Swami Shivapadananda

No giant spiritual leap. Baby steps.

Pictured: Prajapati (Lord of Creation] teaching Indra, king of the gods

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 1041

Devotee asks: It is said that if you are sincerely spiritual the material will look after itself.

Swamiji: No, it won't look after itself. You must treat is as a duty and look after it. Understand what I mean? Only a yogi [God-realised soul] can speak like that. A yogi won't care about anything, because what he desires will happen. But what you desire doesn't happen, so until that state is reached you have to look after it. And then, if you become a yogi and what you desire happens, you'll understand that other people can't do that, so you will do what is dharmic [righteous]. You will do everything according to dharma. You will serve and you will do everything, you will look after material things. And you will tell them, "this is valuable," - only valuable as far as using it goes - not getting attached to it and calling it my own. You see, for instance now, take the ashram [monastery]...if the swami or the sannyasins [Hindu monks] just treat it anyhow and take it for granted, thinking that "I am spiritual," everything will go into chaos. You have a Constitution [for the organisation] and you must see that the dharma embodied in the Constitution must be implemented.

Devotee: Not neglected.

Swamiji: No, you can't neglect it. You can't neglect your body and say you are spiritual, unless you reach the stage as I told you, where what you desire [Swamiji clicks his fingers] happens. And you will always desire for the best because the whole universe becomes your body, then. Apparently you are here but you are all over. You know that. Therefore what is there to look after because your Self you can't look after. There's a stage when you take the Lord, singular and meditate on him. Then he must be in universal form, Vishwaroop. The same with your deity [Ishta Deva] - whether it's Siva, Kali, Durga or Krishna. Because Krishna showed it practically [the vishwaroop aspect, to his disciple Arjuna], some people only go for Krishna as a deity - but it's not so. Any deity will be the same. First you meditate on the form, then that form must be meditated on in the universal form – vishwaroop – and then it must become formless, nameless. Krishna gives you the three stages in the Bhagavad Gita. So that's how you reach the highest, too. First the formless, then the whole universe becomes God, you see it pulsating. Then you find the universe has come out of something which is formless, nameless, all dissolved. It's not extracting anything but it is merging, like a drop of water merges into the river and the river merges with the?...ocean. It's very easy, a wonderful meditation. Read between the lines in the scriptures then you'll see what I'm talking about.

Some people, when you tell them to meditate on a deity, they get so fed up, they think, "this fellow is not taking me higher," – inside here [Swamiji pointing to chest] will know straight away that it needs another step now, so you'll push him away slowly. Until then, just get the intense yearning to know a little more truth and the yearning comes and pushes a little bit. Like Indra came the first time, and Virochana the first time.

[Virochana in Hindu mythology was an asura (demon) king. According to the Chandogya Upanishad (VIII.7.2-8.5) he and Indra (king of the gods) went to Prajapati, the Lord of creation to learn about the Atman [universal soul] and lived there, practising brahmacharya for 32 years. Prajapati told them both that whatever they saw was Brahman. Virochana misunderstood this and seeing his physical reflection in water told the asuras to worship the body as the Atman.]

Swamiji continues: Virochana thought the body was everything. So he told his gang, "eat, drink and make merry". Indra said, "wait a minute, but that's not it, that thing doesn't die when this body dies". So he would come back and ask. An intense yearning to know the truth you see? They came again and he pushed them a little bit more. Like that I don't know how many times he came – three or four times or six times, they pushed him, pushed him. It didn't happen just like that. People make a mistake to think all it takes is a touch and that [God realisation] happens. It almost never happens like that. An Incarnation [avatar] of God, a Christ will say, "behold" and you can see it. Ramakrishna just touched, "wake up Mother," and the person went into samadhi. But it can't happen with everybody.

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

Happiness

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 1040

Every stage [of spiritual growth] has happiness. And with almost every stage you have the opposite – which is misery. But only one stage – that is the last one which is bliss in the Spirit or the Self - has no opposites. Because in that state there is no second. It is only One and One alone. And this in turn, the Lord rounded it up very beautifully, Sri Krishna Bhagawan gives us a practical exercise. First of all he says you must try and keep your mind pure. This, when I think of Jesus, is always in my mind, when he said, "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". Now the question is, are we following the advice of these great ones to keep ourselves pure? And when you keep yourself pure, it is not just keeping yourself pure but at the same time try to contact the Universal Spirit which we term it as 'God', or 'Nirvana'.

