Meditation on Om by Swami Sivananda Retire into the meditation chamber. Sit on Padma, Siddha, Svastika or Sukha Asana to begin with. Relax the muscles. Close the eyes. Concentrate the gaze on Trikuti, the space between the two eyebrows. Repeat Om mentally with Brahman Bhavana. This Bhavana is a sine qua non, very, very important. Silence the conscious mind. Repeat mentally, feel constantly: All-pervading Ocean of Light I am Om Om OmInfinity I am Om Om OmAll-pervading infinite Light I am Om Om OmVyapaka Paripurna Jyotirmaya Brahman I am Om Om OmOmnipotent I am Om Om OmOmniscient I am Om Om OmAll-bliss I am Om Om OmSatchidananda I am Om Om OmAll-purity I am Om Om OmAll-glory I am Om Om Om All Upadhis will be sublated. All Granthis (heart-knots, ignorance) will be cut asunder. The thin veil, Avarana, will be pierced. The Pancha Kosha Adhyasa (superimposition) will be removed. You will rest doubtless in Satchidananda state. You will get highest knowledge, highest bliss, highest realisation, and highest end of life. Brahma vit Brahmaiva Bhavati. You will become Suddha Satchidananda Vyapaka Paripurna Brahman. Nasti Atra Samsayah, there is no doubt of that, here. There is no difficulty at all in the Atma Darshan. You can have this within the twinkling of an eye as Raja Janaka had, before you can squeeze a flower with fingers, within the time taken for a grain to fall when rolled over a pot. You must do earnest, constant and intense practice. You are bound to succeed in two or three years.Nowadays there are plenty of talking Brahmans. No flowery talk or verbosity can make a man Brahman. It is constant, intense, earnest Sadhana and Sadhana alone that can give a man direct Aparoksha Brahmic realisation (Svanubhava or Sakshatkara) wherein he sees the solid Brahman, just as he sees the solid white wall in front of him and feels Brahman, just as he feels the table behind him.

A Project of Education by Swami Krishnananda The world has, first of all, to stand ‘outside there’ as an ‘object’ of the percipient individual, in order that the latter may make any sense of life at all. But, is it true that the world is really ‘outside there’, as an isolated object staring at the individual? This strange predicament which one encounters in the study of anything would testify to the value that seems to be attached to such processes and doctrines and ways of living as the purely astronomical, physical, chemical, biological, historical, political, social, economic, civic, aesthetic, and even ethical and epistemological envisagements of existence, as they stand today. The whole edifice may tumble down if the meaning of a life of this kind is rooted in the basic requirement that the world is ‘outside’ the individual. Modern astronomy and physics, to mention the least and the most obvious, fortunately, appear to have, unwittingly though, stumbled upon the fact that the universe is an undivided continuum, an organism, in which the space-time complex has to be transfigured into a four-dimensional perception, and that matter is not ‘outside there’ to be seen or dealt with by an ‘individual’. The ‘individual’ so-called goes with the universe. This should augur, evidently, a new vision of life in its entirety, awakening man from his slumber of empirical phenomenalism which, dream-like, is taken for reality, very erroneously. The return process to this great Fact of the Universe is education. A logical ascent to perfection is called for. The movement, then, is from the social scene to the psychology of the individual, the cosmical set-up and the Ultimate Reality. Education may be said to be the process of awakening to the structure of existence. It is a graduated widening and ascent in the dimension of consciousness to the degrees of reality. Life is essentially a system of adjustment of oneself to the laws of the universe. The meaning of human enterprise in the world, thus, is coordination of the individual with the facts of the cosmic arrangement of things and a harmonious cooperation in the fulfilment of its purpose. The evolutionary scheme of the universe would lay down the required curriculum of the educational career. But, the empirical insistence that the world is outside the individual has, however, to be taken into a matter-of-fact consideration, since all progress is from a lesser reality to a higher degree of being. This would also substantiate the empirical value of the stages of the evolution of the universe conceived and experienced as a reality of pragmatic existence in a world of enterprise and progress. The individual may be said to constitute a cross-section of the universe. The human being operates like a miniature cosmos. This would mean that the principles that are active in the universe direct and condition the existence and activity of all human life. The analysis would also reveal that there is a universal performance implicit in the existence of human beings and in their pursuits of what they consider as their objectives or aims. Towards this end, there is all the striving of human life, concerning which there has always been felt the necessity for intense educational training as a method of introducing a universal manifestation into the adventures of human individuality. These insights may perhaps be adequate to begin a spade-work for laying the foundation of a proper educational career for humanity. When a child is born and practically knows nothing except for the fact that it is evidently self-conscious of its bodily existence and has a feeling of awareness of a vague and nebulous atmosphere of persons and things around it, there is also in it a pressure towards objective consciousness, and the inclination of the child is more in the direction of externality of perception and feeling than an awareness of its own existence as a human unit. What we may call the cosmological scheme is naturally to be followed in an understanding of the educational project, since it would appear that education is nothing short of a conscious discipline of the individual to ascend gradually, stage by stage to levels indicated by cosmic evolution. The condition of the child-consciousness mentioned