Swami Shivapadananda on ‘dying’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 426

 
 

Studying the Upanishads [Vedanta teachings] can be very dry because all superstition is stripped away. Mix them with a little superstition and they become juicy.

If you cut [slaughter] a goat you have to become a goat. I swear that anything desirable must have a result. Only when you have no desire do you go above birth. I cannot be speaking lies in front of Master [Sri Ramakrishna].

Just as a silk worm makes a cocoon and becomes a moth, so we go through a dark period, i.e. one birth to the other birth.

Devotee: What is incarnation?

Swamiji: It is like taking a child from one breast to the other – a child does not remember it. The breast is Mother Nature. It is changed and you take a different birth. So be very careful, don't get attached to family, otherwise at time of death you will think of something and next birth you will become that.

Swami Yatiswarananda says in his book [Meditation and Spiritual Life]: Repeat the Divine Name and remember the Lord. And do not ask others to bend but bend yourself. What is the remedy? We must awaken our spiritual consciousness and think we are the Atman, not the body.

The chakra [one of the seven psychic locations] point is the contact point between the subtle and the physical body.

Swamiji: This is very, very important. It is a beautiful description. It seems that the soul is immortal – the subtle body is the intermediary and the physical body is the outer. But in reality the soul is the outermost – the subtle is the intermediary and the physical is the innermost.

Be one with Satchidananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute] – share the love and bliss with others. Pray for light and guidance. This leads to peace through 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.

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