How to gain bhakti?

One must chant without ceasing the name of the Lord and His glories. 

And keep company of the holy one must frequently go to God's bhaktas, or sadhus. 

One's mind does not fix itself on the Lord while living night and day in the midst of worldly activities and family life. Hence, one must go into solitude now and then to meditate on God. In the first stage it is very hard to fix the mind on the Lord unless one frequently goes into solitude.

When the plant is young, it needs a hedge around it. Without the hedge goats and cows eat it up.

The mind, the solitary corner and the forest are the places where you will meditate. And you will always have good thoughts in your mind. The Lord alone is real, i.e. the eternal substance, and all else is unreal, i.e. transitory. Discriminating thus, you will shake off attachment to the perishable things of the world.

-Sri Ramakrishna

Many paths to attain the GOD

[Messages] - போலியானவன் யார்? - பகவன் ஸ்ரீ ராமகிருஷ்ணர்

ஊரார் வசைமொழிக்கு பயந்து வெளி வேடம் திரித்து தர்மத்தை கடைபிடிப்பவன் தர்மவான் ஆக மாட்டான். ஒருவரும் இல்லாத வீட்டில் காணப்படும் பொன் முடிப்பை எவனொருவன் எடுத்து கொண்டு போக இச்சைபடமாட்டானோ அவனே தர்மவான். மௌனமாகவும் மறைவாகவும் கடைபிடிக்கப்படும் தர்மமே தர்மம். வீண் பெருமையுடன் படாடோபத்துடன் செய்யப்படும் தர்மம் போலிச்செயல்களேயாம்.

- பகவன் ஸ்ரீ ராமகிருஷ்ணர்

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna about Compassion and attachment

Whatever work Vidyasagara has done for others has been very good and helpful. To be kind and compassionate is also good; but there is a difference between compassion and attachment.Compassion is good, but attachment is not. Attachment is love for wife, children, brother, sister, father, mother and other relatives, while true compassion is equal love for all living creatures.

Mahendra: Is compassion also a bondage?

Ramakrishna: This question is not for ordinary mortals.Compassion is the result of the Sattwa quality. The Sattwa quality is protective, the Rajas quality is creative, and Tamas is destructive: but Brahman the Absolute is beyond these three qualities, Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. It is also beyond Prakriti or nature. Where there is absolute Reality, no quality of nature can reach. As a thief cannot go to the exact spot where the treasure is, because he is afraid of being caught, so Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas, like thieves, cannot go to the realm where, is the treasure of the Absolute. [p. 253]

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA Revised by SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

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[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna Says About Effect Of Lectures On Worldly Men

Give thousands of lectures, you cannot do anything with worldly men. Can you drive a nail into a stone wall? The head will be broken without making any impression on the wall. Strike the back of an alligator with a sword, it will receive no impression.

A calf cannot stand on its legs all at once. It falls down, gets up, falls again, and then it learns to stand and run. You do not know who is a Bhakta (godly) and who is worldly; but that is not your fault. When a heavy storm blows, one cannot distinguish Tamarind from Mangotree. It is true, however, that no one can absolutely renounce all works without realizing God.

The question is, how long should Sandhya (rituals) and other ceremonial works be practised? So long as the Holy Name of the Lord does not bring tears of love to the eyes and produce horripilation in the body.

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[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna Says With Devotion TO God Mind Will Stand Apart From The World

If you want butter, you must curdle the milk and set it in a place where no one can disturb it; otherwise the curd will not stand. Then churn it and the butter will rise. Similarly the neophyte should sit in solitude and not be disturbed by worldly-minded people; then through the churning of the settled mind by the practice of meditation the butter of Divine Love will be acquired.

If you give your mind to God in solitude, you will obtain the spirit of true renunciation and absolute devotion. If you give the same mind to the world, it will grow worldly and think of woman and gold. The world may be likened to water, and the mind to milk. Pure milk once mixed with water cannot be separated from it; but if it is first turned into butter and then placed in water, it can remain separate.

Let the milk of your mind be turned into the butter of Divine Love by means of religious practices in solitude. The mind then will never get mixed with the water of worldliness, but will rise above and remain unattached to the world. Having attained true knowledge and devotion the mind will stand apart from the world.

* This Small Story inspired me very much and i was thinking about it on very deeply, pranam to Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

* Thanks for sharing this valuable message from Holy Trio Google Groups.

