Swami Shivapadananda

Imagination is a divine key

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 988

Doing brief sadhana [spiritual practice] early in the morning and the evening is alright for a beginner. But after three years you shouldn't do that. After three years you should watch your mind. Are you taking God's name every second? No? Why? Question yourself – why? What is wrong? Where has it gone wrong? You don't have the strength. When you're taking God's name - I use the word 'imagine' – you're not imagining God everywhere. Image, imagination. When you start imagining you get inspiration.

It all begins with the 'I'. Image – that image, when you look at your deity's image [murti], whether it's painted, a picture, a concrete image or a mental image – it doesn't matter. When you look at the image think about all the divine qualities. When you imagine that – when you look at the image and you imagine those qualities, what will happen? You get inspiration. When you get inspiration, what will happen? You will get intuition. And when you intuit, what will happen?...enlightenment. You will become enlightened – that is what is called samadhi [spiritual superconsciousness]. It's not some foolish man's play that they put the image there. You don't imagine enough. You're offering the agarbatti [incense] and thinking about the child playing outside there. You're doing nothing. You're bluffing. You've lighted the lamp but you're thinking about what's cooking in the pot. That's not it – imagine, there.

Imagination is the most divine instrument given to man to reach God. The mind is the gateway to the world and the mind is also the gateway to God. How does it work? If you think about the beautiful qualities of your deity – nothing happens to the image or statue – everything happens here [to you, in your mind]. It's like I dial a number here – but the phone rings somewhere else. So just like that – if I dial 'love, love' for my deity – 'love, love' - what will happen? That number will ring in me because he's omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. So the love [bhakti] will manifest automatically here. What you think without, you become within. You hate somebody, you hate him there, outside – but yet you become hatred personified. Haven't you heard people say, 'I am angry!' [Swamiji chuckles] Hmm. 'I' am angry! And yet you know he's not anger – but at that moment he becomes anger personified.

So, when you dial [think] good - good will wake up here. If you dial bad, bad will wake up here. When you say, 'Kali! Wake up Kali!' there's an area in our body which is Kali – that area will wake up and when that wakes up, then the whole thing manifests itself. Supreme Ishwari [the goddess Durga] comes in. Do you imagine what I am saying? I love all of you, that's why I keep telling you all. It will be too late.

1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time. 

2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.

There are currently available, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

Sri Ramakrishna    Sri Sarada Devi     Swami Vivekananda  

Swami Nischalananda  Swami Shivapadananda 

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online

Reference websites - please mouse over the name and click to connect:

Ramakrishna Math and Mission    Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa    Ramakrishna Dham

Swami Shivapadananda on finding out who you really are

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 516

[Pictured: Balaram Bose's house in north Calcutta [Kolkata], Sri Ramakrishna's 'chief vineyard' according to Mahendranath Gupta - 'M' - [recorder of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna], where the Master regularly met with his devotees in the long drawing room, first floor with verandah.]

   

Swamiji reads from: The Teachings of Swami Vivekananda

Reads: When you think you are a body ....

Swamiji speaks: Remember these words. Some people are looking for joy and some people are looking for the secretive path. They want Sri Ramakrishna to come and touch them so they will get in Samadhi [superconsciousness] - like [he did to] Swami Vivekananda. That is what they want. But here it is clear cut. Look at these words. Listen carefully.

Reads: When you think you are a body you are apart from the universe. When you think you are a soul you are a spark from the Great Eternal Fire. When you think you are the Atman [all-pervading spirit] you are All.

Swamiji: A sadhaka [spiritual aspirant or practitioner] must think: 'I am Brahman' [the One indivisible consciousness]. But when the thought comes, 'I am the body,' you must use the other mantra: 'neti neti' [not this, not this]. When you look at others as the body think: 'neti neti, Brahman has come and I must worship It.' Think like this continuously. Think, think, the word is think.

When you do japa [repetition of a mantra or God's many names] what are you doing? You are thinking about Lord Shiva, you are thinking about Lord Rama, you are thinking about Mother Kali. So, when you think about the Spirit you become the Spirit. There is no miracle about this, it is plain and simple - there is no secret initiation about it either.

