Holy Mother on Renunciation

I asked the Holy Mother, “How shall I lead a spiritual life, Mother?” She said, “Spend your days as you are doing now. Pray to Him earnestly and remember Him always.”

Disciple: Mother, the fact that even great men become degraded frightens me terribly.

Mother: When a person has enjoyable things all around him, their influence naturally affects him. My son, don’t look at a woman, even if it be only a figure made of wood. Avoid the company of women.

Disciple: Men can’t do anything on their own. It is He who is making them do all that they do.

Mother: True it is that He is causing men to do everything. But do they have that understanding? Being filled with egotism, they think they are the doers of everything and that they don’t have to depend upon God. Those who rely on Him are protected by Him from all dangers.

Then pointing to a monk, the Mother continued: “The Master used to say, ‘Monk, beware!’ A monk has always to be on the alert. He should be cautious all the time. A monk’s path is very slippery. In walking along a slippery path, one has to move cautiously at every moment. Is it easy to become a monk? A monk must not even glance at a woman. While walking he should keep his eyes fixed on his toes. The ochre cloth of a monk protects him as does the collar on a dog. No one hurts such a dog, for they know it has a master.

“A man’s mind runs after bad things. If he wants to act virtuously, the mind fails to co-operate. In earlier days I used to leave my bed daily at three o’clock in the morning to meditate. One day I felt unwell and out of laziness dispensed with the meditation. Because of this my meditation was stopped for a few days. Therefore, if one wants to achieve something noble, he must be sincerely arduous and seized with a firm resolve. When I used to stay in the Nahabat, on moonlit nights I would look at the reflection of the moon in the still waters of the Ganges and, weeping, pray to God, ‘There are stains even on the moon, but let my mind be absolutely stainless.’ During my stay there the Master forbade even Ramlal to see me, although he was a nephew. Now-a-days I talk with all and come out in the presence of others.

“You are a Calcutta boy. Had you so desired, you could have married and led a householder’s life. Since you have renounced everything, why should you give your mind to it again? Should one again take in the spittle that has been once spat out?”

—Swami Shantananda, The Gospel of the Holy Mother, p. 212

Wear the Flag of Freedom

There is a vast difference between saying “food, food” and eating it, between saying “water, water” and drinking it. So by merely repeating the words “God, God” we cannot hope to attain realisation. We must strive and practise.

Only by the wave falling back into the sea can it become unlimited, never as a wave can it be so. Then after it has become the sea, it can become the wave again and as big a one as it pleases. Break the identification of yourself with the current and know that you are free.

True philosophy is the systematising of certain perceptions. Intellect ends where religion begins. Inspiration is much higher than reason, but it must not contradict it. Reason is the rough tool to do the hard work; inspiration is the bright light which shows us all truth. The will to do a thing is not necessarily inspiration. …

Progression in Maya is a circle that brings you back to the starting point; but you start ignorant and come to the end with all knowledge. Worship of God, worship of the holy ones, concentration and meditation, and unselfish work, these are the ways of breaking away from Maya’s net; but we must first have the strong desire to get free. The flash of light that will illuminate the darkness for us is in us; it is the knowledge that is our nature—there is no “birthright”, we were never born. All that we have to do is to drive away the clouds that cover it.

Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or heaven. Control the organs of the senses and control the mind. Bear every misery without even knowing that you are miserable. Think of nothing but liberation. Have faith in Guru, in his teachings, and in the surety that you can get free. Say “Soham, Soham” whatever comes. Tell yourself this even in eating, walking, suffering; tell the mind this incessantly—that what we see never existed, that there is only “I”. Flash—the dream will break! Think day and night, this universe is zero, only God is. Have intense desire to get free.

All relatives and friends are but “old dry wells”; we fall into them and get dreams of duty and bondage, and there is no end. Do not create illusion by helping anyone. It is like a banyan tree, that spreads on and on. If you are a dualist, you are a fool to try to help God. If you are a monist, you know that you are God; where find duty? You have no duty to husband, child, friend. Take things as they come, lie still, and when your body floats, go; rise with the rising tide, fall with falling tide. Let the body die; this idea of body is but a worn-out fable. “Be still and know that you are God.”

The present only is existent. There is no past or future even in thought, because to think it, you have to make it the present. Give up everything, and let it float where it will. This world is all a delusion, do not let it fool you again. You have known it for what it is not, now know it for what it is. If the body is dragged anywhere, let it go; do not care where the body is. This tyrannical idea of duty is a terrible poison and is destroying the world.

Do not wait to have a harp and rest by degrees; why not take a harp and begin here? Why wait for heaven? Make it here. In heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage; why not begin at once and have none here? The yellow robe of the Sannyasin is the sign of the free. Give up the beggar’s dress of the world; wear the flag of freedom, the ochre robe.

