Sivananda Yoga FAQ

Q 1:  Difficulties and anxieties upset me in every way. Failure and troubles face me on every side. Domestic duties trouble my Sadhana. What shall I do, my Lord?

A: Don’t be afraid. Remember the saying, “Even this will pass”. Write this on a piece of paper in bold types and fix it on the wall in your room. Difficulties and troubles are Agamapaya. They come and go. Read Verse 14 in Chapter 2 of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Become a hero. Stand firm as a rock. Live in the Centre. Live in Om. Live in Truth or Atma. Nothing can shake you. Difficulties will make you more strong and endow you with more endurance. Mysterious are His ways. Say, “Thy will be done”.

Q 2:  Can asceticism lead to enlightenment?

A:  Asceticism is really the austere life of sense-control and mental concentration lived for the purpose of devotional practices or spiritual meditations. True asceticism necessarily includes a strict observance of the moral and ethical disciplines, on the basis of which the higher practices are undertaken. Asceticism is a means to enlightenment in as much as it prepares the ground for meditation which leads to wisdom and realization. Sometimes, asceticism is taken in its narrower sense of bodily mortification alone. But this is a grave error and this alone cannot lead to enlightenment without the calming of the passions and discipline of the mind.

Q 3:  How is it that we see many wicked persons flourishing in this world while the good souls suffer? Why is God merciful to some and heartless to some else?

A: This is an age-old question, as old as the world itself. The great Bhishma shed tears when he was on his death-bed. When questioned why he cried, he replied that the Pandavas were great devotees of the Lord and always abided by the laws of Dharma. Above all, the Lord was constantly with them in the form of Krishna. And yet they underwent so much of suffering. Some wicked persons do flourish in this world of hypocrisy, but it does not mean that they are free from suffering. The really good souls do not suffer as much as the ‘flourishing’ wicked ones, for peace is in the hearts of the former. To be able to abide by the ideals they hold sacred is by itself a great cause of happiness. The welfare and the misery of people can be explained only in terms of the law of Karma. Good persons suffer because of the mistakes they had committed in their past incarnations. Wicked persons, who seem to be well off, are now reaping the results of their past good actions, but will have to pay the price of their present ones, later. It is the law of Karma that lifts God above all the good and the bad conditions of man. If God were made responsible for the material state of affairs of the individual or the enjoyment or suffering of man, then God would cease to be God, for a partial God, dishing out favours to some and withholding them from the others, would be no God at all.

Yogi feels one with God. – Swami Sivananda