Sivananda

THE PATH BEYOND SORROW

Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life

6.Practice of Virtues

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow

Of what does righteousness consist? The answer is to be found in the very structure of truth. If one is fulfilling the truth, one is drawing nearer to the realization of God. But if one’s life is characterized by falsehood, one cannot have God, one cannot have happiness; for one is cutting himself away from the Source of all blessedness. If one is cut away from Him, then not even the whole of the earth can give him happiness. Peace and happiness cannot, by their very nature, come into the life of the individual who contradicts truth. Righteousness is, therefore, the fulfilment of the principles of truth in life. It consists in being true to your inner real nature which is Divine.

Compassion, love of all, and kindness to all creatures is the practice of truth. These constitute your real nature. These constitute the higher spiritual part of you. Have, therefore, compassionate regard for your kith and kin, parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours. Without this practice in your life, spiritual blessedness cannot come. Harsh speech, a sharp tongue, flashes of anger and annoyance that wound the feelings of others should never be allowed. Happiness comes by increasing the joy in the lives of others. It comes to those who are centres of love, centres of kindness and compassion, and who never entertain even remotely the thought of hurting the least of God’s creatures.

Behind all action should be a perfectly pure motive. Both the thoughts and the motives should always be noble, sublime and pure. The person respecting the standard of absolute purity partakes of pure speech and action. Impure thought or motive, characterized by greed, lust or anger, instantaneously discredits any action. Greed is a fire which blazes more and more fiercely, if it is fed. The contented person is always alert and recognizes the greedy thought which he thereupon stamps out of his mind.

Happiness comes only to the one who is contented. If such a contented person receives objects which are interesting, he is happy; if he does not receive any, he is happy; or if he is deprived of objects, still he is happy. He is not deluded by the notion that objects bring happiness. How could you describe as happy any experience which depends for its fulfilment upon objects? For, as soon as the objects are removed, such an experience comes to an end. Also, even as the object is changed, so does the experience, too, change. All objects are changeful and your residence here is only temporary; your connection with all the objects in the universe is, therefore, transient.

My Master says in a humorous way, “Amidst all the uncertainties and insecurities of this world one thing alone is certain—you have to pass. You cannot remain here. This is only a drama you are enacting. You have come from an unmanifest state into an embodied, manifest state. Every second shortens the period allotted to you here. What that period is, no one knows. Every birthday which you celebrate with so much happiness, with birthday cards, cakes and candles, takes one year away from the period allotted to you. Soon the allotted period has to come to an end. Once again you will have to go back into that unmanifest state where you will be disembodied, where you will have no personality, no name. You have to pass”.

What greater thoughtlessness, what greater folly could there be than to depend upon objects of a changeful and perishable nature to give us happiness! Happiness does not come from outside. He who knows that happiness comes from within holds on to the “old-fashioned” rule of contentment. It is a golden rule. Do not covet that which does not rightfully belong to you. He who has not been naturally endowed with beauty of features need not cast jealous looks at the beauty of another person’s features. God has given him those particular features. When this thought is in the mind, “Why should I not be like that person? Why should I not have what that person has?”, there is no peace in the mind. And without peace of mind, how can happiness be found?

If, in the daily lives of all people, this rule against covetousness were applied, then all strife, all war, all hatred and all violence would come to an end. Even on a national scale, agitation is due to the breaking of this one rule. Every man wants to put his hand into the chest of his neighbour. If individuals are thus indiscriminate, how can we expect great nations to abjure violence? Governments which have at their service the highest intellects, the foremost scientists upon earth, have also been ensnared by these foibles.

The principle of righteousness takes you to the root of the happiness of all people. Therefore, let your life be guided by the highest ethical principles—the principles of truth, purity and universal love. It is not necessary to leave one’s family and go to live in a cave or in the Himalayas or in the forest or in a monastery to observe these principles. Your own house, wherever it is, will be a heaven of blessedness if you practise these principles. It will be made into more than a monastery or a cloister. Within its very doors, your life, based upon compassion and kindness, will rise to the highest standards of the moral and ethical ideal.

This regular observance will sustain you in your constant quest after the Truth within. Every day that passes will bring a deeper inner awareness of the supreme purpose of life.