may pave the way with which the educational method could be commenced for implementation. In the earlier stages of education, call it the kindergarten, the Montessori stage, or the primary education level, there is always to be a psychological programme to bring slowly into a state of gradual integration the many-sided, rather distracted, perceptions of the external world by the child. Often education begins with training in writing reading and basic arithmetic and discipline. Later on, the mind of the child is allowed to move further in a similar integrated fashion along wider areas of human society around, together with the civic sense involved in every kind of human relationship, whether in the family or in the community of people outside, because, practically, the human individual is primarily concerned with other such individuals more than with things which are not human. There are instincts of the species which pull it to its own kindred individuals or kith and kin or others who are related humanly in any manner. Human relations may be said to be the immediately felt necessities in the process of study and training, which include the norms of civic duty and behaviour in regard to the immediate environment of any society, determined, of course, by the psychology, the social set-up or, rather, the sociological tradition and scheme operative. in the particular human environment,–it may be in a locality of a linguistic society bringing people together with an affinity of any cultural and fraternal thinking. With this method of what we may call human understanding scientifically introduced, an important barrier post in education is crossed. Then the student is further introduced to the world which is made up basically not only of human beings alone, but other things also that are there, which form the wider

Mind – its Features, Nature and Conquest by Swami Sivananda I. PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND Mind is made up of subtle matter. It is through mind that God manifests as the universe. Mind is a subtle force. Prana vibrates on mind and mind generates thoughts. Mind is a bundle of impressions, thoughts, Vasanas (desires) and cravings. The seed of mind is egoism. Mind can do five functions of the five senses of perception or knowledge (Jnana Indriyas). There are three Gunas or qualities, viz., Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in the mind. Lust, anger, greed, jealousy, pride, delusion, egoism, likes and dislikes are waves in the mind. The ever-restless mind becomes quiescent when all desires perish. The mind is purified by the practice of selfless service, Japa, Tapas, right conduct or practice of Yama (self-restraint) and meditation. The mind filled with Sattva is Suddha Manas or pure mind. The mind filled with Rajas and Tamas is Asuddha Manas or impure mind. Relaxation of mind, Japa, prayer, meditation, cheerfulness, Sattvic food, study of religious books, are necessary for keeping up mental health. The mind assumes the form of any object it intensely thinks of. If it thinks of an apple, it assumes the form of an apple. If it thinks of the form of Lord Jesus, it assumes the form of Lord Jesus. As you think, so you become. This is an immutable psychological law. In waking state mind has its abode in the brain. In dream state it has its abode in the throat. In deep sleep it rests in the heart. Prana is the connecting link between body and mind. If you control Prana or sex-energy, you can control the mind. If you can control the mind, you can control Prana also. Through control of breath you can control the mind. Cosmic mind is the universal mind of the Lord. It is superconscious mind. Conscious mind operates through the brain in the waking state. Subconscious mind is Chitta. All impressions are imbedded in the subconscious mind. Practice of Pranayama helps to attain mental equipoise. It can hear and see at the same time. Mind is the dividing wall between soul and body. Mind is the commander-in-chief. The senses are the soldiers. Egoism, greed, jealousy, vanity, etc., are the attendants of the mind. Man says, – My mind was elsewhere; I did not see. My mind was elsewhere; I did not hear. Man sees with his mind and hears with his mind. Steadying or fixing the mind in one point is called Abhyasa. II. CONQUEST OF THE LOWER BY THE HIGHER You can control the mind through Abhyasa or practice and Vairagya. You can be established in Samadhi or superconscious state only by long practice, with zeal and faith. Without dispassion or non-attachment or indifference to sensual enjoyments no spiritual progress is possible. Annihilate the impure mind or the lower mind with the help of the pure or the higher mind and transcend the higher mind also. The senses cannot do anything without the cooperation of the mind. Do not try to drive away impure thoughts. The more you try, the more they will return. Fill the mind with divine thoughts. The impure thoughts will gradually vanish by themselves. Do not try to control the mind through violent methods. You will miserably and hopelessly fall. Use the approved and intelligent methods. You can control the mind easily. III. MIND AS THE BASIS OF THE WORLD-PROCESS The mind is at the root of Samsara or world-process. Desire is the fuel. Thought is the fire. Withdraw the fuel of desire, the fire of thought will be extinguished. Mind is like an ocean; thoughts are the waves. Mind is the organ of sensation and thoughts. Mind thinks, intellect determines, egoism self-arrogates, subconscious mind memories. When the mind is Sattvic, calm and pure, you will get glimpses or flashes of intuition. Mind and Prana are interdependent. Prana is the overcoat of the mind. Wherever there is Prana, there is mind; wherever there is mind, there is Prana. Waking state, dream state and deep sleep state are the three states of the mind. Mental actions are the real actions. Thought is the real action. A Rajasic mind wants variety and new sensations. It gets disgusted with monotony. Change of work is change for the mind. Mind is a gatekeeper. It allows only one thought at a time to enter the mental factory or the mental palace.

