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Makara Shankranti
Spiritual Message for the Day – Makara Shankranti by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 January 2015 17.35 EST | New York Edition** |
Makara Shankranti
Divine Life Society Publication: Hindu Fasts & Festivals by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Om! Om! Om!
SALUTATIONS and adorations to the Supreme Lord, the primordial power that divided the year into the four seasons. Salutations to Surya, the Sun-God, who on this great day embarks on his northward journey.
The Sanskrit term “Shankramana” means “to begin to move”. The day on which the sun begins to move northwards is called Makara Shankranti. It usually falls in the middle of January.
Among the Tamilians in South India this festival is called the Pongal.
To many people, especially the Tamilians, Makara Shankranti ushers in the New Year. The corn that is newly-harvested is cooked for the first time on that day. Joyous festivities mark the celebration in every home. Servants, farmers and the poor are fed and clothed and given presents of money. On the next day, the cow, which is regarded as the symbol of the Holy Mother, is worshipped. Then there is the feeding of birds and animals.
In this manner the devotee’s heart expands slowly during the course of the celebrations, first embracing with its long arms of love the entire household and neighbours, then the servants and the poor, then the cow, and then all other living creatures. Without even being aware of it, one develops the heart and expands it to such proportions that the whole universe finds a place in it.
As Shankranti is also the beginning of the month, Brahmins offer oblations to departed ancestors. Thus, all the great sacrifices enjoined upon man find their due place in this grand celebration. The worship of the Cosmic Form of the Lord is so well introduced into this, that every man and woman in India is delightfully led to partake of it without even being aware of it.
To the spiritual aspirants this day has a special significance. The six-month period during which the sun travels northwards is highly favourable to them in their march towards the goal of life. It is as though they are flowing easily with the current towards the Lord. Paramahamsa Sannyasins roam about freely during this period, dispelling gloom from the hearts of all. The Devas and Rishis rejoice at the advent of the new season, and readily come to the aid of the aspirant.
The great Bhishma, the grandfather of the Pandavas, was fatally wounded during the war of the Mahabharata, waited on his deathbed of nails for the onset of this season before finally departing from the earth-plane. Let us on this great day pay our homage to him and strive to become men of firm resolve ourselves!
As already mentioned, this is the Pongal festival in South India. It is closely connected with agriculture. To the agriculturalist, it is a day of triumph. He would have by then brought home the fruits of his patient toil. Symbolically, the first harvest is offered to the Almighty—and that is Pongal. To toil was his task, his duty, but the fruit is now offered to Him—that is the spirit of Karma Yoga.
The master is not allowed to grab all the harvest for himself either. Pongal is the festival during which the landlord distributes food, clothes and money among the labourers who work for him. What a noble act!—It is an ideal you should constantly keep before you, not only ceremoniously on the Pongal day, but at all times.
Be charitable. Be generous. Treat your servants as your bosom-friends and brother workers. This is the keynote of the Pongal festival. You will then earn their loyalty and enduring love.
The day prior to the Makara Shankranti is called the Bhogi festival. On this day, old, worn-out and dirty things are discarded and burnt. Homes are cleaned and white-washed. Even the roads are swept clean and lovely designs are drawn with rice-flour. These practices have their own significance from the point of view of health. But, here I remind you that it will not do to attend to these external things alone. Cleaning the mind of its old dirty habits of thought and feeling is more urgently needed. Burn them up, with a wise and firm resolve to tread the path of truth, love and purity from this holy day onwards. This is the significance of Pongal in the life of the spiritual aspirant.
If you do this, then the Makara Shankranti has a special significance for you. The sun, symbolising wisdom, divine knowledge and spiritual light, which receded from you when you revelled in the darkness of ignorance, delusion and sensuality, now joyously turns on its northward course and moves towards you to shed its light and warmth in greater abundance, and to infuse into you more life and energy.
In fact, the sun itself symbolises all that the Pongal festival stands for. The message of the sun is the message of light, the message of unity, of impartiality, of true selflessness, of the perfection of the elements of Karma Yoga. The sun shines on all equally. It is the true benefactor of all beings. Without the sun, life would perish on earth. It is extremely regular and punctual in its duties, and never claims a reward or craves for recognition. If you imbibe these virtues of the sun, what doubt is there that you will shine with equal divine lustre!
