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GUIDELINES TO ILLUMINATION

By

SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA

CONTENTS

• Authors' Preface
• Brief Life-Sketch of Sri Swami Chidananda
• Principles Of Yoga
• The Need For Faith
• How To Lead The Divine Life
• Dharma Is The Spirit Of Life
• Meditation And Its Value
• India Today And Tomorrow
• The Message Of Lord Ganesa
• Be Divine
• The Glory Of Divine Mother
• How To Overcome Obstacles In Sadhana
• Supreme Value Of Student Life
• Purification Paves The Path To Yoga
• The Secret Of True Happiness
• Right Attitude In Spiritual Practices
• Divinity Is Your Birthright, Unfold It By Regular Sadhana
• Mind, The Liberator And The Binder
• Swami Sivananda—A Spiritual Guide Of Bharatavarsha
• Yoga Of Devotion And Its True Import According To The Bhagavata
• Portal Unto Perfection
• Tribute To Holy Master Swami Sivananda
• The Path Of Devotion
• Essence Of Theology
• Goal Of Human Life
• The Law Of Prosperity
• The Importance Of Yoga
• Psychological Effect Of Svadhyaya
• Occult Phenomena: Their Place In Yoga
• The Ideal Of Unity
• Yoga, Its Significance And Importance To Health
• Yoga And Christian Religion
• Sri Swami Sivananda And His Message

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Human life is a rare gift. It is a gift from the Lord. Three things are very difficult to obtain in this mortal world,—birth as a human being, desire for liberation and association with the wise ones,—and they are obtained only through the blessings and grace of God. Of the three, human birth is a very precious gift that has been put first and foremost. It is that state of existence where alone the Jiva becomes endowed with intellect and the extremely rare faculty of discrimination. Therefore, human birth is considered as a very rare gift of God.

The purpose of life is to know your own essential nature or Atman by knowing which you have nothing more to know. Every one must know that the Divine is within him. God is within you and you are in Him. Attainment of God is the Supreme purpose of life. Without this aim in life, the life of an individual is a mere waste. It is essenceless.

In order to progress in this spiritual path one should know the fundamentals of spiritual life. This book “Guidelines to Illumination” serves the purpose of giving some practical and useful information in this direction. It contains the essentials of spiritual life. This entire book constitutes a sincere attempt to serve earnest seekers after spiritual Truth and to spread spiritual wisdom that is likely to be of benefit to mankind. Unlike other books containing one subject-matter, this book “Guidelines to Illumination” contains many practical hints useful to seekers in the spiritual path. It is culled from my speeches given abroad during 1969-70, in various places. I place this book in the hands of seekers who wish to know some of essentials of spiritual life and earnestly hope that it will serve that purpose well.

I am grateful to Sri Swami Vimalanandaji (formerly known as Sri S. Nagarajan) for collecting the material for this book and also to Sri Bill Eilers (Sri Swami Atmaswarupanandaji) of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, for going through the entire manuscript and suggesting the excellent title for this book.

I offer and dedicate this book at the feet of holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji, who is no more physically, but whose invisible spiritual presence is guiding me even now.

Swami Chidananda

Sridhar Rao, as Swami Chidananda was known before taking Sannyasa, was born to Srinivasa Rao and Sarojini, on the 24th of September, 1916, the second of five children and the eldest son. Sri Srinivasa Rao was a prosperous Zamindar owning several villages, extensive lands and palatial buildings in South India. Sarojini was an ideal Indian mother, noted for her saintliness.

At the age of eight Sridhar Rao’s life was influenced by one Sri Anantayya, a friend of his grandfather, who used to relate to him stories from the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Doing Tapas, becoming a Rishi, and having a vision of the Lord became ideals which he cherished.

His uncle, Krishna Rao, shielded him against the evil influences of the materialistic world around him, and sowed in him the seeds of the Nivritti life which he joyously nurtured until, as later events proved, it blossomed into sainthood.

His elementary education began at Mangalore. In 1932 he joined the Muthiah Chetty School in Madras where he distinguished himself as a brilliant student. His cheerful personality, exemplary conduct and extraordinary traits earned for him a distinct place in the hearts of all teachers and students with whom he came into contact.

In 1936 he was admitted to Loyola College, whose portals admit only the most brilliant of students. In 1938 he emerged with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This period of studentship at a predominantly Christian College was significant. The glorious ideal of Lord Jesus, the Apostles and the other Christian saints had found in his heart a synthesis of all that is best and noble in the Hindu culture. To him, study of the Bible was no mere routine; it was the living word of God, just as living and real as the words of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. His innate breadth of vision enabled him to see Jesus in Krishna, not Jesus instead of Krishna. He was as much an adorer of Jesus Christ as he was of Lord Vishnu.

The family was noted for its high code of conduct and this was infused into his life. Charity and service were the glorious ingrained virtues of the members of the family. These virtues found an embodiment in Sridhar Rao. He discovered ways and means of manifesting them. None who sought his help was sent away without it. He gave freely to the needy.

Service to lepers became his ideal. He would build them huts on the vast lawns of his home and look after them as though they were deities. Later, after he joined the Ashram, this early trait found in him complete and free expression where even the best among men would seldom venture into this great realm of divine love, based upon the supreme wisdom that all are one in God. Patients from the neighbourhood, suffering from the worst kinds of diseases came to him. To Sridhar Rao the patient was none other than Lord Narayana Himself. He served him with tender love and compassion. The very movement of his hands portrayed him as worshipping the living Lord Narayana. Nothing would keep him from bringing comfort to the suffering inmates of the Ashram, no matter what the urgency of other engagements at the time.

Service, especially of the sick, often brought out the fact that he had no idea of his own separate existence as an individual. It seemed as if his body clung loosely to his soul.

Nor was all this service confined to human beings. Birds and animals claimed his attention as much as, if not, more than, human beings. He understood their language of suffering. His service of a sick dog evoked the admiration of Gurudev. He would raise his finger in grim admonition when he saw anyone practising cruelty to dumb animals in his presence.

His deep and abiding interest in the welfare of lepers had earned for him the confidence and admiration of the Government authorities when he was elected to the Leper Welfare Association, constituted by the state—at first as Vice-Chairman and later as Chairman of the Muni-ki-reti Notified Area Committee.

Quite early in life, although born in a wealthy family, he shunned the pleasures of the world to devote himself to seclusion and contemplation. In the matter of study it was the spiritual books which had the most appeal to him, more than college books. Even while he was at the college, text books had to take second place to spiritual books. The works of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Gurudev took precedence over all others. He shared his knowledge with others, so much so that he virtually became the Guru of the household and the neighbourhood, to whom he would talk of honesty, love, purity, service and devotion to God. He would exhort them to perform Japa of Rama-Nama. While still in his twenties he began initiating youngsters into this great Rama Taraka Mantra. He was an ardent admirer of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. He visited the Ramakrishna Math at Madras regularly and participated in the Satsangas there. The call of Swami Vivekananda to renounce resounded within his pure heart. He ever thirsted for the Darshan of saints and Sadhus visiting the metropolis.

In June 1936, he disappeared from home. After a vigorous search by his parents, he was found in the secluded Ashram of a holy sage some miles from the sacred mountain shrine of Tirupati. He returned home after some persuasion. This temporary separation was but a preparation for the final parting from the world of attachments to family and friends. While at home his heart dwelt in the silent forests of spiritual thoughts, beating in tune with the eternal Pranava-Nada of the Jnana Ganga within himself. The seven years at home following his return from Tirupati were marked by seclusion, service, intense study of spiritual literature, self-restraint, control of the senses, simplicity in food and dress, abandonment of all comforts and practice of austerities which augmented his inner spiritual power.

The final decision came in 1943. He was already in correspondence with Sri Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. He obtained Swamiji’s permission to join the Ashram.

On arrival at the Ashram, he naturally took charge of the dispensary. He became the man with the healing hand. The growing reputation of his divine healing hand attracted a rush of patients to the Sivananda Charitable Dispensary.

Very soon after joining the Ashram, he gave ample evidence of the brilliance of his intellect. He delivered lectures, wrote articles for magazines and gave spiritual instructions to the visitors. When the Yoga-Vedanta Forest University (now known as the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy) was established in 1948, Sri Gurudev paid him a fitting tribute by appointing him Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Raja Yoga. During the first year he inspired the students with his brilliant exposition of Maharshi Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutras.

It was also in the first year of his stay at the Ashram that he wrote his magnum opus ‘Light Fountain’, an immortal biography of Sri Gurudev. Sri Gurudev himself once remarked: “Sivananda will pass away, but ‘Light Fountain’ will live.”

In spite of his multifarious activities and intense Sadhana, he founded, under the guidance of Gurudev, the Yoga Museum in 1947, in which the entire philosophy of Vedanta and all the processes of Yoga Sadhana are depicted in the form of pictures and illustrations.

Towards the end of 1948, Gurudev nominated him as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society. The great responsibility of the organisation fell on his shoulders. From that moment he spiritualised all its activities by his presence, counsel and wise leadership. He exhorted all to raise their consciousness to the level of the Divine.

On Guru Purnima day, the 10th of July, 1949, he was initiated into the holy order of Sannyasa by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. He now became known as Swami Chidananda, a name which connotes “one who is in the highest consciousness and bliss.”

In November, 1959, Swami Chidanandaji embarked on an extensive tour of America, being, sent by Gurudev as his personal representative to broadcast the message of Divine Life. He returned in March, 1962.

In August, 1963, after the Mahasamadhi of the Master, he was elected as President of the Divine Life Society. After election, he strove to hold aloft the banner of renunciation, dedicated service, love and spiritual idealism, not only within the set-up of the widespread organisation of the Society, but in the hearts of countless seekers throughout the world, who were all too eager to seek his advice, help and guidance.

Swamiji has toured the length and breadth of India and also South Africa and Malaysia to serve devotees of the Society.

