Swami Shivadpadananda on the Guru’s role

SWAMI
SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Taken from
Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

Day 372

 

Once you have a guru he has to purify you, not at the
ordinary rate, but fast. So the first thing you see is the body’s ill-health.
Then you see lack of money. Then you are reviled again and again, and spat on.
You are clay in his hands, he has to make you expand and so he beats the clay,
but he has to do it carefully, so as not to break the pot which is precious.

 

Monday to Sunday [i.e. seven days a week, non-stop] you do the
guru’s worship. Do not start and leave it three-quarters done.

 

There is a story about a man and his wife. The wife
wanted a beautiful palace, so the Lord granted her desire. Her husband returned
home and was amazed to see the palace. His wife was upstairs and called down to
him. But he said, ‘No, no, if this palace is what you want, you have it.’ And
he went off to live in the forest. This is what the guru does for you.

 

This mind [meaning Swamiji’s mind] reacts to the state
of your mind. As your mind is, so this mind [in a state of empathy] reflects
the same.

 

Surrender to the guru is absolutely essential.
Everything the guru does is right, if he kills or cures. If he sends you to
India or America, it is all the same. You must have absolute faith in him. Be
pure in thought word and deed – that is all you have to do. Do not even think
of God-realisation [i.e. selfishly].

 

You would not come here day after day if you did not
have some kind of love in you.

 

Do not think of past mistakes. If I speak of a past mistake,
I have not renounced it – I am still using it as a foundation. Repeat God’s
name.

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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.

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Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham