Swami Shivapadananda on seeing God in everything
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 443
We must be truthful. We must try our level best to see God in everything and to serve God. We must know that everything belongs to God and God permeates everything.
Isa vasyam idam gung sarvam
yat kim ca jagatyam jagat.
By this thought you should live: that it all belongs to God.
Tena tyak tena bhunjithah,
ma gridahah kasya svid dhanam.
By this way renounce all short-sightedness, all limited things and, with the eye of your mind, see God permeating everything, covering everything.
Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri – Swamiji's Guru, pictured] used to tell us, "The fool is he who asks no questions. He doesn't want to reveal his foolishness, with the result that he remains a fool all his life." Just remember that.
Devotee: When doing sadhana, do we have to concentrate on the mantra [bija or seed word, sacred syllable or names of God] and the form at the same time?
Swamiji: If your mind can be concentrated just on the mantra itself, knowing that the mantra stands for a particular Deity and with it, if you can think about the attributes of the Deity – like love, compassion, truthfulness – then you don't have to worry much about the form itself. But with the form is very good because it stops your vision from going on to other different forms.
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