ESSENCE OF YOGA by Sri Swami Sivananda Sarasawti

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Q: Where can you find eternal happiness?

 

A: In your own Atman within.

 

Q: Which is the most troublesome organ?

 

A: Tongue.

 

Q: Who is your terrible enemy?

 

A: Mind.

 

Q: Who is your best friend?

 

A: Satsanga or association with the wise.

 

Q: Who is your real father?

 

A: Guru.

 

Q: Which is the best language?

 

A: Language of the heart.

 

Q: Which is the best virtue?

 

A: Brahmacharya.

 

Q: Which is the worst intoxicant?

 

A: Lust.

 

Q: Which is the sacred river?

 

A: Brahma Jnana.

 

Q: Who is the real king?

 

A: A Jivanmukta or liberated sage.

 

Q: Which is the best Dharma?

 

A: Selfless service.

 

Q: Which is the worst quality?

 

A: Anger.

 

Q: Which is the best thing in this world?

 

A: Pain (because it is the eye-opener, it goads you to seek liberation.)

 

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ESSENCE OF YOGA

 

Q: Which is the best food?

 

A: Hearing of the Srutis or Upanishads.

 

Q: Who is the best man?

 

A: A kind-hearted man.

 

Q: Who is the worst man?

 

A: A selfish man.

 

Q: Where is the worst hell?

 

A: In the mind filled with jealousy, crookedness and hatred.

 

Q: Where is the best heaven?

 

A: In the heart filled with love, mercy and generosity.

 

Q: Which is the best science?

 

A: Brahma-Vidya or the science of Atman.

 

Q: Which is the most precious thing in this world?

 

A: Vairagya or dispassion.

 

Q: Who is the strongest man?

 

A: He who practises Ahimsa, he who can bear insults, injuries and persecutions

with a smiling face.

 

Q: Who is a weak man?

 

A: An irritable man.

 

Q: Who is the happiest man?

 

A: A Tyagi or a man of renunciation.

 

Q: Who is the most miserable man?

 

A: A rich man.

 

Q: Who is the most beautiful man?

 

A: A Yogi.

 

Q: Who is the ugliest man?

 

A: A greedy man.

 

Q: Who is a beggar?

 

A: He who has desires.

 

Q: Which is the biggest ocean?

 

A: Ocean of Bliss (Brahman or Atman).