Swami Shivapadananda

See your deity only

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Transcribed from the recordings made by Mother Radha

Day 1037

Whatever your deity is – look at It. That is how, when sadhus [holy people] are tortured by different people, they look at the deity. Other people are torturing them but they see their own deity doing the torturing. While singing look at It. When you're singing to Krishna, you'll think of Krishna. When singing to Shiva, you'll think of Shiva. Sing to Ramakrishna, you'll think of Ramakrishna. But - No! The idea is that the first one which comes in the Vishnu Sahastranaam, [the thousand names of Vishnu] or Purusha Shukta [in the Rig Veda] that's where the idea comes from that all these names belong to this One. Why one? This one – my deity.

You will only do that if you sincerely believe that your deity is everything. Not that everything is your deity but that your deity is everything….plus. That's the idea. I want to keep putting this in your mind. It is high time now that you get used to it. If I'm sitting and singing 'AUM Venkatesh, AUM Venkatesh, AUM Venkatesh, AUM' I'm think of Swami Venkatesananda [former head of the Divine Life Society, Mauritius]. Or 'AUM Nischalananda, AUM Nischalananda, Nischalananda AUM,' then I'm thinking of Swami Nischalananda [Swamiji's beloved guru]. It shouldn't be like that. The idea is that you must be looking at your deity, always. If they say, 'AUM thief, AUM thief, AUM thief,' look at your deity. Just your deity – nothing else. What is he or she not?

Somebody asked Ramana Maharishi, 'tell me – where is God?' Ramana Maharishi looked at him directly and said, 'tell me where there is no God and I will tell you where he is.' If somebody asks, 'which is your deity, tell him, 'which one is not mine? - then I will tell you which one is mine'. That is the secret behind loving methods to worship God. Not changing the names and forms. From that point of view the name and form does not matter but the deity matters. Others can call your deity by any name. Ramakrishna puts it wonderfully. I'm mediating on water and I call it water, water, water. Another person says pani, pani pani. Another says jal,jal, jal. It's the same thing. It's the same?...thing. Different sound. Different?...names. If a man went to the north Pole and there saw mountains of ice and he looked at that and said, 'water, water,' - but he's looking at the ice. And you see flowing water and you say, 'water, water,' - you see the liquid. The two people get together and say, 'water, water.' The one is seeing a big mountain of white ice and you say, 'no, it's flowing,' but both are saying the same thing. One is talking about God concretised [with form] the other may be saying God Absolute [formless]. It's still God.

You discriminate – this is the reality. All others – all of the names – are only attributes. Names imply action. What does it imply?...action. You say Shivapadananda – Shivapadananda is something comprising all the attributes. 'And the word was with God and the word became flesh'. [Swamiji quoting from the beginning of the Christian Bible] But it's still the word. In the form of the flesh. What is the word? The word was with God therefore the word is God. Not was God.

A guru told his disciples, 'we are at war with the Moghuls and virtually all the soldiers are employed or engaged in war. There is nobody to do first aid. Nobody to carry water'. So they found an old man among the disciples and said, 'could you please do service in the war of carrying water to the wounded and dying on the battlefield?' The old man humbly consented and he carried on with his worshipful task. After a couple of days a report came back to the guru that this man was a traitor. This disciple of yours is a traitor. The guru asked why. The person said, 'this man, instead of giving water to our own soldiers - who are fighting for us – I see him giving water to the enemy and reviving them.' The guru said, 'summon him,' – and they did. And when he arrived, the guru said, 'look, in the war we asked you to give water to the wounded soldiers. Are you carrying out your duty?' He answered, 'yes, Maharaj, I am carrying out my duty.' The guru asked, 'how is it that your brother disciples say that you give water to the enemy too?' He said, 'Maharaj, I don't give water to any enemies. I don't give water to anybody else but you! On the battlefield I see you wounded, dying of thirst and I give you water. On the battlefield O lord, I see you fighting with the army, one against the other – fighting yourself. I come here lord, I find you giving instructions. I see only the guru - I see you, lord.'

