Spiritual Talks

Swami Vishuddhananda

These teachings were recorded by Pravrajika Viswaprana of Sri Sarada Math, and had appeared originally in the April 2001 issue of the Bengali journal Nibodhata from where they have been translated by Smt. Sumana Chatterjee and another of Chennai. Courtesy Nibodhata.

Maharaj: Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'We have to float like boats in the ocean of samsara.' You know, I have made an addition to it: the water that collects at the bottom of the boat has to be drained out daily. Otherwise, it will get accumulated and will make the boat sink one day. I am yet to see a boat which does not leak at the bottom.

One more saying of Sri Ramakrishna: What happens to the small fishing boats? Do you know what a fishing boat is? You must be knowing it very well, for you are living by the Ganges. Have you seen the boats used for catching hilsa fish? They sometimes overturn during the high tide. On the other hand, the cargo boats become steady after one or two swings only--in Sri Ramakrishna's words they get a little shaken. Let me add again to that--nothing happens to the buoys. They remain steady even when the tide crosses over their head.

Maharaj: One must surrender everything to Him. In the Gita, the Lord says, 'Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you gift away, whatever austerity you practise, O son of Kunti, do that as an offering to Me.'

Also, one has to do His work only. One has to give hundred percent to Him. As the worldly people demand hundred percent, He also demands complete surrender. If there is even an iota of attachment to the worldly things, one cannot have Love for Him. Until you are able to love Him, your devotion is formal. One must follow one's Guru's advice sincerely. The initial period is tough for both the Guru and the disciple. Later on, when one achieves 'raga bhakti' (love of God with full dedication to Him), one will only be in bliss.

Sri Ramakrishna has compared this bhakti with fodder mixed with oil cake. Do you know how fond God is of His devotees' love? It is like the cow's fondness for fodder mixed with oil cake &. the cow gobbles it down greedily. On the contrary, look at the way you adore Him! & You do not even cut the fodder into small bits and pieces, leave aside mixing this with oil cakes! You just throw the fodder around!

Bhakti matures into bhava. Always one has to be in a bhava, otherwise the ego increases. 'I am doing His work as His child'--this bhava slowly eliminates the ego. Sri Ramakrishna describes this as doing the duty with one hand and holding on to God's Lotus Feet by the other. For you people, both the hands are engaged in action--in fact it helps if you have two more hands, as if two are not enough! Forget about holding Him by one hand!

What love Vidura had for God--being fascinated by that love, God had eaten the banana skin instead of the banana in his house. Once this affection and love is gained, you achieve everything. Does it happen easily? One has to depend on destiny, self-effort and time. Let me tell you a story:

Yudishthira was full of dejection and renunciation after the Kurukshetra war. He went to meet Bhishmadeva who was lying on the bed of arrows. Yudhishthira laid bare his mental condition before Bhishma. Bhishma gave him advice through the following story:

There was a Brahmin who had a beautiful and virtuous eight-year-old son. Suddenly, the boy died of snake bite. The Brahmin was very much overpowered by grief at this. Later, the snake was caught by a hunter. The hunter brought the snake to the Brahmin and told him to punish the snake suitably for killing his son. The sattvika Brahmin, however, did not want to punish the snake. He said, 'By punishing the snake, I will not get back my dead son; so please release the snake.' The hunter did not appreciate the words of the Brahmin; he started blaming and scolding the snake. Then the snake said, 'Why do you blame me for killing the Brahmin's son? I have just followed Yama's order.' At this, the hunter started accusing Yama who said, 'I am not at all responsible for the death of the brahmin's son. His kala (time for death) had arrived and I had to follow the advice of kala.' Kala was called who said in defence, 'What more could I do? It was the boy's past samskara which brought his death by snake bite. Hence his samskara alone is responsible for his death.'

Nobody had anything more to say and the Brahmin, having come to know of his son's samskaras, was relieved of the grief.

You all hate sin. But we say, sin is also good, because 'cometh good out of evil'. Let us recall Tulsidas' case. Had he not been so much henpecked, could he have become such a great devotee? Nothing is possible if 'time' is not ripe. This reminds me of Lalababu. How many times has he not heard the call, 'It is getting late, when will you set fire to basna?' Then why did his mind have a transformation that particular day? The time was just ripe for him that day.

Don't get perturbed if an impure thought arises in your mind. Let this thought go away, then pure thoughts will occupy the mind. Samskaras die hard. Even after the attainment of a high state of mind, there is the fear of slips. The slips are called 'falling from yoga', yogabhrashta. On the one hand, we experience Divine love, on the other, the mind tends to fall. This happens sometimes. However, all impure samskaras of the mind will leave us for ever, once we have His vision. Till that time, we can only sublimate the enemies by austerities, etc. Unless the mind is made free from all desires, it will not be possible to love Him.

