On birth, Maya and balance
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
629
[Swamiji continues speaking about the Bhagavad Gita]
I am not manifest to all beings as I am veiled by yogamaya [the divine power of illusion/delusion] . . .
God is present everywhere, but He does not show Himself in everything. If there is a flaming fire, you can see the fire; but if you see two dry sticks, though the fire is in them too, it is not manifest; but if you rub the sticks together hard enough the fire is manifested. So God is present in everyone. But do not think that everyone can be treated alike. The lion may be God and the man may be God, but the man cannot sweetly say, 'Lion, you are a god, come to me.' The lion will say, 'A lovely breakfast has arrived today.' [laughter] So you have to treat each case accordingly. Admire the lion from afar. Admire the bad man from afar. Say, 'God is present there.'
This deluded world does not know Me, the unborn and imperishable.
The Lord consciously comes to the world and consciously leaves the world, hence He is unborn. God says, 'I did not take birth, the body took birth though I was inside that.' But because you ignorantly came into this world, you are born. And when you ignorantly leave this world, you will die. But when you knowingly come into this world and knowingly leave this world, you are never born and you never die. Therefore God never dies.
'This deluded world,' means there is a lot of maya [illusion/delusion] in this world. In the Upanishad [Hindu philosophical treatises] it is said: 'O Lord, withdraw all your golden coloured rays so I will be able to see the Purusha [the Atman] in the sun.' This means: take away all these pleasures, these sensual entrapments, so that I may be able to realise the truth.
By the delusion of the pairs of opposites, rising from desire and aversion . . .
You are either attracted to somebody or repelled. Instead you must be like Buddha – be in the middle path. Do not be attracted nor repelled; just be calm, quiet. When the veena [pictured] string is over-tuned it snaps and when the veena is under-tuned it does not play. So just tune it right and you will find everything is God. If you do not adjust the lens of a camera properly it takes a blurred picture. Similarly, you have not adjusted your senses yet to purity, so it takes blurred pictures. But if you adjust a lens correctly it takes beautiful pictures, doesn't it? So now you have to adjust yourself through sadhana [spiritual practice].
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.
Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda
Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online…
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