Pearls of Wise

1. Not only is your strength reduced by the way that you live the past and project onto the future, but also how you live in this moment. If you accept the present you can flow flexibly without wasting your energy. Accepting does not mean submitting yourself or feeling a victim of what is happening now. From acceptance, you confront and transform . Accepting the present and trusting in the future helps us to be well. instead of being grateful for what you have and accepting yourself as you are, you try to have and be like the other. In this way, you are never satisfied. The dissatisfaction causes you a constant unhappiness that reduces your vitality. When you feel happy and satisfied your energy flows more easily. The most important thing that you should do in this moment is to feel content. Don't let your own mind create the thoughts that trap you. It is we ourselves who create our emotional cages. 2. We are subject to a continuous commentary on life around us from our o...

(Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900)   4. He ended by producing a mass of roses. Each flower was perfect, with dew-drops on the petals, not one crushed, not one injured. And masses of them! When I asked the man for an explanation, he said, "It is all sleight of hand." Whatever it was, it seemed to be impossible that it could be sleight of hand merely. From whence could he have got such large quantities of things? Well, I saw many things like that. Going about India you find hundreds of similar things in different places. These are in every country. Even in this country you will find some such wonderful things. Of course there is a great deal of fraud, no doubt; but then, whenever you see fraud, you have also to say that fraud is an imitation. There must be some truth somewhere, that is being imitated; you cannot imitate nothing. Imitation must be of something substantially true. In very remote times in India, thousands of years ago, these facts ...

2. The universe is inconstant, and it is only a field of experience provided to the individuals so that they may evolve towards the experience of the Highest Truth. It is the glory of the people of Bharatvarsha that to them the visible universe is not the real and the invisible Eternal alone is the real. They have no faith in what they perceive with the senses. They have faith only in that which is the ground of all experience, beyond the senses, beyond even the individual mind. Earnest seekers used to seek shelter under great sages who purified the holy region of the Himalayas with their mighty presence, and lived the austere life of Yogis in order to attain freedom from the trammels of earth-bound life and rest in the beatitude of the Absolute, Brahman. This they considered the true life, and thus the way of fulfilling the law of the Eternal. The great law-giver, Manu, after describing the various tenets of Dharma, finally asserts: "Of all these Dharmas, the Knowledge ...

From: ~~~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 607. Bhagavan: There is a fixed state;  sleep, dream and waking states are mere movements in it. They are like pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show. Everyone sees the screen as well as the pictures  but ignores the screen and takes in the pictures  alone. The Jnani however considers only the screen  and not the pictures. The pictures certainly move on the screen  yet do not affect it. The screen itself does not move but remains stationary. Similarly,  a person travels in a train and thinks that he moves.  Really speaking he sits and reposes in his seat,  and it is the train which is steaming fast. He however superimposes the motion of the train  on himself because he has identified himself with the body. He says,  “I have passed one station  - now another - yet another - and so on”. A little consideration will show that he sit...

Dedicated TO MY HOLY MASTER SATGURU SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ Sri Swami Premananda 2. Invocation - Salutations to Lord Ganesha who removes all impediments and ensures blessedness and success. Reverence to Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and learning, and Parvati, consort of Lord Siva, bestower of strength and energy. Prostrations to my Satguru Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, an ocean of benevolence and compassion, who removes defects of vision and purifies the eyes of understanding and guides on the path of spirituality, wisdom and devotion and protects his humble disciples from all sides. Adorations to Lord Mahadeva, over whose divine body the holy ashes are auspicious and ecstatic and who narrated the sacred Sri Ramacharitmanas (Ramayana) to his holy consort Uma. Veneration to Lord Rama and Janaki Sita, incarnations of Lord Hari and Goddess Lakshmi respectively, who remove illusion and illumine the heart & mind with devotion and truth. Obeisance to Hanuman,...

(Spoken on October 19, 1972)  15. This Truth value is present in everything. It is in you and in everybody. Inasmuch as it is in all things, we try to love things. When we love an object, we are loving only the Truth behind it, not the form of it, because the form is untrustworthy. Yet, we mistake one thing for another. The Truth within that attracts our attention is mistaken for the body in which it is encased, and then, generally, we hug bodies, while really what attracts us is the meaning behind that body. It is not a beautiful flower that attracts us; it is the beauty that is in the flower. Yet when we smell the flower, we cannot smell the beauty within it. Beauty is different from the beautiful object, yet we cannot make this distinction. The beauty is the Truth behind it, whereas the object is perishable. The flower can fade at any moment but the principle of beauty cannot fade; it is eternal. The aesthetic value is as eternal a value as the moral value and the met...