What is yoga? by Swami Sivananda Yoga is the suppression of the modifications of the mind-stuff. NOTES The term ‘Yoga’ comes from the root ‘Yuj’, which means ‘to join.’ In its spiritual sense, it is the process by which the identity of the Jivatma and Paramatma is realised by the Yogin. The Jivatma is united with Paramatma by the practice of Yoga. Yoga means union with the Lord. This is the goal of human life. It is the be-all and end-all of human existence. It is the summum bonum. Yoga also means ‘addition.’ When Jivatma is added to Paramatma, the restless Jivatma finds eternal rest and supreme satisfaction. The science that teaches us the way of acquiring this occult knowledge is called Yoga Sastra. Yoga is the Adhyatmic science that teaches the method of joining the human spirit with God. Yoga is the Divine science which disentangles the Jiva from the phenomenal world of sense-objects and links him with the Absolute, whose inherent attributes are Ananta Ananda, Parama Santi, infinite knowledge, unbroken joy and eternal life. Yoga in a generic sense refers to Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga or Kundalini Yoga. In a restricted sense it means the Ashtanga Yoga or Raja Yoga of Patanjali Maharshi. The word Yoga is also applicable in a secondary sense to all those factors that go to constitute Yoga that are conducive to the final achievement or fulfilment of Yoga, and as such indirectly lead to final freedom or perfection. A Yogi is one who has reached the final Asamprajnata Samadhi. One who is attempting to get perfection in Yoga is also called a Yogi. How this Yoga is attained, is given in the subsequent pages. Now we shall see the next word ‘Chitta Vritti.’ ‘Chitta’ means ‘mind-stuff’ or subconscious mind. It takes forms or shapes. These forms constitute Vrittis. It gets transformed or modified (Parinama). These transformations or modifications are the thought-waves, whirlpools or Vrittis. If the Chitta thinks of a mango, the Vritti of a mango is formed in the lake of the Chitta at once, then and there. This will subside and another Vritti will be formed when it thinks of milk. Countless such Vrittis are rising and subsiding in the ocean of the Chitta. These Vrittis are the cause of the restlessness of the mind. Here, ‘Chitta’ corresponds to Antahkarana of Vedanta. It is a separate faculty or category in Vedanta. In Vedanta, when the mind does the function of Smriti, Anusandhana and Dharana (memory, enquiry and concentration), it assumes the name Chitta. The functions of Chitta are Smriti or Smarana, Anusandhana and Dharana. When you repeat the Mantra during Japa, it is the Chitta that does the Smarana. It does a lot of work. Much of your subconsciousness consists of submerged experiences, memories thrown into the background but easily recoverable. Sometimes, you go to sleep at 10 p.m. with the thought: I must get up at 2 a.m. to catch the train. This message is taken up by the subconscious mind and it is this subconscious mind that wakes you up unfailingly at the exact hour. Subconscious mind is your constant companion and sincere friend. You repeatedly fail at night to get a solution in Arithmetic or Geometry. In the morning when you wake up, you get a clear answer. This comes like a flash from the subconscious mind. Even in sleep it works without any rest. It arranges, classifies, compares, sorts all facts and works out a proper satisfactory solution. With the help of the subconscious mind you can change your vicious nature by cultivating healthy, virtuous qualities that are opposed to the undesirable ones. If you want to overcome fear, mentally deny that you have fear and concentrate your attention upon the ideal of courage. When courage is developed, fear vanishes away by itself. The positive always overpowers the negative. This is an infallible law of nature. This is Pratipaksha Bhavana of Raja Yogis. You can establish new habits, new ideals, new ideas, new tastes and new character in the subconscious mind by changing the old ones. The Pratipaksha Bhavana method is dealt with in the subsequent Sutras. The term ‘memory’ is used in two senses. We say: Mr. John has got a good memory. Here, it means, that Mr. John’s capacity of the mind to store up its past experiences is very good. Sometimes we say: I have no memory of that incident. Here you cannot bring up to the surface of the conscious mind the incident in its original form that took place some years ago: It is an act of remembering. If the experience is fresh you can have a complete recall of your past experience through memory. You do not get any new knowledge through memory. It is only a reproduction. Suppose, you have received a nice fan from your amiable friend. When you use the fan, it sometimes reminds you of your friend. You think of him for a short time. This fan serves as Udbhodaka or Smriti-hetu (cause for memory). If your brother is a tall man, the sight of a similar man in another place will bring to your mind the memory of your brother. This is memory due to the similarity of objects (Sadrisyata). Suppose, you have seen a dwarf at Madras. When you see a very tall man or Patagonian, this will remind you of the dwarf whom you saw at Madras. The sight of a big palace will remind you of a peasant’s hut or a Sannyasin’s grass-hut on the banks of the Ganga. This memory is due to dissimilarity in objects (Vipareetata). The following are the four good characteristics of good memory: (1) If you read a passage once and if you can repeat the same nicely, it is a sign to indicate that you have a good memory. This is termed Sugamata. (2) If you can reproduce the same thing without increase or decrease, it

