Swami Shivapadananda

Psychology and spirituality

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

616

[Pictured: Swami Shivapadanandaji Maharaj]

   

I do not like using psychology because psychology is not my line, my line is spirituality. Psychology means: those people who live in the mind. And they use mind language. I live in the spirit and I like to use spirit language.

The scriptures are precise and to the point. Swami Vivekananda said, 'Work is worship,' not, 'Worship is work'. That is how a spiritual mind should contemplate about the scriptures.

Smile at all times. That is my mantra to you. Make jokes about God and no one else. Swami Vivekananda used to mimic Sri Ramakrishna and what hearty laughter his brother disciples used to have. Jokes about God cannot be low; they are always very high and uplifting.

Swamiji [meaning himself] sometimes forces you to come to these spiritual [Yoga] Camps because what is gained here can never be gained at other times. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says: 'Whatsoever man practices for my sake, no matter how little it is, it is never ever lost, O Arjuna.' From this point of view I think all of you are blessed. Those of you who really treat it as a camp to unite yourself with the Lord, which is seated in your heart, are blessed. And those people who come here thinking that they will get some inspiration also are blessed - for nothing will go in vain. This yoga camp is not of my making. It is based on the words of Sri Ramakrishna. He said to his devotees that in Kali Yuga, if man cries intensely for God for three days, he will find God.

You people at this Camp become miserable because you are attached; attached to comfort, attached to what is called 'not pain'; and you do not want to give up these things.

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 world’s foundation

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

596

God's working is so wonderful. People do not know how, in invisible ways, He puts things together. In India in the last century there was a need for a certain kind of assistance. The life, the heart, the very existence of India is only spirituality. But the people had forgotten this ideal and without the backing of spirituality they were trying to accumulate material wealth.

Of course in the olden days when Sri Rama and Sri Krishna lived (in the body that is) India was prosperous, not only materially but spiritually. And the secret of that was that the leaders, the kings, the rulers, were deeply religious people. And because they were deeply religious people there was no fear. India's foundation was spirituality, and the walls built were material prosperity.

In the [Bhagavad] Gita it is said, 'The root of this world is in God.' And you and I know for sure that the root that gets nourishment from the all-powerful Being, God Himself, can never perish. How can it? It will not run short of anything. Its root is in God. To destroy this world you would have to destroy God Himself, and we know this is impossible.

But the difference is that the world we are living in is not buried in God, it is not deriving its nourishment from God. Your world and my world (we have individual worlds) is not in God. It derives its apparent vitality from pleasure, from ego, from name and fame. And therefore our world must perish because the supply of the vitality is adharma. [unrighteousness] When our world is embedded in dharma then it never perishes because the nourisher of dharma [righteousness] is God Himself.

We call Sri Rama the embodiment of dharma and therefore Sri Rama never perishes. We call Sri Krishna the embodiment of dharma because Sri Krishna never perishes. And in ancient times when India had its roots in dharma, it flourished. India at that time was known as the Mother of the whole universe. But now that Mother has become very old, and it appears people have left dharma. [To be continued in reading 597]

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 Divine Shakti

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji Day 505

(Pictured: The pine grove at the far north of the Garden in the Dakshineswar complex, now with a modern structure added.)

 

Swamiji continues on Devi the Divine Mother

When they were praying, the question she asked was, 'Who are you worshipping?' The greatest question. When there is a question, there is knowledge, and this knowledge manifested out of the body of Mother Parvati, who said, 'Ah, they are worshipping Me.'

Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'In this body [i.e. his own body] there are two - the worshipped and the worshipper.' Similarly, in the body of Mother Parvati there were the two: the worshipped and the worshipper. The worshipper Mother Parvati, the outer form, went to the Himalayas and the worshipped Mother Parvati manifested and revealed who she was. She was the Self of all the devas [gods] that uplift, in the form of vidya [knowledge], brahmavidya, atmanvidya, Self-knowledge.

So Mother Parvati first removed the obstacles on the path of creation and later removed the obstacles on the path of prosperity. Lastly she gave the Rishis [Sage-Seer-Saints] the knowledge of who they were. Then she disappeared.

It is this Mother I worship, this Mother is my real Mother. Nay, this Mother is our real Self. This Mother is hidden - just as fire is hidden in wood and sparks of fire are hidden in stones. This Mother is present in every bit of space and solid matter and also in that which we know or know not. Again and again I prostrate to you, O Devi, who takes different forms. Om aim hreem kleem chamundaya vijay.

Without her Lord Shiva is a corpse. Without her Lord Brahma is a skeleton. Without her Lord Vishnu is a paralysed being. May that Shakti protect us, guide us and give us devotion.

Hari Om Tat Sat

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.

Swamiji on Spiritual Fitness

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 480b

   

Swamiji reads from Sri Ramakrishna and his Disciples by Sister Devamata, and comments

For many years Balaram [Bose] had devoted the major portion of his time to devout meditation and scriptural study.

