TEACHINGS OF SRI SARADA DEVI

CHAPTER-V:  SELF-EFFORT AND DIVINE GRACE

11. "Prayer and meditation, or pilgrimage, or even earning money, all these should be done during the earlier part of one's life. ... In old age one's physical and mental strength are weakened. Is that the time for any struggle? Look at

Sri Sarada Devi

our boys here now, they have turned their minds to God in their youth. This is right, this is the proper time. My son, your prayers and meditations must be accomplished now, in your youth. Do you think you will be able to do anything later? Whatever you may want to do, this is the time for it."

12. Disciple: "It is my desire to spend some time in spiritual exercises in the solitude of a garden."

Mother: "Quite right. This is the proper time to do so. This is just the proper age for you to undergo these disciplines. You must practise them, but be careful about your food. Swami Yogananda practised great austerity and as a result suffered much and passed away early in life.

13. "The room may contain different kinds of food-stuff, but one must cook them. He who cooks earlier gets his meal earlier too. Some eat in the morning, some others in the evening, and there are yet others who fast because they are too lazy to cook. . .. The more intensely a person practises spiritual disciplines, the more quickly he attains God. But even if he does not practise any spiritual disciplines, he will attain Him in the end surely he will. Only, he who spends his time idly, without practising prayer and meditation, will take a long time to attain Him."

14. "Everything, no doubt, happens by God's will, yet man must work because God expresses His will through man's action. Do not relax your spiritual practices."

15. Disciple: "Mother, how can I have a perfectly pure heart and love for God?"

Mother: "All in good time. Now that you have taken refuge with the Master, everything will come to pass. You must pray to the Master."

16. Advice to a discouraged aspirant: "You must not think in this way. Are visions everyday things? The Master used to say, 'You may cast your line daily, but can you catch a large fish every day? If you wait intently day after day with all your paraphernalia, you may catch a fish some day, or you may not. But don't give up waiting.' Pray longer. ... Cling to what you have found. Say to yourself, 'Even if I have no one else, I have a Mother.' "

17. Disciple: "Mother, why do I not see the Master?"

Mother: "Continue to pray without losing heart. Everything will happen in time. See how quite a number of munis and rishis could not find Him even after ages of searching, and you want to have Him for the mere asking! ... Is God-vision such an easy thing? But fortunately the Master has chalked out an easier path this time; therefore it will be possible for all to realize God."

18. When a disciple complained about making no spiritual progress, the Mother said to him, "Suppose you are asleep in Calcutta and someone is removing you with your couch to Banaras. Will you at that time know that you are on your way to Banaras? When you wake up  you will be surprised to see where you have come."

19. Mother: "One has to sit by the riverside and call on Him. He will ferry across at the proper time."

Disciple: "If everything occurs at the proper time, then where is the place for His grace?"

Mother: "Even so, don't you have to throw your line and wait for the fish when you go angling?"

20. Disciple: "If God is our own, why then should one sit and wait?"

Mother: "That is true. It may happen even out of season."

SOURCE: saradadevi.info/THM