Month: February 2021

14/02/2021

Jai Ramakrishna

  (Below are some of the most inspiring incidents in the life of Swami Vivekananda.)
   
  Sometimes Swami Vivekananda spoke of Sri Ramakrishna. “He always spoke of his Master as ‘Atmaram,’ ” she said. 
  “Whenever there were difficulties he would say, ‘Well, if things do not go well, we will wake up Atmaram.”
  The Mother dropped me in a strange world,” he said, “among a strange people who do not understand me and whom I do not understand”.
  But the longer I stay here I have come to feel that some of the people in the West whom I have met belong to me, and they also are here to serve with me in the work assigned to me.  
  “There is none with whom I can speak of the Beloved, not one. You do not know, you cannot imagine the loneliness of it. This is how I felt in Chicago.  
  “I am here to serve the Mother and to give the message which I came into the world to give.”   
  In a somewhat disconnected and enigmatic passage of her “Reminiscences,” Mrs. Hansbrough recalled that Swamiji “said many seemingly contradictory things.” 
  “For example, he said of his lectures and work, ‘I have been saying these things before, over and over again.’ 
  In the Turk Street flat one day he said, ‘There is no Vivekananda,’ and again, ‘Do not ask these questions while you have this Maya mixed up with your understanding.’ “ 
  “Once after we had moved to the Turk Street flat,” Mrs. Hansbrough related, “a woman said something to Swamiji about his teaching religion.
  He looked at her and replied, ‘Madam, I am not teaching religion. I am selling my brain for money to help my people. If you get some benefit from it, that is good; but I am not teaching religion!” 
  Another time at the flat, Mrs. Hansbrough recalled, Mrs. Aspinall told him that he really should not charge admission to his lectures. “God will provide,” she said.
  “Madam,” Swamiji answered, “God has made a mess of everything. I am trying to straighten it out.

11/02/2021

Jai Ramakrishna

    (Below are some of the most inspiring incidents in the life of Swami Vivekananda.)

 To how many thousands of people Swamiji gave apparently casual initiation, we have no way of knowing. His “maybe more than [three thousand]” puts no ceiling on the number. 
  And then, this kind of initiation was, one thinks, generally so lacking in any kind of ceremony or deliberation that often the recipient had not the faintest idea that he had received from Swamiji a blessing that was sufficient forever and that would eventually bear fruit as tangible as the amalaka in one’s hand.
   It would seem that in giving informal initiation Swamiji seldom said anything about discipleship, its prerequisites and responsibilities. He gave his blessings, gave, perhaps, some spiritual instructions, took upon himself the burdens of those who had come to him, and went on his way, demanding nothing, neither obedience, acceptance of his teachings, nor loyalty. 
Not even an interview was necessary. With one penetrating look he could know all that was essential to know about any individual. Perhaps he did not even prescribe a mantra. Could he not, with a glance or a touch, transmit the spiritual impetus that would thenceforth work its miracle in the life of the recipient, carrying him quickly to liberation? 
  “The human teacher,” Sri Ramakrishna once said, “whispers the mantra in the ear of the disciple; the World Teacher puts it in his heart”
  In speaking of initiation with a mantra, Swamiji himself once said, “With great teachers the use of words is not necessary, as with Jesus. But the ‘small fry’ transmit this current through words.” 
  Needless to say, Swamiji was a world teacher, a jagadguru; his was the power to transmit spiritual energy directly; this was, indeed, a vital part of his mission. 
  “The touch of the guru, the transmittal of spiritual energy, will quicken your heart,” he said during his lecture “Discipleship” in San Francisco. “Then will begin the growth. That is the real baptism by fire. No more stopping. You go on and go on.” 
  From Swamiji, the baptism by fire was sometimes as silent, as imperceptible, but as irreversible, as the first touch of spring.
  Swamiji explained to his disciple Mr. Sinha that true Brahmanahood was not a matter of birth but of a sattvika, or spiritual, quality of mind. 
  “My disciples are all Brahmanas!” he declared once..

