Sarada Devi (1853 – 1920)
Born Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya, was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal.
The world is going on because not all can be free of desires. People with desires are born again and again.
Realization of God cannot be achieved without ecstatic love for Him.
When God first created man, He endowed him with the spirit of goodness. As a result, men were born with wisdom …. they took the Name of God and …. were liberated from the bonds of life. God thought, 'This will not do….In the end…..He mingled in profuse quantities of the spirit of materialism and that of vanity. Now the game of life went on with a swing!
Many take the name of God after receiving blows in life. But he who can offer his mind like a flower at the feet of the Lord right up from childhood is indeed blessed.
A person may have no relatives anywhere, but Mahamaya may make him keep a cat and thus make him worldly. This is how She plays!
We suffer as a result of our own actions; it is unfair to blame anybody for it.
One cannot escape from the effects of one's past karma. But if a person lives a prayerful life, he gets off with only the prick of a thorn in the leg where he was to suffer from a deep cut.
Why do people argue? Even the wisest of men have not found God through argument! Is God a subject for argument?
He who thinks always of the Lord, which way can evil come to him?
In one word, one should desire of God desirelessness. For desire alone is at the root of all suffering. It is the cause of repeated births and deaths. It is the obstacle in the way of liberation.
You should work, no doubt. Work saves the mind from going astray. But prayer and meditation also are necessary. You must sit for meditation at least once in the morning and once in the evening. That will be like the helm of a boat. When one sits in meditation in the evening, there is self-examination in respect of the work done in the course of the day.
Do you notice this human body? Today it is and tomorrow it is not. And the world is full of misery and pain. Why should one be eager to have another birth? The body is never free from its attendant troubles.
An unmarried person is half free whether he prays to God or not. He will advance towards Him with rapid strides when he feel a little drawn towards Him.
The world is the Lord's. He created it for His own play. We are mere pawns in His game. Wherever He keeps us and in whatever way He does so, we have to abide by it contentedly.
Is faith so cheap, my child? Faith is the last word. If one has faith, the goal is practically reached.
No doubt, God alone has become all these objects, animate and inanimate, but in the relative world all beings act and suffer according to their past Karma and innate tendencies.
If you do not pray to God, what is that to Him? It is only your misfortune.
Everything depends on the mind. Nothing can be achieved without purity of mind. It is said, "The aspirant may have received the grace of the guru, the Lord and the Vaishnavas; but he comes to grief without the grace of 'one' ". That 'one' is the mind. The mind of the aspirant should be gracious to him.
Don't puzzle the mind with too many inquiries. One finds it difficult to put one single thing into practising, but dares invite distraction by filling the mind with too many things.
You can practise pranayama a little, but not much, otherwise the brain will get heated. If the mind becomes calm of itself, what is then the necessity of practising pranayama? The practise of pranayama and asana often brings occult powers, and occult powers lead one astray.