The Five Commandments of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna for Householders

7/28/2019 The Five Commandments of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna for Householders

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The five commandments of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna for

Householders

A discourse by Swami Gokulanandaji Maharaj, Secretary Sri Ramakrishna Mission, Delhi.

The topic of my talk today is the Five commandments of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa for

householders. While you have all heard of The Ten Commandments of The Bible, it is really

interesting to note that it is probably the first time that we are talking of these FiveCommandments of Sri Ramakrishna. I shall read out the relevant portions from the fifth

Chapter of the first volume of Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (in English) or Vachanamrita (in

Hindi) or Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (in Bengali).

In this chapter, Master Mahashay (in short M) the author of Kathamrita raises four questions

before Sri Ramakrishna.

It is in the reply to the first two questions, that we find these Five Commandments.

The first question is How to keep the mind on God. Our mind is so fickle that it is very

difficult to keep it concentrated on God. It keeps wandering to worldly things, in extroversion

rather than intro-spection. God resides in us, as Bhagavan Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in GitaIsvarah Sarvabhutanam, hrddeserjuna tisthati but we do not look inwards towards this God

residing within; we are all the time engrossed in our family, friends, and worldly pleasures. God

resides in us, but alas! We do not reside in Him. So the mind keeps wandering, and M wants to

know from Sri Ramakrishna how to keep the mind focused on God. In reply to this first

question, Thakur gives the first four commandments.

The F ir st commandment

Keep on chanting the name of God all the time and talk of his Glory. In the words of Sri

Ramakrishna in BengaliIshwarer naam guna gaan sarbada korte hoy. So we must all the timekeep remembering Gods name, his greatness and glory, to help us concentrate on him.

The Second Commandment

Do Satsanga, Sadhusanga. Go to Godly people, spend time with them, listen to their

discourses, and spend time at places where people are engrossed in God?s name, in Kirtan etc.

The Thir d Commandment

Spend time in solitude, and think of him. We are all the while caught up in worldly thoughts,

being surrounded completely by this materialistic world. It is therefore necessary once in awhile to get away from all this and spend some time in solitariness, thinking about God, thinking

about the purpose of life, thinking about what one is doing, and what one should do. It is the


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The other person I came across was when I once want to Cossipore Bungalow, even before I

joined the Ramakrishna Order. A person was singing some devotional song which enchanted

me. As I like songs very much, I approached him later and struck a friendship with him. I cameto know that he was Sri Pramathanath Ganguli, who had composed about two hundred

devotional songs, on the inspiration of Sri Ramakrishna as he used to say. Thereafter, I invited

him several times to my place and enjoyed his singing. Towards the end of his life, he wasinspired to compose a song which prays to God that O the Divine, when the call from theother world will come, I do not know whether I would be able to take your name. Even if I

forget, you please do not desert me. Please be with me and take me with you. After he

composed this song, he was so enamoured with it that Pramatha Babu would on his own sing thissong at the end of each of his recitals. And every time he sang this, tears would stream down his

eyes and one would get a feeling as though Pramatha Babu was actually seeing God in front of

him and singing out for Him from his heart. When he died in a hospital, he asked the nurse to

prop him up on the bed saying that Sri Ramakrishna had come to take him, and he didn?t want toreceive Him lying down. So he sat up and breathed his last chantingRamakrishna,

Ramakrishna. I even wonder how many of us would die such a glorious death.

Therefore, I speak with full conviction that householders have as much claim over God

realization as the monks who have renounced the world. In fact merely becoming a monk doesnot entitle one to a claim to Godliness, unless one practices spiritual disciplines. A householdercan realise God if he or she is fully convinced of the utterly unreal character of the world. Thakur

saysDischarge all your duties but keep your mind on God. Consider all family members ?

father, mother, spouse, children as your own, but remember in your heart of hearts that it is onlyGod, who is your own, and none else. I am reminded of a song that was a very favourite of

Thakur- O my mind, in this world no one is your own, so do not forget to remember Dakshina

Kali by getting entangled into this Mayajal, this illusion of your world. We are under the

illusion that my beloved loves me so much but the moment one is dead, no one wants to spendtime with the dead body, they want to dispose it off as soon as possible. So long as one is a big

officer everyone salutes him. But the moment he dies, all that is reduced to ashes and everyone

starts saluting the next person who occupies that chair. Today I am Secretary, Delhi Centerall

of you come to my discourses, pay me your respects. As soon as I die, someone else will occupythis position, and all of you would start paying your obeisance to him. Gokulananda would

become just a handful of ash and some distant memory.

Therefore, all of us must learn to detach ourselves from these worldly strings, affections,

bondages. These become a block between us and self realization, realization of God. As Thakursays, discharge your duties like the housemaid. She moves around with the master?s son in her

lap, saying My son, my darling! etc. but she knows in her heart of hearts that they are none of

hers. The moment she is off the job, all this is forgotten and there are no strings that bind her to

this house. We have to discharge our duties, with full responsibility, but always keeping in mindthat God alone is true, God alone is permanent, God alone is ours, and all the other things are

untrue, unreal, impermanent and not belonging to us.

To recollect once again, the Five Commandments of Sri Ramakrishna for householders

are :


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1. Keep chanting the Gods name, thinking of his glory.

2. Do Sadhusanga, Satsang, being with holy people; visit places where there are holy

thoughts.

3. Go to a solitary place once in a while and meditate. Protect and nurture your godlyfeelings and thoughts.

4. Constantly deliberate and discriminate about right and wrong, true and untrue, real and

unreal, right and wrong, Nitya and Anitya, Sat and Asat. God alone is true, Nitya,

permanent, real, Sat, Right.

5. Discharge your duties as a householder with full responsibility but always keep in mind

that none of this belongs to you.

If we can follow these Five Commandments there is no doubt that we can realize God in

this life itself. Time is running out every moment, so we must start immediately and

continue practising these commandments all the time. May Lord Sri Ramakrishna help

and bless us.

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The Five Commandments of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna for Householders