Best Yoga For Modern Man SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA It is my firm belief that disinterested service is the greatest force to inspire and elevate man to high levels of evolution. It brings about an all-round development of man’s character, makes him manly and effects a spontaneous spiritual awakening. Selfless service is, indeed, most essential for the physical, moral and spiritual regeneration of the youth of the world. The practice of Karma Yoga is very necessary for developing important virtues. Virtues can be developed by service alone. Without possessing the basic virtues, one cannot dream of attaining God-realization, in spite of the understanding of the Vedantic oneness, tolerance, equanimity, kindness, mercy, fellowship, adaptability, humility, goodness of heart and broad-mindedness can be cultivated only through the practice of Karma Yoga. The raw diamond requires cutting and polishing before it gives its brilliant colour and lustre. Even so, the raw aspirant requires constant rubbing and polishing through service and contact with people of different temperament. If he can truly serve and please others even under trying circumstances, if he can keep up a cheerful countenance in spite of difficulties, if he can maintain equanimity in the bustle of a city and can acquire concentration of mind there, it clearly proves that he has outgrown his external environments and is ready for spiritual enlightenment. Willing Helpfulness: Sitting with closed eyes in a room bolted from within is no true Sadhana, if the people around happen to be in agony or in trouble. Selfishness and Sadhana can never go together. The aspirant must subordinate his own interests to those of others. He who attends on a helpless man when he is in great distress does more Sadhana than a man who practices meditation, Asana and Pranayama. If one does service to the needy for one hour, it is equal to meditation for six hours. There is no dearth of opportunities for service. A merciful doctor who attends on a helpless, poor, patient at midnight, without any fees, is a better Yogi than the Dhyana Yogi who passes along the road silently when he sees a poor man in a famished, dying condition, without even speaking to him an encouraging word, without even asking, “Brother, What do you want ? Can I be of help to you in any way ?” To a real Karma Yogi meditation comes automatically and the knowledge of the Upanishads dawns on him easily. He gets all knowledge from the Book of Knowledge Within through the grace of God. Mere service alone is not enough either. In the early morning the Karma Yogi should spend some time in Japa, Kirtan, meditation, study of religious books and a little of Asanas and Pranayama. During work also he may repeat the Name of God, silently. He may have another sitting for meditation before retiring to bed at night. The Sadhaka engaged in selfless service may at times, encounter vexation and disappointment. But let him proceed undaunted. Let him be staunch in his devotion to duty. His sincerity will turn all obstacles into aid; for the Lord Himself will mysteriously help and sustain him in his work. This has been invariably the experience of all self-sacrificing Sadhakas. Therefore, let courage and trust in God be your watchwords every moment. Means to Realization : The practice of Karma Yoga is a sure means for developing devotion to the Lord and attaining the Vedantic realization of Oneness. Without its practice no one can even dream of attaining either Bhakti or Jnana even through years of effort. Service, it may be said, is Bhakti or Jnana expressed through action. The true expression of love is not through words, but through service. Jnana or the knowledge of oneness of life is experienced through service of the one Self in all. In the plant of Karma Yoga blossom the flowers of Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Karma Yoga is the best Yoga for modern man. It enables you to attain God-realization quickly. King Janaka was a dynamic Karma Yogi, and yet, at the same time, he was a Jnani. Mahatma Gandhi had exalted himself through Karma Yoga. There is in the daily routine of life a vast field for everyone to purify and elevate oneself. Even in family life, Karma Yoga is an essential requisite. If everybody were selfish, there would be no peace in the home. Strong attachment breeds possessiveness, which is a selfish trait and is a negation of true love. Adaptability, amity and understanding, a little of self-denial and co-operation, help much in the promotion of peace in the house. All these can be effected through Karma Yoga. Duty for duty’s sake, without expectation of its fruits (which is the bane of worldly life), without inordinate likes and dislikes, without selfish attachment, offering all actions and fruits thereof to the Lord (viz. as worship done as an instrument in His hands), should be the ideal. Glory be to the selfless workers! May you all rejoice in bliss eternal by doing selfless service!

