Swami Shivapadananda on the Guru’s guidance
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 468
A man called Chandra came to Sri Ramakrishna and prayed, "Lord, please give me the vision of my Chosen Ideal [Ishta Deva], I want to have some spiritual experience." Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and touched him. He immediately felt blissful. He went back to the office and tried to attend to his work but he could not get going. He wanted to do his books but he couldn't do them. He could only feel the bliss of God. When he went home he could not see his wife, he could only feel the bliss of God. Then he prayed, "O God, please take this away from me. I don't want it, I can't attend to my worldly duties."
This event shows that we value worldly duties more than godly bliss. Afterwards, by Sri Ramakrishna's grace, that form was withdrawn. But once a week or so, Chandra would still have this experience. This is the greatness of the great gurus.
That is why we say that no guru should give you God-realisation; but rather they should prepare you for God-realisation because it is your natural state. Who can give you something that is natural? If you are a man, why should I make you a man? The only thing I should do is to try and describe to you how a man looks and then, when you see yourself, you would recognise that you are a man. So the guru who describes this to you will put more maya [the power of delusion], a higher [more subtle] maya, to take away the lesser, thicker maya. Thus the revelation will come and you will see the truth.
It is said that Sri Krishna and Arjuna were born as Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda in this age. They also came as Sri Rama and Hanumanji. For it was Hanumanji and not Lakshman who spread the name of Sri Rama – just as Swami Vivekananda spread the name of Sri Ramakrishna.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham