Swami Shivapadananda

Swami Shivapadananda Puri discussing how we might relate to the departed

When a person passes away, the magnetic field of the spirit does not fade. It is said to be in the subtle body. (We are all in a magnetic field and you and I are affected by it.) So as long as they are in that subtle body we pray to them, and they come and partake of that food we offer at the sraddha or funeral ceremony.

If you do this for your father it is good. You may eat that food because your karmas are alike. If you do it for your mother it is good because once again your karmas are alike. But we don’t want to mix up our impressions or karmas with anyone else, because that makes it difficult for a sadhaka [spiritual aspirant] to concentrate.

Another reason for not eating the food at a sraddha ceremony is that often they offer fish, wine, brandy etc. [laughter] As it is prasad [sacrmental food], how can you leave the wine and only eat the other things?

A sadhaka who wants to go towards God should pray for the souls of the deceased to get liberated, rather than calling the souls again and again by giving them food and making them some sort of devata [demi-god].

If your father was alive would he eat and leave me half his food to eat? No. So, after he has died - and after you have offered it to him at the sraddha - why would you offer his leavings to me then? This would be worse still. You are embarrassing him wherever he is.

But if you eat the food as his daughter or his son then it is good. He will be happy. You can safely take your father’s food, your husband’s food or your child’s food and eat it.

Swallowed by the snake of time

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 1005

Swamiji speaking to devotees at a Yoga spiritual retreat camp:

This day we are privileged to gather here in the name of God. It is out of great sacrifice [tapasya] that one gathers in the name of God. But after gathering in the name of God, if one does not make use of the time and opportunity, then it is a waste of time, a waste of energy, a waste of lifespan. As I said this morning, that it is Gurudev's [Sri Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swamiji's beloved guru] initiation of things like this that have inspired us today, to gather in the name of Sri Ramakrishna – but that is not enough. You must ask the question, and ask the question to yourself; have you really made use of the time? Have you really made use of the facilities and the talks given in this day's camp? If the answer is 'yes,' you have nothing to regret. If the answer is 'no,' then you are still playful, you have still taken things for granted. Then I think that you should be very sorry – you should be very?...sorry!

Age has caught up with us. We are like a big clock. Every second ticked. Every second ticked means we are swallowed in time. Who knows when it will swallow us up completely? I was once noticed that a snake dashed and caught hold of a little mouse. I was stunned. I looked at it – it swallowed the mouse, spat it out, swallowed it again – the poor mouse kicked and kicked about and thrashed its tail - but slowly, slowly, the snake swallowed it. The snake then slowly crawled away. So wonderful it was, in that it made me think, 'ah, Shivapadananda, this is how you're being swallowed'. You're struggling against all odds in this world, and struggling against things that come against you. But if you don't look out, ultimately, the snake of time will let you thrash your tail, until it swallows you up. Until it swallows you?...up.

We are all being swallowed. You are all – every second that is ticked off, you're dying. Don't think that the body going to live forever, but the secret is this: to quickly realise that this thing is being done to you. What is being done to you? The snake of time is swallowing you up. Swallowing what? And when you separate what it is swallowing, from the real you [the soul, atman], then you will become immortal. Because it can only swallow that which is not permanent, that which is perishable, time can only affect that. Time can only affect…that. But that which gives life even to the snake of time - cannot be swallowed.

Shiva Bhagawan was seated and Santa Kumar and other great Rishis [sage seer saints], entered the abode and Yama [Hindu lord of death] was seated there. The Rishis, being Paramahamsas in their own right - Paramahamsa is a [God-] realised soul - came there, greeted nobody, not even Shiva, and sat down. Nobody greeted Yama. Yama got very angry. He said, 'What! You didn't greet me? You didn't show any respect to me?' He went and swallowed up a Rishi. The Rishi changed his form and emerged as a mosquito. He swallow it up again [Swamiji chuckling], the Rishi changed the form yet again and came out as a spirit. And so this went on for a long time.

Shiva smiled and Yama got even angrier. 'What are you smiling about? I'm having a rough time here, what are you smiling at?' Lord Shiva said, 'Look Yama, all your tactics will not work against these pure ones. Because they have realised that they never die. Once you swallow one form they'll take another form. They only change the form. They themselves never change.

