MESSAGES GALORE ... 13

MESSAGES GALORE ... 13

1. Love is feeling intense sympathy for the poor and the miserable. Do you think a mother will be pleased by your prostrations before her image while her children suffer starvation?

2. এক আত্মা, বহু অনাত্মা |

3. হৃদয়বান যিনি, অধ্যাত্মপুরুষ তিনি |

4. God is not located in Heaven nor is Satan stationed in Hell. God you are. Give up all other superstition and be free. Do not debase yourself before an imaginary God or Satan.

5. This world is a marketplace where the human soul is sold for gold. If the poor were to rebel today, where would a handful of the rich fly for cover? It is better that we raise them to dignity while there is time yet before revolution breaks out.

6. Read Vivekananda and fire yourself up. What we need is fiery idealism, intense sympathy and the zeal to raise the poor from under the wheels of crushing tyranny of the ages.

7. Sri Ramakrishna lives in the huts of the tribals of Mekhliganj. Come, let us serve him there.

8. The self gone, God remains.

9. Is Mother happy to receive verbal adulation from devotees galore while witnessing the starvation of Her children, their poverty, illiteracy, their utter destitution?

10. পবিত্রতাই ধর্ম |

11. আমি অখণ্ডচৈতন্য |

12. Phenomena are the variegated derivative of integrated, absolute consciousness. It is a solidified, swirling consciousness all through, the Self brooding on the Self in core and seemimgly extending to the numeral world of myriad manifestation.

13. আমার চৈতন্য হতে ব্রহ্মাণ্ড উৎপন্ন হচ্ছে প্রতিক্ষণে |

14. কিছু না নিলে স্বরূপে থাকা যায়, কিছু নিলে তো আর যায় না |

15. The commercialisation of spiritual culture has well nigh destroyed its pristine spirit. What we need is to go back to roots to recover this lost heritage.

16. He who loves Thakur loves to serve Him in the needy.

17. Speaking bombastic spiritual truths while in ignorance of them in experiential terms makes a mockery of religion even today. Would it were that preachers spoke from direct experience and lived upto what they preached!

18. Faith is the precognition of Truth. We are that Truth. Hence, faith as derivative follows and then assumes prior position in our lives as we traverse to our ultimate destiny of Truth in the Self.

19. Speak a foot, act an inch -- that ought not to be religion. There ought to be parity between speech and action. Else, it is words that are smoky, deeds that are stillborn.

20. Religion ought not to be cover for crafty capitalism.

21. Concrete work needs to be done to put spiritual principles into practice. Else, it is froth, empty talk tantamount to nothing. Meanwhile, capitalism keeps creating wealth for the few and grinding poverty for the rest. Combat it through your actions if you are spiritual indeed. Eliminate greed.

22. Mother's children perish everywhere, utter unconcern for them, yet, devotion for Mother flows out in insincere articulate terms! This is devotion indeed. Mother - what does She think?

23. God suffers everywhere and they ignore it in the name of piety. Such passivity is downright selfishness, not spirituality in the remotest sense. You may be clever to think that you can hoodwink God but He knows best. He cannot be fooled.

24. When a house catches fire, do we relax and allow the flames to consume it while gradually we bring in water to douse it? Then why no urgency in our attempt to put out the consuming flames of poverty and ignorance? Why this terrible torpidity, this abysmal apathy?

25. Ego is the root of all evils and the West is so full of it. Rajas taints the soul with egotism and prevents excellence of the highest order, tranquil and benign.

26. নিজের সম্বন্ধে হীন ধারণা দূর করুন | সাধুকে সম্মান করুন কিন্তু নিজেকে তার থেকে কম সম্মান করবেন না | আত্মশ্রদ্ধাই আত্মজ্ঞানলাভের প্রথম সোপান |

27. পুস্পবিহীন সুতোয় শুধু কথার মালা গাঁথা -- ফুল কই ?

28. We need not lower our ideals to popularise ourselves. Ideals are the backbone of character. Ideals gone, character is gone too.

29. We need not lower our ideals to popularise ourselves. Ideals are the backbone of character. Ideals gone, character is gone too.

30. In the void is the fullness. Discrete elements are gone, only the totality appears in seamless solidarity. Opposites add up to cancel into nothingness which the singularity of existence in consciousness self-cognition is.