The guru looked at all the soldiers. He put his head down and said to the soldiers, 'Let him go ahead.' Only a man like that can be a first-aider in the whole universe. No 'mine', no 'yours' – only a man like that can cure the illness, the sickness of death and birth, of old age, of decaying bodies – only a man like that. Only a disciple like that.

Therefore, when you are singing, see your deity - only your deity. O lord, when I close my eyes I see Thee – One without a second. Even if there is a form, there is no second to it. Nothing to compare to it. In the Ramayana when Raja Dasaratha and Kausalya worshipped and performed difficult tapasya [austerities], Lord Vishnu appeared and each of them was asked separately, 'What do you want?' Dasaratha said, 'Lord, I want a son, just like you'. The secret is that; 'just like him.' A son was born. But 'like him' cannot be anyone else – there's no relative. There's no second. God had to come himself. [Swamiji chuckling] That's the secret of the scripture. In some way they bluff you just to get your mind thinking, 'just like this or that' – you think of another man just like that. But here it doesn't mean someone else. Just like God, 'God, I want just like you,'…who is like God? God is one without a second, therefore he must come down personally. [Swamiji chuckles] He is his own likeness. God is his own?... likeness. Nobody else can be his likeness. So he has to come. There's no two. So when you think about your deity, there is no second, 'Lord when I close my eyes I see Thee, One without a second.' One and only one – no comparison. If you believe in God with form, that's it. If you believe in God without form, he's still one without a second. There's no one to compare to That - you cannot compare, whoever you take. When I open my eyes Lord, I see thou art manifested as Shivapada, as these friends that are seated here, as music, as ether. When I close my eyes again Lord, I see Thee – One without a second.

The secret is in those words that I am saying. In later years when you are going deeper in sadhana [spiritual practice] these words if you keep them in your mind, will come back to you. It will come to you, 'what he said is true'. So when you're singing kirtan, when you're singing bhajan, no matter how many hundred names you're taking, no matter how many hundred forms you're taking, it's all the Sahastranaam. Thousand names – it's His. He looks through thousands of eyes and works through thousands of hands. He's got thousands of forms. Therefore, he is the One – that One – in these thousands. Only One - there's no two. Remember the guru and the chela [disciple] [in the story] - only One, he only saw his guru. The others saw friends. The others saw another guru. But he saw everything. It's only him - without a?...second.

Three stages are to be taken. One is the deity with form. He can become without a second – nothing can compare to him. Second, Absolute - One without form. Third, the Self - I, the Self, in everything. So I am everything. Everything is me. I bow to thee, in the form of my deity and I bow to thee who is omnipresent and I bow to thee - myself. [Swamiji chuckling] I see no one else but myself, I bow to myself. Sounds very egoistic, huh? [Swamiji chuckles again] But where's the ego? There is only one 'I' – when there's two to compare then it becomes ego. There's one here and one there and we compare it - then it's ego. But if it's only One? When it's relative it becomes ego. When it is non-relative it is is no more ego, it is God - it is the Lord of lords. It is the Self. Think about what I am saying. This is the class to think. This is not the class to clap and dance, but to think and get joy.

You must make a note of this. This is gurumantra Mantra. This is the initiation of the uninitiated. This is a pathless path to God. How many of you have found the mind becoming really stable when you think only of One? Hands up? This is the thing we miss when we are in classes. With this attitude you can go to the mosque, with this attitude you can go to the church, with this attitude you can go to all the temples. With this attitude you can visit a Synagogue, with this attitude you can visit any place. Just One without a second. One without a?...second.

