Swami Shivapadananda with Divine insights
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Taken from Mother Radha's notes, written at Swamiji's feet.
Day 398
During Diwali [the Hindu festival of lights] Swamiji said: The clay lamp represents the heart. The oil represents love. The wick represents the intellect. When the heart and the intellect join, the lamp of wisdom shines.
The five elements form man's body. The earth – flesh. Water – saliva. Fire – heat. Air – prana [Universal life-force]. Ether – throat cavity.
During [the Divine] Mother Worship Swamiji said: Lamp and clay equal Saraswati, wisdom. A dish with rice in equals food, Lakshmi, auspiciousness. There is a lota [water vessel] and five mango leaves holding up the clay lamp – these are the senses. The lota contains water, money and a betelnut which equals Kali , earth and water. When it is lit it is Kali herself, looking at herself, revealed to herself.
While practising Karma Yoga [the path of work-worship] just take one of the qualities and perfect that, the others will follow. For example take: 'I am not the doer.' As you say this more and more, the desires drop away and you will eventually become desireless.
Sri Sarada Devi [the nun wife-Shakti of Sri Ramakrishna] said, 'Do not look at the faults of others.' This is the great mantra for the Kali Yuga [age of Darkness]. Each of us must look at ourselves and see the greed, anger, hatred, jealousy etc. for ourselves.
For God-realisation, truly, you have to be humbler than a blade of grass.
Devotee: Is it Maya [the veil of delusion/illusion] that hides Shakti [the female aspect of the Divine], Swamiji?
Swamiji: Now, what are you doing? You are dividing. That is no good. All is One, is my Mother.
God loves all because He is omnipresent. The ego says, 'I am best' and God says, 'No, I am the rest!'
The100 CDs of Swamiji speaking have been converted to mp3
format. This means they can be played on your computer, an iPod,
certain mobile phones or any other mp3 player. Price is just R100 for
both DVDs inclusive of postage in the RSA.
Contact Tim Hoare on timhoare@webmail.co.za
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