Divine Life -2. Sri Swami Chidananda
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19/01/2020.
Post-2.
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1.
You cannot burn an incense stick and yet not have the room filled with its fragrance. If no fragrance is there, there must be something wrong with the incense stick. It is not a genuine one.
2.
Right from the ancient times down to the medieval age, the spiritual ministers, the great devotees and the mystics have given their Experiences and teachings in songs. In this great land, there have been innumerable such devotees and mystics. All of them have reiterated the same truth and spiritual values.
If you have a genuine, authentic spiritual life, if you are a real Sadhaka, a devotee of the lord, your interior life must have its inevitable influence and impact on every thought, word and action in the living of your day-by-day life. And that is the test for you.
If there is a dichotomy between your outer life and inner life something is wrong. Find out its reason.
Reflect upon it : "If my interior life is genuine and honest, authentic and real, then why is the link, the relationship not there?
I am really a wonderful child of God. I am with God inside. But the moment I come in contact with God’s other children, I become something else, something different. So either there is something wrong with my interior spirituality or with my external normal dealings with God’s world and God’s creatures.
Why the two behaviours are not connected? Why there is a sort of a break?"
3.
Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji regarded the living of your daily life as important, if not more important than the practice of your spiritual Sadhana. He gave, not without any reason, a very significantly true message of ‘Divine Life’. His institution is The Divine Life Society, its magazine is The Divine Life and he gave the name Divine Life to his message.
He did not call it this Yoga or that Yoga or transcendental meditation or any other name. This name that he gave has very much relevance, very much connection and relationship with your life. Gurudev regarded the living of your life equally important as the practice of your spiritual Sadhana, your Yoga, Vedanta and meditation. Perhaps he regarded the former more important than your spiritual life.
Because if your life, your daily living is proper, then alone your Sadhana will proceed unhampered and be progressive and it will yield fruits, and it will go on yielding fruits. You don’t have to wait till it culminates in spiritual Realisation. It would go on yielding fruits right now. It would go on giving flowers and yielding fruits step by step. So Gurudev called it Divine Life. If your life is lived rightly, your Sadhana will be fruitful, progressive and effective.
If your life is not lived rightly, the fruit or result will not be commensurate with your effort—much effort but little fruit.
How can you afford to do that?
How much time you have in your life span to go on doing such effort?
No one knows. We are here now, but what moment we will not be here God only knows. Therefore we cannot afford to make a lot of effort in spiritual Sadhana without getting the desired results. Your Sadhana must yield fruits. So Gurudev rightly laid great emphasis on our day-to-day life.
4.
Gurudev was very fond of giving analogies in support of intricate truths. He enjoyed it greatly, one such analogy is :
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19/01/2020.
Post-2.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
You cannot burn an incense stick and yet not have the room filled with its fragrance. If no fragrance is there, there must be something wrong with the incense stick. It is not a genuine one.
2.
Right from the ancient times down to the medieval age, the spiritual ministers, the great devotees and the mystics have given their Experiences and teachings in songs. In this great land, there have been innumerable such devotees and mystics. All of them have reiterated the same truth and spiritual values.
If you have a genuine, authentic spiritual life, if you are a real Sadhaka, a devotee of the lord, your interior life must have its inevitable influence and impact on every thought, word and action in the living of your day-by-day life. And that is the test for you.
If there is a dichotomy between your outer life and inner life something is wrong. Find out its reason.
Reflect upon it : "If my interior life is genuine and honest, authentic and real, then why is the link, the relationship not there?
I am really a wonderful child of God. I am with God inside. But the moment I come in contact with God’s other children, I become something else, something different. So either there is something wrong with my interior spirituality or with my external normal dealings with God’s world and God’s creatures.
Why the two behaviours are not connected? Why there is a sort of a break?"
3.
Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji regarded the living of your daily life as important, if not more important than the practice of your spiritual Sadhana. He gave, not without any reason, a very significantly true message of ‘Divine Life’. His institution is The Divine Life Society, its magazine is The Divine Life and he gave the name Divine Life to his message.
He did not call it this Yoga or that Yoga or transcendental meditation or any other name. This name that he gave has very much relevance, very much connection and relationship with your life. Gurudev regarded the living of your life equally important as the practice of your spiritual Sadhana, your Yoga, Vedanta and meditation. Perhaps he regarded the former more important than your spiritual life.
Because if your life, your daily living is proper, then alone your Sadhana will proceed unhampered and be progressive and it will yield fruits, and it will go on yielding fruits. You don’t have to wait till it culminates in spiritual Realisation. It would go on yielding fruits right now. It would go on giving flowers and yielding fruits step by step. So Gurudev called it Divine Life. If your life is lived rightly, your Sadhana will be fruitful, progressive and effective.
If your life is not lived rightly, the fruit or result will not be commensurate with your effort—much effort but little fruit.
How can you afford to do that?
How much time you have in your life span to go on doing such effort?
No one knows. We are here now, but what moment we will not be here God only knows. Therefore we cannot afford to make a lot of effort in spiritual Sadhana without getting the desired results. Your Sadhana must yield fruits. So Gurudev rightly laid great emphasis on our day-to-day life.
4.
Gurudev was very fond of giving analogies in support of intricate truths. He enjoyed it greatly, one such analogy is :
To be continued ...
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