Pearls of Wise

7. Discipline the mind and the senses. Cultivate noble virtues. Try to know the nature of the soul. Practise regular meditation on the Self. Then alone you will attain immortality and deep abiding joy. Then alone you will reach that immortal abode. Give up identification of your Self with the physical body. Identification of one’s Self with the body is the greatest crime. Give up planning and scheming. Abandon speculation. Relinquish cherished hopes, expectations and worldly ambitions. Kill desires. Rise above desires. Sri Swami Sivananda To be continued  ....

For those who look upon the practice of Hatha Yoga as some kind of exercise program, the focus tends to be placed on the correct execution and form of the pose being adopted, and there is an ever-greater emphasis on taking on the next advanced pose. Sri Aurobindo reminds us however that the actual purpose of Asana, and thus, the perfection of Asana lies not in achieving new poses or forms, but in using Asana to bring a strong and unwavering power of holding greater energy without spilling it out either in nervous movements or in some kind of mental, vital or physical signs, such as a trembling of the body, which are indications of more energy moving through the system than it can easily hold. “The body, accustomed to work off superfluous energy by movement, is at first ill able to bear this increase and this retained inner action and betrays it by violent tremblings; afterwards it habituates itself and, when the Asana is conquered, then it finds as much ease in the posture...

6. Knowing this to be so, may we apply ourselves with all earnestness, with total sincerity, with humility and determination. May we apply ourselves to making the highest and best use of this status, and thus putting it to the highest use attain the highest joy. May this be the quest, and may full success be granted. May the quest cease to be, and may the experience absolute prevail in all its fullness at all times. To be established ever in that great experience is the vision of the ancients of this country, where God-realisation was declared to be the highest of all goals of humanity. END. Swami Chidananda. To be continued  ...  

6. This life is meant for Self-realisation. Do regular Sankirtan and realise the Atmic Bliss. Do Nishkama Karma Yoga and purify your heart and mind. Control the Indriyas and rest in your own Svarupa. When you get knocks and blows in the daily battle of life, the mind is duly turned towards the spiritual path. Then come Viveka, Vairagya, disgust for worldly things and desire for liberation. Practise deep meditation. Life is short. Time is fleeting. This world is full of miseries. Cut the knot of Avidya and drink deep the nectar of Nirvanic Bliss. Spiritual life is not mere idle talk. It is not mere sensation. It is a transcendental experience of unalloyed joy and bliss. It is a life of fullness and perfection. There is a place of eternal peace and infinite bliss where there is neither death nor desire, neither sorrow nor pain, neither doubt nor delusion. Do you not aspire to reach this immortal abode of perennial joy and happiness? Swami Sivananda. To be continued  .... ...

(Delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, January 31, 1900) 21. A few days after Sita's disappearance, a messenger came to Rama from the gods, who intimated to him that his mission on earth was finished and he was to return to heaven. These tidings brought to him the recognition of his own real Self. He plunged into the waters of Sarayu, the mighty river that laved his capital, and joined Sita in the other world. This is the great, ancient epic of India. Rama and Sita are the ideals of the Indian nation. All children, especially girls, worship Sita. The height of a woman's ambition is to be like Sita, the pure, the devoted, the all-suffering! When you study these characters, you can at once find out how different is the ideal in India from that of the West. For the race, Sita stands as the ideal of suffering. The West says, "Do! Show your power by doing." India says, "Show your power by suffering." The West has solved the ...

Satsangam- Sri Lanka. 10. Hari Om! We Indians 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 of every Indian to reclaim his rich and glorious cultural tradition. Our ancestors had a vision for the entire world- “Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu”.  This can be realized only if we Indians come forward to make an effort to spread such a culture in society all over the world. ...

4. Here in the Bhagavad Geeta, we find a practical hand – book of instruction on how best we can reorganise our ways of thinking, feeling and acting in our everyday life and draw from ourselves a larger gush of productivity to enrich the life outside and around us, and to emblazon the subjective life within us. As we proceed on into our serious study of the Geeta, chapter by chapter, we shall find how she unfolds a way of life by living which we can grow to be socially more productive men and individually more balanced and tranquil, pursuing our life at peace with ourselves. Without this inward balance and the readiness to act well in the world outside, how can an individual ever successfully face his own problems in life? And when each individual fails to face the challenges outside him, since the community is made up of individuals, the community will not be able to face its own or the nation’s problems. Swami Chinmayananda To be continued  ... Satsangam-Chinmaya ...