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Om Shri Gurave Namaha. Om Shri Sivanandaya Namah.

Om Shri Krishnanandaya Namah. Om Shri Chidanandaya Namah.

This Week's Svadyaya page

 

Spiritualise All Activity

Sadhana is the hallmark of a sadhaka, yoga-abhyasa of a yogi, prayer, worship
and devotion of a devotee. The hallmark of the dhyana-yogi is discipline, self-control,
ceaseless effort to ingather the mind and to check its wandering and to focus it towards
the great ideal. The hallmark of a karma-yogi is engaging in one’s duties and activities
worshipfully, remembering the Divine Being throughout the activity, and offering the
activity at the feet of the ever-present supreme Reality.

Thus, in the ultimate context, all spiritual life, all yoga, all sadhana is the devout
engaging in the right and appropriate kind of spiritual activity by the seeker. The Lord
says in the Gita that whether you wish it or not, the cosmic Nature with its outgoing
tendency of the mind will compel you to engage in numerous various activities. When
this is inevitable, why not be wise and spiritualise activity? Why not be wise and make it
a means of connecting yourself with the Divine?

Such wisdom in action is called Yoga. “Yogah karmasu kaushalam – Skill in action lies in
(the practice of this) Yoga.” [Gita 2.50] If I have to engage in action, let me be wise. Let
me have inner awareness, so that my activity is done with an attitude that makes it a
means of moving towards God.

Arjuna responded by “Karishye Vachanam Tava – Thy will be done, and let me have the
insight and the power to engage in action for the due fulfilment of Thy will.” [Gita 18.73]
Even so, the disciple should engage in spiritual sadhana, but without a sense of
abhiman, ego. “I am able to do this by Your supreme mercy and grace. “Naham Karta
Harih Karta Tatva Puja Karama chaa Khilam – I am not the doer, Lord Hari is the doer.
All work is Thy worship.” Thus acting, the actor becomes not merely a karma-yogi, he
also becomes a jnana-yogi. He desires to elevate his activity to such sublime heights
because of his desire, great love for attaining the Lord. There is bhakti. When bhakti and
jnana becomes the moving forces infilling all activity, it is filled with vairagya, dispassion.
It is a liberating activity, a God-oriented activity – activity at the centre of which there is
wakefulness. The inner svarupa of activity is purely spiritual.

May your life be such confluence of bhakti, janana and yoga, and may all your activity be
a sadhana for God-realisation! May it be God-oriented, and thus helping you to connect
yourself with God at every step, at every moment!

May your entire life be a divine life!

-Swami Chidananda

Stillness In The Midst Of Activity by Swami Chidananda Maharaj

Topic for discussion September 29, 2012 Saturday, 7 AM, New York EST "Stillness in the midst of activity"

My telling you all this has but one purpose, your highest welfare. With this one

single intention and view, this sharing has been done with love and goodwill for you and with a prayerful supplication at the feet of Gurudev that his grace and blessings may make your life all-round success. May you shine as a light unto yourself, a lamp unto other pilgrims upon this great path that leads up from death and morality to Liberation and everlasting Bliss. Be up and doing.

I wish to put one little thought seed into your mind in this context. When one attains Brahma-jnana, when one realises the Supreme Reality, one comes to the vision and experience of “ Sarvam Vishnu Mayam Jagat, Sarvam Khalvidam Brahman. The entire universe is pervaded by the Supreme. Verily all this is Brahman”. Whatever exists is that one great Reality. This world is a manifestation of Shakti. In Her vyavaharic satta [relative reality] in this world of activity, you do not see everything as Brahman until you reach that state of Experience. You see an infinite variety of movements and actions; nothing stands still. This universe is in a constant state of movement, constant activity.

Everyone is engaged in action, action, action. One that does not enter into the stream would be cast aside on the way. Because, time and tide wait for no man. We have to be up and doing.

In the heart of this constant activity, however, there is the supreme Stillness, the great absolute Silence, where there is no motion. In a whirling wheel, all the spokes, all the circumference is whirling rapidly. If you put anything upon the spokes of the wheel, you find it thrown off. But if you put something right in the centre at the hub it will remain there . There, in spite of all the whirl, there is serenity; there is total stability. What you put in the centre never moves. It is there and remains established there. In the eye of a hurricane, there is calm. In the midst of this great whirling wheel of Prakriti, there is great Stillness. But behold movement everywhere.

This movement is brought about of a certain Will. Therefore, they say that ichcha-shakti leads to kriya-shakti and if this kriya-shakti is channeled in the proper direction, it ultimately comes to jnana-shakti – the jnana that transcends mere vidya and becomes Para-vidya.

. Swami Chidananda

96th Birth Anniversary of Swami Chidananda Maharaj

September 24, 2012 - 96^th Birth Anniversary of Swami Chidananda Maharaj

 

Swami Chidananda Maharaj born September 24, 1916 was known as Sridhar Rao before he was initiated into the Sannyasa order by Gurudev Sivananda Maharaj on Guru Poornima day, the 10th of July, 1949.

Even though he was born into a prosperous zamindar family (wealthy family of landlords),  from his childhood he showed signs of embracing jnana marga and serving Lord Narayana Himself, by providing service to the needy.  

During his college days he showed more interest in reading spiritual books written by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda and listening to discourses by saints and Sadhus.  He choose the path of a true spiritual seeker by adapting a simple life and renouncing the comforts by practicing austerities even before he joined Sri Sivananda Maharaj’s ashram in Rishikesh in 1943. There he took care of the dispensary and wrote articles for magazines and delivered lectures. His biography of Gurudev Sivananda Maharaj “Light Fountain” is a classic tribute to his Guru. 

By 1948 he was nominated as the General Secretary of The Divine Life Society and he was initiated into the holy Sannyasa order on Guru Poornima day, July 10, 1949 and was given the name Swami Chidananda which means “ One who is in a Higher Consciousness state of bliss”.

He was elected President of the Divine Life Society in August of 1963 after the Mahasamadhi of Gurudev Sivananda Maharaj. He travelled throughout India, and to other countries like Malaysia, Australia and South Africa to name a few, to meet the devotees of the Ashram. He devoted his life in the service of people, by providing guidance to other spiritual seekers through his books and lectures here in India and abroad.  His life was a shining example to many, who were guided to nurture and care for others without any expectation.  Even though he attained Mahasamadhi on August 28, 2008 at 20:11 pm, he continues to guide us spiritually.

 

Om Namo Bhagavathe Sivanandaya 

Om Namo Bhagavathe Chidananadaya

References:

http://www.dlshq.org/saints/chida.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Chidananda_Saraswati
http://www.sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&section_id=1345