Pearls of Wise

Satsangam - Swami Sivananda Ashram (Speech delivered by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj on the 26th December 1954, at Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, for the celebration of the 34th birthday of Sri Swami Venkatesananda.) 12. Real happiness you can have through meditation, with a pure, concentrated mind, filled with Sattwa. People may write articles and theses; but how to convert Rajas into Sattwa? No one knows this. Nobody practises introspection. As soon as you get up, you put on your suit and go to the office. In the evening you go to the club and at night go to sleep. Where is time for you to introspect? Only regular and systematic introspection will enable you to control the mind; and only he who has controlled the mind will be able to enjoy real happiness. Only when the mind is filled with Sattwa, you can have concentration of mind. In a Sattwic mind alone does real Atmic enquiry arise. He alone can discover the answer to the question: “What is my real essential nature?”  ...

Satsangam -Vivekananda Kendra (Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900) Next-22. Now, if there is any one amongst you who really wants to study this science, he will have to start with that sort of determination, the same as, nay even more than, that which he puts into any business of life. And what an amount of attention does business require, and what a rigorous taskmaster it is! Even if the father, the mother, the wife, or the child dies, business cannot stop! Even if the heart is breaking, we still have to go to our place of business, when every hour of work is a pang. That is business, and we think that it is just, that it is right. This science calls for more application than any business can ever require. Many men can succeed in business; very few in this. Because so much depends upon the particular constitution of the person studying it. As in business all may not make a fortune, but everyone can make something, so in the study of this science each on...

Bhagavan : God becomes a child, and vice versa. That means that the samskaras are yet latent in the child and thus its innocence is complete. When they are eradicated even a grown up man becomes a child once again, and thus remains God. Q.: The child creates the ‘home’ atmosphere. Bhagavan : Yes. The children are always in the ‘home’. We too are there but are dreaming and imagining that we are outside the home. Bhagavan added : I have rendered the word ‘youth’ (yuva) in Dakshinamurti Stotra by ‘child’ (bala). This seems more appropriate. To be reborn is to become children over again. One must be reborn before gaining jnana, i.e., recovering the natural state. Sri Ramanasramam

Satsangam - Sri Ramakrishna mission CH-4. ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS-7. Thursday, August 24, 1882. It was almost dusk.  The Master and M. stood talking alone near the  door on the southeast verandah.   MASTER (to M.): "The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always absorbed in the Self.  You can recognize such a man by merely looking at him.  His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like the eyes of the mother bird hatching her eggs.  Her entire mind is fixed on the eggs, and there is a vacant look in her eyes.  Can you show me such a picture?" M: "I shall try to get one." As evening came on, the temples were lighted up.  Sri Ramakrishna was seated on his small couch, meditating on the Divine Mother.  Then he chanted the names of God.  Incense was burnt in the room, where an oil lamp had been lighted.  Sounds of conch-shells and gongs came floating on the air as the evening worship began in the temple of K...

     Sri Aurobindo Ashram-Satsangam Thursday, 01.12.2016 There is not a single way for everyone to experience the Divine Presence. Some experience the Divine within, some in the universal manifestation, and still others experience the Divine as an infinite and abstract Presence beyond all the forms of the manifested universe, above and outside us. It is quite common for people to describe the Divine as a Presence residing in a heaven above, separate and independent of us and of everything else in the world. The traditional Yoga of knowledge seeks to dissasociate the individual from the manifestation in order to obtain unity with this transcendent, infinite, immutable divine Presence. Sri Aurobindo observes: “We see or feel him as a high-uplifted Presence, a great infinite of Ananda above us,–or in it, our Father in heaven,–and do not feel or see him in ourselves or around us. So long as we keep this vision, the mortality in us quelled by that Immortality; ...

