[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 959
Devotee: Swamiji I find my heart beats fast - I mean physically – if I get a fright from a loud noise during meditation.
Swamiji: You can't do anything. Just get calm again. Actually, when your heart beats fast, it's a sign that you're shortening your life [Swamiji chuckles]. You see the animals whose hearts beat fast, they die quickly.
Devotee: It doesn't beat fast all the time though, Swamiji.
Swamiji: Never mind. Even if it beats an extra five times it means so much petrol [energy] you've wasted. That's why you should live a calm existence.
If you really want to meditate, then it's easy. It must become easy. Because you want to meditate. It's only when you don't want to do it that it's difficult. So – easy as that! [Devotees chuckling]. What you don't like, naturally it's difficult, what you like is easy. You will find a way to do it. If your father says 'don't go to the bioscope [movies],' you say, 'Yes dad,' but you like bioscope so much that you tell him you're going to the football ground but you're sitting in the bioscope. So if you like to do it, it's easy. You don't like to do it, it's difficult.
Devotee: Is that all there is to it?
Swamiji: Yes, that's all there is to it. 100%.
Devotee: Well then one should just give up, Swamiji.
Swamiji: Well, you can't give up if you like something.
Devotee: If the reason is that you can't do it because you don't like it, and if you can't do it, then you might as well give up doing it.
Swamiji: Give it up then. That too will be difficult because you don't like to give it up. [Devotees laughing merrily]
Swamiji: You carry on – it's as easy as that. It's very easy. I'm telling you from experience. There's my pre-monastic mother sitting there – ask her. All my brothers would like to go to bioscope and other things. I used to be sitting in the [home] shrine. They used to call me 'rooster'. Half past three [in the morning] I'm sitting in the shrine and I'd make a loud noise because everyone must get up! Then they say, 'look at the rooster – he's started crowing'.
Never mind what they called me but I'm a real rooster. I'll wake the whole world up if they don't want to meditate. They didn't like it – it's was difficult for them. Now they come here and they say, 'My child is sick, my wife's got high blood-pressure'. But you did it – now you must suffer [because you haven't done the sadhana, spiritual practice]. Why do you want to put it on my head now? I can only say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry – I'll pray a little bit, "Master [Sri Ramakrishna], please will you remove it."' But there's no guarantee Master is going to cure this and that no other sickness will come. [Swamiji chuckling]. It has to come [for all of us working out prarabdha karma – the karma of this birth].
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 [email protected] 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
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