Satsangam

To, All Members, The ego behind the mask of the human personality is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in order to achieve lasting peace. For Westerners who are taught to revere individuality, the need to surrender the ego is especially difficult to understand. The ego is the sense of “I-ness” or “my-ness”, which manifests as selfishness and a feeling of separation from the world. Overconfident people are usually considered to have a big ego, but people who are very shy and withdrawn also possess a large ego; their sense of me, my, and mine is equally strong. The ego loves its own ideas and impulses, and balks at change. Dissimulation, hypocrisy, exaggeration, and secretiveness are traits of a dominant ego. A powerful ego clouds the intellect. You may lie in order to cover up your mistakes, to maintain your position, to pander to your own ideas, or to indulge in bad habits. You may use self-justification, or deny faults and defects, and you may be to...

To, All Members, We generally speak ill of others but fail to see the good in them. Every man has some virtue or other. There is no absolute rogue on the surface of this earth. Develop the faculty of seeing good only in others. Evil and good are the obverse and reverse sides of the same coin. They are relative terms. Like light and darkness, they are co-relatives. The existence of one is necessary for the recognition of the other. Hatred and untruth exist to glorify love and truth. Swami Sivananda

To, All Members, Most of our difficulties in our daily life come from being unable to hold our minds. Every reaction in the form of hatred or evil is so much loss to the mind, and every evil thought or deed of hatred , or any thought of reaction, if it is controlled, will be laid in our favour. Each time we control hatred, or a feeling of anger, it is so much good energy stored up in our favour, that piece of energy will be converted into the higher powers. Work or Action done in a spirit of detachment from results and dedicated to the Paramatma is TRUE WORSHIP. Work done in this spirit becomes Yajna or sacrifice. Such sacrifice is sacred to the divine. All your answers are within. Not outside. The most basic fact is nothingness. In that nothingness you will find Paramatma. Everything was created out of nothingness, thus you need to go back to nothingness to reach your source. You have in you all and a thousand times more than is in all the boo...

To, All Members, Devotee .: It seems difficult. May we proceed by bhakti marga? Maharishi .: It is according to individual temperament and equipment. Bhakti is the same as vichara. D.: I mean meditation, etc. M.: Yes. Meditation is on a form. That will drive away other thoughts. The one thought of God will dominate others. That is concentration. The object of meditation is thus the same as that of vichara. D.: Do we not see God in concrete form? M.: Yes. God is seen in the mind. The concrete form may be seen. Still it is only in the devotee’s mind. The form and appearance of God-manifestation are determined by the mind of the devotee. But it is not the finality. There is the sense of duality. It is like a dream-vision. After God is perceived, vichara commences. That ends in Realisation of the Self. Vichara is the ultimate route. Of course, a few find vichara practicable. Others find bhakti easier. Sri Ramana Maharishi

To, All Members, Do you know what I see now? I see my body as a frame made of bamboo strips and covered with a cloth. The frame moves. And it moves because someone dwells inside it. Again, I see the body to be like a pumpkin with the seeds scooped out. Inside this body there is no trace of passion or worldly attachment. It is all very clean inside, and- It became very painful for Sri Ramakrishna to talk further. He felt very weak. M. quickly guessed what the Master wanted to tell the devotees, and said, "And you are seeing God inside yourself ." -From Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

To, All Members, The principle of Oneness and interchange, the law of sacrifice, is something that occurs unconsciously and automatically for all creatures in the world. The development of self-aware beings provides the opportunity for this principle to become a fully conscious reality. In the first case, the limitations of the ego-sense and the fragmented individuality means that there can be considerable suffering and resistance, while in the truer, deeper sense, the sacrifice done with devotion and understanding can become a source of an ineffable joy in the being. This turns the human sacrifice into the divine sacrifice. Sri Aurobindo explains: “Only when the heart, the will and the mind of knowledge associate themselves with the law and gladly follow it, can there come the deep joy and the happy fruitfulness of divine sacrifice. The mind’s knowledge of the law and the heart’s gladness in it culminate in the perception that it is to our own Self and Spirit...

                                                      Swami Tapovanam To, All Members, By the end of October 1951 — some six months after he had begun his journey — Swamiji had completed his tour of India and returned to Uttarkashi. The renaissance of the Hindu religion had officially begun : He had witnessed firsthand the spiritual and economic degradation of his homeland, and his resolve to bring the knowledge of Truth down to the plains was even stronger. He again approached Swami Tapovanam for his blessings to implement the “Gangotri Plan” (as he now called his “afternoon dream,” since the inspiration had dawned on him in Gangotri). He informed his Guru that a Mr. Nanda, whom he had stayed with during his India pilgrimage, had suggested having a series of talks on the Upanishads in Pune. Swamiji had first met Mr. Nanda in Anand...