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, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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, One Truth – and Grace

 

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Day 1004

Swamiji talking at a Yoga spiritual retreat camp. A devotee had just finished speaking on Lord Shiva:

You have sung the glory of that eternal, infinite Being [Brahman] under the name of Shiva, described to us the mantra Om namah Shivaya, drawing to our notice that each letter of the alphabet stands for one of the elements which is no other than God himself or God's power. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Bhagawan said that God and God's power are inseparable. They cannot be separated. Just like milk and its whiteness, just like the fire and its burning power can never be separated – similarly God and his power, manifested as this great universe, can never be separated.

But he has veiled himself as you said to us. And we can only realise this, not in the course of our own effort, not because of our own strength, but by his own grace. And when his grace dawns on us, he reveals himself. Who covers it? He himself covers it. Because he covers it, we have more power to uncover it. Why? Because he is the Almighty. Almighty means that all the might you know of – the ant's might, the saint's might, the sinner's might - are all his might. How can you ever exert your might when it is his might? So it is only when he uses his might of revealing himself, that we see him. In this way we must be humble. If we have the slightest bit of ego, thinking 'I will do sadhana [spiritual practice] and God will reveal himself,'…. you can't even do sadhana because sadhana-might is his! The speaker said, Kriya sakti, yoga sakti, all saktis are God's [Swamiji chuckles] – so how can you ever boast about having sakti?

Gurudev, Swami Nischalanandaji Maharaj, used to tell us that man is a slave but he prides himself on being a master. Don't you see, at night-time they say, 'I'll sit up for Shivaratri [an all-night vigil],' and you find half of them snoring. [Swami chuckling] So he's a slave to sleep. Then you see people who say, 'I shall fast,' but inside them there's hunger. 'Slave to hunger,' Gurudev used to tell us. In this way you must humble yourself. Humility is one of the prerequisites of a sadhaka [spiritual aspirant, practitioner]. One time my beloved guru [spiritual Preceptor] Nischalanandaji said, 'Ah, Inder [Swamiji's pre-monastic name] , stand like a mountain but when it rains, where does the water collect?' He said, 'not on the mountain, but in the valley.' He rebuked me many times, 'Ego, ego, ego, ego!' [ahamkara] And then I used to think, 'what kind of Swami [Hindu monk] this is?' - you see the child thinks everything about the parents. Sometimes when the parents say, 'Don't go to the bioscope [movies],' the child thinks, 'In his time he went, now he doesn't want me to go.' We think like this because we are still children. We are immature. I used to think of my guru, 'what's he saying about ego – you mean to say he's telling this without ego?' The mind reacts like that. Later on you realise, 'No – that's not ego. His ego, like Sri Ramakrishna said, is like a long rope which has been burnt to ash. It can be rubbed away, erased. It's like writing on the water. It cannot be read, but yet it's written. Gurudev used to say, 'humility, humility - ego must be out.' And when you get off the mountain ego, there will be a big hollow at the foot of it. And in that, the grace of God will be collected.

I also sat like this in front of my guru. And once I told him, 'if you cannot be like a little child, then be like a dog, watching his master all the time'. And Gurudev went into samadhi [spiritual superconsciousness]. Can we becomes dogs of God? Can we? Can we say, 'Lord, I shall guard your Dharma [righteous path, guidelines] like a faithful dog'? Can you and I say that sincerely and act accordingly? Ah! Wonderful what the speaker said. He covers [veils, conceals, masks] himself, he puts Maya [God's power of illusion, delusion] – his own power – on himself. And when he's happy, he's like a child now fully matured in the egg. The golden egg. Now is the time. [Swamiji makes a popping sound] Break it open. Beforehand if you break the egg, it will be premature and the chick will die. So you must wait for the right time. When with God's grace, God knows you are fully baked. When you are fully baked he'll pull you out of the oven of Maya. He'll pull us out. Maya is his power.