Question: Maharaj, there is no provision for 'grace marks' in our examination system. It purely depends on the aggregate. What percent of 'grace' is allowed in spiritual life?

Maharaj: You have to obtain only 5%, the rest 95% is all 'grace'! Those who get His grace feel, 'It is one hundred percent due to His grace and nothing due to our effort.' Actually speaking, what is the power of purushakara, self-effort? Nothing. Can you remove the samskaras of innumerable births from the mind even if you wish to? However you may try, the mind never becomes steady till at last His grace is received.

Question: Maharaj, He does discriminate even in bestowing grace !

Maharaj(Laughing aloud): Does He? There is no such information available with me! He is always devotees' own. He is always calling, 'Dear devotees! Come one and all to Me.' Does He ever say, 'Oh My selected devotees, come to Me?' Those who take refuge in Him, get His grace. Lord Himself has said in the Gita (18.66):

'Renounce all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone. I shall liberate you from all sins, grieve not.'

He liberates even the sinner and the afflicted; hence He says, 'sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami'. Had He been liberating only the [chosen] good people, He would not have said so. Just imagine what He did to Girishbabu--one has only to take refuge in Him, even as Sri Ramakrishna took refuge in the Divine Mother. On the one hand, He had attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi, on the other, he continued to remain in the spiritual mood: 'I am the Mother's child, I know none but the Mother.' The Divine Mother too took up all his responsibility. He was completely engulfed by the Mother and the Mother supplied him whatever he needed--see how clever the child is! If we too take refuge in Him wholeheartedly, He will take charge of us--then what a joy, what a support we will have!

Intellectually, we do know that He carries our burden and does everything for us. But we fail to have any faith in it, nor do we have any realization, and hence all the worries! He does everything for us; do we ourselves have the power to do anything? Just imagine what He is doing for me, when I am seventy six! I was bed-ridden for a month before going to Bombay (now Mumbai)! Could I dream that I could do so much? I was not keeping well--felt giddy while trying to walk--I thought it was due to high blood pressure, but the doctors could not find anything. I became very nervous and could never think of going to Mumbai. For a moment I forgot that He does everything, hence the nervousness. I was only to lay the foundation stone in Mumbai.

However, on my arrival there I found I had to do so many things including initiating people; I had language problem there. Of course, no problem was felt till giving the mantra, but when it came to delivering general instructions, there was difficulty. We had to use the services of an interpreter as I did not know either Marathi or Gujarati.

Holy Mother, however, did not require any interpreter during her visit to South India. I used to be with Her those days--never did she need my help in interpreting. She had, of course, used Ganen as an interpreter while she initiated Gurudas (later Swami Atulananda) in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Mere learning does not make one a jnani. There is a very famous person & in Mumbai. A bachelor throughout, he devoted his time to the pursuit of knowledge. He will be around eighty now and is much respected by the local people. He had published a book; I got so irritated reading that! He misunderstood the meaning of Swamiji's ideal of 'Service to man is service to God', and misinterpreted it as 'Out of sympathy and compassion, Swamiji took up the service to the poor and the needy'. Hence I had stated, 'It is not enough to intellectually understand the meaning, one should have some realization.' Over and above this, he had equated Dayananda Saraswati with Sri Ramakrishna. After witnessing Sri Ramakrishna repeatedly enter samadhi, Dayananda said, 'We have only drunk butter-milk, while this man has eaten the butter.' I wonder why people are unable to realize this!

When you read the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, you will find that at one place Sri Ramakrishna is talking to Bechu Chatterjee, a well-known Vedantin. As the Master went on speaking from his higher plane of realization, Bechu Chatterjee replied, 'Right. It is so stated in Vedanta.' Yet he failed to note even for once that the Master did not speak from mere book learning, but from his high level of realization. Unfortunately, people are so blind. Therefore, these facts have to be explicitly pointed out.

Even after a hundred years, is it not time to proclaim him as God Himself? Is it not true that in His avatara as Sri Ramakrishna, God has revealed His glory more than in any other incarnation? If people do not read his life seriously, how will they know him?

One day suddenly a realization about him flashed in my mind. The examples of the chameleon, the colour tub and the flute which Sri Ramakrishna used to give are nothing but the examples of his own life! I had told this toSwami Nikhilananda. So, to realize Sri Ramakrishna, we must follow Swamiji's description of him as 'LOVE personified'; L.O.V.E.--all capital letters.

Bhakti in maturity leads to ecstasy and then to Mahabhava. Realization of God becomes easy if any one of the bhavas is established in mind. Karma too becomes an Upasana (meditation on God) if one is able to cultivate that attitude. If we perform work with the idea that it is Sri Ramakrishna's work, that it is for his satisfaction that we are doing work, then Karma transforms into Upasana. If we are able to love Sri Ramakrishna, then we will love to do his work as well.