YogaPoint Blog

As you think, so you become.  As are your thoughts, so must be your life.  The world around you is only what you believe it to be.  The limit of your thoughts is the limit of your possibilities.

You can change your present state by improving your thinking.  Better thoughts bring better actions.  Entertain only thoughts that are helpful and useful.  Useful thoughts are stepping-stones to spiritual growth and progress.  People with hope, confidence and cheerful spirits attract thoughts of a similar nature from others.  They are blessing to society.

The thoughts you create in your mind and the images you form in your daily life help to make you what you are or would become.  A positive thought drives off a negative one.  Courage drives off fear. Love destroys hatred.  Generosity drives away miserliness and greed.  Magnanimity destroys petty-mindedness and jealously.  Unity annihilates separatness.  Keep yourself always positive. 

 - Swami Sivananda

To live with Swami Sivananda was to live with a little baby.
In his presence you were never aware of your ego. Hold a little baby on your lap, then you will find out where your ego is. Whatever your age, whether you are a big officer or businessman, the president of a large company, the prime minister of a nation, or even a crinimal, how do you behave with a baby on your lap? Differences, formalities, personalities no longer exist. That was the effect of Swami Sivananda’s personality, and this is how a saint lives.

It is very difficult to talk of such great men because what can we say about them? It isn’t easy to fathom the spiritual illumination of a person. The mind and logic are finite, but the spiritual attainments are infinite. So, with the finite scale you cannot fathom the infinity of spiritual life.

Swami Sivananda gave us complete freedom of expression. We had to manage all the ashram affairs, from building construction and publishing books to taking care of the guests or finance. Whatever problem the ashram had or whatever things the ashram needed, we had to manage ourselves. If we made a mistake we were not chastised. Swamiji Believed that everyone had come to the ashram with a noble intention, and he had complete faith in the sincerity, purpose and intentions of his disciples.

Even if Swamiji heard about the swamis fighting amongst themselves or abusing each other, he would say, “it’s just a momentary diversion, relaxation. They are sannyasins who have renounced with a purpose and an intention This is a temporary maya on them. They will be all right soon. “This is what kept his disciples around him. It was not Swami Sivananda who created the whole illusion, the whole maya, but his disciples, and he was just a seer of that. He gave us plenty of chances to learn things, and that is why his disciples have done such wonderful work all over the world in a very sattwic and humane way. They do not work in a rajasic manner, but in a calm, quiet and simple way.

During my stay with Swami Sivananda, people from different ashrams would come to see me. “What does your guru teach you?” they pursued. “No,” I said, “I type his letters.” “Does he give you shaktipat? Has he given you siddhis?” they inquired further. “No, “I answered, “nothing.”

Frankly speaking, what I say in lectures, what I have written in books, what I teach, has not come from studies or teachings, The knowledge does not come from outside; it is an unfoldment of what is already within. That which is in me is also within you. The only difference is that I had one watchword in life - service to guru, without any motive, without expectation. This was my passion, my joy and my pleasure.

I have heard many mythological stories about great men of charity, but I have never seen one except for Swami Sivananda. Nobody went away without taking something. If one asked for money, clothes, blankets, food, shelter, medicine, love, affection, recognition, certificate, recommendation, letter - anything one wanted he received. That was the greatness of Swamiji’s heart. It was not that he was rich; in fact for many years the ashram was under a very heavy debt. If anyone told Swamiji about the ashram’s financial situatiion he would say, “It’s not me, it is God who gives.”

Not everyone in Swamiji’s ashram spoke well of him; some criticized him day in and day out. Some poeple even came to the ashram to ridicule and mock, not only Swamiji but everything that concerned him. Swami Sivananda knew this very well. When it was brought to his notice the only thing he said was, “God’s creation is beautiful and we all have to be different from each other. If there is no resistance or criticism, the evolution of man will come to a dead end. If you think, wish or believe that everybody should accept you, your advice, philosophy, way of life, and agree with you totally, then you are hoping for a world which can never be.” If you cannot live with different types of poeple in society, in your family, in an institution, then you are doomed to miseries, frustrations and all kinds of mental problems.

Swami Satyananda
YOGA Year 1 Issue 4
July - August

A young married man who is deeply in love with his wife, he could bare being without his wife for any period of time, but one day his wife went to her parents place to stay.
He was missing her so much and he could not stay without her even for 1 day. So he decided to go to his in-law’s place to meet his beloved her.
The night he set a foot was a very stormy night. On the way, the river was overflowing, the only thing he could see was a dead body that could be used to help him cross over, and because the desire to see his wife was so intense that he took support of that dead body to cross the river.
Then he traveled through the darkest and deadliest forest around alone without any protection, he even survived the attacks of wild animals. The only thing that was running through his thoughts was of him holding his wife in his arms again.
When he arrived at the house he finally takes support of a snake to climb in to her room.
He knocks on the window and his beloved wife looks at him and she was not happy to see her husband, as he could not stay without her.
She says look my dear “IF you try with this much sincerity to meet God, you will meet him instantly” Channel your energy correctly and productively.

He leaves the place and devotes himself to the God and he is Tulsidas.

This question was on my mind for a while, you know how can there be so many different faiths and why is my faith (Hindu) so different to others. Who is right and who is wrong??

In contemplation I was trying to figure this out for myself in a way that made sense to me, I read Swami Satyananda’s and Swami Sivananda’s writings, I also watch there Satsangs to gain insight.
I finally came up with something, which made everything clear. Neither are the different paths and faiths right or wrong but it’s just how you interpret and understand the notion of god according to your nature.

When you look deeper into all faiths they are all very similar but not different, the methods, rituals and so on may not be the same but they all point to the same direction, which is the ultimate truth.

Now back to why so many faiths and systems, its very simple actually for example in my family there are 4 brothers in all but we all have a different type of relationship with our parents. We do not all communicate in the same style or spend as much as time with them as each other. Also when it’s there birthday or something we do not buy the same gifts or present it in the same manner (different ritual can be seen like this). We do not all like the same food or dress the same and do not enjoy the same music. You see the parents are still the parents, the food is still food and so on, but they all serve the same purpose but in a different fashion. God is like this, we all see and experience him/she according to our nature, so we all have to respect and except other people’s belief because it’s all the same love but express differently. We are all children of the ultimate truth, may we all experience it.

Hari om tat sat

Hansraj Ramlugun
www.swanyoga.webeden.co.uk

How do you make a bracelet from gold or a shirt from a piece of cloth? How do you make a piece of cloth from thread of thread from cotton? This is called parinaam, result.  Cotton becomes thread, thread becomes cloth, cloth becomes a shirt.  Now, what is the form of cotton? A shirt or thread? Cotton has no particular form, but once an ornament is made, that becomes the form of gold.  Therefore, every form that gold assumes is a form of gold, but yet that is not its original form.  The same principle applies to mitti, earth.  What is the primary form of earth?  Is it a clay bowl, pitcher or pot? No! Any form of God? Whatever form He assumes is His form.  That is why He is known as the form of forms.  In the Kathopanishads, Yama explains this is Nachiketa:

Just as fire, though one, entering the world adopts The shapes of the different objects it burns, Similarly, the one atman of all living things, Though one, assumes the forms of the various Objects He enters and exist also beyond.

Satsang with Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Bhakti Yoga Sagar Volume One page 54