Swami Shivapadananda

Karma and Consequences

 

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 966

Devotee asks questions about the nature of the personal deity [Ishta Deva].

Swamiji: The personal God is the Almighty [Ishwara] and when you go nearer the Almighty, worship the Almighty, because it's Almighty, It has the power to break [absorb] the other one's might, or withdraw its might.

Devotee: We didn't create the laws that create our karma, though.

Swamiji: The laws and God are not separate. This is what people can't understand. You see the law of the fire is to burn. And that law – the burning power and God – is not separate. God doesn't come to punish you, it's your own law inside that punishes you. You see, like sometimes you break the law and you get punished. The government is punishing you. It didn't come there personally to punish you - its laws are active.

The laws of karma can take effect even without you knowing.

Devotee: One tends to get locked into the concept of karma – 'that's it' – and you can't touch it.

Swamiji: Oh, no. That's why Krishna Bhagawan says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'you come to me and worship me as a personal God, I am seated in your heart and I shall reveal myself to you.' Meaning that he will ultimately take over our karma. The only requisite is that if you want to make a speedy recovery, then consciously go near him. On the other hand, if you don't want to make a speedy recovery or take it easy, nature will control you slowly - so you'll get there but it's a long, long journey.

I always give people an example: if you put a plant in the soil and leave it to nature and no rain comes and then occasionally rain comes, it will take a long time to grow. Sometimes if the weather is good, it'll grow all right. But on the other hand you tell a man to put a plant in the ground and give it fertiliser and water and protect it from the horses, goats and other animals, you'll find the plant will grow faster. So sadhana [spiritual practice] is like that.

Someone came here and said, 'Oh I've been doing sadhana for so long and I haven't found anything. What's the use of doing sadhana?' I said, 'Yes, if you didn't do sadhana then you wouldn't even know that it's taking so long.' [devotees chuckle heartily]. You're laughing....this is the truth.

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. 

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

More on Karma and Grace [kripa]

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 930

 

Swamiji continues speaking on karma and grace [kripa]

Remember how that person came to Swami Vivekananda [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] and said, 'Oh, I so want to build these cow-sheds, these gosalas. We want this from you. You are a great sannyasi [Swami, Hindu monk, sadhu, holy man], please give these things to us.' Then Swami Vivekananda asked him, 'Oh, it's very nice that you want to build so many gosalas - but what about the famine? There are so many people who are sick and have been washed away, what are you doing about that?' The man said, 'No, well, that is their karma.' Then Swami Vivekananda said, 'Well, if that is their karma then that is your cows' karma too. Go from here. I rather worship man first, man who can look after the animals, rather than worship the animals who can't even look after man. Go from here.'

Blame prarabdha [karma]? [the karma due to be worked out in this birth - see post 928 and 929] You can't do that. [It's] Grace ['kripa' in action].

God has shown us how to get up there [higher spiritual consciousness] - ascend. But He didn't show us how to descend because scriptures are not meant to teach us geography and history. If you want that, there are a lot of texts written on that. You can go and read them. But when you come to the scriptural things and holy men - that is something else.

If you want to know how to make bread, you've got a mother. She'll teach you [the more mundane things of life]. So don't come and ask me what to do about that. [i.e. come here for spiritual tuition]

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

Grace vs. Prarabdha Karma

 

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 929

   

Devotee: I was thinking about that story of when Mother Sarada Devi [the Holy Mother - nun-wife of Sri Ramakrishna] was walking along the road [at night in a very isolated area] and she met those rouges [rough type intent on theft and physical harm] and she said, 'It's your daughter, Sarada,' instead of shouting and screaming; and I was wondering what her state of mind was?

Swamiji: Her state of mind was pure and love. That is why it was so effective.

Sarada Devi must have felt the love to have said that and for that love to be active on him. Her state of mind was like that. That was her grace on him, really.

That was Narada's grace which went on Valmiki. Nothing else. The seven Rishis [Sapta Rishis] felt that this world was not permanent and nobody could say it is. Look at it. Look at it with clean mind; but don't put your 'I' in it.

Devotee: Returning to the question previously asked: So though these people were thieves it was their good prarabdha [karma] to meet her [Mother Sarada Devi] . . .

