Swami Shivapadananda on seriousness about spirituality

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 508

 
 

I would like everyone to give this serious thought: Why is spiritual seriousness not in you? Are you just bluffing? Do you really want to obtain some sort of love for God?

Swami Vivekananda said that two jiva–atmans [embodied souls] are never the same at any time – just as two fingerprints are never the same. Even if they are spirit, in that spirit there will be differences, mainly of degree.

When practice bears results we go further by reasoning. Therefore we believe in reason.

What rights do we have? We have no rights. We only go by those people who gave us the rights – [Adi] Sankaracharya for instance.

Swami Vivekananda says that absolute fearlessness is the goal of everything. As long as there is duality [dvaita – you are one thing, God is another] there is always fear. As long as there is fear you can never be blissful. The idea is to reach a stage where you have nothing to fear. Advaita [non-dual or monistic] philosophy says that you are God and that superimposition has taken place through ignorance. Do not ask where the ignorance came from. It is natural to human beings on the human plane.

Jaya and Vijaya [gatekeepers of the Lord] were in goloka [heaven] and the Lord scolded them. They held the Lord's feet and cried out, 'Don't curse us to go down to Earth.' So there was fear even in heaven. Even if you go to heaven you can be kicked down to Earth – so this is not complete bliss. Some people say it is eternal bliss but we find, through the same scripture, that it is not eternal. Reason therefore tells us that that cannot be the end.

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