Get and Forget?

I heard this recently in a talk:

Humans get and forget, God gives and forgives

Even if it may not be right to generalize it as humans, in the majority of humans this nature is indeed observed.

Forgetting is good, if we can forget all the bad things others did to us.

When we can give something good, however small the gesture may be, even if you can make another person smile, you have given a moment’s joy – then we are moving from being human to being God. And when we learn to forgive, however bad the crime or mistake may be, we are indeed becoming God.

So, what is Godliness? It is being kind, being honest, being truthful, to be able to give rather than to get, and, above all, to be able to forgive.

Let us give as much as we can, let us forgive everyone, young and old, without exception…

Lessons to learn from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples – Part 11

Sri Ramakrishna’s entire life demonstrated one theme ‘Religion is realization of God’. The goal of being born as a human gets fulfilled only when one is able to realize God -- feel God, see God, and talk to God. It is possible only for humans. Therefore, human life is considered special, precious. We have to sense God to be convinced that there is a God. Otherwise, this human birth is considered to have gone waste.

When Narendra (later Swami Vivekananda) asked Sri Ramakrishna whether he has seen God, he replied, “Yes, I see God as I am seeing you, only a lot more clearly.”

The next question is ‘How to achieve that?’ “Can you cry for God vision? People shed jugs of tears for family, children, wealth, etc. But who wants God?” was his answer.

For God realization, one has to develop an intense longing to see God. It will not happen overnight. It has to be cultivated, nurtured.

What are the obstacles in the path of a person seeking God realization? ‘Lust and greed’, says Sri Ramakrishna. As long as one craves for material gains and sexual pleasures, one cannot realize God. Although it may not be possible to get rid of them overnight, one should start restraining oneself from material and sexual pleasures as much as possible, and start spending more time thinking and meditating on God. Here is an anecdote from the life of Swami Subodananda, affectionately known as ‘Koka Maharaj’ as he was the youngest (probably 16 or 17 years old when he renounced his wealthy parents and chose to become a monk) disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The following incident happened when Swami Subodhananda was practicing austerities in Haridwar.

He was suffering from fever for two months. One day he was too weak and could not lift even the water pot to drink some water to quench his thirst. When he went near the pot, he fell unconscious. When he regained his consciousness, he was overwhelmed by self-pity and cried: “Master, I am suffering terribly. There is none to look after me. You didn’t give sufficient strength even to drink a glass of water by myself.” Thinking thus, he fell asleep. Then he saw [in a dream or vision] the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] stroking his body with his hand and he said, “Why are you anxious? Don’t you see I am always near you? What do you want – attendants or money?” Swami Subodhananda replied, “I want neither of those things. I can’t avoid disease as long as I have a body. May I never forget you: that’s all I want. Be with me wherever I go.”

Early in the morning, he heard a voice from outside, “Swami, please open the door.” When he opened the door, he saw a young monk who told him, “Please tell me what you need. I shall beg food for you.” Swami Subodhananda told him, “I don’t need anything.” When he enquired how the monk knew about him, the monk said that he had arrived there a few days before to perform a religious rite at Brahmakunda. The previous night, Mother Durga appeared in his dream and said, “You will get more virtue by serving that sick monk in the cottage than by performing this religious rite.” So, early in the morning, he went to the cottage and understood that his dream was true. Tears trickled from the eyes of Swami Subodhananda. He controlled his emotions and told the monk to leave him as he preferred to live alone.

On the same day, another monk received fifty rupees by money order. He came to Swami Subodhananda and said, “”You are suffering from fever. You need food and medicine. Please use this money.” The swami declined his offer. Early next day morning the young monk came to the swami again and told him that Mother Durga appeared in his dream again and exhorted him to serve the swami. The swami told him politely that he really did not need any service and perhaps Mother Durga wanted the monk to serve someone else. The young monk left. Then Swami Subodhananda prayed earnestly to Sri Ramakrishna, “Please don’t tempt me anymore. I am glad that you crushed my pique.” The young monk came on the third day also but never again.

