Dear Readers,
Namaste. We wish you all a very joyous and spiritually uplifting Sivaratri. May Lord Siva bless us with Knowledge and Wisdom of the Self.
There is SriSaila Linga Satakan written by Srimati Bellamkonda Kanakamma garu in Telugu in praise of Srisaila Mallikarjuna in Srisailam.
Please click below image for reading SriSaila Linga Stotram:
Yours,
Aparna & Hari
Dear Friends,
Hari Om.
Swami Sivananda ji Maharaj had emphasized a lot on engaging oneself in chanting and writing the Divine Names. I derive great inspiration from him.
Around five years back, I acame across a nice booklet consisting of articles signifying writing Rama Mantra by an Organization called SHRI DADU LEELA ” RAMA NAMA PARIKRAMA” SHODH SANSTHAN,. This booklet also carries personal experiences and spiritual sadhana of devotees and practitioners who set aside a time every day and wrote the Rama Nama.
This organization encourages people to take up a committment of completing a given number of Rama Nama matra writing and sending it to them for storing it in the temple.
Please click the below image to download the booklet.
You can download the Rama Koti book prepared by Saranaagathi Team by clicking below image. Print on a printer which has both-side printing. Once you get all printed, just fold the bunch in half. Your booklet is ready !
Yours,
In Service of the Lord,
Aparna Hari
Hari Om !
Today Priya reminded me of the song “Eat A Little, Drink A Little” by Swami Sivananda and mentioned she liked the song.
This little song is actually “Song of Yoga Synthesis” and it is a simple song focusing on simplicity and harmonizing different aspects in daily living and is actually instruction for spiritual practice:
Here are the lyrics of the little song of the Yoga of Synthesis, for your daily practice:
Eat a little, drink a little
Talk a little, sleep a little
Mix a little, move a little
Serve a little, rest a little
Work a little, relax a little
Study a little, worship a little
Do Asana a little, Pranayama a little
Reflect a little, meditate a little
Do Japa a little, do Kirtan a little
Write Mantra a little, have Satsang a little
Do all these, little, little. You will have time for all.
You can read “A Little of All” written by Swami Venkatesananda explaining the significance of these instructions.
Yours,
In Service of the Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari
Dear All,
Hari Om !
Jai Kailasavasa Sankara Bhagavan ki !
We convey to all our readers Mahasivaratri wishes. May Lord Siva bless us all with wisdom, spiritual strength and Self-knowledge.
(Image is courtesy of Hinduim Today Magazine)
The Divine Supreme in the form of Siva is easily pleased like a father pleased with even the smallest act of his child, and hence he is called Bhole Baba ! In all the temples in India and abroad, chanting of Rudram – Namakam & Chamakam is performed throughout day and night on the auspicious Maha Sivaratri day, and the devotees generally fast and do vigil in the night spending their time in worship, prayer and meditation.
Sivaratri is an auspicious occasion to please Lord Siva. He will be very pleased with Japa, Dhyana and Abhisheka today. Generally Upavas (fast) and Jaagaran (Night Vigil) are carried on today by devotees. Japa of Panchakshari mantra (Om Namah Sivaya) will benefit immensely. The worship of Lord Siva will remove all impurities and make our mind and hearts pure and clean.
The following can be done today according to the feasibility of the devotee:
1. Fast
2. Abhishekam (holy bath of Siva Linga) of Siva, with pure water, milk, honey, Ghee, Banana – Panchamruta Snanam
3. Decorate with flowers, Sandal paste and if available Bael leaves (Bilva or Maredu)
4. Offer Naivedyam and Arati
5. Recite Ligashtakam, Rudram, Purushasuktam, Rudrashtakam, Maha Mrutyunjaya Mantram
6. Engage in Kirtan of Lord Siva
7. Do Japa of Panchakshari or Mrutyunjaya Mantra
8. Perform Japa throughout night and do Japa with Dhyana of Lord Siva
9. Try praying only for Spiritual Upliftment, and not any material gains.
10. Offer all your worship and prayers unto Lord Siva.
We are presenting here a book by Swami Sivananda ji on ” Lord Siva and His Worship.” It is a wonderful source for understanding Siva Tattwa and for sadhana unto Lord Siva.
Also, please find the following links for a beautiful rendition of Rudrashtakam by Swami Tejomayananda ji.
Download Rudrashtakam Audio here !
(In the Voice of Param Pujya Swami Tejomayananda, President of Chinmaya Mission).
Dowload Rudrashtakam Text here !
(Author: Goswami Tulasidas in RamacharitManas)
Yours,
In Service of the Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari.