Again in 1968, Sri Swami Chidanandaji undertook the Global Tour at the kind request of numerous disciples and devotees of holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and visited South Africa, Rhodesia, Mauritius, Malavi, Uganda, Kenya, Germany, Belgium, France, U.K., Greece, Italy, Switzerland, U. S. A., Canada, Bahamas, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Fiji, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Wherever he went devotees received him cordially and listened to him with rapt attention.

Sri Swami Chidanandaji, right from the beginning is working and serving the Divine Cause of Sri Gurudev’s Mission tirelessly and spreading his Divine Life Message far and wide not only in Bharatavarsha but also in countries outside.

Yoga is not only in Nirvikalpa Samadhi. It is in every moment. If a thought comes and if you are not able to watch and put it down, you have failed in Yoga, you have failed in the examination. In every thought, in every action you have to assert your mastery over your Vrittis. Then Yoga is fulfilled, divine life is lived; and what is the time taken for this process? It is a moment. Within a split second so many frames (cinema films) go away. Similar is the case with the mind. The entire process takes place in a split second, starting from Samskaras and ending with Cheshta or fulfilling of desires. From experience you get Samskara, from Samskara you get Vasana, from Vasana you get Vritti. Imagination makes the Vritti into a desire. Then ego attaches itself to the desire and it becomes an urge, a Trishna. Now you are forced to do Cheshta—action—to fulfil the desire. This process of the mind is going on.

The scientists are trying to find a perpetual motion machinery, a machinery that never stops but is always in motion. If you have to find such a machinery, now it is in you; it is the mind. We have to deal with the mind. All the Vasanas and Samskaras, which you have formed, are already there and you cannot help it. But you can at least do one thing. You can prevent the formation of new Samskaras. And also let the past Samskaras be not further strengthened by fresh ones. How is it possible? Daily you get new experiences and daily you perceive so many things with your five organs of senses. Then how can we prevent these experiences making impressions upon the mind? Is there any technique? How did these objects get into the mind and form Samskaras? Here is an object. You perceive it through any one of your senses. First there is contact between the sense and the object. That is the first thing, and then what happens? So far only the outer fringe of man’s personality has been touched. Supposing you are very deeply absorbed in some task, and your brother or sister comes and lays his or her hands on you; you are not aware although the object has contacted the sense, because the sense has not conveyed it to the mind, and the mind is away from it. The objects have contacted the senses, and the senses have conveyed it to the mind, but if you are not there, if the sense of ‘I’ is not there, the impression taken by the mind as a matter of routine, makes no meaning to the person. So, if the ego is not there, the object does not go deep into the mind. If the ego is engaged in some other thought, a particular impression brought by the senses will not produce any effect. But if the ‘I’ is there, the object goes and impinges upon your awareness; and if this ‘I’ is in a state of heedlessness, is not vigilant, it is in a state of illusion, a state of worldliness or Rajas, and it will easily take these perceptions and create in you a desire for the objects.

If you are not alert due to lack of understanding of the thought process, the moment the thought of a lovely object arises in you, you will follow it and the result is you want that object. You see money and immediately you want it. Supposing it has come to this stage, there is only one thing to be done. What can you do? You can simply burn up that desire and reduce it to ashes. There is only one fire to burn all desires; Nachiketas had that fire. So many attractive and alluring things were offered by Yama. He offered money, beauty, strength, power, kingdoms and lordships over all worlds, all Vidyas. He gave flowing descriptions of the whole attractive and alluring worlds, but Nachiketas reduced all such desires to ashes, because he had that one fire, and that was Mumukshutva, aspiration. Aspiration is a positive fire in which all desires, cravings are thrown and reduced to ashes. This is the fire that should characterise all Sadhakas, Yogis and Vedantins who lead the divine life.

If you want to lead the divine life, your inner heart should be a place of aspiration and a fire of Yoga should burn in you inside always. This blaze should be there. You cannot completely change the outward mode of life, but inwardly there should be aspiration. This fire should burn day and night, when you are awake, when you are sleeping, when you are alone, when you are among men, when you are meditating and when you are engaged in work. This fire should not be put out. This aspiration should always form an integral part of your being. Then you are living the divine life. If this fire is there, you need not worry what work you are doing or in which place you are living. Because, you will be leading the divine life. You cannot be a victim of sense-pleasures. But you must at any time know if, in spite of your vigilance, an object goes to the inner consciousness, how to burn it through aspiration. If before it enters the outer threshold you have to burn it, what are the techniques? There are two techniques. One technique is always keep the mind indrawn. Never allow the mind to be completely extrovert, so that even apparently when you are moving amidst objects, the senses are not outgoing but turned inward. This is a very difficult technique, but this has to be practised. This Pratyahara is very essential. The ideal of the aspirant should always be to acquire this important qualification—Pratyahara.

The other thing is to be indifferent. What does it mean to you? It does not mean anything to you at all. If a non-vegetarian goes into the bazaar where they sell fish, poultry, etc., his mouth may water. But supposing he is a pure vegetarian, they will not mean anything at all, because he is not interested in them. Even so, we will have to create an attitude within ourselves by constant reflection and constant meditation on the Supreme Reality which will reveal the vanity of the world, the worthlessness of earthly objects, and the perishable nature of the entire creation. By constantly imbibing such consciousness in one’s personality, an attitude of mind is created when all things cease to have any meaning to you, and then, even when these things come, there is no response from within, and this state is called Udasinata. You are simply not interested, and when there is a thing which you do not like, you are not aware of its existence. This attitude of not being interested in a thing should be universalised. An aspirant should hold an attitude of indifference when he is in the midst of objects. This way you have to move in the world.

Day-to-day movements of men constitute the very essence of Yoga and Vedanta. One should not commit the mistake of running away with the idea that by merely having a great idealism that one can indulge in every type of actions and words. Every action goes to form one’s character even as every drop goes to form the ocean. Day-to-day movements of men constitute the very essence of divine living, the very essence of Yoga and Vedanta. If one is watchful of every thought and sees that the broad principles of divine living are observed in daily life, the principles which go to make up the foundation of spiritual life, the edifice will come by itself.

Truthfulness, compassion, purity,—these are the broad things which have to cover our entire life down to the minutest details. An aspirant cannot afford to forget this detailed living of divine life, and his whole life, at least in the beginning, should be characterised by self-restraint. If a Sadhaka thinks that he can do anything and also meditate, he is deceiving himself. Yoga is not a toy; which you can easily take and play with. Therefore, every action should be done with awareness.

The whole personality should be restrained. One should live a life of moderation. As said by our Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj in his song: “Eat a little, drink a little...” we have to understand it in its proper sense. There are two parts of this song. “Eat a little, drink a little, talk a little, sleep a little”; when he says these things he means moderation. These things should not be done too much. These are not said in the sense that they are essential. It means that you must not overdo them. The instinctive life of eating, drinking, talking, etc., should be kept to the minimum. The other portion wherein Gurudev says: “Do Japa a little, do Asana a little, do Kirtan a little,” means not that they should not be done too much, but here it is the other way round. Sri Gurudev has said that everyone of these items is essential, and all these items should find a place in your daily programme. All gross things that merely pertain to the body should be kept to the minimum and all the higher aspects of Sadhana should be given proper place in your daily programme. This is the broad general outline of divine life or spiritual living, for you. All these, Japa, meditation, Kirtan, etc., form the positive side. Living a life of restraint, and not fulfilling the undue desires of the mind and senses, understanding that to fulfil such demands is to become greater and greater slaves of the mind and its promptings is the other side. Always be based upon self-restraint and inwardness and make the best use of your quiet hours in self-study, so that your Yoga may be fulfilled. This sums up the essential principles of Yoga.

The differences in views and opinions in matters like politics and economics are understandable. But it is surprising that such differences of opinion and approach exist in the spiritual field also, even though the seekers have one common end as their aim, viz., the realisation of the Supreme Being. What could these differences be due to? One reason advanced is that different facets of the Ultimate Truth are presented to different seekers. Suppose a pillar is made of gold and silver—gold on one side and silver on the other. Viewed from one side the pillar appears to be nothing but silver, and viewed from the other, it appears to be only gold. The second explanation given is that different people have got different capacities of grasping or understanding. Each one is able to grasp according to his capacity. So there are differences in the method of approach, like absolute monism, qualified monism, etc., to suit different men of different capacities. Therefore, there are no inconsistencies in the scriptures and they deserve our faith in them. Even with a grain or a mustard of faith you can do what is seemingly impossible.

Where is the need for faith? Cannot man use his intellect and know things? No, because of the limitations of the mental process (Antahkarana). Great people both in the East and the West, after having experienced the Highest, have stressed the need for faith, and they could not have made a misstatement, for they had no purpose to do so. In all our experiences of external objects, there is the person who experiences, the process of experience and object experienced. Without these triune factors one cannot live. Every moment of one’s life they are present. These triple factors have to be annihilated for attaining the Supreme Experience. Triputi Laya has to be achieved. And then Consciousness alone remains. The Supreme Experience alone is present.

The nature of the Supreme is existence. This can be illustrated by an example. You go to a jungle and see a tree there. The tree is. Suppose a wood-cutter cuts the tree; it is then called ‘log’. Though the tree has changed its form and name, its existence has not disappeared. It exists in the name and form of the log. If the log is then made into planks of wood, then the log is not there, but the planks of wood are, or each plank of wood is, there. The existence aspect continues. Suppose these planks are converted into tables or chairs; then the planks are not there, but still the tables and chairs are there. If after some years the tables and chairs become useless and are reduced to pieces of wood, then the tables and chairs are not there. If these pieces of wood are burnt, then the ashes remain. The wood now exists as the ashes. And if the ashes are also annihilated, according to the scientists, they still remain as atoms. Thus existence continues. The ultimate Truth is Existence, Eternity.