Moksha or Release by Swami Sivananda The release from Samsara means, according to Sankara, the absolute merging of the individual soul in Brahman, due to dismissal of the erroneous notion that the soul is distinct from Brahman. According to Ramanuja, it only means the soul’s passing from the troubles of earthly life into a kind of heaven or paradise where it will remain for ever in undisturbed personal bliss. As Ramanuja does not distinguish a higher and a lower Brahman, the distinction of a higher and a lower knowledge is likewise not valid for him; the teaching of the Upanishads is not twofold but essentially one, and leads the enlightened devotee to one result only.

The Six Khyatis : Theories of Error in Indian Philosophy by Swami Sivananda Introduction An understanding of the characteristics of our judgments of truth and error forms an integral part of philosophical knowledge. This understanding is necessary for the discovery of the deeper implications of experience. Knowledge, ordinarily, presupposes a subject of knowledge and an object corresponding to it. The nature of this knowledge is dependent upon the mind and the cognitive organs of the knowing subject, as well as on the conditions in which the object is situated in relation to the subject. The knowledge of colour through eyes which are affected with jaundice may be incorrect, since there is every possibility of its being the perception of an apparently objective yellow colour, though what is really objective may be of some other colour. In the same manner, a distant object may be mistaken for something else, though the organs of perception may be in a healthy condition and this error may be caused by a peculiar relation obtaining between the percipient and the position of the object. Our perceptions of things greatly influence what we infer and decide, which means that our whole life is judged by us in accordance with the modes of our perception and the knowledge based on them. As every inference is based on previous perception, erroneous perception will nullify the value of the inferences built upon it. The different schools of philosophy have advanced different theories of error in accordance with their avowed theories of knowledge. These theories concerning the nature of erroneous cognition are technically called Khyatis. There are six important Khyatis in Indian philosophy, They are: 1. Satkhyati, 2. Akhyati, 3. Anyathakhyati, 4. Atmakhyati, 5. Asatkhyati and 6. Anirvachinayakhyati. The theory of Satkhyati is held by Ramanuja and his followers. According to this theory, there is no error in fact. What is experienced is real. Satkhyati, Akhyati and Anyathakhyati may be brought under the general head, Satkhyati, which is in opposition to Asatkhyati. The general theory of Satkhyati advocates the view that in wrong knowledge there is cognition of some kind of reality or existence. In a sense, even Atmakhyati may come under Satkhyati, for it admits the reality of cognition within. The theory of Asatkhyati is advanced by the Madhyamikas or Sunyavadins, who hold that in wrong knowledge there is cognition of unreality or non-existence. The Anirvachaniya- khyati is the view of the Advaitin, that experienced objects are indeterminable and that the object of erroneous cognition is neither real, nor unreal, nor real-unreal, i.e., it is Sadasadvilakshana. Atmakhyati is the theory of the Vijnanavadins, the Vaibhasikas and the Sautrantikas, having different theories of perception that the internal concept appears as the external percept, in erroneous cognition. Akhyati is the theory of the Sankhya, Yoga and the Prabhakara school of Purva-Mimamsa, according to which, in error, there is non-distinction between a memory-image and a percept. Anyathakyati is the view of the Nyaya, Vaiseshika and Kumarila Bhatta’s school of Purva-Mimamsa, and this holds that the substratum and the percept of erroneous cognition are real independently. A discussion of these several theories is an essential part of Indian epistemology. SATKHYATI Statement: According to Satkhyati, all objects exist independent of the knowledge which others have of them. The nonexistent cannot be perceived. Truth is the correspondence between knowledge and an object which has independent existence. The erroneous cognition of silver in nacre is not really the cognition of something unreal as such, for it refers to something which exists. The elements of silver that are contained in nacre are responsible for the perception of silver in nacre, though these elements require the aid of a peculiar constitution of the perceiving sense-organs. Though erroneous judgment may be due to defective sense-organs, the absolutely nonexistent cannot be perceived at any time. As, by the process of quintuplication, every element contains parts of other elements, it is possible that anything can contain any other thing. Even the perception of yellow colour in things by a person affected with jaundice is not the perception of some colour which is really not in objects, but of what all objects possess in some degree, though this cannot be perceived by all eyes. The eye which is affected with jaundice, being favourably conditioned, can see it. Hence, the distinction which is ordinarily made between truth and error does not really exist. But, in order that truth may be practically useful in life, it should correspond not merely to some existent thing, in some degree, but