Then the speaker also says that Shiva is the creator, Shiva is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer. How beautiful. Now if you take the Vaishnavites [worshippers of Vishnu], they also say that Vishnu is this creator, preserver and destroyer. The Saktas [worshippers of the Mother aspect of the divine] also say that Sakti is the creator, preserver and destroyer. [Swamiji chuckles] Well, who are they talking about, then? It can't be many people doing that because they'll destroy themselves. It must be that One - but they give it different names and other different aspects. They are looking at it and giving it that. It is only ONE [Brahman]. Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti [truth is one, sages call it by various names - Rig Veda]. There is only one Sakti [power]. Wise people – which kind of people? – wise people, not the ignorant people like us….wise people look at it and say, 'ah – it is called by different names, because it has taken different forms.' There's only one thing we're talking about.

So this Lord has got the creating power. What does he create? He creates his own lila. Lila means play. What kind of play? Divine play. Divine play – he creates his play, he plays in it, then he preserves it. How does he preserve it? By…the Nataraja…the cosmic dance. Every step he does, our mind is constantly on it – it preserves it. When it's finished he just stops. Static. It's finished. So this Shiva is like that. He's got the five different ways of acting. He creates, he preserves, he destroys. He covers and he gets joy just to reveal 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, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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

Ramakrishna and Integral Yoga

Pictured: Lord Krishna and Arjuna at the battle of Kurukshetra. Note Hanuman janda - flag/ensign/banner - on top of chariot]

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 976

All the yogas are united in Hanuman [the great devotee of Lord Rama]. That is why you will see his image on Arjuna's flag. If you unite all the yogas, Karma Yoga [the yoga of work as worship], Jnana Yoga [the yoga of knowledge], Raja Yoga [the yoga of meditation], Bhakti Yoga [the yoga of devotion], then it'll be victory. You'll fly high. Not by excluding other yogas. Lord Rama saw that in Hanumanji all the yogas were there. Ramakrishna preached, what kind of yoga? Integral yoga. He didn't say only one – it was a little bit of everything.

As your mood changes during the day, adapt it. Now you want to sing and dance, now you want to serve, serve. Now you want to just control your mind and sit, control your mind and sit. On the other hand you feel that you want jnana yoga, when you want to discuss or study the scriptures, talk about Hanumanji – when you do this what will happen? You will have victory like Mother Durga – Amba Ma. You'll find all the gods and goddesses are almost defeated, here there and everywhere in the books, but you'll never find Amba Ma being defeated anywhere. Show me one book in which she was defeated. Shakti is never defeated.

When you worship Rama, the embodiment, Krishna the embodiment, they are the embodiment of Almighty, the embodiment of all Shakti. And Ambaji is the root, the basis of all these different devis and devas. So, Amba was never defeated. So you'll be like that, too. Ramakrishna stood for the spirit of all unity [universality]. Hanuman stands for uniting all the yogas – and thru Hanuman you get Ambaji, the Shakti, the Mother's love - not to destroy. A mother never destroys her child. What does a mother do? Nourishes the child, protects the child, makes the children strong so Amba is that kind of Mother – you will get that kind of love, that kind of power, that you'll have no ill-feeling towards anybody – you'll always want to uplift them – serve them like a real?...mother.

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, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. 

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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

All spiritual paths lead to one destination

[Pictured: the Ganges/Ganga delta]

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 938

 

Only the religious leaders who came after Master's [Sri Ramakrishna's] time preached the universality* of religion. Sri Ramakrishna's method was, 'All religions are disciplines to discipline our minds, and you can realise God.'

Before this, all believed that if you followed Karma Yoga [the yoga of offering the fruits of one's labour to God] you would get God-realisation - or that if you followed Jnana Yoga [the yoga of spiritual knowledge] you would get God-realisation - or if you followed Bhakti Yoga [the yoga of devotion] you would get God-realisation. They felt you could not mix them. But Sri Ramakrishna said, 'Religion is not in dogmas and doctrines. It is in being and becoming, by worship, psychic control (internal and external), by knowledge, or by all these.'

You can practise all these yogas [paths and approaches] in one birth. The mind differs from second to second.

