Gurugram December 2015| Preface
Blessed Self,
Om Namah Sivaya
We are glad to inform you that without much turbulence and with much positivity, we are entering into December and the close of 2015, where all Sivananda Ashrams and Centres are getting ready for annual Christmas parties. Swamiji’s annual calendar will be ready for distribution in December, while the Yoga Life magazine will be found on www.sivananda.org website. A hard copy of Yoga Life will be available in the nearest Sivananda Centre on or before Swami Vishnudevananda’s birthday and New Years 2016.
May Master and Swamiji bless us always in our Sadhana and service.
A message from Swami Sivananda:
Blessed Self, as one advances in spiritual Sadhana and attains a greater and greater degree of evolution day by day, by regular and unremitting practice of the Yoga of Synthesis, the clouds of doubts, delusion and interrogation disperse. As the sun rises, the mist disappears. Even so, as you progress in the spiritual path by the Grace of Guru and God, all the intricate problems of life and death dissolve themselves into the ever-abiding Truth of existence.
The only duty of man is to intensify the inner purity by graded, integral Sadhana.
Whenever doubts, troubles and the like arise, repeat your Guru Mantra. There is no room for doubts to crop up on the attainment of God-realization, as the seeker is no longer the seeker, but God Himself. – Swami Sivananda
Pranams to all.
Dwell in the Divine. Live and move in it. – Sri Swami Sivananda
Raja Yoga
From Discourse IV: “Kaivalya Pada – On Realization”
IV.11. HETU-PHALASRAYALAMBANAIH SAMGRHITATVAD ESAM ABHAVE TADABHAVAH
‘Desires are held together by cause, effect, support and objects; and when these disappear, so do the desires.’
Commentary: What gives momentum to desires is cause and effect, past Karma, the activity of the mind which creates the desires and the objects of the desires. When these foundations are removed so are the desires.
Let prayer come from the bottom of your heart. – Sri Swami Sivananda
Bhagavad Gita Quote
Chapter X: The Yoga of Divine Manifestations
X.6. MAHARSHAYAH SAPTA POORVE CHATWAARO MANAVASTATHAA;
MADBHAAVAA MAANASAA JAATAA YESHAAM LOKA IMAAH PRAJAAH.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
The seven great sages, the ancient four and also the Manus, possessed of powers like Me (on account of their minds being fixed on Me), were born of (My) mind; from them are these creatures born in this world.
X.7. ETAAM VIBHOOTIM YOGAM CHA MAMA YO VETTI TATTWATAH;
SO’VIKAMPENA YOGENA YUJYATE NAATRA SAMSHAYAH.
He who in truth knows these manifold manifestations of My Being and (this) Yoga-power of Mine, becomes established in the unshakeable Yoga; there is no doubt about it.
Thoughts must agree with your word and word with your deed. This will transform you into divinity. – Sri Swami Sivananda
Quick Links
Spiritual Calendar
| DECEMBER 2015
07 Ekadasi JANUARY 2016 05 Ekadasi Good character is like catching a contagious disease. Acquire it through Satsanga – the company of good people. This is the best way. – Sri Swami Sivananda |
Glossary
AVIDYA – nescience; ignorance of our true nature; all consciousness or knowledge, so long as it is restricted to the subject-object manifold
This world of experience is due to the force of Avidya. It is the force of Avidya that plunges us into the ocean of Samsara. It is a negative power which makes us forget our divine nature. Avidya operates through the mind, and the mind functions through the time, space and causation. Avidya is an illusory power that disintegrates the Divine into a million different fragments. Pleasure, pain, desire, Karma, attraction, repulsion, delusion, pride, lust, egoism, anger, jealousy, the three bodies, five sheaths, are all effects of Avidya. Avidya is the source of all ignorance, sin and misery. Avidya is beginningless (Anadi) but it has an end.
As soon as one gets knowledge of the Self, Avidya terminates. Brahman appears as the world on account of Avidya, just as the rope appears as snake in the dusk. If we bring a lamp, the snake disappears, but the rope alone remains. Even so, when we get knowledge of Brahman, the appearance of the world will vanish. Avidya is not negative, but is positive (Bhavarupa). It is absence of Knowledge. It is erroneous knowledge. Avidya or Ajnana which constitutes the causal body is the cause for the two bodies, gross and subtle.
It is impossible to define the nature of Avidya. It is not real, because it vanishes when knowledge of the Self dawns. It is not unreal, because we experience it unlike the horn of a hare or a barren woman’s son. It is not a non-entity as it is destroyed by Atma Jnana. It is through the force of Avidya that the ignorant Jiva has mistaken the impure mortal body for the pure immortal Self and says I am a Brahmin, I am a Pandit, I am a householder, I am beautiful, I am lean, I am a doctor, etc.
Complete glossary can be found at:
http://www.sivananda.org/teachings/glossary/glossary.html
It is in the nature of man to strive for happiness, but all the happiness which he can gain by his actions is only of limited duration. The enjoyments of the senses are transient and the senses themselves are worn out by too much enjoyment. – Sri Swami Sivananda