TEACHINGS OF SRI SARADA DEVI

CHAPTER-2: THE SPIRIT OF DISPASSION [PART-II]

SRI SARADA DEVI

11. Referring to a man who criticized those who renounce the world, Mother said, "My child, men such as these are deeply drowned in the world. They never acquire love for God. They simply carry on, 'coming into the world, suffering the calamities therein, and going away from it' again and again. If after doing so many a time, the Lord has mercy on them in some birth, they will attain liberation

12. "How little intelligence does a man possess! He may require one thing, but asks for another. He starts to mould an image of Shiva and often ends by making that of a monkey. It is best therefore to surrender all desires at the feet of God. He will do whatever is best for us. But one may pray for devotion and detachment. These cannot be classed as desires."

13. "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.

14. "There is no happiness while living in this body. The world is full of sorrow. Happiness is only an empty word. Only those who have received the grace of the Master can recognize him as God, and that is their real joy."

15. "What is there in this world? Tell me what is good in this life? That was why in the end the Master took only bitter things. I would try to give him sandesh and he would say, 'What is there in sandesh? It is just the same as clay.'

16. "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."   

                                                  

17. "However spiritual a man may be, he must pay the tax for the use of the body to the last farthing (i.e. undergo suffering and death incidental to the embodied state). But the difference between a great soul and an ordinary man is this: the latter weeps while leaving this body, whereas the former laughs. Death seems to him a mere play."

18. "Everything, husband, wife, or even the body, is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world. Even this attachment to the body, the identification of the self with the body, must go. What is this body, my darling? It is nothing but three pounds of ashes when it is cremated. Why so much vanity about it? However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are so attached to it. Glory be to God.

19. "The whole world is a dream; even this (the waking state) is a dream ... What you dreamt last night does not exist now. ... A farmer who had lost a son dreamt at night that he was a king and the father of eight sons. When the dream vanished, he said to his wife, 'Shall I weep for my eight sons or this one?' "

 20. "The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind.

SOURCE: www.saradadevi.info