WHY PREACH WHEN REALISATION BE NOT HERE?

Preachers must have the fire of realisation and the inner conviction to be able to effectively convey their spiritual message to the audience. Their's must be the heart that speaks and not the brain churning out intellectual ideas galore. God resides in the heart. Hence, it is the heart that appeals to the heart and never in any other way. When men speak without the vision within, they are apt to make little impression on the audience and that is the state today. It is thus imperative to heed Swamiji's advice well. He exhorted us 'to accumulate power in silence' before attempting to preach. Sri Ramakrishna also was of a similar view. He used to mildly admonish the 'Kolkata people' for giving 'lectures' all the time. Thakur used to stress the need for self-realisation first. He used to say that only 'the divinely commissioned one' was fit to preach.

Today, so many of us feel befuddled by so many life-issues and desperately search for their spiritual solutions but fail to get adequate answers to our queries that it has become a spiritual imperative that we go back to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda to see what they had said in these matters, instead of us remaining lodged in secondary sources interpreting their words to us. We neither find satisfaction in insipid interpretation of their words nor do we get fired up by a dilution of their spiritual standards for organisational imperatives. We must, thus, seek and discover the truth ourselves and only then may we find fulfilment in our earthly sojourn.

Join me in this crusade to spread the Word of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda across the world, beholding it a service unto the Lord. We shall not pretend to be superior men masquerading as messiahs but shall bring the Word of our Master to the door of everybody in the spirit of humble service. It shall be a consecrated act of communication and no more. But we shall back it up with our golden lives of purity and selflessness which shall drive home the message with telling effect and quicken the spirit within. This shall be our 'sadhana' (austerity) and this shall conduce to great good both to society and to us.

Thus, do I say unto you, crush desires under your feet and emerge triumphant in the knowledge that you are the imperishable Self  that sustains this world of ephemeral dreams. 'Taka mati, mati taka.' Do you think that these are but fanciful words of the Master? No, they are not. They are the living reality to fructify soon. In this age of rampant capitalism when the soul of man is sold for a pittance, what a bold statement : Taka mati, mati taka! Come, let us crush under our heels the least vestige of selfishness in us and emerge mighty lions tearing the network of Maya. Jai Ma!