Peace comes when there is nothing left to defend, and nothing to conquer.
Yogasri Svami Yogananda Giri, head of Svami Gitananda Ashram in Italy
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success; this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Pramukh Swami Maharaj, guru of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha
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Dharma can be defined as the opposite of chaos, the order behind everything that exists. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, head of Advaitavidya, Barcelona, Spain
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Gross utility kills beauty. We now have all over the world huge production of things, huge organizations, huge administrations of empire—all obstructing the path of life. Civilization is waiting for a great consummation, for an expression of its soul in beauty. This must be your contribution to the world. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), mystic poet
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Everything I know, I learned at the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh. Everything I do, I do for Lord Siva. Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda, head of Yoga Portuguese Confederation, Lisbon
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Karma is movement in the mind. When the mind remains motionless, there is no karma. Satguru Siva Yogaswami (1872-1964), Sri Lankan mystic
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Think like a genius. Work like a giant. Live like a saint. Swami Omkarananda Saraswati (1930–2000)
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When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. Henry Ford (1863-1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company
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When I speak about Patanjali, the whole of India’s religious tradition also comes up. It is all integrated. Swami Veetamohananda, head of the Vedanta Center near Paris
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Do not run away. Face the world and get hit by the world. Let the world drop you again and again. It is the means to destroy the Ego. Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993), founder of Chinmaya Mission
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Fall down seven times, get up eight. Japanese proverb
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Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
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We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato (427-347 bce), Greek philosopher
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He who takes medicine and neglects diet wastes the skill of his doctors. Chinese proverb
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My wife and I raised our two children in the West as vegetarians. They have remained vegetarians into their adult life, primarily because they never regarded meat as a food. Anonymous
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The heaven-sent torrent leaps, rushing down rocky heights. So does the silent divine stream from heart’s inner core—formless, pure, clear, crystalline, boundless, free—from my Holy Master, ever pour. Tirumantirum 249
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Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practice even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action. Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), famed guru of Swami Vivekananda
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Men who can brave death on the battlefield are common; but rare are they who can face an audience without fear. Tirukural 723
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I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you, and I am at that place within me, we shall be one. Crazy Horse (1840-1877), Oglala Lakota Sioux Native American
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We are dreaming that we are not Parasiva—that we are going to realize Parasiva sometime in the future. But realizing Parasiva is like waking up. We just have to claim it. We have to step beyond time and space, step out of the concept that we have to do something in order to realize it. It’s like when we are traveling in a dream, we just have to wake up—very simple—and we find we are home. Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of HINDUISM TODAY
It is not a matter of becoming the Self, but of realizing that you never were not the Self. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001)
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D I D Y O U K N O W ?
GOLD’S CELESTIAL ORIGINS
IN HINDUISM, GOLD IS KNOWN TO contain divine energies which shine brightly in the inner worlds; it is a beacon for devas and Gods. For this reason, gold has long been collected and closed away in temples and other sacred places, creating epicenters of spiritual power.
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Why, one wonders, is gold so rare, and where does this sacred element originate? The ancient Incas and Egyptians considered gold to be a solar metal, originating from the stars and the Sun God. As it turns out, they were right.
Trace amounts of gold can be artificially made from mercury or platinum, but this requires a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. Long-standing theory had it that gold could only be naturally created in supernovas—large stellar explosions.
Recently, however, researchers of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge have determined that gold finds its origin in the collision of neutron stars. A neutron star is the collapsed core remaining of a star after a supernova. A neutron star a few miles across may have a mass 500,000 times greater then the Earth. Just a teaspoon of such star matter would weigh ten billion tons. To conceptualize that density, think of taking a commercial jet plane and compressing it to the size of a grain of sand. When two typical neutron stars collide, particles of gold—approximating the mass of ten moons—are propelled into space.
Gold present when the Earth was formed would have sunk to the core. The question is why we find it in the mantle. A recent theory postulates that a continuous shower of asteroids and meteors early in the Earth’s history deposited the gold (and other rare elements) we now find near the surface. More recent asteroids also play a part in the formation of gold fields, notably the 300-kilometer wide Vredefort crater in South Africa, home to some of the world’s richest gold deposits which were reformed and preserved by the impact.
B A S I C S
RENUNCIATION
A. MANIVEL
THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVES of sannyasa are to promote the spiritual progress of the individual, bringing him into God Realization, and to protect and perpetuate the religion through his illumined leadership. Renunciation and asceticism have been an integral component of Vedic culture from the earliest days, the most highly esteemed path of the Hindu Dharma. Monastic life has both an individual and a universal objective. At the individual level, it is a life of selflessness in which the monastic has made the supreme sacrifice of renouncing all personal ambition, all involvement in worldly matters, that he might direct his consciousness and energies fully toward God. Guided by the satguru along the path of spiritual discipline, the initiated sannyasin unfolds through the years into deeper and deeper realizations. Ultimately, if he persists, he comes into direct knowing of Transcendent Reality. At the universal level, Hindu monasticism fosters the religion by preserving the truths of the Sanatana Dharma. Competent swamis are the teachers, the theologians, the exemplars of their faith, the torchbearers lighting the way for all.
Eventually, in one life or another, all will turn to the renunciate path. However, it would be equally improper for a renunciate-minded soul to enter family life as for a householder to seek to be a sannyasin. A word of warning. Be cautious of those who promise great kundalini awakenings and spiritual rewards from severe practices without preparation, initiation and renunciation. Those entering the serious life of sannyasa must be prepared to follow the traditional path of unrewarded sadhana through the years, apart from dear family and friends. Such is the way to reach the truth of yoga. It takes many, many years for the soul to thus ripen and mature.