Swami Shivapadananda

One God

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

689

   

Mother Ganga [river Ganges] has looked after thousands of Rishis [Seer-Saint-Poets] who lived on her banks from time immemorial. She gave darshan [divine vision of Herself] to Mother Parvati [consort of Lord Shiva], moksha [liberation] to the ancestors, and to many people after that.

We have faith in Mother Ganga because Sri Ramakrishna himself had Her vision and darshan. He himself used to worship her. And in keeping with Sri Ramakrishna's experience we invoke that all-pure, all-love, life-giving and liberation-giving shakti-goddess in the form of Mother Ganga.

May she bless us, though we are far away from that visible form of hers - the Ganga. But the purifying power that is in her is also in us. We also have purity; and that part of Ganga we evoke in us. May that Ganga, which is the power of purity, purify our lives and give us moksha. May she come here in her subtle form and partake of the prasad [sacramental food] that we offer to her, with love, faith and devotion.

Devotee: Must we see the Master in our Ishta Devata [chosen ideal or deity] or vice versa?

Swamiji: The understanding from the Ramakrishna Math [monastery] is that all the devatas [gods] must be seen in Sri Ramakrishna and not Sri Ramakrishna in them. In chapter eleven in the Bhagavad Gita [a major Hindu scripture] it is said that everything was seen in Sri Krishna - not that Sri Krishna was seen in them.

But I say to you, from my little knowledge, Sri Ramakrishna can be seen inside your deity too. Just as your soul is your Ishta Devata, Sri Ramakrishna is your Ishta Devata's soul. Sri Rama [one of the Hindu Incarnations - Avatars - of God] was outside and yet Sri Rama was inside Hanumanji. How was it that he was without and yet he was within?

But Sri Ramakrishna said: 'Meditate on me as [the divine Mother] Kali and think that you are Shiva.' That is how he explained it to a disciple. And you can change that according to your relationship with him.

 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

Your particular Deity is the Almighty

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

672

   

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

Daughter: Is it not very confusing to have the powers and functions of the one God thus divided and subdivided and mystified?

Father: Well I don't know. Do you think it very confusing to call the ocean that surrounds our country by various names, such as the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian sea and the Indian Ocean not to speak of the Gulf of Cambay etc. You should remember that Hinduism was developed under very complex conditions. Even in a small homogeneous community it is difficult to find a uniform religious formula that would satisfy the needs of all minds. What satisfies the young may not satisfy the old. What satisfies the labourer may not satisfy the collar [office worker].

[Swamiji] God is called by many names but in reality He is One. Similarly a man may be called postman because he delivers post and sometimes he is called uncle because his sister's son meets him on the road. Sometimes the same man at home is called son and sometimes the children call him father. Under each name he does different work. There is only One, but we call It by different names.

But if I worship Hanuman I do not have to go to Mother Kali saying, 'Kali Ma, now I am worshipping you because I have to chop [kill] somebody.' No. Hanumanji [or any deity] can do all these things. Mother Kali, like Hanumanji, can also help me keep brahmacharya, keep pure and sattvic. I do not have to go to Hanumanji and say, 'You are a brahmachari so do the brahmacharya work for me.' Your deity is the Almighty. If you think like this, you are worshipping that deity by the right method. Otherwise you are worshipping by the wrong method; you are thinking the deity is not the Almighty; or it is separate from the Almighty.

The same thing has happened with mankind. When we think we are separate from Satchidananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss, Absolute], we become human beings. The day you realize that you are Satchidananda, everything, all power, comes in and everything is possible through you.

Hari Om Tat Sat

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

One God only

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

670

   

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

 

Daughter: Is not Narayana separate from Shiva? Are not Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva subordinate to the great God Narayana?

[Swamiji] She is asking if these are small gods, minor gods, demigods.

Father: No my child. There is only one God. The Vedas describe Him by the neuter noun Brahman, for in Godhead there is no distinction of sex. Sometimes He is simply called 'That' - tat [the Sanskrit word for it]. For no human description can ever do justice to his infinitude. Brahman in relation to the Universe is called Ishwara and Ishwara is termed Brahma when He creates.