Dear All,
Hari Om.
I came across a Daily reading from the works of Swami Venkatesananda and liked it. I thought I will share that article with all of you:
“Any motivation in the practice of yoga becomes almost immediately counter-productive. Indeed, it is obvious that it is some sort of a motivation that brings the student to yoga in the first place. But a wise teacher would do well to point out immediately that yoga is the antidote to the ills caused by motivation and a goal-oriented life, and therefore seeking a goal for the practice of yoga defeats its
purpose.
People are ill, physically and mentally, because instead of living they are constantly struggling for something. Living does not involve struggle, contrary to popular misconception. The simplest form of living is joyous and blissful, and life is intelligent, wise and alert enough to avoid pain and unhappiness instantly. It is some sort of twisted motivation that causes pain and suffering, and then rationalises such pain and suffering even to the point of exalting them.
Right from the very beginning of the practice of yoga the student discovers that the intelligence in the body is capable of meeting every situation that arises in life from moment to moment. This is the purpose of the yoga asanas (postures). During pranayama the yogi again discovers the great power and vigilance of the life-force which is beyond the ego-sense and which alone enables us to live. In meditation the yogi discovers (uncovers) self-ignorance. Then, self-knowledge (knowledge as the self or self as pure knowing) alone is. This is kaivalya, freedom, liberation – which ever is and should, therefore, be treated neither as the goal nor as an idea.
There is not even a rejection of pain, but the realisation that such rejection makes pain painful! It is not pursuit of pleasure, but the realisation that it is the pursuit that makes pleasure pleasurable (and as its inevitable reaction, painful). When there is neither rejection nor pursuit, life is liberated from the haunting shadows of ignorant notions. There is enlightenment. All life becomes divine life.”
Yours,
In Service of Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari
Dear All,
Hari Om. Namaste.
Happy New Year to all of you !
I have taken up a personal project of preparing a Spiritual calendar with daily inspirations, spiritual techniques and instructions which we can use for growing spiritually and strengthening our sadhana. I am very happy to have completed this project and bring before you this calendar which I think will be very valuable to all the sincere spiritual seekers.
I mainly gathered the wisdom from Swami Sivananda ji’s books “Precepts for Practice”, “Divine Nectar” and “Concentration and Meditation” books which I think are extremely valuable. I have tried to put the daily wisdom as I thought would be fit for all of us.
All the images I have used in this calendar are public and open source, so there are no copyright violations.
I am attaching the whole calendar here. Click on the below image to download the PDF. (Please be patient as it is a file of 43 MB and may take some time to load).
Download Spiritual Calendar here:
You need to do some work to make these PDFs into a physical calendar that you can put it on your desk or mantelpiece and flip it daily. This calendar format is meant to look in this way.
Sample Appearance of the Calendar:
You can give this PDF to any printing company who have experience with making calendars (spiral bounding) and ask them to prepare it for you.
Or, for your personal use, you can follow the below simple process to make one:
1. Print the full PDF with 2-sided printout (color or grayscale, according to your choice). Totally you will have 31 sheets.
2. Cut each page along the lines that you see on the printed paper. Each paper (with 2-sided print) should give you 6 pieces of paper after cutting along lines (that is 12 sayings).
3. You need to have certain materials to punch holes in each cut paper.
4. Arrange with “Daily Inspirations” page as 1st and “happy New Year” page as 2nd, and then “Jan 1” as the 3rd page, then continue arranging.
5. Have a thick cardboard backing for these pieces of paper so that it can support the calendar to stand.
5. You need to spirally bind all these pieces together.
I know it sounds like a lot of procedure. You can follow the procedure if you have the capability and materials with you. It is easy to get it done if you are in India. In US, I think you can take these printed sheets of paper to OfficeMax or some company like that and they will charge some money to make this for you.
I hope you like this calendar and make use of it.
In Service of the Lord and Gurudev,
Yours,
Aparna & Hari
Dear All,
Hari Om.
For the last two weeks, I have been enjoying listening to the kirtans/bhajans composed and sung by Swami Sivananda ji whose voice has a very unique melody. Coupled with insightful lyrics and beautiful Veena tuning, it is brilliant and capable of taking a seeker into the realm of “Atma-Vichar” or the Enquiry into Self.
Particulary, I was enhcanted with a Saguna and Nirguna Song starting with “Narayanam Bhaje” for Saguna and “Om Om Om..” for Nirguna bhajan. I have always liked Swamiji’s unique gift to spiritual seekers of english music and formulating scriptures into one-liner essences as part of good bhajan.
