Swami Shivapadananda

Be consistent

 [Pictured: Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ashram complex]

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 844

   

Be still – [when you are] there is no [mind] wave, no action at all. The 'I' [ego - ahamkara, sense of individual self] is a funny thing, it always wants to say something.

[Swamiji to a devotee] If you are calm I will increase that calm. Don't show anger, I will increase [amplify] it.

This creation is only a reflection of Brahman [the one indivisible universal consciousness]. Go beyond name and form. See Brahman, Brahman.

Tapasya [austerity, self-denial] is intense devotion to a particular object. Even in thought you must not go to sleep. Light the fire of tapasya, then you will have many kinds of experiences - the highest concentration.

Hear the lessons and then revolve them in your mind. Jesus the Christ fasted for forty days. There was more time for concentration on God, no time for food.

Choose the Lord and stick to Him - you will not die, you will become immortal.

When you first come here [to Swamiji and the ashram - hermitage or monastery] you want to be independent. Then slowly you begin to yearn for God. God is real, the world is unreal.

When you feel lonely, take a book and read. He [God] comes when He wants.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

Rogue is as rogue does

   

 [Pictured: Swami Shivapadananda]

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 827

 

Someone came to the Ashram (monastery). This is a true story – no lies. A man walked in with a briefcase. I was brought up in a very [financially] poor home. And I don't go for high-flown philosophies. As I was, I was happy. I wanted to keep that happiness inside. So if someone came [to the ashram] instead of me meeting [or greeting] him with pomp and ceremony, especially when I love him - inside me something loves people - up to now I haven't made out 'what' loves. I think sometimes I love, but I think it's wrong because I don't love. I don't know what love is. Inside [of me] this 'something' loves and I reach out to the person, saying 'Hey you rogue!'

But by 'rogue' I don't mean anything bad, I don't insult him, I feel happiness when I address him like that. To this person, who came to the Ashram at Headquarters [of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa] at Avoca [on North Coast of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa] I said 'AUM Namo Narayanaya [I prostrate to the God in you], and he responded in the same way. I then said, 'Oh you rogue. Yes sir.' He replied 'What do you mean, I'm a rogue?' I got a shock. It was like pressing a starter button somewhere. [laughter] I said [again], 'You're a rogue!' He said, 'So you think I'm a rogue – hmph!' He turned and walked away. I was thinking, 'What happened here?' To all the people who were there I apologised and said, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make him angry – I don't know what he's angry about.

After two or three days I read in one of the newspapers [Swamiji chuckles], that he was caught stealing in a particular company. [laughter from devotees]. He was charged with fraud. But I did not know anything about it. [all chuckling]. I call everybody rogue. But rogue to me is 'Krishan rogue'. That He [God] stole my love, that He forced the [divine] love out of me. That's what I mean by rogue. The cream of my heart was given out [extracted or distributed] by force. I didn't [consciously] give it – but something inside of me gave it out. That's what I mean. Nothing else.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

 

You too are a saint

 [Pictured: Gauri Ma, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Referred to below]

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 826

   

Loving brothers and sisters we are lost in the shadows of the Great Ones [Saints, Seers, Sages, incarnations]. When we get lost in the shadows of the Great Ones it seems to me that we underestimate ourselves and because we underestimate ourselves the power within us finds it very, very difficult indeed to manifest. What one has to realise is that we are the same seed [essence], we are the same spirit and our instrument [the body] is made out of the same five elements that our great Rishis, Munis [Sage-Seers] and Saints were made of.

In my life I've found that the greatest obstacle was when I was admiring others and not trying to imbibe their qualities myself. I used always to think: That is the great being and I am a tiny worm - how can I reach those great heights? Until I met my own guru [spiritual preceptor], Swami Nischalanandaji Maharaj [first President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa].

When we hear about Mother Gauri [Gauri Ma, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna] - who would offer a Tulsi leaf and how it would fall on the little feet - how vividly my guru's words come back. I used to have this dream and in the dream there was clear water flowing and a little Syringa berry tree. I used to walk in the middle of this river and find two beautiful shyamal feet [shyam usually means 'dark blue' - a colour attributed to Lord Krishna to represent 'infinity']. By shyamal feet I do not want you to understand me to say they were dark feet. No, they weren't dark at all. They were shining, cloud-coloured. And whenever I reached these feet I would wake up. Little did I realise that there was someone else who had had a similar experience - and that was none other than Gauri Ma herself. This brings me in common touch with Mother Gauri, the manifestation of Sri Ramakrishna.

