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

Namaste!

The True Significance of Devi Puja -- 1947
by Sri Swami Sivananda

India now celebrates after the achievement of Her long-cherished goal of Independence, the nine-day worship of the Divine Mother—the Durga Puja. It is important for all to know and rightly understand the real spirit and significance of this worship so that tangible spiritual and material benefit of a lasting character may be derived by everyone to a maximum extent.

Rightly understood, the method of this worship shows you the true way to lead the divine life. It teaches you to live in such a way as to make your life a real and practical worship and adoration of the Divine Mother. It reveals the secret of rising from darkness, untruth and mortality unto the grand realm of light, truth and everlasting life.

The three aspects of the Devi Puja are Goodness, Prosperity and Knowledge. Goodness reveals the Truth; Prosperity ushers in happiness; and Knowledge precedes the dawn of intuition and leads you to the goal of Satchidananda. To strive to bring about these three above-mentioned factors into the life of mankind constitutes the real invocation and adoration of the Divine Mother who is manifest in every form of humanity.

Ritualistic or ceremonial worship is no doubt good, but it is the living worship that truly transforms and spiritualises you more quickly and leads you on to the highest realisation. To consecrate the Divine Mother in the holy altar of your heart, to manifest Her Divine Power within and to live to serve and do good to all is the best and the dynamic way to adore and worship the Divine Mother, Durga.

To invoke the Goddess Lakshmi, you have to try ceaselessly to bring prosperity into the lives of all. Its significance is to be large-hearted and generous, charitable and kind. The Sadhaka will have to strive hard to remove the pain and sorrow and bring happiness to all as per his capacity. Those who are monetarily gifted, to them I would ask to open free dispensaries for the poor patients, feeding centres for the destitutes, to educate the illiterate and to aid and encourage through every means to increase the wealth of the country; for where prosperity and happiness prevail, there alone Goddess Lakshmi is more easily propitiated.

Now, to manifest the Goddess Sarasvati you have to educate yourself first. You have to become a flood of light, and thereby you should radiate the Divine Knowledge to everyone. Such sincere aspirants can go to the slums and backward, illiterate localities and give free lessons on secular and spiritual matters as well. As such you can offer the grandest and worthiest form of worship to Devi Sarasvati.

The message of Navaratri is a call to purity, plenty and wisdom. Where wisdom and virtue combine and become livingly manifest, there we have the Divine Life. Therefore, you should strive your best to grow in spirituality and aspire fervently to usher in an era of living purity, of dynamic virtue and of practical wisdom.

All hail to such living worship! and all hail to such cosmic worshippers!! May the blessings of the Divine Mother usher in peace, plenty and prosperity to everyone’s life!

Read on the web

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September 30th will mark the conclusion of the nine-day worship of the Divine Mother known as Vijaya Dasami.

Kindly note that our Aradhana discount for publications will end on 30th September midnight (Indian Standard Time).

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Ananda Lahari
By Swami Sivananda

"Saundarya Lahari" means "the Wave of Beauty" because it gives a description of the physical beauty or the bodily perfection of the Devi’s form (Sthularupa). "Ananda Lahari" means "the Wave of Bliss". The first forty-one stanzas encompass the "Ananda Lahari" and the other verses constitute "Saundarya Lahari". The author of this wonderful book is Sri Sankaracharya, the great intellectual genius and Vedantic preacher of Southern India, who was born at Kaladi (Malabar). Among the hymns addressed to Devi, the "Saundarya Lahari" occupies an unprecedented position. It is one of the most inspiring of devotion poems.

"Ananda Lahari" deals with the Kundalini Yoga and the Chakras and other Tantrik subjects. It is a very important work on Tantra Sastra. It contains the essence of Sri Vidya in a nutshell. Hence, it has got the largest number of commentaries.

"Ananda Lahari" is a Tantrik text which deals with the worship of the Supreme Being in Its (feminine) aspect of the Sakti or power or the creative energy known as Sri Vidya. Practice of Sri Vidya is adopted by many people in Southern India, particularly in Malabar.