He who dwells in the sun, whom the sun does not know, whose body the sun is, and by whose power the sun shines—He is the Supreme Self, the Indweller, the immortal Essence. Tat Twam Asi—“That thou art”. Realise this and be free here and now on this holy Pongal or Makara Shankranti day. This is my humble Pongal prayer to you all.
On the Shankranti day, sweets, puddings and sweet rice are prepared in every home, especially in South India. The pot in which the rice is cooked is beautifully adorned with tumeric leaves and roots, the symbols of auspiciousness. The cooking is done by the women of the household with great faith and devotion, feeling from the bottom of their hearts that it is an offering unto the Lord. Special prayers are offered in temples and houses. Then the people of the household gather together and partake of the offerings in an atmosphere of love and festivity.
There is family re-union in all homes. Brothers renew their contacts with their married sisters by giving them presents.
The farmer is lovingly greeted by the landlord and is given presents of grain, clothes and money.
On the next day, the herds of cows are adorned beautifully, fed and worshipped. In some villages the youth demonstrate their valour by taking “the bull by the horn” (and often win their brides thereby!). It is a great day for the cattle.
On the same day, young girls prepare various special dishes—sweet rice, sour rice, rice with coconut—and take them to the bank of a river or tank. They lay some leaves on the ground and place on them balls of the various preparations for the fish, birds, and other creatures. It is an extremely colourful ceremony. The crows come down in large numbers and partake of the food. All the time a valuable lesson is driven into our minds—“Share what you have with all”. The crow will call others before beginning to eat.
Both these days, which are family re-union days, are regarded as being inauspicious for travel. This is to prevent us from going away from home on those days.
When you celebrate the Shankranti or Pongal in this manner, your sense of value changes. You begin to understand that your real wealth is the goodwill and friendship of your relatives, friends, neighbours and servants; that your wealth is the land on which your food grows, the cattle which help you in agriculture, and the cow which gives you milk. You begin to have greater love and respect for them and for all living beings—the crows, the fish and all other creatures.
In Maharashtra and in North India, spiritual aspirants attach much importance to Makara Shankranti. It is the season chosen by the Guru for bestowing his Grace on the disciple. In the South, too, it should be noted that it was about this time that Mahadeva favoured several of the Rishis by blessing them with His beatific vision.
Excerpts from: Makara Shankranti - Hindu Fasts & Festivals by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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The Purpose of Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Purpose of Yoga by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 January 2015 15.45 EST | New York Edition** |
The Purpose of Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Lectures on Raja Yoga by Sri Swami Chidananda
Om! Om! Om!
The purpose of Yoga is to try to restore to man his pristine state of perfect bliss; and this it does by liberating the human individual from his involvement in body, senses and mind. This involvement itself is the prime cause for keeping him away from itself, is the greatest obstacle to his attainment of that experience which the Yoga science says lies right here, present at this moment. To become liberated from the bondage of pain, thus bringing to an end the union of man’s nature with pain, is Yoga. How is this cessation of pain brought about by uniting the consciousness with that which is of the nature of Bliss? And that factor which is of the nature of pure bliss is called the Self; is called Brahman; is called God; is called Allah; is called Isvara, the Thing-In-Itself, Ahuramazda. It is the Deity. It is the Universal Soul, the Cosmic Reality, the Eternal Divine Principle which is the Alpha and Omega of all beings, which is the origin and fulfilment of this and all that exist. To bring into a state of oneness with it, relate yourself to it and achieve a perfection of relationship with it, is Yoga. And to achieve this end, you will have to carefully withdraw your involvement in the passing, the finite, the limited, the non-eternal. This is a condition, is a prerequisite. Yoga teaches both—how to sever your connection to the non-eternal and how to enter into that connection to the eternal, the all-perfect, the infinite. Yoga teaches that both these aspects are two in one, that is, uniting yourself with the Divine and thus attaining the Bliss which you seek in vain in finite, earthly objects. That is Yoga. That is the purpose of Yoga. The process of Yoga is the turning away from that which is characterised by sorrow, by pain and which is perishable, destructible in its nature.