Reading the above anecdote in the book God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda made me wonder “What an amazing level of renunciation Swami Subodhananda had?”

“I will not ask for money, or servants. I will not even ask for good health since as long as a body exists there is scope for illness. Please ensure that I will never forget your name. Be with me always” This is what Swami Subodhananda asked. He has shown us the way. It is not easy to be all-sacrificing as he was. But if we can try to emulate even a percentage of that renunciation, we will soon realize the power and kindness of God.

Lessons to learn from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples – Part 10

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna quotes the words of Sri Ramakrishna, “The goal of human life is to love God. The point is to love God even as the mother loves her child, the chaste wife her husband, and the worldly man his wealth. Add together these three forces of love, these three powers of attractions, and give it all to God. Then, you will certainly see Him.”

Swami Ramakrishnananda, one of the direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, had intense love and devotion to his Master Sri Ramakrishna. He went to Madras and established the Madras branch of Ramakrishna Mission at the behest of Swami Vivekananda. He had to face lot of hurdles in his mission but his love for his Master helped him overcome all those hurdles. Here are some interesting anecdotes from his life.

Once, there were no provisions in the temple (at Madras) storeroom to prepare food for offering to Sri Ramakrishna at 4:00 p.m. (the normal time of offering evening snacks to Sri Ramakrishna). At 3:00 p.m. the matter was conveyed to Swami Ramakrishnananda, and it greatly upset him. He took it as a test from the Master. He did not become angry with the monks for not informing him beforehand; all his anger was solely turned against the Master. He burst out, “You want to test me? I will eat sand and do Swamiji’s [Swami Vivekananda, who sent him to Madras] work here. You are testing me, I know. But you should also know my grim resolve. I would rather die and perish here than budge an inch from this place. Do your worst, if you will!” His face glowed in terrible anguish and fervour; he began to pace back and forth in the hall.

At 3:30 p.m. someone knocked at the front door. Mr. Kondaih Chetty, an old student of the swami, came with some flour, ghee, sugar candy, and dried fruits. He also offered five rupees as donation. The swami burst out in childlike glee, and bade the monks to bring two stoves, and made some nice preparations for the offering. At 4:00 p.m. the refreshment was offered to the Master as usual.

The building of Madras Monastery had developed cracks and when it rained water would seep in through the roof in several places. At such times, Swami Ramakrishnananda would go to the shrine to see whether water was leaking through the ceiling. One night it began to drip inside the shrine, exactly on Sri Ramakrishna’s picture. The swami stood there holding an umbrella till the night passed and the rain stopped. He did not move the picture to a safer side because that would wake his Master from sleep at an untimely hour, which would be wrong.

Swami Ramakrishnananda kept the Master alive in his mind through his intense love. His service to his Master is now legendary in the Ramakrishna Order. Swami Bodhananda recalled about Swami Ramakrishnananda, “His offering of flowers, his waving of the big fan on the Master’s bed on hot and sultry nights, his cooking the meals for the offering, his deftness, neatness, promptness, and thoroughness in every detail left an indelible impression on the mind of the beholder. Even the hardest heart would be moved by his superhuman devotion.”

Love cannot be defined. A real lover gets joy and finds fulfillment in life by serving and giving his everything to the beloved. Swami Ramakrishnananda’s love for his Master indeed brought to life the teaching of his Master that love for God should be as intense as the combined love of a mother for her child, a chaste wife for her husband, and a worldly man for his wealth. Swami Ramakrishnananda's life was a demonstration of how to love and serve God.

Lessons to learn from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples – Part 9

Sri Ramakrishna often used to say, “Bhagavatha, Bhaktha, Bhagwan” to mean that the holy scripture, the devotee, and the God, all the three are equal. Therefore, service to devotees is service to God. Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples followed this teaching of the Master (Sri Ramakrishna). Here is an anecdote from the life of Swami Premananda displaying this quality.

