Swami Shivapadananda

On old age and exercise

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

630

   

[Swamiji continues speaking on the Bhagavad Gita]

O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth . . .

Regardless of who it is, all beings are deluded at the time of birth. Only Hanumanji [pictured] asked, 'Tell me what is my future, mother? What must I eat?' Others say, 'Where am I? Where am I?' And that goes on in the mind. So, this world is full of delusion.

Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me, realise in full that Brahman, the whole knowledge of the Self, and all action.

I always laugh at this verse of my Lord. Look what He is saying. (Look how your mind works.) Some of these people who love their beautiful or handsome faces will do more hatha [physical postures] yoga so that they will remain young; but the more they do exercises the more they find each day they are getting dried up like a paw paw [papaya]. The Lord is not talking about there being no old age in this body. He is saying that after God-realisation you will not take any birth - and therefore there will be no old age or death. In this body you will just have to go through your prarabdha karma [karma to be worked out in this birth] .Do not think you can avoid it now. The only way you can avoid it is to become indifferent to it by concentrating your mind fully on God and God's glories. When you are fully concentrated on God then old age does not affect you, pain does not affect you. Pain will come but it will just pass away unnoticed. That is what I call 'indifferent'. A lot of bhaktas [devotees] became old and yet bhajan and kirtan was going on - they did not even know that their bodies were old. They were above body consciousness.

God bless you. Hari Om Tat Sat

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 the importance of happiness

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

594

   

Happiness is the most important thing. You must be happy. Even when you are dying you should smile, it makes others happy.

A devotee asks Swamiji how to tackle a problem.

Swamiji: Give it to God. Do not do it seriously. Do it lightly, throw it off. Otherwise in time you will think you solved the problem and not God.

You must have unflinching faith in the guru and steadfast devotion to the Ideal, then japa [meditative repetition of a mantra or one of God's many names] and meditation become easy.

You must go to the guru to learn how you must act in a given situation.

At these Yoga Camps [retreats] we hope and pray that our minds become pure, that our faith in God becomes stronger. And that out of this faith and purity our life in future may bless us to serve God through all names and forms.

The scriptures are actually the embodiment of certain ideas and energy, and if we do not put these scriptural thoughts into action we are no better than animals. Every word that is uttered in the scriptures, every word that is told to us by the saints and sages, and especially our gurus is a word that reveals to us our path and our goal.

Sri Ramakrishna said that the goal of human life is to know who he or she is. It is God-realisation. When a saint was asked, 'What is the highest duty in this world?' the saint smiled and replied, 'The highest duty of man is to worship God, to glorify God and God alone.'

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,

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 the force of Nature

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

583

   

[Reading from the Bhagavad Gita continued]

Has this been heard by you, O Partha, with an attentive mind? Has your delusion born of ignorance been destroyed?

Arjuna said, 'My delusion is destroyed. I have regained my memory through your grace.'

Swamiji: What is wrong with us? Our memory is weak. Here Arjuna says, 'I have regained my memory.'

Arjuna said, 'I am firm and free from doubt. I will act according to your words.'

Swamiji: Once he has said this he will not deviate. In chapter three of the [Bhagavad] Gita the Lord says, 'Even the wise propelled by their desires will be forced to do this.' A lot of people try to do things against their nature but their nature forces them to act accordingly - even wise men. For example the wise man may say, 'I won't teach these people, I'll keep everything to myself;' but his nature will force him to talk about wisdom.

 

So a sannyasi is a sannyasi not because he is a very good man or a lovely man. No. His nature is forcing him to be a sannyasi. An evil man cannot help himself, because his nature forces him to be evil. Surrender to God and your nature will change.

You may ask, 'Unless nature forces me why should I do sadhana [spiritual practice]?' No. It is not like that. You must take refuge at God's feet.

If I worship Mother Saraswati and if I think she can only give me Vidya [divine knowledge]- not money, not motor cars, nor strength - then she becomes a demigod, because I am putting limitations on her. Sri Krishna said, 'As you desire so I will fulfill. It is I who am seated in the hearts of these deities.'

