Sri Ramakrishna - God with form is my Mother, the formless God my Father

MANILAL: "Sir, where shall I meditate on God when I perform my daily worship?"

Sri Ramakrishna : "Why, the heart is a splendid place. Meditate on God there."
Manilal, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, believed in a formless God. Addressing him, the Master said: "Kabir used to say: 'God with form is my Mother, the formless God my Father. Whom should I blame? Whom should I adore? The two sides of the scales are even.' During the day-time Haladhari used to meditate on God with form, and at night on the formless God. Whichever attitude you adopt, you will certainly realize God if you have firm faith. You may believe in God with form or in God without form, but your faith must be sincere and whole-hearted.

Sambhu Mallick used to come on foot from Baghbazar to his garden house at Dakshineswar. One day a friend said to him: 'It is risky to walk such a long distance. Why don't you come in a carriage?' At that Sambhu's face turned red and he exclaimed: 'I set out repeating the name of God! What danger can befall me?' Through faith alone one attains everything. I used to say, 'I shall take all this (His spiritual experiences.) to be true if I meet a certain person or if a certain officer of the temple garden talks to me.' What I would think of would invariably come to pass."

M. had studied English logic. In the chapters on fallacies he had read that only superstitious people believed in the coincidence of morning dreams with actual events. Therefore he asked the Master, "Was there never any exception?"

Sri Ramakrishna : "No. At that time everything happened that way. I would repeat the name of God and believe that a certain thing would happen, and it would invariably come to pass. (To Manilal) But you must remember, unless one is guileless and broad-minded, one cannot have such faith. Bony people, the hollow-eyed, the cross-eyed — people with physical traits like those cannot easily acquire faith. What can a man do if there are evil omens on all sides?"

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda - "I could not believe my own ears when I heard Western people talking so much of consciousness! Consciousness? What does consciousness matter! Why, it is nothing compared with the unfathomable depths of the subconscious and the heights of the superconscious! In this I could never be misled, for had I not seen Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gather in ten minutes, from a man's subconscious mind, the whole of his past, and determine from that his future and his powers?"

Swami Vivekananda - "All these (visions etc.) are side issues. They are not true Yoga. They may have a certain usefulness in establishing indirectly the truth of our statements. Even a little glimpse gives faith that there is something behind gross matter. Yet those who spend time on such things run into grave dangers.

Swami Vivekananda - "I am the servant of the servants of the servants of Buddha. Who was there ever like him? — the Lord — who never performed one action for himself — with a heart that embraced the whole world! So full of pity that he — prince and monk — would give his life to save a little goat! So loving that he sacrificed himself to the hunger of a tigress! — to the hospitality of a pariah and blessed him! And he came into my room when I was a boy, and I fell at his feet! For I knew it was the Lord Himself!"

Swami Vivekananda - "How great his renunciation was! Born a prince, he renounced everything! If a man has nothing, no wealth at all, what does his renunciation amount to? After attaining Buddhahood and experiencing Nirvana, Buddha once visited his home and exhorted his wife, his son, and many others of the royal household to embrace the life of renunciation. How intense his renunciation was! But look at Vyasa's conduct! He forbade his son Sukadeva to give up the world, saying, 'My son, practise religion as a householder.'"

Swami Vivekananda Stories - Discussion with Pundits

Swami Vivekananda in london, 1896

In the year of 1897, Swami Vivekananda stayed at the house of late Gopal Lal Seal at Cossipore. One day many pundits came to meet Swami Vivekananda in the hope of having an philosophical discussion with SwamiJi.

All the pundits were well versed in Sankrit and they were discussing the matter in fluent sankrit. So Swamiji also spoke in sanskrit with them. But at one occassion, Swamiji made a grammatical mistake in the spoken sanskrit language. He used the word Asti instead of Svasti, which made the Pundits laugh out. Swamiji quickly accpeted his mistake and the discussion went on. In the end Pundits were convinced of the Swami Vivekananda arguments and they accepted his view points and left gladly.

