Swami Shivapadananda

Swami Shivapadananda Puri says: 'merely talking of jnana yoga does not mean you're a jnani'

 

Swamiji speaking in answer to a devotee’s [inaudible] comment:

From that point of view my dear sir, jnana yoga gives you another alternative to reach the same jnana. Where it says that when man still has desire – desire of what? Of this world. Nothing wrong. Very good. Shruti [revealed wisdom] claps his hands. He says, ‘very good!’ You know what the irony is of the whole thing? They deny [the Divine] Mother but yet they will read the Shruti [invoking her]. They deny Mother, but yet they will read the Shruti to reveal Mother. It’s not Brahman revealing himself. But Mother revealing Brahman.

In the Kena Upanishad, it is [Mother] Parvati who comes and reveals. Mother Shruti is Parvati. She’s all purity. Virgin - ever virgin. She’s married thousands of times but yet she is virgin because her real nature is not touched. Not?...touched. She is virgin. So, this Shruti reveals?...who?...Brahman, Brahman, Brahman.

Here again, it gives it to you, that if you still have [material] desire, it says, what you must do: Do scripture-ordained work. You may desire to live for 100 years. Very good. It’s [the world] a wonderful place. What is wrong? If I have built my house on a rock, a foundation of truth, even if I think it is a fowl-run [humble chicken coop], what does it matter? It will still be safe. Whether I think it’s a palace or something else, but it’s still safe. So, work. You’ve got a lot of hope. You are better, you’re not dry [you have spiritual desire]. Enjoy. Enjoy but according to what the scripture says.

It’s like driving a motor car on the road. It has a  to conform to a code [of conduct]. It’s not saying don’t drive the car. It’s saying, ‘drive the motor car, but drive in South Africa, on the left-hand side.’ When you are in America, drive it on the right-hand side. But drive it you must. Otherwise the car will drive you. The car is the mind. If you don’t drive it, it will drive you. So drive it on the real line of dharma, scripture-ordained, scripture-orientated work. Righteous work. What will happen? Even if it’s thousands of births, you will get purified. And when you get purified, naturally you will come to know what God is.

Therefore, the jnani is, agreed, very highly evolved, but don’t get bluffed. Thinking jnana is not being a jnani. Don’t get bluffed. For thousands of births that fellow must have been following the same thing. I don’t know how many hundreds of births he desired to live a hundred years. Now he’s come and he’s not realising that he took a long, long time to get where he is. He wants everybody to say the world is lies [Maya]. It makes me think about [Jiddu] Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti had a guru to realise the truth, but today he says guru is not necessary. You forget your past. You only think about your?...present.

So that same scripture says, ‘perform work.’ You and I - we should perform work. Who cares if God reveals himself or not? As long as I have the joy to do work for?...God.  Do it according to the scripturally-ordained. Now what does it mean, ‘scripturally-ordained’? If you take all the scriptures, all the scriptures will tell you that you must do work in such a way that you do not harm others. And your mind becomes?...purified. In other words, internally you must evolve and at the same time, externally. This is jnana. This is jnana. This is jnana. Otherwise if you take a crawling child and say, ‘Look, I am making you run,’ you will kill [injure] the child and therefore you’ll be doing sin.

From that point of view the Bhagavad Gita says, ‘do not disturb the faith of the ignorant.’ Ignorant is not a bad word. Take the word ‘ignorant’ out. Do not disturb the faith of a man who is trying to know the truth. That’s what is meant. The word ‘ignorant’ is misunderstood most times. Nobody likes to be called ignorant  - even an insane person won’t like to be called ignorant and a sane man won’t like to be called ‘mad’.

But a sane man who gets angry is silly. Because he’s supposed to be sane – he’s supposed to be understanding. That’s the meaning of sane-ness [sanity]. One who is understanding. If he gets angry then he’s really mad. Isn’t it so? He’s mad. Drunk with anger. So, remember, jnana is just for the few. Why to bluff? Truthfulness is the first order of spiritual life. 