But, we are not able to experience the Truth with our senses and the mind, for they are limited in their scope. One sees an object at night as long as there is light. But if the light is put off, in spite of his having his eyes opened he cannot see anything. So, the eyes depend on an external object for seeing, viz., the light. But suppose there is too much light. The eyes cannot see. The eyes will be dazzled or even perpetually blinded by excessive light, as for instance, of an arc-light. Again if a curtain hides an object, the eyes cannot perceive it. If a crystal-clear glass tumbler is filled with pure water, from a distance it cannot be said whether it contains water or not. If you are affected with cold, you cannot smell an object. You cannot hear a very low sound, and a powerful sound may deafen your ears. When you are absorbed in some thought, you cannot hear the external noises. However delicious it may be, a third or fourth cup of milk ceases to be delicious. If the milk was really delicious it must have been delicious always. Then, how is it that a fourth cup of milk is not delicious, and a fifth cup causes vomiting? So, our senses are limited in their scope. We cannot have uniformity of experience through the senses. You cannot remember what all dishes you took yesterday. You cannot remember the past nor can you foretell the future. However intellectual one may be, when something goes wrong with his brain, he has to consult a psychiatrist or go to an asylum. One dose of opium is sufficient to make him lose his consciousness. Such are the limitations of intellect and senses. Further, jealousy, anger, prejudice, depression—all these cloud man’s vision. If a man is cheerful, everything is beautiful to him. Otherwise, everything is ugly to him. If a man is filled with hatred, everybody becomes an enemy to him. If his mind is filled with love, everybody becomes his friend. Thus knowledge derived through the mind can never be dependable.

Our great master-minds have tried to show that anything that we try to perceive is only appearance of a thing, and not the essence of a thing. Take for instance, a piece of cloth. You say it is a piece of cloth. Suppose you remove its warp and woof. You remove all the threads. It is no more the cloth that it was formerly. It is now called a heap of threads. Again it can be reduced to cotton, and cotton again to atoms. So in reality we are wearing only atoms!

Then, are the senses and intellect not useful at all? They are useful, of course, but to a certain extent. Up to a certain stage intellect is useful, but when that stage is reached, the intellect is no longer useful. It is an obstacle thereafter. It should be dispensed with. Even in Vedanta, which is mainly a process of constant enquiry and analysis, the intellect has to be avoided when one reaches the point of meditation, of drawing the mind inward. Master-minds knew that mind was not the essential part of man, and so they gave a kick to the mind and intellect and boldly took a leap into the Unknown. They had direct experience of the Truth and enjoyed the Supreme Bliss which they wanted to share with others. So they said, “Come ye, O seekers, we will show you the way to eternal beatitude, where there is perennial bliss and lasting peace.” So to believe in their words is not blind faith.

Faith is Spirit responding to the Spirit. The ultimate essence in man responds to the Infinite. Faith does not spring from the mind and senses. Faith is the nature of the innermost Being of man. Faith is a power. It is a great primal power which elevates man and lifts him to the transcendental experience.

The giant intellect, Sri Sankara, himself has laid down ‘Sraddha’ (faith) as one of the sixfold virtues in Sadhana Chatushtaya which consists of Viveka (discrimination), Vairagya (dispassion), Shadsampat (Sama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha, Sraddha and Samadhana) and Mumukshutva (intense longing for Liberation). If everything could be understood by analysis and enquiry, then why did he stipulate ‘Sraddha’? Without faith, an aspirant cannot practise even Sravana (hearing). If he has no faith in the teacher, if he doubts that what his teacher says may be incorrect, how can he learn anything at all? Even in our daily life, faith is indispensable. Somebody cooks food and we take that food. We do not doubt that the cook might have put some poison in the food. We go to a doctor for medicine and take the medicine that he gives, without doubting that what he gives might be poison. In the spiritual realms also, the same is the case. There have been sages who have plumbed the depth of Truth and given out their experiences. We repose faith in the words of persons who say that they have visited the moon. Similarly it is reasonable to repose faith in the words of those who have seen the Truth because they say: “We have experienced the Truth, so you can also experience the Truth, provided you do what we have done in order to experience the Truth. Experiment for yourself and then see whether you attain the same result or not.” The sages give us assurance that we can also experience the Highest Truth by following the proper self-analysis.

Saint Tulasidas says that faith is like the handmaid of a queen. If anyone wants to see the queen, he cannot be led by the servants of the palace to the innermost chamber in which the queen is. Only upto the gateway to the innermost chamber others can lead a visitor. Thereafter, one of the handmaids of the queen alone can take the visitor to the queen. All our reasoning, theoretical knowledge, etc., will take us only upto a certain stage. Beyond that they cannot help us, but only faith can help us in attaining the Supreme Experience. Faith is necessary for all aspirants, be they Raja Yogins, Bhakti Yogins or Jnana Yogins. May God bless you all with supreme faith to experience the Bliss.

Life is precious. Life is valuable. Do not think that life is all misery, or all frustration, or all disappointment or all disillusionment. No. Amidst all these passing phases of life the great and glorious fact ever remains—that life ever beckons us to a high destiny, to a destiny that is no less than attaining our eternal abode. Attaining the experience of Supreme Bliss in God is our birthright.

God is the only Reality. God exists and He is the One Reality. He is the very centre of our life and He is the most important concern in our life. We have no other concern as vitally important and so very absolutely indispensable for our very existence, our happiness, our peace, our ultimate well-being as God is. He is our Goal.

It is not to get stuck in this earth-plane through which we are passing on our way towards Him, but to make use of this earth-life to rise into the blessedness of blissful divine communion with Him—the indescribable experience of being one with Him, partaking of the sweetness of His essential blissful nature. That is the great task. That is the great business of life. That is the one great thing to be achieved in the midst of innumerable little things. All these little things ever keep changing, ever keep shifting and ever pass away, but this great business of life starts with the cradle and it is not completed in the grave. No. It is completed only when we attain Him, no matter how many bodies we may have to take, that is the great business, the central business amidst the passing distractions of our life here.

The present state of consciousness is a product of ignorance. Birth, death, pain, sorrow and suffering are all due to ignorance, or the lack of knowledge of one’s own essential Divine nature. This confined personal identity is ignorance or egoism. This ego-consciousness of ‘I am a human being’, ‘I am a weak being’, ‘I am full of defects and imperfections’ is the basic ignorance and the prolific root of all sorrow, of all misery. Out of this springs desire. Desire is born of ignorance. Likes and dislikes are born of ignorance. Clinging to mundane life is due to ignorance, and the non-perception of your eternal life in the Spirit, of your great destiny of perennial life in God—Bliss Infinite—forever, is also due to ignorance.

Identification with the body is the great error of man on earth. Mistaking this impure, inert and perishable body for the pure, immortal Atman or Soul, is truly the great malady of this Samsaric life. Egoism, likes and dislikes, desires, cravings and thoughts are all modifications of this prime error only. From this prime error are created all sorts of desires and their ramifications. To realise the objects of desire, the human being does Karma or actions. He likes some things, dislikes others, expect fruits of his actions which are not what he expected them to be, and is, therefore, thus bound to the wheel of birth and death.

Attain supreme divine wisdom, or the knowledge of the Great Reality, the wisdom of your own Supreme Self, and pain, sorrow and suffering will cease. You will attain Bliss immortal, everlasting Peace and Perennial Joy. You will be freed once and for all from birth and death. Discrimination, dispassion, non-attachment, serenity, self-restraint, endurance, renunciation, faith and devotion, cosmic love, courage, humility, truthfulness, compassion, concentration and meditation; and burning longing for liberation are all aids for Self-realisation, or the attainment of Brahma-Jnana (i.e. knowledge of the Supreme, knowledge of the Eternal One).

God is Self-existent. He does not depend upon others for His existence. He is what is called Svayam Prakasa, Svayam Jyoti. He is Self-luminous. He does not want any other light to reveal Him. He is the Light of Grace. God is self-proved. He does not want any proof. You do not want any proof to know that you exist. You do not require another person to come to you and establish the fact of your existence. Your existence to you is self-proven but it cannot be demonstrated outside yourself. You are, therefore you are. God does not want proof, because He is the basis for all existence. All existence is made possible because He exists. You are because He is. Because God is, it is possible for you to be. He is that principle of Pure Existence or Pure Being within you. He, Himself, is the basis for all the proof. He is Self-contained. He contains everything within Himself—the entire universe is in Him. He knows Himself by Himself.

There is a great deal of quibbling nowadays about God not being personal, or being personal, and so on. Who are we to say that He should be thus and not thus? A human being cannot dictate to God how He should be and how He must not be. We should not quibble about all those things. It is unnecessary. Personal or impersonal—what is all that to us? To us He is personal. He may be impersonal to philosophers, to metaphysical speculators. We are not in any way concerned with them. To us seekers, to each one of us, He is intensely personal. He is close to us.

We cannot even know what is going on inside of ourselves. We do not know how food is being digested. We do not know how blood courses through the minutest capillary. We do not know how a bud opens to become a blossom. And yet we would claim to know all about the nature of God and dictate to Him how He should be. Ours is to love Him. Ours is to seek to know Him. Ours is to approach Him. Ours is to live to get close to Him, experience Him and enter into His very essence. That is the great goal. That is the one thing that is worth doing.

Let us not talk about His nature. It is enough to know that He is inexpressible sweetness—He is inexpressible sweetness—He is Bliss which even the farthest reach of your imagination is powerless to comprehend or conceive of. He is Bliss—He is Peace. He is wondrous Peace. Be still and feel that Peace.

All Peace springs from Him. The highest Bliss that a human being can think of is but a faint reflection of the illimitable. He is Bliss. He is the marvellous Beauty of beauties, and the Radiant Light of lights. He is the Eternal, Infinite Light—the Unchanging One. Peace, Bliss, Radiance, Light, Eternal Being, Existence—all that He is. He is Supreme Perfection. And more than all these—more than anything else, He is our very own. He is your very own. Your relation to all things upon earth has to end.