When people went to Ramana Maharishi with problems he would say, 'Don't worry about the world. Enquire: Who am I?' If you asked him, 'Who must I pray to?' he would say, 'Who is asking?' They would reply, 'I.' Then he would say, 'Who is this 'I'?' He was direct. Ramana Maharishi spoke a lot on bhakti [divine devotion]. He wrote poems full of bhakti. But he always chose those things that pointed towards the Self - the real 'I' (not I-conscious nor I-absent) which shines out, Self-effulgent.

Swami Purushottamananda [the guru of Swamiji's Guru, Swami Nischalananda Puri – therefore Swamiji's 'Paramguru'] also drew people's notice to this. He would say, 'Who are you? Go and find out who the 'I' is, and the day you can find the 'I' out, you will disappear and God will appear.'

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 seeing yourself as Spirit

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 512

(Pictured: The Shyampukur house in Calcutta where Sri Ramakrishna lived for 70 days between leaving Dakshineswar and moving to the Cossipore garden house.]

   

Every second you must think that you are not the body.

There are two ways to do this. One is to think that all these names and forms you are clinging to are not there - neti, neti [not this, not this]. The other way is to think you are Sri Krishna, or Lord Vishnu, or Lord Shiva, and wherever you look, you feel He is permeating that, 'Ah, He is there, He is there.' You see the wall but feel that He is inside that wall permeating it. You see the space and feel He is permeating it. In that way, slowly but surely, you become above body consciousness and know that there is body and there is spirit. Later on you will find that the body is spirit. There is nothing there - only you the Self.

Devotee: What happens if you are angry when you cook food?

Swamiji: Oh, that is the worst kind of food you can give anybody. That is why the Hindus are so particular about this matter. The wife must take the husband as a symbol of God and cook for that God. If you do this then no anger will be there, only devotion and love. If you serve the food that was cooked while you were angry - with your child for instance - then you are sinning because you are feeding other people with that 'anger food'. After all they did not make you angry, did they?

The Bhagavad Gita tells us: 'Lust, anger and greed are open doors to hell.' When you get angry what are you saying? 'Go to hell. [laughter] You must get your mind under control.

If you are repeating God's name you should not have anger. For the anger to subside, sit down in one place and do your sadhana [spiritual practice] and let it subside. Or say to the man with whom you are angry, 'Look, I am sorry I did this,' or 'You shouldn't have done that, you hurt my feelings.' Then if he or she tells you some good words this uplifts your mind.

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 our divine nature

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 510

 

Does Swami Vivekananda's story show us that the tiger was a sheep? * [see footnote] No. The tiger was hypnotised into thinking it was a sheep because it had not seen itself. The day it saw itself, the power manifested and it realised, 'Hey, I am a tiger.' But all the time it had been a tiger. All the time you are a god but hypnotism has made you think that you are this.

Though you use the word merging, though you mean becoming, all these are just figurative words. In reality God-realisation is nothing like that.

We are looking for that which Sri Ramakrishna taught us. What is the use of clinging on to Sri Ramakrishna and not wanting to reach the state that he wanted us to reach? I feel that Sri Ramakrishna is nothing, Sri Sarada Devi is nothing, Swami Vivekananda is nothing, as long as we do not strive for the things they asked us to strive for. When we do that, then the holy ones are everything.

Excuse me for saying this in such strong words but I want to show you that to me the deities really do not matter. They are only a manifestation like you and me. But I thank them, I bow to them. They are the brightest manifestations who have come to show us the light, while our manifestations are still dark. We cannot even see our own footsteps. They are 'That' [indivisible One consciousness] which you are, but you are not shining as yet.

God is man. If the container is ice and the thing you put in that container is water, what is the difference between the container and the water? Both are H₂O but one is in liquid form and the other is in the form of ice. You are calling one of them 'container' and the other one 'water'. [But they are one and the same]

[Footnote: The story is told, in various ways, of a tiger who was reared in a flock of sheep. He behaved and did everything just like the sheep. Until another tiger came along and dragged him to the water's edge and made him look at his true reflection. Only then did he realise he'd been a tiger all along.]

