Moksha by Swami Sivananda Moksha is the summum bonum of life. Moksha is the fulfilment of life’s purpose. Life ends on this earth plane when you attain Moksha or liberation from birth and death. The realisation of your real object in life is freedom or Moksha. Moksha bestows on you eternal life of undecaying bliss and perennial joy. Moksha is not annihilation. Moksha is the annihilation of this little self-arrogating ego only. Moksha is realisation of the identity of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul. By annihilating this little self you possess the whole of true universality, you attain an eternal life. Mukti is obtained through the knowledge of the Self. To attain Jnana, you must have one-pointedness of mind (Ekagrata). Ekagrata comes through Upasana. Upasana comes through purity of heart (Chitta Suddhi). Chitta Suddhi comes through Nishkamya Karma Yoga. To do Nishkamya Karma, you must have controlled the Indriyas. The Indriyas can be controlled through Viveka and Vairagya. Moksha is not to be regarded as a becoming into something which previously had no existence. Moksha is not something to be achieved. It is already achieved. Everything is one with Absolute or Para Brahman. What is to be achieved is annihilation of the sense of separateness. Moksha is the direct perception of that which has existed from eternity, but has hitherto been concealed from us on account of the veil of ignorance. Moksha is attainment of the Supreme Bliss or Immortality and removal of all kinds of pain. Moksha is freedom from birth and death. Freedom or Mukti is your only real nature. You will have to know this truth only through direct intuitive experience. You will have to cut asunder the veil of ignorance by meditation on the Self. Then you will shine in your original pristine purity and divine glory. Brahman, Self, Purusha, Chaitanya, Consciousness, God, Atman, Immortality, Freedom, Perfection, Bliss, Bhuma or the unconditioned are synonymous terms. If you attain Self-realisation alone, will you be freed from the round of births and deaths and its concomitant evils. The goal of life is the attainment of the final beatitude or Moksha. Moksha can be attained by constant meditation with a heart that is rendered pure and steady by selfless service and Japa. Moksha is the highest benefit, Parama Prayojana. Jnana is the benefit which one gets in the internal (Avantara Prayojana). Just as plantain fruit is the highest benefit which one gets, and the leaves, etc., are the Avantara Prayojana in the interval before one gets the fruit, so also Moksha is the highest benefit and Jnana is Avantara Prayojana. Jnana is only the means to attain the highest bliss. The Jiva falsely superimposes the body and others which are not Self upon himself and identifies himself withthem. This identification constitutes bondage. The freedom from this identification is Moksha. That which causes this identification is Avidya or nescience. That which removes the identification is Vidya. Attainment of knowledge of the Self eradicates this Avidya and its effects. The Svaroopa of Moksha is the attainment of Supreme Bliss and removal of all kinds of sufferings. The right knowledge of Brahman consists in knowing that He is one with one’s own self. The difference between the Jiva and the Brahman lies only in the Upadhi or limiting adjunct. The Jiva, though he is Brahman in reality or essence is subject to the miseries of worldly existence as caused by his connection with the Upadhi of Antahkarana or the fourfold mind (the inner instrument). As there is no real distinction between them, it should be known that Brahman is identical with the Self. Hence it is said that those who know the real truth understand Brahman to be identical with the Self as declared in the great sentences of the Upanishads or Mahavakyas: “I am Brahman”-“This Self is Brahman.” They even teach the same thing to their disciple in the words: “Tat Tvam Asi-Thou art That.” Therefore it should be known that Brahman is identical with the Self. The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman itself. Having become Brahman while yet alive, he is freed from the round of birth and death. Knowledge of Brahman alone is the means of emancipation or Moksha.

