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Guru and the Great Beyond
Spiritual Message for the Day – Guru and the Great Beyond by Sri Swami Brahmananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 16 October 2014 14.13 EST | New York Edition** |
Guru and the Great Beyond
Divine Life Society Publication: ** **Pointers on Vedanta** **by Sri Swami Brahmananda
In addition to the fourfold qualifications, unflinching devotion to one’s spiritual preceptor is also insisted for spiritual aspirants, for quick spiritual progress. Some aspirants who have great devotion to God and firm faith in the scriptures, may lack the required intensity in their devotion to their spiritual preceptor. This is caused by their unpurified lower mind which noticing the preceptor’s Cheshtas (instinctive activities of the physical body) and finding no difference in them from their own actions, rank him as one among themselves. They fail to understand the real Guru in the personality of the preceptor. This is a great danger in spiritual path. The Svetasvatara Upanishad states that the ultimate Truth reveals Itself only in that high-souled one who has supreme devotion to his spiritual preceptor. Those who lack this requirement are disqualified to study the Vedantic texts, as this impurity of the intellect would stand in the way of realising the most subtle truths contained therein. The Secret of all secrets remains a secret to such aspirants.
The egoism which persists in the aspirants till they leave back the last rung of the spiritual ladder, is likely to push them down the steps at any moment, unless they are extremely vigilant and watchful at every step. Any slight inadvertence is enough to cause a great and immediate fall, even as a ball dropped unawares at the top-most step of a staircase falls down on the ground in no time. Complete surrender to God and one’s own spiritual preceptor who are not really different from one’s own Self, can alone save one from such a catastrophe. A fall of the aspirant from spiritual heights is more dangerous and painful than a fall of the physical body from great mountain heights. For, in the latter, harm is caused only to one body, while in the former, it results in suffering in the form of transmigratory life in several bodies.
The scriptures are never tired of insisting on devotion to the spiritual preceptor. The Chhandogya Upanishad says: “A person who has a preceptor knows Brahman” (VI-14-ii). The Tripad-Vibhuti Maha-Narayana Upanishad states: “Just as a born-blind man cannot have any knowledge about colour and form, even so, one cannot get the knowledge of Truth without the instruction of the preceptor even in a crore of Kalpas” (chapter V). The Advaya Taraka Upanishad closes its instructions on the Atman-Brahman with a glorious tribute to the spiritual preceptor.
Even pragmatic knowledge—mere collection of information about the perishable objects of the world, not about their real nature but about their name and form alone—one learns only through a teacher. What to speak of Brahman-Knowledge, the Knowledge of the Reality that is hidden under the names and forms! It can never be had without a preceptor. This has been the experience of those who have successfully treaded the spiritual path. Reason also supports this fact. For, Brahman-Knowledge being beyond the ken of the intellect, one has to depend upon one’s own preceptor. The preceptor who is well-versed in the spiritual lore and himself established in the Truth, through a mysterious power, imparts the Knowledge. The Atman alone reveals the Atman to the Atman.
An illustration from our daily experience is given by Acharya Suresvara, in his Naishkarmya Siddhi, to show how it is impossible to explain logically the part played by the Mahavakya ‘Tat-tvam-asi’ in the revelation of the Reality in the aspirants. A sleeping man is awakened by a mere sound. How the man is awakened cannot be logically explained. One cannot say that the man hears the sound and therefore wakes up, for in the state of deep sleep his organ of hearing, along with the other organs and the mind is absent having merged itself in its cause. Can one deny that the man does not hear the sound? No, for he could not have woken up without hearing the sound. Thus we cannot say that he does not hear. This simple fact seems to be a mystery when we try to explain it. The action of the Mahavakya imparted to the disciple by the preceptor, is something similar, says the Acharya, impossible of rational explanation, for it is the realm of the Great Beyond, which is beyond the range of the limited human intellect.
Having given this piece of precept to readers, the spiritual aspirants treading the path, regarding the role of the preceptor in the scheme of Self-realisation and the basic necessity of an attitude of self-surrender to the preceptor, Totakacharya offers his obeisance to his preceptor, the great Acharya Sankara of world renown, the greatest expounder of the philosophy which goes by the name of Advaita, in beautiful, poetic language, revealing the disciple’s absolute self-surrender to the preceptor, the bestower of Immortality. ‘O Lord’, says the author, ‘I have been swaying like a pendulum in the swing of never-ceasing cycle of births and deaths caused by the beginningless nescience. My head has been reeling due to the sufferings in my innumerable births in all kinds of wombs, high and low. Like children clinging to the swing out of fear of falling, I also have been holding fast to this life of transmigration, mistaking the unreal for the Real, the insentient for Sentience and pain for Bliss. O my saviour, you, the foremost among the wise on the face of this earth, grant Liberation from the thraldom of this phenomenal existence, to your disciples who possess the fourfold qualifications and who surrender themselves to you, by imparting the supreme Knowledge of Atman-Brahman. You have, once for all, destroyed the nescience in my mind, through your instructions, like the effulgent sun doing away with the darkness of night through its rays of light. I offer my prostrations again and again at your holy feet, through my body, organs and mind. O my Lord, you, the greatest of the Paramhamsas are my Saviour. I shall continue to remain at your feet, serving you throughout my life.
