Swami Shivapadananda

The blessings of meeting a holy person

Take the opportunity of meeting sannyasis (Swamis, monks). Take the opportunity of meeting holy people. Take the opportunity to do your sadhana (spiritual practise). He – the teacher – comes to build those who ready. And for those who are not ready, he blesses them with speedy recovery (from ignorance).

What is it like to be like that one? He cannot think of any lower, relative, good. The good that he wishes, (Swamiji begins to chant: ‘Sarvesham Mangalam bhavatu (may there be good to all), sarvesham svasthir bhavatu (may there be auspiciousness to all), sarvesham shantir bhavatu (may there be peace to all), sarvesham purnam bhavatu (may there be fullness to all), sarvesham mangalam bhavatu (may there be good to all). That’s all. He does not know any other thing. He drops off the second verse. Where it says may all the bad people become good. He drops it off. He just wishes only one thing. May there be, always, auspiciousness. May there be always, peace. May there be only good.

Just like I said yesterday, if the sun is ignorant of anything, it is ignorant of darkness. The sun does not know what darkness is. That blessed guru knows nothing else, but the sunshine of bliss and blessing. Once, one of the swamis, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, Shivananada Mahapurushji (picture on left) was asked for blessing. He smiled, ‘What else have we got, the sannyasins, in our bag, but blessings? We have nothing else but blessings.’ Must you ask the obvious? If you go to the sun, would you say to the sun, ‘Give me light, give me warmth’? But the man from inside thinks, ‘I must ask, I must motivate him.’ The man is missing the point. As if you can influence God. You say to God, what a pretty nose you’ve got. What lotus-like eyes you’ve got. The most beautiful blue is Lord Krishna. This will influence him? Never. He can never be influenced. Because he is influence-less. Motiveless.

Similarly, his manifestation in the form of the guru. Only one thing he’s got in there. Blessing. You don’t have to be afraid of him. If you have made any mistakes, nothing to be afraid of. Because he’s got bags full of forgiveness. If you have done something good, you have nothing to be proud of, because he is the one that gives you that good. He’s got bags full of good. Think about that life. Think. I want you to think what a beautiful life that is. You cannot influence it.

Then why these prayers, service, and other things? My beloved Lord the guru Jesus answers, ‘What you think, you become.’ You want to become like him. Like who? The guru, himself. Then you, relating to somebody else, bring in good thought in your mind. If I cannot say that I am good, let me at least say the rose is good. And by saying the rose is good, rose is good, automatically I’ll start thinking good. And who’s uplifted? The rose, or me? It’s me.

A staff in hand, a kamandalu (water pot) in the other hand, with the ashes of fire, the fire of tapasya (austerity) he treads the whole of earth, as if it were its home. He knows, ‘I’m not only of this world but I am for all the worlds, and plus.’ And? Plus… That, with which he has identified himself, is omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (present everywhere, and omnipotent (all powerful. So, this is the purest life. This is? The purest life.

A guru is not a fortune teller. He’s got no future to tell. (Swamiji chuckles) – there’s no future for him to tell. He’s only living in the present. He’s not a fortune teller. If you go to a heart specialist, would you ask him about lungs? You’ll ask him about the heart. If you go to that guru Brahman (the one, indivisible supreme consciousness), a guru that adores Brahman or who has realised Brahman, you must ask him, with humility, about Brahman, about God. To ask him about anything else is a waste of very valuable time. It’s a waste of? Very, very valuable? Time. And even if you ask something else, it must, ultimately, direct your mind how to reach Brahman itself. You may not ask a direct question about Brahman. You may ask an indirect question. Like, ‘What is the duty of a householder?’ Or ‘What is the duty of a brahmachari (celibate student)?’ And slowly, this rightful duty will gear you to get what is a motiveless state, called mukti (liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth).

Can you imagine what kind of life this is? Sri Ramakrishna, out of his own experience says, ‘I have met the greatest yogi.’ Mahayogi (great yogi) he called him. ‘Jesus. I have met him. I had his vision. I saw him. He was absorbed in me. He came, I saw him, I did not know who he was. He got absorbed in my body.’ Mahayogi he said. And Mahayogi and Maha Vishnu are not two separate things. Yogeshwar means Lord of the Yogish. Did he have any cursing in his packet (bag)? (Swamiji laughing) They nailed him to the cross, yet he had no curses. No wrath. He still intervened and asked for blessing. ‘Father, Father, forgive them.’ Why forgive them? Because they are ignorant.

