Swami Shivapadananda

Swami Shivapadananda on courage and truthfulness

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

601

   

Once somebody asked Swami Vivekananda: 'Have you realised God?' His reply was typical of him. He said, 'It is difficult enough to be a gentleman.' Gentlemanliness involves so many things: to be united with your brothers and sisters; to utter words which are sweet and pleasing to people and yet not bring harm to them; your sitting and your standing should not agitate anybody; your walking should not agitate anybody. So it is difficult enough to be a gentleman yet we foolish people think we have become God-realised.

Simplicity, purity, holiness. You must base your life on these things. Read the scriptures and see how you can be simple, not complicated.

Swami Vivekananda said to Sister Nivedita that he only wanted a few disciples who had the highest and best in life to renounce. Swami Vivekananda did not want a lazy person who could not make it at school or at work to come and take shelter at his feet.

Once one of Swami Vivekananda's friends came to him and said, 'Maharaj, [a term of respect, meaning literally 'great king'] I am so inspired with your life that I want to become a holy man, I want to renounce.' Swami Vivekananda looked down and said, 'Can you steal?' The man said, 'No.' Swami Vivekananda said, 'First go and learn to steal.'

If the man was not brave enough to steal, do you think he would be brave enough to be killed? Sannyasa [monastic renunciation] means nothing else but 'death'. If a man has thoughts like: 'What will others think of me if I say certain things?' then he can never practise truth, he can never be a renunciate. That is why Swami Vivekananda said: 'First go and learn to steal.' Do you think that a man who was afraid to go to jail if he was caught could live in the 'forest'? He could not even live in a nice jail. So his words may have been extreme but Swami Vivekananda was trying to say, 'Only the fearless, those sticking by truth, can realise God and no one else.'

Those of you who are too afraid to tell your husbands the truth, you cannot realise God. Those of you who are too afraid to tell your wives the truth cannot realise God. Tell each other the truth. There must be the understanding that your partner is always trying to help you, not run you down.

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 truthfulness of Swami Vivekananda

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 472

   

Swamiji continues talking about the pre-monastic Swami Vivekananda

Naren [Narendranath Datta, later Swami Vivekananda] was also truthful. At school, during a lesson, the teacher heard talking in the class and thinking that it was Naren he said, "Right, Naren, you tell the class what I just said." Naren repeated the whole thing word for word, so the teacher thought it could not have been him talking. Later on however, after the other boy had been punished, Naren went to the teacher and admitted that it had been him. His mind could not tolerate lies because he had a conscience. It seems that some of our consciences have become paralysed. You have no conscience if you speak lies and bluff others. Swami Vivekananda, from that young age, manifested this love of truth. This is an example of how your children too should be.

This same Swami Vivekananda liked to play games. He would gather all his friends around him and tell each one which part to play: "You are a servant, you are a shoe maker, you must sweep the floor and I am the king." [laughter] Even when he was young that inner nature of his manifest itself. He was a ruler - he grew up ruling. He ruled his own mind and body and today he rules a universe with his thoughts. He is the one that changed the thought waves of the whole universe.

It appears that he loved his charioteer - the man who drove him to school in a horse drawn carriage. He would say, "When I grow up I'll become a charioteer." In the beginning he learned from this man how to discipline the horses. Later he disciplined the 'horse' of his own mind and became the charioteer for thousands of people in India and the rest of the world.

Do not take anything on faith unless it is proved. No superstition whatsoever could catch hold of Swami Vivekananda. We are living in a scientific age and we should not accept everything without question.

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.

Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham

   

 

Connecting the two websites

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 457

 

Today's reading is on the second Swami Shivapadananda website. Just click on the link below:

http://swamishivapadananda2.typepad.com/swami_shivapadananda_2/2009/01/swamiji-answe-1.html#more to go straight to the posting.

Scroll down to 'Swamiji relates an incident'. It's the story about Aka, an elderly female devotee. Apologies for the confusion. We're making quite sure that the two sites don't replicate information from today.

Brand new material from Swamiji's CD recordings – originals  made by Mother Radha [pictured], will start featuring on http://swamishivapadananda2.typepad.com from today.

Enjoy reading!

Swami Shivapadananda on truthfulness and service

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 455

   

Once a learned man went to Shankaracharya and said, "Maharaj [an honorific. Literal meaning: great king], you are so holy, and we householders are suffering in the villages and the towns. Please come and speak to us about truth. By your grace we will make progress and people will be comforted." The first time the man asked, Maharaj kept quiet. The second time again Maharaj kept quiet. The third time the man asked, Shankaracharya said, "Why should I come there? What for? There are a lot of other people preaching truth." The man said, "No. Please, you must come."