The fourfold qualifications are:
Discrimination between the Atman and the not-Atman, real dispassion born out of such discrimination, the six virtues (viz., tranquility of mind, control of the senses, calmness, endurance, faith in one’s preceptor and the scriptures and one-pointedness of mind), and an earnest and burning aspiration to get out of this Samsara.
Excerpts from: Guru and the Great Beyond - Pointers on Vedanta by Sri Swami Brahmananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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Significance of Grihastha Ashrama or Married Life
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Pure and the Impure Mind by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 October 2014 18.24 EST | New York Edition** |
Significance of Grihastha Ashrama or Married Life
Divine Life Society Publication: Forest Academy Lectures on Yoga by Sri Swami Chidananda
What is the central, root note in the message of Sri Gurudev to the world, to all beings today? To my mind, the central note of Gurudev’s message of divine life is, “Remember, the goal of your life is to realise God.” You have come here to somehow or other attain God-vision and become blessed. That is the meaning of life. That is the purpose of life. That is the great duty on earth. That is what makes a human being a human being, and this central message of divine life is to be followed in all stages of man’s life. No one is debarred from living upto this message of divine life. Divine life is not meant for Sanyasins only, but it is meant for Grihasthas also. Grihasthashrama was conceived of as a wonderful means of preparing oneself for whole time quest after Truth. It is only when a man can do whole time Sadhana, he is fit to take up Sanyasa.
Being in Grihasthashrama is like fighting inside a fort. In the Grihasthashrama you have got greater protection and with this protection you go on working out your Sadhana, and the wife is called Saha-dharmini. She aids you to fulfil Dharma. And what is Dharma? The highest conception of Dharma is fulfilment of duty, and the message of Divine life shows that the sole purpose of life is God-realisation and therefore, they are two in one, each aiding the other. That is the conception of Grihasthaashrama in the Hindu view of life. In fact, all Ashramas were made to work out this single ideal only. Gurudev has wonderfully said how the Grihastha supports all the other Ashramas. The Brahmachari does not earn. The Vanaprasthi does not earn, and the Sanyasin does not earn. Then who earns? Speaking from the worldly point of view, it is only the Grihasthi that earns. The student earns knowledge. He studies and imbibes knowledge. The Vanaprasthi and the Sanyasin do not earn. Thus the Grihastha single handedly supports the other Ashramas.
In the East, we are worshippers of Parashakti. Our conception of womanhood is that of motherhood. Therefore, we worship women as mother. To us mother comes first. Matri devo bhava, Pitri devo bhava. Mother is mentioned first and then only the father. Again, Twameva Mata cha Pita Twameva.
The transforming power of the silent Grihalakshmi creates the atmosphere of the home. The atmosphere of the house is created by the magnetic power of the Grihalakshmi. It is she who creates Bhav (feeling) in the children. It is she who has got the power not only to change the environment of the household, but to change her husband himself through her household Dharma. Therefore it is said that woman it is that leads the man. It is true in the spiritual field also.
But the unseen power of the Grihalakshmi should be reciprocated by the husband. The virtuous life of the wife should bring about a transforming influence on the life of the husband, and the virtuous life of the husband should bring about a transforming influence on the life of the wife.
Householder’s life is also a life of Yoga. It is also a life of Brahmacharya. It is a life of Brahmacharya in the sense it is a life of self-restraint and indulgence in moderation. We have always thought that householder’s life is something against Sadhana. No. No doubt, the life of a Sanyasin can be compared to an ocean if the life of a householder is compared to a small drop. The Sanyasin is like a blazing Sun, if the householder is like the flame of a candle. But these comparisons are true only between an ideal Sanyasin and a deluded, ignorant, passionate householder. But an ideal householder is equal to a Sanyasin. All glory to that householder who keeps Realisation as his ultimate aim. He is the ideal of the Gita. He practises Nivritti (renunciation) in Pravritti (life in the world). The householder’s life is based on Anasakti (non-attachment). The householder should have no cravings. His is a life dedicated to service. Such a householder is a Sanyasin. Nivritti in and through Pravritti. Nivritti should go hand in hand with Pravritti.
After marriage one should not think that he can lead a life of indulgence. Once you are caught up in indulgence, you cannot get proper Nivritti. Therefore, the householder should remember that his life is a life of preparation for Sanyas, a preparation for getting ready for whole time dedication to Sadhana. The householder is like a bud. But the Sanyasin is the full-blossomed flower. What a joy mental renunciation will give! One should be in the world but not of the world. One should be in the world, but be out of the world. A boat can help many people to cross a river as long as it is on the water, but if it allows the water to get into it, it will sink. Similarly the householders may be in the world, but the world (or worldliness) should not get in them.