1. There are two kinds of mind. One is an open mind. Another is a closed mind. A closed mind is that which says, “This is how it is. I know it. That is it.” It gets hardened. An open mind says, “Oh, maybe, perhaps. I do not know.” Limited knowledge, and the conformity about it, makes a mind very hard. Whenever you seem to understand a situation and you label it, “I know this is how it is,” that is the beginning of your problem. And always all problems arise from knowing but not from not knowing. If you do not know, your mind is open, you say “Oh, maybe, something, perhaps, don’t know.” You wait. You cannot label something when you do not know. Whenever you think an injustice has been made to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, whenever you think you are a victim, whenever you think something bad has happened to you— all this falls under the category of “I know it. This is how things are.” Whenever we attach a label “not good,” it comes from a thorough kno...

NOTE- Members, "BLIND FOLLOWERS OF CHRISTIANITY AND ESPECIALLY ISLAM - MUST READ THIS AND KNOW THE STATUS OF GITA OVER AND ABOVE ANY OTHER WORLD RELIGIOUS BOOKS. READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY AND KNOW THE TRUTH, THEREAFTER MEDITATE UPON GITA, THUS SILENCE YOUR MIND, YOU ARE VERY VERY NEAR TO PARAMATMA." 10. We Bharatiya believed in the proverb, “As you sow, shall you reap”. It is said in Ramayana that “Than Than Nirantharam Cheyyunna Karmangal Than Than Anubhavicheedanam”, which means, one has to bear the fruit of all his/her karmas. This reflected our culture and way of life. Yet, today in the name of politics and religion, men do not hesitate to kill and loot for safeguarding their own selfish interests. Can our ancestors forgive them? Our scriptures proclaim, “Matru Devo Bhava-Yatra Naaryasthu Poojyanthe Thatra Thushyanthi Devathaha.” – Prosperity and peace prevail in a land where women are treated with dignity and Womanhood is worshipped. It is the duty...

Dedicated TO MY HOLY MASTER SATGURU SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ Sri Swami Premananda 2. Till very recently, none in India bothered to verify the veracity of the story. It was not their concern to investigate the actual happenings in history—when Rama lived and ruled or the places he occupied during his fourteen years’ period of banishment by his father. To Indians it was the grain that mattered and not the chaff. The modern period is the age of reason, not of faith—faith in tradition, in the past, in epics, in authority, in parents, even in oneself. For everything the modern generation clamours for proof, authenticity and verification. In the case of past events there can be circumstantial evidence, historical support, archaeological proof and literary or even astronomical occurrences to support dates and incidents. The Ramayana, i.e. the history of Lord Rama, in the light of the temper of times, has also been subjected to detailed scrutiny. Historians have been bus...

 CHAPTER - 4.1. THE WEALTH OF CHARACTER What distinguishes the human individual  from the animal is our behaviour. There is a difference between the Charitra (character) of a  Pashu (animal) and the Charitra of a Manava (human being). If the Manava does not keep up to  this higher standard of Charitra then even though  he may be a human individual in Roopa (form) and Nama (name), he is only an animal because  his life, conduct and behaviour is more suitable to the animal than to a man. Through your behaviour you must prove that you are a human individual. If you have no control over your senses, if you have no principles for your living, if you are subject to anger and passion and gluttony (Kama, Krodha and Vishaya Vilasa), if you have no moderation, then there you have the animal. Therefore, you have to prove your human status not merely by reading a few text books and passing a few examinations and getting a degree, but by the manner of yo...

(Spoken on September 26, 1983) 3 “I gave it a little milk which was too hot so it burnt its lips a little bit, and so the child is crying.” “Milk? What is milk? How does it look?” “Milk is a white liquid.” “White? What is white?” “You don’t know what is white? White is the colour of a swan.” He said, “Swan? What is a swan?” She got upset, thinking, “How long will I go on explaining to this man?” She twisted her hand like this. “Touch this. A swan is like this.” Then he touched her hand, which was bent like this. “Oh, this is milk. This is why the child is crying. Such a crooked thing you are putting into the mouth of the child? Naturally, it has to cry. This is milk?” Well, you can imagine how far the understanding of this comparison in the mind of the blind man is from the intention of the one who brought this comparison to explain what milk is. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ...

4. To me it seems that the only solution for the day’s internal chaos is to bring home to the people the significance of the much neglected teaching of dharma – himsa. As it is, a misled and over – excited minority in the country has the sole monopoly of violence; and non – violence is a dangerous folly. However ideal a moral precept may be, so long as, in a society, innocent children, helpless women and defenceless old are left to be butchered dishonoured and tortured, while the youth of the land is made to watch impassionately the hellish scene, we are to conclude that either the idea is a dangerous one, or that we have not rightly understood the full meaning of the precept. Under the present available scheme of chaos in this country, when under the planned instigation of a few power blind, reckless men, a minority community is rendered into a murderous gang of fanatics, it is the duty of the majority to win back the erring thousands. The cure depends upon the disease;...

(Speech delivered by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj on the 26th December 1954, at Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, for the celebration of the 34th birthday of Sri Swami Venkatesananda.) 11.  The little sensual pleasure is no pleasure at all. When there is a patch of eczema, you scratch yourself and seem to enjoy it. Later is bleeds, and you suffer from intense pain. Similar is the case with the pleasure derived from sensual objects here. You must have a bold understanding to ask yourself: “Is this really pleasure?” and arrive at the conclusion that it is no pleasure at all. Study the phenomenon of deep sleep; that itself will give you the knowledge that you can get real joy and peace only when you go beyond the objects of this world. In deep sleep, there are not objects, and there is no objective enjoyment. Yet, you enjoy great bliss and peace there. You say: “I slept well; I enjoyed my sleep; but I did not know anything.” In spite of the absence of the sensual objec...

The Divine is not separate from the manifested world, so we could expect to see the outpouring of the Divine Delight, Ananda, in the external world. Sri Aurobindo observes: “For all joy, beauty, love, peace, delight are out flowings from the Ananda Brahman,–all delight of the spirit, the intellect, the imagination, aesthetic sense, ethical aspiration and satisfaction, action, life, the body. And through all ways of our being the Divine can touch us and make use of them to awaken and liberate the spirit.” The joy and delight that we can experience in the external world, however, is a weak, filtered and inconsistent form of the Ananda, not the intensity and purity of Ananda in its native form and on its native plane. Just as existence is filtered into an inconstant struggle for life, with death as a constant process, and just as consciousness is filtered into an ignorance that attempts to gain knowledge through acquisition of bits and pieces of information and through extrapo...

(Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900) 20. The whole idea was to get at the basis, to reach the fine parts of the thing. And some of them really showed most marvellous powers. Many of them were trying to float in the air or pass through it. I shall tell you a story which I heard from a great scholar in the West. It was told him by a Governor of Ceylon who saw the performance. A girl was brought forward and seated cross-legged upon a stool made of sticks crossed. After she had been seated for a time, the show-man began to take out, one after another, these cross-bars; and when all were taken out, the girl was left floating in the air. The Governor thought there was some trick, so he drew his sword and violently passed it under the girl; nothing was there. Now, what was this? It was not magic or something extraordinary. That is the peculiarity. No one in India would tell you that things like this do not exist. To the Hindu it is a matter of course...

Maharshi: Atman is realised with mruta manas (dead mind), i.e., mind devoid of thoughts and turned inward. Then the mind sees its own source and becomes That. It is not as the subject perceiving an object. When the room is dark a lamp is necessary to illumine and eyes to cognise objects. But when the sun is risen there is no need of a lamp, and the objects are seen; and to see the sun no lamp is necessary, it is enough that you turn your eyes towards the self luminous sun. Similarly with the mind. To see the objects the reflected light of the mind is necessary. To see the Heart it is enough that the mind is turned towards it. Then the mind loses itself and the Heart shines forth. Sri Ramanasramam