[Swamiji] Brahman the nameless, the formless, the attributeless in terms of the world, is known as Ishwara. That Ishwara now becomes Brahma when He creates, Vishnu when He protects and Rudra when He destroys. They are not three separate things. I may like to destroy, so I pray to Lord Shiva. You like to preserve a little love and you pray to Lord Vishnu. And if you like to create you become an industrial man. [laughter] You do not find any Brahma temples because every inch of space is Brahma's temple; creation is taking place. All the schools are Saraswati's temples. All the industrial places are Saraswati's temples. That is where creation is taking place.

These names only denote the different aspects of one God. That is why they are called the Trimurthi [pictured] - the one with three forms.

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

Your deity embodies everything

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

627

   

[Swamiji continues reading from the Bhagavad Gita]

Of them the wise, ever steadfast and devoted to the One, excels; for I am exceedingly dear to the wise and the wise are dear to Me.

Why? Because the wise man realises that the Self is God. So he loves the Self and the Self loves him. In the Upanishads it is said: 'You cannot get the Self by learning, you will not get the Self by sons, daughters, or wealth, but the Self is got by whosoever the Self chooses.' You do not choose the Self, the Self chooses you. He is so dear to God that God has chosen him and he has realised the Self. He is dear to God and he, knowing the Self, loves the Self more and more.

Whatsoever form any devotee desires to worship with faith, that same faith of his I make firm and unflinching.

God is very wonderful here. Whichever form of God you want to worship, He makes your faith in that form [Deity or Ishta Deva] grow and grow. (As He says in another verse, He is the eternal seed of all beings.) So you worship that particular form thinking that Saraswati is giving you vidya [wisdom/knowledge]; thinking that Saraswati is separate from Lakshmi. Thinking that Lakshmi is giving you wealth, you think Lakshmi is separate from Kali because Kali is giving you strength. So you pray to each of the deities. But God is Almighty and God is only One. Anything you seek from Him He will give you. Through ignorance you do not know that each manifestation, each deity, has everything in it. The same God, no matter which deity you worship, can give you everything you want. It can give you vidya. It can give you whatever you like.

Some of you modern people make me laugh. Your great grandfathers worshipped the deities but suddenly you are finding a new deity. You throw out all the old deities and put a new one there - as if the new one is going to give you everything. You are a fool. Your father and mother prayed to those deities and that is why you have grown so big; you have all the knowledge and so on. So why are you suddenly throwing out the old deity? If you see the old one merged in the new one that would be all right, but now what you are saying is, 'The old one is no good, the new one is the right one . . . ' You are only falling for mass psychology.

The deity that you worship is the same eternal expression of which we all are, the Self.

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

 

The Universality of Sri Ramakrishna

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

615

   

Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] Name does not only take you to Vishnuloka [the realm of Lord Vishnu] or Shivaloka [realm of Lord Shiva] or Shaktiloka [the realm of the Divine Mother]. Nay. It takes you to all the lokas and yet it withdraws and shows you: 'Look,  I am all the lokas.' That is why you find all the deities being absorbed in Him.

Master is the heart of [Maha] Kali. Kali is only the outer manifestation of that heart.

When a kirtan [religious song] is sung slowly, with love and devotion, it makes a calming impression on your mind. The kirtans that are fast should be sung at the times when you are lethargic - when you are feeling sleepy. The mantra [sacred sound or syllable or one of God's many names] after all, makes you do whatever you want to do.

Sing a fast kirtan at the beginning of your satsang [religious or prayer service] , then later come to calmer songs. Another thing is, do not end your satsang with a fast kirtan. If you do, then when the people are leaving you will see how they shake hands and how very happy they feel - but that lasts only as far as the door. The effect of it will wear off.

In my life, by my guru's grace, I paid attention only to his words. The association with my guru was not long but his words still associate me with him, and therefore my life has been blessed.

I hope that the speakers in these classes at the Yoga Camp do not think that they are giving lectures. They should rather think that they are worshipping their Deity; offering it to their Deity. And if their Deity has taken an apparently ignorant form (i.e. in our forms as we are seated) it is just to give training to the lecturer because he is more ignorant than the rest of us. So God tries to uplift the lecturer's intelligence in that way.