Once during the birth anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna, M. (Mahendranath Gupta, the recorder of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) came to Belur Math to pay his homage to the Master. He was not well. After saluting the Master in the shrine, M. sat under the mango tree in the courtyard. He carried some puffed rice for refreshment and enquired if there is any curd (yogurt) in the storeroom. A young monk went to check and found a pot of curd that had not yet been offered to the Master; for that reason, it could not be given to M. (The usual procedure followed in temples and other Hindu religious institutions is to offer everything to God and then distribute the offerings to the devotees. Nothing is consumed without offering it at the feet of God.)

While the monk was returning from the storeroom, Swami Premananda learned from him that M. needed curd. Swami Premananda immediately took the pot and, standing in front of the Master’s picture, offered it to him with closed eyes. He then gave it to the monk to serve M.

Afterwards Premananda told a monk with emotion, “Today the Master saved me from a grave error. Do you know M. was an immediate companion of the Master? The master eats food through the mouths of these devotees. Have you not read in the Gospel, where the Master says that if you feed one of them, you will attain virtue equivalent to feeding one thousand monks? In the Ramakrishna incarnation, M. is the Sage Vyasa [the recorder] and again the Sage Narada [the singer]. Day and night the gospel of the Master comes from his lips like a fountain. The Master saved me today from a serious mistake.”

Service to devotees is service to God. From the advaita point of view, God manifests in every living being. That’s why Swami Vivekananda went one step further and emphasized the importance of serving the poor and destitute.

Once, in 1901, some laborers were engaged in leveling the grounds of the monastery. One day, he arranged a feast for them and, when the meal was over, he told them, “You are Narayanas. Today I have entertained the Lord Himself by feeding you.”

Later, addressing the inmates of Belur Math, he said, “See how simple-hearted these poor, illiterate people are! Will you be able to relieve their misery to some extent at least? …Let us go from village to village, devoting ourselves to the service of the poor. … Let us, through the force of our character and spirituality and our austere living, convince the rich about their duties to the masses, and get money and the means wherewith to serve the poor and the distressed. …Unless they are elevated, the Great Mother India will never awake! What are we good for if we cannot provide facilities for their food and clothing? Alas, they are ignorant of the ways of the world and hence fail to eke out a living though laboring hard day and night for it. Gather all your forces together to remove the veil from their eyes. What I see clear as daylight is that the same Brahman, the same Sakti, is in them as in me! Only there is a difference in the degree of manifestation— that is all.”

A little later he said: 'After so much tapasya, austerity, I have known that the highest truth is this: "He is present in all beings. These are all the manifested forms of Him. There is no other God to seek for! He alone is worshipping God, who serves all beings."'

Anyone who exploits a fellow human, near or distant, offends God and will pay for it sooner or later. All of us are children of the same God, and the same God is residing in the heart of each one of us. Hence service to fellow humans is service to God.

Lessons to learn from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples – Part 8

Sri Ramakrishna disapproved of wastage of resources. Once, in Dakshineshwar, he asked a devotee to light the oil lamp in his room. The devotee used four match sticks and yet could not light the lamp. Then the Master (Sri Ramakrishna) got down from the cot and lighted the lamp himself. He said to the devotee, “The householders save their hard-earned money and give it to the monks. Is it proper to misuse their money?” Another day, Latu (later Swami Adbuthananda) was about to use a match stick to ignite the Master’s tobacco, and he scolded Latu, “Go to the kichen and get the fire from there.”

Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples followed this teaching completely. At the Belur Mutt, Swami Premananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, would watch the activities of the newly joined brahmacharins very carefully. If someone peeled a potato too deeply, the swami would remind him that the vegetables had been bought with the devotees’ hard-earned money and great sacrifice of their comfort; it was not proper for the monks to misuse those things. Swami Premananda could not tolerate any waste and he imprinted this idea in the minds of newcomers.

My eyes filled with tears when I read the above details in the book God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda.

This careful use of funds is followed even today in every branch of Ramakrishna Mission. Some months ago, I visited the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Belgaum, in Karnataka, India. I heard that there is no cook at the ashram and the brahmacharins themselves cooked the food. The various daily activities of the ashram are divided among the inmates, a few of the brahmacharins are given the work of puja (daily worship), some take care of the garden, cooking work is assigned to some, and cleaning vessels to some others.

