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

Namaste!

Awaken from The Slumber of Non-Awareness
by Sri Swami Chidananda

Occasionally you must take time to systematically ponder the question "Who am I?" in depth and in earnest. You are endowed with the faculty of reason, and the greatest function of this faculty is to enquire into your ultimate nature. Out of an unmanifest condition where you exist without form, height, weight or colour, you manifest for a little while on this planet as a personality with a particular name and form endowed with many distinctive physical and mental attributes. Your manifestation begins at a certain point in time called birth and ends soon after at a certain point in time called death.

Between these two points you talk, laugh, love, hate, smile, sing, study, work and play. You go to school, and you learn all about trees and plants, animals, manufacturing, mathematics and whatever else it may be. Everything under the sun you learn about your external environment, but you know next to nothing about yourself. What little you do assimilate in self-knowledge is paltry, disconnected facts—but nothing real or whole. If you are ever really in a difficult spot, you go and lie down on a couch and ask someone else to tell you about yourself!

You are walking about in a kind of darkness about yourself. You read a few books, hear a few lectures, and maybe a little ray of light somehow enters your mind. This single ray is better than nothing, but it is not enough. One ray of light is not enough to illumine you, and one small segment of knowledge will not help you through a deep crisis. In a crisis you need the truth, and you need it whole and not merely in bits and pieces floating about on the surface of your mind. You need it to be anchored in the very depths of your being.

I met a person recently who seemed to know nearly all there is to be known about Vedanta, the immortality of the soul, the purity and perfection of the eternal, and the freedom and independence of the highest state. Yet, he was totally unable to avail himself of all this knowledge, because it had never really penetrated his mind. These ideas are impotent if they have not taken deep root in the mind-soil. To raise man out of the quagmire into which he has fallen, great power is needed. Ideas must be absorbed in depth.

Intellectual conviction is good—if it is firm. It is better than mere mental fascination, but eventually ideas must become a part of you so that they actually change your way of doing things. Your ideas must vitally affect your life and reform your attitude. Eventually you must acquire the higher knowledge of the Self. Life bereft of this higher knowledge is a life steeped in darkness, ignorance and error. How in utter darkness can you ever hope to reach the ultimate goal?

You will be very surprised if you take a dispassionate survey of your present pursuit of what passes for "knowledge." You will see that, by and large, this pursuit is only to serve your worldly interests. Why, for instance, are you taking all these night courses, correspondence courses and degree courses? Because you want dollars. You want to buy a new car, a colour TV, a swimming pool, a trip to Hawaii or membership in some country club. You want to visit nice places, see nice things, and have nice people to talk to. You are in pursuit of knowledge, for you believe that in this way you will be able to improve your earning capacity. You believe that if your pay cheque is fat, your main wants will be satisfied. Do you suppose that people are flocking nowadays to colleges and universities in quest of the Absolute? Do you think they are fired with a noble urge to dedicate their lives to the cause of freedom? Do you think it is wisdom they’re after? They want to improve their prospects for a better job and a better income.

Read complete article

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We are beginning to make available our ebooks in the epub and mobi file formats. This will enable you to read the books comfortably on your mobile device. For this week, we have posted Sri Swami Sivanandaji's God Exists. You may click on the .epub or .mobi links to download the same.

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The following article has been posted at Sri Swami Krishnanandaji's site:

• Commentary on the Kathopanishad - Discourse 11: The Tree of the Universe

 

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

An Instrument of Thy Peace
by Sri Swami Chidananda

The talks in this book are powerful messages to whichever group might receive them, but they are especially powerful for a Western audience. Swami Chidananda must have given the talks with the Western perspective and cultural conditioning in mind. He has been able to distil the wisdom of the East into ideas and examples that relate directly to the life experience of the Westerners who heard the talks or who might be reading them here in this book. One would feel that everything has been explained and nothing has been left out. What is more, Swamiji’s great love and compassion are clearly evident in his talks, and the current of spiritual force that flows out of the talks will bring the reader to a greater understanding of the highest truths. Swamiji is an ideal person to teach the dharma in the West; he is a South Indian Brahmin who had his education in English-speaking Christian schools and who has been familiar with Western culture and religion from a very early age.

