Swami Shivapadananda on the Guru, Sin and Sex

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 262

You must have faith, purity, sincerity. Faith in your own Self, in God.
Doubt destroys faith and takes you away from God. Devotee: Am I doubting now?
Swamiji: Yes. Because you are not doing what the guru said [i.e. japa]. The
guru cannot do it for you, he can only tell you. And though he takes your sins
at initiation, after that you take your own because you should now be able to
carry them yourself.

Purity in thought, word and deed takes you beyond good and bad, and
gradually to a state of equilibrium, sattva. But all these qualities must be
inner and outer, in word and in spirit. Use patience and perseverance to get
this. If I am searching here, there, and everywhere, this is doubt. Go inside.
The happiness I seek outside does not last, so seek it inside. The peace I
seek, such as sex, gives peace for only fifteen minutes. And yet whole
kingdoms, homes, countries, all are sacrificed for this. Why not find the peace
which is within?

Books, words, philosophy are all no use. The only thing I know, the only
philosophy that is any good is: All is Brahman [the Universal consciousness]. I
am that. When I go inside I find my Mother sitting there and I sit at her feet.
At other times she is not there and I am not there. Then, later, we come back
to the Mother, me, the world. The heart is the only thing I do know,
because this is where I am always seated at Mother’s feet.

Gossip is no good. If people gossip while you are in their company you
may say quite gently, ‘This is not spiritual, let us try to talk of something
else, okay?’ Otherwise just get up and walk away and do something else.

[Pictured: Ganges River near Vashishtha Guha – vicinity Rishikesh, India]