#remembering ma

Let your mind be like a beautiful flower that may be offered to the Lord* in worship.

- my beloved Ma

Do your duty, and do it without concerning yourself with the results. There is no higher duty than the search for Truth*. Everyone’s real duty is to aspire for the realisation of Truth.

- my beloved Ma

Are you asking this body* if this body loves you? This body says to you that unless this body loves you, you can't love this body; you can't really love this body as much as this body loves every one of you.

- Ma

When this highest ideal of love is reached, philosophy is thrown away; who will then care for it? Freedom, Salvation, Nirvana - all are thrown away; who cares to become free while in the enjoyment of divine love? “Lord[1], I do not want wealth, nor friends, nor beauty, nor learning, nor even freedom; let me be born again and again, and be Thou ever my Love. Be Thou ever and ever my Love.” “Who cares to become sugar?” says the Bhakta[2], “I want to taste sugar.” Who will then desire to become free and one with God? “I may know that I am He; yet will I take myself away from Him and become different, so that I may enjoy the Beloved.” That is what the Bhakta says. Love for love’s sake is his[3] highest enjoyment. Who will not be bound hand and foot a thousand times over to enjoy the Beloved? No Bhakta cares for anything except love, except to love and to be loved. His unworldly love is like the tide rushing up the river; this lover goes up the river against the current. The world calls him mad. I know one[4] whom the world used to call mad, and this was his answer: “My friends, the whole world is a lunatic asylum. Some are mad after worldly love, some after name, some after fame, some after money, some after salvation and going to heaven. In this big lunatic asylum I am also mad, I am mad after God. If you are mad after money, I am mad after God. You are mad; so am I. I think my madness is after all the best.” The true Bhakta’s love is this burning madness before which everything else vanishes for him. The whole universe is to him full of love and love alone; that is how it seems to the lover. So when a man[5] has this love in him, he becomes eternally blessed, eternally happy. This blessed madness of divine love alone can cure forever the disease of the world that is in us. With desire[6], selfishness has vanished. He has drawn near to God, he has thrown off all those vain desires of which he was full before.

We all have to begin as dualists in the religion of love. God is to us a separate Being, and we feel ourselves to be separate beings also. Love then comes in the middle, and man begins to approach God, and God also comes nearer and nearer to man. Man takes up all the various relationships of life, as father, as mother, as son, as friend, as master, as lover, and projects them on his Ideal of love, on his God. To him God exists as all these, and the last point of his progress is reached when he feels that he has become absolutely merged in the Object of his worship. We all begin with love for ourselves; and the unfair claims of the little self makes even love selfish. At last, however, comes the full blaze of light, in which this little self is seen to have become one with the Infinite. Man himself is transfigured in the presence of this Light of Love, and he realises at last the beautiful and inspiring truth that Love, the Lover, and the Beloved are One.

- Swami Vivekananda

Footnotes:

[1] Bhagavan/Bhagavati, Niranjana/Niranjani (Shiva/Shakti, Shiva/Durga, Shiva/Parvati, Shiva/Kali, Bhairava/Bhairavi, Shankara/Shankari, Maheshwara/Maheshwari), Narayana/Narayani, Brahma/Brahmani, Ram/Rama (Ram/Sita, Ram/Janaki), Kishore/Kishori (Krishna/Radha, Krishna/Krishna-priya), Father-in-heaven/Mother-in-heart, He/She, Him/Her, God-beyond-form/God-within-Form, Impersonal-God/Personal-God - a Manifestation/Experience of the Absolute based on one’s innate nature.

[2] A devotee - the one who truly loves Bhagavan[1].

[3] his/her, a devotee - applicable to all human beings.

[4] Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna, also known as Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - Guru of Swami Vivekananda.

[5] The word “man” is a figure of speech, and is applicable to all human beings.

[6] Desire to be with Bhagavan[1].

In one form or another the Grace of the Guru[1] must be obtained. Until the Guru is found, it is human being’s duty to invoke and try to realise Bhagavan[2] by looking upon all forms as His Form, all names as His Name, and all modes of being as His.

- my beloved Ma

Footnotes:

[1] Bhagavan[2] in the Form of a Teacher, Master, Protector, Guide, Guardian, Mentor, Ideal - all in One; the Guru also becomes the Mother, the Father, the Everything for the disciple.

You cannot help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of his children, blessed you are; do not think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship. I should see God in the poor, and it is for my salvation that I go and worship them.

- Swami Vivekananda (CW, 3. 246-7)

(Above image: my beloved Ma)

If one prays to Bhagavan* wholeheartedly, the prayer will be fulfilled, because He* is the Fountain of Goodness, and all His Actions are most beneficent. How is it possible for a mortal being with finite understanding to grasp the infinite working of Bhagavan’s all beneficial Eternal Law? May His Will be done! This should be one’s attitude at all times.

- Ma

(Above image[1]: Swami Brahmananda - disciple of Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna)

During his[2] stay at Lake Kusum[3], Maharaj[4] had the habit of rising at midnight and spending the rest of the night in meditation. One night, however, he felt tired and overslept. After a while, someone gave him a push and aroused him. At first he thought that this must be Swami Turiyananda[5]; then he saw a luminous figure, in the dress of a Vaishnava[6] saint, standing beside him and counting his beads. After this, the figure appeared almost every night, at midnight and joined him in his meditation. Later, in describing this incident to his disciples, Maharaj remarked: “Many holy men, after leaving the physical body, live in subtle, spiritual bodies, and help earnest religious aspirants in different ways.”[7]

Footnotes:

[1] Image source: http://www.rkmkhar.org/swami-brahmananda-asks-us-to-practice/

[2] Swami Brahmananda.

[3] Lake Kusum is located in Vrindavan (the place where Lord Krishna spent His childhood days).

[4] Swami Brahmananda is fondly referred as “Maharaj” by His devotees, disciples, and Guru brothers (disciples who belong to the same Guru). Maharaj means “Great King”. Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna revealed to Swami Vivekananda that Swami Brahmananda possessed all the wonderful qualities of a “Great King”, based on this Divine Revelation Swami Vivekananda named Swami Brahamananda as “Maharaj”.

[5] During the stay at Lake Kusum, Swami Turiyananda had accompanied Swami Brahmananda.

[6] A Vaishnva is one who worships Lord Vishnu as the Absolute, the Supreme Personality of God. Vaishnavism is one of the many paths in Sanatana Dharma (also known as Hinduism by many).