Life and Yoga

By Swami Sri Atmananda

Peace, Love or Truth is not outside.
It is within you.
Find it, you will know what is silence
Experience it, you will know what is joy
Realize it, you will know what is enlightenment
Manifest it, you will know what is God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SatPub
• Release date: Apr 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9789381282038

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. Swamiji'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. In 2017, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Swamiji organized the first Chaturveda Rajasuya Yajna in Kali Yuga, after a gap of 5117 years. At present, Swamiji is kept busy completing his commentary on the Vedas; overseeing the Vedavidya Gurukulam; guiding brahmins in performing the daily Chaturveda Brahmakunda Yajna; and managing a major project, The Dictionary of Scriptures, through the Satyachetana Educational Trust and its Veda Research Institute, all located in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India. Swamiji's primary residence is Satyachetana Ashram at the foot of Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai. More information about Swamiji and his work and sadhana process are available at Swamiji's personal website and Satyachetana Publications, both listed below.

Book preview

Omm Namo Bhagavate

Life and Yoga

As revealed by Swami Sri Atmanandaji Maharaj

Founder, Satyachetana International Spiritual Movement

Published at Smashwords by Satyachetana Publications

Practicing the yoga of business, not the business of yoga.

Copyright © 2021 Satyachetana Publications

Discover more books by Swami Sri Atmanandaji here

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only.

It may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

Peace, Love or Truth is not outside.

It is within you.

Find it, you will know what is silence

Experience it, you will know what is joy

Realize it, you will know what is enlightenment

Manifest it, you will know what is God.

Contents

Preface

1. A Conscious Channel

2. Be Constantly Linked

3. A Solitary Journey

4. Dive Deeper

5. Many Questions, One Answer

6. The Dance

7. Karma Yoga

8. Divine Wealth

9. Surrender is Love

10. Spiritual Life

11. Know Your Duty

12. The Mission

13. Guru-Disciple

14. Soul Shelter

15. Carry On

Glossary

Preface

Life and yoga are neither contrary to each other nor substitutes for each other. With the help of yoga, we can find the purpose of life. To practice yoga, life is a compulsive necessity. You cannot do yoga if you are not a living human being. But always remember that yoga is only a means to find the purpose of life.

Swami Sri Atmanandaji

Publisher’s Note: This book is adapted from a collection of articles that were published in the Satyachetana Ashram News Letter from 2007 through 2012.

ONE

A Conscious Channel

Gita taught me everything. Gita is my guru, God and path. When I hear or read Gita I get charged in every cell. Gita did something miraculous to me— I am that.

Can You Give Me a Gift?

[From Swamiji’s message to his devotees on his fifty-sixth

birthday.]

Blessed Self,

May supreme Truth, pure Love and atma jnana* manifest in you. (Sanskrit terms are defined in the glossary.)

It gives me great joy to write this letter to you because I feel I am transmitting my love as much as I am receiving yours through this writing. Our movement is a mission to manifest a new consciousness on Earth, a consciousness of pure Love and universal force. For me, each one of you is a pure channel of Truth and Love. In fact, I feel each of you is a replica of my own Self. Only our outer robes are different. We may speak different dialects but we all speak the same language—the language of Love. We all struggle to manifest Truth. We are all in the same boat, in mid- ocean. Some of you see me as the boatman and shower your love on me. I am aware of my role and responsibility on this human plane.

Today I have completed fifty-six years of human life. To me that has a message that I want to share with you, for you are not only my devotee and companion, but you are also my god, my goal and the source of my delight. I have crossed fifty-six. That means I have crossed five and six.

For me, five stands for the five elemental forces: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Six stands for the six eternal enemies of a yogi:

kama: desire

krodha: anger

lobha: greed

moha: attachment

mada petty I-ness

mascharya fault-finding, gossip and vilification

I have crossed all these—that means I have transcended them. I am on Earth but never earthly. I flow like water but am never contaminated by the dirt I carry. I am as hot as fire but with my heat I burn only your ignorance and karmic garbage. I am as thin as air. You can feel me but not see me. You cannot survive if you do not breathe me—my knowledge, love and purity. I am the infinite, all- pervading space. I am everywhere. I am in you and beyond you.

I initiate action but since I have no desire, I do not feel perturbed when nothing is accomplished in the gross plane. Since I have transcended anger, I do not throw you out even if you say you hate me. And please do not try to trap me with your wealth because I have no greed.

I am beyond human attachment. All my smiles, tears, embraces and kicks are like an act on stage. All these may have profound importance for you, but to me, these are just lines drawn on water. If you feel that I have lifted you to the sky, do not feel great. Rather, search and find what has gone wrong in you that I had to use such words of eulogy.

And finally, please do not speak to me against anyone— admirers or critics. All are dear to me and I do not like to hear negative things about anyone. Please remember, scandalization of anyone works like poison and makes everyone sick.

This is my birthday gift to you. What gift can you give me? I have everything. Can you give me what I really need? I want you to reach this state. Many of you are less than fifty-six. Can any of you assure me that by the time you reach fifty-six you will definitely go beyond five and six?

I have faith in you.

I look forward to this gift.

I will wait with hope, expectation and Love. May my attainment be yours.

Gather Inner Strength

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep…

- Robert Frost

This is my state today. I am enjoying the bliss of the inner silence so much that it is difficult to utter even a single word, and very tempting to remain in solitude. Some of you have experienced this at times, but I experience it always.

