Swami Shivapadananda

Swami Shivapadananda Puri with tips on meditation

 

When real sadhana [spiritual practice] takes place there is no time in calculation. Time moves so fast that you don’t realise it.

There are three ways of repeating a mantra [sacred word or sound syllable]. One is aloud. Second, with your lips and tongue [no voice]. Third, neither your tongue nor your lips move [mental repetition].

Look at your Deity within and repeat its mantra ten times. The highest way to do it, after much effort, is the third one [mental repetition]. With calmness and proper breathing, you repeat your Deity’s name. When you look at the world without, silently repeat the Guru mantra and you will feel that the whole world is permeated by your Guru. Struggle to bring your mind, again and again, to the One without a second. That is concentration. Looking at his form is contemplation. When you contemplate and concentrate you enter into meditation.

All of us are used to the physical manifestation, the gross. When you look at your Deity outside, in the murthi [sculpture, statue or picture of the deity], it is still physical. You must make the effort to realize the subtle.

Some people enter the mental realm where they see the Deity mentally. And as they utter the mantra they will slowly, from the physical realm, from the mental realm enter the subtle realm. Thus from the subtle you enter into the subtler; and from the subtler you enter into the subtlest. 

Swami Shivapadananda Puri speaks on the sanctity of your sadhana, or spiritual practice time (audio) - (Mouse-over the grey bar below to play)

Swami Shivapadananda Puri speaks on the sanctity of sadhana time

Don’t get into spiritual overdraft

[Pictured- a japa mala - rosary] 

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 993

I know many people make many excuses [to avoid meditating] – forget it. You must be sincere. You must use non-cooperation, don't cooperate with your mind. Go to bed early. Get up at four in the morning. Even if you get up at five o'clock it's still good. You must make up your mind. You are intelligent people. I haven't seen that if a man has to open a surgery at 3 o'clock that he goes and opens it at 6 o'clock. He goes there at 3 o'clock. Why? Because it's important or pressing. That means God is not that pressing for you. He can wait. Why? He doesn't wait. He's where he is. We have to make the move. Who has to make the move?...we have to.

In the beginning I used to do this and I found it very, very, very helpful. I did not sit for a long time. I would just go into the shrine to tell one mala [108 repetitions of the mantra on a rosary of prayer beads]. That's all. I must do that mala – no matter where I am at that time, I'll run to tell the [beads of the] mala. And you know how I used to do that mala? For about five or six years I only did that mala. How? I didn't know what devotion or love were. I only knew that I was told to do one mala, 'Om namah Shivaya, Om namah Shivaya, Om namah Shivaya, Om namah Shivaya, Om namah Shivaya.' Mala finished or not? [devotees chuckling] 'Om namah Shivaya.' And I can tell you that just keeping that routine, and not even doing it correctly [rushing through it], later on bore fruit in the form of love - to do it exactly, to do it right. But in the beginning I just did it [mechanically] because somebody told me to do it - without love, without devotion [bhakti], without faith [shraddha]. But at those exact times I used to do it. I used to feel, if I don't do it, then I'm letting that man down – not God.

But do you even have love like that for your Guru [spiritual Preceptor]? That if my Guru said I'd let him down because he expects me to do it. Then how, even if you haven't got love for the physical form, how are you later going to have love for that one which is formless? From that point of view, the word of the Guru is supposed to be mantra [sacred words].

You can bluff everybody, you can even bluff yourself, but when the time comes and you knock at the door, and you look at your bank book, it's in overdraft. No friends will help you. A real guru will say, 'Lock him up.' That's what a real Guru will say. 'Let him learn his lesson. [Swamiji chuckles] All these days I gave him grace he misused it, now lock him up [let him suffer]. That's also my grace'.

Fathers and mother love in two ways – sometimes they spank [discipline] the child. Sometimes you caress the child. Both are love. Both are his grace – the grace of the father and mother. Not so? So don't get used to the one way only. Don't worry, the time is coming now to put the foot down. You must do sadhana [spiritual practice] then you'll come across these obstacles, then you will answer. If you're not doing it properly, you'll watch – it won't come.

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

Best times for meditation

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 992

A saint or a sage [mahatma] has no hatred. Forget it. You'll find all the saints cursed Hanumanji [the great devotee of Lord Rama] to forget his real nature, his real power. But that ignorance was put there only for him to become mature. If you crack open an egg too early, the chick will die. It has to be in darkness for a certain time for it to mature. So 'Mother Ignorance' is a wonderful thing. It's a boon [blessing] of spiritual realisation. What is it?...a boon of spiritual realisation. That time you must be there to mature and then break through. Then Shiva-power [the ignorance-destroying power of God] will come to destroy the shell. The golden egg was burst by Shiva and Parvati. Read it in the Puranas and see.

