Pearls of Wise

31/12/2016 2.1 This future design may not come in our own life time, as it needs a long period of time for the changes to come. 2.2 Change it will, but what kind of change is determined by the growing generation. Therefore, when we say that today’s children are our future, we mean that we must strive now to mold the children to think correctly, to judge rightly, and to have the heroism to live up to those convictions. 2.3 Today, Bharatham  is in this sad condition because in the past the children seem to been neglected. 2.4 In the past I feel they must have been neglected because of the texture of the people I see around today. 2.5 There seems to be no intellectuals in our country, and a country without intellectuals has no future. 2.6 All the progressive countries in the world are such because their progress is guided by, decided by, thought of, and planned by the intellectuals of the generation. 2.7 In our country today, however, wherever I look, I only s...

31/12/2016. 1.  Introduction : 1.1 Bhagavatham is the unique Scripture written by the great sage Veda Vyasa.The beauty of this holy text is Sri Suka Maharshi, the son of Vyasa who helped in transforming the fearful mind of King Parikshit into a fearless one.The father is narrating the discussion between his son, the Guru Sri Suka and the devotee or Shishya Parikshit. 1.2 Bhagavatham is normally considered as a story of different Avathars or Incarnations. But actually it is a valuable spiritual, psychological and scientific counseling provided to elevate a stressed and depressed mind which is caught in the fear of an inevitable destiny. 1.3 In this context, Bhagavatham is an eye opener and guide to the modern world where everyone carries the “Fear of Future” or unexpected and undesirable events in life. Bhagavatham deals with the elimination of fear and in another way, it reinstalls mental courage and courage born out of understanding one’s own Self and God. 3.4 ...

  31/12/2016. 1. How can you get more grace in life? 1.1 Anugraha means grace. Nothing is possible in life without anugraha. 1.2. When you receive a lot without making efforts for it, then it is said that you are blessed with anugraha. 1.3. Usually you work hard at your job and then receive your salary. So you say, ‘I have earned my money’. But if someone gives you a gift, you do not say, ‘I have earned these gifts’. Can something that is earned be called a gift? No. You receive gifts without any efforts. So when you receive a great gift or an award that you feel you did not deserve, then that is called anugraha. 1.4. When we receive something that we are not deserving of, or which exceeds our capabilities, then that is what is called Grace. 1.5. When we see that in our life, we have received far more than what we deserve or are capable of, then gratitude dawns in us. We become thankful, complaints disappear and abundance grows.  2. Who experien...

31/12/2016. 7. There Was A King. 7.1 A scion descended from this king was Dasaratha, king of Ayodhya. Dasaratha had everything that nature could bestow, but he had no progeny. 7.2 Therefore he performed a sacrifice and was given the essence of that sacrifice to be distributed among his queens. 7.3 This was divided by Dasaratha in three parts for his three queens, Kausalya the eldest, Kaikeyi the second and Sumitra the youngest. 7.4 It so happened that the last one ate double the share. In course of time Kausalya gave birth to Rama, Kaikeyi to Bharata and Sumitra to Lakshmana and Shatrughna. 7.5 Among the queens, Kaikeyi who came from the Kingdom of Kekaya (supposed to be the area near the Caucasus mountains by moderns) was the most beautiful and well versed in the art of war. 7.6 She often accompanied the king to battle and once when the king’s chariot was disabled due to a broken axle, Kaikeyi put her arm in the wheel to support the chariot so that the King ...

31/12/2016. 6. SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE-3- 1&2. 3.1.1 The wife should be devoted to her husband, and should not think of any other man. All the rest of humanity should be to her like children; she is the great mother. 3.1.2 The husband must have the vow which Rama had – the vow of a single spouse. That means that the thought of another woman will never enter his mind. 3.1.3 In this way the whole family set-up becomes sacred and holy, and the interior life of the spirit goes on unhampered. There is nothing in the exterior life – either in the family life or in one’s own personal life – to hold back or obstruct the spiritual life. 3.2.1 As the children are to be brought up to respect the law of celibacy, of continence, so the husband and the wife should adhere to the law of continence and celibacy in the form of a strict moderation of marital life. 3.2.2 And thus, both husband and wife go in perfect harmony, and on the dual wings of exterior activity and inter...

