16 SATSANGAM

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16 SATSANGAM

(Read, Understand, Appreciate, Internalise and Assimilate to reach

the Ultimate)

TASTES DIFFER - Swami Sivananda

 

In the evening some of the disciples were working with a petromax

lantern in the office. The Master stepped in on his way to the

Bhajan hall.

 

" Come, try this. " He invited each one in turn to a packet of sev, a

savoury prepared in his own kitchen. Then he asked for the opinion

of each disciple on the taste of the stuff.

 

" Somehow the bazaar sev appears to taste better, " said the Master

and asked Vishnu Swamiji to get a little of it. When it was brought

he said, " Now taste both and tell me the difference. "

 

Each one said something. One liked a little chilly added to the sev,

another said that it was not good, and so on. The Master summed up

everything with a profound truth: " Tastes differ. "

 

And so the consumption of the sev went on.

 

" Can anyone tell me what exactly is the taste of the savoury? " the

Master posed a question.

 

All merely looked at each other in bewilderment.

 

" I think it is quite impossible to make you understand how I feel

about it. To each one of us the taste is essentially different. Each

one's experience of the taste is different. You alone know it. You

experience it but you cannot really express it. Such is the Atma,

too. Therefore, realise It yourself. "

 

Swami Sivananda: " There is no rebirth after attaining wisdom. This

is a general rule. But there is birth for those who have a mission

to fulfil. "

 

" Spiritual progress is indicated by lustre in the eyes, good smell

from the body, beautiful complexion, sweet, powerful voice, passing

of little urine and excretion, wonderful health, vim, vigour and

vitality, freedom from diseases, laziness and depression, lightness

of body, alertness of mind, powerful digestive fire, eagerness to

sit and meditate for a long time. "

 

ANOTHER ANALOGY

 

Continuing his talk, the Master said, " One should do his Sadhana

during all the waking hours. Sadhana should be commenced from

childhood. One should not wait till old age to commence it.

 

Suppose a man decides to beat you continuously for six hours. If you

defend yourself, you will certainly receive only a lesser number of

blows than you would if you did not put up any defence at all.

Suppose you decide that you would keep quiet for five and a half

hours and try to defend yourself during the last half hour only. By

the time you commence defending yourself, you would have received so

many blows that you would have little energy left to defend yourself

during the last half hour.

 

" Even so, if you do not try to defend yourself from the onslaughts

of evil thoughts, desires and habits during all the waking hours of

the day, spending only a short period daily for the purpose, you

will not be successful in getting conquest of the lower nature. If a

man spends his youth in worldly pursuits, thinking that he will take

to Sadhana when he is older, he will not have the energy in his old

age to practise Sadhana. "

 

SADHANA IN THE WORLD - Swami Sivananda

 

A railway engineer came in. He had a doubt to be cleared.

 

" Swamiji, you say that we should avoid the company of a worldly man.

Are we not all worldly men, Swamiji? If I, too, am worldly, what do

I get by labelling another as a worldly man and avoiding his

company? I think this is possible only when I renounce the world and

come here. "

 

" What is there here? Is this not the world? Is Rishikesh not part of

the world? How can you renounce the world? Where will you go to if

you renounce? "

 

These questions put the engineer in a thoughtful but very receptive

mood.

 

" What is meant by a worldly man, " said the Master, " is one who is

full of worldliness. A man may live in the world and yet be not of

it. That is the secret. Never allow the evils of the world to get

admission into your heart. Enthrone God in the heart. "

 

" I try to meditate on the Lord in the heart and do Japa. I find it

very difficult. My mind always wanders. It has no taste for Japa, "

said the engineer.

 

" Go on repeating the Name mechanically as a parrot does. In the

course of time the Mantra-power will awaken in you a real love for

God. The real divine feeling will lead you to Bhava Samadhi.

Persistent effort is necessary. "

 

" The divine Name is an antidote to all miseries, troubles and

sorrows. It is the sole panacea for our sufferings and calamities. "

 

Swami Sivananda: " Science has progressed. It has contributed to the

welfare of humanity, but its misuse has tragically left in its wide

wake devastation and desolation, fear and moral deprivation. "

 

The desire to discard bad habits

 

" There is the desire to discard bad habits but the force of the

vasanas [mental tendencies ] is very strong ; what are we to do ? " ,

that person continued.

 

" There must be human effort to discard them. Good company, good

contacts , good deeds and all such good practices must be acquired ,

in order to eliminate the vasanas. As you keep on trying, eventually

with the ripening of the mind and with God's grace, the vasanas get

extinguished and efforts succeed. That is called Purushakaram (human

effort). How could God be expected to be favourable towards you

without your striving for it ? " , said Bhagavan.

