Ramakrishna excerpt

[Guest guest]

An excerpt from Sri ramakrishna and His Divine play by Swami

Saradananda translated by Swami Chetananda(St. Louis

Vedanta society)

 

A woman devotee use to visit the Master. One day she informed

him that her mind was very much disturbed with worldly

thoughts. Immediately the Master understood what was in her

mind. He knew that when she had thoughts about someone that

she loved, that person's face would appear in her mind. He

asked her affectionately,"Well,whose face comes to your mind?

Whom do you love in this world?" she replied that she loved one

of her young nephews, whom she was raising. The Master said,

"All right. Whenever you do anything for him, such as feeding,

dressing, and so on, think that you are serving Gopala.(baby

Krishna) Develop

the attitude that God in the form of Gopala dwells in your nephew

and that you are feeding, dressing, and serving Him. why should

you think that you are doing this for a human being? As you think,

so you receive." We heard that when the woman followed the

Master's instruction she made significant spiritual progress and

even attained bhava samadhi."

 

In this same light, Vivekenanda interpreted the Master's words:

People must first believe and understand that God has

manifested Himself before them as the world and its creatures.

Whomever people come into contact in every moment of their

lives, whomever they treat with love, respect, and

compassion-they are all parts of God, God Himself. If people

consider every human being to be God, how can they consider

themselves to be superior to others and harbour anger, hatred

and arrogance or even compassion- towards them? Their minds

will become pure as they serve all beings as God, and soon they

will experience themselves as parts of the blissful God-by nature

pure, illumined and free.

 

Does anyone else have a favorite saying or passage to share

about Sri Ramakrishna?