Swami Shivapadananda on obedience and ritual worship

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 463

In days gone by the mother and father of a family were godlike and they studied dharma [righteousness and religion] from an early age. They did not stand in the way of the child trying to realise God.

It is said that you must never disobey your father or mother except when it comes to God-realisation. Sri Sarada Devi [pictured] confirmed this, as did other great saints and sages. Vibhishana acted against his elder brother Ravana when Ravana went against dharma. Mirabai went against her own husband when he stood in the way of dharma. The gopis and the gopas [Lord Krishna's cowherd devotees] also went against their parents. We find Prahlada went against his father Hiranyakasipu when he stood in the way of dharma.

In the life of Sankaracharya we read that a crocodile caught hold of him, and his mother, knowing that he was dying, gave him permission to take sannyasa [monastic vows]. You can say that the river was samsara and that the crocodile was death. He was in the jaws of death and said to his mother, "Ma, the only way I can be saved is if I realise my Self by giving up this world and clinging on to God." Instead of saying, "by realising God" he used the words, "by giving up this world". So his mother gave him permission, and he realised God. He became immortal – a jivanmukta while still living in the body. Then he took the vow of sannyasa and promised his mother that he would come back to serve her. That was the guru dakshina [traditional offering of flowers and fruit to the Guru on initiation] he gave her. Later on he came back to pay his guru dakshina and performed his mother's funeral rites.

By the very fact that Sankaracharya performed ritual worship for his mother, he sanctioned ritual worship. He did not condemn it. He knew that ritual worship does not give you God-realisation but it can fulfill your desires.

Footnote: Ritual worship may involve a havan [ritual fire ceremony] with offerings of sandalwood, samagri and ghee acompanied by mantras, incense, sweetmeats etc. to the deity. It can be as simple as offering a flower or water to a picture of the deity. It may appear to have a purely external focus but Swamiji stressed time and time again that it's a stage of spiritual evolution and a valuable one at that.

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