Enough of argument. Let us have no discussion—no arguments. Let us just know God is our own and God is here and now. Time is fleeting. Life is very short. We have to cut the knot of ignorance and experience the Bliss of God. We are here for it and great Masters, like Swami Sivananda, and many other Masters of both West and East, live in order to bring you to that Fountain Source. They live in order to make the Sun of Knowledge, the Sun of Wisdom arise in the firmament of your consciousness. They live in order to lead you on to that great and glorious destiny. So develop a heart of love. Remember the Saints. Serve all. See God in all. That Inner Being alone is real. He is Blissful. We should directly find our way to Him somehow or other through this imperfect, unsatisfactory life on earth. Discipline the senses—discipline the eye—discipline the tongue. Take little food, control your sense of taste, reduce your sleep, and fill yourself with the thought of God. Fill yourself with Love.

Overcome all your little dislikes and prejudices and disunities and make yourself a reservoir of love, oneness, unity and good-will to all. See no difference of race or religion or caste or creed, or barrier of any sort. Embrace the whole universe in the arms of your cosmic love. Remove selfishness, control anger, develop virtues. Do something substantial while life is, while breath is in the body, and somehow pray, get His Grace, and quickly finish this journey here and reach the heavens of eternal delight in Him. Then alone life is fulfilled.

May God bless you!

Dharma is duty, righteousness, a life of virtue, in the fulfilment of ethical standard in life. Dharma supports life. He who supports Dharma is supported by Dharma. When you follow a life of virtue it brings you face to face with God. Dharma leads to immortal bliss. Where there is Dharma there is success, there is joy and peace. Dharma is a very unique concept. It is the ideal—the life of idealism—that which ought to be, things as they ought to be, not things merely as they are and it is based upon sound science—not physical science, not material science but upon spiritual science. No one wants to be unhappy. Everyone wants to be happy. No one wants restlessness, fear, peacelessness, anxiety or worry. All want the experience of happiness. Everyone seeks peace. But very seldom people realise the absolute inseparable nature of these two factors. Very few people know or recognise that there is an inexplicable connection between these two factors. What is that connection? Happiness entirely depends upon peace. Peace is the cause of happiness. Without peace you cannot have happiness. Peace comes first. Happiness is its spontaneous result. When incense is burnt fragrance is felt. When flower unfolds fragrance is after it too. Happiness is the result of peace. You cannot have happiness without peace—inner peace, peace of mind. You can have peace without happiness because when you are perfectly in a state of peace you wouldn’t think of happiness. Happiness or unhappiness will have no meaning to you, because peace in the ultimate analysis means supreme bliss. When you have a potful of honey you won’t care for sweetness. So happiness becomes superfluous if you have true peace because the very essence of happiness is already in peace, just as in honey the very essence of sweetness is there. So, those who know say: “Peace is the supreme goal”—Supreme peace, not merely the absence of noise or absence of clash but a positive state of experience, where even if there is noise and clash yet the peace is there that nothing can touch, nothing can distort or destroy. Therefore, they call it an extraordinary unique peace—a peace that cannot be understood by human beings, peace that passeth understanding. That peace can be there in the midst of trouble tribulation, disappointment or vexations. People may hate you, all friends may abandon you, they may call you names, even persecute you, but yet you will be full of peace. This is the peculiar extraordinary peace that comes when you experience the deepest Self within because it is a peace that nothing can touch. It is that peace that some of the martyrs had. They said, “Our Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” And they were able to pray for those who were about to destroy them, because they were at peace with themselves and the Supreme. That peace passeth understanding. It is something which no power in the universe can affect, can change, can alter or can take away even one little bit, because it is the only Reality. It is a positive powerful state of experience—peace—and when that peace is there you are the Emperor of emperors. A billionaire is nothing for you. All the wealth of the whole universe is as dust before you if you have that peace. That peace is the goal—Liberation; Nirvana, Illumination, Moksha, Transcendental experience. They all mean nothing but this great peace.

There is cessation of all desires—all delusion—no more restlessness, no more hankering, no more craving. You are full. You are in a state of overflowing divinity—peace. Supreme reality is profound peace and that peace is the supreme joy. It is the Bliss-absolute of the Upanishads—That is Brahman, that is the thing-in-itself. That is the supreme Tao which cannot be described, attaining which there is nothing higher to be obtained. One is in a state which nothing can equal and which is unvalued. That is possible only in a mind devoid of restlessness. Where there is restlessness of the mind due to desire, thoughts endless, ambitions, peculiar delusions, in that restless mind peace is far off. If you think: “Let me satisfy this desire, then I think I will have a little peace,” you are the greatest deluded being. There is no greater delusion. Satisfaction of desire will have only one result. It will intensify that desire, because desire is an extraordinary peculiar mysterious force of Maya. Desire is not subdued by satisfying it. Desire is subdued by transcending it, by overcoming it and by sublimating it into a higher channel. If you think every desire that arises in the heart spontaneously: “Let me satisfy it,” you are making a sad mistake. You are not walking in light. You will soon find to your bitter cost that you have got yourself in an endless chain. Flowing along the stream is not the answer to the question. It is not the solution to this problem of desire. Flowing along the stream soon you will meet whirling begird. Only strength of self-control can help you to come out of this. You have to assert your higher nature. Giving way to the lower nature anyone can do. The jails of this world are filled with people who give way to their lower nature. It is nothing—it takes nothing. When desire arises immediately go into it. But man is not chaos. Man is made in the image of God.

Desire is a disease of the mind. Desire is a curse of the psyche. It is the pain of the deluded ego, false human personality, human individuality. Desire is Maya and Maya is desire. This desire has to be overcome. This is the whole of Yoga, whole of philosophy, whole of all the teachings of all the saints and seers. Overcome it. Be a hero and overcome this formidable enemy of desire. It is a formidable enemy. It requires exceptional strength. Avoid them even if you have to destroy it. To give in to desire is weakness. Therefore overcome it. Let us stop. That is Yoga. That is spirituality. That is inner strength. That is individuality, true reality. You are asserting yourself. When the mind asserts itself, or senses assert themselves, or desires assert themselves, or the delusion of the intellect asserts itself, you are not asserting yourself. You are falling into a trap. You are distinct from that, absolutely different from that. Our beloved Gurudev chants: “You are not this body, not this mind, immortal Atman you are.” Day and night base yourself upon this great truth. Base yourself upon this awareness. Never move even a hair’s breadth away from this awareness, the central spiritual awareness. Ever be on the alert. Don’t fall in the trap of the senses, the mind and the intellect. You cannot afford because desire is the outcome of a mixture of Rajas and Tamas, and as long as desire dominates your mind, senses take you like a puppet on the end of string. So, you can never have peace of mind because mind will be filled with Tamasic and Rajasic qualities.

Therefore, understand this law and true peace can only come into a mind that is at peace with itself, that has become refined and subtle, that has been wiped clean of the Tamasic and Rajasic qualities,—the desirous nature, the sense-nature. Where there is presence of Sattva there is purity of mind. When the mind becomes subtle and refined peace comes. In that peace happiness or the supreme reality begins to ascend. Dharma lays down the pattern of life—a life of self-control, a life of discipline, a life of discrimination and renunciation, a life of the practice of virtues, of moderation, simplicity, self-restraint, purity and dispassion. That is the essence of Dharma and that is why Dharma becomes the spirit of life and the means for attaining God-realisation.

Meditation is the ultimate process when one has laid the foundation of spiritual life, when one has overcome the constant pull of the senses and has become the master of one’s senses, when one through true discrimination and true inquiry, has realised the absolute hollowness of all that is pursued, and therefore has overcome the natural tendencies of the mind, towards appearances and has succeeded in turning away completely from the desire for names and forms and attachment to objects and experiences, when one has learned the techniques of withdrawing the mind from the outer appearances, and when one has cultivated and created within a state of quiescence, balance and equipoise. In that condition of being firmly grounded in virtue, that condition of perfect sense-control and self-restraint, in that condition of conquest of desires and the mastery of one’s passions, in that condition of enlightenment, in that condition of inner stability and equipoise, one begins to gather oneself and move towards the concept or idea of what you feel of the Reality as opposed to appearances. This—the ingathering of the totality of your being and the centralising of this ingathered power in one specific self-chosen direction—is the object of your meditation, and the keeping up of a continued and unbroken movement of the ingathered totality in that particular direction, of your entire being. Thus ingathered and directed, when continued unbroken movement succeeds, you are in a state of meditation.

So it is the successful movement, continuously, in a self-chosen direction of the totality of your being, ingathered in a unity—a unified whole—that is called meditation. All other things are individual private notions of meditation. All other things are only what you think to be meditation. They are not meditations. Meditation requires the being perfectly grounded in virtue. Virtue means certain spiritual qualities which are absolutely indispensable prerequisites for the interior life of meditation, without which meditation is impossible. There are certain spiritual qualities, which are the building blocks for the structure, which ultimately attain the pinnacle of meditation. Meditation is, as it were, the point of the pyramid, and that point of the pyramid cannot be created in air. It is created from the broad base on hard earth. The structure goes on and on and then you attain that point where there is that one stone—that is meditation. And, therefore, it is a process which is grounded in virtue. Virtue means spiritual qualities and why those spiritual qualities are insisted upon is very simple to understand. Because they are the qualities which keep out of your nature forces that are the direct antithesis of the Divine experience—factors which are direct contradictions of the spiritual experience. As long as they are there, it is not possible to rise in spiritual experience. You cannot be wet and dry at the same moment. And in order to put out those factors there is only one way. That is, you have to create a strong positive movement within yourself and then they are no more. They cannot remain, because they are merely the negations of certain positive forces. They have no separate or independent identity by themselves. So to overcome them, certain positive factors have to be created in you. These positive factors are called virtues for want of a better term. They are spiritual qualities which are essential in order to keep out of your nature those factors that are directly contradictory and the antithesis of the experience which you are trying to attain.