The Awakening Message by Swami Krishnananda The inaugural message given at the 24th All India Divine Life Conference held at the Convention Hall, of the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi, on 29th December, 1973. It would not be easy for many of you to envisage the purpose of a Divine Life Conference. At the outset I may take the liberty of pointing out that this is not a religious conference, in the sense religion is interpreted and understood by the popular mind. It is not the intention of this conference to tell you something stereotyped or to give you a diversion from the boredom of your daily life. With the benign blessings of most worshipful Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and the grace of the Almighty, this conference has been inaugurated and conceived to point out to the human mind in general a way of extricating itself from the meshes in which it seems to be involved. Man has to become man in order that he may accelerate his progress to a state which is superhuman. Mankind today may be said to be in a state of complacence, in a kind of slumber, which is mistaken for a consciousness of progress and cultural advancement. Nothing can be worse for man than to mistake the false for the true, and vice versa. Ignorance is bliss, is an old adage with which we are familiar. We have to be cautious to see if we are in this condition. Are we in a fool’s paradise imagining that we are well off, not knowing what will happen to us in the future? The greatest threat to the enlightenment of the mind of mankind, I may point out, is what may be designated as the material glamour. The world is before us as a thick screen through which it may be difficult to penetrate into the truth that is behind it. Today, our world prides itself over its achievements which it calls science. And, on a careful scrutiny and an investigation into the true situation and affairs in which we are, we would discover that the very forte of science shall be its own refutation. It requires a little thought to realise that the structure of science on which the material values of life are based is really fixed on a shaky foundation. It requires a courage of an uncanny nature and a novel type of boldness to plumb the depths of this false system of values that is presented before us as the majesty of matter, the glory of earthly paradise. Today the eyes of science are themselves slowly getting opened up to the truth of the matter. It is becoming self-conscious. Generally, we are conscious of others, but we are rarely conscious of our own selves. In the consciousness of the world of objects, of persons and things, and human relations and what not, we first forget ourselves. We cut the ground from under our own feet and then go headlong into that arena where even the angels fear to tread, as they say. We are really in a pitiable situation. We are not so secure as we might be made to imagine. The future is not in our hands because we are rid of the knowledge of the future. We are dispossessed of that real worth of man’s existence and seem to be possessed of straw and dust and the husk that we call the material values of life. May I put a question, “What do you mean by matter, over which you pride yourself so much and whose knowledge has given you a sense of confidence and a sense of security, though it is baseless and foundationless? How do you know what matter is made of and what the true values of life are?” The very force behind the argument of the materialist is the reality of matter, the stability of the world as it is perceived by the senses, the realism of sensory perception. But, is this true? Can we take for granted the presentation of the world in terms of the senses? The very notion of the existence of material values, the material stuff or substance with which the world seems to be made,-this very concept should be subjected to further analysis and investigation. It cannot be taken for granted on its surface value. The notion of the existence of the material substances and material values of life is conditioned by higher values of which we have at present no knowledge adequately. Who knows the existence of matter? Matter is unconscious. A great thinker of the modern times, who is known as a top scientist, has himself come to the conclusion that today we are heading towards the dematerialisation of matter itself. But, a counter argument to this conclusion was brought forth by another thinker saying that rarified matter does not cease to be matter, thereby pointing out that the world is still material and we are materially constituted in our own personalities. But, this argument and counter argument are both again liable to a further investigation. There is a very subtle, silken thread which connects our perception of values with the reality of things. The cause of the very observation of the material values of life cannot itself be material. To state the whole position simply and precisely, matter cannot know matter. If the whole world is only material, then the very knowledge of the existence and operation of material forces will itself be a work of matter. It would be a self-contradiction of the whole position to argue that matter can be conscious of matter. As you know, the constitution of matter is not inclusive of that principle we call awareness. There must be some one to know that the world is. And who knows that the world exists? Does the world itself know it? Is it the world that knows that the world exists? What do we mean by the world? Our definitions have to be polished a

The Destiny of Man by Swami Chidananda Blessed immortal souls, beloved children of the Divine! I am greatly blessed to spend this evening hour with you and to share my thoughts on this subject pertaining to all of us. When we speak of the destiny of man we don’t speak of a special human being or a historical person, but we speak very much of ourselves-today-here-in this world of the fourth quarter of our very troubled yet eventful 20th century. What is our destiny? Man wants to know and scans the newspapers, he listens to the radio, he views occurrences all over the globe on the television screen. He wants to know what is going on in this world, what is happening to man, what man is doing to man and where this world is heading. He tries to look ahead and to have a glimpse of what is in stall for man. But our concern today is not so much to know this in a superficial way, for what is happening upon the surface soon every schoolboy comes to know. A few years ago what was man’s destiny? Was it to remain bound to the earth or was it to fly into outer space? They said: “We can even reach the moon!” “Can we or can we not?”-“Is it possible?”