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna suggests How to recognize a saint

Householder: Revered Sir, how can we know or recognize a saint?

Ramakrishna: He is a saint whose heart, soul, and inner nature have turned towards God; he who has renounced woman and wealth. A saint does not look at women with the eye of desire; if he comes near a woman, he sees the Divine Mother in her and worships her. His thoughts are always on God and his words are of Him.

He sees God everywhere and knows that by serving others, he serves Him. These are some of the outward signs of a saint.Householder: Revered Sir, is it necessary to remain long in solitude? Ramakrishna: Until right discrimination is acquired.[p. 77 & 78]

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA Revised by SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

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[Special] - THAKUR TITHI PUJA 2010

THAKUR TITHI PUJA 2010

Hridayasarvaswa mama prabho Jagatornatha swamine,
Sthitha pragya sarvato sriman,Ramakrishna namadharine !!1!!

Sukla dwitiya tithi Abhirbhutestu falgune,
Kamarpuskhkar iti peetha, vishnave shivaswaroopine !!2!!

Rakachandrasama anana vichitrasamadhi drishyate,
Vedantamurta vigrahau twam karuna-mukti pradayine !!3!!

Aho Natha Sarvadharma sara sarvagunorddha nirgundarshane,
Namaste tava pranaballabha,Ramakrishna mama swamine !!4!!

With prayers and pranams on 175th birth anniversary of The Supreme Lord.
Jay Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishnadev ki Jay!

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna's parable of a farmer who was an Advaita Jnani

Those who follow monistic (Advaita) Vedanta, however, look upon this world as unreal, like a dream. According to them Paramatman, or the Over-Soul, is the witness of the three states of consciousness,--waking, dream and dreamless sleep. All these are ideas. The dream state is just as real as the waking state. Let me tell you a story.

Parable of the farmer and his only child

There was a farmer who was a monist; he had attained to some realization. He lived like any other farmer with his family, and he had a child. He and his wife had extreme love for this son because he was their only child. The farmer himself was a very spiritual man.

He was respected and loved by everyone in the village. Once he was working in the field, when suddenly a man brought the news of his son's severe illness. He went home, called physicians, took great care, but could not save the child's life.

Everybody in the household was overwhelmed with grief, but the farmer looked as if nothing had happened. He consoled others by saying, "What can be gained by mourning over the child?" The next day he went to the field as usual, and after finishing his work he came home and found his wife and the other members of the family still weeping and wailing and plunged in deep sorrow.

The wife reproached him, saying: "How heartless you are! you have not shed a single tear for your only child." The farmer then calmly replied: "Shall I tell you why I do not weep? Last night I had a wonderful dream.

I saw that I was a king, and the father of eight beautiful children, and that I was enjoying all the pleasures and comforts of life. Suddenly I woke up and the dream passed away. Now I am in great confusion,--whether I shall weep and wail for my eight children or for this only one." [p. 93& 94]

The farmer was an Advaita Jnani, therefore he realized that the waking state was as unreal as the dream state, and that the one permanent Reality was Atman. But I accept all states as true,--the state of Samadhi, which is the fourth state, and again, the waking, dream and dreamless sleep state. I accept Brahman the Absolute and Maya, Jiva (the individual soul) and the world. If I do not take all, a portion will be missing and the weight will be less.

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA Revised by SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna says Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone

"It is all a question of the mind. Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone.

The mind will take the colour you dye it with. It is like white clothes just returned from the laundry. If you dip them in red dye, they will be red. If you dip them in blue or green, they will be blue or green. They will take only the colour you dip them in, whatever it may be.

If you are in bad company, then you will talk and think like your companions. On the other hand, when you are in the company of devotees, you will think and talk only of God.

"The mind is everything. A man has his wife on one side and his daughter on the other. He shows his affection to them in different ways. But his mind is one and the
same.

"Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the mind. A man is free if he constantly thinks: 'I am a free soul. How can I he bound, whether I live in the world or in the forest? I am a child of God, the King of Kings. Who can bind me?'

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna says The world does not exist apart from God

"It may be asked, 'How has Satchidananda become so hard?' This earth does indeed feel very hard to the touch.The answer is that blood and semen are thin liquids, and yet out of them comes such a big creature as man. Everything is possible for God.

