[Pictured: Sri Swami Shivapadananda Puri. 2nd President and Spiritual head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Transcribed from the recordings made by Mother Radha
Day 1043
This is beautiful. I have given you all so many things. Just take any one of them and make that your day in and day out?...exercise. But the idea is to make it regular. And as you just look at it, when he says, look at it and you see nothing – you won't see 'nothing'. You can't see 'nothing'. It means only you exist. Therefore you can't see it. That doesn't mean there's nothing. That's why a yogi may say, "I don't believe in God". That doesn't mean he's an atheist - because he believes in the Self, as I told you today. But it doesn't mean his individual self, it means the Self of everything, the whole world – your self, my self – he believes in that Self. But when you say, "God", you're individualising God – my God and your God. I love Krishna and you love something else.
Now the other part - form. God's form. You must think about it. Always, when your mind forgets that, bring it back. Consciousness, it is Consciousness, it is Bliss and it is?...Existence. [Satchitananda] Right? You bring that back. But then again the scriptures say – you'll find the Bhagavatam describes it very well - they say, see God first. You see God with light – self-effulgent, wearing all the jewellery. What must you see? [devotees answer] "God with jewellery". [Swamiji adds] And all the clothing items. The next one, what you do after a little while, they say, you must remove the clothing, just let him have the jewellery on. He's naked but he's got jewellery on. In the end you take off all the jewellery, he's naked. That's three stages of meditation. 'Naked' means light-only. The light is the only thing that's naked. There's nothing to dress it. Darkness can't dress it. Light, dressed by light, itself. God can only be clothed by God, not by anything else. From this point of view you'll get a lot.
Why do you go to a guru? Everything you'll find in the scriptures. There's nothing that's not in the scriptures. [Swamiji chuckles]. But you don't understand it. You read something but because you're so used to making concepts, you give your own meaning to it. That's why you must have the person there to give you the right meaning. That's why a guru [spiritual preceptor] is necessary. Otherwise the guru is not essential. Like a law – you read a law, you think you know what it is, but when you go to a lawyer, he doesn't think – he knows what it is. That's all it is.
The other part, why you go to the guru [Swamiji chuckling again], it's very simple, gurus are foolish fellows…what are they? [devotees reluctant to repeat the phrase. They laugh] You see, why you go to the guru? There are places where you get stuck in your meditation. The scripture will tell you, "this is how to meditate". But it doesn't tell you where you're going to get stuck. The scriptures tell you, "do it like this," but as you're meditating a lot of obstacles will come. You'll get stuck. Certain doubts will come. Now, that's why you have the guru there. You'll tell him, "this is what happened". The scripture only told you to meditate and you'll realise God. But it doesn't tell you the minute obstacles. It doesn't mean that the guru has experienced all those obstacles – forget it – that I don't believe. That is not true. But…when the guru hears that you have an obstacle, he straight-away knows, "oh, this is the obstacle, this is holding him back." So he'll tell you, "alright, remove the obstacle this way, because if you deal with it this way, your mind will be free." And when your mind is free, naturally it will travel as far it as can go. Because of your karma, it may get stuck again. Then he'll tell you, "just move that obstacle this way [in this manner]. You see that's why the guru is there - only to remove the obstacles. He never can give you God. Because you already are God. No guru can give you God. Forget it. The guru is there as the sweeper. [Paramahamsa] Ramakrishna said the guru is like a broom. That's the guru then. He just sweeps [away the obstacles]. That's all he does. What does he do? [Devotees answer] sweeps. That's what the guru does – just sweeps.
Because the scriptures tell you it's like water flowing. There's an obstacle there. What do you do? You don't bring water there. You will just remove the obstacle and the water will flow again. So these thoughts, doubts and misconceptions are obstacles – just remove them and you'll see the consciousness there. Inside you superimpose 'two' on your consciousness. Outside we've already superimposed it. Inside also we start superimposing it. Just remove that and you'll see again the consciousness.
That's what the guru does - nothing else. That's why the guru gives only a few instructions [Swamiji teasing] and then sits down and enjoys eating and drinking. You go and do the work or tend the kettle [to make tea]. [Swamiji chuckling] You do that duty, I will do mine. I'll only just give you a few instructions. What do you want to be? A guru or a chela? I'll just give you instructions, that is all. You may hear them and just laugh because you'll see it from your point of view. You'll see service and other things. But the guru is right. You have to activate inside. You will do all that. And he will only give you instructions on how to remove obstacles. I said he can't give you?...God. He can never give you God because you already are God. He can't give you God. You are already consciousness. What's he going to make you conscious of? How's he going to give you consciousness?
You know, [Swami] Vivekananda's lion and the sheep [story]…the lion grew up with sheep. The lion thought he was a sheep. The other lion who came along didn't make him a lion - he was already a lion. He only showed him [his reflection in water] - he said, "you have only hypnotised yourself – now de-hypnotise yourself. So you can't make a man God. You can't give him God, because he is already God – because you can't make that lion more lion when it's already a lion. You can only tell it what it really is and bring back its memory.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites - please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham
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