Swami Shivapadananda

No need for ‘Sunday school’

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 909

You do not need to send your children to Sunday School. You should take half an hour a day and read to them from the Upanishads [Hindu philosophical treatises], the scriptures [Bhagavad Gita etc.] or the Ramayana [the Hindu epic featuring Lord Rama and Mother Sita].

I am either suffering for my own doings or for other's doings. They say God is cruel. No. It is nothing else than my own fault [karma - debt from previous births].

My father used to say that time is a great teacher.

You must be God conscious - or good conscious. Do not hurt others.

To put [offer] a flower for Master [Sri Ramakrishna] is such a great thing [for building devotion or bhakti]. Give the idea now and the children will do it later.

Give some fruits to Me [as the guru - spiritual preceptor, God] in [the form of giving them to] some poor people.

If I see a fault, it is not there, it is here. So what if fifty people are rogues? Why should I care? I must not be a rogue.

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

Be adaptable

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

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

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 746

 

Yes, sitting and meditating can bring about calmness, but if by standing and being active you can have that calmness, then I will allow you to go and sit to meditate [i.e. the sadhaka (aspirant or practitioner) must have the ability to do both without preference]. It is not an objective thing; more a subjective thing. You have to watch yourself and weigh yourself. If you want to sit in meditation, you should go and meditate; but at the same time don't neglect the other aspects of spiritual life. I can't give you a cut and dried rule because you are your own judge. No one else can be your judge.

When I was in India somebody came into the ashram [monastery] and he sat the whole day, he just wanted to meditate. But his meditation was of a very tamasic [slothful, lazy] kind. He didn't want to do any karma yoga [physical work].

You sadhakas must watch your mind. Your mind must be able to attach and detach at a moment's notice, then you can listen to your mind.

T [Swamiji's assistant] makes me laugh sometimes. At night I'll say, 'Come on, press my leg.' He will cut ['chopping' massage the leg] for a little bit, then he will moan and say, 'Swamiji, man. Swamiji.' I'll say, 'Now you forgot that I am Swamiji. Where does the "man" come from?' He will say, 'But Swamiji, I want to go and sleep.' So I'll say, 'Is sleep coming?' He'll answer, 'Yes, I'm very sorry.' I'll say, 'Then cut more.' And he'll reply, 'But Swamiji I am tired.' I'll say again, 'Then cut.' After half an hour, if he doesn't tell me anything, I'll say, 'Go and sleep nicely.' [devotees chuckle] Because he is telling me all this, I know he is giving in to his mind. So that's why I tell him, 'No'. He thinks I am fooling. I am not fooling. I am strengthening his mind. All this is training - though you may not understand it.

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

   

 

How to remember God

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

698

Pray like this: God give me love to love You more; God give me knowledge to realise You; God guide and protect me in such a way that whatever I do in my daily life I will be reminded of You and will do it as a love offering to You.

In this way every action becomes karma yoga. And every action that is karma yoga will involve bhakti yoga. Because of love you will do that particular thing. And it will involve knowledge, jnana yoga, because you will offer it to God and not to the world. And it will become mind control, raja yoga, because your mind will not run away from God Himself.

It is not sacrilegious to take God's name. You must take God's name provided you take God's name with love and reverence - that is the only prerequisite.

At the office say to God: 'It is because of Your strength, Your intelligence, that I did this work. I offer this work to You.' Do not think that you are giving your boss this work for money. Think that you are giving the boss prasad because you have offered it to God. Anything that you offer to God and give to people becomes prasad in a special way.

When you look at people know that God is omnipresent, therefore God is present in this man, God is there though you cannot see Him with these eyes. You see God with the mind and intellect first; you imagine He is there; and as you do this God Himself will give you more power to remember Him in everyday life.

In that way you will not neglect the temple, the ashram, the mosque, or the synagogue; because what you pray for in the shrine you will be giving out in your daily action, in your daily dealings. You will not be praying to God in a shrine and then robbing people outside. Because if you do that you are actually committing more sin, you are offering God that which is not truth. God is truth, you must offer God truth. God is love, you must offer God love. God is full of mercy, offer God mercy. Thus your life will become an ideal life and others can see it and follow it.

 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

 

Swami Shivapadananda on programming a child’s mind

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 521

[Pictured: The Haldarpukur, the tank where Sri Ramakrishna bathed and played as a child.]

