St. Paul

A Lover of Indian Spirituality

AFTER our stay in New York was over we flew to St. Paul in the State of Minnesota. At the airport we met Mr. J. R. Raymer Jr., his wife and Mr. David White. We sent directly to Raymer’s sweet little wooden house. We had our evening meal with them. It was a frugal vegetarian meal, our host too being a strict vegetarian. After meals we were taken round the house. In one room we saw that Mrs. Raymer had erected a handloom which she was fond of working as a favourite and useful hobby. Another main room was devoted entirely for meditation. On a raised platform were placed three or four framed photos. Raymer was a disciple of Swami Yogananda of widespread fame in America. In the centre was the picture of the Swamiji and on two sides the pictures of the Swamiji’s Gurus. The atmosphere inside this room was pure and holy. The house looked in many respects like the home of a devoted Indian. Raymer had a staunch faith in the Indian way of spiritual discipline. He believed in renunciation of the world and the dedication of one’s entire life to God. He was a lean, tall man possessing a simple and kindly nature. It was he who arranged for our stay in a hotel in St. Paul and also prepared for Ramdas the programme of meetings and interviews in the city.

Several meetings were held in different places—two in the Y.M.C.A., two in hotels, two in Raymer’s own house and one in the Rotary Club. The first meeting took place in Raymer’s house. Ramdas talked for about an hour, in the course of which he said:

Realise the Personal and the Impersonal

If you only depend upon the personal companionship of God, it is sure that you will have a sense of separation felt when you miss Him. If you experience only the impersonal Truth, you are likely to be disturbed while moving in the world. You have to realize the supreme Godhead who is at once personal and impersonal. When you have realized this, you are established in absolute peace and bliss in whatever condition you are placed. Knowing your identity with Him, you remain separate from Him maintaining a close relationship as between child and mother, servant and master or friend and friend.

The meeting at the Y.M.C.A. was held in the room which was the venue of periodical meetings of the group of Swami Yogananda’s devotees to which Raymer belonged. When Ramdas appeared in that room he saw the place was full of friends who were eager to hear him. For over half an hour Ramdas spoke and also gave answers to questions raised by some aspirants among them. In the course of the talk Ramdas said:

To see Good is to see God

If we are good the whole world is good for us. If we are bad, the whole world is bad for us. Every man has got some good points in him. We should see only the good points. If we are to see the bad points let us see them in ourselves. If we do so, we will find in course of time that what is bad in us will disappear. If we see evil in others and good in us, what good we have will disappear and the evil in us will grow. We are condemning, criticising and thinking ill of so many in the world. By doing so we are only making our mind more and more impure. So the way to progress is to see the good points in everybody and love everybody. Regarding the evil in us—ego-sense, desires and so on—we must repent and pray to God for their removal. To see good in others is to see God in them, because God alone is good. By seeing God in others we will realize God in our own heart. So long as we criticise others, we will never see God in them.

We say people dislike us. That is because we have no love for them. If we love them, their love automatically flows to us. When their love comes to us and our love goes to them, the two mingle together and create an ocean of joy. It is not bargaining. It is not a ‘give and take’. It is only a spontaneous outflow of our love merging with the love of all beings founded on the oneness of the Spirit.

At the close of the meeting, friends crowded round Ramdas to have some words with him. Their happy faces showed that they felt spiritually elevated as a result of what they heard from Ramdas.

At the second meeting held in the same place Ramdas was asked:

Man has no Free-Will

Q: What is free-will and how does it stand in relationship with the divine will?

Ramdas: Really man has no free-will. There is only divine will working everywhere. It is a mistake to think that we, as individuals, have got any power to do anything. God is behind the inception, growth and destruction of all things. It is His one power that does all these things in the universe. If we submit to that power and know that it is active in us, we shall be free from the ego-sense, and realize that we are the infinite, immortal, all-pervading universal Spirit and Truth. To know that we are that Spirit is to live in God and this is spirituality.

The Dark Night of the Soul

Q: Having once experienced God, why should we have again the dark night of the soul?

Ramdas: This is true in the case of all spiritual aspirants and devotees of God. The experience spoken of by you is only a glimpse of the Divine and not the full experience from which there is no fall. Here what we need is grace to keep us always alert, to keep us above the dark waters of this world in which we are drowning every moment. God’s grace alone can keep us above the temptations of the world. It is temptation that draws us down and then we fall into the dark night of the soul.

