Swami Shivapadananda on spurning occult powers

SWAMI
SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

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

Day 367

 

Devotee: What stops us from seeing the guru in
ourselves?

Swamiji: Ignorance. Ignorance of our true nature and
his true nature. We see ourselves as the body and him as a man. But he sees us
as all perfect, divine, and he gives up his divine abode for us, time and
again, to raise us. Until each one is raised he will not rest, such is his
compassion. Life after life he has helped us. How can we ever repay him?

He and he alone knows how to treat us as we need to be
treated, and not as we think we should be treated. Once you understand this
there is no jealousy. He fulfills our need – this is a great word in
spirituality.

Other gurus you meet are also God, but only for
general advice of sadhana [spiritual practice] and not for inner guidance. But
gradually you will see this. Listen to all but strictly obey your Guru only. Do
not listen to conflicting advice. Conflicting advice may be given, one lot may
be given to you and one lot to another. So obey what your Guru says to you.
There may be fifty taps but you can drink from only one.

Man and holy-man, keep them at arm’s length. Play the
role of mother or wife.

‘Blinding darkness’ occurs when you use a mantra for
obtaining powers, which lead to delusion. You think it is spiritual and so you
go on and get deeper and deeper. There is no hope for you. I want you to take
special note of this: All powers are dangerous.

You are here at the guru’s feet by Grace only,
otherwise you would be somewhere else. So you must gain the Guru’s grace, that
alone will help you, but you still have to do meditation to purify yourself. 

Click on 'Continue Reading' below to find out about CDs of Swamiji speaking…

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.

Besides these daily readings Mother Radha recorded many hours of our beloved Swamiji speaking.

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