Swamiji: Yes son. You may use the words, 'Their good prarabdha.' But coming back to your scripture, it says, The Self only reveals to those It thinks fit. So, even if he is a sinner, you can't say what karma he could have done. We don't know. But the word grace has got no qualification. Once you say 'prarabdha' then you must take out 'grace'. So I say it was Mother's grace because she is a mother. What else can she do? The mother doesn't see if the child is worthy or not worthy. 'It's my child,' she'd say.

Devotee: I fully accept this . . .

Swamiji: Look, from that point of view your answer is right. But I'd like to put it on Grace.

If a man does something wrong everyone can say: 'It's his prarabdha. What can he do about it?' But we can't really say that all the time, can we?

 

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

 

 

Puranic value

 

 

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 926

   

Continuing the discussion on prarabdha karma [the destiny, debt that has to be worked out in this birth]

 

The idea is not to fall for prarabdha karma [become victim to it]. See it coming. Be like the crow Jayantha [previous posts, 922 onwards refer]. Jayantha is my guru [in this case, teacher] in many ways.

[Mother] Sita is Nature. He [Jayantha] got caught in Nature. He had to. Despite it being Nature - next door is God. See how even these Puranic things have got so much truth hidden in them. [Swamiji used to say that Puranic stories are not 'myth' but rather 'traditional wisdom'.]

Someone said to me, 'Why should we bother about Puranic Scripture? It's very old.'

I know it is our orthodox history so I said, 'Hold onto the old things because they are tested. These new things are not tested, they have been created only now.'

If this happened to the crow [see yesterday's reading] this happens to each one of us. Because no one is that perfect.

You should look and learn, learn and look.

If you read intelligently and think intelligently then your mind will come to a particular block thought obstacle or challenge]; and these are the blocks that have to be cleared.

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

 

 

  

 

Re-directing Prarabdha Karma impact

 

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 925

   

The discussion on prarabdha karma [the karma, destiny, that needs to be worked out in this birth] continues from Day 922 and 924

 

If I'm driving a tractor [farming machine] and it gets out of control, what will I do? I'll shout, 'Run out the way. Run up the hill.' I'll try to clear a path. In the meantime the tractor will come under control and eventually stop. But I can't just hold it [in one position without taking action.

So as long as I can't hold the prarabdha [in check, under control] I better make [a] clear [path or channel] for it. And don't take it into dangerous places.

That's why when the arrow was shot by Rama at the crow, the crow couldn't do a thing. He couldn't stop it. What could he do now? He had to clear the path for that arrow. He kept clearing it by running away from it until eventually it [the karma] came to him. Then, instead of taking a whole life, it compromised, it took one eye. But still the crow won - because it could still see God with that one eye. It was that arrow [karma] that took him there [to God's feet].

The crow knew how to guide it [the karma]. Otherwise that crow would have been killed - gone somewhere else. But he knew how to install It [God]. It's the same with prarabdha. If it comes into operation, install God [in your thoughts and life] and carry on. Who cares about it?

You are giving the other man a chance to run a little bit and at the same time you are doing a little running yourself. So run. But you know where you are going to go - to Rama's feet again. Even if it destroys one part [of the body], who cares?

Devotee: Narada told him [the crow] that his salvation lay at Rama's feet.

Swamiji: Right. That's the guru [spiritual preceptor, God in human form as teacher]. That's meeting the guru. But he installed it [the guru in place of the bad thoughts] by running [creating physical exhaustion and substituting the lower thought with a higher one]. He didn't go somewhere where he could do something wrong [he consciously kept himself outside the range of a fall]. Prarabdha had to chase him. Prarabdha was actually bearing fruit [acting out, fulfilling] by [attempting to] kill him. But it didn't kill him. So we can also be 'not killed'.

 

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

 

  

Mind and prarabdha karma

 

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 924

   

Swamiji Continues talking on prarabdha karma [the karma needing to be worked out in this birth] – see Day 922 posting also.

If I create a healthy cell, naturally the cells that are unhealthy will try to push through [contaminate, affect, infect or negatively impact on] that healthy cell. What happens if I keep trying to make [produce more of] those healthy cells? Sooner or later the unhealthy cell is going to lose its power. It has to have a natural death. But the main thing is: I don't give it a chance to come up.

So if your mind says, 'Do the wrong thing,' you must try to have the strength to always push something good into the mind instead. [This is called sublimation – converting an unwanted thought or impulse to a higher value] Don't worry about it. It has to have a natural death. It has to work itself out.

[Pravrajika] Atmaprana [the first nun, sannyasini of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]: So can you just leave [or keep] prarabdha [the karma needing to be worked out in this birth] at mind level [thoughts]? Can it work out [be eliminated] at that level? Do you mean it doesn't have to come into [physical] action level?

Swamiji: Yes. But you allow it to come [to physical action level]. You become more and more weak. No sooner it comes into action level it creates many more things [problems]. So just pile it up [overwhelm it] with love of God – by this I mean sadhana [spiritual practice]. Do good. That's all.

Sometimes, if a yogi [spiritual practitioner in this case - sadhaka] doesn't want to sit down quietly, perhaps he wants to go to town and look at the bazaar [shops], he'll be clever. He'll say, 'All right mind. You want to go. Lovely. I shall go. Why should I deny that?' He gets up and leaves. From one place he'll be seeing the bazaar but his ideal will be Kasi the holy city of Benares or Varanasi in India]. When he goes to Kasi, and if still his mind wants to wander, his mind will be on Vrindavan [the boyhood place of Sri Krishna]. He tires himself out acting [physically] but he achieves something good [mentally]. Plus he didn't go and sit in a bar or in a bad place.

Use psychology [introspection, mindfulness, self-awareness and impulse management]. This means you must guide that thing which we call prarabdha karma. Give it a direction.

 

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

Negating prarabdha karma

 

 
 

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 922

 

[Pravrajika] Atmaprana [the first sannyasini  – nun – of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa,pictured left]: Are any people not attracted to God?

Swamiji: No. All are attracted. The plan of nature is to take man there. That's the plan. But there is a condition. The condition is purity of mind. When that doesn't happen you won't realize it fully. And when that doesn't happen your thirst won't be quenched.

Atmaprana: How can people who have done some sadhana [spiritual practice] then feel repelled by spiritual life?

Swamiji: Swami Nisreyasananda [head of the Ramakrishna Mission in Zimbabwe, pictured above] told me one beautiful thing when I was bitterly complaining about X. I said, 'Twelve years of my sadhana I gave him and look what he does to me. He goes and gets married. Now he even has a child.' Swami Nisreyasananda laughed at me. He said. 'There's nothing wrong with that. What you put there will never be wasted. Spirituality is never wasted. His prarabdha karma [the debt, obligations, agreements that have to be worked out in this birth] has caught up with him. After his duties are completed he'll come back. That is sweet itself. So why to worry? Who knows? Maybe the soul that has to go through his child has to impart certain things to him. Maybe he has to give something too. How can he do it when he is here in this ashram [monastery, hermitage, spiritual service centre]? His spirituality will be intact. Gold, when it is buried for thousands of years and dug up, is not like other metals. It's still gold. It doesn't wear off.'

I thought, 'Beautiful'. That made me love X [again]. Straight away it had an effect.

Atmaprana: Is there anything we can do about our prarabdha karma, Swamiji?

Swamiji: Just love God. I told you - start 'doing'. If prarabdha is the actions of the past fructifying now, then surely the intense activity of now will become the prarabdha of tomorrow. Just install that One. Just install It. That's what I am doing. I'm just installing It. If I do this then the prarabdha will find it is trying to force itself through very hard ground, and it won't push through. It will die a natural death.

 

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

 

Meditation, noise and karma

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

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

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 825

 

   

Devotee: When one meditates and there's a lot of noise what can one do?

Swamiji: Naturally you can't get rid of that noise if it's outside. But one thing I do is to think that Lord Shiva's dhootas [attendants/servants] are dancing now - this is the kind of noise carrying on - I see Lord Shiva's dhootas all dancing. I still connect myself with the meditation, with Lord Shiva. But inside, if your mind starts running here and there and you really can't manage it, it's nice to open your eyes and say a few mantras [sacred sound syllable, word or one of the many names attributed to God] loudly, or say some slokas [verses] from the Bhagavad Gita or Ramayana out loud.

That's what Sri Ramakrishna taught us when a person came to undermine him. The man wanted to show that Sri Ramakrishna was not an Incarnation [avatar] of God. He came and started reciting a mantra, Sri Ramakrishna recited louder than him, he recited louder than Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna recited louder than him and they went louder and louder until the other fellow gave up. Sri Ramakrishna was the loudest. The idea is that you must make such a loud noise with God's name that all other names must fear [be afraid] and run away. [laughter]

Devotee: Swamiji, sometimes do children have to pay for the sins of their parents?