Food For The Soul SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA Within you is the hidden God. Within you is the Immortal Soul. Within you is the inexhaustible Spiritual Treasure. Within you is the fount of Joy and Happiness. Within you is the ocean of Bliss. Look within for this happiness which you have sought in vain in the perishable sensual objects. Rest peacefully in your own Atman (Self) and drink the nectar of Immortality. Taste the immortal sweetness of the beautiful life in the Self within by annihilating the mind. Live in Atman and attain the blessed immortal state. Meditate and reach the depths of eternal life, the height of divine glory and eventually attain the full glory of union with the Supreme Self. Now your long wearisome journey terminates. You have reached your destination – your sweet original home of everlasting peace – the Param-Dhama (Supreme Abode). Just as you require food for the body, so also you require, in the shape of prayers, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, etc., food for the soul. Just as you are agitated when you do not get the food in time, so also you will be agitated when you do not pray in the morning and in the evening, at the proper time, if you keep up the practice of prayer and Japa for some time. The soul also wants its food at the proper time. The food for the soul is more essential than the food for the body. Therefore do your prayers, Japa and meditation regularly. Just as the physical body needs food for its growth, so also the astral or subtle body requires spiritual food for its growth or evolution. If you are not regular in your Japa and meditation, the subtle body will become weak and your power of resisting the evil thoughts, Vasanas (subtle desires) and Samskaras (impressions in the subconscious mind), will be less. I think you now realize the necessity of the regularity in Sadhana. It is not true that only one attained Moksha or liberation and none else can. History bears evidence of many a Sankara having come into this world. If the past could produce Sankaras, why not the future also ? What is the immutable law of nature. Whosoever would attain the knowledge of the Self, like Yajnavalkya of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, like Uddalaka of Chandogya Upanishad, will also attain Moksha or Immortality. Some experience glimpses of the transcendental wonders of Atman. Some are on the border land of the vast domain of Atman. Some like Dattatreya, Jada Bharata, Vama Deva and Sadasiva Brahman, have plunged deep in the ocean of bliss. The more the thinning of the Vasanas, egoism and Deha Adhyasa, the greater the bliss of the Self. The more the Sadhana the more the experience of joy of the Soul. If you remain even for a minute without doing Sadhana, it is the highest sin (Maha Papa). Have iron determination to stick to the spiritual path and realize the Truth in this very birth. Method and discipline are necessary in work. Then only you will have efficient out-turn. Nothing will come out of chaos. O aspirants! Be very serious and earnest in your devotional practices. Run now to the Feet of God. The arduous practice of Yoga demands an abundance of energy and nerve-power on the part of the Yogic students. If one conserves the seminal energy only, he can have an abundance of energy and nerve-power. Therefore the practice of Brahmacharya is of paramount importance if one desires to practice Yoga and achieve the highest end of Yoga quickly. If there is slackness and irregularity in the practices, a fit of passion or worldliness may blow away the little good result which the Yogic student has achieved and it will be very difficult for him to rise again to the original heights he has climbed. That is the reason why one has to do arduous practice of Yoga till he is established in the highest Samadhi. That Yogi who has controlled his mind through the arduous practice of Yoga for several years will be able to cognize the immutable reality that is behind this empirical existence or the world of names and forms. That is the reason why Patanjali Maharishi also says: “Practice becomes fixed, steady, when practiced for a long time, without any break and with perfect devotion.” Chap. 1 – Sutra 14. Do not go to extreme in Sadhana or Tapas (austerities), such as Mouna (silence), fasting, etc. Keep up the golden medium. Lord Buddha did rigorous Tapas in the beginning. This affected his body much. Later on he learnt to keep up the golden medium. Do not spoil your health in the name of Tapascharya. Instead of weeping, do ploughing. There will be abundant rain on one day and you will have a rich harvest. Even so, be up and doing in Yogic Sadhana and you will attain Supreme Peace and Eternal Bliss on one day. Every effort in the spiritual path, any sort of spiritual practice never goes in vain. The fruit of Sadhana cannot come immediately to a Sadhaka. He will have to wait for a long time patiently. The spiritual evolution is gradual. Do not become impatient. In Gita, the Lord says: Tat swayam yoga samsiddah kalenatmani vindati – He who is perfected in Yoga finds it in the Self in due season. Chap. VI-38. Mark the words ‘in due season.’ O impatient aspirants! Be patient. You will get everything when the time comes. Do not bother much about awakening Kundalini. Let it awaken by itself spontaneously. Premature awakening is not desirable. Do your Sadhana and Tapas systematically and regularly.

Universal Love SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA The only Sara Vastu (true substance) in this world is Prema or Love. It is eternal, infinite and undecaying. Physical love is passion or Moha or infatuation. Universal love is divine love. Cosmic love, Visva Prema, universal love are synonymous terms. God is love. Love is God. Selfishness, greed, egoism, vanity, pride and hatred contract the heart and stand in the way of developing universal love. Develop universal love gradually through selfless service, Satsanga (association with Mahatmas), prayer, recitation of Guru Mantra, etc. When the heart is contracted through selfishness, man loves his wife, children, a few friends and relatives only, in the beginning. As he evolves, he loves the people of his own district, then the people of his own province. Later on, he develops universal love. All the barriers are broken now. Heart expands infinitely. It is very easy to talk of universal love. But when you want to put it in actual practice, it becomes extremely difficult. Petty-mindedness of all sorts comes in the way. Old, wrong Samskaras (impressions) which you have created by your wrong mode of life in the past, act as stumbling blocks. Through iron determination, strong will-power, patience, perseverance and Vichara (right enquiry), you can conquer all obstacles quite easily. The grace of the Lord will descend on you quite easily. The grace of the Lord will descend on you if you are sincere, my dear friends! Universal love terminates in Advaitic unity or oneness or Upanishadic consciousness of seers and sages. Pure love is a greater leveller. It brings equality. Hafiz, Kabir, Mira, Gouranga, Tukaram, Ramadas, all have tasted this universal love. What others have achieved, you can also attain. Feel that the whole world is your body, your own home. Melt or destroy all barriers that separate man from man. Idea of superiority is ignorance or delusion. Develop Visvaprema, all embracing love. Unite with all. Separation is death. Unity is eternal life. Feel that the whole world is Visvabrindavan. Feel that this body is a moving temple of God. Wherever you are, whether at home, office, railway station or market, feel that you are in the temple. Consecrate every act as an offering unto the Lord. Transmute every work into Yoga by offering its fruits to God. Have Akarta, Sakshi Bhava (feeling that you are just a witness), if you are a student of Vedanta. Have Nimitta Bhava (feeling that the Lord is the doer), if you are a student of Bhakti Marga. Feel that all beings are images of God. Isha Vasyamidam Sarvam – this world is indwelt by the Lord. Feel that one power or God works through all hands, sees through all eyes, hears through all ears. You will become a changed being. You will enjoy the highest peace and bliss.