31/12/2016. 8. 8.1 We should not be under the impression that the problem of finding a solution to the relationship between man and God is something that concerns an academy or an educational institution or a theological seminary or a temple or an ashram or a monastery or a chapel or a church. 8.2 That this is not the problem of man today may be the feeling of many in the world. In what way is man – prosaic man, crass man, concrete man, the realistic man of human society today – concerned with our question of the relationship between man and God? “Let there be any relation. What does it matter to me?” 8.3 It matters very much. That the so-called realistic, prosaic man of the hardboiled reality of social life does not feel the need to appreciate the value of this great problem is so much credit to his education indeed, because he does not know what exactly he is thinking when he says that this does not concern him. 8.4 It is immediately a concern of even the one ...

31/12/2016. (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.) 16. 16.1 The Sanyasin is Sakshat Narayana Himself. He who is able to infuse into you discrimination, has placed you under a debt of gratitude to him, which you cannot repay in millions of lives. Your mind runs along the sensual grooves. He who is able to turn your mind away from the sensual grooves—you cannot very easily repay the debt you owe him.   16.2 He who is able to infuse into you a little aspiration and to turn your mind slightly from the sensual objects,—you cannot repay without Sadhana the debt you owe him. Such are the people who wear this gerua cloth. 16.3 Glory to these worthy children of Sankaracharya, Dattatreya, Sanaka, Sanandana and Sanatkumara. He who is not able to understand the one all-pervading Presence, whose mind runs along sensual grooves, is a b...

31/12/2016. (Delivered at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles, California) 4 4.1   What man can bring up a child with such patience, endurance, and love as the woman can? The one has developed the power of doing; the other, the power of suffering. If woman cannot act, neither can man suffer. 4.2 The whole universe is one of perfect balance. I do not know, but some day we may wake up and find that the mere worm has something which balances our manhood. 4.3 The most wicked person may have some good qualities that I entirely lack. I see that every day of my life. Look at the savage! I wish I had such a splendid physique. To be continued  ...

31/12/2016. Bhagavan: If you have surrendered, you must be able to abide by the will of God and not make a grievance of what may not please you. Things may turn out differently from what they look apparently. Distress often leads men to faith in God. You must only trust God.

31/12/2016. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Chapter-4. ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS-27 August 13, 1882 Different groups of devotees M: "Sir, what is the meaning of the realization of God? What do you mean by God-vision? How does one attain it?" MASTER: "According to the Vaishnavas the aspirants and the seers of God may be divided into different groups.  These are the pravartaka, the sadhaka, the siddha, and the siddha of the siddha.  He who has just set foot on the path may be called a pravartaka. He may be called a sadhaka who has for some time been practising spiritual disciplines, such as worship, japa, meditation, and the chanting of God's name and glories.  He may be called a siddha who has known from his inner experience that God exists.  An analogy is given in the Vedanta to explain this. The master of the house is asleep in a dark room.  Someone is groping in the darkness to find him.  He touches the couch and says, 'No, it is not he.' H...

31/12/6016. The integral Yoga is not the first Yoga to attempt a synthesis that integrates the various major methods of Yoga and which accepts the reality, not only of the abstract spiritual truth, but also of the manifestation of the universal creation in the world. While there are significant differences between the integral Yoga and the Tantra, it is useful to review the tantric synthesis briefly. Sri Aurobindo observes: “Tantric discipline is in its nature a synthesis. It has seized on the large universal truth that there are two poles of being whose essential unity is the secret of existence, Brahman and Shakti, Spirit and Nature, and that Nature is power of the spirit or rather is spirit as power. To raise nature in man into manifest power of spirit is its method and it is the whole nature that it gathers up for the spiritual conversion.” He goes on to point out that tantric Yoga takes up the processes of Hathayoga, Rajayoga, as well as the powers of knowledge, will and ...

1. 23/12/2016. 1. The present, added on to some period of time-becomes future. The present plus time is the future. So our present work plus the time in which we do and achieve things together becomes the future world. The future is not a continuity of the present world - it can never be. The present world is being handled, dandled, destroyed and created through this given period of time, and what remains will be the future world - good or bad, created or destroyed. 2. When we say that today’s world is to be the future world, what we mean is, today’s people and their contribution is that which is going to mold the world, its ways, and its life for the future. Today’s people may not remain and survive in the future, but the expectation is, today’s children will survive. Naturally, therefore, if the present children are molded in their attitudes, in their values, in their ideas, and in their ideals, we can expect a better and more organised world of tomorrow and ac...

23/12/2016. 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." 14. 1. 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. 2. 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. ...