CH-4. ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS-6. Thursday, August 24, 1882. " 'Woman and gold' alone is the obstacle to yoga.  Always analyse what you see.  What is there in the body of a woman? Only such things as blood, flesh, fat, entrails, and the like.  Why should one love such a body? "Sometimes I used to assume a rajasic mood in order to practise renunciation.  Once I had the desire to put on a gold-embroidered robe, wear a ring on my finger, and smoke a hubble-bubble with a long pipe.  Mathur Babu procured all these things for me.  I wore the gold-embroidered robe and said to myself after a while, 'Mind! This is what is called a gold-embroidered robe.' Then I took it off and threw it away.  I couldn't stand the robe any more.  Again I said to myself, 'Mind! This is called a shawl, and this a ring, and this, smoking a hubble-bubble with a long pipe.' I threw those things away once for all, and the desire to enjoy them never arose in my mind again...

I want to share a little story with you. 1. There was an executive who said that he was very upset with his boss. So he wrote a very nasty letter to his own boss. He signed it and decided to send it out after his meeting with me. When he mentioned this to me, I gave him this idea, that before signing any important paper, take a 15 seconds gap and just be still and reflect. So he did it, and he later said, “Gurudev, I did not send that letter that I had written, and it saved me a lot of embarrassment. And it saved my job as well”. Taking that little time, that 15 seconds gap, can make a big difference. You can do this several times during the course of the day. 2. As children, we used to play this game called ‘Statue’. We would be running and playing and someone would say, ‘Statue’, and we had to stand still. Have you played this game? This is one of the brilliant things to do to bring the mind to the present moment. And of course, meditation is very important....

NOTE- Members, "BLIND FOLLOWERS OF CHRISTIANITY AND ESPECIALLY ISLAM - MUST READ THIS AND KNOW THE STATUS OF GITA OVER AND ABOVE ANY OTHER WORLD RELIGIOUS BOOKS. READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY AND KNOW THE TRUTH, THEREAFTER MEDITATE UPON GITA, THUS SILENCE YOUR MIND, YOU ARE VERY VERY NEAR TO PARAMATMA." 9. Modern society is unaware of this power and hence can not make use of this strength. Inevitably, Man hurts others and spreads turmoil due to the severity of his emotions. Santanu’s stature is very high in a world, where even small children are victimised for satisfying one’s lustful desires. Though Satyavati was all alone when he met her, and he could have easily used her for satiating his desire, the King did not degenerate to such a barbaric culture. Instead, very respectfully, the King expresses his love towards her saying that, only with consent from her parents and herself, and approval of his son he shall accept her. Hearing this, Satyavati devi bows do...

Dedicated TO MY HOLY MASTER SATGURU SRI SWAMI SIVANANDAJI MAHARAJ Sri Swami Premananda 1. The story of Lord Rama has inspired millions over the centuries. It is said that the first Ramayana, as the epic is called, was written by sage Valmiki in Sanskrit, much before the incidents occurred. Valmiki was a contemporary of Rama and when Sita, his consort, was exiled by King Rama. She stayed at the Ashram of sage Valmiki. The latest recension was done by Sant Tulsidas in Avadhi, the language of the masses, in the 15th century. In the present interpretation of the epic the main actors of the drama are personified by various attributes common to the human race. This interpretation could, therefore, command universal appeal. This is called Adhyatma or spiritual Ramayana which explains the esotericism in the great epic. Sri Swami Premananda To be continued  ... Satsangam

12. Think Nobly As you think, so you will become, just as you reap what you sow. In the same way, you will ultimately experience and attain what you constantly think and feel. Your inner thoughts lead to outer action. Repeated actions grow into habits. Such habits become permanent qualities in your very nature. This nature goes to form your character. Your future and your destiny is the direct result of your character. Understand this very well. Carefully bear this in your mind. Think and act with this knowledge. Your inner thoughts are the seeds of your ultimate destiny. Safeguard your thoughts and feelings. Think nobly and virtuously. You will become a noble man or woman. You will attain greatness and make your life fruitful. More than all the books that you read and study, more than all your lessons and examinations, more important than everything in life is the cultivation of virtues. This is the source of ultimate happiness. Become good and great. Next : C...

