Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 18, 2011.

Swami Bhaskarananda speaks on Sri Sarada Devi—known in the Ramakrishna tradition as the Holy Mother—and explains why her life is honored as an extraordinary spiritual gift to the modern world. Using the image of a diamond discovered in a coal mine, he describes how rare illumined souls reveal what is possible when the mind becomes purified and centered in God. He emphasizes that such purity changes one’s vision of the world: hostility and “enemy” consciousness fall away because divinity is perceived everywhere, though manifested in varying degrees across beings.

The talk highlights Sarada Devi’s special significance as a living expression of the motherhood of God. Swami Bhaskarananda discusses the different ways people relate to the Divine—father, mother, friend—and notes how personal experience shapes these approaches. He recounts traditional stories associated with Sarada Devi’s compassion, humility, practical strength, and power to uplift devotees, including accounts of her guidance, her protection of those who sought refuge, and her role in steadying monastic life through motherly concern. He concludes by placing her example alongside Sri Ramakrishna’s teaching that sincere spiritual practice in any religion leads toward the same ultimate Reality, and that inner purification is the key to a clearer awareness of inherent divinity.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 11, 2011.

Swami Manishananda reflects on what it means to anchor one’s spiritual life while moving through the changing currents of relative existence. Using the image of a sailboat secured in a safe harbor, he describes how human life is often tossed by shifting conditions—pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame—and how, over time, a longing naturally arises for a steadier refuge in God, whether understood personally or impersonally. He also notes that “anchors” can work in two ways: spiritual anchors steady and guide us, while worldly attachments can hold us back until we learn to loosen their grip.

He then outlines three enduring supports. First is faith (shraddha), which includes both trust in the spiritual ideal and confidence in one’s own capacity for growth, strengthened through lived experience and perseverance. Second are prayer, japa, and meditation—disciplines that gradually become inward supports rather than mere routines tied to a place or schedule. Third is a sense of belonging to a spiritual community, where good company and shared aspiration encourage steadiness of mind and deepen one’s orientation toward the highest goal.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 4, 2011.

In this talk, Swami Bhaskarananda reflects on what it means to seek the ultimate truth, distinguishing between ordinary truths known through sense experience and reasoning, and the higher truth toward which spiritual inquiry is directed. He notes that human understanding often moves from “lower truth” to “higher truth,” as childhood beliefs and early worldviews give way to clearer knowledge. Drawing on the Mundaka Upanishad, he presents the ancient question: what is that, by knowing which everything else becomes known? Vedanta answers with Brahman, the highest reality, expressed in the Upanishadic great sayings that affirm the identity of the Self and Brahman and point to the awareness of inherent divinity in all beings.

Swami Bhaskarananda then outlines a classical Advaita method of discrimination between the knower and the known, showing how the body, vital energy, mind, and ego are objects of awareness, while the Atman is the witnessing consciousness, beyond change, parts, qualities, and action. He addresses common questions about creation and divine action through the concept of Maya—described as inexplicable—and uses vivid analogies to clarify how the world can appear real to us while remaining, from the standpoint of Brahman, untouched. He concludes by noting that in Advaita, the divine is understood as beyond past and future, abiding in an eternal present.