Pearls of Wise

Wake up. Beware. That tomorrow will never come. Wake up now. Life is sort. Time is fleeting. Apply yourself diligently to Yogic Sadhana. You have abundant energy. You must offer a pure flower to the Lord; a beautiful mind to the Lord; not after it is tainted by so many worldly taints. Keep yourself pure through selfless service. However intellectual you may be – you may be a great scientist – you cannot realise the Atma without inner purification. The scientist also is a Raja Yogi; but he is an external Raja Yogi. He gropes in darkness. He must find out the pure consciousness. Then only can he become a real Raja Yogi. Swami Sivananda

 Mukambika Temple and Devi Navaratri - Day 1 Hari om. Happy Navaratri to all! Navaratri is a grand festival of worship of Bhagavati! Devi is worshipped as :- 1. Saraswati, 2. Mahalakshmi, 3. Durga and Lalita-tripurasundari on all days! Also she has special form and name on each day! Today on the first day she is worshipped as Shailaputri - the daughter of Himalaya! There are nine steps/forms/ways of Devotion famously known as Navadha Bhakti. As per Shreemad Bhagavatam, they are - 1. Shravanam, 2. Kirtanam, 3. Smaranam, 4. Paadasevanam, 5. Archanam, 6. Vandanam, 7. Daasyam, 8. Sakhyam & 9. Aatmanivedanam. In the coming nine days we shall see each one in essence! Swami Chinmayananda

If what we are now is a result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions - so we have to know how to act.... By knowing how to act one can obtain the greatest results. Even the lowest forms of work are not to be hated. Swami Udit Chaithanya

The camel loves to eat thorny bushes. The more it eats the thorns, the more the blood gushes from its mouth. Still it must eat thorny plants and will never give them up. The man of worldly nature suffers so much sorrow and affliction, but he forgets it all in a few days and begins his old life over again. Suppose a man has lost his wife or she has turned unfaithful. Lo! He marries again. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,

The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. That faith calls the divinity within. You can do anything. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.  Swami Vivekananda

When we consider the meaning of the term “renunciation” as it is current in the world, and more particularly in the traditional spiritual paths, it takes on a sense of self-denial, avoidance and limitation. Over time, this has become virtually an “absolute” in terms of the position the seeker should take in order to achieve true and complete spiritual realization. “The refusal of the ascetic” is the standard by which spiritual dedication has been measured. In some cases we find that renunciation has gone beyond simple rejection into forms of self-mortification–self-torture of the body in order to “cleanse the soul”. Sri Aurobindo observes that due to the attachment of the human soul to the objects of the senses and the pleasures obtained from the fulfilment of desire, there is a necessity for this type of external renunciation at a certain stage of the seeker’s progress, and that there are real benefits derived from it. Yet, the external renunciation is not something to be so...

In fact, what is called the world is only thought. When the world disappears, i.e., when there is no thought, the mind experiences happiness;  and when the world appears, it goes through misery. Sri Ramana Maharishi (From 'Who Am I': 24))