The Absolute And The Relative SRI SWAMI KRISHNANANDA The comedy of the soul’s eternally communing itself in the Glory of the Kingdom of God, Brahmaloka, is well known to have turned into an apparently tragic circumstance of the soul dissociating itself from that Universal Glory by means of an inscrutable tendency to self-affirmation alienating the soul from its organic integratedness with the Universal Life. This situation has been traditionally declared as an epic fall of the soul headlong in a topsy-turvy way into the vast sea of the turmoil of it being necessary at that time to visualize the universal existence as an external world of perception and to consider every other soul as a socially disconnected entity. This fall from eternity to temporality is characterized by three torturous features, namely, The immediate cutting off of the soul from the Universal Sustaining Force; The consequent fear gripping the soul with hunger, thirst, and a constant apprehension of all-round insecurity; A permanent involvement of the soul in a perpetually unreliable and suspicious relationship with the outer society of similar souls. It looks as if death yawns with its open jaws, dread in tooth and claw. In this threefold blow dealt to the soul simultaneously from three different directions, which is virtually from every direction, the soul loses itself practically in entirety. Added to this, there is perhaps, a fourth factor of the external world looking a mightier vastness than the localized individual and it becoming incumbent on every individual to depend in abject servitude on every bit of thing of which the external world consists. This sorrow of life is attempted to be avoided or at least mitigated by the erroneous effort of the soul to patch up the finitude of its individuality by accumulating and adding accretions from the outer world in terms of material property, social power and aesthetic enjoyment through pleasurable sensations generated by the contact of sense-organs with their corresponding objects in the world. The entire effort ends in utter failure to accomplish anything at all worth the while by this means of an upside-down arrangement to place oneself in a condition of security, power and happiness. This totally mistaken meandering of the soul in a world of such agonizing tribulations has naturally to end in its defeat by the realities of life landing the soul in a helpless cyclic movement, as if it is mounted on a circulating wheel, through an almost endless series of repeated births and deaths. This is a veritable drama of the soul’s movement from sorrow to sorrow in a more and more intensifying manner. Mankind, today, with all its appurtenances of knowledge and experience gained through historical movement in several thousands of years on this earth, can be said to have learned no lesson at all as to where its true blessedness lies or what are the mistakes that it is daily committing in its life at every moment of time. Humanity’s blunders in its entirely empirical-oriented sense-ground perception of the values of life are as it has been briefly outlined above. If the human individual persists in this kind of thinking and acting inwardly as well as outwardly, such a life of the human individual cannot but be designated as a cauldron of hell-fire, which unfortunately, to the bound individual, appears to be a highly satisfactory state of affairs, because of its dictum, as the poet well said in this context, that ‘It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven’. The hope of mankind is not going to be in the continuance of this state of affairs even though it may go on through millions of years of human history. The only way of true freedom and final beatitude is to bring about a transvaluation of values and for the soul to stand erect in right perspective instead of viewing things as though a mirror of reflection or with head below and legs up. The whole situation has to be reconstructed in one’s own consciousness, firstly by not imagining that human society is really external to oneself, that the world is truly outside the process of perception, or that eternity is removed from temporality by spatial distance. This is so because the perception of an external multitude of society consisting of human and other living beings arises on account of the said topsy-turvy perception caused by one’s alienation from the totality of the Absolute. The establishment of oneself in a state of consciousness which stabilizes one’s being in a non-externalized Universal Pure Subjectivity of Selfhood is the final panacea for the sorrow of mortal existence. This is the great meditation in which every soul has to engage itself throughout its career in life. This is the final duty inseparable from man’s aspiration, nay, the only in duty in life.

