Hanuman Jayanthi By Sri Swami Sivananda Om Sri Hanumate Namah SRI HANUMAN is worshipped all over India–either alone or together with Sri Rama. Every temple of Sri Rama has the murti or idol of Sri Hanuman. Hanuman was the Avatara of Lord Siva. He was born of the Wind-God and Anjani Devi. He is also called by the names Pavanasuta, Marutsuta, Mahavira, Bajrangabali and Pavankumar. Hanuman was the living embodiment of the power of Ram-Nam. He was an ideal selfless worker, a true Karma Yogi who worked desirelessly. He was a great devotee and an exceptional Brahmachari or celibate. He served Sri Rama with pure love and devotion, without expecting any fruit in return. He lived only to serve Sri Rama. He was humble, brave and wise. He possessed all the divine virtues. He did what others could not do–crossing the ocean simply by uttering Ram-Nam, burning the demon-king’s city of Lanka, and bringing the sanjeevini herb to restore the life of Lakshmana. He brought Sri Rama and Lakshmana from the nether world after killing Ahiravana. Hanuman possessed devotion, knowledge, spirit of selfless service, power of celibacy, and desirelessness. He never boasted of his bravery and intelligence. He said to Ravana, “I am a humble messenger of Sri Rama. I have come here to serve Sri Rama, to do His work. By the command of Sri Rama, I have come here. I am fearless by the Grace of Sri Rama. I am not afraid of death. I welcome it if it comes while serving Sri Rama.” See how humble Hanuman was! How deep was his devotion to Sri Rama! He never said, “I am the brave Hanuman. I can do anything and everything.” Sri Rama Himself said to Hanuman, “I am greatly indebted to you, O mighty hero. You did marvellous, superhuman deeds. You do not want anything in return. Sugriva has his kingdom restored to him. Angada has been made the crown prince. Vibhishana has become king of Lanka. But you have not asked for anything at any time. You threw away the precious garland of pearls given to you by Sita. How can I repay My debt of gratitude to you? I will always remain deeply indebted to you. I give you the boon of everlasting life. All will honour and worship you like Myself. Your idol will be placed at the door of My temple and you will be worshipped and honoured first. Whenever My stories are recited or glories sung, your glory will be sung before Mine. You will be able to do anything, even that which I will not be able to!” Thus did Sri Rama praise Hanuman when the latter returned to Him after finding Sita in Lanka. Hanuman was not a bit elated. He fell in prostration at the holy feet of Sri Rama. Sri Rama asked him, “O mighty hero, how did you cross the ocean?” Hanuman humbly replied, “By the power and glory of Thy Name, my Lord.” Again Sri Rama asked, “How did you burn Lanka? How did you save yourself?” And Hanuman replied, “By Thy Grace, my Lord.” What profound humility Hanuman embodied in himself! There are many who want wealth in return for their services. Some do not want wealth, but they cannot resist name and fame. Others do not want any of these, but they want approbation. Still others want nothing, but they boast of their deeds. Hanuman was above all these. That is why he is recognised as an ideal Karma Yogi and an unsurpassed adept in Bhakti. His life is full of object lessons. Everyone should try his best to follow the noble example of Hanuman. His birthday falls on Chaitra Shukla Purnima–the March-April full moon day. On this holy day worship Sri Hanuman. Fast on this day. Read the Sri Hanuman Chalisa. Spend the whole day in the Japa of Ram-Nam. Hanuman will be highly pleased and will bless you with success in all your undertakings. Glory to Hanuman! Glory to his Lord, Sri Rama!

Guru Purnima By Sri Swami Sivananda THE FULL moon day in the month of Ashad (July-August) is an extremely auspicious and holy day of Guru Purnima. On this day, sacred to the memory of the great sage, Bhagavan Sri Vyasa, Sannyasins settle at some place to study and discourse on the thrice-blessed Brahma Sutras composed by Maharishi Vyasa, and engage themselves in Vedantic, philosophical investigation. Sri Vyasa has done unforgettable service to humanity for all times by editing the four Vedas, writing the eighteen Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavata. We can only repay the deep debt of gratitude we owe him, by constant study of his works and practice of his teachings imparted for the regeneration of humanity in this iron age. In honour of this divine personage, all spiritual aspirants and devotees perform Vyasa Puja on this day, and disciples worship their spiritual preceptor. Saints, monks and men of God are honoured and entertained with acts of charity by all the householders with deep faith and sincerity. The period Chaturmas (the “four months”) begins from this day; Sannyasins stay at one place during the ensuing four rainy months, engaging in the study of the Brahma Sutras and the practice of meditation. Mark fully the deep significance of this great day. It heralds the setting in of the eagerly awaited rains. The water drawn up and stored as clouds in the hot summer now manifests in plentiful showers that usher in the advent of fresh life everywhere. Even so, all begin seriously to put into actual practice all the theory and philosophy that have been stored up in them through patient study. Aspirants commence or resolve to intensify with all earnestness, their practical spiritual Sadhana right from this day. Generate fresh waves of spirituality. Let all that you have read, heard, seen and learnt become transformed, through Sadhana, into a continuous outpouring of universal love, ceaseless loving service, and continuous prayer and worship of the Lord seated in all beings. Live on milk and fruit on this day and practise rigorous Japa and meditation. Study the Brahma Sutras and do Japa of your Guru Mantra, during the four months following the Guru Purnima. You will be highly benefited. The day of worship of one’s preceptor, is a day of pure joy to the sincere spiritual aspirant. Thrilled by the expectation of offering his reverent homage to the beloved Guru, aspirants await this occasion with eagerness and devotion. It is the Guru alone that breaks the binding cords of attachment and releases the aspirant from the trammels of earthly existence. The Srutis say: “To that high-souled aspirant, whose devotion to the Lord is great and whose devotion to his Guru is as great as that to the Lord, the secrets explained herein become illuminated”. Guru is Brahman, the Absolute, or God Himself. He guides and inspires you from the innermost core of your being. He is everywhere. Have a new angle of vision. Behold the entire universe as the form of the Guru. See the guiding hand, the awakening voice, the illuminating touch of the Guru in every object in this creation. The whole world will now stand transformed before your changed vision. The world as Guru will reveal all the precious secrets of life to you, and bestow wisdom upon you. The supreme Guru, as manifested in visible nature, will teach you the most valuable lessons of life. Worship daily this Guru of Gurus, the Guru who taught even the Avadhuta Dattatreya. Dattatreya, regarded as God and the Guru of Gurus, considered Nature Herself as His Guru, and learnt a number of lessons from Her twenty-four creatures, and hence he is said to have had twenty-four Gurus. The silent, all-enduring earth with its lofty forbearance, the shady fruit-bearing tree with its willing self-sacrifice, the mighty banyan tree reposing with patience in the tiny seed, the drops of rain whose persistence wears away even the rocks, the planets and the seasons with their orderly punctuality and regularity were all divine Gurus to him. They who will look and listen, will learn. Become a personification of receptivity. Empty yourself of your petty ego. All the treasures locked up in the bosom of Nature will become yours. You will progress and attain perfection in an amazingly short time. Become pure and unattached as the mountain breeze. As the river flows continuously, steadily and constantly towards its goal, the ocean, so also let your life flow ceaselessly towards the supreme state of absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, by letting all your thoughts, all your words and all your actions be directed only towards the goal. The moon shines by reflecting the dazzling light of the sun. It is the full moon on the Purnima day that reflects in full splendour the glorious light of the sun. It glorifies the sun. Purify yourself through the fire of selfless service and Sadhana, and like the full moon, reflect the glorious light of the Self. Become the full reflectors of Brahmic splendour, the light of lights. Make this your goal: “I will be a living witness to divinity, the brilliant Sun of suns!” The Supreme Self alone is real. He is the Soul of all. He is all-in-all. He is the essence of this universe. He is the unity that never admits of a duality under all the varieties and diversities of nature. Thou art this immortal, all-pervading, all-blissful Self. Thou art That! Realise this and be free. Remember these four important lines of the Brahma Sutras: 1. Athatho brahma jijnasaa–Now, therefore, the enquiry of Brahman. 2. Janmasya yathah–From which proceed the origin, etc. 3. Sastra yonitwat–The scriptures are the means of right knowledge. 4. Tat tu samanvayat–For, That is the main support (of the universe). Jaya Guru Shiva Guru Hari Guru Ram;Jagad Guru Param Guru Sat Guru Shyam. It is through the medium of the preceptor that the individual can raise himself to Cosmic-Consciousness. It is through that medium that the imperfect can become perfect, the finite can become infinite and the mortal can pass into the eternal life of blessedness. The Guru is verily a

