Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi - Part IX: Further Teachings

1. Disciple: "Those who are obtaining your blessings are fortunate indeed. What will happen to people in the future?" Mother: "What do you mean? Why won't they too succeed? God exists everywhere and at all times. The Master is always there. They will succeed through his grace. Are not people realizing God in other countries?"

2. To someone who asked if there is any truth in image worship, Mother said, "From time out of mind, innumerable people have worshipped images and thus attained spiritual knowledge. Can you deny this fact? The Master never cherished dogmatic views. Brahman exists everywhere. Prophets and Incarnations are born to show benighted humanity their way. They give different instructions to suit different temperaments. There are many ways to realize truth. So all these instructions have their relative value. For instance, many birds are perched on the branches of a tree. They are of different colours: white, black, red, yellow, and so on. Their sounds, too, are different. But when they sing we say that the sounds are made by the birds. We do not designate one particular sound only as the sound of the birds, and refuse to acknowledge the other sounds as such."

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Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi - Part VIII: Love and Compassion

Holy mother Sri Sarada Devi’s teachings regarding “Love and Compassion” are presented below:

1. "I tell you one thing — if you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own."

2. "To err is human. One must not take that into account. It is harmful for oneself. One gets into the habit of finding fault. ... Do not look for faults in others, or your own eyes will become faulty."

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Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi - Part VII: Advice to Householders

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s teachings for householders are presented below:

1. "Those who belong to a very high plane of existence alone can take to the monastic life and free themselves from all bondages. Again there are some who are born to have a little taste of this worldly life. I say that one should see through worldly enjoyments. …Let X — marry and finish all enjoyments in this life; otherwise there is no knowing when he may fall a victim to some unfulfilled desire. But you may be sure of this, that so long as he remains under the Master's1 protection he can never slip."

2. When a young man, out of temporary dispassion, expressed unwillingness to marry, Mother said, "How is that? God has created things in pairs: two eyes, two ears, two legs — and likewise, man and woman."

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Teachings of Sri Sarada Devi - Part VI: Renunciation

The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s teachings on Renunciation are presented here:

1. "You are a living God. Who is able to renounce all for God's sake? Even the injunctions of Destiny are cancelled if one takes refuge in God. Destiny strikes off with her own hand what she has written about such a person."

2. "Will a man who has strong desires for worldly pleasures listen to me if I ask him to renounce them? But if a fortunate soul has realized the world to be the sport of Maya and God alone to be real, shall I not help him a little? Is there any end to the suffering in the world?"

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The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna - Part VIII

This part presents the Sayings 350-395

350. As an unchaste woman, busily engaged in household affairs, is all the while thinking of her secret lover, even so, O you man of the world, do your round of worldly duties, but fix your heart always on the Lord.

351. As a wet-nurse in a rich family brings up the child of her master, loving the baby as if it were her own, but knows well that she has no claim upon it; so think you also that you are but trustees and guardians of your children whose real father is the Lord God in Heaven.

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The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna - Part VII

This part presents the sayings 300-349:

300. The new-born calf looks very lively, blithe, and merry. It jumps and runs all day long, and only stops to suck the sweet milk from its darn. But no sooner is the rope placed round its neck than it begins to pine away gradually, and, far from being merry, wears a dejected and sorry appearance, and gets almost reduced to a skeleton. So long as a boy has no concern with the affairs of the world he is as merry as the day is long. But when he once feels the weight of the responsibilities of a man of family, by binding himself in time to the world by the indissoluble tie of wedlock, then he no longer appears jolly, but wears the look of dejection, care, and anxiety, and is seen to lose the glow of health from his cheeks, while wrinkles gradually make their appearance over the forehead. Blessed is he that remains a boy throughout his life, free as the morning air, fresh as a newly-blown flower, and pure as a dewdrop.

301. A boat may stay in the water, but water should not stay in the boat. An aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live in him.

302. He who thinks his spiritual guide a mere man, cannot derive any benefit from him.

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