The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna - Part III

Sayings: 100-149


100. A man who finds all the hairs of his body standing on end at the bare mention of Srî Hari's name, through sheer ecstasy, and who sheds tears of love on hearing the name of God, he has reached his last birth.

101. The more you scratch the ringworm, the greater grows the itching, and the more pleasure do you find in scratching. Similarly, the devotees once beginning to sing His praises, never get tired of it, but continue for hours and hours together.

102. When grains are measured out to the purchaser in the granary of a rich merchant, the measurer unceasingly goes on measuring, while the attending women supply him with basket-fulls of grain from the main store. The measurer does not leave his seat, while the women incessantly supply him with grain. But a small grocer has neither such attendants, nor is his store so inexhaustible. Similarly, it is God Himself who is constantly inspiring thoughts and sentiments in the hearts of His devotees, and that is the reason why the latter are never in lack of new and wise thoughts and sentiments; while, on the other hand, the book-learned, like petty grocers, soon find that their thoughts have become exhausted.

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Work, we must!

Until we have the strength to work, we must work.

Work is worship.

Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,

And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,

And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.   – Khalil Gibran

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Manifest the Divinity in You

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external or internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy – by one, or more, or all of these – and be free. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary – Swami Vivekananda

My mother used to say, “There is both God and devil in every human. We have to let the God occupy the whole of our self and keep the devil at the tip of our toe.” The truth is that we have to use all our strength to push the devil to the tip of our toe. Otherwise the devil will take control of our self.

Controlling the devil, in other words, controlling the good and bad in us is the first step. We must suppress the evil thoughts and evil qualities, and manifest the divinity within us. For this, we have to constantly think of good things.

Fill the brain with high thoughts, highest ideals; place them day and night before you. Out of that will come great work – Swami Vivekananda

One method to fill the brain with high thoughts will be to read the lives of great people. In course of time, good thinking will become a natural habit.

PS: We wish to present the lives of such great people in this blogsite very soon – Team Ganappa

Valmiki

Valmiki, in his early life, was an unnamed highway robber. Once, the robber tried to rob the divine sage Narada for the benefit of his family. Narada asked him if his family would share the sin he was incurring due to the robbery. The robber replied positively, but Narada told him to confirm this with his family. The robber asked his family, but none agreed to bear the burden of sin. Dejected, the robber finally understood the truth of life and asked for Narada's forgiveness. Narada taught the robber to worship God. Narada gave him the mantra “Rama” and asked him to meditate on this mantra. Valmiki was not able to repeat the word “Rama.” He uttered it as “Mara.” Sage Narada asked him to continue reciting it as “Mara” itself. When uttered continuously, Mara Mara Mara…, it becomes Rama Rama Rama. The robber meditated for many years, so much so that ant-hills grew around his body. Finally, a divine voice declared his penance successful, bestowing him with the name "Valmiki": "one born out of ant-hills".

That is the power of Japa and Meditation. Through sincere devotion to God and faith in his Guru (Narada), a highway robber who used to kill people indiscriminately and rob their wealth, became a great saint Valmiki and composed the epic Ramayana, the story of Ram and Sita.

Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi - Part IV: Meditation and Japa

Japa is repetition of God’s name. Meditation is concentrating the mind on God or any chosen object of worship.

Japa can be performed all through the day without discrimination of place and time, as we walk from one room to another, while getting ready to go to a place of study or work, while eating, while performing any mechanical work like cutting vegetables, cooking, watering plants, driving, and also while lying down on bed before getting up after sleep, or before falling asleep. In contrast, meditation requires concentration and hence one has to find a proper place to sit peacefully and focus one’s mind on God. Both japa and meditation should be performed regularly.

We frequently hear about children indulging in bad habits and spoiling their life. If the practice of japa and meditation are inculcated in the minds of children at a very young age, it will have immense impact1 when they grow up.

Do you have a chosen deity?

If you are a worshipper of Vishnu, start reciting “Sri Krishnaaya namah!” or “Om namo Narayanaya!” or “Sri Ramajayam!”

If you are a worshipper of Shiva, start reciting “Om namah Shivaaya!”

If you are a Sikh, start reciting “Wahe Guru!”

If you are a believer of God, you might have special attraction towards a specific God. It need not be Ram or Krishna or Shiva. Whoever is your chosen God, repeat that God’s name as many times as possible, wherever and whenever possible. You will soon realize the strength that you derive from this good habit. If you have somebody younger than you at home (younger brother or sister, or children), share your experiences and make them understand the goodness of this habit. (If they laugh at you or express disinterest, do not try hard to convince them. It only means the time has not come for them to take up this good habit.)

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The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna - Part II

Sayings:  50-99

50. On the tree of Sat-chit-ânanda there are innumerable Râmas, Krishnas, Christs, etc.; one or two of them come down into this world now and then, and produce mighty changes and revolutions.

51. The Avatâra or Saviour is the messenger of God. He is like the Viceroy of a mighty monarch. As when there is some disturbance in a far-off province the king sends his viceroy to quell it, so whenever there is any waning of religion in any part of the world, God sends His Avatâra there.

52. It is one and the same Avatâra that, having plunged into the ocean of life, rises up in one place and is known as Krishna, and diving again rises in another place and is known as Christ.

53. In some seasons water can be obtained from the great depths of the wells only and with great difficulty, but when the country is flooded in the rainy season, water is obtained with ease everywhere. So ordinarily, God is reached with great pains through prayers and penances, but when the flood of Incarnation descends, God is seen anywhere and everywhere.

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