The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita–Resolution of the Fourfold Conflict By SRI SWAMI KRISHNANANDA I shall endeavour to touch upon a few salient points in the gospel of the Bhagavadgita, which will be of some meaning and utility in our day-to-day life. To apply a knowledge to life is the most difficult aspect of knowledge. We have always been accustomed to bifurcate life from knowledge, and vice versa, so that a learned man is not necessarily a happy man, nor even a rich man. The reason is that learning or knowledge has been isolated from the facts of life. This is one of the conflicts that we observe in life. As they say humorously, Sarasvati and Lakshmi never live in the same house, meaning thereby that learning and wealth do not go together. There are many such conflicts, all which are supposed to be resolved, in one way or the other, by means of the great teachings known as the Bhagavadgita. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, when He spoke the Bhagavadgita, intended to resolve a conflict. What is a conflict, may be a question that raises itself before our minds. There are, actually, four types of conflict, within which every other type, kind, or variation of disharmony can be subsumed. The occasion for the delivery of this Gospel was the battle of Mahabharata, which means a field of conflict with other people. This is what is known as a battle. The first problem one encounters in life is conflict with other people. ‘You do not like me,’ and ‘I do not like you.’ When we wake up in the morning and look at the world, we are faced with a conflict with other people. This is a difficulty which saps the vitality of many in the world. We have to see faces with whom we cannot reconcile ourselves. It may be a boss, a subordinate or an equal,–it makes no difference. When we cannot reconcile ourselves with another face, there is a conflict; and we see nothing but faces when we get up in the morning and look at the world outside. The battle of Mahabharata is a large Epic, describing this primary conflict of human nature,–conflict of one person with another person, in which can be included conflicts of groups, communities and nations, because all these are nothing but personalities and individualities associating and clashing in certain manners and patterns. What you call a society, or a family, or a nation or a community is nothing but human beings grouping themselves into patterns. So, conflict with other people includes every kind of conflict in the world. Thus, we have the Mahabharata Epic, in the middle of which the Bhagavadgita occurs. Where is the Bhagavadgita located? In the middle of the battle of the Mahabharata. What is this Epic battle? A conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, brothers in a unitary family. It was a family feud. We may say it was a conflict between Yudhishthira and Duryodhana, which amounts to the same essential situation. So, again, to reiterate, the conflict which Bhagavan Sri Krishna tries to resolve has as its background the conflict enumerated in the long Epic poem of the Mahabharata. What is this background? The conflict of personalities! That was the occasion for the war. Huge armies were arrayed on both sides. Thousands were about to fly at the throats of each other. That was the occasion for the giving of this Gospel. The Gospel was not given in a school, a college, or a university, a temple, a church, or an auditorium,–nothing of the kind. This most interesting and indispensable Gospel which you try to enshrine in your heart, in your memory, was given on that momentous occasion of a war that was about to break between large contending armies. Nobody would like to seek wisdom on that tense occasion. That is not the time to speak at all; it is the time to act and do something immediately. Who would speak philosophy when there are large numbers of men emotionally worked up into such a heightened pitch of anxiety and wrath that they will hear no words spoken by anyone, and are bent upon a severe type of action! On that occasion, who would speak a sublime Gospel or a scripture! But that was the occasion, and there could not be a better occasion. Now, the very purpose of this war was primarily to resolve a social conflict. Well; it was agreed that the war was indispensable. The purpose behind the war was not to destroy people but to resolve a social conflict or a political tension. It was impossible to mend people, and so they thought it was necessary to end people. And they concluded that by the ending of the people the conflict would automatically vanish. If you cannot untie a knot, you cut the knot. And for memory’s sake I may mention a few names who were involved in this conflict,–the leaders, the generalissimos of the war. There were powerful veterans on the side of the Kauravas, almost invincible in battle, three of whom, the most prominent ones; were Bhishma, Drona and Karna. Nobody could face them with immunity to their lives. On the other side, that of the Pandavas, we have leaders like Bhima and Arjuna, the brothers of king Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas. While the most powerful from the Kauravas side was Bhishma, the most invincible on the side of the Pandavas was Arjuna. They knew every tactics of war and people could shudder in their hearts by merely hearing the names of these people. Now, on mutual acceptance, it was agreed that the war had to be waged to end a social conflict. But, when the hour of crisis came, when the iron was hot and it had to be hit, when that moment came, what happened? A most unexpected conflict arose within the mind of Arjuna. It was not a conflict with other people, but a conflict within one’s own self.