   

The moon in Shiva's locks is never a full moon, it is always a streak, a new moon, which means it has infinite potentiality to live - infinite potentiality to manifest - infinite time. It is ever young, ever the first day.

Sri Sarada Devi said, 'The flower that is best offered at the lotus feet of God, is a flower that has not yet been smelled.' The meaning is: if a child is in its youthfulness, and has not been touched by sensuality, by pleasure or maya [illusion/delusion], that is the best child to offer to God - because the world has not enjoyed it. Prahlada, a boy saint was one of these.

The story of Prahlada is part of the traditional history of the Hindus. You can draw your own conclusion. The saying, 'Man proposes, God disposes,' is clearly shown to be true in this story. Hiranyakasipu [Prahlada's demonic father] thought of a terrible plan and yet something else happened. You find that though the child, Prahlada, belonged to a demonic man, yet that child was brought up by the devas [gods] and good people. He manifested, first of all, the good qualities that were his from a previous birth and then the good qualities of the devas and his guru.

Does this not sound like Sri Ramakrishna's saying, 'The real time to learn something is in childhood or youth'? In his simple way he [Sri Ramakrishna] showed us that whatever collects in the child's mind during those formative years goes on to form his character later on.

The father then took Prahlada away from the good teachers and brought him home. There the boy displayed the same ethical and moral characteristics that had been taught to him by the devas and the Deva Rishis [Seer-Saints]. As if trying to erase the first impressions, the first writings, on the heart and mind of this great bhakta [devotee], the father sent him to other teachers, in order to mould his life according to the father's liking. The motive of the father was to overcome good.

Hiranyakasipu tried again and again to change the mind of the son, but he failed. Why did he fail? He failed because, as Sri Ramakrishna said, when the clay is cast into the shape of a brick and it is baked and made hard, later on it is difficult to break that brick or to change its shape. Similarly, in the mind and heart of Prahlada, the shape and form of dharma [righteousness] was already baked hard.

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 congruence and Jesus

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 520

[Pictured: The small temple that now stands on the spot where Sri Ramakrishna was actually born.]

   

Be Guileless. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven until and unless you become guileless; until and unless you have the directness of a child, the frankness of a child. Until then you will find that your thought, word and deed do not correspond; you will find that you are thinking one thing and saying another; or you are saying something and you are thinking something else; or you are doing something and not meaning it.

We find this directness displayed so much in a child, this corresponding of all the different stages; the subtlest to the subtle, and the subtle to the gross - thought, word and deed. The Lord says that this is the quality you must have. (He does not say you must become childish, for when you become childish you become foolish.)

There is a vast difference between a child and a saint. The child acts unknowingly, ignorantly, but the quality of directness is still there. The saint acts knowledgeably, he knows God and therefore will not deviate from God. He is direct, straight-forward and this comes down to us. In between, we cover it with our own thinking, we cover it with this thing called maya [the power to delude]. This maya is of our own making, of our own thinking. A child's knowledge is expressed unknowingly and the saint's knowledge is expressed knowingly, by knowing God directly.

It is said that on this ascension day Christ ascended to heaven. Ascension day to me means that he realised himself today - the complete Self. Thereafter he could not live on the plane of the physical. Rather, he then gravitated to the plane of Spirit, the plane of samadhi [superconsciousness], nirvakalpa samadhi [the non dual state superconsciousness], nay, the Absolute, Mahasamadhi [final 'great' samadhi in which the body falls away]. For is it not said in the scriptures that if a man lives in that state for twenty one days his body falls off like a dry leaf? Before that, did not the Lord worship and pray? Did he not struggle hard while doing this, that the perfume of good deeds, that the perfume of obliterating the sin of imperfection in others, would manifest itself?

Thus he ascended. This was the day he realised his Real, his true nature. Not only did he realise it but after realising it, it was impossible for him to remain on the relative plane. We are all waiting for this day, this beautiful day.

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 breaking concepts

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 517

[Pictured: The drawing room at Balaram Bose's house. Sri Ramakrishna often met his devotees here and he slept in the small room at the end.]

 

Swamiji reads from: The Teachings of Swami Vivekananda

No great work can be achieved by humbug. It is through love and passion for truth and tremendous energy that all undertakings are accomplished. Tat kuru purusham: Therefore manifest your manhood.

Swamiji: 'Nothing great is achieved by humbug', he says. What are the three things he speaks of? First you must have love, then you must have a passion for truth and then you must exert tremendous energy - therefore manifest your manhood.