Shankaracharya then asked, "By my coming there what will the people do?" The man said, "They will do what you say." "Do you know what is truth and what is untruth?" "Yes," he said. "Tell me, didn't you utter an untruth at any time?" The man just put his head down.That is truthfulness. The man was so truthful that he knew that what Shankaracharya was saying was applicable to him.

So whatever I say, and if it comes direct to you, it's for you.

Devotee: Swamiji, what does "serving selflessly" mean?

Swamiji: Firstly, to see the "servant" power we must look at Hanumanji's example. He is the Eternal Servant of the Eternal Lord, humility personified. His humility was not a worm-like thing. Not like now when the sannyasis go and prostrate fully to everybody, but on the quiet they say, "That fellow, I'll fix him up."

It wasn't like that with Hanumanji. He prostrated to Sri Rama in everyone. Hanumanji never gave up his principle.

So, "serving selflessly" means you are the servant of God Himself. Thus you go into it deeper, and willingly do it. That means the serving power, the servant power, is awakened in you.

Bhakti [spritual devotion or love] means love or devotion for God. Bhava means deep, intense, irreversible feeling for God Himself. And when bhakti matures it becomes prema [descibed by Sri Ramakrishna as 'ecstatic love', 'divine love of the most intense kind'].

 

Swami Shivapadananda on Truth

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 454

Referring to the opium incident [see previous posting] afterwards Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said, "It is because I placed my whole responsibility upon the [Divine] Mother, that She holds me by the hand and never allows me to stray even an inch from truth." Do you see how humble he was?

Very often Sri Ramakrishna used to show his displeasure to those who did not observe truth in their words and deeds. Once he said to Sivanath, one of his devotees, "It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kali Yuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth, he ultimately realises God. Without this regard for truth one gradually loses everything."

Again, Sri Ramakrishna used to take lemon with his food. One of his devotees had given Master permission to take a lemon from his garden every day. And one of Master's attendants would fetch it. One day Sri Ramakrishna could not touch the lemon and everyone wondered what was wrong. Later, on enquiry, it was found that the owner of the garden had leased out the garden to someone else. This lemon had been taken without the permission of the new owner and so for Sri Ramakrishna it was equal to stealing. His adherence to truth was so instinctive that even unknown to himself he would not deviate from the literal truth.

Now these are very simple facts but it is good for us to remember them. We can remember big things, in big circumstances, but we forget that small things go to make up big things. Every moment Sri Ramakrishna was conscious of this fact in his life. If a disciple told a lie and came to him, he used to turn his face away from the disciple.

I know a lot of people don't come to see me because of that. They say, "Swamiji, you know, sometimes the way you speak, it looks like you're telling me off." So the guilty conscience becomes a handcuff - it cuffs you down. But you know this yourself.

 

Swami Shivapadananda on honesty

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 453

   

An example of just how deeply the spirit of truthfulness was ingrained in Sri Ramakrishna's nature, and how the Divine Mother protected him from the least deviation from truth, was provided by the opium incident. Shambhu Charan Mallik had a dispensary for the poor in his garden. Learning that Sri Ramakrishna was suffering from diarrhoea, he advised him to take a few doses of opium and had offered to give Sri Ramakrishna some. Sri Ramakrishna accepted, but in the course of the conversation both forgot about it. After taking leave the Master walked a few steps and then he remembered the opium. Coming back, he found that Shambhu was very busy. Not wishing to trouble him, Sri Ramakrishna took a little opium from one of the other assistants and again set out for the Kali Temple [pictured]. (If you have no faith you won't understand - you'll just say, "Well this is one of those things." But it's not like that.) To his surprise he found that though he was perfectly familiar with the locality, he kept straying onto the wrong path. Casting his eyes behind, he could plainly see the path leading back to Shambhu's garden, but the way ahead was not clear. Wondering, he started again for the Dakshineswar Temple carefully noting the way. And again he became confused. He could not find the right path and at the same time felt a backward pull. After a repeated struggle it suddenly dawned on him that Shambhu had asked him to take the opium from him and not from his agent who had no right to give anything without Shambhu's permission. (Now this took place in Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana [spiritual practice] period so don't come and ask me, "If he's all-knowing why didn't he know that?" No, this was the sadhana period. So he was in that state of mind.) *See footnote.

Master might have been guilty of falsehood and theft if the Divine Mother had not deterred him. So he threw the package back through a window calling out as he did so, "Look I am returning the opium." Now as he set out for the Temple he could see the way clearly. There was no spell over his mind and he safely reached the Temple.

