SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
635
Spoken by Swamiji at a satsang – religious or prayer service:
In the song we have just heard, Sri Rama is trying to explain something to Lakshman. He is saying: 'Do not get worried, my brother, all this is only karma; the greatest thing is to recognise that whatever is appearing in front of you is karma and from that point of view just do your dharma [righteous duty]. No man who came to the world in a body (which is made out of the five elements) only enjoyed happiness. Happiness and sadness, pain and comfort, are two good friends. One may be the subject; the other is the shadow of that subject. So these pairs will be everywhere. All these things are according to a person's own karma; and because of this, O Lakshman, let us just do our dharma. That is all.'
Everything, whatever you do, is through hard work. You are a fool if you think that you are going to pray to God and that God will come down and say, 'Yes my son, what do you want? You are the most beloved one. Don't worry, let all this trouble leave you and go to another man's house, you will be saved.' It will never ever happen. And even if God does come and bless you, then it is a grace which cannot be explained. It is your own karma because the very action of calling on God becomes karma.
The guest speaker gave us a meeting point between worldliness and godliness when he used the word karma. There is a bridge and you cannot just stand on a bridge. You still have to perform some sort of karma, some sort of action; you have to walk from one end to the other. The effort has to be manifested by us. The speaker gave us a lovely explanation about Sri Rama being the bridge, the dharmic bridge. One can climb on the bridge called Rama and go to the other side.
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



