Swami Shivapadananda on the need for ‘back-bone’

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

Day 524

 
 

Every time you come to [the Ramakrishna Centre of SA Easter Yoga]  Camp I feel that you must come with some kind of deep, divine motive to know your Self, to reach God, to get devotion and to become more humble each day.

Many people think that when you take to religion you become spineless, but I do not like you to have this kind of thought. Prahlada, who was brought up with religion from a young age, led great victorious armies when he was older. Sri Rama was brought up in religion and he conquered the great enemy Ravana, and greater still, his own ego. Sri Krishna, who was so soft outside, who played the flute and was brought up religiously, in the end won a great war – the war of destroying evil in everyone. And his words, in the form of the Bhagavad Gita, go on destroying evil up till now. A man who is really religious and who stands on truth can one moment bless and the next moment manifest the wrath of Rudra and destroy with Rudra-power.

Your child should not grow up soft as butter or like a worm without a spine. Your child has a spine, and he must be taught that, in the right place, he must manifest the divine things; in other places he must manifest forgiveness; and yet in other places let him use a club like Hanumanji.

I once found somebody misbehaving at the ashram and I was very disturbed about it. When Gurudev [Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swamiji's beloved Guru] came to the ashram that night I told him what I had seen during the day. He said, 'So what did you do?' I said, 'Well, a brother devotee told him to go away.' The next minute my guru actually hit me. He gave me such a slap. I asked, 'What did I do, Swamiji?' He said, 'I thought you would take a stick and hit the man. Never mind what someone else did, you should have hit him.'

Swami Vivekananda while he was travelling overseas was prepared to fight and throw a man overboard when the man talked ill about his religion. I do not like spineless people and I think God likes them a little worse than I do. So do not let your child grow up to be a jellyfish.

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.

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