We all admire Mother Sarada [Devi – the wife of Sri Ramakrishna] and thus we think that there could not be anyone like her. But she herself showed us, by encouraging Gauri Ma, that she is none other than Gauri Ma in another form. The sooner we realise this, the better for us.

Can we be courageous, sincere and self-willed enough to cut the diamond of character with the diamond of our own lives and reach those rich soils that Sri Ramakrishna's children reached?

I prostrate again and again to Gauri Ma. 'Ma, if you have anything to give me, let me have the same devotion that you had for your Deity.'

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

 

Your true nature revealed

[Pictured: Swami Vivekananda] 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 824

   

Devotee: Taking the incident where Swami Vivekananda came to Master [Sri Ramakrishna] for help for his family, Master sent him to Mother Kali to ask for the needs of his family [they were in dire financial circumstances following the death of his father]. But when he went to [the Divine] Mother he could not ask for these needs, he could only ask for love for Mother's feet. Now we said we have free will - how can we differentiate between free will and God's will?

Swamiji: That answers one very vital question which is in the Srimad Bhagavatam. A lot of people doubted Sri Krishna. They said to him, "All these gopis [cowherd girls] that came to you were not pure minded, they had ulterior motives." No matter how the holy people tried, they couldn't give an answer to this.

In this incident Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda have shown us that whatever your real nature is, it will manifest in front of God. In other words, you may not know what seed it is, but when you plant it, and when the sun shines on it, and the five elements are there, then, when it manifests you will come to know if it's an orange tree, a lemon tree, a banana tree or a pear tree.

So the vital question was answered here. Swami Vivekananda went to the Temple to ask [Mother Kali] for work but on reaching there his mind became so pure that his real nature manifested itself. His mind was clinging on to money and food but when he went there "money and food" disappeared. Just like when you go into the light, darkness disappears. What did he utter instead? "Ma, give me knowledge. Ma, give me bhakti, pure devotion."

Similarly, when the gopis went to Sri Krishna they must have gone to him with the idea in mind: "Well I'm going to get married to Sri Krishna." But no sooner did they go there than they forgot marriage - they only said, 'Ah, Sat-chit-ananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss - Absolute]. Himself and I are One and not two.'

What is God's will? Anything that is in the Scriptures is God's will. Anything it forbids you to do and you do, that's your own will.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

Choose the divine right now!

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

790

 

The nature of the animal is survival of the fittest; the nature of man is self-sacrifice. I've got nothing else to think about in this world, only this.

'I am doing this so that I must have the upper hand; I am doing this so I must grow fat; I must grow fit.' No. I am doing this because I want that which is my real nature to shine out. Christ did this, he was prepared to self-sacrifice. Gandhi: self-sacrifice. Sri Ramakrishna: self-sacrifice. This is the real nature of man. Otherwise all are a mixture of animal and man. So sometimes the animal has the best of it - sensual things – sometimes not. You who become self controlled, the divine has the better of you.

Rama [the great Hindu Ramayana-featured Incarnation - avatar - of God] was a self controlled man - if you so will to call him man. That's the wonderful part about God: that God doesn't get angry if you call Him man. God is man plus. Plus what? I don't know. God is Creation plus. Plus what, is it? I don't know. Silly people get cross when you call Rama a man. I say, 'Yes, yes, but also I know he is plus – plus what he knows.' Wasn't Christ the son of a carpenter? But he was plus. Not only that.

What is your real nature? Do everything to keep that alive. If you are going in a direction look at the compass or you'll get lost in the sea. And do everything to keep that direction. That's all you have to do in this world. Nothing else is left to be done.

[Pravrajika] Atmaprana [the first sannyasini – Hindu nun – of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]: You make it sound so easy.

