Om Sri Ganeshaya Namah!
Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya!
Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya!

Namaste!

The All-Compassionate Siva
by Sri Swami Krishnananda

Sri Swamiji always keeps with him two bottles, one bottle containing sugar and the other containing rice – sugar for distribution to ants and rice for distribution to birds. Sometime Swamiji keeps little pots during summer for storing water for the birds.

One day in winter a wasp was shivering and struggling for life. Swamiji took it, basked it in the sunlight, patted it dry and placed a little sugar before it. After some time the wasp was able to move its wings that were wet. He had the bhava (feeling) that the wasp also was Lord Narayana. By such action he really did divine service to the Lord. One day he saw small insects struggling for life in the latrine. It was caught up amidst the faeces. He slowly and carefully removed it with a twig, washed it with a little water and basked it in the sunlight. It was gradually brought back to life. Whenever he sees any insects or worms struggling for their life in a big vessel of water, he at once removes them gently from the water.

Sri Swamiji always takes great care to see while walking if any insects are present on the way so that no injury may be caused to them. So did Raja Jadabharata. Every aspirant should follow the worthy example shown by Sri Swamiji.

Though this incident may seem to be very trifling and ordinary in the eyes of a man, it is but the simple acts of mercy and compassion that go to develop the real inner man. This is the precept by practice which Sri Swamiji imparts to humanity at large. It is because the ordinary man of the world, including even the spiritual aspirant, neglects the smaller details that they fail to achieve anything grand in the spiritual path. Had they taken notice of these seemingly simple things and actively practised them in their daily life, they would have developed compassion to a very great extent, which would have made them spiritual giants. The rational man cannot understand the subtle moulding of character brought about by the practice of kindness, charity, and one’s own dharma as prescribed in the Shastras. He neglects them with an air of contempt or postpones them to old age. Drop by drop the mighty ocean is filled. Everyone has to bear this in mind and try to progress gradually in the spiritual path.

Every aspirant in the spiritual path should try to do noble, merciful acts of this description to purify the heart and render it soft. He should develop mercy and sympathy to a considerable degree. Mercy is a virtue that leads to dhyana and para bhakti. Such little acts of mercy and sympathy, however insignificant they may seem to be, go a long way in attaining the goal of life. He who does such acts only can become a practical Vedantin and feel oneness with all beings. An aspirant should be ever alert and vigilant to do such acts. No opportunity should be lost. Simply shutting oneself off from all beings and imagining that one would enter into deep meditation thereby, without developing the practical qualities of fellow feeling, compassion and universal love, is sheer hypocrisy.

Generally, rich people who run after money have prosaic and unsympathetic hearts. Their hearts are filled with reinforced concrete. They have neither sympathy nor mercy. Even when people are in a dying condition in the veranda, they will be dancing and eating in restaurants. Even if they see sick persons on the roadside, they will never care to look at them and to ask them if they want water or anything. They have no eyes to see. It is only the real thirsting aspirant who wants to realise the oneness of all that will have a different eye to look into the sufferings of others. He alone will try his level best to alleviate the sufferings of humanity. Without ethical training or moral discipline, there is no hope of even an iota of spiritual progress. Ethics and morality are the very foundation of yoga or spiritual life. Let us all emulate the noble example set by Sri Swamiji.

Read on the web

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September 8th is the 130th Birthday Anniversary of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Gurudev Sivananda

To mark the holy Centenary of Worshipful Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, the Divine Life Society has embarked upon different projects of spiritual, educational, cultural and social welfare service. The personality of Swami Sivananda was of a super-social stature which held social values together in its comprehensive envisaging of the meaning of life. The needs of humanity attracted the attention of this great sage, to attend to which he devoted his entire life, by example as well as precept. Material necessities, known as creature comforts, generally take the lead among human demands—food, clothing and shelter—and to serve this primary need of people, the great Master in his Ashram provided for an Annakshetra, that is, a common kitchen, which denied food to none. Physical ailment is another source of trouble—sickness of every kind. A Charitable Hospital was established to attend to the medical aid requirement of everyone without distinction, a centre of medical treatment which rendered service entirely free of charge to everyone who came for such assistance. But the higher needs of human nature consist of educational values, cultural training and spiritual enlightenment. The enormous writings of this sage no doubt laid open through their pages recipes for almost every kind of inner awakening, touching practically every aspect of study and knowledge. Students who went to schools and colleges have been taken care of by the other wings of helping them through financial aid in their career of studies and every other requirement of students. There has also been a wide range of humanitarian work, for which an avenue was opened by the Master’s Ashram through its social welfare wing, which took particular care to redress people of their sorrows engendered by poverty, calamity or distress of any kind. But, above all things, there was the towering necessity of spiritual education and discipline for which the entire programme of the Ashram was streamlined in an integrated manner—to achieve God-realisation as the final goal of life.

The Year of the Centenary of His Holiness is the year 1987 A.D., his Birth Centenary culminating on the 8th of September, 1987. The present publication purports to be a humble attempt to portray the life and teachings of this Master in pictures and illustrations, which would indeed serve as a memento that should remain as one of the hallmarks in the many features that go to form the glorious Centenary celebration.

For more information, please see: Gurudev Sivananda

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SPECIAL ARADHANA CONCESSION

We are currently having a Special Aradhana Concession on all our publications from 1st July 2017 to 30th September 2017. The discount on publications is as follows:

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40% Special Discount on the following Pictorial Volumes of Worshipful Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji and Worshipful Sri Swami Chidanandaji:

1. ES8 Glorious Vision                Rs. 650
2. ES4 Gurudev Sivananda        Rs. 250 
3. EC70 Ultimate Journey           Rs. 500
4. EC71 Divine Vision                 Rs. 300

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“Not by mere argument or discussion can religion be taught or understood. Not by precepts or canons of teaching alone can you make one religious. It requires a peculiar atonement with one’s vast environment, an ability to feel the deepest as well as the vastest, a genuine sympathy with creation. Religion is living, not speaking or showing. I hold that whatever be one’s religion, whoever be the prophet adored, whichever be the language or the country, whatever be one’s age or sex, one can be religious provided the true implication of that hallowed term tapas, which essentially means any form of self-control, is made capable of being practiced in daily life to the extent possible for one in the environment and under the circumstances in which one is placed.” – Swami Sivananda

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