Swami Krishnananda Shashtyabdapurti Mahotsava Commemoration Volume
A Souvenir released on Swami Krishnananda's 60th Birthday
SELECTIONS FROM SWAMI CHIDANANDA
Witnesses to the Presence of God
It is an ancient spiritual tradition in India to regard the Holy Ganges as a sacred river, a divine stream that purifies everyone who goes and bathes in it. How does the Ganges wash away sins? Someone said Mother Ganges: "To get rid of the sins and the impurities that gathers one upon oneself in a single span of earth-life, an individual soul has to do much penance, prayer, pilgrimage, spiritual practice and worship; whereas you, O Mother Ganges, constantly take upon yourself the countless evils and sins of millions upon of people, year in and year out. What is your secret, O Mother Ganges that you are still regarded as the river?"
It is said that Mother Ganges replied: “If a million sinners come and take bath in me and make me impure, then, if one saint comesand takes a bath or dip in me, I am immediately purified. All the sins of the million vanish like that, for if a saint comes and takes a dip, his all-consuming purity is such that all the earlier impurities are washed away—they vanish". And the company of such people, contemplation of their lives, the thought of these saints, is a stream, as it were, in which to plunge and take a bath; and such a bath is a thousandfold more purifying than a bath in Ganges herself; for, the Ganges stands to be purified by the saints.
Saints stand witness to eternal verities. It is easy to believe that this world exists, because we see it. All our experience is through some sense-perception of this world which is in our immediate presence, which demands recognition. We cannot say the world is not. The invisible, on the other hand, is just an idea to the vast majority until one begins to feel the stirrings of faith in the Eternal. And saints and sages, who have themselves, in their own wondrous life, contacted and realised the Infinite Reality of God, the Great Eternal—they become, as it were, the undeniable and irresistible witnesses to the presence of the Supreme.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is the practical aspect of the inner side of man's religion. The outer side of religion in its institutionalised and organised social aspect is its traditional form, made up of the periodical common or collective worship, be it in church, synagogue, mosque, temple or prayer house; its sacraments, ceremonial, ritual, etc. Whereas the inner side of religion in its deeply personal aspect of the individual's effort to spiritually progress towards God and obtain vital religious experience is termed Yoga.The practice of Yoga implies and constitutes your sincere attempt to realize the ultimate truths of your religion as actual personal experience. Religion as an organized outer structure is a social phenomenon. And religion as an inner discipline and daily practice is its systematic mystical dynamics, is a spiritual phenomenon. The entire practice of Yoga is verily this universal latter part of religion just referred to above.These two terms, religion and Yoga, are almost identical in their meaning. The term “religion” is of Latin origin, meaning the re-linking or binding man to God. The term “Yoga” is of Sanskrit origin, meaning uniting man's spirit with the Divine Spirit or God.The special feature to be noted regarding Yoga is that it represents the universal spiritual mystic that underlies all religions of mankind, and is therefore a common and thus unifying factor in the religious life of human society.Whereas, as an observed historical phenomenon, the diversified religious systems have tended to separate man from man and split up human society into mutually exclusive groups that refuse to harmonize with one another.Yoga tends to bring out the inner unity that exists at the central core of all religions, and its non-sectarian techniques bring people closer in spiritual ties of inner unity.Yoga is to religion what food and eating are to the science of nutrition. Yoga is to religion what actual physical exercise is to the subject of physical culture and national health. Yoga is a scientific methodology of religion and Yoga practice guides the Yoga follower in the path of practical religion towards the true goal of all religion, namely God-experience.Yoga constitutes man's purposeful movement towards God, which actually comprises the very quintessence of all religion. This surely is the truth about Yoga.While Yoga divides its practices to suit the different temperaments and capacities of the various individuals, it declares at the same time the indivisible oneness of the aim of all religious life, and the oneness of the goal of all religious strivings, namely God–the Universal Spirit–who is addressed by various names like Jehovah, Allah, Almighty Father, etc. Yoga and religion are inseparable if you understand them right.Minus Yoga, religion would be but a dead shell lacking spiritual substance. Yoga is the unfolding process of practical religion, the inner personal religious life of each individual. It enriches your religious life, makes you a better human individual, and elevates the standard of human conduct and behaviour upon all levels of human relationship.
Some Valuable Clues to Prosperity in the Home
I have four or five things which, as a Hindu, I wish to tell you. Where elders are respectfully honoured, there prosperity prevails; and where elders–father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, uncles and aunts–are treated with contempt, with harshness, with scant respect, there is no prosperity.
