Pictured: Saint Theresa of Lisieux, taken in 1895
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 1038
You look at your deity [ishta deva] and all these attributes…put them on your deity. Sing this Hanuman Chalisa to your deity. That's the idea. I don't see anything else but Shiva (Swamiji's original chose deity). He is the glorious one to me. He is my Ramakrishna, he is my Sarada Devi, he is my Kali, he is my Durga, he is my Sitala, he is my Subramanya, he is my Ganesha. Don't you see if I hold Shamolia [a favoured child] I see all of those attributes? She doesn't change into lolling tongues or forms. It's the same thing. Chalo. Close your eyes. See your deity, your chosen deity. Sing the Hanuman Chalisa to that deity. [Swamiji and devotees sing the Hanuman Chalisa].
Repeat mentally, the deity's mantra [sacred word or sound syllable] that you are given when you are initiated. If you are not initiated [formally into spiritual life by a guru - spiritual preceptor - or teacher], then AUM [or OM] is a beautiful mantra to use for your deity. Or use its name attached to AUM and end with namaha. [example: AUM Ganeshaya namah, AUM Jesunataya (Lord Jesus) namah]. You must do that with the utmost faith that the deity is the almighty lord – the highest, Absolute, unreadable, made legible or readable for you. Think like that and say the deity's mantra 10 times, silently.
There are three ways of repeating mantra. You can say the mantra like this [out loud] while you still look at your deity. [Swamiji gives the example] "OM namo bhagavate Vasudevaya". That's one. And the second one is when your lips and tongue move but you cannot hear your own words. And the last one is that neither your tongue nor your lips move and mentally you look at your deity and repeat the mantra 10 times. Either counting it on your fingers or if you can just keep count, that is good. But the highest way to do it – the highest one – after a lot of effort, is this last one. Where you don't shape your tongue or lips but in calmness and breathing properly, you repeat your deity's name. Feel the purity and divinity of your deity permeating your whole body. Every cell. While looking at the deity. Look at the deity again. And let us now worship the deity with the word AUM – the highest symbol in the Vedas [the foundational Hindu scriptures], the sound symbol of the deity. [Swamiji leads the satsang in chanting of the Mahamrityunjaya mantra.]
OM tryambakam yajamahe
sugandhim pushti vardhanam
urvarukamiva bandhanan
mrityor muksheya mamritat
Everything that you see – even this space – your deity has become that. Feel it like that. And when you open your eyes, silently use your gurumantra to look at the deity and you'll be able to see it. [Swamiji and devotees sit in silent meditation].
Now this is very great – this is sadhana [spiritual practice]. This is the whole of spiritual life. A person has to struggle, he has to really struggle, he has to struggle to bring his mind again to the One without a second. That is concentration. Looking at the deity's form is contemplation. And when you contemplate, you concentrate and enter into meditation. Then you enter into?...meditation. Now the steps are these: All of us are used to the physical manifestation of God. When you look at the deity outside – it's still physical – in a murti [image, picture]. It is your deity that has become this universe; therefore it is your deity that has also become that particular form as a particular deity. You have realised the gross [physical]. Now the idea is to realise the subtle. How to do it? Step by step. So you take it. Some people enter into the mental realm. Where they see their deity mentally. When you see your deity you are still in the mental realm. And as you utter your mantra you will slowly, from the physical and gross, then from the mental realm, it will enter into the subtle. From the subtle it'll enter into the subtler. From the subtler, it will enter into the subtlest. That is the?...spiritual.
Now I want you to go step by step. Most of us think that we hear, but when the scriptures say you must listen, all of us take it for granted that we hear. But many of us have to learn to hear. You know, Christ also said something to the effect that people have ears but can't hear. [Christian Bible New Testament, Matthew 13: 1-3: "…because seeing, they see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have closed".]
