Answer: Faith in God and devotion to Him are important needs of in all societies and at all times. Forces favourable to it and forces antagonistic to it have also existed everywhere and at all times. Anti-devotional forces are not a speciality of our times as some people believe. There is however an element of truth in this assumption. Intellectual sophistication has a tendency to make some men skeptical. But more than intellect, it is man’s intense attraction for the life of the senses that misdirects the intellect into skeptical channels. Otherwise the intellect is neutral in regard to faith in God. It may question and demolish many of the crude and superstitious ideas and practices that have developed in the name of faith and that type of cobweb-cleaning is a very necessary process. The intellect is aware of its own blindness about the ultimate nature of things. This position is confirmed by modern philosophers of science too.
To the extent that devotional life is eliminated from the life of men, they will find themselves meaningless creatures in this mighty cosmos, and their daily life too will lose all moral significance. A human society without any sanction for moral code is worse than animal society. For, as far as animals are concerned, they have in-built irrevocable checks to regulate their instinctive life, whereas man’s regulative forces are largely voluntary and under the control of his thought-life. Unless some ultimate meaning is given to life, man’s thought becomes weak and chaotic and his life is reduced to the condition of a rudderless boat. So faith in God and a devotional ideal are quite necessary even for man’s happiness in life and they are more necessary today than at any former period in human history; for without them man will become increasingly corrupt and unhappy which we are experiencing at this juncture.

Answer: Your question ‘What exactly blocks one from becoming Great’ is easily put than answered. In the first place, the word ‘Great’ is understood by people in different ways. One may be great in wealth, in immense power in the world, in learning, in character, in spiritual attainments and in many such things.
It is perhaps the power you bring with you from your efforts in the past lives and the concentrated effort you put now in the direction you want that helps you attain the fulfillment of your ambition. I do not know whether there is any force like gravitational force that blocks one’s way to go up. In our bodily life there is one environment which may be either hostile or favourable. In our moral and spiritual life there are the tendencies we bring with us from our past lives, which are either favourable or otherwise. But there is the power of the Atman (your own intrinsic infinite nature) within all, with which we can battle against these blocks.

Answer: Knowing and loving are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. At first we may not be able to love the Lord, but we can be impressed by His majesty through the manifestation of it through Nature that forms our external environment. This is a kind of partial knowledge. But if it is real, intense and a result of real quest, it can develop the emotion of awe, not fear as on seeing a tiger. The more we study Nature, the more are we impressed by the wisdom that is revealed through it. In the course of our development, it can lead us to love for Him. Bhakti is described as firm and unshakable love, preceded by an understanding of Dive Majesty. It is vastly different from personal love with other human being.

Answer: You state that your difficulty is to effect a balance between your work in the school and your spiritual life. Every one in this world, whether monastic or otherwise, will have to effect this balance between spiritual life and one’s duty outside. Every day in the morning and evening if you devote an hour for spiritual practice, like japa (telling the Lord’s name), meditation (thinking about the Lord’s form or His lilas etc) you can gain this balance. If you try to practise the attitude that all the energies of your body and mind are given to you by the Lord, and in discharging your duties, you are making an offering of your energies and works done with them to the Lord, your work becomes equal in value to meditation. There will not be any gap between the duty and spiritual practices. Your whole life will become the worship of the Lord, which is the purpose of this human life .

Answer: Concentration is the natural state of a healthy mind. We need not improve it all. A healthy mind is naturally concentrated on the subject which it likes more. The problem with us is we like many things at a time and disturb the natural concentration of the mind.
To keep in its natural state of concentration you should give a specific goal, which you like very much in your life. That can be only one. That is called “The goal” of your life.

To achieve this Main goal, you can have subsidiary goals which will help you in achieving that main goal.
In our scriptures there are 4 main goals mentioned for any human being.

