Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s teachings on dispassion are presented here.
1. "Listen, dear, when God first created man, He endowed him with the spirit of goodness. As a result, men were born with wisdom and it did not take them long to realize that the world was an ephemeral thing. Immediately they took the Name of God and set out to meditate on Him and by His grace were liberated from the bonds of life. God thought, 'This will not do; this is not the way to make them play the game of life.' In the end, along with the spirit of goodness, He mingled in profuse quantities of the spirit of materialism and that of vanity. Now the game of life went on with a swing!"
2. "What an illusion Mahamaya has conjured up! Here is this infinite world, and what one claims as his possession will be left behind at death. Still men cannot understand this simple truth."
3. "A person may have no relatives anywhere, but Mahamaya may make him keep a cat and thus make him worldly. This is how She plays!"1
4. A disciple asked if all men can get rid of desires. Mother replied, "How can they? If they could, then the creation would come to an end. The world is going on because not all can be free of desires. People with desires are born again and again."
5. "As long as a man has desires there is no end to his transmigration. It is the desires alone that make him take one body after another. There will be rebirth for a man if he has even the desire to eat a piece of candy. ... Desire may be compared to a minute seed. It is like a big banyan tree growing out of a seed, which is no bigger than a dot. Rebirth is inevitable so long as one has desires. It is like taking the soul from one pillow-case and putting it into another. Only one or two out of many men can be found who are free from all desires."
6. "The body means the existence of desire, otherwise it would not have existed. It all ends when one no longer has any desires."
7. "This world is moving around like a wheel. That indeed is the last birth in which one gets completely rid of all desires."
8. "Those who are born to God have fulfilled all their desires. So long as a man has any desires, he is incapable of such devotion."
9. "The Master2 used to say that the worldly person is like a spring mattress—sit on it and it goes down, but the moment you get up, it springs back at once. The regard and devotion for God of these worldly men is just like a drop of water on a hot plate—it evaporates in no time."
10. Referring to one devotee, Mother said, "He is so deeply engrossed in worldliness and still he says, 'Why do I not see the Master?' Many women used to come to the Master and say to him, 'Why can't we concentrate our minds upon God? Why can't we steady our minds?' and things like that. He would say to them, 'You are like a new-born babe and still smell of the lying-in room. First get rid of that smell. Why are you so worried about realizing God now? Everything will happen in the course of time.'”
11. Referring to a man who criticized those who renounce the world, Mother said, "My child, men such as these are deeply drowned in the world. They never acquire love for God. They simply carry on, 'coming into the world, suffering the calamities therein, and going away from it' again and again. If after doing so many a time, the Lord has mercy on them in some birth, they will attain liberation.”
12. "How little intelligence does a man possess! He may require one thing, but asks for another. He starts to mould an image of Shiva and often ends by making that of a monkey. It is best therefore to surrender all desires at the feet of God. He will do whatever is best for us. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These cannot be classed as desires."
13. "In one word, one should desire of God desirelessness. For desire alone is at the root of all suffering. It is the cause of repeated births and deaths. It is the obstacle in the way of liberation.”
14. "There is no happiness while living in this body. The world is full of sorrow. Happiness is only an empty word. Only those who have received the grace of the Master can recognize him as God, and that is their real joy."
15. "What is there in this world? Tell me what is good in this life? That was why in the end the Master took only bitter things. I would try to give him sandesh and he would say, 'What is there in sandesh? It is just the same as clay.'
16. "Do you notice this human body? Today it is and tomorrow it is not. And the world is full of misery and pain. Why should one be eager to have another birth? The body is never free from its attendant troubles."
17. "However spiritual a man may be, he must pay the tax for the use of the body to the last farthing (i.e. undergo suffering and death incidental to the embodied state). But the difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play."
18. "Everything, husband, wife, or even the body, is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world. Even this attachment to the body, the identification of the self with the body, must go. What is this body, my darling? It is nothing but three pounds of ashes when it is cremated. Why so much vanity about it? However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are so attached to it. Glory be to God.”
19. "The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream ... What you dreamt last night does not exist now. ... Once, a farmer lost his only son. His wife was crying loudly unable to bear the sorrow of losing her dear son. After sometime, she noticed that her husband was carrying on all the work without expressing any sorrow. She questioned him whether he had no regrets about the loss. He replied saying that he dreamt the previous night that he was a king and the father of eight sons. When he woke up, he found his son had passed away. He said to his wife, 'Should I weep for my eight sons and for the loss of a kingdom or for the death of this son?' "
20. "The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind.”
21. "These earthly ties are transitory. Today they seem to be the be-all and end-all of life, and tomorrow they vanish. Your real tie is with God."
22. "If you love any human being you will have to suffer for it. He is blessed, indeed, who can love God alone. There is no suffering in loving God."
23. "Always do your duty to others, but love you must give to God alone. Worldly love always brings in its wake untold misery."
24. "The Master saw dabchicks floating, diving and swimming in the water of Haldar's pond, but there would be not a drop of water sticking to them—they would just shake it off. He gave their example and said that in this world one should live like these—live in the midst of worldly possessions, but from one's mind one should completely shake off the attachment for them. The Master used to teach everybody to live in the world completely unattached."
25. "Everything is due to desire. What bondage is there for a man who has no desire? You see, I live with all these things, but I do not feel any attachment; no, not in the least."
26. Disciple: "Mother, the Master loved renunciation, but how little we practise it!" Mother: "Yes, you will acquire it slowly. You make some progress in this life, a little more in the next, and so on. It is the body alone that changes; the Atman remains the same. Renunciation of lust and gold! The Master used to say, 'I can change Kamarpukur into gold, if I so desire, by requesting Mathur Babu to do so; but what good will that do? It is all transitory.'
27. "Sri Ramakrishna would say, 'Musk forms in the navel of the deer. Being fascinated with its smell, the deer run hither and thither. They do not know where the fragrance comes from. Likewise God resides in the human body, but man does not know it. Therefore he searches everywhere for bliss, not knowing that it is already in him.' God alone is real. All else is false."
The teachings of this section may be summarized as follows:
(i) One should love all creations of God and try to see God in all His creations; but never develop undue attachment towards anyone.
(ii) One should know/understand the difference between need and greed.
· Buying 2 sets of dress per year is need. Buying 2 sets per month is greed. Some people buy clothes frequently, wear them a few times and then donate old cloth. Why not donate new clothes if they have lot of money?
· Eating to live is need. Living to eat is greed.
· Building a small house sufficient for one’s family’s requirement is need. Building a multi-storied building and collecting huge rent from people who can’t afford to build their own house is greed.
Simplicity should be the hallmark of our life. We should always try to live with the simplest possible clothes, food, house/accommodation, conveyance, etc.
1King Bharata, in spite of becoming a great sage, developed attachment to a deer and was thinking about it at the time of death. Hence, he had to be reborn as a deer in his next birth. For more details, read the story of Jadabharata at Mythological stories section.