Swami Sivananda

 

" The same Atma is in all. Therefore, you should try to develop equal

vision day by day. You should give up the practice of reserving the

best of everything for yourself and giving away useless things to

the servant. You should feel that your own Self is in the servant,

too. You should feed the servant first, giving him the best fruit,

and if need be forego your own share. Then only will your heart

expand. After a few days this zeal may fade away and you may relapse

into the old habits. So you will have to raise the divine feeling

repeatedly. Gradually this noble trait will strike deep root in you.

Your heart will expand and you will realise the Self. "

 

" Watch your thoughts, words and actions very carefully. Know the

power of words and use them cautiously. Respect all. Speak sweet

measured words. Be kind; cultivate patience, love and humility.

Enquire 'Who am I?' " - Swami Sivananda

 

The Prayer of St. Francis Lord

 

Make me an Instrument of Your Peace

 

Where there is hatred ... let me sow love

Where there is injury ... pardon

Where there is doubt ... faith

Where there is despair ... hope

Where there is darkness ... light

Where there is sadness ... joy

 

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

 

To be consoled ... as to console

To be understood ... as to understand

To be loved ... as to love

For it is in giving ... that we receive

It is in pardoning ... that we are pardoned

It is in dying ... that we are born to eternal life

 

OM, shaantiH, shaantiH, shaantiH

 

Mahatma Gandhi: Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.

It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to

have a heart without words than words without a heart.

 

 

 

 

LOVE IS THE MASTER

 

Love is the One who masters all things;

I am mastered totally by Love.

By my passion of love for Love

I have ground sweet as sugar.

O furious Wind, I am only a straw before you;

How could I know where I will be blown next?

Whoever claims to have made a pact with Destiny

Reveals himself a liar and a fool;

What is any of us but a straw in a storm?

How could anyone make a pact with a hurricane?

God is working everywhere his massive Resurrection;

How can we pretend to act on our own?

In the hand of Love I am like a cat in a sack;

Sometimes Love hoists me into the air,

Sometimes Love flings me into the air,

Love swings me round and round His head;

I have no peace, in this world or any other.

The lovers of God have fallen in a furious river;

They have surrendered themselves to Love's commands.

Like mill wheels they turn, day and night, day and night,

Constantly turning and turning, and crying out.

 

" In different kshetras the Lord is pleased with different kinds of

offerings.Sriranganath is pleased with bhajan, Tirupathi Srinivasa

Perumal is pleased with Dhanam (wealth), Udupi Sri Krishna with Anna

Dhaanam (offering of food), Badrinarayana with Brahmacharyam

(celibacy), Lord Panduranga with Naama Kirtanam, in Trichur the Lord

is pleased with vedi-vazhipaadu (bursting of fire-crackers) and in

Guruvayur, Lord Guruvayurappan is pleased with Bhagavatha Saptham. "

 

Contentment, Satsanga, Spirit of inquiry, Self-control

THE YOGA VASISTHA II:15,16 VASISTHA:

 

Contentment is another gate-keeper to liberation. He who has quaffed

the nectar of contentment does not relish craving for sense

pleasures; no delight in this world is as sweet as contentment which

destroys all sins. What is contentment? To renounce all craving for

what is not obtained unsought and to be satisfied with what comes

unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them - this is

contentment. As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will be

subjected to sorrow. With the rise of contentment the purity of

one's heart blooms. The contented man who possesses nothing owns the

world. Company of wise, holy enlightened persons (satsanga) is yet

another gate-keeper to liberation. Satsanga enlarges one's

intelligence, destroys one's ignorance and one's psychological

distress. Whatever be the cost, however difficult it may be,

whatever obstacles may stand in its way, satsanga should never be

neglected. For satsanga alone is one's light on the path of life.

Satsanga is indeed superior to all other forms of religious practice

like charity, austerity, pilgrimage and the performance of religious

rites. One should by every means in one's power adore and serve the

holy men who have realized the truth and in whose heart the darkness

of ignorance has been dispelled. They who, on the other hand, treat

such holy men disrepectfully, surely invite great suffering These

four - contentment, satsanga (company of wise men), the spirit of

inquiry, and self-control - are the four surest means by which they

who are drowning in this ocean of the repetitive history of the

cycle of births and deaths (samsara) can be saved. Contentment is

the supreme gain. Satsanga is the best companion to the destination.

The spirit of inquiry itself is the greatest wisdom. And, self-

control is the supreme happiness. If you are unable to resort to all

these four, then practise one: by the diligent practise of one of

these, the others will be found in you. The highest wisdom will seek

you of its own accord. Until you tame the wild elephant of your mind

with the help of these noble qualities, you cannot have progress

towards the supreme, even if you become a god, or demi-god or a

tree. Therefore, O Rama, strive by all means to cultivate these

noble qualities.

 

How can we love God?

 

Only three conditions need be present:

 

 

1. Nothing can exist without presence of God/Spirit.

 

2. Nothing exists out of which one does not love at least something.

 

3. Firm conviction that loving God is only an extension of that love

for something, to love for everything that exists.

 

This was Thakur's advice to many who asked hm this question.

 

 

Sri P Gopi Krishna

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