The householder’s life is like cutting down a tree first by cutting its individual branches and then cutting the tree itself. But Sanyas is like cutting down the main trunk of the tree itself at its very start. A householder need not entertain the fear that since he has entered the Grihasthashrama, he will not be able to do whole time Sadhana at any time in his life. If a householder lives an ideal life, God bestows His grace and makes everything easy for his Sadhana.
Married couples should live a life of joined, co-operative harmonious quest after God. They should ever remember this central message that in and through their household life they should ever try to attain perfection, by which alone one crosses beyond all fear and one becomes established in the glorious consciousness of eternal freedom, infinite peace, and eternal life. Every house should be a temple of God and should be a source of peace and joy and spirituality to all those who visit it. May all householders through their ideally lived Grihasthaashrama life, attain God-realisation is my humble prayer.
Excerpts from: Significance of Grihastha Ashrama or Married Life - Forest Academy Lectures on Yoga by Sri Swami Chidananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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The Pure and the Impure Mind
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Pure and the Impure Mind by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 14 October 2014 18.24 EST | New York Edition** |
The Pure and the Impure Mind
Divine Life Society Publication: Lectures on Yoga and Vedanta by Sri Swami Sivananda
The Sanskrit term for mind is Manas. Manas is said to be of two kinds, the pure and the impure. That which is associated with the thought of desire is the impure, while that which is without desire is the pure. The pure mind is otherwise known by the name higher mind. The impure mind is called lower mind. To men their mind alone is the cause of bondage or emancipation. That mind which is attracted by objects of sense tends to bondage, while that which is not attracted tends to emancipation. There is said to be salvation for a mind without a desire for sensual objects. An aspirant after emancipation should therefore render his mind ever free from all longing after material objects.
The impure mind or Ashuddha Manas is filled with impure Vasanas (tendencies in the mind), Rajas and Tamas and the pure mind or Shuddha Manas is filled with pure Vasanas and Sattva. The impure Vasanas generate rebirths. The pure mind with pure Vasanas leads to Moksha or liberation from births and deaths. The worldly-minded persons work with the lower or the impure mind. They are bound by their Karmas. The liberated sages work with the pure or Sattvic mind (higher mind). They are not bound by their Karmas as they have no egoism and as they do not expect fruits for their actions.
The impure mind is unsteady. It ever fluctuates. It jumps from one object to another. It ever hankers after sensual objects. It is filled with various sorts of fears and pains. The pure mind is steady. It does Brahma Vichara. It rests in Supreme Self. It does not move towards sensual objects. It is free from all sorts of fears and pains.
The impure mind is no other than the Vasanas (subtle desires) that generate countless births. The mind becomes a prey to various kinds of desires through its fluctuation. Fluctuation is caused by Rajas and Vikshepa Shakti. When the mind fluctuates, it wanders from one object to another object.
The Ajnani or worldly minded man is swayed by the impure mind. He acts according to the dictates of the lower or impure mind. But a sage or Jnani keeps his mind under his perfect control. He acts in accordance with the voice of his intuition.
Just as a washerman removes dirt through dirt, just as a traveller removes the thorn in his foot through another thorn, so also the impure mind should be slain by the pure mind.
He who has annihilated the lower or the impure mind drives away rebirths to a great distance from him. The pure Vasanas with which the sage performs actions cannot produce rebirths for him.
All impure Vasanas are fried in toto when you get knowledge of the Self or Brahma Jnana. Meditation, Japa, Kirtan, practice of Pranayama, Brahma Vichara, study of religious books and Satsanga generate pure Vasanas.
When the mind is freed from the desires for objects and when it rests in the Self or Atman, you will enjoy Eternal Bliss. When the mind is freed from all cravings or longing for objects, when it is controlled in the heart, when it attains the reality of the Atman, you will attain Moksha or the final beatitude of life.
O beloved Ram! Do not allow your mind to fluctuate. Render your mind ever free from all longings after material objects. Annihilate the impure or lower mind with the help of the pure or the higher mind and transcend the higher mind also. May you be as firm as a rock! May you be endowed with the pure or Sattvic mind! May you ever rest peacefully in the All-blissful Self!
Excerpts from: The Pure and the Impure Mind - Lectures on Yoga and Vedanta by Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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Good Life and God-Life
Spiritual Message for the Day – Good Life and God-Life by Sri N.Ananthanarayanan
| **Baba Times Digest© | 13 October 2014 20.21 EST | New York Edition** |
Good Life and God-Life
Divine Life Society Publication: What The River Has Taught Me by Sri N.Ananthanarayanan
People very often fail to draw a distinction between good life and God-life or Divine Life. There are many well-intentioned individuals who think somewhat on the following lines: “Well, I am leading a good life. I am happily married. I live a clean life. I don’t drink; I don’t smoke; I have no bad habits. I am a vegetarian; I don’t take even eggs. I don’t cheat anyone. I earn by the sweat of my brow. What more do you want?”. Essentially, these are good people. They are certainly superior to the rogues and cheats of this world. They follow certain ethical codes. They pass for respectable citizens. All this is good. All these qualities make a good foundation. But, a foundation is not a building. It is not enough by itself. The superstructure, the building, has to come up.
