Swami Shivapadananda

Converting

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

701

A yoga camp is a spiritual platform, a platform to kill the ego in yourself, to become selfless. You cannot teach anybody; you can only practise what God has taught you through the great Rishis [Seer-Sage-Saints], through the great saints and sages.

Come to the camp with the idea: 'I have come here to become Mister Nobody, because God is everybody and I have come here to become nought.' And when you become nought the 'One' will be added to you and you will have a value. If you put five noughts with no 'one' before it the five noughts have no value. But if you put five noughts and put a 'one' before it, it gives you a hundred thousand.

Do not criticize any saints or sages. Always do what is right. Have mind and sense control and love to God's lotus feet.

Sri Ramakrishna was the first great saint in history to say, 'All religions are true, whether flowing crooked or straight, all take you to that one ocean called Satchidananda' Knowing this, knowing his teachings, believing in Him, hate nobody, criticise nobody, rather help everybody to march the same path.

Do not think that if you get converted to another religion you will be saved. You will be worse off because once you get converted you will have to start understanding from scratch. If you cannot understand the religion in which you were born, how can you understand something new? If you can keep God here, you will keep God there too.

Do not think that you are converting for God. Maybe you are converting for name, fame and position in society.

We believe that all religions are true and that God is in every religion; so practise your own religion. If you are a Christian, become a better Christian. If you are a Hindu, become a better Hindu. If you are a Muslim, become a better Muslim and so on. If you do this, your life will be a blessing.

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

 

God’s ‘wives’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

671

   

Swamiji reads on from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma

 . . . . the Vishva Purana says, 'The one and only God, Ishwara, gets the designation of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva accordingly as He creates, preserves or destroys.' Of course in popular religion these become separate gods with appropriate symbols, dwelling places, vehicles and followers. The abstract ideals regarding the three different aspects of God were thus rendered concrete to the masses. At one time it was all a living symbolism.

Daughter: Father, what is the symbolism of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva having consorts or wives of their own?

Father: A little thinking will make that clear to you. We have already seen that the supreme Ishwara has the power of creating, preserving and destroying the world; this power is inseparable from Him. As the sunlight is inseparable from the sun, as the power to burn is inseparable from fire, so is Shakti or the creative, protective and destructive power inseparable from God the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. Therefore in popular religion it is personified and represented as the consort of Ishwara. (his power or shakti is known as his wife.) An important and widespread school of Hinduism in northern India worships Shakti as the Mother of the Universe. Shakti is simply the active aspect of Ishwara engaged in the creation, protection and destruction of the world.

 [Swamiji] God has kinetic and dynamic power. The active power is called Shakti, the Universal Mother. Did not Sri Ramakrishna say to Keshab [Chandra Sen – the leader of the Brahmo Samaj in India], 'When God is active I call Him Mother. When God is static I call Him Father.' That is what the author is saying here.

As Saraswati she is the wisdom and the art of God.

[Swamiji] Look what a wonderful architect He is. Look how He created the world without any plans. So beautifully He did it.

 As Lakshmi she is the grace of God that brings prosperity and happiness to some and salvation to others. And as Uma (that's my [Divine] Mother) She is the virginal purity of mountains and forests, untouched. The Devi Bhagavata describes Her as sporting at the time of the dissolution of the world, hiding within Herself the types of all things.

[Swamiji] Why is [the Divine] Mother [depicted as] dark blue or black? Because the colour dark blue absorbs all other colours. She hides everything in Herself at the time of dissolution. 

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

Religious or moral?

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

664

   

[Swamiji reads from: A Primer of Hinduism by Prof. D.S. Sharma]

Daughter: How is a truly religious man different from a moral man?

Father: You may as well ask me how the whole is different from the part. The moral man is like an honest mercenary while the religious man is like an ardent patriot.

Swamiji: One is a mercenary fighting for something and the other is a patriot encouraging the whole country - someone like Swami Vivekananda.

