Children of Immortality!

There is a living, unchanging, eternal Consciousness that underlies all names and forms. That is God or Brahman.

God is the end of all actions. He is the end of all Sadhanas, Yoga practices. Seek Him. Realise Him. Only then can you be free and perfect. Look upon the world as a mirage. Lead a life of selfless service, renunciation, dispassion, prayer and meditation. You will soon attain God-realisation.

May God bless you. Om Tat Sat.

Vedanta is the culmination of the Vedas. It is entering into the study of Brahman. It is the science which raises man above the plane of worldliness. It is the rational method of meditating on the Supreme Absolute, the Eternal, the Infinite. Vedanta is the culmination of human experience and is the end of the faculty of thinking. It is the greatest and the highest knowledge. This wisdom was revealed to the ancient sages.

The Rishis and sages of yore have made experiments and researches in meditation and given to the world their spiritual experiences. These are all authoritative. You must not spend much time in making the preliminary experiments once more. Your whole life-time is not sufficient for making these experiments and researches. The experiences of sages are like ready-made compressed tablets. You will have to simply follow their instructions implicitly with perfect, unswerving faith and devotion. Then alone can you make any progress in the spiritual path and attain the goal of life.

In order to practise Sadhana for the attainment of absolute freedom, you should know in the beginning itself its technique and method. You should know the nature of bondage, the cause of bondage and the way of getting rid of bondage. You have to make a searching study of life and know its mysteries.

I have come here to remind you that the goal of life, the be-all or the summum bonum of existence, is Self-realisation or attainment of God-consciousness. I have come here not to teach you, but to stir or awaken you all in the path of spirituality. You have forgotten your real Svarupa on account of the force of Avidya, Maya, Moha and Raga. You are tossed about hither and thither and caught up in the Samsaric wheel of birth and death on account of your egoism, Vasanas, Trishnas and passions of various kinds. I have come here to remind you that the real happiness is within and not without. I have come to remind you that in essence you are the all-pervading, pure Consciousness and you are not the perishable body composed of the five elements. I have come to remind you of the great Mahavakya of the Upanishads, Tat Tvam Asi, which connotes the identity of the Jivatman with the Paramatman, the individual soul with the Supreme Soul.

H.H. Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj is renowned, not only for the versatile and prolific output of literature on spiritual topics, but also because of his lucid, succinct and direct way of presenting them. In countless hearts he has kindled the light of spiritual aspiration; in numerous minds he has effected the dawn of divine illumination. He has done so, among other means, through his never-ceasing flow of publications.

Thus Awakens Swami Sivananda is a pocket-treasure, every sentence of which charges the reader with a wave of spiritual exhilaration, giving him a flash of divine awakening, however momentary it might be. Constant study of this booklet, meditation on the truths embodied in it and flowering them in one’s practical life, will surely make one a divine being on earth.

Spiritual aspirants have always loved to study the lives of saints, which are living scriptures, as it were, throwing a flood of light on the spiritual path for the aspirants to walk boldly, fearlessly and joyously, to the goal of immortality. These short biographies from the pen of a great living saint and Yogi, have the added advantage of the best possible presentation.

This celestial scripture, the enthralling story of the Sixty-three Nayanars, the towering spiritual giants of South India, is destined to bring about a spiritual renaissance, nay, a revolution throughout the world. It is a book to jolt you out of your spiritual lethargy, a book to shake you out of your spiritual slumber, a book to heal your chronic spiritual blindness.

The life of man in this sense-universe is a life of temptation. Man is born for Self-realisation. He is born for leading a religious life. But he is led astray by the temptations of his environments. He is spoiled by society. He has not got the strength of will to resist the temptations.

A Deputy Commissioner said: “O Swamiji, the world wants bread. I want bread. I care a two pence for the soul. Who wants the soul in these days? Nobody cares for spiritual matters.” I replied him: “You cannot live on bread alone, but you can live on OM, the symbol of Brahman. The mind wants mental food. The soul wants spiritual food.”

The desire to attain knowledge of the Self will dawn in these proud, egoistic people only when they meet some adversities, calamities, troubles and disappointments. The desire to attain the knowledge of the Self dawns in a person who is free from desires for sense-objects. Such a man, with a pure mind alone, is competent to tread the spiritual path.