Excerpts from: The Purpose of Yoga - Lectures on Raja Yoga by Sri Swami Chidananda
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Problem of Good and Evil
Spiritual Message for the Day – Problem of Good and Evil by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 January 2015 17.06 EST | New York Edition** |
Problem of Good and Evil
Divine Life Society Publication Yoga in Daily Life by Swami Sivananda
The universe contains two dynamic forces, viz., good and evil. Good and evil are twin forces. They are twin born of the same father. They are “Dvandvas” or pairs of opposites. They have no independent existence. Evil exists to glorify good. Evil is destructive force. Good is constructive force. There is neither absolute good nor absolute evil in this universe. Evil has no independent existence apart from good. Wherever there is evil, there is good; wherever there is good, there is evil. You cannot expect absolute good in this relative world. You can find absolute good in Brahman alone. From the viewpoint of the basic Reality which lies at the back of evil and good, evil and good dwindle into an airy nothing. Evil and good are mental creations. Transcend good and evil and reach the abode of Supreme Peace and Immortality. For a Jnani who has knowledge of the Self, there is neither good nor evil. The ‘Why’ of the evil can only be understood when you get Atma-Jnana. Do not rack your brain now. It is a transcendental mystery. Only Brahman knows. Finite intellect that is conditioned in time, space and causation cannot find out a solution for this problem of evil. When you are fully established in your Svarupa (Atma Nishta) evil and good vanish altogether. Do not put the cart before the horse. Transmute evil into good by changing your mental attitude or angle of vision. Out of evil, good often cometh. Destruction is necessary for regeneration, renovation and reconstruction. Will a patient with intense type of appendicular colic try to find out the ingredients of a pill, when the doctor gives him a medicine? Will he not take the pill immediately? Will a man whose cloth is on fire try to find out the “why” and “how” of the fire? Will he not run towards water for cooling himself?
Tamas is evil. Sattva is good. Convert Tamas into Sattva. Then evil is transmuted into good. Selfishness is evil. Selflessness is good. Lust is an evil. Brahmacharya is good. Greed is evil. Generosity, integrity, disinterestedness are good. Pride is evil. Humility is good.
Out of evil good often cometh. If there is a heavy torrent of rain at the time of a harvest, people consider this as evil. But God knows what is good for His children. He has brought this rain to wash off the earth the germs, which produce severe diseases. Had it not been for this rain, there would have been a severe type of pandemic, infectious diseases which could have swept away the whole population in the twinkling of an eye. Mark here. O friends, the merciful nature of the Lord! Do not try to probe into the Divine mysteries. It will baffle your poor intellect.
Then again, what about a war? It is no doubt an evil. But good often cometh out of war. A war cannot break out without the sanction of the Lord. It is He, who goads the minds of the Minister, the King, the Dictator, the President and the Commander-in-chief to wage war. It is war that produces chivalrous warriors, fearless soldiers, undaunted and intrepid statesmen. War makes a man fearless. Fearlessness is a great qualification for a spiritual aspirant. On account of passion, there is an increase in the population. The supply of foodstuff is not sufficient to meet the demands of the people. War removes the extra population and prevents the outbreak of a severe famine. War brings down to dust the pride of a ruling power. War creates mercy, generosity and cosmic love, in the hearts of rich persons who are misers; and forces them to donate to the helpless widows, orphans and the wounded persons. The world or society must evolve through evil. Understand His mysterious ways and become wise.
Excerpts from: Divine Life Society Publication Yoga in Daily Life by Swami Sivananda
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Wisdom
Spiritual Message for the Day – Wisdom by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 January 2015 15.34 EST | New York Edition** |
Wisdom
Divine Life Society Publication: The Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda & Commentary by
Sri Swami Krishnananda
Na’ham Dehasthwaham sarvavyapyarmathyo’ vikaryaham
| Akandayscha Swathantrosmi Satchidananda Eva Cha | 2 |
(Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda)
He who thinks “I am not the body; I am all-pervading, changeless, immortal, indivisible, self-contained, self-existent, Sat-Chit-Ananda Brahman” is a wise sage. He is free.