-All these speculations came to an end when man actually landed on the moon. The question was no more there-it had become a fact, a scientific truth. So scientifically the destiny of man may be to conquer outer space, land on the Mars or some other planet. But what he achieves from this is not known. So it is in a deeper sense that we want to know man’s destiny or perhaps as it has been conceived by a cosmic mind, by a supreme intelligence and power that is imponderable, that is far beyond the furthest comprehension of the human intellect, that transcends reason-that mastermind that has brought about this amazing cosmos where heavenly bodies move about in an absolutely correct, precise, systematical manner, keeping to their courses, maintaining the same rate of speed in outer space and demonstrating an incredibly predictable behaviour. Those who are masters of astrophysics and astronomy can say exactly what the movements of certain planets will be, how many years hence will Haley’s comet appear next? They are able to chart its course, calculate its speed and predict its appearance. See, from within the sight of man on earth this is not an ordinary achievement. But it is possible. Because there is a system working there with absolute precision and accuracy that makes it possible for man to predict certain things. It is not a chaos, it is an orderly system. To manufacture even a small simple machine, a watch, a timepiece, a little timer, man has to make so many calculations, he has to make the wheels of exact dimension and shape with the exact number of teeth, he has to bring all his intelligence and observation, his concentrated attention, his skillful action. And when it is old, it is discarded and one buys another one… To produce such a small machinery so much of intelligence, calculations, skill is necessary. And this vast, imponderable, amazing thing which we call cosmos, our solar system, sun, moon and the terrestrial world, the innumerable stars, the mind-blowing distances, staggering in their magnitude-do you think it came about without the combination of some great incomprehensible master intelligence and master power and master skill? The cosmic intelligence, the universal mind is that which we call-we don’t know what … Kant, the great German philosopher, had no name for it. He called it “the thing in itself”. For when nothing was, IT only was. And IT itself knew what IT was. There was no other, no second one to know it. Therefore he called it “THE THING IN ITSELF”. Thousands of years ago, long before the time of even Jesus Christ, the great mystic and prophet Moses went into the wilderness, prayed, did penance and tried to attune himself to the Invisible, to the Infinite. Humbly he tried to know IT, sought ITS guidance, ITS help. And a strange power made itself manifest in response to Moses’ quest. He felt it, it guided him. And he wanted to know by what name he could refer to it, by what name he could call it. And that being said: “I AM THAT I AM”. I am that I am. What else can I say? I am that being existing by itself. I alone know what I am. I exist-I know that I exist. I am that cosmic intelligence self-cognising, for in that state of absoluteness I am alone. There is no other, no second. I pervade all. I exist by myself, supremely independent, supremely non-dual. I am that I am. Great Indian sages like the Buddha went to the depth of thought and attained illumination-they said: “The only way you can describe or define or state that thing is to be silent. “SILENCE”. If you say anything you say wrongly. You cannot define it. To say anything is to limit it, for human expression, human language is limited, is finite. Therefore silence is the one and only way in which you can express the inexpressible. SILENCE. The philosopher Plotinus observed all things in this world and found them wanting. He found that they were all limited and finite, finite in time and space, limited by name and form. Nothing was full, nothing complete, something was there, something else was not there. He found that all things here were fragmentary, partial, wanting. Therefore he called the ultimate reality, that imponderable, absolute, transcendental reality “THE SUPREME PLENUM”. The only thing which is all full, all perfect, not limited, not bound by anything. Thus great philosophers, great mystics, those who have entered into the transcendental experience of that supreme cosmic power-intelligence, they were silent about it. But they knew that it existed beyond

The Attainment of Liberation by Swami Krishnananda The Nature of Sadyo-Moksha All endeavours aim at the common ideal of the perpetual abolition of sorrow and the experience of unending bliss. Bliss is only in the Infinite and sorrow is only in the finite. There is no bliss in the finite, and no sorrow in the Infinite. Therefore, the attainment of the Infinite Life is the supreme purpose of finite life. Knowledge and meditation have both their dear aim in the realisation of the Absolute. Moksha is the highest exaltation of the self in its pristine nature of supreme perfection. Emancipation is the Consciousness of the Reality not becoming something which previously did not exist not travelling to another world of greater joy. It is the knowledge of eternal existence, the awareness of the essential nature of Pure Being. It is the Freedom attained by knowing that we are always free. Knowledge is not merely the cause for freedom’ it is itself freedom. Moksha consists in Jnana (Knowledge) and is not the effect or product of Jnana. Jnana is Existence itself, and hence it cannot be a means to attain Jnana of Existence. which is Moksha, as a thing does not attain itself. Chit is the same as Sat. To be what is, is Moksha. It is to realise one’s Self, to be Oneself, and to be Oneself is to be the All. “There is no consciousness after death (of individuality),” says Yajnavalkya. Since Consciousness alone is the entirety of being, there is no consciousness of anything objective in the highest state. It is the Fullness of Perfect Existence. It is, but is not anything; it sees, but sees not anything; it hears, but hears not anything; it knows, but knows not anything. It does not go to where it was not, it does not get what it did not have. Even the expression “It knew only itself” (Brih. Up., I. 4. 10) is an understatement of Truth, for it implies self-consciousness which is the characteristic of Ishvara and not Brahman. Brahman does not know, for it is knowledge; It does not enjoy, for it is enjoyment; It is not “existent” but “existence”. It is non-material, has no contact with any objective being. “It eats nothing; no one eats it”. It is the supreme “incorporeal which pain and pleasure do not touch.” The realisation of the Self is in a way like the shining of the sun when the clouds no more cover him. It is the regaining of originality in the absolute sense. It is “quenching the fire of death with the water of knowledge” (Brih. Up., III. 2. 