*Footnote: Although the Incarnations or Avatars are perfect, they faithfully practise what we would need to practise in order to evolve spiritually. Therefore a lesson like this would be to demonstrate the critical necessity for scrupulous honesty under all circumstances.

 

Swami Shivapadananda on vows

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 452

   

A vow is a vow; and Rabindranath Tagore [pictured] drives that point home very, very well. Gandhiji went and asked him one day, "Maharaj [honorific, title of great respect. Literal meaning: great king], you are sick, why don't you have a rest?" He said, "No, no. At the time when I took my sacred thread I promised that I would not sleep during the day. Now I am already sixty something, how many more years have I to go? Why should I agree with you?" What beautiful inspiration - to stick to truth.

In the scriptures we read: Raghu kula rit sada chali aye prana jaye para vachana najaye. But that is where the sannyasis [monks, Swamis], the brahmacharis [male monastic novices], the married people's weakness lies. Their vows are given up for something else.

Even those who are engaged in worldly activities such as office work or business should hold to truth. Truthfulness alone is the spiritual discipline in the Kali Yuga. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna especially instructs householders that if a man leads a householder's life he must have unflagging devotion to truth. And that God can be realised through truth alone.

Even in trifling matters Sri Ramakrishna could not deviate from truthfulness. Example: As a child he had promised the blacksmith woman, Dhani, that he would receive his first bhiksha from her after the upanayanum [investiture with sacred thread] ceremony. At the time of upanayanum Gadadhar [Sri Ramakrishna's pre-monastic name] insisted on fulfilling his promise and the custom-bound elders had to agree to this unorthodox step.

We read how Bali's guru said, "Don't give this gift to him - he is Lord Vishnu in a different form." Bali said, "But Lord, I've already made him a promise and you told me I must keep my promises. How can I give up that promise? You are the one who taught me not to speak untruth." Just like that. 

Swami Shivapadananda on Truth perspectives

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 451

   

As you know a yogi is not supposed to eat excessive ginger, garlic, onions and my dear favourite chillies. [laughter] Then there is the inner nature of a thing - like potatoes. They don't disturb your mind but they disturb your health. If you eat a lot of potatoes you get too much starch in your body and this can lead to sugar diabetes. In this way some foods affect the mind and others affect the body.

Sri Krishna made it very clear in the Bhagavad Gita: Moderation, moderation, moderation. So what I want you to know is that you should have everything under the sun, but in moderation.

A sannyasi on the other hand has his own dharma. He can't have everything. Brahmacharis can't have some things. But a person like Swami Vivekananda would walk around with a pepper in his pocket. [laughter]

So what is spirituality? What is yoga? It is common-sense. We are complicating the sense.

It is said that Sri Ramakrishna and truth are one. No wonder therefore that Sri Ramakrishna - whose advent on Earth was for the establishment of dharma - upholds truth through all his words and deeds. He says the best name he can give to God is Truth.

Wasn't it Gandhi who later said the same thing? Not that God is truth, but that truth is God.

God is not 'true', because your 'true' may be relative. But truth is not related to anything. So Sri Ramakrishna says that the best name you can give to God is Truth.

Under no circumstances should one give up truth. Under no circumstances. 

Swami Shivapadananda on Truth and Righteousness

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 450

   

There is a close connection between righteousness (dharma) and truth (satyam). The moral instructions of our ancient Upanishadic teachings begin with: Satyam vada dharmam chara. The definition of dharma is yatah avudhayuni. That which helps us to attain worldly prosperity and salvation is truth. Not only worldly prosperity but worldly prosperity plus emancipation. You can obtain worldly prosperity by robbing your own brother, your own sister, your own friend, your own guru, but you cannot get spiritual prosperity. Burning is that man who robs. The fire of Lanka will burn him to ashes. Truth is something that cannot be burned. Untruth is such a dangerous thing - even the gods cannot handle it. Mark my words.

In the Upanishads it is said that truth and righteousness are one and the same. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: What is righteousness is indeed truth. Hence people say of one speaking that which is true, that he speaks that which is righteous. And of one speaking that which is righteous that he speaks that which is true. Both of them are but righteousness.

In the Bhagavata 9.19.39 it is stated that, "Truth is the flower and fruit of the tree that is the living body." Satyam pushpa phala.

Truth is the virtue to be realised if one wants to reach final liberation.

What is meant by truth? That which remains for ever is truth. Thus the whole world is untrue because it will not remain for ever. When the universe ceases to exist during the Final Dissolution, God alone exists. He is beginningless and endless. So God is the only truth. The way to reach God is also known as truth. God is unchanging.