Wisdom is an integrating force. It is all-unifying and all-embracing. It discards nothing from its purview, it enters the core of every being. The man of wisdom feels the all-pervading and massive character of the Reality which constitutes the stuff of the beings that appear in the universe. He identifies himself with that stuff itself and hence the formations thereof become his own being.
The assertion of the changeless, immortal, indivisible, self-contained, self-existent, Satchidananda Brahman is wisdom. According to Lord Krishna, wisdom consists in humility, unpretentiousness, non-injuriousness, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadiness, self-control, renunciation of sense-objects, absence of egoism, reflection on the evils of birth, death, old age, sickness and pain, non-attachment, non-identification of the self with son, wife, house, etc., constant even-mindedness in the occurrence of the desirable and the undesirable, unswerving devotion to the Real, feeling of identity of the self with the Truth, resort to sequestered places, distaste for the society of men, constant resort to spiritual knowledge, and understanding the goal of the Reality. Everything else is ignorance.
The wise man hates no creature, is friendly and compassionate towards all, is free from the feelings of “I” and “mine”, is even-minded in pain and pleasure, is forbearing, is ever content and steady in meditation, is self-controlled, is possessed of firm conviction, has his mind and intellect fixed on the Reality or Brahman. Such a person is illumined by the Highest Wisdom.
These are the signs of wisdom and not the being of wisdom itself. The Being of Wisdom is Absolute Oneness of Consciousness. Every virtue is the outcome of this supreme Attainment.
Excerpts from: Wisdom - The Moksha Gita by Swami Sivananda & Commentary by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Purity
Spiritual Message for the Day – Purity by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 January 2015 16.09 EST | New York Edition** |
Purity
Divine Life Society Publication: Purity by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Purity is achieved by freedom from desire, and desire should be distinguished from necessity. When one is hungry, one should eat, when one is thirsty one should drink, when one is fatigued, one should sleep. These absolute necessities cannot be called desires because without these necessities one cannot even survive.
Desire is a destructive form of longing which innervates the whole system, longing for things which are not necessary for the maintenance of the body. Every kind of luxury should be considered as desire. One has to judge for oneself whether this particular thing is absolutely necessary, or one can be comfortable even without that. If one can comfortably live happily without certain things, asking for those things once again is called desire. It will disturb the mind.
There are levels of desire, of a lower category and a higher category, etc. You may feel like having a cup of tea. It is a minor desire; have it. You may like to go for a walk – go, go for a walk. Any object that brings about tumult in the emotion, that is an object of desire by which you either want it intensely or hate it intensely. Intense wanting and intense hating will affect the emotions. The test of good health is freedom from emotion, correct understanding without any kind of ebullition, burning desire of any kind. This is briefly the definition of desire.
There are two kinds of desires, anabolic and catabolic. Anabolic desires are constructive, helpful and necessary for maintaining health and peace of mind. Catabolic desires are destructive in their nature. They throw the energy out. Any procedure by which we can conserve our energy is anabolic. Any process by which we deplete our energy and then become weak, that is catabolic. One must be able to very carefully distinguish between one and the other. Understanding is the judge, it is called Viveka-Shakti, capacity to distinguish between what is absolutely essential for living a normal life and what is irrelevant. This is a preliminary definition to the question “What is purity?”
So purity is not like an apple that falls from a tree; it has shades of definition. You will not find any such clear description of this subject in any book. Each one has to use one’s common sense.
It is necessary to save life. Suppose you find a snake is wriggling, encircled by forest fire. You would like to save it, but you do not go and catch hold of its neck. So even a good desire like wanting to save the snake should not be fulfilled in a reckless way.
There is a famous passage called Kama Gita in the Mahabharata. The desire says,”People try to conquer me, but they do not know that even the desire to conquer me is a desire, they don’t understand that, so I am behind all their attempts.”
Desire for God sublimates all other mortal desires. The higher absorbs the lower, the lower should be transmuted to the higher by meditation.