Goodness is not Godliness. Goodness makes for a good life in this world, but it will not bring spiritual salvation. The so-called good people are often selfish people tied down to their families and close friends. Their heart is still constricted. They are still followers of the Preyo Marga (path of immediate pleasure). They have some vague ideas about the Sreyo Marga (path of ultimate good), but are afraid to step on to the Sreyo Marga, afraid to pay the price of the Sreyo Marga. They have their fears about the sacrifices they will be called upon to make if they step onto the spiritual path. They cannot reconcile themselves to thoughts of making charity, loving strangers and enemies, eating in moderation, practising austerities, controlling anger and jealousy and things like that.
If a person wants to register spiritual progress in life, he should first have this misunderstanding in his mind cleared. A good life is inadequate. What these people mean by ‘good life’ will be found to be, on close inspection, just a ‘non-evil life’. It is negative goodness. This alone will not do.
Every man is a combination of beastliness, human nature and godliness. People who boast about their good life will generally be found to have transcended the beastly qualities in them, but that is only a beginning. They are still very much subject to the innumerable human foibles, failings and likes and dislikes. They suffer still from human vices like anger, jealousy and lust. Quite often they will justify their wrong actions by expressing a thought like this: “Arey Yaar! After all, I am human. In a fit of passion, I made a mistake” or “In a fit of anger, I committed that crime” or “Under a sudden impulse of greed, I made that blunder”. These good people have still to conquer the human vices in them and cultivate the divine virtues or Daivi Sampat enunciated in the Gita. That is the beginning of spiritual practice. That is the beginning of a divine life. That is stepping on the road to Heaven.
These men of little understanding—of meagre spiritual wisdom—identify good life with a pleasant life. They are men of weak will who are unwilling to face the unpleasantness and rigours of a truly spiritual life. You can see these people all over the world, in all walks of life, in all religions. Some of them openly deny the existence of God, but mostly affirm allegiance to formal religion, because they still have a flickering conscience. Their inner conscience, the voice of God within them, is still not completely stifled, is still not totally dead.
Not only that. These friends suffer from a false sense of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency. Since, by virtue of a little meritorious action in their previous lives, God has blessed them with creature comforts in the present life, they feel no need for any God, for any extraneous help. Their philosophy is: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”. If you ask them, “What will happen to you in the next birth if you don’t accumulate merit by virtuous actions in the present birth?”, they have their ready answer which they fling at you “Who knows if there is another birth? Who knows what happens when you die?” For them, the present life is all. Even if you try to tell them about the reincarnation theory, which has been demonstrated and reinforced by the discovery of so many real-life instances and supporting evidence, they are in no mood to listen. They have a closed mind. They suffer from a sense of self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency and self-justification are among the greatest stumbling blocks to spiritual progress. The man who is ignorant but is willing to take in wisdom from whatever source it comes, in other words, the ignorant but humble man, can be helped by a man of greater wisdom. The man who is already wise, but who is unable to practise his wisdom in daily life because of his overwhelming pride, also has a chance to improve, because his pride will encounter resistance from the universe and will be quelled in due course. Then he will become humble and will begin to live wisely. But the ignorant man who is at the same time arrogant, and filled with the notion that he is all-wise, is the most difficult of all to reform. Even God cannot help him. His is a hopeless situation.
Excerpts from: Good Life and God-Life - What The River Has Taught Me by Sri N.Ananthanarayanan
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
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Your Real Nature
Spiritual Message for the Day – Your Real Nature by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 12 October 2014 11.50 EST | New York Edition** |
Your Real Nature
Divine Life Society Publication: Divine Life – Day-to-Day by Sri Swami Sivananda
Do you know who you are? I shall tell you. Hear me. You are the master of the body and the senses and the mind. You are the master of your life. All power is within you. You have to know this and manifest it.
How can the mind torment you? How can despair overcome you? Despair is a quality of the mind and the mind is your servant. You are all bliss, all light, all strength, all knowledge. You are divinity. You are above and beyond both body and mind. You are immortal satcidananda (existence - knowledge - bliss absolute).
The important thing to know clearly is that you are not the slave of the mind and the senses. You have got into the habit of thinking that their craving is your craving. Now get out of this habit, by constantly reminding yourself that you have nothing to do with the mischievous mind and senses.
Remember constantly that you are not this perishable body. You are not this perishable, changing mind. You are the all-pervading consciousness. You are the eternal seer. You are the eternal witness. Therefore be ever free and blissful.
Intensify your spiritual life. Seek the light of Vedanta. Be a flame of the light of the Upanishads. Ever meditate on: “I am the immortal, all-pervading Brahman.” Om is the bow, the soul is the arrow and Brahman is the target.
When you realise the effulgent Supreme Being you shake off all evil and attain the supreme stainless unity. Devote yourself to the holy quest of truth. Devote yourself to the discovery of the ultimate spiritual essence that is all-pervading and interpenetrating.
Withdraw the senses. Look within and search your heart. Dive deep into the recesses of your heart, through deep meditation on the innermost self, the inner ruler. You will without doubt realise your identity with Brahman and get to the heart of the infinite - the heart of infinite joy and bliss.