Swami Shivapadananda Puri on why we're NOT Jnanis (those who follow the path of knowledge)

 

Pictured: Paramahamsa Sri Ramakrishna

In this modern age when Swami Vivekananda said Sri Ramakrishna is a commentary on the Upanishads, I think he made a mistake. [Swamiji chuckles]  It’s very funny, you know. I think like this, therefore I’m telling you. I think he should say that Ramakrishna is a commentary on all aspects, not only on the Upanishads. Any part. Ramakrishna’s life gives you sampling of spiritual life and worldly life. Sampling. How? When you’ve got a big pot of atchar – pickle – you don’t want to eat all of the pickle. You sample it. So Ramakrishna’s life is sampled out. What is it?...[devotees answer] sampled out. So, you see how beautiful it is. He was a bhakta [devotee] of the first order. Not only bhakta. Apparently at that time he was a bhakta. Who? Ramakrishna.

Then came Tota Puri [Sri Ramakrishna's Advaita guru], jnani – and he also made the same mistake, he said, ‘everything is illusion – that [the Divine] Mother in the shrine is illusion.’ [Swamiji chuckling] ‘That Krishna there is illusion’. Ramakrishna you must understand – he spoke what he thought. What did he do? [devotees answer] he spoke what he thought – he didn’t polish his language. If he thought you were a ‘g’, he told you that you were a ‘g’. Now you can understand by ‘g’ whether dog or God. That’s your business. So Ramakrishna, what he thought, he said.

So Tota Puri comes along after attaining Nirvikalpa samadhi - above ‘kalpa’, above any experiences, which is super conscious experience. After going there, when he came back he still found Ramakrishna saying, [Swamiji clapping and chanting] ‘Hari AUM, Hari AUM, Hari AUM’. Hari AUM is a great mantra, awakened by Ramakrishna. By whom? Ramakrishna. ‘Hari AUM, Hari AUM, Hari AUM’. Tota Puri said, what is this ‘Hari AUM?’ You’re making chapati [the dough gets shaped by patting it between the hands]. Chapati means Roti, Indians make Roti [flat, round, unleavend bread].

And Ramakrishna thought, ‘Sala loke!’ You know what sala means? Your brother-in-law. [devotees laugh] You got married to my sister, in the olden days the king used to call brother-in-law meaning ‘the favoured one’. If I kill you, my sister will suffer. But Ramakrishna couldn’t kill his own guru. So sala loke means ‘you favoured one from me’.  I have favoured you. Ramakrishna said, ‘what do you know? My Mother exists.’ Tota Puri said, ‘all this is lies’.  Sri Ramakrishna goes to his [Divine] Mother and says, ‘Ma, he’s not believing what I’m saying.’ He is the Mother – he gives the secret. God and bhakta in the scripture, are One. He gives the secret. He says, ‘No Ma, this Tota Puri, Nangta – nangta means naked, the naked one – Nangta doesn’t want to believe.’

I always imagine you know, when Ramakrishna went and told Mother, ‘Ma, Ma, Nangta is making a fool of me.’ I actually imagine Mother saying, ‘Don’t worry, please don’t worry. Don’t worry – we’ll fix him up. Don’t worry, I’ll fix him up.’

Nangta was very proud, he said, ‘I’m a jnani’. Jnani of the first order he was because he guru-enlightened Ramakrishna. So at night-time he went and slept near the Ganga. And from God-consciousness, from the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, he was reduced to having stomach cramps. And his stomach is moving and twisting, like he just fell pregnant. [devotees laughing merrily] The pain was moving. What is moving? The child of Maya is moving inside him. And he gets so cross – look at him, look at the deep belief in him. He says, ‘we jnanis – before he said ‘I’ – now at least he made it, ‘we’ jnanis. We used the ‘royal’ we – he became a little higher. He said, ‘we jnanis, after realising God, what more must we do with the body?’ But that itself means something – if he’s a jnani and he’s realised God, where does ‘the body’ come in? He says, ‘I shall go and dump it in the Ganga [river Ganges]’.

So he goes with the idea of consciously giving up his body in the water. That is called ‘jal samadhi’ – not suicide. Suicide is to give up the body unconsciously. So he said, ‘I’ll give it up.’ He goes in the Ganga where the ships used to go, he walks out – thinking just now it’s going to become deeper – he saw many ships passing. He gets right to the other side of the river Ganga’s bank and what happened? The water barely reached knee-deep. He said, ‘what is this?’ And he now says from inside his own mind, ‘this is Maya. This is Maya – illusion – of course it must be illusion.’ And suddenly he sees Mother Rajeshwari, standing there, Bhuvaneshwari – in all her glory. Smiling and laughing. She laughed and laughed. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. That laugh was what enlightened him. What happened? Mother’s laugh just enlightened him. We have to argue and speak at conferences about God realisation. She just laughed. And he was enlightened, like lightning [instantly]. And then he said, ‘Ah! Ma! Ma, you exist, you do exist’.

