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Bhakti, Free e-books, Sacred texts, Satsangs, Swami Ramdas, Yoga
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
Indeed Sri Ram is the sole doer. His Divine Shakti is alone responsible for all activity, movement and change in this universe of name and form. So the ego sense is utterly false. Complete surrender to the Divine Will or Shakti brings about our identification in spirit with the changeless and immortal Truth. Bhakti is the beginning; Bhakti is the end. In the middle, there is Jnana which gives us the knowledge of immortality, of our oneness with God. Bhakti leads to Jnana; but even afterwards, Bhakti continues, elevated, enlarged and enlightened. It gives us the universal vision of God. God is the friend of all creatures. He is all-loving and all-merciful. He is our master and mother. We are His servants and children. We can be His true servants and children, ever fearless and always blissful, only when we have realised, through love, our oneness with Him, Him who is within and without, and everywhere.
Ramdas4-7-1928 [p. 13*]
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M. B. S. R. – Bangalore
Beloved Ram,
Bhakti is the beginning; Bhakti is the end. Bhakti is the way; Bhakti is the goal. Jnana and Karma are only necessary props on which is hoisted the majestic dome of Bhakti. God says, “I am the same to all beings but My devotees are dear to Me”. So, true devotion is based on the equality of vision. Samadarshan gives knowledge and peace. Bhakti gives pure love and Premanand. Knowledge enlightens and upholds; devotion yields thrills of joy and ecstasy. The two combined make Purna Yoga. Behold God as all, and still be His child and servant. You are at once He and His child. God is His own devotee. He is a mystery, but a revealed mystery – revealed in love and joy.
To be ever singing His name and glories is to be in tune with Him. Beloved Ram is captured within our heart. “Where can You go, O Beloved? Thou art always in Thy child.”
Surrender to Him, and He looks after you, plans and arranges everything for the best for you. He is the all-loving Divine Mother.
The Ashram is always ringing with Bhajan. Hundreds of Rams come here every day. O Ram, all glory to Thy name!
Don’t give up evening Bhajan. All of you join in it. More and more of Nam Sankirtan or Smaran together! Let the Name ring, and ring on, to awaken in the hearts of you all, the inexpressible bliss of Prem.
Love to you all!
Ramdas 7-7-1928 [p. 15*]
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P. S. R – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
The only prayer of a Bhakta to God is made in this strain: “O God, keep Thy sweet name always on my lips; may my heart be ever filled with Thy Prem!” To love Him with all our heart is the supreme joy of this life. Let us exclaim with rapture, “O Sri Ram, Thou art mine, and I am Thine, for ever and for ever.”
Nowadays, Ramdas can scarcely stand on his legs without his starting on a dance. Sri Ram’s Prem is tingling in every vein of his body; and Ramdas dances, lost in ecstasy. The mere sound of His name sends thrills of joy through Ramdas. Sri Ram is “Prem’.
[…] Your kind and loving letter to hand. You are He. You are He. Ramdas and Ram are one, not two. So, Ramdas is in the hearts of all. All hearts are His. Ramdas dwells in Him. O, the mystery of mysteries! Thou art all and Thou art One.