Swami Krishnananda South Bharatam Visit (Spoken on September 26, 1983) 2. Hence, these common analogies of philosophic instructors, theologians or teachers have to be taken in their spirit, in what we may call the philosophic spirit rather than the common man’s spirit. Analogies cannot be stretched beyond a limit, to the breaking point. Analogies are very necessary to make people understand what an unknown thing can be or is, but a meaningless extension of the analogy would lose the very spirit of the analogy or the comparison made. There is a humorous story which will illustrate how analogies can completely miss the point and would convey no meaning at all, or at least not the intended meaning. There was a person who was blind from birth. He had never seen colour, and did not know the colour of any object in this world. He had a small child. One day the child started crying. He asked his wife, “Why is the child crying?” Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ... ...

3. By the over – emphasis laid on non – violence we have come to witness the pathetic situation of today, when thousands, in cowardly fear take to precipitate flight, leaving their innocent children to be butchered and their unarmed helpless women to be dishonoured or converted or killed. Under the cloak of glorified non – violence, an entire nation of cowards fly from their homes, when a small sect of fanatic barbarians boldly stalk in and out of their open undefended thresholds to kill, to rape, and to loot. When will we learn to fully interpret our Vedas, scriptures and Upanishads. If only we all learn that dharma – himsa is equally noble as ahimsa. Chinmaya Mission To be continued .. Satsangam-Chinmaya mission-Orlando

(Speech delivered by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj on the 26th December 1954, at Sivanandashram, Rishikesh, for the celebration of the 34th birthday of Sri Swami Venkatesanandaji.) 10. To his friends he may give a little. To servants he will not give even water! Such is the nature of the great man who has got a number of factories! Analyse yourself. You have a small heart, and a small intellect. Your world consists of only yourself and four or five relatives, and perhaps a few friends who will help you when you are in difficulties. No. You must have a large heart. You must become one with the entire mankind. You must share with others what you have. Every day, as soon as you get up, ask yourself: “How many good actions was I able to do yesterday?” and resolve to excel the previous day in doing good to others. Thus would you evolve rapidly.     Practise patience, tolerance and endurance. These are the qualities you will have to develop. Then you can become fearless. ...

Divine bliss, Ananda, is a different order of experience from what we know as joy in the vital life in the world. The experience of joy arises when we feel that a desire has been met, whether it is a physical desire or need that has been satisfied, providing a sensation of physical joy, or a vital or emotional desire or need which provides the excitement of a vital joy; or the satisfaction of various mental achievements, which provides mental joy. The Taittiriya Upanishad posits the situation of the human individual, young, healthy, radiant, successful, all desires being met, and this is consider to be the measure of one “human bliss”. It proceeds to show that there are numerous further levels of bliss, each one ” a hundred and a hundredfold” greater than the preceding level. Interestingly each level of bliss is then equated with “the bliss of the veda wise, whose soul the blight of desire touches not.” The Upanishad here is pointing the way for the seeker to come to the realis...

(Delivered at Los Angeles, California, January 8, 1900) 19. You see the peculiarity. At a certain period of Indian history, this one subject of man and his mind absorbed all their interest. And it was so enticing, because it seemed the easiest way to achieve their ends.  Now, the Indian mind became so thoroughly persuaded that the mind could do anything and everything according to law, that its powers became the great object of study. Charms, magic, and other powers, and all that were nothing extraordinary, but a regularly taught science, just as the physical sciences they had taught before that. Such a conviction in these things came upon the race that physical sciences nearly died out. It was the one thing that came before them. Different sects of Yogis began to make all sorts of experiments. Some made experiments with light, trying to find out how lights of different colours produced changes in the body. They wore a certain coloured cloth, lived under a certain col...