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 ‘waving the flag’ for God

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

593

   

I know that my young children, who have started on the spiritual path early in life, will succeed. I am looking for a Krishna amongst them. I am looking for a Buddha amongst them. I am looking for a Hanumanji amongst them. They will wave the flag and you will be proud to be their parents; just like Chandramanidevi and Khudiram were proud to be the parents of Sri Ramakrishna.

[At end Yoga Camp] With these words I say, 'God speed, may the blessings of the Trio  [Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda] be upon you for ever and ever.' You have kept my mind high. You have become the living symbol of my Lord Shiva the living symbol of my Mother Kali, the living symbol of my Master, Sri Ramakrishna.

If it means you must become a fanatic, then become a fanatic of Universality, with your faith in Sri Ramakrishna.

Do not listen to anybody who speaks ill about your parents. Do not listen to somebody speaking ill of your guru. Never hear ill spoken about your Deity. If you cannot bite, hiss. And always remember that you must serve God.

Om Tat Sat

Meditation is the only way to get the mind and senses under control.

Devotee: But how to meditate, Swamiji?

Swamiji: Read and concentrate.

Devotee: What about japa?

Swamiji: It will arise on its own. Think of Rama, what he did. Or think of Shiva. It is no good just saying, 'Shiva, Shiva, Shiva.'

[A devotee spoke of feeling rejected.]

Swamiji: This is not suffering or pain, this is life. The fish in the ocean cannot say, 'I am tired, I want to get out of it'. It can never get out of it. Surrender to Him [God] completely.

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.

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 ‘God is one’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

584

   

Some people try to divide the Supreme Being in their minds. Just like an axiom in maths. For instance they may say, 'I'll go to Lord Vishnu only because he can preserve. I'll go to Lord Brahma only because he can create. And I'll go to Lord Shiva because he can destroy.'

Supposing a piece of iron is full of rust. If I go to Lord Vishnu he will preserve that rust because he is the preserver god. If I go to Lord Brahma he will create more rust because he is the creator god. But when I go to Lord Shiva he will destroy that rust.

That is a way to understand it. But in reality it is One God who has become three, simultaneously not separately. In the body the cells are being created, at the same time the cells are being destroyed, and at the same time the cells are being sustained or preserved. At the same time everything is happening.

God has become the whole creation so He must be in the demons as well.

Devotee: Swamiji, why should God listen to us if we want to ask Him to do negative things, destroying somebody for instance?

Swamiji: Sri Krishna says, 'You have a free will, O Arjuna, if you so desire you can choose now. I gave you the dharmic [righteous] things and the adharmic [unrighteous] things. If you want to do with my power what you want to do, you have the rights to do it. But the fruit of that is yours too, it is not mine.'

Devotee: In the scriptures it says various people asked God to destroy their enemies. Should our prayer ask such things?

Swamiji: It must ask that. It just has to ask for it. But your "enemies" will be according to your evolution. If you are lowly evolved you will think that the man next-door is your enemy. If you are highly evolved you know your senses are your enemy. Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'The unruly senses are your enemy.'

Devotee: So, if I want to get rid of an enemy like the senses, must I go ahead with it?

Swamiji: Yes, yes. Because it hides God from 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.

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 (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 living for somebody else

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

567

[Pictured: Golpaler Ma, Gauri Ma and Lakshmi Didi - all close companions of the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi after the mahasamadhi of Paramahamsa Sri Ramakrishna]

   

You get great benefit in spiritual life when you live for somebody else. To the extent that you live and serve selflessly, to that extent you forget yourself and therefore you forget your ego.

Gradual advancement begins when you are married. There you learn to live for your wife, to work for your children and to look for security. You do not live for yourself but for your family. Then slowly, as you become selfless in this stage of life, you start living for the community. When you serve the community you become selfless to a larger extent. When you live for your country you are a 'nationalised man'; then slowly you become an 'international man'. You do not care about 'my country' or 'your country'; as long as there is humanity you serve it.

