The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - 4

[Guest guest]

• 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.

 

• Karma yoga 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.