Pictured: Prajapati (Lord of Creation] teaching Indra, king of the gods
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Transcribed from the recordings made by Mother Radha
Day 1041
Devotee asks: It is said that if you are sincerely spiritual the material will look after itself.
Swamiji: No, it won't look after itself. You must treat is as a duty and look after it. Understand what I mean? Only a yogi [God-realised soul] can speak like that. A yogi won't care about anything, because what he desires will happen. But what you desire doesn't happen, so until that state is reached you have to look after it. And then, if you become a yogi and what you desire happens, you'll understand that other people can't do that, so you will do what is dharmic [righteous]. You will do everything according to dharma. You will serve and you will do everything, you will look after material things. And you will tell them, "this is valuable," - only valuable as far as using it goes - not getting attached to it and calling it my own. You see, for instance now, take the ashram [monastery]...if the swami or the sannyasins [Hindu monks] just treat it anyhow and take it for granted, thinking that "I am spiritual," everything will go into chaos. You have a Constitution [for the organisation] and you must see that the dharma embodied in the Constitution must be implemented.
Devotee: Not neglected.
Swamiji: No, you can't neglect it. You can't neglect your body and say you are spiritual, unless you reach the stage as I told you, where what you desire [Swamiji clicks his fingers] happens. And you will always desire for the best because the whole universe becomes your body, then. Apparently you are here but you are all over. You know that. Therefore what is there to look after because your Self you can't look after. There's a stage when you take the Lord, singular and meditate on him. Then he must be in universal form, Vishwaroop. The same with your deity [Ishta Deva] - whether it's Siva, Kali, Durga or Krishna. Because Krishna showed it practically [the vishwaroop aspect, to his disciple Arjuna], some people only go for Krishna as a deity - but it's not so. Any deity will be the same. First you meditate on the form, then that form must be meditated on in the universal form – vishwaroop – and then it must become formless, nameless. Krishna gives you the three stages in the Bhagavad Gita. So that's how you reach the highest, too. First the formless, then the whole universe becomes God, you see it pulsating. Then you find the universe has come out of something which is formless, nameless, all dissolved. It's not extracting anything but it is merging, like a drop of water merges into the river and the river merges with the?...ocean. It's very easy, a wonderful meditation. Read between the lines in the scriptures then you'll see what I'm talking about.
Some people, when you tell them to meditate on a deity, they get so fed up, they think, "this fellow is not taking me higher," – inside here [Swamiji pointing to chest] will know straight away that it needs another step now, so you'll push him away slowly. Until then, just get the intense yearning to know a little more truth and the yearning comes and pushes a little bit. Like Indra came the first time, and Virochana the first time.
[Virochana in Hindu mythology was an asura (demon) king. According to the Chandogya Upanishad (VIII.7.2-8.5) he and Indra (king of the gods) went to Prajapati, the Lord of creation to learn about the Atman [universal soul] and lived there, practising brahmacharya for 32 years. Prajapati told them both that whatever they saw was Brahman. Virochana misunderstood this and seeing his physical reflection in water told the asuras to worship the body as the Atman.]
Swamiji continues: Virochana thought the body was everything. So he told his gang, "eat, drink and make merry". Indra said, "wait a minute, but that's not it, that thing doesn't die when this body dies". So he would come back and ask. An intense yearning to know the truth you see? They came again and he pushed them a little bit more. Like that I don't know how many times he came – three or four times or six times, they pushed him, pushed him. It didn't happen just like that. People make a mistake to think all it takes is a touch and that [God realisation] happens. It almost never happens like that. An Incarnation [avatar] of God, a Christ will say, "behold" and you can see it. Ramakrishna just touched, "wake up Mother," and the person went into samadhi. But it can't happen with everybody.
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