1. Artha – Wealth

2. Kama – Sense Enjoyments

3. Dharma – Righteousness

4. Moksha – God Realisation.
You can choose any one of them as your main goal of life and make other goals as subsidiary ones. To achieve any goal you should pay the price accordingly. If you select the God as your life’s goal then your life will be successful along with peace and joy. If you make Dharma (Righteousness) as your Life’s goal, then you will succeed in worldly life without any sorrow. But, if you make ‘Wealth & Sense enjoyments’ as your life’s goal, then suffering is inevitable. So be thoughtful while deciding your life’s goal. After deciding the goal learn to love that goal and Struggle consistently and systematically to achieve that goal in righteous way.
However, to keep the mind healthy in general you can observe the following disciplines in day to day life.

1. Healthy food – avoid all types of food which will make you addict and weak.

2. Physical Exercise – which suits to your temperament and makes you strong physically.

3. Reading Habit – Life of teachings of Sages and Mahatmas which gives us mental clarity.

4. Proper attitude – This life is for gaining knowledge of the Facts and not for enjoyments.

5. Naama japa – Repeating the name of the Lord whom you like very much.

6. Service – Serving the poor and needy as much as possible.

7. Sadhu Sangha – Relationship with good and noble people.

Answer: If the devotee is pure to the core and prays to Sri Ramakrishna, He may graciously grant visions or initiate him in dream, or appear before the devotee in person. It is all left to the Lord and the devotee. Even after the disappearance from the physical body, the Lord can give Darshan to the devotees. There are lots of incidents in the lives of Mahatmas, where, Lord appeared and blessed them in the form of the ‘Ishtadevata’ of the devotee. We request you to read the lives of sages and saints, who lived a life of devotion and purity, so that you also can develop the faith in the grace of the Lord and get his blessings.

Answer: There is no fraud Sadhu at all. Sadhu means a good person whose life is dedicated to the Lord. Since, in our country people have respect and sympathy towards a sadhu, a beggar can misuse that sympathy and can come in the garb of a monk. It is very difficult to say whether a person who is coming in the garb of a monk is a Sadhu or a beggar. To know whether a person is a Sadhu or not, You have to observe him very carefully. If you have time for that you can do so.
A Sadhu has given up everything in the world for the sake of the Lord. He is not earning for his lively-hood. He does not have anybody as his own. His life is for the Lord. Therefore, Lord takes care of his physical needs. You can be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in removing the hunger of a Sadhu.
Moreover, any person who begs for food is certainly eligible for your sympathy. If it is possible for you to make Annadanam, please do it by all means. You are feeding an hungry stomach, by which you will certainly get Punya.
Therefore please give food to anybody without any discrimination as much as possible for you. You will have the blessings of the Lord, because, the Lord alone comes in the form of a beggar also .

Answer: There are two types of life. One is householder and another, a monastic.
In our Sastras, the life has been divided into four stages namely, Brahmacharya (Student life), Grihasta (House holder), Vanaprastha (Recluse), and Sanyasa (Monastic). Each soul will be traveling from one stage of life to another with the ultimate goal of finding our true nature or in other words, to be united with god. There is also a scriptural sanction for a person to go to any of the higher stages, say from Brahmacharya to Sanyasa if he is mentally prepared and is imbibed with high degree of renunciation. It is just like having a double promotion. Both are good. But the choice depends upon the aspirant – the student.
However, I may add here for your information that in our order, for a person, if he is a graduate, the age limit for joining is 28 years.
When you feel that you have found a good life companion and that it will help you in your spiritual journey, I can only say “May God speed to you”. All the paths have got its own plus and minus points which vary according to the evaluator. The decision will be yours and you are the maker of your destiny.

Answer: Try to read some good books by some sages and saints. If you can get and read the following books: The Eternal Companion (Life and teachings of Swami Brahmananda, published by Ramakrishna Math, Chennai)
Personality Development by Swami Vivekananda
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
Lectures from Colombo to Almora
Letters of Swami Vivekananda
Life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi
All these books are available in any of our centers and library.