31. Heaven is as impermanent as hell is. No God gives one company there. It is earthly pleasure and pain intensified in imagination, and imagination is not God who is the Real in this world of unreal dreams.

32. The seeker is the sought.

33. The burning belly doth not know God. Reduce human misery to make men fit to feel God. Help improve the living conditions of the poor to help manifest their divinity.

34. ঠাকুর-মা চারিদিকে সচল বিগ্রহে দারিদ্রে পতিত, অনাহারে, অশিক্ষায় ক্লিষ্ট, মানুষের অবহেলার চূড়ান্ত শিকার, অথচ চলেছে অন্তহীন ভক্তপ্রণতি প্রস্তরবিগ্রহে, তাও স্বার্থসিঞ্চিত কপটপ্রকাশে | ঠাকুরের অবতরণ কি তবে ব্যর্থ হল ? এই বুঝি ভক্তির দৌড়, ভক্তহৃদয়ের এইমাত্র প্রসারতা ?

35. Mother suffers in myriad forms -- men, women, children living like beasts of burden for ages. How can we sit pretty and enjoy our devotional indolence in the name of that very Mother? Is this hypocrisy or ignorance of the essence of devotion?

36. The life led, the word impresses. Else, it is frothy talk, hollow sound, weightless, lacking in conviction. It is purity that is the power behind the word. The man of the world must not preach. It is the man of high principles, deep living whose word carries weight. Thus is the realised soul the true preceptor, the rightful preacher. The sannyasi is the 'jagadguru' (world teacher).

37. So much of talk, so little feeling.

38. Words deflect. In silence the rudder points north.

39. To pray is to act; to speak is to do; to love is to serve. Make devotion dynamic; light up the lives of the poor.

40. Why is it that in recent times Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda have appeared in person before poor masons who were building/repairing/renovating their temples or their residence, men who have, perhaps, never even thought of them, not been initiated, and who were simple folks with neither knowledge nor exhibited verbal devotion? Have you any clue?

41. The personality must shine through all you do. It is character that lends power to action. It is will that makes your appeal irresistible. It is purity that conquers hearts, and love above all that endears.

42. Purity opens up channels in the brain, connects neurons to illumine. But the coiled-up energy at the base of the spine must be made to rise. Then and then alone realisation flashes.

43. All work done in the spirit of service becomes oblation in the sacrificial fire of the Eternal Spirit. Spirituality in practical terms is thus enunciated. Ceaseless service in this spirit gradually awakens the sleeping soul. The lion in self-recognition sends out its mighty roar pulsating through the forest of this world.

44. The man of love is the man of service. Suffering is there everywhere. Can the loving one help alleviating the misery of the world if even a bit?

45. Where are we that we will have the right to work? Mother Nature in Her three modes works through us and absorbs the entire chain of causality within Herself. The work is Hers, the fruits are Hers as well. We are natural myths used as instruments for this peculiar purpose called Vishvaleela or Cosmic Play. The mythical 'I' floats in this mythical cosmos and then mythically dissolves to reveal the Real Self.

46. It is weakness of nerves that tends to excitement and hate. The strong-nerved man naturally loves all irrespective of their station in life.

47. Religion is self-belief. But this self is not limited to one body-mind system that you seem to believe you are. It extends to the whole of humanity and even to lower life-forms. Love for all is its essence. Love, not pretence, not infatuation in its delusive manifestations.

48. Never give up self-belief. If you do not support yourself, who will?

49. The youth must have an ideal to hold on to. Swamiji is that ideal. Study Swamiji and attain to greatness. His ideas will revolutionise your thinking, transform your character and make you a blessing unto mankind.

50. Meditation tranquilises the system, cools the brain, improves health, concentrates the mind, increases efficiency in work and makes appearance and personality pleasing. Meditate twice a day.

51. Policy may be good for material life and often toxic, too, but simplicity and innocence, rectitude and guilelessness are intrinsic to spiritual living.

52. The materialistic man is never at peace for matter keeps the mental forces in perpetual conflict.

53. না হেথায় আছি, না হোথায় আছি | কোথায় যে আছি, ঠারে ঠোরে বুঝে নাও |

54. When the peels are gone, the onion is gone too. What remains is the Absolute Existence-Consciousness in eternal Self-isolation, unable to replicate Itself. In this One there can be no many. And then the peels reappear, the onion forms once more and the Absolute magically manifests as the manifold mass. The frozen substance assumes fluidity.