Both of them fight well but the former (the mercenary) fights for a small gain for himself, while the latter fights for his country forgetting himself. A merely moral life cannot give us the feeling of love, joy and exultation and the spirit of courage and self-sacrifice which religious life gives. Mere morality cannot abolish our separateness and sin.

Swamiji: A moral man is trying to perfect himself. A [truly] religious man is already perfect and he is trying to give perfect love to the whole world. This is the difference. Therefore when you try to boast about your guru you say, 'My guru is this and my guru is that . .' I laugh because that guru still belongs to somebody. But a guru does not belong to anybody in particular; He belongs to everybody. That is the kind of guru my Sri Ramakrishna is; that is the kind of guru my Swami Vivekananda is; that is the kind of guru my Sri Sarada Devi is. In particular the guru does not belong to any caste, colour or country but in general the guru belongs to everyone.

Daughter: Does religious life abolish separateness and sin?

Father: It does not exactly abolish them, it renders them ineffectual. God is the perfection of purity and by seeking and taking refuge in Him we leave our sinful selves behind.

God is the perfection of purity. Christ himself said, 'Blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God.' So God is perfection in purity. By going to God, what are you doing? You are leaving your sinful self behind.

Imagine the Inder [Swamiji's pre-monastic name] that always used to be working and fighting for himself. Now he does not do that. What does he do now? He realizes that: 'I take refuge at God's Lotus Feet and because God is omnipresent, therefore my love will become omnipresent.'

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

Teaching your child religion

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

631

   

Swamiji speaking on the five Mahayajnas [five great sacrifices] 

If the five Mahayajnas - the five great sacrifices - are followed, and if chastity is practised by both the man and the woman then gods can come on Earth.

The first Mahayajna is the worship of the household deities: Devayajna. Many modern children today want to throw out the household deities. They say, 'Oh, all this is nonsense. There is only one God, now why should we worship all the other gods and goddesses?' They are fools. Our great grandfathers and our great Rishis [Sages, Seers, Saints] did not make those rules for nothing.

If you take the love that is already there, and from there step higher, you will find your task in life becoming easier. The worship of the different deities will culminate in the worship of your Ishta Devata [chosen Ideal or deity], who is One-without-a-second. That is why the Ishta Devata was made, to show you there is only one God - not many gods and goddesses.

But you have to worship or at least respect the different deities that your father, your mother and your great grandfather worshipped because you are the fruit of that worship and the love given to those deities. In the depths of your heart you have to remember this.

Secondly there is Rishiyajna. Many mothers and many fathers today are wasting the lives of their children. They think that it is the duty of some sannyasi [Hindu monk or Swami] or some holy man to teach religion to their children. It is not so. First comes the mother and father, then the guru [spiritual preceptor].

Just as every day you force the child to do homework in secular education, similarly it is the duty of every householder to force the child to read at least one or two verses from a holy scripture or from the life of a great hero saint. In this way your child will not become a worm without a spine. It is your duty. You must make it so no matter how much your child dislikes it.

Your child may dislike going to school but you know that schooling is a vital part of life so you make sure that the child attends. Similarly make sure that your child studies some holy scripture. If you give a person this habit whilst young, when he or she grows up they will automatically miss 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 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

Swami Shivapadananda on the personality behind all religions

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 529

   

A Christian may say, 'I do not worry about Christ but I accept the Bible.' That person is accepting the principles given by a personality and those principles embody the personality called Jesus the Christ. How, without knowing the personality, will I know if he is speaking the truth? I have to examine his life to see the environment he has come from and to see the good that he has done (and is still doing) to the whole world.

Principles are abstract things which are concretised in personalities. All religions have made a cult around a personality. Swami Vivekananda has said that we must stress less on the cult and more on the principles of that cult i.e. what the personality practised in his life as far as abstract universal truth goes.

If someone asked me, 'Swamiji, are you a personality worshipper?' I would say, 'Yes,' because I am proud to worship the person who has given something which is above him (i.e. principles). The Ramayana tells us the same thing. It tells us that it is the unmanifest Brahman that has taken the manifested form of Sri Rama. Through Sri Rama's mouth we hear that all people who are doing good (he calls them sadhus) are the embodiment of Sri Rama and the embodiment of the principles he preached, the principles he practised, the principles that had existed long before him. One great thing about worshipping the principle is that if you find fault with the personality it does not affect the religion at all.