Excerpts from: Purity by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Psychological Non-Attachment
Spiritual Message for the Day – Psychological Non-Attachment by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 January 2015 14.43 EST | New York Edition** |
Psychological Non-Attachment
Divine Life Society Publication: True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
In physical solitude, we have to cultivate the art of psychological non-attachment, because the purpose of physical solitude is to train the mind for the practice of higher yoga.
Psychological non-attachment is a difficult thing, because while social pressure and social law and regulations can prevent physical contacts with unwanted centres or objects, nobody can prevent our mind from thinking; and our thoughts are our personality. What constitutes our strength or weakness is the way in which we think. The physical conditions are not our strengths, and also they are not our weaknesses. What is in our mind, that is what we really are; that is our strength, and that is also our weakness.
It is, therefore, very futile on the part of anyone to think that one can lead a life of internal attachment while there can be an outward detachment. Bhagavan Sri Krishna warns us against this in the third chapter of the Gita. While all our physical organs may be detached from objects of sense, the internal senses may be in contact with the objects, setting up a reactionary force with a more violent contact with objects than we would have entered into merely by physical contact.
Psychological contact is worse than physical contact because the mind shakes up the entire personality and churns the bloodstream of our body. Bhishma speaks to Yudhishthira in the Santiparva of the Mahabharata, wherein he says that the moment the mind thinks of a sensual object, the entire bloodstream is affected – a thing that we are unaware of. It is similar to the way milk curdles by a touch of acid; there is a breaking up of the indivisibility of the milk. The strength of the milk goes, and it is no longer milk at all. It becomes curd. It is spoiled, and it cannot be converted back into milk. So also, an intense thought of a sensual object is like acid poured into the bloodstream of our body. It breaks up the indivisibility and the health of the blood, and the energy of the blood is isolated from the blood like butter coming out of milk due to curdling. The vitality of our system is isolated from the bloodstream, and this vitality that is so cut off from the blood is forcefully diverted or directed towards the object which the mind has been craving. We know what happens when vitality is diverted to an object. We become weak mentally and physically; and even as curd cannot be converted into milk, so also the energy that is lost is lost forever.
It is no use, therefore, thinking that thought of sense objects is harmless, says the Upanishads. Poison is not poison; the thought of sense objects is poison. Why? Snake poison can destroy only one life, but the poison of sense contact or sense thought can destroy several lives. It can cause repeated births through the cycle of metempsychosis.
All these have to be brought into the mind in seclusion, and the causes of attachments should be discovered. A thorough diagnosis of the case has to be made. The causes of attachments are misconceptions that we have in regard to things of the world. We have a wrong notion about things, and therefore we are attached to them. We do not understand things properly; therefore, we are made to cling to objects.
There are many things that can attract us – hundreds and thousands of things and conditions – but as far as spiritual practice is concerned, one has to be very, very cautious about three important prongs of human desire, which are the subjects of study in psychology and psychoanalysis, and are also mentioned in the Upanishads as the eshanas. Vitteshana, putreshana and lokeshana are the terms used in the Upanishads. These are our weaknesses. These are the weak spots in human nature, and the moment these weak spots are touched, the personality comes out like a hissing snake. These weak spots are always covered by us with great care, and we put on an artificial personality which is itself a kind of disease, on account of which we are never happy at any moment of our life.
Excerpts from: Psychological Non-Attachment - True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Lokeshana is Contrary to True Spiritual Aspiration
Spiritual Message for the Day – Lokeshana is Contrary to True Spiritual Aspiration by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 January 2015 12.32 EST | New York Edition** |
Lokeshana is Contrary to True Spiritual Aspiration
Divine Life Society Publication: True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
We have what we call a sense of self-respect, which is inseparable from our individual being. We have a sense of importance. This is lokeshana, or love of good name and fame, and it materialises itself into power later on when it gets intensified. Even an idiot has a sense of self-respect. This is the precise character of the ego. It is an attachment to the body that we regard as self-respect. What is our importance? If we analyse ourselves carefully and remove the fibres of our being individually, we will find that there is nothing inside us which can be considered of real importance. Whatever is of importance in us has come from somewhere else. The great words of Sri Swami Vivekananda come to my mind. In a lecture he said, “If there is anything worthy in me, it belongs to Sri Ramakrishna. If there is anything wrong, that is mine.” Well, this is a tremendous attitude of humility and wisdom, which is unknown to us.
