Swami Chidananda Saraswati

Sadhana for Inner Awakening Discourse given by H.H. Sri Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj on 23rd March 1984.

You are yourself your best friend, but you can yourself become your foe also, if you think negatively and become pessimistic and dejected and fatalistic. God has made the cycle that day is followed by night, and all the activities are put an end to. But when you emerge from slumber, you must emerge with a great, positive, keen, enthusiastic feeling: “Now, again the day has come, this is my opportunity; light has come, I must be up and doing, I must be active.” That is what the dawn should mean for you. Swami Chidananda Saraswati

This body-bound condition is in itself an affliction, a disease, an unnatural condition for you who are nameless, formless, ever free. Those who have attained illumination have clearly realised that you in your real nature are a part and parcel of that great Being. Swami Chidananda Saraswati

Eradicate Desires and Rest in your Desireless Blissful Self
From Divine Life Society Publication:
A Guide to Noble Living
by Sri Swami Chidananda

The spiritual Sadhaka daily comes nearer and nearer to God. Day by day, his spiritual struggle brings for him more and more freedom from earthly bo***ge, from Maya. Every desire annihilated adds new strength to the enhancement of this freedom. It is a fresh addition to the store of inner happiness.

Here are some of the methods of thinning out the Vasanas (desires).

(1) Self-denial: Curtail all unnecessary wants, activities and mixing. Too much of contacts with friends and promiscuous mixing stimulate the old habits, previous Samskaras (latent impressions).

(2) Vigilance: The past Samskaras are like dormant forces and coiled-up potential energies which sometimes assume violent forms and produce tremendous agitation in the mind, totally confuse and bewilder it and make it assume the very forms of desires.

(3) Non-cooperation: All the senses must be withdrawn slowly from their respective centres of pleasure. If you go on denying all the desires, then they will die a natural death.

So continue this incessant process of dynamic self-denial and become a conqueror of all desires.

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The Parable Of The Seeker and The Stinker
From Divine Life Society Publication:
The Eye Of The Hurricane
by Swami Chidananda

There was once a very devout seeker after God who had made a holy man his Guru. This Guru was a wandering monk. Every year he used to come to the little village where this disciple was. Upon one of his visits after a period of two years, the Guru casually asked him, “How is everything? How is your Sadhana?”. The disciple answered that everything was alright, except one little trouble. In another part of the village there lived a certain man—very troublesome. The master cautioned him, advised him forbearance, saying, “He’ll change, don’t worry, pray for him”. And the master took his leave.

After a couple of years again the master visited and casually inquired after the welfare of the disciple. The latter started recounting once again all the terrible developments that had taken place due to that one “stinker”, that notorious character. The master listened, patiently, for some time. When the disciple had finished, he said, “Look sir, I am very sorry. Last time when I came, I was not very anxious about you, because you live in this part of the village and this very notorious, bad character was living in that other part; But now, my dear disciple, the situation is very serious”. The disciple said, “No sir, he is still living in the same place”. The master said, “No, no. Now he is living inside you. He was living outside you, far off; now you have brought him right inside here”. This disciple filled his consciousness not with the advice of the master or the remembrance of the Lord or the Mantra, or meditation or prayer, but with that other man and his history.

This is one story for you to reflect upon—how the progress of the soul onward towards its grand destiny of self-unfoldment can be thwarted by this unnatural condition of the interior consciousness, by its failing to abide in its center.

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Tap the Infinite Source of Energy
From Divine Life Society Publication:
Seek the Beyond
by Sri Swami Chidananda

Having been born as human beings, countless millions of people lead a life where their human potential is never fully recognised, never fully tapped and utilised.

The wise person gets rid of the past. They do not allow the past to be iron shackles and chains connected to a great ball of iron: "So what hope is there for me to move forward even one inch? I am cursed to be where I am and to languish and die." This is the view of the self-defeating, negative-thinking pessimist, who sees only problems everywhere, not knowing that the problem is here.

Therefore, shatter this self-created dungeon of darkness and soar high into the brilliant, bright light of the sun of optimism. Hope is one of the things prized by the Christian faith—faith, hope and love. Hope springs from faith also. And you will be abundantly benefited by this alchemy of transferring your base from pessimism to optimism, transforming yourself from a negative-thinking, despairing pessimist to a positive-thinking, hopeful optimist, by which you throw the doors wide open for your ascent, success, progress and highest attainment.

Therefore, let us not be rich and be beggars. Let us not be most blessed and fortunate and imagine misfortune. We are heirs to all this abundance, all this great storehouse and treasure of abundance and energy. We are heirs; we have a claim; it is our birthright. This is a fact. This is the reality of your situation at this moment. Realise this and become blessed. May the Supreme Being and Holy Master enable us to do it and never stop doing it. So, help me God. Be it so!

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And there is still a better part of knowledge. This change must become a social asset. It must become a value that has an effect in terms of other people’s well-being. It is here that the third part of knowledge comes into our consideration. Out of becoming a knowing person and then a changed person, we turn this knowledge and its knowing and being into a social asset, a value in human relationship—a value not only to our own self-culture, self-evolution and ethical and spiritual progress, but a value also in terms of the well-being and happiness of others.