4. Selfishness downgrades work, making it sheer labour. On the other hand, selflessness uplifts and transforms work into inspiration. Selfishness can end only with love. Only when there is love in the heart can we be ready to give up our own selfish wants and desires in order to bring joy and happiness to others. When actions are dedicated with love to a higher altar or goal, the ego with all its selfishness dissolves. The higher and nobler the altar of our love, the greater the dedication and surrender, and the greater the inspiration and joy. Thus, inspired work done with dedication is an expression of love. Such `love in action’ alone is called seva or service. Swami Chinmayananda To be continued  ...

1. THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE : (d) (d).The Fourth Stage: Renunciation At this time of life the only duty is to gather together one’s mind and place it upon the Supreme Being. That is the fourth quarter of life, the sun-set period of one’s life, when all your relationships and connections are coming to a close. At this time, your entire mind should be fixed upon the Eternal, no more on the passing world. You have fulfilled all your duties, and now you have to depart. The river is reaching the ocean, and a time will come when it has to merge into the ocean. Here one’s mind has become calm, steady and pure. One’s heart is desireless and free from all cravings. One is established in perfect self-restraint and virtue. This ideal state is the fruit of right living. Here, one automatically becomes absorbed in the contemplation of the Supreme and moves towards God-experience. He or she reaps the harvest of a rich inner spiritual life, supreme peace and bliss, obtaining that ultimate o...

Sri Aurobindo describes the traditional practices recommended in Raja Yoga for attaining the one-pointed indrawn, concentrated status called “Samadhi”: “Rajayogic concentration is divided into four stages; it commences with the drawing both of the mind and senses from outward things, proceeds to the holding of the one object of concentration to the exclusion of all other ideas and mental activities, then to the prolonged absorption of the mind in this object, finally, to the complete ingoing of the consciousness by which it is lost to all outward mental activity in the oneness of Samadhi.” This step-by-step progression of the movement of the awareness inward is intended to separate the mind from the outer, transitory details of existence and focus it on a status of divine realization. For a being based in the outer world of the senses and the active, interactive life, the end-result does not come immediately or without some intervening steps. In order to pull the mind away from...

Dedicated TO MY HOLY MASTER SATGURU SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ Sri Swami Premananda 1. Instruction by way of narration through heroic poems written in stimulating language has been in all countries an effective medium of awakening the drooping spirits in man to a vision of the forces that operate in the universe. The Ramayana of sage Valmiki, which had its immortal successor as the great work of Sant Tulsidas and several others in the languages of India, is regarded as the first Sanskrit poem ever, which recounts the deeds of Rama, his exploits, forming the various scenes of his life. The work is a reservoir from which flowed countless streams of powerful poetic works touching upon some one or the other of the incidents and episodes of the epic. The importance of the Ramayana is in its perennial appeal to the spirits of humanity in general, whose different sides are ably touched by the deft imagery of Valmiki, and the line of poets who followed in its wake. The present ...

1. THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE : (c). Third Stage: Retirement Third Stage: Retirement Having fulfilled the duties of raising children, making them adults capable of standing on their own feet, a new stage of life comes into being. Up till now you were entirely preoccupied with your family and your profession, providing for your parents, wife, children and other dependants. To a certain extent, it was a self-centred life, although one practised selflessness for the sake of the children and family. But now one must give way to the new generation. Having retired, with a little more leisure on your hands, and with a vast reservoir of professional experience and expertise, one has the time to become true selfless servants of the society, to become altruists and philanthropists. This is also the time for husband and wife, together, to enter more into the inner life, study, meditation, prayer, pilgrimage. We must realise that a time comes when we have to say “Good-bye”. We have to ...

(Spoken on October 19, 1972) 14. We do not know what will happen to us tomorrow, yet we are very busy today. What makes us keep busy? Nobody knows what our condition tomorrow will be, and yet we are so busy, very active, as if we are having an eternity in front of us, while it is not the truth. The breath can stop even in a minute for some reason. Nobody knows when their life will end, and yet there is a hope for eternal life. This hope keeps us alive. If this hope were not to be, life would have been impossible. If it were a fact that in a few minutes everything will crumble to pieces, how could life be possible? But in spite of the knowledge of the fact that anything can come to an end at any time, hope is secure. We are like masters living in a precarious condition. Everything is uncertain, and yet we are happy. How is it? How is it that we are happy, smiling and laughing when everything is insecure, uncertain and untrustworthy? We do not know what will happen the next ...