Beginning in 1959 with a tour of Europe, Canada, the United States and South America that lasted two years, Swamiji would continue to travel to the West regularly. One very significant tour occurred over a three year period from 1968 to 1971. By that time Swamiji had an assistant who would be his constant travelling secretary—S. Nagarajan (now Swami Vimalananda). In this extended tour, Swamiji and S. Nagarajan were invited to numerous countries in Africa, many of the countries of Europe, including Belgium, France, Holland, the U.K., Germany and Italy, and then to the United States and Canada, later to South America, and finally across the Pacific to Fiji, Australia, Hong Kong, the Phillipines, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. The extensive touring continued unabated from 1971 until 1996. Swamiji visited South Africa almost every year, the U.S. approximately fifteen times and Europe almost twenty times.

In each of the places they visited, Swamiji would meet with people, hold satsangs, and give spiritual talks. S. Nagarajan would tape record each of the talks and faithfully transcribe them, and over the years he accumulated a treasure trove of transcribed talks that would eventually come to fill a very large suitcase. It is from those many wonderful spiritual discourses that the talks that make up this book have been chosen.

For more information, please see: An Instrument of Thy Peace

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The following books were recently reprinted and released during Gurudev's birthday on September 8th:

ES118 Practice of Brahmacharya by Swami Sivananda

ES29 Adhyatma Yoga by Swami Sivananda

ES92 First Lessons in Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

ES39 Spiritual Treasure by Swami Sivananda

ES103 Meditation on OM and the Mandukya Upanishad by Swami Sivananda

ES306 Know Thyself by Swami Sivananda

EC56 Guidelines to Illumination by Swami Chidananda

EC78 The Role of Celibacy in Spiritual Life by Swami Chidananda

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SPECIAL ARADHANA CONCESSION

We are currently having a Special Aradhana Concession on all our publications from 1st July 2018 to 30th September 2018. The discount on publications is as follows:

20% on Orders Upto Rs. 300/-
30% on Orders Upto Rs. 1,000/-
35% on Orders Above Rs. 1,000/-
40% on Orders Above Rs. 25,000/-

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

Please visit our online bookstore for further details:
http://www.dlsbooks.org/

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A MIRACLE: On March 14, 1955, the Master was on his way to Satsang. Swami Atmananda, who had returned from a tour of Gujarat, gave a detailed account of a miracle wherein the Master was seen in a devotee’s house in Ahmedabad. The lady performed worship of the Master’s feet and offered alms. After he had left, two sandals and a photo of his fell from above. In a similar manner she had received several songs composed in Gujarati.

When he heard all this, the Master looked around and asked those accompanying him, “Is this not a miracle?” Then, turning to Atmananda, he asked, “Why didn’t you get copies of those songs? Write to her and get them.”

The Master then moved on towards the Satsang hall. Once again he asked his accompanying disciples, “Is this not a miracle?”

One of the disciples took courage to ask him, “Does not Swamiji know it already?”

“I know nothing,” asserted the Master. “God is doing everything for me.”

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“Spiritual exercise, sadhana, is not a question of observation and experiment such as physical science, chemistry, mathematics, etc. Here, the soul operates. We have difficulty in understanding even the meaning of the soul. What is the meaning of the soul? Is there something sitting inside us? There is nothing sitting inside us. Do not make the mistake of thinking that the soul is inside you, because if the soul is inside you, you will be outside it. You know the consequence of thinking like that. Are you outside your own soul, which consequence will follow by saying that the soul is inside you? “I am different from the soul.” A foolish consequence follows again. “If the soul is inside me, I am different from the soul, and I am existing outside the soul. The soul is not me.” Can there be a greater stupidity than to conceive the soul in this manner?

The soul is not inside you; it is yourself. You yourself are the soul, and it is not something that is inside you. Do not bring the question of inside and outside, because the soul is spaceless. The soul is not located somewhere in space. It is the concept of space that brings in the idea of inside and outside. There is no space in this indivisible spark of divinity called the soul; therefore, it cannot be called something existing inside or outside. It is the existence. You yourself are the soul. Do not say that the soul is inside you because if it is inside you, you will be standing outside it—a very mischievous thought.” – Swami Krishnananda

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