11)). It is deathless impersonality of conscious nature, not merely living as an eternal person. A person, even the absolute person (Ishvara), is non-eternal. No real change takes place in the realisation of Truth, but it appears to be all change! “Though the Full may be taken out from the Full, the Full alone remains without change”. Even the utter extinction of personality does not involve the least transformation in true existence. It is the simple knowing, the great knowing, so mysterious and complicated, the ever unsolved problem, the only problem of the whole universe. And yet, it is the only Truth to the Knower The curious riddle, somehow, makes one feel that. truly, nothing happens in Infinity, though worlds may seem to roll in it. That which is so simply said as “Existence-Consciousness” and which is so easy to understand, is, after all, a hard nut to crack,–never understood, never known, never realised by any individual, the supreme identity of the greatest positivity and the greatest negation in one. The Absolute is really supra-relative, supra-mental, supra-rational. Whatever is spoken or thought is not Truth as it is. Truth is the union of the cosmic thinker and the cosmic thinking. There is no separate object of this thinking, nothing that is thought of here, for thinking itself is the object of thinking, thought thinks itself, all objects are mere processes of cosmic thinking, nothing real in themselves. Thought and its object, knowledge and the known, seeing and the seen, relation and the object related to, mind and the universe, are identical with the Universal Essence. The conscious transcending of the successive double relation in the cosmos, of the thinker who is identical with the thinking, and of the thinking which is identical with that which is thought of, is Liberation. The universe has no reality independent of its Universal Knower. The original delusion of the difference between the thinker and the thinking is greater than and is the cause of the secondary delusion of the difference between the thinking and the thought of. There is the thinking because there is the thinker; there is the thought-of because there is the thinking. The thinking is the object of the thinker; the thought-of is the object of the thinking. Egoism or dualityconsciousness and the world or multiplicity-consciousness are the respective effects of the mistake that the object is independent of and different from the subject in both these cases. Samsara is the knower-knowledge-known-relationship. But it must however be remembered here that the distinction between the thinker and the thinking and that between the thinking and the thought-of is not valid to the Cosmic Consciousness of Ishvara. This distinction is superimposed by the individual on Ishvara when it perceives, as an individual knower, its own distinctness and the variety of world-manifestation. Relations are meaningful to the individual alone and not to the Universal Being. These distinctions are present even in the superhuman individuals, even in those who have reached Brahmaloka or the subtlest possible state which is within the jurisdiction of individualistic consciousness. That which is above all distinctions and relations is Brahman, the knowledge of which is neither thinking nor sleeping. This is that which is asserted through endless denials, impossible to describe, impossible to imagine, nothing, everything! The only definition of the nature of Reality is perhaps “That which is not anything, but not nothing, that which

You are That! by Swami Chidananda Beloved spiritual aspirants! You are seeking something, you are devoted to something, you are practising something all with one single ultimate objective. The inner motivation is the same. It is the attainment of Divine-experience, God-experience, the realisation of the Absolute, the realisation of what you are. Classical philosophy and all the great mandaleshwars say that this world is an obstacle to that achievement. Sense objects are tempting snares. The unwise jivatma is caught and enslaved by his own desires, and these temptations draw him out and catch him in their coils. The jivatma is helpless, caught by maya. All this they say. All this they say, and we swallow it, we take it for granted. If the common man in the street hears such discourses and swallows it, saying, “We are helpless, maya is insurmountable, we can never go beyond it,” it is because they are gullible, they don’t know any better. But, do you know no better? Are you also similarly gullible? Do you also accept this view and theory? If you are also swallowing it, then what is the difference between you and the gullible masses? What have the years of renunciation and solitude on the banks of the Ganga done for you? So we must show a difference. All this may be said in books and scriptures and by mandaleshwars giving discourses, but we must know better. And the better truth has been expounded to us, revealed to us. But you will know this only if you make right enquiry, vichara. Right enquiry will suddenly bring you light, reveal to you many things that you did not know. It will bring you so many truths. And then suddenly you will develop a new skill, a new qualification, a new ability to know what it is that stands in your way and what it is that can be favourable to you in moving towards the supreme goal. You will know what you must gladly accept and make part of your life and what you must uproot and throw away, eradicate, even if it is part of your present life: “No, no, now I know better. I am not going to allow this to remain. It is an obstacle that is within myself. I will throw it out.” So this skill of discrimination, viveka, and the ability to know what is helpful to your spiritual life and what is not helpful and constantly discriminating between these two, then at every step rejecting that which is not favourable to your spiritual life and cultivating and augmenting that which is helpful, becomes a constant exercise of a wise and awakened seeker. So right enquiry and discrimination help move you towards the truth that you are seeking. And at one stroke, in one declaration-a grand declaration, a great declaration-the whole problem has been solved by a super being. He declared to us that all these things that we think constitute our great obstacle, our great problem, which we constantly have to battle with, are a mere non-existing myth, a nothing. We make it formidable by our lack of right enquiry and discrimination. We have given it importance by endowing it with a strength it does not have: “Do away with this foolishness. It is not formidable. You are always immune to it, above it, unaffected by it.” The great teacher taught a super devise: “No barrier exists, nothing exists. You are already That which you are seeking to make yourself. Remove this delusion that you are not yet That. You are the divine perfection that you are seeking. The goal is right here-not to be reached, not to be attained, but to be known.” And this great man put this into an amazingly brief, compact nutshell of a marvellous utterance. He said, “I don’t require many words to declare this. I can do it in just half a verse: ‘Brahma satyam jagan-mithya jivo-brahmaiva naparah.’ This so-called universe that you are endowing with a reality is a non-existent myth. One alone is real. One alone is the solid truth and fact, and that is satchidananda Brahman, the non-dual Reality, the ever-present, eternal, never-changing Reality. That alone is the Reality, and you are no other than that great Reality, only plus some imagined accretions that have been added on to your ever-present, all-perfect Divine Reality-something added on. “Get rid of these accretions. The moment you get rid of these accretions, you are what you are. You don’t have to become something. You are already That.” And to emphasise it: “You are That and That alone, and you are no other!” What a great truth! What a liberating truth! What a wonderfully strengthening truth! So this is something you have right in your hand. It is yours. Apply this formula and obstacles will be no obstacles, bondage will be no bondage. You will revel, you will rejoice in your eternally liberated, ever-free state. Brahma satyam jagan-mithya jivo-brahmaiva naparah. This is the truth, this is the fact. And this truth is an immediately liberating fact to which you have immediate access. Realise this and be free!