Ramdas 14-7-1928 [p. 16*]
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P. S. R. – Nasik
Beloved Ram,
Truly, unquenchable faith in and love for God is the only object of our life. Let us pray to Him to grant us His unbroken remembrance. To fulfil this prayer, He brings about such changes in our life as to enable us to be in touch with Him always. Here He proves to us that He is infinitely kind. Verily, He is kindness and love itself.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 17*]
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
It is He who gives us every situation and every change. He knows what is good for us. His main object is to draw us towards Him. He brings about all the incidents in our life to fulfil this purpose of His. Our attachment to the ever-changing and perishable forms about us is the cause of our misery. We ignore the fact that whatever is born must die. Let us ask ourselves, “Is it then worthwhile to be attached to the inconstant and transient things?” The Eternal has no death, and the perishable cannot escape dissolution. Then why grieve over the dead! Let us not forget that we came alone into the world and that we shall depart also alone from it. We never bring with us our vaunted wealth and our relations, and when we give up this earthly life, we take them not with us either. God is the beginning; God is the end. Let us realise God also in the middle state in which we are. The question naturally arises, “Why this life at all?” It is intended solely for striving to reach Him, and for transforming, in that striving, all our trials and sufferings into joy by the touch of our single-hearted devotion to Him. When we are on this path of devotion, it is truly a joy to live in whatever position God places us. Hence it is that Bhaktas did not desire for a complete absorption in God, i.e., Moksha, but prayed to Him to grant them as many lives or births as He willed, provided He made them live for His love alone. Then again the question, “Why should He have left so many beings in utter ignorance of His love and the resulting bliss?” His Maya is mysterious. To probe deeper into the question brings to light the subtlest truth that He alone is the sole actor behind this variegated and multiple veil of Maya. He, the Supreme One, pretends to be all, in their varied masks, nature and activity. Whatever it is, ours is not to puzzle our puny intellect with the questions. We know that He is pure love, and that our salvation lies in our complete submission to Him. Let us be His ignorant children, ever basking in the rays of His unbounded love and grace. He is dwelling in our hearts always.
Ramdas 27-7-1928 [p. 22*]
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B.M. – Mohol
Beloved Ram,
When the Name begins to work in the mind, automatically peace settles upon it. All actions proceeding from this calm state of mind become naturally pure and therefore beneficent. A constant watch upon our actions is still necessary, lest we might do such acts as would throw us into forgetfulness of God. Let us not fret over situations that God has given us….. It is a mistake to think that by mere change of situation or activity we can attain to peace. Ramdas, by His will, now stays in a newly built Ashram, called “Anandashram”. As usual, Ramdas is swimming in a veritable ocean of love and joy. His kindness and love are boundless.
Ramdas 29-7-1928 [p. 24*]
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K. G. P. – Puttur
Beloved Ram,
The Lord is Infinite Love. Our body is the temple. Our heart is the throne. And He, the supreme Paramatman, is seated on this throne in all His magnificence and glory. His Divine Power or Shakti is responsible for all activity, movement and change in the universe.
Sages point out surrender to God’s will, i.e., to His Power or Shakti, as the path of Self-realisation. This surrender is effected only by the total eradication of the ego. Let us know once for all that we are merely instruments in His hands. He is the Sutradhari and we are every second being made to dance like puppets to His will. Consciousness of this truth must be with us always. Hence we are asked to keep up His remembrance unceasingly. Earthly honour and dishonour, praise and blame, loss and gain, should have no importance for us. Ours is to do the work entrusted to us by Him in the field of action in which He has chosen to place us.
Bhakta is He; Bhagawan is He. As Bhakta, He pretends to be different from Himself; though Bhagawan, He pretends to be seeking Himself. Wonderful is His Lila!
Let us give up all doubts, fears and anxieties, and merge our mind in the sweet sound of His glorious name. Let us sing, with all love and devotion, His great attributes. He is our Mother. We are His children. He is our all in all. Life is sweet and blessed when it is lived for His sake. There is nothing so blissful as devotion to His lotus feet. All glory to Him and His name.
Ramdas 1-8-1928 [p. 26*]
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
Whatever you do is done by Prakriti, with ego-sense or without it. So, external renunciation of work, in which God has engaged us, is not necessary. No action by itself is sinful. No field of work is undesirable. Our ignorance, the cause of misery, consists in our thinking “I”, the individual, as the doer of work. No change of situation can bring us peace and rest unless, simultaneously with the change, the ego-sense of actorship also vanishes away.
You simply play the part that Prakriti has set for you. Play it out as Her work. When She chooses to change the game, you slip naturally into the change. You have no right to judge if the work She has put you to, is proper or improper, right or wrong. No discarding it! It is simply Her work and you do it. So with all your physical, vocal and mental functions. They are all Hers. No sin, no merit; it is all He and She. Narada, in his Bhakti Sutra, gives the true nature of Bhakti in practical life. He says, he is a Bhakta who always remembers God and surrenders all his actions to Him.
Ramdas 27-8-1928 [p. 41*]
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P. S. S. R. – Ahmedabad
Beloved Ram,
May Sri Ram bless you all!
“Courage, brother, do not stumble,
Though thy path be dark as night.
