[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 834
[this post has continuity from post 833]
So AUM is the sound symbol of that Brahman. [repeats] AUM is a sound symbol of that [One universal consciousness] Brahman. Though we say waking, dreaming and sleeping states there but I also say, 'A' - to me it looks like it is 'existence', Sat - 'U' – chid [knowledge] and 'M' for anand [bliss]. In the [Divine} Mother you are always anand. So AUM is Sat Chid Anand [Satchidananda]. And Satchidananda is AUM bhûr bhuvah svah – beautiful. Bhûr – 'it', Bhuvah – 'intermediary', Svah. All these came out of AUM.
AUM bhûr bhuvah svah, tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhîmahi
Here now it says, "I meditate on that splendour of the splendid Lord – on that splendour of the splendid Lord! On that light of the most self-effulgent Being." You call It 'Lord', 'God'. "I meditate on That."
What do you do?
AUM bhûr bhuvah svah, tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhîmahi, dhyo yo nah prachodayât
May that Supreme Power, you can say, impel me, compel me, or direct my intellect towards 'It'. Towards what? The Source – AUM. From which it has come out. I meditate on that.
Now, how wonderful. Every day we're saying it and yet we're denying it. This whole universe has come out of that one Sat-Chid-Ananda. And if this world has come out of that Satchidananda then it must be Satchidananda [itself]. It can never be anything else.
Then what is the mistake? What is the suffering about? In one of the Upanishads [the Katha Upanishad] it is said, 'We come out of joy, we live in joy and we re-enter into joy.' But this is [seemingly] contradictory to everyday life. Why? [Swami] Vivekananda [the lead disciple of Sri Ramakrishna] was asked in America why people suffer and he said, 'Ignorance.' [Swamiji chuckles] They are ignorant of their real nature from whence they have come and where they are going. From whence they have come and where they are going. That is the chaos – that is the trouble.
If you [but] know somehow, through experience, that you are 'non-different' from Satchidananda! If the wave only knew that it is part of the ocean, it is not different from the ocean, do you think the wave would keep crying and praying to the ocean? It is already the ocean! See [Joel] Goldsmith – a wonderful writer, he being a European [westerner], catches the idea. He says: 'This world is like a gold ring.' Think. The Upanishad is meant to make you think! It's not bhakti [devotion, divine love] only. So you must use intellect [discernment, discrimination]. The world is like a gold ring [says Joel Goldsmith]. He didn't say the world is gold and ring. He said the world is a gold ring. You remove the gold, where is the ring? Take the [pure] gold ring, remove the gold, where is the ring? So you take God out of this world, [Swamiji laughs] there is no world, because this world is made out of God. We have got caught in the name called 'ring' and the form 'circle'. That's where we are caught. And therefore we cannot go past 'It'. So the AUM bhûr bhuvah mantra is the highest mantra, therefore they call it Gayatri – it is the Mother of the Vedas mantra. It is the Mother. Because if you read there carefully, all the other mantras will give you, in fractional forms, what is already in the Gayatri Mantra. Every Hindu, no matter what caste, colour or creed they are, should study that mantra. Though the mantra is uttered with variations by the different castes [sectors of Hindu society] but the idea is the same. The idea is the…same.
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