The Call of the Real by Swami Sivananda The seed of the perpetration of evil is sown by the lack of ability to apprehend the nature of wisdom, truth and justice. It is not the human aspiration but the subhuman propensity that ravages the very values of life through contempt for alien temperaments and hatred towards other inhabitants of the earth. It is a great mistake that the boys and the girls of today are spending their career in “education for job, bread and comfort”, neglecting the central realities of true civilisation and culture. It is imperative that all schools and colleges should, if they intend to work for the happiness and freedom of mankind, include, as the most important item in the curriculum, the art of perfect living, an appreciation of the essential values of life–virtue, love, truth, purity, universality, wisdom and justice,–which constitute the very heart of religion–religion which soars high up to the possibility of cosmic salvation. There is no life in the educative process, if it is destitute of the religious consciousness, for religion is the very meaning of life’s purpose, the one aim of the struggle for existence. If religion is rejected, there is nothing left in the mortal except a heap of bones and a mass of flesh. Why modern civilisation has despised religion is only because it understands by religion an outburst of the irrational spirit. The truth is far from this! Religion is the light that enlivens the most rational life, the manifestation of the eternal glow of intelligence that peeps through even the mightiest genius of the world. There can be no civilisation without religion, and there is no worth in religion if it is destitute of spirituality. That religion which aims at nothing more than a happy life in the world is only materialistic utilitarianism and not a solacing religion. Materialism is the crude product of a want of proper illumination and insight into the true essence and, hence, it is not worthy of consideration. An impure heart and conceited brain cannot understand religion. True religion begins when and where the intellect ends. Religion is neither emotion nor scholarship, but knowledge that is direct and immediate, a faith born not of practical necessity but of impersonal experience. The revelations of the Vedas and the Upanishads, the gospel of Buddha, the teachings of Christ, all have sprung from an impersonal source, though this impersonality is made known to us only as expressed through personalities. No intelligent man of the world can say that he has reached the zenith of intelligence; knowledge grows and widens when experience deepens itself. Many rank materialists have turned into great spiritual heroes, which shows that the shallow world cannot satisfy the deep spirit in man. This One Spirit is common to all and, therefore, religion must be One, not two or many. Though shirts and coats may be many, the person who puts them on is the same. The divine play of manifestation, through its scenes of appearing and disappearing in the variegated colours of life and death, drives home to mankind the lesson that this life is only an act in the stage of becoming, where many parts are played and no part in itself is complete enough to give the character of wholeness to the play. Every actor on the stage behaves in such a way that he does not portray himself as an unrelated independent personality, but endeavours to be an integral part of the entire play. This behaviour of the actor fitted to the wholeness of the play is his dramatic peculiarity or the Dharma which unites all actors to the whole, which is the ultimate purpose. The Dharma of man is his religion which binds him to the Whole, which shows that he is a part of the Whole, trying to abide by the Law of the Whole and aiming at fulfilling the purpose of the Whole. For, the Whole is the truth and the good of all is included in it as its constituents which can never exist independently of the Whole. Man can never live without God, for God is the Whole and man is only a part. Man’s religion is his Dharma and this Dharma can be in its real sense only one, for its goal is one. There is one God, the indubitable Self of all beings; there is one Law, the relentless law of cause and effect; there is one religion, the indispensable religion of Self-realisation. Everyone is only the One Self; how, then, can there be many laws and many religions? As life has been made for the time being comfortable and comparatively effortless by modern inventions, the ease-loving man is prone to disregard the place of religion in his life and exalt the values of materialistic view of things. Events are slowly disclosing the unreliability of the purely objective views and methods of physical science, since it is the experience of man that he is not really happier, and the world is not in fact better, even after his daring attempts at extracting out of external nature the secrets of its resources in order to utilise the same for his own purposes. Where is satisfaction, where is happiness, and where is peace, then? Is anyone who has deeply and correctly thought over his conditions and the world’s vicissitudes capable of asserting that the struggle for advancement through the physical methods has ended in the solace of man? The purely physical outlook is not compatible with the inner truth of the real man, for, religious discipline, and not bodily pleasure, is the role to be followed in the course of right living. Let it not be thought that religion is a dogmatic, other-worldly, pet tradition of blind believers or irrational emotionalists. Religion is the most rational science of man as he essentially is, not merely as he presumes himself to be. Religion is the way to the realisation of the highest perfection. If perfection