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 superstition

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 471

   

As he grew up Naren [who later became Swami Vivekananda] loved physical training. At that time he was in the materialistic world and he wanted to look like a real man. So he went to the gymnasium and trained. He was known to be the top student in that gymnasium. It is also remembered how he nursed someone who was hurt when everyone else ran away, thus showing his inner compassion. He could not bear to see a man suffer.

Even from an early age he was not prepared to accept any superstition whatsoever. For example: a man told him, "There's a ghost in that tree and if you climb it he'll break your neck." So he waited for the man and his own friends to go away and then he climbed into the tree to see if the ghost was there or not. If you think this is easy, you try it. Let your mother say in the darkness that there is a devil there and see if you do not get frightened. Later when his friend asked him if there was a ghost there he said, "Fool. If there had been a ghost my neck would have been broken - you wouldn't have had anybody to ask. That man was bluffing."

From a young age these things started showing in Naren. That is why we observe a child closely from the time he or she is young. When we see a bad habit in the child we should trim it straight away. People say, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Sometimes even the rod is good - but not many times of course.

If the young Swami Vivekananda was not prepared to cater to superstition in his worldly dealings, how do you think he would cater to superstition in the scriptures?

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: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham

 

Swami Shivapadananda on the secret to God realisation

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.

Day 424

The secret of all mantras [sacred syllables or names of God], all sadhanas [spiritual practices] is imagination, i.e. image-making. Do that slowly and you will overcome the image itself. But no one wants to do this.

If you get depressed think of apples, oranges, bees - of the sun, of the colour of the flowers [i.e. nature]. During the day do it for 3 minutes, or 15 minutes. Think of happy times, in church etc - and you will find happiness and be transformed. That is how to be happy, and hale and hearty. Offer all you do to Him. You are blaming the key but you are putting it in the wrong lock. Put the key in its rightful place.

Swami Yatiswarananda [pictured] says in his book [Meditation and Spiritual Life]: Do all for Him. The central thought must be about God. This leads to great results if you stick to it. There is no miracle, no magic, in spiritual life.

Swamiji: They say spiritual pride and arrogance are sparked off by miracles.

Book: Spiritual life is very simple, but it is difficult.

Swamiji: I would like to change that to 'It is very simple and therefore so difficult.'

Sri Ramakrishna said: A true devotee of God must have absolute calmness - never be disturbed by the opinions of others. Be like the blacksmith's anvil, endure all the blows and persecutions and yet remain firm in your faith, and always be the same. 

Swami Shivapadananda on getting the vision of God

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.

Day 422

   

Spoken by Swamiji during an Upanishad [Hindu philosophical scriptures] class:

You are forced to think because of past karma. If you think or desire specifically from your side what happens? Hiranyagarbha [the primordial, original entity] desires his body to become fit for sacrifice. First it is desired and then it happens to the body. He made it fit for sacrifice, and entered it. Thus I come to you and say, "You are Brahman" [the undifferentiate universal consciousness]. This is a great tribute.

Imagination is a very powerful power of your mind - not just the sage's mind - but you get equal benefit by doing it yourself.

We pray: "O Ramakrishna reveal yourself to me," or, "O Jesus reveal yourself to me." But in prayer we leave out the main thing: "O Lord look after me and be happy on me. And, O Lord, please let me see you, at least let me see you in dream." As you keep praying something happens and the desire to know Him will dominate you. You will be dominated by this. This shows us how strong thought is.

As a small child I would say: "Hail Maharani [lit: great queen - the Divine Mother], give me your vision, always - everlastingly." So because my Maharani is a great queen I must be a prince, in the dual state [i.e. She is one thing, I am another]. I must have asked God to reveal Himself to me, in my last birth.

I say 'My Maharani is a great queen' but you can say 'King' if you like. Keep saying it and She/He will give you the strength to mean it. But you did not ask and so He did not reveal Himself - you ask for money and other things - and these He will give. 

Swami Shivapadananda on ‘growing the Pearl’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.

Day 377

   

Judge yourself, not others. Shun anger and happiness [i.e. extremes], this is the middle [sattvic, balanced] path.