to the element which is preponderating others in that object which is perceived. Hence, only these elements which, being commonly predominant in things, are equally perceived by all others also, alone can be really useful in life. When something is perceived only by one individual, privately, and not by others, it becomes the so-called unreal or the illusory. But even the content of this private perception by an individual has existence, though it cannot be seen by others. What is called correction of error is not the negation of what is existent, but only the cessation of effort in regard to the non-predominant element in the object. Refutation: In quintuplication, the gross physical elements are not quintuplicated; only the subtle rudimentary principles of these elements are quintuplicated. Else, one would perceive silver in a stone-pillar. The constituents of nacre and silver are not mixed up in one object. If silver is really contained in nacre, the silver part of the nacre should melt when the nacre is thrown into fire. A snake is not present in the rope as one of the constituents of the latter. AKHYATI Statement: The theory of Akhyati holds that the inability to discriminate (Aviveka) between cognitions of different kinds and between their corresponding objects is error. Error is not the perception of something existent, but the non-perception of difference between different cognitions of different characteristics and contents. The two cognitions are real independently, without reference to each other. In the

Vedanta and the Masses by Swami Sivananda Vedanta is the highest rung in the spiritual ladder of the Hindu philosophy. Some over-enthusiastic religious leaders, in their impatience to get the masses overnight to the zenith of Vedanta, overlook and ignore the initial steps of Karma and Bhakti, with the inevitable result that the ignorant masses neither reach the top nor catch a glimpse of the first stages. The masses do not understand the subtlety and the ultimate import of the Advaita thought, much less do they apply it in the everyday routine of life. It is a matter of common experience that only a microscopic minority of the religious-minded people is putting Vedanta into practice; but with the majority Vedanta does not go beyond a mere intellectual assent. It is not for nothing that Sastras have laid down a certain course of Sadhana after which an aspirant can be initiated into this sublime thought. Only very few are eligible for Vedanta, because only a very few people are capable of that rigorous and sincere Sadhana. The masses require to be taught Bhakti and Karma which are easily intelligible to them. It is said that Swami Rama Tirtha repented for preaching Vedanta because he realised that all his gigantic efforts had brought forth no corresponding substantial result. Swami Vivekananda was severely criticised in his life for overstressing Vedanta and ignoring Bhakti. People want facts, hard and tangible facts, practical principles which they can easily grasp, easy clues to solve the riddles of life, intelligible and concrete ways to feel the nearness of God. Vedanta seems to them a science meant for intellectual jugglers and dry Pandits, its teachings fall upon their minds like rain on arid sands. They would rather have a grain of a practical hint than bushels of theoretical knowledge. No doubt Vedanta contains the sublimest of truths, truths that need to be comprehended and applied in the daily walk of life but that is no excuse why one should ignore the allied truths which are equally great, if not greater. The Gita has elucidated in an inimitable manner the complementary nature of these various paths and has shown that Karma, Bhakti and Jnana are not competitive or alternative but the different ways to the same goal. So to preach Vedanta and especially the Advaita philosophy irrespective of time, place and person is carrying water in a sieve. You cannot teach Vedanta to anybody and everybody. The whole affair will become a square peg in a round hole. In proportion to the greatness of a truth, misapplications and misinterpretations are bound to crop up round it. Just as many thoughtless politicians have misused the weapon of Satyagraha to enforce their selfish desires, many unwary lovers have brought about grim and poignant tragedies under the shelter of Platonic love, even so many crooked persons have exploited this weapon of Vedanta for their personal ends. Vedanta is a sharp razor which can be trusted only in the hands of a skilful and a saintly warrior, not in the hands of a child or an ignorant man. Tat Tvam Asi, Aham Brahmasmi are the watchwords of Vedanta and under their pretext many sins are committed, sometimes consciously, and sometimes unconsciously. A man who has imperfectly understood the real significance of these Mahavakyas and easily poses himself as knowing God without considering others as such, easily deceives himself about his intellectual and spiritual superiority and commits countless sins, because he thinks and foolishly thinks, that he is not the doer but only the witness in justification of wicked deeds. Vedanta must be taught to a select few. Udia Baba teached Bhakti and Karma to the masses, to his disciples. He teached Vedanta to a select few only and did not allow the Bhaktas to attend his classes. Every intelligent teacher gives his teachings according to the temperamental leanings of the disciple. A promiscuous preaching of Vedanta will land the teacher and the taught in difficulties which may not be easily surmounted.

