Sadhana: Its Techniques of Applied Psychology by Swami Sivananda Watch all your feelings very carefully. Suppose you get a gloomy feeling. Take a small cup of milk or tea. Sit calmly. Close your eyes. Find out the cause for the depression and try to remove the cause. The best method to overcome this feeling is thinking of the opposite. Positive overcomes negative. This is a grand effective Law of Nature. Now think strongly of the opposite of gloom. Think of cheerfulness. Feel that you are in the actual possession of this quality. Again and again repeat this formula: ‘Om Cheerfulness’ mentally. Feel “I am ever cheerful.” Begin to smile and laugh several times. Sing; sometimes that can elevate you quickly. Singing is very beneficial to drive off gloom. Chant OM loudly several times. Run in the open air. The depression will vanish soon. This is the Pratipaksha Bhavana method of Raja Yogins. This is the easiest method. The method of driving gloom by force-by willing, by assertion, by command-taxes the ‘will’ very much although it is the most efficient method. It demands great strength of will. Ordinary people will not succeed. The method of displacing or dislocating the negative feeling by substituting the opposite, positive feeling, is very easy. Within a very short time, the undesirable feeling vanishes. Practise this and feel. Even if you fail several times, continue. You will be successful after some sittings and some practice. You can treat in the same manner other negative feelings as well. If there is the feeling of anger, think of love. If there is harshness of heart, think of mercy. If there is dishonesty, think of honesty, integrity. If there is miserliness, think of generosity and generous persons. If there is Moha (infatuation), think of discrimination and ATMIC VICHARA. If there is pride, think of humility. If there is hypocrisy, think of frankness and its invaluable advantages. If there is jealousy, think of nobility and magnanimity. If there is timidity, think of courage, and so on. You will drive off the negative feelings and will be established in a positive state. Practice of a continued type is essential. Be careful in the selection of your companions. Talk very little and that, too, on useful matters.

Aspects of Spiritual Sadhana by Swami Sivananda I When your house is on fire how daringly you enter the house to take your child who is sleeping in the room. Even so you must be very courageous when you tread on the spiritual path. You must be absolutely fearless. You must not have the least attachment to your body. Then only you will have Self-realisation quickly. Timid people are absolutely unfit for the spiritual line. If there are mangoes on the top of a big tree you do not jump all at once to pluck them. It is impossible. You gradually climb up the tree by getting hold of different branches and then reach the top of the tree. Even so you cannot jump all at once to the summit of the spiritual ladder. You will have to place your foot with caution in each rung of the ladder. You will have to practise Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Dhyana. Then only you will reach the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga viz., Samadhi. If you are a student of Vedanta you will have to equip yourself with the four means first. Then you will have to do Sravana, Manana and Nididhyasana. Then only you will attain Brahma-Sakshatkara. If you are a student of Bhakti Yoga, you will have to practise the nine modes of Bhakti viz., Sravana, Kirtana, Smarana, Padasevana, Archana, Vandana, Dasya, Sakhya and Atma-Nivedana. Then only you will attain the state of Para-Bhakti. If the chicken and fowl run hither and thither to eat various sorts of rubbish, what does the owner of the poultry do? He gives a slight tap on their heads and throws before them some grains to eat. Gradually they leave their habit of eating filth. Even so this mind runs hither and thither to eat filthy things and enjoy the five kinds of sensual objects. Give a tap on its head and make it taste gradually the spiritual bliss by practice of Japa and Meditation. A Jivanmukta or a Bhagavata has lustrous eyes. He has a protrusion on the top of the head and Trikuti, the space between the two eyebrows. Whatever he says will be indelibly impressed in your mind. You cannot forget it till the end of your life. He possesses tremendous power of attraction. He will clear all your doubts in a marvellous manner. You will enjoy a peculiar joy and peace in his presence. All your doubts will be cleared in his presence. Silence is his language. He is very compassionate and free from selfishness, anger, greed, egoism, lust and pride. He is an embodiment of truth, peace, knowledge and bliss. It takes a long time for the charcoal to catch fire but gun-powder can be ignited within the twinkling of an eye. Even so it takes a long time for igniting the fire of knowledge for a man whose heart is impure. But an aspirant with great purity of heart gets knowledge of the Self within the twinkling of an eye, within the time taken to squeeze a flower by the fingers. Maya is a very huge saw. Lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, jealousy, hatred, egoism etc., are the teeth of this huge saw. All-worldly minded persons are caught up in the teeth of this saw and are crushed. Those who are endowed with purity, humility, love, dispassion, devotion and enquiry are not hurt. They escape through the divine grace. They pass smoothly below the saw and reach the other side of immortality. A piece of ordinary white paper or coloured paper has no value. You throw it away. But if there is the stamp or the picture of the Asoka Chakra on the paper (currency notes) you keep it safe in your money purse or trunk. Even so an ordinary piece of stone has no value for you. You throw it away. But if you behold the stone-Murthy of Lord Krishna at Pandarpur or any other Murthy in shrines, you bow your head with folded hands, because there is the stamp of the Lord in the stone. The devotee superimposes on the stone-Murthy, his own Beloved and all the attributes of the Lord. Image-worship is very necessary for beginners. II Some Sadhakas do constant Sadhana in a mild manner; some do intense Sadhana for two hours in the morning and two hours at night. If you want to attain Self-realisation quickly you must do intense and constant Sadhana for a protracted period. You may have Darshan of Lord Krishna face to face. You may talk to Him also several times. You may play and eat with Him also. But if you want to have final liberation you must have Atma-Sakshatkara. Nama Deva had Darshan of Lord Krishna several times and yet he was declared to be a half-baked saint by the potter-saint Gora Kumbhar. He had to go to Vishoba Khesar for attaining perfection and Kaivalya. When you sit on an Asana for meditation you want to get up soon, not on account of pain in the legs but on account of impatience. Conquer this undesirable negative quality by developing patience gradually. Then you will be able to sit for three or four hours at a stretch. During meditation you will be frequently talking to somebody mentally. Stop this evil habit. Have a careful watch over the mind. An aspirant writes to me: “Somebody tapped at my door at 3 a.m. I woke up and opened the door. I saw Lord Krishna with crown on His head. He disappeared soon. I went through the lane in search of Him. I was not able to find Him out. Then I came back to my house and sat in front of my door till day-break to see Him again.” Cases of somnambulists or sleep-walkers are not uncommon. They dream even while standing and walking also. The above case might have been a pure case of somnambulism. You will have to be very careful in

Primary Principles of Sadhana and Their Perversions by Swami Sivananda The path of the spiritual aspirant verily lies through a bewildering jungle of difficulties and dilemmas of problems and paradoxes. One of such vexing paradoxes is that your mind is both your best friend as also your bitter enemy. Mind becomes a true friend only after being gradually trained to be so. Mind begins to be really helpful after the aspirant has progressed sufficiently in spiritual Sadhana. Until then it should be regarded as a troublesome and treacherous enemy inside us. It is extremely diplomatic, cunning and crooked. It is an arch-deceiver. One of the master-strokes of the mind’s artfulness is to make the aspirant feel and smugly imagine that he knows his mind perfectly well and cannot be led away by it and at the same time to delude him totally. The mind has the knack of making the unwary aspirant confidently think himself its master, while it makes a hopeless fool of him. Its deceptions are subtle. You have heard the saying, “The devil can quote scriptures for its purpose.” Similarly the mind can use a virtue to indulge in a vice. It has an inborn inclination to perversion. It can even take the support of a perfectly good principle seemingly to justify the most unprincipled sort of action. Unless it is scrutinised dispassionately its tricks are never fully discovered. Certain of the perversions usually noticeable are described below. This will be valuable to sincere aspirants who are eager to study their minds and eliminate defects and shortcomings. These are extremely useful tips specially in the working field, for aspirants engaged in active Seva in the midst of other people. Sadhakas are told, “Keep up Matri-bhava or Devi-bhava when you move with women.” This is a grand principle to safeguard your purity and spiritual progress. But this does not tell you, “Move with women;” nor does this advice mean that if you try to have this attitude then you may go on freely mixing with the opposite sex without any limit or restraint. The mind will ask, “Why not? What if I do? To retreat from their presence is sheer timidity. No fear when you do so with Devi-Bhava!” Beware, O Aspirant, beware of this tendency! Divine Bhava is not a licence to throw away all restrictions of the Sadhaka’s path. The permanent injunction for Sadhakas is to totally eschew all contact with the opposite sex. When unavoidably such contact becomes necessary, then, “Have Matri-bhava; have Devi-bhava” etc, are prescribed. Also this is to caution the aspirant not to hate women or become a misogynist. Women should be reverenced but from a safe distance. Let not Devi-bhava, etc., be taken to mean that you should be all the time in the midst of them. Watch your mind! Then there is the advice which says, “You may hiss but not bite.” This safe counsel was given to a fabulous snake which in a too extreme excess of piety became so totally docile and harmless that it got severely man-handled by a set of mischievous urchins. It was given as an example to over-timid householders and people struggling in the very midst of the harsh realities of competitive ‘Vyavaharic’ life. Here an overdose of ‘Avanty-brahmin’-like humility might well make life impossible amidst the Asuric elements abounding in the world. Therefore, just an outward show of pugnacity may be countenanced in so far as this does not affect your basic goodness and brotherhood. But this policy is not for the spiritual aspirant in the path of Sadhana and Nivritti. Definitely no. Let aspirants take heed of these words. The Sadhaka is neither to ‘bite’ nor is he to ‘hiss’ even. This ‘hissing’ business will soon become a part of your nature. You will soon find yourself hissing for everything, at everything, at everyone, in and out of season. This hiss will include every variety of rudeness ranging from hot argument, sharp retort, curt reply to angry glaring, shouting and abuse. Thus, short of physical violence and fight, every type of verbal brutality will be put into the “hissing” category. This will ultimately lead to spiritual ruin. The mind is ever waiting to take advantage of even the least concession shown to it. Its natural tendency is to go downward. O Aspirant, do not bite or even ‘hiss.’ Be humble, be sweet, be gentle. Be firm but be soft, polite and courteous. If you wish to ‘hiss’ then ‘hiss’ at your own mind. Thrash the ego. Fight the Shadripus. Watch the mind! Another victim to perversion is the piece of advice: “Be resolute. Stick to your principles. Never budge an inch”-the best possible advice to a sincere Sadhaka, but unfortunately often made the basis for the worst possible trait, i.e., obstinacy. This is a Tamasic trait. But the mind will make believe that you are manifesting Atma-bala or a divine determination. This is its work-to make him cling tightly to his ego. Hence this deception. But the careful aspirant must discern the difference between Sattvic Nishtha and sheer stubbornness. Atma-bala is not a cheap commodity to be got without a great deal of earnest struggle, discipline and will-culture. Determined adherence is advocated in respect of truly high and noble principles and not of self-conceited notions. By all means stick to spiritual Yogic Niyamas but avoid becoming obdurate in nature. Do not be deceived. Watch your mind! “Speak the truth always. Be frank.” Thus is the Upadesa. This means when you are required to talk then speak only the truth. It does not at all mean that you must go about telling everyone to his face what exactly you think of him or her. This is unwarranted behaviour. Under the garb of frankness to give free expression of opinions without caring for other peoples’ feelings is not ‘Arjava’ or frankness or straightforwardness. At the least it is thoughtlessness; at its height it is sheer brutality. It does not bespeak well of an

Bases of Spiritual Sadhana by Swami Sivananda A man abandoning society and activity as evil and shutting himself up in seclusion, isolated from mankind so that he might grow in virtue and into sainthood through meditation, will in all probability be found to be less ready to overlook the transgressions of an erring brother than a practical humanitarian earnestly exerting himself in the field of sincere selfless service. If a monkey or a stray dog happens to enter his Kutir and upset his water-pot or run away with his rottis, the Ekantavasi Virakta will perhaps shout and curse the animal and nurse a grudge against it to the end of his days! Then, again, the admirable virtue of adaptability comes only by mixing and moving among men in many moods and dealing with different peoples of diverse temperaments. It is through selfless activity and service that one acquires the ability to accommodate oneself to the peculiarities of personalities and of places. If, thinking to experience oneness of Self and to feel universal brotherhood, you confine yourself to a solitary cell and take to repeating Vedantic formulae, you run the risk of becoming Tamasic instead and turning eccentric and intolerant. Slowly you will lose what good traits you had previously. It is to guard against this risk that we have the wise counsel “Let not virtue wither for want of its exercise.” It is evident that the recluse in retreat and the Sannyasi in seclusion may well learn a useful point or two from the Nishkama Karma Yogi and the humble Svayam Sevak. No doubt through the method of meditation one may develop several virtues of a subjective type, subjective in that they centre round and concern the Sadhaka’s own immediate personality. Through constant contemplation subjectively one may acquire non-attachment to one’s body, and imperviousness to environment or a victory over the Rajasic urge to wander aimlessly, etc. Restraint and self-denial too could be acquired to some degree. On the other hand, it is only through selfless activity, unattached work and loving service that one can acquire precious gems of purity, patience and humility. Humility especially comes through service alone. In this connection it is of a great profit to remember one point of immense practical value, i.e., of all virtues humility forms the basis. It is only when a man is humble and feels that there is much that he does not possess and has to acquire that there arises in him the eager desire to grow into those noble qualities he is deficient in. Here begins his systematic endeavour and attempt to acquire and possess them. The proud and arrogant man has little scope for growth, because he feels he knows everything. There is that self-sufficiency in his pride which leads him to think that there remains nothing for him to strive for and to acquire. Therefore it is said that humility is the fruitful source of all virtues and that everything that is kind and good naturally grows from it. Generosity and kindness too are the outcome of active contact with the suppliant and the needy, the helpless, the wretched and the distressed. Herein lies the unique distinctive quality of Nishkamya Karma, works reverently done as worship of the Almighty. Moreover, certain noble traits exist in man in dual aspects, latent and manifest. For example, the latent quality of purity is manifest as chastity in actual life. Fearlessness becomes manifest as positive courage when a sudden crisis calls it forth, when a dangerous emergency arises. A habitual state of self-restraint manifests itself as a deliberate act of self-control in the face of an actual temptation or trait. So far as complete and balanced development of both the aspects is concerned, Karma Yoga becomes indispensable. Again subjective virtues developed by a life of seclusion and isolation, to attain to fullness and perfection should be actively exercised. One must not rest satisfied in merely eliminating evil, in being virtuous in a negative way. There must be a positive passion for putting into practice the good in us for the enhancement of the joy and welfare of all creatures. Then alone these virtues justify themselves; they become, as it were, ripe fruits, fully blossomed flowers. They will then expand in their breadth and from the individual circle gradually extend to all humanity, then of the whole universe and finally become all-embracing and cosmic. Development and progress if they are to extend thus into infinity must be dynamic. On the path of moral and spiritual happiness, a life of quiescence carries with it the danger of stagnation setting in at some stage or other. This is the reason why many fail to reach ethical perfection even after years of seclusion and meditation. Selfless activity and loving service should therefore never be underestimated and neglected. Finally one would do well to bear in mind an important point. It has been seen how humility forms the fundamental basis of all good. Then, to the virtues that are acquired with great toil and patient effort, it is humility, again, that acts as the sustainer and vigilant preserver. Humility is the shield and armour against the arch-enemy of the aspirant, moral and spiritual pride. For having progressed considerably in the path of virtue the virtuous man will unconsciously fall a prey to vanity. An insidious feeling of self-approbation will creep in unnoticed. This will later manifest itself in the form of a sort of indulgent attitude and a lofty contempt for those who are not following a similar life. A constant humility kept alive by a ceaseless exercise of it in service is the only sure armour against this foe. It vigilantly protects the striving seeker in his quest after true and abiding happiness. He who effaces his little “self” through a life of motiveless, humble and loving service with Narayana Bhava obtains a unique happiness and bliss. Who can gauge the exquisite joy that he experiences! May all therefore realise the supreme importance of

Abhyasa: The First Phase Of Sadhana By Swami Sivananda Abhyasa or practice is the effort to secure steadiness of the modifications of the mind. The effort to restrain all the Vrittis of the mind and to make the mind steady like the jet of a lamp in a windless place is called Abhyasa. To drive back the mind to its source-Hridaya Guha and get it absorbed in Atman is Abhyasa. To make the mind inward and to destroy all its outgoing tendencies is Abhyasa. And this practice should be done for a long time without any break and with perfect devotion. Through Abhyasa you will have to change the outgoing Vishaya Vrittis of the mind. Without the Vrittis of the mind you cannot enjoy sensual objects, and if the Vrittis along with Samskaras are controlled Manonasa or the annihilation of the mind follows. Abhyasa becomes fixed and steady when practised for a long time without any break and with perfect devotion. Constant, steady application is indispensable for perfect control of the mind and attainment of Asamprajnata Samadhi which alone can fry all the seeds of Samskaras. Therefore, constant and intense practice is needed for a long time. Then alone the wandering mind will come under your perfect control. Then alone wherever it is directed it will be ever at rest. Without practice nothing can be achieved. The practice should be accompanied by perfect faith and devotion. If there is no faith and regularity, success is impossible. Abhyasa should be continued till you get perfection. FOUR POINTS FOR MEMORY IN SADHANA REMEMBER THE PAINS OF SAMSARA. REMEMBER DEATH. REMEMBER THE SAINTS. REMEMBER GOD. 1 and 2 will produce Vairagya. 3 will bring inspiration. 4 will cause attainment of God-consciousness. Every aspirant should constantly bear these most important four points in memory.