Swami Sivananda Vani

[Guest guest]

KNOW THYSELF NOW

 

Man is a soul and has a body. Man's true nature is God. You are pure

consciousness. Through ignorance you have imposed limitation upon

yourself. Reflect and abide in the absolute or Brahman.

 

Man's innermost essence is atman or the divine spirit. Realising the

spirit, man achieves security, certainty, perfection, freedom,

independence, immortality and bliss eternal. Man and his life become

the starting point and the end of philosophy. Man is of the nature of

his faith. What his faith is, that verily is what he is.

 

Physical body and intellect depend on the soul within about which man

knows little or nothing. Personality is the sum total of man. A man

of good personality has a number of good qualities. He behaves

quietly and politely. He has confidence in himself. He has the

capacity to win other people's cooperation. He has the capacity to

draw others towards himself. Hunger, libido and fame are the

fundamental urges in man. Unless man is liberated from the bondage of

the mind and matter he cannot have knowledge of the self and of God.

The head and the heart must be wedded ¬ then alone there will be

perfection and integration in man. Faith, virtue, piety, dispassion

and honesty are the greatest treasures of man.

 

Every man must arise, purify, meditate, and declare freedom unto

himself. Man says, " When this (worldly activity) is over then I will

have time to do that (meditate) " . But it is never done because

something new turns up all the time to distract him. The past cannot

be changed. The future is yet in your power. Truth is not outside

you, it is within you. It dwells in the cave of your heart.

You are a truth of God, a work of God, a will of God. You are

unfettered, free ¬ eternally free. Roar Om. Come out of the cage of

flesh and roam about freely.

 

When the cause of illusion is pulled away by the roots, when

knowledge annihilates ignorance (without a possibility of a remnant

or reminiscence) ¬ then there is not an ego, a body or world to be

experienced. When there is the cloud of ignorance you cannot see God

but you cannot say that there is no God.