Excerpts from: Your Real Nature - Divine Life – Day-to-Day by Sri Swami Sivananda
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The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga
Spiritual Message for the Day – The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 11 October 2014 12.46 EST | New York Edition** |
The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Self-Realisation by Sri Swami Sivananda
Life is the greatest of all teachers and this earth is its school. Truly, the world is the best school. All its lessons are taught through the book of nature. Nature everywhere abounds with such lofty lessons which alone are quite sufficient to bestow the highest wisdom to man. Each day is a valuable page in this book and each thing and natural phenomena embodies a lesson to one who observes and reflects. And if you carefully analyse and reflect upon every phenomenon of nature, you will find that they all speak of the glory of God, the grandeur of the inner spiritual life; a life of unalloyed peace, bliss and perennial happiness,—yes, it urges you to launch upon the actual Sadhana to make you happy and to free you from grief, affliction and sorrow.
All the ancient saints and seers—the men of God who have had intuition—have been declaring to all the mankind the great bliss, the vast power and knowledge that can be experienced if only man would turn from sensual, the sinful life and strive for the higher divine life. Yet we see today that man is as much immersed—if not more—in worldliness as he was centuries ago and the state of mankind is as apathetic and lethargic towards these questions of a ‘life’ in the Spirit as it was in the beginning of creation. Why is it that in spite of the clarion call of very many great seers, of the confident assurance of the scriptures, of the repeated experience of man himself in failing miserably to attain happiness amidst external physical world, you are again and again being deceived? Why is it that man has not yet learnt to take to Sadhana? Because, he does not have a deep and abiding faith in the admonitions of saints, in the scriptures, in the words of those who have trodden the path and attained the goal. If only man did really believe in these great ones, he would certainly be induced to act up to their words. It is this basic lack of faith in man that is at the root of his failure to do Sadhana.
Thus, if only man has faith in spiritual course of action, he will act up to it. If a man has to take up Sadhana, if he really wants to obtain this bliss which is not mixed with pain, he will certainly have to repose in faith. The entire social structure and order upon which mankind smoothly runs is based upon faith in mankind which is but a passing phenomenon, why should you not put faith upon the very Creator of these things? Thus you see that the first quality you have to acquire is faith.
Now comes the question that having first of all full faith in the words of the seers and realised the necessity of Sadhana, what is the procedure, what is to be done? You may have faith, but if you do not put them into practice—if you do not begin to translate them into action, they will ever remain plans in the blueprint stage. So, after the faith in Sadhana comes practice. You must set about doing. No question of believing. A belief must become on act. Having reposed faith in the words of sages and scriptures, you begin doing Sadhana.
Once you commence Sadhana, the next important thing you should bear in mind is that you should not give it up. Perseverance is of the utmost importance. All process in this universe are gradual. They have got stages. If you want to go through all the stages of Sadhana and attain the goal, you must have patience and perseverance. Therefore, you should have to always persevere, exert and plod on till the goal is reached.
There is another important point that in spiritual Sadhana you should not merely be contented with the positive forces. There are active forces that oppose the Sadhak, that actually assail him and pull him down. Herein comes the necessity of the fourth important weapon—that is fortitude. While persevering man has to have a little courage, not to be easily shaken by the obstacles that assail him. He will have to brave the storm and proceed in spite of the difficulties and adverse conditions, trying to cow him down, to push him off from the path of Sadhana. It is with this fortitude he refuses to be discouraged and relying upon the inner Self he proceeds with the Sadhana, and ultimately he attains the ideal for which he has taken this birth upon earth; and while going through the process he will have to see that he keeps in mind the necessity of giving minute attention to all the small details upon the path, because in every process all such small details of the process are to be attended to, very carefully. If any small detail is left out, thinking that it is superfluous, he will find that ultimately he has lost his valuable time and labour. This delays progress. It is the conglomeration of small things that go to achieve high ideals.
Therefore, with firm faith, practical application, perseverance, careful attention to even small details and fortitude in trials, you must set foot and proceed on the path of Sadhana.
Raise aloft that banner of the Divine Life. Feel all humanity to be one and spread the message of man’s divinity, the message of brotherhood and cosmic love, to every home and broadcast them to all. Ever assert your divinity every moment of your life. Ever strive to live in the consciousness that you are essentially divine and you have been given this human birth only to recognise your essential divine nature.
Excerpts from: The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga - Self-Realisation by Sri Swami Sivananda
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Perseverance and Aspiration Leads to Success
Spiritual Message for the Day – Perseverance and Aspiration Leads to Success by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 10 October 2014 12.46 EST | New York Edition** |
Perseverance and Aspiration Leads to Success
Divine Life Society Publication: Early Morning Meditation Talk by Sri Swami Chidananda
When spiritual aspirants, seekers and sadhaks are looking for guidance, when they are seeking clarification and some advice about their difficulties and doubts, the ultimate advice that is usually given is, “Whatever you are engaged in doing, continue to do it, but make it gradually progressive. Do more and more of it. Increase your sadhana, and persevere in your sadhana. This is the way.”