It is not the law [here he (Swami Vivekananda) is referring to our limited understanding of reality] that we want, but the ability to break laws.

Swamiji: This is very contradictory. If you have a weak arm and if you want to strengthen it, you have to use the little strength that is in it to carry weight every day, to break through that weakness. So you take the little laws, get a strong will and break through the laws of nature. It is not laws that we want but to break through the laws. We want to be out-laws.

Reads: If you are bound by laws you will be a lump of clay. Whether you are beyond the law or not is not the question. But the thought that we are beyond the law, upon that is based the whole history of humanity.

Swamiji: Now it does not matter whether you are in law or out of law, the most important thing is that you must always know that you are bound by no law. You must keep thinking, 'I am ever free.'

Reads: Each man is the Infinite already. Only the bars and bolts of different circumstances shut him in. As soon as they are removed he rushes out and expresses himself.

Swamiji: It is like this: One night I send you out to a neighbouring factory to get some books. After a few moments you rush back saying, 'Swamiji, there is a ghost, there is a ghost, I saw him.' Then I may say, 'But I told you, my friend, to go to the factory and get me some books.' 'But the ghost . . !' 'Where is the ghost? Come, let's take a torch.' Now if I point it at the ghost . . . Look. It is the trunk of a tree. It is not a ghost at all and yet it limits your movement, your freedom. If you think you are the body then that thought of name and form limits your movement. The 'ghost' does nothing. You limit yourself because you think it is a ghost.

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 mood affecting others

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 513

(Pictured: The entrance to the Shyampukur house, now a Ramakrishna Math. Sri Ramakrishna lived on the first floor, which has been turned into a shrine.)

   

Swamiji continues talking on the effect of anger

We cannot explain how these things affect us physically, but they happen and they affect us. If you are alone in a room and you are very sad or depressed and somebody comes in, they will automatically sense that depression. How does that person come to know without you telling him? The yogis may say, 'Well, you just make your mind a blank and whatever that man is thinking will come into your mind.' But I do not make my mind blank. All the time I am dwelling in God and God's name.

Even when you prostrate I am saying, Om aim sarva deva devi swaroopaaya Sri Ramakrishnaaya namah, [meaning: I prostrate to Sri Ramakrishna who is the consciousness of all the gods and goddesses] or Om namah Sivaaya [I prostrate to Lord Shiva], or Om Kalikaaye namah [I prostrate to Mother Kali] . I say these words because that is the deity that you worship and I feel it come inside me spontaneously. Our thoughts definitely affect other people.

When people used to come to Sri Ramakrishna with fruits and other things, He would say, 'Keep it there, keep it there.' They would take it and put it in the basket. At night, when all the people had gone, He would tell his disciples, 'Take all that and put it in the [river] Ganges.' When they asked him why, he would say, 'Oh, that man came with a bad motive, that is why. Now give it to Mother Ganga and whatever she wants to do, let it happen.' At other times Swami Vivekananda would walk in, go to the same basket and start eating. So the others would complain to the Master and say, 'Maharaj, Naren [later Swami Vivekananda] is eating the fruit but you do not let us eat it.' 'Ah,' Master would say, 'he is a blazing fire, he can consume anything. Leave him.' He would not even allow [the pre-monastic Rakhal] Swami Brahmananda to eat this food.

Sri Ramakrishna said that in his previous birth Swami Brahmananda was one of the gopas [cowherd devotees] with Sri Krishna and that Swami Vivekananda was a manifestation of the Shiva-power [the power that destroys ignorance] on Earth.

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 remembering you’re NOT the body

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 511

(Pictured: Behind the Dakshineswar Kali Temple compound is the garden house formerly owned by Jadu Mallick, where Sri Ramakrishna often went in his earlier years.)

   

You are closing your heart in the form of sleep, in the form of laziness, in the form of wandering. You cannot learn like that. You have the time but you are wasting it. That is your business. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna has said, 'I am Time the all-devourer.' He devours both vidya [knowledge] and avidya [ignorance]. In the form of laziness and non-concentration he is devouring knowledge and leaving you in more ignorance. So, watch yourselves. Your deity has come in the form of time, so worship it, take advantage of it.

Swamiji to devotee: Did you see yourself this morning?

Devotee: Yes, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Where did you see yourself?

Devotee: In the mirror.