Devotee asks off-microphone question: Something about 'routine difficult to follow'.

Swamiji: There are certain times that the mind and the whole of nature goes into calmness – into equilibrium. And the four times are: 45 minutes before sunrise, 45 minutes before midday, 6 in the evening and 12 midnight. This is when all of nature manifests a certain calmness or equilibrium [balance]. You can feel it in the atmosphere and your mind also becomes calm. They say you must take advantage of those periods – sandhya – you must take advantage of them.

Brahmamuhurti – 4 a.m. you must get up. You must take advantage. Why? Because it is conducive to spiritual calmness, to spiritual vibrations. Now, if you don't take advantage at that time, at other times you will struggle. You will struggle. You'll be wasting more time. Just like when there's a high wave coming in the ocean and you don't take the wave and use the assistance of the wave to swim out of the water, then you will struggle. You'll get tired. So when it's not conducive, you'll be wasting time.

Also, in the beginning it is very important and essential that one should follow time [a routine] to get the mind into the habit of taking God's name [in japa]. After you have, in the initial stages, formed a genuine habit to take God's name, to love God, then it doesn't matter what time you do it. Because it itself will be continuously flowing in the subconscious mind. It'll be continuously flowing. You see, if you get up every morning at four o'clock, you'll find that automatically, even on holidays you'll get up at four. Because you get into the habit your mind adjusts itself to that.

Like India is three hours ahead of us. I used to eat food here at about 12 [noon]. When I went to India, about 9 [a.m.] I'm feeling hungry and thinking, 'What is wrong with me?' Then I realised, wait a minute, it's 12 back in South Africa and my habit is to eat at that time. You see how the mind is? At exactly 12 o'clock my stomach will start rumbling. So habit is very, very essential my dear son. Well, Sri Ramakrishna said, and other great saints and sages said, 'If you're so tied down [with obligations] and you really, sincerely think you have no time, then any time will do. Then, whenever you get a chance, snatch it, take the opportunity to say his name. But it won't pay the same benefits as when you follow a routine and times that are conducive to spiritual vibrations. Like on the full-moon day mentally unstable people become even more unstable [because of the energies]. So similarly, at spiritual times like that, the mind will automatically desire God – it will tune into him. You got it? Very essential.

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

How to visualise your deity in meditation

 

 

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 991

If you can't meditate [internally] on your deity [Ishta Deva], look at the deity's photo or picture. Rather just look at it. I used to do that for years. I look at my Shiva Bhagawan, I dance, my [pre-monastic] mother used to think this fellow is mad. I dance, I kiss him. Until now I have the idea of kissing - you'll see how I kiss [the picture of] Sri Ramakrishna. I kiss him, I give him a dot [tilak] and I do all those things. Then I close my eyes I see 'Oh, he's there!' But yet without the photo I can't do it. If I close my eyes and I can't see him, I open my eyes. Better that I open my eyes and see him. If you can't close your eyes and see him inside, then open your eyes. Sometimes it may take a couple of years – who cares? As long as you are keeping your mind, what?...pure. And colouring it [with God thought] – that's the period of colouring. If you're not going to do it now, then you've had it.

Sri Ramakrishna said lukewarm devotion is not good. Why is it not good? Because one time you'll do in fits and starts and another time you'll be depressed. The great saints [mahatmas] were very clever and full of compassion. They tried various means to bring us to God. That's why, as a lower-level approach he says, if you can't love God for God's sake, then alright, go and give certain gifts [offerings], do certain worship if you want to get a good husband, a good child, you want to get wealth, he'll make you get caught in that. That's still a lower type of worship. Because whether you ask God or you don't ask God, if you work hard, all that will come automatically because that's all God's grace. What is it? God's grace. The very fact that he's given you a body and a good mind, a good intellect, is all God's grace, not yours. If you were such a master, when sleep comes along, how is it that you can't push the sleep away? [Swamiji chuckling]

They say you [the spiritual aspirant, sadhaka] must eat 'golden food'. What kind of food?...golden food. Meaning that if you are really hungry you will not look to see whether it is brown bread or white bread or what curry it is, you will just want to eat the food, because of hunger. That's the golden food. You eat it out of necessity.