10/02/2021

09/02/2021

Jai Ramakrishna

(Below are some of the most inspiring incidents in the life of Swami Vivekananda, in his own words)

    ‘But notwithstanding these forced atheistic views, the vivid memory of the divine visions I had experienced since my boyhood, and especially after my contact with Shri Ramakrishna, would lead me to think that God must exist and that there must be some way to realize Him. Otherwise life would be meaningless. In the midst of all troubles and tribulations I must find that way.
Days passed, and the mind continued to waver between doubt and certainty. My pecuniary wants also remained just the same.
    ‘The summer was over, and the rains set in. The search for a job still went on. One evening after a whole day’s fast and exposure to rain I was returning home with tired limbs and a jaded mind; overpowered with exhaustion and unable to move a step forward, I sank down on the outer plinth of a house on the roadside.
I can’t say whether I was insensible for a time or not. Various thoughts crowded in on my mind, and I was too weak to drive them off and fix my attention on a particular thing. 
Suddenly I felt as if by some divine power the coverings of my soul were removed one after another. All my former doubts regarding the co-existence of divine justice and mercy, and the presence of misery in the creation of a Blissful Providence, were automatically solved. By a deep introspection I found the meaning of it all and was satisfied.
As I proceeded homewards I found there was no trace of fatigue in the body and the mind was refreshed with wonderful strength and peace. The night was well-nigh over.
    ‘Henceforth I became deaf to the praise and blame of worldly people. I was convinced that I was not born like humdrum people to earn money and maintain my family, much less to strive for sense-pleasure.
I began secretly to prepare myself to renounce the world like my grandfather. I fixed a day for the purpose and was glad to hear that the Master was to come to Calcutta that very day. “It is lucky”, I thought, “I shall leave the world with the blessing of my Guru”. 
As soon as I met the Master, he pressed me hard to spend that night with him at Dakshineswar. I made various excuses, but to no purpose. I had to accompany him. There was not much talk in the carriage.
Reaching Dakshineswar I was seated for some time in his room along with others, when he went into a trance. Presently he drew near me and touching me with great tenderness, began to sing a song with tears in his eyes.
I had repressed my feelings so long, but now they overflowed in tears. The meaning of the song was too apparent—he knew of my intentions. The audience marvelled at this exchange of feeling between us. 
When the Master regained his normal mood, some of them asked him the reason of it and he replied with a smile, “Oh, it is something between him and me”. 
Then at night he dismissed the others and calling me to his side said, “I know you have come for the Mother’s work, and won’t be able to remain in the world. But for my sake, stay as long as I live”. Saying this he burst into tears again. 
The next day with his permission I returned home.
A thousands thoughts about the maintenance of the family assailed me. I began to look about again for a living By working in an attorney’s office and translating a few books, I got just enough means to live from hand to mouth, but it was not permanent, and there was no fixed income to maintain my mother and brothers…

Jai Ramakrishna

(Below are some of the most inspiring incidents in the life of Swami Vivekananda.)

Sometimes when I found that there were not enough provisions for the family and my purse was empty, I would pretend to my mother that I had an invitation to dine out and remain practically without food. Out of self-respect I could not disclose the facts to others. My rich friends sometimes requested me to come to their homes or gardens and sing. I had to comply when I could not avoid it. I did not feel inclined to express my woes before them nor did they try, themselves, to find out my difficulties.
A few among them, sometimes, used to ask-me, “Why do you look so pale and weak today?” 
Only one of them came to know about my poverty without my knowledge and, now and then, sent anonymous help to my mother by which act of kindness he has put me under a deep debt of gratitude.
  ‘Some of my old friends who earned their livelihood by unfair means, asked me to join them. A few among them who had been compelled to follow this dubious way of life by sudden turns of fortune, as in my case, really felt sympathy for me.
There were other troubles also. Various temptations came in my way. A rich woman sent me an ugly proposal to end my days of penury which I sternly rejected with scorn. Another woman also made similar overtures to me. I said to her, “You have wasted your life seeking the pleasures of the flesh. The dark shadows of death are before you. Have you done anything to face that? Give up all these filthy desires and remember God !”
In spite of all these troubles, however, I never lost faith in the existence of God nor in His divine mercy. Every morning taking His name I got up and went out in search of a job.
One day my mother overheard me and said bitterly, “Hush you fool, you have been crying yourself hoarse for God from your childhood, and what has He done for you?”
I was stung to the quick. Doubt crossed my mind. “Does God really exist”, I thought, “and if so, does He really hear the fervent prayer of man? Then why is there no response to my passionate appeals? Why is there so much woe in His benign kingdom? Why does Satan rule in the realm of the Merciful God?”
Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’s words—“If God is good and gracious, why then do millions of people die for want of a few morsels of food at times of famine?”—rang in my ears with bitter irony.
I was exceedingly cross with God. It was also the most opportune moment for doubt to creep into my heart.
  ‘It was ever against my nature to do anything secretly. On the contrary it was a habit with me from my boyhood not to hide even my thoughts from others through fear or anything else.
So it was quite natural for me now to proceed to prove before the world that God was a myth, or that, even if He existed, to call upon Him was fruitless. Soon the report gained currency that I was an atheist and did not scruple to drink or even frequent houses of ill fame. This unmerited calumny hardened my heart still more. I openly declared that in this miserable world there was nothing reprehensible in a man who, seeking for a brief respite, would resort to anything. Not only that, but if I was once convinced of the efficacy of such a course I would not, through fear of anybody, shrink from following it.
  ‘A garbled report of the matter soon reached the ears of the Master and his devotees in Calcutta. Some of them came to me to have a first-hand knowledge of the situation and hinted to me that they believed in some of the rumours at least.
A sense of wounded pride filled my heart on finding that they could think me so low. In an exasperated mood I gave them to understand plainly that it was cowardice to believe in God through fear of hell and argued with them as to His existence or non-existence, quoting several Western philosophers in support. The result was that they took leave of me with the conviction that I was hopelessly lost—and I was glad.
I thought that perhaps Shri Ramakrishna also would believe that, and this thought filled me with uncontrollable pique. 
“Never mind”, I said to myself, “if the good or bad opinion of a man rest upon such flimsy foundations, I don’t care”.
But I was amazed to hear later that the Master had, at first, received the report coldly, without expressing an opinion one way or the other. And when one of his favourite disciples, Bhavanath, said to him with tears in his eyes, “Sir, I could not even dream that Narendra could stoop so low”, he was furious and said, “Hush, you fool ! My Mother told me that it can never be so. I shan’t be able to look at you if you speak to me again like that”.

Jai Ramakrishna

(Below are some of the most inspiring incidents in the life of Swami Vivekananda.)

This is how the Swami describes what has been called the most difficult period of his life :
‘Even before the period of mourning was over I had to knock about in search of a job. Starving and bare¬footed, I wandered from office to office under the scorch¬ing noon-day sun with an application in hand, one or two intimate friends who sympathized with me in my misfortu¬nes accompanying me sometimes. But everywhere the door was slammed in my face.
This first contact with the reality of life convinced me that unselfish sympathy was a rarity in the world—there was no place in it for the weak, the poor and the destitute. I noticed that those who only a few days ago would have been proud to help me in any way, now turned their face against me, though they had enough and to spare. Seeing all this, the world sometimes seemed to me to be the handi-work of the devil.
One day, weary and footsore, I sat down in the shade of the Ochterlony Monument in the Maidan. Some friends of mine happened to be there. One of them sang a song about the overflowing grace of God, perhaps to comfort me.
It was like a terrible blow on my head. I remembered the help¬less condition of my mother and brothers, and exclaimed in bitter anguish and despondency, “Will you please stop that song? Such fancies may be pleasing to those who are born with a silver spoon in their mouth and have no starving relatives at home. Yes, there was a time when I too thought like that. But today before the hard facts of life, it sounds like grim mockery.” My friend must have been wounded. How could he fathom the dire misery that had forced these words out of my mouth?….