Thus you grow from an individualistic man to a universal man. If you are standing in a long queue to buy a ticket and five or six people come and cut into the line, then there is the greatest test for you. If you can stand aside and say, 'Brother, I am not in a hurry, please go ahead,' you will gain an inner strength and patience. If somebody is talking ill about your enemy you should not encourage that gossip. You should rather come to his aid and protect him.

All vices have to be given up before your mind turns inwards. Even in day-to-day meditation you get a little bit of calmness, a little bit of peace. Even a drunken man gets that; but the next day he gets up with a hangover. Similarly, if you practise vices and do meditation, there will be a hangover in your life. You will have to be sincere and stand by that which is virtuous and righteous because that is your duty. And God loves the person who does his duty. He Himself comes to Earth to teach man how to do that duty.

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 conceptualising God

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 552

[Pictured: A seldom-seen beautiful picture of the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, her body in old age, in samadhi]

   

Happiness cannot come to the home without unity. I am talking about a Hindu home where the devotees want to be happy, where the family wants to be happy. The whole universe is made out of unity. Though unity starts with a selfish purpose it later includes the family, the society, nature, the universe. The idea is to reach the universality of unity. But this only comes with practice.

We must set a goal. Saints and sages say that the goal is to know God in ordinary life - not out of the ordinary - in thought, word and deed. God is Omnipotent so know Him everywhere and in everything. Where to start? Let us start with ourselves. A person must never think he is a sinner. He must always think he is pure, that he is the creation of God and God cannot create something impure, something against his dharma [righteousness]. Slowly, after that, you see the body as the shrine, with the heart as the altar.

You may think of your deity as with form or without form. It is like a man posing for a photograph, he poses differently each time. Similarly, God's poses are many. He may sit like this or like that, He may dress up as Lord Shiva, as Hanumanji, or as Mother Lakshmi. He may dress as AUM or He may be natural, like Mother Kali, with no clothes. Nature cannot be dressed by something else. It must be dressed by nature. If God is nature, and is dressed up with his own nature, then He would be depicted with no clothes; nature is naked.

Think of God in any pose, in any form, provided that the idea of God expresses the highest positivity. Think of God as full of mercy, full of love, full of immortality. He is Infinite, and that which is Infinite brings peace and bliss. One must meditate on this aspect of God always. Remember, anything finite must end, and must ultimately bring unhappiness.

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 Universality of Sri Ramakrishna

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 546

[Pictured:Udbodhan House street front. The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi lived on the first floor of this building following the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna]

 

Swamiji continues talking at an Easter Yoga camp

All the different things that you see are nothing other than a manifestation of maya [the illusion/delusion creating power], which is God's power. Maya dishes out your food for you to eat, according to your past samskaras [impressions from past births].

He is the best who, in humility, asks God to extend his hand, and tries to extend his own hand towards God. He is the best because God can then take him up from where he is and make use of him in the best possible way. That is why Sri Ramakrishna said, 'O Mother, may Thy will be done.' Whilst other Rishis and munis [sage-saints] said that this world is maya, this world is full of dirt and filth, Sri Ramakrishna was able to love everything in this world.

Even a great sage like Adi Shankaracharya wrote such defiling words about the body to bring about dispassion. But Sri Ramakrishna did not do this at all. He wanted to bring that same dispassion by positive means. He said that this world is full of mirth, this world is full of happiness.

Was it not lust that brought Tulsidas to God? It was. And yet it was lust that destroyed other sadhakas. Even theft can be turned into a positive thing; yet we think it can only be used to bring about negative things. This is why Sri Ramakrishna was so against the word 'sin'. He said, 'You must not call a man a sinner because if he took birth from that Birthless One he too must be birthless - and therefore divine.'

You are born in the new school of thought, the Ramakrishna way, the [Swami] Vivekananda way. This way is now being preached by different institutions around the world although they do not mention that it is the Ramakrishna way and to that extent they are thieves. Let us not be that kind of a thief too. Let us fully acknowledge: 'Lord, it is because of you that I have got this grace, it is because of you that these Yoga Camps have been arranged, it is because of you that I have a little love for your lotus feet and for our fellow brothers and sisters.'

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.