These things are not known. So when people are miserable, when people are unhappy, when people lack prosperity, it is not known why it comes about that way. It is brought about by oneself by a total breaking of these laws. And then you try find out the consequences of the bad situation by looking at the diary, or statistics, or expenditure and income account. Perhaps you blame economic conditions. But, no–you create your bad conditions by breaking the spiritual laws. Where elders are treated with respect and honour, are treated with reverence, there, in that family, in that house, prosperity will abide. In the life of that person who honours his elders, prosperity will always rest.
Secondly, where the women of the house are treated with reverence, where they are put upon the pedestal which they deserve, there is prosperity. Where are we all, where is humanity if it is not for the women ? It is the Supreme Mother who is the very source of the whole universe, and where the mothers, the women, are treated with reverence that is due to them, in that house, there is prosperity. And where women are treated with disrespect, unkindness, harshness, prosperity cannot come. Prosperity does not abide in that house where the wife and the mother are made to weep, where tears of women fall. Prosperity takes wings and flies away from that house where woman weeps.
Thirdly, for the womanfolk themselves, modesty is the magnet of prosperity. For a woman, modesty is the highest ornament. The ornament of a woman, the beauty of a lady, is not in the jewellery she wears or in the type of material or the dress she wears - no, that is not beauty. After all, what is the beauty of the body? The moment you take leave of the body, it is just a useless thing here. So the true beauty and grace of a woman is modesty. If a woman is modest, if she is chaste, she becomes worshipful; and prosperity becomes the servant, the handmaid of that family where women are adorned by the ornaments of chastity, modesty and gracefulness.
Sometimes it is very pitiable to see women getting unsexed in some of the modern, high-born societies. They are losing their feminine quality. After all, the thing that makes a woman a woman is her feminine quality–her tenderness, her grace, her kindness, her forgiving nature, her forbearing nature. These are the things which make a goddess of a woman. If these are not there, if women are sharp-tongued, if they are caustic, if they are bitter, if they are full of hostility, there prosperity cannot come. It cannot come where a woman wants to be, in all respects, like a male. No! She can claim a certain type of equality, but not equality in all ways. If in this craze for being equal with man, woman loses her grace, her modesty and her chastity, then she has lost the most precious thing that God has given to her.
A Vedic declaration says: "Where women are worshipped, there indeed, the gods dance with joy". And where woman loses this right of worship by her own immodesty, there prosperity cannot be.And, last but not the least, where God is worshipped every day, there the whole house becomes blessed with the highest prosperity. All joy, all blessedness, all prosperity comes to that house where God is worshipped regularly. Say thanks when you get up in the morning, for your health, for your body, for a clean mind, for energy in the body to live a life of usefulness to yourself and to all, and in the evening thank God again for the bounty of a good day, for clear weather, fresh air, good health and energy, opportunity to serve and be useful to yourself and to others. If every day there is thanksgiving and you always worship God in your home, there is bound to be prosperity. Where there is worship, in that place, there is the tangible presence of God, and where there is this tangible presence of the Deity, what to say of prosperity ? Everything that is good, everything that is blessed, will pervade that house, will fill that house.
Where God is, all auspiciousness, all blessedness, all prosperity is there as a matter of course–just as luminosity is there, radiance is there, where there is light. So, if you wish to fill yourself with prosperity, be worshipful. Do not make the church alone the place of prayer and worship. Let every house be a centre of prayer. Let every house be the abode of God. And, let women be the repository of such virtues as modesty, chastity, purity and graciousness, and let the children of the family and the male members give due respect to the ladies and treat them with kindness, treat them with courtesy, treat them with dignity that is due to them, and let the children revere their elders. If these things are followed, if these things are fulfilled, prosperity will become an axiomatic condition. There can be no want, there can be no difficulty, there can be no lack in such a house.
This is the ultimate wisdom of the ancients. They say: "Prosperity is created by the behaviour of the human being". Outside factors are secondary factors only. They are not the main factors.
Need to Exercise the Body in Devotion
There should also be some actual act of external worship. After all, we are embodied creatures and we wish to exercise our bodies also in devotion. When you are in a state of worship, the body also should take on the attitude of worship. You should light a candle, burn a little incense, bow before the Deity, offer supplication, ask Him to enlighten you, to fill your heart with virtue, fill your heart with divine love, goodness and selflessness, and then, bowing low and with genuflection, kneel, press down with your forehead. In this way, you have to humble yourself in the presence of God. Then, as the body genuflects, prostrates and humbles itself, the influence of those little acts has a chastening effect upon the mind. We cannot become completely heedless to these reactions of the body upon the mind and the mind upon the inner spirit.
