Test Your Attainment: A Handbook for Yogic Self-Evaluation
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About this ebook
This handbook is based on the principles of the Bhagavad Gita, and is compiled from the spiritual journal of a living enlightened master. Test Your Attainment contains powerful, timeless questions and techniques by which to gauge and guide one's progress on the yoga path, with Swamiji's commentary that reveals with experiential clarity the key concepts of Gita that apply to each situation.
Swami Sri Atmananda
Swami Sri Atmananda is the founder of the Satyachetana International Spiritual Movement. Born in Orissa, India, his inner pull toward spirituality began during childhood and intensified as he progressed through higher education and university. The Bhagavad Gita was his constant companion and guide, and through intense contemplation and practice of Gita’s principles he achieved profound spiritual attainment. He also served at the feet of many enlightened masters, perhaps most notably His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and traveled the length and breadth of India on his spiritual quest.That journey culminated in Pondicherry, where he surrendered to the Divine Mother. She guided him to a cave in the holy mountain Arunachala where he attained the culmination of his sadhana, in 1993. After remaining in the state of pure nirvikalpa samadhi for several days, he regained his awareness and returned to the world carrying the aham brahmosmi (“I am the Brahman”) unity consciousness that enables the yogi to consciously carry the guru shakti.Sri Atmananda’s spiritual work as a master began in 1993. In response to his call for the manifestation of Truth on earth, several non-profit organizations were formed: Divine Mission, established in 1996, serves to guide awakened seekers to the state of highest spiritual realization, while Satyachetana International (SCI), founded in 2001, supports the overall expansion of the Movement and aims to manifest through life the highest truth that has been realized at the individual level. University of Spiritual Research (USR) was founded in 2004 to support and provide spiritual education.Sri Atmananda’s primary residence is Satyachetana Ashram at the foot of Arunachala in Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, and he travels the globe to show mankind the yoga path of the Bhagavad Gita and to revive the pure wisdom that was lost over time.
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Test Your Attainment - Swami Sri Atmananda
OM Namo Bhagavate
Test Your Attainment
A Handbook for Yogic Self-Evaluation
By Swami Sri Atmananda
Founder of Satyachetana Spiritual Movement
Published at Smashwords
By Satyachetana Publications
Practicing the yoga of business, not the business of yoga.
Copyright 2010 Swami Sri Atmananda
Find other works by Swami Sri Atmananda here.
This ebook is licensed for your personal use only.
It may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.
~ ~ ~
Whenever the light of natural law fades away
and there is an ascendancy of darkness,
during those periods I create Myself.
For the protection of the virtuous,
to destroy evil and to reestablish dharma,
I come again and again.
SRIMAD BHAGAVAD GITA
~ ~ ~
Contents
Preface
Commentary and Questions
1. The Highest Goal
2. Withdrawal From Non-Yogic Actions
3. Cultivating Dispassion
4. Strengthening the Mind and Vital
5. Control of the Senses
6. Cutting the Ego to Size
7. Transcending the Gunas
8. Maintaining and Sustaining the Human System
9. Performing Action as an Offering
10. Setting an Example
11. Action in Detachment
12. Guiding Others Through Action, Not Words
13. Performing Difficult Action in Surrender
14. Confronting the Urge for Sense Pleasure
15. Following Your Swadharma (Ordained Duties)
16. Material Sacrifice
17. Yoga-yajña (Pranayama Meditation)
18. Swaadhyaaya (Deep Contemplation)
19. Jñana-yajña (Knowledge Sacrifice)
20. Performing Duties Without A Result Motive
21. Offering of Food and Drink
22. Giving to the God in Others
23. Receiving from the God in Others
24. Freedom from the Triple Hell
25. Physical Austerity
26. Verbal Austerity
27. Mental Austerity
28. Freedom from Desire Prompting
29. Tyaga (Renunciation)
30. Surrendering Duties
Note to the Yogi
The Questions
Preface
The goal of a true yogi is to reach the state of manifestation. This handbook is meant for a serious seeker who is consciously striving to reach that highest spiritual goal long before his life comes to an end.
Test Your Attainment is based on the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. The questions are taken from Swami Sri Atmananda’s personal journal, which he maintained for 14 years to track his progress in yoga. Satyachetana Publications is grateful to Swamiji for allowing this to be published for the benefit of seekers around the world.
This handbook has two parts: a daily evaluation to help the seeker chronicle his progress in yoga, and Swamiji’s commentary (from interactions at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, in 2007) that reveals with experiential clarity the key concepts of Gita that apply to each question. These concepts are explained from the plane of realization. The questions are direct and challenging. This allows a seeker to look straight at the truth.
The concepts and techniques revealed here are timeless. This is a guidebook; it may serve as a tool for self-inquiry, a friend and a companion for a striving yogi.
*Note: the Sanskrit terms in this book may appear to be familiar but Swamiji gives them expanded meaning from his experiential angle.
~ ~ ~
The Highest Goal
Question 1
Have you been able to retain your awareness about the highest goal of your life today?
One has to answer only yes or no, but first one has to know what are the second- and third-highest goals. Here I refer to verse 49 of Gita:
sri bhagavaan uvaacha
kutas-twaa kash-malam-idam visha-me samu-pasthitam
anaar-ya-jushtam aswargyam akeer-ti-karam arjuna. [49]
The Blessed Lord said:
From where came this attachment to you at this hour of peril, Arjuna? It is not for noble souls; it will lead you neither to heaven nor to glory.
Gita divides mankind into two categories, aarya and anaarya. Aarya is considered the higher category, and within aarya there are three grades. One category is