After 1886 many others followed religion as preached by Sri Ramakrishna. He did not just find it, no, he discovered it, he un-covered it - like you remove the cloth from the table.

This is Sanatana Dharma - the Eternal Religion.

*Sri Ramakrishna's dictum was 'Religions are like rivers - they all end in the One ocean called God'.

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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 many manifestations

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 923

 

Our great gurus [spiritual preceptors, teachers, sages, seers, saints] and our great gods and goddesses are not many, but only one. Example, you see how many globes [lighting lamps/bulbs] are burning here? Now look at the globes. What expresses itself through the globe? Electricity. The electricity is only one, isn't it so? It's only one current but it expresses itself in so many different globes. But not only that. Electricity can make things feel cold – like in the refrigerator. It's not only hot, it also makes it cold. Look at the electricity in your TV. It makes a picture. So you see the expression of electricity. It will make heat to cook your food on the stove. It is only one but it has many different expressions.

Just like that, God is one, only one but He expresses Himself through these different forms, called Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh [Shiva], Kali, Saraswati, Lakshmi. He expresses Himself in Hanumanji, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, Ahura Mazda [or any other deity you can think of]. These are different globes and the light inside it is only one. And the expression of that light is only electricity.

So God to the Hindus is not three, four, five, six – it's only one [Brahman]. Called if you like, a certain type of globe. Dim globe – you know in the night you put a dim [soft] globe [light]? Then you have bright globes and coloured globes. God is just like that. He expresses Himself in the globe called Hanumanji [the great bhakta devotee of Lord Rama]. He expresses Himself in a globe called Kali. He expresses Himself in a globe called Ramakrishna. He expresses Himself in the globes called Gurus. So he expresses Himself in the globes call human beings, too.

But the only thing is that we don't know this. What happens? We don't know this. That is why we do not find Him or know where to look for Him. Where must we look for God? Within the heart. Where? Within the heart.

 

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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 energy concentrated in Church, Mosque, Shul, Temple

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 881

 

 

Swamiji speaking to children

 

Holy places are like areas where the sun reflects more – example: on water rather than rock. These holy places, no matter whether it is a mosque, a church or a temple [or Shul/Synagogue], are places where [energy of] divinity is more manifest.

May God bless you. May you always go to these holy places to soak up the divinity which is already there.

You are like that little plant which one day must grow big and give shade to different people, no matter what race, colour or caste he or she belongs to. You are the children of God, you are God's children.

May God manifest in you. May Mother Saraswati manifest in you.

You must come here, to these [yoga spiritual retreat] camps, for one reason - to discipline yourself and myself and to go towards God.

Read chapter 2 in the Bhagavad Gita every day.

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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 God is my God

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 879

   

Swamiji continues talking on Sri Ramakrishna

This is the greatness of Hinduism [the Sanatana Dharma], it never condemns any religion. It says that if my Father [God] is my father, then your Father [God] is your father. If my Mother [God]is my mother then your Mother [God] must be your mother. If my Mother [God] gives me love, then your Mother [God] must also give you love.

Thus you find that this Ramakrishna, in this Age [yuga], is worshipped by different people, under different names. Some worship Him as God, others worship him as a saint, some even say that he is not a saint but he is a good man. No matter under which name you worship him, no matter how you look at him, it does not matter, so long as you become a good man, provided you become a good being.

One day an atheist came to him and said, 'Look, you say you make a Christian a better Christian, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Hindu a better Hindu, but I do not believe in God. What will you make me?' What do you think Ramakrishna said? Can you guess? He asked him, 'What are you then?' The man replied, 'Well I am a human being.' Master said, 'Well I make a human being a better human being; neither a Christian nor a Muslim, but a better human being.' Thus you see he taught many truths like this.

Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said, "During the day you don't see any stars, do you? But we know there are stars, only, when the light of the sun comes, the stars fade their light into the great light."