The Key to Discovery SRI SWAMI VENKATESANANDA When engaged in an enquiry into the nature of the truth concerning the world, oneself, relationship and why the relationship exists, where does the answer come from? In olden days especially, it was usual to insist upon revelation. The truth was always revealed through a divine mystery, a divine dispensation, divine grace. Vasishtha has one of the most brilliant responses to this. He says: “What do you know about grace? Nothing. Do you believe in the existence of God who whispers into your ears? Nonsense! Drop it. Did some God serve you dinner, or did your wife or somebody else prepare it and give it you? Self-effort–that is what counts, nothing else counts. Dismiss all these speculations and enquire into it afresh.” The Master insists upon self-effort, so that one cannot say: “All right, if it has to happen accidentally, it will happen.” This doctrine of accidental coincidence is meant to clear mental blocks, first of all. Secondly, it is to stop this guessing game: “This must have a cause, therefore I am sure–” modified into: “I am pretty sure–” modified into: “I guess this is the cause.” Then one is on a wild-goose-chase so that the attention is always distracted, diverted, dissipated and meaningful effort is prevented. The Master concedes that if one is to have freedom, one must engage oneself in effort. In order to free oneself, there must necessarily be an understanding of the causal connection, that is, right effort. Why does one look for right effort? Because one knows that from right effort, right results will arise. So, even here, the doctrine of Vasishtha is not terribly cut and dried. I love to call it ‘neither-nor’ philosophy. Does everything happen accidentally? No. Is there a causal connection between A and B? No. Neither this nor that. Be watchful, be vigilant, then it is possible you will understand when this is applicable and when that is applicable. That which is neither-nor is the famous ‘middle path’, the middle being neither this nor that. But at the same time it should become clear that the middle is both this and that. It is neither this exclusively nor that exclusively, but this middle path takes on the characteristics of both sides. In all religious ceremonies and rituals there is fire involved somewhere, as an intermediary between the human and the divine. Why is it so? Because fire stands in the middle of the so-called five elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. Since it is in the middle, it is neither gross nor subtle, which means it shares the characteristics of the gross and the subtle. Like earth and water it can be seen, but like air and space it can only be felt but not grasped. Unlike the earth or the water which can be scooped up and thrown away, you can throw the burning substance away, but not the fire. Just as you can move your hand through air and space, so you can move your hand through fire. This fire is somewhere in between. That which is in the middle, on the one hand shares the characteristics of both, and on the other hand it is neither exclusively this nor exclusively that. This is the fundamental secret, the key to the doctrine of Vasishtha–neither self-effort nor grace; neither accidental coincidence nor absence of it. Although the wonderful sage Vasishtha insists upon self-effort, there is always the question of freedom of choice: self-effort versus predestination, destiny, karma. How does Vasishtha solve this, how does he reconcile it? If you study the scripture carefully, you will be puzzled. A few chapters are devoted entirely to self-effort. Vasishtha says: “What is called God and what is called destiny is nonsense. There is nothing called destiny, self-effort is the most important thing.” Then let us roll up our sleeves and fight the battle of life–Vasistha says: “No, that is not it. What can you, a puny little human being, do? Everything is pre-determined, everything is destiny.” Then you are tempted to turn around to the sage and say: “Please, make up your mind–am I free to act or am I destined to act?” And Vasishtha says: “You are destined to feel you are free, and what is called destiny is a choice which you exercised earlier on! You are free, but not free to change your colour, change your shape, change your sex, change your genes. You have already exercised that choice. And so, what you call destiny is nothing but the fruition of your own free will exercised earlier on. All right, now start a new chain-reaction. Plant a seed now which will germinate in its own time, which Will bring up its shoot in its own good time.” Thus, these two are reconciled. There is another problem with most of us: am I a free agent or is my life pre-destined absolutely–in which case, what part does divine grace play in it? If divine grace can do nothing, then why should I pray? If divine grace can do nothing then I do not have to pray, I do not have to meditate, what has to happen will happen. Or, can grace veto destiny? How does that work? Can I do something about it? Vasishtha says again: “Yes, of course you can do something about it. Grace itself demands that you should do something about it and change your destiny.” Thus all the so-called irreconcilables are beautifully, reconciled in this scripture. At one point something is emphasised and at another point the direct opposite is emphasised. Then it is pointed out that the two are not opposites, one is the continuation of the other. For instance, you plant a seed and a shoot comes out of it. These are not two unrelated events, the shoot and the whole tree were already contained in that seed, but not as cause and effect. Did we not start off saying that we must find