They think they're hearing but they're not hearing. If you 'think' you are hearing, you're not hearing. You 'think' there is a God and you're not seeing God. You're thinking God. So your mind is getting to the mental realm. From the mental realm, as you spiritualise it by the mantra, it will enter into the spiritual realm. The subtlest. The idea is, from the gross, to move into subtle. From subtle you must move into the?...subtlest.
Now some people think this is nonsense - closing your eyes. And then this is nonsense to see God everywhere. You see, when I look at a gross thing and yet when I think of God permeating it, I'm still going above the physical state. I'm going to the mental state. From the mental state, when I don't think any more, it'll become spiritual. Without entering the first stage you can never get to the last stage. And you think that everything must happen as a miracle? There's no miracle.
Everything has got a set rule. A set road. A set method. Everything has got a set approach. Even God has got a set way for reaching him. Only, some do it knowingly. And some do it unknowingly. When unknowingly it happens – then the devotee thinks a miracle has happened. But unknowingly he has travelled a certain path. He does not know, that unknowingly he has purified himself. Agents of purification use different methods. He has done it. Similarly, Lord Muhammed unknowingly travelled a lot of [spiritual] distance and saw it and projected it outside. But it's not miracles.
There is only one road – and that is through the mind. The mind is the gateway to this world. The mind is the gateway to hell. The mind is the gateway to heaven. And the mind is the gateway to the Self. Everything is the mind. Take your mind away and put the food there to taste. [Swamiji joking] Never mind, because the mind is not there. Now this, maybe now because your mind is concentrated, you are taking it, but please make a note, I stress this - make a note of what this fellow [Swamiji] says. Then you go read whatever scripture you like. Don't go and get blocked in entanglement or a maze – this is a sin. Go and take this practice. Some people ask me, "Swamiji for 10 years I'm doing only my deity – what after that?" After that it will come automatically. Just do that now. You think you're meditating on your deity. You haven't meditated yet. If you'd meditated on your deity for 10 years you know what would be your position? You'll go mad [with divine fervour].
Sri Ramakrishna uses a secret – a wonderful secret. He says, "The whole thing is to intensify – to intensely yearn for God." You will really know that you are making progress on the sadhana road when your mind intensely wants him and him alone. Until such a time comes, that means you are not really doing it. Your mind must only want him. And when you want him, don't make other people's lives miserable. You get miserable yourself. Why? Because you want him. So there is just one thing in this world you are short of [God] when you yourself get miserable. When you make others miserable, then you are running short of many things – which is Maya [God's power of illusion/delusion]. This is another secret. When you make others miserable then that means that you are what?...running after many things - Maya. When you yourself alone get miserable, then don't make others miserable. Others will look at you and say, "Holy man, look at the holy man," they'll prostrate. They will do everything. But he's just miserable, he just wants God. But your misery inside for that thing [God] is happiness for these people. Because light penetrates, permeates. Think of Mirabai – how miserable she was – crying, 'Krishna, Krishna." Think of Saint Theresa [pictured above], scrubbing the floor all the time. She didn't make anybody miserable. Others were trying to make her miserable – but she did not make others miserable.
Now this is a secret. Write it once and for all in your heart. Papers will get lost. You open it up and it goes away. Perchance you'll become conscious that when you hurt somebody it'll hurt you even more. Others will hurt others and become happy. They think, "good, I put that fellow right", or "put her right".
Yearn in your heart my son, for God and God?...alone.
[Swamiji exclaims in a loud voice] Bolo, Sri Ramakrishna bhagawaniki, jai! Who did you think of? Who you thought of? [Swamiji chuckling] You see…your deity, again! You see how quickly you forget? Bolo, Sri Ramakrishna bhagawaniki, jai! Bolo Mahamayaki, jai! Gangamayaki, jai! Swamiji gurumahrajiki [Swami Vivekananda], jai! Om sri satgurudeviki, jai! Sarvarishi muniniki, jay! Om namo Narayanaya!
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