These are terms of the Universal Spirit – and how to contact it? He gives it very openly again. You must, as the Isha Upanishad says, "see This dwelling in every one and permeating everything". One might say, "ah, this is just imagination." But everything is imagination – even if you are to make a clay pot, what do you do? You first imagine. You want to build a house, you imagine, you put it on a plan. Everything is imagination. Are you so clever that you want to condemn imagination, when in the first place, in baby class, imagination came to your assistance? Yes, in the beginning it is like an imagination, like in the beginning a building is an imagination in your mind. Later on, when you do practical things, like follow the ethical and moral laws [yama and niyama], then it will become a reality. It's like asking a builder and then building the house. It stands, it's there. You can see it, you can touch it, you can talk in it, you can play in it. Beautiful.

Today's speaker wonderfully said that many people think that in sex you get happiness. There is definite happiness but supposing the time comes that your partner doesn't agree with you, then you get sadness. What he called this "trifling, crudest form of bliss", is always associated with that which is?...sorrow. Sadness. In one stage only, there is no sadness - that which is One without a second. Therefore it is said, if you want infinite bliss, you must realise the infinite Being. Infinite Being or Spirit. He gives the three kinds of happiness.

["That which in the beginning is like poison but in the end like nectar; that happiness, born from the tranquillity of one's own mind, is declared to be sattvic." (Bhagavad Gita 18:37)

"That which in the beginning, through contact between the senses and their objects, is like nectar, and in the end like poison; that happiness is declared to be rajasic." (Bhagavad Gita 18:38)

"That happiness which both in the beginning and afterwards deludes the self, arising from sleep, indolence, and negligence, is declared to be tamasic." (Bhagavad Gita 18:39)]

In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says you get delusion out of sleep and drunkenness. You drug yourself you get it, how true. There is happiness in that isn't there? But I know from personal experience, sometimes sleep gives bliss, but when you continue sleeping your body starts giving the opposite of bliss. You can even get fed up with sleeping in bed. You want to now walk. So that is again a delusion as Krishna calls it.

Then you find there is a passionate type of bliss – which is a rajastic type – where you get sensual bliss. And again many people have 'blissful' eyes. And then they again have 'blind-ful' [deluded] eyes. So you can see, this has also got to come to an end.

The highest form of bliss is sattvic. Again that you find bliss in happiness. We are so hypnotised living on earth and we make earth such a hell that when we land in hell we find that it is even bliss there. And this is true, because great yogis have told different stories. Remember one time a man was told to go and get the lowest of the low things. [Swamiji chuckles] He walked and found a pig but then thought, "well, people eat pork, so it can't be the lowest of the low". He continued looking and saw the untouchables [Dalits] and thought, "the untouchables are cleaning our places, so they can't be the lowest". Then he found excreta. He was about to touch it, when the excreta shouted, "stop! stop! Do not touch me, you low fellow!" He asked what the excreta meant. "Why are you calling me low?" The excreta answered, "you know, you are only a third-class ordinary man and you want to touch me. But do you know why my position is like this? I was once a wonderful cake on the king's table and this is my position today. [devotees laugh] And if you're going to touch me, I don't know what's going to happen." So you see – this is the problem. The problem is that we always think something else is low - but we're getting lower and lower. We don't know how low we ourselves are. I think it's high time that we must take stock.

But then sometimes when my mind goes with a great thought like this, I think "wait a minute, what are the people to do then?" And I'm sure that thought goes through your mind, too. What are the people to do? The people have to make up their minds which kind of bliss they want. They do not say that you must withdraw from the worldly life, that you must withdraw from your wife and children, but make it a spiritual practice. Do it, because you just have to do it. Do it and surrender it to God. Because it is God's. Not yours. Only when you say, "mine" and "my", "I", "yours", it goes bad. But when you say, "God, it is Thine", there's nothing bad.

Then, how to live? The speaker said that if you do good things and you follow the ethical and moral laws you won't suffer. I beg your pardon. You suffer like hell. But when you make hell no suffering - then only do you become blissful. That's how it is. Swami Vivekananda [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] said that the western world wants to tell us how to stop suffering and get happiness. But he says that we eastern people try to bear the suffering. And when suffering becomes 'no-suffering' to the bearer - like Sita - then it's blissful, isn't it? You don't care. So, when you do good things, sufferings will come but you must be indifferent to them. Happiness will also come – be indifferent to it. When you go above these two, what then? You must feel the happiness of just doing the thing. Why? Because that is the only way to live. And then you'll get the supreme release – God. But what we are trying to do…we are trying to avoid.