Swamiji: Balaram was spiritually fit before he met Sri Ramakrishna. That shows what kind of a pure soul he was. He gave himself every day to meditation and scriptural studies.

Do you study the scriptures? The scriptures should be read every day. And you should give yourself to meditation according to your guru's prescription. Do not think that you have become so clever that you can prescribe your own meditation.

Reads: Keshab Chandra Sen [pictured above] was in his country home in Orissa at that time, but when he came to Calcutta for his daughter's marriage he went to Dakshineswar to meet the Master.

Swamiji: Keshab did not feel proud. He was doing his sadhana [spiritual practice]. He was a spiritual man. He did not say, "What am I going to the ashram [monastery] for? I am doing it at home." That kind of thought should be spat upon. You may think that you are doing yourself a favour by not going for satsang [communal prayer service] but you do not know that so much ego is getting built up in you. If you went there, someone's love, someone's remark may just humble you. Thus Keshab went to the satsang, he went to meet Sri Ramakrishna.

Reads: Balaram Babu's widow told me that it was their habit to spend Sundays with the Master, always.

Swamiji: How many of you like to spend each Sunday with me? You say, "It's too much." How many of you like even to spend Sundays in a temple? "It's too hot. It's boring." I have heard many people say, "It's boring." What is boredom?

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.

 

Swamiji on taking ‘time-out’ for God

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 458

Sri Ramakrishna said, "Once a year we should go into solitude, into quietness and there whole-heartedly worship God." So we do these Yoga Camps, not to cure any disease, not to give us wealth in the form of material things, but to yearn and cry to God. We must be like like Prahlada, like Dhruva and like other bhaktas [avid devotees] and childlike saints who continuously called on God. For three or four days, we should go into solitude and try, as far as possible, to forget the world completely and to remember God alone. Cry to him to give you bhakti - unmotivated pure love to His Lotus Feet - and to give you jnana, knowledge of God. Knowledge of God only comes when you are dissatisfied with your present condition, and when you know that there is something greater than this transitory world. We meet at these Yoga Camps for this reason. We try to study the scriptures, to sing bhajans and kirtans, to do japa [repetition of a mantra or God's names]  and meditation so that our minds get a taste of that great yearning for the Supreme Brahman in the form of our Ishta Deva [chosen or preferred deity]. First we must control the mind and the intellect. After that, the world will not affect us when we do our daily work. With control we will be able to overcome all kinds of difficulties. With control, attachment to worldly things will not be in our minds nor in our intellects. The sciences only deal with hypotheses. And a hypothesis is based on the effect of something which caused it. Scientists have not yet really come to the Source, but one day they will.

Think carefully what it means when you are doing your arati [offering and waving of lighted lamps to the deity] or your sadhana [spiritual practice] at home.

God will not forgive you if you are bluffing. He is the one who hears the heartbeat of the ant. Do you mean to say He does not know what you are saying and doing?

 

Swami Shivapadananda on the power of sincerity

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 419

Sri Ramakrishna said, "I see Death chasing you. What are you chasing after?"

At Sri Ramakrishna's birthday celebration, Swamiji said: If you are sincere in thought and word and deed, not only swamis will come to you, but gods will come to you. First you must ask yourself: What are you looking for? Can you sincerely say you are looking for God?

Sri Ramakrishna said: Human life is wasted if we do not glorify God in thought, word and deed, and find out who He is. Do we not feel that a bit has been wasted? If not then you are paralysed in thought, word and deed - paralysed in your heart. You should sit and cry: "The great saints worshipped God. They saw God, played with God, cried for God. How is it that I cannot do this?"

A true Brahmin is he who realises God. Sri Ramakrishna worshipped God and realised God in this birth. When you realise God, the more you worship God, the more humble you become and your pride, your ego, is washed away. Your heart is purified and your heart will start loving the saints and the sinners alike. You will not discriminate right from wrong. [i.e. you will see the divine consciousness alone, everywhere.]

Ask yourself: Am I going nearer to God? If you feel sad that you have not realised your deity, you have gone closer to God, you have grown in spirituality.

Sri Sarada Devi [the wife, nun, Shakti of Sri Ramakrishna] told us never to find fault with anyone, but to find our own faults To find fault is a disease.

Swami Shivapadananda on ‘literacy’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 416

If you are pre-occupied with God there is no time to hate, only to glorify God in thought, word and deed. This, the simplest of teachings, leads to the highest abode.

God has given us one thing - His name. Call Him anything, provided you grow in His image. You cannot worship the all-compassionate One and then hate someone. We must have love, compassion, self-sacrifice. Realise that each one is a fellow traveller on the path that leads to God, and it must be travelled without pride and hatred. There is only one message - do not hurt others. May Sri Ramakrishna, by whatever name you call Him, bless us

How many of you sincerely ask God to reveal Himself to you? Put your hands up. [Very few hands go up.] Therefore God has become dead, a senseless statue, because we do not ask Him to reveal Himself to us. Only a few ask Him to reveal Himself.

