SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
Day 534
[Pictured: Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, the exemplar of living with modesty and propriety according to Hindu custom]
If you go to a man's house and his wife says he is not at home, then, if you want to wait for him, your place is in the sitting room. You can have a glass of water or a cup of tea but you must not leave the sitting room at any time, except for the call of nature. You have no place even in the kitchen. I am speaking now as a Hindu.
You will avoid a lot of problems if you follow the scriptural laws and I am telling you only that which is in the scriptures. I tell you these things because you are mine and I do not want you to be harmed in any way. I have to protect you, even from the gods.
Some of you think that you can follow the ways of the Western world but you are not Westerners in that sense. You are Westerners only in an earning sense. One of the reasons why there are so many divorces in Hindu families today is because they are following that silly kind of life. This can happen anywhere and to our nearest and dearest ones.
Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swamiji's Guru] was so strict. He would never let a man and a woman sit down on the quiet and talk. If one of the brahmacharis [novice monastic celibates] did this he would say to him, 'Go and get some tea. Go and do this. Go and do that.' But I have to tell you, that even with his great protection a lot of things happened.
One day I was scolding one of the swamis for doing certain things. Suddenly he asked me, 'But how do you know all this, Swamiji?' I said, 'It is not that I am a great yogi, certain people told me.' He said, 'But isn't that gossip? You are not supposed to listen to gossip, Swamiji.' So I looked at him and said, 'Yes son.' It was gossip, but at the same time it was not gossip, when one looks at our relationship. What is my relationship towards him? It is one of protection, of a teacher and guardian guiding him.
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.
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