After the pundits left, Swami Vivekananda explained the whole discussion to the disciples and also told about the fact that they laughed at him because they had picked up a grammatical mistake in his words. Swamiji further said that as He had stayed for a long period of time away from india, so he has not spoken sanskrit for so many years. After that day disciples started speaking with Swamiji in sanskrit only.

Swamiji spoke further about this discussion and said that in the West no one would make a big point of the small grammatical mistake which he made. But they would have given more importance to the point which he wanted to assert. Pointing at the mistake deviates the attention from the real topic. He further said that in our country, all the fighting is going on over the husk, nobody searches for the kernel within.

Note : All the pundits who have came, it seems wanted to put down the Swamiji and that small grammatical mistake was the only occasion they got to bring Swamiji down. But it made no difference to Swamiji and he accepted his mistake humbly. Pundits were not able to challenge his arguments and in the end they were convinced with Swami Vivekananda. Moral of the story is that we need to focus on the essential and not on the mundane things.

Every one has to find out the essential seeking for his life. One should look deep into the things and see what is the essential quality which always remains with us and we can carry it in our next life also. A sincere seeker is never going to deviate from his goal and will always focus on realizing the truth.

Belur Math Pilgrimage guide book

Sri Ramakrishna lovers will be delighted to know that a new book has just been published by Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. This book is a guide to the holy places and pilgrimage sites related with Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, specially on BelurMath

Author : Swami Asutoshananda
Price : Rs. 25
Title : Belur Math Pilgrimage
Pages :114 + A colour sketch map of Belur Math
Weight :115 gm
Product Code : 978-81-7823-515-8

Contact person for ordering a copy of the book :
The Manager
Ramakrishna Math
Mylapore, Chennai 600 004,
Phone: 044-2462-1110 (4 lines)
Fax: 044-2493 4589 , Email: srkmath@vsnl.com

For Online Shopping : www.sriramakrishnamath.org , www.belurmath.org

Sister Nivedita work and Swami Vivekananda

Sister Nivedita was born in October 28, 1867 in Ireland. Her father gave the valuable idea to her that service to mankind is the true service to God. Serving mankind is one of the prominent ideas in the Christian religion. These words made a profound impression on her. She was very fond of music and art (much like her mentor Swami Vivekananda). After completing her education, she took up the job of a teacher and worked in the teaching profession for a long period of ten consecutive years from 1884 to 1894. She was a very gifted teacher and used to take part in social activities.

Before she met Swami Vivekananda in 1895, She was taking interest in Buddhist teachings. Swami Vivekananda stressed on the fact that, mankind is suffering because of ignorance and selfishness. When she met Swami Vivekananda - at that time Swami Vivekananda had already become very famous in the west and many prominent people were listening and following his ideas. Swami Vivekananda's teachings left a deep impact on her mind also and she left England to come to India. She became the first Western woman to be received into an Indian monastic order.

If Gauri Ma was instructed by Sri Ramakrishna to do work for women welfare, then Sister Nivedita was inspired by Swami Vivekananda to start the social work for women in India.
In November 1898 she started a school for girls who were deprived of even a basic education. She took part in various altruistic activities. She worked to improve the lives of Indian women of all castes, especially of Hindu widows who were often condemned to a life of poverty.

Sister Nivedita was always ready to help the poor and needy people. e.g. when the plague struck Calcutta city, then Sister Nivedita worked very hard for providing relief work to the needy people and didn't even cared about her own health. This tradition of serving the poor people is still continued in Sri Ramakrishna missions and society.

Yugapurush Swami Vivekananda - Documentary film

7 minute documentary film made on Swami Vivekananda is available for free download,
(size - 5.97 mb) as well as for viewing is available at Belurmath Site

This documentary film is produced by Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi and has been telecast nation wide in DD National and Zee Network on the auspicious occasion of National Youth Day on 12th January, 2006.

Director of the film : Shri Amlan Kusum Ghosh, H.O.D. ,
Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Film and Television
Script : Ms. Anu Vasudev
Voice : Babla Kochar