The Offering That Will Delight The Guru Sri Swami Chidananda Worshipful homage unto that supreme Divine Presence, the eternal, all-pervading, immanent Reality, that is the one unchanging, immutable and imperishable Being behind and beyond this everchanging, temporary and perishable phenomenal flux, this universe that we regard as real but that is a fleeting phenomenon of vanishing names and forms. We salute that Reality which is hidden behind outer appearance and supports it, even as the screen in a cinema theatre supports the fleeting shadows projected upon it. These shadows may seem to be very real, and they grip the audience who pay money to be deluded. But this fleeting shadow play has a beginning and an end and is ever changing while the screen forever remains the same. It was in the beginning, it is at the end and it continues to be the same, even when it is not seen by the audience who is lost in the projected shadows. To that great, immanent, all-pervading, ever-present Reality, worshipful homage! Loving adorations to the spiritual presence of Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj who makes us aware of our non-perception, who opens our inner eyes and makes us perceive the Reality. For that indeed is the great grace of the guru–to wake us from the slumber of ignorance and make us perceive the hidden Reality in the midst of changing appearances. The guru is one who intensely desires the highest welfare, the supreme good of the sincere sadhaka, jijnasu, mumukshu, yogi. Guru Purnima is the sacred full moon day in the year when all over India disciples tend to travel to be present at the place of their guru, gurusthan. They fulfil their desire to sit before the guru, to offer their reverence and to receive from him a quickening impulse that will give them a fresh impetus in their journey beyond sorrow to the realm of eternal bliss, the realm of light beyond all darkness. They also desire to show their reverence in a tangible manner, by making an offering as a symbol of their gratitude, their appreciation for what they have received from the guru. They call it guru dakshina, a special offering that they make to the guru. Now, what is the guru dakshina that is especially pleasing to the guru? Being sincere and earnest in sadhana, rededicating themselves to the great ideals of spirituality–renunciation, dispassion, discrimination, abhyasa, spiritual sadhana–that indeed would be the guru dakshina desired by the guru. That each disciple shines as a centre of fiery aspiration, intense fervour and total dedication to the ideal, and has a resolute determination to follow the path, to pursue the ideal come what may, to adhere to the guru’s instructions, and to live by the lofty ideals placed before us by the ancient seers and sages of whom we are descendants–that would be the dakshina desired by the guru. In this context we remember the ancient saying, “Physician, heal thyself.” First and foremost start with your own good work. Where you are, within yourself, work for the emergence of a new being within you–a new mind, a new heart, a new person within. Guru Purnima, therefore, has this significance: it is an occasion for a renewal. There is a fabled bird, known as the phoenix, connected with the worship of the sun especially in ancient Egypt. It is reputed that there is only one phoenix at a time and that it lives for at least five hundred years. To perpetuate itself, it does not build a nest to hatch an egg, but rather a nest made of aromic boughs and spices as a funeral pyre. It then sets the nest on fire and is consumed in the flames. It ceases to be, but lo! out of those ashes a shining new phoenix miraculously emerges. This ancient belief about this bird is of deep significance to each and every spiritual aspirant. From out of the ashes of your old self–the unspiritual self, the self that is wedded to ignorance, to attachment to sense objects and their indulgence, which is also desire-ridden and thinking of itself as an embodied physical personality with physical features and impulses–emerge as a shiny new being. Having annihilated the previous personality, destroying it totally, ceasing to be, recreate yourself and begin your work here. Gurudev used to say: “Kill this little ‘I’. Die to live. Lead the divine life.” That indeed is the great guru dakshina, more precious than the nine gems, more precious than silver and gold. The guru would rejoice in such a guru dakshina. Therefore deeply reflect upon this. Ponder this vital, very significant and important idea. Start with yourself. Become a new being, even as the phoenix. Shine with this renewal, and may that be your guru dakshina. God will be pleased; the guru will be delighted, and the whole brotherhood will be benefited. And you, above all, will be most benefited by your offering. May God and guru inspire you to contemplate this in all seriousness and sincerity. In all earnestness ponder this, and do it! God bless you!

Sri Swami Sivananda Salutations again and again at the Holy Feet of the great Sage, Sri Vyasa Bhagavan Sri Krishna-Dwaipayana, who edited the Vedas, composed the Brahmasutras, and wrote the Mahabharata and the eighteen Puranas including the Srimad-Bhagavata; salutations to the Brahmavidya Gurus, all Saints and Sages of yore to the present day. Jagad-guru, Sri Sankaracharya, who was an Avatara of Lord Siva, delved into the precious wisdom of the Upanishads and brought out the most rare gem in the form of the unparalleled Advaita philosophy or the Monistic idealism which gives you, in a nutshell, the glorious truth that you are in essence Divine beings, ever perfect, free, full and blissful. This idea is contained in his famous memorable Sloka: ‘Slokardhena Pravakshyami Yaduktam Granthakotibhih; Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya, Jivo Brahmaiva Naparah.’ This gives the very essence of all spiritual wisdom, and it is the last word in the transcendental realisation expressed in the form of this famous Sloka. Bliss is to be found in the spiritual Reality which is within you. Realise this and be free. Now this ultimate declaration has been given–well and good. But how to attain it? Because you know that in your actual experience of worldly pleasures, your mental impressions are, unfortunately, gathered through the instruments of the mind and the senses. So, when your entire experience of pleasure gives you a perception of Asat, Achit and Duhkha, how can you find the Satchidananda Atman? Everything in this world is fleeting in character. You do not find Chit (consciousness) anywhere but only the Jada (insentient) everywhere. ‘Sarvam Duhkham Vivekinah’,–according to this declaration there is only pain to be experienced in this world. If pain is constantly experienced by you, how can you find Ananda or Bliss? And in answer to this, seers and sages of yore have shown the way by which we have to reach our goal, step by step. In the Vivekachudamani, there is a Sloka which runs as follows: ‘Durlabham Trayamevaitat Daivanugraha-hetukam; Manushyatvam Mumukshutvam Maha-purushasamsrayah.’ Three things are very difficult to obtain. Only through the grace of God the Jivas obtain them. To be born as a human being is no small privilege. It is a very precious gift given by God to the Jiva. Having got a human birth, to have an aspiration for liberation is the next difficult thing to obtain. So, if one obtains both these, one is indeed doubly blessed. But having been born as a human being, if you do not want to know, and yet even after knowing that, if you do not know the way, you are not fully blessed. Therefore, if you get the shelter of a Mahapurusha, one who has known what has to be attained and one who is in a position to show you the way, you can admit that you are thrice blessed. This unique blessing has to be remembered always. Then alone will you be careful not to waste the opportunity. When you know the real value of a thing, you take proper care of it, and not otherwise. The only thing that stands in the way of your spiritual realisation is your own mind, the ego, or call it by any name you like. It is precisely in order to see that this obstacle is removed and one gets at the ultimate goal of human life that one goes to the preceptor or Guru. The Guru has destroyed the limiting mind and he knows the method as to how one has to destroy it. Let us suppose that a man who is desirous of leading a spiritual life goes to a Guru and asks for his advice and guidance; and the Guru tells him, “Be good, lead a virtuous life, serve selflessly, love all, share with others what you have, purify the mind, meditate with one-pointed mind, etc.” But, if the man does not sincerely strive to follow the Guru’s advice, what benefit will he thereby derive? Absolutely nothing. He will be in no way better than what he was. It seems that one does not want to practise anything, but there is only the expectation of the result. What a sad state of affairs! This life on earth is a halting place on the way to the achievement of the Goal of life. Earthly life is transitory, for it is seen that everything that is born dies. Death is not the end of life, since without a continuation of life therefrom the value of the deeds and experiences in this life would be rendered nugatory. There were births and deaths in the past, there will be births and deaths in the future, too, until Self-realisation is attained. Life is a long chain of which the recurring births, planetary lives and deaths are links. Birth is caused by desires and actions, and birth becomes the cause of further desires and actions. This present life is, therefore, meant to train the individual to qualify himself for a higher life. viz., to stop births and deaths ultimately. This life is not the goal or the end, even as the path is not the same as the destination. If earthly life were the final goal, none would have died here, there would not have been mutation, pain and sorrow, and there would be no sense of imperfection and no further urge or aspiration to transcend the present condition. The ever-changing world proves the existence of an unchanging imperishable Being. Remember that you came alone to this world and also you will pass away alone from this world. None will help you except what you have done here in this life. Your deeds will search you out and follow you as calves follow their mothers even in the midst of a big herd. Your life is short and there are many obstacles to get over. Therefore, exert now with earnestness. Waste not precious time but utilize every moment for the noblest of causes. Finish your journey quickly by practising right Sadhana (spiritual endeavour) with the guidance of a Guru or preceptor.

Does The Guru Ever Die? Sri Swami Chidananda There is a great tradition in the monarchy of England: “The throne shall never be empty; the country shall never be without a monarch.” That is the tradition. The heir apparent instantly and simultaneously becomes the king the moment the last breath leaves the body of the ruling monarch. The announcement is made: “The king is dead. Long live the king!” It seems paradoxical, but no! The king is dead, but the king is not absent because the heir apparent has already assumed the status of monarch of the land. Ponder this statement, this proclamation, “The king is dead. Long live the king!” When even in a secular set-up the secular monarch is never for a moment absent, can a spiritual dimension be lacking in this? Is it to be found wanting? Are we to think that we are without the guru because the guru is no more? The guru was and now he is not? Are we less than the positive tradition of the British throne? Is the secular set-up one step ahead, and we are one step behind? It’s absurd to think that such a possibility exists. The guru never dies because he lives in the disciple. That he may so live, he spends his life entering into the disciple in the form of his idealism, his ideas, his vision, his attitudes, his sense of values. His aim and objective for living is to ceaselessly and continuously strive and work so that he may live forever in and through each and every one of his disciples. The bright light of a candle never ceases to shine once another candle has been lit by its flame. It itself may be snuffed out, but it is already burning brightly upon another candle through another wick–the selfsame light. Ponder this well! You are the being through whom the guru lives. This is an honour. This is a privilege. This is a great good fortune. It is also a responsibility; it is a duty; it is a truth to be known and kept in mind always: “I must be what the guru has taught me to be. I must be what the guru was.” But ……. Somehow there is always a “but.” You cannot rebut the previous statement, but Gurudev himself said in effect many times: “Do not do what I do, but do as I say. Do what I tell you. I have given you some instructions, carry them out. Don’t try to imitate me. You may emulate me, you may try to be as I am in my nature, in my character, in my lofty, idealistic way of life, in my spiritual personality, but do not imitate me. Emulate me.” Imitation and emulation are two words whose distinction each disciple must know. Sankaracharya put his cloth over his head in a certain way. Today many people imitate that style of wearing a cloth. That is