About me: "Born on the 8th of Sept. 1887 into the family of the Sage Dikshita & other Saints,
Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study & practice
of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling
of unity with all mankind.
His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated
to where he thought his service was most needed. He discovered that people
needed knowledge most of all: dissemination of that knowledge he espoused
as his own mission.
It was Divine dispensation and the Blessing of God upon mankind that the Doctor
of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to
qualify himself for ministering to the soul.
He settled in Rishikesh in 1924, practiced intense austerities and shone as a
great Yogi, Saint, Sage and Jivanmukta.
To read his works is to drink at the fountain of Wisdom Supreme. On the 14th of
July 1963 he entered Mahasamadhi. "
For more information, please
visit www.divinelifesociety.org
Thank you!
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. ~ Matthew 5:3-4
Learn patience and humility as part of the normal expression of your being. The Kingdom of Heaven will reveal itself in your life in direct proportion to the room you make for it.
Keep this thought in your mind as exclusively as possible until the words are replaced by a certain “feeling state” which becomes the true reality represented by the thought. Consider if you are willing to live a life not expecting special treatment but content to share the ordinary fate of ordinary men and women. ~ F. Aster Barnwell
Learn what your attachments are and to see how you can reorient yourself to that which is eternal from that which is ephemeral. Can I survive without my possession, social status, relationships and all the things which give my life importance and security?
Keep addressing this question to yourself without judging your reactions. Try to feel what it would be like to be without these trappings.
Make a mental note of all the things that are important to you and try to mentally eliminate them one by one and see what it would be like to be without them. Consider that in the truth you are quite naked and that nothing that you identify with can add to your being. ~ F. Aster Barnwell
Stopping all activities of the external senses prepares one to qualify for practising meditation. ~ Ramanuja
IF YOU wish to make progress in virtue, live in the fear of the Lord, do not look for too much freedom, and discipline your senses. Repentance opens the door to many blessings which dissoluteness usually destroys.
No liberty is true and no joy is genuine unless it is founded in the fear of the Lord and a good conscience.
Happy is the man who can cast away every cause of distraction and bring himself to holy contrition. Happy is the man who puts away from him whatsoever may stain or burden his conscience.
Pray humbly to the Lord, therefore, that He may give you the spirit of contrition and say with the Prophet: "Feed me, Lord, with the bread of mourning and give me to drink of tears in full measure." ~ Thomas a Kempis
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ~ Hebrews 10:19, 22
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. ~ John 8:12
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. ~ Exodus 19:5-6
If you wish to be My disciple, offer yourself to Me with all your heart.
AS I offered Myself willingly to God the Father for your sins with hands outstretched and body naked on the cross, so that nothing remained in Me that had not become a complete sacrifice to appease the divine wrath, so you should be willing to offer yourself to Me day by day in a pure and holy oblation, together with all your faculties and affections, with as much inward devotion as you can.
What more do I ask than that you give yourself entirely to Me? I care not for anything else you may give Me, for I seek not your gift but you. Just as it would not be enough for you to have everything if you did not have Me, so whatever you give cannot please Me if you do not give yourself.
Offer yourself to Me, therefore, and give yourself entirely for God -- your offering will be accepted.
But if you rely upon self, and do not offer your free will to Mine, your offering will be incomplete and the union between us imperfect. Hence, if you desire to attain grace and freedom of heart, let the free offering of yourself into the hands of God precede your every action. This is why so few are inwardly free and enlightened -- they know not how to renounce themselves entirely.
My word stands: " in the same way, you must give up everything you have. If you don't, you can't be my disciple." Luke 14:33 The Imitation of Christ ~ Thomas à Kempis
Make the best use of all places. You cannot get an ideal place and ideal surroundings in any part of the world.
Try to bear patiently heat and cold, pleasure and pain and develop a balanced state of mind. Duality ceases when the mind stops its function. Thinking is bound by the time-factor. Thinking must cease. Then alone you will attain the Timeless. Be still.
Let all the waves of thought subside. In that stillness, when the mind melts, there shines the self-effulgent God, the pure Consciousness. Watch the mind. Watch the thoughts. Pursue serenity. Make your heart a fitting abode for the Lord.
Life is a journey from impurity to purity, from hatred to unconditional and universal love, from death to immortality, from imperfection to perfection, from slavery to freedom, from diversity to unity, from ignorance to eternal wisdom, from pain to eternal bliss, from weakness to infinite strength.
Let every thought take you nearer the Lord, every thought further spiritual journey. ~ Swami Sivananda
Thank you very much for the addition, from a humble heart, what gratitude infinite mercy and knowledge that God gives us through the demonstration of high spiritual teachers like Swami Sivananda. Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya
Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. By Epictetus
This soul cannot be severed or harmed by weapons, burnt by fire, wetted with water, nor dried by the wind. It is unbreakable, unburnable. It cannot be wetted nor dried. It is eternal, permanent, all-pervading and insoluble.
How can that person who knows the soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable, cause death to anyone, kill anyone or cause another to kill?
Therefore, knowing the soul to be thus, you should not lament. For the sake of the inevitable you ought not lament. All beings are unmanifest before birth and after death. They are manifest between the birth and the death only. What is there to grieve about? THE BHAGAVAD-GITA
Thus it can be seen that ignorance of the eternal nature of the soul is the cause of all grief by not understanding that the soul is immortal and thinking that the eternal soul perishes when the physical body perishes. ~ Ramanuja
Who have conquered the tenacious vice of attachment. Who have overcome feelings of passion and repugnance. Who are free from false ego imagining they are the physical body. Whose mundane cravings and worldly desires have altogether ceased to exist and surpassed pleasure and pain, happiness and unhappiness, cold and hot, attraction and repulsion. Who are situated in the soul and are in perpetual communion with God, they receive unveiled knowledge directly from within. ~ Kesava Kasmiri
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