It is very true that devotees donate money sacrificing their comforts. We can be rest assured that every penny of our hard-earned money donated to any branch of Ramakrishna Mission will be carefully utilized as Sri Ramakrishna himself had shown the way by leading his life accordingly and also by training his disciples to value the resources at their expense.

Lessons to learn from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples – Part 7

Sri Ramakrishna understood the universality in the teachings of various religions of the world by practicing each religion for a certain period of time and realizing God through each of them.

When he was working as a priest of the Kali temple at Dakshineshwar (near Calcutta), he was seized by a desire to know whether the image in the temple is just a stone or the existence of such a Goddess is true. He yearned for a vision of the Mother of the Universe, Goddess Kali, and after many months of struggle he got a vision of the Divine Mother. Mother Herself then became the teacher and initiated him into the truths he sought.

His next desire was to get a vision of Lord Krishna. For this he practised Vaishnavism under the guidance of a vaishnava monk. He was amazed to find that it is the same Goddess Kali who is also visualized as Krishna! There are numerous sects in Hinduism and each sect claims its own deity as the ultimate God. Sri Ramakrishna practiced every sect of Hinduism and found they all reached the same goal.

He then aspired to know the truth of the various religions of the world. So he sought teachers of other religions. He found a Mohammedan saint and placed himself under him; he underwent the disciplines prescribed by him, and to his astonishment found that when faithfully carried out, these devotional methods led him to the same goal he had already attained. He gathered similar experience by following Christianity as well.

He went to all the sects he could find, and whatever he took up he went into it with his whole heart. He did exactly as he was told, and in every instance he arrived at the same result. Thus from actual experience, he came to know that God is unique. The goal of every religion is the same, that each is trying to teach the same thing, the difference being largely in method and more so in language.

Therefore he emphasized that through earnestness and yearning, all lovers of God will ultimately reach the same goal. His disciples followed this teaching of their Master (Sri Ramakrishna) and there are many instances in their lives when they supported and blessed non-Hindu devotees. Here are a few interesting anecdotes.

In January 1925, Swami Shivananda visited Cuddapah, a small town in the state Andhra Pradesh in India, where Hindu and Muslim devotees had together established ‘Ramakrishna Samaj’. Later the swami recalled his meeting with a highly esteemed muslim who had received the title of Khan Bahadur from the British Government. Khan Bahadur belonged to the Sufi sect of Islam but was very devoted to Sri Ramakrishna. Almost every morning and evening during the period of his stay, the swami found Khan Bahadur seated in a corner of the shrine room of the Samaj in deep humility, intently looking at the portrait of Sri Ramakrishna on the altar. He was convinced that the Prophet Muhammad was born as Sri Ramakrishna for the good of the world.

In September 1926, Swami Shivananda inaugurated the building of a new ashrama in Ootacamund. Learning that he was there, a muslim doctor and his family came all the way from Bombay to see him. In the course of the conversation, the doctor told the swami that his wife was particularly eager to speak to him. Subsequently, the doctor’s wife saluted the swami with great devotion and disclosed many intimate things relating to her spiritual life. Since childhood she had been a devotee of Krishna. She worshipped child Krishna and occasionally had visions of him. After reading about the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, she became very much devoted to him. It was her conviction that her chosen deity Krishna was born again as Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Shivananda observed that she had profound love and devotion for Sri Ramakrishna. She was quite intense in her spiritual practices and Sri Ramakrishna had blessed her in many ways. While leaving she asked the swami to touch her head with his hand as it had once touched Sri Ramakrishna! Then she wept a lot. Swami Shivananda was greatly moved by her devotion and he told himself again and again, “Glory be unto the Lord! Blessed is Thy power.”

Sri Ramakrishna never encouraged a narrow outlook regarding religious faiths. Let us always remember his message, “As many faiths, so many paths.”