Swami Shivapadananda on Nachiketa and his Guru (Lord Yama)

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 359

 

Offer all at God’s feet, especially your sadhana [spiritual practice].

 

In the story of Nachiketa, Nachiketa is the voice of Consciousness,
his father is us, and Yama [the Lord of death] is the guru.

 

In days gone by, they used to go to the guru for twelve years, but now
we do not have to do that. You can get It in two days if you want.
God-realisation is not instant – you must earn it. So take it all, the
suffering and the sickness. See it like taxes and pay off karma – get it
finished. You cannot go till then.

 

In the Katha Upanishad Nachiketa asks Yama for three boons:  He says, ‘Firstly, grant that I go back to my
father, and that he recognises me.’ Meaning: you go back to the source, back to
the world after living in the forest. They will recognise you as an evolved
being when you come back and will bow to you, worship you, give you gifts, and
you will be the richest man in the world. But Nachiketa had rejected Yama’s
offer of wealth and so on. He says, ‘Secondly, teach me Vishvarupa Yagna’ – the
universal fire sacrifice which burns ignorance, desire and action. Ignorance is
ignorance of Reality and desire is ‘I want’ and leads to action. Desire is
destroyed by sacrifice, tapas [austerity], charity, and even by saying ‘I do
not want that.’ Nachiketa had to die to go to Yama and so do we. He renounced
all. Charity is in thought, word and deed. ‘I desire only you Lord.’ Yearn, cry
in secret, long for Him, until He is the only desire in you. And then Nachiketa
says, ‘Thirdly, tell me what happens after death.’

 

The Guru is within. Where is within? God created heaven but, where was
God before that? Do you think that by ‘within’ we mean the thumb-sized Purusha
[soul] in the heart? No. Pray, ‘Ma, I do not know You at all, but You know all,
so reveal Thyself to me.’

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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.

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Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham