Only when you have purified the heart, silenced the mind, stilled the thoughts and surging emotions, withdrawn the outgoing senses, thinned out the Vasanas, you can behold the glorious Soul the Atman during deep meditation.
– Swami Sivananda
You are Divine.
Your Soul is Divine. When entering this Earth plane we forget our essential nature. Essentially you are a Divine ray of light, purity, bliss and wisdom, with the consciousness of God. You are ever perfect, ever pure Atman. Life must be lived in this awareness.
You are the imperishable Divine Spirit, beyond the vehicle body and the mind. God is the source of your being and you are inseparable from God. This is your inner nature. Despite wealth and opulence there is no peace humanity.
Humanity is in a state of restlessness and insecurity and there is discord, separateness and disharmony in the World.
Holy Master Swami Sivananda, out of great love and compassion, showed the modern person the path to blessedness in and through Divine Life while here in this World. Swami Sivananda taught us we are only passing pilgrims here. Due to the force of Karma we have temporarily come into this state of physical embodiment as a rare, golden opportunity to once again regain our lost connection with that Universal Being which is our Soul’s source.
We must strive for Moksha – the liberation from pain sorrow and suffering – and for the attainment of eternal Bliss. Gurudev Sivananda taught humanity an easy path even while fulfilling one’s obligations in the World in and through secular life.
Divine Life means living in the awareness that you are essentially Divine, that your real being is a timeless, eternal, immortal Soul. God is the basis and goal of all religions, despite their different names. That supreme cosmic Reality remains one and non dual regardless of place of worship and is the same, One glorified in all the world scriptures.
Divine Life proclaims that the goal of life is God Realization.
You need not renounce the World to lead a Divine life, because even while living your normal domestic professional and social life you can attain your goal.
Four Steps towards Divinity
1) Purity: You must purify your heart and rid it of individual selfishness. To do so perform dedicated service to others. Be ever eager to serve all the sick, the poor, the suffering and sorrowful. Feel blessed by every opportunity to serve your fellow beings and all of God’s creatures on Planet Earth. From this motiveless, selfless service comes a pure heart, which in turn, brings devotion to God.
2) Daily Worship: Worship the Supreme daily, for God is the center of your existence. God is not far away from you but is the ever present divine Spirit pervading all of this Universe. God is closer to you than your own breath. Never forget this. Out of a heart full of Love for God try to re-establish your relationship of spiritual love with God. This process of daily worship and prayer has the power to gradually steady the restless mind, to overcome its fickle nature and bring concentration.
3) Meditation: Withdraw the mind controlling the senses and thoughts, and meditate upon the Supreme Divine reality. Devotion and prayer create an upward ascent in your life as you enter into daily meditation, which brings about steadiness. You begin to feel the presence of God in your heart so that even as you are engaged in daily activities, meditation creates an unbroken current of God awareness. You begin to know that you live, move and your Soul is with God. Meditation brings a spiritual quality to your life, which lifts you to new standards of Purity, Kindness and Wholeness. You will become a transformed spiritual being with lofty thoughts and sublime sentiments.
4) Oneness with Reality: Having entered in this state of God awareness, your intellect becomes purified. Philosophical inquiry and discrimination dawn between the permanent and the passing, the eternal and the non-eternal. This discernment should be practiced every hour of your waking life. You then begin to reject that which is unspiritual and to direct your mind towards the True Reality behind and beyond this world play. Your mind begins to move towards the Eternal Reality, even though you continue to function in this phenomenal world. You become established in that supreme Divine Reality.
Foundation of Divine Life
If you want to enter into Divine Life, you have to observe three principles of conduct and character in your day-to-day living in the secular World. They are indispensable requirements which form the foundation and basis of a Divine Life of service, worship, meditation and God Realization. They are:
1) Ahimsa: Kindness and compassion towards everyone in thought, word and deed is Ahimsa or non-injury. Be a cosmic benefactor having ceaseless love for all, even to the least of God’s creatures. Be a center of peace and happiness to all.
2) Truthfulness: Be rooted in absolute truthfulness, even at the cost of your life, with absolute honesty and integrity. Truth is God. One who is established in Truth can attain God.
3) Purity: Purify your conduct and character through self restraint, chastity, purity of feelings for all people and overall control of the base aspects of your being.
Ever keep your mind on the supreme goal. Have absolute faith in your connection with God. See God’s invisible presence in and through all the things in and around you. God is present in all the creations.
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Ceaselessly inquire: “Who am I? Why I have come into this Universe: What is the nature of all these sense objects?”
5) Affirm: “I am not this body, the mind or the limited, finite intellect. I am the unborn, deathless, eternal Atman. Satchidananda”
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives Arjuna a vision of Truth that God is present and immanent in all the Universe. God fills every atom of matter in this world. In this awareness, go through all your activities as worship, offering them at God’s feet.
Come! Rise to this Divine experience! Even now you are Satchidananda (Existence, Consciousness and Bliss!) That is your true being.
Live this Divine Life.