Impatience does not help in any way. In any journey you have to cover the distance between where you are and your destination. If you are eager to reach the destination early, then increase your pace and speed a little more. In addition, cover a comparatively greater distance each day than you have been doing hitherto. That may mean walk more hours than you have been doing. If you have been walking six hours a day, walk seven, maybe eight hours. It is thus that a traveller will be able to fulfil his desire to reach the destination earlier.
Even so, a sadhaka in the spiritual life, on the path of sadhana, should gradually increase and persevere in his sadhana, be it japa, be it meditation, be it study, be it praying to the Lord, be it remembering Him in the midst of your duties and work. Do not let any doubt become an obstacle in your path. Let the doubt be there, you carry on your sadhana with greater vigour. This very act itself sometimes helps in clearing up doubts. What we could not understand a little while before, we begin to understand as we continue our sadhana and make it more progressive.
All want to succeed in the spiritual life. This is but natural, and success is achieved by adhering to our spiritual sadhana and enhancing it. Continue to do what you are doing and do more and more of it. This is the one sure way of ultimately succeeding in attaining the goal of life—continuous, unceasing movement towards the great goal. Persevere and augment your sadhana day by day, and you have the key to sure attainment of the great goal.
By analogy, it is this continuity and onward progress that makes each river ultimately attain the ocean. No matter what the obstacles that come in its way, it circumvents them and goes onward. Our ancients also compared this continuity to the flow of oil from one vessel to another. Just as the oil flows in an unbroken, continuous stream, so should one’s inner spiritual life and sadhana be.
In addition, keep your aspiration alive and blazing. Mystics and saints have spoken about this great longing by giving human analogies from everyday society and life. If your longing for God, if your desire for meeting the Lord is as keen, as intense, as that of an unfaithful wife longing to secretly meet her lover, if your longing for God is like that of a miser constantly thinking of ways and means to accumulate more wealth, if your longing for God is like the longing of a sensuous person hankering day and night after sense enjoyments of various kinds, then surely you will attain God-experience, you will attain God, you will come face to face with the Supreme Being.
One mystic came forward with this assurance: “If you have the intensity of longing for God of these three—the secret longing of the unfaithful wife, the longing of the miser and the longing of the sensual person thirsting after sensual pleasure—and do not attain the Lord, I stand responsible. I give my guarantee.” Many of the mystics of both East and West embodied in themselves such longing.
It all adds up to saying that we should not be lukewarm. We should become the very personification of that longing. We should become in our total nature that longing personified. This is the inner truth of all spiritual life and sadhana. This should be the inner content of the sadhaka’s heart.
We should ponder deeply and become benefited by dwelling upon these truths about the life mystical—a life of devotion, perseverance and aspiration. May the grace of the Divine and the blessings of Holy Master enable us to become such an aspirant and seeker and enable us to keep this before us as a touchstone and ideal.
Excerpts from: Perseverance and Aspiration Leads to Success - Early Morning Meditation Talk by Sri Swami Chidananda
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Self-Transcendence
Spiritual Message for the Day – Self-Transcendence by Sri Swami Krishnananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 9 October 2014 13.18 EST | New York Edition** |
Self-Transcendence
Divine Life Society Publication: An Analysis of Experience by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The transmutation of the individual constitution is necessary for the experience of the Absolute, and this can be achieved by recognising the true nature of the relation existing between the individual and the Absolute. All forms of the externalisation of energy, which are called urges, instincts, etc., are ultimately movements of consciousness in the direction of the not-self. There can be no individual urge when consciousness ceases to function in this way. The way of self-control, therefore, is that of the recession of the modes of the objectified consciousness to their wider and deeper source, which functionally converge and merge in the Absolute. Only a conscious endeavour on the part of the individual to outgrow itself, to rise above particularity, can bring about this great achievement and realisation. For this, clear understanding, dispassionate feeling, longing for freedom, and perseverance are necessary.
Study, reflection and meditation are the processes of the method of self-transcendence. A careful study and analysis of the nature of experience, under the guidance of an able spiritual teacher, is indispensable for meditation on the spiritual Reality. The defects involved in relative experience, and the fact of its being finally centred in and reducible to the reality of the Absolute, are to be discovered, in order that attachment to external forms of experience may be withdrawn, and all energy be focussed on the supreme Self-consciousness. The nature of instinctive reactions and blind urges have to be clearly understood before any attempt to control them may be made. No practice can be of any lasting value, if it is not preceded by a correct knowledge of the inner anatomy and constitution of the meaning and method of that practice. One must act only after knowing how to act, why to act and what the act really is. Action must be based on a knowledge thereof. This knowledge, on which all spiritual practices are based, is the forerunner of dispassion for all externalisation towards things.
