A- A+

Thought for the Day for April
by Swami Krishnananda

Links for this Book

Text-to-Speech audio of this month

Months

  1. Spiritual sadhana is ultimately an effort to cease from all effort. This is the highest effort, because no one normally can be without exerting oneself in some direction.
  2. The daily procedure should not vary, because the system, whatever be the nature of that system, is a reflection of perfection.
  3. Self-restraint is intended for Self-realisation. We restrain one kind of self and realise another kind of Self. The whole of sadhana is nothing but this dual process of self-restraint for Self-realisation.
  4. In meditation, thought and being coalesce and become one. The denizens of the higher planes begin to help the aspirant, instead of opposing him as they did before.
  5. The highest fulfilment is the result of the highest renunciation. The less you want, the more you get. He who wants nothing from the world finds the world falling at his feet. Even the gods are afraid of him who wants nothing for himself.
  6. Om is the symbol of Brahman and, therefore, meditation on Om leads to the realisation of Brahman.
  7. Sadhana is not any kind of bodily action that is outwardly directed, but is rather a state of mind, a condition of thinking, a consciousness in which one lives.
  8. The more you are alone, the more are you near to your Spirit. This loneness of your life promises you greater satisfaction than all the contacts that you can make in your social life.
  9. Every event is a cosmic event; every baby is a child of the whole cosmos. It belongs to the universe. Everyone belongs to the universe—myself, yourself, all people.
  10. It is always said that we have to conquer nature, subdue nature, etc., as if nature is our enemy. We cannot conquer nature, and there no necessity to do that, because we are not outside nature.
  11. The highest scientific mind always tries to cling to the Whole, and not to even the biggest part, for, according to it, partiteness in existence is illogical and an ignorant conception.
  12. The universe is like a general store and it has everything in it. It lacks nothing. They have only to be summoned into action.
  13. Wherever we are, we are in a spiritual world. All processes are spiritual processes, and all processes are connected with our personal life.
  14. It is essential to arrange the pattern of our thinking in such a way that we centre it in itself, so that thought thinks itself rather than it thinks something outside.
  15. Meditation is an absorption of your consciousness in the context of the object of meditation. Rather, you have become it. This becoming is called samadhi in yoga terminology.
  16. The yogi confines himself to a single effort of the concentration of his mind and so focuses his attention on the object that the effect is felt not only on the object but also on the mind that is meditating.
  17. We can judge ourselves as to the spiritual progress we make by the extent to which we are free from seeing defects in others. The wider we grow, the narrower becomes the eye which sees defects in the world.
  18. In concentration of the mind, we neither love the object nor hate the object. It is not emotional relation; it is a purely impersonal contact.
  19. When you physically act but mentally are not connected with that action, that is inaction in action; when you physically are not doing but you are mentally active, that is action in inaction.
  20. The Great Absorber known bestows blessings,
    And knower reigns as All-Absorbant God.
  21. The Omniscience of God is proof enough of the predetermination of everything. Human effort is a part of the way in which the universal plan works. Any egoism of man is thus sheer vanity.
  22. The only example of an intuitively comprehended object is our own centre, our own truth, ourselves.
  23. The art of yoga is the procedure which the deepest in man adopts towards the solution of the mystery of life.
  24. The aim of philosophy is right living. Genuine, real philosophy, worth its name, is expected to enable one to live the truest life possible—a life of wisdom, free from the imperfections by which ordinary unphilosophical life is characterised.
  25. Absolute Being is the highest perfection. Perfection is Bliss. The Self is the seat of Absolute Love, Love without an object outside it. It is Bliss without objectification, for Brahman-Bliss is not derived through contact of subject and object.
  26. True mysticism deals with the Truth that ranges beyond and determines all rational processes of knowing.
  27. The permanency of a religion is based on its substantial foundation, which is dependent on its universality of outlook. The more universal we are, the more permanent we are.
  28. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was a man of God who lived a life of utter divine vision, a descent of a power which originated this universe. He was himself a completeness and a comprehensiveness which can be best described as integration.
  29. The relationship between the Guru and the disciple is not physical, social or personal but spiritual and, so, eternal, till the salvation of the disciple.
  30. Whatever the jivanmukta does is righteous, moral and ideal, for his actions are the expressions of the Absolute itself.