Spirituality and Life by Swami Krishnananda The philosophy and culture of India is one of ‘Ananda’ or Bliss. ‘From Bliss-Absolute we have come; in Bliss-Absolute we are rooted; and to Bliss-Absolute are we destined’, says the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is not a message of pain, agony and distress. Pessimism is unknown to India’s culture. It is a culture of exuberant positivity of approach, an approximation to God in the end, who is the greatest of positivities. Life is held to be a movement from joy to joy, and it is this that we call the evolutionary process of the soul. It is movement from a lesser truth to a higher truth, which is a better way of putting things than to repeat the hackneyed tradition that we move from error to truth. In the glorious kingdom of God, which is within everyone, there cannot be any ultimate error. Error is only a misplacement of values. It has no ultimate existence and cannot have an absolute value. Absolute error is unthinkable, and it cannot be. Absolute falsehood does not exist. Everything is as a relative representation of God’s perfection and so everywhere, even in the so-called erroneous movements of material, psychological and social forces, there is an element of God present, urging all these processes towards Perfection. To our culture, which is the culture of God, the culture of Perfection, all the duties of life become a manifestation of happiness. The glorious gospel of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, which may be regarded as the tripod of India’s message to mankind, provides us with the hopeful exhortation that we can never be helpless at any moment of our life. Our culture is the blossoming full-moon, the real ‘Purnima’ of hope after hope; aspiration after aspiration. May we recall to our minds, once again, the message of the saints and sages of all times and climes, who have plumbed into the depths of the Great Reality of the universe, that we exist in God, live in God, breathe in God, move in God and perform the functions of our life in the Kingdom of God. The great message of the Christ that “the Kingdom of Heaven is within you” should be a miraculous and revolutionary teaching to all those who think in terms of the temporal and always evaluate things from the historical point of view. A kingdom cannot be inside anyone. Can you imagine a kingdom being situated within anyone? And, yet, a great incarnation spoke this truth to mankind: – “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you!” Either it is a contradiction in terms or a super-mundane fact which the human understanding cannot fathom. That which is external is also the internal, is also a message of the Chhandogya Upanishad (Section VIII), which is echoed in the statement of the Christ that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. The whole cosmos is vibrating within every cell of our personalities. Everything that is everywhere is also within us and is inseparable from us. This was the foundation of the doctrine of God’s supreme perfection given to us by Acharya Sankara also, on the basis of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahmasutras. Everything we need is in us. Everything required by us for our existence, every movement in evolution towards perfection, is implanted in our being. When we were born we brought with us everything that is necessary for us and we carry all these necessities with us wherever we move in this world. We cannot be separated from these needs or standing necessities; they are inseparable from our vital existence. This is the spirit of true spirituality. There is the letter of the teachings of spiritual life, and also the spirit of these teachings. The letter of the teaching is what is generally practised by the masses in the world, but the spirit is missed. The letter is easy to understand, but the spirit is difficult to follow. What is the letter of the teaching of spiritual life? What does the letter of religion say? It says: you must love God, you must believe in the existence of God, you must speak the truth, you should be honest in your dealings with your brethren, and you should be living a life of purity, goodness and truthfulness. But the letter of the teaching has been so construed, on account of the very constitution of the human mind, that the life of the spirit, or the life of God, or the life of spiritual aspiration, has been covertly, without one’s knowing what is happening, separated from the day-to-day activities of life, so that we are one thing in the street or the shop and another thing in the temple or the church. Thus, we have two ideals before us, the ideal for the marketplace and the ideal for the church or the temple. This is the traditional and organised creed of what you may call the churches of religion. Religion today appears to be shaking from its very roots, because the edifice of the popular religion is built on a sandy basement and has no substantial support at the bottom. The so-called religious man does not really believe in God. The religious mind has taken advantage of its apparent belief in God or concept of God as an instrument in the personal fulfilment of its wishes and ambitions. To most of us, God is an instrument, not the aim or goal of life. Our asking for God is not because He is all-in-all, but because He is a tool for the fulfilment of our ulterior motives. We have desires and desires, in all the levels of our personalities. We are made up of desires: “Kamamayoyam purushah”. We do not possess or have desires: We are made up of the desires. Every fibre of our being is constituted of desire alone. Therefore, this desireful personality contrives a tool in the form of the concept of a God in Paradise, in Brahmaloka, Vaikuntha or Kailasa,

The True Purpose of Life by Swami Chidananda I always used to make seekers take a second look, from a different angle, when they were in this type of problematic position when the early enthusiasm, anticipation – everything has worn off; and they seemed to have got stuck somewhere midway, neither here nor there making no progress. I would say, “This is all due to a wrong view that you have taken – that we have come here in order to attain God-realization, as though it is something, a distant goal to be attained and that, therefore, we should be up and doing and daily moving forward and upward in the direction towards that goal.” This is a view given in the beginning to attract the worldly-minded person. But then, in actuality, the life that has been given to us is meant only to be devoted to God, meant only to remember Him, meant only to pray to Him, meant only to glorify Him, meant only to proclaim to all the greatness and glory of God. There is no other purpose for life. And if you live a life engaged in glorifying God, constantly thinking about Him, taking His name and praying to Him, and standing witness to His divinity, His all-perfection, that itself is the fulfillment of life. You are justifying your existence by living in order to glorify God, living in order to proclaim His grandeur, His greatness, and living in order to be constantly immersed in Him. There is no question of achieving something you have not achieved. If you live for God and constantly bear witness to His greatness and grandeur and glory, and if you do this all your life, then you have not lived in vain. You have lived a worthy life. All glory to you! This is a fact. You have fulfilled God’s purpose in sending you here – to proclaim God’s glory and to bear witness to His greatness in and through your life.

