SWAMI BRAHMANANDA'S IMPORTANT QUOTES
SWAMI BRAHMANANDA (1863-1922) earlier known as Rakhal Chandra Ghosh, and affectionately as Raja Maharaj, was Sri Ramakrishna's Manas putra (mental Child). As a young disciple, at Sri Ramakrishna's feet, he was not only privy to Sri Ramakrishna's exalted spiritual states, but her himself attained to a high degree of spiritual realization even during Sri Ramakrishna's lifetime. He was also groomed by Sri Ramakrishna to be one of his spiritual heirs. Later, after Swami Vivekananda's passing away, the responsibility for guiding the spiritual welfare of the devotees, - both monastic and lay - and maneuvering the fledgling Ramakrishna Order fell on his shoulders, He performed this function until his own Mahasamadhi on April 10, 1922.THE NATURE OF THE WORLD, SUFFERING AND HUMAN BIRTH:
'If you run after worldly things, you may, no doubt, enjoy sensuous pleasures for a while, but be sure your future will be dark and gloomy and you will have to pass through endless suffering. The world is so constituted that, if you want pleasure you must undergo pain. Whether you like it or not, you cannot have the one without the other.'
'Sri Ramakrishna used to compare them (ordinary men) to a camel. The camel will not take good grass even when it is close by. It knows well that thorny grass makes the mouth bleed, but still it insists on eating it. In the same way, man suffers because of wrong thoughts and wrong desires.'
'Whatever riches you may possess, what ever your chances of living a happy and prosperous life, however wide your circle of friends and well-wishers, you will not have real happiness. All these last for a few moments, or at the most an hour; they do not last longer. Then comes a reaction of Misery.'
'What does man want? He wants happiness. How he runs after it! What plans he makes! What strenuous efforts he puts forth! But does he get it? After many attempts, after many a plan he is baffled. He plans again and again, but to no purpose. In this way his whole life ebbs away. He has not the good fortune to enjoy peace and happiness at all. He toils hard and in return reaps sorrow and pain.'
If you wish to attain real happiness, you must sacrifice all worldly pleasures, all attachment for fleeting joys, and direct the whole energy of your mind towards God. The more you advance towards Him, the greater the bliss you will experience. The more your mind becomes attached to the world and to sense-enjoyments, the more you will suffer.'
'The body is decaying day by day, still man is forgetful of the real purpose of his human birth. In spite of the troubles and tribulations of life here on this earth, human birth has a unique advantage. It is only in this birth that one can realize God.'
IDEALS - SPIRITUAL AND SECULAR:
'You must have a clear conception of your life's ideal. Decide now what life you want to lead. Should it be this fleeting life of transient pleasures or the everlasting life of eternal bliss?'
'Never forget the ideal of human life. This life is not given to us to while away in eating, drinking and sleeping, in idle gossip and such other things. When you have been born as a human being, spurn all worldly enjoyments. Firmly resolve to realize God and attain infinite bliss. Flinch not, even if you die in the attempt.'
'Struggle sincerely then towards the ideal of life, so long as you have strength of body and mind. By no means should you relax your efforts, saying that you will realize the ideal later or that it will be possible only through God's grace. It is idlers alone that talk in this way.'
'The ideal must never be lowered. God is the only ideal - God, who is smaller that an atom and bigger than the solar system; He who shines forth everywhere, at all times and in all beings, in you and in me; differing only in manifestation, greater or smaller. He is the paramatman that pervades the entire entire universe. Nothing is superior to Him. Make Him your ideal, Him and Him alone. Try a little, and you will realize what an inexhaustible fount of joy He is! The world - you have had enough experience of it! Now try the other side - seek God.'
