It was the annual general meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission. When the agenda of the meeting had been gone through, the Swami thus spoke to all present:
“Elephants have two sets of teeth, one out-side the tusks, and another inside, to munch food. The activities of our Mission are like the elephant’s tusks. Whatever work you may do-conducting Sevâshramas or doing relief work, unless you have character, all will be in vain. What is wanted is character, purity, steadfast devotion to God. If you have them, you will prosper, otherwise you will totally fail. (To the lay members) It is no good being only members of the Mission. You must build up your own character, you must make the whole world your own through love, so that people may find inspiration from your selflessness, renunciation, and purity. You must drive away all egotism and pride from your heart and consider yourselves as servants of the Lord and thus serve humanity.
“Our Master never sought name and fame, and so they have come to him in profusion. Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) often said in his later life that he was disgusted with name and fame. Be you all men of character. Do you grow into gods. Only then will the work of the Mission prosper. This is my earnest prayer to you all.”
After this the meeting was dissolved.
That night, after meal, the Swami sat on the bench on the ground floor overlooking the Ganga, and thus spoke to the monks and devo-tees gathered before him:
“In the world the mind is scattered on various things, on Kâma (lust) and Kânchana (gold). It is the function of Avidya (Ignorance) not to allow the mind to be concentrated. But our task is to concentrate it. Spiritual discipline is nothing but the bringing together of the scattered mind. So long as there is the least desire the mind cannot be absorbed in God. Along with meditation and repetition of the Lord’s name, we must reason keenly and carefully – we must search out the desires hiding in the dark corners of the mind and drive them away. This is what is called in the Gitâ as ‘saving the self by the self. Thus we are to conquer the mind. We shall then find the Peace Everlasting within ourselves and become sages. Simply meditating or repeating God’s names, without any effort at rooting out the desires, will not do. (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)