Swami Vivekananda’s Disciples

Here at the Y.M.C.A., Ramdas met two very old ladies who, coming close to Ramdas, told him that they had seen Swami Vivekananda when he had come to America. They further said how they had invited the great Swamiji to their homes and had talks with him. When they were narrating about their contact with the Swamiji they were thrilled and their eyes were moist with tears of joy. It was really a good fortune to meet these devoted souls on whom the divine touch of Swami Vivekananda had left an abiding holy influence.

The other speeches in St. Paul were almost in the same strain, but on different subjects. They were delivered at the two hotels where rooms were engaged specially for the meetings. At one of these, the Curtis Hotel, Ramdas spoke on renunciation and made the following observations:

External Renunciation not Essential

It is not by mere external renunciation that we attain God. There are so many who have renounced the world and gone to the forests, but they have not realized Him. There are so many living in the world, doing their work sincerely dedicating it to God, who have found Him. It is not necessary that one should externally renounce everything. It is not the outer condition that matters so much as one’s inner state of mind. What one feels within is what really matters. If we dedicate our life to Him and live in His light, then it does not matter where we live. We can live in the family and still have Him, because God is not only in caves and forests. He is in us, with us and everywhere about us. So to seek Him we need not go anywhere.

Pointing out the need for self-surrender to God Ramdas said:

Go to God as a Child

Our dependence on God must be absolute. It is not that we must purify ourselves first and then go to Him. He must purify us. We must go to Him like a child. A child goes in a dirty condition to the mother. The mother does not reject it, or ask it to come clean. She takes the child, washes and dresses it with clean clothes. God is more loving than an earthly mother.

The attendance at the Curtis Hotel was much bigger than at the Y.M.C.A. When addressing meetings of this nature Ramdas used to feel that he was merely a vehicle through whom the omnipotent power was pouring out the message of pure love, light and joy. Ramdas was invariably unaware of the passage of time, for he was so much absorbed in the talk. As usual, at the close of the meeting, the friends used to gather round Ramdas and exchange a few words with him individually in the most friendly spirit. It was all a free flow of love in the exuberance of which all those assembled bathed and played. Love breaks down all the barriers that separate man from man and brings about a fusion by raising the soul to a height in which there is perfect identity and oneness. At every moment of our life, when we are in tune with God, we come to feel that there is one all-pervading infinite ocean of existence and we are little waves or ripples on it. There is only one Consciousness, one Truth and one Reality.

Address to Rotarians

The Rotary Club is a well-known international organization, the membership of which is drawn from all classes of people of social standing and importance. Branches of this Club are found in all countries of the world. They generally have a meeting every week when the members assemble together for social intercourse, lunch and speeches.

Raymer had arranged that Ramdas should speak to the Rotarians at one of their meetings on a Tuesday. We went to the huge hall in which the members had assembled. On a raised platform we took our seats. Ramdas was introduced to the Rotarians, of whom nearly 300 were present, by Mr. David White. In the course of his introduction, he said: “Swami Ramdas is a lover of our own Heavenly Father. He serves his fellowmen as he sees God in them all. He is the founder of an Ashram in India which ministers to the real needs of the people. For him, love for God means service of man.” Ramdas was the chief speaker of the day. When he was called upon to speak, he stood up and talked on Universal Love and Service. He poured out his heart to them in fifteen minutes. There was perfect silence among the audience. It was indeed a unique occasion for Ramdas to address such a representative gathering of intellectuals, businessmen and members of the learned professions like lawyers, doctors, and professors. He delivered to them the message for which he undertook the world tour. He stressed that love was the one dominating force that should enter our hearts, transform them and thereby establish a lasting unity founded upon the recognition of the one universal Spirit as the basis of the entire creation. He pointed out that we should not limit our aim to an international fellowship and unity on the intellectual or political plane. He also spoke on the need for rich people to share their wealth with those who were poor and suffering. Continuing he said:

Do not be possessed by things

In several parts of the world there is misery, want and starvation and it behoves those who are gifted with the power to acquire wealth to use it for the service of humanity. This is the noble ideal this organization has placed before you. Ramdas fully believes that by remembering God constantly, you will fulfil this ideal and by doing so raise yourselves to the highest peace and bliss, which is the sole quest of a human being.

Happiness comes not by merely possessing things, but by using them for the right purpose. It is truly said by a great saint of India, “You must possess things and not be possessed by them.” Because those things we possess are intended to be used not by ourselves alone, but also for the benefit of humanity. If we do it, our vision will expand until it reaches the Infinite and we shall be the most blissful beings. Bliss is the end and aim of this life. Real bliss you will have by this way and no other. So let your hearts be with God and your hands be working for the good of humanity.

