Gurugram August 2017 | Preface

Blessed Self,
Om Namah Sivaya

Greetings to all.

With Master and Swamiji’s grace, the entire Sivananda Organization reports a very busy season. While the Northern Hemisphere Centres and Ashrams are in their high season, Swamis and staff from the southern areas travel extensively across the world to support the programs and exchange services in northern Centres and Ashrams.

Our Ashrams and Centres reported enriching and enlightening experiences while honouring Swami Sivananda’s Mahasamadhi, bringing the Organization together in deep gratitude for Master’s teachings.

The annual Kaavadi Chariot festival, at the Subramanya Temple at Yoga Camp, Sivananda Headquarters, saw a large gathering over previous years.

Staff are in cheerful, high spirits in the process of service and Karma Yoga.

Due to your continued support we have been able to continue Swamiji’s teachings for this long without compromising on the authenticity of the message. We strive to continue, looking forward with the same devotion and dedication.

Pranams to all.

Take hold of each day, as if it were the last day. Utilize every second in prayers, meditation and service. – Sri Swami Sivananda

Discourse III: “Vibhuti Pada- On Divine Powers”

III.38. TE SAMADHAV UPASARGA VYUTTHANE SIDDHAYAH

‘These (“siddhis”) are the obstacles to the state of “samadhi”, though they

are considered powers to the mind which is worldly’.

Commentary: Here Patanjali makes it very clear that all of the siddhis that have been described above are but temptations and distractions from the superconscious state. They only appear attractive to those who are steeped in worldliness, egoism, and the desire for power.

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

Chapter II: Sankhya Yoga

(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)

II.72. This is the Brahmic seat (eternal state), O son of Pritha. Attaining to this, none is deluded. Being established therein, even at the end of life, one attains to oneness with Brahman.

COMMENTARY: The state described in the previous verse–to renounce everything and to live in Brahman–is the Brahmic state or the state of Brahman. If one attains to this state one is never deluded. He attains ‘Moksha’ (liberation) if he stays in that state even at the hour of his death. It is needless to say that he who gets established in Brahman throughout his life attains to the state of Brahman or Brahma-Nirvana. Maharshi Vidyaranya says in his Panchadasi that ‘Antakala’ here means the “moment at which ‘Avidya’ or mutual superimposition of the Self and the not-Self ends.”

Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the second discourse entitled: ‘The Sankhya Yoga’

Truth is silence. – Sri Swami Sivananda