Swami Shivapadananda on the ‘symptoms’ of knowing God
DAILY READINGS
Taken from Mother Radha’s
notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.
Day 339
Repeat: ‘This is for God, for the guru.’ You forget? Try again and
again. If it works for one, it works for all. We cannot know God so we use the
guru.
Devotee: If I do all the things you say Swamiji, I will be a wreck . . .
Swamiji: Wonderful, that is what I want, for the ‘I’ to be wrecked!’
Devotion is to fill the heart, mind and intellect with God thought, God
love, God Consciousness. There is no room for anything else. But the mind is
capricious like a child, one day it cares for japa [repetition of a mantra or God’s names] and
the next, only for singing. So we must play with our mind, as with a child, a
bit of this and a bit of that. If we put God thought and God’s form there, we
will be full of love, and before we know what has happened, love will be our
entire being, a flame consuming the dross of ignorance, till purity alone
remains. This purity in heart and mind reflects light, the nature of God.
Then only we see God, because we are God. Now we only see through
darkened glasses. One day, with divine grace we will take off the glasses and
see clearly, and be full of love and light, and that which we thought was
separation is union of the Self with all. We will manifest our true nature. We
will love all, serve all. We will show by our faces that we know Him; by our
fragrance, that we share Him; by our voices, that we are praising Him; by our
thoughts, that we are praising Him; by our words, that we are pure and true; by
our deeds that we are love. Then we will be integrated, we will shine with
God’s great light, and all will know that ‘I am God’; that bhakta [devotee] is
my only name, my only form, that I have merged with Him.
Determination is the only thing which will make you change a habit. To
achieve detachment may take long, but once you have it you will get ‘there’ in
two days. So keep on.
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.
There are currently 100 different CDs available in sets of 10 for R200 per set. This price includes postage. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Ramakrishna Dham