The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita By Sri Swami Chidananda Today is the most auspicious and sacred day of Sri Gita Jayanti, when one of the most glorious scriptures of the world, which has been blessing humanity by its powerful Upadesha ever since it was expounded to Arjuna on the battle-field of Kurukshetra by the Lord. It is the advent of this glorious scripture that we are trying to commemorate today by the Jayanti celebration when we express our thoughts,–reverential and worshipful thoughts–in connection with this scripture as a gesture of our adoration of it, as also a token of our heartfelt gratitude for the blessing that it has been and shall ever continue to be to humanity. Gita has been said to be the very essence of the Upanishads upon which our culture is based. Even now the basis of Bharatian culture is recognised to be the Upanishads. The Upanishads about which one of the greatest of German savants said: “The Upanishads have been the solace of my life and the Upanishads shall surely be the solace at the time of my departure from life.” Gita is said to be the very cream and the essence of the lofty wisdom of these Upanishads. So in the Gita we have got the wisdom of the Upanishads in a nutshell. We have access to the best, the most precious gems that are to be found in the mine that the Upanishads are. Gita the Mother Therefore, it was that the father of our nation the late Mahatma Gandhiji of revered memory said that he regarded the Gita as his own mother, by which he meant to say that his very life had been sustained by the Bhagavad Gita, that his thoughts, his feelings, his philosophy, had been nourished by the soul-elevating and strengthening Upadesha of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. As a representative of our nation Mahatmaji expressed by this utterance what Gita ought to be to every Indian. He desired thereby that every Indian, every son of Bharatavarsha ought to make Gita his own, to enshrine the knowledge and the philosophy of the Gita in the chambers of his heart, to illumine his life by the bright flame of Gita-Jnana. It is this pride of Bharatian culture, this gem in the Bharatian culture, Mother Gita, that has ever been the soul of Indian philosophy. It is precisely for this reason that, even though it is just a small book of 700 verses, a mere exposition forming part of a greater epic poem, the Mahabharata, yet it has been given the unique place of one among our Prasthanatraya, and no great saint or scholar or Acharya worth the name has failed to comment upon it. Gita has received equal reverence at the hands of every one of the leaders of religion. All great Acharyas, all great saints, all great men of realisation and scholars have ever taken the Gita to be an authority and have also drawn from it and built up their philosophy. What is more: in the West, many a great and deep thinker has not at all hesitated to accept and avow frankly his debt to this great supreme scripture of scriptures. Emerson, for instance, was only too ready to accept that Gita had been a great factor in moulding his thought and his attitude towards life. Such is the glory of this great star in the firmament of our Hindu scriptures. The Scripture for All A scripture can be approached in several aspects. Specially such a universal scripture as the Gita can be and has been approached by people from numberless angles, each trying to seek in the Gita light for his particular view of life, for his particular philosophy of life. People of absolutely divergent temperaments, people of widely varying conceptions and different conclusions on similar questions, have all sought to find in the Gita support for their peculiar views. A Karma Yogin approaches the Gita and in it finds a support for the cause of Karma Yoga. A devout Bhakta approaches the Gita and his joy is unbounded that the Gita gives him wonderful support for his Sadhana. A Jnani approaches the Gita and is elated that the Gita fully supports his view. And a man of meditation–to him, too, Gita gives ample support and proof. For a man of active temperament, for a man politically inclined, a man who wants to move actively and effectively in this Vyavaharic