—Swami Vivekananda,
from Inspired Talks (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 7.89–93)

Brahmajna Ma on Brahmacharya

Enjoying sexual pleasures is like taking a sweetened ball of poison. Nothing covers the Self as much as this. The more this desire fades away, the thinner will be the cover.

Men consider sexual instinct as bad in its gross manifestation. Decrying it in this way is not going deep enough, for they still enjoy the inclination inwardly. As long as this state of mind continues sexual impulse will not be checked. To understand that there is no real pleasure in it is the correct understanding.

As long as it is thought that an object is pleasurable it cannot be given up. When sense-objects are regarded as dangerous and distasteful, like snakes and poison, none will feel sorry to give them up. When it is understood by correct reasoning that far from being pleasurable the sense-objects cover real bliss and peace, then they will be regarded as poison and it will be an easy affair to give them up.

Anticipation of the fulfilment of desire does not allow men any rest, it seduces men by promising pleasure but cannot give it. Happiness cannot be had unless anticipation of the fulfilment of desire is given up. Renunciation of hope alone can lead to peace. The more one gives up anticipation, the more one’s mind becomes relieved from bondage.

—Brahmajna Ma

Advice to Monks

Mother said, “You are attached to the world, and this āsakti must be put an end to by virāga. This is the second stage. But you must not stop here, you must not be attached to virāga either, it is but a means to an end. You must go higher up and beyond both these and observe indifference. The object in view is to make the mind waveless so that on the calm mind you may find the image of Ātmā reflected.”

Mother used to say, “Vichāra and vairāgya must go hand-in-hand, the object in view being to make the mind calm. Sometimes sadhus make the show of vairāgya the be-all and end-all of their lives; they do not pause and reflect where all this is leading them. A sadhu, though he may be looked upon as full of virāga, may be attached to some new object of attachment such as clotted hair or flowing beard or even the orange robe. If these make him proud and he becomes fully occupied with the thoughts of these things, he is no nearer the goal in spite of his so-called renunciation.”

—Brahmajna Ma

Real Sadhus

About the disciples of saints, Mother used to say, “Chaitanya-dev had some very good disciples. Saints come and go, but there are very few to reach the goal by following them. Men are eager to pass for sadhus but do not like to be sadhus.” …

Mother had an unending stock of anecdotes and stories to illustrate and impress any point. Her object was always to make it clear to us how in spite of the fact that there were innumerable sadhus, only a very few were in earnest; how they would forget their object only to wander down into bye-lanes, passing the whole of their lives in slumber, as it were. She would say, “I always tell you about the pitfalls so that you may avoid them. If a seeker proceeds along the right path, however slow he may be, he will surely reach the goal—it is because he keeps on wandering down the bye-lanes that his journey never ends. It seems to me that these sadhus are like pilgrims who intend to go to Benares, but instead of taking the road to Benares, put their luggage on their heads and roam about in the streets of their own city. All this is maya.” Mother would never criticize outsiders except before a chosen few. She wold say, “A religious organization on a big scale is bound to fail because good aspirants are not as cheap as blackberries.” She also said, “There are many gurus but a very few good disciples. I rarely come across a sadhu who seems to be following the correct path. All sadhus are moving in the domain of avidyā but no one can be called a sadhu if he is not earnest in getting beyond this domain.”

—The Life and Teaching of Sri Brahmajna Ma, Swami Prabudhananda, Sadhu Arunachala (Major A W Chadwick), ed. (Deoghar: D N Sen, Santi Asram, Bela Bagan, 1961) 11–12.

Brahmajna Ma on Desire

A few months after I took the garb, one day she said suddenly, “The sex impulse is very strong in you even now.”

I said nothing and began to search in my mind for the explanation of this remark, but failed. Next day, when I was alone with her, I said that I could not find out the reason of her previous day’s remark. She replied, “It is clear. I see that you become angry sometimes. What is anger? When desire is checked, anger takes shape. As you become angry you must still have desires, and when you have desires the strongest, namely the sex impulse, must also be in you, though it may be in a latent state. The three principal enemies to the pacification of the mind are, sex impulse (kāma), anger (krodha), and the feeling of want (lobha). The first is the last to go, so when the second and third are visible it is certain that the first is also present.”

From that time I started the habit of looking upon any and every woman I had occasion to meet as an image of the Divine Mother and if I had occasion to talk or write to a lady I would address her as mother. This has helped me a good deal.

—The Life and Teaching of Sri Brahmajna Ma, Swami Prabudhananda, Sadhu Arunachala (Major A W Chadwick), ed. (Deoghar: D N Sen, Santi Asram, Bela Bagan, 1961) 8.