[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 1045
There was a poor and innocent couple. A wife and husband. They were told," If you take a guru, you will realise God". So these poor people asked, "but where can we get a guru? Where must we go? Where can we get enlightenment?" The people said, "go and look". So they did. The man was looking and the woman searched, both of them looking, looking, looking. But they couldn't find a guru. So somebody said, "Well, your sin won't go away unless you get initiated. You must get initiated [into spiritual life] and then only will your sin go." But the poor man said, "How can I? I have no guru?" The person said, "tomorrow morning, the first person you see – take him as a guru."
This man was a simple man. He wanted a guru. So the next morning the wife and husband started walking in the lane. Suddenly, what did they find? A thief. He had a big bundle of goods and he was running. So they grabbed and held onto the thief's feet. [devotees are chucking] The thief shouted, "the police are coming!" They said, "no, we want initiation from you!" He begged them, "you just leave me, the police are coming! – you just leave me!" And there was chaos between this thief and this poor, innocent couple. The thief is now desperate to get away. He asks, "what do you want from me?" The man answers, "we want God". The thief says, "close your eyes and sit here. Just close your eyes and sit here – both of you. You'll get God." "We'll get God? You're sure?," asked the couple. "yes, you will get God." What happened now? Whilst the thief said this and then ran away, the police still caught him and put him in jail.
Meanwhile the couple did not move from there. They said, "we must sit and God will come." And it appears that they went through so much trouble but they did not move from that place. And Vishnu bhagawan, as usual, he was strangled by Mother Lakshmi. Because she's full of love and?...compassion. To strangle a worldly man, take away his material wealth. But to strangle God, display compassion. Display?...compassion. Mother is the personification of compassion. So it goes for all the other female deities. So she says to Vishnu, "Vishnu, please, that man is suffering and you cannot do this. Go and give him your darshan [reveal yourself to him]. So Lord Vishnu appears there and he says, "Look, I am here." The poor man says, "who are you?" The Lord replies, "I am God." The man says, "no, never mind that you say you're God, I want my guru to tell me. Otherwise we're not going to move from here." [devotees laughing merrily] Who must tell me? [devotees answer, 'the guru'] "That's the only one I have faith in – his word is gold - I want my guru to tell me." The Lord says, "look, I am…." "No," said the man, "if you're the Lord, then I am telling you that I want my guru to tell me that." Now the Lord doesn't know what to do. He leaves it for a few days. Then he goes in a dream to the King and says, "a certain man, free him please. He may have stolen something but he has won my grace. If you don't free him then some ill-luck will befall you."
The man is released and Lord Vishnu meets him at the prison door. No sooner he consciously looks at Lord Vishnu, he becomes changed, transformed inside. The Lord takes him to the two people, he wakes them up. "Oh, gurudev, gurudev," they say, "gurudev, a person was here and he says he's God. [Swamiji chuckling] The thief-guru says, "This one here?" "Yes,' they say. "Yes, yes, he's God," he answers. And they prostrate to the Lord. That is the faith where a devotee can even save the guru who is a sinner, as in this case, you see.
But then, what is the criterion for getting the highest bliss? It's faith. What?...faith. It is tremendous faith. And faith is one of the things that is grace - and grace is one of the things that is faith. Now when we look back, forget the gurus, sometime or other we have to see the guru and find fault with him as a man – as a human being. But how many of us really have faith in our deities? How many of us? Think about it. How many? Alright – if you have no deity – you know that some people say, "oh, Krishna is not God and Shiva is not God, Christ is not God…" Alright, even if that man says they're not God, he believes there is a God. Whatever the concept is that he may have of God. But how many of them really believe in that God? And yet they call that God, 'almighty'. They call him almighty and on the other hand they go and do things that show exactly through their actions that they haven't got trust in God. They haven't got that faith in God. They haven't got the trust and faith in God.
Now, faith is acquired. It is a growth. It doesn't just come like that. Some people get it like that [Swamiji makes a noise demonstrating immediacy] and they say, "I've got it." But no, there was hard work put into it – unknown to him or herself. And one of the things I've found a blessing, is that which enquires in your mind and keeps pushing you onwards. It's a blessing. Because it activates you to go?...higher and?...higher.
Like this, we find there are a lot of stories told, to illustrate the faithful disciple. But there are other things that show if the disciple has no faith, the guru will somehow plant the faith. He will plant the faith. Therefore I said, "faith is grace and grace is faith". That's why I put it 'upside-down'.
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
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