Question: So we control God, Swamiji?

Swamiji: You control your nature and God Itself will fulfill it. You do not control God you control your nature.

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.

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 individuality and doing all mindfully

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 547

[Pictured: Looking up at the first floor of Udbodhan House. The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi lived on the first floor following the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna]

   

Swamiji speaks at the start of an Easter Yoga Camp

In a Yoga Camp you must try and learn how to join your mind permanently in God-thought. You do the very same things that people do elsewhere but you do them with God, you do them for God. If you can take this Yoga Camp and carry it into your daily life, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, then the Yoga Camp does not end here. Then you are turning the whole world into the 'mansion of mirth' that Sri Ramakrishna wants it to be.

The practical aspect here must be applicable there, in your worldly life. If you take up a broom to sweep, think that you are sweeping because of God's grace and that you are doing it for God. If you are grooming yourself feel that you are grooming yourself for God and God must admire you.

When a certain swami in India said to me that no swamis should have long hair, I laughed. The first question I asked him was, 'Did Adi Shankaracharya have hair?' He said, 'Yes, but he shaved it.' I asked, 'Did Sri Ramakrishna have hair?' 'Oh, He was different.' Then I asked, 'Did Swami Vivekananda have hair?' 'Ah, but he also was different.' Then I said, 'So if all these people were different why not allow me to be different too? That would be only perfectly right.'

But the hair does not matter. It is the head under it that matters. [laughter] The things in the world do not matter, it is how you put those things to use that matters. If God thought that I should be born a bald man He would have made me bald, is that not so? I groom myself so that every morning when I prostrate to Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna will tell me, 'You are looking nice today. By looking at you, people will think of me.' That is how I groom myself.

My father, Sri Ramakrishna, was not covered with dirt and filth. My father put on a smart black coat at a time when the sannyasins did not care for black things. 'Black things are from the devils,' they said. But he put on a black coat because he thought: 'Babus [gentlemen] will come today. They must look at me and feel that they want to live like me.' He would dust himself and say to the Divine Mother, 'Look Ma, I am looking nice.' So Sri Ramakrishna has taught us differently. 

Be that kind of a child that you value everything in its rightful place. Transient beauty must be known to be transient; but keep it beautiful. Permanent beauty must be known to be permanently beautiful. Look after it. If you are living simply like this, you are carrying yoga to the world, you are spiritualising the world.

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.

   

 

 

Swami Shivapadananda on Personal Development

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 518

[Pictured: The inner verandah at Balaram Bose's house. The original small Car pulled by Sri Ramakrishna around this verandah during the Jagannath Festival can be seen in the corner.]

Swamiji reads from: The Teachings of Swami Vivekananda

Every man is a slave except the yogi.

Swamiji: He is talking about the yogis who are God-realised.

Reads: Every man is a slave. He is a slave to food, air, his wife, his children, a dollar, a nation, name and fame, and to a thousand things in the world. The man who is not controlled by any one of these bondages, he alone is a real man, a real yogi.

Swamiji: That is why the yogi ultimately has to live on prana. Where is the prana? It is inside him, it is not outside, and therefore he stops breathing.

Reads: Everyone has an opportunity within the limits of his present development to make himself better. We cannot unmake ourselves. We cannot destroy or impair the vital force within us but we have the freedom to give it different directions.

Swamiji: Instead of thinking I am the body you can now start thinking: I am Brahman [the One indivisible Consciousness]. You cannot do anything else, you already have the body. Just start thinking the other way.

Reads: Men should be taught to be practical and physically strong.

Swamiji: You may tell a man to fast for forty days, but then you may have to carry a corpse at the end of it. Mankind should be practical. Let him begin by fasting for one day - on ekadasi for instance. At first let him fast for one day and then let him increase it to two days. He must become strong physically.

Reads: A dozen of such lions will conquer the world and millions of sheep cannot do so. Secondly, men should not be taught to imitate a personality, however great.

