Swami Shivapadananda with Zen Koan-like thoughts

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY

READINGS

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

Day 271

The body and its action are to do God’s work in this world. The head is
always in solitude, that is, with God. Integrate the spiritual life with the outer
life. Let them merge. Go inside and watch.

Watch your reaction to others, especially those the mind does not like.
Hopelessness is the only way to happiness.

Intense longing for God burns evil karma. The bliss of meditating on Krishna burns karma.

We read in the Vedas [Hindu philosophical treatises]: Freedom is the
existence of the One and nothing else. Existence of anything else hampers
our freedom. Control is not freedom. Discipline overcomes the internal and
external and leads to Absolute freedom. All action comes from the feeling of
finite-ness. ‘Doing’ is a sign of imperfection.

Desires? Feed them a little – just enough to keep them quiet.

What you offer the Lord here is all you will find when you get there.

Do not say, ‘O God, come to me.’ He has come and He is sitting
inside you.

The sun seems to move, that is inaction in action. The pen seems to
write. You steer the pen but it is divine force which moves it. Action in
inaction is meditation.

Inaction in action, that is what we want. Example: The hands are doing
the cooking and the mind is on God.

We say, ‘I am sick.’ No. The body is sick. We say, ‘I am sad.’
No. The mind feels sad. We say, ‘I am clever.’ No. The intelligence is
clever. Beyond the intelligence is the real you.