This is a most valuable and instructive book for the aspirants, particularly for the devotees of Lord Siva. It contains fifteen chapters. It is full of instructions on practical Sadhana for attaining Siva-Tattva or God-realisation. The chapters will speak for themselves. The secrets of Siva-Tandava, Sakti-Yoga, Siva-Tattva, etc., are very nicely presented. The translation of the Saiva Upanishads is a beautiful addition. The lives of Siva Acharyas, the Bhaktas and the Nayanars are inspiring and soul-stirring. A study of their lives will make one’s life sublime and holy.
Continue readingLife & Teaching of Lord Jesus
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE Here is a new edition of this valuable publication appearing after several years since the time of H.H. Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. This reprint has been made possible through the goodwill gesture of a devotee, Sri Jyoti Priya from South Carolina, U.S.A. God’s Grace be upon her for this voluntary co-operation in the… Continue reading
Lord Shanmukha and his worship
The Advent of Lord Skanda or Karttikeya, the purpose of His incarnation as an Avatara and its significance should be of great importance and of immense value to seekers after Truth. Lord Skanda, also known as Shanmukha, is adored and worshipped with intense faith and devotion throughout South India and Sri Lanka. And naturally it will be of great interest to all His devotees, in particular, to know more about Him, the significance of His birth and His life and career as a victorious General.
Sri Swami Sivanandaji, the author of this book, graphically describes the above-mentioned subjects in his usual style,–inspiring and direct, instructive and illuminating, soul-elevating and at once impressive. It is needless to introduce him to the readers, who is so very well-known as a versatile genius in all the spiritual subjects and as an author of many an immortal and monumental work that breathes the spirit of ancient wisdom and of direct and intuitive realisation of the Supreme.
Continue readingLord Krishna, His Leelas & Teachings
Lord Krishna was the Purna Avatara with 16 Kalas. Every word of His teachings and every act of His was full of sublime object lessons of momentous import to humanity.
Study His teachings to Uddhava. Drink the nectar of Srimad Bhagavata. Sing His glories. Repeat His grand mantra OM Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Do total self-surrender unto Him. You will soon attain union with Him.
Continue readingLight, Power & Wisdom
Perhaps you are faced with a problem that defies your solution; turn to any page and you are sure to find a way if not to solve better still dissolve it. Perhaps you are assailed by doubt or despair that threatens to envelop you in the darkness of gloom; it is then that you will realise the fullest benefit that you can derive from this volume–turn to any page and the light that emanates from it, is sure to dispel the darkness of despair. Every page is filled with Divine Light, Power and Wisdom.
It is the spiritual aspirant, however, who will find that this handy volume is more indispensable to him than his eye-sight; walking the path to the great Goal, through the darkness that is Samsara he needs Light to overcome the obstacles on the Path; to sustain his continuous vigilance, to resist temptations and to march vigorously forward, he needs Power; to save him from error, to keep the flame of discrimination burning bright, and to enable him to realise his own essential nature, he needs Wisdom. They are found in this volume.
Continue readingKundalini Yoga
Kundalini is the coiled up, dormant, cosmic power that underlies all organic and inorganic matter within us and any thesis that deals with it can avoid becoming too abstract, only with great difficulty. But within the following pages, the theory that underlies this cosmic power has been analysed to its thinnest filaments, and practical methods have been suggested to awaken this great pristine force in individuals. It explains the theory and illustrates the practice of Kundalini Yoga.
Continue readingKingly Science – Kingly Secrecy
This work, a compilation from the published writings of Swami Sivananda, is in the nature of a detailed commentary on select verses of the Bhagavad Gita. While many readers may be familiar with the stanza-by-stanza commentary of the holy Master on the full Gita text, in this volume they will find a considerably more detailed exposition of the implications of Sri Krishna’s instructions to Arjuna which are as valid today as they were at the time of the Mahabharata war.
The book begins with an Introduction which deals with the goal of human life and the vital role of religion and Yoga in the achievement thereof. Life without religion is a dreary waste and Yoga is but an aid in the practice of one’s own religion. Yoga is universal and the Yoga Shastra of Lord Krishna, namely, the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, is equally universal. Yoga and the Gita are open to all. And the Master’s most lucid, free-flowing commentary on a wide spectrum of the Gita verses brings the secrets of Sri Krishna’s teachings to the doorstep of every English-speaking household.
Continue readingKarmas & Diseases
It is common nowadays to hear it said that the Puranas are very unreliable scriptures and that they indulge in unlimited exaggeration about very many things. These critics say that the Puranas contain gross overstatements and preposterously puerile attempts to cajole or to cow down the reader with citations like the grandiose descriptions of heavenly regions and their joys as also of the awful pictures of hell fires and its torments. To criticise a subject requires very little wit or wisdom. For simple and direct condemnation without caring to consider the pros and cons of a matter is the inborn nature of the human mind. But even to these biased ones a little thoughtful consideration will forthwith reveal that the sagely writers of the Puranas had a special purpose in writing certain thing in the manner they did. They deliberately emphasised and laid particular stress upon some subjects with a definite end in view. Underneath this graphic and detailed descriptions of the Karmas and their consequences there is a shrewd psychology and insight being put to make a practical purpose.
Continue readingHow to get Vairaghya
While it will be accepted on all hands that the first and foremost requisite or qualification for an aspirant treading the path of Ancient Wisdom or Yoga is Vairagya born of pure discrimination, it is strange that nowadays when numberless books on Yoga, Vedanta and other allied subjects are displayed at the sales window, none of these learned treatises has ever thought or taken into head to supply this dire and long felt need of spiritual aspirants. At such a time a book on “HOW TO GET VAIRAGYA” by no less an eminent sage, Yogi and philosopher than His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda should be quite welcome to one and all.
Continue readingHindu Fasts & Festivals
THE HINDUS are a profoundly religious people. Their goal of life is Self-realisation or the attainment of God-consciousness. A religion of some kind they must have–a religion which will stir the depths of the heart and give room for the exercise of faith, devotion and love.
All Hindu festivals have a deep spiritual import or high religious significance. All great Hindu festivals have religious, social and hygienic elements in them. In every festival there is bathing in the morning before sunrise in the river or tank or well. Every individual will have to do some Japa, prayer, Kirtan, recitation of Sanskrit verses and meditation.
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