When you experience this deep silence within for a few minutes, you do not want to be disturbed for a couple of hours. If anything or anyone tries to break it, you react or run away in search of solitude and silence. If this happens when you only experience silence sometimes, imagine what happens to one who is experiencing unbroken silence but is also constantly called upon to come out of this deep solitude to discharge a responsibility that is self-imposed.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. This has been my constant inspiration. When I read it for the first time, I was in high school and this touched me so deeply that I wrote it down, pasted it on my wall and kept it on my table. Whenever I felt the pull of samsara, or the pull of the good things of life, I remembered this. It is like a traveler who has to reach a destination that lies beyond the woods, but the forest is so beautiful that constantly he feels the pull to rest awhile, to sit and enjoy the beauties of nature. He has to gather inner strength to overcome the pull of the forest because he knows that he has to reach the destination before it is dark.

Similarly, a conscious channel always has to remember to accomplish the task at hand because the time is already fixed for him to retire. Miles and miles to go before I sleep—because the promises are to be kept. A conscious channel, a dynamic instrument, has to come out from the bliss of the Being and transcend the delight of the becoming.

This is the reason I am gathering the strength to work, guide and speak. The more you reach higher states of awareness and higher levels of experience, the more you will begin to appreciate what I am doing. I will be known and understood only when I am gone, but my force will remain, and this force will work through those who are fully alert and aware. 

Become a Mighty Tree

[From Swamiji’s message on his sixtieth birthday.]

My grandfather used to say to me, Remember always, this body is perishable and wealth is not permanent. Every day you should consciously accumulate virtue, truthfulness and wisdom. In those days I did not know what virtue or dharma are, but because of that constant conditioning, those words went deep into my consciousness.

When I went to high school, my uncle was our Sanskrit teacher and he always used to tell me, You are a good student. Maybe you will get a very big job and earn a lot of money, but always remember that neither greatness nor wealth will serve society. You should be like a mighty tree that has fruit and shade. If due to any reason there is no fruit, the shade will always be there. Even if you do not have a lot of wealth to help people, you should have true wisdom so that you can remove the darkness from the consciousness of people who will come close to you.

This also made a lasting impact on me. A mighty tree has huge branches that can give shelter to tired travelers and many birds, and can also bear a lot of fruit. I thought, what is that fruit I should bear that is permanent in nature? The first teaching of the grandfather can never be wrong, so it must be wisdom. True wisdom will transform life so man becomes a channel of pure Love, the love that always forgives and never forgets. If life has Wisdom and Love, it is considered a mighty tree.

Back to top

TWO

Be Constantly Linked

My mission did not end with my realization. It began with that, and will end only with your manifestation, not my manifestation, because I am not trying to manifest me as God or guru on Earth. I am trying to manifest guru shakti and God’s grace on Earth through many of you. That’s my mission.

Only One Aspiration

I have only one aspiration: to see each of you as a living temple of Love, Truth and Wisdom on Earth. My divinely ordained responsibility is to make you aware of this eternal truth and help you discover the role that you are destined to play. I have a vision of seeing one hundred eight suns on the spiritual horizon, and a command to fulfill that vision by creating one hundred eight temples—not built of brick and mortar, but living monuments of Divine on Earth.

There are four cardinal principles to make this possible. First, have faith that you are a chosen medium to bring down the supreme Light, for yourself and the whole of humanity. Second, have absolute confidence that you are a chosen instrument capable of manifesting the supreme Light and Truth. Third, constantly contemplate on your goal, because you will become what you are contemplating. Fourth, constantly feel love for humanity, irrespective of a person’s skill level, nationality or social status. If these four principles are fulfilled, you will be a living monument of Truth, Wisdom and Light on Earth. Have confidence and faith, and aspire to live until you realize that you are God, you are Truth, you are Love, you are Wisdom.

We are here to expand horizontally to the heart of every human, and every nook and corner of the planet. We are not here to teach or preach, but to show the path. We collectively share this responsibility. Feel that you and I are one, that we and the universe are one, that this entire creation and the supreme Truth are one, and that we constitute eternal Wisdom and Light.

You are God, the manifestation of Truth on Earth. Let my realization, my words of wisdom and the intensity of my love for God fulfill you and make you a living monument of the Divine on Earth.

Be Linked With the Force

In the fifteenth chapter of Gita, the Lord says that the deluded cannot see how the soul enjoys the objects of senses or how it goes with all the samskaras to a new body, and that only those with the eye of wisdom can see this. Practice keeping your eye of wisdom open, especially when you are with me. Then slowly, from observing the master, this eye of wisdom should be focused on your close friends, your near and dear ones, and you will begin to see behind their actions. This is how your vision of light will expand until the whole creation is within your circle and you are enlightened.

When I was with Maharishi, I was always watching him, contemplating. While he was talking with that man, why did he turn his head to this side? He was listening to the telephone call and suddenly became silent. What might be the reason? (When Swamiji shares his experiences with Maharishi it refer to H.H. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an enlightened being, best known for the Transcendental Meditation technique that he popularized. Maharishiji contributed greatly to Swamiji’s spiritual journey, and refined and developed Swamiji’s ability to perform the global work he is doing today.)

This is how closely I was observing. When you minutely focus your consciousness on something or someone, the energy or the force that is in that form will come to you. That is the whole principle of transmission.

Suppose I see a woman who is wearing a scarf on her head and I remember that the Mother of Pondicherry put a scarf on her head like that. If I am linked with the Supreme Mother, by seeing this woman, first my thought will go