To, All Members, A Sage sees the supreme Atman in all beings. He beholds the imperishable amidst the perishable. A Sage has equal vision. He never think of nobility or lowness. He is above love or hate. He never has actions to do or not to do. A Jivanmukta or a realised sage is above rules. He may live as he likes. A moral behaviour is spontaneous in him. There is no external restraint for him. This does not mean that he can lead an immoral life The world has disappeared for a sage. He works for the welfare of the world but gathers no fresh Karma. A sage has realised the mirage of the world. He is no longer deluded by it. The world may come back again to a sage, but no more as the same world of pain, sorrow, and misery. A Sage sees the whole world within himself. Swami Sivananda

To, All Members, Life is a series of experiences and tests and rewards, all sewn together to be made into a garland for the Lord. Now it's up to each individual to make the garland of beautiful flowers or thorns. Creativity comes to the extent that the intellect is humble. Such an intellect is able to create something new. Because humility is a form of love, it brings the enthusiasm for creativity and the ability to bring newness in everything that is done. The most effective prayer is to ask God to endow your with the strength and wisdom, love and compassion, to go through life and its experiences with grace, humour and positive surrender. Swami Udit Chaithanya

To, All Members, A visitor: Should I give up my business and take to reading books on Vedanta? Bhagavan: If the objects have an independent existence, i.e., if they exist anywhere apart from you, then it may be possible for you to go away from them. But they don’t exist apart from you; they owe their existence to you, your thought. So, where can you go, to escape them? As for reading books on Vedanta, you may go on reading any number of them. They can only tell you, ‘Realise the Self within you’. The Self cannot be found in books. You have to find it out for yourself, in yourself. Sri Ramana Maharishi ('Day by Day with Bhagavan', 16-3-45 Morning)

  To, All Members, Anyone and everyone cannot be a guru. A huge timber floats on the water and can carry animals as well. But a piece of worthless wood sinks, if a man sits on it, and drowns him. Therefore in every age God incarnates Himself as the guru, to teach humanity. Satchidananda alone is the guru. What is knowledge? And what is the nature of this ego? 'God alone is the Doer, and none else' - that is knowledge. I am not the doer; I am a mere instrument in His hand. Therefore I say: 'O Mother, Thou art the Operator and I am the machine. Thou art the Indweller and I am the house. Thou art the Driver and I am the carriage. I move as Thou movest me. I do as Thou makest me do. I speak as Thou makest me speak. Not I, not I, but Thou, but Thou. -From Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

                                                       Sri Aurobindo To, All Members, It is a serious limitation of the language we use to express concepts that we use the term “sacrifice” to describe a basic and eternal law of the universal creation, while the word itself is loaded with limiting, negative connotations that tend to distort the actual intent dramatically. Sacrifice, particularly in the West, carries a connotation of giving up something and thereby suffering from that act. Sri Aurobindo clarifies the meaning that he intends to convey through use of this term: “For this is the truth in Nature, that this ego which thinks itself a separate independent being and claims to live for itself, is not and cannot be independent nor separate, nor can it live to itself even if it would, but rather all are linked together by a secr...

                                                   Swami Tapovanam To, All Members, But it was not quite that easy. His first challenge was to convince Swami Tapovanam, who was a staunch believer that a sannyasi should lead a life of retirement (from the world) and only remain active in studying the scriptures, taking pilgrimages, and teaching those who come to him. Swami Tapovanam felt that the highest philosophy of Vedanta could be taught to only those who are pure at heart, and not to all and sundry — the ordinary public — for such people were so consumed by manifold desires that they lacked the subtle mind to comprehend the deep import of the scriptures. Moreover, if the time was right, would not a person develop true vairagya (dispassion for the world) and automatically leave everything and go to the mountains in search of Truth, an...

To, All Members, You do not wish to be hurt by others. So do not hurt another person. You wish to be helped by So help others. You do not wish to be robbed by others. So do not rob others' property. Selfishness makes the heart small. A selfish man has neither scruples nor character. Peace of mind is unknown to him. It is selfishness that prompts one to do evil deeds. Man lives in vain if he is selfish and miserly. Selfishness is the devil incarnate in every man. Slay the devil with the sword of selflessness. Swami Sivananda

To, All Members, Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful : Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss. There is nothing new to get. You have, on the other hand, to get rid of your ignorance which makes you think that you are other than Bliss. For whom is this ignorance? It is to the ego. Trace the source of the ego. Then the ego is lost and Bliss remains over. It is eternal. You are That, here and now.... That is the master key for solving all doubts. The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed. That alone remains. The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from ...

To, All Members, Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: 'When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is green.' Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: 'Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it ha...

                                                   Swami Tapovanam To, All Members, One fascinating incident, which took place in Uttarkashi, involved a plain cotton cloth which was given to Swami Tapovanam as a gift. He had asked Swamiji to make a robe out of it for him. The fabric was dyed with saffron, and carefully cut and stitched by hand. It was then laid out, Indian style, to dry over some bushes. Finally, it was wrapped and presented to Swami Tapovanam. But when he took it out of the wrapping, it had a tear in it. “Look! You tore it. You were careless when you took it off the shrubs!” he said to Chinmaya. “No, I was very careful, Swamiji”, replied the student. “I don’t know how that happened!” “You were careless. Your attention was not on what you were doing,” replied Swami Tapovanam. “And now you are surely lying!” ...