The Bhagavad Gita tells you that this body is like a worn-out cloth. It's you doing the discarding. But meanwhile you think you are being discarded. The snake of time - Yama - can never swallow 'that'. Find out who it is. The quicker you find out, the better for 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, 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

What is death?

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 973

To start, Swami Vivekananda [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] says that the secret of Ishta [personal deity] worship is that out of thousands, one form in the whole universe is supremely divine, that is the secret of Ishta worship. That out of millions of forms at least one is supremely divine to you. Supremely positive.

From that it will spread – the whole universe will become the form of God – Vishwaroop [universal form]. You saw Krishna's Vishwaroop form that he showed to Arjuna? Yes, in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita the Lord said, 'Look, Arjuna, I'll give you the third eye. With what kind of eye must you see me? The third eye. When you have the love [bhakti], then I'll give you the knowledge [jnana].'

Third eye means the knowledge. But you must have the love first. Intense longing to know 'It' [the divine, one's true nature]. And when you have that intense desire then he gives you the third eye. He gives that knowledge. And that knowledge is the whole Vishwa [universe] - it is Him.

He [God] eats through many mouths, he walks through many feet, he sees through many eyes – all eyes are his. All ears are his. And you come to this Vishwaroop and find that he works in apparently contradictory ways. You'll laugh. That which you are afraid of now has become blissful, has become certain.

Death even, is just a state in the vast ocean of consciousness. It is also just a state. It comes and it goes. It's a natural process. You see - because you saw it but the others will still be afraid of it. That is why a yogi is not afraid to die. What is death? What is it? It is the obverse and reverse of the same coin. One side is heads - birth - and the other is tails - death. But it is still a coin. It always remains a coin – Satcitananda. Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute.

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

Eating food offered to the ‘dead’

 

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 871

   

Shraaddha – ceremony commemorating the dead – discussion, continued from post 870

Where is God? Is God only on Earth? He is Omnipresent [everywhere]. He is in hell, Earth and heaven. When a man passes on he is born on Earth, in heaven or in hell [different lokas or realms of consciousness]. Now when you are praying to Lord Vishnu to vitalise him [the deceased father for example] in dharma [righteousness], wherever he is, you are adding strength to him. And when he gets vitalised he will send out blessings to you, his child [or relative]. Though God is present everywhere it [the ceremony, prayer] still has to travel [be directed] to God; and wherever you are the blessing comes to you.

If the departed one is God-realised [has attained moksha or liberation from the cycle of birth and re-birth, samsara] then that is even better because then, when you pray to him, you are actually praying to God Himself. If he is a God-realised soul - one of the great ones - then you can eat his food because there is no shraaddha ['death']. You are doing it in his memory.

Remember that if you partake of the offering [food offered to the deceased] then that person's impressions [vasanas, samskaras, energies] come on you - whether you like it or not.

What happens to you when you eat the normal prasad [sacramental food] that you have offered to God? You get purified. So by virtue of that fact, if you eat the food of a man who is not purified then know that his impressions - good and bad - will get into 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.

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

   

 

Offering food to the dead

  

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 870

   

Swamiji speaking on Shraaddha or funeral rites [please note 'Shradhaa' means faith. This term, pronounced Shraaddha or Shraad is not the same thing, although it shows faith in the ancestors.] 

If you do this for your father it is good. You may eat that food because your karmas [in this case, life-scripts] are alike. If you do it for your mother it is good because once again your karmas are alike. But we don't want to mix up our impressions [samskaras or vasanas] or karmas with anyone else, because that makes it difficult for a sadhaka [spiritual aspirant or practitioner]to concentrate.

Another reason for not eating the food at a shraaddha ceremony is that often they offer fish, wine, brandy etc. [laughter] As it is prasad [Swamiji joking that it's sacramental food], how can you leave the wine and only eat the other things?

A sadhaka who wants to go towards God should pray for the souls of the deceased to get liberated, rather than calling the souls again and again by giving them food and making them some sort of devata [demi-god, guardian spirit, angel].

If your father was alive would he eat and leave me [a stranger or guest] half his food to eat? No. So, after he has died - and after you have offered it to him at the shraaddha [ceremony] - why would you offer his leavings to me then? This would be worse still. You are embarrassing him wherever he is.