55. Lip-service is fine; charitable act finer.

56. They have forgotten your children, Mother, and pay mere lip-devotion to you!

57. If you love your country, read Vivekananda. Then act in accordance.

58. Preaching the Vedanta is wonderful but the preacher has had his belly-full of food first. So must Vedanta be made absolutely practical. Serve the living gods and goddesses before you utter one more word of 'Sarvang khalvidang Brahman'.

59. People who plan their own vacations in expensive resorts care not to think that the money would be better spent in educating the poor children of India, in giving them a shelter, in rescuing them from their footpath habitat. How can such unconcern help raise India?

60. Here I am born and here I'll die. Again and again I'll be born in India to serve my Mother. Who cares for liberation while the teeming millions suffer despicable bonds of bondage?

61. Religion is not selling wares. It must have no connection with commerce.

62. Prasad, if it has to be given to devotees, must be given free without enforcing donation while handing out coupons. 'Taka mati, mati taka.' (Money is mud, mud money.)

63. পবিবত্রা অর্থে বিদেহবুদ্ধি | শেষে বিশুদ্ধচৈতন্যে বিদেহবোধ |

64. যারা অপরের কথা চিন্তা করে, তারাই মানুষ | বাকি তো আকারধারীমাত্র | যার হুঁশ হয়েছে সে কে, সেই তো মানুষ | সে কি আর মানুষের দুঃখ দূর না করে থাকতে পারে?

65. যিনি হৃদয়বান, তিনি সাধু | তিনি নিজ অন্তরে ঈশ্বরকে প্রত্যক্ষ করেন, প্রতিটি মানুষের হৃদয়ে সেই এক ঈশ্বরকেই দর্শন করে তাঁদের সেবায় নিরন্তর, নিরলস যত্নবান হন |

66. Spiritual life begins with obliteration of the self. It ends with realisation of the Self. Then on it is an infinite rambling at a concentred point.

67. Vedanta preachers must treat ordinary men and women as Gods and Goddesses and not subtly insult them as inferior beings just because they fail to live up to the spiritual ideal of purity. Their preaching must become practical in their own lives. Why must they show one greater respect and another less when by their own admission all are in essence equally divine? Greater reverence for all would carry home the Vedantic message better and with telling efficacy.

68. The man of God does not pander to human vanity, yet he shows utmost reverence for all without classified distinction.

69. The man of purity is the man of power. But purity means not only physical continence but also renunciation of the hankering for recognition, of name and fame that is the bane of most monks. A monk who has performed his last rites before embracing his final vows can simply not afford to give in to such temptation, but the reality is just the reverse.

70. Vedanta must be preached with power, with tremendous courage of conviction born of actual, immediate experience and not merely through rationalisation and humouring the audience to keep up their interest by citing instances tinged with worldliness. Truth must strike the audience straight from the heart, clarified of all such convenient comforts. Vedanta brooks no compromise.

71. Effeminacy must be avoided in delivering lectures on the Vedanta. Manhood in every sense of the term as Vivekananda understood must be the guiding principle in preaching.

72. We are woefully short of powerful speakers today who can shake up the audience like a Swami Ashokananda did, one who speaks with original intent without apology, without hesitation, without pandering to the vanities of the worldly, yet, never failing to accord utmost reverence to each of the divinities assembled before in the guise of the audience.

73. তপস্যার গভীরে আত্মজ্ঞানলাভ, বক্তৃতায় নয়, রচনায় নয় |

74. It is not good enough to intellectually convince the audience about Vedantic truths but the preacher must have the capacity to penetrate the depths of its consciousness, to electrify the listeners and transport them to a realm of spiritual perception. The soul of the audience must be touched, transformed, raised, deified.

75. Swami Ashokananda's diction may not be upto the mark but his words are charged with power. He seems afire with his message and there is no attempt on his part at pandering to the worldly vanities of his audience.

76. Those who live their lives for Thakur emanate bliss, peace and strength. These are the living lights of the world, the guide to humanity.