All Swami Vivekananda said was, 'Do not stress too much on personality.' No man can live without a personality. No man can live without a scripture. Any religion without a scripture is a very weak religion and it must fade sooner than other religions.

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 Principle and Personality in worship

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 527

[Pictured: he entrance to M.'s [Mahendranth Gupta's - the recorder of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna] house, now called the Kathamrita Bhavan, where the Gospel was written in a small study on the top floor. 

Devotee: What role can we as devotees play in the reformation of Hinduism in South Africa today?

Swamiji: First, you can improve your own religious life. This is done by obtaining information from satsang [prayer or religious get-togethers and services] and understanding the scriptures in the light of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Sarada Devi. When people see you living a good, sattvic [balanced, harmonious, well-integrated] life they will automatically follow your example. This is because people always want to obtain or imitate anything that they see which is good and which is doing good.

Devotee: Swami Vivekananda said that the emphasis should be on the principle rather than on the personality; but are we not doing the opposite of this with pictures and murtis [statues/images] of the Master [Sri Ramakrishna], Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda?

Swamiji: What Swami Vivekananda said does not mean that you should give up the personality altogether. We know, through the examples of past devotees who have realised God, that personality worship has brought about peace in them. There are examples of this amongst the saivites [worshippers of Lord Shiva], the vaishnavites [worshippers of Lord Vishnu] and the shaktas [worshippers of the female aspect of God – the Divine Mother]. Remember too that Sri Chaitanya [Mahaprabhu - an Incarnation (avatar) of God] and others were also personality worshippers and it brought them peace.

There are various methods of sadhana [spiritual practice or discipline]. One of the methods is to worship a God-realised soul as God and by doing this you will reach God. This is also a kind of personality worship. Patanjali [author of the Yoga Sutras] gave us another method. If you study Patanjali's Yoga Sutras he does not say that we must accept Ishwara [personal deity] or that we must accept AUM [the impersonal or formless]. But he gives us the principles that will make our minds concentrated. He describes this state as the mind having no thought waves [not blank, but beyond]. Thus you become God-realised.

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 the psychology of ‘Hell’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 509

(Pictured: In the Dakshineswar complex - from the bel tree looking back across the Garden and Goose Tank towards the Panchavati. The meditation hut can just be seen in the middle of the picture.)

Sri Ramakrishna said, 'God is with form, without form and He is beyond that.' Then, as a thinking man I say, 'God is with form, without form, He is beyond that and He Himself knows what He is.'

In this world there is fear, in that world [i.e. heaven] there is fear [see previous posting] - so what is the difference? We know that there is a state called Satchitananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute] which is not an attribute of God but God Itself.

There are various practices used in our scriptures to motivate souls to go towards God. In this too there are stages. Suppose you find a man who has not evolved nicely, you tell him, 'You are going to burn in hell-fire if you do bad things.' Many children still go and do the wrong thing even when you tell them lovingly to do something. So you give them a smack and that is [their, momentary] 'hell'. Then the child, out of fear, will do the right thing. The fear of hell makes people do the right thing. This is the first stage.

The next stage is when you tell a man, 'If you do all the good things you will go to heaven. Heaven is an eternal oasis where you get your harem and you rest. Here on Earth you are working like a donkey.' Of course the man will say, 'Well, I'll do anything for that.'

Then the last stage (which is the highest according to reasoning and the experience of the Realised Ones) is that you love God for love's sake, you love the Self for love's sake. Why? Because then we realise that God is Omnipresent [everywhere]. He is present in hell, He is present in heaven and wherever else. Wherever my Lord is, I am there.

Though people say, 'You merge with God,' it is actually like the river flowing into the sea.

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 the impermanence of the god’s lokas

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 488

[Picture: Dakshineswar Kali Temple Courtyard looking northwards toward Sri Ramakrishna's room.]

