Swami Krishnananda Saraswati

The Real is not ultimate in the sense of a distant or remote object. It is logically remote, but not physically remote. The distance that we feel between ourselves and that which we wish to achieve in yoga is logical, not geographical. It is not far away in the sense of several millions of kilometers or light years. It is as far away from us as the waking state is away from dream state. Swami Krishnananda Saraswati

Yoga is [the] art of awakening the sleeping consciousness of the human individual to the fact of there being something beyond its present location and area of action and making it really integrated. Swami Krishnananda Saraswati

Space and time are not dead things. They are basic vibrations of the Cosmos. Swami Krishnananda Saraswati

Knowledge is not merely the cause of freedom; it is itself freedom. The universe has no reality independent of its Universal Knower.

Our status in the cosmos is our true history, and no study of a person can be complete or be free from doubt unless it is studied from the cosmical standpoint. - Swami Krishnananda Saraswati

Hinduism and Fatalism
From Swami Krishnananda Divine Life Society Publication:
Spotlight on Hinduism and Religious Values
by Swami Krishnananda

The charge against Hinduism that it is fatalistic is born of an ignorance of the scientific law of cause and effect, traditionally known as karma, upheld by Hinduism as one of its necessary tenets in the field of its vast compass. Very few, even among Hindus, have a correct knowledge of what true Hinduism is. This is perhaps the fate of the majority of followers of the other religions in the world, also. The interpretation of the law of karma that it inhibits progress by making people slaves to the belief in the inevitability of whatever is to happen is erroneous. The law of karma does not mean that. What it actually implies is that every cause produces an effect of equal force, similar to the force of gravitation in the field of physical nature. Inasmuch as the universe is a balance or an equilibrium of forces and it tends to maintain this balance on any account, a disturbance of this equilibrium by any individualistic action receives a kick back by the power of this equilibrium of the universe in its attempt to restore its lost status quo, and this reaction produced by the universe is really the essence of the law of karma. If it implies any sort of ‘inevitability’ as suspected, it is the kind of inevitability that is involved in the fall of an apple from a tree due to the law of gravitation. This cannot be called fatalistic with the shade of the anathema that seems to be suggested thereby. The force of karma can be overcome by purushartha or the higher creative effort which every individual is capable of and can achieve by a gradual approximation of oneself to the nature of Reality.

The charge of fatalism leveled against Hinduism is therefore unfounded. If well-meaning, highly educated people of today, too, subscribe to this erroneous notion, that would be an added credit to the depth of their knowledge and the profundity of their wisdom!

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