Really speaking, an individual personality has no importance of its own. The importance that it assumes, or that it appears to have, comes from the element of universality that is inherent in it. This is not known to anyone. It cannot be known because the ego repels a consciousness of the presence of even that element of the Universal in itself. We resent the Universal so intensely that we would not even like to think about it, because even to allow a thought of it is to reduce the importance of the ego, which is very painful to us. We are important, and sometimes it looks that our importance is not recognised or known to people. Then we try to publicise it by various means, and the ego knows the ways by which it can announce itself or advertise its importance.
To free oneself from this evil of false self-respect, which has really no substance in it, masters of yoga, teachers of spiritual life, tell us that we should live under conditions of humility. We should live a very, very simple life so that the ego may not swell up unnecessarily. When sitting in an audience, we should occupy the last seat, not the front seat. We may even sit near the shoes. Even if we are geniuses, it makes no difference.
Dr. K. S. Krishnan, formerly the director of the National Physical Laboratories in New Delhi was a very famous man, a great personality in the field of science in India, perhaps even in the international field. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj had asked people to place a chair for him in satsang. One of the brahmacharis was sweeping and putting a dhari, and he put a chair there saying, “This is for Dr. Krishnan.” By chance, Dr. Krishnan happened to come there with some other friends, looking very simple, wearing a dhoti, and nobody knew that he was Dr. Krishnan. He came and sat on that chair, and immediately the brahmachari said, “Ay! This is for Dr. Krishnan. You should not sit here.”
“Oh I see. Sorry!” he said. He got up and sat down on the floor.
Then Swami Sivanadaji Maharaj came, and said, “Hey, you are sitting on the floor! Sit on the chair.”
“No, it’s all right,” he said.
“No! No!” He pulled him up and made him sit on the chair, and then all looked up. The brahmachari felt so ashamed. Anyone else would have given a retort or shown a sign of resentment, but he did not though he was an important personality, really speaking.
The greatness of a person does not depend upon outward publicity or even recognition by others. One’s greatness is a self-sufficient qualification which is self-existent and can shine by itself, like the sun in the sky. It is absence of real importance that makes us feel that we are small, and it gets annoyed when it is not recognised. The more is our vidya, the more also is our vinaya. The greater is our knowledge and wisdom, the deeper is our sense of humility. The bigger we become inwardly, the smaller we look outside in the eyes of people, so that when we are the largest inside, we may look almost nothing to the public eye. This is very important to remember. The characteristics of a true spiritual life are the other side of ego-centricity of any kind. Lokeshana – love of name, fame and power, and self-affirmation of any kind is contrary to true spiritual aspiration. The complex of superiority, which is really not there, is a bane on human nature. This has to be avoided.
Excerpts from: Lokeshana is Contrary to True Spiritual Aspiration - True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Means to Realisation
Spiritual Message for the Day – Means to Realisation by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 7 January 2015 13.14 EST | New York Edition** |
Means to Realisation
Divine Life Society Publication: Vedanta for Beginners by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
Om! Om! Om!
THE GOAL OF LIFE is Self-realisation. It is not the attainment of anything external to us, but it consists in our simply knowing or becoming aware of our eternally Free nature. If it were an impossibility to get convinced that we are Existence-Absolute and eternally Free, why should the Srutis repeatedly teach us that doctrine like an affectionate mother? On the other hand that doctrine contradicts not but asserts our own inner urge, ‘Let me ever live in a blissful state free from all pain and misery.’
How the idea of a snake is negated from a rope-snake, so too, the non-Self is negated from the Self that is eternally existing. That is done through reasoning on the evidence of Sruti passages like, ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ etc. With the dawn of true knowledge, the Self-luminous Self alone shines and the non-self totally disappears into an airy nothing like the disappearance of the snake when the rope is known as such with the aid of a lamp.
Is there a means that can be handled by the aspirant to attain realisation? Are injunctions and prohibitions on Vedic lines applicable to the seeker after Truth?
To put it in a nut-shell, the seeker after Truth cannot be subjected to Vedic injunctions and prohibitions.