True renunciation is not the abandonment of any ‘thing’, but the relinquishment of the thingness in things, the objectness in objects, the externality in experience, the projectedness in consciousness. This renunciation is the condition of the supreme fulfilment in the Absolute. There can be no hope of this ultimate realisation without the total surrender of personality and all its concomitants to this one goal. The moment this surrender is done, attachments cease, the mind becomes calm, the senses are abstracted from forms, passions subside, consciousness gets concentrated, joy ensues, and an immense strength is felt within. All these are the results of an attunement of the individual to Reality, the coalescence of all forces with it, the dissolution in it of all distinction and objectivity. By this act the individual draws sustenance from and becomes the Universal Centre. The actual experience is possible through intense meditation on it.
Every act of one’s life should become an expression of conscious contemplation on the Absolute. Unless all acts are based on this consciousness, there cannot be any ultimate value in these acts. The Absolute is the life-principle of all things, acts and thoughts, and so, without it, everything becomes lifeless and devoid of meaning. Spirituality is a state of consciousness; it is not merely certain forms of action. When consciousness is properly trained to exist in this harmony, all acts become universal processes, and cease to be individual efforts directed towards a phenomenal end. It is the duty of everyone in all one’s conscious states to attempt to unity oneself with the Absolute, and perform one’s duties with the consciousness of this unity. Such an individual is a sage, the supremely blessed one. The very presence of this hallowed being exerts a magnetic spiritual influence on the entire environment. “This universe is his; and, indeed, he is the universe,” says the Upanishad. This is the glorious consummation of life.
Excerpts from: Self-Transcendence – An Analysis of Experience by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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Essential Ingredients of a Victorious Spiritual Life
Spiritual Message for the Day – Essential Ingredients of a Victorious Spiritual Life by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 October 2014 15.40 EST | New York Edition** |
Essential Ingredients of a Victorious Spiritual Life
Divine Life Society Publication: Awake! Realise Your Divinity by Sri Swami Chidananda
When the forces of the celestials were unable to overcome the dark and gross forces of the demoniacal hosts, they appealed to the supreme grace that God is to grant them a leader, a commander, so that they might once again rally their forces, give battle in a decisive manner, and thus triumph over the forces of darkness. The battle represents the eternal struggle, the eternal tension within the field of consciousness of each individual psyche, the two-way pull between the positive and the negative, between the gross and the subtle, between light and darkness, between Spirit and that which holds it bound to its present state—a situation, a state of being that is inexplicable, and, therefore, is termed as the cosmic illusion of the eternal enchantress or the great power of Brahman, maya.
Uttishthata jagrata—arise, awake, and gather all your forces together by patient and diligent effort. Gather together the scattered rays of your entire personality potential—your physical activity, your sentiments, attachments, affections, emotions, love—gather them together and let them become concentrated towards one goal, one attainment, one supreme experience, one realisation.
Ekagrata (one-pointedness) is the hallmark of the true seeker, aspirant, yogi, sadhaka—the unification of your entire being and directing it towards the Supreme Reality. It is the alpha and omega of all spiritual life, of the science of yoga and attainment. It is the practical inner aspect of the outer framework and structure of the phenomenon called the religion of man.
It is the gathering together of your entire personality potential, of the scattered rays of your mind that are divided amongst the innumerable objects of your senses, withdrawing them from all the things that keep on distracting your mind, gathering the mind together by patient discipline, by continued, unremitting effort, taking keen interest in this process—not doing it half-heartedly or unwillingly, but with great enthusiasm, patience and diligence.
It takes a long period of time, for it is the reversal of your nature as was created by the Creator or the Powers that be. It is a renewal of your entire consciousness. It is a rebirth in purity, and a spiritual awareness of your eternal linkage with the cosmic Spirit Divine. It is a total unification of your entire being into one keen single point and directing it towards the great Goal.
Come, be unified in toto, by patience and diligence, through abhyasa (practice)—never again allowing a reversal of this unification, never allowing the scattered rays of your physical activity to be dispersed among the trivia of this daily life, not allowing the mind to become dispersed towards sense objects, not allowing the affections of your heart to become diversified, distracted and drawn outside, not allowing the intellect to pursue mere intellectual, hair-splitting processes in this temporary, universal appearance, which is a long dream. And support your abhyasa with vairagya (dispassion). Support your yoga with the rock of self-restraint, of samyama. Make samyama the bedrock, the foundation stone to build up the structure of yoga, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Make your life a grand and glorious edifice whose pinnacle point is the Supreme Reality.
The unification, wakefulness, alertness and vigilance are the essential ingredients of a successful sadhaka. They are the essential ingredients of a victorious life spiritual. Thus may your efforts be directed—physical, mental, intellectual, emotional. May all your efforts be unified and directed towards the attainment of the divine destiny for which you have come on earth, by attaining which alone your life becomes fulfilled, your life becomes complete. Otherwise, it is incomplete. Even if you have the wealth of the three worlds, yet your life remains incomplete.
Towards this completion, towards this fulfilment, may you live every moment of your wakeful life, and in this effort may the Divine bless you with success!”