For the first time in my life, I realised it was this child denying its own mother. He was the child of Mother - who was? [devotees answer, ‘Tota Puri’] Tota Puri was denying his own mother. What audacity! What ignorance. A jnani in this Kali Yuga – in this modern age – was brought to naught. Again and again it is proved in the scripture – even Shankaracharya, the great Jnani, had to write hymns on God with form. She exists, but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. What’s the meaning of that? She exists but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. That’s what we call ‘Maya’. It means, ‘it’s covered’ - not altogether. A portion of it only, is revealed. Maya does not mean ‘not’ – it means a portion of it, ‘is’ – and I can see, but the complete, the Absolute, I don’t know. So, Maya... For the first time, he realised, she exists.  Shankaracharya himself realised that. He writes volume after volume on God with form.

Ramakrishna looks at Tota Puri, ‘Aaah!’ His face is glowing. You can see knowledge manifested. Benign, calm, peace. The ego of, ‘I am a jnani,’ is gone. The ego of realisation of ‘beyond-nirguna’, is gone. What is that? Neither guna nor nirguna. Above it, below it. Inside, ‘Isa vasyam idagung sarvam.’ [1^st verse of Isa Upanishad] God permeates God. Not God permeates the world. God, permeating God. H₂0 permeating H₂0 - in the form of ice. His ‘false’ jnani-knowledge vanished and Ramakrishna said, ‘Aaah! Now you are complete.’ You know the coin in the obverse, reverse, and in the circumference, too. Now you’ve got it. He is a real guru who knows inside-out, outside-in and whatever there is to be known.  And this kind of guru never denies any aspect of God. 

Knowing three sides of the coin called God

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 1024

In this modern age when Swami Vivekananda [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] said Sri Ramakrishna is a commentary on the Upanishads [Hindu philosophical treatises], I think he made a mistake. [Swamiji chuckles] It's very funny, you know. I think like this, therefore I'm telling you. I think he should say that Ramakrishna is a commentary on all aspects, not only on the Upanishads. Any part. Ramakrishna's life gives you sampling of spiritual life and worldly life. Sampling. How? When you've got a big pot of atchar – pickle – you don't want to eat all of the pickle. You sample it. So Ramakrishna's life is sampled out. What is it?...[devotees answer] sampled out. So, you see how beautiful it is. He was a bhakta of the first order. Not only bhakta. Apparently at that time he was a bhakta. Who? Sri Ramakrishna.

Then came Tota Puri [pictured], jnani [or gyani] – and he also made the same mistake [of pigeon-holing or 'defining' Sri Ramakrishna], he said, 'everything is illusion – that Mother [Kali] in the shrine is illusion.' [Swamiji chuckling] 'That Krishna there is illusion'. Ramakrishna you must understand – he spoke what he thought. What did he do? [devotees answer] he spoke what he thought – he didn't polish his language. If he thought you were a 'g', he told you that you were a 'g'. Now you can understand by 'g' whether dog or God. That's your business. So Ramakrishna, what he thought, he said.

So Tota Puri comes along after attaining Nirvikalpa samadhi, above 'kalpa', above any experiences, which is super conscious experience. After going there, when he came back he still found Ramakrishna saying, [Swamiji clapping and chanting] 'Hari AUM [or OM], Hari AUM, Hari AUM'. Hari AUM is a great mantra, awakened by Ramakrishna. By whom? Ramakrishna. 'Hari AUM, Hari AUM, Hari AUM'. Tota Puri said, what is this 'Hari AUM?' You're making chapati [pictured][the dough gets shaped by patting it between the hands]. Chapati means Roti, Indians make Roti.