God’s Plan for You by Swami Chidananda Radiant Atman, beloved children of Light. Blessed children of the Father, Mother, Universal; common parent of all existence, all life. You are part of that existence brought forth from the Unmanifest Universal Being. Therefore, you are part of that Being as children are part of their parents. You are part of that great manifestation that has come out of that supreme timeless, spaceless, transcendental, absolute Reality. You are part of this manifestation that is known as phenomenal existence, that is subject to the perception of the five senses, that is also a frame within which you are at this moment making your earth journey. It is a phase you have to pass through because you are there already, and you must pass through it with understanding. Then you will make it a gainful process, if you pass through it with a deeper understanding of why it has been given to you, to have been sent here, to be in this phenomenal appearance and to be made in it for sometime and go through it in it’s various phases. If pondering this, you come to understand that this is not only something that has come to you and cannot be avoided, not only that it is necessary, but rather you need to understand that it is something very valuable and very important two… very valuable and very important–double two. When you come to understand it this way, then you will suddenly recognize it as a bestowal, something granted. It’s a great large Heart, much love, much love, something granted, that is in the form of Grace Manifest,–Grace Manifest. If very wealthy parents, multimillionaires send their children to the very best of the universities, top universities for studying and getting the best tuition, best environment, best training, evidently they do it, because they want their offspring not to just be literaturely learned and scholastic, they want their offspring to shine, to achieve, to be top scholars, golden crowned personalities in their own field of learning. It is with this intention they are willing and prepared to spend any money to get the best tuition for them, to send them to refresher courses, to top professors, and all that … Why? Because they love them. Because they happen to be their children and because they happen to be their parents. They don’t want them to opt for number two. They want to give them all, so they get their number one. And this you think is natural. This you can understand. The truth is, your father and mother are not merely multimillionaires or multibillionaires of inexhaustible wealth. No one can compare to your Father/Mother God–your parent God–illimitable wealth of the whole world that can never be exhausted. So, there you have as your parent, Father/Mother God whose wealth is illimitable. Nothing can compare to it, inexhaustible, illimitable. Naturally He can afford to do anything in order to make you become a top person in His creation. That is God’s plan for each and every one of you who are present in this hall at this moment for this six day spiritual retreat from the 26th Dec. to 31st Dec., 1997 in this Holy Ashram of beloved and worshipful Master Gurudev Swami Sivananda. Believe me when I tell you that I’m not being poetical or fanciful, because I know that for each and everyone of you, God is focusing upon you with all His love and grace and with this one view that He wants to make out of you the supremest of human individuals on earth, on this planet earth, in this period. Many horses run in a race, but it is the first one that crosses the winning line that gets acclaimed all over the world. Photographers throng around the horse, and the trainer, and the jockey, and then you have it all, media, the radio, all the TV stations and on all the TV screens, millions and millions of them in each home. Why? Because the horse out distanced all and came out to be the first. It is the horse of the year, super horse of the year, super horse. Yes! And the helper of the owner, the helper of the trainer, the helper of the jockey, ah, and those who bet upon him. I bet upon all of you, and God is your owner, your master, and your own life and your books are your trainers and you are the rider and the horse is what you call your life. The seat, support, of your life must take you to the winning point in a flash and you must come first and that is God’s plan for you. Anyone may tell anything else, but I tell you this and I will keep on telling this and I shall have no reason to change. I will go on telling this as long as telling is good, because it is so. It happens to be so. Therefore, know that you are people of destiny. For each and everyone of you God plans that you should, as you move towards the conclusion of your present earth incarnation, you must be at the very top…at the very top. Each one must shine like a gem,…shine like a gem and God intends this. That is why God has brought you here. God has this plan for wherever you are. Right from your birth He has been working towards this. I know, because of this divine intention for you in your life, He has brought you here today. He has brought you here today and he has brought me also here today. What I mean to say is………….. that I am here to tell you these things. It is because it is meant to be. You have to be told this at this point in time. You are here to obtain the supremest of all experiences, the greatest of all goals man can conceive of in life,

