It is common knowledge that good health and economic security are a “must” for peace of mind.
But having both, many are still in a state of perpetual mental restlessness. Do you belong to this category? If you say “Yes,” then read on. The chances are that your trouble is mostly of your own making and therefore avoidable. Let us see how.
1. Do Not Criticize Anybody or Anything
2. Be Humble
3. Forget and Forgive
4. Do Not Aspire for Worldly Things
5. Never Be Jealous
6. Purify Yourself
7. Become Self Reliant
8. Meditate
9. Do Something Positive
10. Never Regret
11. Make Others Happy
12. Introspect to Gain Right Direction
13. Preya And Shreya
14. Reduce Your Wants
15. Do Not Disturb the Peace of Others
16. Grow Spiritually
17. Mind Your Own Business
18. Never Argue
19. Have No Expectation
20. Gain God’s Friendship
21. Pray to God
22. Obey the Will of God
23. Believe Utterly in the Unreality of the World
…more details on these Positive Aids to Peace of Mind
Our Teacher –
His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati is, as it were, an ornament of not only the glorious Himalayas and India but of the entire world. From the cool heights of his Himalayan Ashram, “Ananda Kutir,” this great Yogi stood as a mighty dynamo radiating Divine Love, Joy and Peace to millions upon millions of bleeding hearts all over the world. A Yogi, who shines bright as a brilliant pole-star in the spiritual firmament of the universe, guiding the tired and restless traveller towards the haven of Peace, Bliss and Knowledge.
As a great saint and philosopher, Swami Sivananda Saraswati spotless purity, saintliness of life, magnetic and voluminous writings were unparalleled in record. He was not only an eminent and popular author of Hindu religious and philosophical subjects, but is an authority on those subjects. He was not only a man of letters and vast erudition, but also one who had in a full measure realised the incalculable benefits of Yogic practices in the course of a strenuous struggle of over fifteen years of intense dispassion and rigorous austerities in the holy regions of the Himalayas.
Moreover, Swami Sivananda Saraswati priceless writings through the medium of some of the well known and influential newspapers, magazines and journals not only in India but also abroad and in America coupled with his own unique and powerful personality and realisation have won for him an enviable place of honour in every spiritually, religiously and philosophically inclined home in India. In fact, if the political India of the present day can be proud of at least one Gandhi, the spiritual India can be reasonably proud of at least one Sivananda!
The object with which this book is published is twofold. Year in and year out large numbers of Europeans and Americans, men and women, travelled to India to learn Yoga under an Adept and practice the same in India itself. In the course of their endless wanderings and searches for such Adepts in Yoga, these people had no other alternative but to resort to the Himalayan Ashram of Swami Sivananda.
Unfortunately, owing to several causes, these travellers could not remain long in this country. They went back home learning something here and something there, in bits, but nothing from one Yogi only, which alone could be said to be of some solid and practical utility to them.
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a practical Yogi, who fully realised the fruits of Yoga and was therefore best suited to write books on the subject from his own practical experience. The present book has been specially designed by the author keeping in mind the needs of the students of Yoga in Europe and America, who need a practical but non-technical presentation of the subject in a language which is accessible to the beginner in the path. We hope the book will amply serve this most sacred purpose in view.
May the unfailing blessings of Swami Sivananda pour forth in profusion over the heads of all the readers in the West and East, nay, North and South, and lead them on to Satchidananda, which every one is seeking at heart! – THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
From the article Positive Aids to Peace of Mind compiled by Sri N. Ananthanarayanan