Gurugram January 2014 | Preface

Blessed Self,
Om Namah Sivaya

By the grace of Master and Swamiji, the Sivananda Organization is thriving with activity. We are looking at the brighter side in the year 2014. Ashram and Centres are all doing well. Their staff are working hard to impart the true knowledge of the scriptures, as taught by Swami Vishnudevanandaji.

It is good news for all that Teachers Training Courses offered around the globe are little more than 50 this year. We thank all of you for your continued support for us to grow.

We are happy to announce Sita Chaitanya, from the Retreat in the Bahamas was initiated on 11th December 2013 into Sannyas and is now Swami Hridyananda. Radha Chaitanya, from the Buenos Aires Centre, was also initiated. She is now Swami Dayananda.

We wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. May Master and Swamiji give their blessings for your successful Sadhana in the New Year.

May Master and Swamiji’s blessings be with us always.

Asato Ma Sat Gamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya

Pranams to all.

P.S. 2013’s issue of Yoga Life magazine can now be found in pdf format on sivananda.org. A quick link: https://www.sivananda.org/publications/yogalife/yogalife2013/YogaLife_Summer_2013.pdf There are many beautiful uplifting articles can be found in this issue. There is a feature many of you have been patiently waiting for, on Page 18, which lists the current staff at Sivananda Ashrams and Centres worldwide …photos, too.

Swami Vishnudevananda Instructions on Meditation

Now just for a few minutes, dive deep into that silence. Hear the silence, see the silence, taste, smell, and touch the silence. The last moment of your life, you’ll hear that beautiful silence, that melody of your soul, the sound of your own soul, the music of your soul. That Godhead, that peace will come to you. You will leave your body with full awareness and peace and shanti. Now dive deep. Hear the eternal sound of Om in silence, and we’ll keep silence just for a few minutes, just a few minutes.

You sit for three hours with eyes closed. Does the meditation come? Sitting with closed eyes like a statue is not going to bring you anything as long as the play is still going on inside. Continuously the play is going on; meditation is a continuous dehypnotizing of our identity with this play, this play of the body and mind.

Meditation starts in your day-to-day life. If you cannot detach yourself from the day-to-day activities, you cannot close your eyes and meditate. If we have continuous identification with our activities and nature, when we sit, the same activities will go on. Even if you keep your eyes closed, your hands clasped, your feet crossed, still the mind is not checked. The mind will play the part and you are going to identify with the mental play. Whether you are going to work with your physical body and identify with your physical body, or if you keep the physical body still and close the eyes, it makes no difference. The mind will play its part in all conditions.

In order to detach and keep the mind away from the day-to-day portion so that when you sit for meditation you will be able to withdraw the mind, you must take the first step which is called Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is the fundamental step on which your meditation practice is built. No meditation is possible without Karma Yoga; it doesn’t matter what else you do.

Excerpt from the book: Swamiji Said – A Collection of Teaching by Swami Vishnudevananda in His Own Words

Truth is silence. – Sri Swami Sivananda

From Chapter I: “Samadhi Pada – On Contemplations”

I.3. – TADAA DRSHTUH SVAROOPE VASTHAANAM
“At that time (when the thought waves are stilled), the perceiver rests in his own true nature.”

Commentary: That state of pure consciousness is achieved when the mind is no longer modified by the activities of thought waves. When the waves of a lake are stilled, one can see the bottom clearly. Likewise, when the ‘vrittis’ of the mind subside, one’s essential nature (swaroopa) becomes evident. When the mind’s agitation stops, the world no longer exists for the meditator, for he is in union with the Self.

When the mind wanders, repeat some Stotras (Spiritual Verses), hymns, verses from the Gita and the Upanishads. – Sri Swami Sivananda