Reminiscences
Reminiscences of Sargachhi SRIMAT SWAMI SUHITANANDA JI
(Continued from previous issue. . .)
62
July 2021
3.3.61 (contd…)
The Vedanta Kesari
14
Sri Ramakrishna has said that even a leaf on a tree doesn’t move without God’s will. But in what state can we say that? In that state where we see that God Himself has assumed all these forms; we see the world as filled by Brahman. During Durga Puja on the Sasthi puja day, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi said, “My son, this worship is verily my worship”.
सर्व दे व नमस्कारः के श वं प्रति गछति,
“Salutations offered to all the gods go towards Keshava.” This is dharma.
Worship is practised in every religion. The Hindus perform puja, the Muslims recite the namaz from childhood, and the Christians pray to Jesus. If the prayer is to acquire wealth, honour, or good food, then that prayer is of a very low quality. But it is still a prayer. In this way evolution takes place. T h e r e i s t h e n t h e p ra c t i c e o f discrimination based on knowledge. When the faculty of discrimination is awakened, a person can differentiate between the real and the unreal. Then the mind runs towards the eternally pure Real. If wrong impressions are strong, then through sadhana the mind gets purified, and the person will experience attraction for God. 4.3.61
Attendant: When we read The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, it seems that Sri
Ramakrishna used to be in different moods at different times.
Maharaj: You have grasped it rightly. That undivided Sat-Chit-Ananda didn’t become Ramakrishna; It conveyed Its message through the shell called Ramakrishna. However, when he is Gadadhar Chatterjee, he is not the undivided Sat-Chit-Ananda; he is then a devotee. When that same devotee sees सर्वभूतस्थमात्मानं “the Self in all beings” (Gita 6:29) he is a jnani; and when he enters into the Nirguna or attributeless state, he is the undivided Sat-Chit-Ananda. But if, whenever he likes, a devotee can ascend and descend between these states, he is an avatara or incarnation. An ordinary jiva cannot come down once he rises to the highest.
इहैव तैर्जितः सर्गो येषां साम्ये स्थितं मनः । निर्दोषं हि समं ब्रह्म तस्माद्ब्रह्मणि ते स्थिताः ।। (Gita 5:19) A person whose mind rests in sameness, i.e., is not disturbed by anything, is liberated from this world, from this cycle of birth and death. Brahman is unsullied, i.e., there is no movement, and no restlessness in It. Therefore, until the yogi’s mind becomes still, it cannot unite with the motionless Brahman. On the day you have an altercation with somebody, you won’t be able to concentrate your mind by any means; perhaps its effect will
The author, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, presents here his conversations with Swami Premeshananda (1884-1967), a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.
