Sivananda Yoga FAQ

Q 1: What are the marks of a wise man and a that of a fool?

A: The fool reacts outwardly and emotionally under all circumstances, while there is no reaction in the sage. If at all the latter acts, such actions are not reactions to any immediate action, but are born out of the sage’s Satsankalpa to serve humanity. Secondly, in all situations, the fool places himself first but finds himself last, while the wise man places himself last but finds himself first. Thirdly, the wise man retires silently as soon as he has done his work, but the fool remains to ear others praise him, and in some cases, if nothing like it is coming forward, he shamelessly asks for it. Kindly read also the Second Chapter of the Gita, wherein you will find a nice description of the Sthitaprajna.

Q 2: How is it possible that a Creator, so full of love, created a world and nature where animals can live only by killing other animals that have to endure terrible pain and suffering?

A: If men kill each other, it is sin. They need not. But, animals cannot live without killing the other animals for food. God’s love for the created universe knows no bounds. He cannot be held responsible for the experiences of created beings. God does not punish or reward anyone in a personal way. It is one’s own actions, sinful or good, that works as the cause of experience here. As the human being is endowed with moral sense and as he is invested with the consciousness of doership and responsibility, he imposes this sense of morality and responsibility of action on sub-human beings also. The defect, therefore, lies in man and not in the animals which act without any consciousness of ethical conduct, and spontaneously, free from the responsibility connected with doership or agency. No action can produce a retributive effect unless it is done with the consciousness of personal doership and responsibility. Man shall be punished by retributive justice, for man has the freedom to act and he is responsible for what he does. But animals have not been endowed with such a freedom and power of understanding and reason; so what they do is just the expression of the instinctive natural promptings in them and this is included in the scheme of the universal nature. Nature is beyond moral laws. Moral conduct is only for man, meant to restrict his behaviour and lead him on to universal consciousness through gradual ascent along the evolutionary ladder. All things born must die. And there should be some immediate cause for the destruction of things. This cause of destruction may be another animal, an earthquake, a thunder-stroke, flood, disease, storm or any such thing. These should not be clothed with moral and ethical values except when these are connected with human agency.

Q 3: Why do we not remember our past lives?

A: Such remembrance under our existing limitations would considerably complicate our present life. Therefore, the wise and beneficent Lord designed our mental evolution that we cannot recall our past lives until such time as it is good and helpful for us to remember. Such instances may well form a cycle which is all clear to us when we come to the end of it, and then we see a whole rosary of lives, threaded upon the one personality

Abstemious eating is the most important means of attaining longevity. – Sri Swami Sivananda