Vedantic Stories by Swami Sivananda Prince or Fisherman? A prince is sailing in a ship. He is the royal heir to a great kingdom. His father is a great emperor. The ship is caught in a cyclone and dashed upon a rock and through shipwreck all perish and only this prince clings on to a wood and he is washed ashore to an unknown land where no one knows him, and the land is strange and he is penniless, and starvation has made him ill, and some fisherman takes pity on him and takes him into the fishermen’s colony and nurses him back to health, and after some t me he gains strength and becomes a part and parcel of the fishermen’s colony. He has completely forgotten everything about his former state. He has got but faint memories of his previous life in the palace, but he knows nothing more of the palace. In this way he grows up as a fisherman, putting up with all the hardships of a fisherman’s life. And then searchers have been sent by the king and these searchers are the saints, the children of God, and the spiritual books, and the Jiva is the ship-wrecked prince which has forgotten its home. From a state of plenitude it has come to the position of beggary, ill-fed, sometimes starving. Searchers are going country after country but who can recognise the prince among millions of people? Such a condition is the condition of Jiva. Ultimately someone manages to contact the prince after years of searching and he is one who is intimate with the emperor, who knows certain birth-marks on the prince through which he can identify the prince without any fear of error, and he happens to come across this boy and he recognises him and informs him that he was a prince, heir to a royal heritage. But attachment has grown between him and the fishermen and he cannot entertain the idea of leaving his foster-mother and foster-father. He declines to leave the fishermen. But the searcher tries to convince him. This is the process that takes place when the Guru tells the Jiva that Your real nature is bliss. Unlimited wealth is yours. But the Jiva is attached to this miserable existence. So, Guru has to wean the aspirant from the state of forgetfulness and then when the prince gets convinced by the knowledge given by the searcher, then a struggle comes. He has to make efforts to break attachment and if he has to get back h s lost heritage, he has to go back, and this going back is called Sadhana. The Distant Inheritance This brings about one more aspect of the previous story. There is a man in utter poverty. With great difficulty he is carrying out his living. He is in a certain country, and when he is in this condition, a multimillionaire has been travelling and somehow he came in contact with this person in a passing manner, and that man of unlimited wealth leaves in his will his entire fortune to this man as a legacy and he says in his will that this man has to come to the place where the rich man was living and establish his identity and claim this fortune, and he also says where the man is to whom he is leaving the will. Then the rich man dies and the solicitors who have got the will in their hands, send word to the poor man that he has to come there and get the wealth. News reaches him, You are the richest man in the world. You have inherited unlimited wealth and unlimited property. by cable this news is sent to him and he reads it, You are the richest man in the world. Now this man knows that he is a multimillionaire. So he will have no wants. He can buy anything that he wants. But at the moment he is actually penniless. He has to work hard for his livelihood. In his present condition he cannot get bread by merely saying that he is the richest man. Yet, undeniably it is a fact that he is the richest man, though he is not able to make use of his wealth. We are Nitya Suddha Atman. But if a mosquito bites us we get shivering and have to go to a hospital and take quinine. Yet, it is the real fact that we are Satchidananda Atman. This fact is true at all times. But practically it is of no use. We are unable to make use of it, because our condition is such. Now what he has to do? Suppose the place where he has to reach in order to claim the will is 15,000 miles away. Now he has to work hard to meet his expenses of travel. Nobody will trust him and advance him money, simply because he says that he is the richest man in the