There is a star to guide the humble.
Trust in God and do the right.”
Our goal here is to seek rest in activity. In the rush of movement and work, find the haven of peace and joy. Identifying yourself with the Immortal, do all work as His worship, as His service. This is Yoga. Shrink not. Faint not. Trust the Almighty Lord of the worlds. He is in you; you are in Him; He and you are one. Whatever work God provides you, do it dispassionately – yourself, a mere instrument, with God’s power or Shakti as the doer. God is love; He is in your heart. Surrender to Him. Let Him be your guide and master in all matters. Give up doubts, cares and fears.
Love to you and all.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 46*]
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M. B. S. R. – Bangalore
Beloved Ram,
There is nothing to lose or gain in this life. We are ever dwelling in the consciousness of God. Our satisfactions or the reverse, relating to the perishable, are all ephemeral. The real is He, the immortal bliss and peace; and we are all He. Anandashram sees Ramdas dancing and playing in it like a child. No rules and no systems. Sri Ram has kept Ramdas under His law, which is a lawless law, which is joy – always joy. Love to you all.
Ramdas 23-9-1928 [p. 48*]
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G. P. B. – Orai
Beloved Ram,
Your letter gives a brief but masterly survey of the situation in which God has placed you at present. It is well that our intellect clearly perceives the issues and determines the possible avenues of approach to the solution of the tangled problem. But there is a limit to the mere calculation of the intellect. We can truly say of it, “Thus far thou shalt go, and no further”. Often our scientific methods, our deep laid plans, and our nicely worked out theories – all go to the winds, swept off by a power beyond our ken, which acts in its own inscrutable ways. Let us not reckon without the host. God is our guide. God is the motive power that drives us to action. What the intellect rejects as impossible is indeed possible in the divine dispensation. When He chooses, He works miracles and wonders, at which the acute scientist and the exact theorist stand aghast. And then it is, they flounder into the inexorable truth. What insignificant and erring mortals we are!
Let us humble ourselves before the Almighty Lord of the worlds, and pray to Him to use us as He wills, for the service of humanity. Such an occasion He has created for you. Be a mere instrument. Give up anxiety, fear and doubt. Let His divine energy work in you in its full and irresistible course.
The ideal you are seeking is within you. The perfected harmony and the ineffable peace are within you. The infinite power of God is within you. The eternal purity, wisdom and joy are within you. Be fixed up in the sublime Yoga, union with the great Ideal, and bring a divine touch to bear upon all your activities. The supreme fiat of Sri Krishna has gone forth: “To action you have the right, but not to the fruit thereof. Therefore fight.” So be it with you! May Sri Ram bless you! Love to you all.
Ramdas 26-9-1928 [p. 51*]
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
Reason and emotion are surely great aids; but we should remember that they are only means to an end. When they have served their purpose, if we still cling to them they prove as serious a hindrance as ignorance and callousness, to the attainment of the final liberation. Self-surrender means realising that our activity belongs to Shakti or Prakriti, and that we are the eternal, unaffected, immutable, blissful, peaceful Witness. Reason is not there to judge actions as right or wrong; and emotion that creates likes and dislikes has there no part to play. An action is only a movement of Prakriti, bereft of Gunas and Dwandwas. There is nothing to condemn, nothing to extol; all is the work of Shakti or Ishwara Lila.
So, beloved Ram, in Spirit you are immortal, in form you are changing. As former you are free, undefiled and changeless, a blissful witness of the passing phenomena of name and form. This phenomena is your own play. You dwell in all and you appear as all. You are both with form and without form. You are the watcher of your own Lila. The pleasure and pain belong to the passing appearance; but as the unchanging Atman you are the very essence of immortal bliss.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 52*]
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J. E. K. – Aden
Beloved Ram,
The prompter of action is He; the doer also is He. It is He in movement, as also in rest. There is none but He. …..God’s name is most powerful. It dispels ignorance and gives knowledge. It breaks bondage and brings freedom. It destroys sorrow and yields bliss. The knowledge, freedom and bliss we realise are eternal. God is our father, mother, master, friend and all. …..When our longing to realise Him is intense, He comes to our rescue, without any doubt. He is the friend of the meek.