Swamiji addressing a devotee: Hanumanji [the great devotee, disciple of Lord Rama, feature in the Hindu Epic, the Ramayana] won't keep giving every time my boy. There's come a time when he'll say 'Come on, chalo, get a little tired of the world now!' So now start desiring him, don't ask him for anything. When you've got him you have everything.

Even in my dreams I used to cry, 'Shiva I want to see you, I want to see you!' I don't know where I got that from. I just wanted to see my God, I wanted to see him. I used to cry like that. I'd sit in the quiet when my friends were enjoying themselves and I used to think, 'How can I see him? Which is the way to see him?' I would read books, try and find out - until I came to my guru. The guru [spiritual Preceptor, His Holiness Sri Swami Nischalananda Puri Maharaj, first President and Spiritual Head of the Ramakrishna Centre of SA] was a light - he cleared certain darkness. After giving me a taste he threw me back into the world to get it [that state] back again.

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

Tips for improving meditation

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

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 990

If you're doing serious sadhana [spiritual practice] there are obstacles that you come across, which we know about by God's grace. When you don't ask then we know something's wrong – it's not going right. You are contented. And yet the yama [avoid] and niyama [guidelines for things you must do] says you must not be contented...with what kind of life? With a worldly life, you must become discontented. It must become distasteful – why? Then you will start desiring That which will give you eternal contentment [santosha] – God, the Self [through God- or Self-Realisation], Shiva or Krishna. When I say Shiva I don't mean any particular form [of deity, Ishta Deva], I mean Shiva the Atman [universal soul]. When I say Krishna I don't mean any form. I mean Krishna the Atman. When I say Kali I don't mean anyone, any form – I mean Kali the Atman.

The guru [spiritual Preceptor] is a walking stick. Use him to walk. When you get well, good, you can run, start running – give the walking stick to someone else. Don't throw it away.

Devotee asks: 'Swamiji when one meditates one tends to fall asleep at times. How does one correct that?

Swamiji: Do vigorous exercise. Go outside. Breath in, breath out, shake it [the lethargy] out, walk and then come back. That thing is the devil [the lazy or impure mind] – you know the devil appears in the form of lethargy, the devil appears in the form of pain. The devil appears in the form of saying, 'There's important work there.' This is the idea of Maya [the divine power of illusion/delusion]. He takes all forms to see how sincere you are, to reach your beloved [God].

If you are in love with a girl, your father can tell you a thousand times, 'Don't get married.' Your grandfather can tell you not to get married but you'll break through all caste, colour and opposition to get married. [Have this yearning/intensity for God] Are you loving God? No. Then all this sleep comes. There's no other way. I don't want to bluff you.

Have your room well-ventilated. Nice fresh air must come in. Sit straight, in a comfortable posture - don't sit in a bad asana [meditation position]. Then you'll be alright. Before doing sadhana I'll usually open my rooms and... [Swamiji demonstrates bhastrika – a rapidly oxygenating yoga breathing technique] I'll do some yoga exercises, maybe stand on my head [sirsasana]. If I feel a little tired I'll say OK, 'I'll wait a little bit.' While I'm waiting I'm thinking about the glories of God. When that's finished I do my pranayama [yoga breathing] then I sit for meditation. Even if I don't sleep the whole night - in the morning I will still do sadhana. The sadhana is a must. Sadhana is a?...must. Is that answered?

And then another thing – if you eat a lot of food, heavy food, particularly at night-time, in the morning you'll have difficulty. If you eat food and sit for meditation you're doing harm. It's injurious to health, because all the blood rushes down there [to the stomach,to facilitate digestion]. Your brain can't meditate and concentrate. So you should not meditate straight after eating. I used to drink a nice glass of hot water - then sit and meditate. I don't say it's for everyone. You see – you can't put everything in one compartment and say, 'I did this and you must do this.' No, like I say if I drink milk, I may get digest it. But if you drink milk you may get diarrhoea. So adjust yourself, find your own likes and dislikes. Find your own things that will digest.

Find the things that will give you comfort. But all that comfort and other things must be so directed that you must meditate. Have bhajan ananda [blissful singing] – take pride in doing worship. Find happiness in doing ordinary worship. Eighty percent of us are not yet fit for real good sadhana. So at least do one hour of ritual worship – find happiness in that. Over time as you're doing it, that itself will say, 'Why offer all this? I'm going inside [in meditation, mental worship]. The outside process is only suggestive of the inside. What is it? Suggestive - and it's symbolic of the inner world. That's all it is. But as long as that inner world doesn't awaken, try to waken the [concentration] outside.