not discipleship; that is not spiritual emulation; that is not what he expected that you would be doing when he wrote Vivekachudamani, Atmabodha etc. He did not write them down so that you would imitate the way he dressed. So if you make that your way of being like him, you will fail miserably. You must make the vibrant spirituality of the guru live within you, the sublime idealism of the guru live within you, the spiritual teachings of the guru live within you. His loftiness of character and conduct should live within you. His divine nature and the divine way he lived his life should be relived in you. Looking at you, the world should understand the divinity of your guru. So, Gurudev said: “Do what I tell you to do. Don’t do what I do, because I do it on another level.” Gurudev also said: “Obedience is better than reverence.” Thus if the disciples know the difference between imitation and emulation and follow him through emulation and obedience, the guru never dies. Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji will never die as long as there are sincere striving aspirants like all of you trying to walk the path of divine life, ever striving to fulfil in your thoughts, words and deeds the essence of his teachings. Who then can say that Swami Sivananda was and not is. He is and he shall ever continue to be. Why? Because each one of you represents a radiant facet, a shining aspect of his noble, divinely lived life. Therefore, in and through his disciples he lives and continues to inspire hundreds and thousands. This is a great privilege. This is a great guru seva. May you be engaged in doing it, and may you discriminate at every step so that you keep on emulating him and not go off at a tangent merely imitating him. If for England the king never dies, in the spiritual world, the guru never dies. The disciples ensure that the light of the guru, the inspiration of the guru, the wisdom teachings of the guru will be perpetually present in human society in and through each one of themselves. The guru lives, and he shines through each one of his disciples. Each one of you, therefore, are living lights of the Sivananda ideal of divine life. May God and Gurudev’s grace and blessings enable you to do this most effectively, most fully and most successfully for the benefit of all humanity.

The Need For Spiritual Regeneration Sri Swami Sivananda Our forefathers would be considerably amused at many of the maladies that afflict humanity today, e.g., inflation, black-marketing, bootlegging, gun-running, et hoc genus omne. These Frankenstein monsters, threatening to destroy us before long, are our own creation as they are merely the inescapable effects of our lapse from a spiritual outlook upon life and the adoption of a purely materialistic philosophy of living. These and myriad of other similar problems have their origin in a love of luxurious living and are the products of a foolish mania on the part of every nation to raise its so-called standard of living over that of its neighbours. The economic-blockades, the armament-races and the atom-bomb imbroglios are all the resultants of human vanity, greed, jealousy, mutual suspicion and hatred; and as each nation wants to be on the safe side by multiplying its power of destruction, there is a regular scramble and competition for becoming the most ruthless and the most destructive power! ‘Is there no remedy for this’ has been on every one’s lips for over a generation now; but no one has the courage and the faith for taking the practical steps necessary for stopping the rot, irrespective of the cost or the consequences. Each nation wants the other nations, each man all other men, to take the initiative; and so the merry game goes on unabated. The vicious circle has to be broken by someone; and why not let it be done by ourselves rather than by others? The minimum essentials of the change that has to be brought about should be clearly visualised and consciously and conscientiously pursued by everyone according to his capacity. The first step to be taken is to change the angle of vision of life. All materialistic ways of thinking and living should be abandoned. A simple, spiritual sense of the values of life should be carefully inculcated in all countries, and in all societies. There should be an immediate return to the motto of ‘Plain Living and High Thinking,’ so successfully followed by our ancient forefathers, who understood well that the practice of renunciation is the sine qua non for the thorough eradication of greed and fear, which lie at the root of all troubles of the world. As a supplement to this, the spirit of selfless service should be infused into every man from his childhood-days. This is the point at which religion meets ethics and sociology; for the first posits the one Self alone pervades all existence. Hence, every piece of service done to others amounts to a benefit conferred on ourselves. The more this sublime basis of human actions is recognised and adopted, the more rapid will be man’s evolution towards perfection and divinisation. The emphasis in human relations should be shifted from right to duties. Communalism, racialism, nationalism–all ‘isms’ are only the different hoods of the same hydra-headed monster of selfishness and insistence upon rights and disregard of duties and should, therefore, give place to one all-embracing Universalism. National borders should gradually lose their artificial significance and importance; and one by one, all difference–of religion and language, social and moral codes, cultural and political institutions–should vanish and be replaced by the greatest common measure of uniformity of outlook, interests and conduct. In this age of atomic armament, racial hatred and policies of national greed, organised exploitation, inter-national exclusiveness, intolerance and distrust, our task is not so much the alteration and transformation of the patterns, policies and plans of the governments of the nations of the world as the creation of a great world-enveloping movement for a mass spiritual education and for the purification and the transfigurations of the nature and the personal propensities of the individual. The paramount importance and the imperative and indispensable necessity for the moral, ethical and cultural refinement of the individual personality upon a