Take heart, beloved Ram. It is His will that you are what you are, and where you are. Submit to His will and be peaceful and cheerful.
Ramdas 2-10-1928 [p. 53*]
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
Your letters are always brilliant. They offer a beautiful commentary upon the words of Arjuna in the discourse between him and Sri Krishna. Arjuna was confronted with a problem similar to the one you are facing. The same reply briefly explained will suit the present purpose.
Arjuna, disgusted with the action he was engaged in, proposes to renounce it. But the Lord says, “Not so. Exchange of activity or inactivity or, for that matter, even substitution of one kind of activity for another kind is not the remedy.” As regards inactivity, the Lord declares, “This is impossible, because Prakriti is always at work. Even for the support of the body, some sort of activity is absolutely necessary.” Now a change in the form of activity is no solution, so long as one’s mentality remains unchanged; for, action in itself, whatever it is, is neither good nor evil. When the mind is free from the dual throng born of ignorance or Maya, no activity can fetter it, in whatever light ignorance may view it. So change of activity is not at all necessary. What is required is the renunciation of attachment from the mind.
Prakriti will force you to fight. So, fight you must. But, be in tune with the stainless Purusha and let Shakti or Para-Prakriti handle you as Her tool to do Her work. Then you act as though you do not act. As Purusha, the witness, you are non-doer, and as Prakriti or Shakti, you are the doer. “Behold action in inaction, and inaction in action.”
It is entirely true that, even after his realisation of Truth, a man may continue in the same vocation or form of activity as the one in which he was engaged previous to it. Then why seek or wish for an external change? It may come spontaneously by His will, or it may not. He knows best. All action, in whatever field, is the outcome of His Shakti. Let us realise that we live from moment to moment in the blissful union with Him, His Shakti doing all things in us and through us. He is the peace of our soul, the joy of our being. Every movement of ours is a thrill of His love and joy.
Your prayer has a crystalline ring of truth about it. You have been always an instrument in His hands, whether you know it or not. Know, now, once for all, that you have been so, and that at all times you will be so. Love and Namaskars to yourself.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 54-55*]
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U.S.R. – Bombay
Beloved Ram,
Your letters are bubbling with Prem. Indeed every movement of our mind in thought, of our tongue in words, of our limbs in activity, is the play of Shakti. Shakti is nothing but God’s love. When we realise that all movement is a play of that supreme Love, we live continuously in a state of divine ecstasy, which is simply inexpressible. Prem fills us through and through. We are saturated with it. The quality of Prem is Anand. There is also the witness of this play of love or Shakti, namely the immutable, changeless, all-pervading, static aspect of our being, whose quality is ineffable peace. On this unaffected screen of Eternal Peace, dances, in flitting forms, Infinite Love producing the sweet intoxicating music of Anand.
Every particle of our body –as the whole universe– is thrilling with Sri Ram’s love. So there is nothing but Anand in all movement, change and activity. There is nothing but peace in the depths of all forms, the result of movement and change. So eternal peace-and-bliss is the only Reality.
The parcel of postcards and envelopes is also received. How kind
of you!
P. Sanjiv Rao is with us now. Indeed Prem comes to the Ashram in so many forms. Anand is added to Anand. It is like adding infinity to infinity.
Love and Namaskars to yourself.
Ramdas 10-10-1928 [p. 58*]
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M. B. S. R. – Bangalore
Beloved Ram,
When the Lord of the universe, Sri Ram, is dwelling ever in our hearts, how can we dare to call ourselves ”sinners”? It is all He, and His Shakti, which is the cause of all activity in the worlds and in us. We are merely instruments. We are what we are because He alone has made us so. We do as we do, because He wants us to act as we do, in all matters. He says, “I am seated in the hearts of all beings and things and by My power I make the entire wheel of the universal Lila revolve.” The ego is false. It is He everywhere, and in everybody.