But if you eat the food as his daughter or his son then it is good. He will be happy. You can safely take your father's food, your husband's food or your child's food and eat 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, 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 is death, too

 

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 841

 

Has continuity from post 840

We all of us hate death. In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna Bhagawan says, 'I am [also] death, the all-devourer.' [Swamiji chuckling] Instead of death coming and us recognising [that] this is Krishna Bhagawan [God] , in the guise of Yama [the Hindu god of death], we run away. Swami Vivekananda [the lead disciple of Sri Ramakrishna] used to put it very beautifully. He said, 'Even dogs are higher [more discerning]. If you dress up in any kind of disguise, [whether] Father Christmas or a clown or anything else, the dog will look at you, sniff and bark. What happens? Your own house members may say 'Who is this fellow who's come? What do you want?' So family may not make you out [identify you] in other dressing [a disguise]. But a dog identifies his master in any outfit. Similarly a bhakta [devotee of God], a real bhakta, will identify God, not matter whether he presents as a dog, cat, rat. So he won't be scared of anybody. God has come. The dog called bhakta [follower of the devotional path], the dog called gyani [or jnani - follower of the path of spiritual knowledge] will recognise his master straight away.

So Yama [lord of Death] is [also] that manifestation [death] of God. He [Lord Krishna] says so himself in the Bhagavad Gita. But when he comes, you know what we do? We pretend that the person he's looking for lives next door. When the poor Lord comes to release us, we say 'next door'. [Devotees and Swamiji chuckling heartily]. Why? We are not yet prepared. We may be laughing, but truly, it happens. I can tell you this. Eighty percent of the time it happens.

So when Nachiketa went to Yama, Yama was not at home. For three days and three nights, Yama was not there. When Yama came home, he recognise that this boy has faith - and faith is [a] greater [power] than anything, especially because he's a Brahmin boy. What's the meaning of Brahmin? Brahmin means 'he who is seeking Brahman [the One indivisible universal consciousness]'. He who is seeking…Brahman. You can be a Brahmin by birth but if you're eating cows, pigs and all of those things at home [Swamiji chuckles] then you are [nothing more than] a Sudra [member of the servant-class]. Sudras are those people who eat dog-flesh, so I'm going to take it for granted that nobody's eating dog flesh here. [hilarity from the devotees]. So we'll start from Vaisya [the merchant class/caste]. So we're all Vaisyas and maybe Kshatriyas [warriors] and maybe Brahmins [teacher/priest caste].

So in the Brahmin boy Yama recognises what? What is hidden in him? The fire of sacrifice, the fire of tapasya [austerity], the fire of truth. Yama says [recognising these powers within Nachiketa], 'If this boy gets just a little bit upset and curses me, I am doomed. Though I already [have the power] to take people to hell or heaven, I am doomed. So Yama says, 'please take this water, wash your hands and legs [a cleansing/purification ritual].' This small boy of five washes his hands and legs and Yama says, 'It has been three days that you were here and you can now ask for any three boons [blessing, gifts or indulgences].'

As the first boon Nachiketa asks for his mother and father, for the second boon he asks how to go to heaven and as the third boon he asks for the knowledge of what happens after death. [He says to Yama] 'Some say that when people die, they go to heaven. Others say that when people die, they are no more, what have you to say? What [really] happens after death?' So Yama says, 'Ask me anything else, ask me for wealth, knowledge, ask for an elephant, ask me for women, ask for a kingdom to rule over for thousands of years, but please, I beg you, this thing you are asking me it is so difficult even for the gods to get [understanding of] it.'

So Nachiketa says, 'But that's the knowledge I'm looking for. I want it! If you can say this is difficult for the gods whom we worship, then it must be something very, very great. I want it.'

