The categories of those who worship God
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
626
[Swamiji continues reading from the Bhagavad Gita]
Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me . . .
First you must have the quality of being virtuous. If you are robbing, stealing and killing others and yet praying, 'God make me better,' you are not virtuous yet. God will give you more sickness. If you are giving ten or fifteen people a bad time and yet praying to God, 'I'm a little sick, please cure me,' God will never cure you. You have to be virtuous first.
Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, they are the distressed . . .
Those people who are in all sorts of trouble go to the Lord to worship Him. The Lord does not mind that. He knows that sooner or later that person's mind will get purified and they will know: 'I am the Master of everything.'
. . . the seeker of knowledge . . .
He who wants knowledge, he who wants to know things, worships God.
. . . the seeker of wealth . . .
The lakshmi-narayan who wants wealth – and wealth must not be confined to money, wealth can also mean health and other things.
. . . and the wise . . .
Now you must watch that verse very carefully. It was translated very beautifully. One who is in distress wants his distress to be taken away; one who wants knowledge gets knowledge; one who wants wealth gets wealth. But the last one does not say, 'the seeker of wisdom,' it says 'the wise'. Now that part is very important. The wise man who knows that this world is temporary, not permanent, will realise the Self.
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.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs
or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email
timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and
teachings.
Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda
Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online…
Reference websites (please mouse-over
the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa,
Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2