Based upon that, meditation is an interior process. The senses always have as their main task the keeping of your entire psyche in an exteriorised condition. That is the very nature of the senses, and unless you know how to control your senses, the psyche can never be ingathered. The ingathering of your psyche is absolutely indispensable and necessary for meditation. So, control of senses comes as the next preliminary condition. But if the psyche is in a constant state of efflorescence within, then even in spite of having success in making it ingathered, you cannot initiate this process, which requires a certain degree of stillness. Therefore, next comes the calming of the mind, its desires, the passions, the various ambitions, the constant attachments and the cravings that keep the mind always in a state of flux and ferment. They have to be overcome, and this does not come in a day. This is a process that takes time. This process of attaining a certain extent of absolute quiescence of this mind takes many years. Even if it takes years, it is worthwhile. Spiritual life cannot be in the presence of impatience. It cannot be done in the presence of haste. The eagerness must be there, tremendous eagerness—tremendous enthusiasm—, and at the same time it should be accompanied by patience. So, this state of quiescence can come about only if you are able to cast out of your mind miscellaneous desires, attachments, overwhelming ambitions, plans and schemes and what not. All these things have to give place to a unified aspiration. The mind wants only one thing. In that it should not want anything else. Total elimination of wants is impossible. Hunger, the desire for food and drink, desire for clothing and other desires by their very immediacy in your life are so very demanding and you cannot get rid of them. A father will have plans for his child, but all miscellaneous desires have to be completely out along with all ambitions and planning, and there should be unified aspiration, meaning that, by and large, the maximum predominant emphasis in your mind will be upon that ultimate goal. The mind is relatively unified, even though there may be in its periphery some of these unavoidable desires of the immediate life you are living. Mainly, it will be unified, and when it is thus unified, all dispersal will go. There will be no other ambitions, no other desires, no other attachments, no other passions and cravings. The mind will be totally in a state of ingatheredness and unity. We call it in Sanskrit Ekagrata.

Ekagrata means attainment of a state of one-pointedness. This mind alone, which has now been rendered subtle by giving up gross sensual experience, by totally eliminating the gross sensual desires, and by renunciation, attains a state of purity. See, mind is also matter. It is very subtle matter compared to physical matter. Compared to the Spirit it is also matter. When it is filled with earthly tendencies, passions and greeds, it is full of Tamas and Rajas, i.e., it is very close to the presence of the quality of inertia and becomes still more gross due to the presence of the quality of restlessness, selfish desires and activities. When these have been transcended and to a certain extent mastered, then mind attains a state of purity and subtleness. Both these are interchangeable. And in that state of subtle purity, mind assumes an upward direction. Until this state of subtle purity comes into the mind, mind cannot assume an upward direction. It is always horizontal in its dynamics.

It assumes a state of upward direction only when it attains a state of subtlety and purity. Such a mind, rendered pure, rendered subtle by absolute purity and virtue, sense-control and elimination of desires and passions, only becomes the instrument which can think of the Atman—the Reality. Otherwise normal gross mind has not the state in which it can think of the Atman—the Truth or the Reality. It only gets the capability of thinking about the Atman when it is thus rendered subtle and pure. That mind should be engaged in meditation. Unless you acquire that mind, you cannot engage in meditation. Thinking that you are meditating is only a thought in your mind.

You may be sitting straight and you may be thinking that you are meditating. You are doing something with the mind but it is not meditation. Meditation requires a different mind. The outgoing mind, the objectifying mind, the mind with desires and ambitions, this mind cannot be really meditating. Yes, it may be trying to concentrate and do some exercises and going through valuable training, a valuable process of discipline. This is not completely useless. It will always prepare the mind in a certain way, but ultimately this total transformation in your interior, by bringing the mind into that state of subtleness and purity, is absolutely necessary to initiate the process of meditation inside, because that is the instrument. A subtle, pure mind, completely still and calm and totally inward,—that is the instrument for meditation. With that mind alone one can really meditate.

Adorations to the land of the sublime Himalayas and the Holy Ganga and the Yamuna. Salutations to our Guru Maharaj Sri Swami Sivanandaji, who taught us to adore India, her philosophy and her religion, her lofty culture, her ideals and her Dharma, and who showed us enduring greatness of her wisdom wealth, and that her very soil is sacred and that her very atmosphere is spiritual.

A land or a country or a nation is more than its mere geographical features or its economic resources. It is more than the people who live in the land. It is the way of life evolved by the people, who have lived in it over the bygone centuries, that really constitutes a nation—the idea that they have evolved and the goal for which they have as a whole lived and toiled. The present is a product of the past and the tomorrow is what we make of the today at hand. India today and tomorrow has to be a fulfilment of the India of numerous yesterdays that have gone down the corridor of many, many centuries, through countless generations.

There is a divine plan for humanity in this world. There is common evolution of mankind. Each nation has to offer some specific contribution towards this common evolution. The spirit of sharing and the self-offering of one’s own wealth in the form of one’s own culture for the common benefit of the universal weal and the universal collective progress of mankind as a whole, is the principle upon which God’s plan unfolds. This spirit of sharing is to be recognised more and more. This spirit of sharing and common responsibility of all nations and of all races towards the collective overall progress of evolution of the human race upon earth, is referred to as the spirit of Yajna and Dana. Dana means what you give of yourself unto others. Yajna means what you sacrifice as part of your service unto mankind and to the world as a whole.

People of this great country—India, the land of great Gurus, the Sikh Gurus, the land of Kabir, the land of Rama, the land of Ramakrishna and of Swami Vivekananda—must ever be conscious of this great heritage which they have inherited at this present day, if they have to fulfil this principle of Yajna, the common responsibility of all nations towards the evolution of mankind towards an ideal state of being here upon earth.

The great land of India is not so much the land that has devoted its attention for countless centuries for the evolution of merely a materialistic way of life, but the land that has the sense of spiritual value—the ultimate value in terms of man as the child of God.

Blessed children of Bharatavarsha, you are here as pilgrims passing through this earth plane. Therefore, life here is not an end by itself but a means to a higher end. Life has been given as a great opportunity, a golden chance to attain that higher end—the recognition of your eternal relationship with God, the Divine Spirit. You are ever related in your deepest and in your inmost essential nature with the Supreme Divine Consciousness which religions call God or Bhagavan or Paramatman or Allah. You are the children of that great Divine Principle. There is but one world. The world is one. God is one, no matter what name you call Him. Humanity is one and in this great family of humanity each one of us has to lovingly recognise our oneness with the rest of mankind through this common relationship with God who is our source, our root, our support and our ultimate goal.

We address God: “Tvameva Mata, Tvameva Pita”—"Thou art my Mother, Thou art my Father." Does it not mean that you are His child? Therefore, you are essentially divine. As the Father and the Mother, God is divine, imperishable, eternal, ever perfect, Satchidananda. Then you, His children, are also imperishable divine spirit. This is the essence of the culture of this great land of India. The essence of India’s culture is a message to all her children and to all mankind: “O man! You are essentially Divine. You are not this perishable body. You are not this impure and restless mind. You are ever-pure and ever-peaceful spirit. Santi is your name. Santi is your nature. You are not this little finite intellect, sometimes reasoning clearly, sometimes full of error and confusion, for you are the infinite ever-perfect Atman.” This is the central message of India and life here must be lived in this awareness. You should live to manifest your sublime higher nature, your Spiritual Consciousness. You must live to manifest this purity, this love, this goodness, this perfection that is already within you as your changeless, eternal nature.

O man! You are divine but you have forgotten your essential nature. You have been overcome by your senses and have totally mistaken your identity which is absolutely foreign to your real nature and which wrecks the very essence of your being. You are God yet bound in this physical existence. You have forgotten your real glorious nature. Essentially you are a divine ray of light, purity, bliss, wisdom, with the consciousness of God; but you have now become a slave of your senses. All thoughts spring from your identification with this petty personality which is not your real Self. Therefore, wake up. Understand your real nature and strive to rediscover yourself that you are Divine.

All Bliss and Joy lie within you. You are yourself all Bliss, all Happiness, immeasurable Peace and all Perfection. This is your very nature. Your innermost being—your true self—is essentially ineffable Bliss and Peace. The recovery of this living awareness of Bliss is the great task. It is the great purpose of life.

Manifest Divinity in your nature. You are not to manifest the body-nature or the mind-nature. You must manifest the God-nature, the spiritual nature. Learn the art of awakening this still, innermost, spiritual principle within you, unfold it and develop it by conscious effort.

Realise this Divinity. Manifest this Divinity gloriously. Let your life be a great radiation of truth, beauty, goodness, purity, the spirit of service, the spirit of the oneness of all mankind. Recognise that, in God, you are at one with all humanity. They are all your brethren. They are one with you and therefore their joys and sorrows, their successes and failures, their happiness and unhappiness, you must feel as your own.

May you all attain this Supreme Goal in this very life. Attainment of Perfection is the supreme ideal of man in Bharatavarsha. This is the real India.

Sri Ganesa is known in South India specially as Siddhi Vinayaka, the Siddhi-Data or one who gives perfection or success in all things. Under the auspices of this Holy Vinayaka-Puja day we offer our adorations to this great Lord who is worshipped at the beginning of all works and all functions.

People know all about the traditional story of Lord Ganesa. We shall here try to see if there is any special point about this deity, by a study of which we may be able to gain something special and receive some benefit which is above the ordinary.

Lord Ganesa has traditionally a very peculiar form and many people have tried to interpret this Rupa (form) in their own esoteric way. We shall not so much concern ourselves about the esoteric significance of the form of Ganesa, but we shall try to study some of the incidents in connection with the Deity, which are filled with very precious lessons to us, specially of an important spiritual nature.