You can make this possible only when you use some time, say five or ten minutes every day, exclusively for drawing your mind inward and communing with the Divine within you, and thereafter live a life in which you will spontaneously help and uplift those who are fallen and relieve those who are in poverty, pain and sorrow. Thus you can make your life sublime by filling it with the peace and bliss of the Eternal.

At the close of the meeting Ramdas was introduced to a few prominent friends in the gathering.

Another day Raymer took us to see some important churches. Among those we saw were some built in the old style and some in the new. In the churches we noticed that everything was provided for a calm and undisturbed atmosphere for reading the scriptures and praying. At the back of every chair before the rostrum there was a Bible tucked into a receptacle so that the church-goer, sitting on the chair behind it, could make use of the Bible during prayer. There were also loud-speakers, lights and other conveniences provided in the up-to-date style.

One evening we were taken by Raymer in his car for a long drive into the country. The rural scenes in America were not far different from those in India. But the American cities were built with such exact planning and design that very few towns in India can compare with them, or boast of such well-designed streets, buildings and traffic control. Raymer expressed his ambition to open a spiritual colony outside the city, and in the course of the drive he showed us a vast area of land belonging to him which he had set apart for starting such a colony. The drive was refreshing to us after being in the closed and stuffy atmosphere inside rooms and halls for long hours.

A Strange Manoeuvre

Before closing the account of our stay in St. Paul, Ramdas has to chronicle here a strange incident. One afternoon two Americans knocked at our door in the hotel room and entered. They seemed to have come to see Ramdas on an important mission. They were prompt in revealing the purpose of their visit as they were apparently in a hurry. They said that Sri Jawaharlal Nehru had resigned his premiership and was going to adopt a purely religious life. Ramdas was told that this news had come to them by wireless from India. They wished to know Ramdas’ reaction to this news. They had come fully prepared with the equipments necessary to televise and broadcast whatever Ramdas might have to say on the reported resignation of Jawaharlal.

Ramdas told them that his mission to America was not to discuss about personalities or politics. He came to spread the message of Universal Love and Service. But the friends persisted that Ramdas should express his opinion on this important piece of news. Ramdas again told them that he was not concerned with this report and added that even if Nehru had resigned, the people of India, who idolised him, would persuade him to revoke his decision and continue as their Prime Minister. Ramdas further told them that Nehru was not such a religious-minded person as to take to a life completely isolated from national activities, even if he did not continue as the Prime Minister of India.

The two Americans still insisted upon Ramdas’ giving a talk on this subject to be televised. Ramdas refused to have anything to do with this proposal of theirs. They left at last making the remark, “Whatever it be, we have brought you a fresh piece of news from India, which you have not heard of.” Later it was found out that the news brought by these televisionists was entirely untrue. When Ramdas talked about this to an American friend, he said that it was all part of a political manoeuvre.

Preachers of Christ’s Gospel

In the course of our stay in St. Paul two Protestant preachers came to see Ramdas in his room in the hotel. Their interview was brief. They came only to know Ramdas’ point of view in regard to religion. Ramdas told them that he did not belong to any denominational religion and he believed in God who is the God of all peoples and countries of the world, the one Divine Father and Mother of the universe. The preachers concurred with Ramdas and remarked that God we all worshipped was indeed the universal Spirit. They expressed their joy in having met Ramdas, and left.

Mrs. Gertrude deKock was also in St. Paul when we were there. She stayed in the same hotel as ours. She attended all the lectures and talks of Ramdas. She was deeply interested in our humble mission of Divine Love and Service. A word about her is appropriate here. She is a follower of Jesus Christ and she has dedicated her life to the dissemination of the message of her great Master to all believers of God both in Europe and America. She is held in high veneration by those who have come into touch with her. One can find her always happy, cheerful, displaying very often a child-like humour. She has the knack of saying always the right thing at the right time. We understood that she was invited to many countries for delivering sermons in churches and at other spiritual associations. She has been able to turn the minds of many a sceptic towards God. She has written some books and pamphlets on various aspects of spiritual approach, which are simple, appealing and elevating. She uses plain, homely English in her talks and writings. She has a large fund of goodwill and love towards all whom she meets and moves with. God fulfils Himself through His prepared instruments in order to create faith in the hearts of people. One such instrument is Mrs. Gertrude deKock.