Swami Shivapadananda on Principle and Personality in worship
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
Day 527
[Pictured: he entrance to M.'s [Mahendranth Gupta's – the recorder of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna] house, now called the Kathamrita Bhavan, where the Gospel was written in a small study on the top floor.
Devotee: What role can we as devotees play in the reformation of Hinduism in South Africa today?
Swamiji: First, you can improve your own religious life. This is done by obtaining information from satsang [prayer or religious get-togethers and services] and understanding the scriptures in the light of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Sarada Devi. When people see you living a good, sattvic [balanced, harmonious, well-integrated] life they will automatically follow your example. This is because people always want to obtain or imitate anything that they see which is good and which is doing good.
Devotee: Swami Vivekananda said that the emphasis should be on the principle rather than on the personality; but are we not doing the opposite of this with pictures and murtis [statues/images] of the Master [Sri Ramakrishna], Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda?
Swamiji: What Swami Vivekananda said does not mean that you should give up the personality altogether. We know, through the examples of past devotees who have realised God, that personality worship has brought about peace in them. There are examples of this amongst the saivites [worshippers of Lord Shiva], the vaishnavites [worshippers of Lord Vishnu] and the shaktas [worshippers of the female aspect of God – the Divine Mother]. Remember too that Sri Chaitanya [Mahaprabhu – an Incarnation (avatar) of God] and others were also personality worshippers and it brought them peace.
There are various methods of sadhana [spiritual practice or discipline]. One of the methods is to worship a God-realised soul as God and by doing this you will reach God. This is also a kind of personality worship. Patanjali [author of the Yoga Sutras] gave us another method. If you study Patanjali's Yoga Sutras he does not say that we must accept Ishwara [personal deity] or that we must accept AUM [the impersonal or formless]. But he gives us the principles that will make our minds concentrated. He describes this state as the mind having no thought waves [not blank, but beyond]. Thus you become God-realised.
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.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.