SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
569
Beginners in meditation have to practise [sadhana] at given times. It is good to meditate when nature is calmest. Do you think that you could meditate if there was a storm with lightning and thunder outside? You would be thinking, 'Oh no, when will the lightning strike me? Will I become a lightning-conductor?' But when everything is calm and quiet, look how beautiful it is. Then, when you close your eyes you have no fear without and no fear within.
Our Rishis [Sage-Seer-Saints] found four times each day when nature goes into perfect balance. At these times the sadhaka [spiritual aspirant or practitioner] can breathe equally through both nostrils and the mind is said to be at its calmest and the sushumna nadi [in the spinal column] is in operation. Breathing through the left nostril is tamasic and breathing through the right nostril is rajasic. Breathing through the middle one or both nostrils is sattvic.
So, if you want a lot of activity, adjust your breath. Press hard under the left armpit and you will start breathing through the right nostril. If you press under the right armpit you will start breathing through the left nostril.
You can also regulate your breath by pranayama. Pranayama cools you, pranayama calms you and pranayama equalises the currents of negative and positive in your body. Thus your mind becomes calm.
The four times for worship given to us by the Rishis are called sandhyas: These are: early morning, midday, sunset and midnight. Sri Ramakrishna used to take advantage of the midnight sandhya. He actually used to awaken his disciples at midnight and say, 'Come on, meditate.' The next morning if the disciples were sleeping late others would say, 'Look at those lazy young boys, Master is spoiling them.' They did not know that the whole night these boys had been meditating while they themselves had been fast asleep. And Master would say, 'Let them sleep, let them have a rest.' At the time when the whole world is asleep the yogi is awake.
Where else would you get such a wonderful guru like Master? He would send someone miles to call one of his chelas. He would say, 'Go and bring him here, go and bring him here.' When the chela came, the Master would say, 'Oh I was thinking about you.'
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.
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