Swami Shivapadananda

What are ‘demons’?

 

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 911

 

Dhutas [so-called demons] are what? Soldiers, protectors, messengers. And Bhutas [so-called ghosts] are the five elements [earth, water, fire, air, ether] – nothing else. These five elements can play havoc with you. When they are unbalanced in your body you see a lot of forms – if your nerves are a little bit highly strung [Swamiji makes the 'ting, ting, ting' sound of a tightly-tuned instrument], you'll see a lot of 'ting, ting, ting.' [Meaning stress and tension-related imaginings]. So it's these five bhutas [elements] that the Lord uses to put things right [maintain balance] in this world, nothing else. 

So what I say to you is, 'Come on! Let us all get together and try to love God. There are no ghosts and demons [or evil entities] – they only come when you are far away from God himself. First of all in the Hanuman Chalisa it is said he's 'gyana guna sagar' – so if you've got this gyana [or jnana - divine knowledge] and if you've got this virtue - guna – then, you can immediately make out [discern] that your God has put a mask on [a disguise] and is appearing in front of you. Say, 'Hey!, take off the mask my Lord – I know who you are.

Remember that I said in Ladysmith [a South African town in the province of KwaZulu Natal] that even the dogs are better [than we are], because their master can dress up in any form [disguise] and appear. The children will run – frightened – but the dog will sniff and know, 'This is my master, what is wrong with him? He's dressed up like a clown today.' Even the dogs are better than we are because they can identify their master in different forms. But we are those kinds of dogs of God that when he comes in another form we say, 'Hey, you devil, where did you come from?' And he laughs – he has a good joke with us. Come on! There is nothing else in this world but God. There is no fear at all. Go on – put your head on the lap of the Lord. Whichever deity you worship; Kali, Durga, Sitala, Krishna, whatever it is – Kartikeya, Ganesha, Rama, whomever. It's a manifestation of the form of that [One] great Being. Look at it and see 'It' all over. 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.

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

Thoughts on Brahman

 

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

 

'He is all; but He dwells in all names and forms which are super-imposed on Him through ignorance. I am Brahman [the one indivisible universal consciousness], Brahman is in me.' Only when I realise that: 'I am Brahman devoted to the [param] atman [universal soul]' are you jivatman [seemingly 'individual' soul]. Outside it is the atman.

First think: What is [out] there is [in] here.

Shanti [peace], shanti, shanti. Peace in the gross, the subtle and the causal.

All body sickness is put there by maya [the divine power of illusion/delusion] to make us think of the body. Pray for a fit body in which He dwells, minus name and form.

Brahman is immortal truth, everything positive.

We must meditate with the calmest mind (a partly calm mind will not do). Think: It is the [one, universal] Self that Thou art.

The only bliss is in knowing Brahman. There is no other way to liberation but by knowing Brahman. Find the source within. This leads to restfulness. How to make the mind calm? Give up attachment - in every action, in every word.

Upasana is meditation and ritual.

The world consists of [the three] gunas [sattva. Rajas and tamas]. Take them out [transcend, eliminate or bypass them] and you will know what Brahman is.

Do you want to be healthy? Meditate every morning. The power will manifest in a year.

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

The eight elements of which we’re comprised

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

619

[pictured: Depiction of Lord Krishna with the Gopis]

   

Whatever the guru's desires are, the guru himself will reach where he wants to go. The most powerful thing is the guru's mantra - and he has given it to you.

If I stole five million rand and I gave two million rand to charity, and if you came to know that I am a rogue, do you think the money that I have already given to charity would lose its value? It would never lose its value. Similarly the value of God's name is never lost and the man who recites his name will have love to God's lotus feet. Truth can even come from a person like Valmiki [a highwayman who became a Rishi, or Sage-Seer-Saint]. But it is you who are going to do the striving, not the guru.

In the Bhagavad Gita we read: Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egotism this is My nature divided eight-fold.

God's lower nature is divided into eight different divisions. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said: 'That which does not perish is God' - anything that perishes is not God. We see the Earth perish, we see the ego perish. Though these come from God they are not his real nature. It is his superimposition or his power which falls into the three qualities; sattvic, rajasic and tamasic. It is God's power; but it is not God in essence. You do not know Him in essence, you know his gross things.

[Lord Krishna says] This is the inferior prakriti, O mighty Arjuna. Note that thou art different from it, my higher nature, the very life element by which this world is upheld.

Take your body as an example. Why do you look after your body? It is to keep something inside it - life. So life is higher than body. That which gives life to the whole world, that which is the life of the whole world, is higher than the world itself.

This body is made of the five elements that we read about. You have fire in you. Feel your body; it is warm. Water? There is water in the body. Air? The breath is there. Ether or space? You have it. Earth is the excreta or the body itself. It is made of clay. But what is higher than the body? Life.

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 how our true nature shows through

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

587

[The three Gunas are Rajas at one end of the continuum with Tamas at the other and Sattva at the balance point between them]

   

A rajasic person is a very good person provided that he directs that rajasic temperament towards God, towards sattva. Hanumanji [the great devotee of Lord Rama] for instance has all the qualities but the quality he manifests most is his rajasic quality. He always wants to serve Lord Rama.

Some people are rajasic by nature. Who but a rajasic person would want to play rugby? You can actually identify them by the 'toys' they play with.

If I gave someone a hard clout, [blow] (whether it was his fault or not), who are the people that, on seeing this, would become tearful? Who would feel that sorrowful? Those people who are more sattvic inclined.

There are other people who would say, 'Good, let him have it. Let him get it. He will come right.' They are rajasic people. Others would lazily say, 'You shouldn't hit him, let him do what he feels like.' They are tamasic people.

If your God is Infinite, if your God is Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent, then He is God. Without these qualities he is a demigod. People have worshipped stone symbols believing them to be Lord Shiva and they have had the highest realisation of God. The thread here is Omnipresence.

Today people worship the same Mother Kali that Sri Ramakrishna worshipped but they only say, 'Cure my sickness, cure my sickness.' They think that Mother Kali can only cure illnesses. So they only get that - even though she could give them God-realisation.

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