Swamiji: Do not try to do exactly what Sri Ramakrishna did. Rather follow his exercises and let the power, already in you, manifest itself. When you plant the seed of an apple, when it grows it manifests its own nature - it does not turn into something else. This world is the ground in which we must plant ourselves, but we must grow in our own uniqueness. Ultimately we are all Brahman, but all cannot go in a straight line.

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.

 

Swami Shivapadananda on mind focus

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 507

(Pictured: The Goose Tank within the Dakshineswar complex with one of the many monkeys that reside in the Temple Garden. What were originally orchards are now car parks.)

   

Gauri, Shankar, Sitaram, Sarada Ma, Sri Ramakrishna, Radheshyam: These names give us bhakti [devotion, divine love], these names give us jnana [knowledge]. Anything or anyone that gives you bhakti and jnana is a manifestation of God's power of dispelling darkness. That which disperses darkness and takes away maya [delusion, illusion] is a special manifestation of God's power.

We must create seriousness in the minds of students so that they become Self-enquiring people. You will find that if you are dull you will become duller after a Yoga Camp - you will only remember patches here and there and most probably you will find that your mind only remembers those things which were jovial. The serious part of it, to which you really should give thought, you forget. This is one of the ways to find out what kind of mind you have - a sattvic [balanced, harmonious] mind, or a tamasic [slothful, lazy] mixed with a rajasic [over-active] mind.

I feel that these are very serious studies but when we gather like this the seriousness is lost. What I say to you is: You are born ignorant, do not die more ignorant. In the previous birth you may have improved, so in this birth try to improve more.

I gave you an interpretation of [Holy Mother Sarada Devi] Mother's teaching: Do not find fault with others. I gave it to you from three different levels just to give you an inkling of how - when you think seriously - you can draw so much from those simple words and improve your life. You can only improve it from where you are.

The idea is that every stage of life must be harmonised. The householder's [lay devotee's] stage of worldly life must be harmonised so that you get to the next stage of harmony: dualism i.e. devotees and gods. Then you go on to the next stage which is being united in the Self. Wherever you are, if you can get that stage harmonised, the next stage will come, and the next stage, and then you will be able to see the horizon - you will become the horizon and that which is beyond the horizon.

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.

   

Swami Shivapadananda on Origins

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 504

(Pictured: Early morning at Dakshineswar complex - view south across the courtyard, with the Radhakanta Temple in the foreground. Kali temple in the background)

   

Swamiji speaks on Devi - the Divine Mother

You find that the good people who were in trouble prayed to Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara [Shiva]. They were praying to that Power which creates, sustains and destroys. While they were praying to that Power, out of the bodies of all the gods and goddesses came this effulgent something. (We call it light but I think of it as an 'effulgent something' - something that is dazzling beyond the human mind.)

From Lord Shiva's effulgence came the face, from Lord Vishnu's effulgence came the torso and from Lord Brahma's effulgence came the feet. Feet here means that creation stands on [a foundation of] creativity. From this effulgent something of all the gods and goddesses came the beautiful form of Devi and with her came the tiger on which she sat. All the three worlds were full of this effulgent light. This self-effulgent light even came out of space and out of the Rishi who was meditating and seeing this revelation.

That which was hidden in creation now manifested. Later on she became the glorious light and the glorious form of Maha [great] Durga, Devi or Maha Lakshmi. Apparently finite, she now destroyed that which stood on the path of prosperity. Then she disappeared, promising that she would come again and again in the different ages.

In the last chapter you find Mother Parvati walking on the River Ganges and the Rishis worshipping this Shakti:     

Sarva mangala mangalye shive sarvartha sadhike,

sharanye tryambaka gauri narayani namostu te.

O Thou, the most auspicious among those who are auspicious

O Thou, the one who grants the fulfilment of all prayers

O Thou, the refuge of all

To Thee, O consort of Shiva, also known as Tryambaka and Gauri

To Thee, O Narayani, our salutations

In this Shakti, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva are one again, That One which has these three powers - creation, preservation and destruction.

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.