You know these homoeopathic people talk sometimes about the allopathic people. They say, "you know Swamiji, if you've got migraine they give you a drug and that headache gets stopped but then a leg-ache starts". [Swamiji chuckling merrily] They say, "they'll give you this kind of medication and your skin starts troubling you. But the original problem is stopped". So that's what happens with happiness. You look for one kind of happiness but the side-effects of that happiness are tremendous. It comes out as something else. Or, say that my body is itching. I used to always make a mistake in the olden days and devotees used to laugh at me. I used to say, "my body is scratching, please scratch it for me". [Swamiji and devotees laugh] So, when your body is itching, the bliss is the scratching, isn't it? But that's going to cause a spreading – and extension – of the scratching. You're not going to spend your life scratching. You may not have any flesh left – you'll reach the bone. So like that you'll find that happiness – worldly happiness – will only add fuel to the?...fire. It will only add desire to the already 'apparent' satisfied desire.

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

 

3 levels of obstacles

 

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 1039

Spiritual life is one of the highest ways of living. In this life one learns to live in the imperishable. And when one lives in the imperishable, one is freed from the three kinds of fear. What are the three kinds of fear, one would ask? [Swamiji addresses a question to his first monastic disciple, Swamiji Premananda], why do you say, 'shantih, shantih, shantih' (peace, peace,peace) three times? [Swami Premananda responds] 'To ward off the three types of difficulties.'

[Swamiji] What are the three types of difficulties? The first one is? [Swami Premananda says, 'adhyaatmik']

Swamiji repeats, 'adhyaatmik - and adhyaatmik is difficulties of fear caused by the?...body. Illnesses, because of your past karmas and present karmas most probably, too. Also difficulties from ignorance. Ignorance of living a healthy life. Physically. And mentally. Example: you may eat things that may not be conducive to good health. And things that are not conducive to a calm and sattvic mind. This must cause you some sort of?...illness. It can also be caused by not taking the right type of exercise. The right type of exercise. One may become fascinated by the looks of a muscular man. Thus one may become more physically or sensually conscious. On the other hand he may take exercise which may not be conducive to his heart, lungs and bodily health. Or he may just do it incorrectly. If an old man, who had not previously exercised, suddenly feels like a yogi and he takes up just any kind of exercise, he may get damaged joints, or a broken bone.

Bhastrika [rapid yoga 'bellows' breathing through both nostrils simultaneously – Swamiji demonstrates] done wrongly by the wrong people, may cause heart trouble. Or nerve disturbance. It will overheat the body and thus increase sensuality. That's exercise, then.

As far as food goes, in India, ages ago they experimented on foods that are conducive to not only physical health, but also mental calmness and peace – thus cultivating the sattvic [balanced, harmonious] quality. Which in time grows – it's a growth. Because it is sattvic - and sattvic quality only can give you, if rightly used – mark the words, 'rightly used' – the highest bliss, God. Otherwise even that sattvic quality, if you do not practise detachment from the beginning, you will be attached to it, giving you only worldly happiness. Or just a little mental calmness.

But India, after experimenting so much, somehow loses its vitality. Somehow everything in this world that reaches the highest point, I think because of taking it for granted, or being so familiar with it, we do not care to pay the careful attention that we paid to it when we began. Thus, we slip slowly. So what happens…man pays a lot of attention to the god called 'touch me not'. Touch me?...not. The god called, 'touch me not'. They say the food is cooked by a certain person so don't touch it, don't eat it. Rather than seeing not only who cooked it but what kind of food it is, and what the result of the food will be on the mind and the body, they have only paid attention to this. The easterners - although they have written hundreds of thousands of gloriously-termed books, they have only paid attention to food that is gross [physical] and cooked. But the other part – the subtle food, [Sri Adi] Shankaracharya also included. He said, '"food, bhoga, does not only mean food that you eat through the mouth. But food that you eat through the senses." And the highest food, the subtlest food, is thought, or thoughts. It's?...thought, or our thoughts. There are environments and people that invoke and provoke you to various kind of?...thoughts…thus giving expression in an emotional outburst - a man may just use some vulgar language.

The other point is that there are things which are conducive to awakening the senses - especially the sexual sense. Mother Sarada Devi said the yogi should not even look at a carving of the opposite sex. She didn't say male or female. From each side that would be the opposite. That word should be underlined. Sometimes this is very grossly [physically] misused and it is only imposed on the women. But Mother said very carefully, "opposite". Why? Not because that in itself is bad, but because the thought that it invokes will entangle you in worldly life, or will free you to reach the spiritual state.

