SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
Day 510
Does Swami Vivekananda's story show us that the tiger was a sheep? * [see footnote] No. The tiger was hypnotised into thinking it was a sheep because it had not seen itself. The day it saw itself, the power manifested and it realised, 'Hey, I am a tiger.' But all the time it had been a tiger. All the time you are a god but hypnotism has made you think that you are this.
Though you use the word merging, though you mean becoming, all these are just figurative words. In reality God-realisation is nothing like that.
We are looking for that which Sri Ramakrishna taught us. What is the use of clinging on to Sri Ramakrishna and not wanting to reach the state that he wanted us to reach? I feel that Sri Ramakrishna is nothing, Sri Sarada Devi is nothing, Swami Vivekananda is nothing, as long as we do not strive for the things they asked us to strive for. When we do that, then the holy ones are everything.
Excuse me for saying this in such strong words but I want to show you that to me the deities really do not matter. They are only a manifestation like you and me. But I thank them, I bow to them. They are the brightest manifestations who have come to show us the light, while our manifestations are still dark. We cannot even see our own footsteps. They are 'That' [indivisible One consciousness] which you are, but you are not shining as yet.
God is man. If the container is ice and the thing you put in that container is water, what is the difference between the container and the water? Both are H2O but one is in liquid form and the other is in the form of ice. You are calling one of them 'container' and the other one 'water'. [But they are one and the same]
[Footnote: The story is told, in various ways, of a tiger who was reared in a flock of sheep. He behaved and did everything just like the sheep. Until another tiger came along and dragged him to the water's edge and made him look at his true reflection. Only then did he realise he'd been a tiger all along.]
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