Master [Sri Ramakrishna] has told us where we are wrong. In his life he refused to ask the Divine Mother for anything else except that he must realise Her. He would not give his body any comfort, he would rub His face on the ground. Yet we think we understand Him. A sensitive man begins to think of his man-made 'blunders'. Who made the blunders? Yet we call ourselves intelligent.

One time M [Mahendranath Gupta (pictured) the recorder of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna] 'got it' [got a scolding] from Master. M's wife was illiterate and he was a teacher, a homeopathic doctor and so on. Master asked him, 'How is your wife?' He said, 'She is alright, but she is illiterate.' M was speaking to an apparently illiterate man about illiteracy - but he did it absent-mindedly. He gave a worldly answer to a spiritual man. This was the first time it struck him: All this time I wasted my time thinking that I am literate. 

Swami Shivapadananda on finding purpose

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 415

   

The nature of God is such that it gives, and asks nothing - like the sun which is so natural: it must give heat to the world. No sooner does the sun leave its own nature, and gives something else, than it is dead. We have left our nature - we are dead.

Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] first message is: You must become God-conscious. If I know who I am, if you know who you are, then who is God? Are you mere bone, flesh, marrow, or are you immortal? His second message is: The cause of this disturbance in our nature is lust and gold consciousness - we are greedy. You lust after other things, this leads to chaos. So you must renounce lust and gold.

Even then there is danger because Sri Ramakrishna said: The greatest obstacle to God-realisation is spiritual pride, spiritual arrogance, i.e. you think you know God, you think you are great, you think, 'I am chosen' - 'I'. Guard against these. Then you will find what you are looking for.

Jesus the Christ said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' You must struggle your whole life to make yourself pure, to discover who you are, and what your duty is in this world.

In India there are gurus, spiritual teachers, who have no pride, no arrogance.

This Sri Ramakrishna we worship, spoke from his own experience. Because he couldn't read, he couldn't copy from others. Everything he said was from his own experience. Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said that every religion is true in itself, and like a river that runs crooked or straight, ultimately it must flow into God, the sea.

A lion eats other animals. Goats eat grass. Your duty is to devour your own ego, then every action of yours will glorify God. 

Swami Shivapadananda on the compassion of the Wise Ones

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 406

   

Have only one thing in your heart: to save humanity. It is a natural attraction. An Incarnation [Avatar] is like a magnet, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, but always drawing near the middle, in the form of the devotee.

After viewing with devotees, a film on Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] life Swamiji said: What we experienced was an insight into the scriptures and into the lives of the great ones – Ramakrishna and others – and above all an insight on how to live like real human beings. A human being, on an animal level, lives selfishly. Human beings on the spiritual level sacrifice their lives and their breath to save not only the devotees, but all. For example Buddha felt for animals and Jesus Christ felt for the prostitute, Ramakrishna felt for fish, for the cow, for human beings and for spirits that were visible to him alone and not to us. He was Saviour par excellence. He came, not only to save man, but to save creation. He was the embodiment of God himself.

We too should have some feeling for animals, for trees and plants - for our real nature is one of self-sacrifice.

The saints add to the glory already obtained by human beings and get intense love for themselves - not for the body and the mind, but for something beyond. Something which saints call by different names – Atman, Self etc. If this is reflected in your daily life, from the time you open your eyes in the early morning to the time you become unconscious in the dark, then . . .

Gandhi set a good example. He would have fasted to death if necessary. He said, 'I fast for your sin.' Only a saint says that. He did not say, 'You are a sinner, I will kill you.' When you start to understand that rightly, that is what happens: silence.

Swami Shivapadananda on remembering our divine origin

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 405

During an Upanishad [Hindu philosophical treatises] class Swamiji said: Brahman [the indivisible Universal consciousness] does not create, he projects. Only a perfect Being projects a perfect Universe. Everything is perfect. What makes it imperfect? Ignorance. Ignorance of what? Of Brahman. But ignorance is also part of the whole lila [divine play] - when you realise that you begin to enjoy the Universe. Sri Ramakrishna said the same in a different way: The world is a mansion of mirth. To whom? To It - to him who knows what the Universe is.

Ego [sense of separateness] prompts action, so there is always a defect in it. Thus from Human Being you degrade yourself. If you meditate and perform pure actions you begin to be gods, and you go on to identify with Hiranyagarbha [lit: the 'golden womb' or originating force. So you re-identify with your divine origin]. But right now you are dependent - and not independent.

Desire leads you to think you want something and this leads to action, to get it. In the Self there is no action whatever, the action is a superimposition.

Through meditation for son, wife etc. you can get results. Any prayer – i.e. that your wife must be beside you etc - is desire. This is because your prayer is not for God realisation.

You think the world experience is a form of the [higher] Self - the Self as name, the Self as form - but the Self has no form.

Because we say 'Neti, neti,' [not this, not this, by way of discriminating between the real and the unreal or projected] the Self is nameless. Anything that comes into form falls into the category of name, form, action.

It's not that the Self gets freed. Its natural state is to be free.