Excerpts from: Essential Ingredients of a Victorious Spiritual Life - Awake! Realise Your Divinity by Sri Swami Chidananda
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Wake-up and Realise
Spiritual Message for the Day – Maya and Brahman are One by Sri Swami Chidananda
| **Baba Times Digest© | 6 October 2014 17.33 EST | New York Edition** |
Wake-up and Realise
Divine Life Society Publication: Dream by Sri Swami Sivananda
There are degrees of reality in the experiences of the individual. The three main degrees are subjective, objective and absolute. Dream experience is subjective. Waking experience is objective. The realisation of Atman or Brahman is experience of the absolute reality. The individual is the subjective being in comparison with the objective world. The subject and the object have equal reality, though both these are negated in the Absolute.
Waking—A Long Dream
In both states, waking and dreaming, objects are perceived, are associated with the subject-object relationship. This is the similarity between the two. The only difference between the two states is that the objects in dream are perceived in the space within the body, whereas in the waking condition, they are seen in the space outside the body. The fact of their ‘being seen’ and their consequent illusoriness, are common to both states.
The perception of an object is unreal, because objects are creations of the mind. An object has got a particular form, because the mind believes it to be so. In fact, objects of both the dreaming and the waking states are unreal.
Anything that has got a form is unreal. Forms are special modes of cognition and perception. They are not ultimate. In waking, there are physical forms; in dreaming, there are mental forms. Anyhow, all are forms only, limited in space and time. A form lasts only so long as that particular mental condition lasts. When there is a different mental condition, the forms of experience also change. This is why the form of the world vanishes when Self-realisation is attained.
Dream relations are contradicted by waking relations. Waking relations are contradicted by superconsciousness, which is uncontradicted. Non-contradiction is the test of reality.
The unreal world appears as real, whereas it is in reality a long dream arisen in our mind. As in dream, so in the waking state, the objects seen are unsubstantial, though the two conditions differ by the one being internal and subtle, and the other external, gross and long. This world is nothing but a long dream.
The past is a dream. The future is a dream. The solid present is also a dream. The fact that in Self-realisation there is absolute cessation of phenomenal experience shows that all phenomena are unreal.
Objections refuted
The utility and objective worth of things, etc., in waking are cancelled in the dream state, even as the conditions and experiences in dream are invalidated in waking. Objects act as means to ends only in a particular condition, and not in all conditions. Things are real only in their realms, and not always. That which is not always real is an appearance, is unreal; for, reality is everlasting. As the objects of the waking state do not work in dream, they are unreal. As the objects of the dream do not work in the waking state, they are unreal. Hence, everything is unreal.
The mind gives values to objects, and its conception of normality and abnormality changes according to the state in which it is. The dreamer has his own conception of space, time and causation, even as the waking one has his own notions. One state is absurd when compared to the other. This shows that both states are illogical, and therefore, absurd from the highest standpoint.
It may be said that objects seen in waking are not mere mental imaginations, because the objects of waking experience are seen by other people also, whether or not one’s mind cognises them. But, it is seen in the dream state also, objects of experience are open to the perception of other people, though the people as well as the objects are all subjective imaginations.
It may be said that in waking we perceive through the sense-organs and not merely through ideas. But it is seen, that in dream also, we perceive through the sense-organs belonging to the dream state, which are not less real than those of the waking state. As dream is unreal, waking also must be unreal.
The Dreamless Atman
There is one pure Consciousness or Atman in all beings which is infinite, eternal, all-pervading, self-existent, self-luminous and self-contained; which is partless, timeless, spaceless, birthless and deathless. This is the real ‘I’. This ‘I’ never wakes, dreams or sleeps. It is always the seer or the silent witness of the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. It is the Turiya or the fourth state. It is the state that transcends the three states.
It is the false or relative ‘I’ called Ahankara or ego or Jiva that wakes up, dreams and sleeps. The waker, the dreamer and the sleeper are all changing personalities and unreal.
The real Self, the real ‘I’, never wakes up, dreams and sleeps. From the viewpoint of the absolute truth or Paramarthika Satta, no one wakes up, dreams and sleeps.
Wake Up and Realise
Learn to be the witness of your thoughts in the waking state. You can be conscious in the dream state that you are dreaming. You can alter, stop or create your own thoughts in the dream state independently. You will be able to keep awake in the dream state. If the thoughts of the waking state are controlled, you can control the dream thoughts also.
Do not allow the mind to run into the sensual grooves. Fortify yourself by developing the intellect through enquiry of Brahman, reflection and contemplation. The intellect will serve the purpose of a strong fortress. It will not allow the sense-impressions to be lodged in the causal body. It will not allow the impressions of the causal body to come out. It will serve a double purpose.
Brahman alone is really existent. Jiva, world are false. Kill this illusory egoism. The world is unreal when compared to Brahman. It is a solid reality for a passionate worldly man, even as dreams are real to the childish. The world does not exist for a Jnani or a Mukta.
You dream that you are a king. You enjoy various kinds of royal pleasures. As soon as you wake up, everything vanishes. But you do not feel for the loss, because you know that the dream creatures are all false. When you know the real Tattva, Brahman, the waking consciousness also will become quite false like a dream. Even in the waking consciousness if you are well established in the idea that the world is a false illusion, you will not get any pain.
Wake up and realise, my child!
Excerpts from: Wake-up and Realise - Dream by Sri Swami Sivananda
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