The injunctive side of the Scriptures merely restates popular conceptions and beliefs when it says ‘do this,’ ‘Thou art the doer and enjoyer’ etc. It points out to a certain object for our attainment. The injunctions and prohibitions are made with sole reference to the object that has got to be attained. Hence, in that case, injunctions and prohibitions are justified.
In all Vedanta (i.e., the Upanishads), nowhere do we find a clear mention of the Self as the object to be attained. The only way by which the Upanishads point the Truth is through the words ‘Neti, Neti.’ The Self is never an object for our attainment. Sruti passages like ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ proclaim the Truth or give us the right Knowledge from the transcendent level, Paramarthic standpoint. They do not, however, point out an object for our attainment. Further, the knowledge arising out of injunctive scriptures gets contradicted by the knowledge arising out of Sruti passages like, ‘Tat Tvam Asi.’
Of the two ideas, ‘I am Existence-Absolute,’ and ‘I am the experiencer,’ both of which have the Immortal Self as the Witness, the latter which owes its origin to ignorance and which springs up from apparent evidences like sense-perception gets negated from the implied meaning (Lakshyartha) of the word ‘I’ (the implied meaning of ‘I’ is represented by the former) on the authority of the Sruti passages like, ‘Tat Tvam Asi.’
Excerpts from: Means to Realisation - Vedanta for Beginners by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Sri Ramana Maharshi
Spiritual Message for the Day – Sri Ramana Maharshi by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 6 January 2015 13.34 EST | New York Edition** |
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Divine Life Society Publication: Lives of Saints by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
(Birthday celebrations on January 6, 2015 - Punarvasu Birthstar of Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Om! Om! Om!
Sri Ramana Maharshi was born on 30th December, 1879. He was known as Venkataraman. Born in a pious middle class Brahmin family, he went to a mission school and learnt a little English.
On the 29th of August 1896, Venkataraman left his home in the district of Madurai in search of his Father, Lord Arunachala, to whom he reported himself on the 1st of September 1896, thus:
O Lord, obedient to Thy call
Here have I come, deserting all,
No boon I ask; no loss bemoan,
Take me in and make me Thine own.
From that day till the end of his earthly sojourn, Venkataraman made Arunachala (Tiruvannamalai) his abode, transmitting through Mouna, the golden language of his egoless state, the Message of Eternal Truth, to the four corners of the globe.
The life of the Maharshi was one continued meditation, Ananda Anubhavam. Maharshi established peace within. He lived in the Light of the Lord within. He encouraged others to do the same thing. To him all the world was one.
Maharshi seldom talked, and whenever he did speak, he did so only because it was absolutely necessary.
His Divine Message
Ramana was a living example of the teaching of the Upanishads. His life was at once the message and the philosophy of his teachings. He spoke to the hearts of men.
The great Maharshi found Himself within himself and then gave out to the world the grand but simple message of his great life, “Know Thyself”.
“Know Thyself. All else will be known to thee of its own accord. Discriminate between the undying, unchanging, all-pervading, infinite Atma and the ever-changing, phenomenal and perishable universe and body. Enquire, ‘Who am I?’ Make the mind calm. Free yourself from all thoughts other than the simple thought of the Self or Atma. Dive deep into the chambers of your heart. Find out the real, infinite ‘I’. Rest there peacefully for ever and become identical with the Supreme Self.” This is the gist of the philosophy and teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Sri Ramana says, “The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true Self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true Self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true Self. The true Self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end.
“In the interior cavity of the heart, the One Supreme Being is ever glowing with the Self-conscious emanation I…I… To realise Him, enter into the heart with an one-pointed mind—by quest within or diving deep or control of breath—and abide with the Self of self”.
Sri Ramana’s Who am I?, Upadesa Saram and Ullathu Narpathu are pearls of direct wisdom, expressed in aphoristic terseness.
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has set at naught the prattle of materialists that Self-realisation and Samadhi are things of the remote past, and that in the present age, they are impossible of achievement to man. He has shown by his lifelong Samadhi that it is still possible to realise the Supreme and live in that realisation.
Beloved aspirant! Take heart. Apply yourself intensely to Yoga Sadhana. You will soon attain Videha Kaivalya and shine for ever as an illumined sage.
