Om Namah Sivaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *Sivaratri – A Celebration of Transcendence* by Sri Swami Krishnananda Glory to God Who Alone can be regarded as glorious, Whose glory is reflected in the glory of this world, and the shadow of Whose glory is the magnificence of all this Earthly pageantry. To that great Lord Who is amusing Himself with a play of hide and seek under our very nose here, Who instructs us and teaches us, at the same ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *Svarnakesa* by Sri Swami Sivananda ONCE UPON a time there lived a Mahatma in a beautiful valley of the Himalayas. He had a small cottage made of grass on the banks of the river Bhagirathi. He was content with what he got by chance and was leading a very happy life, spending his time in divine contemplation. It so happened that one fine morning the thought entered his mind that he should leave his Himalayan sol ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *What Does A New Year Mean To You?* by Sri Swami Chidananda Revered Immortal Atman! I have addressed you as "Revered Immortal Atman". This address contains the message for the New Year! When Swamiji writes a letter, he does not begin it with "My dear John" or "My dear Govind", but he begins with "Revered Immortal Atman" or "Glorious Immortal Atman". This mode o ...Continue Reading

Om Sri Durgayai Namah! Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *Navaratri Message: Our Worship of the Threefold Justice of the Cosmos* by Sri Swami Krishnananda Twice a year there is a religious custom in India to observe a unique festive worship for the great Mother of the universe, these two occasions of worship being called the Vasanta Navaratri and Sharada Navaratri festivals. The seasonal changes in spring and autumn are generally periods when ou ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Namaste! What Makes Swami Chidananda So Special! by Sri Swami Paramananda In Ananda Kutir, even a few of the important workers who are in charge of the Divine Life Society, Forest University and other major institutions, do not mix with others much. Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj has started hundreds of sections of work to suit the taste and temperament of various types of /sadhakas; /and the workers or inmates are too busy to move closely with one anothe ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *Karma Can Be Transformed Into Yoga* by Sri Swami Sivananda If you always keep the goal of Self-realisation before you all the time you will have quick progress. No doubt, you are eternal; no doubt you have eternity before you. You are deathless. You are beyond the bounds of time. It is true; but let this not slacken your efforts to realise the Self in this birth. You do not know when you will get this human bir ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Namaste! Where is Our Location? by Sri Swami Krishnananda This is the blessed day of the advent of worshipful Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, whom we remember and worship. Magnanimous and superb in his personality, Sri Gurudev strode this Earth as a veritable colossus of spirit, awakening mankind to the consciousness of the higher values of life. Without physically moving out of this country he actually stirred the minds of everyone into an awareness of something above the visib ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *The Three Governing Factors of Sadhana* by Sri Swami Sivananda Many people even after studying classic works on religion and philosophy, do not know what they should do in practice to attain the goal of life, viz., God-realisation, and they seek enlightenment on this. The three things essential for God-realisation are: (1) constant remembrance of God, (2) cultivation of virtues and (3) spiritualisation of all a ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *Testing One’s Spiritual Progress* by Sri Swami Chidananda Some time back one of our Divine Life Society Branches printed a card with the title "Spiritual Barometer." It was meant to show the progress a person had made upon the spiritual path, in spiritual qualities and in all the various dimensions of spiritual life. For example, how far had you moved towards maturity in your newly unfolded spiritual ...Continue Reading

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Chidanandaya! Om Namo Bhagavate Krishnanandaya! Namaste! *The Light of the Himalayas* by Srimati B. Sita Rai, New Delhi /The sky may be dark and stars may not shine, The Sun may dwell in the Deep Divine, But on the stormy night when Fate declines, The Light of the Himalayas ever shines./ It was the cold month of January. As a ship that was lost in the sea without a compass, so I was lost in this world of worries and sorrows, where there were stormy nights and dark wate ...Continue Reading