23/12/2016. 1. How do we handle ego clashes? 2.  When egos are there, they do clash. There is no way out. When there is wisdom, you will rise above any small-minded attitude, bickering and judgements. 3. You judge people all the time, and if you turn back and look at your own judgements, I tell you, 80 to 90% of the time, they will be wrong.  Sometimes you type a message to send to someone, and something tells you that this is not okay and so you retract it. This shows how poor your judgements are. 4. We create a huge cloud around what is not even close to truth, and it has happened to you so many times in the past. You hold grudges against people, you have concepts about people and you get yourself trapped into it. You must wake up from this. You know, if your time is good, your worst enemy behaves like a friend, and if your time is bad, your closest friend behaves like an enemy. So, your luck or time is totally responsible for your friends and enemies. ...

23/12/2016. 6. There Was A King. 1. There is an ancient city of Ayodhya on the banks of broad-bosomed river Saryu in the Utter Pradesh State of India. There lived a king called Raghu, so powerful, that he was invited by even Indra of Swargaloka to help him in his battles against the demons. Swargaloka is heaven, but interpreted these days as a land lying somewhere in the North amidst the hoary heights of the Himalayas and Indra, according to this reading, must have been a powerful king enjoying all the luxuries of life but constantly threatened by some other kings who were equally affluent and brave. The arts and sciences of that age are not well-known now. The elixir of youth, the devas—Indra was their lord—had discovered is treated now as a myth. Their adversaries, the Asuras or demons, were anxious to get hold of the prescription of the elixir. 2. In war there are descriptions of many weapons which could cause fire like modern Napalm bomb, or whirlwind and a st...

23/12/2016. 6. SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE-2. Through the coming together of these two souls, God means an important process to be worked out, and that is the sharing of the spiritual impulse between the two. The husband and the wife are to share what they have earned, what they have learned and also their spiritual potential. The husband is to enrich the spiritual life of the wife, the wife is to enrich the spiritual life of the husband, and both are to go hand in hand towards the supreme attainment of the Divine Consciousness. That is the true inner meaning of family life. Marriage is sacred. It is not to be treated lightly. Marriage is an alliance, which is for something more than mere physical enjoyment or the propagation of the race. To be continued  ...

7. 23/12/2016. 1. If that which we consider as the sum total of the values of life or the reality of existence is something that is present, there would be no incentive to do anything in the world. All impulse to action and incentive for what we consider as progressive evolution of humanity is an insignia of the notion of the futurity of an end that is yet to be achieved, and the history of mankind is again a vindication of this outlook of mankind as a whole. 2. Thus, our relation to reality seems to be a kind of relation between the present and the future. Here we are not in an easy position. Even if we scratch our head a thousand times, we would not be able to give a correct definition of the relation between the present and the future because of the difficulty in knowing where exactly the present passes into the future, where the future commences. 3. We do not actually know where we are in the process of time. Are we in the past or are we in the present or are ...

23/12/2016. (Delivered at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles, California) 3. 1. Then, you see that strength, power, and courage are things which are very peculiar. We generally say, "A courageous man, a brave man, a daring man", but we must bear in mind that that courage or bravery or any other trait does not always characterise the man. The same man who would rush to the mouth of a cannon shrinks from the knife of the surgeon; and another man who never dares to face a gun will calmly bear a severe surgical operation, if need be. Now, in judging others you must always define your terms of courage or greatness. The man whom I am criticising as not good may be wonderfully so in some points in which I am not. 2. Take another example. You often note, when people are discussing as to what man and woman can do, always the same mistake is made. They think they show man at his best because he can fight, for instance, and undergo tremendous physical exertion; and t...

23/12/2016. (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.) 15.     When we celebrate the Birthday of Venkatesanandaji, we are celebrating the Birthday of the Supreme Being. We worship, we remember the One Common Consciousness which, through the veiling power of Maya, appears as all these,—like the blueness in the sky, like a snake in the rope. You will have to enquire. You have been overwhelmed by these little appearances, by these names and forms; there is an ocean of peace, Satchidananda, behind these. Eko Devah Sarvabhuteshu Gudhah. That One Supreme Consciousness is hidden in all these beings, like butter in He who is able to see the one Light of lights, he alone really sees. Otherwise he is blind. Study the Upanishads, Atma-Bodha, Tattwa-Bodha. Cultivate reverence to teachers, reverence to saints, reverence to Sadhu...