Being enthroned as He is in our hearts, His grace is ever upon us. Sin and virtue, good and evil, are all mind-made. All activity in the universe belongs to His Divine Shakti, which is neither the one nor the other.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 60*]
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P. N. R. – Puttur
Beloved Ram,
The ego or ignorance is utterly unreal. It is He, in separation, in union, in oneness. There is none but He. Co-existing with this immortal, immutable, unaffected and unattached witness, there is the universal, mutable aspect of God, manifested as the innumerable universes and all creatures and things in them. …..The calm, changeless Spirit witnesses the play of this Shakti or Power in manifestation. So, all movement, activity and work in the universe belong to this divine Shakti. The nature of Shakti is pure love and Anand. Her movements are only for the fulfilment of unity, harmony, love and Anand. The notion that I am the doer is a pure myth; the ego sense itself is a fabrication. Identification with the eternal witness, giving rise to knowledge, sublimates the unreal ego into the Divine Essence.
This is Moksha or liberation. It is not a state attained but realised, because we are always Mukta or free. There is nothing good, nothing bad. All, all is His doing. Let us rise above these harassing pairs of opposites. What does it matter whether the world blames or praises us? What is honour to us who are above them? These all pass away with the passing away of all things, and are cast into oblivion. Beloved Ram, give up anxiety and worry. The whole burden of the universe is on Him. Take it that yours also is on Him. All along, it has been nowhere else. It is He who guides, controls, protects us. Surrender completely to Him. Know, His will is done in all matters. He is all merciful and loving. He is the sole parent of the universe. We are His children. Since He is dwelling in our hearts, we are not sinners and have no cause to be unhappy and miserable. We are ever in blissful union with Him. All else is a passing show. May Sri Ram bless you with peace!
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 61*]
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P. S. S. R. – Calcutta
Beloved Ram,
It is perfectly true that Sri Ram’s gigantic Lila is wonderfully humorous. To look upon the whole thing as Lila, we must stand apart from it, identifying ourselves with the immutable, Eternal Witness, who is unaffected by, and unattached to, what is going on. All movement in the universe, i.e. all activity, motion and work, belong to God’s Will or Shakti. The individualities, I, you, and he, are all myths. It is all God’s will or Shakti. Identifying ourselves with the calm, equal, ineffable, all-pervading Spirit, the Witness, we rise above pleasure and pain, success and failure, gain or loss, praise and blame, honour and dishonour, like and dislike, etc., and look upon the world as play. There is nothing to be miserable or anxious about here. It is all the play of God’s power. We are merely Her instruments; and She uses us as She wills. No activity is then distasteful to us. In the depths of our being, we are ever fixed in absolute peace. We only look and watch unperturbed over our and others’ actions and movements determined by God’s Will, which has become our will. Actions do not, then, leave a stain or impression behind; they are spontaneous; there is no seeking for the result. And there does not exist even the pride of actorship.
Little Gurudutta is a little Ram, as you all are Rams. It is the divine Shakti that causes all his activity, which you call his mischief. His mischief reminds Ramdas of Krishna’s mischief. Take it, the child is a genius, God’s instrument. May He bless him! Love to you all.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 62*]
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P. S. R. – Ernakulam
Beloved Ram,
Indeed the world is the manifestation of God, His love-form, His bliss-form. Union with Shakti through love is Bhakti. Identification with Purusha or Shiva is Jnana. Surrender to Shakti in action is Karma. The first and the last make for Anand, and the intervening one for peace. Accomplishment of any one of these leads to the attainment of the other two. He who has realised in himself the balance of all the three, is a perfect Yogi.
Bhakti without Jnana is either an imitation or an unsteady wave of passing emotion. Jnana without Bhakti is a tasteless and conceited thing. Jnana or Bhakti, without Karma, is a spiritually magnified selfishness.
Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, combined together, like the sherbet made in the Ashram (of water, lemon and sugar mixed together), produce the perfect and sweetest nectar of immortality. Your short stay in the Anandashram has left upon it a permanent impression of your presence. Divine love indeed is wonderfully impressive! Love and Namaskars to yourself.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 63*]
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M. G. B. – Bombay
Beloved Mother,
May Sri Ram bless you all. Your loving letter to hand. Immortal joy and peace, purity and love – is ever dwelling within your heart, Oh mother. That is the imperishable Swarup of your Gopal. So, he resides ever in you and with you. In spirit we are ever one with our Beloved. Forms and bodies that are seen only by the mortal eyes are all transient and perishable. Your body and all bodies, just as Gopal’s assumed body, are bound to disappear in due time.
