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

Namaste!

Glory of Satsang
by Swami Sivananda

Speech at the Gita Mandir Dehra Dun, on 7th March, 1954

This is a dream within a dream. They say that the world itself is a long dream. This is a dream within a dream. My health does not permit me to tour about. I like to go about; I like to work. I want to do intense work. But my present health does not permit this kind of touring work. Yet remaining in my Kutir in Rishikesh, I try to do very good work. I am very fond of selfless service. I wish to tour throughout the world. Nowadays the physical condition compels me to confine myself to my room. However, through correspondence and at heart, I am in touch with the whole world.

I did not know that I was coming here. My disciples cheated me. They said: let us go to the Leper Colony in Rishikesh. I like to go and meet sick people. So I agreed. Then I found that they had arranged for a Prabhat Pheri. I like Kirtan. So I joined them. Kirtan is a very good tonic; it is the best Makaradhwaja and Chyavanprash. In this Kali Yuga the Lord’s Name is our sole refuge. To destroy all your old sins, the old Vasanas, a single repetition of the Lord’s Name, of Ram-Nam, is enough. But, because there is a great accumulation of evil Vasanas, it requires a great number of repetitions of the Lord’s Name in order to attain perfect purity of mind and heart.

I visited the Leper Colony. I think that social workers and leaders should frequently visit these places and acquaint themselves with what is going on there, what sort of arrangements are made for the lepers, for their comforts and treatment and what they need. When we go there, we can find out their grievances, and the authorities also take more interest in their welfare.

Then we went to the Vishwanath Bagh. From there we went to the Shivalaya. Then suddenly I found myself in the Gita Mandir!

I am very happy to be in your midst. Sohanlalji has invited me to the Gita Mandir several times. But I was pleasantly surprised to see Sohanlalji and others come towards the car with garlands! I did not know who informed the people of Dehra Dun that I was coming! But I am glad that I have this opportunity of serving you all. This opportunity has been granted to me by my senior most disciple and now the great “cheat” Sri Swami Paramanandaji! God is the greatest cheat! He is One, but appears to be many. He is all Ananda, but has projected out of Himself this universe of birth, death and misery.

Let us all repeat Ram-Nam. Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Rama Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram. Even during work, go on repeating Ram-Nam. It is a great tonic. It will destroy the Pancha-Kleshas; Avidya, Asmita, Raga-Dwesha and Abhinivesha. There is a great power hidden in Ram-Nam. It will bestow bliss upon you. Do and experience it yourself!

Just as in order to derive the maximum benefit from a medicine you are taking, you have to observe some dietetic restrictions also; so also, if you are to derive the maximum benefit out of Japa and Kirtan, you should side by side observe some Niyamas. You should never utter falsehood. You should not become angry. Purification of the heart is necessary in order to get quick results from Japa and Kirtan.

Sri Sohanlalji is a great Kirtanist. Perhaps you think that we belong to that great association known as the Mutual Admiration Society: he sang songs in my praise, and now I glorify him! But, no! I know him from the days when he was at Rawalpindi. He does wonderful Kirtan. He has also composed many songs. He had a great desire to construct a Gita Mandir; and it has sprung up here!

This is a great need of the hour. Many people can gather together. When people join together and sing the Lord’s Name and pray, a great spiritual force is generated. That is the glory of Satsang. If you shut yourself up in your room and do Japa and meditation, you may not progress so fast; if you form a small Satsang group and all of you do Japa together and meditate together, the spiritual force generated will help you all. You will make rapid and wonderful progress. When you attend a Satsang, you will forget the worries of the world. You are in an entirely different atmosphere.

Read complete article

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The following article was recently posted at Sri Swami Krishnanandaji's site:

• The Real Religion Is Love of God
• Who Is Meditating?
• A Secret of Meditation
• God Is Law, God Is Vibration
• The World Is a Joke of God

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

Siva's Doon Lectures
by Sri Swami Venkatesananda

After his epoch-making All-India-Ceylon Tour in 1950, Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, in three distinct waves, swept the people of Dehra Dun. Soon after the Tour, he was at Dehra Dun for a medical check-up. Even this period (which was expressly meant for rest and recoupment) was utilised by the self-sacrificing sage for dissemination of spiritual knowledge.

In 1954, a surprise visit to Dehra Dun was arranged by Sri Swami Paramananda, during which an intense spiritual awakening was brought about. During the winter of 1955-56, Holy Master used to go out of the Ashram on Sunday evenings, for a ride and walk in the open and the jungle paths alongside the Rishikesh-Dehra Dun road. Even this involved and eventually culminated in another campaign for spiritual awakening. The crowning event was the thrilling lecture at the Military College, Dehra Dun. With devout love, Sri Swami Venkatesananda had chronicled these visits and soul-stirring messages of the Master and the same was published in 1959 as ‘Doon Lectures’.

This unique book gives the readers a blessed opportunity to meet Gurudev Swami Sivananda just as he was - the undisputed Master, the companion, the friend, the child! For all, he was and still is Swami GIVANANDA! Moreover, it contains the essence of the 300 books Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj has written! Therefore, with great joy, we are bringing out the revised edition of this book as ‘Siva’s Doon Lectures’.

We are immensely grateful to the chronicler Sri Swami Venkatesananda for bringing out the first edition in 1959 and telling us about those wonderful days in Dehra Dun.

With respect and love, we put it in your hands.

For more information, please see: Siva's Doon Lectures

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GOD THROUGH SCIENCE: While the Master was in the office, a young boy, Sri Ravi, aged eleven, who was very intelligent, argumentative and fond of science, put a question to the Master, “Can one attain God through science?”

The Master deliberately avoided giving him a direct answer. Obviously with a view of seeing and enjoying his reaction, the Master asked him to do Japa of Sri Ram. At the Satsang, when the Master saw Ravi, he called to him and said, “Yes, you can attain God through science. Go to the source of science. This is the answer to the question you put to me in the morning.”

The boy received the answer with a smile and remained silent.

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“Close the eyes: I am a part of the whole cosmos. I am a part of the whole universe. I am part of the omnipresent God Himself. So what do I want? Why am I running about? If your meditation, your consciousness, identifies itself with the whole Reality, which appears as sense objects, the objects of sense are only a misrepresentation of the whole universe in its integrity. If you take the whole universe, the sense objects are included in it, and you are also included, so there is no question of running after things. You have to entertain a universal awareness of your belonging to the whole universe. You may say it is God also. A person who is part and parcel of the entire structure of the cosmos doesn't want anything. He will not run after things. The universe will sustain him. God will protect him. But one who does not have the understanding of this kind, he will run after the sense objects.” – Swami Krishnananda

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