How can he hit an ignorant child? Is it the child’s fault or the father’s weakness? Unknowingly they’re doing it. Even if somebody set them up, they are afraid of something. Therefore, they’re doing it. They think that something is the highest. So, forgive them Father. The idea is what? Father must come and say, ‘Child, you are forgiven’? No, don’t let the natural, raw karma take effect on them. If I put my hand in the fire, it must? Burn. Father, Father, forgive him. Father, stop the fire from burning him. The natural law of karma must be stopped. What must be left? Swamiji chuckles. The merit of seeing me (a holy person). The merit of associating. That’s all. Let’s leave them with that, my Lord.

To see a holy person, you don’t know what merit it is. You’re seeing a mobile temple. You’re seeing a mobile thirastan – holy place. That thirastan that is in India, Vrindavan (birthplace of Sri Krishna, Kasi (Varanasi or Benares) and all these places, you have to spend (money) work, sweat, which is easy to get. And to appreciate that is very easy, too. If you do not appreciate the holy place, you may appreciate the scenery. When Sri Ramakrishna saw a lot of people come – worldly people – he said, ‘How to keep the mind good?’ so he’d say, ‘Go and see the flower garden. See how nice the flower garden is?’ At least for the time being, the mind is beautified. Which inside is full of darkness. Anyhow you can do good to people, you must? Do it!

Bhakti or Jnana – which is superior?

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 1006

In Bhakti Yoga there is love – love of God. In Jnana Yoga, there is love also, love of the Self [universal soul]. But these are only a play of words – both of them. [Swamiji chuckles] Because Sri Krishna Bhagawan says in the Bhagavad Gita, 'I am seated in the heart of my devotee'. I am seated in the?... heart. And if he is seated in the heart and he says that 'I am the seed of the whole Universe, and the jnani on the other side says, 'I am worshipping the Self [Universal soul or Atman],' - the Self of everything - is it not the same thing? The bhakta says that God is seated in my heart – he is my life – he is my Mother, he is my Father, he is everything. The jnani says, 'the Self is everything – he is the Self of myself.' Where he says, 'Self of myself,' 'myself means this body, this mind and this intellect. The Self [capital 's'] of it, is the Soul - God.

And whilst the bhakta thinks that God is only his self and is everything to him, on realising that self he realises that just like the base material of one clay pot is clay, then the base of all clay pots must be clay. He realises that. The only thing (difference) with the jnani, he tries to from the beginning to have this One that is God, the Self of all selves. And everything that exists is apparent – it only appears to be something else but in reality it is the Self.

The bhakta also says the same thing. He says, 'God is seated in my heart. I am here as his servant, I am a devotee'. What am I?...a devotee. And whatever I do, I do it for that God, that Lord, the Self of myself. It is also written in the scriptures that the highest bhakti and the highest jnana are synonymous – they are one and the same thing. But both are ignorant. The bhakta is ignorant, the jnani is also ignorant. Why are they taking the path? What is the use of taking the path? Because they are ignorant. Why do you go to school? Because you are ignorant. Why will a jnani say, 'cover everything up with God?' Cover what with God? How can you cover everything with God, when everything is already God?

'Isavasyam idagung sarvam, yat kin cha jagatyam jagat.' [Meaning: 'whatsoever moves on the earth should be covered by the Lord' - Isa Upanishad, Chapter 1, verse 1] That's only an instruction. You are still ignorant. With what must I cover now? I must cover this up with what? With God? With the Self? Try it then – try it. Cover all this up with God. You must know God to take God and cover other things. But how can you do that? How can you cover the world with God? You can't do it. Ignorance is there. The jnani has ignorance so the bhakta also has ignorance. To clear this ignorance, there is a means given – a method is given. And the method is this. 'Isavasyam idagung sarvam.' All this that you see, cover it with God. What must you do? Cover it with God.

It is rightfully said in the Kena Upanishad, that 'What you can see, what you can observe, what you can touch, is finite. So take that finite-ness away and say, 'No, in reality, this is infinite.' In reality this is omnipresent. In reality. You must see the infinite thing. If you didn't see the infinite thing, how can you perceive a finite thing? On the other hand if you didn't see the finite thing, how can you see the infinite thing? So this is a method that the first verse of the Isha Upanishad gives you a method, to?...that is the big question. Not to the man who already has jnana but who is trying to get that jnana. Do you get the subtlety of that? So there's ignorance there too. In a bhakta, too, it's also ignorance – why ignorance? He says, 'I am a devotee and I want to reach that to which I am devoted'. But at the time he realises That, he will find that he is not different from that God himself.