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

Meditation and ashram life

[Pictured: Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa ashram complex]

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

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 960

If the mind is very restless then you start off with five minutes of meditation. If it's very restless. But as the mind becomes more calm, a person who is working, should reach at least an hour a day. You must reach an hour a day. Then some definite result will come about. Some people think, after five minutes of meditating, 'Why am I not realising God?' They are mad! Yogis gave up their whole life – and they still didn't realise God. You think God is at our beck and call? That he's a ladu [an Indian sweetmeat] in someone's hand?

If your mind is very restless, start with five - even one minute will do - it depends on the restlessness of your mind. But slowly, slowly advance it. Increase it, increase it. For one week, so much - for the second week so much. Many people seated here will know what I'm talking about because you just stick to five minutes, five minutes. The next day you know you can do it for ten minutes but you still stick to five minutes. You should slowly increase it. But don't force it, you will dislike it.

*

Many sadhakas [spiritual aspirants] come here and say to me, 'Swamiji, I want to renounce [i.e. take up religious orders or sannyasa and leave the world].' I look at them. I say, 'What do you want to renounce?' They answer, 'I want to leave home.' I ask, 'Is the home causing you any obstacle?' 'Oh, yes. A lot of trouble at home. The parents say this and I can't meditate and do that.' I say, 'My friend, you don't know about the ashram [monastery, hermitage, spiritual retreat centre] life. Ashram is worse. The ashram is one hundred times worse.'

You come in the ashram, the other brahmachari [novice monk or noun – brahmacharini] will look at you, 'Hmm'. That's a favouritism thing there. [Swamiji makes a long, 'whoooo' sound]. Only heroic people go to ashrams. Not weak fellows. And if weak fellows go to the ashram and stay there that means there is something wrong with that guru's [spiritual preceptor's] head. Only heroes go to stay in ashrams. I can tell you this very openly. No silly people go and stay in the ashram. You may be seeing that the sadhakas [spiritual aspirants or practitioners] fighting and doing this and that and you'll criticise them. Go away, you can't do one patch of it, I can tell you this. Forget the ashramites. You can't do one patch of it. You know why? Because you're weak. Let's face it. It takes guts to come and stay in an ashram. There's no play in an ashram. You give up your dignity, you give up your freedom, you give up everything. Some people say something and you can't retaliate. You'll go tell the guru, 'That fellow is saying so and so,' and the guru will tell you, 'MYOB [mind your own business]. Carry on – you do your work. Leave him alone.' [Swamiji chuckling]

Now what do you do? First you see the guru as God, then you come and he's not taking your part, then he's the devil now. So you find fault with the guru. So don't worry. Only heroes live in ashrams. Only heroes. It may be a shock but it's the truth.

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, 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.

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

 

Meditation aversion

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

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 959

Devotee: Swamiji I find my heart beats fast - I mean physically – if I get a fright from a loud noise during meditation.

Swamiji: You can't do anything. Just get calm again. Actually, when your heart beats fast, it's a sign that you're shortening your life [Swamiji chuckles]. You see the animals whose hearts beat fast, they die quickly.

Devotee: It doesn't beat fast all the time though, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Never mind. Even if it beats an extra five times it means so much petrol [energy] you've wasted. That's why you should live a calm existence.

If you really want to meditate, then it's easy. It must become easy. Because you want to meditate. It's only when you don't want to do it that it's difficult. So – easy as that! [Devotees chuckling]. What you don't like, naturally it's difficult, what you like is easy. You will find a way to do it. If your father says 'don't go to the bioscope [movies],' you say, 'Yes dad,' but you like bioscope so much that you tell him you're going to the football ground but you're sitting in the bioscope. So if you like to do it, it's easy. You don't like to do it, it's difficult.

Devotee: Is that all there is to it?

Swamiji: Yes, that's all there is to it. 100%.

Devotee: Well then one should just give up, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Well, you can't give up if you like something.

Devotee: If the reason is that you can't do it because you don't like it, and if you can't do it, then you might as well give up doing it.

Swamiji: Give it up then. That too will be difficult because you don't like to give it up. [Devotees laughing merrily]

Swamiji: You carry on – it's as easy as that. It's very easy. I'm telling you from experience. There's my pre-monastic mother sitting there – ask her. All my brothers would like to go to bioscope and other things. I used to be sitting in the [home] shrine. They used to call me 'rooster'. Half past three [in the morning] I'm sitting in the shrine and I'd make a loud noise because everyone must get up! Then they say, 'look at the rooster – he's started crowing'.