There are so many Kirtans of them – in English, Hindi and all of them are wonderful to listen to. One such bhajan is actually reflecting on the “Vibhuti Yoga” – 10th Chapter of Srimad BhagavadGita, where Lord Krishna give a sample of his Divine attributes to Arjuna. The Vibhuti Yoga deals with the glories and the manifestations of the Lord. Swamiji has extended Vibhuti Yoga to encompass a wonderful variety of things. Read the below Lyrics and listen to the song. You will know 🙂
Below are the lyrics of the Song by Swami Sivananda:
Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om
Soham Soham Sivohan Soham
Soham Soham Sivoham Soham.
I am neither mind nor body, immortal Self I am
I am witness of three states,
I am knowledge absolute
I am fragrance in jasmine, beauty in flowers
I am coolness in the ice, flavour in the coffee
I am greenness in the leaf, hue in the rainbow
I am taste bud in the tongue, essence in the orange.
I am mind of all minds, Prana of all Pranas
I am Soul of all souls, Self of all selves
I am Atman in all beings, apple of all eyes
I am Sun of all suns, Light of all lights.
I am Pranava of all Vedas, Brahman of Upanishads
I am silence in forest, Thunder in all clouds.
I am velocity in electrons, motion in science,
I am effulgence in the sun, wave in the radio.
I am support of all this world, soul of this Body
I am Ear of all ears, Eye of all eyes.
I am Time, Space, Dik and the controller,
I am God of all gods, Guru and the director.
I am melody in music, the Rag in Raginis
I am sound in ether, Shakti in Virya
I am power in electricity, Intelligence in mind,
I am brilliance in fire, penance in ascetics.
I am ‘reason’ in philosophers, ‘will’ in Jnanis,
I am Prem in Bhaktas, Samadhi in Yogis.
I am That I am, I am That I am,
I am That I am, I am That I am.
Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om Om
Soham Soham Sivohan Soham
Soham Soham Sivoham Soham.
You can listen to this song by clicking on below link:
Yours,
In Service of the Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari.
Dear All,
Om ! Jaya Datta Digambara.
Today on the Full Moon is the auspicious Dattatreya Jayanthi. Five years back, we were in Sivananda Ashram, Rishikeh during this time when Dattatreya Jayanthi celerations happened in the Datta temple in Ashram premises.
In Swami Sivanandaji’s words:
Dattatreya, regarded as God and the Guru of Gurus, considered Nature Herself as His Guru, and learnt a number of lessons from Her twenty-four creatures, and hence he is said to have had twenty four Gurus. The silent, all-enduring earth with its lofty forbearance, the shady fruit-bearing tree with its willing self-sacrifice, the mighty banyan tree reposing with patience in the tiny seed, the drops of rain whose persistence wears away even the rocks, the planets and the seasons with their orderly punctuality and regularity were all divine Gurus to him.
Meditation On Lord Dattatreya
Maalaakamandalu dharah karapadmayugme
Madhyastha paaniyugale damarutrishoolam;
Adhyastha urdhva karayoh shubha shankhachakre
Vande tamatrivaradam bhujashatkayuktam.
MEANING: I meditate on Lord Dattatreya, the son of Atri, who has six hands, who holds the rosary and water-vessel in two hands, with damaru and spear in the other two hands, and with conch and discus in the upper two hands.
If you have time, please go through this Article on Dattatreya Jayanthi from the book “Hundu Fasts and Festivals” by Swami Sivananda.
Yours, In Service of the Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari.
Dear All,
Hari Om.
While I was perusing the Divine Life magazine, I came across this Drama – YES, I said it right, a Drama 🙂 that contains the concept of Non-Difference or absence of difference between Siva and Kesava. This drama is an Act-1 among the three Acts to illustrate the glory of Swami Sivananda.
The Hero in this Act is the renowned Sage Sri Appayya Dikshitar, in whose lineage after some generations Swami Sivananda ji was born.
I felt reading of this material was very apt in context and time for me because the previous day I had a very brief conversation with our Temple president. He was narrating to me how he approached a Vaishnavite priest to take up a position in the temple here, and the priest seems to have mentioned “I don’t touch Siva. It is forbidden.”
Hmmm….With my family, religious and scriptural background, and by fortunate association with Saints and Swamijis, and due to inclination towards the literature of the likes of Sri Swami Sivananda, Sri Swami Dayananda (Of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) and Thakur Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, I have learnt that names and forms of the Divine are personal aids for each seeker, while the essence is the same. Thakur’s parables actually contain a story illustrating this.