Knowing this truth, let us give up attachment to the mere physical, changing forms of the one immortal Spirit.
Your Gopal is alive in God, is one with God. That you are separate from him is ignorance. Physical bodies are of no account. In their very nature, they are perishable. To feel separation due to the destruction of the body is utter folly. Let us realise we are the immortal Atman, ever one with our Beloved. Death cannot separate us. We are the heirs of immortal joy and peace. Why forget this and be miserable for no reason at all? Oh mother, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti!
May Sri Ram grant peace to your soul. Take heart, mother. God-Gopal is always with you. Love and Namaskars to yourself.
Ever your child
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 66*]
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Sri Shanti Vijayji, Mount Abu
Beloved Ram,
Dandawats at your holy feet.
Your love for your child, Ramdas, is indeed unlimited. You are Ramdas’ Divine Lord and Mother at once. For His wonderful Lila, the Absolute One has become Himself the Bhagawan and Bhakta, Guru and Chela, Lord and servant, and Mother and child. This assumption of duality, in eternal union and oneness of the two, is due to His will to enjoy Premanandam. In truth, all, all is He. The one chooses to be many. The one manifests as many. His infinite Prem and Anand are in His manifestation. In the form of Bhakta, He merges Himself in this boundless ocean of bliss and love. The multitudinous forms, beings, creatures and things in the universe are all He in His Self-expression, Self-revealment. Out of pure love, the mother brings forth the child, the expression of her love. The child is the flesh of her flesh, being of her being. Still there are two, the mother and the child, one and yet two. It is the one Atman, one Truth, that is both, at play, enjoying the bliss of immortal love. O, Lord of the worlds, wonderful is Thy Lila!
In the heart of child Ramdas, is seated the God of gods, the highest Truth, the transcendent Reality. The universe we behold is a mere speck in the infinite vastness of His Existence. He is purer than the purest, greater than the greatest, light of all lights, the inexpressible, grandest Truth. Child Ramdas is He, and everything that is, and is not, is He.
Your ever loving child and servant,
Ramdas 1-11-1928 [p. 68*]
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B.G. – Konch
Beloved Ram,
Constant repetition of God’s sacred name gives us the inner sight. That is the path. Firm faith and continuous practice are what is wanted. Having these, the progress is easy and the goal is near.
Sing on His name, until the mind is filled with the sound of it, until the divine consciousness dawns upon you, until the latent springs of joy, love and peace have become manifest in you. The supreme truth awaits unfoldment in you; remove the barriers, the ego, ignorance and desires. Know, you are the imperishable Reality, the immortal Spirit, the deathless Existence. Sin, sorrow and fear cannot touch you. You are the ever-pure, the ever-shining, the ever-glorious Truth. You are Eternal Bliss, Love and Peace.
Ramdas – -1928 [p. 72*]
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A. B. – Srinagar
Beloved Ram,
May Sri Ram bless you all. Your loving and pathetic letter to hand. Don’t be sorry, beloved Ram, that Ram could not make it convenient for you to visit Anandashram this time. Ram does everything for the best. It may be His will that you come here next time with family. May He grant you this opportunity and fulfil your ardent desire. Certainly, submission to His will at all times means patience, contentment and peace.
Let us not forget the truth that we are merely instruments in His hands, and that He alone determines all things for us. We have absolutely no reason to regret or feel disappointed over any happening. His will be done in all matters!
Ramdas looks upon your reference to “money” in your first letter as only belonging to the great play of Ram. He acts in various ways. There is nothing to be surprised at, or grieved at, in His doings. Truly, you are all He. All glory to Him. Om. Om. Om.
Love and Namaskars to yourself,
Ramdas 24-12-1928 [p. 73*]
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R. G. N. – Bombay
Beloved Ram,
Your loving letter simply breathes the sweet perfume of divine love. When you extol Ramdas you are only becoming conscious of the ideal of love seated in your own heart. What a grand and exalted vision you ought to possess to behold in Ramdas such a pure and perfect ideal! Blessed are you! Verily, perfection is with you, and everywhere. Whatever you see, it is the image of that great and all-perfect Truth. You are not a whit less than P., A., J. and others. All of you are He.
Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 74*]
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M. K. S. – Wadhwan
Beloved Ram,
Your letters are always sweetened with the nectar of divine love. When such pure love lightens your heart, where is the lack of strength and joy? The fount of immortal bliss is ever within you; you are that itself. Our real being is, indeed, an illuminated mass of eternal splendour and delight. Even as the waves are not different from the ocean, so the Lila or the manifestation, is only a series of vast movements of the Eternal Anandam which is at the base, heart and core of all things in the universe.
Behold in all movements of your mind and in all activities of your body nothing but the play of Anand.
Joy and grief, pain and loss, success and failure, virtue and sin are all mind-made. Supreme, everlasting joy is the only Reality. Realise that you are the blissful Atman – motion in external work, rest in the inner calmness of the Spirit. The Atman is the cosmic soul and your action belongs to the cosmic activity. Your physical body is but an instrument of the Divine. Let His power work through you, as He wills, unhampered by the ego-sense. Yours is to enjoy immortal joy, by complete surrender. Doubt not, fear not, worry not. Realise that He and His infinite power within you guide you, control you, and actuate you to do all things at all times. Rise above the conditioned conception of things, i.e., rise above the Gunas and Dwandwas.
First be the witness of your own and the world’s actions. Then identify yourself with Him who is both the witness and the world-actor.
Repetition of the holy Mantram purifies the mind. Satsang elevates you and grants you the right knowledge. Last comes Gurukripa; the awareness of it makes you realise that you are the embodiment of an eternal existence full of bliss and peace.
Ramdas has no command to leave Anandashram.
Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 75*]
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M. M. G. – Puttur
Beloved Ram,
Ours is not to make other people rich and wise, but become wise ourselves, by serving humanity with all love and humility. Pray to God that you may be pure, noble and good.
Ramdas 11-1-1929 [p. 76*]
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J. – Rawalpindi
Beloved Ram,
When the Lord of the universe is seated in our hearts, we have no reason to think that we are mean, sinful and despicable. It is His power, within and without us, that is the cause of all activity. Let us always recognise this truth and attain peace by perfect communion with Him, the Master of our existence, who is eternal bliss, peace, power and light.
Teach little Ramu that Ram is in his heart. He need not go in search of Him anywhere. May God bless him!
Ramdas 12-1-1929 [p. 77*]
(70)
A. B. – Jammu
Beloved Ram,
Your letters are always sweet, sweetened by your selfless love for this child of God – a God, who dwells in the hearts of us all, who is pure love and joy. He is within you – He is yourself – this is the truth! Ramdas’ stay with you in Kashmir was really a continued feast of love. Ram does not yet bid Ramdas to quit Anandashram. He seems to have fixed up Ramdas once for all. Never mind; he is ever with you. In bodies we are separate, but in Atman we are eternally united and one. How kind of Radhenath to remember Ramdas so much! How could Ramdas forget? The touch of Prem is indeed eternal.
Ramdas 30-1-1929 [p. 81*]
(71)
M. G. B. – Bombay
Beloved Mother,
May Sri Ram bless you all!
Your loving but sorrowful letter to hand. Ramdas has been all along speaking and writing to you on spiritual things, from his own experience of this life.
Ramdas is entirely in the hands of God. God alone is his great Teacher.
Based upon Ramdas’ experience, through which God made him pass, he is giving briefly in this letter, what should be our true outlook upon life.
The world with all beings and things in it is evanescent, and God alone is real, eternal and unchanging. All forms have a beginning and an end. Whatever is born is bound to perish and pass away. The sense of misery here is due to our attachment to the perishable forms. Our goal of life is to realise God, i.e., our immortality. In order to do that, we have to withdraw our mind from whatever is seen, which is transient, and direct it to Him –who is within us and pervades the entire universe– the one absolute Existence, the sole Reality. When the mind transcends name and form, it attains the vision of the Supreme. The joys and griefs relating to the external world are caused by the workings of the mind. Stop the restlessness of the mind, and the joys and griefs both cease to be, and are thereby proved to be entirely unreal. And a calmness settles upon the mind which is of the Eternal, of the Truth of our being. Hence, to lament over the loss of anything here is utter folly; only that which is by nature perishable has passed away. Behold, the whole universe is a huge passing show. In it, innumerable forms appear and disappear at every moment. This is the nature and order of all things. So instead of allowing ourselves to be upset by the change in the transient, let us strive to fix our mind upon the deathless, formless, eternal Truth. This is done only by stilling the mind – by the quieting of all waves of thought that trouble it. The path is the repetition of God’s name and meditation, and the surrender of all our actions to God.