Never mind what they called me but I'm a real rooster. I'll wake the whole world up if they don't want to meditate. They didn't like it – it's was difficult for them. Now they come here and they say, 'My child is sick, my wife's got high blood-pressure'. But you did it – now you must suffer [because you haven't done the sadhana, spiritual practice]. Why do you want to put it on my head now? I can only say, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry – I'll pray a little bit, "Master [Sri Ramakrishna], please will you remove it."' But there's no guarantee Master is going to cure this and that no other sickness will come. [Swamiji chuckling]. It has to come [for all of us working out prarabdha karma – the karma of this birth].

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, 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.

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

Dozing off and meditation

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

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 955

A devotee asks: Those people who fall asleep when meditating – how does one avoid that?

Swamiji: There are a lot of reasons why one goes off to sleep when trying to meditate. First of all, if one's stomach is full, all the blood rushes there to digest the food, so your brain is robbed [deprived] of that energy [oxygenation]. You will feel sleepy. The other thing is that if your breathing is not right, you rob yourself of energy and then you'll also want to go to sleep. You may also not have a keen interest [in meditating]. Look, if a man wants to sleep and he sees a movie on the TV but he doesn't have an interest in it, he'll go to sleep. What else can the poor mind do?

Patanjali notes it [the desire to fall asleep] in Raja Yoga [practice] – as an obstacle. It is an....obstacle. How do you change that? Every time you want to sleep – open your eyes. Look at a picture of the Lord. Walk a little bit. Then sit again, until you overcome that feeling. Get up gently, walk, come back – it doesn't matter. Go and breathe in some fresh air. Open the windows. [Swamiji briefly demonstrates bhastrika, which is a quick energising pranayama breathing technique] Pray. Go and wash your face with cold water. Go back and sit again.

You know how it is – sometimes in the morning you can't get up at 5 o'clock. Don't just say, 'I can't get up at 5 o'clock,' say 'never mind, I'll try!' And then maybe you get up at five thirty. You say again, 'I'll try!' – then you get up and the whole day you're drowsy. Just keep at it. There will come a time when you will have adjusted to 5 o'clock. You must overcome it by sheer force of will.

Devotee: I thought his only happened to old people but does this happen to young people as well?

Swamiji: The young people nod off even more quickly because they haven't got any creaking joints. [congregation laughs merrily and long]. They're quite relaxed you see – they just go off. [Swamiji laughing too].

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, 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.

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

 

Best posture for meditation?

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

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 954

Swamiji speaking on posture for meditation

You can sit in any posture, you can sit in siddhasana (literally 'the accomplished posture'- pictured above) – or [the much more complicated] lotus posture, padmasana – or you can sit in a simple posture. I've never sat in my life in [complicated] postures. I just sat in an ordinary way. Like my father and mother used to sit and pray, I sit like that. Right up until now I don't go for special postures. Any posture that is comfortable for me, I sit. [Lotus posture pictured below, featuring Sri Yukteswar, the guru of Paramahamsa Yogananda].

When Uma Bharati [a visiting adept] came here [to the ashram, the Ramakrishna Centre of SA] she also said the same thing. She went to someone's home and they asked her the same question, 'Tell me, which posture should I sit in for meditation?' She laughed, she didn't answer that but said, 'OK, I'll ask you a question. Do you love a particular child here?' The person answered, 'Yes, my son's child [my grandson].' Mataji said, 'In which posture do you sit to give love to the child?' The man said, 'I don't have a particular posture, I just sit anyhow and love the child.' To which she replied, 'Just so, realising God is not dependent on posture. As long as you love him. As long as your body is comfortable, whichever way you sit, you love him.'

If you love God, if your mind is concentrated on him, that posture is good [for you]. Any posture which is comfortable, that is good. In India, the postures they sit in, they are trained to sit in from early on. They sit down [on the floor]. That is their culture [and habit]. But in the western world many of us sit on comfortable chairs. Even the swamis sit on chairs like this. So, have a nice chair, tuck your legs under you and sit nicely. As long as your head, neck and spine are in a straight line. As long as the [spiritual energy] currents [nadis] are not disturbed and your blood circulation is not [negatively] affected, sit and meditate. You don't have to go for complicated things. I'm sure if God comes here and says, 'Shivapadananda, sign your name,' I don't have to take a Parker [then an expensive pen] to sign my name. Any pen will do, as long as it can write.

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, 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.

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