Be hard on yourself and soft on others. This too is sadhana [spiritual practice].

There is attachment to the Guru, yes, but only inside. Dive deep and find the pearl of love. Adore the guru above all else, and love all else.

An Avatar [Incarnation of God] is a pure, perfect mirror. Others are not. Only to the extent of their purity do they reflect the sun. You can break the mirror but the sun is still shining. Stone does not reflect so well and therefore we do not easily see God in it. Go inside and find Satchidananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss absolute].

Remember the story of how the oyster shell gets sand in it and closes up? Later the shell opens and there is a pearl there. But you must not keep peeping inside to see how the pearl is getting on. Just put a grain of sand in the shell and leave it, leave it. Then later on, a beautiful pearl will be yours. The oyster is the guru.

Desire binds but also, when it is properly used, it frees.

Divine love must spread out from you, that is what loving is.

Be like a cow, chew over the guru's words. We have a time limit. Swamiji [meaning himself] tries to push through as many words as possible.

The heart must be like an open rose.

Visualise the guru on top of the head, pure white.

Faith is unshakable trust in the Unchanging.

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Swami Shivapadananda on public speaking

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

Day 340

 

Before you speak in public, especially in the shrine, say to your self: ‘Ma [Divine Mother], this is your instrument, you speak through it, you use it as you like.’  Make every anecdote [story/illustration/example] feel as though seen and experienced by you. For example, if Rama [the great Hindu Incarnation] felt sad in a certain situation, you too must experience the same while relating it.

 

Fire is latent in all wood. With friction it burns, is transformed and becomes ash. That is, its form has gone. Purity is Saraswati [the aspect of the Divine Mother that bestows gifts/talent/wealth]. Purity burns all karma. In the transformation, it leads to desire-less-ness.

 

The [higher] Self is your enemy, and the Self is your friend. It is destruction and liberation. It is bondage and God. Control your own mind first. Make this your whole life, only then will you help others. The thought of the past, if glorious, inspires you today. Otherwise bury it.

 

In meditation as thought arises, either ignore it or say, ‘Lord, this is your instrument, your thought, your senses, the fruit of your tree. I offer it back to Thee.’ Thought and thinking, this is the important thing. God-thought is a golden chain, with it you climb to God. Worldly thought binds you to Earth.

 

Serve God in all. Make all your own.

 

When I go within [i.e. in meditation], I am one with you, God. Nothing of me remains. But when I come out I see You in all beings.

 

Everything that comes from the guru is Prasad [blessed, sacramental food]. Watch my actions as well as hearing my words, then you will understand. No action, thought or word can be recalled.

 

Govinda [Lord Krishna/God] is guru and guru is Govinda [God].

Click on 'Continue reading' below to find out about CDs of Swamiji speaking.

Swami Shivapadananda with Zen Koan-like thoughts

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY

READINGS

Taken from Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

Day 271

The body and its action are to do God’s work in this world. The head is always in solitude, that is, with God. Integrate the spiritual life with the outer life. Let them merge. Go inside and watch.

Watch your reaction to others, especially those the mind does not like. Hopelessness is the only way to happiness.

Intense longing for God burns evil karma. The bliss of meditating on Krishna burns karma.

We read in the Vedas [Hindu philosophical treatises]: Freedom is the existence of the One and nothing else. Existence of anything else hampers our freedom. Control is not freedom. Discipline overcomes the internal and external and leads to Absolute freedom. All action comes from the feeling of finite-ness. ‘Doing’ is a sign of imperfection.

Desires? Feed them a little - just enough to keep them quiet.

What you offer the Lord here is all you will find when you get there.

Do not say, ‘O God, come to me.’ He has come and He is sitting inside you.

The sun seems to move, that is inaction in action. The pen seems to write. You steer the pen but it is divine force which moves it. Action in inaction is meditation.

Inaction in action, that is what we want. Example: The hands are doing the cooking and the mind is on God.

We say, ‘I am sick.’ No. The body is sick. We say, ‘I am sad.’ No. The mind feels sad. We say, ‘I am clever.’ No. The intelligence is clever. Beyond the intelligence is the real you.