23/12/2016. 251. D.: Why did you then leave your home in your youth?  M.: That is my prarabdha (fate). One’s course of conduct in this life is determined by one’s prarabdha. My prarabdha is this way. Your prarabdha is that way.  D.: Should I not also renounce?  M.: If that had been your prarabdha, the question would not have arisen.  D.: I should therefore remain in the world and engage in spiritual practice. Well, can I get realisation in this life?  M.: This has been already answered. You are always the Self. Earnest efforts never fail. Success is bound to result. 532. D.: Is there no way of escape from the miseries of the world ? M.: There is only one way that consists in not losing sight of one's Self under any circumstances. To enquire " Who Am I ? " is the only remedy for all the ills of the world. It is also perfect Bliss. 644. D.: Do you mean to say that I was not born? M.: Yes, you are now thinking that you are the body an...

23/12/2016. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Chapter-4. ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS-26 August 13, 1882 God and worldly duties-3 MASTER : - "The blossom drops off when the fruit appears."   One doesn't have to do one's duty after the attainment of God, nor does one feel like doing it then.     "If a drunkard takes too much liquor he cannot retain consciousness.   "If he takes only two or three glasses, he can go on with his work." As you advance nearer and nearer to God, He will reduce your activities little by little. Have no fear. "Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace.  When the mistress of the house goes to bathe after finishing her cooking and other household duties, she won't come back, however you may shout after her." To be continued ...

23/12/2016. 1. There are capacities within the human being that are the basis for development of the higher forms of reason and intelligence, will and emotion. These powers of action are the basis for the yogic paths of knowledge, works and love respectively. 2. Sri Aurobindo summarizes the three paths and their focus for achievement of a divine realisation :- “Knowledge selects the reason and the mental vision and it makes them by purification, concentration and a certain discipline of a God-directed seeking its means for the greatest knowledge and the greatest vision of all, God-knowledge and God-vision. Its aim is to see, know and be the Divine. Works, action selects for its instrument the will of the doer of works; it makes life an offering of sacrifice to the Godhead and by purification, concentration and a certain discipline of subjection to the divine Will a means for contact and increasing unity of the soul of man with the divine Master of the universe. Devotion se...

We cannot always control or predict how things unravel or grow in a given situation.  Yet, one thing is for certain: we are made stronger, larger and tempered when adversity strikes – if we choose to become so. Had Rama and Sita remained in Ayodhya, we may never have seen the faithfulness, resilience and compassion that Sita demonstrated in the events following her abduction by the despotic king Ravana. We might also never have glimpsed the prowess and wisdom of Rama as he stood up to Ravana, the remarkable decency and brotherly devotion of Bharat, the all-round competencies of Hanuman and the unflinching dedication to duty of Lakshman. The potential for greatness which lay in all of these players may not have surfaced were it not for the stormy experiences they had to go through. None of us are spared the storms of life. But if we choose, our storms can strengthen our character and bring out the greatness in us. THE END  – Swami Swaroopananda

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Chapter-4. ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS-26 August 13, 1882 God and worldly duties-2 M: "Sir, may I make an effort to earn more money?" MASTER: "It is permissible to do so to maintain a religious family.  You may try to increase your income, but in an honest way.  The goal of life is not the earning of money, but the service of God.  Money is not harmful if it is devoted to the service of God." M: "How long should a man feel obliged to do his duty toward his wife and children?" MASTER: "As long as they feel pinched for food and clothing.  But one need not take the responsibility of a son when he is able to support himself.  When the young fledgling learns to pick its own food, its mother pecks it if it comes to her for food." M: "How long must one do one's duty?" To be continued ..

Raja Yoga remains something of a mystery for most people who have an active outer life, because it requires extensive practice and discipline to achieve total stillness in the body and a cessation of the waves of mental energy in the mind. When practiced seriously it can be a tool of tremendous power to both enhance the mental force, achieving thereby powers of concentration and other occult results, and achieve a divine union, liberating the practitioner from the subjection to the outer life and the mind’s attachment to the objects of the senses. Sri Aurobindo describes the science of Raja Yoga briefly: “Our ordinary mentality is first disciplined, purified and directed towards the divine Being, then by a summary process of Asana and Pranayama the physical force of our being is stilled and concentrated, the life-force released into a rhythmic movement capable of cessation and concentrated into a higher power of its upward action, the mind, supported and strengthened by this grea...