Purpose of Life by Swami Sivananda The life of man is an indication of what is beyond him and what determines the course of his thoughts, feelings and actions. The wider life is invisible, and the visible is a shadow cast by the invisible which is the real. The shadow gives an idea of the substance, and one can pursue the path to the true substance by the perception of the shadow. Human existence, by the fact of its limitations, wants and various forms of restlessness, discontent and sorrow, points to a higher desired end, incomprehensible though the nature of this end be. As life on this earth is characterised by incessant change, and nothing here seems to have the character of reality, nothing here can satisfy man completely. The Bhagavad Gita has referred to this world as anityam, asukham, duhkhalayam, ashashvatam-“Impermanent, unhappy, the abode of sorrow, transient”. The sages of yore declared with immediate realisation that “Truth is One” and that the goal of human life is the realisation and the experience of this Truth. The universe is inconstant, and it is only a field of experience provided to the individuals so that they may evolve towards the experience of the Highest Truth. It is the glory of the people of Bharatavarsha (India) that to them the visible universe is not real and the invisible Eternal alone is real. They have no faith in what they perceive with the senses. They have faith only in that which is the ground of all experience, beyond the senses, beyond even the individual mind. Earnest seekers used to seek shelter under great sages who purified the holy region of the Himalayas with their mighty presence, and lived the austere life of Yogis in order to attain freedom from the trammels of earth-bound life and rest in the beatitude of the Absolute, Brahman. This they considered the true life, and thus the way of fulfilling the law of the Eternal. The great law-giver Manu, after describing the various tenets of Dharma, finally asserts: “Of all these Dharmas, the Knowledge of the Self is the highest; it is verily the foremost of all sciences; for, by it, one attains immortality.” The pursuit of Dharma, Artha and Kama has its meaning in the attainment of Moksha which is the greatest of all the Purusharthas (end of human life). Dharma is the ethical and moral value of life; Artha is its material value; and Kama is its vital value; but Moksha is the infinite value of existence which covers all the others and is itself far greater than all these. Others exist as aids or preparations for Moksha. Without Moksha, they have no value and convey no meaning. Their value is conditioned by the law of the Infinite, which is the same as Moksha. The Vedas and the Upanishads are the exhalations of the Divine Being, and they give an exhaustive commentary on spiritual life. They are expositions of the significance and the import of human life and of the method of the transmutation of the mortal appearance into the Immortal Essence. The instance of the great Nachiketas and the story of his adventurous search for Truth narrated in the thrilling Kathopanishad serve as exemplars to all men capable of thought and reflection. Nothing of the world of sensibility can be of real value-this is what Nachiketas taught through his memorable act of renunciation. Not even the longest life and the immense wealth offered to him could tempt him. He persevered in his quest for the Highest, and in the end achieved the Highest. Nothing short of it could satisfy him. Such are the true heroes. A real hero is not he who stands against bullets or risks his life in hazardous attempts, fights battles, dives into oceans and climbs high cliffs, but he who subdues his senses and overcomes his mind, recognises the supreme unity of life and casts aside dualities and desires. To achieve this is the duty of man; this is the immortal message of the sages of the Upanishads. The tangle of sense-experience in which man is caught is most vexing, and hard it is to free oneself from it. Man is deluded by the notion of the reality of the so-called external relations of things and thus he comes to grief. The Mahabharata says that the contact of beings in this universe is like the contact of logs of wood in a flowing river, temporary. Yet the attachment to sense-percepts is so strong that phantoms are mistaken for facts, the impure is mistaken for the pure, the painful for the pleasant, and the not-self for the Self. The message of the ancient sages is that the life one lives in the sense-world is deceptive, for it hides the Existence underlying all things and makes one feel that the particular presentation of forms before the senses alone is real. “Children run after external pleasures and fall into the net of wide-spread death. The heroes, however, knowing the Immortal, seek not the Eternal among things unstable here,” says the Upanishad. The call of the ancient sages to man is: “O son of the Immortal! Know yourself as the Infinite! become the All. This is the supreme blessing. This is the supreme bliss.” This is the undying message to man. The sages have again and again stressed: “If one knows It (i.e., the Immortal Being) here, then there is the true end of all aspirations! If one does not know It here, great is the loss for him.” (Kenopanishad). And sage Yajnavalkya says that all great deeds done in this world, without the knowledge of the One Imperishable Being, are not worth anything. Humanitarian services; fasts and charity; one’s political, national, social and individual life; should all be based on the feeling of universal brotherhood which is the eternal expression of the Reality of universal Selfhood. Humanity can hope for peace when this condition, discovered and laid down by the Rishis, viz., abiding by the law of