SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
586
[Pictured: His Holiness Swami Shivapadananda Puri 1938-1994)
Today is the full moon holy day of Guru Purnima 2009
Somebody came to the Ashram [monastery] and saw me scolding a person. He said to me, 'So this is how a Swami behaves?' I said, 'Yes, this Swami behaves like this. Go next-door otherwise, he will behave otherwise.' [laughter] It is obvious that what I can see he cannot see; and he will behave from where he is.
Karma is a very complicated matter. It is so intermingled. You are creating new karmas and yet you are paying for old karmas. Only if you are prepared to give up your life will you stick to dharma [your path/righteousness]. If you are not prepared to give up your life then you will behave from a relative point of view.
Let us say a holy man is uplifting somebody and that person kills him. The holy man was behaving from a dharmic point of view and he would say, 'Regardless of what he does, my duty is to give him the help I was giving him.' He will not blame God. But you, as a neighbour, will blame God. You may say, 'What kind of God is this? He was doing a good thing and that man killed him.' You have to behave from where you are.
Devotee: If one does not know if one is a karma yogi, a bhakti yogi or a jnana yogi, what is one to do?
Swamiji: Serve your mother and father with the best of your ability. From there it will manifest.
Devotee: Is there anything wrong with being a jnana yogi?
Swamiji: No. There is nothing wrong in that. The only thing is you may not do it to the perfection that is needed. Sri Krishna said, 'Your dharma, though done imperfectly, is better than doing the dharma of other people.' Why? Because if you do other people's dharma it will cloud your brains and it will throw you into more confusion. Whereas if you are doing your dharma, even if you did not do it perfectly, there will be less confusion.
Devotee: How is one to know what one's own dharma is if one does not really have an affinity for any one of the yogas?
Swamiji: This is what I said: Your first dharma is to your mother and father and from there onwards it will unfold. Therefore, wherever you are, serve them to the best of your ability.
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. Reference websites (please mouse-over
the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa,
Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2
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.