Swamiji: No. You saw your eyes in the mirror, [laughter.] It is a very funny thing but you can never see your Self and yet you say, 'I saw myself, I looked very beautiful.' Every morning you are doing it.

Sri Ramakrishna said, 'O Lord I don't know what to say about You. It is better to say nothing, because everything that I say, You are not that.'

When you looked in the mirror you forgot what you had learned here - that you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not the intellect. You are thinking, 'This is my body, I am designing it, I am making a beautiful coat and putting it on.' Forget it. You cannot realise God like that. You have to remember that you are not the body all the time.

People say to me, 'Swamiji, I am doing so much japa [repetition of God's names or a mantra] why is nothing happening?" I say, 'What will happen? Nothing will happen. What's supposed to happen is happening. You think you are the body so it is making you conscious of the body.' You keep on thinking thoughts like: 'I have been looking at this body through these eyes for years.'

God is impartial, sooner or later He comes to everyone. So all this: that you are the self, that you are this, that you are that, that your headache got cured, that your nose was bent and it became straight - is not God. No. Every second you must think that you are not the body. 

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 contentment

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 500

(Pictured: A useful map of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple Garden, with grateful acknowledgement to the Vedanta Society of Southern California)

   

Swamiji continues speaking on Niyama

Two: Contentment [santosha]. You must have this virtue. It does not mean that there can be no improvement. If you follow dharma [righteousness] it will not make you greedy, it will not make you a miser. You can improve.

Do not worry what the neighbours have. You must just be content with your lot and work from there. Every Hindu scripture encourages you to work first and then, when you go above work, you become sattvic [balanced, harmonious].

In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says, 'Arjuna, take the bow and arrow and fight.' First there must be effort. Then, when you can do everything you are above work, and laziness will not get you. You will not be caught in the clutches of duality – i.e. do this and do not do that. You can do everything and yet do nothing. Contentment means contentment here in your daily life. Improve yourself according to dharma, do not compare yourself with others and become competitive. Having said this, remember that Sri Ramakrishna said you should be discontented with your spiritual life if you are not making progress. Become restless to know God - that is the only place you must become restless. Even if you say, 'Oh, I saw Sri Krishna last night, I am the blessed one,' you are finished. You haven't even seen the Universal Form [vishwarupa] yet. Arjuna saw Sri Krishna, he lived with Sri Krishna and yet he still had doubts. Even after Sri Krishna showed him the Universal Form he still had doubts. Only after being shown his Ishta Devata's [personal or chosen deity] form did he say, 'O Lord, now I understand.'

Be discontented with your spiritual advancement. Do not think, 'I am the chairman now, there is nobody like me.' Sri Ramakrishna did not say, 'I have realised all the different paths of Hinduism so I am all right.' No. He went beyond the boundaries of Hinduism and that is what makes him unique. People practise this religion or that religion but he practised The Religion.

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 ‘tuning in’ to God

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 494

[The Mother Kali murti (image) worshipped by Si Ramakrishna at the Dakshineswar Temple. This aspect of Mother is technically known as Bhavatarini]

   

You may call Sri Ramakrishna guru, you may call him whatever you like, but as long as you think: He is that body, you are wrong. He must be the recipient of that Omnipresent [everywhere], Omniscient [all-knowing], Omnipotent [all-powerful] Power which expresses Itself to you.

When a radio broadcast is going on, the waves carrying the voices are transmitted everywhere. But only when it is tuned properly does the radio attract [receive] these waves. A child hearing the radio may say, 'The radio is speaking', but we know the radio is not speaking at all. Similarly, because 'It' is everywhere It is attracted. And because our guru became so pure, he became the recipient of this Grace and thus he dishes it out to all beings. This, however, cannot be received without mind and sense control.

From material-conscious we become God-conscious, until we become Absolutely God-conscious. From material values we uplift our minds, so that our minds never think of material things. Like Sri Ramakrishna who, on seeing a prostitute, went into Samadhi [a superconscious state]. An ordinary man looks at a prostitute and where does his mind go? When Sri Ramakrishna saw a dog and a bitch uniting he went into samadhi. He saw it as the individual soul uniting with the Universal Soul. This comes by mind and sense control, and mind and sense control only comes by pure action. In the Bible too we read: "Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God."

Do not think you will deceive me, do not think you can deceive God. In your ignorance you may think like that but you cannot deceive yourself. If you know, then God knows, because you are part of God.

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.