Swami Shivapadananda on the psychology of ‘Hell’
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
Day 509
looking back across the Garden and Goose Tank towards the Panchavati.
The meditation hut can just be seen in the middle of the picture.)
Sri Ramakrishna said, 'God is with form, without form and He is beyond that.' Then, as a thinking man I say, 'God is with form, without form, He is beyond that and He Himself knows what He is.'
In this world there is fear, in that world [i.e. heaven] there is fear [see previous posting] – so what is the difference? We know that there is a state called Satchitananda [Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute] which is not an attribute of God but God Itself.
There are various practices used in our scriptures to motivate souls to go towards God. In this too there are stages. Suppose you find a man who has not evolved nicely, you tell him, 'You are going to burn in hell-fire if you do bad things.' Many children still go and do the wrong thing even when you tell them lovingly to do something. So you give them a smack and that is [their, momentary] 'hell'. Then the child, out of fear, will do the right thing. The fear of hell makes people do the right thing. This is the first stage.
The next stage is when you tell a man, 'If you do all the good things you will go to heaven. Heaven is an eternal oasis where you get your harem and you rest. Here on Earth you are working like a donkey.' Of course the man will say, 'Well, I'll do anything for that.'
Then the last stage (which is the highest according to reasoning and the experience of the Realised Ones) is that you love God for love's sake, you love the Self for love's sake. Why? Because then we realise that God is Omnipresent [everywhere]. He is present in hell, He is present in heaven and wherever else. Wherever my Lord is, I am there.
Though people say, 'You merge with God,' it is actually like the river flowing into the sea.
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