First of all, we must know that we owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Lord Ganesa for a signal service He has rendered to us. This fact is mostly forgotten by us. It is this. The greatest Dharmagrantha of Bharatavarsha—the Mahabharata—was specially composed by Veda-Vyasa in order to bring all the knowledge of Dharma—morality, ethics and righteous living—to one and all. He gave this great scripture containing everything that may possibly be necessary for man to know about Dharma. Thus, it is a great treasure-house of all knowledge. The Santi Parva especially contains the very mine of wisdom. It is said that whatever worth knowing there is in all the great scriptures of the world is contained in the Mahabharata; and what is not contained in the Mahabharata is not contained anywhere else. It is due to the grace of Lord Ganesa that we have got that scripture today. No one was able to take down the outpourings of Vyasa during his inspired moments. It was the task of Ganesa to sit and take down the dictation of Vyasa. Though the author is Vyasa, the actual writer of Mahabharata is Sri Ganesa, who did it as a pure labour of love in order that He may bless us with the wealth of Dharmic wisdom.

Recognising Him thus, as the very fountain-head of the spirit of Dharma in Bharatavarsha, let us proceed to study two wonderful incidents in connection with Sri Ganesa, which reveal to us the very essence of the highest Truth, the Brahma-Vidya. It is said that, together with other adornments Lord Ganesa possesses a priceless necklace of gems. The story behind this necklace is that one day when Lord Siva, Parvati, Ganesa and Karttikeya were altogether, there arose a desire in the mind of the Divine Mother to test the individual calibre and knowledge of Her two great divine sons. Therefore, she held out the necklace she was then wearing and said: “Here is this necklace. He who will go round the entire universe once and reach me first—to him will I give this necklace of gems.” Immediately, Karttikeya thought that it was as good as His, because He knew that with His ponderous girth it would be very difficult for Lord Ganesa to go round the universe. Karttikeya Himself had a very fast vehicle, the Peacock, which would take Him quickly round the universe. Immediately, He was off on the Peacock. But, Vinayaka was not the least perturbed. He sat before His Parents for a long time. When He thought that it would be time for Karttikeya to return, He went round in Pradakshina (perambulation) of Siva and Parvati once and prostrated Himself before His Mother and held out His hand. Devi Parvati at once divined the depth of wisdom which had made Him do this. She saw at once that His intuition was such that He beheld the entire universe as made up of nothing else but Siva-Sakti. He beheld that they (Siva and Sakti) were immanent in all things and within them they contained the entire universe. Thus He got the necklace, and when Karttikeya returned after His strenuous circumambulation, what He found was that the prize had already been given to Ganesa. This is a small story, but it contains within it the highest wisdom that the Upanishads give, viz., Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma, whatever is, is none other than the Almighty Being. It is this Almighty Being that has projected Itself as the entire universe. So, if we adore the Almighty we adore the entire universe.

Lord Ganesa is an Akhanda Brahmachari. He has no consort. There is also a story of deep significance behind this vow of celibacy. It is said that once, when He was a small child, Ganesa in a mood of playfulness beat a cat and injured it rather severely. He did not know what this ultimately implied. Later, after the play was over, He happened to draw near to His Divine Mother Parvati and He found marks of severe injury upon the person of the Divine Mother. The child was shocked and queried His Mother: “What is this? Who inflicted these injuries on you?” The Mother replied: “Just who else, by your own hand.” For a moment, Lord Ganesa did not understand how this was possible. He said: “What do you mean, Mother? I have never injured you.” Then the Mother said: “Try to recall, child, whether during the course of this day you have inflicted injury upon any creature?” Ganesa reflected for a while. Immediately He remembered His play with the cat. “Yes, Mother, after all I beat a little cat; that is all.” Then the Divine Mother smiled and said: “Can you not understand that whatever you see, whatever names and forms there are in this universe, it is only I who have become all these names and forms? There is nothing else in this universe except Myself, there is nothing in the universe but your Mother.” This is what Parvati revealed to Ganesa. This truth entered into the innermost consciousness of this Divine Child of Hers and He realised the truth of it and then and there He took a vow that as long as He lived He could never take anyone as His consort because when He knew that the entire universe of diverse names and forms is the manifestation of His own Mother, all women became as Mother unto Him. This is the deep significance behind the story of the celibacy of Ganesa. This reveals to us the highest secret declared by the Vedas and Upanishads, in all the Agamas and Sastras, viz., Sarvam Saktimayam Jagat—whatever is in the universe is but the manifestation of the dynamic aspect of the Supreme Almighty Self.

Thus, we have in these two incidents in the life of Lord Ganesa, the very essence of Brahma-Vidya, the highest declaration and revelation of the Upanishads. viz., Sarvam Brahmamayam, Sarvam Saktimayam. The absolute identity between the visible universe and the transcendental Supreme Being, and the fact of the immanence of the Supreme Spirit in and through all names and forms in this created universe—the two great truths—are powerfully revealed to us and to all seekers.

Our worship of Lord Ganesa is, as it were, a prayer unto Him to give us also the great spiritual experience which He had through His Mother. Therefore, let us pray to the great Lord Siddhi-Vinayaka that, like Him, we too may receive the grace of the Divine Mother, and like Him, to us also may be revealed the great truths that whatever is, is but the Supreme Being and that the Supreme Being Itself has become all this.

In His own form there are some indications valuable to the seeker. One is the serpent that He ties round His middle. They say that the serpent is the sign of the ego. Therefore, a complete control over the ego or Ahamkara is shown by this peculiar ornament of His.

Then we have also the incident in which He is angered at the moon and He subdues the pride of the moon by throwing His Danta (tusk) at the moon. This shows us the process of Yoga, viz., the absolute inhibition or annihilation of all functions of the mind. Moon is the presiding deity of the mind. It is that particular power that has come out of the mind of the Cosmic Being. And the absolute subjugation of the moon represent Mano-Nasa or Mano-Laya.

Thus, the annihilation of the separatist ego-consciousness and the complete annihilation of the mind are the two secrets of practical Yoga Sadhana that Sri Ganesa reveals to us through His personality.

The basis of eternal beatitude, life everlasting and the kingdom of Heaven, the basis of God-realisation, the basis of Samadhi and Superconscious Self-realisation, the basis of Cosmic Consciousness, the basis of Nirvana, the basis of all this is right conduct, noble character, virtue, purity, truth, kindness, compassion, simplicity in life, self-control, humility, conquest of desires, moderation in all things and refraining from wasting time, from gossiping, from miscellaneous thoughts, from useless pursuits and from unspiritual desires. In short, it is a God-oriented life, a life divinely lived with a character filled with divine qualities and divine virtues. This is the eternal foundation. This can never be ignored in spiritual life. One who wants peace and true happiness, must be good in life, must follow the path of good, for happiness comes out of good life, the life-pure, the life-virtuous. The life-virtuous may be hard and unpleasant, may bring upon one great difficulties, sufferings and much pain, but it will surely confer untold, indescribable and immeasurable happiness.

Happiness is the power to overcome all pain, suffering, difficulties and hardships. It is sometimes said that a man, who is seen to be good, seems to suffer hardships, and a man who is seen not good, seems to be very happy. This is a curious confusion of thought and failure to perceive that which is beneath the surface. One who is good may endure much hardship, but he will be very happy and there will be peace and joy in his heart. He will bear hardship but will be peaceful and joyous and sleep well. He will have no fears.

The evil-doer—the one who does not follow the good life—may apparently have ease and comforts, but he will be restless. He will be troubled at heart and will have no peace of mind. He will not have real happiness. Happiness is independent of outward conditions. Troubles and hardships can co-exist with happiness. This is certain. Comforts, conveniences and pleasures co-exist with misery, restlessness, a great deal of inner disturbance, much discontent and dissatisfaction.

The Supreme Law is that, happiness and peace follow in the wake of Dharma. The eternal law of life is that joy is to him who is virtuous and peace is to him who is good. Happiness and blessedness come to one who is virtuous.

Righteousness is the path to supreme blessedness, supreme joy and supreme peace. This is the truth, the basis of God-realisation—the highest happiness. Divine bliss and eternal peace, are from goodness in life and the path of virtue. The way of Divine Life, which leads to the progress of inner spiritual unfoldment, is the way of selflessness and service, devotion and worship, withdrawal of the mind from externals, concentration and meditation. It is the way of ceaseless inquiry—"Who am I?" and “What am I?”. It is the way of affirming: “I am not this body, I am not this mind, I am not this intellect, I am that innermost Being, the Supreme Self, the Atman, nameless, formless, unborn, undecaying, deathless, Imperishable, eternal One. I am That. That I am,—Sat-Chid-Ananda am I.”

So, based upon a life of truth, purity and goodness, simplicity and humility, good conduct and character, self-restraint and freedom from desires, the life spiritual, having God as the sole goal in the midst of all activities and duties dutifully done, ever keeping in mind the great goal, remembering God constantly with love and faith, seeing His presence in all things and doing all things in a spirit of worship, progress through selflessness and service, devotion and worship, concentration and meditation and ceaseless Atmic enquiry, attain the supreme blessed state of God-consciousness, of Divine experience and Self-realisation.

That state will bestow upon you the experience, the consciousness: “I am the Supreme, I am the Sat-Chit-Ananda Atman, I am Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute, I have no old age, I have no death, I have no restlessness or motion, I have no fears, I have no sorrows, I am the Immortal One, I am bliss, I am the peace. That I am in all conditions, whether I am young or old, male or female, man or woman, weak or strong, tall or short, rich or poor. It does not matter what condition the body is in, and what condition the mind is in—depressed or elated. I can neither be depressed nor elated, for I am the same, I am the One Sat-Chit-Ananda. In all conditions, therefore, I am Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute. Whether the body is well or ill, comfortable or uncomfortable, in whatever condition it is, and whether the mind is satisfied or dissatisfied, whether it is in an expanded or a contracted condition, I am the Reality in all conditions, in all places, in times, and under all circumstances. Even If I am clad in rags, even if I am in the role of unemployment, even if some disease has affected me, even if society has spurned me, even if my family has cast me out, and am friendless and have no one to look after me, yet I am Sat-Chit-Ananda—Existence-Consciousness-Bliss-Absolute. These outer circumstances cannot touch and tarnish the shining Reality of my true Self, my essential Being.”

