BHAKTI OR DEVOTION - Swami Vivekananda

BHAKTI OR DEVOTION - Swami Vivekananda

So we find that in almost every religion these are the three primary things which we have in the worship of God -- forms or symbols, names, God-men. All religions have these, but you find that they want to fight with each other. One says, "My name is the only name; my form is the only form; and my God-men are the only God-men in the world; yours are simply myths." In modern times, Christian clergymen have become a little kinder, and they allow that in the older religions, the different forms of worship were foreshadowings of Christianity, which of course, they consider, is the only true form. God tested Himself in older times, tested His powers by getting these things into shape which culminated in Christianity. This, at least, is a great advance. Fifty years ago they would not have said even that; nothing was true except their own religion. This idea is not limited to any religion, nation, or class of persons; people are always thinking that the only right thing to be done by others is what they themselves are doing. And it is here that the study of different religions helps us. It shows us that the same thoughts that we have been calling ours, and ours alone, were present hundreds of years ago in others, and sometimes even in a better form of expression than our own.

These are the external forms of devotion, through which man has to pass; but if he is sincere, if he really wants to reach the truth, he goes higher than these, to a plane where forms are as nothing. Temples or churches, books or forms, are simply the kindergarten of religion, to make the spiritual child strong enough to take higher steps; and these first steps are necessary if he wants religion. With the thirst, the longing for God, comes real devotion, real Bhakti. Who has the longing? That is the question. Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation; it is being and becoming, it is realisation. We hear so many talking about God and the soul, and all the mysteries of the universe, but if you take them one by one, and ask them, "Have you realised God? Have you seen your Soul?"-- how many can say they have? And yet they are all fighting with one another! At one time, in India, representatives of different sects met together and began to dispute. One said that the only God was Shiva; another said, the only God was Vishnu, and so on; and there was no end to their discussion. A sage was passing that way, and was invited by the disputants to decide the matter. He first asked the man who was claiming Shiva as the greatest God. "Have you seen Shiva? Are you acquainted with Him? If not, how do you know He is the greatest God?" Then turning to the worshipper of Vishnu, he asked, "Have you seen Vishnu?" And after asking this question to all of them, he found out that not one of them knew anything of God. That was why they were disputing so much, for had they really known, they would not have argued. When a jar is being filled with water, it makes a noise, but when it is full, there is no noise. So, the very fact of these disputations and fighting among sects shows that they do not know anything about religion. Religion to them is a mere mass of frothy words, to be written in books. Each one hurries to write a big book, to make it as massive as possible, stealing his materials from every book he can lay his hands upon, and never acknowledging his indebtedness. Then he launches his book upon the world, adding to the disturbance that is already existing there.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page : 43 ]

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Quote:
If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need.
- Swami Vivekananda
………………………….

Religion- What it means.

Sanjay Chacharkar
Subject: Religion- What it means.

Swami Vivekananda defined religion in such away that it would be equally acceptable to people professing any religion or belonging to any country. His definition of religion was divested of dogmas and creeds, and external aids like sacred books, rituals and ceremonials, some of his famous and cryptic definitions of religion are:

• Religion is the struggle to transcend the limitation of the senses.
• Religion is the idea of raising the brute unto man and man unto God.
• Religion is the eternal relationship between the eternal soul and eternal God.
• Religion is the idea of evolution of the individual soul towards the infinite.
• Religion is the manifestation of divinity that is already in man.
• Religion is realisation

Swamiji said that in essence, the concepts of spirituality in different religions do not differ from one another. He Pointed out that whatever be the mode of practice in whichever religion, the following four disciplines alone form the basis of all spirituality.

1. Control of the mind.
2. Dispassion towards the things of the world.
3. Company of holy men
4. Love for fellow beings.

Be happy and contented.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih.

Jai Swamiji.

Religion leads one by hand and shows him the way to realisation of the Self. That is, not only how to live the life but also how to give up the life (mundane) and achive the eternal life. Yad gatva na nivartante tat dhama paramam mama - Gita.

Entry for June 11, 2007

Excerpted from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna p.137

Sunday 10/6/07

The Master Said: [with a laugh]

"Of course you can realize God without complete renunciation !
Why should you renounce everything? You are all right
as you are, following the middle path.
[note: Thakur was speaking to a BrAmho devotee]
- like molasses partly solid and partly liquid.
Do you know the game of nax? Having scored the maximum
number of points, I am out of the game. I can't enjoy it.
But you are very clever. Some of you have scored ten points,
some six, and some five. You have scored just the right
number, so you are not out of the game like me.
The game can go on. Why, that's fine !"

This comment caused much mirth among the devotees

om tat sat

~~~~~~ om shanthi om~~~~~~

elly

DETACHMENT

DETACHMENT

Give me Thy grace, good Lord
to set the world at nought;
To set my mind fast upon Thee,
and not to hang upon the blast of men's mouths;
To be content to be solitary,
not to long for worldly company;
Little by little utterly to cast off the world,
and rid my mind of all the business thereof;
Not to long to hear of any worldly things,
but that the hearing of worldly phantasies
may be to me unpleasant;
Gladly to be thinking of God,
piteously to call for His help;
To lean unto the comfort of God,
busily to labor to love Him;
To know my own vileness and wretchedness,
to be humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God;
To bewail my sins passed,
for the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity;
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
to be joyful of tribulations;
To walk the narrow way that leads to life,
to bear the cross with Christ;
To have the last thing in remembrance,
to have ever before my eye my death that is ever at hand;
To make death no stranger to me,
to foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell;
To pray for pardon before the Judge come,
to have continually in mind
the passion that Christ suffered for me;
For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks,
to buy the time again that I before have lost;
To abstain from vain conversations,
to eschew light foolish mirth and gladness;
Recreations not necessary to cut off,
of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all,
to set the loss as nothing
for the winning of Christ;
To think my greatest enemies my best friends,
for the brethren of Joseph
could never have done him so much good
with their love and favor as they did him
with their malice and hatred.
These attitudes are more to be desired of every man
than all the treasure of
all the princes and kings Christian and heathen,
were it gathered and laid together all upon one heap.
(Saint Thomas More, `A Meditation on Detachment')

Uttishthata Groupzine for the month of June 2007

Uttishthata groupzine for month of June 2007