On the other hand you find that the jnani has got love. The bhakta also has love. The jnani, by which I mean the student, also has ignorance. The bhakta, too, has ignorance. And when love and knowledge get together, what does love do? It intensifies the search. What does love do?...intensifies the search. Intensifies the thirst. And when this occurs, what happens? You seek knowledge. Without love there is no knowledge. Without knowledge, there can never be love.

In my mind love is like the great ocean and knowledge is like a ship that sails across the man-made world and reaches eternity. So both are necessary. In the case of the jnani, he has realised that all this that I see is perishable. What is it? All that which I touch, feel, see – is perishable because it's only limited – a ray of light coming out of my senses. But that light itself, must not be perishable. So I want to get hold of that light - that is not perishable. Who knows this? The jnani. And the bhakta on the other hand he has also realised one thing. That all that I get, hold and see, is perishable. Because my father died, my great grandfather died, their children's children died and one day I too shall die. So what to hold on to? That which is not perishable – what? Ishwara [or Ishvara], God. Both realise the same thing. So both want to cling on to something which is, leave the word, 'infinite,' leave the word, 'imperishable,' – that which is immortal. That is deathless. That is painless. That is always bliss. So the bhakta and the jnani are only travelling by different paths – the goals are aiming for the same result. Hari Om Tat Sat.

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

Yoga – its true meaning

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 1002

Swamiji speaking at a Yoga retreat camp.

Sri Ramakrishna is the eternal source from whence he has come. And his disciple, his counterpart, the great Swami Vivekananda, echoes that and tells us how to find it. He says religion is not in dogma, in doctrines, in argumentation – it is in being and becoming. And he qualified this: you can achieve it through Karma Yoga - work; Bhakti Yoga - worship; meditation - which is Raja Yoga, or Jnana Yoga - the yoga of knowledge.

Perform, practise these yogas and become what? Become that which in reality, you are. This which we see, is only apparent [Maya]. But in reality what are you? Swami Vivekananda said, 'That is religion.' And what is religion? Religion is the divine way of living. Divine way of life. By living it, without effort, you will reach it. Because you do not live it, you have to exert and put in effort. But if it becomes your way of life, then where is the need for effort? Because it becomes effortless.

In these yoga camps [retreats] – which are for just a very short time, we try to sample the different sadhanas [spiritual practices/paths] and try to live an integrated yoga through which the programs are made. Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. And yogas that we ourselves may not even be conscious of. Generally the yogas are categorised in this way - four. But Hatha Yoga [physical exercises/postures], Mantra Yoga [repetition or japa of a sacred sound syllable or one of the many names attributed to God], these are all yogas. Anything that reminds one of the Divine, is yoga. Because the first step is the uniting in the mind, in thought. And the yoga is accomplished when you are united. Because there is no barrier between the worshipped and the worshipper.

Sri Ramakrishna said you must go away in solitude, but it's difficult for us to go by ourselves. Then what is the next best thing? Satsanga [prayer or religious service]. Sat-sanga. Sat means 'truth', 'sanga' means company. 'In the company of the truth.' How? We take aid from the satsangis [those attending satsang] who try to march the path of God. Who have got the same goal in mind - and we get together. We converse about God, we discuss God, we discuss our problems - we meditate together. Thus creating vibrations of harmony, purity and painlessness. What is that? Joy, joy, bliss, bliss, bliss – all bliss [ananda]. Nothing but bliss.

You and I can play a great part – we are here to assist each other. We are here to encourage each other. Don't let your mind drift away for even one second from the purpose for which you are here. Do not let your mind go into worldly things. Just like the housefly. It sits on everything, even on the flower, but by the time it comes to a flower, it has sat on so many worldly things that it is not attracted by the nectar of the flower itself. Now we have become yogis in a sense. We must help each other. No gossip. No gossip. No gossip. No worldliness, no worldliness, no worldliness – forget the world. Only you exist and God exists.

Let's experiment. Let us see if the great scientists [Rishis, sage-seer-saints] of old told us the truth. And how will we know if it's the truth? Only by practising, only by putting into practice what they did. Otherwise it is useless, because you're all going to be groping about, you will all be moving in darkness. So you have a great responsibility – each one of you – that are in this camp, to help others. Fun and frolic must go into the background. If we have to laugh, let us laugh in the thought of God. If you have to cry, let us cry in the thought of God. So much so that every thought, word and deed must become an offering to God. And I am sure that the satsangis will never want to offer an impure thought to God. It is the purest and most perfect, and the flower of his life, that we must offer to 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.

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