That experience, which triumphs over all things, is the supreme, ultimate, victorious experience, attaining which one is filled with joy “Anandoham, Anandoham. Brahma Anandoham—I am bliss, I am bliss, I am Supreme bliss”—one exclaims. Attaining this, one is victorious over all circumstances, all situations, all dualities and triumphs over everything.

What is that wonderful experience? Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was very fond of a certain song which he called “The Divine Injection.” Even a single utterance of this song of Divine Injection immediately raises you from the gross physical level to the radiant consciousness of your true nature. It brings back to you remembrance of your ‘birthright’ and inspires you to claim that birthright here and now. That Divine Injection is the song of your real nature. People used to call it “The Song of Chidananda”, and urge Gurudev to sing it on all special occasions when he stood before an audience. He sang it all over India in 1950 during his all-India tour.

The Song of Chidananda, many of you know. Chidananda is not my name. It is your real name; my real name also. ‘Chit’ means Consciousness, and ‘Ananda’ means Bliss. In the Sanskrit language, when the word ‘Chit’ joins with the word ‘Ananda’ the ‘t’ in Chit becomes ‘d’, and the combined word becomes ‘Chidananda’, and it means Consciousness-Bliss. You must be able to experience this and exclaim “I am Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute, without death and old age, without fear and worry, without bondage, ever-perfect, I am Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute.” Do not think you have already risen to that experience, but always be aware that this is the goal and it is there in seed form. It is there in a latent or dormant form slumbering, as it were. Therefore, Awake! Come! Arise! and move towards this great experience. Do all that is necessary to unfold the flower that is within. Let the bud that is closed blossom to make the seed spin up into life and rise up into the tree of Divine experience. You must work for it.

This realisation is already within you. It is there. It is like a locked box in which there is a priceless diamond of unparalleled beauty and the key is not to be found. You have to open the box to possess the diamond. Even so, this eternal Perfection is dormant within you. You are That already. Even as I talk and you listen, you are Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute. You are the ever-perfect Atman. You are Sat-Chit-Ananda Consciousness. That is your true consciousness. The consciousness you feel such as: “My knee is paining, I have sat for so long, my back is aching, etc.,” is physical consciousness or body-consciousness.

We have to face facts. We cannot put the cart before the horse. We cannot avoid issues that have to be dealt with. So Sadhana is indispensable. Self-realisation comes through Sadhana. What is Sadhana? Sadhana means right living—living a God-oriented life, living a life where you start manifesting and expressing That which you are. You are ever-pure and spotless. Well, express that ever-pure, spotless nature in your thoughts, words, in the pattern of your desire and inner motives in your daily life. Practise that, live that, radiate that—that is Sadhana. You are the Truth, the supreme Reality. Express this Truth. Root out falsehood from your heart. Become an embodiment of Truth. Be what you are. Let not your life be a contradiction of what you are. This is the essential Sadhana. It is the direct path to live a divine life, to be divine in thought, word and deed.

“Truth is my God” declared Mahatma Gandhi. God is Truth. Truth is God. He was a great man—a great and heroic figure in the Pages of Indian history. He gained Darsana of Divinity through Truth. That is Sadhana. You can also gain it. Attain this great realisation through a God-oriented life—a life filled with the spiritual quality in every thing that you do and in every innermost thought. Step by step, brick by brick, a great structure, an edifice is raised. Spiritual exertion is joy. The mere living of a life towards the great attainment itself is glorious. What can you hold as more worthy than the expression of Divinity? Do not make your life a poor and despicable contradiction of your true nature. If you go on contradicting your true nature at every step, who can save you? Who can give you liberation? You are barring yourself by your own acts and by your own life. You are for ever robbing yourself of true happiness, true joy, true bliss and peace by contradicting your own divine nature in your life.

The supreme Sadhana is a life lived divinely where every act, thought and word is permeated with the divine quality. Through a divinely lived life, expressing your innermost divinity in all aspects of your life, attain this divine experience and rejoice. Declare thus with supreme joy: “Chidananda, Chidananda, Om, I am Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, in all conditions, I am Bliss-Absolute, Existence-Absolute.” Strive for this and claim your birthright. No effort is too much. With joy and hope, patiently work towards this goal. Even when you are working, do not leave this inner consciousness, and awareness. Assert it at every moment in all things. Be victorious over circumstances. Be the conqueror of your mind, the subduer of your desires, and a master of your destiny.

Again I say, you must work for it. You must climb up if you want to reach the peak, and when once you are on the pinnacle, all labour seems as mere child’s play. Until then, you must be able to laboriously climb up, step by step. Hold on to the Awareness and feel that you are already on the peak, but don’t stop climbing. Climb up and up, step by step. This is the secret of Sadhana.

May God bless you! May His Grace shower upon you in abundance. May the spiritual benedictions of the Holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj ever follow you all the days of your life and enable you to successfully live this Divine Life and shine with virtue. May you develop noble character and walk the path of the good and the pure, the path of Truth, purity and goodness, and move towards that glorious goal which awaits you. This is your birthright, which you can claim and experience in this very body. Do not postpone it. Be up and doing. The prayers of this servant, will always be with you, that you may arise victorious, and attain full success in this life. May you abound with the glow of God-consciousness.

Puranas are sacred scriptures through which the wise seers of ancient times have tried to give us the precious treasures of wisdom, inspiration and guidance. They are holy books into which great sages have packed in deep facts about human life and the secret of success herein and hereafter. Thus these Puranas, the holy repositories of abundance of spiritual knowledge, the sacred treasure-house of vast wealth of vital wisdom of life, have ever exerted a profound influence upon the progress and development of the glorious culture and civilisation of India. The Puranas are the framework into which have been filled the knowledge of the ways and means of conquering man’s lower nature, achieving integral perfection and attaining the glorious goal of a sublime Divine Consciousness. All these they have done through the medium of didactic stories, narratives of deep esoteric significance and symbolism and rich allegory. Knowing well that basically a Hindu is religious in temperament and essentially a being of faith, these sages wove the fabric of such allegory and symbolic narrative around some popular, powerful and permanent aspect of Divinity or a great and renowned Rishi. This Divine personality usually forms the central figure of each particular Purana. You have therefore the Siva Purana, the Vishnu Purana, the Skanda Purana, the Varaha Purana, the Matsya Purana, the Markandeya Purana, the Narada Purana, etc. An important portion of the Markandeya Purana consists of the renowned Devi Mahatmya which glorifies Divinity in its aspect of Sakti or Devi. It is comprised of 700 verses and hence it is also known as Devi Saptasati. And here you have a brief summary containing the very essence of this great scripture of Devi Mahatmya.

Suratha, a king of the solar race, has been defeated by his enemies and forced to flee his capital. He is wandering in exile in a forest. Here he meets a Vaisya (merchant) named Samadhi who is in a similar predicament, having lost everything reduced to penury and abandoned by his own wife and children. Both the king and the merchant are dejected and their thoughts are constantly going back to their family, possessions and property, due to attachment. They fall into conversation and are puzzled as to why their thoughts are again and again dragged towards and centred upon those very persons, things and places whence so much sorrow and pain have come upon them. To solve this vexing problem they approach a sage dwelling in that forest. In answer to their query, the sage tells them that their minds behave in this manner due to the mysterious power of Divine Sakti, Maha Maya. The king and the merchant,—Suratha and Samadhi—are eager to know more about this Divine Sakti, Maha Maya and Her Lilas and glory; and in answer, the sage narrates Devi Mahatmya; and the narrative unfolds thus:

Before the dawn of creation, at the commencement of the Kalpa when Lord Maha Vishnu is reposing upon the bosom of the vast undifferentiated ocean, two terrible Asuras,—Madhu and Kaitabha,—arise out of His Cosmic Being. They are terrible. They are dangerous and having perceived Brahma they set upon him to destroy him. Threatened by these powerful Asuras and menaced by their malevolent motive, in great fear Brahma invokes the supreme, indescribable Divine Power, the Primordial Power, Para Sakti or Adi Sakti and implores Her merciful intervention.

The Divine Mother appears and awakens Lord Narayana from His Cosmic slumber. The Lord engages Madhu and Kaitabha, the two Asuras, in battle and destroys them both. Thus ends the first phase of the narrative.

All the gods and the celestials hail the Mother with cries of victory. Mahishasura, a powerful demon, has overcome all the Devas and has subjugated them. He is terrorising the three worlds. He is enraged to hear the Devas crying victory unto the Mother. He thinks that he alone is supreme. He is arrogant in the extreme. He will tolerate no other being to question his power. Therefore, he decides to make war upon the Divine Sakti whom the Devas are hailing. He confronts the Mother with drawn weapons. There ensues a terrible fight. Bitter is the struggle. Asura fights from all the elements. He takes fearful forms. But darkness cannot stand before light. The Divine Power is the Supreme Power. Truth always triumphs. Victory is to the Supreme Reality. Devi slays the Asura. The Divine overcomes the undivine. Thus ends the second Phase.