First of all reach the indivisible Satchidananda, and then, coming down,look at the universe. You will then find that everything is Its manifestation. It is God alone who has become everything. The world by no means exists apart from Him.

"All elements finally merge in akasa. Again, at the time of creation, akasa evolves into mahat and mahat into ahamkara.In this way the whole world-system is evolved.It is the process of involution and evolution. A devotee of God accepts everything.He accepts the universe and its created beings as well as the indivisible Satchidananda.

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA

[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna Says One Who Is An Acharya Should Give Up 'woman And Gold'

A PHYSICIAN prescribed medicine for a patient and said to him, "Come another day and I'll give you directions about diet," The physician had several jars of molasses in his room that day.

The patient lived very far away. He visited the physician later and the physician said to him, "Be careful about your food.

It is not good for you to eat molasses." After the patient left, another person who was there said to the physician, "Why did you give him all the trouble of coming here again? You could very well have given him the instructions the first day."

The physician replied with a smile: "There is a reason. I had several jars of molasses in my room that day. If I had asked the patient then to give up molasses, he would not have had faith in my words.

He would have thought; 'He has so many jars of molasses in his room, he must eat some of it. Then molasses can't be so bad.' Today I have hidden the jars. Now he will have faith in my words."

Renunciation of the world is needful for those whom God wants to be teachers of men. One who is an acharya should give up 'woman and gold';otherwise people will not take his advice.

It is not enough for him to renounce only mentally; he should also renounce outwardly. Only then will his teaching bear fruit. Otherwise people will think,

"Though he asks us to give up 'woman and gold',he enjoys them himself in secret."

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

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[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna says one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature

ONCE a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree.The second man replied: "When i went into the wood, I also saw that animal.But why do you call it red? It is green."

Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey,violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it.

On being asked, he replied:'Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey and so forth- It is a chameleon.

And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it has none."

In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in various colours, and he knows further that the animal at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

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[Messages] - God alone is real and everything else - house,family, wealth, friends, name, and fame - illusory

THERE was a king who used daily to hear the Bhagavata recited by a pandit. Every day, after explaining the sacred book, the pandit would say to the king, "O King, have you understood what I have said?"And every day the king would reply,"You had better understand it first yourself." The pandit would return home and think; "Why does the king talk to me that way day after day? I explain the texts to him so clearly, and he says to me, “you had better understand it first yourself”. What does he mean?" The pandit used to practise spiritual discipline.

A few days later he came to realise that God alone is real and everything else - house,family, wealth, friends, name, and fame - illusory.Convinced of the unreality of the world, he renounced it.

As he left home he asked a man to take this message to the king: "O king, I now understand."

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

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[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna Says One Should Cry For God Like A Child

GOD cannot be seen without yearning of heart,and this yearning is impossible unless one has finished with the experiences of life. Those who live surrounded by 'woman and gold', and have not yet come to the end of their experiences, do not yearn for God.

When I lived at Kamarpukur, Hriday's son, a child of four or five years old, used to spend the whole day with me. He played with toys and almost forgot everything else. But no sooner did evening come than he would say, "I want to go to my mother." I would try to cajole him in various ways and would say, "Here, I'll give you a pigeon." But he wouldn't be consoled with such things; he would weep and cry, "I want to go to my mother."

He didn't enjoy playing any more. I myself wept to see his state.

One should cry for God that way, like a child. That is what it means to be restless for God. One doesn't enjoy play or food any longer. After one's experiences of the world are over, one feels this restlessness and weeps for God.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

* Thanks to Holy Tiro Google Groups

[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna shows the difference between Lover Of God,Jnani and an Ignorant

ONCE, three friends were going through a forest,when a tiger suddenly appeared before them.

"Brothers," one of them exclaimed, "we are lost!" "Why should you say that?" said the second friend, "Why should we be lost? Come, let us pray to God." The third friend said: "No. Why should we trouble God about it? Come, let us climb this tree."

The friend who said 'We are lost!' did not know that there is a God who is our Protector. The friend who asked the others to pray to God was a jnani. He was aware that God is the Creator,Preserver and Destroyer of the world. The third friend, who didn't want to trouble God with prayers and suggested climbing the tree, had ecstatic love of God. It is the very nature of such love that it makes a man think himself stronger than his Beloved. He is always alert lest his Beloved should suffer. The one desire of his is to keep his Beloved from even being pricked in the foot by a thorn.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna says God alone is real, and all else is illusory

Once, several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them, a pandit, was making a great display of his erudition, saying that he had studied various books—the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the six systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, "Do you know the Vedanta?" "No,revered sir." "The Samkhya and the Patanjala?"
"No, revered sir." "Have you read no philosophy whatsoever?" "No, revered sir."