                                               Swami Tapovanam's hut To, All Members, Swami Tapovanam was a recluse. He lived in a one-room mud hut, with no belongings, no comforts, and no involvement whatsoever with the world. He encouraged no students, nor supplied them with anything. He was a strict disciplinarian who stayed in severe climates. Each day, he ate one meal (a watery lentil soup and roti) and took two baths in the freezing Ganga. In all, thirty-five or so students came with enthusiasm at one point or another to study under him. They all ran away. Save one. Swami Tapovanam represents the ideal, even amongst saints. He is one of those rare sages who personifies the Absolute in every sense of the word — eternal and infinite — radiant and resplendent, dazzling with the effulgence of a million suns. Swami Sivananda called him...

                                                  Swami Tapovanam To, All Members, During springtime, Swami Tapovanam would come down to Rishikesh and spend a few months in Brahmananda Ashram, on the opposite shore of the Ganga from the Divine Life Society. It is here that Swamiji approached him, and requested the sage to teach him the subtleties of this highest philosophy and clear his doubts on some of the seeming contradictions in scriptures. Swamiji also presented him with a letter and a package sent by Swami Sivananda. “I can teach, but it is you who must understand,” replied Swami Tapovanam. “I will be returning to Uttarkashi before the monsoons begin in mid-June. You can follow then and begin classes.” Chinmaya Mission

                                                 Swami Tapovanam To, All Members, “Chinmayananda” is a compound word of three units — cit-maya-ananda (consciousness–full of–bliss) — meaning, “one who revels in bliss which is full of pure consciousness.” Very often, the name given to a sannyasi indicates the goal he is seeking, or it might represent a predominant quality in his character (yatha nama, tatha guna — as the name, so the qualities). It was in Swamiji’s (as we will now call Swami Chinmayananda) nature to question everything, to be intellectually satisfied, and to accept nothing simply on faith. At the same time, he had the courage to accept the truth once it was revealed to him. He had a remarkable ability to be honest with himself, and to be uncompromising in his quest for truth. As a result, it was only natural that Swami...

To, All Members, Selfishness makes the heart small. A selfish man has neither scruples nor character. Peace of mind is unknown to him. It is selfishness that prompts one to do evil deeds. Man lives in vain if he is selfish and miserly. Selfishness is the devil incarnate in every man. Slay the devil with the sword of selflessness. Swami Sivananda

To, All Members, When asked about the efficacy of* bhakti*, Sri Bhagavan said: So long as there is *vibhakti*, there must be *bhakti*. So long as there is *viyoga*, there must be *yoga*. So long as there is duality, there must be God and devotee. Similarly also in *vichara*. So long as there is *vichara*, there is duality too. But merging into the Source there is unity only. So it is with *bhakti *too. Realising the God of devotion, there will be unity only. God too is though of in and by the Self. So God is identical with the Self. If one is told to have *bhakti *for God and he does so straightaway, it is all right. But there is another kind of man who turns round and says: “There are two, I and God. Before knowing the far-off God, let me know the more immediate and intimate ‘I’.” For him the *vichara-marga *has to be taught. There is in fact no difference between *bhakti *and *vichara*. Sri Ramana Maharishi source: Talk 154 Om N...

To, All Members, Do you know what maya is? It is attachment to relatives-parents, brother and sister, wife and children, nephew and niece. Daya means love for all created beings. Now what is this, my feeling about Hriday? Is it maya or daya? But Hriday did so much for me: he served me whole-heartedly and nursed me when I was ill. But later he tormented me also. The torment became so unbearable that once I was about to commit suicide by jumping into the Ganges from the top of the embankment. But he did much to serve me. Now my mind will be at rest if he gets some money. But whom shall I ask for it? Who likes to speak about such things to our rich visitors? -From Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

To, All Members, At the Divine level, the Lord of Creation, Ishwara manifests through the supreme Nature, Para Prakriti, or Shakti. When this gets translated into the world of creation and the action of Nature as experienced by the creatures, such as human beings, who live, grow and evolve within that field, we find that there is an experience of a Purusha, a witness consciousness that is silent and provides awareness and sanction, and of Prakriti, the active mechanical processes of Nature that carry out the Will of the Supreme without necessarily being directly conscious of the intention. Sri Aurobindo points out the value of this understanding: “and although it is not all the true truth, not in any way the highest truth either of Purusha or of Prakriti, still it is a valid and indispensable practical knowledge in the lower hemisphere of existence.” The reason that it is so indispensable is the very practicality of this distinction between the silent supporting witness an...

To, All Members, Whatever types of thoughts you have, that’s the type of world you are creating inside yourself. Whatever feelings are in your heart create the atmosphere of your inner world. If you are influenced by someone, or suppressed by someone, then there is an invasion of your world. The best way to ensure the security and protection for your inner world is to invite God in. The more time you give and make yourself sit with God, the more God comes into your world. If you invite anyone else into your inner world, then God goes away. God is the comforter of hearts. We must keep the temple of our hearts clean. Swami Udit Chaithanya