We’re still posting daily Blogs. We’ve just started refreshing the earliest posts from 2007 and republishing them.

Dear devotee of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Shivapadananda, greetings and welcome! We’re going full circle to the very early posts on this Swami Shivapadananda Puri Blog. The first post was published on 3rd April 2007.

Once housed on TypePad, which closed down in the space of just one month, creating chaos for us and thousands of site hosts around the world, we hurriedly moved to GoDaddy, the functionality of which just didn’t crack it for us. Then, late last year [2025] we finally settled here on Wordpress. Hopefully to remain for many years.

Nineteen years ago, the only real link references were the few online dictionaries available at the time and Wikipedia. But with the advent of good quality Large Language Learning [LLM] models and artificial intelligence [AI] the new, verifiable, massive and rich databases of information means that readers – new ones in particular – will be able to learn so much by clicking on any underlined word or phrase. Anything underlined is a hypertext link, which will take readers to translations, explanations, elaborations or context for the particular terms used.

Along with the rest of the site, all the early posts [among the approximate 1800 available] will now be progressively updated with fresh, better in-depth links and pictures. The refresh commenced on 1st September 2026. And as has been the case for some time, a new post will, with Divine grace, continue to be published each day and showcased also on the Facebook site.

So, this will continue to be the ‘home’ of many things Swami Shivapadananda, intended to celebrate the life, teachings and influence of this holy, compassionate monk and mystic. He is Guru to many of us and we are deeply blessed to be His chelas. He was the 2nd President of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, founded in 1942 by His guru, and our paramguru, Swami Nischalananda Puri, whom we refer to as ‘Gurudev‘.

What’s published here are teachings, audio clips or transcriptions from Swamiji’s numerous talks, many of them faithfully recorded over several decades by our much-loved spiritual sister and Swamiji’s close devotee, Mother Radha. You’ll ‘meet’ her in subsequent posts.

Our dear gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim, digitally cleaned up early and often indistinct or echoey recordings, emailed regular transcript excerpts to devotees, and continues as part of the website team.

We must [despite their understandable protestations] acknowledge the financial support in creating the swamishivapadananda.org website, of our gurubhais Vasan Govender and Atmaprakash Kramer.

And for the production costs of Swamiji’s biographical tribute [see below] we pray blessings on Brother Surend Bharath, who with Brothers Vasan and Atmaprakash generously funded the two initial physical print runs of the biographical tribute by devotees, before it went digital and ‘free to read’.

If you have thoughts or suggestions for how we can better serve your interests through the website and Blog posts, please feel free to share them. Likewise, if you have photographs featuring Swamiji or the ashrams and devotees, we’d deeply appreciate the opportunity to scan them, publish them with attribution and get them back to you. If they’re digitised, please make sure they’re the best possible resolution. Because back in the day, the Kodak Instamatic and other cameras we used to take pics, were not of the greatest quality.

Finally, the best way we can glorify our Holy Trio Of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda is by sharing information about them. Please use every opportunity to do so.

God bless, and enjoy the continuing-to-be-updated website and Blog posts. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!

Underlined words are linked to clarification, explanation or other sources. Just tap on them.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography, ‘A Life Lived For Others‘, is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial booklet, ‘Memories of my ashram days‘ at the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.

There’s also a Facebook site for Swamiji’s posts now. They feature newer readings published more recently. Click HERE to view.

Audio recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.