Swami Shivapadananda on the various Ashramas [stages] of life

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 487

When you want to build a house you begin by digging the trenches for the foundations. After digging the trenches you put the concrete in and make it so solid that the building will not collapse regardless of what calamities befall it. Similarly a sadhaka [spiritual aspirant] should build his spiritual life so that no matter what calamities, trials or tribulations befall him, he will tenaciously cling to that particular way of life.

Our religion actually starts with the karma kanda [work portion] chapters on ritual worship. These rituals are nothing but exercises to build one's moral strength. We must start from the householder's point of view because ninety nine point nine percent of those present are householders [lay devotees] – not renunciates.

When we talk about sadhakas we do not only mean those people who have come to an ashram [monastery], or who are living somewhere in a cave, for we know that all stages of life in Hinduism are called ashramas. These are: the Brahmacharya ashrama [celibate student stage], the Grihasta ashrama [married householder stage], the Vanaprastha ashrama [stage of retirement and contemplation] and the Sannyasa ashrama [stage of renunciation]. Most of us mistakenly stress only on the brahmacharya ashrama and the sannyasa ashrama.

Who is a sadhaka? All of us are sadhakas. Some of us are consciously travelling towards God and others are unconsciously travelling towards God. Just as there are some children consciously going to school, others are going to school only because they have to go. In this way all of us are sadhakas.

I would like you, as householders, to recall the five Maha [great] Yajnas, the five great sacrifices.

You must pay careful attention when words like 'maha' are used. For instance Shivaratri occurs every month but Maha Shivaratri occurs only once a year. Or, you have Samadhi [superconsciousness] and then you have Maha Samadhi [final departure from the body and re-absorption in the Universal Consciousness].

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.

 

Swami Shivapadananda on self-belief and atheism

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 478

   

Swami Vivekananda said, "The old religion says that he who does not believe in God is an atheist." This was because the old people knew that they were the children of God, a divine part of God. Nowadays not only do people not believe in God they even forget that they are the children of God. Swami Vivekananda went on to say, "The new religion is that he who does not believe in himself is an atheist." How many of you think you are the body? Know that to that extent you are an atheist.

May this Swami Vivekananda bless you, and bless the whole world to know that they are not the material body. When you think you are material you will suffer from lust, greed and anger. These, Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, are open doors to hell. If you believe you are divine then you will become de-hypnotised, you will become selfless, you will see divinity in all. Hari Om Tat Sat

You must study the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Sri Krishna who was a full manifestation of God. You can read the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras but please start with the Bhagavad Gita straight away. There are only seven hundred and one verses.

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.

 

 

Swami Shivapadananda on the Guru’s guidance

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 468

   

A man called Chandra came to Sri Ramakrishna and prayed, "Lord, please give me the vision of my Chosen Ideal [Ishta Deva], I want to have some spiritual experience." Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and touched him. He immediately felt blissful. He went back to the office and tried to attend to his work but he could not get going. He wanted to do his books but he couldn't do them. He could only feel the bliss of God. When he went home he could not see his wife, he could only feel the bliss of God. Then he prayed, "O God, please take this away from me. I don't want it, I can't attend to my worldly duties."

This event shows that we value worldly duties more than godly bliss. Afterwards, by Sri Ramakrishna's grace, that form was withdrawn. But once a week or so, Chandra would still have this experience. This is the greatness of the great gurus.

That is why we say that no guru should give you God-realisation; but rather they should prepare you for God-realisation because it is your natural state. Who can give you something that is natural? If you are a man, why should I make you a man? The only thing I should do is to try and describe to you how a man looks and then, when you see yourself, you would recognise that you are a man. So the guru who describes this to you will put more maya [the power of delusion], a higher [more subtle] maya, to take away the lesser, thicker maya. Thus the revelation will come and you will see the truth.

It is said that Sri Krishna and Arjuna were born as Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda in this age. They also came as Sri Rama and Hanumanji. For it was Hanumanji and not Lakshman who spread the name of Sri Rama - just as Swami Vivekananda spread the name of Sri Ramakrishna.

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

Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham