The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - 4

[Guest guest]

Dear Spiritial Brothers and Sisters,

 

I have extracted few significant teachings (to the

best of my capability) from "The Gospel of Sri

Ramakrishna" (Abridged Edition). Here, I place the

fourth part - The Master and Keshab.

 

* He is Brahman to the followers of the path of

knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and Bhagavan to

the lovers of God.

 

* When we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not

engaged in the acts of creation, preservation, and

destruction, then we call It Brahman. But when It

engages in these activities, then we call It Kali or

Sakti.

 

* Do your duty with one hand and with the other hold

to God. After the duty is over, you will hold to God

with both hands.

 

* Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone.

 

* If you are in bad company, then you will talk and

think like your companions. On the other hand, when

you are in the company of devotees, you will think and

talk only of God.

 

* Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the

mind.

 

* If a man repeats God's name, his body, mind, and

everything become pure.

 

* Say but once, 'O Lord, I have undoubtedly done

wicked things, but I won't repeat them'. And have

faith in His name.

 

* If one lives in the world, one must go into solitude

now and then.

 

* It is extremely difficult to teach others. A man can

teach only if God reveals Himself to him and gives the

command.

 

* But mere lectures? People will listen to them for a

few days and then forget them. They will never act

upon mere words.

 

* To teach others, one must have a badge of authority;

otherwise teaching becomes a mockery.

 

* After realizing God, one obtains an inner vision.

Only then can one diagnose a person's spiritual malady

and give instruction.

 

* A man verily becomes liberated in life if he feels:

'God is the Doer. He alone is doing everything. I am

doing nothing'. Man's sufferings and worries spring

only from his persistent thought that he is the doer.

 

* It is not good to become involved in many

activities. That makes one forget God. Work is only a

means to the realization of God.

 

* Karmayoga is very hard indeed. In the Kaliyuga, it

is extremely difficult to perform the rites enjoined

in the scriptures. In the Kaliyuga, the best way is

bhaktiyoga, the path of devotion - singing the praises

of the Lord, and prayer.

 

* Worldly people will never listen to you if you ask

them to renounce everything and devote themselves

wholeheartedly to God.

 

* Do you know what a worldly person endowed with

sattva is like? The man himself is very gentle, quiet,

kind, and humble; he doesn't injure anyone. Similarly,

bhakti, devotion, may be sattvic.

 

* The traits of a worldly man endowed with tamas are

sleep, lust, anger, egotism, and the like.

 

* For the bhakta, He assumes forms. But He is formless

for the jnani.

 

* The ego and the universe are both illusory, like a

dream.

 

* If one analyses oneself, one doesn't find any such

thing as 'I'.

 

* As long as his self-analysis is not complete, a man

argues with much ado. But he becomes silent when he

completes it.

 

* All trouble and botheration come to an end when the

'I' dies.

 

* It is enough to feel that God is a Person who

listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves, and

destroys the universe, and who is endowed with

infinite power.

 

* It is easier to attain God by following the path of

devotion.

 

* God reveals Himself in the form which His devotees

loves most.

 

* Who can fully know the infinite God? And what need

is there of knowing the Infinite?

 

* The path of knowledge is extremely difficult. One

cannot obtain jnana if one has the least trace of

worldliness and the slightest attachment to 'woman'

(lust) and 'gold' (greed). This is not the path for

the Kaliyuga.

 

* As a man makes progress toward God, the outer

display of his work diminishes, so much so that he

cannot even sing God's name and glories.

 

* What riches can you give to God to magnify His

glory?

 

* A man becomes liberated even in this life when he

knows that God is the Doer of all things.

 

* Attachment means the feeling of 'my-ness' toward

one's relatives. It is the love one feels for one's

parents, one's brother, one's sister, one's wife and

children. Compassion is the love one feels for all

beings of the world.

 

* Through compassion, one serves all beings. Through

maya, God makes one serve one's relatives.

 

* Maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the

world, whereas daya makes our hearts pure and

gradually unties our bonds.

 

* God cannot be realized without purity of heart. One

receives God's grace by subduing the passions - lust,

anger and greed.

 

* There are certain characteristics of God-vision. One

sees light, feels joy, and experiences the upsurge of

a great current in one's chest, like the bursting of a

rocket.

 

 

Love, Light and Peace...

Kumar

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C. P. KUMAR

Scientist 'E1'

National Institute of Hydrology

Jal Vigyan Bhawan

Roorkee - 247667 (Uttaranchal)

INDIA

 

Web Page : http://www.angelfire.com/nh/cpkumar/

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