In the Upanishad they hint [at that insight] but they can never tell you what Brahman [the One universal consciousness] is. They hint, like I hinted just now. Remember the question: Krishna Bhagawan is in heaven. Who made heaven? God made heaven. Before making heaven, where was 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

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Death philosophy

 

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 840

 

I always say after meditation, 'open your eyes now and then I say 'Look at this beautiful world. It is the grace of God given to man to reach god through His grace.' And some people laugh at that statement because they say, 'How can this world be the grace of God?' It is the grace of God. If you but recognise it one day. Supposing I'm supposed to come here. And you don't know me and I come here and say 'I'm Swami Premananda.' So you come and meet me, you prostrate and everything. But suddenly someone says, 'But he's Shivapadananda!' How will you feel then? Just like that, with this whole world, we're [erroneously] looking at something foreign. A signpost of God. But the day we come to know what this world is, whose power it is and we really know this world, then we will never hate this world. This very world will become a blessing to us. Not [as] maya [the divine power of illusion/delusion]. Maya is that which for us deludes our mind with a mysterious power. That is what has happened. That we are deluded. We don't know, in reality, what it is.

How to arrive at this [place of understanding]? In the Katha Upanishad, a beautiful Upanishad – in it they say that Nachiketa was sitting down with his father. His father was a great pandit (pundit) - a Brahmin – he was a great pandit and he decided 'I will do Vishwajit. Vishwajit yagna [sacrifice]. He will sacrifice in such a way that the yagna will bestow on him universal happiness. Vishwa – he will win the whole universe.

While the prayer was proceeding you know what he[the father] did? [Swamiji chuckles]….he was giving [sacrificing] all the old cows that could hardly walk. And the son [Nachiketa] all these days he had heard that you must have the faith in the prayer that you do. You must have faith in the words of the scriptures. So this little boy of five years of age had tremendous faith that whatever the scriptures say was right. But when he saw his father offering the almost dead cows, that didn't even have teeth to decently eat grass, he went to his father and said, Pitaji [father], 'Why are you offering these old cows?' At first his father ignored him and then again in the middle of the ceremony, Nachiketa said, 'Pitaji, why are you offering these? There are other [healthier] cows? No answer. The third time, 'Pitaji, but why are you offering these cows that are probably going to die [of natural causes] tomorrow? His father replied angrily, 'You don't understand, why don't you go to Yama, [death or hell]. Go to Yama [Hindu Lord of death]. Get away from here!'

The boy had so much faith in the scriptures because he was taught from an early age that the words of the scriptures can never be wrong. Side by side he was taught that the father and mother's words are [also] never wrong. [Swamiji chuckling] So when his father said, 'Go to Yama [death]', his response was 'Oh, my father is instructing me to do this.' He had so much faith in his father's words. 'Dad, you're saying I must go to hell [Yama]?' 'Yes', replied his irritated father. So Nachiketa said, 'All right, then I'm going to go to hell now.' The father got a shock. Therefore a guru [spiritual preceptor/teacher] never plays [meaninglessly] with the disciple. Whatever the guru says, he means it. [Swamiji chuckling heartily] Make no mistake about this. You [may] treat it one way, [but] it goes another. Whatever he [the guru] says, look [and read] between the lines, it's there. A guru will never joke [say something untrue or without meaning-intention]. If a guru jokes [not as in humour, though] then he can't be a guru. So when our gurus tell us something, we're very careful to read between the lines: what did he mean? There's a lesson hidden there.

Similarly the son had so much faith in the father's words, 'go to hell.' Nachiketa said, 'Now I must go to hell.' The father pleaded with him. In other words, he's virtually committing suicide. 'What? You're going to go to hell – death?' Anyhow, the faith Nachiketa had in him was so great that he had the power to discard his body because [in those days] small children were brought up in a religious [and therefore spiritually powerful] way. He discarded his body, and he went to Yama. He goes to death.

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

‘Conscious’ death

 

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 830

   

In his talk on the japa [meditative repetition of a mantra or one of the many names attributed to God] mala [prayer beads or rosary], the speaker said that you mustn't cross over the meru [the large bead at the tassle] - the meru always stands for the guru [spiritual preceptor] and the guru should not be crossed over. That Supreme guru, Brahman [the One, indivisible Universal consciousness], is present in everything and therefore you do not step across others. Remember that. Even a child sleeping. In the western world they don't understand that - they step across the child. Actually you must not do that because that is a living symbol of God. If Christ's symbol [the crucifix] is down on the ground you would not step across it, you would go around it.    

So the living symbol of God is the human body - and the other bodies too. But particularly in the human body 'It' is so manifest that man can go towards God or away from God.

