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