Then we find again that you might go and sit near a man or woman, or group of people. They'll be talking something so wonderful, so spiritual, that all the spiritual qualities come up. That is spiritual food. And when you leave that place your mind is permeated with the vibration of vitality and energy of that man's soul-energy. And soul-energy is always divine energy because each soul is potentially divine. To manifest this divinity is the whole of religion. To live a religious life, to live a spiritual life is to manifest this divinity. And how to manifest this divinity is to become first of all, above the first obstacle – bodily obstacles. So if you think and if I think that spirituality and spiritual life is in a haphazard way of living, forget it. Don't touch it.

[Addressing Swami Premananda] The next one is? [Swami Premananda replies] "Adhidaivik". Meaning of that? [Swami Premananda responds] "Divine obstacles". The second one is obstacles caused by subtle forces. What kind of force?...subtle forces. We may not fight the angels because we cannot see the angels but we may displease the angels by doing something which is not right.

To overcome this divine force or 'deva' as they call it – it means the shining ones – you have to please them too. On the human level, you have to please the human level. On the spiritual level you have to please the spiritual beings. Beings that have not yet got absolute freedom, moksha or nirvana - but they are in a certain state. They are not bad beings – they are good, but because we do something wrong they apparently, to us, seem to become displeased and throw obstacles on our path.

If I say to you that there is a task and that task needs a university student or he who has passed his BA or MA, then you somehow through the back door bring a man who has only standard nine [penultimate grade in secondary school] and you want to push it. The person, the manager in the workshop will put an obstacle on your path because he does not want that fellow to come because he is not yet qualified. It is only natural to first make that fellow qualified. Because it would be unfair to those people who are already qualified. Within the natural laws the devas take action. But even the devas can be jealous because they do not make the progress faster – they want to stay there all the time. A good example comes to my mind – Indra [the chief/king of the gods]. So he wants to keep you there. Then you have to manifest perfection and with perfection must come great strength. What must come?...great strength. And you must overcome with perfection and great strength, by rightfully pleasing the devas, so that any obstruction must be taken away.

Now from the physical the deva state is the mental state. What's that?...the mental state. And the last one is [addressing Swami Premananda who answers]? Adhiboutik. What is Adhiboutik? [Swami Premananda answers] The elements. Swamiji continues: Yes, don't go and fight with fire for nothing. Don't fight with wind. They say that these three gods you must prostrate to from a distance. That is water, [Swamiji chuckling] you know Noah's Ark? You know what happened then? Fire, if the sun comes closer by just one inch, what's going to happen? Water restrictions [speaking of KwaZulu Natal at the time] we've already got. And the?...wind or air. You can control them by overcoming them, by meditating on certain chakras [psychic centres in the subtle body] or aspects. Fire will not burn you. Not burn you the soul only, but it will not even burn your body. Haven't you seen a lot of these people fire-walking? Even if you say that they have hypnotised themselves, but there is a way to become above being burnt. I give you that clearing of the doubt. There is a way to overcome the five natural elements. And then only, will you be Lord. What?...Lord. Otherwise you are a servant - subservient to something else.

So spiritual life is a methodical, systematic way to direct the mind, the body and the soul. A few bhajans and kirtans [religious songs or chants] , a few minutes of sitting with somebody and enjoying his company as a worldly man, that won't take you to god-realisation. They may say, 'what a wonderful man, sitting all the time with the Swami – look how nice he is, he must be a very holy man.' But you know yourself that your mind is full of holes because it has not yet patched up any holes. Right, this much; the foundation of the spiritual life is Yama and Niyama [referred to frequently in previous postings]. And Yama and Niyama - you want to go and look them up for me in one of the books. Read that up for me, write it in your own language, don't copy word for word. See what you make of it. And next week I shall talk. I'm sorry – this is my Upanishad. Because it's no use, we're bluffing ourselves. I'm meditating for four hours and yet hating somebody. I'm worshipping the whole day in the shrine and yet looking down on somebody. No…there's something wrong. That is something else but not sadhana [spiritual practice]. A true Christian, a true Hindu, a true Muslim who worships the true God, he has an oceanic heart. He has an oceanic?...heart. He can not only drown one bit - he can drown the whole world and immortalise it through the love of God. Which is the blood, the life-strength of God – love. If I love my ideal and think he's the Supreme Being and yet hate the ideal that you preach, that you love, then my Ideal [deity, Ishta Deva] is useless because it cannot take such a simple thing out of my heart - hate. I should rather take my Ideal, tie it up and drown it in the backyard well.

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