Divine Grace
Divine Life
Society Publication: Lest We Forget by
Swami Krishnananda
The 8th of September, the
sacred birthday of His Holiness Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, marks the
occasion when seekers, disciples and devotees worship God in human form and
invoke Divine Grace to descend into their being. The adhyatma-marga, or the spiritual
path, is the inner way of the introversion of the senses and the mind. The
Light from the Above will illumine the aspirant’s way throughout.
Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj’s
sense of selfless action was so intense and his divine ambition was to be a
guide on the path in the distress and darkness of seekers. Through the pages of
his numerous books, Sri Swamiji’s mission reveals that the secret of reflective
action lies in the knowledge of the true Self and in the annihilation of the
ego.
We, as disciples of His
Holiness Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, should follow the lofty examples that he
has set before us in blending together the relative and the Absolute. The world
and God blend in our own life. We do not reject anything. The specific nature
of the sadhana and the philosophy as propounded by Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj is
this: he neither rejects God nor the world. He was one of those saints, sages
and seers who had nothing to avoid, abandon or reject in this world; everything
was to be absorbed, sublimated, transformed and redeemed.
The putting into practice, to
the extent possible, of this supreme principle in our own life is sadhana.
According to him, sadhana is essentially a mental act, not a physical feat.
Sadhana is an attitude we have towards the Supreme Being, and it means the
requisite adjustment of our personality in social life also. It is a movement
as well as an expansion (both vertical and horizontal). We move towards God in
an ascent, and then we also expand ourselves in social life, so that we take
the world with us when we reach God.
To contemplate on God in this
world is the highest sadhana, and this automatically implies love towards all
beings. To recognize one’s own self in others and to work for the fulfillment
of this in life is a part of our sadhana. Love all, serve all, because God is
in all.
As these great saints and
sages are truly free from selfishness and egoism, it is really God that speaks
and acts through them. Through these saints and sages, God shines in the world.
Yes, God manifests Himself through all, but our egoism suppresses and veils
that manifestation as the dark cloud hides the sun; but these being absent in
the sage, he is God himself, and whatever he does is really the work of God.
Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in the Gita, “I regard the sage as Myself.”
Lest we should forget, let us
all, on this auspicious birthday anniversary of Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji
Maharaj, resolve that we shall exert ourselves to the utmost to study these
exalted teachings, assimilate them and make them, as far as we possibly can,
the working principles of every moment of our daily life. The water drawn up
and stored as clouds during hot summer manifests itself in plentiful showers
that usher in the advent of fresh life everywhere. May we all, likewise, begin
now to seriously put into actual practice all the theory that we have stored up
in us through patient study, and thus commence spiritual life. Let all that we
have read, heard, seen, learnt and imbibed become, through practice,
transformed into a ceaseless outpouring of universal love, loving service,
prayer and worship of the Lord seated in all beings. Let us generate fresh
waves of spirituality. The day is sacred to the memory of a great sage, a man
of wisdom; and our true Guru dakshina is to
live up to what our Master’s lofty heart aspired for and expected of us. May
God and Guru bless us all to that end!
Excerpts from:
Lest We Forget by
Swami Krishnananda
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