“Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me”

There was once a devotee of Kali who lived around Dakshineshwar. It was not Ramakrishna. It was a priest, and his Love for the Divine Mother was  so  great that he would praise the Mother wherever he was. In his house there was no food, so he went and begged, but people refused to give him food. The Divine Mother disguised Herself as a fruit seller and went to his house where She gave some vegetables to the wife and said “Cook them. Your husband sent me here.” When the husband came back to their home, the wife said to him, “Oh, thank you for sending this lovely lady who brought some vegetables and some rice, but now, I don’t see her anymore and she went without saying "Bye". Later, when they opened the door of the temple, they saw that the clothes that the Lady had been wearing were now on the statue of Kali. Once this same man wanted to build a fence, but he needed some help. He called first his daughter, but she was far away. Suddenly he saw her coming and she was saying “Father, sing some songs for me” and in divine ecstasy he sang for the Divine Mother. As he was singing, he was in deep meditation with the Mother and he forgot about the fence, but the Divine Mother with Her shakti, with Her power, made everything right and disappeared. Later the daughter came and said “Father, you were calling me, what can I do for you?” The father said “But you were just here, right now. Before, you were just here, helping me!” Then he realised that it was not his daughter who had been there – it was the Divine Mother. Like that story, there are many stories in each of the saint’s lives. If each one of you became a saint, you would also have nice stories to tell. This is your aim to be, pray to God, tell Him “Yes, I want to become a saint” and ask for help. Ask the Divine Mother, ask God, ask Christ for help. They will help you. They are here all the time to help people to advance, to help all their children, all the brothers and sisters to reawaken the Divine qualities. That’s what they want that you all become, again, saintly. Say “Yes, I want to become a saint” and you will become! As long as you see sainthood far away, if you see that God is far away, you keep God away, but if you feel Him near to you and say to your mind “Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me,” and clear this mind by chanting the name of God. Clear it by thinking positively, firstly about yourself and also about others around you. Like that, you will see that your heart will open up and this unconditional Love will also grow more and more. It’s like a river when it comes out from the source: it’s always small, but the more it advances towards the sea, what happens to it? It becomes larger and larger because on the way many rivers have joined together. On your spiritual path more and more streams of grace will join coming towards you and you will grow and grow. This is what you have to do – advance. Stop limiting yourself. Start saying “No” to your mind and make it positive.

With the eyes of your heart you shall see and feel Him....

In one life we go through many levels –the seven gates that we have inside ourselves. In each gate,

we encounter certain aspects of the Divine, yet the mind is still present; the mind is still wondering “Am I there already or not?” The more you advance, the more you see that there is more and more to do. Until fnally, when you are face-to-face with the King, there is no question. There is no doubt. There is just absolute peace and even more than that, there is this absolute Love. If your aim is to attain that, no matter what comes on the way, trust. Never lose hope and you will reach there. The Divine is ever present around you. He comes in many forms to help you. With the eyes of your heart you shall see and feel Him, so practice. Don’t practice the opening of the mind; practice the opening of the heart, so that you can Love unconditionally, so you can love and feel the Divine Love inside of you and not only inside of you, but everywhere. The easiest way to do that is to try to be calm and to be in silence.

Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree....

When you chant God’s Name, you awaken this feeling of love. You awaken the Divine inside of you. Of course, it will not happen in one day because your mind has to be purified completely. Your trust has to build little by little. Your strength has to become more and more, then the Lord will shine through you.

Realisation is not something outside that you can pick up from a tree and say “OK, fine, I have it.” No, it is inside of you. When you have cleansed the outside, actually, your True Self reveals itself to the mind. When it reveals itself to the mind, this is when the dissolution happens – the dissolution of your identity, the dissolution of the mind itself. That’s why we talk of the merging of the mind and the heart and the spirit together. Then there is no you and me. There is only Him that dwells everywhere. He is the same Lord which dwells in everything around. The essence of the Lord is present everywhere. If one sees it, if one realises it, one’s life will change completely. For that you have to sincerely want it because that Love, it’s not just the kind of Love that says “I love you”. It’s a Love that consumes you. It’s a Love that burns your identity, that burns everything. Are you ready for that?

You can remember Him every day....

Humans are hanging onto the outside and not much onto the inside, because you don’t know about the inside. You know only what is in the outside, what you can see and what you can touch. From these two things, you think you will be happy, but you have one thing, which is not seen, and that is your Atma. You can talk about the Atma, you can say “Yes, we have the spirit inside of us, you know, we have the soul inside of us”, but how many really know about the Atma? Whenever you talk about death, people get scared. They don’t want to mention death. Well, you were born and you will die. This is not something that you will escape. You will have to go through that, but you, not your body, but your True Self is permanent. So, in realising the Atma, letting the Atma reveal itself to you, you will have the greatest joy, actually. You will always be happy. Even when problems come, you will be happy, because you will have attained the purpose of life, of lives! You will have attained the purpose not only of one life, but of lives. So, try your best to do your sadhana. Try your best to remember God in whatever you do, even if you don’t consider it as seva, but in whatever action you do in life, try to think of God. If you have five minutes during the day, try to sit down quietly. For these five minutes forget about husband, wife, children, everybody. When you sit in your prayer room, just sit - you and God. If you don’t have five minutes, then even two minutes are fine, because He is the One. Whenever you have problems you say “Oh, my God!” No? Then you look for God, but when you are happy, well, you don’t say “Oh, my God, I’m happy!” So, why do you have to wait for a problem to come to remember God? You can remember Him every day. I will not say all day, because you will not, but at least morning and evening, for one minute in the morning and one minute in the evening, you can remember Him. He has a multitude of forms that He appears in, you know. Each one feels close to a certain form of divinity, though it’s only one. It’s like when you look at a tree: there are many leaves, many branches, but all of them came from one seed only. Imagine from a small seed a huge tree can come out, with thousands of leaves, hundreds of branches, but yet, the seed is one. So, try to realise this unity and build up this relationship with the Divine. The more your relationship with the Divine becomes intense, the more He will reveal Himself to you. It’s like when you’re in love. At the beginning you say “Yes, I have a feeling for that person”, but yet, you don’t know that person. How do you know the person? By being close to that person, by being near to that person, you will start to know the person, no? So, the more you become close to that person, the more you know the person, the more the love grows, more and more. So, it’s the same thing with Bhagavan, you know. The more you remember Him, the more you chant His name the more He will reveal Himself to you. So, little by little you will start to feel Him. Little by little you will start to realise Him and that He’s next to you. Sometimes you will see Him in dreams and sometimes you will see Him manifested in front of you. Then, as time goes on, the objects wherein He manifested start to disappear, only He stays. So wherever you go, you will just see Him only. So, the more your Love grows, you will see Him inside of you, you will see Him outside of you and soon you will realise that it’s just Him. We’re just doing a big play. He’s just playing with all of us. He’s acting through all of us. He’s doing what He has to do through each one of us.

Words of Sri Swami Vishwananda....

"Somebody who is wise,surrenders to the Lord.Whatever God gives this person,this person will regard everything as a gift from the Lord."