The Divine Mother whose glory shines and dazzles in the three worlds is seated in the Himalayan region in the form of Saila Putri. At this time Sumbha and Nisumbha, two powerful Asuras, hold absolute sway over all the worlds. They have subjugated all the Devas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras and the like. They have rested and got into their possession all the best of things like the celestial Airavata, Uchchaisravas, Kamadhenu, Kalpavriksha and the Chintamani. They are intoxicated with the pride of their prowess and their conquests. Their desire is insatiable. They want to possess more and ever more. Two Dutas from the Durbar of the powerful Asura brothers behold the Divine Mother and decide that She should come into the possession of their royal masters. They inform the Asura Sumbha of their find. Sumbha sends at once a royal messenger to bring Devi to his court. Devi says She can come only to one who conquers Her in combat. She refuses to go with the messenger. The messenger conveys the news to Sumbha. He blazes with anger and sends Dhumralochana. Dhumralochana tries to lay his hands upon Divine Sakti. Devi with a single Humkar of anger reduces him to ashes. He is consumed in the flames of Devi’s wrath. Next the Asura, Raktabija, comes to fight. He is an Asura of extraordinary magical powers. Moreover he is in possession of a boon by which whenever a drop of his blood falls on the earth immediately a new Asura springs upon therefrom. So every time the Devi wounds him and spills the blood, countless powerful Asuras spring anew and fill the field of battle. Devi invokes Kali, the terrible dark-hued deity. All-powerful Kali slays the Asura Raktabija, sucking in with Her terrible outspread tongue the Asura’s blood more quickly than it can flow out of his wounds. Kali sees that his blood never reaches the earth. Thus, the Asura Raktabija is destroyed by the Devi. Sumbha and Nisumbha now confront the Devi. A great battle ensues. Nisumbha is killed and ultimately Devi with Her trident deals the death blow to Sumbha also. The undivine forces are thus totally annihilated. The Divine rules supreme. Vidya has overcome Avidya. Light has conquered darkness. Knowledge shines with the destruction of ignorance. Joy, bliss and immortality reign supreme. The Divine Mother shines in glorious triumph. All hail to Maha Sakti. Glory be to the Mother.

You must cultivate the flowers of Divine virtues in the garden of your heart. It is from virtue that one rises to holiness, from holiness to godliness and from godliness to God-experience. From impurity one rises to purity, from purity to sanctity and from sanctity into sublime spiritual experience.

The great Sankaracharya, who established the pure monistic philosophy—Kevala Advaita—in India, in describing the ascent of the individual soul into the experience of the Absolute said that in this practical path of Sadhana, three barriers have to be overcome. We are in a state of grossness because our consciousness is bound up in this form in which we dwell, the body which we are occupying, residing in. This embodied state has brought about the state of grossness. Why? Because due to an inexplicable, mysterious factor, we who reside in this body-house have become totally identified with it in our consciousness and this identification has made us feel that we are, ourselves, this body and this body is ourselves.

No matter how much we may mouth the words: “I am not this body”, yet the very next instant after so saying, our actual life and behaviour betray simply “I am this body.” So, in effect, we demonstrate body-consciousness though in words we may affirm or assert the contrary. Experiment with this for yourself. Observe yourself and you will see that even though your tongue may assert, your mind may think and your intellect may reason and convince itself: “I am not this body, I am the Atman”, actually the intellect may be engaged in a process of discrimination. You may feel you have almost risen into a state of Atmic consciousness, while it is so engaged. But at that moment if someone suddenly comes and says: “You fool! you are wasting your time in a sitting there; why don’t you go and work?”, then your temper will immediately flare up and you will be in a state of anger. Vedanta will vanish and the intellect will suddenly abandon itself to the anger that has arisen instinctively in the mind due to long force of habit. When this man looks at you and fixes his gaze upon your body and calls you a fool, you will immediately conclude he is calling you a fool. He addresses a name and a form, pointing to the body and says: “So-and-so, you are a fool!” And So and so, the Immortal Atman, Satchidananda, beyond mind and body and beyond all the pairs of opposites, immediately gets up and prepares to fight. Your mind is in turmoil. It is agitated and is thinking: “How can I repay this fellow?” Anger flares up and the mind is thrown into agitation and you want to go and punch the man in the nose. You have completely forgotten: “I am the peaceful and ever blissful Satchidananda Atman, beyond body, mind, intellect, name and form; I am all-full, complete, one without a second; so who can call me anything; there is no second other than me; there is only Satchidananda—Bliss, Bliss, Bliss I am.”

Now, this sudden wave of anger which changes our beauty into ugliness, non-violence into violence, the truth of your higher nature into the falsity of your lower nature and contradicts all the three fundamental values of Divine Life,—truth, purity and compassion,—and transforms you from Satchidananda Atman into something totally different, is impurity (Mala). It is an essential impurity. Anger, greed, passion, selfishness, arrogance, delusion, deluded attachment to the body, name and form, its passions, envy and jealousy, all of these constitute the impurities of human nature and every now and then they spring up in and overpower the mind. They fill the mind and your Satchidananda consciousness is obscured. It is forgotten, and pettiness, dishonesty, intolerance, pride and the thought of “how dare one address me like this?”, come into the mind.

These are all called impurities and are the basic blemishes of the human personality. They have to be eliminated if you are to rise into a higher state of consciousness. These blemishes constantly plague the human individual and so long as these are fully active in our nature, how can the ever-pure Atman manifest Itself in our consciousness?

So Sankaracharya said that one barrier is the impurities of such vicious qualities which are the total negation of the Atman, the Divine Principle. These impurities constantly put the mind into a state of agitation and activity. They never allow the mind to be calm and serene. As long as these gross impurities draw the mind outward to unspiritual action every moment, how can the mind be inward-drawn, calm, serene, one-pointed and concentrated? How can you meditate? How can you sustain one unbroken current of thought of the Supreme Reality?

Due to impurities, mind is filled with lower qualities like Rajas and Tamas and it is always in a state of restlessness, outgoing movement and agitation. This is the second barrier, called ‘Vikshepa’. This has to be overcome.

Still deeper in your mind is the third factor. You totally and completely forgot about the essential Divine nature and you were only an angry person wanting to retaliate. The thing which makes you totally forget the Reality of your Higher Divine nature and comes as an impenetrable veil, which is drawn between the Atmic Consciousness and your body-bound, mind-bound consciousness, the consciousness that is identified with the wave of anger, causes you not only to be identified with the name and form but also with the mind and its modes. It is this mysterious veil which holds you in a state of ignorance of the higher nature. It is there all the time in the very depths of your being and is called Avarana. It is a veil over the inner depths of your consciousness.

These three,—Mala, Vikshepa and Avarana—have to be overcome. The lower impurities or blemishes of the human nature, the imperfections are Mala. The constant restless nature of the mind, its constant agitation and activity is known as Vikshepa which prevents the mind from being one-pointed and introverted. Avarana is essentially non-awareness or non-perception in the form of nescience, basic ignorance, spiritual ignorance, the veil which hides you. This veil is made up of the identification of the body-mind-consciousness. The veil of ignorance is present inside the mind in the form of this identification of the body and mind. All the three in their gross and subtle forms have to be overcome.

Now, grossness is the identification with the body. Inside this is Tamas and inside Tamas is Rajas and the innermost veil is Sattva. Why do you call it Sattva? Because it is awareness? There is knowledge. So there is not total non-awareness or lack of knowledge as in deep sleep where you do not know anything. Here you know. There is awareness, but only the awareness of “I am Mr. so-and-so. I have just been insulted.” You know something but the only thing is that you know it totally wrong, you have it all wrong. There is Jnana but it is called Ajnana as it is topsy-turvy knowledge, knowledge inverted. It is really feeling yourself to be something which you are not. So, there is awareness and knowledge but characterised by ignorance. Because it is a state of awareness and it is a state of knowledge, it is the outcome of Sattva. Sattva is the principle that supports this awareness. All awareness is Sattva. This awareness is characterised by ignorance, and therefore it is called Ajnana. This should be replaced by the knowledge of the Reality.

So, Tamas, Rajas and Sattva,—impurities, restless tendencies and the veil of non-perception or forgetfulness of your true nature,—these barriers have to be gradually overcome, stage by stage in a methodical manner. And then suddenly you see, there will dawn the light, the illumination of Atmic Knowledge, transcending these three barriers. You will come face to face with your true nature, and you will have transcendental experience.

The removal of the basic impurity or blemish can be done only by overcoming them by their opposites. What do you do when you want to remove darkness? You do not bring mops or brooms or sacks to collect it. You would not do anything of that kind. If the darkness has to go the positive opposite quality,—light—should be brought in. The moment the positive opposite quality comes in, the negative quality vanishes, because the negative quality has no basis. A negative quality is not an independent entity by itself. Mark this very, very carefully. Negative qualities do not exist as independent entities. They have really no force. They only imply the absence of some positive quality. He is a great liar means he is a man who has no truth in him. There are no such things as lies and falsehood but there is absence of truth in this person and so he is called a liar. He says: “All right, I will try to become truthful” and the moment truth comes, the fact that he is a liar is no longer valid.

Hatred is not a positive quality. There is no such thing as hatred, some dark thing wanting to jump upon you. It means that there is no love, no kindness. So it only indicates a condition of the absence of love. And for one who cultivates love and compassion, there is no more hatred. The moment love comes in, hatred vanishes because the positive is real and the negative is not real. When the positive quality is cultivated, the negative quality ceases to be.

In the same way, our Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj said that the cultivation of divine virtues is the method of overcoming the absence of these virtues in the form of a very nasty impure nature. A nasty impure nature only indicates that certain qualities that are desirable and necessary have not yet been cultivated. They are absent. The moment they appear, the person will become transformed. He will not be what he now is, because he only lacks certain necessary qualities. He does not possess any other positive quality. The required positive qualities are just not there. There is empty space, as it were, in our moral fabric, which has to be filled and the moment the right quality comes in, everything becomes full.

Our Master, in his own inimitable way, has said that every day you should practise the ‘18 Ities’ and then you will attain Immortality. You will behold unity in diversity. He has said:

Serenity, regularity, absence of vanity,
Sincerity, simplicity, veracity,
Equanimity, fixity, non-irritability,
Adap