Sadhana requires focus and purpose :

-



WISH YOU ALL MEMBERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR, DETERMINE TO PURIFY OUR MIND!



To,


All Members,



Many devotees would come to Sri Ramakrishna and openly confess to him that they are unable to progress in spiritual life because of their impure minds, etc. Sri Ramakrishna would advise them to be patient and hold on steadfastly to the methods of sadhana or spiritual striving advised by their preceptors or gurus. He would say that one has to wait for the right time. In this connection, he would narrate a beautiful example from an occurrence of daily life. There was a youngster in a town who had developed a boil on his forearm. It was quite painful and he would visit the doctor almost every day. The doctor would examine the boil thoroughly and advise the youngster to wait.

As days passed by, the patient became more and more impatient and he would plead with the doctor to operate the boil and relieve him of his suffering since it was very painful and he was unable to bear it any longer. Yet, the doctor went on postponing it and finally one day when the boil had sufficiently become big and the accumulation of pus was visible clearly at the mouth of the boil, he made an incision and drew out all the pus, etc. The young man instantaneously felt some relief. Soon he started recovering and in a few days was completely cured.

Thus Sri Ramakrishna would say that as the devotees pursue their sadhana or spiritual striving, the process of purification begins. The spiritual aspirant has to strive hard and remove the impurities of his mind thoroughly and completely. Only when this process is complete, the Guru guides him along the spiritual path to great depths of spiritual awareness or realisation.

During sadhana in spiritual life one has to be extremely patient and carry on doggedly and with tremendous focus and purpose. At the right time, the Divine intervention takes place and then the sadhaka (learner) clearly perceives he is being lifted up.


Swami Shantatmananda

Sri Ramakrishna Mission


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Call of Sri Krishna: The Gospel of Super Excellence - 6 : Swami Krishnananda

-
Image
26/11/2018 The Call of Sri Krishna: The Gospel of Super Excellence - 6. : Swami Krishnananda (Talk given on Janmashtami, Sri Krishna's birthday.) A powerful interest that dominates a man's life polarises his mind, which then acts like a magnet and continually draws out from his stored-up experiences and also from new experiences whatever is relevant and useful to the end in view. Deep interest invigorates the mind, awakens its dormant powers and is the key to super excellence, invention and discovery. Hard work is another condition of superiority. The aspirant must master the knowledge and technique pertaining to his particular job; in fact, he must be a keen and lifelong learner, ready to pick up new ideas and new ways wherever he can find them. He must cultivate the habits of thoroughness, accuracy and reliability; he must take pains to check, revise and polish his work until it acquires as perfect a finish as possible within the limits of time available. Inspirat
Read more

The Aim of Human Existence – Post - 9 : Swami Krishnananda.

-
Image
================================================================ Wednesday, 24 Jan 2024.  05:30. Article: Philosophy: The Aim of Human Existence – Part 3/3 (Spoken at a Conference in Delhi on Sept. 21, 1980) Post-9. ================================================================ The Aim of Human Existence – Part 3/3 -1 No success in any field of life can be achieved without tapas. Tapas is the guarantee for success in any walk of life, in any direction of any activity. We have been told that creation originated with the tapas of the Creator. The Nasadiya Sukta of the Veda tells us that the Supreme Creator performed tapas when He willed this vast creation, and the whole of His creation is vibrant with various degrees and manifestations of this supreme tapas. In this sense, we may say that the whole creation is only tapas, and the activities of nature in its generality and of people in its particularity are all engendered by a force which can be best described as tapas. I for one cannot
Read more

Transitioning Consciousness from the Animal Through the Human Stage to the Divine Consummation :

-
Image
We generally characterize the major difference in psychology between animals and human beings as the result of the ability of the human being to utilize the Reason, a higher form of intelligence than the basic sense apparatus and physical mind that clearly is predominant in the animal consciousness. At the same time, we can see elements of the power of Reason in the animal kingdom, and cannot deny that most human beings utilize the sense and physical mind capacities as their primary tool for navigating their way through their lives. Sri Aurobindo points out that “…reason is only a particular and limited utilitarian and instrumental activity that proceeds from something much greater than itself, from a power that dwells in an ether more luminous, wider, illimitable.” There appears to be actually a ladder of consciousness which does not provide clearly defined separate steps between the animal and man, and which has not finished its ascent with the appearance of the reasoning f
Read more