We can realise fully the transitory and illusory nature of the world only when we have turned our mind to God. Then, taking our stand on the immortal, let us view the vast and changing play of the universe and remain unaffected by it. This is liberation.
There is no reason whatever to be miserable. We make ourselves miserable owing to our ignorance. Ignorance can go only when we approach God and surrender ourselves to Him. Then we discover we are unhappy for nothing at all, and that there is no more for us to be miserable for, hereafter. We are then ever peaceful and resigned.
This life is a splendid gift from God. It is not meant to be wasted away and torn to shreds by our dwelling upon unreal sorrows. God is indeed kind and all-loving. There is absolutely no doubt about this. Else, why should He give us blows and shocks in the shape of losses and calamities that wake us up from the dream of a fool’s paradise to the great Reality?
How can we know that He is all kindness and love, if He did not make us pass through trials and tribulations, so as to bring us face to face with Him – the only Truth? He teaches that He alone is real and that we must live for Him and Him alone, Him whom we can never really afford to lose at any time. Is it a wonder then that Kunti, mother of the Pandavas, prayed to Sri Krishna for difficulties? She knew she could attain Krishna only by remembering Him when beset with difficulties. Blessed are we, when God, in His mercy, sends us calamities unasked, with a view to lead us to Him. He is indeed kindness and love.
We may live for thousands of years, for the matter of that we may live thousands of lives, and obtain whatever we desire of the world; but never shall we be happy as long as our hunger for earthly things persists. Complete repose once for all, on the bosom of the infinite God, can alone grant us the true and everlasting peace, freedom and joy.
So Ramdas prays to you, beloved mother, give up your unreasonable sorrow by turning your mind to the Divine Master of our being and of the universe. Serve Him in all humility, in any sphere of activity in which He might place you. Don’t be crushed down by grief which is unreal and false; rise superior to it.
Make God –call Him by any name you like– the goal and purpose of your existence. Nothing short of this is worth any the least consideration and thought, O mother. Why throw away a precious life? Dedicate it to God and His service as Mirabai did. Love Him in all. Serve Him in all. And make yourself blessed, pure and peaceful. May God bless you!
Now a word about Bhakti obtaining in these days. Some of us cling only to the dead forms of it, simply because they are handed down to us by our forefathers, without understanding their right significance. When we perform worship according to these forms, we either do not know why we do it, or are actuated by the desire to obtain some worldly object. This kind of Bhakti can bring us no solace in our moments of grief. Real peace can be ours only when we have offered ourselves up entirely to God, and then do everything for His sake and pray to Him constantly for nothing but,
“To lead us from the unreal to the real;
From darkness to light,
And from death to immortality.”
God is kind. He teaches us through our experience that desires are our enemies and sense-objects are wombs of misery. Still we crave for them and suffer. Whose fault? Ours only. Why then blame God? We want lasting happiness by the enjoyment of things which are in their very nature incapable of yielding us such happiness!
God is patiently waiting for His children to turn to Him with a longing to be with Him only. When we do so, He at once takes us in His arms and blesses us with immortal happiness, a happiness not dependent upon perishable objects but upon Him – who ever dwells in our hearts – the eternal Reality. True Bhakti is, therefore, Nishkama Bhakti; any other form of it, however faithfully practised, cannot save us.
Truly, Pitaji is a pure saint. When you write to him next, kindly convey to him Ramdas’ love and Namaskars.
Love to you and all there,
Your child,
Ramdas 2-2-1929
P.S. Mother Rukmabai is in the Ashram and sends you her love and Namaskars.
[p. 82-85*]
*From Letters of Swami Ramdas,Volume 1
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