"Ananda Lahari" is universally recognised as an ancient and authoritative Tantrik work. There are thirty-five commentaries on this book. This book is of immense value to all students of the Agama. Lakshmidhara, Bhaskararaya, Kaivalyasrama, Chyutananda, Kameswara Swami are the chief commentators on this work.

"Ananda Lahari" contains beautiful poems which contains Stotras or hymns in praise of Devi or the Goddess Tripura-Sundari. The stanzas exhibit the highest flights of imagination, remarkable devotional fervour, the exquisite touches of poetical fancy and an insight into the secrets of the Agamas and the Tantras. The stanzas contain various Mantras or mystic formula, along the Yantras or diagrams, for worship of Devi and for the attainment of various Siddhis or powers.

For more information, please see: Ananda Lahari

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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:

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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The following books were recently reprinted and released:

ES311 Constipation Its Causes and Cure by Swami Sivananda

ES60 Health & Diet by Swami Sivananda

ES20 Yoga and Realisation by Swami Sivananda

ES61 Hatha Yoga by Swami Sivananda

ES119 Practice of Karmayoga by Swami Sivananda

ES290 Practice of Nature Cure by Swami Sivananda

HS98 Manasika Shakti (in Hindi) by Swami Sivananda

HS6 Adhyatma Vidya (in Hindi) by Swami Sivananda

EC3 Forest Academy Lectures On Yoga by Swami Chidananda

EC64 Message of Swami Chidananda to Mankind by Swami Chidananda

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ON PRAYER: Another correspondent wanted to know how to pray. In his letter he asked: “What is prayer and how is it to be done so that it will please God? A black-marketeer prays to God to expiate his conduct and invokes more strength and courage to carry on his game of fleecing others.”

The Master replied: “Those who really wish to pray to God know that prayer and righteousness are synonymous. The ‘prayer’ of the black-marketeer is no prayer, but an extension of his eagerness to escape punishment. If it were real and sincere prayer, then, in accordance with the promise given by Lord Krishna in the Gita, He will bestow intelligence on the man, intelligence that ought to enable him to reach His Lotus Feet, intelligence that will enable him to understand at once that the Lord is all-pervading and, therefore, the very Self of those whom he wishes to cheat.

“Depending on the depth of the sincerity of the prayer, the transformation will come sooner or later. The force of the evil impressions (black-marketing impressions), may be such that even after a spell of prayer the man might return to the nefarious job; but each time he will find that the force of rebellion within him is gaining strength. This is a good sign, and if he continues to pray, he will soon be reclaimed to righteousness.

“On the contrary, the man who is inwardly convinced that black-marketing is the proper thing to do, and prays either to divert the attention of the public or to bribe God, is deceiving himself. Prayer even in his case is good, for he is better than the one who does not do even that; and it is bound to have its own good results in due course. But the mounting evil will eventually return to the source, measure for measure. Few have the eye to see in the man steeped in poverty, in misery, in incurable diseases, a once (perhaps in a previous birth) very prosperous millionaire whose greed had blinded him to the inexorable law of Karma.”

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"The distinction that we make in our days of worship between Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and the final victorious worship on Vijayadasami, and the narrations in the Devi Mahatmya all point to the same fact that there is a divine purpose operating in the cosmos, a divine purpose operating within each one of us and within even a little atom, tending towards the coming together of all things in a fraternal embrace in Godhood. That is the Vijaya, the victory finally won, the great cessation of battle, the entering of all the rivers into the ocean. The tumult and noise and activity of the river ceases when it reaches its parent, the ocean. Likewise, all activity ceases when the purpose of the universe is served, when the opposing Rakshasa vrittis, the downward and outward movements, are turned backwards by a reversal process, by a recession of the effects into their causes so that the effects merge into their causes." – Swami Krishnananda

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