Excerpts from: Sri Ramana Maharshi - Lives of Saints by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda
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Base Your Life Upon Wisdom
Spiritual Message for the Day – Base Your Life Upon Wisdom by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 5 January 2015 14.39 EST | New York Edition** |
Base Your Life Upon Wisdom
Divine Life Society Publication: Ponder These Truths by Sri Swami Chidananda
Om! Om! Om!
Beloved Immortal Atman! Blessed children of the Divine! Blessed are all of you who have entered into a life that leads to the realisation of the divinity inherent in you as your own essential nature. In all that you say and do in this life, make sure that it springs from wisdom and not from wrong understanding or ignorance. Where there is wisdom as the basis of your life, as the basis of your action, there will be no sorrow for you. Where you allow wisdom to be thwarted by thoughtlessness, forgetfulness, heedlessness, the letting go of awareness, wisdom becomes clouded. This state of avidya, ignorance is due to letting go of the awareness, “I am divine, I am divine.”
All that is perceived through the senses is perishable. Nothing here is permanent, everything is impermanent. To forget this is unwisdom, and unwisdom is the cause of sorrow. In a state of unwisdom we take the impermanent to be both permanent and real in the absolute sense, and then we make them our goal. We superimpose a permanent value on them and then we get attached to them. Attachment is the cause of misery. Attachment is bondage. Attachment clouds one’s understanding. It has the power to cloud one’s intellect also. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita tells us clearly what happens when the intellect becomes thus overcome by such a cloud of attachment and lack of enquiry and discrimination.
Therefore, in your own highest self-interest, it is necessary to have wisdom firmly established in your heart, and from that state of wisdom you can act freely, go through life, extend your affection towards all, love all, be friendly to all, make use of things, but be detached within; do your duty, fulfil your obligations, behave normally, but be detached within. Be apparently normal, but be, within yourself, super-normal. This is the key to succeed over the world, attain victory over circumstances. This is the key to go into the world in a state of serenity, in a state of absolute inner equanimity unaffected by inevitable things. This is the key message proclaimed by the Gita—anasakti (non-attachment).
Established in this wisdom, you see a vritti (thought), but you know that it is impermanent. We know ourselves, but we know that we are not what we superficially know ourselves to be, but that we are divine, eternal, imperishable, all-pervasive. Established in this awareness, firmly established in this detachment, anasakti, we go through life straight towards the Goal, not distracted, not overcome. Established in this state of awareness, this state of wisdom consciousness, nothing can touch you.
Lord Krishna says: “In this there is no loss of effort, nor is there any harm. Even a little of this knowledge protects one from great fear”. They are wonderful assurances given by the great World Teacher, that infuse strength into you. They have been the solace of sadhaks, the inner support of Yogis and the firm abiding place of bhaktas.
And such a state of awareness totally transforms your entire life and all that you are and you do. It brings about a total transformation in the very nature of your living of your life and brings about an inner alchemy. Your life is not what others think it to be or see it to be on the surface, but what, in the deeper depths, is known to One Who abides within you as your Eternal Companion.
This inner transformation is essential and indispensable if you are to pursue your spiritual journey towards the great goal of peace and joy unhampered and continuously. There is no antidote for unwisdom except wisdom; there is no way of banishing darkness except with light.
“There is nothing more sanctifying than jnana,” Lord Krishna says. And in strong words Sankara says: “Not everything that you may try to do and do, even in a hundred births, will be of any avail unless you awaken within yourself jnana.” To cross the ocean of samsara, jnana is the great raft. To burn up and reduce to ashes all karmas, jnana is the great fire. It is jnana that brings about right understanding, and right understanding brings about detachment, and detachment brings about equanimity—sukhaduhkhe same kritva labhalabhau jayajayau (having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same).
This is the result of this inner anasakti (non-attachment), and through anasakti one crosses beyond sorrow and moves smoothly towards the Goal. May God bless you to reflect over this truth and understand it rightly! May God bless you to be established in awareness and triumph over life!
Excerpts from: Base Your Life Upon Wisdom - Ponder These Truths by Sri Swami Chidananda
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