Swamiji: It is easy, if you want to do it. If you don't want to do it then it is the most difficult thing. That's why it takes birth after birth. That is why in spiritual life they stress so much on obedience. Obedience only expresses your willingness. Are you willing or not? You make it easier by the extent to which you are willing. To the extent you are not willing you make it tough. That's all. No sin.

Rather do now and suffer it out rather than not doing it and suffering many other things. [i.e. grasp the nettle now] At least here you'll suffer one thing just by doing that. But there, if you drift, so many other things will knock you. Thousands of other sufferings you are avoiding. When they asked Christ to jump from the high place he said, 'Get thee, devil, behind me.'

Anything that concerns with power, anything, if it does not bring bhakti [devotion, divine love] and jnana [divine or spiritual knowledge], it's the devil. Devil only stands here for maya [the divine power of seeming illusion/delusion]. 'Get thee behind me,' you must say. That is why Sri Ramakrishna was so against [occult] power - maya. [Even] Minute forms of maya.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

Strengths and weaknesses

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

728

   

I ask you to learn. You ask me to read scriptures. Like this our minds will always be higher and higher.

The word 'repent' has to be taken with another word: 'depend'. When you completely depend on God then you can repent.

The question we must ask [ourselves] is: If I am the reincarnation of Sri Ramakrishna then how is that incarnation helping me? Is it transforming my mind to go towards God or is it getting me entangled in powers, money and position?

In the Ramayana Sri Rama was met by Guha and others. Guha asked for bhakti [devotion, divine love], what did the others asked for? Worldly prosperity. They all received what they wanted. Religion is subjective not objective.

When you offer water to God, water stands for purification and life. God has given us life, God has given us purity and God has given us love.

[Last Talk of a Yoga Camp]

I am sure that you have experienced the camp in such a way that these experiences can be a help to your daily lives at home. On the first day I said that this was a camp to test yourselves and to see how strong you are to keep away from the temptations of weaknesses. You must have assessed your own strength by now. This was a camp which entailed discipline, not a camp of fun, frolic and laughter, nor a camp where you let loose your senses and let your mind do whatever it likes. Just as a river has two banks guiding it to the ocean, similarly you had your guiding factors through the program arranged.

I ask you, the sadhakas [spiritual aspirants, practitioners], to re-double your effort to become good people. First you must become good people to become God-people.

 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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

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

 

Developing character

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

661

Swamiji continues reading from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma

It [Hinduism] teaches that he who has not made himself, by strenuous endeavour, pure in thought, word and deed, and who has not acquired the necessary adhikari [fitness] or competence, can never even know that there is a spiritual world.

[Swamiji] If you do not make yourself adhikari, competent, qualified, through these moral laws you will not even know there is a spiritual world.

But in morality there is no finality or completeness.

[Swamiji] You can never say, 'Now I am morally fit, I am perfect,' because there is no end to morality. You have to be continuously striving to be a man [or person] of perfect character; there is no completeness in it. As long as you live, you have to practise morality. You cannot say, 'Now I am a sadhu [holy man/person] I can treat everybody as I like; I can sleep with anybody I like.' Nay. Sri Ramakrishna did not do that. Swami Vivekananda did not do that. They were very observant as far as rules go - they observed yama [the do's] and niyama [the don'ts].

After every moral success we see a higher ideal which condemns once again our lives of littleness and sin.

[Swamiji] When we get to a level of good we see that there is still a higher good. Then, when we get to that good, we find there is still an even higher good which absorbs the lower good. We can never say, 'This is the best.' We have to keep on striving.

If you climb a high mountain in a range, when you get to the top of that mountain you find a higher mountain. By the time you get to the top of the next mountain you find there is a still higher mountain. And by the time you have climbed all the high mountains you die. So similarly you never get completeness.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda

Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online...

Reference websites (please mouse-over the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2

 

Character and modesty

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

657

   

Swami Vivekananda said we need to learn about our character. He said that he did not want weak men. A man can be weak in body but if he has a strong character he is the strongest of men. What is the use of having a big healthy body with bulging muscles but with an immoral character? That kind of a man or woman is not wanted.

There are many forms of modesty. One of these is modesty in speaking. You must utter words that are sweet, loving and encouraging - never running anybody down.