Life is very precious. Say, “I have come here to realize the supreme state of blessedness and to experience the highest bliss. I have been given this unique opportunity of a human birth and a human life in order to attain that Ultimate Goal”.

The chance is now given. Who knows if the keen state of aspiration and receptivity to the highest principle will last? Who knows if the keen state of devotion to the ideal will continue? Therefore, now is the time to make a supreme effort to realize the true purpose of life. Now is the time to make an earnest effort to attain the highest blessedness and the wondrous bliss of Realization.

Next: Chapter 7: Laws Of Health And Prosperity

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow

Chapter 6

Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, Glorious Immortal Self! There is a permanent Reality behind this entire universe that lies before you. There is a vital living Truth behind the names and forms that constitute the world we have come to know. That great Reality, that living Truth is of the nature of bliss and blessedness. It is a state of untrammelled freedom, limitless peace, boundless wisdom and indescribable bliss. It is a joy which nothing upon the surface of the earth can even remotely equal at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 1.The Great Search for Happiness
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 1.The Great Search for Happiness, Let us make an observation of life. What significant point emerges out of our observation? It is that wherever man exists, activity is also evident. People are running about, everyone bursting with activity! There never seems to be a moment just to pause and reflect. And what is this activity? Let us try to analyse it. Most of this activity is a furious search for happiness, for enjoyment, for pleasure, of different degrees and shades of experience. Simultaneously, man is ceaselessly trying to rid himself of sorrow, pain and suffering. He is trying to avoid all that is unpleasant, painful, sorrowful and grievous, and to attain all that is joyous, pleasant, happy and enjoyable at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 2.Right Education as to the True Meaning of Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 2.Right Education as to the True Meaning of Life, It is the duty of every parent, educator and elder to give to growing souls (young people) the sense of lifes wondrous purpose. If from the very beginning of ones life this were inculcated in every soul, a great deal of searching and struggling and sorrow would be obviated. Right from the very start, life would be meaningful. Life is not just a haphazard flight from one object to another. Life is a quest full of significance and meaning at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 3.Living Is Not Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 3.Living Is Not Life, Thus you are caught up in this whirl called life, and so closely gripped by it, so deeply entangled in its meshes, that the mere process of living rather than the true life engrosses you entirely. Living takes the place of life. And naturally, with the true purpose missing, there lies an essential emptiness within, and this emptiness you try to fill by ever exerting to obtain external objects. But objects cannot bring the experience of happiness within; they foment anxiety and bring the experience of unrest and turbulence. Happiness is a state of the inner life of the individual. It is a state of the mind and the intellect at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 4.The Goal of Life According to Indian Philosophy
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 4.The Goal of Life According to Indian Philosophy, You know that changeful, imperfect objects cannot give you the changeless perfect experience. Now try to make your life a quest after That which is changeless, which is all-full and, therefore, perfect and blissful. You are at once confronted with the fact that as embodied beings, you cannot entirely dispense with the performance of your day-to-day duties as members of a family or as citizens of a society. Whether you like it or not, for the time being, we have to fulfil these duties. How should they be co-ordinated with the exercise of our highest duty in lifethe attainment of Bliss? at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 5.Spiritual Life and Life in this WorldA Reconciliation
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 5.Spiritual Life and Life in this WorldA Reconciliation, Both the ancient and the modern Indian sages are idealists, but their idealism is practical; it is combined with a very sane and sensible realism. In the quest for bliss and peace, the other life has to be reconciled with the striving for perfection. The physical and intellectual aspects of the being which operate upon this relative plane have to be reconciled with the great urge of the truly spiritual being. This reconciliation is one of the tasks of the spiritual life at energyenhancement.org
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 6.Practice of Virtues
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 6.Practice of Virtues, Of what does righteousness consist? The answer is to be found in the very structure of truth. If one is fulfilling the truth, one is drawing nearer to the realization of God. But if ones life is characterized by falsehood, one cannot have God, one cannot have happiness; for one is cutting himself away from the Source of all blessedness. If one is cut away from Him, then not even the whole of the earth can give him happiness. Peace and happiness cannot, by their very nature, come into the life of the individual who contradicts truth. Righteousness is, therefore, the fulfilment of the principles of truth in life. It consists in being true to your inner real nature which is Divine at energyenhancement.org

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