[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Day 1022
Most of the time we give people what we love, not what they love. We must give what they love. And what does God love? God loves complete surrender. God loves love that is not tinged by your likes and dislikes. Mostly, what human beings call love is 'like'. What is love? [devotees answer] 'like'. And the opposite of like is dislike. That's all. Mostly we can only reach the 'like' level. We mistake like and call it love. You see – if we spell 'l-i-k-e', what does it give us? 'Like'. L-i-k-e is?...like. And if you take out the 'i' [ego, ahamkara] and replace it with an 'o' - that becomes what? Loke. Loka in Sanskrit means 'world' and as long as there's world and you live in the world, there will be birth and?... death.
Now take the word 'live'. Who lives? L-i-v-e, live. Take out the 'i' and replace it with an 'o' – what is it? [devotees answer] 'love'. And love only lives. Because it lives beyond the world. Because it lives beyond?...the world. Not in the world. So with 'like', if you take out the 'i', you get loke. Loke or Loka [world, realm] implies birth and?...death. L-i-v-e, live – he who lives, really lives, is he who realises immortality. And what is immortality? Just love.
Now Jesus Christ said 'sin' – what is a sin? Take out the 'i' from the word 'sin' and what do you get?... [silence from the devotees] Son! Therefore Jesus Christ was known as the Son of God because there was no 'i' in him. We are sinners because we still have?...'i'. Therefore we 'die'.
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