The pandit was talking in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence when a great storm arose and the boat was about to sink. The passenger said to the pandit,
"Sir, can you swim?" "No", replied the pandit. The passenger said, "1 don't know Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can swim."

What will a man gain by knowing many scriptures? The one thing needful is to know how to cross the river of the world. God alone is real, and all else is illusory.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

Admin Comment: in the above image the Endless Sky is GOD and the clouds are illusions, i think viewers can easily understand what it mean.

[Messages] - Sri Ramakrishna says Nothing is impossible to the Lord, nor can anyone know His nature fully

ONCE there lived two yogis who were practising austerities with a view to realize the Lord. One day Narada, the divine sage, was passing by their hermitage, when one of them asked him, "Are you coming from Heaven". Narada replied, "Yes, that is so." The yogi said, "Do tell me what you saw the Lord doing in Heaven." Narada replied, "I saw the Lord playing by making camels and elephants pass through the eye of a needle." At this the yogi observed: "There is nothing in it to marvel at.

Nothing is impossible with God!" But the other man exclaimed: "O nonsense! That is impossible! It only shows that you have never been to the Lord's abode."

The first man was a bhakta and had the faith of a child. Nothing is impossible to the Lord, nor can anyone know His nature fully. Everything can he predicted of Him.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

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[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna about going to Pilgrimages

Ramakrishna (smiling): Well, I went to some places. Hazra went farther and higher up, to Hrishikesha in the Himalayas. I did not go so far or so high up.

The vulture and the kite soar very high, but their eyes are all the while directed to the charnel-pits below. Do you know what the charnel-pits are? Lust and gold. If in going on a pilgrimage a man does not acquire Bhakti, then his pilgrimage is fruitless; for Bhakti is the end of all; it is the one thing needful.

Do you know what the vulture and the kite are? They are those who talk on lofty subjects and say: "We have performed most of the works enjoined in the Holy Scriptures," but whose minds are immersed in worldliness and strongly attached to wealth, name, fame, and sense-pleasures.

Pandit: Yes, Revered Sir,that is true. Going on a pilgrimage is like casting aside the precious stone worn on the breast of Vishnu and wandering about in search of other jewels.

Ramakrishna: Again, you should know that although you may give thousands of instructions, still they will not produce results until the time is ripe.

A child before going to sleep says to its mother: "Mamma dear, awaken me when I shall feel hungry."

The mother replies: "Do not worry about that, my child; thy hunger will awaken thee."

In the same manner one yearns after God when the proper time comes for it. [p. 284 & 285]

Source: THE GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA Revised by SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

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[Messages] - Sri RamaKrishna says The counterfeiting of a good thing sometimes leads to unexpected good results

A THIEF entered the palace of a king in the dead of night and overheard the king saying to the queen, "I shall give my daughter in marriage to one of those sadhus {holy men) who are dwelling on the bank of the river," The thief thought within himself: "Well, here is good luck for me. I will go and sit among the sadhus tomorrow in the disguise of a sadhu, and perchance I may succeed in getting the king's daughter."

The next day he did so. When the king's officers came soliciting the sadhus to marry the king's daughter, none of them consented to it. At last they came to the thief in the guise of a sadhu, and made the same proposal to him. The thief kept quiet. The officers went back and told the king that there was a young sadhu who might be influenced to marry the princess and that there was no other who would consent. The king then came to the sadhu in person and earnestly entreated him to honour him by accepting the hand of his daughter.

But the heart of the thief was changed at the king's visit. He thought within himself: "I have only assumed the garb of a sadhu, and behold! the king comes to me and is all entreaties. Who can say what better things may not be in store for me if I become a real sadhu!" These thoughts so strongly affected him that, instead of marrying under false pretences, he began to mend his ways from that very day and exerted himself to become a true sadhu. He did not marry at all, and ultimately became one of the most pious ascetics of his day.

The counterfeiting of a good thing sometimes leads to unexpected good results.

Source: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

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