world, in this world of externalised life, he, too, finds plenty in the Gita to enthuse him and to enlighten him and to guide him. The student of mere sociology who wants to present to the people his own views on the ideal society, has got in the Gita valuable support and guidance. Like this, we can multiply any number of instances. But then a scripture can be approached as a book of knowledge that enlightens us about numerous subjects and yet it can also be approached as a practical guide to see if there is anything in the scripture which will be of practical use to the person, which will be of substantial utility, by which I mean that a man approaches a scripture for purposes of actually solving some immediate problems that confront him, for actually helping him out of a practical difficulty in which he finds himself in life. Gita fulfils both these ends. Gita not only gives us in a nutshell a brilliant exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads, but Gita also gives us in a very helpful, very practical and very decisive manner, valuable hints for the actual Sadhana, the actual practices through which we can make these truths of the Upanishads, living experiences of our own life. A Practical Guide A book may give all about the sugar industry, all about the various aspects of the growing of cane, the fertilisation, the care of the cane crop, the necessary manure and the method of transporting the cane to the factory–all

Message of the Gita By Sri Swami Sivananda My amiable friends! Many Gita Jayantis have come and gone and yet the darkness of your heart has not disappeared. Become a practical man. Live in the spirit of the teachings of the Gita daily. Aspire fervently. Lead a pure life. Watch the evil Vrittis of the mind carefully and nip them in the bud. Introspect and remove your defects. Cultivate good and sublime thoughts. Do daily virtuous actions. Serve the society with a disinterested spirit. Constantly remember those Slokas of the Gita which will help you daily to lead a virtuous and divine life. Repeat them daily. Stick to your Dharma and truthfulness. Do selfless service. Surrender yourself to the Lord. Have equal vision and balanced mind in success and failure, honour and dishonour, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow. Give the mind to the Lord and hands to the service of humanity. Be established in the vow of Brahmacharya. Give up selfishness, meanness, attachment and egoism. You will free yourself from the wheel of births and deaths, from the bonds of Karma and attain Supreme peace, eternal bliss and immortality. This is the Message of the Gita. You may know the whole Gita by heart. You may deliver lectures on the Gita for hours together and yet you may not have a ray of the wisdom of the Gita. What is wanted is actual living a life with mental non-attachment following the teachings of the Gita. Gita gives two Mantras for constant repetition. They are “OM” in eighth chapter and “OM TAT SAT” in the seventeenth chapter. Live in OM or OM TAT SAT, the symbol of Para Brahman or Para Brahman Itself. Practise the three vows given in the sixteenth chapter. Develop the virtues that are enumerated in the thirteenth and the sixteenth chapters which are aids for the attainment of the Knowledge of the Self. You may fail several times and fall down but again stand up as a hero and march forward fearlessly in the spiritual path and reach the goal of life. Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the cream of the Vedas. It is the quintessence of the Upanishads. It is an unique book for all times. The teachings of the Gita are universal and sublime. It has a message for the solace, peace, freedom and perfection of all human beings. Dive deep in the ocean of the Gita, bring out the most precious pearls of Knowledge and attain Immortality. May the Lord grant you strength to stick to your vows, resolves, truth and Dharma. May you ever abide in Lord Krishna and His precious teachings. May you all become like Arjuna. May the life of Arjuna inspire you all with noble instincts, noble ideals. Glory to Lord Krishna! Glory to the Gita! Glory to Arjuna! Glory to those who follow the valuable teachings of the Gita.