And Ramakrishna thought, 'Sala loke!' You know what sala means? Your brother-in-law. [devotees laugh] You got married to my sister, in the olden days the king used to call brother-in-law meaning 'the favoured one'. If I kill you, my sister will suffer. But Ramakrishna couldn't kill his own guru [spiritual preceptor]. So sala loke means 'you favoured one from me'. I have favoured you. Ramakrishna said, 'what do you know? My Mother exists.' Tota Puri said, 'all this is lies'. Sri Ramakrishna goes to his [Divine] Mother and says, 'Ma, he's not believing what I'm saying.' He [Sri Ramakrishna] is the Mother – he gives the secret. God and bhakta in the scripture, are One. He gives the secret. He says, 'No Ma, this Tota Puri, Nangta – nangta means naked, the naked one – Nangta doesn't want to believe.'

I always imagine you know, when Ramakrishna went and told Mother, 'Ma, Ma, Nangta is making a fool of me.' I actually imagine Mother saying, 'Don't worry, please don't worry. Don't worry – we'll fix him up. Don't worry, I'll fix him up.'

Nangta was very proud, he said, 'I'm a jnani'. Jnani of the first order he was because he guru-enlightened Ramakrishna. So at night-time he went and slept near the Ganga [river Ganges]. And from God-consciousness, from the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, he was reduced to having stomach cramps. And his stomach is moving and twisting, like he just fell pregnant. [devotees laughing merrily] The pain was moving. What is moving? The child of Maya [God's power of illusion/delusion] is moving inside him. And he gets so cross – look at him, look at the deep belief in him. He says, 'we jnanis – before he said 'I' – now at least he made it, 'we' jnanis. We used the 'Royal' we – he became a little higher. He said, 'we jnanis, after realising God, what more must we do with the body?' But that itself means something – if he's a jnani and he's realised God, where does 'the body' come in? He says, 'I shall go and dump it in the Ganga'.

So he goes with the idea of consciously giving up his body in the water. That is called 'jal [water] samadhi' – not suicide. Suicide is to give up the body unconsciously. So he said, 'I'll give it up.' He goes in the Ganga where the ships used to go, he walks out – thinking just now it's going to become deeper – he saw many ships passing. He gets right to the other side of the river Ganga's bank and what happened? The water barely reached knee-deep. He said, 'what is this?' And he now says from inside his own mind, 'this is Maya. This is Maya – illusion – of course it must be illusion.' And suddenly he sees Mother Rajeshwari, standing there, Bhuvaneshwari – in all her glory. Smiling and laughing. She laughed and laughed. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. That laugh was what enlightened him. What happened? Mother's laugh just enlightened him. We have to argue and speak at conferences about God realisation. She just laughed. And he was enlightened, like lightning [instantly]. And then he said, 'Ah! Ma! Ma, you exist, you do exist'.

For the first time in my life, I realised it was this child denying its own mother. He was the child of Mother - who was? [devotees answer, 'Tota Puri'] Tota Puri was denying his own mother. What audacity! What ignorance. A jnani in this Kali Yuga – in this modern age – was brought to naught. Again and again it is proved in the scripture – even [Adi] Shankaracharya, the great Jnani, had to write hymns on God with form. She exists, but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. What's the meaning of that? She exists but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. That's what we call 'Maya'. It means, 'it's covered' - not altogether. A portion of it only, is revealed. Maya does not mean 'not' – it means a portion of it, 'is' – and I can see, but the complete, the Absolute, I don't know. So, Maya... For the first time, he realised, she exists. Shankaracharya himself realised that. He writes volume after volume on God with form.

Ramakrishna looks at Tota Puri, 'Aaah!' His face is glowing. You can see knowledge manifested. Benign, calm, peace. The ego of, 'I am a jnani,' is gone. The ego of realisation of beyond-nirguna, is gone. What is that? Neither guna nor nirguna. Above it, below it. Inside, 'Isa vasyam idagung sarvam.' [1^st verse of Isa Upanishad,literal translation: All this - whatsoever moves on the earth, should be covered by the Lord.] God permeates God. Not God permeates the world. God, permeating God. H₂0 permeating H₂0 - in the form of ice. His 'false' jnani-knowledge vanished and Ramakrishna said, 'Aaah! Now you are complete.' You know the coin in the obverse, reverse, and in the circumference, too. Now you've got it. He is a real guru who knows inside-out, outside-in and whatever there is to be known. And this kind of guru never denies any aspect of 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.

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The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online

Reference websites - please mouse over the name and click to connect:

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