The Home: A Sacred Place
The home should be known to be a sacred place. The home is to be a sort of counterbalancing factor for all the bustle, for all the restless activity, of your daily professional life. The moment you leave home and go into your professional activity, your whole mind, your entire personality, is brought out. You are to be active. You have to give your attention to things of this world and, therefore, your recollectedness is lost. You are brought away from your centre so that your inner spiritual closeness to God is completely lost when you go into your professional activity—your day-to-day life. Now, when you come back home, the home life is meant to be an effective counter-balancing factor. In the home you are "Self-centred", you are recollected, you are in God. SO the entire atmosphere of the home should be pervaded by a sense of God's presence. You should feel God in every nook and corner of your home. It should be a place where, the moment you enter, the mind, which in the morning was brought out forcibly due to the secular, professional activities, is once again brought back into its own. It finds rest and peace in God. God should be the centre of the home. You should not feel, "This house is mine. This home is mine"; but rather, "This is the abode of God, and here I am privileged to pause, and here I am privileged to work out my salvation, work out my liberation". This should be the attitude of both husband and wife, and it is in this attitude that the children should be raised.
The home atmosphere should not be made vulgar and the home should not be a place which is sort of a show-piece, where you just show off your opulence or show off your superior tastes to others or show off your pride of possessions – it should not be that. Neither should it be a place where a sensual type of entertainment is indulged in, with people throwing cocktail parties, with people getting half-drunk, with jazzy music, with noise and bustle and card play. The sanctity of the home atmosphere is of paramount importance. The home should always be kept sacred. This is essential. If the spiritual atmosphere of the home also is destroyed, then how can you find your spiritual centre? If outside there is nothing to be found, and when you come home, it is worse than the outside, then how can you build a spiritual life? This way your spiritual life is destroyed by your own hand and this should not be.
However, this spiritualisation of the home atmosphere should not be done in a eccentric fashion or in the manner of a fad or a fetish, marking you off as a superior person, way above your neighbours, but it should be graciously and simply accomplished with a spiritual naturalness adorned with humility and with thanks to God for the gift of this awareness. In the home, there should be nothing secular. In the home, everything should be spiritual. In the home, everything should be Yogic. There is enough of materialism, enough of forgetfulness and heedlessness of God around you outside; so why should you add to it and let the home atmosphere also become vitiated? Keep God intact in the home. Let every atom in the atmosphere of the home be full of holiness, and do that you can in order to maintain the atmosphere of the home. Keep it sacred Keep it sanctified. Always feel the home to be a place where you can get very close to God.
May God Bless You!
Without virtues, your life is dry. Without virtues, your life is useless and cannot provide a proper field for the play of your divine nature. It is by conquering determinedly (and with full faith in God and in His power to help you) all the negative aspects of your life and making your whole personality a field for the play of all virtues that you afford full scope for the divine light to manifest in you and then to radiate through you. Live such a divine life. Make yourself an embodiment of all divine virtues. Completely conquer your lower nature and thus make yourself a perfect channel and instrument for the outflow and the radiance of the Divinity centred within you. Such is Divine Life.
May Divinity infill you. May Divinity inspire you and guide all your actions. May your entire life be a wonderful and a radiant example of divine living. This is my request to you all. This is my earnest urge to you all. Live divinely, my beloved friends, live divinely. Live as you truly are, not as you have deluded yourself into thinking, by forgetfulness of your divine nature. Assert your divine nature and become wonderful flowers, beautiful flowers radiating divine beauty and divine fragrance, spiritual fragrance, in the garden of the Supreme.
May God bless you. May the Indweller inspire you. May Master Sivananda shower his blessings upon you. May all the sages of East and West, of the past as well as the present, ever back you up with their spiritual blessings and lead you on to the ultimate glorious goal of Realisation—radiant realisation of your glorious divine nature.
May you all become a great centre of divinity, a great centre of spiritual awakening to countless people, and may you become a great centre of concord, harmony, unity, and a great example of oneness and brotherhood, and may you spread the joy of divine living throughout the whole world in the years that stretch before you. Hari Om Tat Sat.