world. He has to work hard and earn his passage-money. It may take him six months or even two years. And then he has to purchase the ticket and undertake the trouble and face all the hazards in the travel, and when he actually reaches the place and proves his identity, the fact of his being wealthy becomes turned into a concrete, practical, effective, living fact. Fact is there always. Even before he reached the place where he has to claim his wealth, he is the richest man. Similarly even now the fact is there that we are the Satchidananda Atman. But if the self-same fact has to become a vibrant, thrilling and vital experience and fully effective, sword cannot pierce me, wind cannot dry me, water cannot moisten me, all these things have to be demonstrated as an actual fact. Therefore, the necessity for doing Sadhana. Sadhana is the claiming of the wealth on the actual spot. Unless this is done, the fact of his being wealthy is useless

Anubandha Chatusthaya by Swami Sivananda THE INDISPENSABLE requisites of a work worth studying are four in number and are collectively called Anubandha Chatushtaya. They are: 1. Vishaya – A subject to be dealt with. In Vedanta it is Brahman. 2. Sambandh – A connection between the work as a whole and the subject dealt with. Here it is exposition. The four important Sambandhas are: Pratibhataka-Pratibhandhya Bhava Sambandha, Janak-janniya Bhava Sambandha, Kartru-kartavya Bhava Sambandha and Prabhaga-prapya Bhava Sambandha. The relation between the work and the subject is Pratibhataka-pratibhadhya Bhava Sambandha. Narration is Pratibhatakam. That which is told is Pratibhadhyam. The Grantha is Prati-bhatakam. The subject that is treated is Pratibhadhyam. The relation between the Grantha and Jnana is Janaka-jaaniya Bhava Sambandha. That which generates is janniyam; the Grantha is Janakam as it generates Jnana through Vichara (enquiry); Jnana is Janniyam, as it generated through Vichara. The relation between the Adhikari or qualified person and the subject is Kartru-kartavya Bhava Sambandha. He who does an act is the Kartru (actor). That which is done is Kartavya. That Adhikari who does Vichara is Karta. Vicharais Kartavya. The relation between the Adhikari and the fruit is Prabhaga-prapya Bhava Sambandha. He who obtains the fruit is Prabhaga. That which is obtained is Prapyam. 3. Prayojana – A benefit to be obtained by studying it. Here it is Moksha. This is of two kinds, viz., Parama-Prayojana and Avantara-Prayojana. The Parama-Prayojana is Moksha whose Svarupa is the complete eradication of all kinds of miseries (Sarva Duhkha Nivritti) and the attainment of supreme Bliss (Paramananda Prapti). Complete eradication of misery is Atyanta-Nivritti. Anartha means an evil. Avidya and its effect, the gross and the subtle worlds and the three bodies, viz., causal, subtle and gross and other Dharmas or characteristics, viz., birth and death are the causes for the misery. Hence they are Anartha. Avantara-Prayojana is the direct means (Sakshat Sadhana) for the attainment of the Parama-Prayojana. It is the Dridha-aparoksha Brahma Jnana (steady direct knowledge of Brahman or realisation of the identity of Jiva and Brahman). The Parama-Prayojana or the highest benefit that is obtained from the plantain is its fruit. That which is obtained in the middle, before the fruit is obtained, is the plantain leaf. This is Avatara-Prayojana. 4. Adhikari – A qualified student. Here it is one who is endowed with the four means of salvation. i.e., Sadhana Chatushtaya, viz., Viveka, Vairagya, Shad-sampat and Mumukshutva, who has removed Mala (impurities of the mind) by Nishkama Karma Yoga and Vikshepa (tossing of mind) by Upasana, who has Chitta Suddhi and one-pointed mind and who is endowed with Yukti (reason), Samartha (ability) and Buddhi (sharp intellect). Adhikaris are of two kinds, viz., Kritopasaka and Akritopasaka. He who has done full Saguna Upasana and who is endowed with perfect one-Pointed mind is a Kritopasaka. He will be equipped with all the Sadhanas mentioned in the scriptures. He who has done imperfect Upasana of Saguna Brahman is an Akritopasaka. He has only partial concentration of mind. He is equipped with only a few Sadhanas. He has Viparita-Bhavana though he possesses knowledge of Brahman by study of Vedantic Literature. He must practise constant and intense meditation.

