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Once a lady devotee came to visit Swami Shivananda, who was one of the famous direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. At the time of her visit Swami Shivananda was unfortunately ill, but he nevertheless gave her some wonderful advice. Their conversation has been excerpted here from the book: For Seekers of God (page 213 – 214)
It was about ten o’clock in the morning. A woman devotee came. She was an initiated disciple of Swami Shivananda. She bowed down at his feet and enquired about his health.
Swami Shivananda: My daughter, my health is not good – in fact it is very bad. It is becoming worse with the passage of time. After all the body has its own law to follow, and this body has grown pretty old. Now it will gradually get destroyed.
Devotee (with tearful eyes): Father, to whom shall we go if you leave us? Where else shall we go to unburden the sorrows of our hearts?
Swami Shivananda: Why, my child? There is the Master Sri Ramakrishna, to be sure. He is residing in your very heart. He is your inmost Self, as also the inmost Self of all. Take refuge in him, pray to him. He will fill your heart with peace; he will remove all your wants.
The body has to die one day or another; not a single body is immortal. It is as sure as anything that this body made of the different elements will again disintegrate into them.
Hence take refuge in the Lord who is the eternal Truth, the everlasting, unchanging, conscious Self of every being. Hold on to Him. Then you will have no fear in the shoreless sea of this world; you will easily cross it.
Devotee: Father, you are my guru; you have showered your grace on me. We are assailed with various kinds of doubts, questions and despondency. To whom can we go to get these removed? While I am at your feet, I feel so much peace in my heart, so much joy. But when I think about what will be my lot when you leave us, my heart begins to cry helplessly.
Swami Shivananda: Look here my daughter, God is the only guru; He is the teacher of the whole world. It was God Himself in His fullness that incarnated in the human body as Sri Ramakrishna to save His own creatures. He lived in a human body for fifty years, bestowed his grace on innumerable persons in several ways, and left a transcendental ideal of life behind for all to follow.
The quintessence of the instruction imparted by him through his life, is that the world is false and ephemeral, and that God alone is true and eternal.
Now Sri Ramakrishna is doing good to the world through a fine body (subtle body) and in an invisible way. He reveals himself even today to those devotees who call on him earnestly, and he blesses them in a thousand ways.
It is he who has kept us in these physical bodies. When these bodies die, we too shall get united with God in our fine bodies, and shall live in union. We have to take the responsibility here and hereafter of all those whom we have accepted as our own.
If the devotees pray with pure hearts and earnestness, they will get the visions of us as well – in a more clear and vivid way than you see today. So, my daughter, from now on, try to have this vision inside. How long, after all, can these external meetings last?
Devotee: Bless me accordingly, father, that I may see you inside and outside, everywhere.
Swami Shivananda: That you will do; if you pray earnestly and with tears in your eyes, you will get such a vision. But you cannot have this unless there is the deepest yearning.