So that is the Meru? Never go across the guru, even if you become God-realised. Swami Vivekananda [Sri Ramakrishna's lead disciple] said, 'What is the use of that God-realisation when you cannot have guru bhakti [devotion and respect]?'

At the time of Mahasamadhi [literally: great or 'final' samadhi - the conscious leaving of the human body by a yogi or God-realised person] the prana [universal energy, Chi, Ki] withdraws slowly from different parts of the body to the heart region [anahata chakra - the 4th psychic centre in the subtle body], the centre of meditation, then slowly up to the crown of the head [sahasrara chakra - the 7th]. Then enlightenment [re-merging with the One consciousness] takes place and the prana leaves the body. It passes from light to greater lightness, from light to greater Light.

[In non-God-realised people] Most times the prana passes from darkness to greater darkness but if one has advanced spiritually it passes from darkness to lesser darkness until it leaves the body and passes into It.

It is a very wonderful phenomenon - to watch how you die. It is so beautiful that you can't even imagine it. That's what the gurus say, 'You have learned to take birth, now learn to die.' This actually means learn to get into samadhi [spiritual superconsciousness] – Mahasamadhi [great or 'final' samadhi].

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

 

 

Prepare to die

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

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

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 811

   

Theme continued from posting 810

Thus the King sat there for seven days and they heard that great sacred book called the Paramahamsa Samhita - the Srimad Bhagavatam

Paramahamsas [literal meaning: 'great swan', said to be able to separate the milk from a mixture of water and milk – i.e. they have the highest discrimination between the real and unreal] are people who do not care to follow any rules, regulations or rituals. This does not mean that they go about disturbing or destroying other people's faith. They seem not to follow the ordinary norms because they have reached the goal that they were supposed to have reached. So what would be the use of them following that particular rule? They live in the Bliss of That which the scriptures promise us we will reach.

After seven days a snake came. Instead of striking the King and filling his body with poison, it came with humility and touched him (to fulfil the curse of Shringi Rishi – a Sage-Seer-Saint-'Wise One'). No sooner did it touch the King's feet than it made him think of Vasudeva, the Omnipresent Being, and he left the body. Thus he was God-realised.

At least the King knew that in seven days he would pass away, but we should be a little bit more careful because we don't know if the next second we will be here. I may just walk out and never walk in again. Therefore how much more careful must we, as human beings, be? We must seek the company of satsangis [those who attend and follow spiritual services and practices] especially those who will teach us, not how to save our worldly material - or wealth - but how to save our spiritual material, the Self, the soul. These satsangis are very few and very rare.

Thus we should take advantage of holy company amongst ourselves and remind ourselves of the highest. Having known what the goal is, at least in theory, we should so plan our lives, that our actions and our way of life will take us nearer to our goal: God.

Here the best and the most important thing is satsang [spiritual service, prayer meetings, company of the holy and spiritual seekers] and the scriptures. After all, what you think, you become; and what you hear, you always cultivate the desire for that particular thing. Knowing this we should try our level best to enquire into the truth, 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.

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

Embracing death

 

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

696

   

Swamiji continues speaking on death

Only when you know what death is can you go above death. That is why Krishna says, 'I am never born, I never die.' He knows how to die, he knows there is no such thing as death in an ordinary sense. He is passing from one room to another - that is what Sri Ramakrishna said to Sri Sarada Devi. When he wants to kick the body he kicks it - that is the real 'kicking the bucket'. Instead you are all 'carrying the bucket'. [Swamiji laughs]

Devotee: Swamiji, how did fear come to be associated with death?

Swamiji: We are fearful of everything unknown. When you were getting married how fearful were you? You say you love the man and yet when the marriage day comes there is fear of the unknown. If you know it then there is no fear. And if you know it is dangerous then you will avoid it - still there is no fear.

We must start loving God in whatever we do. As long as we love God, we want God, we yearn for God, our minds and our lives are blessed. But how to get there?

Concentration occurs when the five senses give up their strength and they become united and think about God all at once. In unity there is almighty strength. In purity there is almighty strength. All your senses must give up their strength and unite in only thinking about God. That is called will-power. When your whole being thinks and wants that One thing, it is called will-power. If the senses do not unite their strength to think about that One thing then you will not get 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.

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