Swamiji talks about the Sankaracharya and Ramanuja philosophies

People say, "I want to live in Vaikuntha [Lord Vishnu's abode or realm]." But I never want to go there. Even if Sri Krishna said, "Come here my child," I would say, "No thank you my Lord. Who knows when you may kick me out." [laughter]

Where is God? That is the question that must be asked. You may say, "God is in heaven." Then I must ask, "Who made heaven?" You will say, "God." "Who made Earth?" "God." "Who made hell?" "God." Then I must ask, "But before making heaven where was He?" You do not know. You cannot answer. Sankaracharya said, "Higher than that is Brahman, without qualities, without name, without form."

Devotee: But didn't Ramanuja said, "Vaikuntha is eternal"? Swamiji: That is what he said. But what does he know about eternal? If God can kick a man out from there [as we read in the scriptures] then I am afraid to go there. I will never go there. No matter how good the master is, I am still a slave. The idea is not to be a slave but to master yourself. Ultimately, when dissolution comes, even Vaikuntha will be dissolved.I do not say what he said is wrong. It is a stepping stone to higher things, as Swami Vivekananda said.

Even if Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swamiji's Guru] said, "Come here, here is guruloka," I would say, "Thank you, Gurudev, you carry on sitting there. You enjoy your loka." Loka means change [because it's not permanent] and I have had enough of these change-full things here.

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

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 447

   

Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that you have the right to work but not to the fruits thereof. That means that if you do bad action God appears as bad action. If you do good action God appears as good action.

When Sri Krishna went to Kamsa, Kamsa saw Sri Krishna as a demon, as Lord Yama. He said, "Don't kill me." Sri Krishna told him, "Look, I don't kill you, your own karma kills you. Your own karma has come in this form to kill you." And when the same Sri Krishna went to the Rishis they found him to be the embodiment of their prayers, their blessings.

God appears to man as man is within. Example: Duryodhana was sent to find "one good man" in the world. He went everywhere but he came back and told Sri Krishna he could not find one good man. The Lord asked Dharamputra to go and find one bad man. He went everywhere but he didn't find one bad man. What this actually means is: what you are within, you will see without. If you are a dharmic [righteous]  person, you'll see dharmic things. If you are an adharmic [unrighteous]  person, you'll see adharmic things.

Sometimes people use God as a partner to do wrong things but when that person gets caught, God doesn't go to jail for him - he himself goes to jail.

Devotee: Why does God allow him to go to jail then, Swamiji?

Swamiji: Because of his actions. Man is given free will to choose what is right and what is wrong and at the same time man has past karmas with him. His past karmas will impel him to do wrong things if he has these bad karmas. But he, as a man, must now stand and say, "No. I won't do the wrong thing, I would rather give up my life for the truthful thing." 

Swami Shivapadananda on Isa Upanishad essence

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 439

   

In his book Swami Yatiswarananda says: What is written in the scriptures, you must follow, not just read it. You must be lovable to God, then you will be lovable to all. If the mind is restless or not, you must do meditation. It produces harmony in the body and leads to an increase in spiritual themes.

Swamiji: This is a very great passage.

You must regard God to be your all in all. Then your heart is filled with the luminous Infinite Spirit merging in your body. Imagine it, and the mind and the whole world is in it. Imagination is the open gateway to meditation. Then I can say: 'My mind has put on a pure mental body and physical body.'

Repeat the name [mantra] and meditate on the luminous form. Then think your Ishta Devata [personal deity] is Infinite Spirit shining everywhere. Just follow this. It is practical. It is a direct instruction of the Master [Sri Ramakrishna] to us.

In the Isa Upanishad we read:

Isa vasyam idagung sarvam

yat kim ca jagatyam jagat.

By this thought you should live: that it all belongs to God.

Tena tyak tena bhunjithah,

ma gridahah kasya svid dhanam.

By this way renounce all short-sightedness, all limited things and, with the eye of your mind, see God permeating everything, covering everything.