Swami Shivapadananda on tests by the Guru
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.
Day 397
In the scriptures we read an incident where Lord Vishnu went off to save one of his devotees, a [clothes] washerman, who was crying for his protection. But by the time the Lord got there the washerman had picked up a stone and defended himself. Lord Vishnu seeing this immediately returned to Mother Lakshmi. She asked him, 'Why did you come back so quickly?' He answered, 'I was not needed, so I came back.'
This shows us that when we call on God to save us, we must leave it to Him – die if necessary.
If you do extra sadhana [spiritual practice], you help your guru. Sometimes you do not know how much he has to carry – hundreds of karmas.
The guru is a receiver and a transmitter. He takes all your bad thoughts and holds them so they do not make more karma for you. Your good thoughts he does not worry about.
Normally if we hit a child today, we will repay [our karmic debt] after five years. But if we are doing lots of sadhana, we will repay now [i.e. it's an accelerated spiritual evolution].
The guru sends all kinds of things, all kinds of people, into your environment. These are tests, to see how you react. Devotee: Are you not saying that this is the guru testing me, the ego? Swamiji: Yes, yes. In the lower form it is. But if I can feel that it is God Himself who is doing this then there is no test, no ego. You are only a projection of my mind.
If the guru insults me, do I just suppress the anger that arises in me? No. That is no good. But if I can laugh and say: 'It does not matter, it is not me,' then I have my senses under control – but not till then.
There was a room with a million mirrors. One man attained God-realisation and went in there and saw himself blissfully reflected everywhere. A dog went in there, went mad, and died because he thought all those dogs were barking at him.
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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
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Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham