You belch what you have eaten

||Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Swamiji

 

Aum Namo Narayanaya

 

With Diwali behind us now, the celebration mood shifts gear with the ensuing festive season and New Year celebrations demanding our attention. An outing to the various shopping complexes and trade arenas will introduce you to the glittering, colourful and fancy decorations accompanied by jingles that get you tapping into your purse to indulge yourself with all your fancies. I, together with other millions of people around the world wait for 56 days to usher in the 150^th Birth Anniversary of the great luminary Swami Vivekananda.  It is quite interesting to note that November and December present two pivotal and life altering moments in His life. It was in November 1881 that the Master first met His disciple at the residence of Keshab Chandra Sen which transformed Him from Naren to the fire-brand Vivekananda. During the month of December - after His wanderings through the length and breadth of India - His travels culminated at the southernmost tip of India in the town of Kanya Kumari, where He meditated on a rock for three days and nights on all His experiences. It was there that His mission for India and the world, in terms of unpacking Vedanta into a practical vehicle for liberation, unfolded.

 

Sailing from India in search of a better life, our forefathers landed in Durban on the shores of KwaZulu-Natal on 16 November - 152 years ago. Their aim of cutting the bonds of poverty were to an extent realised... when they organised themselves and through education were able to push back the frontiers of poverty. However, to this very day - though living in a free society, there is a continuous struggle against forces that undermine our divine birth right of being equal and free children of God.

 

 

We find ourselves continuously on the collision path of racism, discrimination, insults, corruption, adultery and a mountain of other challenges that rob us of peace daily. Our faith, practices and way of life are always under attack. Why do we always have to face this onslaught from others in this manner?

 

One day, Sri Ramakrishna whilst chatting with Bankim, asked (to Bankim, smiling) "Well, what do you say about man's duties?

 

BANKIM (smiling): "If you ask me about them, I should say they are eating, sleeping, and sex-life.

 

Master scolds Bankim.

 

MASTER (sharply): "Eh? You are very saucy! What you do day and night comes out through your mouth. A man belches what he eats. If he eats radish, he belches radish; if he eats green coconut, he belches green coconut. Day and night you live in the midst of 'woman and gold'; so your mouth utters words about that alone. By constantly thinking of worldly things a man becomes calculating and deceitful. On the other hand, he becomes guileless by thinking of God. A man who has seen God will never say what you have just said.

 

This makes me think that the actions and words of people are the manifestation of their inner being. Sri  Ramakrishna also used to say that however clever you may be, you will stain your body if you live in a sooty room.  If the mind continues to dwell on the world and sense gratification then our inner being becomes  stained. No matter  what we do, we will definitely project the sootiness within. Ignorance of our true nature and fanatical pursuits to the allurement of the senses has made mankind claim superiority over another based on race, wealth and gender. To this very day, conflict continues in this regard.

 

I was once listening to a discourse by a Swami who prudently explained when the finger is broken; no matter what you touch, will result in pain. When our heart and mind is broken from the pure divine consciousness that we are, then everything we do shall result in pain. The words we speak, the actions we do and the thoughts we process. Therefore if we want peace in the world and man to live in harmony as brothers - these words of Swamiji will guide us.  

 

"All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves... lives. He who is selfish... is dying. Therefore, love for love's sake, because it is the law of life, just as you breathe to live. It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

 

First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves! Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God. The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him --- that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

 

Condemn none! If you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way."

 

These words spoken by this great son of the Universe more than 100 years ago seems more relevant now than ever. In these times of conflict, it is not the world that we must change but our very own selves.  Mediate and pray regularly for the pure consciousness to engulf your being.

 

May Swamiji help us all live the divinity that we are... is my sincere prayer.

 

With love and prayers always

Yogan