77. We must electrify the world. We must be inspiration for the masses. Swamiji is our General. We are his foot soldiers, insignificant as individuals but in combination a mighty force.

78. Masses of theories with hardly any effort to practicalise them -- this is the state of our fallen countrymen. Lip-service is not devotion, transforming people's lives for the better is.

79. You are the mighty monarch before whom all Gods bow down. You are Godhead Itself.

80. You are the only Truth in a world of endless lies.

81. Millions of children are being denied due education on account of lack of facility. Ramakrishna Math, Mekhliganj has one such facility, its Vidyapeeth which is right now catering to 150 local children. Come, help in the cause which is being hindered on account of acute financial crisis.

82. হৃদয়ের চোখ দিয়ে দেখা চাই মানুষের দুঃখ |

83. Wealth, even if you earn it, is not yours. It is all God's who has kept it in your care as its temporary custodian. Acting, thus, as the trustee of the Lord, dispense well with the wealth. Spend generously for the welfare of the needy.

84. Affirm your freedom from this moment, every moment from now on. And you will break the chains that bind you, and emerge free indeed.

85. Forbearance is ours, forgiveness is God's.

86. কাল যখন স্তব্ধ হয়, তখন সমাধি |

87. তাঁর যদি বোধ থাকত চারিদিকে ঠাকুর-মা কষ্ট পাচ্ছেন, বেদান্ত বক্তৃতা দেবার অবকাশ থাকত কি? বোধ নেই, তাই বাগাড়ম্বর |

88. সবই চৈতন্যের খেলা, এপার আর ওপার | চৈতন্যের পারে আর কিছু নেই | সেথা অপার |

89. Ramakrishna Math, Mekhliganj needs financial assistance. Devotees, well-wishers, philanthropists, come forward, lend your hand of help.

90. "Before flooding the country with economic and political ideas, deluge her with spiritual ideas." These words of Swamiji, if heeded then, would have, perhaps, prevented the Partition of India. Even today it is not too late. Deluge the land with Swamiji's words. Let it inundate India from city to town, from town to village everywhere. But mere spreading his words without living the life will not be productive of the desired end. We must LIVE THE LIFE. Then the movement will spread like wildfire, like lightning flashes across the night sky. Then our country, and with it the world, shall rise.

91. পূর্ব পূর্ব জন্মের কর্মের দ্বারা গঠিত সংস্কারের ওপর প্রহার করে নতুন সংস্কার তৈরি করা -- এটাই তো সাধনা | লোহা বেঁকে গেছে | তপস্যার আগুনে তাকে পুড়িয়ে নরম করে সরলরূপ দেওয়া -- এরই নাম পুরুষকার | শেষে ঈশ্বর স্বয়ং সকল সূক্ষ্ম বক্রভাব দূর করে দর্শন দিয়ে নরজন্ম সার্থক করেন -- এরই নাম কৃপা |

92. Commercialisation of spiritual culture must stop. This is not Vedanta. We must strike deep roots once more in our scriptures and resist rampant capitalism of a coarse consumerist kind.

93. Modernisation does not mean aping the West. The theft, the plunder of public wealth by crony capitalists and their political accomplices is the symptom of impending national death. Eternal India cannot allow that. Build character, resist corruption, be unselfish and save the masses from destitution and death.

94. Follow Swami Satyarupananda, deceased Ramakrishna Mission monk. View his videos. Build your lives by adhering to his teachings. Jai Ramakrishna!

95. One cannot manipulate divine blessings. That would mean the Divine is subject to our commercial instincts camouflaging as piety, and that would be sacrilegious.

96. গুরু শিষ্যশিষ্যার সহস্রারপদ্মে চিরবিদ্যমান |

The Guru is eternally seated on the Sahasraar Padma (the thousand-petalled lotus centre) of the disciple.

97. Spiritualise yourself. Spirituality is 'videhabuddhi', absence of body-consciousness.

98. The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement is rapidly spreading. Thousands of private centres run by the Bhava Prachar Parishad under the auspices of the Belur Math are expanding the scope of the work far and wide across India. Many of these centres will one day be absorbed as branch centres of the parent body.

99. সহজ করে বলা চাই ধর্মের কথা | নইলে সাধারণে নেবে কেন?

100. Let not a day pass without having done some good to society.