Sivananda Day-to-day (558)

 
From: "Sivananda" <pannir@PROTECTED>
Subject: Sivananda Day-to-day (558)
Date: October 3rd 2022

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

Namaste!

Vijayadasami Message
by Sri Swami Krishnananda

(Spoken on Vijayadasami in October 1981)

With the conclusion purnavati of the glorious worship of the Universal Mother of things, Adi Shakti, the Supreme Power of the Absolute—Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati—we, humble followers of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, on the bank of holy Ganga, at this auspicious moment, seek to surrender our spirits at the altar of God the Almighty for universal welfare, for the salvation of all beings, for the solidarity of humanity, for the peace, health and fulfilment of the life of everyone in this world. May the Divine Grace be upon everyone, is our humble prayer at this sacred moment.

On holy Sri Vijayadasami, a very auspicious day, time has come for not only people like us here in the Ashram, but for people in general everywhere to assess their own situations, to recognise where they actually stand in this world, and cast a retrospective outlook on their past, analyse with a probing analysis the present, and be aware of the future also, at the same time. This is a part of the wisdom of man to assess the value of life, connecting it with the past, relating it to the present, and apprehending the future at the same time, in a correlative synthesis.

It is now the moment when mankind has to wake from its deep slumber of complacency. All the kings and emperors were in a state of complacency, imagining that everything is milk and honey in the world. It was all a bed of roses and velvet, and they had nothing to fear. This is what Napoleon thought, and what all persons of that stature thought. By ‘Napoleon', I mean everyone who was self-sufficient, self-complacent, and imagined everything is self-complete.

Nothing in this world that is finite can be self-complete. “There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will” (Hamlet 5.2). So is the truth slowly descending on our heads today like a Damocles sword, and not permitting us to sleep anymore, since we are rudely being shaken by the transitions of time and the consequent effects that are being produced by these transitions of the movement of history in the form of time's process.

That God exists is a great solace to everyone, and nothing can be a greater solace to us than that our Father exists, Who has the strength to take care of us. Nothing can make us more happy than this conviction that our Parent is alive and He has the power to take care of us under every circumstance, in every condition, at every moment of time. This gives us satisfaction, and this must give us satisfaction. But, at the same time, we must also be vigilant in the sense that we do not play a double role in our own selves in our recognition of the presence of this Almighty power immanent in the whole universe. Simultaneously with the recognition of the presence of the Almighty's greatness, magnificence and glory, there is the little mischievous weakness of man, crawling like an insect and disturbing man's glorious heritage in his capacity to accept the greatness of the Almighty. Man is mischievous, simultaneously with his greatness that he can invoke God's presence. The mischief is in the mind of man, and nothing can be more mischievous than that.

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26th September to 3rd October is the holy nine-day worship of the Divine Mother known as Navaratri. The tenth day, Vijayadasami, concludes the nine-day worship.


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

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam


BOOK SYNOPSIS

God As Mother
by Sri Swami Chidananda

During the Navaratra Durga Puja at the Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, in 1953 (8th to 17th October), Revered Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj delivered a series of most illuminating lectures on “God as Mother” which have been brought together in a book form.

These lectures contain in them an inspiring message to all sections and strata of mankind. That it has already gone through three editions before this, gives ample credence that it was well received by readers. Besides being out of print for quite some time, we felt it most fitting to bring out this fourth edition under the auspices of the Amrita Mahotsava of Pujya Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj.

For more information, please see: God As Mother


SPECIAL CONCESSION

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20% on Orders Above Rs. 300/-
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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

Please visit our online bookstore for further details.


HOW GOD SEES MAN: The Master was going past the residence of the manager of Swarg Ashram, when he noticed that the door of the house was curtained by a chick, through which the people inside the house could see those passing outside, while the people outside could not see those inside the house.

Referring to the chick, the Master said, “They can see us but we cannot see them. Similarly, God can perceive man’s thoughts, but man cannot see God.”


“Since the dawn of civilisation, when the primitive man lived in a matriarchal society, the worship of the Divine Mother came into practice. Later on, as civilisation progressed, the matriarchal pattern gradually faded out, and the father became the head of the family unit, where he was treated as the man in authority and to whom everyone looked for guidance and approval. Consequently, there was a change in the concept of God as such; the Fatherhood of God was established. But Mother worship persisted simultaneously, since this concept was psychologically more appealing to the devotee, the mother being nearest in filial affection to the child. Subsequently, a synthetic harmony between the Motherhood and Fatherhood of God was developed by the Hindu religion; the people worshipped Sita and Rama, or Radha and Krishna together.” – Swami Sivananda


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