Another kind of modesty is to dress in such a way that it does not expose your body to awaken sensuality in other people. Even the dressing of your hair should not be like the Himalayan mountains. [laughter] There is modesty in simplicity.

Sri Sarada Devi was born in the modern times and you can see how simple and modest she was. And what she thought she lovingly said.

Simplicity, purity, love, service - all this that Sri Ramakrishna told us - falls into the category of a modest woman.

You are a woman but that does not mean that you have no strength. Though our great scriptures depict women as modest, they also show that she can become Kali or Durga in times of trouble. She is the 'Almighty Strength'. She is not weak in any way. She is not below man. If anything she is equal to man; but her office demands that she be more sattvic, more patient, more loving and more serving.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda

Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online...

Reference websites (please mouse-over the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2

 

 

The blessings of caring for your parents

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

633

   

Swamiji continues speaking on the Mahayajnas [five great sacrifices]

The last one is bhutayajna. Bhuta does not mean devil. Bhuta means those animals that are controlled by nature. The five mahabhutas are the five elements and bhuta here means 'controlled by nature'. An animal cannot think how to improve its life, so you have to think for it because you are higher than it. Just as you improve your child's life, so you improve the life of the poor, the miserable, the plant and the animal. You build wells and old age homes.

In the old days we were taught that to serve our father and mother was itself a worship - and by serving them we won heaven. Take sanatkumar for example, he did not go anywhere else, he did not put his blind mother and father in an old age home. He served them and by serving them the merit accrued to him. He was shining with this effulgence of service.

Old age homes really are a curse today. People think that the old ones are like dogs and cats. Ten o'clock when the bell rings, 'Just give them a cup of tea.' One o'clock when the bell goes again then the nurses will come and give them some food. If flies are sitting on some stinking face they just have to brush it away, like a dog's tail. This is a curse of the modern world.

Every child in India used to be taught that to serve their mother and father was the highest worship under the sun. For the sperm that passed through your mother was your father's; the fertilisation that took place was your mother's; and it is for this same mother and father, who brought you into this world, that you are today asking for help. You fools. You are missing a very good opportunity. Even if your father kicks you hundreds of times or if your mother swears at you thousands of times, who cares? How many nights was your mother kept awake by you - full of dirt etc. And she probably had to get the kicks and blows of your father as well. Perhaps your father even had to go and steal sometimes to look after you, tell lies to bring you up. Can you ever fulfill that?

Hey, children, wake up, look at it. We Hindus have become blind to this kind of concept. We should wake up now. In the guise of pleasure our intelligence is stolen away. Just a smile or some love from the opposite sex makes you forget the roots in which you were brought up. Those roots are your father and mother.

Even the gods become pleased if you do this, let alone men and women.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.

Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda

Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online...

Reference websites (please mouse-over the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2

 

Swami Shivapadananda on avoiding conflict in front of children

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 549

[Pictured: A ground floor room of the Udbodhan House, where the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi lived on the first floor,following the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna]

   

Swamiji continues speaking about children

Every senior person should be respected. To a spiritual man everyone is a senior, even the smallest child, even an ant. One's father and mother should be respected with all one's heart and soul. But I plead to the fathers and mothers to become worthy of the respect that the children give them, because they themselves have a duty towards those children, to show them how to live a righteous life.

If the father and mother are fighting, they must not fight in front of the children. Do not have any argument at all in front of the children. Send your children out or send them here [to the ashram] if possible. Then you can sit down, close your door, and say whatever you like. But never talk roughly in front of them because example is the best teacher.

Never speak ill about other people in front of your own child because the child will pick it up and later understand what a hypocrite you are. One moment you are saying how bad that man is and the next moment you are joining him. Instead of dropping the other person's image down, your own image has gone down in the eyes of your child.

What is the best thing to do if you do not agree with anybody? Keep silent. 'I am mouna [the Silent One, or Silence],' Sri Krishna says in the [Bhagavad] Gita. That is the best way to beat it.

When you leave this Yoga Camp remember that this ashram [monastery, hermitage] belongs to you, we are just the caretakers. Just as you have a duty, we also have a duty. Each one of us has his or her duty. Let us perform our duties.

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, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.