either you go to sleep or you become too agitated and active [rajas]. Remember, always break through that network.
When lethargy comes, reject it. Spontaneously say to your mind, 'All these past births you were not right all the time.' So this life let us embrace spiritual discipline.
When Swami Vivekananda's [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] gurubhais [spiritual brothers – initiates of the same Guru or spiritual preceptor] told him to go home after Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] death, he said to them, 'You think that we are that kind of people that if we don't get amritam [nectar] we are going to drink dirty, filthy water? We rather die. We want amritam and nothing else.' If you can't live a spiritual life must you now go back to the world with all its nonsense [maya] and get more entangled in it and enjoy it? No. Death [of the body] is better.
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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