14. Hari Om! All over the world, an ordinary human mind functions in this way, controlled and driven away by emotions. Obviously, human life becomes a misery because of all these emotional storms that leads man to dilemmas in his every day life. An animal does not have to face such mental conflicts as they do not have any power of discrimination and hence choices. But humans, with their ‘Vishesha Budhi’ has to discriminate between the right choices and wrong ones and choose the best decision – almost every day in our modern world and society. This makes our minds a ‘war-field’ where the rights and the wrongs compete and fight among themselves. Who, or the thought that, wins in the race makes the decision. The series of these decisions constitute our life! Wrong or negative thoughts destroy our life and right or positive thoughts construct our life. Thus, the same mind turns out to be our enemy or friend as we use it to be. So, isn’t it important to take care of this facul...

Scientists of consciousness have existed for millennia in India. In the West, the science of psychology is still considered to be an “infant” science. While Western psychology has generally looked at the processes of consciousness from outside and tried to interpret what this may mean, Yogis, Rishis and Sages in India have tried to achieve inner awareness that provides them real knowledge, not inferential knowledge, through a process of realizing or achieving states of consciousness not normally or always accessible to most individuals. The various paths of Yoga use a variety of specific methods to achieve these inner states. In general, however, many of them utilize quite similar techniques, including Asana, Pranayama and Mantra. Sri Aurobindo provides an overview of the psychological processes and the methods used to achieve results: “…the real energy of our being is lying asleep and inconscient in the depths of our vital system, and is awakened by the practice of Pra...

10. 1.Talks 363 Sri Ramana Maharshi:. There is a stanza in Kaivalya: “My Lord! You had remained as my Self within, protecting me in all my past incarnations. Now, by your Grace, you have manifested yourself as my master and revealed yourself as the Self ." Just see what happens in sleep. There is no ego, no India, no seekers, no master, etc.; and yet you are - and happy too. The ego, India, seekers, etc., appear now; but they are not apart from nor independent of you. 2. Talk-518. For the seeker’s silence  Guru’s silence is the loudest upadesa. It is also Grace in its highest form. All other dikshas (initiations),  e.g., sparsa, chakshus  are derived from mowna (silence). They are therefore secondary. Mowna is the primary form. If the Guru is silent  the seeker’s mind gets purified by itself. 3. (From 'Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi' 634) D.: I have no pleasure in the house. There remains nothing for me to do in the family. I have finished d...

3. Work without inspiration becomes `labour’. Labour is tiring and painful. The result of labour is never fulfilling. A labourer always complains that he has not got his just result. All selfish work eventually becomes labour where `more pay and less work’ becomes the policy. Most of our work these days has become mere labour: children labour through school; mothers find work at home tedious; fathers find their field of work unsatisfying and often jump into the rat race, all of which breeds countless worries and numerous tensions. Love transforms work into `inspiration’, with efficiency as its result. And efficiency in work naturally brings about success, no matter what one’s field of pursuit. Not only is there a sense of achievement and satisfaction, but also an extreme sense of joy. Unlike all other forms of action which are fulfilled only in their results, inspired activity is a fulfilment in itself. In other words, the desired joy is gained not upon completion of the actio...

1. The life of man is an indication of what is beyond him and what determines the course of his thoughts, feelings and actions. The wider life is invisible, and the visible is a shadow cast by the invisible which is the real. The shadow gives an idea of the substance, and one can pursue the path to the true substance, by the perception of the shadow. Human existence, by the fact of its limitations, wants, and various forms of restlessness, discontent and sorrow, points to a higher desired end, incomprehensible though the nature of this end be. As life on this earth is characterised by incessant change, and nothing here seems to have the character of reality, nothing here can satisfy man completely. The Bhagavad Gita has referred to this world as anityam, asukham, duhkhalayam, ashashvatam "impermanent, unhappy, the abode of sorrow, transient." The sages of yore declared with immediate realisation that "Truth is One" and that the goal of human life is the real...

(Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900)  3. Another time I was in the city of Hyderabad in India, and I was told of a Brâhmin there who could produce numbers of things from where, nobody knew. This man was in business there; he was a respectable gentleman. And I asked him to show me his tricks. It so happened that this man had a fever, and in India there is a general belief that if a holy man puts his hand on a sick man he would be well. This Brahmin came to me and said, "Sir, put your hand on my head, so that my fever may be cured." I said, "Very good; but you show me your tricks." He promised. I put my hand on his head as desired, and later he came to fulfil his promise. He had only a strip of cloth about his loins, we took off everything else from him. I had a blanket which I gave him to wrap round himself, because it was cold, and made him sit in a corner. Twenty-five pairs of eyes were looking at him. And he said, "Now, look, write...