Philosophy of the Two Birds by Swami Sivananda TWO birds, inseparable companions, dwell in one and the same tree. One of them eats the fruits and the other looks on without eating. The first bird which eats the fruits is the Jiva or the individual soul. The other bird is the Kutastha or the silent Sakshi or witness or the Pratyagatman. The tree is the mysterious tree of Maya or Samsara. The fruits are the fruits of Karmas done by the Jiva, viz., pleasure or pain. The first bird, Jiva or man, laughs when he eats sweet almonds and drinks tea sweetened with sugar to his taste; but when he eats the biter almonds that are mixed with the sweet ones and when he drinks tea without sugar, he shows a different face altogether. When he gets a lucrative post, when he gets married or when he begets a son, he laughs; but when his son or wife dies, when he is dismissed from his post, he weeps. When he joy-rides in a motor car, he laughs; when he suffers from rheumatism or acute dysentery, he weeps. He stoops to pick up enjoyments. He is lured by the temptations of the world; he chooses what is pleasure (Preya) for the sake of the body and loses the true end. He lives in the midst of darkness but fancies himself as wise and learned. He goes round and round deluded in many crooked ways. The way of the hereafter is not apparent to him. He is foolish. He is deluded by the delusion of wealth. He thinks, That is the world, There is no other – thus he falls again and again under the sway of death. Today he eats dainty dishes, sweetmeats and fruits. Tomorrow he starves. Today he travels in a motorcar. Tomorrow he walks bare-footed in thick jungles. Toady he speculates and earns several lakhs of rupees. Tomorrow he becomes a bankrupt and walks in the streets as a beggar. He is selfish, ignoble, hard-hearted, impatient, discontented and passionate. He speaks ill of others. He earns money by unlawful means and leads an unrighteous life. He feels he is in want of something, the nature of which he does not exactly comprehend. He strives for the accomplishment of rest, which he feels, he is in need of. But he finds that worldly greatness, when secured, is a delusion and a snare; he doubtless does not find any happiness or peace in it. He gets degrees, diplomas, titles, honours, power, name and fame; he marries, he begets children; in short, he gets all that he imagines would give him happiness. But he finds no rest. He (Jiva) is entangled in Samsara by the five Kleshas: Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga-dvesha (like and dislikes) and Abhinivesa (clinging to life). He is tied to his earthly life, by the three knots, Avidya (ignorance), Kama (desire) and Karma (action). He is endowed with the three bodies, viz., physical, subtle and causal. He is enveloped by the five sheaths viz., Annamaya Kosha (food sheath), Pranamaya Kosha (vital sheath), Manomaya Kosha (mind sheaths), Vijnanamaya Kosha (Buddhi sheath) and Anandamaya Kosha (bliss sheath). He does actions with the five Karma Indriyas or organs of action, viz., Vak (speech), Pani (hands), Pada (feet), Upastha (reproductive organ) and Guda (anus). He gets knowledge of the world through the five Jnana Indriyas as organs of knowledge, viz., Srotra (ears), Tvak (skin), Chakshus (eyes), Jihva (tongue) and Nasika (nose). He does actions and expects fruits on account of his ignorance. The Samskaras (impressions) are imbedded in the Karana Sarira and subconscious mind. His accumulated Karmas are called Sanchita Karmas; his current actions are called Agami or Kriyamana; this will be added to his Sanchita; he enjoys in this life the fruits of his Prarabdha Karmas, the Karmas which have given birth to this body. Sanchita Karmas rare destroyed by knowledge of the Self. Current actions will not affect when one does actions with Sakshi Bhava or Nishkamya Bhava. One will have to reap the fruits of Prarabdha. He is bound by the chain of six links. The first link is Avidya (ignorance). The second is Aviveka (non-discrimination) that is born of Avidya. The third link is Abhimana or egoism born of non-discrimination. The forth link of the chain is Raga-Dvesha (attraction, repulsion) born of egoism. The fifth link is Karma (action). He does actions owing to Raga Dvesha. The sixth link is body. He takes bodies to reap the fruits of his Karmas. If he attains knowledge of the Self, the whole chain is destroyed at once. He will be free from the taking of the physical body if he does not perform actions with expectation of fruits. He can free himself from Karmas, if he destroys Raga Dvesha. He can destroy Raga Dvesha, if he annihilates egoism. He can annihilate egoism, if he destroys non-discriminations. He can destroy non-discrimination, if he annihilates ignorance or Avidya. Avidya is the root cause for his sufferings. This bird, Jiva, leaves the physical body here, goes to heaven to enjoy the fruits of his virtuous actions with the help of his astral body and comes back to this Mrityuloka when the Karmas are exhausted. He carries the Samskaras and Vasanas along with the astral body. This process called Avagamana (going and coming) lasts till he gets Brahma Jnana. The other bird Sakshi is self-existent. He is not affected by the pleasure and pain, virtue and vice, likes and dislikes. Pleasure and pain, virtue and vice, likes and dislikes are the Dharmas or the attributes of the Antahkarana or the internal instrument only. They cannot touch the pure, self-luminous, immortal, subtle, all-pervading, attributeless and formless Sakshi. In a football or cricket match the spectator is not affected by the success or failure in the game. It is the players only who are affected by the success or failure. He, the Brahman, is self-existent and self-luminous. He is the ear of the ear,