world-wide scale is to be realised first and foremost. For, the prime and fundamental unit of all wider groups like class, race, nation and human society the world over is the individual man. Great masses of mankind have to be weaned from the unfortunate hedonistic tendencies of thinking, feeling and acting with the grossness and greed of the mere beast. This is not an impossible proposition, for the Divine exists in all beings and it is an integral part of every individual consciousness. The method to draw it out is right and true education. This task of gradually, yet surely regenerating the nature of the masses has to be seriously undertaken in all earnestness and worked out in the educational and the domestic spheres, in particular, and the wider social sphere, in general–if the hope of creating a new generation and bringing into existence a new humanity who will elect and manage the future governments of nations in the best interests of all is to be fulfilled. I know this is a difficult task; but no great thing is ever done as if by magic. All constructivity implies hard work and more so much a creative and constructive task of world-wide nature. The results may not be immediate. To a large extent the fruit of such work will be for the posterity, while the tempo and the sincerity of the movement will set the elders athinking and gradually transform them as well. Just as a farmer who wishes to reap a rich harvest of healthy and luxuriant crop does not so much attempt to change and improve the existing crop that is already standing in the field–though he exerts to safeguard them from rot and pestilence–but rather starts to treat the soil in which the seeds of the next harvest are lying and germinating in silence, even so, all those who are to work for future peace and universal well-being should first of all strive to create a right and ideal condition that will ensure the four freedoms in order to enable the future generation to fulfil the hopes and ideals that we cherish today. If

Worship of Divine Power Sri Swami Sivananda The worship of the Protective Power is a need felt by all created beings. This worship may take the form of an intelligent participation with the universal, sustaining Power, or it may, in ordinary common beings, exist as merely the instinct of subjection to higher powers whose help they seek by their very nature. Man, however, endowed as he is with the brilliant faculty of discrimination, understanding and conscious volition, knows that his well-being rests upon his being in harmony with the governing power of the universe. Man requires protection both physically and psychically. The unique Indian mind has conceived of the Reality behind the universe as a supremely intelligent Being working with its Force or Power or Shakti, which is inherent in this universal Intelligence. This Supreme Power appears as Avataras, which descend to the visible world, or invisible benefactory forces of which man cannot be easily conscious. Whatever be the form taken by this Power, its worship is found to be indispensable for the good of man; this worship is, therefore, an attempt to come in contact with that Power. Upon those who cannot worship it always, the ancient scriptures have enjoined occasional worship. In a year, the beginning of summer and the beginning of winter are two very important junctions of climatic conditions and solar influence. These two occasions are taken as the sacred opportunities for the worship of the Divine Being. These are indicated respectively, by the Ramanavaratri in the Chaitra Masa and the Durga Navaratri in the Ashwayuja Masa. The bodies and the minds of people undergo a considerable change on account of the changes in the outer nature. Sri Rama is worshipped on Ramanavami on the first occasion, and Devi Durga on the second. While Sri Rama is the Avatara of God through his Shakti (Prakriti, Atma Maya or Yoga Maya), Durga is the Shakti manifested as the creative, preservative and protective principle in the created world. This great Principle is adored as the Divine Mother, as Maha Kaali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati, representing the aspects of Tamas, Rajas and Sattwa. As a rope is made of three strands, the universe consists of these three Gunas or modes of Prakriti. Devi Puja is the worship of the ultimate cause of all things, and hence it conduces to the good of all, which are its effects. It is the bounden duty of man to propitiate the Divine Mother, for She rules supreme over the health and the wealth of the universe. Even the intelligence of man is governed by Her. Man is really Shakti Maya, (filled with Shakti). He cannot exist independent of Shakti. The whole universe is energy, and energy is Shakti. God in His revealed form is Shakti or Power. In his unmanifested aspect He is Chit or Consciousness; Chit Shakti is the Consciousness Force that is working everywhere as the material cause of everything. On the worship of this Mother of all things depends the prosperity of the individual, the family, the society, the nation and the whole world. Human power is not great; it derives its value from the inexhaustible source of Divinity. When it is illumined by the pure Intelligence of the Divine, it tends to spiritual construction and blessedness–not vile destruction and misery. The great need of the hour is harmony and a proper knowledge of the divine forces of the universe, the lack of which is the harbinger of evil and suffering. Loving communion with the whole means the happiness of that which is one with the Whole. O Seeker! You are not a self-sufficient, independent entity. Your greatness is a reflected part of the universal magnificence of the Maha Shakti or the Aishwarva of the Lord. Abandon your vanity and pride. Surrender yourself to the Divine Mother. Pray to Her, who is Brahma Shakti, Vishnu Shakti, and Siva Shakti. You are a child of the Mother. How can you disregard Her? You are made up of Her Substance. Know that She is all-pervading. There is no place where She is not. Study the Devi Mahatmya and do Japa of Devi Mantra. Meditate on Devi and attune yourself to Her. This is your goal; this is your highest prosperity; this is the zenith of glory; this is Kaivalya Moksha or final emancipation. May you rest in Peace and be blessed. May the grace of Divine Mother be upon you!