Holy Trio

Message of Sri Ramakrishna

The message of Sri Ramakrishna to the modern world, which he gave through his life and through his recorded conversations, may be briefly stated as follows:

  • The goal of human life is the realization of the Ultimate Reality which alone can give man supreme fulfilment and everlasting peace. This is the essence of all religions.
  • The Ultimate Reality is one; but it is personal as well as impersonal and is indicated by different names (such as God, Ishvara, etc) in different religions.
  • The Ultimate Reality can be realized through various paths taught in world religions. All religions are true in so far as they lead to the same Ultimate Goal.
  • Purity of mind is an essential condition for the attainment of the Ultimate Reality; real purity is freedom from lust and greed. External observances are only of secondary importance.
  • Through spiritual practices man can overcome his evil tendencies, and divine grace can redeem even the worst sinner. Therefore, one should not brood over the past mistakes, but should develop a positive outlook on life by depending on God.

  • God realization is possible for all. The householders need not renounce the world; but they should pray sincerely, practise discrimination between the Eternal and the temporal and remain unattached. God listens to sincere prayer. Intense longing (vyakulata) is the secret of success in spiritual life.
  • God dwells in all people, but the manifestation of this inner Divinity varies from person to person. In saintly people there is greater manifestation of God. Women are special manifestations of Divine Mother of the Universe, and so are to be treated with respect.
  • Since God dwells in all people, helping the needy should be done not out of compassion (which is an attitude of condescension) but as humble service to God.
  • Egoism, caused by ignorance, is the root-cause of all suffering.
  • Life is an expression of the spontaneous creativity (Lila) of God. Pleasure and pain, success and failure, etc are to be borne with patience, and one should resign oneself to God’s will under all circumstances.

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Ma

Some Sayings of Holy Mother

  • God is one’s very own. It is an eternal relationship.
  • Ordinary human love results in misery. Love for God brings blessedness.
  • One who makes a habit of prayer will easily overcome all difficulties.
  • As wind removes the cloud, so the Name of God destroys the cloud of worldliness.
  • My child, you have been extremely fortunate in getting this human birth. Have intense devotion to God. One must work hard. Can one achieve anything without effort? You must devote some time for prayer even in the midst of the busiest hours of the day.
  • Do the Master’s work, and along with that practise spiritual disciplines too. Work helps one to keep off idle thoughts. If one is without work, such thoughts rush into one’s mind.
  • One must perform work. It is only through work that the bondage of work will be cut asunder, and one will acquire a spirit of non-attachment.
  • One should always discriminate and strive hard for the realization of God.

  • Even water, which has a natural tendency to flow downwards, is drawn up to the sky by the sun’s rays. In the same way, God’s grace lifts up the mind which has got a tendency to run after sense objects.
  • Through spiritual disciplines the ties of past karma are cut asunder. But the realization of God cannot be achieved without ecstatic love for him.
  • It is idle to expect that dangers and difficulties will not come. They are bound to come. But for a devotee they will pass away under the feet like water.
  • Can you call a person who is devoid of compassion a human being? He is a veritable beast.
  • I tell you one thing – if you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults. Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.
  • When a man sees defects in others, his own mind first gets polluted. What does he gain by finding faults in others? He only hurts himself by that.
  • All teachers are one. The same power of God works through them all.
  • I am your true mother, a mother not by virtue of being your guru’s wife, nor by way of empty talk, but truly the mother.
  • I am the mother of the virtuous as well as the wicked.
  • If my son wallows in the dust or mud, it is I who have to wipe all the dirt and take him on my lap.
  • My son, if a thorn pricks your foot, it hurts me like a spear entering my heart. Never fear, and whenever you are in distress just say to yourself, “I have a mother”

Swami Vivekananda

Selected Teachings of Swami Vivekananda

  • My ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life.
  • Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.
  • We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet.
  • So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
  • Whatever you think that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.
  • 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.
  • Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.

  • The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new Gospel.
  • Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success, and above all, love.
  • Religion is realization; not talk, not doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing, or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes.
  • Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
  • Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
  • They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
  • This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.
  • It is love and love alone that I preach, and I base my teaching on the great Vedantic truth of the sameness and omnipresence of the Soul of the Universe.

Balaram Bose

Balaram was born in December 1842, in a wealthy Vaishnava family of North Kolkata. His grandfather, Guruprasad Basu, had established a Radha-Shyam temple in his house, and because of this, that section of the city has come to be known as Shyambazar.

It was probably on 1 January 1881 that Balaram met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time. Balaram asked Sri Ramakrishna, “Does God really exist?” “Certainly, he does”, was the prompt answer. Balaram soon became one of the principal suppliers and gave generously to the Master and his disciples. Every year Balaram would celebrate the Car Festival of Lord Jagannath at his home. The Master’s presence would greatly enhance the joy of the occasion. The Master used to love visiting Balaram’s home in Kolkata. The entire household of Balaram Basu was devoted to God. Krishnabhavini, Balaram’s wife, was the sister of Swami Premananda, one of the foremost disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.

After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing, Balaram would give one rupee every day for the daily worship of Sri Ramakrishna at the Baranagore Math. He would also keep track of the food situation in the monastery.

In 1890, Balaram became a victim of an influenza epidemic in Kolkata. Before passing away, he wanted only to talk of Sri Ramakrishna, and keep the company of his all-renouncing disciples. It is said that the Master came at the final moment to take him to the Eternal Realm.