Miscellaneous - Religion   

Need for vigilance

CHENNAI: A spiritual seeker must always remain vigilant about influences that will lead him astray from his aim of realising God. The general mass of humanity is a mixed bag and so each individual will be different from the other just as in the plant kingdom there is a mind-boggling diversity, including medicinal herbs and poisonous plants. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa advised his devotees that it was important to keep those who would be detrimental to the spiritual goal at a distance by projecting a demeanour that puts them off just as a snake hissed to instil fear in order to save itself from those who would kill it if it didn’t.

In his discourse, Swami Gautamananda said broadly there were four kinds of people in the world. The majority, caught in the throes of bondage, belongs to the first type. They are at the lowest rung of the ladder because they have forgotten their eternal, spiritual nature by identifying with their body and its infirmities like disease, old age and death. How did man fall into this abyss? It is by forgetting his relationship with God. If a person remembers that his bond with the Lord alone is permanent, and that He is the Father and the Mother of all creation, then he will develop the ardent desire to reclaim his original spiritual nature. Just as a child inherits the traits of its parents, a human being takes after his creator and so is divine in nature. One must remember this always and affirm one’s relationship with God. By asserting that one is the Self (Atman) and not the body one’s bond with God will be strengthened, and in the process, all worldly attachments will snap of their own accord.

The next type is the spiritual seeker who aspires for liberation. Some are very keen and focussed about achieving this goal in this birth itself while many plod towards this end through several lives. Then there are those who are liberated even at birth like Sage Narada and saints who come to the world to spread the divine message. They take birth only to redeem others from bondage. One who has realised God belongs to the last group. Just as an infant sits contently in its mother’s lap, so also does a Self-realised one bask in the security of divine grace without any care in the world.

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