Spirituality and Life

(A Message issued on the occasion of Swamiji's 54th Birthday in April, 1976.)

The philosophy and culture of India is one of Ananda or Bliss. "From Bliss-Absolute we have come; in Bliss-Absolute we are rooted; and to Bliss-Absolute are we destined," says the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is not a message of pain, agony and distress. Pessimism is unknown to India's culture. It is a culture of exuberant positivity of approach, an approximation to God in the end, who is the greatest of positivities. Life is held to be a movement from joy to joy, and it is this that we call the evolutionary process of the soul. It is movement from a lesser truth to a higher truth.

Everything is as a relative representation of God's perfection and so everywhere, even in the so-called erroneous movements of material, psychological and social forces, there is an element of God present, urging all these processes towards Perfection. To our culture, which is the culture of God, the culture of Perfection, all the duties of life become a manifestation of happiness. The glorious gospel of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, which may be regarded as the tripod of India's message to mankind, provides us with the hopeful exhortation that we can never be helpless at any moment of our life. Our culture is the blossoming full-moon, the real 'Purnima' of hope after hope; aspiration after aspiration. May we recall to our minds, once again, the message of the saints and sages of all times and climes, who have plumbed into the depths of the Great Reality of the universe, that we exist in God, live in God, breathe in God, move in God and perform the functions of our life in the Kingdom of God.

The whole cosmos is vibrating within every cell of our personalities. Everything that is everywhere is also within us and is inseparable from us. This was the foundation of the doctrine of God's supreme perfection given to us by Acharya Sankara also, on the basis of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahma Sutras. Everything we need is in us. Everything required by us for our existence, every movement in evolution towards perfection, is implanted in our being. When we were born we brought with us everything that is necessary for us and we carry all these necessities with us wherever we move in this world. We cannot be separated from these needs or standing necessities; they are inseparable from our vital existence. The cosmic consciousness realises that the cosmos is itself. This is the spirit of true spirituality.

Continue to read:

“Spirituality and Life” by Swami Krishnananda  http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/disc/disc_43.html

inspiring messages from Swami Sivananda, Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India