Swamiji: Never. That never happens. No child will pay for the sins of its parents. Each one pays for their own sins. It may appear that the child is paying for the sins of the parents but the child can be paying the debts of the father and mother willingly - that's called dharma. But the parent's sin? The child can't do it. Either the past is linked up, or the present is linked up with it - intermingled. So don't ever fear that. Why? God is not that kind of an unjust Being - that if I make a mistake He punishes my son. It's not like our law courts. [laughter]

Remember always that God will not do something that is not right. All this is happening because of our collective karma [debt or burden of previous-birth behaviour]  - and we have to go through it. But if I'm sincere it will counteract some of these karmas because truthfulness is the greatest austerity [tapasya] that cancels many sins. The only way to be stabilised in this is to say, 'If this is in God's hand, it's not in my hand. God won't do wrong. If God means to kill me, it's good. If God means to save me, it's good. Lord I surrender myself to You.' That is one of the ways. There may be other ways, but this is one of the best ways.

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

 

Karma and astrology

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

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

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

  792

Swamiji: Before, by using [eastern] astrology, these karmic things were predicted in order to know where the pitfalls lay.

Then when the time came they used to fast and do a lot of charity [good deeds]. They strengthened their good things so that when a knock [negative event] came it wouldn't drop [damage] them altogether. The knock will be there, the sickness will be there, but they will survive to become stronger. Supposing you know later today there is going to be a flood of rain, so you put a bucket under the leak. But if you did not know you wouldn't have put a bucket - so it would wet the carpets etc. That's what the idea was. But today we are trying to do it for different uses.

What did Swami Nisreyasananda [head the the Ramakrishna Mission in Zimbabwe] say? [Refer reading 791 for discussion]

Swami S [young Swami]: He gave the same answer as you. He said the prince will grow up to be a king and the sudra [working/serving-class person] will grow up to be a leader in his own community; like a trade union leader or something.

Swamiji: But truly I can't see any variant from this God-realisation. Get going then.

People are using artificial aids for birth control. This is not for the Divine purpose but for the purpose of increasing wealth or money. It is greed. We disagree with that kind of thing.

The doctors prescribing unnatural birth control, in a way, are murderers [abortions etc.]. The doctors and the scientists don't know that while they may be doing a little good, a lot of bad is coming out of it. There are natural ways of controlling these things.

Yes, in spiritual life we also control nature. But when nature is interfered with [control of senses], to realise God, it is called forced evolution. The idea is to control nature in such a way that we become super-natural - God Himself.

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. 

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

   

 

Twins and karma

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

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

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

791

   

Devotees talking to and asking Swamiji about twins

Swamiji: Twins are not really the same. There must be some sort of difference, even if it is a twin. If you look at each one's horoscope it is not the same. If you take the thumb print of each it is not the same.

Swami S [young Swami]: I asked Swami Nisreyasananda if twins are born and the stars predict that somebody born at this time will become great what will be the case. He says, 'No, twins are born twenty minutes apart so even a minute time will change the whole horoscope.'

Swamiji: Yes, but you see that's another trouble about 'born'. You see science has changed a lot of things, my darling boy. If this man was supposed to be born at ten o'clock, how about caesarean birth? If I gave you a natural birth you would have been tomorrow at three o'clock but the doctor in his wisdom thought to cut the stomach now.

Devotee: I believe that the horoscope should be calculated from the time of conception rather.

Swamiji: What you say is also true. Our scriptures show that the day it germinates is important. But the astrologists must have also worked it out in a broader sense. If it germinates today its nature will be this and it takes more or less so long to be born. So also you can do it from here or from there.

Swami S [young Swami]: I asked Swami Nisreyasananda what if a prince is born in a palace and at the same time in another house a sudra [person of the working-serving class] is born; now if the stars predict that the prince will become great what will happen to the sudra who is living in a poor house?

Swamiji: The one will become a king and the other will also be a king. But the one will definitely become a king in a way that he will supersede the sudra gang [group].

Suppose we say at the same time a hen is born and a cock is born. We can say the cock will be strong and the hen will be strong. The hen may not be as strong as the cock but in the hen category the hen will be stronger and in the cock category the cock will be stronger.

Devotee: The horoscope is only an indicator of what the man's karmic state was before . . .

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