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

Namaste!

The Richest Treasure on Earth
by Sri Swami Chidananda

The eternal message of the ancient sages and saints constitutes the common spiritual heritage of all mankind, and it is a universal inheritance that belongs to one and all. All of us have the right to receive this heritage, but we have not claimed it up until now. However, now the time has come to claim it. This common spiritual heritage of mankind is the richest treasure on earth. All other types of wealth can be taken away from you, devalued or destroyed, but once you acquire the spiritual wealth, it will never be diminished, and it will never leave you.

There is enough sorrow and suffering in this world. Let us not add more. On the contrary, let us bring more happiness into this world. Make yourselves centres of joy, and as you go along this highway of life, scatter this joy and blessedness on all sides. Remember the simple prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. Try to make your life a dynamic manifestation of this simple prayer. This prayer is the essence of all religion and spirituality, just as the message of divine life was the message of the worshipful Master Swami Sivananda. The St. Francis prayer goes like this:
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is injury, let me bring pardon.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is discord, let me bring harmony.
Where there is conflict, let me bring unity.
Where there is darkness, let me bring light.
Where there is sorrow, let me bring joy.

Divine Master, I do not seek so much to be consoled, but rather to console. I do not seek so much to be understood, but rather to understand. I do not seek so much to be loved, but to love. For it is in giving that one receives; for it is in consoling that one is consoled; for it is in pardoning that one is pardoned, and it is in dying to this little self that one attains everlasting light.

This simple prayer provides a mould for us in which to cast our life’s conduct and character. It provides a blueprint upon which to pattern our thoughts, speech and actions in our day-to-day relationship with all life around us. There must be a certain amount of renunciation of our own views and desires, and in our own small way we must be able to say, “Not my will, dear Lord, but Thy will be done.” We have to forego self-satisfaction if we wish to exercise the subtle virtues of forgiveness, sympathy, understanding and helpfulness.

Everything in this world of man has a price on it. The greater the value of what we wish to have, the greater the price that must be paid. When the thing that you wish to have is the Greatest, suffice it to say that no price for that supreme attainment should be considered too much to pay. Jesus referred to it as “the pearl of surpassing price.” Once you truly know its worth, you will act like the man in the parable. In modern terms he did the equivalent of selling his house, car, TV, radio, property, stocks, business and maybe even his wife’s jewellery, because he wanted to possess that which is priceless. He thought no sacrifice was too great.

Read complete article

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

• Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996: There is No In and Out
• Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996: Ekadashi, the Universal Being, Consciousness
• Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996: Sending Love
• Darshan with Swami Krishnananda during 1996: Repentance and Pride

Yours in the service of Gurudev,

Pannirselvam

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

An Instrument of Thy Peace
by 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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KARMA AND BHAKTI: A lady doctor asked the Master, “Is Karma Yoga alone sufficient?”

“Yes, why not?” answered the Master. “But dry Karma is not Karma Yoga. You should combine Bhakti and Jnana with Karma. You should feel that all are manifestations of the Lord and that the senses are your instruments.”

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“We have to be happy ourselves, and we need to live to make others happy. This we can do, and this we must do. We have to start doing this from this very moment. Sorrow is not natural to you—joy is natural to you. To smile and laugh is natural to you—not weeping and wailing. You have come here for happiness and joy, because you have come here from a great universal source of light, which we refer to as universal soul or God. You are rooted in the divine Reality, and your origin is the eternal truth.” – Swami Chidananda

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