My reflection:
Division, once it starts at some point, never ends, like a giant miotic division of cell. It is an ad-infinitum process of dividing up everything and we can never stop. And to see differences is the normal way. As Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati humorously puts it, the Barber Murari (a character in his humors) who is illiterate and has no knowledge of Vedas is highly aware of the differences. Then, what additional wisdom has one gained by the study of Upanishads, Vedanta, Religios scriptures, when one vehemently upholds the differences as real ?
I think it will be a struggle for a Saguna devotee, attached to one form, initially to transcend over the form. But that does not deny the truth that the names and forms are only incidental, while One in essence. Respecting other forms of the Divine is called for until we progress in our spirituality and become more wise.
As I have learnt from Pujya Swami Dayananda ji :
Dvaitaaddhi Bhayam Bhavati – द्वैताद्धि भयं भवति — From the sense of duality indeed, fear arises।
I hope you read this Drama, enjoy it and appreciate the message:
Yours,
In Service of the Lord & Gurudev,
Aparna
Hari Om!
Om Namo Narayanaya!
After a long gap during which we also enjoyed a month long stay at Sivananda Ashram in India (more on this will be posted soon), here is a post to share a very inspiring talk given by Guru Maharaj Pujya Sri Swami Chidanandaji:-
“What is good fortune and what is misfortune? Who is our friend and who is our enemy?
Man is the only living being endowed with discrimination and who has inherited vast knowledge through scriptures – the Vedas, Puranas, Srimad Bhagavatam, Panchadasi, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Narada Bhakti Sutras, Sandilya Bhakti Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, BrahmaSutras, etc – which are filled with so much wisdom. Add to it the wisdom teachings of many, many sages down the centuries. In our own times, there are the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna Dev, Swami Ramdas, our own Gurudev, Ma Anandamyi, etc.
How much guidance we have got! If we don’t use this for our good, then who is to blame for it? Having all this and not utilizing it – it is our fault, not somebody else’s fault.
Vipado Naiva Vipadah, Sampado Naiva Sampadah !
Vipada Narayana Vismrutih, Sampat Smaranam Narayanasya !!
Misfortune is forgetting God – that is the real misfortune. Constantly remembering God and not to forget Him – what is greater fortune than this? This is indeed the greatest fortune. Other things are neither good fortune nor misfortune. These alone are the greatest good fortune and the greatest misfortune – Remembrance of God and forgetfulness of God.
Who is your friend? Who is your enemy?
He is your greatest friend, well-wisher, relative, companion, helper – who creates in you a taste for repetition of God’s name, even from your childhood. Srimad Bhagavata Maha Puran says that He is your father, mother, companion, best friend, helper, well wisher – who creates within you, a taste for the name of God even from your childhood. There cannot be a well-wisher greater than such a person, because in this Kaliyuga, repetition of God’s name is the greatest way.
Jaake Hruday na Ram Vaidehi !
Tyajiye Koti Vair sam Yadyapi Param Sanehi !!
That person, in whose heart God is not seated – here he mentions Lord Rama and Sita, the daughter of King Janaka Maharaj or Videha. That person who has not kept God and awareness of inner presence of God -even if he is your best friend, cast him away, leave him, renounce him, as though he is a million devils or enemies – who is intent upon doing you harm; who will destroy you, hurt you, harm you. Such a person, even if he happens to be your best friend, if he diverts your mind to miscellaneous enjoyments saying – lets go to the club or the cinemas, lets go and have a nice evening snack in the restaurant, etc. Any person who diverts you towards earthly activities, whose fruit is not attainment of God – discard, renounce, give up such a person as though he were a million enemies put together. Even if he happens to be your most intimate friend, because slowly he will color you in his own color. He will make you like himself.
This is a miniscule wisdom teaching out of many that we have received from various saintly sources. I think this one is from Sant Tulsidas.
Having provided you with these nuggets of spiritual teachings, gems of wisdom, I shall end the service of this morning, but Spiritual teachings are only useful when they are remembered; when they are kept in the heart and so remember them and benefit from them by applying them in your own life – subjective inner life as well as objective outer life in this world. Even if you have many lakhs of rupees in the bank and you do not make use of it, then you are as good as a poor person or a miser. A miser has money but he will not spend; a poor person has no money so he cannot spend. To either of them money is not of use in life. In the same way for spiritual teachings. Therefore, spiritual truths and guidance must be actively and constructively utilized. It is for living; you must apply it in your daily life by thought, word and deed.
Hari Om! Om… Om… Om!”
Yours in service of God and Gurudev,
Aparna & Hari
Saranaagathi 