Similarly he says, 'O man, in the days of your ignorance, when your heart is impaired, do not say there is no God. God is always there. Make your heart pure and you will see God.' This was one of his parables.

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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-ness of God

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 878

   

Swamiji speaking on the boyhood of Sri Ramakrishna

Being a boy who was born in a Brahmin family, he was sent to the [Kali] temple [pictured above] at Dakshineswar at an early age, where he worshipped the Divine Mother of the universe as God.

People give It [God] various names and various forms. Truth is one but people call it by many names. Like electricity. Electricity expresses itself as light, in the refrigerator as ice, and on the hot plate as heat. So God is One, expressed under different names and forms.

He [Sri Ramakrishna] worshipped God as the Mother in the temple of Kali. He prayed to the Mother, 'Ma, reveal yourself to me. If you really exist, if there is a God that exists, I want to see this God, I do not want to play fools. One day he was about to commit suicide because he had not seen God - and lo, he saw a flood of light. And this light, later on, took the form of his chosen Deity, called Mother. She in turn taught him and he reached the highest state called God-realisation.

Later in his life he followed the Muslim religion and saw the Truth in that. He followed the Christian religion and saw the Truth in that. In the end he said: 'All religions are true, whether they are flowing crooked of straight, they all end in the sea called God'.

So, you can see the greatness of this Being: Sri Ramakrishna. He did not come here only to uplift his own religion or particular sect. He injected the germ of life into all 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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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

   

 

See all in the One

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 866

   

So when you are singing bhajan and kirtan, no matter how many hundreds of names you take, think of Vishnu Sahasra Naam [the thousand names attributed to Lord Vishnu, the aspect of God representing 'preservation']. The thousand names are His. He [God] looks through a thousand eyes and works through a thousand hands. He has got thousands of forms. Therefore God is the One, that One, only One.

So the Guru and the chela [disciple] are only one.

Three stages are to be taken: First, God with form [dualistic or dvaita]. Second, God the Absolute [monistic or advaita]. Third, is the Self. The I, the Self, is everything to me.

'I bow to thee in the form of my Deity [Ishta Deva or Chosen Ideal]. I bow to thee, who is my Self.'

This sounds very egotistic, but where is the ego [ahamkara]? In reality only one ego exists, only one 'I'. If there are two to compare, then there is ego. But there is only One.

You must think and get joy. This is the pathless path to God.

The mind gets stable when you think of One only. With this attitude you can go to the Mosque, with this attitude you can go to the Church or to the Temple. Reality is One without a second.

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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 one Guru

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]

[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 864

   

Once a Guru [spiritual preceptor] called his disciples and told them, 'We are at war with the Mughals and virtually all the soldiers are engaged in war. There is no one to do first-aid, no one to carry water.' So they found an old man, an old disciple. The Guru asked him: 'Could you please do this service in the war, carrying water to the wounded and dying on the battle field?' He humbly consented and carried out this worshipful task.

After a few days a report came back to the Guru that this old man was a traitor. When the Guru asked why, they said, 'This man, instead of giving water to our own soldiers, we see that he is giving water to the enemies also.' So they summoned him and the Guru asked whether he was carrying out his duty. He said, 'Yes.' Then the Guru asked, 'But how is it that you are giving water to the enemy too?' He said, 'Maharaj, I don't give water to any enemies, I don't give water to anybody else but You. In the battlefield I see You are wounded, are dying of thirst, so I give You water. I see You fighting with the army, one against the other. I see You fighting against Yourself, and I find joy. When I come here I see You are giving instructions as the Guru. I see You, Lord.' The Guru looked at the other disciples.

Thus only a man like that can be a first-aid giver to the whole Universe. No 'mine', no 'yours'. Only a man or a disciple like that can cure the illness, the sickness, of death and birth, of old age, of rotting, decaying bodies. Only a man like that.

Therefore when you sing you must see only your Deity. 'O Lord, when I close my eyes I see Thee - One without a second - nothing to compare It with.'

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.

For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:

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